Canyon Lake Camping

The kids have been begging to go camping again and the weather has been nice enough lately that we made plans for a quick trip during spring break. Abe schedule didn't allow him to ask for any additional time off other than Friday so we just did a one night campout close by. But it was tons of fun and the kids were great. We couldn't have asked for better weather and it was early enough in the year that no bugs were out.

 Ethan giving his univeral "thumbs up".  In this instance I think it means "no really mom, its not too cold for swimming."  But on other occassions it means "no, that really didn't hurt has bad as it looked" or "I totally meant to do that" or "don't worry mom, this next trick of mine will end fine."

 The water was still pretty chilly even though it was in the 80's during the day.  The kids tried to swim but they mainly just played in the sand.

 The weather in the evening was perfect for hanging around the campfire and cooking some hotdogs.

 Ethan did have some doubts about Abe cooking his smores.  He can be quite dramatic when he wants to be.

The morning was a little chilly so Taylor decided to crawl back into bed.  Abe and Ethan just decided to get comfy in the chairs.  And yes it appears that Abe is a bigger wimp about being cold than Ethan is.

We braved the strong winds on the lake to do some canoeing.  It sure made for a good workout but I think I will stick to river canoeing.  Ethan can't wait until he is big enough to go out in the boat with Abe by himself.

Sometimes these two can be adorable together. It usually just last for a split second though. I love these two cute kids more than anything.

Our Newest Addition

I can't believe it has taken me so long to annouce this on the blog but we are thrilled to tell everyone that we are expecting Baby Fish #3 September 14th!  We had been hoping for this for a long time and were starting to have our doubts it would ever happen so we feel very blessed. 

Ethan and Taylor are so thrilled and are fun to listen to as they talk to the baby and make all sorts of plans on what they will teach it and what they will be responsible for.  I was going to post the video of when we told them about the baby but I have yet to get it off the iPad so it may never happen.  They weren't crazy excited in the video (not that Abe or myself get crazy excited on the outside about things either) but it was  pretty cute later that night when I saw Ethan smiling at me and I asked him what he was thinking about and he said "I just can't believe we are really having a baby."  We asked the kids to keep it a secret when we told them but poor Taylor just couldn't keep such a good secret to herself.  I think her preschool teacher and class were the first ones to find out then followed closely by her Sunday School teacher.  She did mention to her that it was a secret and she wasn't supposed to have told anyone.  And what a sweet Sunday School teacher who pretended not to know for weeks until Taylor told her it was no longer a secret.  Ethan on the other hand has decided that he won't tell any of his friends until we know if it is a boy or a girl.  He said "they are just going to want to know if it is a boy or a girl and I don't have an answer. I'll just wait until I know the answer and then tell them."  Completely logical, why waste time on unnecessary conversations Abe junior.  We do have an ultrasound scheduled for April 17th so we all can't wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl.

The first trimester is officially over and I am feeling really good.  It was definitely a hard first month with Abe out of town and me feeling under the weather all the time but we are now doing amazing.  Exciting times and we couldn't be more thrilled.

Valentine's Day

I guess I have once again gotten a little behind with the blog but we had such a fun Valentine's Day that I have to put the pictures in.  The kids remembered that last year I had made them a fun, heart shaped breakfast so the bar was set high.  This year Taylor had heart shaped french toast and Ethan had toast with an egg in the middle in a heart shape.  The kids were pleased and were surprised by the heart shaped sandwiches in their lunches.

The kids decided they wanted to make a dessert for their dad so we decided to do chocolate covered strawberries so they could do it "themselves".  We had a fun time and were pretty impressed with how good they turned out. 

We had a good laugh when later that afternoon a package was delivered for me from Abe and it contained chocolate covered strawberries.  Great minds think a like.  But we enjoyed them all.

Since Abe was working late that night and there was no chance of going out to dinner I decided to try my hand at making a steak for Abe, which is usually his favorite.  I am not one to cook red meat because I never seem to get it right but I gave it a try.  Ethan got lucky, since there were three pieces of meat in the filet mignon package and he got to be my guinea pig.  Yum, bacon wrapped steak.  Ethan was in heaven with his love of meat.  Taylor, my non-meat eater, even decided it looked good enough for a taste or two.

 

It was not a healthy dinner to say the least but I would have to say that mine was restaurant quality. 

Of course by the time I spent all evening putting this together and waiting until 8 to eat it I was exhausted.  So maybe going out is still the better option.

 



 Valentine's weekend was also when Ethan's school did their family sock hop.  Ethan had been looking forward to the dance for a long time and it was pretty cute to see all the kids playing and dancing together.  Ethan has the tough kid look down pat in this picture!