August

The worst part about not blogging for awhile is that I have to write a "catch up" post. I hate catch up posts. Nothing worse than 2893478237 photos being thrown at your face with incomplete descriptions and disjointed paragraphs with such smooth transitions as "And that's how our dog died. And the next week we went to McDonald's!" Such a mess.

So forgive me for this ridiculous post of odds and ends. I'm going to try to get better about it but I can pretty much guarantee it will not be happening until all of my kids are in school. Or out of the house. And I'm dead.

August has been a lot of fun and a lot of chaos. I feel like I always start the summer with goals and a routine in mind and by the end of it, we have zero structure and lots of crying and tantrums. Sometimes my kids are even throwing them.

Some highlights:

We went peach picking. We've had a really cool summer. Cool meaning cool temperatures. On this particular morning, I think it was in the low 70s. We have had some awesome friends move into the ward this summer, and that cute girl holding Harris LOVES babies, and I have greatly benefited from her desire to hold him and take care of him. And she's 9. I'm always so impressed with 9 year olds who care about babies, because I will tell you that I didn't care one bit about babies when I was 9. And I hated babysitting all through my teenage years. It's surprising how nurturing I am now. HAHAHAHA.

We participated in our summer reading program at the library. I loved the summer reading program growing up. 9 year old Heather didn't like babies, but she loved books. So much so that I actually remember watching my dad leave for work in the early morning as I lay on our living room couch reading and then I remember him coming home and finding me on that same couch when he came home 10 hours later.

So of course I wanted my own girls to excel at our summer reading program, and I would pick up tons of books and read them at night and fill out the form to show how many books we had read and about halfway through the summer, I realized that my girls were just enjoying the reading time and didn't care two straws about handing in their charts and that I was the only one that cared about getting the prize. I guess they are only 5 and 3.

So I gave up on the charts but there was no way in heck we were going to miss the summer reading ice cream social. I mean, there were balloon animals!

We took our kids into the city. We have lived here EIGHT months and hadn't taken our kids into the city. Pathetic. Dan and I had been, but I found many excuses not to take the rascals. When we moved here, it was freezing and I was pregnant. Then we had that new baby come along. 

So it was definitely time. 

The NJ Transit is under construction this summer, so we went the following ridiculous route. Drove our car to the Morristown Train Station. Took a train to Hoboken. Took the ferry to Midtown. Took a bus to Central Park. Played at Central Park. Took a bus back to Midtown. Took a ferry to Hoboken. Took a train to Morristown. Drove our car home. It was just as rejuvenating as it sounds.

Luckily the train will be fixed next week and the whole process will be much easier.

I loved the ferry. 

We had a great time at Central Park where all of the 100 kids played together like they have always known each other. They had a castle-like playground with a splash pad, and the girls got soaked. We ate a hot dog stand and then discussed the margins hot dog stands must have. $3 for a skinny little hot dog and Walmart bun? That's a good profit.

Our "quiet" ride home where everyone started to lose it a little:

Today we went to the beach with some good friends. Unfortunately, the "cool summer" we are having really worked against us today. We knew it would be overcast but figured it would be a great day to just play in the sand. Plus, an overcast beach day is great for a new baby. 

The before pictures:

Six kids in a minivan. Do you see Harris's car seat? These kids are the best of friends and laughed and played and helped each other get into trouble the whole car ride.

So we drove an hour to Monmouth Beach only to find a totally gray, cold, rainy, super windy, choppy, scary beach. The kids were still excited . . .  until a wave swallowed them whole the first minute we were there. I know my kids, and I know they will get wet but I was kind of hoping that it would be the last 5 minutes, not the first. June was still game to play, but Gwen cried and cried until we decided to go to the car and eat lunch. We were probably at the beach a total of 30 minutes and then drove home.

And the after pictures:

That's right. Everyone down to their skivvies and shivering in a van with high heat blasting through the vents.

Oh well. We still had a blast and laughed our way through it all.

And now, the part you have all been waiting for!! Harris!!

Harris is just the sweetest, cutest baby. And you know all of these crazy adventures we have been going on? He just sits there nicely and is happy to be along for the ride. And he is SO SMILEY.

We realized we never did a photo shoot of him in the amazing blessing outfit my MIL made, so we took care of that Sunday.

Look at this! Just happy to be on a filthy floor with his sister's discarded dress and a goblin mask nearby.

Heavenly Father knew I needed this easygoing baby.