Mama went bye bye

Zeb had a difficult time parting with his mama this morning. We bid farewell to Leisy for 3 days while she parties at girl's camp. Zeb tried to latch onto the van's window when he gave Leisy a goodbye kiss. I pried his little fingers from the glass and did my best to comfort him - he cried all the way from the church to the apartment stairs where he crumpled in a little ball of tears. I had to carry him into the apartment. Then he started crying for his best friend Eli. After breakfast and getting the boys ready for the day we made it to the park in time to see Zeb's little friends. He's been happy ever since.

I think I'm getting eased into the full time parent role because both Zeb and Ike napped for 3 1/2 hours while I cleaned the house. Hooray for long naps! Ike has been so much fun lately - he's my little buddy. He gives me the goofiest little grins whenever he catches my eye. He's just been the greatest little kid ever.I just got off the phone with Leisy and it sounds like they have had an incredible amount of rain. I'm glad I made Leisy take 2 sleeping bags because some of the girls already have wet sleeping bags. I will never forget the night a leader went cold because I wasn't prepared for a campout. At least I know she won't have to give up her only bag. I'm sure she is loving every second and so happy that it isn't blistering hot.

our saturday adventure

Saturday was the annual "maumee bay" ward activity! I love that we have a "beach" so close. Every time we go I tell myself that we need to go more frequently. Although high in bacteria, the water is pretty warm and nice and shallow for the kidlets. Unfortunately we noticed that zeb was using his shovel to drink the water a little to late to prevent him gulping down quite a few swallows. Needless to say he has a little diarrhea currently. He's on gatorade and should recover shortly.
We attempted a family picture (although somehow every family picture we take is always missing at least one child) and didn't ever get a usable shot. Here are the two best. Ike looks pretty cute in both. Apparently the sun was just too bright for Kent to get his eyes open :)

I'm off to girls camp tomorrow morning bright and early! I'm super excited- although having second thoughts about leaving Kent! I hate that on some of the few days he has off I decided to bail on him! I hope I don't get too homesick for him.

I wish that Kent was ALWAYS home.

Zeb has been in Kent heaven the past few days. We've had so much fun since we've been home from ny! Our festivities will have to be broken up in a few posts because I can't get it all in tonight. I'll try to finish up tomorrow because I leave for girls camp on TUESDAY!! I am so excited to go- and the three boys are equally as excited to have their time without me I'm sure.

Friday night we decided to go to a mudhens game with some friends. Fifth/third stadium is definitely the highlight of downtown toledo! Tickets are cheap- and the stadium is really nice. Plus they have fireworks after all of their weekend games. The whole family enjoyed being there. The weather was PERFECT (breezy, warm, and NOT humid) and Zeb never even got bored (mostly thanks to a great playmate!). The fact that we never got bored and had no tears is AMAZING considering the game started at seven and went for FIFTEEN innings.












The picture of Ike is during inning 12- right before we decided to bail. We really wanted to see the fireworks but with the twelfth inning ending in no change of score and the clock striking 10:30- we decided we weren't going to make it. Both kids were all smiles and giggles- but I could sense a meltdown nearing.

Here's the Z man in his current favorite shirt. We got it at a yard sale for a quarter. He spilled on it last week and just kept wailing "oh no, cookie monster, oh no!".
Zeb and Ellie LOVED watching and cheering together. They really got into the clapping "charge" cheers.
The game ended up three minutes short of the field record for longest game ever! and the mudhens lost. I'm not sure if they still did the fireworks- but we ended up getting home at eleven and the game didn't end until midnight.
We'll definitely be going to another game but hopefully we can get a normal nine innings and see some fireworks afterwards.






On thursday of last week we had a CRAZY rainstorm. Zeb and Kent had so much fun puddle jumping and running around in it. Just look at the smile on Zeb's face. I couldn't believe how hard it was raining. last year at this time our pool flooded and our toilets filled with maggots after torrential downpours. Thankfully nothing of that sort happened this year.

sooooo much to blog with waaaaay too many pictures.

I'm not a fan of blog slideshows because they don't work in my blog books- so you'll all have to bear with me when it comes to my pictures. These are the last of our ny trip!

One evening we went out to a little lake to swim, boat, and have a hot dog roast. Zeb LOVED the water. We didn't think he would get in so we just let him run over to the water- and the next thing we knew he was up to his neck into the lake! He has NO fear of water.
He was in absolute heaven on the Kayak with Kent!


He tried to just run off this little dock right off the edge. Really, he had NO fear and it made me very nervous. The lake was so much fun! the water was pretty warm- and kayaking was a blast. I'd really love to live near a lake at some point.Here we are kayaking as a family! I can't even remember where Ike was. Laney and Taylor must have been watching him :)We also spent an afternoon at the Buffalo zoo. We took Henry so Laney and Taylor could get ready for a barbecue we had in the evening.

The Buffalo zoo was nice and small! Zeb really liked the primate exhibits.
He was pretty nervous about riding the train though. Little kids are so unpredictable sometimes. We thought he'd for sure LOVE being on a train- but he was far more comfortable watching. There weren't any tears- but he was all business the entire time. Not a single smile.
We had so much fun in buffalo and were sad to leave. Our only mishap was Zeb's near case of the Swine flu. I guess it's raging in NY and a few people in the buffalo ward had it! Zeb came down with a fever, swollen lymph nodes, and slightly labored breathing our second to last day there and we thought for sure he'd caught it (only because he seems to catch EVERY strange disease he gets near- i.e. rsv, rotavirus, roseola, strange fevers, upper respiratory infections, six month coughs, etc). Luckily the symptoms completely disapperared after about 18 hours.



We didn't get a single shot of all seven of us together! we were always taking pictures for each other or taking care of someone's kids. Hopefully we'll get a group shot next time! Thanks, Laney, Taylor, and Henry!!

Happy father's day, kent! and a gazillion pictures!

The real reason we went to Buffalo was so that Laney and Taylor could watch our rugrats and we could get AWAY from them :) So as a combined father's day/board completion gift- I planned our mini- vacation. We went to Letchworth State Park and stayed at a bed and breakfast right outside the park. It was heavenly.

The keeper of the B&B was a retired air force hospital administrator- so he had lots to tell us about different air force bases and the hospitals!
Letchworth park was absolutely AMAZING. It's also known as the "grand canyon of the east" and while not quite that spectacular- I did love all of the green. New York is even greener than Ohio!
Every picture taken with the two of us in it was taken with the self-timer- so my apologies ahead of time for any crooked/blurriness, etc. I made Kent CRAZY trying to find places to set our camera to take pictures. Some are from rocks, other from cliffs, and lots from our own extended arms.

I had to run like crazy to get back in time for this one!
We could NOT get a shot of our heads and the waterfall- except of course this one with my tongue out.
The park has a lot of Native American heritage as well- and has some log cabins and a statue of Mary Jemison- a white woman who was adopted into the Seneca tribe after her capture.
We ate dinner at a crazy little diner called "arnie and eddie's" where we had a lengthy conversation with Eddie. He grew up an Air force brat and also had plenty to tell Kent. He even showed us family pictures. We were the only two customers in the restaurant all night.
We spent the next day hiking through Letchworth. The trails are not well marked so we got lost a number of times but ended up with some spectacular views. Every time we came upon a "trail ends here" sign- we went just a little further and got the best views of the day!

























All in all our childless vacation was wonderful. The weather was beyond perfect- there were hardly any other visitors at the park- and breakfast at the B&B was to die for! We'd highly recommend Letchworth state park to anyone.

the real reason we love buffalo.

After the last six weeks of our lives- we just needed a nice break. Kent put in six straight weeks of 10-12 hour study days and I put in those same long days without him. He had it much worse- but I sure did miss him. It was so nice to be able to just get away from Toledo for awhile. We are soooooo lucky to have family out here on the East coast- and even luckier that it's Laney and she only lives 4 and a 1/2 hours away. It does make it harder that everybody else is so far away though. We can't wait to see everybody in August!

The best part of buffalo is just going somewhere and being able to relax. Zeb LOVED seeing Laney, Taylor, and Henry. He would not stop talking about them the days leading up to the trip- and hasn't stopped talking about them since we got home!

Day 2 and pieces of other days.
Ike slept, ate, and cooed the entire time.and zeb had a blast bathing, playing, and screaming with hank.

I asked Zeb to give me his happy face- and this is what I got?!
We spent a lot of time eating- playing-laughing- and just relaxing! Laney and I went running a few times and hit up the local yard sales on our runs. I'm so glad that she shares my love of bargain hunting. I found these cute little Sunday shoes for zeb for so so cheap. I've been searching the toledo sales for church shoes all summer and hadn't been successful. Hooray for buffalo. The picture of Zeb is goofy- but he loved his new shoes and demanded to wear them the very morning I brought them home.

a not so spiritual experience.

We are home! we finally made it back safe and sound and I'm going to attempt to blog our adventures. It may take quite a few days to get it all in.

Our first full day in New York included a trip up to Palmyra to see the sights and go the the temple! Kent had never been to the Sacred Grove or the Hill Cumorah so I was excited to go with him! Our experience started out all smiles. We decided to take shifts and so we (kent and I)watched all of the kidlets while Laney and Taylor went to the temple. For some reason Laney scheduled our temple shifts at dinner and bed time. These cute little smiles turned to all out tantrums right in the middle of the sacred grove. I think the whole experience became not so spiritual for every person within a five mile radius.For a little while in the Sacred Grove- everything was great. We got some good pictures- and the kids were pretty happy. The sacred grove is such a beautiful and amazing place- but not the greatest place with three little babies. I think the worst part was the looks we got. I wanted to tell every person we walked past that ALL three were NOT mine. Luckily the grove was relatively empty because it was near closing and a week night.


Zeb thoroughly enjoyed himself until we tried to buckle him into his stroller to go. All the kids were exhausted and had already been buckled into the car for almost two hours so the crying was a chain reaction of sorts. It's a good thing we were near the end of the grove trail and could make a semi speedy exit. We finally made it to the car only to somehow completely bend (at a 90 degree angle) our car key in all of the chaos. Luckily we got it straightened out enough to get into the ignition and start the car.

Even with the screams and crabby kidlets we really wanted to go to the top of the Hill Cumorah. It was ridiculous getting to the top with the two strollers and the baby bjorn. The hike is quite short but REALLY REALLY steep. By the time we made it to the top Kent and I were both all sweaty and gross and two of the rugrats were moaning. At the top we also made the discovery that there is actually a side road that you can DRIVE on to get up there. And to make matters the very worst-I discovered that I'd left the camera in the car. Sorry- no pictures from the Hill. We did make Laney and Taylor stop and take this one for us that night on our way out though! It was late and chilly- but I wanted some sort of picture proving we'd been there. This is at the bottom of the Hill by the visitor's center.

The hike down was the most treacherous but we made it in one piece. Afterwards we met up with Laney and Taylor at the temple and handed over the crabby banshees so we could go in. It was a nice break from the whines and chaos of the three baboons! We didn't get any good family pictures until AFTER our session- and by then Ike was dead asleep so it's just the three of us. The stained glass windows throughout this temple depict images from the sacred grove and are amazing! the temple is actually located directly across the street from the grove as well. The area is beautiful.

Zeb LOVED being at the temple and looking at it. He's learned about temples in nursery- and we've had family home evening lessons about them so it was fabulous for him to actually see one. We even ran into his nursery leaders there! He loved seeing them.












Ike just figured out that he has a tongue so was preoccupied with it ALL evening- and was therefore an angel baby as usual.

All in all-our evening was memorable but the next time we make the trek to Buffalo, Kent and I are going to go to Palmyra by ourselves!

More to come tomorrow!

he eats (not just drinks)

Laney had some rice cereal leftover from henry shmenry- so we decided to see how Ike would do. He swallowed at least one bite- so we will call the feeding sucessful.

This was his face after each cheek squeeze and subsequent force feed. I don't know why he look so traumatized. Perhaps it's because the food looks (and smells) like wet cement and we had to squeeze pretty hard to get him to take it in.

buffalo!!

laney's internet is below sub par- so blogging may be sporadic at best! we did make it safe and sound -and we're having a party! I forgot my phone- so to get a hold of me you can call/text Kent.

it has arrived!!

Thank-you, thank-you, mum!! I just got the second book in the Hunger Games series and I could not be more excited about it! I'm saving it for the drive to Buffalo TOMORROW!!! It's set to release September 1 of this year- so the rest of you only have a few more months to wait :)

tomorrow!!!!!!!

My rugrats both hit the sack at 6:45 tonight. It was HEAVEN- and meant that Kent and I could just have a pleasant non whiny night! which we NEEDED considering Kent takes the beast tomorrow!!! I can't wait for Kent to finish that test and just be able to let his brain REST.

Here's my perfect baby just sleeping away. It's still so weird to me that there are two children living in this house. Sometimes I look at Ike and I'm not sure where he came from! I think because he's the second kiddo, all the memories I have with him up to this point are so similar to those I have with zeb- that they just melt together. With Zeb, everything was new and vivid. With #2 everything just seems so normal so i don't notice as much. Sometimes I even forget he's around! poor neglected baby, huh? I'm trying my hardest to make sure and get pictures of him every day.

Check out what we found this morning on our run! This thing was HUGE!! I let zeb get down to get a better look and he loved it. I was going to have him touch the shell- but an old man stopped at the same time as us and was VERY concerned that the turtle was going to bite zeb's finger off- so I had to keep Zeb at a distance. The "older crowd" at swan creek is always so concerned about my kiddos.