Our new family activity

Now that we're done with the pregnancy/baby thing, we've rediscovered what it's like to have fun, for cheap. We nearly forgot what nature was, and how peaceful and beautiful it is. Last weekend we went to the Tonto Natural Bridge and hiked down. It was cool. Almost crazy how something so beautiful is just a little over an hour away from home. Well worth the drive. Anyway, on that trip it started to pour on our hike out, an we all got soaked. It was fun though! We left there and stopped at a little creek a few miles away and had an early birthday cupcake shindig for Ben, and played in the creek. We were already wet afterall. This past weekend we went camping at Bear Canyon Lake. We had our moments when the kids just drove me crazy and I wanted to beat them, but overall it went well. The lake was awesome. Hard to access (well, for Tony and my dad with the canoe...) but well worth it, I think. I must say though, I'm really itching for a travel trailer, and soon! It would be so much easier with the kids and when we eventually take the dogs when they're older and trained. Next stop...somewhere pretty!

"uh oh"

My little Ben is starting to talk. Well, he says "uh ooooh" all the time now. It's cute. Savannah is finally starting to say more things now. About time, she's 2 now. Once again, I'm getting sad that my baby is growing so fast, knowing it's the last time I'll have one so little and good. I'll get over it. Anyway, we finally names our puppy, Anke (On-Ka----it's german) and got another puppy. Same thing, german shepherd, but he's a boy. Once again, no name yet. Maybe tonight we'll finally pick one out. They are actually pretty well behaved most of the time. Anke is a crazy little thing, but very funny. The boy is much more reserved right now...hopefully he'll get a little more comfortable around our crazy house. They're about a week or 2 apart in age. I forget at the moment how old...maybe 13-15 weeks? Anyway, hopefully Payton will be starting preschool next month, and if work starts to pick up, which it;'s starting to, we'll be able to send Savannah to an early preschool class at the same place. That would be GREAT. A few hours of peace for me. I hope I hope I hope...

Our Summer So Far

Quick recap of our summer. We've had some fun, had some tears. That's the way life goes I guess. First, our trip to California. The kids had fun. It was busy, but at least we learned several things we will do differently next time. Savannah loved the parade at Disneyland, she almost fell off the top of the stroller she was sitting on when she saw the Princesses! Seaworld was fun too, we got there just in time for the Shamu show, and it was packed. However, we still got in the second row in the soak zone....was that good luck, bad? I'm still not sure... =] Legoland was very cool. I would totally reccomend it to families with small kids....but not too small or there won't be much you can all go on. Six flags was good for the kids, they finally got over their rollercoaster fears....well Payton did. Savannah loved them from the start. Huntington Beach was awesome! We saw dolphins just playing in the waves! We thought they were sharks, but no one really seemed concerned....and eventually one's head cme out of the water and I could see it was a dolphin. There were a bunch of them too. It was just too cool, and of course, I had left my camera at the hotel on accident. Oh well. Anyway, that was our trip. The kids started swim lessons, and they all pretty much hate it. Payton will do it, but he gets scared when they want him to go underwater. The other two pretty much scream bloody murder the whole time. Figures. Everyone without a pool have kids who love to swim. We have one and our kids hate swimming. Savannah celebrated her 2nd birthday on the 20th of this month. What should've been a good day turned bad. We celebrated the day she was born, and ended up mourning the death of our dog. We decided it was the heat. Normally Tony or I let her out in the morning to go potty, and either one of us lets her back in, normally before Tony leaves for work. That didn't happen that day. I had worked the night before and had to work that night as well, so I was tired. I'd come downstairs to get kids food and drinks and that was about it. I did peek outside once because I noticed she wasn't in her kennel....I thought she was sleeping. She was under the patio, under the kids climber like she always was when she was sleeping outside. I didn't know her water hadn't been filled up, or that Tony had made it so she couldn't squeeze into the pool area, just in case she got desperate. So we've both been feeling guilty for a loss that surely could've been prevented. She was a good dog, even if she did do stupid things every now and then. We will miss her. We have gotten a new puppy now. We got her on the 23rd. She is a german shepherd too. AKC of course. =] She's been very good with the kids so far, very gentle. I've been working on potty training with her, and she's doing ok. It's only been 2 days. She doesn't have a name yet though. anyway, that's our summer so far. We still have 3 more birthdays to go through in the next month. Can't wait.

Almost time for Vacay!

We leave for our vacation to California in a week! The kids are so excited. They don't know Grandma and Grandpa K are going with us. I wonder how long it will take for Payton to figure it out. Savannah gets so excited when I ask her if she wants to go to Disneyland to see her Princesses. She'll go grab her pillow, which has Cinderella and Belle on it, or her little dress up shoes that have all the princesses on them. Anyway, Ben is crawling and pulling himself up on everything. I think it's time to change his crib so it's on the lowest thing seeing how when I went to get him out of bed in the morning he was standing there practically jumping up and down. I'm pretty sure Savannah is more than ready to start really poty training. She's been taking her pants off for a while now, but now she tries to put new ones on. She'll sit on the potty to get "potty candy" so that's a start I guess. Oh and our car dies this weekend. Yippee. Not sure how that's going to turn out. I would rather get a new car that gets better gas mileage but we're kind of poor right now. Hopefully soon though....

How very sad....

It's a sad sad week. I've been selling Ben's baby stuff that we no longer will need.....EVER. Just makes me sad to know that I'll never have another little baby to hold and snuggle. Can't say I'll never watch another one grow really, because the ones I have will keep growing, and keep passing different milestones. I wil miss the sweet baby innocense. Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets of our decision to not have anymore, the ones I have drive me crazy enough! If I had the patience, time, and money, I'd have 20 more if they were just like Ben, and stayed small and adorable. He is just such a happy boy. He reminds me so much of Payton when he was that little. What went wrong? =] Just kidding. They're all growing so fast!

He's almost crawling

Ben's doing it, he's getting ready. Getting up on his knees and rocking. Maybe by next week he'll be crawling, finally. He's 9 months for crying out loud! Maybe we baby him too much. Oh but he's so cute, how can you not want to just snuggle with him and give him what he wants? =] Savannah's discovered a new way to eat a banana. It's quite gross, but then again, she's just gross. =p Instead of peeling the banana all the way down so she can eat the last bite like a normal person, she's using the stem thing and scooping it out with it and eating it that way. She is so weird....

In Laws

Oh yes, I forgot to mention how I married into an awesome family. How could I forget? Of course, I might not have forgotten them if they all lived here.... =] I also have the cutest nieces and nephews, one brand new. I'm very excited to meet him sometime!