McMahan- Party of EIGHT!

For those of you that don't know, Kevin and I are quite happy with our family of six.  We have four "sweet" kids who keep us on our toes everyday.  Well this past weekend we thought we would see what it was like to be a party of eight by watching our two nephews Connor and Austin for two nights so their parents could get away for their anniversary.  Ryan and Steph dropped off the boys and we were on our own around 4:00 pm Friday afternoon.  Luckily for me, my crazy man Bryce was still napping when they left.

The kids had a blast playing outside until dinner.  Austin hit his tired wall around 5:30 but made it until a 6:30 bedtime.  When Bryce got up from his nap around 5:00 he didn't like that his mommy was holding his cousin and decided to cry at my feet.  Well then Austin wouldn't like the crying and would start crying himself which would make Bryce cry even more.  Luckily this only lasted about 10 minutes until my superhero husband arrived home from work and occupied Bryce.

It was crazy and noisy but we wouldn't trade it for anything.  I got sweet Austin snuggles before bed and it was so heart warming to see our kids with their cousins.  Chase took on night time story time...

By Saturday morning I think everyone was a little more use to the situation at hand and life seemed a little more manageable.  

We of course never do anything low key.  Saturday morning Kevin got up to run in the Hyco Memorial 5K in honor of a local police dog who was killed in the line of duty 2 years ago.  So I packed the kids up and we headed over to try to see Kevin finish the race.  Well Kevin, being super speedy, finished the race in 23:07 so we missed him at the finish line but there was plenty to see and do.  We checked out all the dogs, the band, some venders, and of course the jumping houses.  

Bryce is already the ladies man...

Austin snuck in a little morning nap.

The kids really enjoyed the armored vehicle the sheriffs department had out there.  

Connor says, "Cheese!".

We went straight from the race to a halloween party that one of the kids in Chase's class was having.  The kids had so much fun just playing and playing.  

Sorry for the lack of pictures, you have a lot less ability to take pictures when you are holding a 5 month old and chasing a super crazy, fearless 14 month old and making sure the two 3 year olds are safe, not to mention the occasional need of the 7 or 9 year old.  And that is even with two sets of hands and lots of other parents helping.  It was lots of fun but I snuck out early right around 1:00 to get Austin and Bryce home for a good nap.  After a little downtime and some more outside time we got all dressed up to head to my bosses halloween party. 

I was the house wife to my Mr. Clean and those are some pretty cute kiddos!  We had a ninja, Elsa, a police officer (who said he was arresting Henley but Henley informed him that princesses don't get arrested), a tigger, a puppy dog, and I really don't know what Henley dressed up as.  I think she wants to be Elsa like Leah so she passed up the Pop star Minnie outfit we had planned and put on a blue dress.  I guess we need to work on that before halloween next week.

Before the party Henley lost her mind so we laid her down for a nap and we had to wake her up after 3 hours and on the way to the party both Connor and Austin passed out. 

I think if nothing else we were doing a good job at wearing everyone out.  The party was fun with good food, trunk or treating for the kids and they even had a haunted trail.   

Connor, Henley, and Chase were super brave, not being afraid of the scary characters. Leah not so much. She takes after her Momma.  So after trunk or treating I headed home with everyone except Henley and Chase who stayed to walk through the haunted trail.  

It was a fun, exciting, action packed weekend.  We loved having Connor and Austin with us and hope their Mom and Dad had a lot of fun too!  

Our new neighbor

I am way behind in my blogging and I promise to have some posts updating you on our recent craziness in the coming few days to a week.  So much has been going on and we have been having so much fun!  But before I get down to action packed blogging I wanted to introduce you to our new neighbor.

This is Charlie the Woodchuck.  You know... how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?  We spotted him outside his den that is nestled in our creek next to our house.

I am not saying that I am excited about this rodent discovery but he was cool to see. We had to google to find out what he was and the kids really got excited to see him and learn about him.  Luckily right now I don't have a garden or anything for Charlie to eat up but if we decide to have a garden I know who to watch out for.

OK... there will be more fun blogging to come soon!

Raleigh Bound

With an extra day off of work and school for Labor day we were itching to get in another camping trip.  We have also been itching to get to spend some time with the Raleigh McMahan's.  We got to meet our new nephew, Austin, on our way back from the Outer Banks in May, but it just wasn't enough time with Ryan, Steph, Connor, and Austin.  So needless to say, we packed up the camper and headed to a campground on Jordan lake in Apex NC so we could get a nephew/cousin fix.  Now, I'm not going to lie to you, the drive there was exhausting.  Five hours of three year old whining combined with occasional big kid whining, combined with a very unhappy and loud 13 month old makes five hours seem like 24 hours.  We were VERY happy to get to the campground and get set up. Our little home away from home....

Once we were settled we headed over  to Ryan and Steph's.  Connor wasn't feeling well so he tried to visit with us for a little while but headed to bed shortly after we arrived.

Everyone was really happy to be out of the car and enjoyed taking over Connor's toys.  Austin, who would have normally been asleep when we arrived was awake and happy so I enjoyed some snuggles and smiles in-between chasing down my crazy little man.

Sunday Morning we had our usual pancake breakfast and lounged around in our PJ's for a little while. 

Everything is easier when sweet Bryce is contained in some way, shape, or form.  After Breakfast Ryan, Steph, Connor, and Austin met us at the beach area of the campground.

 While the boys played in the sand and water with the kids, us girls got to keep Austin happy in the shade.

We had BEAUTIFUL weather which made it perfect to be outdoors.  After a little bit of beach and water time we headed back to the camper to fix some lunch and hang out.  Poor Connor was still a little under the weather but he was such a trooper hanging out with his cousins.  

 Everyone was intently watching Uncle Ryan and Kevin try to get a fire going.  And sweet Bryce was happily contained in his play pen.

The girls enjoyed loving on sweet Austin.

And who could resist a cute face like this one....

After a little lunch Connor and Bryce took a nap while I got some Austin snuggles and the big kids got to play some games.  

It was such a great day!  We had fun visiting and enjoying the great weather.  We also really enjoyed just having time to hang out around the campsite.  Monday morning on our way out of town we met up one last time at Ihop for some breakfast.  Connor was feeling much better and we were sad to say goodbye.  Thank you Ryan, Steph, Connor, and Austin for carving away so much time to spend with us!  We can't wait until we can do it again!  

Oh sweet Florida

Our annual Madeira Beach Florida trip had finally arrived.  The drive was right around 9 hours with stops and went well but we were all excited to get there!  We had beautiful weather and spent all day Sunday taking advantage of every drop of sun and ounce of water.

The kids had fun riding waves and floating in the water.

Grandpa brought bocci ball for the kids and the kids loved playing with him.

Bryce proved to be just as crazy on the beach as he is everywhere else.  He would go full force running into the ocean and fall face first into the water.  I'd pick him up and put him back on the beach and he would repeat his plunge into he water.  I swear he has a death wish (AKA he is ALL BOY).

Monday after a little more beach time we took the big kids to play some putt putt.  The main attraction at the mini golf place was the live baby alligators.  

Just for a few extra dollars we got to feed the baby alligators.  Luckily from a distance but it was cool to get to see them move around and come closer to you.

 Henley and Leah didn't quite have the skill of putt putt mastered yet but they had fun hitting the ball around.  That left a 3 man competition between me, Kevin, and Chase.  

It was so HOT. I think the temp was around 102 but we played all 18 holes in an intense, family splitting competition. 

I know the suspense is killing you.  Kevin snuck in as the 2017 miniature golf champion.  He knows that it will be on next year!  After some hot days we enjoyed some down time inside the cool condo.  

Oh my goodness, that little man is so cute....

On Tuesday we ventured out of Madeira beach to Tampa to visit Adventure Island, a water park.  We weren't sure how we would manage a water park with Henley and Bryce still being too young to ride most of the rides but they were able to do quite a bit which made for a super fun, super exhausting day.  

The life guard only had to jump in to save Henley once, so we consider the trip a win.  Henley did on this trip decide that she could swim without her puddle jumper and she was doing well.  She had been down a bigger slide by herself and did well and then I let her go down one of the smaller slides in front of Bryce and when we got to the bottom the life guard was in the pool with her.  He said she just struggled a little and I appreciated his caution.  From that point on she wore her puddle jumper.  Exhausted at the end of the day and after fighting Tampa traffic we got back to Grandma having dinner ready for us.  On top of that her and Grandpa had a small birthday celebration ready for Bryce.  

If you can't tell, we had spaghetti for dinner.  Bryce enjoyed his dinner.

Wednesday we spent more time in the sun and water enjoying all the time we could get.  Wednesday night we ventured out for a little seafood.  Two of my handsome men ready for dinner.  

Thursday we were able to use our passes again and make another trip to Adventure Island.  It was so much fun to get to go back another day. 

Thursday while we were gone Grandpa was finally able to find some bate so the kids were able to try their hand at fishing. 

Chase was over the moon when he caught 2 catfish.  The second all by himself and bigger than the first.  Unfortunately the only camera available was my mom's cell phone and it didn't capture very good pictures.  

Friday we were sad our week was coming to an end but we planned some fun to finish our week our strong.  Kevin took the kids out on a jet ski. 

Leah didn't make it very long. She decided real quick that Jet Ski's are not for her.  Kevin dropped Henley off along the beach with Grandma and Grandpa and he and Chase had a ton of fun.  With a quick lunch in between we then loaded up for a dolphin watching cruse.  

We got to see lots of dolphins and enjoyed a relaxing boat ride to end out our week.  As always we were very sad to say goodbye. We enjoyed a week with Grandma and Grandpa and all the fun times we had.  Friday night we had some very tired bed hogs on our hands.  It was one good sign of a great week.  

We can't wait for next year....