Managerie of Fun

So these are all different pictures that I liked, they don't really fit together so I thought I would do them all on one blog. I love this first one especially!! Olivia is taking a nap at Trevor and Kaitlyn's house on one of our first outings as a family. Her taking a nap isn't that big of a deal, it's the location.....she's in the cupboard under the stairs!! As being a die hard Harry Potter fan I got quite a kick out of this. She only slept for a few minutes, it probably would have been a better idea to put her upstairs in a real room but I was still in paranoid mom mode. I wonder if she will ever develop any magical abilities?? (Besides being amazingly cute) ;)
This is Marcus' version of babysitting. He has been caught many a time sleeping on the job. At home or at someone else's home or even at church. It's like as soon as he is in charge of her something elemental in his body decides it's the perfect time for napping and poof! narcolepsy here we come ;)
She just loves giving her Momma big huge smiles. Coincidentally right after my "Not a Cuddler" post she decided it was time to start giving me hugs every once in a while, I must say it is HEAVENLY! I've decided if there is anything else that is driving me nuts I will just post about it and maybe it will start going better. Like right now she is on a nursing strike--come on blog gods work your magic!
Marcus has surprisingly took some pretty fun pictures. He snuck this one of me and Liv taking a nap when she was just a wee babe. We are both totally lights out. I love it because I'm normally taking the pictures so it is fun to have some of me and her. It's nice too because Marcus thought it was precious enough to photograph. (That sounded a wee conceited, not that I think I Am so precious-more like the situation, although I am pretty amazing, JK). This co-napping thing ended when she was like 4 months. I don't know if she just wants to play or something if she knows we are near, but it's naps in the crib or no naps at all. She does sleep really well, which is nice, we just throw her in the crib with her 'blankie' on her and walk a way and it's lights out. (We actually don't THROW her in, more like LOVINGLY, GENTLY, LAY HER PRECIOUS SELF DOWN). Her fav blankie is one we got from Ellie Wall, she just loves it which is so cute. She also LOVES HER BINKIE, I forsee much heartache when it ever comes to getting rid of it. Hoped you enjoyed the random fun!

Where did the time go?

I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last post. I have been very occupied for the past few weeks. I was working at the fair, going to my cousins wedding, camping with the Kaitlyn/Trevor Holman Clan, but must importantly..... WATCHING THE OLYMPICS.

I really hadn't planned on getting hooked on them, or even watching them for that matter, but Marcus decided to record the opening ceremonies and convinced me to watch them. THEY WERE AMAZING. So that was when they first got under my skin. NBC also has a tricky way of getting you hooked in. You watch the beginning parts and in those they start talking about some of the back stories of some of the atheletes. Well then you kinda feel like you know those athletes, so you decide to watch their competitions. During those competitions they do more spots on other atheletes and before you know it you have 43 hours of Olympics recorded on your DVR while you are fast forwarded through the commercials to watch the next turn of the marathon, or biting your nails and sitting on the edge of your couch when Jonathan Horton does his high bar routine AMAZINGLY to only get silver. OR ball your eyes out when Alicia Sacramone falls off the balance beam, or when Laura Wilkinson struggles through her last platform dives of her international career. And then there is the gripping your husbands hand so hard he is loosing circulation because Phelps is racing to get the eighth and final gold. My heart rate is actually going up just thinking about it. My DVR went form 8% available to 75% available and now I don't know what to do with myself. It was the most fantastical, drama filled weeks I could have ever hoped for and now I have to wait 2 years for the winter ones to come around.

It's probably for the best, the house needs to get back to former grandeur and I need to do something else besides whizz through 9 hours of TV a day. (Not that I sat on the couch for 9 hours, I would fast forward through the boring parts, IE table tennis and equestrian stuff, but I would have it on in the background while trying to do some chores). Plus my sleep schedule needs to get back on track, I couldn't help myself from staying up late to watch the finals--dang China being on exact opposite time schedule as us! I will miss trying to talk to Kaitlyn about this heat or that final only to have her say "wait I haven't watched that one yet", or having Jayme call me the day after a very drama filled night of finals to say "did you stay up late and watch--insert gymnastic event here--I bet you cried, didn't you?!". I've kinda had a hard time letting go, I called Jayme today to talk to her about gymnastics drama of certain allegedly underage Chinese girls. Who knew that you could get so hooked!! Olympics you were the best soap opera I ever had ;)

On the Road Again...

My cousin is getting married this weekend, so me and my Madre are making a quickie trip back to the Mother Land!! I'm so excited, Mom and I always have such a blast on the drive and we are staying at my favorite aunt's house--Rosalie ;) It will be a short trip as we will be back by Sunday, but it will be nice to have a girl weekend.

When we get back it is the start of Fair Week. I will be working the Coffee stand again for Jayme's mom, how many years has this been now...like 6 or 7?? My schedule is the best ever, Mon- Fri evenings, which works out fab with Liv's feeding schedule and I have all my sitters lined up! Luckily one of Marcus' family members or one of my family members will be at the fair when I'm working so they are going to have Liv tag along with them. Plus I am also working with the coolest gals ever....Kaitlyn, Jayme, Katie and Suzanne (in no particular order). In previous years I have had to work with gals who I do not hold in high esteem, the feelings were mutual, so that added some awkwardness. This year I don't have to worry about that at all, just all party all the time (oh and the actual "working" part). Plus I'm super psyched to be working with the barista master, JAYME, again. Last year she had the little bambina so she was out of commission, but she will be working her magic this year! Also I have quite the love affair with my beloved fair food, I am already dreaming about Lynden PTA burgers. I am going to try to keep it in check this year, I will make a very concerted effort to only frequent my absolute fav food's. Otherwise any money I make goes straight to the stomach, not directly of course I just spend it all on the food ;0
Also on a side note Olivia got Thrush last week. Marcus has dubbed her our "yeasty beasty", totally cracked me up when he said it. Luckily I caught it early enough that I didn't get infected too. It is a pain with all the ointmenting, as she also has a mild yeast diaper rash. Basically she has yeast coming out all ends. It is almost clearing up now though...Thank Goodness!

DONE-NO SPOILERS HERE!

So I bought the Breaking Dawn book yesterday, I know really late considering I had a countdown of it on my site forever but I could not think about the book with nephews running around my house, and I finished it today. I LOVED IT!! Luckily Olivia really cooperated with playing by herself for a few good stretches to allow her nerdy mom to power read. I think she was so relaxed at having the house all to herself again that she has just been so chill. I thought I was really going to be a goner for my reading sesh because every time I layed her down to sleep, she only power napped for like 15 min and was up and ready to party. But instead of being a crank-master she was surprisingly content to just play around, with a teensy bit of help from baby einstein. I must be crazy to still be awake blogging after going on like 4 hours of sleep last night (what-reading at night is the best time-hardly any interruption), I think I'm on a book high. Kaitlyn was also waiting quasi patiently in the wings to...sink her teeth (hehe)... into my beloved book, and I wanted to get it to her before fair week descended on us. This book definitely did NOT disappoint...now what else is there to look forward to....THE MOVIE ;)

Hiking Extravaganza

So on Sunday for our last day with the boys we decided to end it with a bang. We went to Glacier and went on the Skyline Hike. We were pretty high up (above 2000 feet), as you can tell by the snow patches. They boys were such troopers, I found out after that it is like 7 miles round trip.
As you crest the hill you come out into this mountain meadow-it was the most beautiful thing that I have EVER SEEN. It literally took my breath away. I 'm not sure if that is Mt. Baker or some other mountain in the background, but we were up close and personal. I guess that smaller peak to the left of where we are standing is the very top of the hike. Marcus has been up there and on a clear day he says you can see to the San Juan's. We were a little too pooped to go any further though. I packed sandwiches and we had a picnic at the top which was really fun.
Online it said the end of July was the best time to hike it because all the wildflowers are in bloom, and it was gorgeous. The pictures don't even do it justice. I felt like heaven would look and feel like this place.
We don't have a hiking backpack, so we used the baby bjorn. Marcus was kinda hurting at the end of it. Olivia loved it, she didn't fuss once and even fell asleep fro the whole hike down. We would definitely need a hiking backpack before we attempted something like this again.

On a funny note when we were like 1/2 way up the boys decided they needed to go to the bathroom. Brayden had been complaining of having to go number two for like a half an hour. When we stopped for Hunter to go number one, Brayden was like "you guys don't understand, I HAVE TO GO". We had been telling him that he would just have to hold it, when he said this I got a flash back from breakfast. All the boys poured their own cereal and I saw Brayden's after he already had the milk poured, so too late to make him take a smaller portion. He had poured a enormous bowl of Fiber One (which was the equivalent to 300% your daily fiber intake). When I remembered this I turned to Marcus and told him about it, we decided there was no stopping this storm. Marcus went over outside bathroom etiquette and luckily I had packed extra napkins and a ziploc baggie (we were not about to be polluters!). We could not stop laughing it was too hilarious, Brayden was off behind some trees for quite a long time. Hunter took considerably shorter doing his business. When he came out from behind the tree he was like " Wow guys, I feel so much better, I REALLY had to go", right at the same time some hikers were coming down the trail. They start cracking up, and I notice Hunter's fly is down so discreetly I'm like "Hunter... your zipper", not ashamed at all with the other hikers in the vicinity he's like "oh, xyz do you know what that means, EXAMINATION YOU ZIPPER!". Now the other hikers are dying laughing and I'm torn between mortification and giggle fit. Now if it isn't any worse Brayden comes back with his baggie and Hunter says sincerely "Brayden do you feel better too, I bet you do". It was too much, Marcus and I lost it for quite a few minutes.

It was a very fun, and very exhausting day. It's nice for us to get out and take advantage of all the fun things our area has to offer!
PS click on the pictures to get a better look at the mountain

What a Week!

So Marcus' nephews came to stay with us this week. Donny, Brayden and Hunter (In order in top picture). It was a very whirlwind week!! They have tons of energy so we came up with a lot of fun activities for them to do while they were here. They helped with the chores every morning, like feeding the pigs etc. Marcus even had them help when we separated the pigs (Floppy will be butchered shortly so she is in the fattening up stage).
They went to Squalicum Harbor and saw the fancy sailing ships!
On Friday they hiked up to Fragrance Lake, and had a blast!
Saturday was double whammy, they went to the Tractor show at Berthusen Park and also went to the Bull o Rama in Sumas that night.

They were a lot of fun and kept us on our toes (three boys under 10!). It was a glimpse into what a big family would be like for us. But I think it's a little bit easier when they are your own because you only add one at time (usually) not instantly family of 6. They were super cute and had us laughing quite a bit. For example when they first got here, Hunter (4), said the following to me: "So if there is a brother and a sister and they are separated for a long time, and they find each other later in life, but don't recognize each other, and fall in love and get married, is that wrong?". This is from a 4 year old!!! Totally random out of the blue, caught me totally off guard.
It's definitely nice today to have some downtime and get back into the usual routine!

NOT a Cuddler

So for quite a while now Olivia was been miss independent. This picture is a perfect example. When she started getting big enough for me to hold her on my side like this she would wrap her arm around me, kinda a half hug, for like only a week. Then she switched to this where she is twisted as far away from me as possible. If I ever put her arm behind my arm, she just twists her body back. If I'm holding her for any prolonged time it totally reefs out my arm/wrist because ALL of her body weight is facing forward. She will literally be leaning out in front of me and she LOVES IT THIS WAY. When I pick her up from her nap the second I've got her she is pushing away as far as she can go and straining to see what's new in the world. She does this EVERY TIME I pick her up. Every once in a while she will rest her forehead on my chest for like a second and just when I think she might be wanting to cuddle she pulls away and starts squirming. Don't get me wrong, I know she loves me, her face lights up when she sees me and she laughs with me and smiles at me, just NO CUDDLING.

I know that this is probably a phase and she will grow out of it. It's kind of like I change all these diapers, wipe up the puke, scrub out the clothes, wash up the nasties and the cuddling is part of what makes it all worth it, ya know?? All those precious times, NOT pushing away from you and squirming like you have the plague. If she ever falls asleep while I'm nursing her and she happens stays alseep when I sit her up or prop her against me, I will just stay really still for as long as I can. Those are the only times when she will cuddle into me, when she is half dead asleep and doesn't know me from Eve. Of course she will never just fall asleep in my arms while watching TV or anything like that (which makes church a disaster, she just wants to sleep in her crib). There are a lot of other things that make parenthood worth it, don't get me wrong, I am just YEARNING for the days when she wants to cuddle me! My secret fear is that maybe she won't ever be a cuddler, but I refuse to entertain that idea for too long ;)