Ruger at 8 Months

Our little dude is eight months old and currently has been pretty sick. A TON has happened in the past month!

• He's sitting. He not only learned to sit this month, but he didn't even need to practice. He's fallen backwards only a few times and he always twists his body and catches himself with his hands. He's a pro.
• He can sit himself up from any position.
• He can crawl. Officially. He could do a lunging thing before to get around, but now he crawls. He was instantly fast at it too.
• He cut is two front teeth. 
• He can pull himself up and for the most part, get down too.
• He's a homebody. He really likes being at home, or at Grandma's house, which was our home for half his life. 
• He can't decide if Momma or Daddy is his favorite. He's constantly going from each of our arms to the other's.
• He adores Isabelle.
• He laughs whenever we kill bugs with the bug swatter. Especially when he's in our arms and we do it.
• He HATES the vacuum, but he's totally curious by it.
• He's doing better about sleeping in his bed, but he only takes 20-45 minute naps. It's a killer.
• He likes to change sleeping positions a lot. 
• He has to sleep in a dark room. Any light will wake him up, especially at night. 
• He still "sings" himself to sleep. LOVE it!
• He hates the car seat still. 
• He hates getting dressed and getting his diaper changed. 
• He loves to explore our house. 
• He isn't much of a jumper anymore.
• The moment he's alone in a room, he knows it and he starts to cry.
• He's a biter. Boy oh boy. He's bit me while nursing since he was a week old, but man. He's killing me.
• He adores his Daddy. When he gets home everyday, Ruger expects him to immediately come to get him. If he hesitates at all, or if any of the girls get to him first, he looses it and starts crying. 
• He still likes to be bounced to sleep.
• We went camping this month and he did great. He slept better in a tent than he does at home. 
• He loves to play with the alphabet magnets on our fridge. 

Ruger at 6 Months

Half a year is gone! Just like that! I think it may have been the fastest year of my life. We love this kid so much!!

1. As soon as he's on his back he flips over to his belly, but he doesn't roll from his belly to his back too much, even though he can.
2. He's getting heavy to carry around.
3. He's at the everything goes in the mouth stage.
4. He's very curious. 
5. He now plays with toys.
6. He cries when someone walks away from him.
7. He woke up on his half birthday with his first tooth.
8. He nuzzles his head into my chest when he's ready for food.
9. He loves water! He knows water bottles have water in them and dives for them.
10. He loves his sisters...especially Isabelle. 
11. He reaches for anything close to him.
12. He loves to jump!!
13. He still doesn't cry much. Mostly it just sounds like a complaining groan.
14. He isn't close to sitting on his own at all. 
15. He's found his toes.
16. He likes baby food but currently doesn't seem dependent on it. 
17. He still sucks his thumb some but not a ton. It's definitely slowed down.
18. He hates getting in and out of the car seat. 
19. He loves his daddy. 
20. He loves when you say, "boo!" 
21. He is super squirmy.
22. He wants to have something in his mouth all the time.
23. He talks a lot.
24. He's still super good!

Ruger at 5 Months

In just one short month, Ruger is going to be half a year old!? He is growing like a weed and still is as good as gold, as his grandma describes him. He seriously is soooo amazingly good. I would have ten more like him...well if I didn't have to be pregnant to get those ten. :) Here are some things about him this month:

1. He can roll over both ways. He's really good at it and loves to be put on the floor to roll around. He doesn't do it more than once or twice though so he's definitely not using it as a way of transportation yet.
2. He doesn't like peaches at all and bananas are the only fruit he seems to like. He loves all the veggies he's been given. He loves baby food and loves to eat!
3. He is a mover! He never just sits in your lap now. He's constantly kicking and punching and squirming all over. 
4. He loves the Johnny Jump Up
5. He's getting tired of the Bumbo and tries to get out of it by arching his back.
6. He LOVES showers. He would probably love bathes too, but we just put him in the Bumbo and give him a shower. I don't think he has ever once complained for a second when he's in the shower.
7. He likes to eat a lot at night. He seriously nurses probably 3-6 times a night for the past three weeks. 
8. He is starting to toss and turn and move in his sleep.
9. He tried apple juice for the first time yesterday and enjoyed it. He didn't quite figure out how to work the bottle, but he tried and never got frustrated.
10. He loves attention. When you talk to him, you are almost guaranteed a smile and for him to talk back to you.
11. He doesn't like getting in the car seat. He also doesn't like to be in the car when he's tired and wants to go to sleep. 

Memorial Day

 Our Memorial Day this year was quite a busy day. It landed on the first day of the week that Curt took off in between jobs. One of the things on my to do list before moving was to go visit Cur't grandparents. Curt stayed with them while we were selling our house before the girls and I moved down to Houston, but we had only seen them once or twice during the whole time we lived there. So, on Memorial Day, we spent the first half of the day out at their house. They live in the same subdivision as Curt's uncle's family. Every time we've gone to see his grandparents, we've ended up at Curt's Uncle Doug's house. They have little kids with similar ages to our kids and even a baby just 3.5 weeks older than Ruger. They also have a pool and generally spend holidays together, so that is where we spent the majority of our time. The girls were so excited to get in their pool. It was the first swim of the summer and they had a blast. They are terrified of any water that they can't reach the bottom of the pool and they do not trust floaties or even adults for the most part. It's a little frustrating, but it was still fun. Emery, strangely enough, is my bravest in the water.

After having an amazing brisket lunch, we headed out to my friend's house. We had dinner with them and enjoyed having our families get together for one of the last times.

It was definitely a filled day, but so fun and perfect for some of our last days in Houston.

One Last (Houston) Temple Trip

Before leaving Houston, I had a list of a few things I wanted to do one last time. It wasn't a very long list because I was trying to be realistic. One of the things was taking the kids to the Houston Temple. We only lived about 20 minutes from it, and it was actually only about 10 minutes from our church building, so we went quite a few times while we were there. The girls love going there and walking around. They all love to find Moroni and Emery, especially, loved to find him and talk about him up there on top of the temple. One of my favorite Emery + Temple moments is when we went and Emery found Moroni and asked if she could go up and hug him. 

Anyways, we were extremely busy during the time from when Curt interviewed for his new job and moving, so we had to juggle to fit everything in. Unfortunately, we went to the temple at high noon on a sunny and humid day. I was a little bummed about that because of the squinty eyes and shadowy pictures, but oh well. We still made it and that was the important thing. 

Flooded Park

I mentioned in my other park blog that the majority of the time our community park was flooded. These pictures are an example of that. At its worst, the park would be 100 percent flooded, up to the 6-8 inch barrier surrounding the park. This is probably a few days after the rain. The girls really wanted to go, so we went over in their rain boots. The water was still really high and they had to be careful not to slash water in. At some parts it was still too deep, but they had fun for the 20 or so minutes we all lasted.

Ruger at 4 Months

Our newborn isn't such a newborn anymore! He is quite the heart breaker though. Man we love this kid. Here are some things about him at four months:

1. At 3.5 months, he weighed 15 lbs 1 oz. (60th percentile) and was 25.75 inches long (92 percentile). His head circumference was 16.4 inches (71 percentile).
2. He likes to eat allllll the time. Last month and maybe a little bit into the start of his fourth month, he would randomly sleep through the night once, maybe twice a week. That is a thing of the past. He now just wants to nurse all night long. He is most content eating every hour and using me as a paci in between. 
3. He wants to suck on everything. My arm, the fatty part of my hand, my face, his wrist, his fist, and he's starting in on his thumb. He actually gives himself and me hickies. 
4. He's starting to be ticklish. Especially his neck.
5. He is a lot easier to get to laugh lately. Sometimes just the sight of someone will make him laugh.
6. He is so good!
7. He loves the water. He went swimming for the first time this last Saturday and loved it. He loves the shower and recently had a "shower" in the kitchen sink. He loves it all.
8. We started baby food three days before he hit four months. It was after a particularly long night of him wanting to nurse all night. He is ravenous! He loved it though and I have to cut him off each time I feed him. 
9. He now shows interest in standing assisted. He hasn't been the least bit interested until now.
10. He's awake a lot more and has more defined nap times.
11. He loves to talk and talks a TON! Way more than my girls and little babies.
12. He has watched Baby Einstein videos two or three times now and loves them.
13. He loves his sisters.
14. He does really well with sitting in the high chair and Bumbo.
15. He still is very cuddly!

Post Surgery Museum Trip

After Isabelle's day of surgery, Grandmas stayed in town for two more days. The first day post surgery, we went to the library. The second day we showed Grandma our way awesome Children's Museum. The museum is huge. It has thirteen different areas, I believe. We only did three or four with Grandma. We had a membership to the museum, but since it was an hour away and I was pregnant most of our time in Houston, we only went a handful of times, so the girls definitely never got tired of going. They did however, have their favorite places to go and we made sure to spend some time in both the Marketplace and the Art area. Both are located in just one of the 13 areas.

 Isabelle loves to write her name and her drawing is of a volcano. She was randomly obsessed this week with volcanos. :)

We also tried out a new area. The girls really liked creating with these straws and joints. Isabelle did too, but for some reason I didn't take a single picture of her. Maybe because she was on me, or next to me, or something?

It was a fun trip to the museum and I was amazed that Isabelle did so well 48 hours after having surgery. Little all star!

Adenoid Surgery

Since I had a baby this year and easily met our insurance's deductible, I arranged to have Isabelle see an ENT and have her adenoids removed. Last year after selling our house and before moving to Houston, we stayed with my parents for a few weeks while Curt was trying to find us a rental. Since their was a lack of beds and Curt was in Houston anyways, Isabelle slept in my bed. She wouldn't go to sleep without me going to bed with her at the same time and since I would lay in bed next to her and not be asleep, I noticed that she consistently and often would stop breathing in her sleep. She also snored really loud. So, I wanted her checked out. After we had x-rays and did a nasal spray that did not help at all for two months, the doctor told us it would be better to have surgery. The x-rays definitely showed her huge adenoids, but even the doctor was surprised at how much larger they were once she took them out. By the time I went through all the appointments and scheduled the surgery and blah blah blah, the whole process took five months to get to surgery. LUCKILY, she was able to get her surgery done before Curt quit his job and we moved! I was so grateful! Curt had less than two weeks of work left by the time she had surgery. Phew.

Since I had a 6.5 week old, my mother-in-law volunteered to come down and help with the girls. I am so glad she did. Honestly, it was totally crazy that I did this! 

On the day of the surgery, I totally ended up at the wrong hospital. No one told me that they don't do surgery at the hospital that her appointments were in. Between no one being upfront about which specific Children's Hospital to go to, people with very heavy accents, my baby brain and me not being from the area, I ended up an hour away from the correct hospital when I was supposed to already by there. It was a nightmare! At the incorrect hospital, it took me a good 15 minutes after parking to walk in, talk to two sets of people before figuring out I was in the wrong place and then getting back in the car. I was panicking that I wouldn't be able to get her into surgery today at all, after my mother-in-law drove four hours to help and after Curt had already given his two weeks notice rendering our insurance void. It was the most stressful hour drive! Especially since no one would answer their phone at the correct hospital to tell them of my mistake!

We did arrive though, one hour late. Isabelle's surgery was then bumped back an hour after it was supposed to happen, but I didn't care, just because I was so relieved it was still happening. Once we were there though, it didn't get any less stressful. I had a newborn with me who was constantly wanting to eat at all the inconvenient times. He slept a decent amount, but it was still hard. Every single other child there had at least two adults with them and no siblings. Then there was me with my newborn and alone. BIG MISTAKE! It never occurred to me to ask Curt to take the day off though. Or to even bring my whole herd of kids and my mother-in-law. That would have been easier too. Especially since their waiting room was packed full of fun toys and they had Doc McStuffins going and iPads to play on, etc. Once again...never occurred to me. 

Isabelle was a champ though. She was not scared at all and was really excited. Her Child Life Specialist told her all about what was going to happen and let her play with the mask that she was going to wear to be put to sleep. She chose grape (since it's purple, not because she prefers the smell) flavored smelly stuff to be put in her mask. This made her very excited to go back to the OR. Well, that plus the Popsicle she was promised. Poor thing really had no clue what she was in for.

The time Isabelle was away from me actually went really fast. I was surprised when the doctor came out to talk to me only about 30 minutes after Isa left me. The doctor told me her adenoids were five times the size as normal adenoids!

Post surgery is when it really got bad. Isabelle didn't come out of surgery happy. You know...like every other kid. She HATED having an IV in. Big time. She was soooooo mad at me for letting them put an IV in her. She wouldn't let anyone touch it. She mostly just wanted to be held by me and slept. She drank some Sprite but wouldn't even taste her Popsicle. Her wanting to be held by me also posed a huge problem as Ruger also wanted to be held and fed. It really turned into a disaster and got to the point that her nurse was gently kicking us out. 

In preparation to leave, Isabelle had to have her IV out and that was very dramatic and traumatic for her. Also the girl that came to push Isabelle out in a wheel chair was not very sympathetic. Isabelle did not want to get in the chair at all and just wanted me. I know my daughter and I knew that if I gave her a choice whether to walk or ride, that she would realize she wanted to ride. Obviously I couldn't carry both her and Ruger in his car seat. The lady freaked out and told me it's hospital policy that she has to ride...blah blah blah. At this point, it was all I could do to not break down in tears in front of everyone. Well I think I did cry. It was horrible. My plan did work, by the way. Isabelle did get in the wheel chair and we were off. The lady was also really put out that I didn't valet park and that I parked down in the parking garage. Since I was so late and their was a long line for the valet parking, I panicked and just went into the parking garage. It probably took longer anyways and I was a disappointment to the wheelchair lady. Ugh...she bothered my life. Moral of the story...don't take one of your kids in for outpatient surgery alone and with a newborn. I wish I'd known!

Isabelle slept the whole way home and once we got back, she was very attached to grandma. It was really good she came to help because I just wouldn't have been able to give Isabelle the love and cuddling she needed with taking care of Emery and Ella...and especially with newborn nursing Ruger! Isa was a champ though. She only took one single dose of pain killers and was ready to go to the library the next day and the museum the day after that. She never complained of pain and refused meds, no matter how much I tried to get her to take them out of worry that she would all the sudden be in horrible pain. 

In the end, yes it was worth it because she is soooo much better now, but man, that day was one of the worst in my five years of being a mom!

Rain Rain Come Our Way

One of the things I will really miss about Houston is how many thunderstorms we had. The girls were constantly getting to use their rain boots. They were a GREAT investment, since our huge back yard didn't drain well and often had standing water. These girls love playing in the rain when there is no thunder!

In Need Of A Break

In Houston, apparently all new subdivisions are required to put in a play ground of some sort. Since it is required, builders often don't invest a lot of money in them. More times than not, our community play ground was flooded. They didn't put in any drainage and since it rains a lot there, it often meant we didn't get to play at the park. 

On a day in May, before it was even ten o'clock, we were all in a bad mood and struggling. So, I decided to walk to the park. At the time, we were already down to one car since we were in the process of moving and my sister-in-law was amazing and came down to drive Curt's car up to Ft. Worth since he would be driving the U-Haul. Anyways, we were pretty limited by not having a car, so we spent an hour at the park to reset everyone's moods. 

Emery cleaned the wood chips off the stairs each time we went there. She can't stand a mess on those stairs. 

It worked and everyone was happy. The girls got along...at least while we were there. 

Man I love when they are happy!

Easter Morning

We had a pretty low key Easter day. Like I said previously, Ruger was still under a month old, so I didn't go to church. Immediately after waking up, all of the girls come into our room and climb into our bed with us, so they didn't even know there was anything in the living room to go see. We finally all made it out there. The girls were so excited to see lots of Piggie and Gerald books. Isabelle had received four for her birthday and they received the rest of the collection for Easter. They love those books so much! Other than that, they got a few things from my mom (a coloring book, a My Little Pony cardboard cut out to color and some stickers) and then a Pez dispenser and chocolate from Aldi. We didn't say the items were from the Easter bunny at all. I think it's a pretty weird gift giver...so they were just Easter presents.

I did manage to get pictures of the kids done later in the day too. I felt pretty accomplished!

 

 These girls sure do love their brother!

Easter

Easter weekend this past April, came before Ruger was even a month old. However, since we really hadn't been out of the house except for doctor appointments, we decided to go to a local church's Easter Egg hunt that they openly advertised to the community. They had several carnival like booths and games, but we didn't participate in any of that because it was humid and I didn't want to stand around in the heat. They had all the hunts divided into age groups, so Isabelle was on a different side of the field than Emery and Ella. They were still side by side initially since we put all of them right by the field dividers. They were very excited to start.

We ended up getting a really good starting spot as most people didn't bother walking down to the middle of the field, close to the divider. Ella is a brave one and she immediately took off. So much so, that she actually disappeared in the crowd, and that made me a little nervous. Since I was on the sidelines with Ruger and Curt was trying to keep up with the girls by himself, Isabelle didn't really get any pictures. 

The girls were all very happy with their loot. We had to give the eggs back, which is obviously totally fine, but the candy was all really good and great considering it was a free hunt. 

After the hunt, the girls did all get free hot dogs too. They ate them in the car on the way home and they were quite convinced they loved hot dogs in buns after that. 

One of my close, really my only close friend in Houston invited us over to her house to have our two families do an egg hunt in their back yard. They only have two kids, an 8 year old and an 18 month old, so they wanted to have some friends to hunt with. They had a TON of eggs to share and each of the girls had over flowing baskets in no time and we had to empty them into the diaper bag. Especially Ella's basket. She's quick!

Overall, it was a wonderful day before Easter day Saturday! The girls were thrilled and we were too, cause let's face it...we ate a bit of their yummy candy!

Ruger at 3 Months

Here we are, another month gone. This summer is just flying by! Our sweet Ruger hit the three month mark a few days ago. Here are some things about him this month:

1. At exactly three months, I noticed you can see his first tooth right under the skin. 
2. He's a drooly mess!
3. He loves to suck on his fist.
4. He has started to favor his momma. :)
5. His bed time isn't quite so late now. Meaning it's usually at 10 ish instead of 11:30 ish. Yay for that.
6. About once a week, he sleeps through the night. Most of the other times, he's only up once a night for a feeding.
7. He prefers to sleep on his tummy.
8. He no longer likes to be swaddled.
9. It's relativity easy to get him to smile. 
10. He has giggled a total of three separate times. It is really hard to get him to laugh and the thing that made him do it again, quickly becomes boring to him. 
11. He loves to be snuggled.
12. He prefers to be held with his back to my chest. He likes to see the world.

Cousin Camp Day 4

On the 4th and final day of Cousin Camp we didn't have the youngest of my sister-in-law's kids. We decided to go to my other sister-in-law, Lindsay's, community pool. Lindsay's mom also came and helped. Since we had a 2:1 adult to kid ratio, we felt a lot more comfortable than the 3:1 ratio we had most of the time on the other days. All of my nieces and nephew loved it there. My kids...well, they were happy in the kiddy pool. Therefore, that's where I spent most of my time.

All three of my girls did try and get into the big pool. Isabelle put on her floaties and was playing on the steps. I came and stood behind her and tried encouraging her to actually use the floaties and get in the water. She wouldn't so I....well pushed her in. She was literally inches from me and still over the bottom step, so she could stand up. However, she was literally so paralyzed with fear that she could not move a fraction of an inch. She was screaming bloody murder and wouldn't even reach to grab my hand that I offered two inches from her hand. Later on the way home, Isabelle's cousin Abby asked her why she doesn't get in the pool with her floaties and Isabelle answered, "Because I don't trust the floaties." Well, there you go. Ella wouldn't test out the floaties either and had no interest in letting anyone take her out. Surprisingly...shockingly...Emery is the one who was okay with Aunt Lindsay taking her out in the water. Seriously...my scaredy cat was the one who was the bravest. She put her two sisters to shame that day. :)

We ended up leaving the pool because I got a call that we finally had an offer accepted on a house and I had to hurry and write some large checks. And now I honestly can't even remember what we did for the remaining four hours of the day. Watched a movie. Ate lunch. Let the kids play. Relaxed because we were completely burned out. Pretty much. I do remember that the kids fought a lot more and seemed totally done with each other because they had spent so much time together.

Cousin Camp Day 3

On the third day of Cousin Camp, we started off non-theme again. We went to the library for story time and all of the kids picked out one book. Afterwards we headed over to the Meacham Airfield's Vintage Flying Museum. Our theme was "Things That Fly" so my mother-in-law suggested this museum...which no one else seemed to know about. I'm glad she did! When we arrived, the attendant told us that there was not guided tour and to just follow the path through the museum to the hanger and stay on the path around the planes in the hanger. However, a few questions later and the next thing I knew, he was giving us a guided tour. I'm really grateful for it too! He hurried us through the indoor memorabilia area...which was fine because it was mostly war memorabilia that the kids didn't quite understand. There was lots of model airplanes though and they liked looking over those. 

We actually spent quite a bit of time in the hanger looking at the vintage planes. Each had their own war(s) stories and our tour guide was very informed. He wasn't too overly talkative, but he still had a lot to say and I'd guess almost all of it was over the kids' heads. It was all really fun to look at though. 

When I asked the girls individually what their favorite part was, this was all of their answer: pushing buttons and driving the plane. They had a cockpit there for kids to climb up in and pretend to fly an airplane. I'm sure each of them could have spent a good 20+ minutes in there and not been bored. There are so many buttons and things to look at in there. They all loved it!

After the cockpit, the kids took turns sitting on two different bombs. One was bigger than the other and I'm not sure if the differences ended there or not. After the bombs, it was very very useful to have a tour guide. That's when he started pulling the retractable ropes away and started letting the kids off of the path. He let the kids stick their hands up in the holes in the wings that the air goes through to show them that they are there. He also let each and everyone of the kids sit on the wing of one of the larger planes for a picture.

The participants of Cousin Camp (minus Ruger and Clara):

Following this, the kids had the opportunity to actually climb up into a full plane and look around. Emery had a fit because she got scared of the new guy that came to help the kids into the plane since it had a pretty large step down. Amazingly, she actually was okay with our tour guide and even let him help her out of the cockpit after her turn driving, but when she came close to the new guy with the big white mustache, she freaked out. Therefore, there are no pictures of this part of the tour.

Our tour ended shortly after and the kids watched a video of one of the planes we walked around take off. This is where their patience ended and they were just hungry. So, we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch and then headed back to Grandma's house.

Our next activity was blowing up some helium balloons. Of course the kids loved it and had been looking forward to it all week. Once they were all blown up, we let the kids put the left over stickers from the teepee decorating on them.

After the balloons Grandma had to leave with Grandpa to go to Girls Camp too. Aunt Chandler came home and we did a butterfly project. I had drawn an outline of a butter fly and cut out lots of colored squares for the kids to glue on to their butterfly wings to decorate them. For some of these kids, it was their first time gluing and most of them didn't have much experience with it if they did. They did pretty well though.

That summed up our day for the most part. Chandler took the kids outside to play for a little while before Uncle Seth got their to pick up the kids and Aunt Lindsay left. I also ran out with all my kids to meet Curt and our Realtor to look at some houses. We had some other things planned too, but we ran out of time and steam. Mostly the adults just ran out of steam...

Cousin Camp Day 2

Our second day of Cousin Camp was a lot more casual. Our theme was water day. Although, we started the day off totally off theme. We took advantage of a puppet show at the Saginaw Rec Center. It was such a cute show that a ventriloquist put on. The older three really liked it. Ruger slept through it. The other youngest two weren't really old enough to follow it and my twins...well they were more concerned with fighting. I enjoyed it though and I definitely enjoyed the 45 minutes of someone else entertaining the kids. :)

After the show, we went home and did lunch. After lunch we started the real day's water themed activities. We slathered the kids in sunscreen and while we were waiting for the sunscreen to completely dry and soak in, we did a sunscreen experiment. Each of the kids (there was even one more extra kid as my mom brought my nephew Levi over to swim with the kids) had their own piece of black paper and the paper was divided in two. On one side all the kids rubbed sunscreen on it. On the other side, we left it plain. We put all the papers outside while the kids swam. We had to weigh down the papers to keep them from blowing away. After we were done swimming the kids brought their papers in and we showed them how the black had faded everywhere except where the sunscreen was (well, that and where the weights were, but we'll pretend that wasn't a factor). We talked about how sunscreen is important to protect our skin from getting burned by the hot sun. 

After our experiment, we finally let the kids get in the pool. Grandma prepared all three of her pools and the kids loved going from one to the other. Although, naturally, the bounce house got the most use.

After about an hour of swimming, we brought out the water guns. My mom was the awesome one who stood there with the hose and refilled those puppies constantly. The older kids absolutely loved them! Abby and Isabelle took on Levi and Brigham...although Levi seemed to switch teams quite a bit.

After swimming we let the kids watch Finding Nemo and my sister-in-law, Lindsay, took her two little girls home to nap. Emery was the only one that napped at grandma's house though. After she woke up and the movie ended, we went outside and had the kids draw with frozen erupting sidewalk chalk that I made the night before. It was a little hard to get the colors to transfer to the concrete at first cause it was so frozen, but after it thawed out a little, it worked kind of well. They all loved making a big blob of color and having me spray vinegar on it and watching it foam up.

After erupting chalk, they jumped on the trampoline and Uncle Seth showed up to take his kids home for the night. With only having my four kids in the house afterwards, it seemed so quiet! Yay for day two of cousin camp being over!

Cousin Camp Day 1

This last week has been crazy. Crazy crazy! So crazy that as I sit at the end of this week, I'm left wondering how we did it. I am definitely relieved it's over though. 

Two weeks ago today, our family moved in with my in-laws. Yep, that's right...we are no longer in Houston...but that's another blog for another day. Before moving in, my sister-in-law had already asked my mother-in-law to keep her three kids while she went to Girls' Camp. Originally, I didn't think much about it because I could always take my kids and go to visit friends or even stay at my mom's house...but our van is not working and isn't drive-able, so we were at my in-laws for the entire time. So between her three kids and my four (plus two more that came to visit during the day with their mom), we were going to have a full house! 

About a year ago, the same sister-in-law suggested to my mother-in-law that she host a "Cousin Camp" for all the potty trained grandkids. The thought behind it was all the kids old enough would go stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house for three days and just do activities with Grandma and Grandpa and have fun with each other. Since we had access to all of the grandkids, my mother-in-law wanted to do a full blown cousin camp and have everyone come.

She always wanted to do a Indian themed day full of Indian projects, so that was our first day. It was relatively easy coming up with lots of activities and projects. Therefore, our day was totally and completely full. There was maybe a total of two hours total throughout the day that the kids had free time. Those small increments of time inbetween activities were the only times they fought too. So, while we completely wore everyone out, it was totally worth it to keep everyone happy.

After breakfast, we started the day making our Indian head dresses. I had cut all the pieces out already and taped straws to the back of all the feathers so they would stand up. The kids decorated their head band and we taped the feathers on. Then the adults glued the headbands to the right size and the kids loved them. As soon as the head bands were done, we painted the kid's faces with war paint. 

Grandpa pulled out his buffalo hid and told the kids the story of the Nephites and Lamanites and how they became what we now know as Indians. Amazingly, the seven kids all took a group picture and it actually turned out pretty well!

The kids enjoyed jumping around like wild Indians. :)

Grandma bought a dart tossing game for the littlest kids to play while the bigger ones shot their arrows with their bows. We pulled it out early though for all the kids to play with while we were filling some time waiting for the missing two grandkids to come join in on the fun. 

Our next activity was painting. The thought behind this activity was the kids painting a canvas with pictures just like the Indians did for their Teepees. However, when we pulled out the canvas drop cloth, it was a lot smaller than we needed for seven artists. My mother-in-law happened to have some huge cardboard half boxes from new mattresses. We ended up using those instead. It worked out a ton better too because it was sooooo windy out. We still had to put weights on the card board, but the kids really really enjoyed it. 

After painting, even though it wasn't really hot out at all, we let the kids go swimming. They only lasted about an hour because it wasn't hot and it was really windy though. After swimming we had lunch and started to watch Pocahontas, although the kids got restless about 30 minutes in and we never finished it after pausing it there. 

Grandpa came home at lunch to set up a teepee. Once again, the wind really interfered with this task. We did get it up, but it didn't last long...and not long enough for me to get a picture of it because Ruger woke up from his nap. The kids did like sitting inside to get away from the wind though! 

Once Grandpa went back to work, Aunt Chandler came home during her lunch to help with the kid to adult ratio as we made necklaces. The kids actually did really well with it. They were much more coordinated than we thought they would be. This activity went over really well with all of the kids.

Once of the most looked forward to projects of the day was decorating their own teepees. I had made all the teepees the night before because it involved hot glue and patience...and these kids do not have any patience. The kids all decorated their teepees with stickers and once again, they all seemed to love it.

We had a little break between the teepees and our next activity, but not too long. We made corn, since it's an Indian's favorite food. :) My mother-in-law has a stack of packing bubble wrap that on the flat side it is sticky. Each of the kids stuck the bubble wrap to their hands and I went around and painted the bubbles. Then they used the bubble wrap as a stamp to make the kernels of corn. Once again, the kids did really well with this craft. They had to be a bit more patient as I didn't let them paint their own bubble wrap, which was hard, but it all worked out. The corn looks more like a corn/pineapple mix, but yeah, not everything was perfect.

We finished our day off with some of the more dangerous activities since Grandpa, Uncle Luke and Dan and Daddy showed up to help. The kids roasted their own hot dogs. Some lasted more than others. Uncle Luke and Grandma really ended up cooking most of them.

After dinner we did bows and arrows. We did two rounds and Emery and Ella each took one turn. Isabelle loves to shoot her arrows and is always eager to get a chance. It was super nice to have one male adult to each kid shooting.

After bows and arrows, it was bed time. Yay!

It was a super super full day. It was hard and emotional (seriously...kids can be mean...) but the kids had a blast and it was a great experience for them. It was definitely the longest and most packed day of our four days together.