Blueberry Fun with Friends!

Back in July, we had our wonderful friends come and visit from Massachusetts.  We have known each other since college (we were RA's, she was our Director), and have only gotten closer since.  Now our husbands are friends, our children are basically obsessed with each other, and if someone told me this is where we would be back when I was a Freshman, I'm not sure I'd believe them.  College has given me some of the best friends of my life, and the sweet Surgens family is right up there. We are so blessed to have them in our life.  We had all kinds of fun when they visited, including a trip to the blueberry farm!


Here are the girls being crazy adorable and holding hands.  Madison was the girls idol, as I knew she would be.  And she was so sweet with them - always holding hands, always including everyone, reading to them at night.  Such sweetness.

 All the girls!

Some of the happiest girls you every want to see!

Beautiful big girls loves when it's blueberry picking time. :)

HI REA REA!  I SEE YOU!

She had the time of her life running around the trees and eating up all the berries.

We went at the best time when the bushes were full!

The girls loved making their "holy giant blueberry!" face.

 

 The blueberry is almost as big as Reilly's eyes in this one! :)  Always accessorizing, this girl.

We took similar family pictures last year, except this year we have a whole extra person in them! :)

Our awesome friends, and their beautiful little girls!

Daddy and his girls picked some flowers.

Like I say every year, the only thing that could get little ones out of the blueberry patch is saying, "Time for ice cream!"

We headed back to the shop for some homemade ice cream. These are the makings of a good, good day.

Sweet girls and their yummy cones!

We ended our day with a yummy barbeque, some bath time, and Frozen movie night!

We are so grateful for such great friends, and the wonderful quality time we got to have with them. We are all hoping it happens again very soon!

9 Months!

As a gift to me, when my babies all turn 9 months old, they start saying "Mama".  It's so weird, each one of them did it, and Declan followed in his sister's footsteps!  He now says "Mama" when he wants me, and it's the sweetest sound I ever heard.  Aside from his laughter, that's just as sweet!
 

Which bring me to his eating, which is out of control and everything and all the time!  Well, not all the time, but it feels like it.  He literally will each every fruit and vegetable that we eat, and he has yet to turn away anything.  He's going to be such a big strong boy!  So thankful that he is a good little eater.

So yesterday, he was a baby who learned to crawl.  Today, he became a maniac.  There's always that day.  That one day where they realize that moving equals freedom.  Not just "Oh, now I can go over here and get my toy.", but something clicks and they realize, "OH, now I can crawl in the kitchen and open the cabinets and pull out the dish towels while simultaneously bringing the candles down on top of myself!".  Or "Now I can crawl into the bathroom when the lights out and somehow get ON TOP of my sisters potty seat!".  I think this phenomenon is called independence.  And I think it not only continues, but gets worse?  Something about borrowing the car later? I don't know, I don't think that far ahead.  Blah, blah, baby proofing, cabinet protectors, closing doors, gates are locked, outlets are covered.  And life just a got a whole lot busier for mama!  More eyes, that's what I need. (Or maybe more ears for the girls? Either would be helpful!)

Notice in these picture how he is suddenly on the run! :)

He takes 2 naps a day, and goes to bed when his sister's do.  Praise Jesus. :)  He also has been falling to sleep by himself in the crib lately, which is awesome!  (Rather than falling asleep while nursing, and being placed in the crib already asleep.  Apparently that doesn't help him with self soothing skills in the future.  But my plan is to nurse him through college, so I think it'll work out. ;))

We started taking out all the toys that the girls loved, and I love watching him get a kick out of them too.  He is into interactive things now, so the buttons, light up toys, singing toys, little phones are all big hits right now.

(He was fighting nap in this picture, that's why he looks like such a sleepy boy.)

One of his favorite things to do currently is to clap in his high chair like a big proud boy.  He just claps and laughs and giggles because he is so happy that he can clap.

He has the cutest little cheeks you could every want to kiss, and his big pout is nothing short of edible.  He has the happiest little disposition. Our sweet little munchkin.

Bushkill Falls

We had a plan to go see the "Niagara of Pennsylvania" for Daddy's Birthday in July, but our plan got rained out.  This week we had a free, beautiful sunny day, so we set out for adventure!  The day was perfect, the sun went in and out, but the day was one of those August days that you only get in the mountains. I know, this because I used to live on an island, and August was very different there.  Like March, it's an unpredictable transition month here.  March could be Spring 50 degrees and sunny, or a blizzard.  August could be 85 and beach-hot, and then cool and crisp and smelling like you want to pick and pumpkin the very next day.  This day was somewhere in the middle.  There was no humidity, no sunscreen, no sweating, but no jackets either.  Just perfect for this kind of outdoorsy day!

This picture is kind of my favorite.  All my loves.  And Declan will surely not miss out an opportunity to flash his gorgeous smile. I told Hubby that it wasn't fair, this is how I look 95% of my days as I go around shopping and whatnot, and nobody every gets a picture of it.  Daddy wears baby for the first time, and the children pose like models for an adorable shot. #mamalife #realmeanwearbabies

This cracked me up, because the "wildlife exhibit" was animals that we literally have in our yard daily.  But the girls were no less excited than all the Brooklyn children to see the stuffed version. Haha. And here is Dec again, smiling.  :)

Hubby realized, he did indeed have to carry baby back out of the park with us. ;) Declan thinks it's funny.

The beautiful falls!  Pictures do not capture it's magnitude or beauty fully.

My little sweet angels and I.  Fun Fact:  Dad is "uncomfortable" with heights.  I learned this on our honeymoon, and it's an attribute I find somewhat adorable because Hubby is not afraid of much at all.  So when I found an instance where I am braver, I think it's ironic and fun.  We didn't really know what to expect when visiting the falls, so we didn't know that heights would play a role.  We didn't know we would be on man-made pathways on the side of a mountain, with fences made of old trees (some of them dead and rotting, Hubby pointed out many times) preventing us from falling down the cliff.  It was HIGH.  Children's hands were held, tightly.

But it was also COOL.  I loved it.  We were laughing so hard.  There were people who brought their dogs on the walks, and as we had to shimmy past people and their giant dogs, and we wondered why people would take their pets on a treacherous hike. We imagined they thought the same of us taking our toddlers. ;) Family experiences!

A nice girl took our picture, and cut off someone's adorable chin.  Declan clearly didn't like her, as it was the first time all day he didn't smile. Ha.

Daddy and Reilly making nervous faces, even though Reilly is just an actress and wasn't actually afraid at all.
 I think this was taken about the time that we accidentally ventured off the "Green" trail and onto the "Red" trail.  Red, as in, the black diamond of hiking trails.  As in, don't attempt unless you are a serious hiker. Don't ask me how we ended up on this trail, because I'm still not totally sure.  We remained on it for a bit, because the map appeared like we would intersect with a Green trail again.  We eventually had to turn around in search for Green. Cue Hubby's nervous faces again.

The girls huddling in their "cave".

Declan and Daddy, marveling nervously at nature. :)

Another nice stranger took our picture!  Declan liked her better. :)

Just some tree-huggin' girls. Haha.

We couldn't BEAR to leave!  We had such a fun day.  I heart stay-cations.  Sidenote, these are the days when Mommy's pocketbook gets heavy real fast carrying everyone's things.  In other news, I now have an extreme desire for a fanny pack.  Let's rename these, shall we?  Waist Purse.  Belt Bag.  Anyway, I'm going to have them make a comeback for all our future family vacays and day trips.  But, you know, a cool one, maybe a camel colored leather.  Fanny packs and mini vans. I tell ya, sometimes I don't recognize myself these days people!  But then again, this is the most me I have ever felt. :)

My gorgeous girl.

They are suckers for the head-in-a-holes!  Man, they love these!

Reilly insisted that I take one of her BEING the bear.

We had a picnic, played on a pretty awesome park, threw some rocks into this secret-garden looking lake.  A young boy pushed Reagan over, and I saw Hubby get all "Daddy Bear" on said little boy's father. :)  It was super cute. ("Yes she's fine, thanks.  He PUSHED her, that's what happened!)  Then the same little boy ran right into the lake in his full clothes, seemingly not knowing it was water?  Then we went and got ice cream and ate it in the car because we're rebels like that.  Sweet sweet days with my sweet man and the kiddies that we grew.