Catch up

I have not been very good at updating our blog as of late. It seems that every time I sit down to do it, other things come up. The last few months have been filled with birthdays, check-ups, stitches, 1st time walking, and other fun filled adventures.

Nate celebrated his 33rd birthday the end of September. I surprised him by getting a $25 restaurant gift card for $2, so we got to eat out at a nice restaurant..just he and I. To some that may not seem such a big deal..but it was, we never go out.

Wesley started walking the middle of October, now he just runs everywhere and does not stay still..we have nicknamed him our little tornado. Of course there was Halloween the end of October. The boys each had their parades and parties at school. Then we had a neighborhood party with the kids in our neighborhood. Then we went to Nate's work to trick or treat and then eat yummy pizza.

In the middle of November I celebrated my 32nd birthday. Nate surprised me with an IPhone, so now I am almost up to date with others..I still do not text at all. I took Wesley in for his 15 month check-up right before Thanksgiving. He came in at a whopping 26 pounds. The paper got lost between the doctor and home, so I don't remember his length..he is a tall kid.
Then came Thanksgiving. We watched the parade, which is a must around out house. It is the only parade that Nate will actually watch and not complain about it.Then Nate cut Spence, Lex, and Wesley's hair. Wesley's nice curls are gone(insert a little tear, they were so cute). We went to Ryan and Anne's for a yummy dinner. Anne's brother and family were in town along with one of his friends that lives in the area. It was a day filled with yummy food and great company.

So far this month we have gone to cut down our Christmas tree, go to our Ward's Christmas party, and take Chandler to the E.R. to get stitches on his foot. We left out a garbage bag and he stepped on it, we are thinking that it was either the broken glass or the broken metal cookie cutter that did it. Nate at first did not believe me that he needed stitches, but he did end up needing them. The two lessons are remember that you put a broken glass and cookie cutter in the sack and two always believe Jill when she says our kids need to go to the E.R.:) So needless to say Nate went out and bought a garbage can, it has only been 1 1/2 years of taking it to the curb in bags.

I just love this time of year. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I really start to think about what is important. I have had to step back from all the gift buying and frenzy of Christmas and really think about what it is all about. I need to remind myself that it does not matter how much my kids get in toys, but why we celebrate CHRISTmas. Hopefully I can be better about posting on here closer to the events that happen, since some of the magic wears off after too long. Here are a few pics to show what we have been up to.

Rockwood, PA

It has been a little while since I have last posted. We have had lots going on the last month and a half. I will post more pics..when I can get the camera to corporate and download. Anyway, I downloaded a fun vacation to PA about a month ago and never got around to posting them.

The second week in September we rented a cabin in Rockwood PA. It still amazes me that we live soooo close to such great vacation spots. We planned this vacation months and months ago, and so when it finally came time everyone was ready for it. We got up there late on Thursday night in the pouring rain. As a side note Nate wanted to rent a cabin that was off the beaten path..and we found one. We just kept getting further and further off a paved road..so it was a real cabin in the woods. I am really glad that we did not get stuck in a crevasse in the road. The kiddos were so excited to be out of the car, that they were very much wired..hence the picture of them jumping on the bed.

On Friday we got up and had a lazy morning, Nate was not feeling that well. So the kids and I went for a walk outside and built towers with the Jenga blocks. Then we headed to Ohiopyle State Park for a picnic and hikes. We went and saw a waterfall, very pretty. Then we drove a short distance to a natural water slide. You can actually slide down it, when the water is down a little bit. Then we drove around the area a little bit to see what was around.

On Saturday we went to the Caddie Shak. They had mini golf, boat squirters, three different race tracks, airplane ride, spinner, and a few small rides for kids. The place was pretty empty, so we did not wait in lines for the rides. Later after dinner we roasted marshmallows and told ghost stories. The stories the kids told were really fun to listen to. On Sunday we packed up and came home. It was a nice relaxing few days of vacation. We have decided that we are going to make it a yearly tradition to go up to the area.


*the posts to come, Nate's b-day, Wesley 14 months, halloween parties, and more random stuff.

1ST Day of school

Here is Chandler his first of school. He insisted on holding Wesley to get a picture. I read the bus stop paper wrong, so needless to say we waited at the wrong one for a little while. We finally figured it out and got to the right one. The bus got there after school was already suppose to be starting, so the kids were about ten minutes late. School has been back for a few weeks and it is always a guessing game as to when the bus will get there. He is really enjoying it so far, I am glad that he loves school so much.





Here is Spencer on his first day of Pre-K. He was so funny that morning he got up and asked if he was finally going to take his lunch to school. Luckily that happened to be the day he stays later to eat lunch at school. Which he ended up not eating anyway. I think he had his Buzz lunch bag ready a week before school started, funny kiddo. He was a little less excited to be going to actual school, though. He really wanted me to take a picture of him in front our fall decorations.
Our family is going to be welcoming fall with a huge hurray!!! Our summer has been soooooo hot and humid. Since the middle of May it has been either hot and really humid, or really hot and dry. We usually get some cooler days with lots of rain, but the grass around here was dying...which you never see in the east. People don't have sprinkling systems, because it rains plenty. I think that we had the hottest summer in a verrrry long time.

Wesley our big 1 year old

Weight: 25 LBS
Length: 31 IN

Our sweet little guy turned one a few weeks ago, I can not believe that it has been a year already. This little guy is one of the greatest blessings in our home. We found out two weeks after moving back to MD we were expecting him, what a surprise. Heavenly Father really knows when to send these little blessings down..when you need them the most.

The year he was born was full of trials, sadness, depression, and death. We lost both my maternal grandparents within 6 months of each other and then a dear friend right before Welsey was born. His birth was the greatest thing that could have happened to us. He immediately was the most perfect baby. He would only cry if he was hungry and then after feeding him he would go back to sleep. He was the sweetest baby we could have asked for. It was hard not to sit and cuddle with him all day long.

His brothers and sister loved him right a way and wanted to hold and love on him. The little guy always had one of them kissing him when he was awake. Chandler took to him as his protector. He is the greatest big brother and is such a great helper with his baby brother. Spence and Lex like to tackle him and Chan rescues him.

Now that he has turned 1, he has turned into a little tornado. Every room that he crawls into he turns it upside down. He will play with anything that is within his reach. The last month or so he has started to really scoot around the furniture...so anyday now he is going to take off. He can go up and down the stairs (the going down he needs help to start with).

He will say mama, and dadda. The other day it sounded like he said uh,oh. It would not be surprsing if he doesn't keep saying it...since I tend to say it a lot when he is around. Wesley really likes to sit on your lap and look through picture books. His favorite thing right now is carrying around matchbox cars and making car sounds. He is still the sweetest little guy we could ask for. His laugh and smile is very contagious. We love you Wesley Sam :)

Utah

We decided that our lives did not have enough excitement in it..so we decided to drive to Utah very last minute. Nate woke up three Mondays ago asking should we do something crazy? At first I thought that he was going to take the day off work and we would go somewhere. His family was having their family reunion that originally we were not going to, but then we decided with his mom sick it would be good to go. We were going to leave it a surprise for his family. My parents we actually told, since they would be the ones that we would stay with.
We left on a Friday afternoon and drove 31 hours straight. Stopping a few times for bathroom breaks and that is it. We took turns driving through the night..that was actually not too bad. The kids did fairly well sleeping..as much as they could in the car. We stopped in Cheyenne Wyo for the night...but all the hotels were booked because of Sturgis (the big motorcycle thing). So we drove another hour to Laramie and stayed the night. Nate broke into hives from head to toe early Saturday morning and he was not feeling well from lack of sleep...so he laid on the bed as soon as we entered the room.
Needless to say it was up to me to get the luggage up and dinner for the kiddos. We woke up the next day and finished our 6 hour drive. I think we hit every single rest stop from Laramie to Ogden, silly kiddos. We spent Sunday afternoon with my parents and relaxed.
Monday we had a lazy morning and then stopped at Target for some things that we had forgotten. Then it was off to the Treehouse museum. The kids could have stayed in the place all day. Nate ran into one of our close friends from Taylorsville there with her two kids. It was great catching up with her on everything that was going on in their lives. She might be coming out to D.C. next month, so we might get to spend more time talking.
We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Bear Lake with the McKinstry's. Thursday with my fam and we left about 10 that night. We drove straight for 22 hours, and stayed the night in Kansas City Missouri. Nate refused to stay in Kansas..so we had to at least make it just over the boarder. The second night we stayed in Kentucky. Nate added an extra 4 hours to the trip, without me realizing it until it was too late. He wanted to go I-70 home and go through Kentucky. We took I-80 to Utah and it took us 37 hours, coming back it took us 44 hours. Coming home always seems to take longer. We are glad that we did this insane trip.

Bear Lake

We surprised Nate's family by showing up at Bear Lake two weeks ago. They were having their annual McKinstry family reunion since everyone else was going to be in town. We were originally not going to attend because of getting time off work and the cost, but then we decided to. Nate's mom a few weeks ago found out that she was having kidney problems and ended up in the ICU for a few days. When Nate talked to his mom a few Sundays ago she did not sound that great, so the next day he woke up and mentioned driving to Utah.
Well we decided to spend Tuesday and Wednesday with his family at the beautiful Bear Lake. I love the color of this water. I did not have a camera with me when I came down the canyon, it is the prettiest color of blue. On Tuesday we went swimming and rented jet skis, the kids loved going on them. I feel bad that we did not get any pictures of Wesley in the water. He absolutely loved being in the water and splashing around.
On Wednesday we were going to go to a cave and it was going to be too long of a wait with little kids. We ended up getting shakes..I ended up getting the famous Raspberry shake..it was delicious. Then we had family home evening and took pictures. Nate's sister did a really cute FHE. She had everyone take pictures of their feet on pavement and then everyone had to match the two feet. Then his other sister had everyone fill out questionnaires about their kids and we had to figure out who it was. Chandler was pretty bummed out that we did not have feet up on the wall..since we were late deciding to come. They were nice enough to let us wear others shirts to get pictures in..since they did not order any for our family..coming late has disadvantages. We had a really good time seeing all of his siblings that are spread through the country.

August Birthdays

My parents usually do a birthday each month for all the birthdays that occur during that month. Since we were coming into town for a few days they did August while we were there. Wesley's birthday is in August, but he did not quite get that everyone was singing to him and my sister and sister-in-law. It was really good to be able to spend some time with my family. We have had some family issues and for the past few years there has been a rift between some members. So we have not all been together for about six years this fall. We were still missing my nephew, who was at Bear Lake with his uncle and young single adult ward.
We had a fun day planned with going to a local swimming complex that had a lazy river, splash pad, water slide, diving board, and slides for younger kids. My kids absolutely loved this place, Wesley was so worn out he fell asleep in my dad's arms. My younger sister and her family came and the boys had fun with their cousins. Then later that night my older brother and sister and grandparents came for dinner and cake. We had a big family picture and grandkid picture.

Idle Wild

Last weekend we went to Idle Wild. It is an amusement park in PA. We were really impressed by the cost and how much it had. The park was sectioned off into different parts of the park. It had storybook area, which sadly it closed before we got there. It had an area where there was no motorized rides. This area had: the sack slide, zip line, ball pit, rope bridge for the kids to climb, smaller slides, boat races, little cars. Another area had the circus, Mister Rogers trolley, and some smaller rides for kids. There was a area that contained the Wild Mouse (a roller coaster), a regular roller coaster and lots of rides. There was a water park to it also. They had one big pool, a few water slides, three splash pads. The kids had a lot of fun and there was definitely things for everyone in the family.