Super Busy Crazy Days

WOW... it has been a SUPER BUSY week and I haven't had a lot of time to post.  Jerry volunteered us to host an annual college football party which has had me jumping through hoops to get the house ready.  We only moved in back in January and moving in has gone slowly.  But this week the painting was finished, drapes were hung, pictures purchased and/or hung and new beds for the boys purchased.  Our dogs had their teeth cleaned and one had all but 3 teeth pulled so she has needed lots of TLC and meds.  Today, Cody woke with 102.8 fever.  We had sheetrock repaired from an A/C repair and tomorrow our leather sofa is going to be repaired due to over zealous cleaning by Jerry.  Needless to say, I've been too pooped to post.  I did pull out the camera yesterday and got a couple shots of Addison to share.  Whew, off to administer drugs to my sick family....

This is what I get when I tell Addison to smile....

Trendy Blue

Trendy Treehouse is celebrating blue this week and this being one of my favorite photos from our beach vacation a couple weeks ago, I am excited to participate!!

Update on the homefront...  Cody has slept in his big boy bed a couple nights now and all is going great!!

Let's Talk Chalk

Ahhhh... I had such grandiose plans for this weeks chalk challenge, but with 4 kids under 4, you take what you can get. I had good shots of Cody eating the chalk, drawing on his shoes, drawing on his sister's shirts, and putting the chalk up his nose (yes, true)... but of all the cute pics, this is the one that struck a cord with me. Enjoy!!!

Drip, Drip, Drip...

Thought I'd deviate at least one day from pics of my family and show a bit of creative side for the Happy Monday photo challenge, "Water Droplets." 

Bye Bye Cribs

Tonight is Cody's first night in an official big boy bed.  After much searching and hymmm hawing... I finally made a decision on beds for the boys.  It was a scary choice because the bed purchased could not be returned if we didn't like it, but fortunately...  we LOVE it.  It's a mid-rise "Fort" style twin over full bunk bed.  While it looks soooo cute in their room, I have to say it's a real booger to make the beds.  Nothing is ever perfect, but I'll take the style over ease of use.  Jadon is super excited to get to sleep up high and given this is mid rise I feel he is safe up there.  I'll take pictures soon of their room once I get some pictures re-hung which need to be moved.  Cody looks so little in this big bed, but it was time.  All my babies are growing up....

Love this picture of Cody giving his Daddy a kiss, so thought I'd link up with Trendy Tuesday!!

Unique Sense of Style - You Go Cowgirl!!!

Last night, Addison wanted to be a cowgirl and was looking for Jadon's cowboy boots so she hunted down Jerry and he pulled them down out of the closet for her.  She happily walked out of the room, boots in hand and let out a loud "Yee Haw"!!!  Then she proceeded to put them on and mounted her steed, the house cow.

She has her hat, gloves, boots...  She is quite the cowgirl...  Can't wait to see this look at the next Rodeo!!

I heart Faces is celebrating BEEF and I thought this was a sweet simple display of Addison loving her beef!!

Our Vacation Souvenir

My VERY CREATIVE & Thoughtful mother took all the sea shells we gathered on the beach and put them in a glass jar which now sits beautifully on our mantel. It includes Kaylee's "special shell" which she is holding in her hand in a previous post.  Here is a close up shot of the shells... THANKS MOM!!!

Vacation Wrap Up

Ok, Vacation Sunday I woke up with the intention of getting all the kids up for a photo of them all on the beach dressed up in their Church clothes.  Well, not sooo fast; the nice wind that we enjoyed all week was gone, the sea was smooth and the mosquitoes were on attach mode.  Jerry and I sat on the deck a few minutes before we noticed the onslaught of those pesky bugs.  I don't know if I've mentioned in the past, but Cody has severe reactions to mosquito bites.  The area of the bite becomes inflamed, blistered, and essentially a wound.  The "photo shoot" didn't happen much to my disappointment, but we went to a BEAUTIFUL church and the kids were all well behaved.  I thought the new environment (not our Church at home) might be a problem, but it wasn't.  We then had a family lunch at Denny's.  We napped the kids and spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach.

Vacation Monday...  the mosquitoes have not gone away....  at this point this was my last chance to get a shot of all the kids on the beach dressed.  I hesitantly asked Jerry if he'd help me get a shot which meant bug spray and running them to the beach (once by the water the mosquitoes left us alone).  He agreed with a little mumble and groan.  We got to the beach and my camera wouldn't work  (ARGGGG... the lens must have gotten knocked and I was getting an error that I didn't have a lens attached).  Crying, I went back upstairs to figure out the problem...  I knew I was driving everyone crazy trying to get this picture and I really wanted this picture so I was stressed out.  Well, after fixing the problem, we tried again I got the photo below, not perfect but nice.  We then took the kids to ride the nearby ferry which was PERFECT... they loved it, it was the perfect length of time for them, and we saw dolphins.  Very fun!!!  We then spent our last night playing on the beach and went for a long walk where I ended up taking a ton of very grainy pictures in the dark... oh well.

We got up Tuesday and drove home.  This vacation was SPECTACULAR!!! It was great having the whole family and I hope we can all do it again in the future.

Here are some more pictures and I'll probably post some more over the next few days as I work my way through them all.

Not too tired for Happy Monday

I'm just too worn out today for another vacation post.... the battery on the car went out today so my Mom and I took it up to have it fixed with 4 fussy kids.  So instead, I'm going to share this pic again on the Happy Monday blog hop.

I Heart a Good Smirk

Smirk? When I heard this was the I Heart Faces challenge, all I could think is "I'm gonna have to sit this week out I'm afraid." Then Addison shot me this look when she came out of hiding at my insistence to get a picture of her.  Woo Hoo, I think this qualifies as a smirk, don't you?

Saturday

Ok, on to Vacation Saturday.... David & Kerri packed up Lane and headed home so we all said our sad goodbyes.  What to do??  We decided to eat and shop, so I dressed the kids and girls were total Divas.  We had originally planned to go to Schlitterbahn, but felt they were having so much fun on the beach there was no reason to pay the high prices and dropped that plan.  We went to a local seafood restaurant and sat outside, drank a Corona, and ate.  After that we made a BAD decision.... to walk to the souvenir shop.  It didn't look that far, but with 4 little ones in the heat it was a KILLER....  Live and learn.  Of course, more time was spent on the beach.

Post Vacation Saturday - We took the kids to a Halloween shop to pick out costumes.  We are really into The Wizard of Oz right now so that is our "theme."  However, this year is the last year we will have a theme given the kids now understand the concept and want to pick out their own costumes.  Fortunately, they all want to be an Oz character (well, all but Jadon... he doesn't know what he wants from one day to the next).  Jadon is unknowingly going to be the scarecrow... I just have to work on getting him excited about the idea between now and Halloween.

Vacation Time Out

I'm taking a quick time out from vacation posts & pictures for the Paper Mama Photo Challenge and will get back to the vacation asap!!! The challenge is called "Fingerprints" and it's all about capturing your little one's fingers and/or toes... Fun, Fun!!

Friday Fun

Vacation Friday, I woke to another beautiful sunrise, so this time we woke Kaylee for a "photo shoot" on the beach.  She is usually my little model, but for some reason was uncooperative this morning.  I did get the beautiful photo of her in front of the sun posted a few days ago.  We finished up, cleaned up and headed over to the Rainforest Cafe.... AWESOME restaurant for kids!!  It has automated animals throughout, elephants, jaguars, gorillas, butterflies, etc.  Every 30 minutes the Rainforest has a thunderstorm...  very fun.  We ate there a few months ago and had just as much fun the 2nd time around.

After naps, we once again hit the beach.  Now Cody...  he wasn't a huge fan of the big surf so he found another way to stay occupied.  He decided to empty the ocean.  Literally, his entire time on the beach was spent filling his purple bucket carrying the water back up the beach and pouring it out.  It was even better if he could pour the water on someone, but he did this for hours everyday.  He didn't want to do it alone however, so he held someones hand on the treks back and forth...  Despite all his efforts....  I don't think he made much dent in the ocean.  One evening a couple on horseback rode by, Cody was in awe at least until one of the riders approached him, then he backed off pretty quickly.  He just wanted to admire them from a distance I suppose.

This was David & Kerri's last evening with us, so I pulled out the tripod to get a family photo, but soon realized I failed to bring the bracket to mount the camera on the tripod, so we used bungee cord to tie it on.  Non-the-less we got a picture....

Post Vacation Saturday, back to usual.  Nothing too exciting to report.