Ohio – part 4

Jul 5, 2011 by Lindsay

I love that when we are able to be in Ohio that we can see my WHOLE family while we are there, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. Everyone lives right in the same town where I grew up, I’m the only one that lives far away! We all get together at least once when we are home, but usually more. As we add spouses and kids to the family it gets a little bit busier, but I always love our time together!

I couldn’t resist these pictures of miss Ava with Zachary, she just loved him and couldn’t get enough of him!

I will cherish these pictures of Joshua with my grandpa. I just love him so much!

On our last day in Ohio, my dad came over with lunch and to see us all before we headed home. The kids ended up drawing with him on the floor. It reminded me of when I was a  little girl, my mom would write notes on our napkins in our lunch bags and my dad would draw little cartoons on them. He’s quite the cartoon artist!

Zachary started eating more than just cereal and prunes while we were there. He had been pretty fussy for a few days and I realized that he was wanting to nurse all the time, and one day it clicked that maybe he was hungry for some real baby food! I smashed up some banana and he has been an eating machine ever since!

Drinks from the sprinkler, real summer living right there! (Never mind that the water was freezing and so none of the kids wanted to actually get wet!)

We love our time in Ohio, it always goes so fast! We are thankful that we are able to see our family that is so far away and we look forward to seeing them all again at Christmas!!!

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Ohio – part 3

Jul 2, 2011 by Lindsay

Lots of pictures, lots of captions, hold on to your hat, here we go!!!

 

Sister makes doughnuts like our mama used to, by the end of the trip my oldest son was requesting them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Just take refrigerated biscuit dough, stretch a hole in the middle, put in hot oil in a pan, a few minutes on both sides, then roll it around in cinnamon sugar. Breakfast of champions? You bet!

We made a trip to the biggest playground ever. It’s a good thing we had three adults to keep track of kids, we could have used a few more!

Balancing skills!

Sign of a successful day at the park!

One day we decided to make a trip to the Toledo Zoo, the weather was perfect!! I didn’t even sweat man-handling children all day! (TMI? Sorry!)

I’m thinking this is about as good as group pictures are going to get for a few years!! Haha!

Joshua was fascinated with the Polar Bears, he could have watched them all day!

Mama bear nursing baby bear….they were the same size……yep.

We got to see an eleven-day-old baby elephant! This cute little guy just followed his Mama around and she would keep him in line with a little kick in the rear if he did something she didn’t like!

We saw a very rare and handsome pack mule while at the zoo as well

 

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Ohio – part two

Jun 28, 2011 by Lindsay

Man, I’m on a roll with these blog posts! It’s amazing how much more often I post when my pictures cooperate!

After the wedding on Saturday we had a pretty low key week. Lazy mornings, trips to the park, naps, playing in the yard…enjoying the beauty of an Ohio summer! I loved the kids in the mornings, in their jammies with their puppy dog breath! One morning Joel asked me if it could be a “jammie day.” That boy would wear his pajamas all day, everyday! My mom was the same way, he is his Mimi’s boy! haha!

Uncle Matthew always got some good expressions out of Zachary, I love how he has his arms and legs up off the ground, building up those back muscles! haha!

Sunday night my sister made gyros & greek salad with all the fixings for dinner. (My BIL is half Greek) Mmmmm I could go for one right now! I love knowing that when I am at her house there is always plenty of feta cheese in the fridge!

Try not to drool on your computer!

Zachary’s face just cracks me up!

Aunt Lindsay showing Caroline how to blot her lip gloss, you have to teach those things at a young age

If you have read my blog for long you know my love for girly things. Nothing thrills my heart like getting to spend a week playing with my sweet Caroline’s beautiful auburn curls and her sitting so still while I put on my makeup and brush the tiniest bit of my blush on her little cheeks, and her just soaking it all up. But my love for my niece is more than just playing dress up. I love her (and Joel) as if they were my own and I hope that I can be an example for her as she grows as a woman that loves the Lord and finds her value in Him. Playing hair and makeup is just the icing on the cake

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Ohio – Part One

Jun 27, 2011 by Lindsay

I have so many pictures from Ohio that I think it will be a three part post! I love having pictures to document our time with my family, I have weeded out some of the bad ones and an now down to *only* 300 pictures! Haha!

When we first got there the boys wanted OUT of the car to go play, we all needed to stretch our legs a bit! J-man headed straight for his favorite toy, the Cozy Coupe, he drove it around the whole time we were in Ohio last August too!

Little Miss Ava became one of Zachary’s biggest fans! She just loved on him any time he was around!

Saturday afternoon was Stephanie and Nate’s wedding, the whole reason we made the trip to Ohio! We got a sitter for all the kids and just had a great time!

I was so disappointed that this picture turned out blurry, you can’t really tell on here, but unfortunately Brandon (red shirt in the far background) is in focus, not us! Haha!

Ava with her best bud, I love her sweet little smile, you can just tell how pleased she is with herself!

All the Dewey ladies, Grandma, Em, Steph, me, Aunt Lynne and Aunt Andrea.

I think I might have figured out my issues with flickr, so hopefully there will be more picture posts to come….soon!

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Vacation from my vacation

Jun 24, 2011 by Lindsay

Have you ever returned home from being out of town and thought to yourself, “I need a vacation after my vacation!”

After driving 18 hours to and from Ohio and spending the week with people that I love dearly, but also a house full of children I felt like I needed a vacation after my “vacation!”

Well, it just so happened that this week was Cousin Camp 2011. It’s the week where my in-laws gather up all the cousins ages 3+ and take care of them for the week, day and night, mealtime, bath-time, nap-time, you name it! Can I get a fist pump?!?! Although I am still left with two of my three dudes at home, I was able to go out and do things with the two that are just harder with three. Plus on top of that Joshua was able to be included in two of the day activities of cousin camp giving me two mornings with just Z-man!!! Double fist pump!

What ever have I been doing with my free time you ask?

Napping, watching afternoon movies, shopping, decorating, etc.

What have I NOT been doing?

Laundry, cleaning, cleaning and laundry.

I have however managed to feed my family the necessary meals each day, so that counts for something, right? But indeed, it was a great week for our oldest to have a break from us and us to have a break from him, because let’s face it, we all need some time to miss each other every so often! He was absolutely precious when he saw me for the first time after three whole days, he just hugged me so tight and walked around the house for a good while holding Joshua’s hand. Reunions are so sweet.

Yesterday and today were my mornings with just my baby and we made the best of our time, shopping til this momma dropped. Much to my husbands dismay I stumbled upon some of the greatest sales of the season and bought just a *few* items for my boys to grow into next year and somehow a few dirt cheap little girly items made it home with me to live in my hope box

Wanna see?

See those green plaid dress shirts (there are 2 of each color)? Yep, $2.20. And the most expensive tee I bought was $3.99 but most were only $2.50 or $2.99. I consider that a good price for items that three boys will get use out of. Most things are sizes 3T and up, I can’t wait to see my little monkey boys wearing their monkey shirts! Andrew is also a big fan of sea turtles, so I think the swim trunks will be a hit and he can wear them this summer and next summer too. It’s nice that he’s starting to slim down and just get taller, we get a lot more use out of stuff! And the girly things I spoke of?

Ahhhhh, can’t you just envision a little girl wearing her pink checked romper with some fresh little white keds and the purple dress with a big purple bow in her hair. Ok, I need to stop. If there is never a little miss to speak of under our roof somebody with a little girl will have some really cute things passed on to them!

Just for fun yesterday I took some mirror shots with my J-man, so much personality in such a small package! (My favorite part of this picture is his chubby little fingers, I just love little dimpled toddler hands!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this morning I had  a photo shoot with my little twinkies.

If I had to guess what Zachary is thinking I would say, “Oh brother, please love me less!”

Doesn’t seem like that long ago that my first two boys were matching in these same outfits, seriously who turned my babies into such big boys? Someone make it slow down.

Have a wonderful weekend, stay cool!

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I’m a survivor

Jun 20, 2011 by Lindsay

We officially survived an 18 hour (one way) car ride to and from Ohio with three bouncing boys in tow! I told myself that if I could survive this trip, then I could survive anything! Not only did we survive, but it was good, we all had our moments, but there was less than 3 hours of crying/screaming/whining in each direction. Woop woop!

So, how did we do it? We drove while the chicklets slept. Best decision ever, and we will never do it any other way…..at least not until they are old enough to help us drive and not cry because they dropped their blankies! Haha!

We had the absolute BEST time in Ohio and Andrew has already been asking when we can go back! The cousins played great together with the exception of a few normal spats over major issues like Buzz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen, but with a little parental guidance they were working out their disagreements on their own by the end of the week without the use of physical force

It is so hard to have two “homes.” Over the past 6 years Florida has become the home I have made with my husband, children and new friends. But Ohio is where I spent my entire childhood, it’s familiar, I am comfortable there, it makes me feel like I’m a kid again. I know all the streets, I always see someone I know when I go to the grocery store and it’s where some of my favorite people are.

Goodbyes are never easy, but this time was especially difficult. I don’t like missing out on the everyday things that my family does together. It makes me sad that my family doesn’t get to see my boys grow up and that my boys have to get comfortable with everyone all over again when we do see each other. As I was kissing my niece and nephew goodbye my chest was so tight it hurt.  I love them like they are my own, I literally felt like I was leaving part of my heart behind.

I promise this whole post won’t be sad and sappy!

As we were pulling onto my sister’s street I was telling the boys that we had finally arrived at Joel and Caroline’s house and Andrew put his hands on his cheeks and exclaimed, “I can hardly believe it!” Haha! Needless to say, we are already looking forward to going back at Christmas!

Mommy had a stash of treats for when things started to get ugly, I didn’t have to pull out the suckers until we were 30 minutes from our destination! Not bad!

I have so much more to share but flickr wants to be lame-o tonight. Flickr is seriously to blame for many of my non-posting days, it doesn’t let me add pictures and then I get frustrated and give up. Anyone out there with a better suggestion for a photo hosting site?

Hopefully I’ll be back soon with more stories and PICTURES to share!!!

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