cabin trip

This last week we went up to Northern Minnesota to Chris's family cabin! I have been going to the cabin for 13 years now and this was the best year to date weather wise and also the clarity of the water. It was gorgeous. First trip in a long time that no one had to get up in the night and put chairs, tubes, floaties, etc. away because of some crazy storm that blew in! It was calm and peaceful the entire time we were there.

It's easiest to summarize the week through pictures so here goes!

The kids had a blast of course. Max and Mya were lake rats. (though you can still catch Mya calling it a pond once in awhile and I even heard pool and ocean couple of times this year) They swam several times each day and loved every minute.




(you can tell Jeff is a little stronger than me:)


this pretty much sums it up...3 pairs of Max's swim trunks wet at the same time:)


They had a great time in the sand. Max especially..he would dig a giant hole until he hit water every day. It was pretty funny to watch him from above digging away with the giant shovel!



Ivy was 7 months old last year at the cabin so this was all very new to her. The first day she wouldn't even let her feet touch the sand. The 2nd day she wouldn't touch the water. The third day she would let you bring her into the water, but wouldn't let you put her down and by the 4th day she was playing on the sand and walking into the lake on her own! Very similar to how Max was his first summer at the cabin when he was 16 months old.



The neighbor was very kind to let us borrow his jet ski for a little cruising around the lake. Chris took Max and Mya for a spin. Mya hated it and Max was luke warm about the whole deal. Both kids also went tubing with me and the outcome was the same. I loved every minute of it though and was super sore the next day because of it! Chris threw me off the tube like it was nothing. Jeff was recording it with his go-pro and my swim suit bottoms ended up around my ankles and it may have been caught on tape!!





A couple projects were accomplished this year...Chris and his dad and brother put up two new doors and they also cut down lots of low branches that were getting in the way of our view of the lake. We also went and looked at carpet for the bedrooms which will be nice to have.





We got to look at this every night around 9:30. Every year we take the same picture, but it's so hard not to take a picture when you're looking at something so beautiful!



speaking of sunset...this is what Max and Mya did most nights right before sunset. A quick swim and then s'mores!



It has been a wet spring/early summer up at the lake so the mosquitos were out in full force. It appears that Max and Mya have the sweet skin and Ivy does not. Mya has 49 bites. Max a little less than that and Ivy a big fat ZERO! Crazy how different they can be, but I have to say I'm a little thankful it wasn't the other way around. Can you imagine Ivy with 49 bug bites that are itching her like crazy??!? Mya is a total trooper with them and Max as well.



I had a couple of photo sessions which is always fun. Max and Mya are getting really good at sitting still and once in awhile I can catch a good one of little miss Ivy as well!







Chloe was up to her old ways...this is what you could find her doing a lot of the time! Drove Chris absolutely nuts and started driving me nuts later in the week when she slept in our room! (because she smelled so bad!)



The whole family....an early photo for the 2014 campaign!



A few of the finalists for our annual family picture...haven't decided yet which one will make the wall!

horse camp

Last week Max went to the YMCA day camp and this year he had the opportunity to add horse camp as part of his day. He has always asked me to go horseback riding and since Chris and I are clueless about horses, I figured this would be a good opportunity for him to learn about horses and get to ride too! On Friday we were shocked to see him up on the horse...he had been telling us what he was doing all week, but I honestly figured he was exaggerating or someone was leading the horse for him while he was up on the saddle. I was wrong...the little buggar could make the horse go, stop, turn around and trot all by himself! He was so proud to have us there and now we have a little girl who wants to go to horse camp in the worst way! Next year we can send them both...it's worth every penny.

One of the best parts of camp was when the counselors told us what a good boy he had been and how respectful he was the entire week. I just love hearing that because it's not always how he is around home!



A couple more things about Max I want to note. We got some good news from my brother and Amanda this week...they are adding a baby BOY to our family! Max was so excited to first of all hear that Amanda was pregnant a couple of months ago. When I told him he said, "Oh, I hope it be's a boy!" It was so cute. I asked him why he wanted it to be a boy and he said because Brian likes me so much:) Then when I told him it was a boy, the first thing he said was Brian is going to be so happy followed by, they need to get a 3rd controller. (for the wii) That kid...thinking about video games all the time!! He had his 6 year well child check this week. All is well with him...48 pounds and 46 inches. Both 50%. That's all for today!

strawberry picking

On Saturday we went over to Wisconsin and went strawberry picking. It was our 3rd year going to this farm and it's always one of our highlights of the summer. We went out for lunch at a nearby brewery first and then proceeded to pick 17 1/2 pounds of strawberries! Max was awesome this year...picking nearly 4 pounds all by himself. Mya was pretty good for the first bit and then helped us out by keeping Ivy out of trouble so we could pick more. Ivy was a little unsure at first, but once we got her out of the stroller, she just kept saying "strawberry" and "yum-yum" over and over. We ended up giving them a little more money because we're pretty sure Ivy ate at least a half a pound of strawberries...several of them stem and all:) After picking we went and looked at the goats and farm cats which is always a highlight for the kids.

We got quite a bit of rain in a short time Saturday morning so we were anticipating really muddy fields, but actually they weren't that bad!












I'd say Ivy had a good time by the look of her stained face, neck, chest, etc...




Then on Sunday I made 24 jars of strawberry jam plus some extra to give away and the rest we are freezing to use for ice cream, smoothies, etc. It's a lot of work, but worth it to have yummy strawberry jam all winter!

Father's Day and Soccer

Happy Father's Day everyone! What a beautiful day to celebrate the dads in our lives! We had a great day celebrating with Chris. Mya brought him the newspaper and coffee in bed (2 of his favorite things ever:) and we made waffles for breakfast! Max slept in for once in his life so he just joined us for waffles. The kids and I are so thankful for such a great daddy. He even let me take a nap today....on Father's Day nonetheless. I definitely lucked out in the hubby department:)

Love these guys:)


One thing this lousy spring has done is make us appreciative of the nice weather we are getting lately. We spent the morning playing in the pool, filling water balloons and grilling out with the neighbors. It was so nice to be home with nothing to do and no schedule to follow!



This afternoon my parents drove down so we were able to spend a couple of hours with them and then they were also able to go to the kids' soccer game. Last year they came down for a soccer game and it was 100+ degrees, the grass was brown and Mya never touched the ball. This year it was a gorgeous 85 degrees, plush green grass and Mya scored her first goal! She was pretty excited about the goal and we were pretty excited that the game of soccer has clicked with her and she understands where she needs to be and when.

What a great day overall...can't wait for many more just like it this summer!

Pool rats

Yesterday was our first "real" day of summer so we decided to go to the pool despite the less than ideal temperatures. (high of 72) We ended up having a great time and the water was really warm so the only time we were cold was when we were out of the water! Ivy spent the first 20 minutes saying "wet" over and over again and clinging to me like a monkey. Eventually she warmed up to the idea and ended up having a blast and showing her fearless self while in the water. Max and Mya swam around and pretended to rescue the barbie mermaid. Future lifeguards??

Last Day of school

I should be happy that today is the last day of school for Max, but honestly I have the same butterflies in my stomach that I had on the first day of school! I can't believe how fast this year went and I'm so nervous for him going to first grade next year. I feel like from here on out, it's going to fly! I told him he could have anything he wanted for breakfast today and he chose a donut so we went to hy-vee for breakfast and then I dropped him off at school. He's going to a friend's house after school so I can hardly wait to see him when he gets home and find out who his teacher is for next year and who is in his class!

Here are the kiddos this morning. I want to get Max's hair cut so badly, but he wants to keep it long because a boy on the bus named Charlie told him he should have sideburns! It's the first time he has had an opinion about his hair. I totally figured it would be Mya or Ivy before him! I said he could keep it long as long as we can cut it before Tara's wedding:)



the first day!

picture update

Time to unload pictures off of my phone again!

Mya has been done with school for a couple of weeks now so I've been trying to do something fun with her every afternoon while Ivy sleeps. She chooses to play crazy 8 every day and she pretty much whips up on me every time! (sidenote: I got these card holders at wal-mart by the cards and games and both of my kids love them. Definitely worth it if your kids like cards and can't hold them quite yet. They were around $3 each I think. You can see a picture of it here)


Ivy loves to clean...I have to swiffer when she's not around or it's a complete meltdown that I won't let her help. So when Chris was sweeping up the grass on the driveway, she insisted on helping and the fact that she had Mya's helmet on was a bonus.


No reason for this photo...just trying to get as many of him as I can when he has no front teeth:)


The girls playing in the rain waiting for Max to get off the bus yesterday. And yes...that's a pacifier you see in Ivy's mouth:) Normally it stays in her crib for only naps and bed, but she woke up yesterday just a minute before this picture and was a total crab so I let her have it for a few minutes and then snuck it away. Naps are way better than they were before and her teeth have tightened back up. (hooray!) They could still turn dark, but hopefully the root is still alive and she will be able to keep them.


Monday Chris and I went to school and had lunch with Max and watched his class perform a little readers theater. It was so fun to see him perform and he was pretty excited to have us there.


Max got into a fight with some raspberry bushes last week! He didn't care that much because someone told him it looked like a wolverine scratch.


This is Ivy's bike, but the only thing she likes to do with it is to push Mya! Thankfully Mya doesn't mind and she goes slow enough that Ivy doesn't face plant into the sidewalk!


Mya likes to help with everything food/drink related. She wants to pour all of her own drinks and prepare her meals. So I let her make her own grilled cheese the other day. I had to snap a picture....do you think there's enough butter? I had to steal a bit of that sandwich and it was the best grilled cheese ever!


We have a neighbor that has LOTS of tools so whenever we need something, we always ask him first and this time it was sharpening the mower blades! Chris got the sparks flying in our garage which definitely required a picture.