Labor Day Weekend-Old Man's Cave

This weekend we rented a cabin in Hocking Hills and spent time with Grandma, Bo, Uncle Jason and Aunt Tiffany.  What a wonderful time it was! We hiked Old Man's Cave and Conkle's Hollow, ate baked beans, played pool, ate more baked beans, saw some beautiful scenery, ate even more baked beans and played in the hot tub.  The kids loved every single second of it!  For today, here are some pictures from Old Man's Cave.

Carter had a blast playing in the shallow stream at Old Man's Cave.

Ava had a tight grip on Daddy's hand. 

More pictures to come!

9 months old!

Dawson Robert, you are nine months old.

You love to army crawl and pull up while on your knees.

You hate to be confined in the high chair or exersaucer.

You love playing with our DVD's, the stick in the sliding glass door, the door stoppers and taking the sheers off the front window.

You hate playing with baby toys.

You still love baby food, oatmeal, yogurt and puffs.

You hate mashed avocado.

You love taking your baby naps.

You hate it when we have to skip your morning nap.

You love to practice your body parts, waving and clapping.

You hate to have your diaper changed.

So I think this sums you up right now:  active, busy little boy.

We love you!

(Now stop taking the sheers off the window!!!!)

Pictures and Stories

First up, the pictures:

Carter's first soccer team.  They named themselves the Rangers.

Today while I was feeding Dawson I made the mistake of allowing Carter to play in the backyard unsupervised.  While a hose was running on one of our newly planted trees.  This was the result.  Boy likes his mud.

Now for some stories.



• Carter burped loudly.  So I said to him "What do you say."  He looked at me and said "Oh yeah, in your face!"  Mike has taken this brotherhood of Dudes a little too far.
• On the way to the zoo today, Carter saw a local indoor waterpark called Coco Key with a picture of a tropical parrot and some palm trees.  He yelled to me "Look mom, it's paradise!" 
• I think it's hilarious that Ava's favorite animals at the zoo are the snakes and the kitties (sand cats.)

Heard around the house

(Back story:  yesterday the kids watched the movie Tangled for the first time.  It is the story of Rapunzel and her mother keeps her locked in a tower.  She asks repeatedly to see the "outside world.")

Carter:  Can we go outside to ride bikes?
Mommy:  Well, Ava is sleeping now and I need to feed Dawson.  But a littler later we will go outside.
Carter:  But I just want to see the outside world!

Sunday Bike Ride

Our Weird Family

Dinner tonight was cuh-ra-zy.  Dawson had an epic night of spitting up and Carter was competing in the world's most annoying 4 year old contest.  (I say this in the most loving way possible.  But asking me over and over and over and over "Mom what are you doing?" does not make me happy.)  Then Ava looked around and said "It's getting weird in here."  Mike and I lost it, because indeed it was pretty weird in our kitchen.

And yes, Dawson is still spitting up like crazy almost nine months later.  And yes, it will be a major topic of conversation at his 9 month check up.

We also took Carter to pick up some items for his soccer season.  His first practice will be on Tuesday.  Did I mention that Mike is coaching the team?  This should be interesting!

More pics from Totter's Otterville, and camo kid.

Soccer kid, beer heaven, and big sis with little bro

Hope your weekend was not as weird as ours was!

Our new pet

Lately Carter has been begging us for a pet.  Well, what animal does he want?  A cuddly puppy?  A sweet cat?  Maybe a goldfish?  Nope.  The boy wants a spider.  The spider will live under his bed so he won't hear it at night.  It is never allowed out of the cage because he doesn't want spider webs on his face.  Well, this is one pet that will NEVER be found in our house!

Ava on the other hand is enthralled with dressing me.  She walks through my closet and picks out different outfits for me.  Today she even asked me for pony hair (a pony tail.) 

Dawson is expanding his food repertoire.  Recently we have tried (solid, not baby food) bananas, peas, rice cakes, puffs and biscuits.  This kid still does not have any teeth!  I've been pretty hesitant to give him anything more difficult, he still does not have any teeth!

By the way, I am in no shape or form contemplating any type of pet.  So do not hold your breath for our pet spider (coincidentally named spiderman.)