June 2016

Dear Dropbox - I'm so glad we have made up.  I don't know why you spent the last three months refusing to "find" my pictures on my phone to upload but you did.  It was like you were being a teenage girl and were giving me the silent treatment.  But thankfully, you snapped out of it and three nights ago decided that all of my pictures on my phone were available for download.  This is not before I cheated on you with Airdrop, iPhoto sharing, etc.  I even emailed these damn pictures to myself at one point but got frustrated b/c our wifi was acting up.  The alternatives proved slower than I liked and were not always the most user-friendly.  So I'm grateful that you have seen the light.  You had a conversion experience and have exorcised the demons that made you f'ing annoying.  Thank you Dropbox for getting your you-know-what together.  Because it was about to get ugly.

Clare

Now back to our lives...

June 7, 2016.  This was the day after the cousins and grandparents left for home after the wedding.  It was also the day that ALL of my children came down with coxsackievirus.  It's a real thing apparently and is accompanied with fever and sores on the inside of the mouth.  While I would normal bemoan my children being sick, this is a day that goes down for the record books.  It is the only time in my life that all three of my children NAPPED AT THE SAME TIME.  Thank you, Jesus.

My "all three are sick" pic at the doctor.  I posted this on Facebook and joked about how we will always meet our deductible with 3 kids.  Someone replied with, "it's only money.  who care?"  Um.....

Hmmm...what else did I miss thanks to my fight with dropbox?  oh, this kid turned 8 months!  He actually has his 9 month appointment tomorrow so we will wait until then for stats and fun facts.  But can you believe it? 9 months!

While the bucket head picture is funny, please take a look in the background.  Jack started off this summer wanting to grow vegetables.  And thanks to his endeavors we have carrots and green beans in that planter.  He is so excited and checks on them daily.

There is so much pool time happening.  I love it.  At certain times, if we schedule it right, I can get Charlie to nap in his stroller (thanks to a portable fan and a white noise song on my phone) and i can get in the pool and play with the elder kids.  I cannot wait until next summer. We will be here every day.  (as opposed to now where we go 6 days in a row and skip the seventh.)

We discovered this month that we are 3 for 3 on kids that love pesto in our house.  Andy made fresh pasta with the new pasta attachments I got him for his birthday and I used the basil that was finally looking edible in our garden.  It was a mega hit.  Oh all the random things for my kids to love...

Pretzel proves to be more and more precious, snuggly, annoying, underfoot, kissable, grateful, needy, basically everything. At the end of this month we will have had him one year.  I cannot get over how much he has calmed down and how GOOD he is with the kids.  Even Charlie who is now crawling and pulling out his fur during sneak attacks.  Pretzel doesn't even snarl.  He just winces and moves away.  Almost like he's the parent.

Lucy started swim lessons this summer with Izzy.  She started so strong - able to bubble breathe, jump in the pool, put her face in the water, etc - but is resisting any actual learning which makes me think that she's not gonna get it this summer.  So we are gonna suspend lessons for now and pick them up next summer.  She will totally have the hang of it then but for now I kind of love the puddle jumper.

Random milkshake and burger lunch with the kids.  Some people love extreme sports.  Some people jump out of planes.  How do I get my adrenaline pumping?  I take my three children to a restaurant alone and try to control the chaos.  Most days it's a success because my children do actually eat and I think they were raised with my fast food addiction so they know how important this is to me.  never deny mommy her steak-burger with cheese.
Oh, you ran with the bulls in Pamplona?  That's sweet.  I took three starving children to a restaurant when the service was slow and no one had had a nap.  Beat that.

This year we met up with our favorite family ever - The Glovers! - at Secret City Festival!  Charlie - bless his heart - got to stay home with Andy and avoid the 95 degree heat.  But that meant that we could seize the festival fun without worry about  baby heat stroke :)

And we totally did!  There was much fishing in the creek with Anderson.

There was even a WWII reenactment going on.  We had such a blast and took advantage of every single thing we could.  Proof that it does get easier.

At one point they came back to our house to swim in the pool and play in the backyard.  This is the view from our deck with a beer, watching the kids from a distance.  #winning

Lucy and I will take advantage of days that Jack wants to play Legos while Charlie naps and play random games together.  This is her favorite called Headbandz.

Meanwhile, Lizzi and Rachel are honeymooning in Ireland and England.  Oh hello Stonehenge.

While we are at the pool.  Again.  I got Charlie this float to see if it holds him up better.  He mostly wants to drink the pool water but it actually works really well.  What is truly funny is that I wanted to get a picture to send to Andy and since I couldn't leave Charlie along in the pool I needed Jack to bring me my phone.  He offered to take a picture for us and did pretty well :)

#poolstud

He really is a perfect pool baby :)

Other extreme sports - taking your dog to the vet because he has a blockage from swallowing a pool noodle and needing to corral multiple children - the least excitable was the dog.  Pretzel turned out ok but it was nerve-wracking for us nonetheless.  He is our baby and we hate when he doesn't feel well.

Random picture here but Charlie takes an afternoon nap and I couldn't help but get this shot of his rolls.  Michelin Baby in the house.

And because I won't remember what grew last year and what didn't, here is a few shots of my backyard.

other random June stuff - we went to check out the McClung exhibit on dinosaurs with Mimi.

Charlie and Lucy did too :)  She's a good picture taker I must say.

This picture is my favorite.  Summer!!!

And also - Charlie!!!!  How does he keep getting cuter???

Randomly we decided to go visit the Aquarium of the Smokies b/c Jack had recently started showing an interest in sharks.  We got there just in time for this awesome mermaid show (Lucy was in HEAVEN)

She seriously wanted to go in.

Going through the shark tunnel with my amazing family.

There was a massive shark floating near them but it didn't phase them at all.  While I'm taking this picture, Lucy is screaming and clinging to me because the tunnel music is scary.  She can be fearless but not when the fears are founded.  I don't blame her.

Charlieman was perfect the entire time.

Lucy felt safe as long as Andy was holding her.

There was a 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor exhibit in the aquarium.  I missed it in this picture but Lucy at one point walked up to FDR and held his hand.

These are going on Powerpoints.

We touched jellyfish, watched mermaids, had so much fun...

And even ate at Mellow Mushroom on the way home.  How hilarious is Charlie?  It looks like he's saying, "Bartender! Give me another milk!"
It was such a PERFECT day.  i realize that's cheesy and obnoxious but in the middle of November when I'm putting my kids to bed after spending only 3 hours total with them that day and knowing I have 3 more hours of work to do after that, remembering days like these help.  A lot.

This was a random Tuesday when Andy came home from work.  I know my kids love me but nothing compares to Daddy being home to play with them :)  This is another one of my favorite pictures ever.

Randomness again - Lucy is in a dress stage.  She loves to wear pretty dresses and got mad at me one day because I dared to make her wear a romper from target.  Did she pout?  Yup.  Did she snap out of it 10 minutes later?  Yup.  And now she tells everyone about her pretty outfit mommy got her.  Toddlers are so weird.

She was even in a good enough mood to surprise me with this.  If you squint you can see that she has written her name.  At 3.  This is when having an older sibling pays off.

Another thing - this guy.  People keep asking me, is Charlie ever unhappy?  The answer is yes.  The first picture was when he saw he had eaten the last bite of cereal from his bowl.  The second is his reaction when he saw me take the lid off the can of puffs.  The boy has two moods - happy and hungry.

We are super pumped because they put in a brand new playground at Ball Camp Park which is .05 miles from our house.  we are not as pumped about how,,,tiny it is.  BUT we will gladly take a new playground any day.  The old one was from 1986.    And it has a lot of climbing stuff so we can recreate AmericanNinja Warrior while we are at it :)

Lastly, in June, I decided it would be a blast to take all three kids to the zoo one day.  And honestly, it was a blast!  Mostly because the pressure was off.  I packed snacks, knew ahead of time we would be buying our lunch and such, brought swimsuits and towels, and was ready to depart in case of a tantrum.  But all three did great!  Until the very end when after 4 hours Lucy decided she couldn't walk anymore and I had to carry her on my back while pushing Charlieman in the stroller.  But it all worked out.

At the bird exhibit.

Mr. Perfect.  He hung with the big kids and never once complained.  Love this kid.

They easily spent an hour at the splash pad.  My parents got us a zoo membership for Christmas and it is worth its weight in gold.  I love our zoo so much.  And they are even building a Tiger Pavilion!!

I only brought one towel but Jack was willing to share with Lucy in a super sweet, probably never to be seen again, sibling moment. :)

Dippin Dots just because they were behaving so well. And because the ice cream stand just ran out of super cheap push pops.

Another pretty perfect day.  And proof that with age it gets easier.  Still exhausting - but easier.  Thank you June for being an awesome month!  July will have lots of sun, sand, and water in store for us!!!!