Little bean

He's such a sweet little boy, I think he'll be our sensitive one. We love him to pieces!

Chickens WTH?

What the hay, no one told me chickens were so loud! They squawk and cluck all morning long, sometimes I'm worried all the noise will wake the kids up. I'm pretty sure when the house next door sells our new neighbors are not going to like us. I have found though that I actually like the noise they make, it helps drowned out the noise of cars going by. The fresh eggs are yummy too, only problem is when hard boiled they are hard to peel. What a thing to complain about -our eggs are so fresh they are hard to peel :)

Camping

We spent the weekend in Leavenworth (Barvaria) camping in our new trailer. We stayed at a KOA which was interesting. When we arrived we were thinking what did we get ourselves into because there were kids, craziness, and people everywhere. I guess our camping style is usually out in the wilderness quiet and peaceful. But we adjusted to the craziness and really enjoyed ourselves. It was a bit of a challenge to have two kids, two adults and a dog in the trailer we weren't totally familiar with yet but we managed. We thought the screen door on the trailer was more durable but Ben proved us incorrect when he managed to force the door open fell out, did a flip and landed on his back. I thought he died but he was fine not a scratch. Also there is a pop up counter in the trailer that I didn't realize had to be secured underneath before use so a huge spilled cup of coffee later we got the kinks of the trailer figured out. I called the weekend "controlled kaos" which really could be our overall parenting style too. Ben woke up both mornings at 5:30am on the dot, which sucks in the trailer because you can't keep him quiet and there's not anywhere for him to really play. I don't remember Abi waking up so early, she is our good sleeping child. Abi barely wanted to get out of bed at 8am. I would call KOA camping "supervised family camping" because almost everyone had kids and in the evening every two minutes a golf cart would go by making sure everyone was behaving. We met some really nice people and shared our camp fire with a nice couple next door.

 Abi loved the pool! She actually swam for the first time (with her life jacket) all by herself across the pool and back. A huge milestone for us! Ben and I enjoyed the pool as well, Ben fell asleep while I was holding him in the pool, silly boy. There was also a large park with swings and slides that Abi really liked.

 The river was beautiful, and freezing cold. The KOA had tubes you could use to float the river then they pick you up and drive you back-if the kids were older that would of been fun.

 It was so hot out (mid 90's) Brad and I had to take a dip in the river.

 Ben slept the whole time we were at the river.

 Yes, that is Ben sleeping in the wagon.

 Cute little Ben bean. We've been calling Ben "bean" lately or "green bean" or "beaner"-which is a term we found not always appropriate to use in public.

Ben's sweet bed head.

We had a super fun weekend (but exhausting). No traffic either direction and we got home early (11am) on Sunday so we got yardwork and laundry done and went for a swim at the McCollum park pool right by our house. The pool there is so fun, it was really warm and they have a water slide and diving board. 

It ain't easy being cheap

Looking at my grocery list -most things are cheapest at Winco, but some food is better at Fred's (like produce, meat, milk), some items we buy in bulk at Costco (diapers, formula, TP), and some items are cheapest at Walmart (contact lens cleaner, cosmetics, cleaning supplies). So in a week, I pretty much have to visit all these places at least once to save the most money. Clothes are a matter of finding what's on sale and having coupons to use on top of sale prices, buying a season ahead when stuff in on clearance (I already have snow pants for both kids-if we get snow?), and going to my favorite children's consignment store. All this is exhausting to think about much less run around to all these places with two unpredictable/unruly kiddos. But it is my mission in life to save money and be a bargin hunter -it ain't easy being cheap.

Go Cougs!

My lil' cougars (Ben was a little grouchy)-still haven't gotten a picture with both smiling.

Ben will get to experience his first coug game in just a few weeks!

Happy Ben B

We are working on a "pretty" smile, this is the I'm trying too hard smile.

Big and lil' attitudes

I'm starting to wonder if Ben is going to be as strong willed as his sister. He has become quite the screamer lately. Not that I can always blame him because often times he is screaming because: sister took his toy, sister is pulling on his leg as he is trying to crawl, sister is yelling, sister is stealing his food, sister is pushing him, sister is closing him in a room. I think he is putting his foot down and saying "I"m not putting up with this anymore!" I have to say though no one makes him laugh like sister does either. Everyday he has more of an opinion, oh what I have to look forward to?!?! He pulls himself up everywhere on everything and will try to stand straight up from a bear crawl position. Walking is just a matter of time..... Bottle time will be ending pretty soon on to whole milk and people food, even the pacifier will have to go, our littlest munch face is growing up. He'll be 11 months old on Friday.

Sister is as stubborn as ever. She pretty much has stopped listening to anything I ask her to do unless something good is in it for her and then maybe she'll cooperate. She is learning the art of "mom lets me do that" or "dad lets me do that" when just one of us is around and she is starting to fib but least I ask her if she is lying and she says yes. Sharing is hard and everything has to be done her way or screaming will follow. Even on a warm summer night she insists on going to bed wrapped in her bathrobe with 5-6 blankets piled on top, no talking her out of it without whining and screaming. She has to have the final say on what she will wear, eat, drink, have done with her hair, what potty she'll use, what toys can be out and who can play with them, what everyone is doing at all times. She is a bossy little girl but thankfully this is only one side of her which is only about half the time. The other half of the time she sings, runs, jumps, dances, plays, uses her imagination, colors, and gives everyone sweet hugs and kisses. I think she might be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sometimes I wonder if we need to go see a doctor other times I just think-she's 3. Preschool starts in a few weeks and I think it will be the best to ever happen to her :)

Weekend getaway

Well, the weekend started out with a 7 hour car ride (urrrr traffic) and both kids having diarrhea, don't worry the story gets much better from here. We drove through some beautiful back country where there was cattle in the road and bullet holes in the road signs. We drove by Grand Coulee Dam which is always neat. Then we arrived at the most beautiful secluded lake house on a lake called Twin Lakes above Lake Roosevelt seriously out in the middle of nowhere.

 

In the morning we woke up to this lovely view.

This is a picture from the kid play house looking at the lake houses. The house on the left is Ted and Melissa's (Larisa's uncle and aunt) and the house on the right is the guest house.

 Play house, Abi was in love.

 Abi went for her first ride behind the boat! They had a huge "couch" that sat three people that you pull behind the boat and Abi wanted to go for a ride so we went. Brad and I rode with her and we started out going slow but she wanted to go faster and faster until we were full speed. I was getting really wet so wanted to get off but she wanted to ride more so one of the other kids hopped on to take my place.

 Abi having some kind of melt down about something.

 Cousins

After a day full of boating and swimming we ended Saturday evening with a campfire and smores. It was a great weekend with family and we were so grateful to be invited. On our way home Sunday we went a different way and took a ferry (the smallest ferry I have ever seen) across Lake Roosevelt. The ferry held 9 cars.

It took us 8+ hours to get home, I cursed traffic the whole way. We put the car in park and just sat for what felt like forever. Seattle area traffic just kills me, you can't go anywhere in the city because of it and you can't even get away from the city because of it. Abi was an angel in the car and Ben did pretty good too. Abi's imagination just cracks us up, the things she says and makes up these days are too funny! She kept us entertained and sane the long ride home. We encountered the hottest temp all summer when we stopped for lunch in Cashmere.