Kiddos

Miles has discovered his thumb. He loves it, but I still have to swaddle him to sleep and cover his hands when I'm not holding him because he rubs/scratches his face so much still. He's got a dr appt soon and I'm hoping they will give him something for his skin. He has the most sensitive skin and breaks out in these rash-like patches on his face, poor guy.

I dare anyone to hold this boy for 15 minutes and not kiss those cheeks! It's darn-near irresistable!

I'm so glad that Caroline still loves him so much and it wasn't just a "honeymoon phase". Lately, he's been smiling when he first sees her in the morning and after each nap - he just lights up and she loves it!

Silver Dollar City

The main reason we went to Branson was to visit Silver Dollar City, which is an early-American themed park.




It's a really beautiful park. It's surrounded by trees and flowers and little streams everywhere.
It was a hot and sticky couple of days, but we still had loads of fun.






Silver Dollar City is really neat because it's not just rides and gift shops, although it has pleanty of those too! They also had really neat shows and cool old-fashioned craftsmen and demonstrations. So you'd go ride rides until you got too hot and then you'd go find something indoors to do which was really nice. In fact, we were surprised by how many elderly people were there until we realized just how much there was to do and see that didn't involve rides.

Caroline was so brave and wanted to ride everything (which proved to be problematic once or twice)

Here we are in one of our favorite shops: the candy store! They had grandmas making the candies right there in front of you (and most importantly, giving samples!) We got to watch them make peanut brittle and fudge - yum!
We also saw pottery and glass-blowing demonstrations and it was really cool. I was too mesmorized to take pictures!

Dave and I thought this was our favorite ride: The Giant Swing. It was like one of those pirate ship rides... times ten! Usually if there was a ride that we both wanted to do, we just took turns watching the kids and riding.

One of the shows we saw was a stunt-dog show and it was really cool. These dogs could jump really high and do cool tricks like walking on their front two paws! Afterward, Caroline got to meet one of the stunt dogs. The neat thing was that all the dogs were shelter dogs that they rescued and trained.

Another thing I really liked about Silver Dollar City was that they let you bring in coolers. Most places are so stingy about "no outside food or drink" so I thought it was really great that we could bring our own snacks and lunches. But before we left on the second day we decided to experience a true vacation food. There was SO much to choose from, but we decided on a funnel-cake sundae. (Not one of us had ever had a funnel cake before, which the lady couldn't believe!)

Check that out!

Funnel Cake, ice cream, strawberry topping, and powdered sugar! Wow.

Look at her face!

We really had a good time and I'm so glad we went. Miles did as good as could be expected, until the ride home - by then he'd had it and screamed a good portion of the 6 hour drive back.
I hope Caroline is old enough to remember this trip forever, because it was a good one. I think most importantly, we discovered that we can go on a vacation. We can do it! We can pick a location, map our way there, pack up the kids and the stuff, juggle activities and a baby... We've talked about it so many times and decided it wasn't worth the cost and the hassle, but now we've had a good experience so hopefully it will happen again and again!

A "Real" Vacation

Don't get me wrong: we love visiting our families. We realized though that the only time we ever go out of town is to go back home to AZ, stay with our parents and visit family. Again, we love doing this. But we decided it was time to take a "real" family vacation: Go somewhere we've never been, just the four of us, stay in a hotel, and make some fun family memories.


And Boy Did We!





After a lot of researching, we decided on Branson, Missouri to go to Silver Dollar City theme park (more on that later)


Dave found a fun deal online that included a hotel stay and tickets to Silver Dollar City and before we knew it, we had booked a vacation! Woo Hoo!





The place we stayed at was beautiful and way fancier than we normally would have gotten had we not found this package deal. We stayed in an apartment style lodge that had playgrounds, free mini-golf, and most-importantly a "Splashatorium"!

I really liked our room. We had a separate bedroom, a kitchen area, and even a washer and dryer which I didn't think we'd use... until Miles had a blow-out diaper while sitting on a lap in a restaurant. I was really glad for it then!

The lodge's splashatorium was where we spent half of our time - it was so fun!

They had a sprinkler area, an indoor and outdoor pool, and a big water slide.
Caroline was in heaven! Even when we were riding the rides at Silver Dollar City she would occasionally mention how she couldn't wait to get back to the hotel to go swimming!

Best of all, it wasn't crowded! Miles even enjoyed the water and just chilled with whoever was holding him.

(she's laughing, not crying!)

We loved it. We could have stayed a month there I think!

Oh, Toooooth Fairy!

Something is missing from this cute smile...

A tooth! Caroline lost her first tooth today! And even though she's probably a little younger than the average toothless-kid, we've been waiting weeks for this thing to come out. We noticed an adult tooth coming in behind her bottom teeth and took her to the dentist who said it was no big deal and the baby tooth in front of it was loose and should come out in about a week. That was a month ago! Caroline just didn't wiggle it very much and we had to remind her to "work on that tooth". Today, we just decided to give it a tug, and a few seconds later, it was out!

So it looks like the Tooth Fairy will be making a stop at our house tonight!

Coming Soon: A post on our first "Real" Family Vacation! :)

3 Months

Today, Miles is 3 months old. Sometimes I can hardly believe that this fragile, tiny thing:


Is now this big, sturdy, baby boy!


I have trouble explaining exactly how the last 3 months have been. It's amazing how something can be so difficult at times, and still bring you so much joy. Every time I pass the hospital, I have flashes of that first week there: watching him struggle to breathe, the disappointment at not being able to hold him, the helpless feeling that weighed on me. And I always feel so immensely grateful for him and his (now obvious!) health, for our friends and family both near and far that supported us, and for my Heavenly Father.
Miles is a happy, healthy, chubby chubby baby! He has mostly grown out of his fussy stage, and spends time each day content and smiling. He still struggles with sleeping, only napping 20 - 30 minutes at a time. This makes it hard to have any kind of "schedule" or routine as I never know if he's had enough sleep. I ask myself, "So should I try to get him back to sleep or let him stay up?" several times a day! I've read 3 baby-help type books and have 3 more on hold at the library and still feel like I'm winging-it every day! At night, he is very inconsistant. Some nights he does SO great - sleeping 5 or so hours, and some nights he's literally up every hour and a half. His favorite thing is when we sing fun songs to him and he even giggles sometimes. Aren't new baby giggles the best?!
We love him soooo much and there is definately no shortage of affection in our house - he can't escape all our squeezes and kisses all day long!

I still can't believe I have a blue-eyed boy :)

Truffles

Caroline has always been an early bird. She wakes up, comes into our room to let us know she's awake and usually goes to watch TV until we get out of bed. The other day at breakfast she announced that she knew how to make truffles. huh?! She told us while we were still sleeping she watched "5 Ingedient Fix" on the Food Network and that she wanted to make some truffles. Dave didn't believe her so he said, "Ok, then how do you make truffles?" She proceeded to tell us how to melt chocolate, add heavy cream, chill in the refrigerator, roll into balls, chill again, then roll into toppings to make delicious chocolate truffles! We were so surprised! I can't believe she actually watched a cooking show by herself and paid enough attention to it to remember the recipe! So what else could I do but take her to the grocery store and buy stuff to make truffles!

We made milk and white chocolate truffles rolled in cocoa, coconut flakes, and (Caroline's favorite) jimmies!
What a cool kid I have. And if one of her favorite activities happens to be making chocolately treats, who am I to stop her?! :)