First stop: Tennessee

We got to spend a week at the greatest bed and breakfast in Tennessee! The amenities included a buddy for each of my kids to play with, three meals a day, a boat to go wake boarding on, and a gym with a pool and zumba classes. There was also a guys night planned for Matt and a girls night planned for me! We had a fabulous time!

Madison's first boat trip!

Spencer loves the tube! Tyler, not so much!

After three summers of unsuccessfully trying, I finally got up on a wake board!

For the record Matt is not about to drown, he is sitting on a life jacket!

I think the tub is maxed out at 4 kids, next summer they'll have to bath in shifts!

Riley attempted a sleep-over with Stephanie, that is until he woke up at 2 a.m. and got scared because he didn't know where he was!

These two have a true love-hate relationship. They were either sweet as can be to each other, or at each others throat! There was never an in between!

Let the adventure begin...

This will probably be my last post for a while. We are starting a road trip this afternoon and won't be back until August 28! Today we are going to Tennessee to spend a week with friends, then we will be in West Virginia, Nauvoo, IL, Omaha, NE, Grand Junction, CO and Utah before heading back home. I'll try to post while we are gone, but in case I can't here are some random pictures to tide you over till we get back!

This is what happens when you spend the day at the beach and skip nap-time! I know it looks like breakfast, but this was actually his dinner!

My sweet girl!

He is so in love with his baby sister!

Another cute dress from her aunties!

A baby blessing and an impromptu photo shoot.

Our best friends blessed their newest addition a couple of Sundays ago, and while they were taking pictures afterwards I decided it was the perfect time for a new family photo. Luckily the kids were pretty cooperative!

This is the smile you get from Riley when he is being mischievous!

Five years ago, when we first started hanging out, there was only 8 of us!

This is the look I get when I tell Matt I want to take family pictures.

We've been working on our tans.

Now that school is out and the heat is rapidly rising we spend most of our time in the water! We are getting in as much beach and pool time as we can before our massive road trip that will take up the rest of the summer!

I'm pretty sure these two will be friends for life!

Madison and Annabelle hanging out at the beach.

Riley LOVED burying Tyler!

They tried surfing for the first time and they both did great!

Stephanie surrounded by boys. Could this be a glimpse into the future?

Pool side snack.

Doesn't Tyler have the cutest friends? We are in trouble when they become teenagers!

A trip to the farm.

Thanks to my friend, Heidi, we discovered a blueberry farm near us. I have never picked blueberries before so we packed up the kids and headed over. The fields of blueberry bushes went on forever! It was a perfect day for picking, with one small exception - it is 'love bug' season here in Florida. If you have never heard of 'love bugs' I'll briefly explain; 'Love bugs' (I have no idea what their actually called) main source of food are mosquitoes so the folks over at FSU decided to start breading them here to try and reduce the number of mosquitoes in Florida. That sounds fabulous, but the problem is that since the bugs are not native to Florida they have no natural enemies here and they multiplied faster than expected. They breed twice a year and during those times they are everywhere! Luckily they are harmless, they remind me of lightning bugs. My point in bringing this up is they were out in full force while we were picking. This really only bothered one person in our group, Riley. We had been out of the car for maybe five minutes and I was busy strapping Madison into her front carrier when Riley started screaming his head off. I looked over and he was holding his arm up screaming at it. One 'love bug' had landed on his arm. Needless to say, he was terrified! I brushed the bug off, assured him the bugs were harmless and finished strapping Madison in. As we were walking up to get our buckets the screaming began again. Another bug had landed on him. He was now convinced that he was only safe if he was being held, so my mom picked him up and calmed him down. That lasted for about 20 minutes, then he decided only I could hold him. So my mom and I switched kids and I tried picking blueberries while holding Riley. The problem was that Riley kept trying to climb up me, like the higher he was the safer he was. All he wanted to do was get back in the car! I was about ready to take him when Tyler had to go to the bathroom. I took both boys and as we were walking I noticed there wasn't a single 'love bug' in sight. I pointed this out to Riley and he actually let me put him down while Tyler was in the bathroom. Then he walked back to where we had been picking, chatting to Tyler the whole way about the bugs being gone. Magically he was cured of his fear and started picking blueberries with me. It turned out to be a fun day for everyone. And the blueberries were delicious!!! We left with 6 pounds worth! I can't wait to go back next year!

Tyler and his friend, Savannah.

I think Tyler easily had the most fun! He didn't want to leave!

I really didn't think this was going to happen!

He ate more than he put in the bucket!

Madison helped my mom.

He was so proud of how many blueberries he picked!

Has it been 6 months already?

The past 6 months have flown by! Madison has been busy growing and learning new things. She is now 14 lbs 2 oz and 24 1/4 inches long. She is a very happy baby and will smile at anyone who talks to her. Her brothers tend to get the biggest smiles though. I haven't been very good at posting pictures of my baby girl, so here are a bunch!

Her long, dark hair fell out and in it's place she now has a head full of 'fuzz'!

Her first try at baby food, it didn't go very well. She would just hold the food in her mouth and then let it fall out! My favorite part of this picture is Tyler making gang signs in the background!

Her favorite thing to do is roll around on the floor watching her brothers play.

Tyler loves to hold her and then say, "Go get your camera mom!"

She grabs at anything she can see, and she found her feet!

She always has that mouth open!

Three reasons why I love being a mother...