Our Summer...... (Part 5 of 5)

This is last month of the summer series....  Then to catch up on October, maybe some day...

September was a fun month.  So many fun things.

1) Cooper has been loving Legos the last few months, so he's been wanting to play with them all of the time.  We have bought several of the little $12 and $19 kits to build a specific thing with the legos, and we both have a great time building them.  Well, the first weekend of September, we happened to  be at my mom's and she gave Cooper this huge tub full of legos.  Cooper and I built a helicopter (pictured below), then we started sorting.  We probably sorted legos for an hour but got a lot of them organized.  

2) Cooper officially had his first day of preschool!  Such a big boy.  Here he's pictured on our front porch, in front of his school and with his teacher.  I cannot believe he's already in pre-K!

3) Katy all dressed up in a ruffle-y outfit.  Had to get her in it once before she got too big!

4) The kids had grandparents day at their school - my dad got to come up and you can see, Katy wasn't having much fun.  Poor Papaw having to wrangle these kids.

5) Our church had a night of praise and Cooper and I went.  It was such a good time, He and I sang our hearts out for the Lord

6) Another weekend, we were visiting with family again and Dad, Gwen and I took the kids to the zoo.  It was a good time.  We rode the train, visited the animals and enjoyed ourselves very much.  

As you can probably tell, Cooper still enjoys sticking his tongue out quite a bit.

7) Next up was Steph's birthday.  This is the cake I made her.  A funfetti cake from scratch from Sally's Baking Addiction.  I think I tripled the recipe to make a three layer cake.

The 25 year old! :)  I forgot the candles, so this would have to do.

The girls and I taking a selfie.

8) Soccer pictures and lots of soccer games happened in the month of September.  Here is my cute boy and his dad with the entire team.

9)  Apple orchard time!  We like to visit Anderson's apple orchard to get our fill of honeycrisp apples, cider slushies and their home grown popcorn.  YUMMY!

Katy had fun jamming her face through the play structure.  Silly kid.

The must have token picture of the kids with the huge pumpkins.

10) You can never go wrong with playing in the neighborhood with the other kids.  This girl has a blast, and so does her brother, if we could only get him to slow down long enough to take his picture!

Here he is one evening - he decided it would be a good idea to climb up on the dash of the van.

11)  Olive Garden family dinner.  Once the never ending pasta bowl started, we had to visit at least one time! :)  The boys were doing the seek and find on the kids menu while Katy decided to light up the room with her sweet smile.  I love these kids.

Our Exciting Purchase.

As I've previously mentioned, we were working on something that would provide our family fun memories for lots of years.  We wanted to make a purchase that would give our family some much needed away time every once in awhile that didn't mean spending ridiculous amounts of money.  So, we invested a little bit into a small pop-up camper!  

Before we had Cooper, Tim and I had a massive travel trailer that had two slide outs and was completely unnecessary to our lives.  We had to store it at a location about 15 minutes from our house, and the inconvenience plus the cost of storage was a big deterrent from us even using the camper.  I think we only used it once or twice before we decided it would be best to sell it. 

But you see, the thing is, is that we like going camping.  I grew up going camping during the spring/summer/fall months with my family.  I think we had a travel trailer from about age 8-10 on.  I wanted my kids and our family to have this experience, and Tim agreed.  So, we searched Craigslist high and low and visited some and finally found one that was in great shape and also met our budget.  And it also had to have an air conditioner, I just find it difficult to sleep without one of those when the temps get higher than say 74 degrees........  We are storing the pop-up in our garage for now, which makes it super convenient and saves us the storage costs!!

My dad still has a camper, and my mom has one also. I remember those weekends when we'd go camping.  I just loved it.  Riding bikes around the campground with my brother, campfires where we roasted s'mores, hot dogs, and whatever else we could think of roasting, hiking with my parents, participating in the DNR programs, and much more.  My grandparents also had a camper, and I remember how fun it was to go camping with them, so I am happy that my kids will get to experience this as well.

So, we took her on a one night camping trip a couple of weekends ago, and it was a success.  We learned very quickly that we need to stock the camper up with many things that we did not think about, but we made due, and it was a good trip.  Only one issue on our way driving home, but all in all, a great test camping trip.  We are scheduled to go on a three night outing over Labor Day weekend and we couldn't be more excited!

Without further adieu, here is our new weekend fun mobile!

Do you ever go camping?  Is this something that you would ever consider?  I'm just tickled pink that we actually own this camper, it's perfect for our little family at this stage in our lives! :)

Another weekend in the books!

Another busy weekend at my house!

Saturday my mom and Shawn came up, Shawn went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Nationwide race and to hang out at the track and mom visited with us all day! :)  It was spectacular!!  It seems like the only times we really get to visit with mom at our house in our "lives" are when she's cleaning for us, or up to help us in some other way shape or form, and it was so nice to have some time to really visit with her on our homestead.  She did watch the kids for me for a few hours while I co-hosted a surprise sprinkle for Stephanie, hopefully a post on that to follow later in the week.

When I got home, I suggested that we take Cooper and Kate to another splash park, one that was closer to our house.  It wasn't as nice of a splash park but the playground was pretty great, and the kids had a blast. (which is the whole point anyway!).

Then we went to Sam's club to stock up on a few items, then back home!  We got dinner and then Tim was home from his umpiring camp.  He was there all day Friday, most of the day Saturday and Sunday as well.  

Sunday ended up being a big lazy stay at home day with lots of laundry.  I played with the kids, we watched tv, played games, took naps, got baths. and then once Tim got home, we did manage go out to dinner.

This picture cracks me up, my kids, like brother like sister, both decided to sit on top of their picnic table at home to watch tv.

Have a great Monday!!  It's already half way through in my neck of the woods! :)

Our Weekend.

We had a fabulous weekend at the Johnson household!  Filled with fun, friends, family and busy times!

We are still working on this thing as I mentioned Friday, but unfortunately it didn't work out over the weekend.  

Saturday was a very fun and good day.  Tim had to umpire some baseball games for a big tournament that was going on in town this weekend, and the kids and I did our chores so that we would be ready for the rest of the day.

Then I took Cooper to see Planes Fire and Rescue. This is the only picture I got, but this boy is so into the movie, he didn't even notice me taking the picture.

Saturday evening, my friend Jill brought her two boys, Max (Cooper's age) and Wyatt (Katy's age) over to play.  The boys definitely had a blast together.  This is a picture Jill took of them riding Coop's car.

On Sunday, we missed church due to lack of sleep, but were very busy after all of us finally woke up!  We got some retakes of Katy's birthday pictures taken, went grocery shopping, went on a picnic with Stephanie, Kampbell and Andrew, took the kids to a splash pad and playground and then home for more playtime for them/chores for us.

It was a busy and fun filled weekend for sure.  I just cannot wait for more weekends just like it.  Cheers to this week also - swim lessons, dinner with friends and more fun with my kids and hubby are on deck for us, what do you have going on this week?

Our Weekend

I haven't done a weekend post in awhile, for lots of reasons, but I want to keep note of this one, because it was particularly fun.  At least for me.

This weekend was the weekend of stopping pumping all together.  It has gone pretty well so far.  I pumped for a total of 8 minutes on Saturday and haven't pumped at all since Saturday night.  I'm almost to 36 hours and I'm in some pain, but I'm surviving.  I'm sure hoping to be feeling better in the next couple of days.

Friday night, my mom watched the kiddos so that Tim and I could go out to dinner.  We weren't planning on doing this, so we left home almost as soon as we got home to drop the kids off so that we could actually get in somewhere.  Friday nights and dining don't go together so well without planning to wait for hours or a reservation.  Anyway, it was super nice to get out for just an hour without the kids.  A short but much appreciated date.  A wonderful start to the weekend.

Saturday was busy, but nice.  The kids and I got up early (as they usually do) and we let daddy sleep.  I fed Katy then made Cooper waffles and we played together.  I got laundry started and it was a fun morning.  Cooper and I watched The Pioneer Woman when Katy went down for her morning nap.  Tim woke up and came downstairs and I fell asleep on the couch for almost an hour!  Then we all got ready, ran some errands, went to lunch and then visited a new baseball park that is open for the first season this year.  It was a good afternoon.  When we got home, since the weather was so nice, I took the kids outside, Cooper played with all of the neighborhood kiddos and Kate "played" with the other 3 babies around her age.  All of us Moms had a "Working Wives of the Court" meeting, haha.  Every one of us moms was out and chit chatting about things going on around our court, our lives, the kids, etc.  Even though it is not my ideal living situation (living in a neighborhood), I am blessed to live on a court where both of my kids have other kids around their age to play with.  Cooper has Alexis (4 months older), Julia (10 months older), Evan (14 months younger), and Mia (1 year older) to play with and Kate has Sarah (3 months older), Luca (1 month younger) and Joshua (3 months younger).  Such a blessing!

 

Of course there was much basketball playing in the house as well.  Cooper just cannot get enough basketball.  

On Sunday morning, we missed church because I wasn't feeling quite up to it, and the kids were playing and having a lot of fun together.  Tim let me sleep in and he took care of feeding and playing with the kiddos.  Once I did get up, Tim and I paid the bills together (a rare occasion), did some more laundry, cleaned up some and played with the kids of course.  Cooper decided he needed to dress up like a superhero.

When we finally looked up at the clock, we realized it was time to get moving, we had a birthday party to go to!  It was my friend Jill's son Wyatt's first birthday celebration.  Wyatt's brother Max, is one of Cooper's best and oldest friends.  Wyatt is just a couple of months older that Kate and they go to the same babysitter at least for now, so I think they will probably be buddies too.  

Kate really likes Wyatt's toys and Max...

We went grocery shopping and I had my first ever shamrock shake on the way home.

The kiddos played some more, then it was dinner time and bed time.  That was about the extend of our weekend.  Fun and BUSY!  I'm looking forward to another weekend already.  We'll be visiting my family next weekend for my Grandma's 80th birthday celebration! :)  

Hope you're all wearing your GREEN today, Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Randoms......

Kim & Kanye engaged.  Who cares?  While people may not 'care' it is like other Kardashian stuff, a train wreck that we all watch/hear about....

Not related to the engagement, but I think she needs to go back to the dark brown/black hair, this color doesn't do her justice.

Kelly Clarkson is married!  I love her wedding dress.  She looks like she's slimmed down too, no?

Now time for some non celebrity randoms....

I tried this Greek yogurt last week.  Delicious!

Cooper has learned how to take pictures with my phone.  He's loving it.  Here are a couple of his best pictures so far.

He needs some practice, but he'll get better.  I'm thinking we'll get him a toy digital camera for Christmas.

Katy thinks she needs to hold her bottle already.  It's too early for this!!

We got to watch Soup on Saturday night. She's such a cutie pie!  Love her!!!

I think that's it.  I really need to come up with some blog topics, so let me know if you have any suggestions!

Happy Tuesday!

TGIM?? & Weekend Rewind

Some days, do you ever feel like Thank God It’s Monday?  I mean, by Friday, I will be all about it being Friday, don’t get me wrong.  But, after this weekend, this crazy busy weekend, it’s nice to come to work, where I sit on my booty the majority of the day.  That’s awful isn’t it?  I know it is.  But reality is, is that sometimes, I just need to rest, and I get lots of it at my job.  I sit at a desk and work on a computer all day long.

Speaking of weekends, we had a good one.  It was busy, but good.

Friday night, we had Steph’s birthday dinner at Olive Garden.  We got the family “party” room, so it was just us and it was super nice to have a little privacy where the kids could roam without having to worry about them disturbing other people.  I made Steph a s’mores cake.  Even though it had lots of marshmallows in the frosting, it still didn’t taste much like a s’more.  It was tasty though.

Saturday, we headed down south to visit my side of the family.  We went to an orchard/pumpkin patch for lunch with my mom, Shawn and my grandma, then took some pictures of the kids with the pumpkins.  Then we went to my niece’s birthday party.  It was a nice day.  On our way home, we went to Lucas Oil Stadium to watch our local high school play there, but the game was delayed and the concession people couldn’t get me hot water to warm Kate’s bottle, so we had to head home after only being there a short time.  Glad we got to take Cooper in there though, cause we won’t be taking him to a Colt’s game this season for sure.  He’s just not got the attention span quite yet.

Sunday was spent hanging around the house, not doing too much of anything for me.  I spent most of my day sleeping, feeding Kate and washing bottles.  Our friend Jon who moved to Michigan last year was in town over the weekend and he came for dinner last night.   We grilled out and had a nice time visiting with him.  He used to be at our house a lot when he lived in Indy, so we’ve missed our extra family member.  It was so good to see him, if only for a few hours!

So why did I need to come to work to rest?  Well, Miss Katy girl, doesn’t want to eat.  Each time I fed her yesterday, she ate 2-3 ounces.  That is highly abnormal for her.  She usually eats 5 ounce bottles.  Then during the night I was up a good 2 hours 15 minutes.  The first time from 12:45 to 1:45 – where she ate a total of 2 ounces.  Then from 3:45 – 5, when she ate 2.5 ounces.  She still wasn’t hungry this morning.  I’m hoping she’ll eat at the babysitter today.  We’ll see.  She was still a happy smiling baby all day yesterday and again this morning.  So there’s always that. 

Happy Monday folks!  Let’s make it a good week!