Bentley is mobile, it's all over now!

He's been rolling for months but he's now doing it to get from point a to point b. Tonight, point b was the DVD's. He spent at least 5 minutes pulling down all the ones he could reach. Then found what he was looking for! The video of Taylor's first soccer game. Maybe he wants to start training early?

Week 5... Not good!

This week was started off with an explosion. Of vomit. I'll just leave it at that. Hope to have some good adventures to write about later this week... Until then, enjoy this picture of Bentley from just a few months ago. :-)  So tiny!

Tanglebox Adventure - Huber Park

This was a really neat little park. I've never even heard of it before! There was only one other family there when we arrived and they left soon after... So we had the whole place to ourselves.

We brought our lunch and had a picnic before exploring.

Don't have a picture of this but Taylor found the Tanglebox right away. Probably on accident. She was SO EXCITED though! She kept saying the rest of the afternoon, "I can't believe I found it! Isn't that so cool??" Ahh, it's the little things that bring such joy to kids.

Carrying around a 22+ lb baby is not easy. So we started out in the carrier. He got mad as soon as we got to the water though - he wanted to be splashing around!

Taylor surfing. (I thought she was going to fall off. She didn't, surprisingly.)

She did, however, fall shortly afterwards. 

Nice.

We found a big frog. Can you see it?

 Me and Bentley - he's a goof!

Balancing on the log.

Splashing around!

Teetering around. Thought for sure (again) she was going to fall. She didn't.

Strike a pose!

I love them so much!

Tanglebox Adventure - Ed Grenfell Park

Our town's park dept puts on this fun thing every summer called the Tanglebox. It's like a scavenger hunt for kids. We have a "passport" and inside there are clues to find boxes in about 12 different parks around the county. Inside the boxes are stamps, we stamp the passports, and when we're done we send it in for a chance to win a prize. The girls LOVE it! I like that it takes us to parks we wouldn't otherwise go to (they aren't all playground parks).

This was our first adventure. Ed Grenfell park is outside of McMinnville a few miles. It has a great picnic area, lots of shade, and a nice shallow part of Baker Creek that we had fun wading around in.

Bailie and Roslyn, making their way down stream.

Taylor found a deep part to wade through. She may be wearing a skirt but don't let that fool you - she's not afraid to get dirty!  

Posing for a shot.

Me & Bentley (I waded very carefully - flip flops are not good shoes for creek walking!)

He just loves kicking and splashing in the water!

Wading around.

Smile! 

Our Camping Trip!

We usually camp at least a couple times every summer but this year we're only going once. As much fun as we had, I'm secretly glad (guess not so secretly) because camping with a baby is HARD! He's such a good baby but it's just hard not having all the comforts of home.

Anyway, we camped at Pine Hollow - a beautiful lake way out in the middle of nowhere. ;-) It's actually my aunt & uncle's lake house and we camp in their yard. But as long as we're sleeping in a tent, I still consider it camping. We had great weather, kids were in the lake 95% of the time, and best of all, great company! Oh and as a bonus we got fireworks every night. Like huge, booming, middle-of-the-night, illegal fireworks. Luckily, as we learned on the 4th, the baby sleeps through such noises so it was all good.

View from the yard, where we spend most of our time.

Ohhh, fire!

To see more pics, go check out my facebook page. There's too many to upload here!

Happy 4th of July!!

Baby boy's first 4th of July. Any guesses on how he spent it? If you guessed sleeping, you are correct! We kept him up way past his bedtime (usually goes down at 8ish) so we could go watch the fireworks around 10. He fell asleep on the drive over. Stayed sleeping as I put him in his stroller. Not even the loudest of the loud fireworks woke him up. (Which makes you wonder how stepping on a creaky floor board at home wakes him up from a nap, but fireworks that are so loud you can feel them don't even make him twitch. Weird.)

Our other kids were with their other parent this year. So it was just Matt, Bentley and I. It was still a good time.

Mr. Bentley on his first 4th - 9 months old. The girls and I tie-dyed shirts for the 4th. They were SUPER CUTE until we washed them and the white turned pink. BOO! So, please excuse Bentley's pink shirt. 

Me and my sleepy baby. :-)

Last Day of School

Today marks the last day of Kindergarten (for Taylor) and 4th grade (for Bailie). It's bittersweet, as usual. I'm so excited about this summer! I'm not "working" so this is my first summer break since high school. Summer breaks are just not the same when you have to work! In fact, they're even more of a pain than the normal school year because you have to figure out where to send your kids. The summer parenting schedule with the girls also usually stresses me out because they are with me for a week, then with their dad for a week. That means I don't see them for a whole week - every other week! But, since I'm not working this summer, I'm keeping them during their dad's week while he is at work.

Anyway, the down side is that when they go back to school they will be another year further! This is Bailie's last year in grade school. I am NOT READY for middle school. And Taylor. Little Taylor. She will be in school all day, not just 2 1/2 hours each morning. As much as I love watching my kids grow, I HATE watching them grow UP.

We made the girls' teachers gifts this year. The girls pretty much did them all; I was pleasantly surprised with how well they turned out. The black is chalkboard, so the writing can be erased and used for whatever.

T & B on the last day. (Well, Taylor's last day. Bailie had a half day the next day.)

Where was I ??

Oh yes, my new blog. No excuses for slacking so I'll just get right to it!

It's July 14th already - the kids have been out of school for a month! Holy smokes, where has the time gone?! We've been keeping busy and so far, the kids have not driven be insane yet. YET. We've actually had a lot of fun.

I have a bunch of pictures to share, so I'll just post them all separately. Read on!

My Kids Are...

Funny. Sweet. Energetic. Loud. Happy. Talkative. Innocent. Honest. Observant. Smart. Sassy. Independent. Dramatic. Beautiful. Messy. Clumsy. Strong. Clever. Determined.Strong-willed. Silly. Caring. Athletic. 

EXHAUSTING!

Seriously, I love my kids more than anything but it's only the 2nd day of spring break and I'm already about to pull out my hair. Half the time the girls are at each other's throats, the other half they're sweet as pie. 

I have to say though, tonight Bailie made up for the crappy attitude she had this morning. Without prompting she made dinner (meatloaf & brussel sprouts), dessert (chocolate chip cookies), unloaded the dishwasher then loaded it again, and worked on her 4H report. She's such a good kid when she wants to be. :-)

Love my kids, love my life!

Welcome!

My OCD finally got to me. I couldn't continue posting on my blog titled "Smith, Party of 6" when our family now has 7. So, I'm truly sorry for the 2 people who read my blog that will now have to learn a new URL. I hope you will forgive me. :-)

Don't be discouraged by my lack of pretty much everything on this blog. It's late, I'm tired, I'll work on this another day.

~ Shannon ~