Kitsap County Fair

Have I mentioned before I love the fair?  I think I have and yep I still do!  Although it is a bit tougher to love it with little ones.  And now that we have 4 kiddos I can see how the cost is starting to add up.  But since I grew up going to the fair, each year I love to take the girls to the fair and they are starting to love it too.  This year we went in the morning on our own with my good friend Jodie and her kids.  That is right two adults and 7 kids!!  It was fun and Raelyn did pretty well.  It was the middle two that were a bit tough at times.

We spent the morning looking at all the animals.  The girls and Carter had fun!

The pictures are mostly from my phone.  I brought our little Canon because it is hard to manage my big camera with one hand these days and of course it started flashing the battery sign as soon as I turned it on there.  I had even checked it that morning and it said it was fine.  Anyways all that to say I took most of the pictures on my phone so the pictures aren't the quality that I like but I sure do like the size of my phone ;-)

It was bright out!!

Getting to use our new stroller we bought for San Diego.  Oh well it is still a good stroller so hopefully we will get some use out of it.

I love pigs!  I love nursing!  and I love kids so intrigued by pigs nursing.  The babies were so cute!

Jada and Kelsey did not get to do all the rides so they got to pick one thing each.  Kelsey picked the carousel and Jada picked the real ponies so Olivia and Claire had to go to.

She was having fun really, I just couldn't get the picture taken at the right time on my phone.

We went home for some short naps and waited for daddy to get home.  Then we headed back to the fair to eat dinner and do the rides.  I bought ride bracelets for all the girls in advance.  Then I get to the fair and find out that Aubrey is too short for most of the rides and I could not get them to put her bracelet on her.  The poor girl cried she wanted a bracelet so bad and she wanted to ride the rides.  Finally after much debate between Hans and I on what to do, I put the bracelet on and bought a few tickets for Aubrey.  Some of the carnies were nice though and let her go with me for free since she was short she had to have an adult with her to ride.  It is such a racket that they make the adult ride when the child would be fine and they make the adult pay!  Come on, are you kidding me.  I was a bit irritated and the rides at our fair are not really good for little kids.  They are awesome in Montana.  I think when Raelyn is 2 we will have to go to the Montana fair so she doesn't feel so left out.  Anyways Aubrey loved the rides and cried every time she had to get off.  Her eyes just lit up and she kept saying, "Fun! Fun!"  and "Horsey, Horsey!".  So cute!  I am glad next year she will be able to ride and Raelyn still won't realize she is missing out.  Should be a better year!!

We had to distract Aubrey from the rides so we went away and got an elephant ear.  Then Hans took the big girls back for some more rides while we listened to some music.  Aubrey was having fun dancing around.

Raelyn was a trooper through it all and did really good for a 8 week old.

Sweet Boy!!

On August 11th at 6:15 am our newest nephew arrived.  Deidrich Jacob Louden was born to Carrie and my brother Josh.  He was a big boy weighing in at 9 lbs. 7 oz. and 22 inches long.  He had a rough start, but is doing well now.

We are excited to have another nephew!  Congratulations Josh and Carrie!  We can't wait to meet him!

Funny story:  We have all nephews!!  Hans' sister Anna has two boys, my brother now has a little boy, and my cousin Carrie who I consider my sister has three boys (she is pregnant with her fourth but doesn't know if it is a boy or girl yet...we are hopeful for a girl), and all of my other cousins have boys on both sides of my family.  Really how does this happen that we have 4 girls and everyone else has all boys?!!  So crazy.  On Hans' side of the family 2 of his cousins each have a girl and a boy, but the other  cousin has 2 boys.  So again mostly boys (except our family)!!  So funny!

Raelyn ~ 2 months

Raelyn is 2 months!!  And wait for it....I  CAN NOT believe it!!  Really why does time go so quickly? I knew it would, but at the same time was hoping for time to slow down just a bit.  It seems I am daily fighting two overwhelming feelings.  On one hand I often feel as if I can't wait for her to get bigger, so I can get more things done.  And I know that even just one year from now things will be getting easier (and yet harder as she will be moving and getting into everything!) and I will have more time (maybe).  Yet on the other hand with this being our last I want to enjoy every moment and I really do love the ages the girls are at right now, so I want to enjoy them.  It is hard to find the balance between the to do list and just enjoying your children right where they are at without wishing their lives away.  I can easily get overwhelmed as I walk around my house seeing all I still want to get done. Turning that off and just letting it go can be a real struggle at times.  And some days are tougher than others.  But I am working on letting things go. Defining my top priorities and letting other things go.  Taking things one thing at time and looking for balance.

Regardless, Raelyn is 2 months and getting just too cute these days.  She is smiling more and more each day!  She is starting to coo and "talk".  Her sleeping is getting more patterned and she has longer stretches of awake time and laying or sitting happily watching all that is going on.  At night she is sleeping pretty well and waking just a couple times to nurse.  We are of course co-sleeping as we have with all of our babies.  I so love cuddling with a sweet little baby.  The girls still love holding her and ask to hold her each day.

At my 8 week final midwife appointment they weighed Raelyn and she weighed 11 pounds 12 ounces.  My initial though was, "Wow!  She definitely has to be my biggest at 2 months!".  I remember thinking that with Aubrey too.  So when I looked back at Claire's weight at 2 months I found that both her and Aubrey weighed the exact same at 2 months.  And how crazy is this...when I looked back to see what Aubrey weighed at 2 months 11 pounds 12 ounces.  All three were exactly the same weight at 2 months!  How crazy is that??

I have always gotten two month pictures of the girls.  I started with Olivia and loved her 2 month pictures from Sears.  I then took Claire to Sears at 2 months and although the pictures were ok, I didn't get any really cute smiles out of her.  Aubrey and Raelyn I have taken their pictures and although I have gotten some cute ones I have found that 2 months is really a tough time to get good pictures of babies.  One they smile, but getting them to smile is a lot more challenging than when they get older. Two they are just serious and trying to figure out why you are making such crazy noises and faces.  Three the baby acne and cradle cap are still hanging out or just getting started.  And four they are tough to pose without the right props which I don't seem to have.  That being said here are a few of the pictures I have taken over the last couple days of my baby girl. 

Aubrey my photography helper... with a flower and my grey cards around her neck and Raelyn's  hair bow.

Getting so big!!

We love you Raelyn!  You are such a little cutie!

Which picture is your favorite?

Camping with OEFC

We went on our yearly church camp-out a couple weeks ago.  As always it was a ton of fun (even with a 7 week old)!!  This year we added an extra night and went on Wednesday through Friday night.  It was so worth it to have the extra night as it is so much work to get ready to go (it only took 4 days to prepare) and so much work when you come home that it is nice to actually be there for 2 whole days.

The weather was a bit hot (low 90s), but there was a lot of shade and enough of a breeze that it wasn't too bad.  Plus we bought a new generator which we brought with us to run our air conditioning and baby monitors during nap time so that really helped the girls get in some good naps.

The kids had a blast riding bikes (Olivia is getting so good at riding her bike now) and Claire zoomed around on her little bike a ton (although she was a bit defiant with not wanting to wear either shoes or her helmet).

The other fun thing the first day the girls got into was mud!!  Oh boy Claire had fun!

Here are some pictures from our fun trip!  And yes we survived camping with 4 and really love our camper.  We have one more trip planned this year, but boy are we looking forward to using our trailer a lot more next summer ;-)  The girls especially really LOVE camping!!

playing in the shade tent

Raelyn in the moby wrap

It was so nice we even got a chance to play in the river a bit.

Blurry but so cute the girls were tracing each other hands on the pavement.

Hudson had a blast in the mud too!!  I think he had no clothes left by the end of the trip since he played so much in the mud and dirt.

Had to add this cute one of two siblings (Jonathan and Elizabeth) chatting at the fire the last morning.

Love this Aubrey was so excited to have big sister play with her!!

And even though the trip there left a lot to be desired.  The girls did great on the ride home and Raelyn took a great little nap.

So much fun!!