She's One!

 None of us can believe that sweet, baby Kacie Grace is already one.  I know that everyone knows that babies grow so fast, but I'll say it again; that year went so fast.  Sometimes I feel like I was just pregnant a couple weeks ago!  This girl is so fun.  She absolutely LOVES to be outside and will make a mad dash for any open door.  She has a couple tricks now.  She can clap, show you her tongue, wave, say 'hi", "bye bye", and "uh-oh".  If you ask her where her nose is she'll point to yours!  And if you're lucky, she'll show you her funny face! 

Birthday girl:)

She burst into tears when we finished singing happy birthday:(

Hey Kacie, can you do your funny face? :

"Funny Face"

And here's a little video that shows her funny method of getting from here to there!

Adventures In Camping

Over mother's day weekend we got to go camping in the Corralitos mountains with my family.  It was at a camping/retreat facility (so we had a full industrial kitchen and a nice field) that my dad got to have for the weekend in trade for draining and cleaning out their pool in preparation for the summer.  It was the first time that we had been together with all of my siblings (and their significant others) and my parents since Kacie was born!  The weekend was so fun, but was not without some less-than-fun events! 

The kids and I went up there on Friday afternoon and while they ran around and played I set up the tent (after taking FOREVER deciding where to put it).  What I didn't know was that they weren't just running around and playing.  They were playing newt rescuers!  As the pool was draining, the trillions of newts that were living in it were exposed.  So, armed with a Home Depot bucket, my kids swooped in for the rescue, filling the bucket about halfway full with newts, which they dumped into the creek that runs through the camp!

Carey came up after work and joined us for dinner, but ended up going home not feeling super well.  It was a fun night though, the highlight being Abby and Haley playing frisbee with aunts and uncles.  I had already gone to bed with Kacie and Seth, but I could hear the girls having so much fun out on the field (the frisbee glowed which made it all that much more fun).  They came to bed around 10:00 and everyone slept peacefully through the night.  Well, everyone except me.  I woke up to a sound that I first thought was air gushing out of an air mattress but quickly realized was a sprinkler...UNDER OUR TENT!  Yep, under the tent.  I got up and, holding Kacie, went to get my parents for help!  My dad told me I had to "wait it out" but my mom walked all around in the dark with me, trying to find the sprinkler shut off.  We finally gave up and I went back to bed and she stood outside my tent for another 20 minutes, turning the sprinkler on the field that was hitting our tent (this was a different sprinkler than the one under us) so that it wouldn't hit us!  I know, best mom ever:)  (When those sprinklers finally went off, I heard different ones come on and could hear that they were hitting a tent which, I found out in the morning, was Nate and Cass's.)

The rest of the weekend was really fun (and dry)!  We helped clean out the pool, played more frisbee, wheeled around in wheelchairs (who knew that could be so thrilling), colored, played with the dogs (between all of us we had 4 dogs up there) and ate and ate and ate.  Saturday night Poppa Phil and Uncle Nate taught Abby how to play chess and Haley was mesmerized by Cass playing the flute.  And no more sprinklers in the middle of the night because we found out where the shut off was!!!

Mother's day morning we had delicious breakfast and hung out for a while before packing up to go home.  I had all the kids and our stuff loaded up and ready to go, said my last goodbye's, hopped in the van to drive home, and realized that my keys were in the tent...packed in it's bag...under all the stuff in the van!!!!  I jumped out of the car cracking up, because it was laugh or burst into tears, and Auntie Melissa and Uncle Judah jumped into gear and had my tent out and unfolded enough for me to grab the keys in no time!

Bucket full of newts!

The Wild Kratts would be proud!

Drinking their hot chocolate like a cat, racoon, and some other animal that I forgot!

There were two wheel chairs, and I'm pretty sure they were both constantly in use!

Uncle Nate working hard on the pool cleaning job...ironically wearing a wetsuit in an empty pool!

Hanging with aunt Kellie

Kacie LOVED Uncle Nate's puppy, Tucker.

Haley loves Auntie Melissa

Wheelchair race with Uncle Judah!

Pizza chefs, hard at work!

Auntie Melissa was determined to make Kacie love her:)

Abby and Uncle Nate

Kacie and Uncle Noah

Look at all these happy campers!

***I'm not getting paid for this, but I do have to say that the inside of our tent stayed COMPLETELY dry through the sprinkler extravaganza!

11 Months!!!

It's true!  This girl is 11 months old!  She is fun and hilarious and mischievous!  As I type she is wreaking havoc on our living room, talking up a storm!!!  She can move now.  Not quite a crawl or a scoot, but somewhere in between!  She's getting very fast.  She's pulling herself up constantly and cruising along any edge of anything she can get her hands on!  She can sign "all-done" and "milk", which she uses to mean any type of food!  She has no interest in eating baby food; only what the rest of us are eating!  And the girl loves her swing.  She gets herself over to the front door and waits for someone to let her out.  Once she's in the front yard she makes her way to her swing and sits under it until someone puts her in!!!

Kacie did great in her first 5k!!!

Crazy hair day for Kacie:)

She's a great shopper!

Sometimes she helps clean the kitchen.

Strawberry picking with aAunt Kellie and Grammie Lori.

9 and 10 Months

Oh, my gosh!  This year is flying by!  Watching Kacie grow and change is so bittersweet.  I love her so much and love that she's so big and interactive, but I miss when she was just a tiny little nugget.  At 10 months, she is full of smiles and giggles and couldn't love her brother and sisters any more than she does!  She entertains us all with her noises and head bobs!  She's got her bottom two teeth, her top two teeth (which we call her "Mater teeth" because they are huge), and has another top one coming in.  She loves to eat lentils, beans, watermelon and eggs, and she really prefers to feed herself over being spoon fed.  Kacie loves to be outside and watch the trees move and the birds flying around.  She loves her bath, but isn't so sure about the ocean water.  She knows how to wave, high five and pull herself up to standing, but can't figure out to crawl!

Quick Camping Trip

At the end of our last camping trip we threw away our tent as it had ripped and torn in too many places to be worth trying to fix.  As soon as I saw 10 person, instant up tents at Costco this year, I bought one.  So, with the new tent sitting in the garage, I've been itching to go camping. 

I googled a bit to find something that's not too far away and that wouldn't be too cold at night and found Casini Family Ranch on the Russian River.  It turned out to be a great find.  The drive up there turned out to be longer than expected, due to some navigational problems, but we made it without any kid meltdowns!!! 

We had such a great time.  Our campsite was right on the river, and everyone loved running around down there (especially Banjo)!  The campground had a playground, a duck pond, and a darling general store.  One of the highlights of the trip was the sluice box.  The store sells bags of sand mixed with fossils and gemstones and has a sluice box where you can pan for gems!  The kids had a blast and we loved watching them find their gems.  The best part was that after they were done panning we were back at our campsite and I sat in the sun and read my book while Carey and Kacie napped and the big kids examined their treasures!  We also loved having uncle Noah and aunt Kellie come visit us for dinner the second night.

Overall the trip was a blast and we can't wait to go back!

Camping dinner:)

Early morning at the river

This kid was SO happy to be camping!

Feeding the ducks (and hissing at the geese)

Learning how to use the sluice box

panning for gems

Identifying the treasures!

Kacie loved hanging out by the river

Haley, Abby and Seth loved playing on this "island"

Hanging out with aunt Kellie and uncle Noah

This girl LOVED camping!

Happy campers