Monday, March 10, 2014

Pigeon Forge, TN

Last August,  We took our first big family vacation with Max. One of Seth's older brothers really wanted a family vacation with all of his siblings (8 total kids) and their parents.  He wanted this vacation to happen so bad that he offered to pay for everyone to get there (plane tickets for us because we are the farthest away) and gas money for everyone else. He also offered to rent a huge log cabin for everyone to stay in for the 5 days (during peak summer travel time...aka outrageously expensive). He also graciously paid for or rental car and our hotel room for the night that we got there because we got there a day before everyone else and before we could check into the cabin. It was basically an all expense paid trip... how could we say no?! We had to provide our own entertainment and each couple was assigned one or two meals to cook for everyone (28 of us total). Here are a few pictures from Pigeon Forge, TN that I recently ran across on my phone.

A few fun notes:

-I got pulled over for speeding the night we got there.  It was about 1 am, we were trying to find our hotel for the night,  Max was screaming and apparently I floored it when we left the drive thru.  Whoops. The officer was very nice and I told him we were just trying to find our hotel and our son was ready to be done traveling for the day.  He gave us directions to the hotel and told us to have a good night.  He didn't even ask to see our licenses!
-Seth went on a zip line obstacle course with some of his siblings,  his dad snd his 86 year old grandma.  She's awesome! !
- We took a 30 min helicopter ride over the mountains.  It was a beautiful sight.
-I was 27 weeks pregnant and it hella (who says hella anymore?!) Hot and humid but thank God the cabin had a/c.
-The cabin also had a Jacuzzi that Max and Seth enjoyed each night.
-My equally pregnant sister in law and I spent an afternoon shopping at the outlet mall and then had lunch together. (Our due dates were less than a week apart, but she ended up having her son about 3 weeks before Benjamin joined us).

-Max found a llama stuffed animal and it was love at first sight! He'd never cared about stuffed animals until he saw that little llama.  

Friday, January 31, 2014

Courthouse field trip!

Yesterday I packed up the boys and took them to the courthouse! I got a ticket back in December when we visited a state park.  I had an annual pass for national parks and thought state parks were included.  Turns out they aren't and I got a $99 ticket. Lame! So I fought it and said it was an honest mistake and we've since purchased a state park pass, it won't happen again... and oh, um could you please just waive this ticket please,  your honor? He reduced it to $70 which still sucked but was better than the full amount.  Thankfully, Max was very well behaved and quiet in the courtroom and Ben nursed happily in my Boba carrier. He fussed a few times and I just had to get him latched back on and he was content.  Never thought I'd breastfeed my baby while pleading my case to the judge, but hey, baby was hungry and by golly, baby was going to eat.  Happy Baby Happy Mommy...especially in a quiet courtroom.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

my day...in pictures

In random order because I can't rearrange on my phone. ..

1) I excavated all of these boogers (plus some not pictured) from Benjamin's nose. He sounds a lot better now! He also loves when I dig boogers out...he smiles so big!
2)  We were playing with the blocks in the third picture.  Max was apparently done and decided to throw the blocks at Ben... and then pound one into his forehead. Really,  Max? 
3) We were having a lot of fun before Max suddenly decided to be done. P.S. Max is actually wearing a diaper in this picture. 
4) I made pancakes for breakfast!  We didn't even have any syrup in the house.  I used honey...Max loved it
5) Awww, sleeping so peacefully ♥
6) Benjamin said good morning to me with this all over my shoulder.  Thankfully it's very rare that he spits up (unlike Max, who was a major spitter-upper)
7) He later peed all over my leg (this picture is actually from yesterday,  but he peed on me again today)

It's nap time right now... here's to a better afternoon! 





Saturday, January 18, 2014

I will be a better blogger from now on

I recently decided I wanted to blog more.  How many times have I said that?  That's a rhetorical question.  I mean it this time.  How will I ever find time time to blog,  you ask? Well I've got a newborn (whaaaaat, where did he come from!?) So I'll blog in the middle of the night when he's nursing :) good use of my time!  So that's my "excuse" for poor punctuation and spelling errors. Better than nothing though.

So that newborn I have? He's a sweet little thing!  He was born on November 3, 2023 at 5:42 pm, weighing 7 lb 11 oz and 18.5 inches long. We call him Benjamin and it fits him pretty darn good. He's a pretty patient and calm baby. He's pretty good at waiting his turn while I attend to Max.  The first few weeks were rough... More so than normal with a newborn...because it turns out he had a minor dairy sensitivity.  My mommy instincts told me he had an intolerance to something and so I started researching baby poops. Green and mucousy indicated a food intolerance so I talked to a pediatrician and he suggesed to cut out dairy, the most likely common culprit.  I cut it out (well,  the majority of it) and he's been so much happier and his poops ate back to being yellow and seedy!  Yay for normal breastfed poop! It's been an adjustment cutting out dairy... and I still cheat... but he's much happier now.  It's pretty minor so I think he will outgrow it eventually. 

Christmas was good.  We stayed home and didn't have any visitors. It was a nice, quiet family Christmas.  Well, we did have one visitor, Seth invited one of his single soldiers over for dinner and he thoroughly enjoyed the Cornish hens I made (when i offered him extras to take home,  He asked if he could have the extra hen!!)

Max is doing well and growing like a weed. He's always been on the smaller side but at his 18 month checkup last  week, he went from the 50th percentile to the 86th! He's only 18-25lbs though.  He's a skinny little thing.  Ben, however,  It's chunky and he already weighs 12.2 lbs (as of 2 weeks ago). He's my short and stout little guy while Max is tall and lean (for now anyways).

Both boys are asleep on my lap and I need to trim their fingers and toes before I put them in bed for the night.

Here's to being a better blogger in 2014!

And here is a picture of our boys on Christmas morning: