Cousins and more pictures

Last year, just a few months after Griffin was born, Bryan's brother, sister in law, and their three kids came out to visit from Wyoming. We had a lot of fun. We went to Fairytale town, the beach, Second Saturday, and the pool. Penelope had a blast with her cousins and we were really excited to see how she and Griffin would interact with them this time around. The twins are 4 and Gadge is 7 so there's a bit of an age difference, but it's not too bad.

We were not disappointed. Penelope adores her cousins and so does Griffin. They had a really great time together. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, but I did get a few.




Griffin (13 months), Jesse (4 years), Kaylen (10 months), Gadge (7 years...going on 13), Penelope (2.5 years), and Arianna (4 years)




Bryan with Gadge and Griffin

Tree (our Sister in Law) was nice enough to keep the kids out of school for two days so we could spend as much time together as possible. It was really nice to spend so much time with our Rodgers cousins :)




Poe, Tree, and Ari

And now for some random pics of the kids.




Griffin and Penelope sharing an apple




Griffin at the Rodgers ranch. We didn't spike his hair, the infamous Wyoming wind did that.

Also? Penelope kept telling me "oh mommy, it's so windy!" or "oh no! The wind!" to which I replied "welcome to Wyoming".




This is her throwing a fit because I wouldn't let her play with the iPad.

And I think that is all for my Wyoming related blogging! I probably missed at least a few things, but that's at least the basics. It was a good, but exhausting trip.

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Location:Home, peacefully

An updatey type thing

Both kids are asleep and I just submitted the worst paper I've ever written so I have a little time to update. I've been meaning to write a couple of posts about a variety of things but it's so hard to find the time (I must sound like a broken record at this point).

So let me sum-up.

I'm madly in love with both of my children even though they've started conspiring to drive me crazy. Penelope's tantrums are more frequent, which isn't unusual considering her age. And really, they're not that bad... but MAN she can scream.

She can also be really sweet. She loves to share her toys with Griffin. When she pretends to make tea she'll give him some (which means she shoves the toy cup in his face, but at least she's sharing). She also loves to bury him under her stuffed animals, give him books, and give him lots of kisses. She calls him "bubba" and "dude" and will greet him with "hi dude" on occasion. It's adorable.

And he loves her too. His face lights up when he sees her - he's got a great grin and they'll spend a bit of time staring and laughing at each other. We're still waiting for his first belly laugh, but that should be soon. Penn had hers around 3 months and we're coming up on that mark for G.

Other "new" words... sign: giraffe, elephant, bird, cookie. verbal: dude, cheese, ice, teeth, meow, woof (which sounds like "ffffffff")

We've been thinking about potty training lately. Penny has asked for a diaper change on a couple of occasions and lately she's taken to coming into the bathroom when I pee and sitting on her potty chair. I have a little too much to do during the day to focus on "real" potty training, but we'll work on that this summer. We might do the naked-outdoors-for-the-weekend trick and see what happens.

Pen's moved up to the tub for her baths... she was in a duckie tub-thing that fit inside of the bathtub but she outgrew it awhile ago and it started leaking air (it was an inflatable) so we finally got rid of it. She's doing well. Her cousins come to visit the first week of July and I'm looking forward to cramming all the kids in the tub for one big splashy mess :)

Their visit should be a lot of fun. We're so glad they're coming out! They're driving all the way from Wyoming so it will be a long trip, but a fun one. Plans so far are to catch a Rivercats game, hit the beach, the zoo, Fairytale Town, and spend some time at the pool. P is going to LOVE having the kids around!

I just finished up my first class since Griffin was born. Grades will be posted by Friday so we'll see... through week 3 I have a 98% but I totally half-assed my last week's assignments and am not expecting to get all As on those. So this class might be my first B of Grad school. Or not.

I start student teaching in August (did I already mention this? I forgot). And while I'm looking forward to getting into the classroom I'm also nervous about leaving the kids for so long. Being a stay at home mom is exhausting (well, a SAHM looking for work), but I do love spending my days with the kids. Not everyone gets the chance to spend this much time with their kids at this age and I'm trying to appreciate every moment (even the screaming tantrum ones).

Ok, I should really try and sleep. Maybe Griffin will be nice and let me have 6 hours uninterrupted... he did that 3 nights ago and it was AMAZING.