Hamilton Happenings

Jeff, Cortney, and Patrick came to visit this past weekend.  We love having them visit!  Can I just say, Jeff and Cortney are so helpful!  Seriously though, they do dishes without being asked, Jeff buys me Ben and Jerry's, they help with the kids, and they are fun to be around.   While they were visiting we took the kids to the Boise Zoo on Friday and boating with the Crawfords on Saturday.   Giraffes are awesome. Yes, Jeff pushed all four kids. The butterfly exhibit was my kids favorite! After the Zoo Channing got to go with Jeff and Cortney on the paddle boats. Channing loved trying to hit all the ducks with Cortney. Saturday was FULL of jumping in freezing water, swimming, wake boarding (or attempting to), wake surfing, tubing, falling out of the tube, pushing Jeff and Cortney in the water, having a picnic, catching gigantic grasshoppers, and Papa Murphey's pizza for dinner.  Yup, pretty fantastic day. ...

We are in full summer mode.  Channing is done with summer preschool and now our days are free and open.  I cannot believe that June is already coming to an end.  Having three kids keeps me more busy than I could have ever imagined.  But I love it!  Being home with these kiddos is such a blessing.  We are soaking up lots of sunshine these days.  Here's what we've been up to so far this summer: Bruneau Sand Dunes, free lunch at Tully Park, the Boise Zoo, boating, bike rides, and walks.  Bruneau Sand Dunes.  Channing climbed up and down the sand dunes with his friends so many times.  He was covered in sand.  Up his nose, in his ears, everywhere!  He loved it and totally crashed on the long drive home. I took Mckenzie to the park just her and I.  She's going to be 3 years old soon!  She's requested a butterfly cake.  And it has to be pink and purple.  I love how girly she is.  Is...

My kids are so lucky when it comes to their dad.  Justin is patient, loving, giving, caring, and a great example to them.  For Father's Day I had the kids help make a canvas painting with their handprints as the leaves of a tree.  Isaac's is the smeared handprint in the middle.  He did NOT want to open his hand to allow me to place it on the picture.  And he kept laughing as I put paint on his hand.   I love how the kids are all smiling the same way in this picture. This summer is going to fly by!  I love warm weather and letting the kids play outside.  Sunshine makes me happy! Yes, that is Mckenzie snuggling with Jett. I love the color of that sky! Jett, 6 months old. Here's are adorable 1 year old! Putting Channing's socks in the trash.... On June 4th Mckenzie's friend Evalie Henkel passed away.  Her funeral service was so amazing and beautiful.  Mckenzie of course was jealous of the tea set. ...

Isaac will be 1 year old in just 10 days!  He's adorable, significantly chubby, and hilarious.  I was induced a week before his due date.  Justin and I headed to the hospital in the morning for the induction.  My mom stayed at home with the kids until Joan got there.  Everything that day went well except that my epidural would not work!  Oh that was horrible.  I just remember thinking that this better start working because I do not want to feel this baby come out!  Isaac was born at 7:18pm weighing 8lbs 1oz and 22 inches long.  Healthy, perfect, and so cute.  I also remember that Isaac had the loudest and shrillest cry I'd every heard.  For a while he was not happy about being out in the real world.  Then for about the first 4 months of his life we struggled with his tongue tie problem.  We eventually got his tongue lasered but didn't see improvement right away.  Luckily my abundance of milk made up for his cons...

We've had Jett in our family for about 3 and a half months.  Seems longer actually!  It definitely adds a level of difficulty in my everyday life (Melissa talking here).  I try and go outside with him and the kids everyday to make sure he's behaving nicely and listening when they tell him "uh ah!"  Which means no.  And then there's the grooming, bathing, training, walking, playing fetch, feeding him, and putting him in his cage when he keeps sitting on Isaac. It's now our normal routine to have one of the kids let him out to go potty when we get home from running errands.  Or have one of the kids refill his food and water bowl.  It's also become routine to hear Channing saying, "Jett come! Come Jett!  Jett come!"  Over and over.  Channing knows he's not supposed to repeat the command over and over but instead say it once and then say, "uh ah" if Jett doesn't listen the first time.  For example, this morning it was, "Jett ...

For Ryan's 8th birthday we got him a coupon for a sleepover at the Hamilton Home.  I picked him up on Friday and headed to our house.  We enjoyed spending some extra time with this smart, kind, energetic, easily distracted nephew.  Here are some pictures I took.  The kids helped Justin make a great fire!  Hotdogs and fruit for dinner.  S'mores for dessert. I kept Isaac entertained with some leftover spaghetti and meatballs for his dinner.   We love being outside! Channing sure loves his hotdogs! Happy cousins! Aftermath of the speghetti and meatballs.  Do you see the hand print on his forehead? This is livin'! Ryan was very interested in catching his stick on fire. After dinner and dessert we went to see the baby ducks and played at the exercise park.  Ryan said, "This is the best sleepover ever!" Isaac was having a rough day with a cold and refusing to nurse.  But he was so happy to ...