4 under 2.5

One reason I haven't been very good with updating my blog is because I was watching 4 kids under the age of 2 1/2 for 6 days. My mom went to visit my brother in UT which left my seester without a sitter for 6 days so the big seesters stepped up to the plate and offered to help out. What was I thinking! Honestly I was happy to do it and even happier that I had the time to do it. Normally I would be working but I have the summer off for maternity leave. There were some rough moments when the 2 babies were being demanding at the same time but over all I had so much fun watching the 4 kids. The toddlers were so cute to watch and played very well together and for the most part the babies took turns being good and bad. I honestly can't say which baby was better or worse. They both really are about the same which is good because they are the exact same age.

Here are some pictures from that week.

The two babies, they both had their moments but I have to admit Rowan has a much louder cry then Lydia and Lydia can cry. At their 2 month appointments these two were about 1 lbs 3 oz difference in size

Just look how upset Rowan is, not sure why

His Nickname is T R O U B L E

This is such a cute picture of Kate

A day at the Lake

We didn't really spend a day at the lake more like a few minutes. Kate could've spent the day there, she had such a great time in the few minutes we were there and didn't want to leave. It was a hot humid day so we took a few pictures and then headed to the pool.

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I love the picture of Kate splashing in the lake, not sure why Lydia is throwing a fit she loves water guess just not this water?

Lydia seems to like the water a little better here

Thought this was such a cute picture of my Kate

We went to the pool almost everyday on vacation. It was so refreshing and it was such a nice pool. Brock and Kate were so cute together. By the end of the week, Kate had turned into a little fish and was swimming by herself with water wings on. It was incredible to me and I'm still in shock that my 2 year old was swimming! She did such a great job. Here is a video of her swimming with her wings, it's long so you don't have to watch the whole thing to get the idea. I just don't know how to edit it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Brock and Kate

I think this is our only family picture while on vacation

Here's a couple more pictures from our vacation:

Brock took this picture of Kate and he was just so proud of himself. It really is a great picture of her, she looks grown up. She also has a quirky little smile, she gives us this smile a lot so it's nice to have it on film now


Kate loves Lydia tons, but she doesn't like getting too close to her. She's never held her or asked to hold her. This picture is the closest she's ever been to holding her so I had to snap it, it's cute that she even held the bottle for a second. This moment didn't last long at all so I'm glad I have it captured.

A day in the Park

One of the days of our vacation we spent at this beautiful park. There was a cute stream running through the park that Kate loved playin in. We didn't get a chance to walk around the park much but there were waterfalls in the area you could walk to but with the two girls we didn't last long, or I should say they didn't last long. We still had a great time. And if you haven't figured out already Lydia is the soundtrack in all our video. She cried every time we had a video recording, I think she wanted you all to believe she cried the whole vacation, which she did cry a lot of it but not the whole time.

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I love pictures of kids being kids. Kate was just so cute exploring this creek. I love her little overalls, she kept telling me she "looks like a farmer"

Diggin for Gold

We also went diggin for Gold while in Georgia. Mostly this gave Kate a chance to play in the sand and get dirty. She loved the whole process though, scooping up the sand and putting it in the sifter boxes and finding "gold". According to her we found nothing but gold and diamonds. I wish. We did come home with a couple of baggies of jewels.

Kate pickin out the bucket she wanted to dig thru

There she is with her shovel

Daddy and Kate looking for Gold and Diamonds

All the gold and diamonds they found

Where do Cabbage Patch Kids Come From?

If you've always wanted to know where Cabbage Patch Kids come from you will want to read this blog.
While on vacation we headed to Cleveland, GA to check out the General Hospital where Cabbage Patch kids are born. They take it seriously here too, once you step in to this place the staff are dressed in scrubs and take the CPK's adoptions serious. There is even a screening process....I kid you not!
Kate had so much fun here, when you put a little girl in a building full of baby dolls you get one happy girl. She was definitely overwhelmed by all the stuff to look at. We told her she could pick out a baby to adopt but she didn't want anything she just wanted to look around or I should say run around.

One of the things they do is let you witness a CPK birth. Here is a video but let me explain, they have you gather around, the doctor then pulls a baby from the cabbage, gives it a spank, swaddles it and then allows the audience to name it. Oh and they do an ultrasound to find out if it's a girl or boy, this one is a girl. The video is sorta hard to watch so I wanted to explain.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The next video is the same newborn that was just born and they took her to the nursery to get weighed and make sure she is healthy. Oh in the video I say the baby is 12lbs, it was only 1.2lbs. Each of theses dolls are hand made so they all are a little different.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here are a few pictures from the visit to the General Hospital. I would recommend this to any kid, boy or girl. It was a lot of fun.

Outside of the Hospital

A field of cabbage patch babies

Kate interrupting the Cabbage Patch Kid's Lunch

Guess which Cabbage Patch Kid we went home with? Even though she was crying we felt she was the perfect one for us!

Kate loving the Cabbage Patch Kid display, the one to the far lower left with the mickey mouse ears was the first one born, about 36 years ago, I can't remember his name

The Spotted Pig

One of our first discoveries that we made in South Carolina was this restaurant named The Spotted Pig. It's a bbq place that doesn't mess around with their bbq! It was fabulous the best bbq I've ever had. Also the best onion rings we've ever had. We aren't onion ring people but they sent us an order by accident and when we mentioned it they let us keep the order and brought us the fries we ordered. Well we were so glad they did because the onion rings were out of this world. We mentioned it to the server and she even said when we mentioned the mess up that she would let us keep the onion rings cause she knew we would enjoy them. We ordered more onion rings. The only downside to this place was they are only open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, that's right only 3 days a week. I asked about that and the server said that a lot of places in the area are only open 3 days a week, that's how far out in the sticks we were. We only got to eat there twice, I could've eaten there every day. Even today I woke up and asked Brock if we could go to The Spotted Pig and he said "let's do it, oh it's 9 hours away huh, oh well better get a move on" we didn't really go but I think of that place a lot *sigh*. I told Brock we should open up a "A Spotted Hog" up here and leave it open 6 days a week, close on Sunday for our day of rest!

Brock showin off the ribs here

I love this picture of Kate, I can almost see what she will look like as a young woman in it...we were at The Spotted Pig when I took it

Going on a Safari

We took a week off and went on vacation in July. It was fun to get away and the girls did great on the drive. We went to the western part of South Carolina, in the rolling hills near Lake Hartwell. It was quiet and peaceful which is what we wanted out of a vacation this year. For normal families this would've been a day trip of around 9 hours, for us we broke it up in two days, traveling a lot of it at night so the girls would sleep. It was nice to break it up, but still took forever to get there because of all the stops we took along the way. Potty breaks, feedings, more potty breaks, more feedings it's amazing how it all adds time to your traveling.

Along the way to Carolina we stopped at the Virgina Animal Safari Park, here we got to drive through the safari while the animals come up to you for food. You weren't allowed to get out of your car but you were allowed to open your doors on your minivan and they allowed your children to sit on your lap up in the front. I have to admit I was more freaked out by the animals then I thought I would be. They come right up to you and stare at you, it's really creepy but it was also really cool to see them up close. We had so much fun here we spend over 2 hours here and would've stayed longer if we had the time.

They also have a zoo area where they have a lot of unusual animals. There was a kangaroo walk where you walked down a path and could see the kangaroo's up close, so close in fact that we had to walk around one of them because he was in the middle of the path! Apparently he is a domesticated kangaroo, the rest were behind a wired fence. They had giraffes (you could feed we didn't have time so we just saw them from a distance), spider monkey's, Galapagos turtles, reptiles, and these little monkey-like creatures that would stick out their tongues at us (don't remember the name of the little critters)

I would recommend this experience to any one, we really had a great time. It's located right next to a KOA campground if you wanted to camp in the area. Also there is a natural bridge that you could hike to in the area. So it would be worth a trip down for the weekend for all my Virginia friends.

Oh and I should mention that there isn't a whole lot on conveniences in the area, we were hungry so went to the only restaurant that was nearby. I really enjoyed eating here, the food was good, cheap and the atmosphere was unique. When you eat at a place with the name The Pink Cadillac Diner, you know it's going to be an experience!

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Animal peeking in the window

Here's a view from our window, it felt like we would run into the animals but they moved away as you drove by. We saw baby buffalo and ostriches, those were the cutest animals we saw. We were fascinated by the zebra's they were so cool to see up close and such beautiful animals

Animals come right up to you for food

At the Pink Cadillac Diner

Lydia giving us a silly grin at the restaurant