A Week With the Ehat Kids

My darling sister, Janelle, and her oh so hilarious husband, Peter, took their first trip to Kauai, Hawaii in August. Kauai is one of my favorite places and Janelle and Peter are some of my favorite people, so naturally I was so bummed to not be making the trip with them. (Next time!!)BUT, they stopped by before they went on their trip to drop off their cute little munchkins for us to play with while they were away.

little Logan

The kids bounced back and forth between my house, Jen's house and Grandma's house and just couldn't seem to get enough of each other.

And we did LOTS of playing! We had Sunday dinner at our house so this kids had lots of room to run around and play.

Maddie on the swingsTyler, Lauren and Drew Ashlyn and Emily

We took all the little monkeys to the zoo

Emily, Ashlyn and Brynne

Lauren giving Ashlyn "a boost"LaurenMy mom and meMaddie in the petting zooNathan, my mom, Lauren, Maddie, Brynne, Janey, AshlynGrandma and Logan

We celebrated Maddie's birthdayAnd Ashlyn got what I'm sure will be a scar to match her dad's. She was chasing balloons with the other kids in Grandma's living room and tripped and split her chin open on grandma's brick fireplace. What a sad face! Poor baby!

We took the kids to the water park

Ashlyn and Emily

waiting for the rest of the group so we could go in together

Brynne and AshlynAshlyn on the kiddie slides

A collage of cute pics that I borrowed from my sisterAshlyn and Maddie just relaxing near the "beach" of the wave pool

We had lots of sleepovers

Ashlyn and Emily playing dress up
Austin and Emily

Ashlyn got those darling masks from Stephen last Christmas and the kids have so much fun with them.

Emily has such a fun personality and constantly had me laughing. While the kids were playing with the mask, Emily came up to me and asked where the highest point in our house was. I wasn't sure. I gave her a few suggestions and then asked her why she wanted to know. She answered, "because, I'm the rooster and I need to know where to go to say cock-a-doodle-do in the morning." Sure enough, the next morning, I heard Emily, "cock-a-doodle-do! cock-a-doodle-do!" So funny!

The girls loved to watch movies in the theater. I went to check on them and found them sound asleep in their reclining chairs, next to their popcorn and candy.

Ashlyn and Emily

Nothing like Little Einstiens on the big screen!

The big kids loved swimming in the pool and riding the quads around the property.

Maddie and TylerLauren giving Ashlyn a ride

Tyler and Jessica enjoying their ice cream at the end of the day

Grandma and Janey took the kids to a museum and the lake one day, but I was way too exhausted with all the "partying" we had been doing to join them. I think the kids had a good week and we created some fun memories!!

Family Reunion

Wow! I'm so behind, so I will try to make each of these catchup posts quick!

Every year we have a family reunion with my dad's side of the family. This year the reunion was held at Bass Lake. We rotate locations (states), so this is the first one I have been able to get to for a few years. It was fun to see everyone and renew our relationships with our extended family.

We tent camped this year and it only made me miss the RV!

Jessica

(Notice the blanket and the tiger. Jessica thinks she can't sleep anywhere without both of these essential items and rarely leaves home without them.)Austin

There is nothing quite like waking up and stepping over kids to get out of the tent in the morning to find some crackers! I am so not a fan of morning sickness! :-) I thought they were cute sound asleep though.

We spent most of our days on the beach looking at the beautiful lake and playing in the sand.

Austin and AshlynMeAshlynAunt RuthRebekah and Delilah (someone correct me if I am spelling that wrong)LaurenAustinJason

Our nights were spent around the camp fire, catching up with the cousins.

Rebekah and Karen

Tara and JasonJen, Granny and Tara

Brynne, my dad and Ashlyn

My cousin, Stacey, had recently been married in Hawaii and wanted to have a "reception" with the family.
Travis and Stacey

Aunt Ruth


My Aunt Bev is amazing with kids and the most planned and prepared person you will probably ever meet. She spent some time with the kids in the evening teaching them a stick dance to preform for Travis and Stacey. It came out really well and was SO cute!

Austin, Lauren, Jessica and Ashlyn

My brother, Sterling, and his wife Katie, made it down for the last night. Katie is due about a month before me. It was fun to chat with them, but I wish we had more time!

Sterling and Katie

The gang watching a movie around the camp fire.

Jen had spent most of her time out on the lake with her new boat. The kids loved being pulled around on the tube on the choppy lake!

But, every evening as Jen would pull in, she noticed what seemed to be an abandoned Molecule (the mother of all tubes), just sitting on the shore line. The last day we were there, she checked it out. It was torn along one of the seems... She was pretty sure she could fix it... It had been there unclaimed for almost a week... So, she gathered her partners in crime...(minus Ashlyn)

We laughed so hard as we "snuck" down to the beach in the dark to claim the abandoned Molecule. Jen did a cute post on it if you want to check it out click HERE

Exciting Weekend

But first...

I hate to have a private blog because I am terrible at checking my friends blogs that are private. They never show up on the top of my blog list, so I don't know when they have posted something new. So, I hope that you don't forget about me. I don't feel like the nature of this blog is "private" information, but I was very disturbed a few weeks ago when someone came to my site from google images and downloaded pictures of my girls. It was a reminder that we live in a world with some pretty creepy people! So, thanks for the email addresses and for checking in and seeing what we are up to. It makes me feel loved.

:-)

There is never a dull moment around here! Last month, we had an exciting weekend. It started off with a Friday night pool side baseball game with friends. We ate yummy food, but did more goofing off with our friends than watching the game. It's awesome what some people will do for a $20 dare!!30 seconds in the ice cold beverage bar!

A firework show ended the night with a BANG!
Saturday morning, Danale and Justin came to visit for the rest of the weekend and brought Jason's dad with them. We always have such a good time with them.

We played in the park

I think we had more fun than the kids!

We spent most of the afternoon swimming and barbecuing

Colton dunks it!

Jason's dad said he felt like he was on vacation! It was so relaxing to just hang out together.

Sunday morning, we had a big breakfast and told everyone our big news!

I'm pregnant!The ultrasound picture is from a couple of weeks ago. I'm due March 22.

Going Private

I never thought I would, but it seems I need to. If you want to be invited to view our blog, please leave me your email address in the comments or email me at TaraM22atgmaildotcom. I don't care if you are an old friend from way back when, a friend of a friend or just an occasional drop in. There isn't anything on this blog that I feel is so private that anyone passing through shouldn't read, but I just need to make sure that there aren't any crazy creeps stopping by to check out pictures of my kids. (And if you are the crazy creep, I've tagged your computer and saved your info. You've been warned.)