Yonah Mountain Campground in Helen, GA

Jeff and I have always loved camping and both grew up camping a lot. We registered for tons of camping gear for our wedding and got a lot. Sadly, we have never been camping here in Georgia! In fact, the last time we have ever been camping was when Cheyenne was about 6 months old and we went in Washington to Sun Lakes with Jeff's family. 

It is way too hot to camp in Georgia in the summer. I mean, the night time sometimes doesn't even get below 80 degrees. How would you ever sleep like that? Anyway, Jeff had a bye last weekend and we decided to go! We invited some awesome friends from church and they could only go one day, but it was so fun. Jeff took Friday off of school and we headed up after packing up the car that morning. Doyle, Chelsea and Eve arrived just after us. We set up camp at Yonah Mountain Campground. It was $28 a night and you couldn't share sites, so it was kind of expensive for camping. However, the campground was awesome. The bathrooms were so clean and you didn't have to put quarters in for the showers, the sites were right next to each other so it felt like we were all camping together, it was super close to Helen and the cabbage patch factory, there was a playground there, the hosts were super friendly and there was even a craft for the kids on Saturday morning.

 After we set up camp and ate some lunch, we were off to the cabbage patch factory! Cheyenne fell asleep in the 2.5 minutes it took to get there. She was not very excited about this picture on the giant head. The building was beautiful. I have a picture of us by it, but I have to get it from Chelsea.

 The family on the cabbage leaf!

 It was awesome, when you first walk in, there were all these 80s signed pictures of famous celebrities who had been to the factory. It was totally the thing back then, remember? There was pretty much every single celebrity/President up on that wall.

 This giant stuffed doll thing totally looks like my 9th grade drama teacher. Christine, did you ever have Mrs. Grimes? What do you think? Am I crazy?

 Cheyenne loved to pull the dolls out of the cabbage patch.

 It was pretty much just a giant toy store, which the kids loved, but it kind of sucked for the adults, because you had to follow them around just putting everything back where it belonged. 

 The whole point of the trip for me, was for the girls to get excited about playing with my old cabbage patch dolls and think they were cool. It didn't work. But, at least it was entertainment for the time being...

Meanwhile, back at camp...

 The Nelsons arrived! Cheyenne was so excited to see her friends:) We headed to the playground to play while the boys were supposed to start the fire. Well, they struggled a little and we almost missed out on our tin foil dinners! Finally, we got it started and kept it going enough to cook the dinners, and they were worth the wait!! MMMM.... I want one now!

 Campfire that night, Jeff couldn't stay awake:

 I think he was in a s'more coma because he ate about 12 of them, no joke!

 Doyle and Chelsea telling stories about each other:)

 Eric, we learned a lot about him, he is a crazy one! Poor Andrea fell asleep putting the girls to bed, and I feel so bad I didn't wake her up! She missed all the fun:( We slept on the ground without an air mattress which was a total mistake! I remembered doing it all the time as a kid, but apparently I weigh more or something now? Every part of my body that was touching the ground felt like it was bruised and I probably woke up 10 times.

 Cheyenne and Sadie really bonded this trip:)

 The next morning we had an amazing breakfast. Seriously, amazing. Pancakes with magic syrup, sausage, bacon, eggs, stone ground grits, grapes, orange juice, the works! Then the other families packed up camp while I showered and the girls went to the clubhouse for crafts. We all headed to the playground after that for some volleyball, football and playing on the toys. Then we roasted some more weenies and ate even more s'mores. We were so sad to say goodbye to our friends, but it was a great time! We couldn't have asked for better camping friends! It was perfect:) After everyone left, Jeff drove around to put Berkeley to sleep and she took a little nap. Then we headed to the tube the hooch!! There was like 1/8th of the people there from when we did this 2 months ago. It was so much better. We had to do the short route, because the long route was too shallow. I shared a tube with Cheyenne and Jeff with Berkeley. It was awesome! Cheyenne right away declared it was her favorite part of the trip and she really loved the whole trip. She started out pretty still, then she was leaning over catching leaves, then she wanted to get out and play in the water. We let them get out for a little while in a shallow area, but they never wanted to get back in the tube so we didn't do that again. Cheyenne liked to hang off the side in the water and I held on to her, so I was basically dragging her along. You get to float right in the middle of town and tons of people are on either side above you eating at restaurants or just looking down at you. I told Cheyenne to wave and it was like a parade. All the people were waving at her and she LOVED it! It was pretty cute. She also declared that she saved the day, by using her rock to get us unstuck and getting out and pushing us to the side at the end. She talked the rest of the night about how she saved the day. I was perfect temperature the whole time until about the last 20 minutes when we were in the shade and Cheyenne's icy little body was climbing all over me. So it felt good to get out in the heat again.

 Then we headed back to camp for more tin foil dinners and s'mores. The weather was PERFECT camping weather the whole time. I think it was like a high of 84 degrees and low of 58 or so. The Nelsons were so sweet to leave us their air mattress, so this night I slept like a log! It was heavenly:)

 The next morning we had pancake breakfast again and headed over to the playground after we cleaned up camp. It was the perfect camping weekend ever. Seriously, I don't think it could have been much better. We needed a little break to spend as a family, and I am so thankful we got it.

 The picture above is Berkeley watching Daddy on the Monkey bars, can you believe how long her hair is? She isn't even two yet!

Preschool

We started a preschool co-op a few weeks ago and I love it! There are 4 little girls and we rotate doing it at one house a week. My first time hosting was supposed to be last Wednesday and I stayed up until like 2 am planning the most awesome preschool ever, but woke up to Cheyenne laying next to me puking in bed! She puked about 6 times in 2 hours, she barely had anything in her stomach to begin with, so she kept saying she was so hungry, so I let her have plain eggo waffles and she ate about 6 of them. She kept that down for about 30 minutes, so I let her drink milk. I figured all of this was going to come up again, but I may as well let her eat and maybe she could at least absorb some of the nutrients. She also ate some pineapple, pickles and a lot more milk and has been her happy little self ever since. It was kind of strange. 

Anyway, since I didn't want to get the other girls sick, we postponed preschool to Friday. It was about the #3 and the letter D. We started off reading about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Then we practiced writing the number three. Then I had drawn diamonds on their papers and had a bunch of snacks and they had to pick 3 of the same snacks to put in each diamond. Then we did some adding with dots on the dice. We sang the 3 Little Ducks song with a duck puppet. Then we read about Noah's Ark and the Dove. Then we sang "When Jesus Christ was Baptized" which was perfect because it talks about the 3 members of the Godhead and how the holy ghost appeared in the form of a Dove. We danced like ducks, dinosaurs, dogs, donkeys and dragons. 

We had snacks that you could "dip." Carrots and Ranch, Apples and Caramel, and French Fries and Ketchup. Cheyenne was especially excited to have Apple Juice Boxes and I am 99% sure that is the first time I have bought any type of individual serving juice container... we usually just bring water in sippy cups wherever we go. The only problem was that she kept saying "apple juice starts with D." haha... I said, "well drink starts with D."

 We practiced our sight words and now Cheyenne knows "play, see, this, is, can, will, like, see and I." like and this are the hardest ones for her. We dropped dimes into cups with the words in front. We also put them in a circle and hopped, crawled, tiptoed, etc. to each word. I also had about 20 items in a bag that started with D and they each got to pull one thing out at a time, which they loved. It was so cute because I had a Barbie in there in a ballerina leotard and tutu (dancing doll). Sadie just loved it and kept holding it and looking at it and she said, "this doll is so beautiful, but she is not modest!" So funny! It was pretty cute. At the end they got to play dress-up. I had this thing planned where I was going to have them talk about their dads and put them in jeff's dress shirts and ties and hats, but I forgot to have Jeff tie the ties before he left, so I skipped that part, since I do not know how to tie one. It went great, I can't wait to do it again:)

Wedding

Cheyenne and Berkeley pretending to be getting married, don't you love their wedding dresses?

Charlotte's web

 Okay so I have to share my freaky bug stories on here, because freaky bugs are just a part of our life here in Georgia! I miss the days in Washington when I could just go out and play in my woods without having to worry about ticks, fire ants, scorpions, black widows, brown recluse or freakishly huge spiders...

Anyway, story #1 I don't have pictures to go with. I was meeting my running group for a Saturday morning run, so I woke up about 6:40 and went into my closet half asleep to grab a specific shirt I wanted. I found it and had put my arms through when all of the sudden I felt stings all over my body. I threw the shirt on the ground and looked down and I had fire ants stinging me everywhere! I brushed them all off and tried to squish them, I looked at my shirt on the ground which was swarming with them. I started stepping on them, but there were so many. I looked at my other shirts in the closet and none of them had ants on them, but the ground was covered in them. I noticed a tiny spider had built a web in the bottom corner of my bathroom and I watched as about 6 ants got caught up in that web and I instantly became best friends with that little spider and decided to let him keep his home there in my bathroom. I thoroughly enjoyed watching those ants struggle and the spider spin them up to enjoy as future meals.

I decided to wake up Jeff, even though he had been up so late from a football game the night before and I felt bad, but I didn't know what to do. We decided to try to drown the ants, but those suckers wouldn't die. I called my friend Robyn and she said she had some stuff to kill them with, so I went ahead to my running group and got the spray from her after. Jeff sprayed all the ants and it turns out there was an old gym bag with a jolly rancher in it that the ants had found. It was just so crazy that the only shirt they were on in the whole closet was that green shirt that I had specifically thought of wearing. I am glad though, because my girls always play in my closet and it would have been awful if the ants got one of them! I only ended up with 7 stings, but they turned into huge welts and blistered up and itched like no other. Also they were all over (3 on my leg, 2 on my arm, 2 on my stomach) so it felt like I had them everywhere. We sprayed the ants and haven't seen them since.

Story #2 is one day, Cheyenne asked if she could go play outside, we told her sure and I opened the door for her and walked away. She went running for the door and suddenly screamed and halted to an immediate stop. I turned around to see what happened and this bad boy had built this serious web across our entire front door. It was kind of funny, because it was like he was protecting us and not letting any bugs get into our house... but Jeff had to take care of him with a shoe...

I mean that looks like it is actual thread that you would sew fabric with, so intense!

 Its scary looking, but I guess it is just an ordinary spider and can't kill you or anything. The black widows are like 1/4 to 1/2 that size and deadly and I have heard personal stories of relatives of people who have gotten brown recluse bites and had serious repercussions including amputation of limbs!


Story #3 I was up late one night getting ready for preschool when I walked into the girls bathroom to find a scorpion had been caught in this little tiny spider's web. It was just hanging there upside down. I was completely fascinated and I watched as the spider began approaching the scorpion and wrapping it up. Scorpions are really really good at playing dead, so I didn't believe it had died, but I really wanted to see what happened. However, the spider totally sensed me, so anytime I got close enough to watch the spider would run up to his little watching/hiding space until I backed away. I watched for a good 5 minutes, then I really had to get back to planning preschool so I decided I would come back in 20 minutes or so to view the progress of the spider wrapping the scorpion. I had debated killing the scorpion, because I hate having them in our house, but I really wanted to reward that little spider for catching him. And I kind of wanted to watch it eat it.  It is hard to tell in this picture, but the spider is the little black dot hanging quite a ways above the scorpion.

 I know this is so gross, I obviously neglected to clean this area for too long.

I came back about 30 minutes later and I literally got the chills when any trace of the scorpion, spider or even web were completely gone! That sneaky little scorpion. I instantly regretted not squishing the scorpion immediately. I know that scorpion devoured that tiny spider and is still alive in our house somewhere. Although, I suppose it could be dead by now since I have killed about 5 since this incident.  The weather is changing right now, so the bugs always increase around fall and spring, but we have even seen teeny tiny baby scorpions that are almost feather-like, so they are hatching in our house!

Bugs are disgusting, but so far has been something that is more of an inconvenience and annoyance than anything. We really only find about one bug a day so it isn't like our house is infested or anything and I mean other than the black widows or brown recluse spiders, nothing is life threatening, and I have never seen either of those two spiders inside. Hopefully it stays that way!! I wish they would just stay outside and leave us alone!

First Football game of the season

We were bad this year and missed the first two games of the year. The first game was a scrimmage and I didn't feel like going. The second game, I was all dressed and ready to go, but Cheyenne fell asleep on the couch and was OUT. Also, she had been coughing and sneezing all day, so I was worried she was getting sick. It turns out, it poured the whole game so it is probably good we didn't go. They lost that game, which I listened to on the radio. So, we finally got to go to a game against Cedar Shoals which is right here in Athens. Unfortunately, though, it was a home game for us, so we had to drive all the way to the Granite Bowl. It was not too hot compared to others I have gone to in the past. The girls lasted until about the 3rd quarter and then they were so tired, but we had gotten treats at Wal-Mart, so they were so so good and just sat right by me the whole time eating our treats! We also ended up barely losing this game as well. We have played really tough teams, so hopefully once we get to our region we will be more successful. Last weekend they played in Augusta, so we didn't go, because it was the girls last date night at Bodyplex (we switched to Omni). Cheyenne was so sad it was her last time and cried because her favorite worker, Candace, wasn't there to get a picture with. Next weekend is a bye, and then we will get to go to the game a week after that with our friends Brad and Laura who will be in town visiting:) Football season is in full swing my friends.

Chic-Fil-A 3 on 3 tourney

Jeff, Ansley, Cheyenne, Mom

 This guy was so funny! He came up to me and was all excited like "HI!" I said hi politely and then pointed him out to my girls who looked at him confusedly like who is that supposed to be? The guy said, "You can take your picture with me if you want!" I said okay and he wanted me to follow him to the front of the booth, but I didn't want to get my girls out of the wagon so I asked if he could just bend down by the wagon. He looked disappointed but said yes. You can't really tell but both of the girls were leaning away from him and were a little creeped out. It was pretty funny. He was a nice guy and what a great sport to wear that costume in the heat all day!!

 Jeff warming up. The atmosphere was so much fun! I loved it and I wished I was playing. It was too hot for my mom though so she was so sweet to take the girls home for lunch and naps.

 Jeff was in the three point contest and I almost peed my pants I was so nervous.

 Here he is watching the competetion

 Here he is shooting. I wish I would have gotten it on video. I was so mad when I was watching because he missed three baskets, and when I shag for him he never misses!! I know because I never get to shoot! When he misses it is my turn and it is barely ever my turn. Anyway, he made 9 in 30 seconds and the closest person to his score got 5. The guy who made 5 played in the European league. There were also a few retired NBA and NFL players playing in the 3 on 3 tourney and former UGA players including David Pollack who reported with Erin Andrews last year on ESPN. His team won their division.

 Jeff with the giant check for $500. We asked if we were supposed to take the giant check to the bank to cash it and they said yes. After a while we went back to ask one more time to be sure and we found a different person. They gave us someone to email who would then send us tax forms, then they would send us the check. Good thing we asked! How stupid would I feel walking into the bank I used to work at with a giant check that wasn't even actually real?

 Even in front of the port-a-potties he looks like a stud! Great shooting Jeff!

Its a good thing he won this money because the next day he got his first speeding ticket:(  AND our air conditioning had to be repaired for the FOURTH time in 3 years!!! We have already put about $900 into that thing... Good thing Jeff is good at bringing home the bacon:) We just gotta fix all those holes in our bucket.

Church

 One Sunday, I curled my hair and I was about to do Cheyenne's hair and she said she wanted it curly like mine!!! I was so excited because most of the time Cheyenne just wants me to do her hair quickly and doesn't care much what it looks like. So we brought a bar stool into the bathroom and I curled her hair. Then I put on her outfit and when it was time to go she went and put on the little scarf all on her own. Even though it was the middle of summer and probably 95 degrees outside, I was so impressed, because I don't even know how to wear a scarf effectively and my 3 year old nailed it! Or at least I thought so:) It was such a smooth day getting ready, we had to take some pictures for the blog!

Jeff and I are the nursery leaders and we were both surprised we kind of like it. I mean almost 2 hours is a long time to have 15-20 18 month to 3 year olds, but it is going pretty well. The kids are just so sweet and Jeff is totally the favorite, especially the boys all love him. It is so awesome to hear parents tell me what their kids told them. I mean when we do the lessons, the kids will sit still for about 2.5 minutes of it, but then parents will tell me things their kids told them and I am like how did they even hear that? It makes you realize how much they are really absorbing! One mom said her daughter was taking a bath then randomly said, "Mom. Did you know Berkeley is a child of God?" We had all taken turns saying each one was a child of God. The point was so they would realize they themselves were children of God, but it was so cute that she remembered that. I really do love those little kids and they are so much fun to be around, although I am exhausted by the end of church!

Berkeley Update

Berkeley is 1 year 10 months old.

So I feel really bad, but I barely have any pictures of just Berkeley. It is just so much easier to take pictures of Cheyenne, because Cheyenne will hold still and smile, but I can't always expect that of Berkeley! I swear I love Berkeley just as much as Cheyenne! This picture is actually perfect for Berkeley at this age though, because she is obsessed with her big sister. She gets so sad if she ever has to leave Cheyenne (preschool, nursery, when Cheyenne is at gymnastics, etc.). 

I just want to freeze this stage Berkeley is at right now. She is just so cute!! The things she does and says and she is always so happy, and her temper tantrums don't stress me out at all, they are just so funny. With Cheyenne when she would throw a tantrum (not that she did that often) it would stress me out and I would think oh my gosh she is out of control and she is going to grow up to be rebellious and not obey, etc. Basically I would overreact. Now, I realize it is just so normal for Berkeley's age and it is the funniest thing. 

There are so many things I need to get on video that are only funny when you hear them right from her mouth, but she always says, "Not that one!" about anything that she doesn't want. She always calls herself "DeeDee" and always refers to herself in the 3rd person. That's DeeDee's sounds better than MINE! I love how she always says "okay." all these things are hard to explain because it is the intonation that makes it so funny and cute. She always says "no nigh nigh!!" She gets so sad when she has to go to bed, but once she is in her crib she pops in that amazing thumb and is out in a few minutes. 

She always loves to cuddle and give hugs and kisses.

Berkeley is trying to get me to potty train her but I will not give in! She always tries to pull her diaper off and says "no diaper!"  or "diaper off!" Every time she goes pee or poop in her diaper she brings me the wipes and diaper and says "poopy pants." or she will say "go sit on the potty?" and bring me in the bathroom with her.  The reason I don't want to start, though, is that she still wakes up from nap and night time wet half the time and I want to wait until she is really ready and have it be quicker and easier. I do not like potty training!

Berkeley is also obsessed with her Daddy. She gets so excited to see him when he gets home. Today Jeff went out to mow the lawn and Berkeley laid on her bed with her blanket and cried "Daddy" the whole time, real tears and all. It was so sweet. Finally I brought her outside to watch him finish up and she was happy as a clam.

Berkeley looks so much like me when I was little it is so fun to watch her because I picture her being me. My Mom said it is like a flashback to watch her. It is strange that her eyes are so dark, though. Jeff, Cheyenne and I all have super light eyes, but both Grandpas have the dark green brown eyes that Berkeley shares.

Berkeley has been such a blessing to our family and just better than I ever imagined she could be. I was so worried about having a second girl and I honestly wouldn't have our family any other way! 

Cheyenne Update

Cheyenne is 3 years and 9 months old.

So my favorite thing about Cheyenne is that she still lets me dress her! There have been a couple times where she wants to pick out her own outfit, and I let her, but I always go pick something for her to wear first and she usually doesn't mind. Most other kids her age dress themselves already I think, but I am putting this off as long as I can. That is my favorite part about having girls is picking out their outfits and doing their hair every morning. If she wants to pick herself, I usually let her pick the shirt and then I give her 3 or 4 choices of bottoms to pick from, then I try not to have anything in her closet that I wouldn't want her to wear:) I am so manipulative! Do you think I can continue this all the way through the teenage years??? I doubt it but its worth a try!

 Cheyenne has started doing a little preschool group once a week. It is 4 little girls and she comes home telling me about all the stuff she has learned. I LOVE that she is doing this and it helps me be more motivated to work with her on learning things. We rotate houses and work on one letter, one number, we have a theme and then they learn 2 sight words each time. Cheyenne loves it and I love that it gives me some one on one time with Berkeley. Berkeley doesn't see it that way and cries for Cheyenne every time we drop her off and gets so excited to see her when we pick her up.

We finally paid our library fines from like 2 years ago (it was like $10 which is a lot for a library fine), I decided I was responsible enough to try again and get books returned on time. It has been about 3 weeks and so far so good with only a couple close calls. Cheyenne loves to pick out the books and that we get to take them home with us. I love that she has a long enough attention span to listen to longer stories with less pictures. I love to read the books with her and I have even gotten back into reading myself! In the past month, I have already read 5 books! All three Hunger Games, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and The One Hundred. I enjoyed them all for the most part, but of course the Hunger Games was the best.

Oh yeah, so back to Cheyenne... She and Berkeley play so well together and I just feel so so blessed that I was given both of these girls together. I feel like they really were meant to be sisters. They love each other so much. Cheyenne is loving her gymnastics class and she loves to go to the gym. Recently we changed gym and she is having hard core withdrawals from her favorite teachers at Bodyplex. The other day she asked if we could get a picture of her with Miss Candace (the childcare worker at Bodyplex) to hang on her wall. So random!

Cheyenne loves to draw, she rarely wants to color in a coloring book, she likes drawing better. She loves to write her letters (on her own terms, she doesn't like when I try to practice with her). I try to help her with gymnastics too, but she doesn't like that, so I just try to cheer her on:)

In the mornings, when Cheyenne is well-rested she is such a sweetheart. She always wants to choose the right and obey... when 4, 5 or 6 o'clock hits, that isn't always the same story:) She loves to play computer games and watch Caillou, Dora, Diego, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Clifford, or Curious George. She says she doesn't like Princess movies, but she has accepted the fact that Little Mermaid turns into a human at the end of the movie after crying the first several times because she wanted her to stay a mermaid. Sometimes she will sing "ahhhh ahhh ahhh" and she says she is the Little Mermaid. Berkeley will do it too and it is cute at first then gets pretty bad since neither have perfected the skill of hitting all the notes quite yet.

Cheyenne's favorite thing to eat right now is Peanut butter toast. She really doesn't eat much at all. She will also eat frozen grapes, and sometimes salad if she can dip it in Ranch ("White sauce"). She can also down some major Mac n cheese but only if she asks for it. Eggo waffles with Peanut butter and syrup, hot dogs, hamburgers, pretzels, chocolate monkey, whole wheat ritz and string cheese are other regular items on the menu. Randomly we can sometimes get her to take bites of other things, but these are her main staples. She always says she doesn't like chicken, only chicken nuggets. 

She always comes and snuggles with Mommy and Daddy early in the morning (anywhere from 5-7) which I love. She loves Primary and singing Primary songs. 

 I love this little girl and I am so grateful for her in my life.