Best Little Sister

I found a shirt in a bin today that someone gifted me at my shower, or at some point. It's impossible to keep track :) but it's the perfect little shirt! "Best Little Sister"

 Everyone needed their turn holding their best little sister! :)

4 month check up

Leila is getting stronger and bigger. At her 4 month check up she weighed in at 13lbs and just about 24 inches. About the 25%tile.
She had to get pricked in the toe to check her iron level, did fine with that. She did get her second shot and she did scream for that one! Always sad to hold your little baby while they get a shot in the leg :(
She is healthy, happy and an overall wonderful little girl. She is even spoiling me and sleeping through the night most every night! In bed around 9pm and waking around 5 or 6am. I am feeling very blessed.

Organizing collections & a few pictures

The boys have been sooooo into building legos lately that I decided to TRY and find a way to keep them somewhat organized and accessible. That is a big challenge when it comes to legos! We cleaned out a plastic six drawer organizer on wheels that I had in the shed and the boys went to town filling it up and organizing it the way they wanted it.

I also decided to display our beach treasures that we have been collecting on the beach. Mainly the sea glass. It's so pretty and unique, I'm enjoying looking at it more often now that it's out where we always are. I think we will set a goal to search the beach once a week, or at least every other week. The boys love it!

 

 

And, just a few pictures of Leila, growing a little bigger every day. It's hard to believe she is 4 months old already & 13 pounds! She is just an angel baby. Sleeping thru the night most nights, happy and content to be held or put down. She tolerates her brothers and all their "aggressive love" they give her. She is just a wonderful little girl and we are so blessed to have her in the family!

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Canyon Trip

5 days after getting home from camping in the Sierras, we packed up again and hit the road to Arizona. It would have been a really long journey without Billy, but he was on a 6 day off and was able to be with us the entire time!!!! I think it ended up taking us around 8 hrs to get there. The drive is pretty boring with not much to see until you are almost there. We met up with most of the Mills family members in Williams, AZ. Kristy had planned the hotel & train ride to the south rim. The hotel was nice & in the morning there was a pretty corny wild west show before we got on the train. The train was fun, the kids enjoyed their first time riding a train. Leila ended up throwing up on the train just before we were about to get off. Not sure if it was motion sickness, altitude or a combination of the two :( No fun. Luckily I felt it coming and neither of us got to messy. Poor girl.

The Grand canyon was a site to behold. No wonder it is one of the wonders of the world. I didn't think I would be so nervous having all my kids there, but I really was. It was a weird feeling as I am not usually a paranoid or nervous mom. Having the boys all running around on the rim trail and sitting on the wall over the grand canyon was not a fun experience for me. I was not relaxed or fully enjoying the experience until I was far from the wall & even back on the train headed out of there. Hopefully when the kids are all older, we can go again and do some hiking and really take in the grand canyon and all its beauty. For now, I like looking at the pictures we took during our 3 hours we spent there.

The rest of the trip was spent at a rental house that I spent hours and hours searching out on line. We were all able to gather together in one big house and hang out, cook dinner together, play games & enjoy family time. Except for some unexpected upsets, it was a really great time. We had hiking and exploring right out the back door of this house & took advantage of that. The guys also went shooting and found a fire pit that we went out to at dark & roasted marshmallows and ate smores! The boys ran around and played their hearts out with their cousins. I don't think I remember any fighting at all between the 10 cousins that were there! Amazing.

 

 

 

Billy & I both thought Williams was a pretty cool little town and we would go back there and do some more exploring again. It was an expensive little trip, but the experience was great. I guess that's what counts. Thanks Kristy for making the suggestion to visit the Grand Canyon, it was truly amazing :)

Dinkey Creek

The Wrenn clan got to go back to Dinkey Creek this summer! The boys have talked about it since we left two years ago from a fun week there. This time, Billy was able to join us for a couple days. In two years, I am hoping he can stay for the entire experience :)
We ended up caravanning up a day before camp opened. We tent camped at Shaver Lake, Edison camp ground. It was a fun adventure. We brought a small 4 man tent and squeezed the 6 of us in there for the night. We will have to invest in a bigger tent in the future... for now with small kids, it worked out okay.

 The boys did a scavenger hunt in the morning and got a bag of prizes when they were done from the kiosk area. Then we packed up and went to a cute blue café in Shaver for a late breakfast. We walked around town for a bit and then drove up the road to Dinkey Creek. We were all pretty dirty already!

We got there just a few minutes before the gate opened. The boys checked out the bridge and then we were able to drive our car into camp. It was a couple hours though before some of the Young brothers made it and were able to obtain keys to unlock things. When we finally got cubicle assignments, we were able to unpack and then explore a little. We were unexpectedly assigned to one of the small cabins! We had two sets of bunk beds and a full bed in there with plenty of space. It was really nice. I was able to give both William & Zachary top bunks, Jameson a bottom bunk & put Leila's bassinet on the other bottom bunk. It worked out perfect. Plus I had an outlet to plug in my baby monitor which had a perfect rage around the camp. This allowed me to leave Leila sleeping in the cabin and get out with the boys & chat with people or help in the kitchen! It really helped me a ton to be able to camp with the four kids without Billy there.

The boys enjoyed playing in Dinkey creek, hopping rocks & throwing rocks, building dams and splashing in the water. We went up to polywog pond one day and the lake two days. They made friends with Sarah Young's boys and played together all week with them.

They also enjoyed craft time every morning after breakfast. They decorated signs with stickers and puff paint, beaded bracelets, necklaces and headbands & made a cute nature frame. They were super comfortable around camp & I felt that I didn't need to worry about them too much.
Leila did a great job up there, her first time camping. She slept through the night almost every night! The only weird thing that she did was throw up all her milk like a faucet each morning around breakfast time. I'm not sure if it was because she drank so much after sleeping thru the night and then couldn't handle it all... or maybe it was the altitude? It was a bummer each time she did it, but it didn't seem to bother her much and she was fine for the rest of the day.
There was an issue with mice this year.... it was really bad :( We caught one in the cabin the second night. Yuck.

It was a great week, with great friends, great food & beautiful scenery. I just love the high Sierras and I love Dinkey creek. We are already talking about going up next summer and tent camping above the store with some of the friends we made there. Hope it works out.