What can you do in one week?

After we went to Yellowstone Ryan rode home with his family and me and the girls stayed for a week with the Merrill family. I have not been able to go to IF as much as I would like when I have girls doing sports, and with a new baby it has made it hard to go anywhere. It was my moms birthday so I was really glad that I was able to stay that week and share her birthday with her. Monday evening Summer watched all the kids so my sister, my mom and I could go shopping and hang out together. We went to Target and then the mall and we looked around and figured out that Yard Sales have really ruined shopping for us.... why buy one item for 30 bucks when you can buy the same thing for 50 cents..... So we didn't really shop to to long. We went back and picked up the kids and took everyone out for my moms birthday dinner. I thought it was going to be nuts having 8 kids with us but they all acted very good and we had a nice time.
For my moms birthday I wanted to do some house work for her. She works very hard all day and I know that if I worked all day the last thing I would want to do when I got home would be cleaning. So I cleaned out the camper from top to bottom one day, then mopped her floors the next, then the next day I cleaned out her pantry. I pulled everything out and put it in the kitchen and I couldn't believe how much stuff you can fit in a pantry. But I put it all back in and got it all organized so I hope it is a little easier to find things. The rest of the cleaning was just trying to keep cleaning up after my own little family. We also were able to watch Mia and Ava this week and my girls had a ball with them. A couple of the day's Tessa came over and I couldn't believe how well her and Brytlee played together. They were so cute! But one of the days when my mom and I got busy talking and doing other things upstairs the little girls all started to play dress up. They would come up and show us how cute they looked and then go down and change again. There was a while that it was really quiet and before you knew it three little green goblins came up the stairs and said "BOO!!!" My mom and I about died. They had gotten into her stamp sets and taken the green ink out and rubbed it all over themselves. It wasn't that hard to get off of them and we were relieved that there was only a little spot on the carpet that ended up coming out.
Ava really wasn't bad, she just had a little on her arms and a little in her hair, but Tessa and Brytlee were covered.
cute little green goblins!
The girls had so much fun playing at my parents house. My parents have made their yard into a great playground and it is so fun for the kids to play on. (I wish I would have taken a picture of it) a while back they bought a marry-go-round and they set it up in the yard and then next to that is a teeter- toter then they put the tramp in the ground next to that and then a great little swing set next to that.
Not only do they have all of that but they have the four wheelers and the Rhino and the camper, and the pirate ship, and so many other fun things for the kids to do. My kids were in heaven. Their yard is great to with all the flowers and all the trees so it made it very easy for Elizabeth to catch this big butterfly.
The girls played with it for a while and then let it go so it could live.
One of the day's Annette, Cindy and I all took the kids to the Zoo. The kids were all so excited and had a blast. I had not been there in forever so I enjoyed going also. The penguins are always one of my favorite animals to watch. There was a cute little penguin that was a little showoff and kept going in circles and was fun to watch.

Elizabeth and Mia had so much fun together. They get along so well and love being together.
Adison was a good little girl while we were there. She was a little tired for a while but wasn't bad at all.
such a cute group of kids.
Check out this goats eye... weird
Elizabeth is hatching from a egg!
Oh and look at the two sleeping baby chicks
Now she wants to eat... cheep cheep cheep
Yea ha! Ride'em chicken girls

This was a really wild ride!
Alexis being eaten by the lions head!




We didn't ever get to see the otters... the kids were all wondering where they all went?
Giant Turttle
Cindy and Tessa with a cute little monkey
these were little spider monkeys that were so cool to watch. They were jumping all over the place and were so playful. One of the monkey's had a baby on its back but it was so tiny you couldn't even see it. You can't tell in the picture but the full size monkeys are not much bigger than my hand.
The girls love it when grandma reads to them. As you can tell all of the kids are very sleepy in this picture and a few times couldn't keep their eye's open.


My girls love being ready to and I just loved this picture. My mom can never get through this book (you are special) without crying a little and I love that about her. She has such a soft heart and is such a sweet, caring, thoughtful person. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful mom!
one of the nights the field was flooded to water the corn and so there was a lot of mud around. Their cousin Mike told them that they should throw mud balls at Tanner and all the other kids but I think Elizabeth just rubbed it all over herself instead.
Chris has a GREAT yard and they water the backyard by flooding it. So they invited us over to go play in the water.
They also have a beautiful pond that had warm water in it so the kids liked playing in that.


Tanner showing me his sweet baseball slide!

Cindy and Lizzy lou
I was able to color my momma's hair and so I said that she had crazy hair so Elizabeth didn't want her to feel bad so she ran inside and put her hair in some crazy piggy tails and came out to let her know she wasn't the only one.
I had such a great time and we did a lot more but I can't remember all of it. Mostly just hanging out with family and the girls getting some great play time in with their cousins. I always have a long list of people that I want to go see but for some reason time slips away so quick and before I know it it is time to go home.