A new chapter

We said goodbye to our coffee table this morning. It is packed up and stored in the shed. There was just not enough room for Charlotte to play on the floor in the living room without it getting crowded. We are now in the parenting/child stage of our lives! Here is the new living room layout, complete with a swing, bounce seat, bumbo and basket of toys! 

We swore when we started thinking about having kids that our house would never turn into a toy zone, that we wouldn't have swings, and bouncy seats etc. Yup, we were wrong! I think its time to take down the "Welcome Home Charlotte" sign!
Charlotte entertained herself for quite a while this morning with her toy gym thing. She has figured out how to grab on to the ball and put it in her mouth! Yay! 

We have been trying to get reorganized and tidy up the house since we got home. Chris starts real work again on Tuesday. Charlotte went to the pediatrician on Friday and she weighs 11 lbs 6oz! She is taking after Rosie, she is in the 50th percentile for her weight and 95th for her head!!!! 

Charlotte has been sleeping in her Kanoe Hammock since we have been back and there was nothing for her to look at like in her swing, so yesterday I made her a Mobile out of red, white and black ribbons! 

Home again home again.....

We're back in San Diego! Grandma was very very sad to see us go. 

The night before Grandma made dinner for us, her special fried chicken and potatoes, and homemade blue cheese dressing for the salad! Yum! We were sad to leave everyone.
We were especially sad to leave Baylie, since I wont be able to fly with her alone in the summer, she is staying with Grandma and Grandpa! Baylie loves it there because Grandma gives her a treat every morning, toast, half a bagel, cookies...
Mom bought a weighted hula hoop for exercise. Neither her or Chris were very good at it. I was great! Chris was practicing though!

Mom and Chris worked on making a waterfall for her pond over the weekend. Charlotte and I wanted to be outside with them, but Charlotte was very tired... so she slept!
Nothing better than a quiet, sleeping baby!
Kobi and Lucie wanted to play, so I threw the frisbee for them. They like to carry it back together, and then they ended up like this. 
Kobi kept dropping his ball in the pond, then trying to get it out... that was when I decided to get out the frisbee to play.

The finished waterfall! Chris had to help mom move all the big heavy rocks! Doesn't it look pretty!

The first night of goodbyes

Today was Jim's birthday! We went over for dinner to celebrate! Amy got her girls matching dresses, and got Charlotte one too! Poor Molly was not happy about the bows on the dress, but was such a good sport about wearing it for a picture! Of course with a toddler and two babies it was very hard to get everyone to look and smile at the same time! Here is the best shot! Clearly as much as Charlotte may want to fit in to the crazy family, she will have to lighten up her skin tone a bit and get some blonde hair before we can pull it off!

Charlotte was kind of crabby and slept in her Moby wrap most of dinner, but decided to make an appearance for desert. Molly scooped her up and Charlotte was thrilled!
Jim started to burp Charlotte and she spit up all over him! Happy Birthday!
We hung out for a while and chatted, Amy didn't want us to leave, and it almost became impossible for us to leave when we couldn't find what Amy did with Charlotte's car seat! I swear she was plotting to have us stay! Charlotte was sound asleep all sprawled out in Amy's lap!
We came home and this is what happens when I get over tired!
Tomorrow we say goodbye to the Great Grandmas... it will be a sad day! Luckily Charlotte and I will be back this summer!

The Great Camping Adventure

Chris, Jim and Rory went camping last night. They set off in the afternoon to go up to Lake George. There is a group of islands that are state owned, and you can camp on them! Most require a 3 night minimum stay, but if you go the day you want to stay, sometimes you can get a campsite just for the night. So they did just that. The islands are accessable by boat only, obviously. This required them to rent a canoe! When they got to the canoe rental place, they told the lady they wished to rent a canoe, to which she replied, "Sure, for when?". They told her they wanted it immediately to canoe to the islands, which is about a 3 mile canoe trip. She told them they were crazy and asked if they had seen the weather forecast (thunderstorms and rain). They told her they would be fine and after persuading Rory to get in the canoe (the bag of Fritos helped I'm sure!) they set off for the island. 

First they had to find the main island to check in. There were only about 5 other groups of campers so they got their pick of islands. Here it is! They had the whole island to themselves!

Amy was so nice and bought the boys tons of junk food for the trip. This included a bottle of grape soda, which Jim and Chris challenged Rory to consume. They went fishing and caught 3 fish but decided to stick to eating their hot dogs for dinner! 

When they went to return the canoe today, the lady confessed to them that she was so worried that she sent her son to follow them in his boat to make sure they got to the island before the storm hit. Her son reported back that they had just made it to the island when he started to see 4 foot swells. They had lots of fun despite the weather! I don't think Rory will forget his first camping trip!

Girl time!

Today Chris left to go camping overnight with Jim and Rory. We were suppose to get thunderstorms and rain today/this evening so we were all a little worried for them. In the meantime, I took Molly to go see Hannah Montana, then we picked up pizza and went back up to Amy's for dinner. Mom picked up Charlotte from Great Gram's and brought her up too. Molly loved holding her. 
Partway through dinner the phone rang and it was Jim calling to give an update. Part of the fun of the camping trip was that they were going to rent a canoe and canoe to an island to camp. They made it, even though it took some convincing to get Rory in the canoe!  The poor guys were bombarded with questions as soon as they called. They have their own island to themselves. It started pouring tonight, but they still had a fire going. Chris sent a picture with his phone!

Molly is great with babies... she has three younger siblings! She held Charlotte and sang to her and she went right to sleep! They also share a birthday! 

And just for the record... Grandma, you put on Charlotte's pants backwards!

Visit with the Great Grandparents

Today we had lunch with the Great Grandparents. G.Grandma Eda went with us in the car and was so excited Charlotte was smiling at her. I gave her my camera and she figured out how to take a picture... this is what she got!

After lunch we brought Grandma Eda upstairs so she could read the blog on Grandma Connie's computer. That took a while to get caught up! Grandpa and Chris decided to nap downstairs! Before we left we took some photos outside in Grandma's beautiful garden! Apparently Charlotte was tired!
Us with Grandma Eda!
With both the Great Grandmas. They argued all afternoon.... "She smiled at me... Well she didn't cry for me... You should have heard her coo to me... She said I love Grandma..." and on it went! Of course they were just kidding and shared the baby wonderfully! 
Finally Charlotte got some Daddy time. She's soaking it in before we go back home and she will be stuck with Mommy most of the day!

Fun at the Funny Farm Pond

In case you didn't know, our friends Amy and Jim have five kids, and its always crazy at their house, so we call it the funny farm. Well today was another nutty day on the farm. We had a great time at lunch with the little girls, then went back to their house. Jim and Chris are gearing up for the big camping trip this weekend and they got fishing poles they wanted to try out at the big pond down the street. Chris thought this was a great opportunity to go swimming as well.

I lugged Charlotte in her carseat to the far side of the pond, where she proceeded to scream once I set her down. Rory just LOVES babies and was playing with her until she started crying.
Backtracking a bit... Jim, Chris, Molly and Rory were fishing... Jim thought it would be fun to go on this old raft and fish from the middle of the pond. After a bit, he told Rory and Chris to join him. They were doing fine for a while and then the raft submerged and the three of them went into the pond, clothes and all. After they swam to shore, Jim realized his glasses must have fallen off and were at the bottom of the pond. They returned home and Chris got goggles, determined to find the glasses. He never did. Some fish is sure excited to be able to see tonight!
Rory thought Charlotte's car seat made a great seat!
Since they had bathing suits on, they figured why not go to the middle of the pond! I think they had a good time!
Chris finished it off by taking a dive into the pond! I was screaming at him never to dive in shallow water, when he popped up and could hardly touch! I guess Im becoming a paranoid mom! 
Charlotte was awake pretty much the whole afternoon. She took a couple little cat naps but that was it! We brought her home and she passed out! Keeping our fingers crossed for a long stretch of sleep tonight!