Dod boarding

Nate signed us up on a dog boarding website to host dogs while their families are away. I'm trying to decide this is a good idea. It does sound nice to have someone pay us to keep their dog rather than for us paying to get a dog. The kids like dogs, and I think Nate was thinking this would be a good way for them to earn a little money. Well, too bad. The money is going in MY pocket. They may play with them, and I'm sure Nate would take care of them if he was home, but it turns out that this is my second job (or is it third or fourth?).

Anyway, we have our first dog over the weekend. Jessie just came this morning, and she is a sweet girl. She's a coon hound, I think? She's just big and sheds a lot! Nate had already been planning on taking the big kids camping tonight, and I am really fine being left with my little one and a dog. Neither one of whom can talk to me! I'm actually happy to have a big dog sleeping in a crate downstairs while Nate is gone. See, I can talk myself into liking this.

Sunday afternoon activity

There are so many things in this video that make me laugh. I love Hannah's pose for the camera, I guess I didn't tell her I was taking a video. I completely missed Ryan sticking the knife on his nose and then back into the peanut butter because I was laughing at Nate so hard. And this video is also why we had a family night lesson last night about kindness.

Jordan Lake

I love Sherrie's set up to avoid sunburn! I didn't get many pictures this day. Nate spent his time in the shade with Natalie, and I was on the boat for quite a while -- just the way the both of us like it. It was a fun and exhausting week with the family. I didn't get any pictures the last day we were together. We stayed at Mike's house and fished and played games and visited with Billy & Jill and of course ate great food all week long. We have a great family! Thanks for a fun week!

Water Slide

The kids LOVED the water slide Mike & Sherrie had. The girls even woke up sore the next day from the hours of fun they had on it. Ryan and William spent the most time on it, though. They were in heaven.

This is my kind of vacation -- relaxing in the shade!

JW & Robin -- Robin, did something fly in your drink? :)

I even got this great shot of Robin coming down the slide! It's a good thing they didn't get my picture when I came down -- I went flying out and rolled halfway down the hill!

Who let Mike play with fire? Here he is lighting sparklers for the kids.

Games on the 4th

Robin planned some fun games for us to play on the 4th. Here's Nikki trying to find the chocolate pieces hidden in whipped cream.

We had an egg race.

 I'm pretty sure it's not fair for me to be going up against Nate's long legs!

Here is Ryan blindfolded trying to shoot everyone with waterguns.

Hannah's turn

Nate did a good job keeping Natalie out of the sun. That is one cute baby. (He is, too.)

Trying to throw marshmallows into their partners' mouths.

Hannah doing a little dance with Cousin Nate's horse head mask!

Spencer looks a little concerned.

Pool pictures

 boy cousins

 JW & Sam

 JW - what a Bob getup

 girl cousins

 I'm pretty sure I didn't take this picture. We get tons of frogs in our pool, and I guess I never realized how much I don't like them until JW and Mike kept trying to get Little Jay and Lydia to throw one on me. For future reference, that's not a fun game!

Popsicle break

Some Natalie Pictures

She turned 3 months old a couple of weeks ago.

 She learned to roll over to her tummy. She hated it at first, but she has gotten much stronger now.

 I think there is a smile coming behind that passy! Hannah loves to grab the camera while she is watching Natalie.

This is how she tells me she's hungry -- by sticking her fingers in her mouth. She has found her voice and will cry these days, but it takes a lot to get her to that point. I have never seen such a patient, content baby. She wakes up in the morning full of smiles, and she keeps smiling all day long. Oh, we love her so much!

First of many pictures

I uploaded the pictures from my camera last night, and it was a bit overwhelming. I'll see what I can do to post a few of them.

This picture is from about a month ago. She sure found a great place to relax.

We had a baby shower at our house for a friend from church. I had so much fun making this diaper motorcycle for her. Ryan had fun with it, too!

Little Lucy. She deserves her own post, but this will have to do for today. A family at church had a litter of puppies they were giving away. Nate and I had been talking about getting a puppy for Ryan to have as a playmate. He was so disappointed when Natalie arrived too little to play. So we got Lucy, and she was a really sweet girl. However, we took her to the vet for her shots and a check-up and found that she had a severe heart murmur. I had noticed that she seemed to tire easily, sometimes she would even end up laying down outside when I took her out to go potty. But, I don't know how much a puppy is supposed to sleep. Hannah was with me at the vet when we got the news, and she was heartbroken. Unfortunately, I'm not the type to spend more on doctor's appointments for my animals than my children, so a visit to the NC State cardiologist wasn't really feasible for me. Ryan still asks when we are going to get another puppy. Nate has decided it's not going to be any time soon. Next time I'm going to tell Ryan to ask his dad, not me.