Monday, October 25, 2010

Punkin' Patchin'

On a gorgeous fall day I took my two little monkeys to the pumpkin patch.  We picked out pumpkins, got to ride on a trailer behind a tractor, fed our leftover apple to a horse, patted a calf and some bunnies, played in not one but four different corn cribs, jumped in hay, slid down slides and got completely filthy.

Oh yeah....and I took a truly obscene amount of pictures! 
 



 




Saturday, October 23, 2010

No neighbors..I am not torturing my children.....they just H A T E sleep.

As in any long-term adventure there are good days and then there are the not so good ones.  I am pretty sure my neighbors must think I torture these poor kids with the way the carry on at naptime and/or bedtime.  It seems we are finally breaking even in that we have an many good days as not but the bad days are tough.

Here is the scenario, on a good day, I lay Matthew down in bed and he usually reads books or plays tractors until he doses off, I then nurse Kimber for a bit and lay him down awake in his bed.  He usually fusses for less than a minute and then dozes off.  SO on a bad day, I lay Matthew down after reading books, nurse Kimber for a bit, lay him down, he wiggles, rolls, turns on his aquarium, chews on the crib, whines and then starts crying as if the world is coming to an end...at which point Matthew screams "Baby lay down" while kicking his legs like a mad man.  At this point Kimber either cries harder or laughs.  This can go on for hours if I don't intervene and the actual intervention delays bedtime by at least 30 minutes.

I know all about Mr. Ferber, The Baby Whisperer and Babywise, I have read the books, repeatedly....believe me.  I truly think that my children are genetically predisposed to sleep adversity...that and I am not a Ferber mom, though I have had my days where I have let the screaming go on because I am simply at a loss for what to do.

I know that this is all a phase and that a month from now it will be different, hopefully better, but at least different.

Back.....

Back on in the wagon tent.


After a nearly 4 year camping hiatus we did it, we went camping with our little men, we survived, we had a good time, we ate like kings (thanks Falkners), we got dirty, we peed outside, well, everyone but me peed outside and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 

The first "fun" activity, digging in the cold ash.



 The whole fam on our hike to the waterfall.
 Pretty awesome waterfall.






I think my favorite part was being away from home....and the never ending laundry, to do list, and getting to watch my two little boys sleeping snuggled up next to each other.

Willie enjoyed cooking, hiking and spending some much needed time with all of us.

Matthew and Kimber enjoyed getting dirty, playing in the dirt/sand/cold ash, eating marshmallows, hiking, and just getting to be outside.  Matthew was pretty impressed with the tent and the fact that he could drop his drawers anytime and just pee.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

New Suitcase

Well, not really.

I put both boys in overalls Friday and it was the cutest thing ever.

We had German Class and some errands in the morning and once we got home we played outside for an hour or so.  After we had been home a half hour or so Matthew came up to me saying "suitcase off mama" about 20 times and it took me to the 20th time to figure out what he was saying.  For some reason, he was calling his overalls "suitcase".  Maybe because of the latching mechanism...who knows.  Regardless, it was funny to me.