Celebrating 8 Years!

Seth and I celebrated our 8th anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  8 years!  I sabotaged his plan for a dinner date and surprised him with an overnight getaway instead.  In thinking about it, I realized that unless my memory fails me, we hadn't been on an overnight getaway without children since before we had children.  And the only time we'd ever been away from the kids overnight at all is when we're having another one, which, of course, isn't exactly a vacation.  And we weren't even totally kid-free; we took Toby with us, but having just a baby feels pretty kid-free!  =)  My parents agreed to watch the older three, so we dropped them off and headed south to Astoria, Oregon.  Neither of us had ever been there, so it was fun to be in a new place.  The Columbia River was beautiful and huge!   Our hotel was right downtown near the shops and restaurants, so it was easy to walk around.  After staying the night and browsing a few more shops in the morning, we drove down to Seaside to see the coast and have lunch on the beach.  After a quick stop back in Astoria for ice cream, we started on the long drive home.  A short trip, but definitely sweet; it was so nice to get away for a bit and relax and recharge!

We had to laugh because despite it being a trip to celebrate OUR anniversary, most of the pictures were of the baby!  =)

Camping Trip

We joined my sister and brother-in-law for a camping trip last week!  We hadn't gone camping in a couple of years, so we had been really looking forward to it!  We had so much fun!  The campground wasn't very busy, since we were there in the middle of the week, and we were right by the mountains and a beautiful lake!  We had lovely weather, and it was really almost perfect.  Almost perfect because of the mosquitoes.  Unfortunately, they were awful!  They were out all day long and they were vicious!  Despite making a store run for bug spray and candles, we all came home looking (and feeling!) like we had the chicken pox!  Not good.

Despite that, we had a wonderful time.  The kids did great, and it was so much fun spending time with my sister and her husband!  It's so fun to get away, and camping is a great and frugal way for us to do that!

 We can't wait to go camping again next month!

Tobias is One!

The first birthday is always a little bittersweet.  Bitter because those sweet baby days are behind us, but still sweet because I think one year olds are so much fun!

Our curious happy little man turned one last Friday, and we celebrated him with a few little gifts  and some yummy chocolate pudding cake with whip cream!  He heartily approved!

Something else that happens when you're the fourth child -
if I had remembered I was going to take pictures, I wouldn't
have put a pink bib on him!  =)

As a side note: first birthdays are also a little less bitter when there's another sweet baby to look forward to!  We should be meeting our new addition sometime around the first of February!  =)

Our First Egg!

We now officially have laying hens (or, one, as the case may be)!  We are so excited to be getting eggs!  Madeline (the tan buff orpington) has now laid five eggs in the past week, which is a typical amount for her breed.

Thankfully, Seth had just gotten the nesting boxes made a few days before the big day!

The other two hens have not started laying yet, but that should happen any day now!

This is what happens when you're the fourth child....

Toby loves to play in the kitchen cupboards.  Nobody else did that, and I can't quite remember if it was because they just didn't, or because I didn't let them, but I'm pretty sure it was the latter.  I guess I'm getting soft in my old age!  =)