Lazy Summer Day...

She discussed her take on the current economic crisis while rearranging her diapers over and over, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time...she has some good recovery strategies though..;p
Big sisters were doing tribal ceremonies..or just pretending to be "lemurs" at the zoo and the blocks were their food...
We had blueberry-wheat waffles w/blueberry syrup and fresh blueberries, yes we had breakfast food for lunch but that's what happens when you stay in jammies til noon...and YES we all turned blue..that's why we're staying inside this afternoon and having a lazy summer day....

of course there is always time to throw in a dance party....

New blog...

Hey ya'll, I started another blog...

I'm pretty hormonal this pregnancy and seems I've been looking on the negative side of life, when there are plenty of little things during the day that truly do bring me great happiness and joy.  So I started a blog, I will simply document what brought me some joy during the day.  It could be 1 thing, it could be 50 things, or it could be really hard to find that day, but I know we should count our blessings and be joyful people, so here I go..I will find the joy in everyday and document it..but come with me on this journey, and let me know what brought YOU joy today...

I will still use this as the family blog, Slice of Joy is just a great addition...

www.yoursliceofjoy.blogspot.com

Deja' Vu....

Okay.......so here we go AGAIN!!! On Monday, Lily fell off her scooter and complained that she hurt her arm, we watched it for a few days and it was swollen around the elbow and when it wouldn't go down we took her to the Dr.  I went in the morning and they took an X-ray, "everything is fine, looks good, probably just hyper-extended it/sprained it"...so they wrapped it in an ace bandage and we went home happy.  Now, FYI..this is the right elbow..the SAME elbow she broke LAST summer, IN JULY falling off the monkey bars, she tends to catch herself when she falls by putting her arm out straight..not good. (luckily she is left-handed) So then I get a call in the afternoon from her Dr..."Mrs. Northrop I had a radiologist look at Lily's xray and I guess I missed it but he said she definitely had a little fracture in her bone, so you'll need to bring her back so we can splint it."..WHAT? same arm, same month..1 yr later, broken again...AMAZING!  So they splinted her arm, gave her a cute Snoopy sling and once the swelling goes down we're supposed to get a cast on it the end of next week.  Look at the pic..she had a long, hard day of going back and forth to the dr's, but she was happy with the sling and even happier that she'll get to choose a PINK cast this time...last year it was GREEN.  She finds joy in the craziest of things, she said the dr's was one of her favorite places because she got 2 stickers and the dr's are so nice..ahh, the innocence of youth!  She's been doing ok in the pain department that's why we thought she didn't break it again, so she's a trooper, sadly no more water park or swimming the rest of the summer, but hopefully this will not happen again..Teddy was trying to teach her to "tuck and roll" when she falls, (wish I could've gotten THAT on camera, ha).  Anyway, she knows, I told her..this is THE LAST time..no more broken arm, especially the SAME one! ;-)

Cousin's Camp 2009..

This is just a few of the pics from Cousin's Camp 2009! Last year was Pirates and this year was CIRCUS! We did a lot of fun relays and activities and the kids had a blast! Misti (my sister-in-law) always does such a great job making the day so intricate and fun and memorable.  They made monkey visors and hit a pinata and had great funny glasses and clown noses for a picture! I wish I could add more pics, I took quite a few, but for some reason I can only add like 5 pics to my blogs, not sure why... We always love cousin's camp and love this tradition, we can't wait for next year!!

How I've been feeling lately...

Blue....

...although looking at these pretty pics made me feel a bit better..:-)

Summer grapes anyone?
Dinnerwear....
Who doesn't love FREE??...now, free plastic surgery after 4 kids would be even BETTER! ;p
Ripe tomatoes....
Belle in vignette...

So we got a new MAC desktop computer..the iMAC i guess, and it has iPhoto which you can edit your photos and stuff, and it has been fun enhancing my pics! I took some today while big girls were at Aunt Lisa's kids camp (hence only Belle is in pics), so I figured out how to take pics a tad better using some different settings on my camera.( I fiddled around a long time, I've had my camera for over 3 yrs and just now figuring out different settings..lol) I don't have a cool, professional camera, just a little digital Panasonic DMC one, so these are just amateur pics but then I edited them extra in iPhoto..so much fun!..yea I amuse easily..;p.  I got some inspiration from a blog that I LOVE..check to the right side ( "I saw Today"  and "Sheenanigans" links under Sites I enjoy)..she's amazing and I will have her take pics for me when the baby gets here..so stoked!)..BUT  it is just fun for me to do something creative, I have some ideas to decorate the house and nursery for cheap too that I will be working on as well...hooray for creative juices flowing....

How come??...

Sometimes I wonder why can't I just live in here?...

...or here?

I honestly wouldn't care if I was a prune...I'd be warm and relaxed and clean..and if there were any sounds I didn't like coming from the rest of the house, I'd just put my head under the water!

3rd row seat...

We had to do it...we had to bite the bullet and get a bigger SUV.  We have LOVED..di d I mention LOVED?...LOVED our 4runner!! We got it brand new and Teddy has meticulously taken care of it for 5 years! At least our Silver beauty will still be around and we can hug and cuddy it on occasion if we feel so inclined..So he actually ended up trading in his cute '07 Volvo s40 and we got a brand new black '09 GMC Acadia.  The great deals right now were hard to pass up and they gave him awesome deal on his trade- in actually! So, we still have the 4runner for a while, which might look a tad funny to our neighbors now that we have 2 SUV's, but at least we have all the room we need in the NEW one.  The kids seem to like it so far and it's amazing how having that 1 little space in between them makes them get along so much better! We're going to have running boards put on the sides to make it easier for little feet to hop in, and blessed be the DADDY for buying a DVD system for the car that they will be installing next week! Who said T.V. was bad for children??? I'm pretty sure the DVD will cut my stress level in the car by about 60+ %!!! Hooray for kids spacing out so they forget to fight and so mommy can concentrate! ;-) So, we're so very blessed, and relieved we have room for the new addition..now if we can just stop having babies we can start SAVING our money!! What a concept!!.....

Waterpark fun...

Belle going down slide like a maniac...
girls and cousin rhett + friend...
she only wanted to go down by herself like a big kid...
Piper going down slide...
Belle and mommy, she's saying, "CHEEEEESE"...

Today we went to the water park again! We went last week and the kids always have sooooo much fun, maybe we'll try and make it a weekly thing during the summer.  I like this water park because they have a toddler area that the water is not deep and there is a slide that Belle cannot get enough of, she's kind of pushy for a 1 yr old, and she kept going down all by herself, on her bum, her back, her stomach (face first), she has no fear and kept up with the big kids!! She must think she's 3 yr old!  The older kids play together so great and go in the bigger part and pretend and swim like little fishies all over..., it was fun to go with nieces and nephews and sister-in-law Lori and Sherrie my mom-in-law.  It's good for me to get out and get some sun..and by sun I mean my back is crispy...;-) Hooray for summer!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun and eventful 4th of July! We got up early and went to the church for 4th of July breakfast and bike parade. We decorated the girls bikes (and cousin Rhett's too) the day before so they were all set to go, they really liked it and said they hope they do it every year. It was fun to see them do loops around the church and feel so proud of their bikes. Then we had a bbq with family and the girls and I made 4th of July cupcakes, the little windmills actually would spin, fun! The food was great and then we did fireworks! Piper is a pyromaniac and who knows why we kept giving her sparklers, she's not very careful around people's faces or would try and light the weeds on fire..GREAT!!(she was cute, Piper kept telling everyone all day that her hair "thingys" were "fireworks"-ha) Belle loved it, there was only a few times she broke out in "nervous" laughter at the really screechy, loud ones, ha. Lily had a blast of course and it was over WAY too soon she thought. They were beat and exhausted by the end of the day, but it was so much fun to be together and to celebrate our Independence. Hopefully everyone else had a fabulous holiday!

Zoo for free-Yippee!

The military had free zoo days, so we went yesterday after my Dr appt (its'a girl)and the kids had a blast! Teddy couldn't pass up the animal visors for Lily and Piper and they wore them the whole time! Piper has hers on right now eating breakfast, ha! It was really hot but Icees and water and random mist sprays helped and most of the animals were out and up close for them to see. Belle was mezmerized and would make the sounds of the animals she saw and Lily and Piper were just Map feinds and made sure we saw everything! We went to a little animal show and afterwards if you wanted to touch the animals you had to stand in a line and hold your 2 fingers together..so, Piper is not a Nazi, she was just ready to feel the animals..lol. THe girls loved the carousel too, but kept forgetting to look at the camera,...Teddy made up for it though he posed everytime! So fun time, we could go back again in the next few days, we'll see..good times!