This is how we prepare for a baby

We have a baby girl coming in two months. I am not trying to teach my boys how to be quiet for the baby, nor how to hold her, or how they should behave. I'm letting them be as noisy as they want! I don't look forward to having to make them be quiet because the baby is sleeping and she's a light sleeper, so they have to keep it down or the baby will wake up and I'll be cranky and the world will fall apart.

Josiah asks me sweet questions. I told them last week that the baby is upside down in my tummy, so Josiah stands on his head and asks if that is the way the baby is:) He says that the baby will drink milk and some apple juice and I tell him "no, she'll only drink mommy milk" and he understands. He knows that she won't be able to walk yet and that she'll probably want to be held a lot. I hope they will understand when I am so tired I can't see straight. They probably will as that may or may not mean that they get to watch some television, I'm not saying:)

Josiah joins his brother in the bunk bed in a few weeks when he turns three. I hope that goes well. I'll be preparing the baby room at that point and I'm excited for that.

Starting Kindergarten

We got the package of books and materials about a month ago. Last year for Pre-K, it was a medium sized box, filled 2/3. This year, it was two large boxes filled to the brim with more books than I could fathom! I pulled out the teachers guide about a week and a half later, once I dealt with the shock of so much material, to be blown away by the literal size of the teachers guide! I brought it inside to show Caleb and he was like "WOW, that's HUGE!" I was so glad to have someone else with me who understood the magnitude of this guide, literally no one else would understand. We both knew at that moment how much work we had ahead of us.
I brought the books into the living room and there they sat, until I got up the nerve to go through them (due largely in part to my sister-in-law Janelle looking through them and telling me how fun it all looked!). So, the day we came back from Caleb's fifth birthday party, I went through all the books, organized them and decided to start TOMORROW.
So we have been doing this for a little over a week now. There is a lot to do everyday, but we seem to be getting it all done with no more than a decent amount of effort. Josiah has to entertain himself through part of it and we save some of the reading for Josiah's nap time. Once we started, he was all of a sudden able to hold a pencil correctly, amazing since that was definitely not in the cards just a few months ago. I love how surprising the development is at this age. They can either do something, or not, and if they can't, they may be able to a few months down the road. This is why I love homeschooling. I know when something is just not going to happen now and return to it a bit later.
Pray for us as we start this year. We will have some "school vacations" at odd times, hence the very early summer start. I plan to take off a few months when the baby is born. Caleb is really learning right now and it is so fun to see.

Putting children to sleep

I was just putting Josiah down for a nap and felt so grateful! He started entertaining himself too much in his crib recently (we keep our kids locked up in a crib until they are 3:) for his naps and kept waking himself up out of his sleepiness. So when one thing stops working with kids, you just try something else and break that "bad" cycle. I decided to just hold him and rock him until he fell asleep and then transfer him into his crib. This worked, so I have continued to do it. It takes about 5 minutes and is the most wonderful time of my day I think. I get to sit with my finally-still toddler in the cool darkness, hold him, look at him and just enjoy him in his sleepy stupor. If he starts talking to me I tell him to close his eyes and go to sleep or I'll put him straight in his crib, so he closes his eyes and goes to sleep. Josiah is at this age where he is so utterly predictable and lovely. It's so obvious when he's hungry, sleepy, excited, joyful, bored... I can read him like a book and I enjoy that.

Caleb doesn't take naps anymore, he hasn't for about a year now. He isn't as predictable as Josiah is, you will think he's fine all evening until something sets him off and then he just straight cries until he climbs into bed and gets his nighttime song and prayers. I'm sick a lot at night right now and Caleb is so gentle and sweet with me. He can tell when it's hitting me and just kisses me and tells me how he hopes I get better soon. He used to comfort me when I would throw up, but now he just kind of runs for the hills:)

Babies are sometimes hard to put to sleep, but I must remember that it isn't always hard. It turns into a precious routine that is paramount to their existence. I wish all my memories of putting babies down were easy, but it all turns out ok. It has taken all the ingenuity and wisdom we could muster over the years to successfully get our children to sleep as positively as possible. I appreciate my teammate who has been there to figure it out with me and will continue to be there with our new bundle, thanks Matt. Some women have to do this stuff all alone, but thankfully, not me:)

Camping Yosemite

Yosemite came up unexpectedly for us this spring. The Fulwylers had been planning to go for months and  told us that we were welcome to try to get reservation for the same weekend:) Reservations for Yosemite go very early, about 7 months ahead of time, and we just can never plan that far in advance, one never knows what life might hold. Well, they keep a whole loop blocked off until the last minute in the spring, just in case it floods. So we checked, and checked and called, and checked and one afternoon, they were open! We snagged up a spot and so did the Fulwylers and so did our parents. We all got spots fairly close to eachother over Mothers Day weekend and we were so excited!
Here is Josiah and Hannah in the bike trailer. They can finally get along a bit:) Praise the Lord!

 John, Janelle, Hannah and Norah:)

 The boys with Mimi and Poppy

 Norah...eating again!!! She is always eating! and if she's not eating, she's screaming because she wants food, or she's just being adorable.

 We all brought our bikes and biked all over the valley. It was a refreshing way to travel through that busy place. It was so much faster and I feel like we really got to be a part of such a wonderful location.

 The family in front of Lower Yosemite Falls

 I was itching for an awesome, solid, kick your rear type of hike. So we begged Henry and Lorna to watch the boys one morning while we ran up a mountain. We went to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls and it was awesome! I love my husband and I love hiking with him. I love that he's my best friend and he gets me and loves me so much:)

 Hannah and Norah - these girls are so awesome!

 Grabbing water in the safety of Poppy's arms.

 Sleepy afternoon.

 Norah grabbing water too:)

 Mimi was always very popular!

 Caleb made a new friend in John's brother, Paul. He gave him a shoulder ride when we were just over it.

 Love family self-portraits, it's gonna get pretty crowded soon:)

Our new camper!

So, Matt and I have been searching for a tent trailer ever since our last cabin camping trip last summer. I realized how much I enjoyed camping when it was made more accessible by the presence of cabinets full of plates, cups, silverware, salt, pepper, an inside stove, sinks, an indoor potty:) If you know me, you know that I definitely can enjoy the more rustic ways of life, however, with a family, I want some conveniences or else I'm going to end up working the entire trip, not relaxing, adventuring and enjoying myself. I also really wanted to be able to travel to places that don't have restrooms, picnic tables, etc., like Avila Beach, the most beautiful beach around here. My mom had just started searching for a new ultralight trailer to be able to travel to field trials with her dogs on her own. After about 7 months of independent searching, we finally decided to come together and purchase a trailer together that would meet all of our needs. This is what we ended up with. Our new co-owned camp trailer:) 

We have a very busy spring and summer ahead of us and springtime is just so pretty at the beach around here that we decided to take advantage of a few open weekends and head down to Avila for both of them. We stayed on the beach the first weekend, and then up on a hill overlooking the beach the second weekend. It is just so stinking beautiful there! We are totally hooked!

Henry and Lorna got a fifth wheel last year and have been enjoying theirs greatly over the last few years, so now we can join them and give the boys all their dreams in a single weekend, camping, beach, biking and best of all, Mimi and Poppy!

Cinnamon rolls brought back to camp in the morning

Mimi, Poppy and the boys at Avila Valley Barn

Learning about waves with Mimi

We would take both of them in the trailer until we got to the Bob Jones bike trail, then pull out the Caleb's bike from the back, set him up and then he'd peddle all the way to Avila Valley Barn, a good 2 miles each way

The first time all of us have been kayaking together! We paddled two times as a family on our second weekend. The first trip took us to a beach that Matt and I had visited while dating. I truly felt like we had done a full circle. I am so happy!

Our view the second weekend, up on the hill

Henry and Lorna, aka Mimi and Poppy

Caleb took a big fall on our last bike ride, he got a bit too confident I suppose. He took a hill and turn awfully fast and thankfully angels protected him as he hit this ice plant. His bike stopped up at the top and he continued over the handle bars down into that ravine under the bridge.

The ravine. He came out with just a few scratches on his face. Matt and I were both a bit traumatized, Caleb cried a minute, then got back on his bike and we finished the ride.

We look forward to A LOT of camping as a family in our future. The boys really got the hang of the camping thing by the second weekend, sleeping in until 7/8 am:)

Hula-Hooping Caleb!

Caleb has been working on hula-hooping for about a week now and look what he has accomplished! I honestly thought it was not going to happen, shame on me!!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

Summer Vacation!

2 Part Family Vacation
1st Part - Mono Hot Springs, 3 nights
When considering a family vacation, one has to consider the children involved. This year, we have a pretty easy 3 1/2 year old and an easy going 18 month old. So I got a cabin with a few bedrooms and figured we'd be okay. This would have been fine except that the easy going 18 month old turned out to be not so easy going. He was just cranky, all, the, time and then kind of slept horribly. We made it though and all in all, had a great time up in the mountains. The cabin definitely made it doable and just not as much work as tent camping. I was able to relax and actually continue recovering.

Josiah relaxing by the meadow

That's Caleb way up there! He was such a great rock climber

Heading over to the hot springs

Very warm hot springs. They had bath and shower versions right near our cabin that we got to enjoy every evening.

Storytime in our cabin

We took out a boat on Edison lake. All of us had a great time, save Josiah, who was completely and overly exhausted.

We found a beach, threw lots of rocks, Matt and Caleb went hiking and had a good time.

You can barely see them, but they are way up there!

Don't let us fool you with our happy smiles, Caleb was breaking down, Josiah was in a constant whine and Matt and I were just laughing:)

The porch swing, looking over the meadow at our cabin.

Our "rustic" cabin. We kind of felt like we were homesteading.

KAISER PASS

 Part 2 - Gilroy Gardens, 2 nights
We finally got a good night of sleep! Josiah hit the hotel and was a happy camper. It's possible that the elevation was bothering him, or he just didn't like roughing it a little. Anyways, we arrived at Gilroy Gardens, a little children's amusement park/beautiful botanic gardens. It was so gorgeous and we had a marvelous time. Matt insisted on leaving for the park a half hour before they opened and since we were staying in Gilroy, going to Gilroy, we were there pretty early, the first ones there to be exact.

They had two different types of cars to take on a great track, full of tunnels and car washes, bridges, orchards, etc. This one had a four-seater.

These were the "race cars"

Caleb and Matt on the swan boat. Matt had to use his hand as a paddle to keep them moving as he made the poor swan a little lopsided.

Brothers:)

They even had a mini-water park

The main entrance to the park. It was so pretty.

ahh, we loved this place! We had so much fun that we came back the next day:)