Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Pumpkin Patch

I love Pumpkins! They are one of my favorite things in the world! I love to carve them, eat them (well things made out of pumpkin), decorate with them, etc. So naturally going to the pumpkin patch is a treat for me. In fact I kind of look forward to it all year, but this year with every thing that's been going on I almost forgot all about it. Luckily there is a feed store with a petting zoo and pumpkin patch less than three miles from our house. Monday on the way home from picking Carter up from school we stopped there to take some pictures and pet the animals. The boys were so excited about our outing that they even posed well for pictures. I usually have to bribe, beg, and threaten to get them to sit still and smile.


Cammie is always happy to ham it up for the camera.

Notice Carters protective little hand on his sister.

She really liked this pumpkin!







I got to bottle feed the newborn calf. He was only a week old.



The boys weren't brave enough to pet the calf, but they loved the goats!




The chickens were another favorite of theirs.


Carter and Cameron are such little buddies.


Until next year...

Catching Up

All right I know I haven't posted in a while and a lot has happened in the last few weeks, so here is a quick catch up.

We took the boys to their first Hockey Game a couple of weeks ago. Well okay, it wasn't their first, but it was the first one either of them remember. Kyle was only a few months old the last time we went. Going to hockey games is something that Gregg and I have done together since we started dating and now that the boys are getting older we thought it would be fun to take them too. The Bakersfield Condors are our own professional team and it was great to see them play on opening night this year. The boys loved it. Carter had a million questions about the game..the arena..everything. Kyle loved the lights, the music, and the churro Daddy bought him. Cammie seemed to like it too. There was so much to look at that she was plenty entertained and content to just sit on my lap and watch the whole time. The noise didn't even bother her at all.


Our good friend Jon Kutka is staying with us, a week on, a week off, this month and next month while he takes a hazmat training class here in Bakersfield. The boys get so excited when they know that "Uncle Jon" will be staying here because that means they have an extra person to wrestle with after dinner.
My really good friend Brittany came and stayed with us for the weekend recently, but the pictures wouldn't upload to blogger for some reason. :-( We had a really great visit though!


Last but not least...we are moving, again!
We got a call last Friday from our property management company telling us that the owners of the house we are renting were going to put it up for sale that following Monday, and that a realtor would be coming by to take pictures for the website. Yikes! We are required to "show" the home to potential buyers while we are here, so we started looking for a new place right away. We happened to drive through a neighborhood not far from where we live now and found a great little place for rent. We got word yesterday that we are approved and can move in next week! So less than four months after we moved in, we are moving out. I used to joke that I could never be a military wife because of all the moving. I guess the joke is on me! Lol! Here is a picture of the new house. I will obviously put more up once we move in. 'Till then here she is...


(Whew, I did it. I got all caught up!)

Four Generations


A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Fresno and see my Grandparents who were in town visiting from Utah on their way to Arizona (where they live for part of the year). My Grandmother and I talk on the phone, but I haven't been able to visit with them in person since before Gregg and I got married because they rarely make it to California, and I never make it to Utah. I was explaining to Carter that they are Mommy's Grandma and Grandpa - Mommy's dad's, Mom and Dad. He totally understood which amazed me. The one thing that threw him was the fact that "Grandpa Wardle" (my dad) has parents. It was pretty funny. The boys warmed up to them very quickly, Carter with my Grandma and Kyle with Grandpa. Cammie wasn't as quick. She cried the first 3 or 4 times Grandma picked her up. She did finally get use to her at the end of the day.




We went to McDonald's for lunch as soon as I got to town. Carter and G-ma played the whole time. Here they are being silly with stickers that Carter got in his Happy Meal.


The the boys watching the ducks. Kyle just had to sit on G-pa's lap.



SO great to hang out with family for a few hours. I loved watching my children play with my Grandparents and I hope we have an opportunity to do it again soon.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Park Play & Other Forms of Entertainment

As the kids get bigger they need more and more stimulation. Carter is in preschool three times a week and that helps a bit, but he doesn't nap anymore so the other half of the day, and the rest of the week is still up to me. Kyle does nap, but well he just needs to be busy all the time. Until very recently it has been way too hot to do almost anything outdoors. The other day it was so nice outside that after we picked Carter up from school we made an impromptu stop at the park. The boys played and did tricks (like going down the BIG slide) for almost an hour and a half while Cameron and I watched and cheered them on. They would have stayed longer but since the trip was unplanned I hadn't packed any drinks or extra bottles for Cammie. While the weather is nice we will definitely be doing that more often, though hopefully with a little better planning on Mommy's part.


Kyle coming down the big slide.
Here is Carter being brave. He is very afraid of heights and this was a very tall tower that you had to clime a ladder, not stares, to get up . Kyle did it first so Carter decided he could go ahead and try. It was also the only way to get to the big slide so that was a little motivation. He was so proud of himself! Very cute!

Cammie was very entertained by watching the boys. I tried to get a picture of her laughing at them but every time I snapped one she was sticking out her little tongue. Still pretty cute I think.

Other forms of entertainment include the usual, playdough. coloring, workbooks, etc. But when they get board with that what do you do? Last week I pulled out the "Shark Tent". It's this adorable mini tent that Grandma B got for the boys for Carter's second birthday. I set it up in the playroom and I swear they didn't come out of that room for 3 hours! It was wonderful! Once they got tired of just being in it, they made little beds in it and took turns tucking each other in. Then they took a bunch of books in it to read. Then they traded the books in for trains, then I don't even know, but they were quiet! I guess everything is more fun in a tent. We kept it up for about 5 days, then it started to loose it's magical appeal so I put it away to save for another time.

They look naked, but they're not, they just don't let me put anything on them except underwear (or in Kyles case a diaper.) It saves laundry, so I don't fight it. ;-)

Cameron is the best baby EVER, but even she gets board sometimes. On this particular morning Carter was at school and I was busy trying to get somethings done before we had to load up to go get him. Cammie was tired of playing on the floor alone and Kyle was busy getting into something somewhere. Suddenly Cammie's squawking turned into laughing. When I investigated the cause of the change I found this...

...Kyle standing with his head in the seat of Camerons bouncer looking at her through a leg hole, and making funny noises. I said, "Whatcha doin' Kyle?" "I just making CamCam happy. Look she's laughing at me!" he said. He was so sweet!

Until they are all in school full time (something I am looking forward to and dreading all at once) we will be doing lots of entertaining so I'm sure there will be more pictures and blog posts about it to come.