Home Again

Well we are back. We had a good trip to visit the beautiful great smoky mountains of North Carolina. It was a long drive, even longer than usual with the baby. I forgot how much you have to do for babies, they are so demanding with the feeding and diaper changing. I appreciate how the older kids can wipe themselves! Even with all of the extra stops, we did pretty well. All of our kids travel well, even Jackson. Our cabin was just georgeous. It had great space and plenty of sleeping room, we could have had at least 4 more people with us(even with Liz and Brian with us). The kids had their own room that had a bunk bed as well as two separate twin beds. Liz and Brian had a queen sized bed, and we had a King sized bed, and our room had space for the play pen and well as a chair and ottoman, and large dresser. The cabin also had a futon that could have been folded out to sleep 2 more. There was a lot of other furnishings, and plenty of room to move around. The deck wrapped around 2 sides of the cabin, and had a great view. The only problem was that the stairs and floor creaked very loudly (no one could sneak out). We were at the top of a steep hill on the side of the mountain. The surrounding area was beautiful. georgous mountains, and loads of things to do, of course we didn't do any of them. We stopped at a cave system on the way home and took a tour of that and a wax museum. I carried Jackson in a carrier strapped to my chest. He is a heavy kid. Jackson was mesmerized inside the cave, he just kept staring at all of the stalactites and stalacmites. Then he fell asleep in the carrier on the way out. It was very cute. Mackenzie and JT enjoyed it also. Kenzie recently went to some caves while on her girl scout camp out, so she was very informed of all of the formations in the cave.
We went to NC to check out the area to see if we would like to move there. Target is building a new distribution center in the area that we visited, it will have all kinds of new technology and new stuff that John is interested in, so we thought we would take a look at the place to see if we would like it there. So far no decisions have been made, and won't be finalized for a few months, so we'll keep you posted on that.
Now that we are home, we are back to the usual grind. The big kids asking every day if we can go swimming or do something else, and John ripping apart the deck and trying to be mister handyman and rebuild it himself.
Jackson found his voice this week. He now is always talking and cooing and almost yelling so that we can all hear him. He also learned how to blow bubbles with his lips and is always getting spit all over. We always put a bib on him now. He has almost mastered the art of rolling over, I think anyday now he will do it all of the way. He is very spoiled and has all of us wrapped around his little fingers, especially Mackenzie. (she hates to hear any wimpers) I just wish we could get his napping schedule down. He still doesn't take more than a 30 minute nap at a time, it is quite aggrivating sometimes.
John and I have made a new resolution to be healthy again. John has enlisted the big kids to help, by bribing them with $1 each for each pound lost. That way they quit asking for the bad stuff and eventually they eat the healthy stuff too. JT is very good with his veggies, but Mackenzie needs a little more prompting. We did pland a small container veggie garden and she seems a little excited about that. She likes to watch the things grow, hopefully she will like to eat them also.
Well that's all for now. Here's to everyone being healthy and happy.

Busy Days of Summer

OK, sorry I haven't been able to post on here lately, things got really hectic for a while. John made a spur of the moment trip to Jackson Hole Wyoming a couple of weeks ago to help his parents relocate all of their belongings from there to Phoenix where they have a little house. They drove to Arizona, and he spent about a week and a half helping out there. We really missed him, but I don't mind sharing with his parents, they are very important to all of us. John sr. has had poor health and is unable to continue working at the beautiful Willey ranch in Jackson Hole. I know that they will really miss it there. Please keep them in your prayers.
Kenzie and JT both just finished up scouts and girl scouts for the year. They both got a lot of badges that I now need to put on their shirt and sash. John told them to nag me everyday until I do it, I am sure that will be a lot of fun.

I found it difficult to spend much time on the computer with the three kids. Now that summer vacation is here they are really keeping me on my toes. We spent one day with my neice Liz and her husband Brian (they moved here last fall) , kayaking and playing on a lake at a local reservior. It was a lot of fun. It is nice to have a little family here with us. We spend a lot of time together. The mostly just come over to see Jackson and get their baby fix once or twice a week. They really need a kid of their own. Tomorrow we are all going to North Carolina together for a few days. We rented a large cabinthat has plenty of room for all of us. I'm sure it will be fun, and we plan on taking lots of pictures.
Speaking of pictures, check out the new ones that I posted, I especially love the sunglasses.
I will post again when we return from our trip and fill you in on all of the fun details.