What We've Been Up To

We've had a really busy week, which is why the posts haven't been too frequent or consistent.  What have we been up to?

Well, we've been putting babies in Woombies.

Tess is actually starting to take naps that are longer than 20 minutes, which is AWESOME as far as getting at least a few things done around the house is concerned.  It might be the Woombie, or it might be that she's getting older, or it might be that I'm letting her just cry herself to sleep now.  Who cares what it is as long as it works, right?

We've been hangin' out at the laundromat, since our new washing machine doesn't get here until Tuesday.  Tess wasn't that impressed with it.  (She slept most of the time, thank goodness!)

But the boys thought it was a pretty good adventure.  They got to put quarters in machines, watch The Price Is Right for the first time, play with a few kids who were also there, and eat snacks.  As you can see, Cole is really enjoying his snack.

 
What else?  Oh yeah, we went blueberry picking!

We didn't get to go last year because of all the moving madness, but we made up for it this year with 18 pounds of berries.

I made a bunch of freezer jam Thursday night, but forgot to take pictures of it.  I love the color of fresh berry jam. I'm planning on giving some out to neighbors this Christmas.  Don't you wish you lived by me?

We've also been hanging out with old friends.  When Lance and I were getting ready to move out here to Indiana my dad told us that we'd meet friends in graduate school who we would be friends with for life.  He was right.  Liz and Misty are definitely those kinds of friends!

Liz and her family were driving back from Utah and stopped in Indiana for a day or two.  I'm so glad she was able to come visit!  She and Misty and I visited for a few hours while our kids (all 10 of them!) played and fought and ate snacks and played some more.  Before they left we tried to get a picture of all the kiddos together.

Have you ever tried to take a picture of 10 kids?  Not so easy.

First, Dominic decided to run away.  Like how I got him mid-run?

 I like this picture because all of the kids are watching Dom run away. :)

Then Josh decided to make a run for it, too.  Pesky four year olds!

We finally got both Dom and Josh back.  But who's missing?  Cole, that's who.  Punk toddler.

Whew!  Finally one with everyone in it!  Nice face, Josh.

I decided we needed one with just the moms.  Spencer took it for us, which means it was taken from a low angle - not the most flattering.  Oh well.

Oh - I've also been letting Spencer and Josh hold Tess more.  Or rather, they've been showing more interest in it.  I think it's because she's a bit more smiley now, especially for them.

Guess the sun was a little bright for Tess.  Oops.

Awesome, Josh.

Today we cleaned the garage and disinfected the basement.  The garage was never properly unpacked when we moved in, and for some reason most of the cabinets and drawers were empty and everything was stacked on the counters.  Nice.

And the basement?  Well, remember all the fun we had the other night with the basement toilet?  Well, the next day we found out that the sewer pump had been burned out because someone had been flushing wipes down the toilet.  Great.  $885 and a big mess later and everything's back to normal.  We spent a good part of the afternoon and a lot of antibacterial cleaner to clean everything up.  No pictures of either the garage or the basement, but do you really need any?

Finally, I've been trying to get a picture of Tess smiling.  No dice.  She is very stingy with her smiles when the camera is out.  Instead, she kinda gets the whole 'deer in the headlights' look.  Oh well.

This one is pretty close... but not quite.

Alllmooosssstt...

I decided to take her into her room to try to get a smile.  On the wall I have a wooden letter "T" with some ribbons hanging off of it.  On those ribbons I have all of Tess's hair bows.  Whenever I'm in there nursing her and she sees those ribbons she just smiles and coos and shakes her little arms and legs.  She's a girl who loves her accessories!  So I thought I'd show them to her and capture the smile.  But no luck.  This was the best I got.

And that's what we've been up to.  Let's hope next week is a little calmer!