Three Cute Boys

Last Christmas my mom bought Levi, Mason and Carter matching pajamas. Carter finally fits into his, so we wanted to get a picture of all the boys together in them. We tried once before but the boys were all too tired to let us take a picture, so this time we were bound and determined to get a good picture. This time Levi and Mason were a little hyper, and had other ideas.... This is the best one that we could get of the three of them together.
Mason then ran off, and I snapped this one of just Carter and Levi. Isn't Carter's face priceless??
I know I have said this before, but I am so glad that Levi has two little boy cousins to be such good buddies with. =)

Camping!

Brandon went on a camp out with the boy scouts last week, and he promised our kids that he would take them soon. They got so excited, and since the weather has been so nice we decided to go this weekend. We packed up all of our stuff and headed out on Friday afternoon. Here are the kids just as we are getting ready to leave. Notice all of our stuff in the back? The Durango was totally packed full. A few times on the drive up some things would randomly fly forward onto the kids, (including a gallon water jug. Thank goodness Alexis was such a good sport when it came flying into her lap.) Brandon went camping with the scouts a couple of years ago at this great spot, and he has been wanting to take us there ever since. It was kind of far away, but we decided to make the drive anyways, because he said it was such a great spot, and had the perfect little stream for the kids to go fishing in. I used to get really car sick when I was younger. For some reason I thought that I had out grown it. But as we were driving up those windy mountain roads, I realized I was mistaken, and also that our sweet Alexis takes after me =(. We finally arrived only to find out that the camp site was closed! about 45 minutes back we had passed another camp site, so we decided to head back to that one. We got there about 6:30 pm, and everyone was starving. Brandon and I hurried and set up the tent. Thank goodness it was easy to set up. We then started roasting hot dogs for dinner. I love this picture. Alexis really wanted to roast the hot dogs but the smoke kept blowing in her face. I told her there's an old saying "smoke follows beauty", and she thought that was pretty cool. This is what she looked like most of the time as she was roasting:
A camping trip would not be complete without smores! Here are Levi and Brandon roasting marshmallows.
By the time we were done with everything the kids were exhausted and cold, so we tucked them in there sleeping bags and piled them up with blankets. We were in for a long night. It wasn't too cold once we were all bundled up in our sleeping bags, but it definitely was not comfortable! I borrowed my brother's mummy sleeping bag, because we couldn't find mine, and let me just say, I definitely felt like a mummy squished inside of it. I could barely move. It felt like when you are sleeping and get all tangled up in your blankets. I hate that feeling! It did keep me pretty warm though. Alexis ended up squishing into Brandon's sleeping bag with him, so he was pretty scrunched too. It felt like the night would never end!
Brandon got up really early and built a fire and made us all hot chocolate and breakfast. He said he wanted us to be able to wake up and be able to sit around a nice warm fire, instead of just walking out into the freezing cold. We were very grateful for that, because it was pretty chilly when we got up. Here are Levi and Brandon eating sausage. It was yummy!

Levi was so cute sitting by the fire eating his breakfast. The girls were still pretty freezing so Brandon turned a movie on for them in the car and turned the heat on really high. They ate their breakfast in there. I got a picture of them in there, but it turned out too blurry =(.
Our original plan was to go fishing in the morning, but the river that was by the campsite that we ended up staying at was moving a little too fast, and we were afraid the kids would fall in and get swept away! We decided to go on a walk instead. We all had a great time. Brandon showed the kids all sorts of different plants, and taught them what their names were.

After the walk we packed up and headed home. We were going to stay longer, but Tori and Brandon were both not feeling well. We came home just as it started to snow. We had a really fun time camping with our little family, and I am sure we will be going up a lot more this summer.

Taking advantage of some nice warm days

The past 2 days we have had such great weather! It was in the upper 70s and so nice! The kids have been playing outside nonstop. On Monday When I saw what the weather was going to be like I decided it would be a good day to go to the park. My friend Dara and her two little girls were already going to come over for a play date so I called them to see if they wanted to meet us at the park instead. We invited Mason along too! The kids had so much fun. I didn't get too many pictures of Elisabeth (Dara's little girl), because she wasn't feeling well, and was being a little camera shy. I got to hold her cute one month old baby girl, Claire though. She is adorable! When I told Tori we were going to the park all she could talk about were the swings. She stayed on the swing for the first half an hour. Dara was so nice to push her while I chased around Mason and Levi. Tori would swing all day if we let her! I stood on the side of the slide while the kids went down. Tori was so cute. She would stop herself right here every time to say hi to me.
Here are Tori and Mason on the bridge. Levi and Mason were so cute walking across it. They would walk incredibly slow holding on tightly to the edge.
Here they are on the this really cool teeter totter they have there. They thought it was funny that when I got on they flew up really high! lol. In this picture you can see Tori looking behind her. Another little girl that we didn't know had climbed up. Tori wasn't too happy about that, and hopped off a second after I snapped the picture.

Mason was a little nervous to go down the slide. he would be so excited and climb all the way to the top, but then get really nervous and just look at me through the bars.
Here he is about to go for the first time. You can tell he is really nervous. He wasn't really into smiling for the camera that day, but I promise he really was having fun! =)
Here is Levi on the teeter totter. Brandon gave him one of his hats that doesn't fit him very well, and Levi loves it. He wears it everywhere. At least it kept the sun out of his face!
Here they are on the tire swing. I tried to get a good picture, but the tire kept swinging around and around. This is the best I could get.

Tori and Mason on the teeter totter. Mason would have his head really cute next to Tori's, but whenever I went to take the picture he would hide behind her.

At the end of the day when we were picking up and getting ready to go home, I gave Mason and Levi some trash and pointed to the trashcan so they could go throw it away. They proceeded to run to the farthest away trash can there was, and throw away their things. I thought it was cute. This picture is zoomed in a lot. We had a fun time at the park, and will be going back a lot this summer I am sure.
Yesterday Brandon and I decided to take the kids around the lake and let the girls ride their bikes while Brandon pulled the wagon. Brandon made this little contraption out of his harness that he wears when he is installing windows in high buildings. He hooked it to the back of the wagon and then wore the harness to pull it along. Anyone who has been around the lake at clement park, knows it kind of a long walk, especially for little kids. The girls did pretty well with their bikes, but they started getting tired towards the end, and it started getting really windy. By the end this is how we finished off the walk. If this isn't skill I don't know what is!
I managed to get a picture with just me and Tori, but that was all Tori wanted to do with me the rest of the time. She wanted to ride right next to Brandon the whole time. She is getting to be quite the daddy's girl.
It was a fun couple of nice sunny days, and we were very sad to hear that the next couple of days are supposed to be cold and snowy! At least we enjoyed it while it lasted!

Help!

Alexis just started taking a medication that only comes in a pill. She has to take it twice a day, and no matter how many times she tries she can not swallow it. It is a capsule, so we have been pouring it into pudding, juice, and hot chocolate. These things have not worked. She gags on the pudding because it gives it a weird taste, it doesn't dissolve in the juice, and it kind of does in the hot chocolate, but a lot of it just sticks to the sides. She hates yogurt, so I haven't tried that. Does anyone have a clever idea of a ways to hide medications in food? Or any idea on how to teach her to swallow pills. It has been torture getting her to take this. She was just diagnosed with ADD, and we are starting her out on a herbal medication that is supposed to work really well. I really want it to work because I have done a lot of research on the stimulants such as Ritalin, and Adderal and all the side effects are scary! Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Honesty is the best policy...right?

This morning I went to Kohls to exchange a few things. I decided to go back and look at the baby section since I have a few baby showers coming up. I found these packs of mix and match onsies with pants that went with them. They were so cute! I got a boy pack and a girl pack since one of my friends had a girl, and another one is having a boy in a few months. I glanced at the sign above them and saw that they were on sale for 9.99. I thought that was a pretty good deal, since you could get five outfits out of it. I gathered up my things and headed to the front to pay. As she was ringing things up I was making sure everything came up on sale. When she got to the onsies they rang up 14.99, I immediately said, "those are supposed to be on sale for 9.99, it said it on the sign above them." She looked through the sale ad, but couldn't find them so she just made the correction for me. As we were getting ready to leave Tori noticed that she couldn't find her stuffed dog that she had brought in with her. We walked to the back to look for it. It happened to be on the ground right next to the rack where I had gotten the baby items. I looked at the sign above and noticed that they really were 14.99. The 9.99 price was for another item that was next to the thing I got. I immediately started rationalizing things in my head , such as, well, I really did think they were 9.99, it's not like I was telling her the wrong price on purpose ,I am in a hurry, no one will ever know, etc. As I started walking back to the front I decided that I would do the right thing. Now in my earlier years I wouldn't have thought twice about this little mistake. But growing up and having kids has made me have more on a conscience, so when I got to the front I waited in the long line of the lady who had helped me earlier. When I got to the front I told her what I had discovered. She said, OK, well you will have to go to customer service to have it changed. At this point Levi had a messy diaper, and he and Tori were both getting very impatient. I have to admit I seriously considered just ducking out the door on the other side of the store and just forgetting about the whole thing. But I thought, well I might as well just finish what I started. So I walked back to customer service, which is in the very back of the store. When I got there I told the lady the situation, and said that I wanted to pay the difference. She looked at me like I was so dumb! She then said, "oh no, just forget about it, it's not worth the hassle." Am I selfish to think a simple, "thank you for your honesty" would have been nice? Instead I felt rather silly and hurried out of the store. At least I have a clear conscience, but still!