Sean and Nicole's Wedding

Adam's brother, Sean, got married on Saturday to his beautiful fiancé, Nicole. Adam and the 3 oldest kids were in the wedding so we traveled to Brentwood on Friday for the rehearsal. We stayed at a local hotel that night and got up early to get ourselves ready. I had Jan snap our picture when we arrived at the gardens around 8:30am. I knew we'd be pretty busy for the rest of the morning!

The gardens had beautiful koi ponds and I was 99% sure one of my boys would fall in, but thankfully they didn't!

 Miss Jenna in her lace dress and cowgirl boots.

Here is Adam giving his little brother some final marriage advice. Or more likely, talking about that truck.

 The flower girls and ring bearers.

 Here are my boys with their cousin James.

 It was so good to see him!

 Andrew and I were buddies all morning, since the rest of the family was in the wedding.

 The best pic I could get of my 4.

3 out of 4 are smiling!

 Time for the ceremony. Lucas sign reads "Uncle Sean It's Too Late To Run Here She Comes!"

 The beautiful bride rolled in!

 The back of Lucas' sign says "Hurry Up! I Want Cake"

 The happy couple!!

Here comes Adam. I think the kids were a little confused when they saw him walking with another woman. Ha!

 And finally the kids.

 Afterwards a few more pics were taken and everyone relaxed a little.

They had a jump house at the wedding reception! There was a whole separate kid area where they could play and eat pizza.

They also had a special table of pictures of relatives who have passed away. Here is Adam's Dad in high school. The kids and I looked at these pictures for a long time and they loved seeing a picture of Grandpa Nullmeyer.

 And their Great Grandma and Grandpa Nullmeyer.

 And then Sean had a special dance with Grandma Jan.

Congratulations to Sean and Nicole! It was a beautiful wedding with the perfect mix of traditional and personal unique touches. (chucks and trucks!) We pray God would bless your marriage with a lifetime of love.

Jenna's 1st Stitch Fix

I am so excited to share Jenna's first Stitch Fix with you!!

Stitch Fix now offers styling for kids. When I heard about this I immediately signed up Jenna. In her profile I described her as being very drawn to girly things. (She loves pink!). But at the same time, she is ALL about comfort. She likes soft stretchy shorts and t-shirts, just like her big brothers. I let Stitch Fix know that she could use some new shorts as well as some items for the upcoming school year.

The box arrived today and it is so cute and colorful! The package included stickers and lots of creative ideas for what to do with the box. (Fake smile anyone?)

First look at her goodies. She received a style card with a special note from her stylist written directly to her. Jenna had so much fun opening up the box. Just like her Mommy, she felt like she had received a gift in the mail!

They sent so many items! I'm actually a little jealous that Jenna got 10 items. I want 10 items in my next fix! Haha. Jenna's fix contained 2 long-sleeve tees, 2 leggings, 2 short-sleeve tees, 3 shorts, 1 dress, and 1 pair of shoes.

Jenna tried on a couple outfits before she was done being a model.

This dress is so adorable! It is even lined, and I can see it being super stylish with a sweater and her cowboy boots in the Fall.

I must say, I am quite impressed with the prices for this kids' Fix. These shoes are definitely staying with Jenna, and for $16 they seem like good quality. I also plan on keeping the 2-pack of French terry knit shorts because they are cute, comfy, and a terrific price. Once my model is more willing I will have her try on a few more things before we decide what to keep and what to send back.

As with every Fix, shipping is free both ways. And the styling fee is applied to any purchase we make. Have your kids (or yourself) tried Stitch Fic yet? It is SO fun!

Last Night

I haven't done a day-in-the-life post in a while. I figured instead of doing that this time, I'd do a day-in-the-night!

To give a little background, Andrew has slept in our room since the day he was born. We don't have a designated room for him, and our master bedroom is quite large, so his crib has always been in there. Unfortunately he has never stayed in his crib all night...he starts out in there but always joins us in bed by around 10 or 11, after which he wakes frequently to nurse, kick, cry, play, punch, and try to roll off the bed.

Yesterday I said enough was enough. I need sleep. So I had Adam move his crib to Jenna's bedroom for some good old sleep training.

We first had to move some things out of Jenna's room and into the hallway. We left Jenna's toddler bed in her room, but made her sleep on the bottom bunk in the boys' room. Until I can get Andrew sleeping well in his crib, I don't want to put Jenna in there and have her sleep interrupted.

So Jenna was on the bottom bunk, Lucas on top, and Ryan downstairs in the guest room. Ok, here we go.

9:30pm - The last child is tucked into bed. For some reason Ryan has been staying up later and later this summer. Because he's downstairs, we allow him to keep his light on and read (yay for him reading!!), but I really need to start pushing his bedtime back.

9:45 - Andrew is awake screaming in his crib. Because this is his first night in his sister's room, I go up there to calm him down and nurse him back to sleep.

11:00 - I climb into bed after finally cleaning up downstairs and even reading my new book for a few minutes.

11:30 - Andrew is awake again. I feel like I JUST closed my eyes. I let him cry for a while and he even lays down and seems to be asleep. But then he's up crying again. I go in and get him back to sleep in his crib.

12:30 - Ryan is standing next to my bed asking for water. I give him some but then he is too afraid to go back downstairs. He wants to sleep in our bed. We are quickly running out of places to sleep! So I clear off the little couch in our room, find him a blanket and pillow, and tell him to sleep there.

1:00 - Jenna is standing next to our bed. She wants to sleep with us. I tell her no and escort her back to the boys' room. I turn on their turtle nightlight and hope for the best.

1:30 - I hear Andrew crying over the monitor. I decide he has done well enough for his first night, so I bring him into our bed.

2:00 - I'm up to use the potty. (darn keto diet has me drinking so much water!)

2:15 - Andrew didn't like having me leave him in bed to use the bathroom, so now he's wide awake.

3:00 - 6:00 - Glorious sleep! I get a solid 3 hours uninterrupted.

6:15 - Adam is up for work and Andrew is up again to nurse.

7:15 - I finally get up because by this time 3 of the 4 kids are awake and Adam needs to leave for work.

 This guy right here was the only one who stayed in his bed all night. Good job Lucas!

Sweet Nothings

Andrew is not a snuggly, sit-still kind of baby. He is constantly on the go. Throwing toys, emptying drawers and cabinets, hitting his siblings, climbing on the table...you get the idea. He tends to only come to me for his basic needs to be met. To be nursed, or held if he's upset. Otherwise he wants to be down playing and exploring.

The other day he was upset over something and I was trying to snuggle him and calm him down. He started smacking me, to which I gave him a firm NO and put him down. We have been working hard to teach him to be gentle, but it's tough when you have some wild older siblings to model! Anyways, on this particular day he continued to fuss and cry. I ended up leaning over and whispering in his ear.

Now, when I whisper in my other kids' ears, it just tickles them and makes them screech. But Andrew quite literally melted into me. I picked him up, he put his head on my shoulder, and listened as I whispered sweet nothings (or nonsense) into his ear. When I tried to stop, he grabbed my face and pushed it back to his ear.

I have figured out how to turn him into a cuddly calm little boy! If only for a moment.

Bear Valley Vacation

Last week we went to the Bear Valley area for 4 days and 3 nights for our summer vacation! We rented a cabin in the town of Dorrington, just a couple streets over from where I went with my family as a young teenager, as well as where Adam and I went with friends about 15 years ago.

On Monday we stopped halfway for lunch in Angel's Camp. We ate a quick lunch at Rodz Grill, during which Jenna stared out the window and refused to eat...

 And Andrew threw silverware.

We arrived in Dorrington late in the afternoon and got the first glimpse of our cabin. From the outside it didn't look like much.

 But the inside was so nice!! The entire cabin was decorated in red white and blue Americana décor, with a cute cabin feeling from all the wood. It was very clean and updated and just perfect for us.

We unpacked the car and went for a little walk to explore the area. Those pinecones!

We went into town for dinner at Snowshoe Brewing Co and had a delicious meal. While we were eating we noticed another family with 4 young kids. Their 2-year-old boy was being really loud and at one point their parents said loud enough for us to hear "See those kids over there behaving so well and eating quietly? Why can't you be like them?" Adam and I were both like What? Our Kids? It sure was a nice compliment to receive!

After dinner we went to the grocery store to get a couple days' worth of groceries. Back at the cabin we played Go Fish before calling it a night. Unfortunately Jenna was getting sick that day, and we had a rough night of croupy coughing with her. I was worried about her (plus it's always hard sleeping in a new place), so I only got about 2-3 hours of sleep.

Tuesday morning we did some bear hunting from our window. We talked about bears a lot during our trip, and I think the kids were half scared/half excited to spot a bear. Unfortunately (fortunately?) we never saw one!

You know Jenna isn't feeling well when she won't eat her eggies for breakfast.

After breakfast and some video-game playing, we packed lunches in our cooler and set off to find Snowshoe Lake. When we arrived I wasn't sure we were going to stay. The water looked a bit murky and there were lots of fish in the lake.

The lake was completely deserted so we figured we would at least have a little picnic lunch since we were there.

And then this happened. These boys spent almost 2 hours trying to catch fish in their sand pails. They never caught one but they had so much fun trying!! Ryan was better at it because he was quieter. Lucas would charge at the fish in typical Lucas-style.

I even got to wade into the water because of this. See Andrew on the blanket up on the sand? He stayed there almost the entire 3+ hours we were there! For some reason he was kind of afraid of the sand, so he just stayed put on the blanket. Can't say I was upset about it!

Let me just say....staying in a house that isn't toddler-proofed with a curious 16-month old monkey is downright exhausting.

 Awwww!

 It was a really nice day at the lake!

After we left the lake Adam and I were feeling a bit tired after being up most of the night. So we stopped at a coffee place in Arnold for a little pick-me-up. Jenna fell asleep in the car so I took the boys inside and let them pick out treats.

 And Adam and I got coffee that was basically dessert in a cup.

Back at home we attempted to play Monopoly but I had to quit early due to the aforementioned 16-month old who wouldn't stop climbing on everything. I cooked us spaghetti for dinner and we played more Go Fish and ate more candy.

Wednesday was a full and fun day!

 We headed to Calaveras Big Trees State Park mid-morning and walked the 1.7-mile trail.

 Can you even believe they are standing on a tree stump??

 Andrew really wanted to get out and walk but we didn't let him. Mean parents.

 Adam was our tour guide and he read about each special tree that we passed.

 These trees were amazing!

 So many of them were damaged by fires.

I'm pretty sure I have a picture of myself, my sister and my friends posing on this exact bench over 20 years ago.

 So sweet!

I kept telling the kids there would be a tree that we could walk through, because I remember doing that as a teenager.

 Unfortunately that tree fell over last year, so we didn't get to walk through a tree.

Inside the visitor center we posed with a bear and learned about all the animals that are local to the area. I personally think Lucas is doing the best bear impression here.

We went back to our cabin for lunch and an outfit change before heading to the Big Trees Village Rec Center.

 We were ready to swim!

It was exactly as I remembered it from the 90's. Old-school games like this pinball-style baseball game, ping-pong, and air hockey. We let the kids buy 7Ups from the snack shack and we swam for a couple hours.

 Good old-fashioned fun!

We were pretty pooped after our full day, so we went into town for a quick Mexican dinner. The boys' side of the table.....

 And the girls' side!

I must mention.....as we were finishing up our meal the couple sitting at the table next to us got up to leave. They patted me on the shoulder and said we should be proud of how well-mannered and quiet our kids were. Adam and I just had to thank them and laugh silently. If only they knew! But seriously, it was so nice to hear that from strangers. Our kids really were great on this trip. (Except you Andrew. You were nuts!)

Thursday was our last day in Bear Valley. We were up early, looking for bears from our back deck.

 We cooked breakfast, packed up all our belongings, and Andrew bid farewell to his bear friend.

We stopped for lunch in the town of Murphy's. By this point it was close to noon and Ryan had not eaten breakfast. He ate a few chips in the car, but I think the combination of an empty stomach and windy roads was just too much for him. Right after we parked our car to walk to lunch, he jumped out of the car and threw up. Wouldn't be a vacation without a couple of sick kids I guess.

Adam stayed in the car with Ryan and Jenna while I walked across the street with the other boys to get lunch to-go. We picked up food from a place called Firewood that ended up being really good!!

And as we left the town of Murphys I had to stop to take a picture of the stop sign. And then we introduced our kids to the music of MC Hammer on the drive home.

Besides the various sicknesses and the tiring toddler antics, this really was a fantastic vacation! Our cabin was nice, the weather was great, and there were just enough activities to keep us busy without it feeling rushed or overly touristy. The kids had fun and really made us proud with their good behavior. Until next time Bear Valley!