Family extravaganza

It was fantastic!

All the cousins on Mom's dock...

Celebrating Ashley's 2nd birthday...

Scott's 7th birthday...

and Jodi and Susan's 30-something birthdays with a 4-layer strawberry cake (the recipe is Holly's and was amazing!)

Ryan is a cupcake fan.

So is Ian.

My sweet Grandaddy and Granny Joan walked in the door and were both promptly handed various babies. Thankfully they love loving on our kids! Here is little Maggie with Grandaddy.

Katie did a great job helping me feed Blythe and Joy. I'll take all the little helping hands I can get!

Jake spent the majority of his weekend down in this vicinity, fishing, canoeing, etc. This is some daddy/daughter time doing a little pre-bedtime fishing.

Greg and Jake took the big kids out fishing and for rides during the little kids' naps.

I never get tired of this picture each visit. The number of kiddos big enough to sit safely on the stools at the counter seems to change each time!

Ashley was given a tutu for her birthday. Grammy produced another one for the other two-year-old in the house.

She loved it.

Jo and Chris stopped by our house on their way home today, and we got a quick pic of Abby Jane, Blythe, and Joy, with Maggie! Bless our hearts, it's going to be trouble when all these little girls get older!!!

Rainboots

Sorry we've been MIA, but it's because I misplaced my camera last Friday, and I had not uploaded any of last week's pictures. I'm sure you can all tell by our blog that our camera is sort of an appendage to my body, so the past week without it has been quite sad.

I do, however, have a delightful video to share with you. Let me know if you see my camera in the meantime!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! My entire family is descending on Atlanta for the big quadruple birthday and the showcasing of little Maggie. Hope your three-day is fabulous as well!

Top 10 Reasons to Hold the Applause

We have been getting far more kudos (on and off the blog) than we deserve for last weekend's trip. Though I very much appreciate your kind words, I feel compelled to break down the realities of why it was not as heroic as it may have appeared.

10. We car-camped. Not only that, but we brought TWO SUV's stuffed full of all our creature comforts: in this family, that means two exersaucers, a swing, a tricycle... you get the picture.

9. The campsite was 20 minutes away, doorstep to doorstep. If it all went to you-know-where in a hand-basket, we weren't far from home sweet home.

8. Not only did we car-camp, but our site had both electricity and running water.

7. Which means naptimes were augmented with a fan and sound machine.

6. Jake asked if we could bring the coffee maker since we had electricity. I said, no, that's cheating, bring the camp coffee percolator I gave you for Christmas. Bad call. The percolator didn't percolate and the poor man went without coffee all weekend. I enjoyed my French press (I did mention creature comforts, right?) but by the time we realized Jake's coffee was not happening, we didn't have time to put his caffeinated business in my press. And drinking my decaf would have been pointless, right?! :)

5. Blythe never fell asleep that first afternoon nap. She didn't fuss much, but was too distracted by everything else in the tent, a.k.a. 2 year old sister 8 inches away playing, to close those big bright eyes. So don't go thinking that every naptime went off without a hitch.

4. I had done the prepwork for our meals in advance, so when eating time rolled around, we weren't cooking and tending to children- we just threw everything on the grill.

3. We do now own the mack-daddy (yes, I did just say that- circa 1997 or so?) tent that Jake got for his birthday. It made our lives easier having all that space.

2. When your babies are this age, you're going to basically be doing the a lot of the same things anywhere you go, so it didn't take much more packing of gear to go camping than what we bring when we descend on our parents' homes or anywhere else. OK, maybe a little, but not much!

1. Camping with babies is always a gamble. While this trip was entirely successful, next time we might just be those neighbors everyone's giving dirty looks to the next morning!

Camping with the Ladies

The weekend was perfect. Here is the weekend, photojournalistic-style!

We played...

Enjoyed naptime...

Went swimming...

Hiked...

Roasted marshmallows...

Enjoyed our new tent...

Fished...

Played on the lake beach...

And tried hard to get all our little people in a hold-out-the-arm picture!

It takes a village...

Sandy watched Abby Jane yesterday while Mom came with me to Blythe and Joy's 6-month check-up.

They did just wonderfully despite it being during nap time. As for the big weigh-in...

Blythe: 25 1/2 inches, 50%

16 lbs 1 oz, 50%

Joy: 26 3/4 inches, 90%

17 lbs, 75%

Here is big sis giving some post- immunization sympathy and lovin...

She really was most interested in their band-aids!

We're walking out the door in just a few minutes for our first camping trip with a family of five!! We are beyond excited to share this tradition with Blythe and Joy!!

Hope your weekend is fantastic as well!

Mother's Day Weekend

The Walk on Saturday was great! Here are some small group friends who walked as well (Jake stayed home with Blythe and Joy so they could nap)...

A morning-pictures-are-never-a-good-idea Mother's Day picture before church. Yes, Abby Jane had been crying right before the picture.

No big family to-do this year meant a sweet family day at home and impromptu front yard picnic after church.

One of the reasons I get to celebrate Mother's Day.

The other two, with pea goatees.

This hot guy made his famous stuffed manicotti (for the 3rd time since I have known him)...

for an adults-only-after-the-girls-go-to-bed dinner! SO delish! Such a sweet night!

On Monday, Mother's Day celebration carried onto our first "Two for One" day, an idea of Jake's. He takes two girls during his lunch break and leaves me one so I have one-on-one time with one girl once a week. Blythe got the first turn, and here we are working on her sitting up.

It was precious to get to love on my "Blythey" and focus just on her. What a gift from my sweet husband!

Six Months

Well, you can tell they're getting older because the photo shoot is getting a bit mediocre...

because they'd rather be doing this!

Blythe is still sunshine and as busy as a non-mobile, non-sitting-up baby can be. The girl always wants to see what's going on, be in the middle of people, and tell you all about it.

But she wasn't really feeling the shoot yesterday, which is why she only looks mildly interested in the above picture. Below is what she really thought.

Joy is coming back around to being "just joy"- we've seen her get more laid back again and give us plenty of smiles and laughs. It all started when Blythe had a cold a few weeks ago and was NOT happy- Joy seemed to being trying to compensate for Blythe and hasn't really stopped being extra sweet since! She also has started doing her share of talking- so now we have three verbal little females- and Joy remains the snuggliest thing in this home.

We DID get out of the swaddles this month, and Joy pretty much sleeps the same way, give or take a few inches up or down.

I think Blythe gets in a little breakdance before she settles down- she's in a different position all the time!

Jake said she did eight 360's in her Peapod last weekend in Florida before she went to sleep for this nap... and somehow wiggled OUT of her little tent in so doing!!

They eat cereal, fruits, or veggies (or a combo!) three times a day now. So far they've had peas, carrots, green beans, squash, pears, peaches, bananas, and applesauce. Joy likes it all, shocker. Blythe is a bit more discriminating and seems unimpressed by fruits though she'll eat it. Green beans and applesauce (the latter of which we just started yesterday) seem to be most popular for both girls.

Sleeping schedules are the same as at five months- it AMAZES me how much sleep these girls require. I know it's great, but it does hamper our social life and typical get-out-and-go M.O. a bit. Bless their souls, maybe it's just a growth spurt! Their 6 month check up is next week, so I'll know their stats then. I know you're all on pins and needles waiting for that one. :)

Are they sitting up? Not so much. Joy can hang out for a few seconds before gravity pulls her sweet self over. Blythe sits for about a mili-second before she digs her heels in and throws herself backwards (part of why the photo shoot is unpopular). She prefers to stand and can stand holding onto fingers pretty decently.

Both have really gotten into rattles and pulling things into their mouths to munch on. One time they were laying next to each other and Blythe pulled Joy's paci out of Joy's mouth and started chewing on the strap. Joy didn't mind b/c she just reached over and grabbed Blythe's dress and started chewing on that. Compromise- I like it.

Other favorite activities right now: exersaucers are most popular, jumperoo- Blythe is nutty on it, watching Abby Jane, Abby Jane pushing them SO HARD in their swings, and of course, eating and sleeping. They pay attention to books, but get a lot more 2-yr-old books than baby books. We're working on that.

I LIKE them being six months. The past six have been so sweet, though of course with its challenges. The next six will have SO many physical developments, and it's going to be fun to see the transformation.

Six months also means I'm now over halfway done with nursing! I'm SO BEYOND thankful for the ability to nurse these kiddos, but it's nice to be closer to the end than the beginning!