Stress Relief

Things have been a bit chaotic this summer. Between baby's birth and the move, it felt like we hardly got to enjoy summer.

The kids have all been a little high-strug lately. On this particular day, I got the younger two kids to take naps AT THE SAME TIME! It was such a relief to me. Connor was playing quietly, so I ended up getting in a nap as well! 

On Friday the 14th, our little man turned 1 month old! 

I didn't take a picture of him to celebrate it, but I did make him wear his cute sandals for the first time the very next day. 

Saturday the 15th I got invited to do a campfire dinner and make smores and it was so much fun! My cousin and I loaded all five kids up in her mom's suburban before doing campfire stuff and she took us to an awesome splash pad in Highland that all the kids had a blast at! 

 Monday was a rough day for me. This little guy was all smiles though, and it definitely brightened things up! 

We also enjoyed eating cookies that grandma had sent for us. Evelynn especially was a fan! 

 My sweet cousin had asked if I wanted to go to the temple, and we were able to go on Tuesday while her parents came to my house and watched all the kids. It was a wonderful break from all the stress, and I was so grateful she suggested it and went with me! I'm continually grateful for the wonderful family that I have! 

 Like I mentioned, things have been crazy busy and stressful all summer long. I had really been homesick after the move, and I knew I wanted to visit Idaho sometime soon. I realized preschool will start for Connor at the end of the month, and thought that a break from stress might be just what I needed. Caleb had to work, so I decided to take the kids up to Idaho for a couple days by myself. 

We got in to Nampa Wednesday afternoon and went over to Melinda's house to spend some time with cousins. The kids were so excited! 

Thursday we took it easy in the morning, then went to cousin's house again. My Aunt Amy came over and saw us and had her little granddaughter June with her. Evelynn and June are very close in age and it was so fun to get to see them and catch up! 

Evelynn telling me she can "coke" (cook!) with her cousins kitchen set

Later Melinda took us out to a great park in Caldwell, which the kids loved. 

  

That night Melinda had a doterra party that I went to. Deanna and Macie watched the kids for me and took them to the park where they got dirty and worn out. She was kind enough to bathe the kids for me, and they got dressed in their auntie's shirts afterwards. When I picked them up they were exhausted, but looked like they had a blast!

The next morning all kids woke up bright-eyed and anxious to do more playing with cousins! 

We went to Melinda's house again and later ventured to the library. Evelynn especially was thrilled about this outing, and demanded her baby and carseat and bottle MUST go with her!

After the library, we all headed back to my parent's house were Melinda made homemade pizza for us all to eat. (DELISH! I wish I had her cooking skills. I'm sure Caleb wishes that as well!)

After pizza, we took the four older kids on a little walk and they all played outside for a bit while I fed Liam. Minda grabbed some pictures of them all outside playing with flags. They love the flags for some reason! 

After our walk, we took the kids to get snowcones while Liam stayed with grandma. I took my two older kids and Eli ahead and then Melinda brought Kayden a bit behind us.

Mr Kayden wasn't so thrilled by the picture thing and preferred to run around, but I assure you he was present and excited at the end!

When we left we had all the kids hold hands and smile for a picture. We got a kick out of the fact that they lined up youngest to oldest without us even telling them to. 

After we returned to grandma and grandpa's house, the kids were filthy. We decided that it called for a bubble bath in grandma's big tub and jammies with cousins. We have fond memories of bubble baths in our grandparents big bathtub, and we were excited about passing it on to our kids! 

These kids were so cute playing together, and we thought they were all so cute in their jammies! I should have put Liam in his before pictures, but I didn't. There's always next time! 

Saturday we had planned to go to Black Canyon Dam with our West grandparents and some of the family to go boating. We had planned to go after a baby shower Melinda was going to, but she had a horrible mix up with it, and ended up not being able to go. We cheered her up by all riding together in my car and meeting up at our grandparents so we could follow them out to Black Canyon. 

I was quite proud of the fact that we got all 5 carseats into this car! 

My kids were thrilled about this outing! 

Aunt Melinda got some great pic's of them playing in the water.

 The boat was a new experience for all our kids, and Connor loved it so much the first time (when I made my grandpa do a short and slow ride) that he asked to go again later and loved all the bumps and "speedy fast" driving.

 It was about 6 pm when we got home, and I had to get my kids cleaned up and asleep so that I could pack up most of our things. 

We left Idaho about 10:30ish yesterday, and the kids slept the entire way home! I was thrilled about not having to stop, and we made it home in 4 hours. Woohoo!