Catch Up

Wow, I have some serious catching up to do! A lot has been going on this summer plus I still need to finish up our Disney trip! The Disney trip is more for my info than anything but the blog is a great way to document everything we did. I better get busy soon cause things are starting to slip from my memory!

It seems like we have been so busy this summer. I had some major plans and they just haven't happened. We have only made it to the library one time this summer - can you believe it! We were going to do story time and arts and crafts and it just didn't happen! We have had a lot of fun though. The kids have done some serious swimming, lightning bug catching, toad chasing, fishing, swinging, t-ball playing, golfing, puppy caring.... The list could go on and on!

Speaking of puppies, they are partly to blame for my lack of blog posts. Our black Labradoodle, whom we gave to my in-laws last summer, had puppies the first part of June. She had 9 total. After a couple of days we noticed one didn't seem to be growing like the rest of them. It turned out she had a cleft palate and the vet recommended euthanizing her right away. That just didn't seem fair to me to not even give her a chance at life, so guess who brought her home and bottle fed her for 6 weeks??? Actually my mother-in-law kept her for the first two weeks so she could still be with her mom and then at about 2.5 weeks, we brought her home. She is now 10 weeks old and doing really well. We call her Tiny - although she is up to 5.6lbs now (compared to her littermates who are about 20lbs, she is Tiny!).

Here is a picture of her playing with her sister. Pretty big size difference!!

I offered to help my in-laws out with selling the puppies since I had just gone through the same process last summer. I started a puppy blog which took all of my energy and free time away from this blog! By the time I took puppy pictures, uploaded them, posted them on the blog, wrote about them, plus placed ads and answered phone calls and replied to e-mails, all of my free time was gone!!!

The kids loved having the puppies and it was so nice for me this summer to get to play with them and help out when I wanted to but to not be the full time caregiver! Believe me, puppies are a lot of work! They are all gone now except for two - one should be going to his new home shortly and the other one is still looking for his new home. If you know anybody who may be interested, send them our direction!

What kind of mom takes pictures while her daughter is being attacked???

Happy 4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays! Actually, I love all holidays but 4th of July is full of traditions for our family. I grew up going to the lake every year on the 4th. Our weekends were full of fireworks, pontoon rides, visits with family, time on the beach, and always some watermelon at Grandma and Grandpa's!

Humboldt always has their fireworks on the 3rd so it usually works out anyway for us to go to the Humboldt activities and then also make it to the lake. Nate's work schedule wasn't too accomodating this year and we didn't make it to the lake but we still had a great weekend with family. We spent the evening of the 3rd in Humboldt with Nanny and Poppy. Dave and Julia brought Kam and Larsen up and Patsy and Hilly were there as usual. We always eat cake and homeade ice cream at the Lutheran church before heading over to the golf course and waiting on the fireworks.

Larsen had to get every last drop!

They have some model airplanes that some guys fly every year and the kids are really impressed with that! We usually get there a couple of hours early but it is pretty entertaining and we all enjoy the company! The fireworks are always pretty impressive too!

Two buddies - Kam and Brax

I played golf on Saturday while Nate worked! Poor Nate! Matt, Kara, Dave, and I all played in a scramble out at Quarry Stone. It was a fun day although I am pretty sure I played the worst golf of my life. The kids were at Nanny and Poppy's so I came home, took a nap (yah!!!!), and then Nate and I headed to my moms at about 5:00. Nanny and Poppy brought the kids down and we ate about 6:00. We shot of some fireworks in the front yard. Braylee was the only one brave enough to light them herself. Well, technically, for some reason we didn't trust brax with a punk so he didn't have the option! :) about 8:00 headed out to Dave and Julia's to hang out and do some parachutes. We think we found some outfielders for our future softbal team. Brecca and Braylee both were about to track them and catch them out of the air! We were VERY impressed! At one point my mom discovered Brax was missing. The pool gates were locked so we weren't worried about that but we just couldn't figure out where he could have gone. Dave went to check in the house and found Brax sitting on top of the bar, eating an entire cake with a spatula straight out of the pan! I said, "Brax, what are you doing???" "Eating cake," he says. Duh Mom! He had eaten probably 1/4 the 9x13 cake in one sitting! :)

Brecca loved shooting smoke bombs!

We were worn out so we headed home about 11:00. The kids all three went home with Grandma Ann so I even got to sleep in a little this morning. A nap and sleeping in - all in the same 24 hours! I think that is a first!

We had a great 4th! Hope yours was safe and happy as well!

Disney Day 3 (but technically Sea World!)

Fishing

Nate took the kids fishing this afternoon. He caught a 4 lb bass. Braylee caught a little minnow but according to her it was about 6 inches long! They were all pretty excited though about Daddy's big fish. Brax kept saying, "He has a really dirty mouth," and couldn't get close enough! Brecca was even brave enough to hold it although she wasn't quite strong enough to lift it up. Braylee wasn't interested in holding it. I don't know if she was scared or just didn't really care!

Another Post that is not about Disney

I am still working on my next Disney post (which is actually Sea World - not Disney) but I needed to post about Brax and his potty training - or I guess I should say lack of potty training! We never had any issues with the girls and I know it isn't fair to compare kids but come on! This kid child has ABSOLUTELY no interest in using the potty! He will use it occasionally and sometimes out of the blue he will say he has to go and run in and use it with no problem but it is the other 98% of the time that is causing us some issues. Remember, this is the kid that turned 3 YRS OLD two months ago. I did mention it to his doctor who says some boys aren't pottytrained until they are 4 yrs old and that is completely normal. We haven't pushed up to this point. We figured he would start when he was ready but will that time ever come??? It seems like we have tried everything short of outright bribing him to use the potty.
- Praise
- Threats
- Big boy underwear
- Pull ups
- Cheerios to "shoot" at
- Going outside
- Taking him with us so he can witness it first hand

We were seriously at a loss so yesterday I bought some M&M's at Wal-Mart and we are going to reward him for using the potty by giving him M&M's each time he goes. I didn't want to reward him for something that he should do on his own ( I know a lot of people do... I just didn't want to!) but desperate times call for desperate measures! I can just picture him going to Kindergarten and me sending M&M's for his teacher to reward him with each time he uses the bathroom with the rest of the class.

I explained all of this to him at Wal-Mart as I was picking up the M&M's. He had to go right away! So, the three kids and I left our cart unattended while we went into the Family Restroom at Wal-Mart and Brax proceeded to do his business. M&M's right off the bat! Score! He earned some more right before bed last night. This morning he got up and the first thing I said to him was, " Brax, let's go use the potty! " He says, " I already did." Hmmm... When was this????? "At the store, " he said. Yesterday! Apparently it still hasn't clicked for him!

Ollie

I am working on a new post from Disney but I wanted to announce the arrival of our new kitten! Her name is Ollie (after Oliver from Oliver and Company). She has been getting a lot of love and I'm not entirely sure that she is enjoying it! :) Tolerating it may be a better way to put it! She is doing well though and is beginning to get used to all of the loud and crazy sounds that come from our house at pretty much all times!

Disney Day 2 - Warning: Lots of pictures!

We were up bright and early on Day 2 of our Disney trip. We had breakfast with the princesses scheduled for 8:25a.m.! Everybody was still a little worn out from the day before so we were a kinda slow getting around. Our breakfast was at Epcot and the park doesn't open until 9. It is so nice to be able to get in early and walk through an almost completely empty park to the restaurant. We did this same breakfast the last time and really enjoyed the princesses and the food. Bray had an exceptionally hard time waking up so she wasn't overjoyed to be there. In fact, any picture Braylee is in is because I specifically asked the princess to go stand next to her chair! Brax had also been talking about how he was going to kiss Cinderella but he was a lot of talk and not quite as much action!

Braylee was having the time of her life!

We had just a few things we wanted to do at Epcot and then were planning on spending the afternoon resting. We headed to the Nemo ride and then did a show called Turtle Talk with Crush. It is a cute interactive show with Crush from Finding Nemo. Everybody enjoyed it. Nate, Julia, Ann, and Brecca headed off to ride Soarin and I stayed with Braylee and Brax to watch Turtle talk with Crush again. There is a part where Crush lets kids ask him questions and Braylee was really excited to ask him why there was a microphone is his tank (so the humans in the human tank could hear him talk) but he didn't call on her. She was raising her hand and waving it all around. Brax actually fell asleep and took about a 10 minute nap but then I had to carry him outside and find the stroller. My mom and Brecca were waiting on us. Soaring had a long line so they didn't ride it and Nate and Julia had gone to ride Test Track.
After we all met back up, we headed over to the Character Spot to meet some characters!

Brax got brave enough to kiss Minnie on the nose.

We had to stop for some photo opportunities on the way out!


We were all worn out by this point so we decided to head back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. The kids and I took a nap in our room while Nate and both Grandma's swam in the pool. We were up for a fun night at Downtown Disney later in the evening so we needed to be rested up!

We parked on the wrong side of Downtown Disney so we took a water taxi to the Marketplace. It was a fun little ride and much better than walking! :) We stopped in at Goofy's Candy Company and got some Rice Krispy Treats. They are a snack credit on the dining plan and arguably the best bang for your buck! The kids enjoyed them!

The kids with their Grandmas!

Show us your muscles Braxy!

Check out that Rice Krispy Treat!

We ate a sandwich and then did a little window shopping. We stopped and watched a little show on our way out. Nothing too exciting but an enjoyable evening! Then it was back to the hotel for another good night's sleep!