Swimming and more Birthday Celebrations!?

Tuesady, our first full day with a FULL house! WE had a party to plan and put together for Duck and we had a lot of work to do! It was so much more fun thouth putting together this BBQ with everybody there, than had I done it on my own. The kids too were pretty excited about finally having Daddy's birthday party. I felt like such a flake having planned this bbq last minute, then having to cancel, then doing it last minute again, but gosh darn it we had to do soemthing!

First though we had to do something with the kids and get them out of the house. So we took them out to Wiard park to play, have lunch, then play in their little kiddie pool. It was short, fun, and just what the kids needed to wear them out for nap time!

WE had a fabulous dinner of Beef, Pork, Chicken and shrimp kabobs (thanks to the help of master chef DUck), Corn ont he Cob, fresh fruit, and Garlic Bread. And to top it all off....another Ice Cream cake. Duck LOVES ice cream cake and this one turned out SUper yummy!

It was a simple party really (most of the work was the food and my darn yard!), we had dinner, played a game and had dessert. It was a beautiful night for an outdoor party and thanks to all that came...it really was so fun to have you all here and to have family be part of it!

Our good friends Kimberly and Joey had their baby Max just 2 1/2 weeks before we had Savannah and I had been dying to get a picture of the two of them together. Max was hungry, but being so patient to have his binki taken away for this photo!

6 days old and SEcond PHoto shoot...oh yeah and Crater Lake!

Wednesday we a full and crazy, but fun day! We actually had a lot to do in the morning, just getting house in order, kids dressed, ourselves re3ady, but also because we were going to go to Crater Lake that night and had to make sure to have dinners all ready and packed. Also mom, brent and shal were leaving the next morning and had to be all ready for that.

Well with all that going on, I also wanted to do some indoor photos of Savannah before mom left. So we had to get all the above done by nap time so we could use the quiet of the day to do pictures! It kinda worked that way! ;)

Crater Lake was a blast, it was a little chilly and Savannah had her first blow out, but it was fun to show the amazing lake to the family that hadn't seen it yet, for the kids to run around and be wild, and then to cook our tin foil dinners and roast marshmallows was of course the best! The kids took advantage of the freedom to run around and get dirty. They saw deer, explored the area, and ate all their food after such an exhausting afternoon!

These last two of just of Savannah wearing some cute little Jammies her Grandma Duck sent her.

Bye Grandma, fun painting, and DEmolition!

Thursday morning, very early, my mom, Brent, Shal and their kids headed back to Utah. I was sad to see them go. I was very grateful that they would make such efforts to come all the way out here to see us. It really meant a lot to us, and even to my kids. Maliyah, since making that trip to Utah so much, really appreciates when others do the same. She is aware of how long they have to drive, what a sacrifice it is, and she really appreciates it too.

Janine was really great to just let Thursday be a day to hang out. She helped me out with chores, cooking, crafts with kids, and we just enjoyed the day without it being way too crazy. Duck also took the three oldest to a Demo Derby that night. It was so fun for the kids to go and do something exciting and it was great for the rest of us gals to have a break! WE put the baby boys to bed early, rented a movie and enjoyed our quiet evening. (that is until the every excited derby watchers came home!)

I don't have many pictures of the kids doing their art project, most of them were on Janines camera, but here are a few. Oh, and then the last two were from the Derby. I'm just trying to be grateful my husband remembered to take ANY pictures!

Family is gone and I gotta get outta here!

Friday morning Janine, Becca, and Janine kids left. Our company was gone, I was alone. Whah. Although it was crazy to have so many people here, I love it. I love having family around me, I love being part of the madness. Yes there are crzy moments when you want to tear your hair out and you wonder if 8 grandkids stayin in the same house and really get a long....but then you realize yes they can and yes we can and yes it can be great! It's like having my four kids....there are going to be crazy moments, but I woudln't trade it for anythign in the world!

I was though having a hard time with everyone being gone, emotional, okay I was a mess and I hadn't really had a moment with DUck since baby had come! In fact he had only taken one day off work! I really wanted him to come home, but he coudln't just leave although he said he could make a delivery to Medford (oh sorry, I guess a pick-up) and we could join him. To me at that point that was better than being along so we went. After picking up Duck's supplies we went to the mall, the kids got to play, I got to spend time with my hubby, and then we got to splurge and enjoy dinner at Olive Garden. It's really pathetic when I can't afford to go $10.00 over my grocery budget, but we can somehow figure out how to have an extra $35.00 to go to Olive GArden when we go to Medford!