Campout fun, my singing boy:)

I have fallen a bit off my usual post every week to ten days. Things have been a bit crazy. We were just gone for almost a week, up in La Crete for my niece's wedding and our Fehr family campout. We had a great time, and traveling with the kids went pretty well. We don't have the world's best travelers I'm sure, but I would say they're probably above average for the age they're at. We did not have to tent at the campout as originally thought, thanks to Tina and Danny sleeping in their house and letting us use their trailer. This turned out to be a huge blessing for us! We had a lot of fun, but as always, it was good to come home again.

Adam was a bit high maintenance the first day of the campout, but once he got used to his surroundings a bit he started having fun. He even walked outside in the rain without an issue! He slept very well for the most part, with the exception of our last night there when he kept crying on and off and we had to take him into bed with us. I don't know if I've mentioned this about him before, but a few months back, he started sucking on his food. He is so bad for this, especially at lunch time when he starts getting tired - he uses his food as a soother almost! Very frustrating, and man does he get mad when you have to pry that food out of his mouth at naptime. He sings all the time - still only Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but he's added some of the words - "Kwinko Kwinko ha ha sar". It is so cute! I sing him so many other songs, and keep hoping to hear one of those songs come out of his mouth, but so far no luck.

Lynsey also really loved the campout! She loved Georgia's playhouse, and had a lot of fun playing with Georgia and Julia. We also stopped in at Brian's parents on the way home and she was thrilled about that, as she claimed she had REALLY missed Grandma and Grandpa Kroeker:). Sharing a room with Adam continues to work reasonably well most days, but some days are still a struggle (as I type, Lynsey is singing at the top of her lungs and Adam has just joined in - they certainly do like distracting each other!).

Our yard continues to make advancements. The fence is done, the deck is almost done (just need railing) and the retaining wall in the front got done while we were gone. They have to come back and fix it because it's not quite straight, but they're coming tomorrow so hopefully it's an easy fix and we can get some grass put in soon. I am really looking forward to having the landscaping done so we can start working on the basement (and by "working on" I mean "hiring out").

Settling in to our new digs

We are officially in our new house and our old house no longer belongs to us. The move was very smooth - hiring movers was money well spent in my opinion. My sister Gert and Brian's Mom were around to help with some of the unpacking which was great. The only hitch was that when we got to the house, there was no hot water, and that didn't get fixed until the next morning. A bit unfortunate, but not the end of the world I soon learned:). The kids were put in the same room that first night, and although it took them a while to fall asleep, they slept through and have been since. Some nights are still a bit of a struggle with them distracting each other, but it seems to be working alright. Adam likes to throw his blankets out of his crib and thinks it's a game to make Lynsey get them. Sometimes she doesn't which makes him really angry, but it always gets sorted out eventually! She also likes to sing to him and read him stories to "help" him go to sleep, but we're trying to make it clear to her that she's just supposed to ignore him and THAT will help him go to sleep. I think it will work out just fine:).

I was actually less nostalgic about letting go of the house than I thought, although when I went back to clean last week, it felt a lot homier than this one still. We just need to get our blinds, get the pictures on the wall, an area rug, etc. It's coming along! Only a few boxes left (one scary one marked "miscellaneous" that I have been totally avoiding) and the yard work has begun. Our cement down the side of the house and the pad in the back was poured on Saturday, and the deck and fence will be happening tomorrow (were supposed to come today, but one thing I've learned about contractors is that they are always delayed for one reason or another!). The guy that did our cement is going to do a retaining wall for us in the front so that would take care of the hardest part of the landscaping in the front, and then we'll just be laying sod and planting trees. Such a lot to do with a new house! We took a few summers last time to do it all, but we have some motivation to get it all done ASAP this time around (little subjects called Adam and Lynsey are the main reason).

Adam has started humming, and quite on tune I might add. We recognized the song he was humming the first time we heard him do it - it was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He mostly hums that one, although here and there I hear him humming a different tune. He is certainly becoming a toddler in every aspect, the most recent one being his total inability to share. We had seen glimpses of this here and there before, but it's really come to light lately. He likes to just swat Lynsey away if he wants something she has, and is not easily distracted (as he never has been!). The temptation is always to make Lynsey share, since she's older and somewhat reasonable, but I realize this isn't always fair. He just gets really mad for a while, but he'll have to learn how life is. Lynsey does aggravate things more than necessary by REALLY wanting the thing she's playing with that he wants, but nobody said having two kids would be easy!

Adam just had his 18 month shots and he now weighs the same as Lynsey - 32 pounds. He's 34 inches long, basically translating to him being very big for his age. Not a shocker, but it is interesting to see how he's continued on the growth curve, not really dropping any. I wonder if he'll just always be big for his age, and where on earth did that come from??

'Twas the night before moving day

And just why am I not frantically packing you all ask? Well, maybe I should be, but the movers aren't coming until noon tomorrow so I think we'll be okay to finish up in the morning. I'm sure it will surprise us how much we have left to do, but the truth is we have a whole week to clear out of this house completely, so while we have movers coming tomorrow and would like to get mostly everything out, it's not the end of the world if some stuff doesn't get done. I'm pretty nervous about how everything will go tomorrow. It's our first time hiring movers so I'm hoping it all goes smoothly. I imagine since they do this for a living it will be smoother than if we were to do it ourselves, but I have some anxiety about it. I am so sick of packing and I'm ready to start UNPACKING! I'll get my chance soon enough:).

We had a great long weekend! Lynsey and I went to a Canada Day parade in Airdrie on Friday morning which was kind of fun, and off to Three Hills in the afternoon for Kyle and Jenna's wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Lynsey was all over her flower girl duties:). Unfortunately, on Saturday morning, she was a little less all over them:(. She was a bit pouty while I was trying to do her hair (quite amateurishly, but it ended up looking pretty cute!) and it took a lot of convincing to get her down the aisle. She did eventually get going and did a great job of dropping her flower petals! She was a bit slow so the ring bearer ended up passing her near the end, but it was all really cute:). It was an early wedding, over by mid-afternoon, so we had a family barbeque at Liz and Dave's after, followed by some beach volleyball (always a good time!). It was a wonderful day! On Sunday, we went for lunch with Brian's parents, Mike and Andrea (his new fiance!) and Andrea's parents. A full weekend for us! A lot of fun, though:).

It has been very hot this week, making me extraordinarily thankful for air conditioning. We don't get A/C in our new house until the 20th, so hopefully it stays a bit cooler than this one does! This time tomorrow we will be in our new house. I can't really believe it. Here's hoping tomorrow goes well!