Year 5, Weeks 3-5: Fair, Friedenswald and Family Fun

 We are back! Here to report the last few weeks of summer. This week feels a lot like we are calming down for the fall even though it's still hot and no one here goes to school and nothing about our life drastically changes! It's been a great August so far, so here's what we have been up to!

Week 3: July 31st - August 6th

It was my double 13 week, so Jonathan brought the babies in so I could see them, which was awesome. I just love to see them. The kids hung out with Jonathan's mom, which always gets Amelia excited! "See Grandma!" She has been very excitable about her people recently and it has been very enjoyable. On Tuesday, Jonathan went to get some supplies at Robertson's before he picked the babies up, but otherwise they just enjoyed some time together. 

On Wednesday we went to the Columbiana County Fair, which is actually our county. It was fun to go and take the kids PLUS use our new wagon! William absolutely loved riding around in the wagon, which was adorable, and Amelia enjoyed the whole thing...other than the chicken barn. We saw Thea, which was great. Possibly Amelia's favorite part. On our way to the fair we stopped and voted and I spent the earlier part of the day gardening and planning!

Thursday was my emergency eye doctor visit. My eyes have been so horrible. I was absolutely miserable for so long that I couldn't do it anymore and was, honestly, worried about damaging my eyes. Thankfully, my eye doctor is awesome and got me feeling a lot better. Unfortunately, it is ragweed season, so my allergies are just bad bad bad right now. Jonathan had band this week, so we went to pick corn with Mom and spent some time picking our garden too! There were peppers, tomatoes and herbs to work on. It was super enjoyable, but I am very ready to get done with it and we are super close!

This is grocery shopping week, so we went shopping on Friday and stopped at Wendy's for dinner. It was very disappointing, we will most likely not be returning to said Wendy's. We did get our groceries done and I put some tomatoes up too! In the evening we spent some time preparing for our small group. It was a busy day, but we got a ton of things checked off the list! 

The weekend really just allowed for a lot of family time and we very much enjoyed that. I put corn up on Saturday while Jonathan mowed, but we spent the morning in Carrollton, which was a ton of fun. There are a bunch of cute shops and we got to get ice cream at the new ice cream place in town! Sunday was equally as family-time oriented, which was super necessary after all we had been doing for the past few weeks. We had church, I took a nap when the kids napped and Jonathan replaced the water filter, then we ended up having a visit from Mom and Dad and Jonathan cleaned out the drain in the sink because it was backing up. Lots accomplished on Jonathan's part and a lot of resting for the rest of us. Basically that means everyone was happy with how the day went.

Week 4: August 7 - August 13th

William and I had therapy on Monday, so Amelia hung out with Aunt Bev while we were gone! I worked on tomatoes (my second job this month), made dinner and worked on taco meat for camp. Jonathan's family goes to camp every year for a weekend and we bring taco meat for the lunch meal, so I put all of that together the week before! Once the kids went down for bed, Jonathan and I did some research for our trip this fall. We had to get some homes booked in each town we are staying in, so it was a lot of fun and we were glad to get it over with.

I had a rough day at work, but it was my last day for a week, so I toughed it out and went home. Jonathan took care of the kids and got the trash all taken out to get ready for our pick-up. On Wednesday we inadvertently celebrated book lovers day. Amelia was ALL about the books! She just sat and read multiple times that day. She helped me make a chex mix and a sweet mix to take to camp and I also made some baby food for Mr. William. I was having some back pain, so I went to the chiropractor to get adjusted - immediately felt better! We went swimming in the evening, which was a blast, and makes the kids sleep well! Everyone enjoys it!

William decided to start sitting on Thursday, so he did it all day...and he started climbing on the trampoline too! I finished the herbs, prepped cucumbers, jalapenos, onions and watermelon for camp and got everything packed up so we could easily leave in the morning. Traditionally, I am an over-packer, however, I decided this time to just be practical! It took some work, but we got some packing cubes and that helped a lot. We ended up not having to take a suitcase! It all fit in the bags we were taking. I had a dentist appointment too, then we went shopping and got a few thing we needed. Amelia is my little side kick at this point. We try to do things while William is napping so that Jonathan can work and we can still get things done. His napping has really turned around over the last month or two and I am so thankful. Gives me a little bit of flexibility. 

Friday was our travel day. We packed everything up in the morning while William was napping, then backed the babies up when he woke up and headed out. I drove for the first little bit and then the car started to rattle about an hour into the 5.5 hour drive. That was a good time. We figured out that it was safe to drive and just bared with it. We packed a picnic lunch and ate 2 hours in, then put the kids in the car to hopefully nap. It didn't go fantastically, but they tried. An hour out from camp we stopped and got supper at Wendy's. Once we got to camp we played on the amazing playground! Amelia had so much fun and was very adventurous. She was super friendly, not at all shy and willing to make friends! It was so great to see her have a blast. William slept super well and we let Amelia stay up a little extra late so that she would be super tried. She laid in bed for 2.5 hours without sleeping until we brought her in our bed and she had to sleep. Whew! Lots of sleep debt for that little girl to deal with!

Thankfully, Amelia did a great job and had a fantastic time on Saturday. We went swimming (twice), Jonathan played basketball, Amelia played pay-dough, colored, learned how to play carpetball, had so much fun with "the kids" and enjoyed sitting by the fire and eating a s'more! Thankfully, she slept fantastically that night, didn't even wake up when we went in to go to sleep. Sunday morning is always super quick, we had breakfast, did a devotional, took a family picture, had a meeting then packed up to go the 5.5 hours home. It was a great trip. The babies still didn't sleep fantastically, but they tried! We kept them up until lunch, then stopped to get ice cream once we were closer to home. William needed to eat anyway. All four of us were glad to be home.

Week 5: August 14 - 20th

Monday was big recovery day! We spent some time napping, recovering and preparing for the rest of the week. I also had a ton of gardening to get caught up on, so I did a lot of that throughout the afternoon. Tuesday was a work day for me, it went super smooth, another short week. It felt like I was away from work for so long since I took a weekend off for camp. 

Jonathan went on a site visit Monday, so we had a play date with friends. It was a fantastic time! Amelia had a blast playing with friends and I think the feelings were mutual. Jonathan was watching an auction in the evening, we played a little bit, had pasta for supper and enjoyed our time as a family. 

On Thursday, William and I had early therapy, so Amelia hung out with Daddy when she woke up! We had cowboy quesadillas for supper before Jonathan went to band and to get his auction loot. When he was gone, we went to visit Mom and Dad. Amelia actually pooped on the potty for Nana, which was a win for everyone! It started a whole chain reaction, she has been doing AMAZING! We are all so excited about it! She pooped on Saturday and Sunday and did it happily and excitedly.

Friday was my short day, it was super fun to get off early and we went to get supper at Que Pasa! Mom and Dad met us there, the kids hung out with them after Mom was done with work so that Jonathan could get the yard mowed. We had so much fun, enjoyed the food and no one had to cook! 

On Saturday, Mom needed a ride to get her car, so we went to take her and stopped at the flea market, which was a lot of fun! It's right around the corner and I was super impressed, which is a double bonus. I got a few little things for really good prices. Jonathan made us omelettes and pancakes for breakfast, so we didn't want a lot of lunch. I worked on tomatoes through the day and took a nap when the kids napped. Jonathan weeded, Amelia pooped and then we dug potatoes in the evening.

On Sunday we spent a lot of time as a family. We had church, worked out in the garage on a few things, went shopping, cleaned up the kitchen, worked on (you guessed it) tomatoes and Amelia pooped twice! It was a special trip because we stopped to get some ice cream to celebrate all the success Amelia had been having. We grabbed a few things at Walmart and checked out a few other things. Grabbed some Chipotle for supper and then came home and watched Clifford to wrap the weekend up and get ready for the next one!

It has been such a great few weeks. Feels like the best way to end the summer. We got all our summer celebrating out in the last few weeks. So thankful for the amazing weather and the fantastic company to enjoy it with! I hope you are all enjoying the last few weeks of summer and getting ready for some beautiful fall weather!

Love,

Jonathan, Allison, Amelia and William

RANDOM PHOTOS:

How we ride out to the garden...William is a little too small to fit in the red wagon, so the garden cart gets extra use!

She really likes to "take pictures" ... though she holds the viewing window up to the bridge of her nose. So she sees nothing!

After many attempts to get everyone looking and smiling at the camera while sitting still...I settled for one of each kid looking at the camera clearly.

The attitude is strong with this one...

He's such a stud!

WILLIAM'S 9 MONTH PHOTOS:

CAMP PHOTOS:

Year 5, Weeks 1 and 2: Summer Lovin'

 

Trying to get back on track here, so a long post followed by a short one! 

Week 1: July 17 - 23

Monday I was off, it was the end of my long week at home, so we had chicken and ranch biscuit casserole and I did my last big batch of green beans. We have a lot of green beans, good thing too, because we use a lot of them!

Tuesday was a super fun day because I got the day off in order to go to Jonathan's first open house! Hillsdale is the first project he has been the point person on and he did a great job. We took Amelia with us, met his parents and Harold for dinner and then went to tour the building. It was super cool. They weren't funded by the state, so they got to do whatever they wanted. The building is beautiful and it was so fun to see what Jonathan has been working so hard on! On the way home, we stopped to get ice cream (of course) and enjoyed some time together. Mom had William in bed when we got home and everyone got the sleep they needed. Before we went on our tour, I made snickerdoodle bars, monster cookies and chocolate crinkle dough.

Since I had so many days off, I got to spend a lot of time making fun stuff. On Wednesday I made chocolate crinkles, cinnamon rolls, green bean casserole and breakfast enchiladas. Shem and Karah came in town, so we had a little Haas gathering with the cousins when they got home on Wednesday. We got to go swim and enjoyed some time with family, it was so fun! I also got laundry done, so it was a busy day!

On Thursday we gave Mom and Dad their birthday presents - a day just the 8 of us. It was a fantastic day! We took breakfast over, the guys went outside for awhile, we swam, Shem and Karah made supper, it was a super sweet day. The babies did great and we even snuck in a game! It was one of the best days. We super celebrated Shem and Jonathan's birthdays too since Shem had just had one and Jonathan's was actually on Thursday! Amelia, William and I got him a grill cover, which he desperately needed. It was a great day. When we got home, I picked green beans as it was beginning to storm. Amelia came out with me, so she was having an absolute meltdown, but we got it together and Jonathan took her in to get her ready for bed. Of course, we were then under a tornado warning, so she was just screaming in her bed. She ended up coming down and waiting it out with us for a little bit. Not a big fan of thunder at this point...William slept through the whole thing though!

I worked a long day on Friday as I started my long weekend. The kids went to Faith's for the first time in awhile and they just had a great time. Jonathan milked for Dad because they had a wedding to go to, so the kids stayed with the Dickerhoof grandparents at our house while he was gone. They had such a great time, I heard all about it when I got home. My beans needed picked again, so Aunt Bev came in the morning to take care of that. We had BLTs when I got home because our tomatoes started this week - always a treat! I picked the garden after work and got to enjoy my family for the evening. 

Sunday was church for the family, Jonathan played and I was at work. As usual, I stopped and picked up dinner on the way home, then we had a picnic upstairs, watched Clifford and relaxed. Jonathan even got a nap in the afternoon! It was a great week. We had such a good time together just enjoying each other's company and got to spend a lot of time together as a family. As a bonus, we squirreled a bunch of food away for the winter too!

Week 2: July 24 - 31

This was a bit of a rough week. We had burgers for dinner on Monday, but I threw together some Swedish Meatball Pasta for leftovers so we could make it through the rest of the week. I canned some green beans, just a little picking and then I made some homemade Rotel. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but it wasn't that hard! So definitely worth a shot!

I worked on Tuesday and found out that one of my co-workers was having heart trouble and, as the day progressed, found out that open heart surgery was required. It was a bit of a rough week since we are all pretty close, but thankfully everything is on the up swing as of right now. Made for a rough week though. The babies hung out with Nana while I was at work and they stayed a little later so Jonathan could clean up the wood that came down after the storm. 

Wednesday was a double swim day as it was super duper hot. We had a great time and enjoyed some dinner with Mom and Dad. It rained pretty hard while we were eating, but thankfully stopped so we could get in the pool for our second dip. I worked in the garden a little bit just gathering everything that was ripe. At that point, I was done with green beans and just focused on the other stuff like tomatoes and peppers.

William and I had therapy on Thursday, which tires us both out, so we all took afternoon naps like champs. I felt so much better after that! Jonathan had a dentist appointment in the afternoon, but we barely knew he was gone! Before band, Jonathan made us all fajitas, which were delicious, then the kids and I spent the evening together and I did bed time while he was gone. 

It was technically my week to work the short shift on Friday, but I picked up the long shift since it was an all-hands-on-deck situation. It was a little exhausting, but everyone did fine. The kids stayed with Nana and I enjoyed my evening with the girls at work. 

The weekend was a flurry of cooking and canning. I made salsa and pickles on Saturday and canned peaches on Sunday. We went out to dinner, which was a lot of fun, on Saturday and actually spent the afternoon reviewing our plans for the year. It was a great day for our little family! 

Sunday was a lot too. I ended up going in to open the store until they could get another pharmacist there, then I went back to church. After service we had a meeting, so the kids went home with Mom and Dad for lunch and naps while we were there and we took the remainder of nap time plus a little extra to get peaches canned and for Jonathan to mow. We had spaghetti for supper and enjoyed the evening together as a family before my double 13s started. 

Overall, it's been a pretty good two weeks with canning and gardening and just enjoying the kids. Amelia is a hoot right now, she just talks all the time and cracks us up. We are still knee deep in potty training and not enjoying it a lot, but we will get through it! William is working out his sleep schedule...we are slowly trudging through that, but he is a ton of fun when he is well rested. He is super scootchy, but doesn't crawl yet. He gets everywhere he wants to and will even try to climb stuff already. Food is going so much better for him and he is willing to eat most anything we offer him! The two of them love to play together, even though they get frustrated with each other once in awhile. She can make him smile more than anyone else can and I just love that so much. He is the first one she thinks about when she gets up, I either here "Where's William?" or "Hi, William!" depending on whether or not he is with me. We love the two of them so much and are so blessed by our little family.

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful summer we are having. The heat was a little much last week, but we are enjoying the fact that is has cooled down a little bit and we have been getting some rain again. That has been refreshing for my little garden! Enjoy the last few weeks of summer, we love you all!

Love,

Jonathan, Allison, Amelia and William

Random Photos: