August

Hm... two weeks since I blogged last... it's the third kid. 

Emmy likes Cadence.  "She cute. I wiping her spits." 

 They have been insisting on dressing themselves... hehe.  As long as we aren't going anywhere I don't fight it.  Although one day I let Cecily wear navy and white polka dots with teal and white stripes to the grocery store....pattern mixing is totally in, right? 
Listening to "Wednesday church."

 She's been smiling more! And sleeping a little bit better!

Elsie and Angie had a party for the nursery Sunday school class.  Cecily talked about it all week she was so excited to go.  She had so much fun eating pizza, jumping on their trampoline, and doing the slip and slide.  Emmy had no idea what to do with herself while she was gone.  :)

Cecily wanted to plant carrots this year... the rabbits finally got to them.  Sad day.  We don't appear to have been growing anything- this is what we grew- less than an inch long. 

 Last Friday was Kids day and Cecily got to go for the first time.  We dropped her off and went to the farm for supper and to do Farm Bureau peaches with Mom and Shelly.  Emmy dressed up in Shell's dress from Ellie's wedding.

We had all the peaches ready to can and two canners going on the stove when a train derailed up at the elevator and knocked out the power... so we packed up our jars in the dark and I brought my share home and canned them late that night.   

Matt is back from Japan so we were all invited to John and Jamie's after church Sunday... and then we went out to Bob's parent's that evening.  Matt brought us presents.  We'll see how long they survive the girls.

 Amusing themselves on a rainy day.

 Emmy makes me tired.  And makes me laugh.  She likes to wash her hands and play in the soap bubbles so I wasn't surprised to hear water running... "I getting drink!" ...her cup was a toilet bolt cover. 

She also says things like, "What we to do?," "I don't no know.," and when I ask if she wants ____, or not, "or not." 
This would be a great Christmas card picture if they weren't in pajamas with their hair messy on the dirty floor...

Not sure where she learned this... 

"I doing 'nastics too Mama!" Also, the hallway is now an art gallery.

 So many of my favorite things in this picture; a canner full of pears, three little stinkers, random vases with random flowers (who picks hostas?), and drawstring bags made by Cecily (her toy sewing machine wasn't working right so I helped her use mine...she was so proud).

We are loving the cooler temperatures.  (They dressed themselves again...) Cecily is doing some 'cool moves' and Emmy is afraid of some noise... Cadence is just chilling in the stroller.    

Tonight we took the picnic quilt outside to look at the stars.  It isn't really dark enough in town, but the girls don't last very long so it doesn't really matter.  :) 
Blessings.

These are my people

This is where I come from...  so we just got back from the 30th annual Wyss/Streitmatter vacation.  It was good.  I'm not sure I would say it was fun since we had a 4.5 week old baby along.  :) 

If she was any younger I would not have done it.  If I didn't have mom, 2 sisters, 6 aunts, and lots of cousins to help and keep track of the older two... I would not have done it.  They all traveled really well, but that first night I was totally second guessing traveling with a newborn.  Basically, if you #haveWysses, go for it; if not, don't vacation with a newborn.  

Backing up a bit... they discovered that they have twice the pool space if they use the lid.

We made a last minute Walmart run and came home with a fishing pole for Emmy.  They didn't end up doing any fishing in Kentucky, but at least the possibility of them fighting over one fishing pole was eliminated. 

Aunt Sheddy came over and helped us do a few green beans.  The girls decided they wanted to help, and they actually did, so they are all different lengths and I had to fish out a lot of "fetzes." 

It was a stormy day, but we did get one shower in the evening with no lightning so I shooed them outside.  I would have let them go barefoot... they found their boots and umbrellas.... Emmy ended up pretty wet anyway. 

 

 Folding towels... I have to redo most of them.  :)

So on Saturday we packed up everything and the kitchen sink, plus a case of diapers and wipes and left after lunch for Kentucky Lake!  

The trip went pretty well, it's only 5 hours of drive time, so we didn't have to stop for food.  The girls were pretty good... Bob and I both arrived tired and with headaches. Woot.  The older girls were so wound up and excited.  We had a terrible time getting them to bed that night. Our cabin had two double beds and they ended up in separate beds with one of us... not a good night and I was regretting coming. 

Everything looks better in the morning though...   we hit the "pool" and "big sandbox" with lots of help from Grandma and Aunty Shell.  Most of the time by the time I'd get the older two in suits, sunscreen, and down to the beach, Cadence would wake up and need to eat again. 

 There's another family that comes to this resort every year, we've hung out before... Eva was super great with the girls.  She swam with them a lot, and gave Emmy a boat ride.

And my crazy cousins.... Clayton managed to talk Cecily into going down the big slide!  Which is kind of amazing!  I have a video, but it's hard to see...   She wouldn't go down it again the rest of the week. 

So getting everyone up and dressed and to the main cabin for breakfast sounded kind of overwhelming.  Mom was gracious enough to deliver breakfast right to our porch every morning. I was glad I didn't have to forgo Grandma's fabulous breakfasts. The girls favorite is pancakes...  

 Chilling in our cabin with their jump ropes...

 Glued to the "kid movies," aka, cartoons.

 Matt took us out on Uncle Ron's boat one afternoon.

 Emmy was unsure, especially when he started the motor.

Checking out the fish in the live well. 

 Uncle Randy texted me this picture, which I love.  Emmy sees it and says, "Jakey on your phone?"

It was a rainy week.  We had to leave the beach at least twice because a storm came through. We waited this one out on our porch.

 Family feud... kids...

...and adults.  It was really funny even though our family didn't do so well. :)  I mean, if a chair gets broken, it's gotta be a good time, right?   

Grandma working on oven french toast for the next morning's breakfast.  So much good food.  I'm so spoiled... fantastic breakfasts and huge suppers... 

Because it was the 30th annual, we got t-shirts for the annual family picture.  Even the babies got matching onesies.   The fronts say "30th annual Wyss Vacation," "Four Generations," "Est. 1987," "Best Week of the Year."  The backs have Psalm 145:4- "One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts."

Cecily, Boden, and Cliff 

Picture taking is always chaos.  And miserable.  We don't do this well.  Although, at one point everyone was saying 'cheese'- "Are you harmonizing?!"  hehe. 

I don't have a big group picture (there were way too many cameras as it was).  This is the best we got of just us.  Ha.   

 Such an ornery little girl...

It ended up being a pretty good week over all.  We've had kids along for 5 years now, so I've mostly gotten over having to experience most of the fun stuff through other people's pictures...  like cliff jumping and haircuts... what? your family doesn't bring hair cutting stuff on vacation? haha.  And I've mostly stopped resenting that Bob gets to spend more time with my cousins than I do. Mostly.

Check out time was 9am Saturday morning, so we decided to leave after supper Friday night.  Much less stressful.  We let the girls watch a movie in the van and then they slept... Cadence even slept most of the way! We got home a little before 1am... it was so nice to wake up in our own beds Saturday morning. 

We spent Saturday unpacking, doing laundry, and recovering.     

Today I survived taking three girls to church all by myself... Ruth and girls took the older two in the afternoon, thankfully.  Otherwise, I would have spent the entire day in the baby room. 
Blessings.