Aaawwww, Nuts!

I love Ginny! There is never a dull moment with this kid.

Last week she was playing catch with her Dad. At one point the ball hit her in the head, to which she replied, "Oh man, you got me in the nuts!". After DJ finally stopped laughing, he vaguely explained what "nuts" are.

Well, yesterday she asked me if boys can ride bikes. I told her that they could. After a moment of thinking, she asked me how they could sit on the seat. I had an idea where this conversation was going, but I asked her what she meant anyway. She wanted to know how the heck they could sit, without sitting on their "nuts". I told her that they just do, so she said, "Oh, do they just kind of hang there and rest on the seat?"

Yup, that's about right kid!!

Besides her recent obsession with nuts, she is bound and determined to see a baby be born. When she found out that the neighbor was going to the hospital to deliver her baby, she asked if she could go and watch. I told her no, so she went on to say that she was really good friends with Kim, so she should be invited to watch. Again, I told her that she wasn't invited. Well, the next day she asked me if I was going to have another baby. When I told her no, she asked, "Don't you want to have a boy?" I told her no. "Don't you want to have another girl?" No again. This prompted a 10 minute discussion on how it's not fair that she is 5 yrs old and has never seen a baby be born. Fast forward the next day... "Hey Mom, I'll bet Aunt Cassie will let me watch her have a baby."

I don't think that will happen, but if anyone wants to invite Ginny to join them in the delivery room, just give her call. That would really make her day!

Also, Ginny had her Kindergarten evaluation yesterday. After it was done, I asked the teacher how she did. Her response was, "She did Okay." She then went on to say that all kids are born with so many different gifts that get unwrapped at different stages.

I've tried teaching her, she just doesn't care. We call her the party girl. When I tried to teach her to count past 30, she informed me that counting is only good for playing Hide and Go Seek, and that you don't need to count higher than 30.

Atleast she's got her charm!

Our Trip To The Oregon Coast

The view from our balcony



4 of the 7 girls

Reese wouldn't take these glasses off... I thought that I was going to have to buy them.

Am I crazy? Probably.

Last week my younger sister Laurel and I , loaded our 4 girls and an extra niece into a van and drove up to Oregon. Our older sister Natalie moved up to Salem 5 years ago for her husband's law school, and is there to stay. I hadn't been up to see her yet, so off we went. We were able to stay at the beach for a couple of nights, and crashed at Nat's place for the rest of the week. I had to post a million separate posts to highlight the trip, so keep on reading... there's lots!

Between the 3 sisters, we have 7 daughters and 0 boys. Laurel is currently prego with a boy, but that doesn't count. My poor bro in law Neal was a great sport and kept us all laughing. It takes a true man to deal with 10 girls for a full week. I'm sure that people thought that we were stylish polygamists. We even considered doing the traditional Poly hairstyles.

Here are a few things I learned:

1. My niece Addy can sing "Old McDonald" over 20 times a day...EVERYDAY!
2. A bad enough migraine can make me almost pass out in Walmart and barf in my sisters toilet. (I will never be able to eat popcorn shrimp or chicken from Walmart's deli again)
3. My niece Abby, who turned 1 while we were there, almost makes me want another baby (Almost).
4. Addie likes to wake up at 6 every morning. Not so fun when you and your 1 yr old are sharing a room with her. Good morning sunshine!
5. Waking up to a 2 yr old rubbing your boob is kind of weird. I guess she likes them.
6. Ginny will do anything for a laugh! See Laurel's blog here //http://brianlaurelking.blogspot.com/2009/07/highlight-of-trip.html for an explanation.
7. Having 3 nieces live out of state makes me miss out on alot... they are all so hilarious!
8. Going on vacation for a week, with all 3 kids and no husband makes me need a vacation... from the kids!
9. I missed DJ a TON!!
10. DJ doesn't know how to work the washer... he was wearing his old ratty underwear when I got home. Atleast he was wearing some, right?

What an amazing week we had! Thanks Nat and Neal for putting up with us for a week! I can't wait to go back.

Tilamook Cheese And Ice Cream

The Crazy Dairy Farmer


The Cute Farmer

Laurel the farmer and Addie the Cow... she's even got the Moo thing down

Ginny and Tay

Neal, Kate, Abby, and Sarah

You can't go to the Oregon coast without stopping by the Tilamook Cheese Factory, or Cheese Land, as Addie liked to call it. They have 38 different flavors of the yummiest ice cream. I couldn't choose just one, so I got 3 different flavors... Sooey!!

We got to see them make cheese, which is always pretty cool . We then had to stock up on cheese curds for the rest of the trip... Yummy!

Strawberry Shortcake For Breakfast

Dang this is good!

Hands off kid, this is mine!

Who WOULDN'T like to have a ginormous bowl of berry shortcake for breakfast?

We went to EZ Orchards first thing in the morning and payed a visit to their shortcake stand. It was so darn yummy! They give you a huge shortcake biscuit cut in half, with a ton of yummy vanilla ice cream, a bunch of mixed berries, and whipped cream on top. That's my kind of breakfast! I will definitely pay a visit to EZ Orchards next time I visit Oregon.

Mmmmmmm, Berries!

I love berries, especially fresh ones. My girls do too. We loaded up all of the kids and took them to a berry farm to pick our own blueberries and blackberries. For about $1 a pound you can pick whatever berries are in season. We took home about 5 pounds of berries and put them on vanilla ice cream. The next morning we made crepes and filled them with berries and whipped cream... YUM!!!

I haven't weighed myself since coming home, but I've probably gained about 10 pounds. It was totally worth it!

The Carousel

Ginny, me, and Reese

My little sister Laurel and her girl Addison

(and her baby boy in utero)

Addison

This is my (2 years) older sister Natalie, who hosted us on our trip. She is with her 6 yr old Kate, and 1 yr old Abigail. In the back you can see Sarah (11), Addison (2), Taylor (9), Ginny (5), Me (old), and Reese (1).

Thank goodness for my sister and her awesome camera! I kept forgetting to grab mine so I had to rely on her take pictures of our adventures.

We took the kids to this really cool carousel by the Willamette River. All of the horses are hand carved and painted. They are really pretty. Reese especially loved it.

After our rides we went outside to drink our Coke's and we witnessed a guy being drug off in handcuffs by 2 police officers. After they put him in their cruiser, we told my 11 yr old niece Sarah to go ask the cops what he did. Of course she did, she always does our dirty work, and they told her that it was personal for the guy (AKA he exposed himself or something sick like that). Never a dull moment with my family, that's for sure!

The Coast

We stayed on the coast for a few days and had such a great time! You literally walked out the door onto the beach... it was awesome! The kids had such a great time playing in the sand and water. It was Reese's first time seeing the ocean and she couldn't get enough of it. She was COVERED in sand and when I finallly asked her if she was ready to take a bath, she said yes and started running toward the ocean. When she found out that she couldn't bathe in the ocean she was pretty disapointed.

Behind the cliff that you see behind Taylor, resides the rocks from the end of "Goonies"... you know where they come out in the pirate ship. We took the kids over there on our drive back and ate lunch there. I also peed in the tall grass by those rocks... how many of you can say that you've peed in the sand where a popular movie was filmed? (Except my sister, who also peed there)

I can't wait to go back... next time I'll make sure that DJ comes with! Thanks for an awesome trip sisters (and Neal)!

A Picture Says A Thousand Words...

We have had alot of "firsts" in our house recently.

The pictures pretty much tell the stories...

Reese has been wanting undies like her sister's and cousin's,

so I bought her a few pair... she just wasn't sure which

end they went on.


That's more like it kid!

Then Reese drew on my wall. Luckily I heard the

scratchy noise and ran to investigate.

They say that the punishment is supposed

to fit the crime, but she doesn't look too upset

with her punishment!

Lucky for her, it washed right off!

She kept pointing at her masterpiece saying,

"Yellow, yellow".

It looks like we need to work on the colors.

Next, I let Reese ride her horse naked, but only

after her bath. Right after this picture was taken, she climbed

off and squatted to go poop...

lucky for her, I was right there to

run her to the bathroom.

(She is one lucky kid)!

Most of you probably know how much Taylor

loves dogs... she's obsessed. Too bad for her, I DON'T.

Lucky for her, I not only let her babysit my Mom's dog, but

I let him sleep on her bed.

Gross, I know, but the dog is technically my

youngest brother, so I had to give in.

(He's the favorite kid of my parent's)

Here you see something that has never been seen

before... one of my kids riding a bike without

a helmet. Let me explain... it was Reese's first time

wearing piggy tails, and we couldn't mess up the hair.

Beside's, it's not that far of a fall. She's also lucky that

she didn't impale her eyeball with her flag.

There goes my "Mother of the Year" award...dang!


Here's Ginny riding proudly at her first bike rodeo.

You will see that she IS wearing a helmet.

Here is Taylor riding a bike without training wheels...

a big accomplishment for her. She overthinks everything,

so bike riding was a bit scary for her. She just had to teach

herself at her own pace. We bought her that sweet bike 2 years

ago, and now that she can ride it, she is about to outgrow it.


Here you see Reese watching fireworks for the first time.

She LOVED it! They didn't start until almost 11 pm, and

she just partied the whole time.

And last, here is the crew fast asleep when we finally got

home at midnight. I actually let them skip baths that

night... another surprising first. They skipped tooth brushing

too... gasp!!