Happy Camping Continues: Life is still Good!

I was a little tired the second day.

Judah and I shared the double bed in the front room of the cabin. The back room had two sets of bunk beds...so my sister had a bottom bunk, my mom had a bottom bunk and my husband got a top bunk. We had fans and noise machines going but I forgot my ear plugs (thank God for Walmart! we made a little trip to town later on). So sleeping didn't come easy as my mom makes quite the racket in her sleep :)

The boys did most of the work...husband Lance and brother Ira are outdoorsmen for sure. Lance did all the campfire cooking (thank heaven) and they worked together to keep the fire going and doing all the heavy lifting. We had pancakes and eggs and bacon...yum!

Good morning silly heads!

The cousins were excited for Auntie Jessi to be there...they had plans for her. Racing and walks and adventures...things only an auntie with energy can do :)

Hey look! It's me!

Ah the outhouse...we all used the men's one cause the ladies one was grossy gross. And this is why I brought my own potty for the nights! hello! can I get a witness?!

After breakfast, the dads took the kids off for walks and adventures while the ladies cleaned up and visited. Of course we eventually joined them, but not till we were nice and relaxed ;)

Beck was having a blast with this stick...mountain man in the making!

Judah is a jumper. He jumps over every crack, over every border, over anything that looks like it would make a good jumping obstacle. No surprise to find him jumping along next to his dad on a bench at the amphitheater. Go Judah Go!

This is a big ol' dog pile o' kids!

Miss Evie is always the little mama. Which I am of course grateful for since I'm all big and pregnant and can't chase my own kid currently ;)

There is a big lovely lake right by our campsite and my brothers dog, Sasha, couldn't resist wading in...neither could my husband. lol.

Yup, that's Lance and Sasha wading in the water!

Gramma Lynda had her camera out and ready to capture the moment!

Oh look! There's me and my big ol' belly. It goes everywhere with me, even camping.

Sasha is the best dog. She has been around for SO long I can't imagine her not being around...poor girl was totally shaking and having a hard time walking as she is so old, but there is NO denying she was extremely happy to be camping with her people. She was in doggie bliss...sticks, water, small animals to chase, it was great.

Daddy Ira digging in the dirt with his kiddos. He's a great daddy...

I think Evie and Judah were having a serious nose to nose conversation right here...lol...the looks on their faces makes me wonder what they were conferring about...must have been interesting ;)

Oh I just wanna kiss their little faces off! How adorable are they?!

Here's Ira checking out Jessi's latest tattoos...she gets new ones all the time and it's hard to stay current ;) oh, and we had lunch....this was right after Jessi and I went to town and spent an hour at Walmart...I rode a motorized cart for the first time...that was fun :)

And what's a good nature camping trip with out some bugs?! Britt was really into this ugly caterpillar...yes, I said ugly. It had one of those weird hairy faces that's not really a face...looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. creepy! But the kids thought it was awesome. go figure.

We ended the night with a bonfire and s'mores.

We told stories and laughed the night away.

Ira started a story game where he'd tell a story and when it was time to add a detail he'd point at someone to fill in the blank...it was fun. But it got funner (yes, it's a word) when Beck decided to be the story leader. He was hilarious. And our story was hilarious too :)

Judah even got in on the story telling action.

His story went like this...

"once pon time (pause to jump over a stick) CARS!!! and jumping and big train...hahahahaha"

dramatic pause and then

"thas all"

lol

He was a hoot.

We had all taken advantage of being like the ONLY people at the camp ground and actually taken showers in the shower house, so we were all squeaky clean before the campfire and bed time. It was nice.

So a highlight of this trip for me was sleeping with Judah next to me :) Oh what a sweetie pie. Out of our cabin window we could see the moon and the lake...he thought that was pretty great. And then he'd snuggle up with his blanket and head to dream land...I didn't know what he'd be like seeing as how at home he's always slept on his own and done really well and never really slept with us successfully. But he snuggled right up and slept the night away. Little feet kicking me in the back in the night and seeing his little sleepy face every time I woke up (to pee or to shift around, etc). It was really sweet.

Our second day of camping was really good, it was a hot day and I personally couldn't do much walking/adventuring...but even so it was delightful.

Life is good!

Happy Camping Day 1: Life is Good

Well it was time for our yearly camping adventure!

You may recall our last adventure...if you care to walk down memory lane here ya go:

Happy Camping Part 1

Happy Camping Continues

Endless happy camping comes to an end

This years trip started off WAY more organized than the year previous, probably because I knew I was going to be almost 8 months pregnant and had to have a plan.

My plan included a cabin. ha! My bro and his kiddos still wanted to genuinely camp, so setting up a tent was the first order of business. Love when these guys work together and get things done!

Judah liked watching the action!

We were lucky to have my sister join us this year too...she rarely takes breaks from her singer/songwriter existence, so we were happy she could come! And of course where she goes, so do her puppies :)

And we were happy that my mom also could come!!! She had just spent a week in St. Louis visiting the grands there and after camping came back to Nashville to spend time with this little grand...Judah funny bunny Byrd...crazy face :)

The cousins had a little reunion pow-wow...pretty sure we all need to be afraid when these kids put their heads together ;)

ahhh yes...my very own potty. This baby insists on sitting/kicking right on my bladder...so I don't go more than an hour with out peeing...and while that is no big deal during the day...no way, no how was I going into a dark, bug filled, stinky outhouse really far from our cabin tons of times in the night...nope...instead, I used this handy dandy potty and did my bizness with no issues. It was great. ha. I have no regrets where this was concerned ;)

I think we all learned a few things last year...including how hard the ground can be, especially if it's cold out...yup, Ira is blowing up an air mattress here...smart man.

Our cabin was on a site next to the tent site...we mostly did all things camping related over at the tent site. All the food, fire and fun happened there. Sleeping (minus my mom's buzz saw like snoring) happened in the cabin.

Our first day was all about getting settled in, finding ways to contain puppies and babies and getting all caught up with family we hadn't seen in a while.

It was great to have us all together! (Minus Mrs. B who is in hard core training to become a nurse...crazy how much work she is assigned in school....we missed her!)

Don't worry, more camping adventures were documented and are on their way...

My sweet heart

One word almost everyone who meets Judah uses to describe him is "sweet"...and that is because he really genuinely is.

He does things like:

kiss me on the cheek when I don't feel good and say "you fee bwetter mommy?"

sees something he likes and say "is nice mommy, is nice!"

jumps up and down and say "I can't wait! can you wait?!"

laughs at things like a loud truck, scrunches his face up and fake laughs "hehe, it's funny mommy, it's so funny!"

sits in the back seat of the car and sings along to our kids music CD and laughs hysterically when the background singers say "quaaaack, quack quack quack quack"...or when his dad recreates the quacking, he can't stop giggling. It's hilarious.

he is a charmer too...last night we were watching TV and Jennifer Garner was on and he says "she's pretty! that's Hannah"...which it totally did look like our friend Hannah who he adores...she loved getting my text about that one :)

He's declared "I like girls" a couple times...lol...seeing as almost all of our friends have little boys these days, it was especially funny.

The other day we went to the park and he saw this pretty mom who was there with her son and instead of trying to play with her kid...he followed her around the park and kept bringing her leaves he found on the ground and gifting them to her...she was really nice to him and thanked him every time he brought her a "flower" leaf...and he chatted her ear off. I wasn't sure if I should make him leave her alone or not, but she didn't seem to mind...so I let him crush on her for a little while before I distracted him ;)

Don't get me wrong, he has a sour side too....especially since he's currently teething (dang molars come in already! sheesh!) but his sweetness more than balances it out.

And how sour can it really be when your kid says "No Thank you mommy!" when he doesn't like something? lol...even his sour is kinda sweet ;)

I adore my little Jbyrd. I really treasure him.

I need to do a better job writing down the funny things he does. Luckily, the grandparents have all gotten to see him IRL lately, so they have gotten first hand knowledge of him. But I want to keep track in writing so when he grows up (like a week from now) I won't forget the sweet things he does that make me smile and make me happy to be a mom.

Here's an awesome picture of him with my socks on...lol...this is his pose for the camera...

have I mentioned he cracks me up?!

IV Iron

So last week I had to go for my IV iron treatments...it is always strange sitting in a room full of cancer patients getting their meds and me all pregnant and huge getting iron. It was the same with Judah.
The first day Lance came with me, which was nice...he never came when I went my first pregnancy, my sister was living with me then and she came along. So he got to see for himself what it was like.
The second day the silly nurse couldn't find my veins...I think I might have been a little dehydrated that day in hindsight. I still have bruises in my arms from that ordeal.
The third day went really smooth...and some of the cancer patients I'd seen a couple times started asking me why I was there. I think they thought I was pregnant and dealing with cancer and they were feeling like I was worse off than them...but no. My problems will end roughly Nov 18th...and I will have a baby to enjoy. I try to keep that in mind on my bad days. I think God lets me get to the point of needing IV iron just for the reminder that this is temporary and to keep my attitude in check.

Anyhow, I still think it looks like I'm getting an IV of coffee ;) the dark liquid always makes me think of my coffee drinking friends who always joke they need an IV of the stuff to survive their days...in one way it is a similar concept, more iron is supposed to mean more energy...we'll see if that kicks in...ha. I go back in a month to see if it worked or if I need more treatments before baby comes.

Thomas the Train good times

So Lance's parents came to town...it was a perfect opportunity to plan some grandparent fun.

And what says grandparent fun more than taking your grandson to see and ride Thomas the Train?!

Judah had a blast of course. He is in love with all things train.

And he adores his grandparents too so it was a great day!

It was a short ride up and down the tracks, just perfect for a toddlers attention span.

Did I mention it was like 100 degrees outside? cause it was. Thus all the sweaty head pics. phew!

Judah really enjoyed seeing Thomas! Even if we were all melting...

Of course the day was complete once he got his Thomas Tattoo :)

Besides our time with Thomas, we had a nice visit...Sandy made Judah curtains for his "big boy" room and made me a couple pairs of pajama pants while she was at it.

Howard left town for a few days and headed to TX but we enjoyed him while he was around!

Judah loves his papa!

It was a great visit and we really enjoyed all the love!

a new development

...so I found Judah scrubbing and spitting on his arm earlier this week...he discovered he had a mole and of course had to make sure it wasn't just dirt. Then he proudly showed it to me and said "look mommy, I have a mole like you!" I asked to see it and he said "no! leave it alone! it's mine!" haha. So I looked anyways and saw the spit still on his arm and rubbed on it a little myself just to make sure it wasn't really just dirt...he was not happy with me messing with his mole. I was cracking up. So turns out it's still there a couple days later and a few bath times later...I think he really does have a mole now. Just like his mommy :) my arms are covered in them along with freckles. Never imagined my kid would want to be like me so much he'd even want moles like me...ahh...so cute. I love being a mom.

chuggin' along

Just chuggin' along with this pregnancy and life in general. This month is all about family...visits and travels and such...at some point when I have time to breath I will post gobs of blogs with tons of photo's and fun updates :)

I am suffering less from the Hyperemesis but still have my days...I am off the zofran pump, but take the pills probably 2-3x a week...not bad.

My next pregnancy nemesis that is internet approved (so many things I can't talk about cause they are just none of yo bizness...lol...and trust me, you like it that way) is my anemia. Because I get so horribly sick and nutritionally things go south, my iron levels suffer greatly. So I will be going in for IV iron treatments like I did with Judah...yeehaw. It's a good thing I don't mind needles...cause...

In other news, I am going camping. Yup...8 months pregnant and embracing nature. Well, sort of. I rented a teeny tiny cabin and I bought myself a portable toilet (6$ and worth every penny)...so if I survive I will let you all know...

Oh the Joy!

DIY-someone's trash is now my treasure!

So I know a lot of bloggers are all about DIY (do it yourself) projects...I have zero interest.

I don't own a hot glue gun and our crafting supplies are all crayola, Judah sized and I am

fine with that. I admire those who love a good DIY project and my hat is off to you.

But when we drove down the street and I spotted in someone's garbage the makings of a

fun toy...well...I made my husband pull the truck over and toss this

beautiful gem into the back seat.

Isn't it lovely?

ha.

I pulled out a bucket of soapy water and my magic eraser...

Next thing I knew it was all shiny and looked like it had potential...

So I persuaded my super handy husband into finishing this DIY project...he can do a DIY like nobody's biznizz...

check it:

And Vwala! The finished project...

Judah loves playing with this toy, it is a ton of fun...and I kinda like that we DIO (did it ourselves)...

This may be the only DIY post I ever do...I hope it was enjoyable...