Chance Meet Cereal...Cereal Meet Chance

Well Chance turned four months so it was officially time to start rice cereal. He looked terrified at first and it took lots of convincing to get him to swallow the cereal. I could get a little in his mouth but then he would just leave it in there for a minute or two and then out it came! After about a half an hour we got about a tablespoon down the hatch.

Bathtime for Chance

My little man is getting so big. He still loves his baths. I caught some super cute pics of him in and just out of the bath.

The Neilson's Go Camping

We have been given a great opportunity. A friend of a friend needed somewhere to store her camper. She no longer uses it, as a matter of fact it has not been used in the last two years but she refuses to get rid of it. We have ample RV parking. In trade, we are able to use it whenever we like.

We decided to take advantage of it on Labor Day weekend. Since this was the first time, we didn't want to go to far from home so we headed out to Cottonwood Cove which is on Lake Mohave (just south of Lake Mead) and only about 45 minutes from home. Grandma & Grandpa Syrros and Pete, Julie and Cody drove out with us for the day. It was unbelievably hot so we learned our first lesson, do not set up a trailer in the middle of the desert in the middle of the day! Once we got the air conditioning cranked up we all cooled off and then decided to head down to the lake to do some fishing.

We found a great fishing spot but Charlie had to go the long way because the dogs could not go on the beach area of the campground. This required him to walk up a big hill, down a big hill, around the cove and along the shore in the water. By the time they met up with us they were all pretty tired.Brewtus decided to cool off and relax right in the lake!Charlie threw his line in and waited for the big bite!Kadence entertained us by singing and dancing on shore.Cole couldn't wait to throw a line in the water.Daddy gave Cole some fishing advice.And then let him give it a whirl.Uncle Pete waited patiently for the fish to bite.Cody tried a couple different spots but realized what nobody else would admit...there were no fish in this lake!Kadee Bug passed the time playing with the worms, her favorite thing about fishing!I caught the best picture of Kadee...this picture shows her personality like no other! She is so fun loving and a little crazy:)Well after Cody finally convinced us all that there were no fish in this lake, we packed it up and headed back to camp where we had a delicious BBQ meal!Grandma, Grandpa, Pete, Julie and Cody headed back to Vegas and we gave the kids a bath and to bed we went. It is amazing how tired you are at the end of a day camping!

The next morning we woke up early...how come it is so hard to sleep in when you are camping? I whipped up breakfast and mentioned to Charlie that I really loved cooking while camping, I am not sure why the same does not hold true at home.After breakfast was cleaned up we decided to play Uno. I remember many a camping trips when I was a little girl being stuck in the camper because of a rain storm and sometimes in Montana a snow storm and gathering around the table to play this same game.We headed out to the beach at Cottonwood Cove. Charlie, Kadee and Cole all took a dip in the very warm water. The kids got a kick of the huge Carps that would swim right up to them. Chance played it cool on the beach sporting his swimsuit trunks.Mommy and Chance bonded while we watched everyone else splashing around in the lake.After a while at the beach in the hot sun, it became apparent that nap time was approaching. We headed back to the camper and tucked the kiddos in snug as a bug! And boy did they crash!We got a pleasant surprise later that afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa decided to come back out for the day to play with us. After dinner we just sat outside visiting. Cole and Grandma swapped stories.Then it was time for SMORES!!! Unfortunately, because we were in the middle of the dry desert in the middle of summer, no fires were allowed so we had to settle for smores on the BBQ. But does it really matter how smores are made? Cole chowed down on his and his face was soon covered in melted marshmallow. Kadee made her own marshmallow mess!Yep, this has to be one of the best things about camping, you just can't beat smores!

All in all it was a great little get away and we look forward to many more excursions in our borrowed trailer!

And They Say They Don't Regress...

So I came downstairs this morning to find this... Really, buddy? I think you are just a tad too big for this, don't worry though, you will always be my baby boy!

Happy 6th Birthday Kadee Bug!

Wow, it is hard to believe my baby girl is turning 6! She is turning into such a beautiful, sweet, kind girl. She has been hinting to me and Charlie that she really wanted a Nintendo DSi for her birthday. By hinting, I mean we have been hearing about it for at least four months! But this was one gift I had no problem getting. She really has been a fantastic little girl and I thank my lucky stars for her. She is such a good big sister to both her brothers and always helps mommy and daddy out when we ask.

Charlie suggested we take the afternoon of her birthday off of work so we could pick her up from school and spend the afternoon with just her, no brothers, just mommy, daddy and Kadee Bug. So we picked her up from school and headed straight over to Target for her big surprise. We walked over to the Electronics section and I think she got a pretty good idea what was in store, her smile was from ear to ear. Charlie helped her pick out which DSi she wanted, got the accessory pack and we told her she could spend $30 on a game(s). She chose to only get one game, Wizards of Waverly Place. After we got her present we told her she could decide what we did for the rest of the afternoon. She chose to go bowling! We headed over to SouthPoint, got a lane and bowled two games. She loves to bowl with Charlie, I can see the competitiveness gene come out in both of them, it is hilarious!After bowling we went and picked up Cole and Chance from the babysitters and headed home. Grandma Barb bought her a cake so everyone came over to have pizza and cake.Kadee opened up cards and presents and was very happy with all of her gifts.

My Computer Broke :(

My computer broke so I have not been able to blog for quite a while...but it is fixed now. Hi ho, hi ho it's off to blog I go!

My Yankee Man

I bought Cole a new hat today and he loves it! He gets to look just like Daddy.

Kadee's 1st, 1st Grade School Project

Kadee only had one homework assignment her first week of school. Ms. Summers sent home a person cut-out and Kadee had to decorate it. After Open House on Wednesday we took her to Michael's to get some stuff to decorate it. She decided she wanted to decorate it like a NY Giants Cheerleader. We had lots of fun shopping, we got ribbon, foam for the clothes, fuzzy pipe cleaners for the hair, pipe cleaners for the pom-poms and googly eyes. Thursday night we started the project right when we got home. We had a ton of fun with this. The pom-poms were kind of tricky so I had to help her with those and cutting the pipe cleaners for the hair. Other than that it was pretty much all Kadence. She traced everything out, cut and glued and decorated. It turned out super cute and she was pretty proud of her project.

Open House

Tonight we headed to Kadee's Open House at school. Dani was ever so gracious to keep the boys so we could focus just on Kadence. The principal and the president of the PTA spoke to the parents. I signed back up for the PTA and volunteered for all of the school functions in the fall, the Sock Hop, Fall Carnival, Ice Cream Social and Bingo. I wasn't as involved last year as I had wanted to be, with the surprise pregnancy I had to save all of my time off for when the baby came and I was soooo tired at night it was all I could do to get the kids fed, bathed and to bed...extra-curricular activities were slim to none. This year I feel a little more ambitious.

From there we were off to Kadence's class to hear the teacher's presentation. Ms. Summers told us what we could expect for the school year. After visiting her class we got to go to some other cool places like the library and the music room.

Kadee's 1st Day of School - 1st Grade

Kadee started 1st grade! Boy were we nervous. New class, new teacher, new friends, full day, lunch at school...there was so much change coming our way. On Friday we went to "Meet the Teacher", Ms. Summers who seemed very nice. We got to see the classroom and Kadee's new desk and meet some of her new classmates. We were very surprised to see that there was another Cadence (with a "C") in her class. Kadee didn't say much at all to her teacher or even to us, we could tell "nervousness" was definitely setting in. Naturally, this sent my nerves into overdrive and the questions just started overwhelming my brain, will she be okay, will she make new friends, will she get to lunch okay, etc, etc, etc....

Saturday we went shopping with Aunt Julie, Dani, Cody and Grandma for school clothes. We found just the right outfit for the first day.

Sunday we went shopping for school supplies. (Note to self: Do NOT wait until the day before school to buy supplies...there are none!) After hitting Target and Walgreens we had the necessities she needed to get started. I would have to scour the city however to find a pencil box. That night I made her lunch, she wanted to buy lunch in the cafeteria but me being the nervous parent thought I would send a packed lunch and money, that way she was covered!

Monday we got the kids up a little earlier than normal because we knew we needed plenty of time to get ready for school. I made Kadee our "Special Day" breakfast...pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles, of course Cole got some too! Then we were on our way. We walked Kadee up to find her line. There she saw some friends from her kindergarten class in line, Daisy and Jaden. It was like a wave of relief came over her and her nervous smile was replaced with an excited smile...thank goodness! When the bell rang we walked her to her class, dropped off her school supplies and gave her a big hug and kiss! She was on her own now.

I took the afternoon off to pick her up from school. When the bell rang her class came out and the teacher kept them all in line like a bunch of baby birds while she dismissed one at a time to their parents. I found Kadee in line, she was gabbing away with two other girls...my little social butterfly! It was finally her turn to be dismissed and she ran over and gave me a big hug and reassured me that she had a great day.

I treated her to an after school treat. She decided she wanted a treat from Applebee's. So we headed to the restaurant and ordered the Chocolate Chip Sundae...yummy! We got to sit and chat, just us girls and I heard all about her day. After Applebees we walked over to the pet store, one of her favorite things to do. We both fell in love with a little Miniature Pinscher...he was so cute.

All in all, she had a great start to what will hopefully be a great school year.