Life

I feel like I have so much to update on, but when it comes to writing I cant think of a thing. 

I'm going to do my best to try to remember these past few months. 

I guess I will start with the kids. Of course they have been doing wonderful...Thank goodness. Emma is loving going to school. She comes home saying things that I didn't teach her so I feel like it is good to have someone else educating as well. She was learning about dinosaurs last month so there was a lot of "roarrr" going on. They do projects every day so I love getting her art work when she comes home. They sing songs and read books that she will recite back to us out of the blue. Her new thing is "oink oink, ruff ruff, moo." It must be part of a song or something...I'm not really sure but its pretty cute when she all of sudden starts saying it. At snack time they are learning to pour water into a cup and drink without spilling. But what I am most of all so thankful for is that she now goes potty on the toilet. I knew it was going to happen as soon as she saw others doing it...and it really only took going to school twice to get it down. I am so happy that diapers are almost done.  She has been still doing really well with Charlie. She loves tickling him and touching his head. She lets me know when he is crying (like I cant hear it) and enjoys giving tons of kisses.

Charlie is also doing really well. He wakes up quite a bit during the night still. Sometimes its 3 times, sometimes its 6. Nursing babies just can never get enough. During the night I feel like I want to give up. I am just so tired, but when morning comes around I think to myself that it wasn't that bad and I can do it. 17 more months of restless nights (if I nurse as long as I did with Emma). Oh my that sounds so long. He has been doing tons of smiling lately.  He still loves to be held most of the day even during nap times so that's been difficult. I will be doing his 3 month update in a couple days so I will have lots more to write about him then.

Just a quick update on myself. I am in full swing of loosing all my hair. I remember with Emma it was terrible...and this time is just the same. I don't know how I still have any hair left. I cut it hoping just to get rid of some of the nastiness at the bottom but that still doesn't make up for the clumps that come out. My weight has been coming off extremely slow this go around. With Emma I feel like I was pretty close to my pre prego weight at the 3 month mark, this time I still feel like a ways to go. I heard that after the first baby, each one after that, weight loss gets harder...it seems to be true right now.

With the holidays coming up, we are looking forward to going home. Having a child that will somewhat get the concept of Christmas this year is also very exciting. I am ready to start making traditions that they will remember.

Oh Cami...
This girl is something else. I have probably said it a million times already but, boy does she have energy! I have to keep reminding myself that she is still a puppy and she will calm down sooner or later. We still have issues when she is on a leash with other dogs and some people. She is a hole digger so that's been trying also. A major squirrel chaser needs to be added to the list as well. There is actually a squirrel that sits and teases her which is really frustrating because I don't like to hear constant barking. Its usually happening when I am nursing or changing a diaper so I cant get to her right away. I have been getting better with the tongue licking. I have never had a dog that gave kisses so am not used to be CONSTANTLY licked. For the upcoming holidays, she is going to be boarded. I have never boarded any of my babies before so I am a little nervous about that. I just hope she doesn't think we are taking her back and never picking her up again. My nails will be all bitten off.

So, I guess this is it for now. Like I said I probably have a million of other things I could be updating on but I cant think tonight.

Fall

Mike had been out of town what feels like most of October. I'm not going to lie, being a single parent with no company at the end of the day to talk to after the kids go to bed is pretty tough.  Wine comes in handy but its tricky while I am still nursing. 

So, we needed a little time out of the house to enjoy the fall air and relax in the sun. I took the kids to one of our favorite places. 

Plum Orchard Lake. 

It is mostly deserted here every time I come so I love it. 

I look for places like this because I like to bring Cami along and she is leash aggressive. 

It is really embarrassing. 

That's a whole other story so I wont get into that now. 

Anyways...

When I went to the lake last year at this time the colors were BEAUTIFUL! 

This year wasn't as stunning but still very nice. 

 Its been a little warmer this fall, so the colors haven't popped yet.

 Still very pretty though 

 This vine is a huge problem. 

Its from Japan and grows up to 7 feet a DAY. It takes over anything in its path.

 I named this rock 'Pony Rock'

There is a horse head carved into it. 

The kids and I had such a beautiful day. 

I don't want to add that both Emma and Cami got sick in the car from the curvy roads. I stopped mid way to let everyone take a break hoping that it would help not get sick, but it didn't work. 

Endless Wall

We hadn't been on a good hike in awhile so we drove into the New River Gorge area to Beauty Mountain. I couldn't really find a ton on it ,except for beautiful photos of the views, so we were going in blind. 

Well the reason why I couldn't find a ton on it was because it was about 100ft from the road. 

Because it was such a quick walk out there, we were on the hunt to find something else to do. 

We drove past a sign that said "Fern Creek".
 I remember seeing photos of a beautiful waterfall at this creek so we drove into the parking area and checked it out. 

Come to find out, it was the parking area to a really popular hike and climbing spot in New River. I have had it on my list of things to do since we moved here. 

So we loaded our babies up and headed out. 

I was a little nervous because of Cami though. She is leash aggressive and makes it really embarrassing when she come in contact with some people and other dogs. This being a really popular hike I knew things would go down. 

It was such a great hike with great views. We only came in contact with a couple of other dogs but thank goodness they were on leashes. I don't really get it though. We recently came in contact with two free roam dogs in our neighborhood and she was absolutely fine with them. I think its the fact that we are holding her back from smelling them that makes her crazy. She literally sounds like she wants to kill them so I am nervous to let her get close. I also have not one friend that has a dog to let me test her out so I am out of luck that way. I need to start volunteering at the kennel again so I can meet some other people with dogs.