Oklahoma

We met up with our good friends from Texas for our yearly vacation at the beginning of September.  We went to lake Eufala, Ok this year and had a wonderful visit!  The house and grounds did not have all the amenities the last one did but the lake was amazing!   

The kiddos couldn't wait for the smores!    

We were planning to go to Jellystone lake on Saturday but then we found out it had just closed for the season so we ended up at a local county fair. The 4-H room was lots of fun.

 

 And we saw a rather large collection of chickens...who knew there were so many!

 The lake was the best part.  Sandy bottom, clear water, warm and the best part was that it was shallow for a super long way so the kiddos could play and we didn't have to worry about anything!

 In honor of Peter and Sadie's upcoming birthday we had ice cream one night and Maren lit a candle for Peter.  He thought that was pretty cool, but poor Isaac burst into tears.

 Still grumpy about the candle!

It was so much fun!  Just to relax, catch up and enjoy good company.  I am still surprised every time at how well all our kids play together!  So grateful for good friends and good times!

August excitement

Our first month in our new home has been a lot of fun.  The kiddos have had so much fun exploring!  We have found so many little critters in our yard; giant grasshoppers, preying mantis, snakes, worms...I actually got a picture of some of the more fun ones.  Here the boys are with the baby bunny Alan found while mowing the yard.  I thought for sure it would scratch and try to bite us, but I think the poor thing was so scared it didn't know what to do.  So that meant everyone got a turn holding it and petting it.  Oh how the boys wanted to keep it!  But after loving it for about an hour they decided to let it live "free and in the wild"

 Naomi has really started trying to be a big girl and wants to do everything just like us.  She has a little meltdown if she doesn't get her own fork to eat with!

 This was a particularly crazy day, one of those days when everytime you turn your back someone was getting into something...I think Alan had stepped out of the bathroom to do something with Isaac and Naomi decided it was time for her bath!  And of course Peter who was still in the tub let her jump right on it!

 After watching Lilo and Stitch Peter wanted to dress his sister up as a Hula girl...I think she loved the attention!

 The boys have been sneaking my camera a lot lately so I get lots of random blurry pictures, but these ones weren't too bad!  I seem to remember doing something similar as a child.  No clue that they are incriminating themselves!

 Here is Peter's favorite discovery in the yard so far, his blue tailed skink.  I am impressed he caught it and his tail is still intact!

 For the life of me I can't remember what Peter had dressed himself up as but I couldn't pass up posting a picture of it!

 And Issac is all for anything that gets him as close to naked as possible! :)

 Here is Maxilla our caterpillar that we tried to raise.  Alan found it while clearing some weeds/brush in the yard.  The boys were SO excited, we went everyday and picked milkweed and cleaned out her jar.  She was doing so good and then after she started hanging upside down to get ready for the chrysalis, she died.  Sad.  maybe we will have better luck next time.

 My parents and two younger sisters came to visit over Labor day weekend to see the new house and to help with some work in the yard.  We have 12 or so trees in our actual yard and many more that hang over the back fence and they were in need of some pruning, as well as the landscaping.  It was amazing how much work we got done with all the extra help.  The kiddos were thrilled that grandma and grandpa brought their new puppy Marty.  They were in heaven, but after getting knocked over a couple times Naomi liked playing with Marty through the window best!

tonsils

Earlier in the spring Peter got croup again really bad and even lost his voice for months.  We were a little concerned and when we took him to the ENT with once look down his throat he said he needs his tonsils taken out.  Apparently if your tonsils touch that is a bad thing! ;)  We were going to do it before the move, but we had to move it to August so a week after we moved, Peter had his surgery!  He did great during the prep and won over all the staff with his inquisitiveness and his lack of fear.  The surgery went well, but he was not super happy when he woke up from his anesthesia.  He kept trying to pull his IV out.  (I don't blame him) but once we got that taken out and gave him his popcicle he was much better.

He did really well during his healing, no bleeding or anything.  The first day was difficult to keep him still but I think once the pain meds really wore off he didn't feel quite so good so he was a little more subdued.  But I was amazed at how well he did, but I think he was ready to eat real food again after his week was up.  The first few days after his surgery I would keep checking on his when he was sleeping because I couldn't hear him, poor guy I think this is the first real good nights sleep he has had in years!

Summer fun

We spent a good deal of the summer swimming which was so fun, even if the summer was unusually cool.  Naomi learned to walk the week she turned 1 and that did make swimming a bit more hand on for me since like her brothers she seems to have no fear of the water, even after dunking herself a few times.  

 The water park in town opened up only the kid area for a few hours in the mornings just for mommys and kiddos, it was so fun to play with all the kids their age and not have to worry about the "big" kids.

 We went to a birthday party and they had a lady doing face painting, Peter had a shark and Isaac had spiderman (theirs were a little smeared by the time we got home).

Now it is time to start really packing for our move the beginning of August!