{gOOd nEWs}

Good news this week at our house!!!  We switched Maddix to regular milk based formula and it is agreeing with him!!!  YAY!!!  He has been on the lactose free stuff since day one....we've tried switching here and there and it always made him fussy and puke a lot (even more than normal, cuz he does still puke a lot)!! 

So SUPER DUPER YAY for cheap Costco formula!!!!  This stuff is HALF the price of the expensive stuff we have been buying for the past 9 months!!  And we are couting down til the day he turns 1 when we can start giving him milk and drop the whole formula bill all together!!!  :)

The kids and I had dentist appts yesterday and good news......NO CAVITIES!!!  YAY!!  It must be our threats to the kids that if they don't brush their teeth, they will turn silver (like all those lovely pics of fillings in the dentist office)!  They are terrified of that, so they have always been good brushers!!!  :)

Our dentist, Dr. Tom, stepped out for a minute and when he came back and saw Ayden playing dentist to Zoe, he decided he didn't need to work anymore!!  :)  Ayden was obsessed and might very well be a dentist in the making!!  :)

{cRitTer CamP}

Ayden got to go to "Critter Camp" up in Big Bear again this summer with his cousins Cooper & Carter.  Last year was his first year since you have to be 5 years old to attend!  Every summer my parents have the 5 yr and older grandkids up to the cabin for pretty much 3 days of "kids running the show, doing everything they want to do minute by minute and pretty much being spoiled rotten and getting to do what they always dreamed of doing"!!  We should change the name to "spoiled camp"!  ;-)

My parents sure are brave to take all these busy boys!  But I don't know what they are going to do next summer when 2 more campers (Zoe & Crew) will join them!  I think at that point, us parents might feel a little guilty leaving them for 3 days!?!?!  Then again.....maybe not!!  :)

They had a blast like always.....went fishing many times, went to the movies to see "Ice Age 4", went to the North Pole for ice cream, went to the water slides, the arcades and Alpine Slide, watched movies, shot the BB gun, went for boat rides and spent lots of time playing up in the new "Critter Cave"!  Two years ago, my dad had a new garage built at the cabin to hold his boat and Jeep and things.....he always had a plan of finishing a "loft" up above the garage for the kids to be able to sleep and hang out!  My parents worked their bums off the week before Critter Camp to get it ready for the campers!    The kids LOVE Critter Cave.....we didn't think they would really sleep up there by themselves....we thought for sure they would be scared of something since it is in the garage, but my mom said they INSISTED on sleeping up there!!  So much fun!!!  :)

We went up on Saturday to pick the campers up and stayed for dinner and stayed the night!  It was a quick trip, but was fun to hear all about camp and see Ayden again.....although I must admit that it was very quiet with him gone and I might have realized that Maddix & Zoe are very easy to take care of!  HA!  It was back to reality the minute we saw Ayden!!  :)

Here are some pics of the kids in Critter Cave.....

Three campers in their matching camp shirts!!  :)

This white board in Critter Cave is where the boys would write down the activities they wanted to do each day.  Zoe practiced writing her name and she has been obsessed with adding a "y" to the end of it.  Since day 1, Jeremiah always wanted to spell her name this way and I didn't like it.  But now I wish we would have!  So we may just need to change it for good!!  :)  I think I love it now!!

The boys had fun hearing Uncle Jeremiah tell the story all about his bike accident.  Since Cooper & Carter have braces, they compared rubber bands with each other.....

Looking up into Critter Cave from the bottom of the stairs in the garage.....

Grandpa going upstairs to check on the constant commotion!!!!

Jeremiah & I took the kids out for a pre-dinner boat ride.  I decided this is my favorite time to go out on the boat.....it is so pretty at this time of day!

So nice to have the big boys able to help get the boat ready to go!!

So pretty the way the sun was glistening on the water.........

This is my view and I decided I will never get tired of that view.......my cute hubby driving the boat and my cute kids enjoying the ride at the front of the boat!

Cousins!!!  Maddix was at the cabin napping and Crew hadn't arrived yet with Joe & Cara!

Cooper & Carter had so much fun with crazy Uncle Jeremiah driving the boat so fast and with the water splashing in their faces.....they didn't wipe the smiles off their faces the entire time!!

We got died up to a buoy and nobody had their swimsuits on so they didn't want to jump in!  I told them whoever jumps in first, I would take them to the North Pole that night to get a TRIPLE scoop of ice cream!  Before I could even finish my sentence, Ayden was in the water!!  

The happy winner of a triple scoop of ice cream......

.....and then he jumped in about 100 times after that!!!!

Next one in was Carter.....and then Cooper.....

....and then Miss Zoe.....

So after dinner, we all headed to the Village for some ice cream at the North Pole!!  Mmmmmm!!!!

The Foss Family......

The Smith Family.....

Maddix enjoyed some ice cream again......for the last time in a while.....we learned it makes him puke like crazy!!!  :(

We took up a lot of space walking down the street and sitting on the wall enjoying our ice cream.....

And when we got back to the cabin, we sang and celebrated my Mom's and Jeremiah's birthdays!!! 

Can't wait for Critter Camp next year (Mom & Dad, you better start preparing yourselves now because it's gonna be a crazy 3 days with all 5 kids)!!!!  :)

{suMmeR is In FulL sWinG}

Summer is in full swing around here these days!  We are so busy and I can't believe that the kids go back to school in less than 3 weeks!!  It did go fast, but I am kind of looking forward to being back on a routine and having their brains exercised again.....I hope they aren't getting too mushy this summer!!

Maddix is almost 10 months now, but wanted to get these 9 month pictures up before it was too late!  We go in next week for his 9 month check up to see what his measurements are!

"Sing me a song, you're the piano man....."

Ayden just finished a kids abduction and self defense class this summer at a nearby karate place.  It was a great class and taught the kids what to do if they get approached by someone.  But we can't stop Ayden from yelling "BACK OFF, LEAVE ME ALONE" multiple times throughout the day!  

Zoe started gymnastics a few weeks ago.  When a boy isn't there in the stands for Ayden to play with, I have to listen to him ask me why he can't do gymnastics for an hour.....or he will spend most of his time at the vending machine trying to figure out how to make it work and how to make the snacks that he wants to come out.  If only money grew on trees, right?!?!?

Zoe in action!!  She is doing so much better than she did here last year!  I can tell that she is growing and blossoming and coming out of her shell a little more!  YAY for being a confident girl!!  :)

I have trouble keeping this monkey busy for an hour.  I hate this stage in between crawling and walking.  He wants to be on the move so bad....but in a public place like this, I don't just want to put him on the floor and let him find every gross crumb anyone has ever dropped!  Please oh please Maddix will you just learn to walk already!!!  I am ready for it!!  :)

Don't judge me that my kids are all in the bath together.  The overwhelmed, yet efficient mom in me is taking advantage of this for as long as I possibly can!  And as you can see, this is Maddix's favorite time of the day!!!  :)

Cutest bum bum ever!!!  Look at how tan he has gotten this summer!!  His little bum bum is so white!!  He's definitely got a great tan going!!  :)

Zoe loves bath time because it is the only time she is ever allowed to brush her hair.  If you have curly hair, you know what I am talking about!  I tell her that brushing while her hair is dry is a big no no!!  Can you say F-R-O!!!!?!?!?

And last but not least, why do I do this to myself!  This picture doesn't make it look as bad as it really is, but this is 7 loads of laundry......clean laundry that needed to be folded!  It started out where I wouldn't have time to fold what was coming out of the dryer, so I would throw it on our bed....then another load, then another....and by this time, I for sure didn't have time to fold 3 or 4 loads worth of clothes!  And then it was bedtime and we were too tired to fold laundry, so it ended up on the floor so we could get in bed.  And the next day I added a couple more clean loads from the dryer.  And then they sat for a few days.....and then the dirty clothes baskets started filling again, so I had to wash those and add a couple more clean loads to the pile!  I finally folded them all yesterday when noone had any clothes in their drawers or closets!  Why do I do this to myself.....so much easier to just fold as you go!!!   

Yesterday, I sent this little "camper" off to the 3rd annual "Critter Camp" up in Big Bear for 3 days with Grammy & Grandpa and his 2 oldest cousins!

We met all the cousins for lunch first....

And then said good-bye!!  Bye Sister.....

Can you tell how happy he was to be going away???

Grammy with all the grandkids.....what is she going to do when ALL of these kids are old enough for Critter Camp?!?!?!  

Grammy with her 3 campers!

It sure is quiet around here without Ayden!  I am enjoying Zoe and Maddix.  Zoe and I did yoga together last night before bedtime!  One of the many reasons I love having a little girl!!  :)