Camping & Girls’ Weekend

This past weekend was the 2nd Annual Three-Generation Campout for the guys, and Girls’ Weekend for Honor and me.

The guys left on Friday to head to the campground. They got set up and ready for a weekend of fun.

(All of the camping photos were taken by Husband. Thanks, Babe!)

Meanwhile, Honor and I picked up Taco Bell and went to have tires put on Husband’s car. Yay! Honor got to stay up past her bedtime and entertain other customers in the waiting area. She had a blast. After we got home and Honor finally got to bed, I ate ice cream in bed and watched a movie.

Saturday, the guys woke up super early and went fishing, where Caedmon caught this whopper.

They also went canoeing. Caedmon was a little unsure about that adventure, but he actually enjoyed himself, though he was a bit uptight about it.

Honor and I watched cartoons together and had a little bit of a lazy morning. Then, we went out to the campsite to drop off supplies, have lunch, and hang out with the guys.

We tried swimming in the lake, but Honor was having none of it. She kept asking to go to the pool to swim, poor girl. So we went back to the campsite and played some more.

Caedmon rode his bike while Poppy and Honor walked along behind.

Honor and I left the guys at the campground and went home to the air conditioning. We hung out and watched some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins, which are her current favorites. After she went to bed, I read a big ol’ chunk of my book club’s monthly book. I haven’t stayed up late reading just for fun in a long time!

The guys ended up going to the movies to see Monsters University. Some camping trip! It was perfect though, since we’re gearing up for Disney in the fall. Except that I wanted to take Caedmon to see it. Because I want to see it, too.

My motives are pure, y’all.

That’s ok, I’ll take him to a different movie. One that I really he wants to see.

Sunday morning, Honor and I were just getting up and around when I called to see when Husband thought they’d be home. They were 15 minutes away. They’d gotten up early and gone fishing one last time before they loaded up to come home.

So, they got home, we unloaded and put stuff away, I started the laundry, and sent the guys to the showers. We spent the rest of the day being as lazy as possible. It was great.

We had a fun, busy weekend. And I’m looking forward to another one!

A Little Bit {or a lot} of Christmas 2012

I know I’m a bit behind, but I can’t skip Christmas! We had a great Christmas. And the days leading up to it were fun, too!

We decorated cookies.

Well, Caedmon and I decorated cookies. Honor pretty much just free based sprinkles. And dropped them on the floor for Oz. We were all on a sugar high by the time we finished.

One of Caedmon’s masterpieces.

Nana and Poppy came to visit for Christmas. It’s been a whole year since Honor saw Poppy, but she made herself right at home in his lap.

Oz even got a little special Christmas treatment –he got to lay on the couch and watch TV with Husband.

We opened presents from family members on Christmas Eve. These two were excited. Well, Caedmon was. Honor had no idea what was coming.

We were beyond blessed by the generosity of our family. The kids were ecstatic about their gifts, and we all had a great time.

Later, while Husband and Nana read to Honor,

Caedmon and Poppy played Connect 4.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at church, where Caedmon got to hold a real candle. A lit one. With real fire. That drips wax. I’ll let you go ahead and picture that in your head and understand why I don’t have any pictures, as I was on fire patrol.

We had our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t originally planned that way, but a storm was going to cut Nana and Poppy’s visit short, and we didn’t want to miss all the eating!

After the kids went to bed and we were sure Caedmon was asleep, the Christmas gift assembly began.

We divided it up. Husband put together the trucks, I put together the buildings. I really did enjoy the assembly of the fire station. Brought back memories of when I got a LEGO police station for Christmas and spent the evening putting it together in Mimi’s bathroom. (She had a big bathroom. And the little kids could be locked out.)

Two hours later, it was all ready to go under the tree, complete with a book about the fire station.

And yes, I’m fully aware that we probably committed a huge faux pas by putting Caedmon’s LEGOS together for him. However, he’s not quite ready to put together something on that scale yet. And in order to get to, you know, play with it, it has to be put together. Who wants to get a gift under the tree that it will be 5 hours before you can play with it? Because though it took Husband and me 2 hours to put together, it would’ve taken at least 5 to put it together with “extra help”.

I put one of Honor’s babies in the stroller we got for her. She didn’t care, I promise. She loves that baby (Thanks, Jill & Brandon!).

Oz had some curiosity issues with all the stuff. He was a teensy bit obsessed with photo bombs during the Christmas holiday. It became comical at some point. But seriously Oz, move!

Christmas morning finally came, and Husband kept the kids upstairs while I positioned myself with the camera. I thought I had my shutter speed fast enough. Apparently, I did not.

Because the boy? He was excited.

Oh, and Honor? She saw that stroller and she was off!

She had no interest in other gifts. None. Caedmon ended up “helping” her open things, and if she could carry it, she took it and sat in the stroller with it.

We had to say goodbye to Nana and Poppy so they could get home before the snow storm hit (their house). We were glad to get to spend time with them, and sad they had to leave early.

At lunch, Husband read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and we had some Happy Birthday Jesus cake.

Still in our pajamas, of course.

I’m glad Jesus likes to share. These kiddos devoured that cake.

We spent the rest of the day playing with toys, enjoying each other’s company, and taking Christmas naps. There’s something special about holiday naps, you know?

The day after Christmas, it was time for the real tree to go. It was getting a little crispy. But it couldn’t go before Caedmon said his goodbyes. Yes, he hugged the tree.

Honor helped put things away. She loves to close things.

By the end of the day, all that was left were “hooks and some wire”.

But? We had snow. Real snow. That was the best day-after-Christmas present ever.

It didn’t accumulate, but it was nice to just watch it fall. After a winter with no real cold weather, much less snow, last year, I loved it.

We had a great Christmas. And now it’s 2013 and time to get back to our normal…whatever that is.

Monday Catch-Up

Monday. I never thought I’d be using a Monday to catch up. Whew!

We had a busy week last week and a full weekend. So today we’ll be catching up from all of our playing.

We had a great time with Nana here last week.

And we celebrated Honor’s birthday most of the week.

Also? Caedmon’s had a fever off and on since Wednesday. Yaaay. Ironically, Honor has a well visit scheduled for this week. So if he hasn’t shaken that fever by then, we’ll be asking the doc if we can squeeze in an appointment for him, too. I reeally hope it’s gone by then, though. Has anybody dealt much with recurrent tonsillitis? I think that’s what we’ve got going on. He doesn’t complain much, but it’s getting old - for all of us.

We also went house-hunting. We looked at three houses (almost four) in less than an hour. And hopefully will be moving into one in a couple of months.

I did get laundry done while we watched Celebrity Apprentice last night. I love that show but hate having to stay up that late. Again, I curse Eastern Standard Time. I remain a Central Standard Time girl at heart.

I’m tired. And it’s just Monday.

Honor’s First Birthday

Honor had a great birthday yesterday. At least I think she did.

Husband, Caedmon, and I sang Happy Birthday to her before we got her out of bed. Our early morning singing is…well, not great. She was a bit confused, but enjoyed it. (And yes, that noise you hear in the dark is her squealing.)

Here are the decorations we put up the night before – to enjoy on her birthday and party day. She smiled big when she saw them. The girl already appreciates party décor.

This is the banner I decided to make about 9pm the night before.

I tried to take Honor’s picture in the”Miss April” t-shirt I made for her to wear yesterday, and this is as good as it gets.

She was wiggly, so most of the pictures look something like this…

And I tried to get a picture of Caedmon and Honor together, but he jumped into the chair and bonked his head on the window sill in the process, so this is the best of those shots.

We had a beautiful day, so we took advantage and spent some time outside before naptime. We’re glad to have Nana visiting to spend Honor’s birthday with us!

She thinks she’s big stuff on this little playscape.

Today is party day. So tomorrow, you’ll be subjected to more pictures of my kids and pictures of my kids eating these beauties:

I can’t wait!

Christmas 2011, Part 1

Happy New Year! We had a great end to 2011, evidenced by the 1200 or so photos I took during the month of December. It takes a while to download those, y’all. Which doesn’t entirely explain my blogging absence, but “laziness” doesn’t seem to be a good enough reason, so I’ll go ahead and add that to the list.

We took a great trip back home to visit family before Christmas. We had a wonderful time and while we got to see lots of people, we didn’t get to see everyone. But I guess that’s the way it will always be.

First, we drove to Nana and Poppy’s. We spent Thursday evening and Friday with them and got to see Husband’s grandmothers.

Honor met Grandma F for the first time.

Caedmon and Husband were attempting to play the quiet game. One of them was better than the other.

Then we went over to Grandma H’s house.

Grandma H cooked a delicious lunch and we enjoyed spending time there.

Honor and Nana.

I didn’t get any pictures of Honor with Poppy, which makes me kind of sad. She was dealing with some pretty strong “stranger danger” as Trump likes to call it, and believe it or not, it was a challenge to get her happy when someone besides Husband or me was holding her. I think by the end of our trip, she’d worked herself out of it. Or else she was just so used to “someone else” hanging out with her, she just gave up.

Later that afternoon, we opened gifts with Nana and Poppy.

They gave Caedmon this game, and he loves it. I’d never seen it before, but it’s a great preschool game!

Honor enjoyed her books.

But Caedmon’s favorite thing was the Spy Jet from Cars 2.

Of course, it quickly had to be handed over for the insane packaging removal.

We played Caedmon’s new game with him. It was fun. And interesting. (Just wait until you see who played this game with him at Mom & Dad’s!)

We had a great couple of days at Nana and Poppy’s. We had fun visiting family and hope to be able to see everyone again soon.

Saturday, we set out to go visit some of my extended family and drive on to Mom & Dad’s. What should’ve been a short 1 1/2 hour trip…wasn’t. And what should’ve been a 4 hour trip turned into 5 1/2. And it wasn’t because of the children. Details soon!