Ups and Downs of the Day

It had been far too long since Aunt Kim has come over to play. The boys absolutely adore her! 

Before she arrived, I took my 2nd trip to the grocery store with all three kids. It's not so bad now since Kiki sleeps through all of it. When she wakes up though, we better get out of there, and FAST! Lucky for me, she did sleep through the whole trip today. I wish the boys would have too, but I suppose they are too old for that now. That would make shopping so easy! From the moment they woke up this morning they were whining and crying and regardless of their mood, we had to go to the store. We had nothing left to eat. It seemed as though the world began crumbling once we arrived. I was lucky enough to score a double seater cart, but although it prevents them from running around, it's almost a given that they'll fight. And boy did they fight. They yelled and screamed at each other and I just wanted to leave. Then something happened. They were still hitting each other but now they were laughing hysterically and also hitting themselves. And still I wanted to leave. Have I mentioned how much I hate checking out?! Especially with skinny isles where they touch EVERYTHING as I'm trying to make sure none of it gets into my cart...

By the end of the trip to the store, I really could have used this article, For When Motherhood is Kicking your Ass. It almost brought me to tears when I read it this afternoon. The last few weeks have been pretty rough on me. 

I was VERY thankful when Aunt Kim showed up for playtime! And frankly so were the boys! We were going to take them to the "Dragon Park" but we instead took them to Westside Park. Conveniently enough, it could also be called the Dragon Park, but it has a splash deck. We didn't bring their swim trunks, but they didn't seem to mind. 

 Yes. I know. JP is wearing sweatpants when its 90 something degrees out. I didn't want to fight with him this morning...He loved running the dragon head that sprayed water, but HATED getting wet. He ran away at the mere thought of getting a drop of water on him. He was pretty hesitant to even go over to the splash deck...yet he loves to go swimming?

I'm super bummed my phone messed up when she took JP in to get the bucket dumped on him. He was livid because as I mentioned, he hates getting wet! Hunter is always eager to get wet though. I really do have salt & pepper kids!

Oh How Time Can Fly!

First thing: JP is can be such a goofball...I'm saving this picture forever!

In other news, Kiki is loving her bumbo and I'm loving not having to hold her 24/7 though I still do...

 Earlier this year I explained why I wanted to do cloth diapering in this post, I'll Be a Cloth Diapering Momma. I never imagined that I would love it this much though! We struggled a little bit in the beginning because she was *so* small and I was trying to make them work regardless. Everyone I talked to said they waited until their kid/kids were about 10 lbs before cloth diapering...She's at 8.12 lbs so I'm glad I didn't wait! She's fitting into them a lot better now! I think in the last two months we've saved about $200 on diapers. I have no idea how we were able to pay for diapers for two kids...I spent $200 on cloth diapers so now we're just rolling in the savings!

2 Weeks vs 10 Weeks

She is just too cute!! I sent this picture to Aunt Bobby and then the boys wanted to show her their mad faces.

They look pretty mad, don't they?

 Since I showed you how much Charlotte has grown, I better show you the boys too!

They've grown so much! : (

A Day with Grandpa

We had such a long day today! And my oh my was it hot out...or maybe it just felt extra hot because I was carrying around a hot baby in my Moby wrap (that someone left on my doorstep). (Thank you to whoever you are!) Lucky for me, the boys were in bed by 7 and Perry left to go fishing, so Charlotte and I have the evening to snuggle and do a little blogging. 

 I might be a little biased, but isn't she just the cutest thing?! She's just starting to smile here and there so capturing one of these pretty smiles can be quite the challenge. Perry has been working on his goofy noises to get her to smile more!

 Pictures of my three (!) kids together are hard to come by, mostly because JP doesn't care much for pictures. I usually have to bribe him...he's such a goofball!

Before the long day began, I was able to get some running in on my new-used treadmill. I love it. But I don't love that feeling you get when you're done but the ground is still moving. I don't know what's worse, that feeling, or putting in your contacts after wearing glasses for a day. Anyways, I'm almost counting down the days until the Dirty Dash over Labor Day weekend...Sisters & Mom: I hope you're getting ready too!

Once Grandpa John arrived, we packed up and headed downtown to the Farmer's Market & People's Market. I love just strolling around down there. And people watching. I often think WTF?! a few times. There were tons of jewelry vendors at the People's Market this year... At the Farmer's Market section of downtown, we bought a bundle of carrots and sat in the shade and had a morning snack before venturing to Caras Park to ride on the Carousal for Missoula.

The boys have been eagerly awaiting the day we take them to ride on the horses. I would take them more if I could muster up enough confidence to take three kids downtown alone...Just the other day JP was quoted as saying "And tomorrow we are going to the carousal and I won't fall off this time! Yesterday I was sick and scared!" Yesterday was actually last spring...

 Hunter was super excited to go ride the horses. As we watched them go around, he picked out this one to be his favorite. By the time he got on it, he wasn't looking too excited though...

Once it started up, he had a death grip on it!

 JP rode with Grandpa John, because he chickened out again. They almost caught the gold ring this time, but the people in front of them got it first. Darn it anyways!

 JP and Grandpa had a lot of fun together!

He was even brave enough to let one hand go to wave at us! One ride was enough for the boys once they remembered they were also at "the Dragon Park". They love that place to pieces! 

After lunch at Five Guys, which was delicious, we took a drive over to Fort Missoula to check out a few things. The first thing on the list was the helicopter. It's probably because I'm a girl, but all the Dustin "boys" enjoyed it!

 Surprisingly, Perry insisted we take a picture together. Theses are very few between! And from that point forward, he ran the camera. I'm not used to having my picture taken...let alone have them on my blog. I feel odd not being behind the camera!

 So here is our picture with the helicopter. Aren't we so cute?! : )

 The boys also enjoyed checking out the army tank...

 but it was short lived when they remembered there was a train they could go see.

 Boys and their trains : )

 While Grandpa showed JP the train, Hunter and I pretended we were a train. We spent a fair amount of time on the tracks tooting our horn at the crossings. 

 I don't get many pictures with my boys, again, because I'm behind the camera. Maybe it's just me, but I'm looking a little pregnant in this picture...my carrier as well as Charlotte's head, just blends right in!

 Fort Missoula has a ton of logging equipment too. I think Perry wants to come back in the spring when they fire it all up again. I think Hunter & JP were more interested in the wood shards on the ground. Go figure.

 Charlotte and I weren't too interested either, but we enjoyed just strolling around. 

 And all of a sudden Hunter was shy? He was completely behind me in the rest of the photos. 

Aside from all the museum exhibits, there was also a car show going on as well. Lots of old and new cars to look at. I like checking out the super old ones that have been restored.

 JP liked the new ones...like this one. Probably because he thought, or was convinced, it was BumbleBee the transformer. 

I think we made it home by 3:30. I was exhausted. The boys were exhausted. Charlotte was still exhausted, even though she slept all day. And now that's its nearing my bedtime, she's wide awake. The joys of being a baby!

It's Almost Time to Harvest Our Garden!

For about 10 years now, I've always wanted a raspberry bush in my backyard. But I didn't plant one at my parents house because I was graduating high school before I would be able to actually enjoy it. Then came college. Now that Perry and I have a home of our own, I made sure we would have space for one. Last year our neighbor gave us a couple flips from his raspberry bush to help us start our own. (So the boys stop picking theirs?) We weren't sure if they were going to make it through the winter or not as they basically just looked like dead tree limbs. 

But they made it! And plenty new shoots are coming up this year. We'll have 3x the raspberries next year. I am so excited!! I remember picking raspberries at my best friend's house when I was pretty young...maybe 5 or 6 or 7 years old. I also remember crawling into the middle of the bush to get all good ones. We never came out with a nice poke from the thorns!

While Perry and Hunter were mowing at my parents home, JP and I went out to check on the raspberries, and eat a few. He gets so excited every time he sees a pink one. "Look mom! This one's pink! It's not ready yet!" 

He also spent some time bonding with his sister. We all thought he was going to be the one completely in love with her, but Hunter proved us wrong. JP has come a long way in the last two months. He's not yelling "Get it off me! Get it off of me!" anymore.

Our garden is starting to green up quite a bit too. Our lettuce is shooting up. I'm not sure what's going on with the broccoli though...but we have plenty of lettuce!

And our peas now have pods on them. I actually found a couple yesterday that were ready to eat. Nothing better than garden fresh peas!

Our flowers are in full bloom too. I love going into our backyard just to look at all the flowers!

The geraniums my mom gave to us are finally blooming too. I wasn't sure if they were going to make it!

Front Yard Updates

Perry and I were scrolling through photos of our home, inside and out, the other day and couldn't believe what our home was like when we bought it. The front yard, for the most part, looks almost the same, but with some minor changes. Here is what our house looked like in the summer of 2010.

Over Memorial weekend this year, Perry started working on a front patio for us. Let me go back a little bit. I was at work one day and he sent me a picture of what he was doing to the left portion of the front of the house....taking out a bunch of rocks and rearranging the big ones with help from the boys. I'm not sure what he was going for, but it resulted in having another flower bed on the left side. After getting home and actually seeing what he was doing, I explained over and over that nothing is going to grow very well there since it doesn't get much light. So it was decided that we'd take all the rock out and do something different with the space. 

He worked and worked and worked and after a couple long days, finally finished the front patio. After a paint job in 2011 (?) and a little hard work, here's what it's looking like now 2013.

I love how the patio turned out. He used white rocks between the stones. It looks nice, but we're always kicking them back into place...

I even added at little project of my own to the flower beds. This topsy-turvey planter was so easy to make and cost all of about $10 to make. I've received so many compliments on it. I love how it turned out!

Now if only the neighborhood cat would stop doing its business in my flower bed, something might actually grow in it...or maybe next year we'll just take it out...?

A Fishing We Will Go...

First thing: I bought my first fishing license yesterday! I remember fishing with Grandpa Mike when I was young. I don't recall if I enjoyed it or not, but I do know I hated eating fish. I believe Grandpa Mike's rule was if you catch it you have to eat it. And I still hate the taste of fish. So maybe that's why I stopped fishing...? 

But regardless, Perry enjoys fishing. I've told him plenty of times that I would go fishing with him, as long as I didn't have to eat the fish. Heck I'd even cook it for him as long as I didn't have to eat it. So with that out there, we finally took the boys fishing yesterday. And of course Charlotte too. But she slept for the entire day. It didn't even seem like she was with us. I had to wake her up twice to feed her, and then she was back to sleep. 

It goes without saying, she was a little angel all day :)

For our little fishing trip, we traveled up Rock Creek, about half an hour out of town and stopped at a nice little spot that was shallow and calm enough for the boys to play in. They we so excited to see baby fish swimming along the shore. While Perry did a little fly fishing, the boys tried to catch the inch big fish, with no such luck. JP also hit a little milestone. He willingly pooped outside in the "wilderness" since there were no outhouses in sight. Hunter already accomplished that feat a while back in our backyard....

When they weren't trying to catch the baby fish, they spent a lot of time throwing rocks until Perry was done fishing. Then we packed up shop to look for a better place to fish.

We found one a little way up the road so we parked and had our lunch before climbing down the hillside, which is quite difficult with a baby in a carseat, that I didn't realize until we were halfway down that she was not buckled in (thank goodness I didn't slip), and a baby bag. But once we were there, the boys were super eager to start fishing. 

I think in this moment, Perry loved being a dad and showing his son how to fish. 

He also had to show me how to fish...and then I had to teach JP. I'm pretty sure he thought we caught his lure every time we reeled it in. He was so excited! Before we left town, we had stopped to get my license and while we were there, we each picked out our own lures. Of course JP's was green... 

When JP wasn't fishing with me, he was fishing by himself with his stick, and the sunglasses I found at our yard sale.

We were going to cross this bridge that was just above the spot we were at, but I told Perry there was no way I was going to cross it. I watched people and it shook! Not for me. (Kelsey- your fear of bridges is completely rational!) Instead Perry took the boys up there one by one to let them experience it. 

Once that spot was over crowed with people on the other side, and kids throwing rocks off the bridge, we packed up again to find a new spot. We drove and drove and drove because Perry had a spot in mind and we hadn't passed it yet. There was a lot of "Oh I remember this" and "We're getting close, I just know it!" Before we knew it, we were 17 miles out on a gravel road with pot holes and we still hadn't found "the spot" so I suggested we turn around and take them to Rainbow Bend, which is along the way to the cabin. 

I gave Perry a hard time, once we found his "spot" was rocked off to vehicles around marker 12. So we continued on with our plan. Typical Perry was still stopping and looking for other places along the way back when he came across a path with a wooden walkway. He followed it while we waited in the car. And this is now where we'll go when we talk about "going fishing." So again, I packed Charlotte into our new spot with the carseat and her bag. We were literally walking through weeds and grass taller than me. I felt like I was in a jungle...and I didn't like it. But both Perry and Hunter enjoyed fishing in the new spot.

I did have to eventually put Hunter's pole away as he wasn't understanding the casting part and after getting his hook caught in Charli's blanket earlier in the day, and almost hooking JP when he was reeling it in, it was time to be done. 

On the way home, Hunter was in the back singing "Very happy, so very happy because I have Jesus in my heart" over and over for about 15 minutes. It eventually changed into "This is the day the "Yord" has made, let us be glad!" And then there was JP, "You're singing it wrong!"

But like a little trooper, Charlotte remained asleep. My plan was to keep her awake all evening so she'd still sleep at night. After dinner I was super tired, and when I laid down for a few minutes, I became super nauseous and very dizzy. I hung out over the toilet for a while and shortly after returning to my room, Perry brought Charlotte back because she puked all over the couch. 

In other news, we finally got a swamp cooler...and now our house is much cooler, but very humid. There's no winning...