Life

I can't believe we'll be turning our calendar page over to November next week. It's partly because the temperatures here have been so warm up until the last couple days... but also because we have been so busy. Having a baby in the house again has made me slow down a little... and that's been great. We don't miss naps unless it's absolutely necessary. Claire has learned to start sleeping through the noise in the house just like her big brother. I am so glad! Yesterday, I asked one of our boys to please not slam the door (Claire was napping) as he walked out of the house (it had been slammed like 15 times already since school had ended). 10 seconds later we heard the door slam. He immediately poked his head back in the door with a huge smile on his face and apologized. I think teen boys just don't know how to be quiet. :) We do love this part of life... living here with these guys can have it's hard moments... but also be pretty darn amazing. Lately we've been encouraging each of them to put a little of everything on their plate during dinner. Not one of them likes veggies. A couple days ago one of the boys was dumping his portion of peas into the trash after dinner when he looked at us with a surprised look on his face and said... "I just accidentally ate two peas!" Dan and I were laughing so hard... and let me tell you... two peas is a HUGE accomplishment in this house!

Claire had her 6 month check up this week and weighed in at a little over 18 pounds. I'll have to look back and see when Carter finally got to that weight... I'm guessing he was a year and a half. Also at Claire's check up... our pediatrician noticed a "clicking" in her hip during the exam. We'll take her down to Children's Hospital for an x-ray tomorrow morning to see if it's hip dysplasia. We are praying it is nothing. If it is something... that could possibly mean surgery and a cast. We have noticed her favoring her right leg over her left (which is the leg the doctor noticed the clicking in).

Anyway... since I can't do a post without a picture... I'll include this one to continue with the randomness of this post. What are you gonna do when the only place to hang the johnny jump up is the bathroom door?

Happy half birthday to our sweet Claire!

Dan and I were talking the other night about how it feels like Claire has always been with us... even though it's only been 6 months. The time really has flown by. I had the chance to hold a 3 day old baby this morning... it's already hard to remember Claire that tiny. We celebrated her half birthday tonight with her first vegetable... sweet potatoes. She loved them just like her big brother always has! And... since she has photographer parents who document every little thing... we have about 50 pictures of her first few bites. That's seriously how I keep track of everything... my photo library. Here she is taking her first bite...

And here is her 6 month portrait (drool and all :))...

News cameras, field trips and vacuums...

I have no idea where the last 7 days went! I actually just had to look at my calendar to remember what we even did last week (the title sums up the week... kind of). Our church retreat was amazing. So relaxing and such a great time with old and new friends. We are officially in love with our trailer. We're going to take it out again in 2 weeks on our annual camping trip with some good friends. That will be the real test since we'll be doing our own cooking.

We've had a ton going on with Joe's Place... which seems to always be the case. CBS news was here again last week for the 3rd time in the last few months. We're going to be part of a half hour segment airing next week. I'm always kind of nervous when we're on TV... especially this time since I was filmed in my pajamas without MAKE-UP! Still... pretty excited Joe's Place is getting some more attention in the news! The other highlight of last week was watching our vacuum repairman pull all kinds of stuff out of our central vacuum system. It works like new now! I love that thing... except for when highschoolers vacuum up stuff that you can't get out without calling someone.

Dan was busy with field trips, meetings and fighting a cold... that's still hanging on. Can't wait until he's feeling better!

Other than that... a great week with our 3 boys... and of course these 2...

The View from Here: Camp Mihaska ~ Bourbon, MO

Testing out the trailer...

We're taking our "summer home" out for the first time this weekend. Our church is having its Fall retreat at a place that has trailer hook-ups... so we decided it would be the perfect place to test it out. It's also only costing us $12 a night (for lodging) because we're bringing it. Carter talked Ty're into eating dinner out back in it with him last night while Dan was working on cleaning out the water tanks.

My view from the kitchen window upstairs...

Carter is just a TINY bit excited about sleeping in it for the first time tonight. He made sure his bed was all ready last night... complete with stuffed animals and his new birthday sleeping bag from Aunt Cari. I'm just excited that our beds are already made and all we have to do is park it and plug it in when we get there!! :)

A little stranger anxiety...

Claire has shown some stranger anxiety for a while now. It feels early to me... and for sure earlier than Carter... although I'm not sure he really had any stranger anxiety. We're working to instill a little in him as he gets older. He goes nuts whenever someone he doesn't know comes to the door (which is often multiple times a day). You would think they've come to throw him his own personal party. Drives me nuts!! Lately I've tried to arrange donation drop offs and that sort of thing during his rest time. It's been working out a little better that way. Hopefully Claire's anxiety will continue (in a healthy way). It has been fun to see how she's recognizing our 3 guys. Every now and then one of them will ask if they can hold her. It's super sweet... and she hasn't been crying when I pass her off to one of them. Here she is with Kaylon before dinner tonight (she looks SO much like Carter at 5.5 months in this picture!)...

Dressing Claire...

It's just so much fun!! I had no idea! :) It's crazy how red her hair looks in so many of the pictures we take!