Let the Summer Fun Finally Begin

This year, much to our dismay, has been another year where summer was slow to arrive. Now that it is finally hear, however, we spend many days outside enjoying our mini backyard. We play in the sandbox and tromp around on our sprinkler mat.

 

Phoebe now suggests almost every day that we have a picnic for one or two of our meals, which we usually do at lease once a day.

One activity that always kicks off the summer is the annual Fergy clan pics. This year, as you can tell by the pics, our chosen color was orange. I have yet to see the real pics, these were just ones I took with my camera, but I am hoping we got some cuter pics of our family this year.

I am thrilled that summer has finally arrived 'cuse mommy our home can't take too much more of the mess the typhoon trio leave in their wake.

 

The Swing & Other Baby Things

The twins LOVED their baby swing they were sad when we finally packed it up about 9 mos ago. Well, much to their relief we finally put it back up for Sophie, however, she rarely gets to be the one occupying it.

Every once in a while she gets to swing, but I don't thinks she loves it nearly as much as her older siblings.

The swing isn't the only baby item they have hijacked, the twins also love the baby bouncer and Cami can be found taking short cat naps in it often.

Even though the twiners LOVE Sophie's bouncer, she still gets to occupy it quite a bit, however, the batteries are constantly dying in it because 19 mo old little fingers like to turn on the sounds and vibrations every chance they get.

Let's hope for Sophie's sake she isn't going to be as slight as Phoebe, or she is never going to be able to stake claims from her bigger siblings on any of her things.

Old Spirit at Heart

Phoebe has always loved old people. She goes to pretty anyone who has white hair and adopts them as her grandparents. One example of this was at our ward activity a couple weeks ago, when we sat down to have dinner Phoebe refused to eat with us she instead wanted to sit at the only table of all 70+ yr olds, unfortunately, we are missing her beloved Grandpa Green in this picture, he had momentarily gotten up. She has no problem bridging the 70+ yr gap between her and the rest of the table with her conversation topics of what she did that day. 

The Chicken Farm OR Memorial Day Celebration

This year in celebration we went to the Madsen's home or as Phoebe calls it "The Chicken Farm". We got there right in time to enjoy great Einstein bagels and Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast after some of the family ran a 5K that morning and from what I heard drenched & froze their cans off.  After breakfast we all sat around and some watched movies and relaxed while others chatted.  When it finally stopped raining, however, all the kids were really eager to go see the new chickens that they had.  Cami and Josh didn't have any fears for the chickens, while Phoebe was a bit apprehensive of them.

 

The chickens could only be visited for a little bit, due to the poor weather again. While back inside Sophie continued to sleep as she had done the WHOLE time we were there, but this time she found grandpa as a great sleeping companion. Cami, who won the most cry baby award for that day, could only be made happy  as long as the chip bowl stayed within her reach. We did had to move it eventually much to her dismay when she began taking a bit out of several different chips then returning to the bowl.

After our delicious BBQ feast the weather perked up a bit again and it was back outside of all the wee ones.  Phoebe loved plying on the swings with her cousin Zack, while Josh and Cami couldn't get enough of the slide! 

Since it is impossible to be near the chickens and not play with the chickens, Uncle Alan let the kids once again get the poor traumatized chickens out for the kids to chase and hold.  This time Phoebe fully embraced her little chicken and did NOT to put it down or let anyone else even touch it.

She was really sad when it was eventually time for us to head home. She loved visiting with all of her cousins at the Chicken Farm. Luckily cousin Emma, without asking her mom, invited Phoebe back for a marathon 5 day sleepover so when we did eventually make it in the van everyone was happy again and very eager to go back and visit the chickens soon.

Misc Fergy Findings

The weather here can't make up it's mind if it is winter or summer still so we have had to enjoy the couple of days of sun when we get them. We have gotten to enjoy outdoor picnics and LOTS, LOTS of time in our tiny sand box.

When the weather is colder we have had to make our own fun indoors with treats, movies, and just pain silliness.  Cami and Josh love playing with Phoebe's headbands toys and markers, which leads to a few strifes between them, but family doesn't have those. 

We have also gotten to enjoy lots of warm yummy cookies when we eat all of our dinner. This is due to a new SLC discover, The Cookie Tree.  This is a cookie factory that sells their seconds of frozen cookie dough really cheaply & they are so delicious I may never have to make my own substandard cookies ever again!

Lastly, if you have visited our house lately you might have noticed that all of the kitchen table chairs are always laying down.  This is not done just because they were knocked down and never picked up, it is because our 1 yr old twiners are avid climber and often use the chairs to climb up and stand on the kitchen table. It was only a matter of time until our climbers then figured out how to climb all the way up on the top bunk bed.

 Unfortunately, Josh figured out how to climb up the ladder, but could not figure out the climbing down concept.  Last week we heard a couple of loud thunks and then lots of crying, it didn't take long to figure out what was happening.  Phoebe, in an effort to prevent Josh from climbing up her ladder was pulling Josh off her ladder by pulling him down by his legs.  After a talking to her about lettering us take care of Josh and us having to come in and take Josh down 6x in 30 minutes we decided it was time to have 2 twins bed and not a bunk bed.  This unfortunately has made their room really crowded, but it is better than stitches or a broken leg by falling off the bunk.

Cory's Date Night

May's date night was one of Cory's four date months and he came up with the theme of European Romance. We tried to keep this month simple because we didn't know how it would work with a new babe. Cory made a GREAT date night, even if we did end up having a date crasher in tow. We put most of the kids to bed then got Cory's Easter Bunny movie The Tourist and watched it  while enjoying yummy European treats: Sparkling cider, grapes, Baby Belle cheese, french bread with oil & vinegar, & Swiss chocolates. This date night was a lot of fun, even if both of us fell asleep on the couch long before the movie ended.

Adjusting to the Fergy Six

We are slowly all getting use to life as the Fergy six.  The twins are mostly just filled with curiosity and love for their new baby sister.  They are often found peering into her crib for peeks at her and giving 9 thousand little kisses  to her a day.

Even though it is mostly Mommy and Daddy getting up for the middle of the night feedings, the kids have taken on some sympathy tiredness for us. They are all energy one minute and sound asleep on the floor, bed or wherever the next. We even got word that Josh fell asleep in nursery for 20 minutes last Sunday. Poor kids are having a rough adjustment from two to one nap a day.

Phoebe has become quiet the little helper and mini mom for baby Sophie. She constantly asks to hold and feed baby Sophie & tells me when she is crying (as if I didn't already know). She also is really adamant about everyone calling her BABY Sophie and not just Sophie for some reason.

Besides a bit of sleepiness we are all doing well here in the Fergy house with our newest Baby Sophie.

Pseudo Mother's Day

This year for mother's day I made my mom this picture with photos that Cory's twin Dave's girlfriend Michelle took. Cory so kindly then Photoshopped all the pics together in a 16x20 size which we cut down to fit an 8x20 picture frame we found.  It turned out really nicely and I wish I had a picture of the final product but, I forgot to take one.

As I blogged before and mentioned I was still the hospital on actual Mother's Day, but in hopes to have a more enjoyble mother's day celebration, we chose to postpone Mother's Day for a week. This was great because the I got to have all the great celebration traditions like sleep-in (if only for 20 extra mins) and pick my own yummy breakfast, etc. For my gift the family got me a cookbook that I had been loudly hinting that I would like.

This is a cookbook accumulation of all the recipes found on one of my most favorite cooking blogs, Our Best Bites. Now I don't have to use all my ink & paper printing out all her recipes and tutorials!  Tonight I am making my first meal out of this cookbook, yummy French Dip Sandwiches 

For the rest of Mother's Day I just got to relax, nap, & enjoy myself.  I didn't even have to think about dinner because our wonderful church brought us dinner.  Overall, it was a pretty great day, with hopefully many more delicious meals in our future, thanks family!