June

Long story short: Some friends of ours planned an impromptu camping trip to bogart park the first Friday in June. I worked allll day cleaning the house so it wouldn't be chaos to try and pack around it and also to have it clean when we got home. We got up to our campsite about 5 without josh. He was still on his way home and I figured I'd let kids play a little before he got there. Katie, Russell and their kids got there about 10minutes before us and our kids set out to play in the dirt as happy as can be. I was starting to unpack when a fire broke out right by our campsite. Russell tried putting it out by kicking dirt on it but there was way too much dry leaves and brush around. I wish I had his reaction time and instinct. I didn't know what to do! He jumped right into action, as did Katie.  Katie and russel  took all 4 of my kids and i FLEW down the hill in my van to the entrance honking and screamed to the lady working that there was big fire spreading fast. In all I think 22engines, a tractor, 4planes, 2 helicopters and 241 firemen assigned to this. it burned about 30 acres, no structures and no one injured. It was VERY scary to see a BIG, out of control fire that close to me and my kids. I wanted nothing more then to get my kids in my car and get far away from it. SO glad that it ended as good as it did!

     Josh got some tickets from a guy he was working with for a demolition derby so we all went the very next night. 

     We caravaned to the fair grounds and stopped for pizza and tail gated with it before the show started. 3 families....3 white vans...we each have 4 kids! (Katie does have one on the way too)

We had SO much fun!!!!! The kids were hardly into it which shocked me but it was a lot of sitting. 

   I loved that it all started out with a prayer and the national anthem...then out drove the AWESOME cars! They were so banged up and all spray painted. We each picked out our favorites and which ones we thought win. The first race of the night were some figure 8 races in which the racers sped around the dirt track in a figure 8 and had tons of near misses in the middle and a few crashes which had everyone shouting on the edge kntheir seats! They played lots of awesome music to get the crowd going and stomping in the stands. 

     Here is the group right before the races started. Reese was there just hiding behind Russell. 

After the figure 8 races they had the "trailer race".  Every car had to have a trailer attached and in order to win you had to come in first, second or third but you also had to have your trailer attached still-in any condition but attached. People had all sorts of things on their trailer, sea doos, boats, power wheel, a BBQ. As the race began all those items fell all over the slippery muddy track. (they had a water truck come out and spray the track a couple times) so tires started popping as the cars were sliding around the corners. The best part was probably when the suburban got stuck on the trailer of a car in front of him and they hda to drive together!!!

   The last race of the night was the absolute best. It was sooo funny to watch and had everyone in the stands going nuts. They had about 10 cars out on the slippery muddy track, but tractors placed huge tractor tires on the track, plus all the boats and sea doos. No rules to win, you could hit other cars out of the way, what're got your 20laps done the fastest.  Right off cars were driving through the boats sending broken peices flying. Tires started popping and rolling off into the distance. Cars were banging into each other. There was no way you could tell who was in the lead. The suburban's back right tire rolled away and he continues to drive on his rim, soon after he ran over a sea doo and still continued to drive with it lodged under its front wheel!  Another car had the hood fly up, I have no clue how he continued to drive around the track! Toward the end he crashed and his trunk opened too it was so funny to see him stuck like that. 

A lot of the cars were smoking toward the end too. 

   It was good clean fun and i love the families we spent the night with :)

Riley started piano lessons this month.

 My cousin katie is her teacher. Right now we do just twice a month for 30minutes each lesson but I'm hoping to get a job and then I can bump her up to 4 times a month! Riley has been so excited and had a good first lesson, she has to practice minimum of ten minutes each day right now since the songs are very simple. 

I hope she wants to stick with it, would love to have a pianist in the house!

This month was a BIG one for Reese. She started doing so many new things. 

    -She started giving kisses. Josh was kissing her over and over and then asked for one and she leaned in with a big slobbery open mouth.

    -Reese started crawling. And she gets faster and faster every day! She is starting to get into everything but it's still cute so I don't care...yet!

     -Reese started clapping as well. She is so proud of herself and loves to do it. At church she smiled at my friends husnab and then blew some raspberries and then clapped for herself hahah. 

      

    -Next, Reese learned how to wave "bye-bye". She opens and closes her little fist and does it toward herself and it's just the cutest thing (i think everything she does is cute but this really is!) my favorite is when she concentrates so hard to wave and then claps for herself after. 

    -Reese loves to blow raspberries and laughs after or claps for herself. She is always blowing raspberries to her brothers to get them to laugh. 

   -One day after she turned 8mths old she started sleeping in her crib. It was definitely time but I loved having her right next to me in her bassinet. She did just fine transitioning to her crib and soon learned how to pull up and stand holding onto the rails. 

    My kids got Mollusum this month. It was never diagnosed by a dr but I had seen it on a friends' kid so I knew what it was. As soon as i realized Braden had it and they weren't just little pimples on his legs I (flipped out) googled information on Molluscum for 3days straight. (really) I learned what it was, how it's spread, how it's treated, what doctors recommend, what other moms have tried on their kids, what worked, what didn't work etc. Come to find out its a virus that affects the skin, HIGHLY contagious. NOT harmful at all luckily. Ones own immune system should take care of it. So after I gathered all my information I went off my mommy instinct and made a regime to do each day and happy to report it worked incredibly well! Most people "suffer" from these Molluscum "bumps" all over her there body (people have hundreds sometimes!) for up 2years! Braden had 15bumps at its worst and Max got 3 total and Reese 2. Riley survived! Braden only has one left and Max has one stubborn one as well. Reese has been free and clear for 3 weeks!

I treated it like the plague! I washed the kids sheets every. single. day. If they wore pajamas that covered all their bumps, I would stretch that to every other day sometimes. I changed their clothes 2x a day and put them directly into the washing machine. I used paper towels in the bathroom. Cleaned toilet seat right after braden sat on it (sincehe has some bumps on his thighs)Gave them vitamins every day. A green smoothie once a day. Showers only-no baths. Each and every spot is covered with a water tight band aid if we go swimming to prevent spread. I kept Braden in clothes that covered all his spots. Which meant long sleeves (in summer!) for awhile.  And i treated each bump with a seperate clean q-tip soaked in Tea Tree Oil 3xday. 

   Consistency was key for us. Since they started getting better (and within days) after a couple weeks i started getting more relaxed...Braden started getting a couple more. So in back on track now to get this over with! Can you say nightmare?!

     Josh went to big bear with his brother and met up with my step dad and step brother for the annual bow fishing tournament. Josh shot 3!

Sounds like they had a ton of fun and he is planning to go back on the 4th of July. 

We decided to start having a half birthday for ma each since it's hard to celebrate on Christmas. I kept it just family (and a family friend that is like family now) 

It was fun and very low key. Pizzas, blow up pool, slip and slide and water balloon fight. 

My dad made this incredible paper mâché shark to take pictures in. 

My mom made this cool shark watermelon

    I heard about a baby in the next city over born with out any openings for her girl parts or to have a bowel movements. Also a few organs fused together. Poor baby! She is 8mths old and needs a surgery that her insurance won't cover. About $150,000. Riley has been wanting to do a lemonade stand for a long time now and I thought this was more then worthy of the prophet! I asked two friends and their kids to join us and a third friend that is more involved with this baby offered to join in too. Good thing because she put up fliers and got the word out. The girls worked hard selling lemonade, water bottles, cookies and donuts (5dozen were donated from a local donut shop!) they yelled and waved signs for two hours and made $3,786!!!!!

One proud momma right here!

Now, for all the fun random pictures of June. 

She is getting way too big! I'm loving every second. 

Lots of fun days in the pool with friends. 

Love my silly sweet boys

            Goofy kids

Riley was invited for her first non family sleep over and had a great time. Ava and Anabelle invited her and madylin and Morgan.  

Riley made a friend in kindergarten named Phoenix and they were also in first grade together. She invited Riley to the city pool one day :)

Ready early for church while josh was out of town-had to take a picture to capture that!

The kids are getting more into board games. 

Max had a hearing text this month. It didn't go too well. Waiting to see the ENT to get full results and waiting to hear from the county to set a speak evaluation. (He was approved just waiting for the appointment now)

Max is doing great with potty training...IF...he is naked haha he has had ZERO accidents. But as soon as he wears a diaper or underwear he pees/poops in them. 

Ava nd Riley

That is Reese in the middle of chaos at a splash pad having a great time!

Riley spent the night at my moms finally (she hasnt in awhile and has been wanting to) she worked hard on her fairy garden. 

josh and I took the boys and Reese bowling while Riley was at my moms with the Ingrams. Braden LOVED bowling. It was his second time and he was in to it!! He was giggling, and cheering the whole time! Passing out high fives and kisses. So cute. 

Max loves his weapons and has taken to stashing them in his clothes and diaper. 

Buddies

I realized I don't take enough pictures of Braden!

They sure LOVE each other!

Went out to dinner to celebrate two friends having babies soon. It was fun as usual, surprised we didn't get kicked out. We were loud I'm sure!

June was fantastic!! I LOVE my life. There are things I would like to change or be different, sure. But I do realize all the blessings i have and it's not too hard at all to let those be enough. 

May

Braden started off the month with a stomach bug...he was quesy all day and needed to lay down to rest but also had just enough energy to want to play some. He really wanted to play "shooter guys" with me ... We run around the house with guns and shoot invisible bad guys...not 

my cup of tea...I suggested puzzles, not his thing...sooo we settled on this:

It was really fun and we had a blast doing it together!

Josh and I got to go on a double date with Becca and Gary...I had been craving to try some new foods so they recommends Dhat Island, caribbean creol and it was DELICIOUS! We hit up a gourmet icecream shot after :) fun night with really good friends. 

Braden has been working really hard on hand stands in the bounce house and against the wall but lately has been trying to fine tune enough to do a headstand without the help of a wall. And Max has been practicing weird faces!

I taught Braden how to put your knees on your arms and to slowly raise your legs up! Braden is really close to being able to hold it steady. 

Caiden was a good student too!

Max was not playing nicely one day so I sent him upstairs to play quietly on his own in his room. When I went to check on him a little later, he was in Riley's room, asleep in Reese's crib! Josh and I do NOT let our kids even stand on the side of the crib let alone get in it!!!

(Max has been a lot to handle lately but I think that deserves its very own post)

I signed riley up for "mileage club" an after school running club that meets twice a week. She did not want to do it but I told her she had to try just one practice. I'm glad I did because she loved it and her love continues to grow!        There are 5 elementary schools in our district and one of them put on a real track meet! (they obviously never ran track because they were not staggering the kids at the starting line! Frustating to watch but hopefully next year that will be fixed)  the track meet was a lot longer then schdeduled but so fun to watch! Riley did great, not as good as I was expecting but she ran her heart out and loved it. It was so funny at the start each time they shot the gun it scared her and she got a slightly slower start. And at the end she "jumped" across the finish line instead of running straight through haha. 

3 cute cousins! They did a 4x400 relay together and did great! I swore they got 3rd but guess I was wrong because they didn't receive a ribbon for it 

She received a ribbon for placing 3rd out of all first graders in the 200m dash.

At the beginning of this month Reese got very good at rolling front to back to front again. When I try to put her on her stomach so she will NOT attempt crawling she just rolls to her back to grab her toes!

Lots of fun with cousins

   Me and my big girl

     William "Liam" russel fisher was born

The week Reese turned 7mths old she started to reach both arms up when she wanted someone to hold her. I just love this mile stone for some reason. 

Reese is learning to like baby food now. She still prefers solid food over anything puréed. (Toward the end of this month she would only eat 1/3-1/2 of a jar at a time. But give her something solid she can hold and she will destroy it!)

At 7mths and one week Reese started being less satisfied just sitting. She started reaching forward to get on her knees. About the same time she started to roll EVERYWHERE and by the end of this month she was "purposefully" rolling everywhere! She would roll then get up and on hands and re-asses where she was and where she wanted to go and then get down and roll again. Repeat until she reached her destination. 

I wanted to remember this to read in the future and laugh...Braden was playing the wii and stopped and very proudly said his Arms were "strong like a weasel". And he has referred to it a few times after. Not sure where he got that or what he thinks a weasel is...

When Braden woke up early from a nap I said "why are you up so early?" (kind of disappointed because I wanted more quiet time for myself) and he was so sweet and said "because I love you" good reminder for me to soak it all up...

Max is talking much better but still very hard to understand. He did start putting two words together this month.  Such as instead of telling me "no" now he says "no, mommy".  I can tell it requires effort because he pauses between each word. I have a hearing test scheduled for the middle of June for him just to rule any hearing impairment out. 

At 7.5 mths Reese wants to crawl bad! She gets on all fours and rocks and rocks. Sometimes she propels forward with her feet and face plants to get where he wants and sometimes he puts her head down and pushes with her feet shoving her head along the carpet. She relies on rolling to get where she wants to be a lot still but i suspect it won't be much longer for her to figure out how to use her hands and arms!

Riley lost her other bottom tooth while she was at school and josh and I forgot To play tooth fairy that night! (how horrible!!!) LUCKILY the next morning she got her tooth from under her pillow and was hanging it over the bannister and dropped it and couldn't find it! That was when I said maybe while she was searching the tooth fairy got it first! I wrote a quick note something about the tooth fairy helping a kid with a toothache so she couldn't be there last night and thanks for the shiny tooth. Phew...I got off easy! We still haven't found that tooth she dropped...lol maybe the tooth fairy is real ;)

While boys were at the father and sons overnighter at lake perris Katie invited us girls over for mani/pedis and facials. It is so cute to see them get pampered. 

Meanwhile...

Apparently they had a blast!

Reese gets everywhere by rolling...nothing is safe anymore!

Riley really wants to open a day care and was pleasently surprised when I said yes...

She was soooo sad when no one came to drop off kids. She finally dropped the price to free and then even added on a prize to whoever came first...

The local hospital (where a friend works) did their 2nd annual 5k. A bunch of us friends went and had so much fun!!!(I am so so lucky to have such a great group of good friends, this is just part of them. But they will be life long friends. I know I can trust and count on everyone of them)

Riley ran with my friend Becca and they came in first! Riley chose a $25 gift card to stator brothers. Me josh and the kids were the next to come in and we were the first family so we got our picture taken. It was a low key (but i was still competitive and ran my heart out pushing Reese and Max while josh and Braden ran and sometimes pushed Braden too!) race where you run two laps around the area that equaled to 5k and got one raffle ticket per person at different places along the way. You then got to put your raffle tickets toward different prizes. We won 2 diaper bags FULL of baby and kids stuff (lotion, baby powder, sun glasses, sippy cups etc) and we also won a single jogging stroller!

It was AWKWARD for me to win so much, I'm trying to pass on the good fortune and give a few things away...

  I was so proud of Riley. My friend Becca said that riley set the pace a little slower then 10min/miles and didn't stop!

Just because I love her and happen to think she is too cute!

Enjoying the warm weather!

          Memorial Day 

We started off the day by letting josh sleep in a little and making a good dessert to bring to Lynne and Max's later

   Now that the kids are older i wanted to teach them why we celebrate memorial day so josh and I took them to a local cemetery and found a few graves with flags on them and discussed how they possibly served and died defending our country. They had a lot of questions and seemed interested :)

 Then off to Lynne and Max's for a day of swimming!

(max still has one eat tube in place and has to wear his war plug still)

Cute!

(later I compared pictures of Riley and Reese at this age in same bathing suit...wow

Riley is on the left and Reese on the right! Identical!)

Braden kept his floaties on all day and had a BLAST swimming and jumping and getting on the rafts. He especially loved when his cousin Nathan came and joined in. 

Braden "rowed" Max around for a LONG time

I didn't get any pictures of Riley but she was in the water much of the day and had a great time too. 

   Reese loves the water like the rest of them...she happily splashed on the steps or came swimming with an adult

Whispering sweet nothing's I'm sure :)

Max and cousin Lydia

Pooped!

 

Lynne has a sailor outfit for the boys and one for the girls for this age...here are a few of Reese's quick shoot from my phone

All of first grade was in a "vocabulary" parade. Each student was given a word and they had to create a costume to go with it and memorize the definition. Riley was "elasticity". The first graders paraded in front of the parents and then through every single room in the school! I was blown away, there were some great costumes!!

Hanging out enjoying life!

I watched 3 of my friend Shelley's kids while she took her fourth to an appt. the kids stayed for dinner and played lots!

We took the kids to the rain forest cafe for dinner one night because Riley didn't take her "pyramid" down all year (discipline system used in class for mis behaving) this was her reward and a good excuse to eat out!

The kids were so excited and it was worth every penny with faces like these! (animals move and make sounds every 15min and there is a lightening/thunder storm every 30min)

I don't think Max say down a single time. He kept pointing to the animals and trying to say their names. He LOVED it. 

After they chose sweet factory for dessert

On the last day of may I had to make a few returns and Riley came with me, when we passed by a Clair's someone was getting their ears pierced so we stopped to watch and I told her she could do it if she wanted...(she has been wanting to for about a year or so but has been to scared). I told her no pressure but the offer was on the table. She giggled as she thought about it and went back and forth and finally said yes to my surprise! We called josh to be sure he didn't want to be there to witness it, he said to go ahead. I thought she would chicken out once she was in the chair but nervous as she was she went through with it! They pierced both at he same time while she squeezed my hands hard. She picked the december birthstone for its pretty blue green color and it was a great choice, it looked so pretty on her!

  After they finished piercing her eyes got watery and she said it was hurting but she didn't cry (maybe she was too shy?) and i asked if she regretted it and she said yes about 20seconds later she said she was so happy to have done it. 

It was bitter sweet to see her ears get pierced. Like a part of her innocence was taken away...

Before:

After:

She is (literally) counting down the days to put in some new fun earings. 

Lastly, just for records...josh and I gifted each other one month of Crossfit each for Christmas and we finally used it this month. We fell in LOVE with it. It is crazy expensive that is why we both just did a cheaper one month groupon deal. Not a day passes that I don't wish i was there. I only lost a pound or two but gained lots of muscle and strength. I quickly fell in love with lifting weights, loved the confidence it gave me and loved the way I felt soooo strong! We try to use what we have and work out from home a few days a week. Not the same at all but better then nothing...

May was another good month...I am sure to count my blessings...seems we have a lot of good months and very little bad things that happen to us. I am aware that could change in an instant and am constantly trying to enjoy and be grateful for all we have.