Big Lake Camping

We went on our annual camping trip to Big Lake two weeks ago. It was the 4th year for me & Aaron, and Audrey's 2nd year! We always go with Aaron's parents, Tom & Julie (who I took video of, but no pictures...I'm sorry!!! They WERE there for the record...), and whoever else can join us. In the past it usually is a pretty big group of our friends who come up, but as families have grown and schedules get busier, we decided to just plan it out and go and whoever could come join us would be a bonus.

Dan, Andrea & their sweet little Marissa Schacher had planned on coming with us, but their newest arrival healthy, precious, Baby Boy Spencer decided to be born 4 weeks early--two days before our camp trip. We forgave them for not coming, since having a baby is a pretty darn good excuse to change plans. :)

Matt, Terese and ONE YEAR OLD Noah Lampa came up to "camp" for the days and stayed at a great little cabin nearby at night. They stayed until it started to get dark & each morning they came early to join us for breakfast, but by the looks on their refreshed, clean, showered, and well-rested faces...we're pretty sure they'll be renting that place each year.. :)

My dear Mom also came up to stay the last night we were there. I was so glad she wanted to come up to join us! She & Audrey had a lot of fun walking around.

Aaron, my super hard-working husband spent weeks before our camp trip getting our "Shasta" trailer all ready to go. Tom & Julie are graciously letting us call the Shasta our own, and as soon as they offered us to use it each year Aaron took it upon himself to make it our own.

With the help of his Dad, he painted the inside & outside, had CAMO curtains made, stripped up the carpet and put in pergo flooring

(which is so much easier just to sweep out the dirt.

seriously, who puts carpet in a camp trailer??)

Julie Roth is the camper of all campers. She has everything you'd ever think of in regards to camp supplies & tools, plus way, way more. Since they used the "Shasta" in the past she had it completely stocked up for us!! It was wonderful, we had everything we needed & it was so well-organized. She is a professional camper, if there ever was such a thing.

Camping this year was great, Aaron worked so hard on the trailer, it has come a long way from the beigey/yellow with an orangey/yellow stripe, to the super cool looking dark gray with a silver stripe. It's perfect :) It is the perfect size for us too. Two bed areas so Aaron doesn't have to share with me and my 4 pillows (8 months pregnant...remember), and Audrey slept in her porta crib which perfectly fits in the kitchen area. We love it. As of last summer, we decided trailer camping is definitely the way to go with youngsters.

A quiet place for naps, and much warmer at night.

Since 3 days before we went camping at my Dr.s appointment my midwife "strongly recommended" that we don't go so far away from home at that stage of my pregnancy...but I was feeling fine & was reassured by my husband that the very nice Bend hospital was only 40 min away....so we still decided to go. Aaron was amazing. He pretty much put me on "camp bed rest", taking care of Audrey almost the whole time, helping to make meals and insisting I sit down a lot. Audrey can really be a handful, especially when she wants to roam and Aaron was very willing to walk around with her and take her down to the water all the time.

Each day we walked down to a nearby "beach" area and spent the afternoons soaking in the sun and cooling in the water. We brought snacks and drinks and stayed until the kids were ready to fall asleep from so much sun & water.

It was SO refreshing to float around in the lake being 8 months pregnant.

The water was cool, the sun was hot, the setting was beautiful and we all had a wonderful time.

Our Humble Abode for the week.

Two of our favorite people who literally are always smiling.

Terese & Noah!

"Sungasses!"

Audrey's little lady bug boat.






"I shee you!" -Audrey

Playing in my "play pen" built by my very smart Daddy.

Mommy LOVED the play area where our little walker-explorer girl was totally confined with all her toys, books and her very own small tree stump. :)

Mommy's favorite camp outfit on me the entire camp trip...

jammies and cowboy boots.

Aaron & Ginny

The Mr. and Mrs.

Walking with Daddy

Just another full day down by the water!

SO glad to have my Momma come camp with us!!

She is always fun to be with and such a huge help.

We love her.


Rock Climbing with Grandma Lu-Lu

8 month pregnant Momma trying to cool down

Last day of camping, soooo tired.....time to go home.

Sweet Summertime Memories

Trying out all of Noah Lampa's toys at his First Birthday!

Noah's Bday Party, Our family of three......

Hanging out with my cousin Chloe

Helping Uncle Ryan water

Having one of our many "picnics" on the floor

Swimming with Mommy in Sunriver

Reading with Uncle Tom in Sunriver

Taking a family stroll up at Grandma Pat's cabin after fishing off the bank with the Lampas

Cooling off in our own little pool from Grandma Julie

You're Welcome!

Audrey has amazed us all at her grasp of speech, words, and understanding language. For the past few months at first try, with almost no struggle, she can say almost any new word, big or small, that we ask her to repeat. We laugh & praise her when she says it correctly, and she lights up at the joy of learning something new. It's so fun to see. She makes us both amazed and laugh at all the new words she has learned and continues to add to her growing vocabulary.

One thing we had read when she was very little was the benefits of teaching babies sign language. At a very early age it can enable a youngster to "communicate" with their hands and gestures until they have the ability to use their little voices. I bought a great sign language video "My Baby Can Sign", and we've enjoyed it since Audrey was about 9 months old.

She quickly grasped certain helpful signs and some silly ones too:

please..more..help..diaper..all done..baby..apple

monkey..giraffe..Daddy..Mommy, etc..

By 15 months, among the 15 signs she knew she also had about 50+ actual words she was saying, which literally increased daily. I stopped writing them down halfway through 16 months since she was saying so many I could hardly keep up! Nowadays her sentences are getting longer and her word structures are making more sense. We have very little to compare her too, being that she is our first child, but from all the comments from family, friends, strangers and our own parental pride, we think she's a pretty smart girl already :) We are just so proud of her, and love that we are able to communicate with her more and more these days!

(Plus it makes us laugh daily at how much of a little person she has become!!)

Being that she can actually SAY so many words now, I have been trying to get her away from using some signs she still goes to. "Please" and "Thank You" are familiar signs to her and when asked to say either one, she will use the sign instead. It's great--she is using that as her way to communicate--but I really think now that she can SAY those things, she should try to. So lately, I have really been trying to switch over from signs to speech. The only problem is that she is sometimes too smart, and her understanding of how things are said, and what words are supposed to go together sometimes gets confused.

Here is a typical conversation between us these days that I wanted to put on record since it's so darn cute, and I know once she figures it out I might forget these precious little sayings of hers... For example:

Mom: "Do you want some fishy crackers?"

Audrey: "yeah"

Mom: "Can you say please?"

Audrey: does the sign for please...

Mom: "No can you say it? Say 'please!' "

Audrey: does the sign for please...then "peas!"

Mom: "Good job Audrey!! 'Please!' Ok, here you go....

Now can you say thank you? Say 'Thank you Mommy!' "

Audrey: "You're welcome!"

Haha...The thing is she says "You're Welcome!" so sweetly, and so matter-of-factly--usually as she's walking away--I think she truly believes she is helping Mommy in some way each time she says it. I hardly correct her it's so darn cute. :)

Picking Mommy's Nose

Audrey does not like her nose being picked for big boogers that are screaming to be pulled out. I try to do it quickly, but she also tries to block my finger and/or shake her head quickly..thus making the process longer resulting in a further dislike of Mommy picking out her boogers.

Tonight as I was sitting on the floor folding her little laundry my little copy-cat Audrey comes up to me, putting her finger up my nose....

"Here you go...I get it"

Then she looked down at her finger

"Oh thats big one!"

.....

"Audrey get it...all done!"

Then as I was left laughing, she also laughed and walked away.

Thank you Audrey.

My Tea Party / Spa Day

My lovely sister-in-law Lillian (married to Ryan, Aaron's brother), gave me a wonderful "Mommy Shower" a few weeks ago. The objective was different than a usual baby shower. Although, yes the reason we gathered was because I am pregnant with baby Ellie, the party was to celebrate the upcoming birth, and celebrate me being a Mommy to another little girl! It was SO nice of her to do it for me. She hosted a beautiful tea party with all her nicest tea saucers & cups, yummy tea sandwhiches, fresh fruit, lemonade and of course tea.

A few girls couldn't make it, but it was a perfect gathering of some of my closest friends. Terese, Susie, Jenna, Stephanie, Andrea, Julie my mother-in-law, Lily & myself. For every container of wipes brought they could all enter their names in a drawing for some cute prizes that Jenna ended up winning. What a great idea!! We are totally stocked up on wipes now!!

The weather was sunny & gorgeous & everything about the day was wonderful & fun!!

What a blessing to have Lily as my sister-in-law & also my friend.

***PICTURES TO COME...****

(I can't figure out what file I saved them under & don't have any more time to sit here & look...)

AND, as if just having the party wasn't enough, Lily had sent out a card to everyone ahead of time to ask to go in on a Spa Gift Card for me to use. WOW. Could you think of a better gift for a busy pregnant mother of a toddler??? No way. That is the ultimate gift in my mind. A day out at the Spa for some much-needed pampering. :) I was totally honored at how much everyone put in to the gift card...A few weeks later I was able to enjoy a fabulous hour massage (where I could actually lay on my stomach for once with the "pregnancy table" belly insert they had!!!), a pedicure, and a delicious fresh fruit & sparkling cider tray with my mother by my side.

I think my Mom was about to fall asleep here

SO relaxing

SO wonderful

3 hrs SO went by way too fast.... ;)

Who is that?

Audrey, you've officially found your shadow. Yes, it was the cutest sight ever..luckily the camera was within reach.

"Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours"

Hi Mommy, I thought you could really use some help these days. You're looking a little tired, and for some reason you have started to ignore my screams? What was that all about at the store the other day when I was screaming at the top of my lungs and you were humming me a song, smiling? I really enjoy screaming lately, can you tell? Well, since I give you so much extra time through out the days to just sit around...you know, in between picking me up all day long & diapers, stories, baths, feedings, snacks, bottles, clean-up, and making Daddy dinners, I thought you might enjoy this book I got you. I'm not sure what it says, but I think the little boy on the front looks silly. Enjoy!!!! Love, Audie Audrey Lynn,

Well honestly, precious one, I am losing it these days. Maybe it's the lack of sleep I'm getting with the trips to the bathroom in the night, or the painful leg cramps that cause me to JUMP out of bed (which is actually a slower process than leaping gracefully to "stomp" out the cramp...by the time I've actually rolled myself out of bed I'm screaming in pain!!!!!!!) and leave me sore for days in my calf, or maybe it's that you're getting your last few teeth in----at the same time----and are not too happy about it, thus letting us know in high shrieking screams.

Or perhaps it's that I have a very long to-do list of things I'd really like to get done before your sister arrives, and I am getting increasingly aware I may run out of time. Or maybe it's the fact that we actually DO have a new little Roth Baby coming soon and I'm nervous of all the "what-ifs"...from labor pains & the time it will happen (will my water break randomly when we're camping next week, 3 hrs away from home?.....or will it all happen the actual due-date week when Daddy has to be at training all week 3 hrs away from us?....), to having everything in order & ready, to the actual sleeplessness & balancing TWO children...... (BREATHE)

Thank you, however, for your thoughtful consideration that I may

a) Enjoy this book

b) Actually have time to read it

Ummm.. Audrey, why is the chapter on "spanking" ripped out of the book??

Oh what a night...

After our evening bath I let Audrey "air-dry" with her cute little cheeks walking around carefree. I preface this story with that intro, since I am well-aware of how this was my fault....

I soon heard little grunts & tried to encourage my nakey baby to come be with Mommy in Audrey's room! (Where there are diapers......) It was too late & it startled the little thing that there was nothing catching her big poops! She literally stared at it and kept saying "Uh-oh Mommy...uh-oh!" Luckily she is over her diarrhea spell........ So it was easy to clean-up. And earlier this evening I discovered why Audrey kept saying "all wet" and looking down at what looked like a dry floor to me. I just put on my flip-flops to take the trash out & they were what were "all wet"........with pee. So although she is NOT potty-trained yet, maybe she is becoming more aware??!?

THEN, as I was walking outside in my pee-filled sandals (I figured I already had them on, so I might as well take the trash out then come in & wipe them clean...), I discovered my CAR KEYS were still in the front door!!!!! I locked the door, but what good would that have done with the keys still in the lock?!? I have never done that before. I'd like to please blame this last one on my "pregnancy brain"...or lack of. Oh what a night.....

Fun on a budget!!

A few days ago, we discovered Audrey had "misplaced" the keys to our safe. I'm certain they are somewhere in our house, but so far Audrey is staying pretty quiet about this whole hide-the-key game...

Unfortunately, the safe included Aaron's checks, among other important documents. So instead of cashing out the check for groceries, gas, etc that Aaron writes out at the beginning of the month for me, Audrey & I are having to carefully rely on our last month's last few dollars until the new ordered checks arrive..........and/or Audrey finally decides to give up the key.

I have been a very busy "nesting" Momma lately, getting Baby Ellie's clothes sorted, organized, and put away. It has been a huge project consuming me, not to mention our living room. I decided this afternoon Audrey & I would get away from it all & spend some quality time together. Since we were on our last $27.00 and the gas light as on, I decided to first get $10 worth of gas then head out with my cheap date.

First stop: Local consignment shop.

I have found a few items of Audrey's clothes that either will be a completely wrong season for Baby Ellie or a few items that look like they've seen better days. Audrey came with me to deliver them to this really nice consignment shop in town... They have a gated area by the kids clothes with a very small play structure, a "lawn-mower" pusher toy, a kids table&chairs, and a slide (all made of that chunky plastic). It is Audrey's paradise. Especially the slide. It's so small she goes up and down the two stairs all by herself..and she loves it! We honestly spent 45 minutes there today. When we got back in the car she said "Good-bye Slide..Good-bye Mower!"

Final Price: FREE

(plus the money I may make in the future for the 8 items we brought in to sell...)

Next stop: $1.00 Store

I love this store. I love to browse every aisle and just look. There are some junky things, but I always feel great about a good deal, so it's fun to look......and buy ;) Today's objective, however, was strictly the toy aisle for Audrey. After reading a few stories in the book aisle, and trying out some of the toys... We ended up with a box of chunky crayons, one of those bottles for baby dolls that the liquid disappears when you turn it over, and a magic sparkly wand.

Final Price: $3.00

Last Stop: Goodwill

Sometimes Goodwill overwhelms me. It always seems so disorganized & sometimes in those narrow aisles it seems crowded with people who don't seem to notice other people.

(Anyone ever use polite phrases like "Excuse Me?" anymore, or use eye-contact with anyone??)

But I was up for a treasure hunt today so to Goodwill we went....

We found a really cute pink elephant that I had intended to buy for Baby Ellie, but Audrey really liked the "Ebba-dent", so for now it's hers.

We ended up with a big blue bear, the super soft pink elephant, and a "doodle-writer"... (you know, the kind you write with the included pen then you swipe the bottom & it disappears..)

Final Price: $7.49

I am really cherishing these Mommy & Audrey times we have just the two of us. It was fun to find inexpensive toys/animals that she liked, she is pretty easy to please! While she ate dinner I quickly sanitized the toys & machine washed the animals so they'd be good enough for my girl.

Her new friends are currently snuggling with her in bed, by her request.

All-in-all we had a really fun day together, on a low budget :)

Audrey with her "Ebba-dent", her "Big Bear" and her sparkly magic wand...

My little cook

Cooking School Class #1

Your first time "cooking" with Mommy--you loved it!

Getting ready to "plop!" them onto the cookie sheet

Waiting so patiently for the oven "beep-beep" to go off.

Finally--we get to try the cookies!!!

Cooking School Class #2

Yummy...that bowl of water with salt, pepper & a little flour for substance looks delicious!!!

I agree...it needs a little bit more pepper.

Cooking School Class #3

You must learn that from Mommy.....

It's sometimes really hard to wait to try it until it's all done, isn't it??

Making yummy brownies