Family Reunions

Okay so back in August the Washington group came down for over a week. Wow, what a week it was! We had fun with dinners, playing, and activities. However, most of that got hampered by the stomach flu. Yep we shared the stomach flu with everyone. It hasn't quite been long enough to be considered funny yet, not quite. The rest of the time was fun though. We ate good food, had fun swimming, playing volleyball, games at the barn, and had an interesting boating trip. The boat did not want to cooperate, turns out is was some emissions thing that was causing all sorts of trouble. It was an easy fix, if we had only known. Mar tried to break her leg, but the kids had fun swimming in the reservoir.

Mar will not be happy I posted this pic. Thankfully, just a huge really nasty bruise. I really thought she had at least cracked it.

 The kids swimming.

 

 One of my favorite things about getting the family together is listening to all the stories. Here is the siblings minus Diane, and Bonnie is in for Ron. Aunt Kay wasn't able to make it due to the fact that school was getting ready to start and she had all sorts of meetings with the faculty.

 

 Lyvi LOVED Aunt Bonnie. She seriously sat and gabbed for hours with her, multiple times. It is too bad we don't live closer I think we could have found a babysitter!

Unfortunately, that is all the pics I took. We were hit and miss and super busy with the bug. We passed it around our family in a matter of days and then all the Washington group (except a select few) got it right as they were headed home. The last day everyone was here I think half of the people at the barn (there were more than 30) had it, the rest of us went swimming. The girls had so much fun with their cousins. They have like 6 other girls their age. Kaite and Miriam were inseparable. Ash hit it off with Elizabeth and Mia, her and Mia still text. We sure are going to miss them and hope we can see them soon. We had a ton of fun!

After they left George flew in for a week and James drove down. We hit the pool and the cabin. It has been so long I can't remember everything that was done, but we had fun.

James showed up solo, too bad Amanda couldn't come. And he showed up with a rat on his face?!? What is that about James? He shaved it before he left.

This was taken with my cell and came out way blurry.

George with the girls.

Cooking smores' over the grill since there was a burn ban in effect.

Lyvi chillin.

Mar and Lyvi hiding from the mosquitoes.

The swing set was taken down with all the snow last year(?). So since everyone was there they decided to put it back up. This was a lot scarier than it sounds!

Ky and James carried the huge log up the ladder. All us girls stayed under the safety of the roof in case it did come down.

  James' side was really unstable.

Ky's side was last. I am just glad nobody got hurt, let's not do that again!

George came over and played some wii before he left.

Then Mahon and Cindy came up over Labor day weekend. They shared their happy news with us, which Ash picked up on the fastest of everyone. I am more than happy to unload all my baby stuff!! We spent a fun night hanging out with them and playing ticket to ride.

Then we had a BBQ at the in-laws and sang to Ash. The boys killed hornets, there are some funny pics of this! Me and Chantelle hit the mall and did some girly shopping for Ash's b-day.

Family photo; Lyvi was sleeping.

 

 That was pretty much August and the first part of September. I think we literally had a day or two between groups, it was kind of a crazy blur. We really had fun and it was nice to spend so much time with family. Hopefully, we don't have to wait too long to see everyone again, the holidays are coming. I will say it was a relief to get back into a routine when things settled down. 

I was originally going to make this 3 posts, but I don't think I ever would have gotten to that. I am already at least 2 more behind as of now.

Fair

So I am still way behind on my summer blogging. The next few posts will be in random order as I get to them or maybe one big post hmmm.....

A couple of weeks ago we went to the state fair. I love the fair. I loved going every year with my friends, then taking Ky, and now the girls. I think I passed on that gene to Ash. We let the girls skip a day of school and got there really early. Ky wasn't sure about this at first, but there wasn't hardly anyone there and we got to spend as much time looking at everything as we wanted. We also had our pick from tables and benches at lunch. The best part...no lines for the rides! The girls loved it and now Kami asks everyday "are we going to the fair today".
One of my favorite things to do is let the girls get their faces painted, it is so fun and they love it. They picked their own design and had them done in their favorite colors.

I didn't realize this pic was out of focus.

The girls got to pick 3 rides each. Kaite wanted to pick all grownup rides, typical Kaite! She was very disappointed that she was too short to ride most of them, especially the zipper! We had to really talk Ash into riding the swings. She ended up liking them.

Kaite loved every minute of it! Check her out with her arms out and grinning ear to ear. Then her and Ky rode this ride, she was still loving it.

Ash didn't want to ride this coaster either but loved it afterwards. She was good enough to ride all of the rides with Kami though. Lyvi chilled in her stroller. The day was a little overcast and at times windy. It is a good thing I have the giant diaper bag with everything in it! Lyvi ended up wearing almost everything I had! She didn't match but she stayed warm. She was so good the whole day.We watched the shark show. All the kids sat up front for this and loved it. It was a very cute show and seeing all the sharks was interesting. When we first got there Kaite was very worried about where the sharks were kept.
The girls all loved the horses and petting the other animals. We all agreed that the pigs stunk the most!

After a long day this is what the ride home was like!

One of the funniest things happened before we even went. I told the girls all about the food and said what we needed to eat when we were there. Well apparently I stressed Kami out because the day before she said she didn't want to go because she "didn't want to eat a tiger's ear"! I guess I should have explained that better! She loved the tiger ear btw.

fyi I am not liking this new blogging format they have now!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

My baby girl (they are all my baby girls) turned 10 yesterday. 10, I can't believe it! She is a whole decade old. She is growing up so fast. I can't believe how tall she has gotten. Ashley is such a sweetheart and is so fun to have around. Ash is a big tease and especially loves to tease her dad! She is the best big sister and is always watching out for her younger sisters. I couldn't be more proud of her, she really is a good girl.
She was so excited for her birthday. I told her if she wanted to open presents she had to get up at 6:30. Well....she takes after her mom. Ash woke up at 2:00 somehow thinking it was 6:30. She woke up her sisters and they came up and sat on the couch and couldn't figure out where we were. She finally realized her mistake and then all of them slept with Ash!
Presents. She got a bunch of stuff from Justice her favorite store. She got a bunch of jewelry, hair towel, books, a game, and clothes from where else Justice. I got her the cute pants that she has been asking for.

She loves bootie shorts. Ky hates them!

Since we were rushed for school it was just cereal instead of the french toast she loves. Candles don't stand up well in cereal! It was funny!

A pic of all my girls.

She smiled after they left.

We took Ash out for dinner to Craigos. The cookie monster has sure gotten smaller over the past year! She had a good time though and we enjoyed visiting with the family.

Presents. Chantelle and I had fun shopping for Ash a couple of weekends ago. I think she was surprised at all the older girl stuff, she has awhile before she hits that stage.
She got some cute stuff, a journal, water bottle, clothes, books, and some makeup.

Lyvi does not like to have her pic taken. She won't smile, it takes three of us to get her to crack a little one, stinker! I told Ky to try and get one of her in her headband...well almost.

Cory and Mar

Grandma and Grandpa B came over on Monday night. Ash got some cute stuff from them too.

Look how tall she is getting. She almost wears the same size of shoe! I still can't believe it has been 10 years, how crazy. I think it really hit me when I was getting her presents. I was buying more clothes and jewelry and no toys, now the presents just get more pricey!

Happy Birthday Ashley we love you!

Time

Time is a funny thing, it goes so fast. Sometimes you wish it would go faster, other times you wish you could freeze it or add more hours to your day. I don't have enough hours in my day to get everything done that I want to. This past summer flew by. I can't wait to get out of the baby stage with Lyvi and hit the toddler age where she can communicate and be a little more independent. I also wish I could freeze time where the girls are, Ash turns 10 tomorrow and I can't figure out where it all went. I have been spending the past couple of weeks feeling like I am in a whirlwind. The girls went back to school and we have been trying to settle into a routine. Lyvi will put herself to sleep now in her crib, great for home not so great when we are out. The gymnastics and ballet schedules are set, I think. The daily routine has started but I am still trying to finish up summer projects. Last week I spent about three days going through totes, pulling out clothes, washing said clothes, and putting them away ...except Lyvi's they are still sitting on the chair. The shorts are gone replaced by jeans and Halloween costumes. The garage has been cleaned enough to get my Tahoe back in it, yay, but not done yet. I have made zucchini bread (with more to go) canned peaches, salsa, made jam, and am drying onions. Okay I haven't started the onions yet and the apples will be ready very soon. A couple of weeks ago I thought about how much I missed having a garden this year. After the past couple of weeks I realize Ky was right. There was no way we could have done a garden this year, and even though we didn't there is still plenty of produce to can/freeze and I can't seem to keep up. I have already started Christmas shopping, actually Ash is almost done. I have mentally begun planning a baptism, but I have to focus on the rest of the summer stuff we are trying to squeeze in. Ky and I had made a list of stuff to get done before he went back to school, lets just say we were way over ambitious. I think we finished maybe, maybe a fourth of it and that was the easiest portion....there is always something to do, I need more time. I am way behind on my blogging, I still have all the reunion stuff to post which is pretty much August, plus the fair, maybe it will get done soon. This is why when I went in for my doc appointment last Friday I felt so overwhelmed. I have been having problems again, it was a good thing I had a check up scheduled. So far I have managed to freak out 2 NP, 1 PA, 1 doc, and multiple nurses. I am now getting more attention than when I was pregnant, not good! Dr. E did an ultrasound and they sent me over to the hospital to have some blood drawn and x-rays taken. I was instructed to get over there ASAP so he could have the results that night, they were talking surgery again for Monday. I wanted to scream. I don't have time for surgery now let alone the recovery. Okay, so after multiple phone conversations with the doc this weekend, you know it is bad when you have his cell number and he has your number memorized! We are checking my crappy insurance to see what it will cover, should know today. Then we are going to decide on a plan he said he wants to do surgery "sooner rather than later". I am thinking I just want all this done and the laparoscopic hysterectomy is the best option. Ky said it is a good thing we got all our kids here. He also told me to stop scaring him, oh did I mention he started classes yesterday, surgery his first day of school isn't really an option. Anyway, after we see what the insurance will cover or won't we will go from there. There are 2 different drugs we can try, depending on the course of action. I would like to wait until after January to do surgery and hope Ky has his full time job with benefits, but then the doc said it might be considered pre-existing and won't be covered anyway. He has actually used the words dysfunctional and uterus in the same sentence. What a mess. Ky pointed out that I have been having problems for about a year now... really cause it does feel like it! I really just want to feel normal again and have all my energy back. I am actually excited about the surgery, not the recovery or the bill, but to be done with all this. I have loved giving my baby stuff away, at first it was kind of sad now its great! I love not having to find room for all of it.
Lyvi is awake and I need to call the insurance company, fun! I hope all this works out and I have a couple of months at least to finish some projects.
That is my update on our crazy life.