Yogi Bear, Family Visits, Winking, Chalk Snowman Family, our Joy named Juliana, and Riding Bikes

A few of our daily blessings around here in the past week:

1. This is the campground we were supposed to camp at this past weekend. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. In fact, the weather basically said, "You want to camp this weekend? I'll show you how much you want to camp!" And then the weather proceeded to dump all the rain it's been holding back for the last several weeks in which it was beautiful (perfect camping weather). So, we decided not to go. I mean it's not too much fun being stuck in an extremely small camper with 4 kids for two days. No reason to risk it, if we could avoid it, know what I mean? It's been raining ever since I think... Oh wait, there was one afternoon this week where it wasn't raining. More on that later. So, here's why not going camping was a blessing.

Coincidentally, some of the McCabe cousins were coming to the zoo on Saturday, so we were able to meet them there and then they came over to the house afterwards for a visit. We don't get to visit with these guys very often, so it was a real treat to have them and so much fun. Those McCabes and Holladays are hilarious!

Taylor, who is 13 now (gasp!) I met him when he was barely 3, did his best to get Andrew Waveland to warm up to him. It didn't take long. The next day Andrew was asking, "Where's Taywere?"

Aunt Melinda and Juliana talking to precious Ethan.

Of course, there were lots of gunfights and coonskin cap wearing. Wouldn't be a McCabe event without that! ;)

Scarlett did her best to get a smile out of Ethan by tickling his arm.

Success! That smile lights up the world!

Landon and Mary Esther were too fast to catch on camera except when we made them sit down for the group shot, and I didn't catch Uncle Geary and Aunt Adrienne but we all had a blast, and let me tell you it was LOUD in our house last Saturday! A very good loud.

Moving on to Sunday. Remember the Yogi Bear picture up there?

So, we decided to ride out to the campground to check it out on Sunday after the rain let up for a little while. Yes, we were going to camp there sight unseen. It is close to where we live, about 45 minutes away. It's a Yogi Bear campground which is supposed to be kid friendly and have lots of activities, etc. Since we were there, I had to get a quick picture. (Excuse some of these pictures. The ones that are a little blurry were taken with my phone) We let the kids out of the car for about 2 minutes. Long enough to snap a picture with Yogi and long enough to spark a serious tantrum thrown by none other than Hurricane Andrew! You can see the beginning of it here. Don't ask me what it was about, I don't remember. Take it from me, it was completely irrational and that seems to be his MO these days...Love him though, who wouldn't when...on to blessing #2

2. Yep. That's my boy. Winking at me. He has learned to wink. He can only do one eye and if he tries to do the other eye he holds it down with his fingers. Why, you ask is this a blessing. Well, I'll tell you. It's a blessing because he knows just how to charm his Mama with his little wink. I'll turn around and there he is out of the blue looking at me and winking. Or he's sitting at the table eating breakfast, catches my eye and winks. Or he walks up to me, winks his precious eye and then puts his head on my knee and says "I wuv you, Mama!" Where did he learn this stuff? I'm putty in his hands, which leads me to blessing #3.

3. It's hard to tell from the picture but that is the snowman family I drew on the driveway with sidewalk chalk on the afternoon where we had no rain. See, little man and I have this thing. We sit on the driveway and he asks me to draw him a snowman. He asks me to draw a Daddy snowman, a Mommy snowman, and a baby snowman. He is very specific and they must have eyes, noses, mouths, and "feets". Yes, "feets" So, I draw stick feet and he laughs and laughs and thinks it's wonderful. He doesn't even care that I can barely draw snowman families! And that brings me to blessing #4.

4. This little joy named Juliana, who was watching Andrew while he was watching me draw snowman families. This is her spot while we're playing outside. She is crawling everywhere, so she has to be confined to her car while we're on the driveway. So, she was watching Andrew and laughing because he was laughing. She pretty much laughs at anything and she smiles so easy. She's a happy, happy girl, but with an Irish temper, let me tell you! "We won't talk about that now. We'll talk about that tomorrow. After all tomorrow is another day" (inserting Scarlett O'Hara wisdom here). On that note, on to blessing #5.

5. Look at me! Riding a bike! I haven't ridden my bike in about 7 years! Between pregnancies and babies, biking hasn't really been on the priority list. I mean I can't exactly say "See ya later kids, I'm going cruising on my bike!" Notice it's a beach cruiser. I love that bike. Ryan got it for me before we had the kids and I had been wanting it for a while. It's so much more comfortable to ride with the wide handlebars and can you see my little hula girl on the wheel? Yeah, I'm cool, I know. Not... Well, now that both the girls can ride without training wheels, we can ride our bikes together, at least when Ryan is home to watch the other two. So, this picture is of us right after our first ride around the neighborhood. How could I have forgotten that riding bikes is a lot of fun! At least until you get to the hill around the corner. I'm sad to say that I had to get off and walk the bike up the hill a bit just like the girls do. The one bad thing about a beach cruiser is it has no gears, so unless you get a seriously fast start at it, a big hill is hopeless. Well, hopeless for me anyway. The girls were so excited to be riding with me. I think they were amazed that I could actually do it! They are too cute while riding and have gotten pretty good at it in a short period of time.

5 little snippets from our week. 5 little blessings. 5 million more I could tell you about, but I must get some sleep! My 4 little blessings will be up bright and early for another day of trying to make their Mama crazy! Hee hee!

I didn't post this last night b/c I was waiting for permission from our family to post the pictures of the cousins on the blog, but I'm glad I didn't. It's April 1st today! Ryan's and my wedding anniversary. Yes, we got married on April Fool's Day 2000. That way we'd never forget it! ;) We've been married for 11 years! Yay us!!!! He is still the most unselfish person I know, a wonderful husband and father, and the best thing about him is he puts up with me! And he still loves me no matter how crazy I am sometimes. He is a real catch and I'm glad I caught him 11 years ago.

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