Lake Time & Time Out

We finally took the boat out for the first time this year a few weekends ago.  I am just now getting around to posting the pics of our fun day at the lake.  Here's our beautiful Blake posing at the front of the boat.

 A happy Copa

Crazy Maddie

Two cuties looking overboard

 Wyatt "helping" Daddy dig through his tackle box ;)

Another cute pic of Blake

It took poor Wy-Guy quite a while to get his sea legs about him, but he did seem to enjoy "driving" the boat with Dad...

...and eating all the wonderfully healthy snacks that we brought along ;)  And yes, that is an extremely large box (Costco sized) of Nilla wafers.

Wyatt did manage to get tuckered out just enough to take a nice afternoon nap on the boat which meant that Bob and I actually got a bit of a break from chasing him all over the place.

Well, it just wouldn't be a post without some sort of funny Blake and/or Wyatt story.  So, here's one that includes them both:  While Wyatt & Blake often act as if they want nothing to do with one another, I have found that they actually do have some compassion for each other.  The other day Blake got put in time out.  She started crying.  Wyatt was sad that Blake was crying, so he goes over and lays next to the time out chair and starts making these loud farting noises by blowing on his arm.  Of course Blake starts laughing hysterically, and here I am stuck trying to finish our time out routine without falling over with laughter.  I gotta give it to Wyatt...it was HILARIOUS!!!  Needless to say, I don't think I accomplished much on the disciplinary front that particular morning :)  Gotta love 'em!!!

Inner Peace, Near Fail & Internet

Once again, Blake keeps us entertained.  The other day she was sitting at the kitchen table with her eyes closed and her arms outstretched.  She opened her eyes, looked at me and said, "I was finding my inner peace, Mom."  Ahhh...what a character?!  Well, we have some more pics from last weekend when we decided to wash cars in the driveway.  Blake and Wyatt had a blast playing in the bubbles and water.  Here they are with Dad.

Blake and Wyatt took a rest in the shade while watching Daddy get a hornet's nest out of the boat.  Don't worry...mission accomplished without anyone getting stung.

 What a cute, little man?!

This week was Blake's last week of "swim school" as she calls it (swimming lessons).  Thursday was her last day for this session, and Blake was VERY excited about it.  We ran into Billings to look at a few things before heading to her lesson.  As I started to head to the pool, I realized I forgot to grab the bag (which had her swim suit in it).  When I told Blake I forgot to grab the bag, she asked, "The bag with my swim suit in it?" When I told her yes, the water works began.  She was SO upset that she wasn't going to get to go to her last lesson, and I am thinking complete Mommy FAIL.  Then I realized we were right in front of ShopKo and even though we were short on time, Blake promised to help me hurry through the store.  Thankfully, the swimming suits were right next to the registers, so we quickly bought her a new swim suit and headed to the pool.  Amazingly enough, we were only 5 minutes late and Blake did have to dry off with her brother's blanket...BUT we made it work ;)  More importantly, I won't have to hear Blake tell everyone how I forgot her bathing suit so she couldn't go to her swim school.

This morning after breakfast the kiddos wanted to watch some cartoons, so here's a pic of them on their sleeping bags ready to watch Miss Spider's Sunny Patch.

It was such a beautiful morning (and I needed to water the front lawn), so Blake & Wyatt got their bathing suits on and played in the sprinklers.  Here's Blake enjoying a snack in the shade (with her new bathing suit on).

 Wy-Guy chillin' with some Cheez-Its

Our Internet has not been working very well at all since we switched internet service providers a few months ago, so the "Internet guy" was scheduled to stop by today to fix it.  When he got here, he was very pleasant and said hi to the kids.  He asked Blake how she was doing, and I don't think he was expecting the response he got.  She told him that she had fun playing in the sprinklers, but that he really needed to fix our Internet because it's so bad that we can't even FaceTime with Grandma & Grampy.  I was laughing so hard!  He was a good sport and told her he'd take a look at it.  And so far, it seems to be in tip-top shape...which means there will likely be more posts more often again :)

The Prodigy

As mentioned in the last post, Bob taught Blake how to cast a line.  She has a Barbie fishing pole that she picked out at Cabela's, by the way.  She is pretty darn good and casts quite a ways out.  Here's a quick video of Blake's new found skills.

Quick Trip to Cooney

We took the kids out to Cooney one morning the weekend before last.  We just made a morning of it and let the kids play and do a little fishing.  Here is Wyatt and Blake hanging out in their new chairs.

 The wild man running around throwing anything he could pick up.

 YES, he's seriously thinking about throwing one of those!

 Exploring with Daddy

Bob taught Blake how to cast, so she is constantly wanting to practice casting.  She casts in the living room, off of her bed, in the back yard, and most appropriately at the lake.  Don't worry, she's not using hooks just yet.  She just has a training weight on for now.

Wy-Guy happily serving some jail time while the rest of us took a break from chasing him all over the place.

 "I'm fur-yaxing (relaxing), Mom," says Blake.

 In my opinion, one of the biggest perks of a morning at the lake...

 ...the quiet ride home :)

It's just too bad the kids were asleep and missed the Mater sighting on our way home!  Mater was quite a ways away from Radiator Springs that day.

Well, our fire season has definitely started in Montana.  We have 10 fires burning in the state right now and are experiencing the driest year so far since 1934 when records were first kept.  We go from one of the wettest years ever in 2011 to now one of the driest years ever...at least we have the rest of the year to try to catch up, right?!  I hope everyone is staying safe and hopefully we'll get some moisture soon!

Wy's New Laugh

While Grandma & Grampy were visiting, Wyatt started doing this new laugh (see video below).  I think he was trying to imitate Grampy who was just goofin' around with the kiddos.

CRACK!!!

Grandma & Grampy came to visit us last week.  They got to experience our wild Wy-Guy first hand.  Wyatt is quite the character.  He seems to have to be making noise constantly which creates quite the ruckus with Blake's never-ending chatter.  Wyatt really doesn't like to be told no, and he walks around moaning/whining anytime things don't go his way.  Unfortunately, that's quite often.  It was extremely helpful to have Grandma & Grampy here to help keep Wy-Guy a little more happy a little more often.  He's missing them dearly right now ;)  Grandma and Blake made a batch of chex mix during the visit.  Blake LOVES chex mix, and Wyatt is now an official fan.  He kept walking around the house yelling, "CRACK!!!" anytime he wanted more.  He's not too far off, though.  That stuff seems as addicting as crack.  Along with referring to any type of snack or cracker as "crack", Wyatt also calls his blanket something that starts with an 'm' sound and ends with a 'k' sound.  Blake thinks that Wyatt is calling his blanket "Mike", but Grandma & Grampy started referring to it as "meek" because Cousin Collier calls her blanket that.  Maybe as he gets older we'll figure out what he's saying for sure.  Here's a picture of our crazy little man giving a big "cheese"...quite literally...that's mac n cheese all over his face. 

We took Grandma & Grampy out to the zoo in Billings one day.  The kids had a blast walking around, playing and looking at the animals.  Here's Wyatt, the goat.

 Grandma, Wyatt & Blake posing for a pic in the barn.

 Blake, the pig

 Grampy, Wy-Guy, Blake & Grandma

 Grandma & Wyatt walking over the bridge.

 Grandma, Wyatt & Grampy

 Wyatt & Grampy

 Wyatt getting kisses from Grandma

 Wyatt checking out the red pandas.

 Just a cute pic of Wyatt

 Wyatt swinging with Grampy's help.

 Wyatt getting a little lawn mowing done

 A rare pic of both Wyatt & Blake.

It always sort of bothered me that Wyatt's initials, WLD, were going to be just one letter shy of the word 'wild'.  Well, now it just seems fitting as this kid is fearless.  He will just try to walk right off the edge of anything.  He scares the crap out of me most days!  While Grandma and Grampy were here he had a run in with the toy box.  Toy Box 1, Wyatt 0.  I have a feeling we will be posting lots of war wounds over the years...my hair is turning grayer as I type!

Not to be outdone by her brother, Blake still keeps us entertained with her speech as well.  In fact, Grandma & Grampy gave Blake a Woody (character from Toy Story) doll.  That was pure entertainment!  "Grandma, is this a big Woody or a little Woody?" Blake asked so innocently, but it was just too much for me.  I was in tears I was laughing so hard.  Blake also calls hotels "ho-in-tels".  Put the two together and you get yet another of my favorite Blake quotes of the week:  "Can I take my Woody to the ho-in-tel?"  Here's our sweet, little Blake posing for a picture that Grandma took out at the park.

Blake does have some pretty cute ways of saying things.  She calls hamburgers "hamburs".  She says, "last year time" instead of yesterday.  She pronounces Grandma "gah-mah".  And pretty much anytime there is a lot of family around she says, "we're all happy family together."

We had such a fun visit.  It was too bad that Bob had to unexpectedly travel to Minot, ND for work and pretty much missed out on everything.  But, he did get to visit a couple nights and even cooked up his fabulous ribs one of those nights - YUM!!!

Been Awhile

First off, Lauren has always posted to the blog using the third person narrative voice. It seemed at the beginning that it would allow for the greatest flexibility. But since Lauren is really the only one who does these updates, we are switching over to the first person...it's just easier.

It has definitely been quite a while since the last post. We have been extremely busy over the last month. Here's a quick run-down: I accepted a position as a production supervisor at a local bakery before I got the lupus diagnosis. I had a flare up, got the diagnosis, started some new meds and was feeling pretty good overall. Blake was finishing up with her preschool year, and Wyatt was continuing to grow, grow, grow. Bob was busy with work finishing up all their year-end activities (inventory, etc.). I ended up having another flare up consisting mainly of chest pain. Don't worry, EKG and x-rays showed healthy heart and lungs. I started another round of prednisone hoping to keep the flare down. Shortly after (last weekend), I ended up in the ER with acute pancreatitis. I definitely don't recommend this little bit of inflammation to anyone...very painful. After over 3 days of a clear liquid diet and a LOT of rest, I am fine. We don't know for sure, but the pancreatitis was probably caused by the azathioprine that I was taking for the lupus. So, I am now back not working again until we can kind of get an idea of how this crazy little disease is going to present itself and what medications (and at what doses) will be best suited for me. Wish me luck!

Now, here are some pics to fill in the above fast forward. Wyatt had his first painful fall last month when his head glanced of the side of a plastic storage container we had in the living room. As you can see, he bonked the side of his nose pretty good and ended up with a pretty good cut just off the corner of his eye. He healed up quickly, and it really hasn't slowed him down since :)

Blake had her last school field trip out at Zoo Montana. Wyatt decided to crawl across the pavement - OUCH!!! It didn't seem to bother him, though.

Here's Blake, the goat, at one of the cut outs at the zoo.

Wyatt was getting a little tired of all the action by the end of the day.

PEEK-A-BOO!!!

Little Miss Blake is such a little poser. I think she has every lip puckering, eye-batting and hair flipping move down that you could possibly learn from any of the Disney princess movies. I am amazed at what she picks up watching even the most innocent of cartoons.

Here's my little Superman ready to help me vacuum.

My little goof showing off his new haircut. I think I had them cut it a little too short, but his hair grows like wild fire anyway. I'm sure we'll be off to get it cut again soon. Wyatt thinks he is pretty cool these days. You know...he can do cool things like walk backwards, sit on stools...

...AND CLIMB ON STOOLS!!! Seriously, Blake did not do this until she was like two years old. Bob and I both have caught Wyatt already starting to climb up on objects trying to get to something else higher up...ugh!

Wyatt (at nearly 17 months old)...

• Gets into everything
• Walks very well
•  Can say several words including "no", "dog", "Bay" (Blake), "move", "back", "more", "mine", "please", "cheese", "don't"...as you can tell, he's learned a lot of these from listening to his sister

Blake (at almost 4 years old)...

• Changes her clothes every 5 minutes
• Needs attitude checks regularly...I swear she already acts like a teenager sometimes
• Loves to sing and dance and pick on her brother ;)

Hope this finds everyone doing well and enjoying summer!