BIRTHDAY INTERVIEW: 4.

Today my girl turns 4. I'm still not sure how four years time has slipped by so quickly, but her day is here and we are celebrating!

Over breakfast, I conducted my annual birthday interview. Here's what she had to say at the wise age of four.

Q: How old are you today?
A: 3 4!

Q: What do you like to play?
A: Doc (McStuffins), with balloons, my blankie and cars.

Q: What do you like to do with Mommy?
A: Eat lunch at Jimmy John's.

Q: What do you like to do with Daddy?
A: Go on bike rides to hunt for treasures at the beach.

Q: What do you like to play with Brother?
A: Balloons.

Q: What do you like to eat?
A: french toast, macaroni and cheese at Panera, bananas, pancakes, water.

Q: What is your favorite color?
A: Orange.

Q: What do you like to watch on TV or what is your favorite movie?
A: Doc McStuffins and Monster's Inc.

Q: What is your favorite store?
A: Jimmy John's.

Q: What makes you happy?
A: When I eat food.

Q: What makes you sad?
A: When my tummy hurts.

Q: What is your favorite animal?
A: Kitties.

***
You can read her 3rd birthday interview here. I'm still working on reposting all my photos that were lost, so please don't mind the giant black box. It's a slow process, but I've started at least.

More birthday celebrating to come!

BLAH.

I want to play blog catch up. I so badly do. But once my littles are tucked cozily into bed, I am exhausted and clutching my Kemps bucket for dear life.

It's a funny thing, having morning sickness. Ok, who am I kidding? I officially rename it all day every day sickness. When I have it, all I want to do is feel better. I pray to God that he will help me get through the day, be a good mom, and heck, maybe fold a load of laundry or two. But on those days when he answers my prayers and I feel good, I'm begging him that my little bean is still healthy and growing just fine in there. And then when the nausea returns I breath a sigh of relief, then curse it all over again.

Hopefully I don't have too much longer to go with this part, and truthfully it has eased up a bit in the past two weeks. But I still carry barf bags with me everywhere I go and sleep with my bucket on the nightstand. You just never know when it's gonna hit.

Then I look at this and remember why it's all worth it, and get lost in baby dreams. Which in my opinion, are the best kind.

BUMP.

I can't suck it in anymore. Words out.

13 weeks today. So blessed and happy...when i'm not barfing.

xo

RASPBERRY PICKERS.

Holy Hannah, have I seriously not blogged in almost a month? Shame on me.

Just have a short one to share tonight. A few weeks back, I took the kids raspberry picking. I was having a down in the dumps morning and needed to get out of the house. For every one's sanity. I scrolled through our summer fun list and settled upon raspberry picking. It was a wise choice.

The kids loved it. Well, for the first twenty minutes or so. Then their bellies got full, they got hot, and ultimately lost interest.

Doodey loved it. It was a perfect activity for him as the raspberries were right at his level and he could pull them off easily. And when he couldn't, he just bent down to the branch and ate it right off. Clever.

Sister was more interested in me filling up the cups, then her running over to the box and dumping them out. Whatever works.

We still managed to pick and bring home a few pounds, and definitely ate our fair share while out in the fields.

Sadly though, the raspberries got mushy pretty quickly at home, so I threw them in the freezer and have yet to do anything with them. Anyone have any recipes for me? I'd love for you to share if you do :)

INSTAGRAM SNIPPETS.

Bits and pieces of July, documented with Instagram....

 Sister rocks some curl.

Dude does not dig the car wash.

 Snack time.

 Self feeding. Surprisingly clean.

Tired girl naps, but only in the car.

Barnes and Noble afternoon.

I do not like it Sam I Am.

 Pan-O-Prog car cruise.

Books.

Flea Market fun.

Swimming lessons.

 Sister takes a selfy.

Ballerina practice.

Neighbors = friends.

We eat our cones from the bottom up, how about you?

 

PS...Lots of you have asked, so here's an update regarding my missing pictures dilema. Unfortunately, there is no 1-800-Google to call or no one standing by and jumping at the chance to restore my photos. Based upon a slew of comments on the Blogger/Google forum, this is an unfortunate problem that has affected many, and none have been restorable. It will be a painful process and take oodles of time, but I have decided to re-upload my pics to each individual post, and restore them myself, one by one. And you can bet your marbles that once I have that completed, I WILL be printing this into a hard copy, and I will never take this blog forgranted again. Lesson learned.

GOOD TIMES AT PLATTE LAKE.

Come about May I start to get really excited for our annual trip to my college girlfriend/roommate's cabin on Platte Lake. I only get to see her once a year, and I just miss her oodles in between.

This was probably our easiest year preparing for the cabin. After several visits there over a number of years, I pretty much have it nailed down how many changes of clothing we need and what food to pack. So much so that I was impressed we could see out the back of our car, with room to spare.

We settled right in and didn't waste any time adjusting to cabin life.

We logged in several hours of fishing, which made my man all kinds of happy.

My kids both touched a fish, without flinching. Kids: 1, Mom: 0.

There was lots of time to just sit back, relax, eat, and visit.

Jill and I had all kinds of plans to craft it up this weekend, with the kids and with each other, but when it came down to it, this is all we managed. And only thanks to Jill and an unused 4th of July project. They loved it though, and it kept 'em busy for awhile.

Upon coming home, I realized I really slacked in photo taking this weekend. Maybe it had something to do with having two mobile ones to look after around a large body of water this time, or the fact that sleep was a little hard to come by and we were all exhausted by the end. I wish I would have captured the new friendships made, swimming in the lake, walks up and down Platte Lake Road, various meltdowns by an overtired almost four year old, and all the little details that make this annual visit so great.

Even though life continues to get busier and busier, I'm glad we take the time to stop and reconnect every year, even if it is all too brief. Good friends are worth the effort, and these ones sure are keepers.

Thanks so much for having us again, Tomala family, we'll miss you until next year!

LIL' FISHY.

Earlier this month Nugget took swimming lessons at the local pool. I didn't really have that high of expectaitons as it cost me all of $35 and is run by a bunch of high schoolers. But for what it was worth, she definately walked away with some new confidence, a handful of skills, and a whole lotta days splashing and having fun in the pool. We'll hit it a little harder next year, but for now I just wanted her to become comfortable in the water, and with that i'd say we were pretty darn successful.

She's not afraid to spalsh around in the kiddie pool, put her face in and blow bubbles, and sorta do front and back floats (if you call having your arms touch the bottom of the pool and not really dunking your whole head in a 'float', ha).

She's never been afraid to jump off the side of a pool into someone's arms, and she accepted the challenge of jumping off the diving board without so much as a wince. Well, there was the "Mama, I have to go potty!" right before it was her turn, every time, but she must just have a nervous bladder :)

The skill that i'm most proud of is that she learned how to "scoop and kick" (aka doggy paddle) while wearing a life jacket in deep water. It makes me a lot less nervous around water to know that she knows what to do and how to move herself to safety if need be.

So way to go Nugget. I'm all kinds of proud of you, my lil' fishy.