Back to the real world

Tomorrow we head home from our vacation. I feel bittersweet about that because it didn't really feel like we did a whole lot on our vacation, but yet as soon as we get home Joel's sister is getting married which is very exciting. Overall it was a fun vacation, it was just hard to switch from fishing and "wilderness" mode to resort mode and a fishing trip that yielded me 1 fish. I know the kids had fun despite the weather and being trapped indoors a lot. They are such adaptable little creatures. I'll try to find a few more pictures of the vacation and post them, but it'll probably be a few days. Since the groom's family is from out of state it will be a busy weekend. There's a boat cruise on Saturday, snacks and pictures before the ceremony, and the reception on Sunday.

Some Vacation Pictures

The start of our "vacation"

Yesterday was a loooooong day. It started out like any other day, but ended very differently. We were almost all packed and ready to go, it was going so well. A friend of ours-Amy took the dogs to her house for the week, and one of our dogs bit her oldest son. It sounds like she just got over excited, and this is totally out of character for her, but none the less, the dogs couldn't stay at their house anymore. So Joel went to pick them up, and now they'll spend the week at our house, getting visits 2-3x day from Amy. So a little bump in the road, but not the end of the world. (He's okay, they glued the puncture shut) Then we took off for the resort, we were pulling the camper, and had the girls, Bryce and Sharon had the boys and were pulling the boat. We drove the 3+ hours to the resort only to find out that they had us booked in the wrong cabin-one that was way to small for the 5 adults and 2 kids that were supposed to stay in it. Of course they had nothing available for us, so we talked about other options, and decided to head back toward Brainerd-another 60+ minutes in the truck. Katje and Tom located another resort that had more than enough room for all of us right in Brainerd. Of course it was a bit of an upgrade-especially for us-there isn't camping here. So we had to unpack the entire camper into the condo we're staying in and park the camper in the lot. We left our house at 2:30, and by the time we had settled in and were ready to officially start our vacation, it was after 10pm. It was a very long day, but we all slept easy and arose to a new day-the OFFICIAL start of our vacation.

Cecilia's Tongue and Vacation

Weird I know, but that's what it's about.
At the ENT yesterday, they decided to snip a small amount of her frenulum (sp?). This will hopefully help with all the air she gets when she nurses, and any future speech impediments. It was very traumatic, they made me go sit in the waiting room at the other end of the clinic and I still heard her cry. Fortunately for her, she was over it in like 3 minutes, I on the other hand, felt terrible, and like a mean mommy-(I said it was traumatic...for me not her). She's super funny with her tongue now, she sticks it out, curls it, and is just exploring like crazy! Weird to think what that tiny little millimeter snip allows her to do. (side note-I weighed her and she came in at a whopping 11.4 lbs!)

We're leaving for a week to go to Leech Lake camping with Joel's parents, sister and her new hubby. I've gotten the food packed, the kids, and the dogs. I have not even started to pack my stuff. Oh well, I'm good under pressure, I'll just pack in the morning. I can't wait to get outa here, even though it won't be super "relaxing" with all 4 kids-it will be fun and I'll have lots of pictures to share.

Happy Independance Day

Jaz and Don "driving" the pontoon.

Nana and her girl.

We spent the 4th up at mom and Dan's cabin and it was a blast. Dan, Sarah, and Braeden came up for the day, Joel and Donny (family friend/cabin neighbor) set off close to $400 in fireworks-some MN legal some not, Joel and I took our kids to the local parade, and the weather held up for all of it. However, my camera battery did not so these are the ONLY pictures I took of the entire 4 day vacation. Hopefully I'll get pictures from everyone else to post.

Liberating the toads

Ryan decided it was time to get the toads out of the window well and set them free. He got a bucket, climbed into the window, reached for the toads, and squealed and jumped out when the toads jumped as he tried to pick them up. We compromised-he held the bucket and I put the toads in it. Then we took them into the backyard and put them by the creek.

An Update

It's about time for an all family update once again. Since I found my memory stick...(Joel had it, he was keeping it with the computer-way too logical for me) I can put some new pictures up as well.
Ryan-what a kid. He is turning in to quite the little pre-schooler. He's smart as a whip and outsmarts me some days! He's very good with Cecilia-he loves to hold her and talk to her. He's growing like a weed, runs non-stop all day, but still loves to have his snuggle time at the end of the day.
Jazmin-Talk about growing like a weed-her shoe size went from a 3 to a 5 in less than a week. She went from 24month pants to 3t, and her vocab has probably tripled in the last two months. She has no more physical therapy-she doesn't need it! She keeps up (almost) with her brothers, and has quite the little "jazzitude". She can turn on the charm in a second, but has a definite stubborn side to her. Her adoption is getting closer to finalized. The social worker got the judge to waive the filing fee (since it would have been reimbursed anyway) so we got the petition notarized, decided what her official new name would be and stuck it in the mail! Now we wait to hear from the court that we can set a date to finalize-probably in the next 8 wks they think.

Jacob- Mommy's little helper, Jaz's bully, Ryan's mischief maker, Daddy's shadow, you name it and he does it. He's also smart as can be, and makes us laugh over and over with the stories he tells and the facial expressions that go with them. He is absolutely a delight to be around, and can put a smile on your face in a second. Unfortunately, he likes to listen to what his big brother tells him to do-more so than mommy or daddy-so he gets into a bit of trouble now and then. He is always talking about one thing or another and he's so animated about it you can't help but smile. I wonder where he gets his gift of gab from?

Cecilia-Just over 2 months now, she's starting to be fun! She smiles, tries to coo, and is definitely a mommy's girl. She weighs in around 10 lbs (totally a guess) and her hair seems to be getting more red every day-contrary to what her Bapa might say:) We just had her pictures taken for her birth announcements so I'm hoping to get those in the mail this month. (Ryan's were out by 10 days old-Jake by 5wks-notice a pattern) She's seeing an ENT this week to check her tongue. At a few weeks I noticed she's tongue tied, but the pediatrician felt it was so slight it wasn't necessary to correct. Now it seems to be a bit worse so we'll have it checked out for good measure. Hopefully they'll be able to either leave it be or just snip her frenulum (sp?) in the office and all will be great.

We'll be going on a family vacation back to Acorn Hill up on Leech Lake again this year. We're leaving this Sat and will be back the following Friday. Then it's a fun filled wedding weekend. Joel's sister Katje got married in May, and is doing her vow exchange and reception here in MN the 18th and 19th! Bryce and Sharon have been busy readying the yard-and let me tell you-if it was impressive before, now it's unbelievable. Bryce and Joel refurbished the gazebo, and Sharon worked her magic on the gardens and landscaping. It will be a great weekend and a wonderful celebration.

Dinner at Dad's

We went to dad and Debby's for dinner last week. It was a nice relaxing evening spent watching birds, bunnies, kids, and enjoying each others company. We don't do it enough.

Hide and Seek

It seems that lately, I spend more time looking for things than actually doing them. For example-I put the card reader for the camera "somewhere safe", after all I didn't want the kids to get ahold of it, or a dog to chew it etc. Unfortunately, this means I don't know where it is either. It's probably next to my packing list for our upcoming vacation, Cecilia's baby book, and my birthday money from my mom. Man I wish I wasn't so good at this game.