night time adventures

Labor Day Camping 2010

So, the annual West Family Campout was last weekend (or rather Labor Day Weekend, which was the weekend before last I guess technically). It was a lot of fun, though I'll be honest, camping with 3 kids 2 years old and under (2 still nursing) was not exactly my idea of an ideall camping trip, and it's definitely not on my to do list anytime soon. Fortunately though everyone loves my kids so I didn't have to hold them ALL the time, though I couldn't let them roll around on the floor since, well, eew.

It was pretty uneventful as far as camping goes, but Rachel came with us which was great. I always love spending time with her, and all the West family members made it except Shawn, which is to be expected with his busy flying schedule. We did get to see him just last Friday night though as he was in town, which was nice.

My kids got filthy, but seemed to love just about every minute of it. Nights were rough for pretty much everyone. As in true camping tradition, I didn't sleep almost at all the first night. The other two were better than that, but for such a large tent we were oddly cramped between children. :)


Alexa loved the dirt and the marshmallows. She was truly disgusting for most of the trip, but at least her hair was cute, haha. I'm just glad it was out of her face or it would've been SOO gross!

Cousin Kimber really loved her little cousins.







Alexa loves dolls or barbies or anything that can be called "baby"













Uncle John took the kids rock climbing.

Keith was fine at first...













 then he looked down...











then he froze. But daddy and a cousin came to his rescue. I think he still enjoyed himself and isn't scarred for life, but we shall see. :)

Totally gross...

But I love them anyway. :)

First Day of Preschool

 Unfortunately, these won't get any better as they are phone shots. I didn't get a chance to get a picture with a good camera. These at least are something I guess.

Day one went pretty well, but then, they ask all the parents to stay for the whole first day to have a Q&A session and help the child transition. Our biggest problem seem to come when he saw the school. He was excited for school, except that last year we did an informal preschool with church people and I'm pretty sure he was under the impression we were doing that, so when he didn't see a familiar friend's house he started to cry. But, it didn't last too long and I assured him he would make lots of friends and enjoy school here.

Day two was iffy. As he has to be signed in and out every day I had to unload all 4 kids (and will every day. joy.) to go into his classroom to sign him in. I made as quick an exit as possible, even while I recognized that many parents were hanging out for awhile yet. He was sad to see me go, and almost cried but when I told him I was coming back in a little while he was okay, though I could tell he was still sad.

As we left and I grabbed the babies and Alexa she said "Where Keith?" and I explained to her that he was staying. She said "okay." I think she did okay. I'm really looking forward to this one-less-kid thing every day for awhile.

To make life easier on my I walked to school to pick him up and as we were walking him I asked him about his day. I asked if he cried and he proudly said "Nope. Other kids did, but I didn't." He said he had fun and was excited to go back Monday. HUGE sigh of relief! I figured he would be, but you just never know sometimes.

First night in the big bed...

I decided to start the transition to big bed for Alexa since I'm pretty sure I'm going to be needing that crib very soon as the twins like to kick each other and roll on top of the other.

I took the front off and put her to bed. Paul called me later to look at her and this is what I found. So cute.

Twins Update

Freddy and Baz had their 4 month physical/immunizations yesterday. Here are the results:

Frederick: 11 lb. 6 oz. & 22 inches long

Sebastian: 9 lbs. 13 oz. & 21.5 inches

They continue to stay almost exactly 1.5 lbs. apart for now.

Those numbers (at least the weight, that is) put Freddy in about the 3%, and Baz, sadly, still not even on the chart. But, I'm sure we'll get there. Freddy probably wasn't on the chart 2 months ago either.

Interestingly enough, their heads measured the same size.

They're growing, if very slowly. At least they're healthy though, right?

Sebastian needs to see a pediatric urologist because his right testicle seems very swollen and has for a couple weeks, so keep your fingers crossed (prayers work too :) that all is well and it isn't a problem that will require surgery.

indicative of their personalities?? we shall see. . . . .

(just so you know, they're both asleep.)