mamalogues

daily {photo}

I'm a little behind. Saturday...all the cousins together for Kenadi's birthday.

Lauryn (2) Jones (7 months) Hailyn (5) Kamryn (4) Kenadi (3) Mila (4) Kayden (4) and Scout (19 months)

a great abenture.

This last weekend we went camping. It was our second time as a family, and first time as a family of 5...or 6 if you count Hank. The first time we went, Mila was almost 2 (and an only child) and we went to Duroga Park with my sister, brother-in-law, Hailyn and Kam. This time we went to Brennegen Creek which is way up the Entiat and a little more "rustic" than Daroga Park.

David went up Friday night with Hank which meant I got to pack the kids' stuff, my stuff, all of our food, the pack-n-play, jonesy's einstein mat, sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, coolers, three bags of ice, and a backpack full of Barbies. I met up with our fellow camping companions or "campanions" if you will, at the park 'n ride at the North end of town at 9am Saturday morning. It took close to 2 hours to get to our spot, the last 2-3 miles of the drive were up a long, dusty, steep, dirt road with steep clifs, it was a little scary.

As we were unloading the car Mary notices one of my tires is completely flat, to make things even more awesome my spare was also flat. I have the best luck. David had to go back to Wenatchee anyways so he was able to get my tire fixed. After getting everything set up we just let the kids (all nine of them) run free. Mila kept yelling out to everyone, "C'mon guys, let's go a great abenture!" Over and over again I heard her say it. They had fun exploring little trails, the tiny creek, picking berries, playing with barbies, and sword fighting of course.

Jones did great; he hung out in his little portable crib for a while then took a nice 2 hour nap in the tent. Scout was filthy dirty for the next 24 hours, and had an awesome poop which consisted of half-digested poop covered grapes that kept falling out of his shorts and diaper while I was changing him.

After dinner we put the kids to bed, Jones and Scout in David's and my tent and Mila, Hailyn, and Kam in a tent right next to ours. Our tent was a little cramped since it's only a 2-man tent and we had two sleeping boys totally sprawled out between us and Hank at our feet. The girls did great in their tent, Mila woke up once, whimpered a little bit, after I fixed her sleeping bag and blankets she went back to sleep. We got up around 7:30, ate donuts and bananas and packed up our camp.

Scout was a wreck, falling down every few minutes and getting a mouthful of dirt every time. David finally told me to take Jones and Scout home while he and Mila finished packing up. I was a little nervous on the ride down since David put my tire on by himself, I just kept waiting for it to fall off. We made it home around 9:30 and gave the boys baths. Sarah called and said she was able to get DMB tickets for the concert that night...that will be tomorrows post though :)

Some pictures from our camping "abenture"

It also happened to be Teagan's 4th birthday so we had a little pinata action and some birthday cake.

 

 

 

Sarah brought some stick-on moustaches. Pure awesomeness. Lo didn't like hers.

 

 

As I said before, filthy.

 

Peeking in on Jonesy.

 

Blurry, but here they are with their fearless leader, Tyler, on a great abenture.

 

The bathroom facilities were amazing.

 

Such a trooper.

 

And one more, Mary took this one, amazing. My little Mario.

 

mila's new bike.

 It all started last week when Mila and Kayden (my nephew) were at my mom and dad's, Kayden had his big boy bike there and he and Mila were taking turns riding it, Mila brought her tricycle over but tricycles aren't as cool as big kid bikes (obviously). After Kaydowent home (and an incident involving Mila rolling down their steep driveway and running into a bush) my parents took her to Target to get her very own bike as an early birthday present. Of course she would choose the one that I would find absolutely repulsive, a hot pink Barbie bike with purple streamer things and super sweet purple graphics, I guess Scout will be getting a brand new bike and not a her hand-me-down. Oh, and a pink princess helmet to match.

 
don't worry she put her helmet on right after I took this...and right after I threatened her.

My dad had the bike all put together but when he went to pump up the tires he discovered the front one kept deflating as soon as it was filled. A few days later he took it to a bike shop for a new tube and it was ready to ride. After my hangover wore off on Sunday morning I took Mila to their house so she could ride it. She does great when she is watching where she's going and not looking down at her feet. She has tipped over twice so far but no permanent damage.

 
 

This is the outfit she had on when I got home from work yesterday, she's so stylish :) and I must say she coordinates well with her bike!

 
 

a wonderful weekend.

I don't think it's fair that the work week is 5 days long and weekend is a measly 2 days, it's bullshit. Sorry mom, bullpoop.

On Saturday my beautiful cousin, Courtney, was married up at Mission Ridge and let me just say I l-o-v-e my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, all of them. Of the 15 "Cooper" cousins there were 12 in attendance, some I see quite regularly and some I don't get to see as often because they are stupid and moved to stupid Seattle, you know who you are...(Kelsey, Katey and Ryan.) Anywho, the ceremony was short and sweet and I cried when Court got a little choked up while saying her vows, we ate and visited and danced. At around nine we made our way down the mountain to hit up the happenin' "clubs" of Wenatchee...aka 10 Below. David and I never get to go out as a couple since we have like ten kids but we had a babysitter for the wedding and decided we should take advantage of a free night out!

 
 

David went home around midnight to relieve Jamie and I stayed with the girls. 3 too many pineapple mojitos later (I maybe drink once a month so this is a lot for me) I was ready to go home and go to bed. Jonesy thought it would be fun to wake up at 5am for an early-bird breakfast so I made David get up with him, then at 7:30 the rest of the kiddos woke up which meant I had to too. Didn't they know mommy was slightly hung over? David went to get my hangover cure: the McDonald's hash brown. It works every time. After eating two of those I can be vertical again instead of horizontal.

Mila and I went to my parents house to ride her early birthday present, a hot pink barbie bike, not what I would have chosen but Mila loves it. Kelsey and Kylee came over to see the kids before Kels went back to Seattle :( and then I took a much needed nap. At 6 we went down to the river to play in the water, Scout floated around and Mila made new friends.

 

he floated around like this for about 40 minutes.

 

Coolin' off his tootsies.

 

Coolin' off my tootsies.

 

Building castles with new friends.

 

 

 

Daddy and son #2

 

wordless wednesday

photos from today...

jonesy's smile caught on camera for the first time...

hailyn, mila, and kam

scouty shoes

 
 

 

here come the tears

 

Teags and Mila on their way to dance class

 

 

 


 


 

 
 
 
 

 

ten

1. Yay for doing ten on an actual Tuesday!

2. Last weekend was a good one, especially since the weather was awesome and we spent most of it outside. On Saturday we hung out at my sister's house and the kiddos played in the "pool" and the "hippity hopscotch" water thingy. They ate sandwiches, crackers, and lots of watermelon. Around 1 o'clock meltdown mode was quickly approaching so it was time to pack everything up and get the hell outta there and home for nappy time.

The big pool.

 

 

After naps we went to Red Robin and sat outside while we ate; Jonesy cried the whole time, Mila was in and out of her chair every two minutes, and Scout whined if we didn't give him food fast enough...the pina colada and large beer we ordered made them a little more tolerable.

On Sunday Jones and I ran errands after our daily walk with my Mom; Mila, Scout, and I played outside from 2-6 while David went golfin'. After he got home we dropped the little ones off at my mom and dad's so we could go to a movie together (thanks again mom!).

3. On Monday we went on our 3 mile walk (thanks for clocking it Debbo!) then went home to play outside for a couple of hours.

Looking for Karen.

Playing together

Raspberry lemonade popsicles

 
 
4. Yesterday Garrett, my mom, and I hiked Saddlerock. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, luckily we had super sweet matching water jugs from the dollar store, I mean REI, to keep us hydrated! For some reason neither Garrett or I had ever hiked up there and mother had only done it once a few years ago, so none of us really knew which trails to follow and a couple of times we went up some steep ones (or "black diamonds" as Garrett kept calling them) when we could have gone an easier way. We made it to the top which we were pretty proud of, not so proud of the pictures we took, none of us look good. On the way down I had a horrible side-ache, my eyes were itchy and red from allergies, and I almost fell several times because of the tennis shoes I wore (which are from when I was a senior in high school and have zero tread). Oh well...it was actually really fun, we laughed almost the whole time (mostly at ourselves).

It was windy

Booie and me

 

mother

 

hyrdatin'

 
5. Mila starts dance tomorrow! Can't wait :)

6. Scout is OBSESSED with watermelon. I don't think he had had any until Saturday. Pretty hilarious. He had the same rind for about a half hour, and on Sunday he ate numerous pieces again, on Monday he had more AND found the rinds from the day before and continued to naw on those ones. I'd say it's safe to say watermelon will be a regular in our fridge for the rest of the summer.

Note the juice running down his little tummy.

 

7. I'm loving Mila's hair, it looks so much thicker and healthier than it ever has.

8. Yesterday Mila ran into the bathroom after our walk to poop. "Grandma, can you come turn the light on so I can see my poop" is what she yelled after she was already on the toilet. Kids are so funny.

9. Jonesy has slept from 10pm to 5:40am in his own crib in his own room the last few nights...yay!

 

10. Yesterday was my parents' 30th wedding anniversary! Love you mom and dad!

bounce.

Last summer David was driving by a garage sale and happened to see a trampoline. Not sure what made him want to buy it because he is usually against large kid toys that take up lots of space, but he bought it for 100 buckeroos which is a steal of a deal, the thing is in great shape and the net thingy was still in the box, brand spankin' new. Anyways Mila used it for a few months and then we took it down for the winter. Just this week she remembered we had one so she has been bugging David to put it up. So put it up we did. We are missing a few bolts and some weird plastic type washer thingamajigs but for the most part she is pretty solid :)

 

I woke Mila up from her nap so she could start jumping, then she wanted me to jump with her. I think I was bouncing her too high because she then asked if her cousins could come over and jump. I called my sister and handed Mila the phone, she asked Sarah if Kam and Hailyn could come jump. So they came over where they played peacefully about 5% of the time and fought like bratty little girls the other 95% of the time. It was a lot of Sarah and me yelling at them to be nice to one another but since they are 5, almost 4, and 3.5 there isn't much we can do to keep them from fighting.

 

Sarah and I made a healthy little dinner for them (velveta mac & cheese and 5 corndogs) which they ate about half of the box of macaroni one corndog between the five of them. Pretty sad, our kids don't like to eat. Wish we had that problem. I really don't understand how they stay alive. They eat like birds.

 

After dinner they fought some more...I mean played and then it was time to send the three little Magnussen girls home and get my kiddos in the bath and into bed. After Mila was put to bed I finally made myself dinner, watched a few episodes of "LOST" on Netflix and ate half of a pint of Ben and Jerry's extremely yummy and fattening chocolate covered macadamia nut ice cream...damn you B&J.

 

 

 

 

uneventful weekend. again. gosh we are boring.

Another weekend has come and gone and once again we didn't do anything super exciting. On Saturday morning we went to the grocery store, after that David took Scout home for a nap and Mila and I went to my mom and dad's. Mila got a big sliver in her foot from the hardwood floors. Hailyn said "Mila got a sliver in her foot" to which Mila replied, "It's not a slipper it's a forn." In Mila language a forn is a thorn. I thought it was cute, but I'm her mom and think everything she does is cute. Sarah and I took the girls to McDonald's to play on the toys, we watched Mila face plant twice, which is always entertaining. Then it was home for "nap" time. I used quotes because apparently Mila does not take naps on the weekends anymore. Which means mama doesn't take naps on the weekends anymore either.

After "nap" time I cleaned and organized Mila's room, then we invited ourselves to dinner at Red Robin with my mom, dad, and brother :) On Sunday David got up at 5:30 and went fishing until 3. I listed a house with my mom and then had yummy meatball sandwiches for dinner. Then it was bath time and bedtime for the kiddos and David and I watched a show on big cats (tigers, lions, etc.) on National Geographic and then went to bed. Maybe we will actually do something fun and exctiting this next weekend :)

Here is Scout after chowing down 3 of those disgusting Gerber chicken stick things

 

Here are the kiddos this morning while I was getting ready, Mila has on her skeleton halloween jammies with a skirt. She wore the skirt all night because her "jammas weren't beautiful enough" without it. You'll notice it's kind of dark in the bathroom, I had to turn some of the lights off because it was "too sunny" for Mila.