Top 10 Things we learned...

(our view of Lake Allatoona when we woke up)

While tent camping at a campground with 4 kiddos...

1.  Always pack ONE outfit over what you think you will need, kiddos attract dirt and mud and nasty stuff.

2.  Know where your "facilities" are and make sure you camp within walking distance, port-a-potties are scary and smelly places and my kiddos would NOT step foot in them!

3.  Rubber boots are totally awesome and a lifesaver, I could have used a pair!

4.  Always have a tarp or mat at the entrance of your tent, for shoes...remember the princess and the pea?!

5.  Plan simple meals, especially for breakfast, everyone wakes up hungry and wants to eat NOW!

6.  Extra long sticks for Marshmellows.

7.  A small broom and dustpan for your tent works amazingly well for those times they "forgot" to take off their shoes before getting into the tent, or remembered to take their shoes off then walked around outside in their socks then got back in the tent :)

8.  Footie pajamas work great, especially coupled with rubber boots!

9.  An extra blanket is always a good idea.

10.  No matter what, remember to pack patience and the ability to go with the flow...I freaked a few times: when Jack got stuck in the mud, when I ran out of wipes, when the kiddos got in the tent with their muddy boots on and when we had to load up the burb at 5am to drive to the bathhouse, etc! Jody kept reminding me "We're camping Sarah, this is an adventure!"

And here's a BONUS, FREE without charge...don't expect kiddos to stay in their own sleeping bags or sleep much!!!

These of course are things we learned while camping with our kiddos, some things we already knew or things we figured out once we got there!  

Do you have any tips for camping or camping with kiddos?

First Family Camping Trip

We finally were able to take a camping trip a few weekends ago with out friends The Millers!!!  I was trying to think back at how long we've know the Miller's, and I believe it's been about 5 years?!  We went to Allatoona Lake, Allatoona Landing campground...which is only about 15 minutes away from our house and tent camped.  I wasn't thrilled about going, but everyone else was!  

We had a great time and the kiddos had a blast, our site was right off the lake and so pretty to wake up to :) 

Gathering fire wood with Mrs. Erin...

Our "camp"...

Both tents & our camp...

Jack having fun by the water...he did NOT like to get dirty!

Kiddos playing football with Mrs. Erin & Mr. Eric...

Jack & Daddy down by the water...

Silly Anna, she LOVED to get dirty :)

Not sure why Lizzy had this pose, but I took the most pictures of her and in each one she has the same pose & face?!

Emma stopping for a minute to pose for the camera!

Our family camping shot...

Eric, Erin, Jody & myself

We did end up have a great time camping, much to my surprise!  We had a few hiccups and learned some tricks camping with the kiddos for our next trip :)
What about you, any funny camping trip stories?  Do you enjoy camping?

Wordless Wednesday...I LOVE yogurt :)

What in the world?!

So apparently I have used up all my free storage I get for my blog!  I have purchased more space, but it will take a few days to get to my site!  So until then it will be just words :(  I know no funny pictures!!!  

We've been super busy lately with things going on at the church, Emma's school and Jody is almost finished with his first 2 classes at Liberty!!! But busy is good!  

My garage door is fixed, yippee, my Dad and Jody were able to fix it this weekend :)  Our 2-car garage is all cleaned out, the storage room at the back of the garage is cleaned out (it is a large room), the basement is cleaned out as well as the 1-car garage and storage room on the other side of the basement!!!  I've been in this cleaning mood lately and it feels so good to have all these things done and out of the way!  I even have a large neatly stacked and organized "pile" of yard sale items...can't wait to get that out of the storage room in the basement garage!  

Oh and I almost forgot I got all 4 kiddos summer clothes out and sorted through and their winter clothes put away in their drawers and closets...what a large task, but so thankful that it is done.  If only this weather would stay cooler, it was almost 80 here yesterday and it's supposed to be mid 70's for the rest of the week, good thing we can roll up sleeves and roll up pants!!!  I also want to give a shout out to all the families that have given us hand-me-downs over the past few years, what a blessing looking at the girls drawers and seeing them full of clothes!  I'm looking forward to consigning all of Jack's things in the spring, I've never done it and with him being our only boy he gets new things, by the time he's done with them they are still in great shape, ready to be used by someone else!  

Have any of you gotten into "fall cleaning"?

Starbucks!!!

A few weeks ago I had to do some errands in the evening and I took Emma with me for some hang-out time!  We ran to Michael's, had fun browsing the aisles without interruptions with "I have to go potty" or "can we buy that" or "I want to push the cart"!  On our way home we stopped at Starbucks for some hot chocolate (kids is only $1) and Emma and I each picked out a special treat!!!

Emma's treat: pumpkin spice scone...

My treat: pumpkin spice muffin :)

We tried to take out own picture and as you can see they didn't turn out all that well :/

We had a fun evening, just hanging out, Emma & Mommy!!!    

Fall Festival

We enjoyed so much this year's fall festival a few weeks ago!  Between Jody & I there were a lot of pictures, here's a link to all those I posted on facebook!  It's a ton easier uploading from the Mac to Facebook then each individual picture to Blogger!

Car Mechanic Jack

Always willing to help Daddy fix the car :)

Wordless Wednesday...Someone forgot the paint!

5th Birthday Pictures :)

She decided at 7:30pm the day before her birthday she wanted a butterfly cake instead of brownies!  So luckily I had a cake mix & frosting to whip this up really quick, definitely not my best work, but she liked it!

Singing to the birthday girl...

Blowing out her #5 birthday candle :)

Jack enjoying the cake...

Anna enjoying her cake...

The kiddos & Daddy

The Livingston Ladies...

And silly faces!  

Anna had a great birthday, a little different this year not spending it with our big family!  

Bedtime, Books & Brownies

One evening about 2 weeks ago Emma's school had Bedtime, Books & Brownies...just like the name, kiddos dressed in their pajamas, there was a book swap, book fair and book reading (by volunteers in the community)!  There were also Brownies and Hot Chocolate but since we waited for Daddy to come with us we missed the food :(  Each grade had a separate classroom, age appropriate book and siblings were welcome!  

The kiddos had a great time and we had a great evening spent at Emma's school :)  Jack even enjoyed the book reading time, and went crazy when we got to a book that had a train in it, "Train" is all we heard for about 5 minutes afterward!  He even tried to attack the book reader (which happened to be the principal) when he saw the train, he ended up in Jody's lap, but he enjoyed being their with his sisters!!!

Donating

I had the opportunity to give blood on Tuesday at our church's blood drive through The American Red Cross.  Donating blood is something I have done often in the past (while in college & while I worked at the YMCA).  My blood type is O (positive) which is a universal blood type and can be used by many people.  

There are 4 steps to blood donation:

1. Registration & medical history (to ensure blood is healthy to give to others)

2. Mini-physical (check Iron levels, take temperature, & blood pressure-to ensure you are healthy to give blood)

3. Donation (takes about 10-15 minutes) & you even get to relax in a chair!

4. Refreshments (juice & cookies).  Click here for facts about blood donation.

After my second pregnancy ended in miscarriage I ended up in the Emergency Room because of the amount of blood lost within a certain time frame.  Even after the ER gave me shots to help my uterus contract I was still bleeding heavily and ended up with an emergency D & C.  At that time I had lost so much blood they had me sign consent forms and prepped me for the very real chance of a blood transfusion, pretty scary.  Fortunately for me once they got in and performed the surgery they realized I did not need a blood transfusion after all!  It made me realize  really how easy it was for me to donate and help others who may have been in the same situation or just needing a donation.  I haven't been able to donate since then because I was either pregnant or had just given birth!


The kiddos were of course asking a lot of questions, "why do you need to get your blood out"-Lizzy.  Emma asked why I was giving my blood to someone else and not keeping it for me?!  It gave me a chance to explain that this was something small I could do to help someone else, someone I didn't even know!   People get into car accidents or have surgery and may need help from someone else (blood donation) to help fix them.  They all asked if they had to be there with me or if they had to watch, so funny!  Jody doesn't like needles either so they got to go with Daddy for a little while during the donation.  

Check out The American Red Cross's website to see if you are able to give blood and if so where you can do so.  Your body replaces the donated blood within a few weeks and you are able to donate again in 56 days!  You can also help people with certain types of cancer, leukemia and many other health problems by donating not only blood but platelets and plasma!   Donating blood does take a little bit of your time, but what I was able to donate (3 pints) can be used to help 3 people!  This is an easy way to help others and I encourage you all to do so!!!

Wordless Wednesday...All dressed up for church :)

Anna Banana

Happy 5th Birthday to our Second Precious Daughter!!!  

Anna Virginia Livingston surprised us 5 years ago by coming 3 weeks and 1 day early and has been loving life ever since :)

October 12, 2005 @ 7:52am

7lb 1oz & 20 1/2 inches long  

1st Birthday...

2nd Birthday...

3rd Birthday...

4th Birthday...

And today...

Happy FIFTH Birthday Baby Girl, we love you so much and can't wait to see where life brings our easy going but knows what she wants girl!

Do you have any funny Anna stories to share?

Monday-Monday

Jody's goal this weekend was to fix the brakes on his VW, I don't know much about cars but that you press the pedal and somehow the cars stops!  They needed to be adjusted and he needed some time to work on them, he had planned this weekend since last weekend.  But alas, on Wednesday on our way back from the chiropractor (to drop Jody off at work) I noticed a weird smell, when we stopped smoke was coming out from underneath the hood of the burb, Jody noticed the temp gage rising, awesome.  Luckily everything here is fairly close to our house, only 4 miles from our house to the church, even closer for grocery stores and Emma's school and the chiropractor :)  Jody checked the coolant and it was very low, we had stopped at WalMart to take a look & he was able to run in and grab a bottle of coolant.  I dropped him off at work and off we went home.  We went to church that evening, nothing, got home with no other problems.  Jody was not convinced however that smoke was normal, it was coming from somewhere and adding coolant shouldn't have fixed that problem!  We woke up Thursday to a large puddle of coolant underneath the burb, Jody told me not to drive it until he could investigate it more on Friday (his day off).  Friday came and he noticed (after he drove it around a bit) that there was again smoke & underneath the car (fenders) was wet.  After checking some things he discovered it was the water pump.  Now, the water pump "went out" in my van a few years ago and it looked like a huge water balloon had exploded underneath the car, not a pretty site, so off to Advance Auto to buy a new water pump.  Luckily they aren't expensive, he just had to purchase a few tools (at a few different auto parts stores) to make the job easier.  Long story short he finally was able to get the old water pump in by Friday evening, woo-hoo!  So thankful for a husband who can fix things :)

Saturday some friends from church dropped their girls off (ages 12 & 8) to play for the day before our fall festival at church that evening.  As we were leaving the garage to run errands, the manual garage door opener (string hanging from garage door) got shut in one of the burbs doors and unfortunately I didn't notice until I was backing up, you guessed it, WHAM, right on the burb.  To make matters worse I was parked at an angle, as I started backing up I pulled the garage door off the track and the door started free-falling, add the backward motion of me in the burb, I caught the bottom of the door.  Basically I bent the entire bottom 15ft metal piece so the door won't go on the track, and I made a hole in the garage door!  We found out a new door is very expensive, just under $3000!!!  Wowza, so hopefully Jody can unbend the bent metal and glue/clamp/metal brace the rest!  Jody spent the rest of the morning/afternoon trying to figure out how to fix the garage door while I went running errands with the kiddos.  The burb did fine (new water pump), but as we were pulling into the church for the fall festival (with 6 kids in tow) and both Jody and I were volunteering (different times) we noticed smoke again, Jody was not a happy person!  Once again the fenders were wet, yikes!  Jody is still not sure where the "leak" (he believes it really is a leak) is coming from-he had borrowed a pressure kit that was supposed to find any leaks or broken hoses and everything came back fine so he thought it was the water pump!

All in all it was an eventful weekend, Jody was NOT able to fix his VW, the burb is still not "right" and I broke the garage door!  But we DID have a great time at the Fall Festival and the girls had a great time Saturday with friends PLUS everyone had a great story to tell Sunday at church of how I "smashed" into the garage door :)  

Now that is Living Life Livingston Style!!!  

What did you do this weekend?

Jack the un-talker Livingston

Jack doesn't talk.  He is 21 months and the extent of his vocabulary is single words "mama", "dada", "emma", "anna", "zizzy", "train", "yes", "no", "yay", "bye-bye", "bath", etc.  Majority of the time he makes a series of noises, grunts and sounds then points and one of the sisters (and admittedly me) quickly retrieves it for him.  Or he'll grab ones hand and pull them to what he wants and does the same makes noises, grunts and sounds until you figure out what he wants!  What's funny is my youngest brother Josh had this same "speech" problem, after my parents took him to his pediatrician they figure out the culprit, myself and my brother Matt!  I'm realizing now that Jack is in the same situation.  He can say a lot of words, but chooses not to use them unless we make him.  He does know sign language, picked it up fairly quickly and before any of the girls did.

  

So today I've resolved to teach him more signs to communicate in hopes that me saying over and over the word with the sign language he'll pick it up!  Right now he knows the basics.  As a Mom I am super frustrated!!!  By age 2 Anna was talking in complete sentences and was potty trained, but the girl didn't start walking until she was almost 16 months old, I guess I just figured Jack was on the same track since he didn't start walking until he was 13 months old!  I am now seeing the differences in a boy and definitely in each child!  I know the only way he will get better at "communicating" with us is for me (because I'm home with him all day) and the girls to make him talk!  I'm not worried at all that this is a hearing or learning problem, he seems to pick up everything else very quickly :) it's a matter of wills :/  

Any suggestions from Moms out there whose toddlers won't or don't talk?  Any help on this matter would make this Mama happy to try!!!