Well, it was another eventful weekend camping. This past weekend, Mike and I packed up the girls and headed to Ohio for some camping with Heather, Brad, Dylan, Elizabeth and Uncle Timmy. It started off hot and very humid. But once we got unpacked and could relax a little the weather didn't bother us much on Friday. We woke up to thunderstorms on Sat, no fun. It continued to rain on and off most of the day, but we did manage to make it to Kelly's Island for a few hours. We all crammed into my van and took the ferry to the island. It didn't rain again until we were on the ferry back. Kendal and Dylan enjoyed the lake at the campground swimming and fishing. Kendal was brave and would jump off the dock into the water. She also caught a fish on her own, she even set the hook. It was a “huge 2 inch” blue gill but she thought it was the big one. Dylan also enjoyed fishing with Mike and Kendal. Sat evening Kendal was exhausted and went to bed around 8pm, so the rest of the kids hung out without her. It continued to rain on and off Saturday night too. Sunday started off crummy, raining again. But we stuck it out and it ended up being a beautiful day, which we enjoyed at the water park. Kendal was a bit emotional on Sunday, and was NOT digging hanging out in the water. So we headed home.

This morning I was dragged out of bed when Kendal's school called that she wouldn't stop crying and she had a rash all over her belly. After thinking she had the measles, we took her to the doctor and found out she has Hand Foot Mouth, a yucky virus that makes blisters on their hands, feet and in the mouth. So Kendal is home from school the rest of this week. Hayden is waiting to see the GI doctor for an expert opinion on why she is such a puke-a-saurus like Mark would say. She hasn't been gaining enough weight so we are a little concerned since she is so tiny to being with. We are trying her on a new medicine starting tomorrow, hopefully it helps.

Hayden is turning into a smiley baby with lots of baby talk especially for her daddy. She loves to roll around on the floor, and is happiest hanging out in her diaper. Hayden recently has become a fan of the pacifier. She looks so cute sucking away on her little pink paci. She has been sleeping through the night, even camping, 9pm till 7-8 am. She will be in for a rude awakening when I go back to work in 2 weeks, getting dragged out of bed at 6am.

New pictures below, Hayden is calling.

Mike and I took the kids and Maddy to the Toledo Zoo on Tuesday as Mike took the day off work. It was extremely hot and humid, though we luckily missed all the rain until we got back to the car. Mike and I did well with the 3 kids but it is something we certainly would not want to do every day! Kendal and Maddy were great together as always and certainly had a ball. Both were snoring within 5 minutes of getting in the car. Hayden slept most of the time likely because of the heat. Big camping trip this weekend! Need to pack!

Below are some pics and a few funny videos:

Brushing the Goats!

They Scared the Poop Out of a Goat!

Herding Up the Goats!

New Pic of Hayden!

Chillin with the Penguins

Hayden and I

Riding an elephant...

In the Snugli!

Scary Fish!

Mike feeding Kendal to Jaws...

Maddy was impersonating a monkey she just saw...

On the gorilla...

Boy is time flying by this summer. Hard to believe I will be back to work in less than a month. The girls are doing great. I think Hayden is officially sleeping through the night. Most nights she is in bed between 9 and 10 pm and sleeps until between 6 and 8 am. I am enjoying the extra sleep and I think I can say for the most part I am not as crabby as I have been.

The girls and I had fun while Mike was away in Cleveland for his parent’s anniversary. We got to enjoy the hot air balloon festival, and lots of food from all the neighbors. It is so great to have such good friends living all around our neighborhood to help out when Mike is out of town. Thanks again to the Abbotts and the Navetta families, for their help with Kendal and all the great food. I discovered it is hard to take the girls out walking without Mike. At the Balloon Fest it was quite a hike from our "bus"(my van) to the actual festival. Kendal would decide that she was done walking and just go down on her knees and not get up. I was walking with Hayden in the snuggly, so I couldn't pick up Kendal too. Sarah got me out of that situation. From now on when we have a lot of walking we are using s stroller or wagon.

We have been enjoying the nice weather. Kendal has been in her whale pool all weekend. I kept her entertained while Mike was putting up out new shed. Hayden hung out with us in one of her numerous swings, bouncy seats, and exercise mats. The shed turned out great and I am sure it will be filled up before we know it.

We went to Greg's parent’s house on the lake on this past week. Kendal had her first ride on a wave runner, and Hayden had her first boat ride. Kendal seemed to enjoy it, and Hayden just slept the whole time on the boat. On the way down to their house we stopped at Cabella's so Kendal could look at the fish. She was amazed at all the animals inside the store. She didn't quite understand all the stuffed deer heads hanging on the wall. She kept saying, “Look mommy, deer is jumping off the rocks." I didn't have the heart to tell her they were stuffed.

Hayden has mastered rolling from her back to her belly. She is a rolling machine. It has made putting her to be a little more difficult. As soon as you lay her down in her bed, before you even turn around she is on her belly, awake and crying. Now we just need to get her to go from her belly to her back.

Off to the zoo in the morning. Enjoy recent pictures below.

Kendal after feeding herself

Kendal dressing herself

Kendal and Daddy on the wave runner

Kendal and Ben on the kayak

My two girls

Closeup of Hayden

A half smile

Kendal and Hayden had a full weekend alone with their mom! I made a trip back to Cleveland to take my parents out for their 33rd wedding anniversary. 8 years ago to the day Marnie and I went on our first date for my parent’s 25th anniversary! Pretty cool huh. A few pictures below. Kendal is great as always and Hayden is sleeping through most nights and is really coming around taking the bottle! Have a great 4th of July; I'm sure we will have plenty to share!

My parents took Kendal to the zoo last week! Some good pictures are below:

I can remember when Kendal was this small Mike and I would update the blog every night. Yea right, like we have time to do that now. Sorry it takes so long to post new pics but life with two kids is hard.

Kendal is amazing. You can hold conversations with her now. She is getting to be very independent. She has been trying to dress and undress herself. She has been taking her own diapers off; sometime this is a good thing other times not so good. Last weekend I put Kendal down for her nap, to my mistake in only a diaper. Well after her room had been quiet for 3 1/2 hours, I peeked in her room. Her bed was empty, and out struts Kendal from her closet buck naked in only her pink winter boots. I asked her where her diaper was and she plainly said, "Inside the table." Duh, like I should have known her diaper was in her night stand. As I walked over to her night stand I stepped in a cold wet puddle on the floor and found a big wet spot in the middle of her bed. But her diaper inside the night stand was nice and dry.

Hayden is doing great. Her 2 month stats were 9 lbs and 14 oz. She was 24 inches long also. Looks like we are going to have petite girl with strawberry blonde hair. She has been sleeping better, most nights 7-8 hours at a time. If she does wake up she is only up about 10-15 minutes and back fast to sleep. Hayden is very smiley in the morning and is starting to coo and make cute little baby noises. She is very active in her sleep also, I put to sleep on one end of her crib and she always wakes up at the other end. Just like Kendal.

A few pictures from Mike's annual fishing trip with his dad and brother are below too. Take Care everyone!

Sorry it took so long to post birthday pictures. We have been busy around here. We had a small party for Kendal for all her friends here in Michigan with a Diego theme. Diego was all over the place. Kendal was so excited when she woke up from her nap and saw the entire first floor of our house with Diego plastered all over. She wasn't too keen on her safari vest, hat, and rescue pack; but we all still had fun.

Hayden enjoyed the party in the arms of most of our guests. This kid will not let you put her down. But since she was up all evening she slept great that night from 11pm to 8am. She has been sleeping good most nights for about 5-7 hours at time. Then she throws in a night where she is up every 3 hours just so I don't get out of the habit of being up at night. The bottle thing is not going well. She will only occasionally drink a bottle during the day and almost never in the evening. We have tried different bottles with little success. Any suggestions? I noticed Hayden smiling this morning when I was talking to her, too bad our camera sucks and takes horrible pictures. She looked like a blurry devil in the pictures so I will have to wait until Mike can help me catch her smiling on camera.

I am waiting on pictures from some of our friends also. Enjoy our pictures below.

Kendal and Maddy making pretend hot dogs in the playhouse

Kendal on her swing

Brave girl going down the new big slide

Ben playing on the new swingset

Extreme closeup of Kendal after enjoying yummy cookies from the Abbotts

I can see you even though I am sleeping

Trying to get my thumb in my mouth

Kendal opening her presents

Kendal and Maddy opening presents together

Happy Birthday!!!! Kendal is 2 today!

Hard to believe my first baby is 2 today. Time sure does fly by. I will post pictures later of the girls celebrating Kendal's Birthday. Today Kendal has been allowed to eat whatever she wants and was allowed to watch as many Dora and Diego videos as she wanted without any complaints. We went to the toy store and Kendal was allowed to pick out one present. She was going between a drum set and a keyboard, but I talked her into a Dora baby snuggly so Kendal can walk with her babies like I walk with Hayden. Yea right, I was going to let her get a drum set, we have enough noisy toys around our house without adding another. The weather is crummy here today, hopefully it clears up by this afternoon so we can play outside and get some pictures. Kendal got a swing set and a play house for her birthday. She has been having fun making pretend hot dogs and cookies for us on her grill. Too cute.

Hayden took her first bottle yesterday! Marnie has been doing a great job feeding Hayden every couple hours for the last 7 weeks! So we figured it was about time I helped out... ha. We have not perfected it just yet but it is only a matter of time. Some pictures below:

Hayden in her Bumbo!

It was a rough start...

Success!