Visit to Grenada!

I took the kids south for a few days this week to visit my family. With them being sick for so long, I was going stir crazy! It was nice to get away for a bit, but we sure did miss Andy while he had to work!

Reid's tooth is just finally popping through! It has taken sooooo long, I'm dreading the other three. Hopefully they will be easier than this one. I don't know why his teeth take like two months to come in! They come up and then go back down, over and over. Poor baby, we're getting a lot of use with our teething tablets. And we do his amber necklace around his ankle with socks over it too, so that helps a little bit. He slept really bad for a few nights. :(

Ruby has been such a big helper this week. It has been going much better with her lately. I notice that if I give her a lot of choices, and then consequences right away with empathy, it works really well. And she'll get herself all ready in the mornings if I tell her what time we're leaving! That saves a ton of headache.

 Ruby put her dollies to bed.

 And then we got a real life on! The kids' cousin Penelope came over last Friday for a little while. She is such a sweetie. We're going to be watching her full time starting in April, and we're excited!

 Reid loves her and kisses her a lot, and also likes to poke her eyes... 

 Ruby selfie!

 This is how to get things done with three babies. She loves this thing and goes right to sleep!

 We've been going outside when we can! The kids scattered a bunch of birdseed (okay, maybe dumped), and we had a ton of different kinds of birds afterward. We're getting excited to make a little container garden. We got some buckets at the dollar tree and bought some seeds on Wednesday at Territorial in Cottage Grove. 

 Family game night! The kids love Blind Man's Bluff. We do too!

 He has been sitting like this occasionally. It's hilarious.

 Saturday morning we used a free guest pass to VillaSport that we got in the mail. It's a pretty swanky athletic club, and we went swimming for a while! It was tons of fun.

 Snuggles.

 We had Valentine's Day brunch at Tony and Courtney's.

 The kids loved Uncle Tony's fishing game, and Aunt Courtney had crafts all set up for them too.

 Penelope... I think she looks so much like Ruby as a baby!

She loves her daddy. 

 And mommy too!

 Family photo. Reid would not put that box of candy hearts down without screaming. He had so much fun playing with them, and neither kid ate any! But when it was time to leave, Reid threw a gigantic fit all the way home. I really don't know what to do about that.

 Andy got me this lovely new cast iron skillet for Valentine's Day! I love it!

 Reid was helping me put away the silverware. He just grabs it out of the dishwasher and throws it in the utensil drawer!

 Leaving early Monday morning for Grenada!

 We made it all the way to Seven Feathers rest area before we had to stop. Then we got out and ran around, and played follow the leader and tag!

 It was nice for us all to get some energy out. I was pretty tired by the time we finally got to Aunt Cindy's house in Medford.

 Reid loved Kyle! He's such an animal guy.

 The kids took a nap at Cindy's, and then mom and dad came up and we all went on a fun hike! 

I wore Reid on my back, but Ruby hiked the whole thing! She loved playing jump out and scare with Quin and Lia, and tried keeping up with them.

 Reid and Quin. Poor Reid was having molar pain so he kept making that funny face. :)

 The four cousins!

 And then climbing. Quin and Lia were often up in trees.

 Sweet little Reid.

 They love Aunt Cindy and Uncle Dan's back yard! After dinner mom drove with us and we headed down to Grenada. The kids went straight to bed.

 Reid loves our old bouncy horse! 

 Mom took the kids to her bible study and I got a little "me" time. It was lovely.

 They love the trampoline! Thank you Grandpa for supervising!

 Reid was so excited about all of the ceiling fans in their house, and also about this little play house that made noises.

 We went on a nice walk to Grenada school. Reid walked the whole way!

 Love the swings.

 He did the slides all by himself!

 Grandma made these nice, warm bathrobes. Reid looks like Obi-wan Kenobi.

 I got my workout in! 

Playing the piano with Grandma!

On Wednesday we headed back home after we ate lunch at Cindy's. The kids did great in the car and took a nap, until we got to Portland. We hit the rush hour traffic and Reid cried and screamed "All done!" for about the last hour on and off. It was so sad. :( But we made it!

 We stopped at Safeway for some yogurt before Imago Moms, the kids love the little shopping carts.