3rd Annual Tamarack Weekend. . .

March brings one of my absolute FAVORITE events. . . .our family trip to Tamarack.  The past couple of years we've been able to stay with Nate's whole family for a few days in one of the cabins that Tamarack rents out.  This year Dave and Connie were only able to come up for a night and Josh and Jo were only able to do one night, but we had a great time anyway.


We decided to head up to the mountain a week before Spring Break.  The weather has been so warm and we were a bit scared that if we waited until the end of March there wouldn't be any snow left to ski on.  As luck would have it, on Friday when we drove up to Tamarack the weather was so warm that the ski resort (and the whole area) was having problems with water flooding from snow melt off.  The ski resort was closed when we arrived because all the melting snow was pooling at the bottom of the main chair lift.  Being the worrywort that I am, I immediately went into freak out mode because we were not going to be able to reschedule this little family vacation and I had visions of crying boys because they didn't get to ski or go to the tubing hill.  (Actually we didn't go to the tubing hill because it was closed due to all the standing water.)  After a few minutes of panic, I pulled myself together and decided to let fate take its course.  Nate made a call to the main lodge and the ski resort said they had a pump set up by the lift and assured us they would be up and running on Saturday morning.


Well. . . .all my worrying was for nothing (this is usually the case).  We had the most glorious ski weekend EVER.  It began snowing like CRAZY and we had amazing powder to snow in.  Connie and Dave were kind enough to watch Brooklyn for me so I could go skiing with Nate and the boys on Saturday morning.  I think I only did 4 or 5 runs until my legs were on fire!  Mind you, those 4-5 runs were extremely long and covered with brand new deep powder.  It is SO much work skiing through deep snow, especially when I haven't exactly been on a great workout routine since Brooklyn was born. 


Ryan and Brandon have become great skiiers!!  I definitely had to work to keep up with those two.  They skiied so hard the whole weekend and had an absolute blast.  One of their favorite spots on the mountain was the kiddie lift because it has a small little terrain park area where they could practice doing "jumps."  They seriously would have been happy skiing that small hill all day. 


We had a few downfalls to our mini vacation.  Ryan wasn't feeling the best and was up all night long coughing (both nights), but he was a trouper and skiied during the days anyway. And of course I got to deal with Brooklyn's first attempt to sleep somewhere other than her house.  Naps were hard for her and she slept horribly at night.  Oh, well. . .what's a mom going to do?   


The cabin had a hottub so we were able to relax our muscles after long days of skiing and the boys were completely entertained with their little "pool."  If they weren't skiing, they were swimming.
 
I can say that I'm already looking forward to our trip next year :)

 Playing Yahtzee on Friday while resort was closed

 Daddy, Grandma, and Papa talking to. . . .

 Brookie!!  I'm such a BIG girl :)

 Brookie's bathtime. . .

 Ryan practicing his jumps

 Now it's Brandon's turn. . .

 Brothers riding the chair lift together. . .

 GORGEOUS!

 Hanging out with Uncle Josh in the hot tub.

 Ryan loving on Brookie.

Me and my boys

Random Pictures of My Kiddos. . .

Here are a few pictures that the boys have taken. . .they LOVE Mom's new camera. . .

 Awww. . .sweet Ryan

 Still not liking this food thing too much. . .

 Daddy "Loving" on Brookie before bed

 Smile Brooklyn. . .

 My 3 kiddos snuggled in Mom and Dad's bed

Yummy!

Brooklyn at 6 months. . .

I was doing so well getting the cute month-to-month pictures of Brooklyn in her "Monthly Onesies" but I totally dropped the ball on her 6 month pictures.  I did find some time to take pictures of her in one of her gorgeous dresses that we got from some of our good friends so hopefully those will do :)


What's new with Brookie:

• She's rolling over. . .I was a bit stressed out, but we did meet this milestone. . .wahoo!!
• She's sitting up with only a bit of assistance.  I usually put my boppy pillow behind her just in case she has a tumble, but she's enjoying being able to see the world from a different view.
• Brooklyn has started to get a bit of "stranger anxiety," especially around men and particularly men with facial hair.  She just does NOT like it.  Uncle Josh just recently went a couple weeks without shaving and Brooklyn gave him the total stare-down and started crying when she normally has no trouble going to him. 
• Napping has been going well during the day as long as Brooklyn is at home in her own crib/environment. 
• Brooklyn LIKES her bottle now.  We went in for our 6 month check-up with Dr. Peterman and told him that Brooklyn doesn't take a bottle very well.  He told us not to even bother using a bottle and to start working on a sippy cup with her. . .that way we wouldn't have to break her of the bottle habit later.  I swear as soon as she heard him say those words she decided she'd LOVE to drink from a bottle.  Bottle problem solved!
• Ryan and Brandon are enjoying playing with Brooklyn more now that she interacts with them better.  I still cringe when they try to carry her around the house though.  It pretty much looks like they are giving her a choke-out.

 Awww. . .so sweet!!

 Brookie in the hat Grandma Connie made. . .

 Pretty Girl :)

 This was our last picture of the day. . .I felt the same way. . .

Baby Food Time. . .

Well, Brooklyn is now old enough to start eating her little heart out.  You can tell from the picture that she's not to sure about this whole deal and she would WAY rather nurse than have to eat this stuff!!

Valentine's Day

We were so excited about all the Valentine's we got from family. . .Thank you SO very much!!


It's so funny how kids get excited for ANY day where they get to each a whole bunch of unhealthy food. . .today was no exception.  The boys have been counting down the days until Valentine's. . .I can only hope this continues when they are married and have wives (yea, right!).  They've been looking forward to exchanging their Ninjago cards with their friends and celebrating at their class party.


Brooklyn and I headed over to the school for the boys' Valentine's Day party.  I was in charge of games and let me tell you I wasn't too excited about the whole thing.  It's not easy to do a party game when you also have a 5 month old to take care of. . .did I mention the party was during naptime?


Ryan and Brandon had a BLAST!!! 

Ryan playing his game. . .

Yum!!  Pizza!!

A pencil for the winners. . .

What's New?????

I just wanted to share a few pictures so you can see how much my kiddos are growing.  Time goes way too fast. . . .

Brandon posing. . .

Ryan posing. . .

 Brookie entertaining herself

Such a happy girl

This is the boys' FAVORITE picture. . .It says EVERYTHING you need to know about my kiddos :)

Brooklyn at 5 Months. . .

Well, I knew that a difficult month had to come my way and 5 months, although delightful in some ways, was the pits in others.

• Brooklyn only likes to lay on her back with her feet in the air.  It was quite a feat to get a 5 month picture with her all stretched out :)
• This whole "Bottle Business" is for the birds!!  I think I've spent $50 on different bottles just praying that Brooklyn would magically fall in love it.  No such luck. . .
• We're rolling over!!!   I kept waiting and waiting for the day and FINALLY now I can stop stressing out about the whole thing. (Funny, I kept telling everyone that Brooklyn was just going to do things at her own pace yet deep inside I'm thinking, "Hello child, you're 5 months old and you should be rolling!!"  Just imagine how this Mama is going to react when we get to the walking stage. . .the boys were walking at 10 months. . .that's a lot of pressure!)
• Sleeping at night. . I'll rephrase that NO SLEEPING AT NIGHT.  So much for my all of my bragging in months 1,2, and 3.  I'm paying for it now.  Brooklyn is still waking up several times during the night and it is very draining on me.  Nate can't really help me out because half the time the girl is voraciously hungry and wants to eat.  So I keep telling myself that this year is flying by (it really is) and she won't be a baby forever. . .tear, tear :(
• Her eyes are still the most beautiful blue color in the world.
• Her hair is definitely going be red and she has quite a bit of peach fuzz on the top at this point.
• No signs of any teeth at this point.