Recovering

Getting back from vacation takes me about a week or so to recover.  I did probably 15 loads of laundry today,  it is currently piled on my bed so I have to fold them before I crawl into bed, but for now I'm avoiding it and looking at the cute pictures of my kids from our trip to the Cali coast.  It has been a tradition in officer's family for 40+ years now  to go diving the first week in August, when Abalone season opens.  Whenever we can we try to be there.  We stay in Officers hometown for a couple days to break up the trip and then head to the coast.  It's beautiful, and I love that we miss the super hot weather that we have in July/August here.  It's usually overcast and chilly - we wake up seeing our breath, drink lots of hot cocoa, wear lots of layers, chat around the campfire until late, and of course the ocean.  It is so much work, but such a fun tradition for our family.  I love that Miss Peanut is at the age where she really is making lots of memories.  Not going to lie,  it was a challenge for me this year with 3 little ones - I just don't have enough hands.  I was grateful to have a tent trailer this year and my sister-in-laws' hands to help with my babies.  So with that here is an overload of pictures.

Missing Binky...looks like this.

 Unexpectedly - we lost our last binky on this trip so it was as good a time as any to detox from "bink-bink" as Handsome calls it.  He was ready to a few months ago, but I waited because it was about the time we had Cupcake.   It has gone well and we are now about 1 1/2 weeks binky free.

 Thanks Carl for making us feel at home while we stayed in V-Town.

 I made hats to keep us all warm - kind of a fun tradition I think I'll continue.

 4 three year olds.  These guys we all born within about 3 weeks of each other and they were great entertainment for us and they were great buddies.

 So grateful for Mar-Mar helping with the kids!

 Bathtime at camp looked like this...times 5 kids. I was so grateful for my sister in law - she is kind of my camping hero - I'm learned lots of thing from her to make camping with kids go a little more smoothly.

 Swinging in the hammock

 Beach day.

 sand angels

 nap time with uncle Aroni

 Cupcake stayed bundled up with me most of the time.

 checking out dinner.

 This kid has been a picky eater - he's still getting teeth so that's part of it, but he'll pick sand over other things unless it resembles so kind of sweets/ chocolate, etc.  However, he put away an entire plate of fish,  no exaggeration.  We love fresh fish, it's really so so yummy!

 checking out the tide pools

 So cute - they kept saying le-me-see when ever I took a picture.  I have a dozen like this with their silly sticky smore faces.  

 Miss Peanut learned to ride her bike while we were there - she still has training wheels, but until this trip she had a hard time with the pedalling - now she's riding like a champ!

 Love this face! Check out how dirty their hands are.

 Our attempts at a family picture.  It's always breezy at the beach there, but I was hoping for an overcast day when we got everyone bathed and dressed, no such luck, but still - a picture with all of us in it.  Cupcake was not digging the wind.

 Trying to be so big!
 All done camping,  the last night we went to a place called "Cowlicks"  and talked about our favorite part of camp.  I forgot my camera of course, but I think that just might be the start another tradition for us.

Foster Freeze milkshakes.  Handsome and I shared he would say  "My turn" at least three time for every one of my turns.  So cute- he is talking up a storm.
Okay, so now I have to play catch up with the pictures and video from swim lessons and while my brother's family came out to visit before this trip.  My kids are going to have cousin withdrawals this week after almost a month solid of cousins everyday.  We already miss all the cousins and family!

Just that cool!

Miss Peanut has been to the dentist before, but today is the first time that she let them actually clean her teeth - is that not the cutest thing. chillin in her shades and kickin up her feet.

 No cavities or any follow up work to report :) And she was thrilled with the new princess toothbrush she got when they were all done.

Cupcake: 2 months

10lbs 8 ozs

Here she is, two months already.  She is just a darling little baby.  She's sleeping 6-8 hours most nights, she's smiling and cooing and loves to snuggle with mama! Big brother and sister love to love on her - she's dealing with it quite well.  We love having her in our family.      

Happy 4th!

Where Officer grew up they did a pancake breakfast in their ward every year for the 4th of July.  I decided this year we should begin this tradition because he usually works on the night of the 4th so we haven't been able to do fireworks as a family.  So we had our first (hoping to be annual, but needing some improvements) pancake breakfast and it was a decent turnout of about 8 families.  Afterward we took our own little family picture with in our patriotic old navy shirts. The kids and I went to a family bbq later and Officer was able to drop by for a few minutes, but he had a busy night.  

None of my pictures from the fireworks turned out at all but this little picture of cupcake sleeping through it all was cute!

Family Circus

We got free tickets to the circus.  I had never been and thought I should allow myself and my kids that experience.  It was a circus, we probably should have had our own act.  I'm still learning to juggle 3 kids and   I knew I would need an extra pair of grown up hands to help so I was grateful that Grandma and Grandpa were willing to come along.  We saw the elephants, tigers, ponies,  magicians, bears, jugglers, and some high flying guys and gals. And after I ran out of smarties it was hard to keep the kids in their seats, so we left at intermission.  They'll never know the difference. And besides...

I think Miss Peanut had more fun playing in the fountain outside the arena than actually watching the circus.  Sometimes it is kind of fun to be able to let them play and get as wet as they dare and not have to say no; it was really fun to watch her  (I keep a bag in my car, it's call the "O'Crap bag" - it has an extra set of clothes for the kids and diapers and wipes - handy to have for things like this).  Handsome was not as brave, getting his toes wet was enough for him. We had a fun afternoon.

Camping

You might say I'm a wimp; we bought a tent trailer.  We often spend a week or more at the N. California coast camping with Officer's family in the summer - I have mostly worried about keeping cupcake warm while we are there in a few weeks.  In my defense - we have tented it up until now and I'm not sure that I'm brave enough to do that with 3 babies.  Anyway we're hoping to get out camping more with the kids in the coming years so we decided to get a trailer this summer.  Officer took Handsome on Father/Sons trip with it, but last week we took our first camping trip as a family.   We drove a couple hours out of town - about half way I realized that I had left our foil dinners in the fridge.  Of course we didn't starve, we had plenty of other things to eat, but it was just the start of our mishaps.  About the time kids were asleep and we sat down to enjoy the campfire a storm blew in very quickly with lots of wind, rain, lightning and thunder. For that reason it was also very nice to have the trailer - no tents blowing over, flooding, etc.  However as we tried to use the heater...it wasn't working.  ???  I was just a little upset that officer neglected to check that the battery was charged and the propane tanks were filled in our spontaneous decision to get out of town.   Then as it got colder Handsome woke up congested and coughing most of the night along with Miss Peanut who was cold and needed a potty break in the middle of the night. Needless to say, we didn't sleep well and it was cold. Actually Cupcake slept all night - she did awesome!  And we did catch a glimpse of a beautiful clear sky full of a million stars while we were up in the middle of the night.  The next day we hiked around and enjoyed the beautiful area and went on a "bear hunt"  (for gummy bears).  Both Handsome and Miss Peanut loved hiking around, I was a little nervous about it because the river was very close and running very high and very fast.  It was a good trip, but we'll definitely be more prepared next time. 

And this is the Great American Dung Beetle feasting on some dung... AMAZING - Officer has a good eye for spotting wildlife.  :)

Naughty

This little guy keeps me on my feet.  As soon as I answer the phone, nurse a baby, leave the room, anything really he gets into something.  This is one place he often goes.  He's suddenly started to be interested in sitting on the potty before bath time because big sister does too.  Anyway this afternoon this is where I found him shortly after big sister went potty. 

And this is what he had to say about it.  I wanted to laugh so bad, but I'm really getting tired him getting in the potty.

A blessing

Family of Five, Really?

If someone would have told me 3 years ago when I had Miss Peanut that I would have 3 kids in just over 3 years - I would have laughed.  Now here we are.  I really have learned to enjoy this little cupcake because the little stage passes so quickly.  I have my frustrating days, but it's mostly because my other 2 are being naughty the second I sit down to nurse and there is only one of me.  And 5-7pm when it seams like all three have meltdowns right in the middle of trying to get dinner and bedtime going.  Motherhood really is such a blessing and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a mother.  Maybe it's because of how busy I had to be right after having cupcake, but the transition to 3 really hasn't been too overwhelming (of course with the exceptions of the above mentioned moments) I told someone the other day that I feel more seasoned as a mother.  Lots to learn still of course, but these three little ones are such a blessing.  

May really was a busy month.  Even with everything else going on we decided to bless cupcake while Officer's family was here.  We were able to have so many of our friends and family over for a yummy waffle breakfast/brunch after church.  Here are some pictures, in the last one great-grandma was able to be there, so it was neat to have a picture with 3 generations.  

The Parents

Officer's parents

Three generations

Top Cop Video/Medal of Honor Ceremony

For the Top Cop award,  they produced a video re-enactment of the incident.  You can see it here.  The second part of the video is the Attorney General awarding him and the other two officers the Medal of Honor.