Noises ...

I have learned that noises truly annoy me.  Not the little noises that go bump in the night ... not even the noises of my kids fighting with each other, or one of them crying.  The noises that annoy me are the white noises - the ones that are a constant background.  Even music, after awhile, becomes white noise that annoys me.  I've learned this more and more about myself recently and I have discovered just how much I love the quiet.  The problem?  My husband is just the opposite.  When he gets home from work the first thing he does (after he kisses me hello!) is to go and turn the radio on.  He LOVES music .. and noise doesn't really bother him all that much.  I'm one of those people who want the radio off in the car if we've been on the road for a long time and it's been going the entire time.  Thankfully, though, I am not the control freak who turns it off and tells my husband to deal with it!  He is respectful of me as well, so often when I'm feeling like the white noise is too much, we will just turn the volume down a bit and we both win.

So I'm wondering - am I truly a rarity in this situation or are there more people out there like me who don't appreciate white noise?

A First-Time Family Experience

While it can be said that both Monte and I have gone camping in the past, and the boys (Iain and Ellis) have technically been camping (meaning they spent the night in a tent), our family as a whole had never been camping together - so that is what we did this past weekend!  We packed our Suburban to the brim and woke up early enough to have our family out on the road by 7:00am.  Destination: Itasca State Park.  We made a few stops on the way, including one at my sister's house to pick up the things her family was loaning us for our camping trip (as they tend to camp quite frequently).  When we got there, I knocked on their back door and let myself in.  I was greeted by my brother-in-law, Martin, and my niece, Khloe, who ran up and gave me a huge hug the moment she saw me!  It was all too sweet! :)  So, Khloe in my arms, we headed outside to get the screen tent, grill basket, air pump and air mattress that we were borrowing from them (let's face it - while the thought of camping was great, the thought of sleeping on the ground when I am almost six months pregnant was NOT great!).  We packed the stuff, said our goodbyes and were off yet again.  We arrived at Itasca a little after 11:00am, stood in line at camping registration for about 15 minutes and were put on a waiting list and told to come back in an hour to see if they had a spot for us.  So we drove to the picnic site, took out our cooler and made sandwiches for the crew to pass the time.  Thankfully, when we drove back to check, they had a spot available for us.  Thus began our weekend camping adventure!

We set up the tent .. and the boys played in the boxes that the tent came in!

The boys played catch with the baseball .. and water bottles .. to keep themselves busy.

We then hiked down to the fishing dock where the boys enjoyed some time together.

We then set up the screen tent (the one we borrowed from Tanya and Martin), which we later found we were SO grateful for, as it rained quite a bit that afternoon into the next day, so it was a good place to hang out and play cards while we waited for the weather to pass!

We took a hike in the pouring rain to the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  Iain and Ellis enjoyed playing in the water while the rest of us huddled under a nearby tree!

Though it must be said that Iain and Ellis were quick to join us when we pulled out the snacks!

The next day we did a lot more hiking around the park, including this stop at Peace Pipe Vista.

We stopped and saw the largest White Pine Tree .. though I don't know if it was world's largest or America's largest or ... ?!

We also went to the fire tower, though once we got there I was the only one brave enough to climb to the top ... everybody else waited for me on the ground!

See the little red dot in the middle of the picture?  That's Claire waiting for me at ground level.  The white dot to her left is Ellis sitting on the bench!

Ellis enjoyed the breeze of having the windows open while touring through the park (as there were some sites that were more than 10 miles from our campsite, so we decided it would be best to truck to those ones!).

The rest of the time was spent cooking food over the fire, playing catch with the neighboring campers, playing cards, eating, and just hanging out by the fire ...

... and with Colin telling us it was time to stop taking his picture!

Happy Birthday Monte!

Today is a very special day, because today we celebrate this man:

This very handsome man who has stolen my heart and will forever keep it as his treasure.  The father of our children, the lover of my heart, my very best friend.  Today we celebrate you, my husband, and the fact that it is indeed your birthday.  I love you baby!  I hope you're enjoying our camping trip and are in complete bliss as today is all about YOU!

Wordless Wednesday

He gives one-and-a-half thumbs up for pancakes at Grandma's house!

Taking Time Away

Have you ever felt like your blog or even just your computer sometimes takes time away from your regular life?  Or to put it even more bluntly, have you felt like it takes time away from your family?  I'm starting to feel that way as of late, and when my husband expressed that he felt that his own time on the computer was taking away from time with our kids, we decided that we were going to do something about it!  I have already began my first step of spending drastically less time on the computer (which, unfortunately, also means that I'm frequenting your blogs a little less often) and the next step comes tonight.  You see, tonight starts our (Monte's and my) one-week computer fast.  For a solid week, we are not going to use the computer for anything (with the exception of accessing some recipes that we will be making for dinner that are saved online).  There will be no playing around on facebook, no writing blogs, no checking emails or anything of the like.  Instead, my time will be spent playing more with the kids, spending more time in the Word and in quiet time with God, staying on top of cleaning the house and spending less time with my phone attached to my hip!

So, blogging buddies, if you don't hear much in response from me in the next week, you now know why.  However, let it be known that I do have a couple of blog posts that I have scheduled to post later on this week, so you will still hear from me, but in a pre-planned manner!  My prayer is that this week will be productive and will lead to a more pro-active way of running our household with far less reliance on our computer!

Cribs, Bibs and So Much More!

I will admit that, while we don't necessarily need one yet, I have been perusing through Craigslist searching the ads for cribs for sale (preferring those that also include a matching dresser!).  While I have thoroughly enjoyed going through these different ads, I find myself frustrated by the time I walk away from the computer.  Why?  Well, the ones that I want to check out are usually $600+ ... and there is no way on God's green earth that I will be spending that kind of money on furniture for the baby's room!  The other thing that annoys me is when someone has their crib listed, and they show a picture of it completely taken apart and stacked against a wall, or they show a picture of just one side of it leaning against a wall.  C'mon people!  My thought is that, as a consumer, I would like to be able to see a full picture of what I may potentially be purchasing.  It's those ads that make me click the back button in a hurry, because I'm very unlikely to inquire about something that clearly shows that very little effort was put into placing the ad.  Is that mean of me?  I don't know!  I just feel like I've reached a point of frustration with the different Craigslist ads, and while I am certain I will continue to peruse through them, I do know that I will do so with a much different mindset.  You see, we have yet to even paint Claire's new bedroom.  We aren't planning on moving her into her bedroom until right before school starts.  That being said, her current bedroom is the one that will end up being our baby's nursery, so I can't begin to think about purchasing right now anyway (unless I happen to come across a REALLY good deal!), because it would just have to be stored until the move happens.

Agh.  The crazy that comes with planning for a baby!

Wordless Wednesday

No matter how much my kids are fascinated by this, I still think it's gross!! :)