Camping and Nature and Quiet.

We finally were able to take the camper out in the end of September.  We knew that we wanted to just go by ourselves, somewhere close, for just a day or two.  We didn't know how everything worked so we wanted to figure it all out.  Plus, we weren't quite sure how the girls would do with the sleeping and such.  It was a good idea...  We had a great time but it was definitely a learning curve.  We learned that Paige is going to take awhile to get used to sleeping in her pack and play.  Plus, no matter the size of the blanket you put down outside, Paige will just crawl to the edge and eat whatever she can find, rocks, leaves, sticks, dirt.  So we either held Paige outside or she crawled around inside the camper.  She liked crawling under the table and around on the beds.  She was good, but she got tired of it in the end.  Harper played around inside and out.  She liked playing on the beds and finding toys under the couch.  She went in and out alot which was hard with Paige being caged inside.  

We planned to leave after Cody got off work on Friday afternoon.  I had packed up the camper the day before with all the permanent supplies, bedding, etc.  However, it ended up taking us longer to pack the food and hook up the camper.  So by the time we got to Eisenhower State Park, it was already 6:30.  Harper was hungry, so I heated her dinner up in the microwave and Cody started the grill for our dinner.  Paige ended up going to bed late, after crying for a bit, and we finally ate dinner at like 8pm.  Everything just seemed to take us awhile.  But Harper loved every minute.  She liked the late dinner.  The dark night sky.  The billions of stars.  The huge campfire.  The little dinette bed that is hers.  Sleeping in the same room as all of us.  She had a magical night. 

So Paige went to sleep at 8, Harper went to sleep at 8:30, and we went to bed at 9.  It was a long day and we were tired.  Around 4am, Paige woke up.  She was confused and mad and was not going back to sleep.  She cried for an hour, until she finally woke Harper up.  I put Harper in bed with Cody and fed Paige a bottle thinking that would help.  It didn't, so I tried sleeping with her in Harper's bed.  That was a joke.  Eventually, Harper came back to bed, I rocked Paige to sleep, and we were all back alseep around 6am.  Paige then got up at 7am, so we went out and walked around the campgrounds.  Cody and Harper were able to sleep until about 8am, and then we all got up and had breakfast.  I had instant coffee, but it wasn't good enough.  We were tired.  We don't have an oven, so we had campfire biscuits and it was Harper's favorite new food.  Cody had to cook most of them since she isn't big enough to stand over the fire, and it took awhile, but it was still fun.  After breakfast, Paige finally took a nap and Cody and Harper rode bikes to the park.  When they got back, we decided to pack up and head out.  It had already been a long morning and we wanted to get home, nap, and watch the A&M game.  At the very end of the morning, as we were about to leave, the door accidentally got opened and Paige (who was leaning on it) fell face first out.  She slid face first down the stairs and tumbled onto her back.  It was pretty scary, she was screaming pretty good.  But in the end she was ok.  Lots of learning curves!  It was a great weekend and we are excited about all the fall camping we are going to do.

September

September.  Crazy month.  Not much sleep still.  Kids growing and eating everything in sight.  School, church, bible study, working out, camping, cleaning, etc.  There wasn't really a moment to just sit.  It was a whirlwind month.  We are pretty busy each week.  We have church on Sundays.  Gym, Gymnastics, and Bible Study on Mondays.  BSF on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Thursdays we do gym and hang out with Haddocks.  Which leaves Friday for playdates, grocery store, cleaning the house, library, etc.  It's a busy week!  It's been a struggle to get it all done, to make it all happen and enjoy it at the same time.  Two is definitely twice the work and twice the fun.  

Harper has had a few months of struggles.  She isn't sleeping well.  She has bad dreams or is scared of the dark or just wants someone to sleep with her.  It has been months of perpetual tiredness.  She has also started to act out a little.  She gets upset if she doesn't get her way and stomps or pouts.  She is tired of eating some of the same foods.  She is just growing up but not big enough to do everything on her own yet.  I'm sure it's hard!  She loves all her activities but it also makes her tired and grumpy.  It's a hard balance to find.  Paige has been waking up at 5am, which makes her super tired too.  Plus, it usually wakes Harper.  In general, it's a rough phase that we are learning to overcome.  Thankfully, even with all this junk, both girls are still smiley and happy and genuinely good girls.  We love them and are thankful when they can turn the day around and be happy.

Paige is into everything.  She loves to crawl, get up on her knees, or pull up to stand next to something. It was hard at the beginning of the month because she fell alot and it wasn't safe to leave her alone.  We had to watch her constantly or not let her down.  Harper was a great big sister and she was always looking out for her.  Sitting behind her or holding onto her so she won't fall.  It's been fun to see Paige do new tricks and to see how proud Harper is of her.  Having sisters is so much more fun!

We are still homeschooling Harper for preschool.  She has learned a different bible verse each week, which is probably more than me.  She is so precious saying them and I'm so proud.  She is also learning one story in the bible each week, and it's so interesting to hear her take or her insight on each one.  She always reminds me later in the week about the characteristic we are working on.  For example, kindness in the story of Cain and Able.  She tells me she would never hurt anyone, especially her sister.  She takes them so seriously!  She really likes writing, her numbers, letters, or words.  She loves to play with her math manipulatives and usually is a trooper doing stuff late in the day even if she is tired.  But her favorite part is science experiments.  She has only done "sink or float" and "primary colors v. secondary colors" but she thinks they are so cool.  I love her amazement at new things!  Her drawing has gotten so much better.  I was noticing the other day how she is really great at copying things.  She drew the book cover for "Olive the Other Reindeer" and it was so good!  She still loves to draw and probably does a few drawings or letters or cards a day.

These two are inseparable.  The minute Harper wakes up, she immediately goes to Paige to say good morning.  The minute Paige wakes up from nap, she immediately looks for Harper.  It's seriously the best feeling as a mom ever.  I asked Cody how in the world we raised Harper without a big sister to look out for her and take care of her.  Paige would crawl after Harper any day.   

Filling the nights is sometimes easy and sometimes hard.  We play outside, cook or grill dinner, take baths, go for walks, etc.  I'm sure Cody would like to just sit and relax after work, but that is never the case around here.  But when bedtime hits, we don't waste a second!  The evening walks have definitely helped when the nights are long.  And the amazing weather has been great for us to get outside right after school.  

Paige got to meet Lanie at our BSF playdate.  They were born 4 days apart (Paige came early).  Natalie and I worked out together through our entire pregnancy.  It's fun to finally see them together.  We also went out to the Piazza's lake cabin for dinner and the kids played while we chatted.  It's always fun and easy to go out there and relax.  Harper also finally got into Legos.  We dreaded it because of the millions of tiny pieces.  But it's actually been fun.  Harper and Cody have sat together for hours and put it together 

Happy Birthday Camilla!

Sweet Camilla turned 4!  She had a fun, outside, backyard water party all planned but it poured that morning.  So we headed to Batts Warehouse instead.  They had a huge Frozen bouncehouse that all the kids had a blast playing on.  There was also a small one for the babies that Paige liked crawling around on.  Harper and Camilla had a blast jumping all morning.  We had snacks and opened presents.  We had to leave early but we had a great time.  We ended up going back over there the next afternoon to hang out and play some more.  They still had the bouncehouse so we decided to take advantage of it.  We played for a few hours and then headed to Rosanna and Jeremy's for dinner.  It was a great afternoon to just sit and chat and catch up.  Harper and Camilla had a blast and played all day.  So glad these girls are such good friends!

The flu makes the rounds...

Well, flu season has already started and it's only September.  The stomach bug went around here and sadly it took out our entire family.  Cody had it Friday night and Saturday.  Paige got it Tuesday morning, Harper Tuesday afternoon, and I got it Tuesday night.  Thankfully, it really wasn't a bad one. It was 24 hours or less, so we were all better within two days.  And Cody and I never really got fully sick.  It was just a feeling of if I moved, I would get sick.  So I had to stay still for awhile.  Sadly, I got sick in the middle of the night but was still getting up with both girls.  It was awful!  At like 5am Wednesday, Paige woke up feeling better and wanted to play.  I told Cody there was no way I could take care of both girls all day and be sick, so he took off work and stayed home with us.  The sad part was that it happened the first week of BSF, so I had to miss meeting my group.  I felt so bad!  

Tuesday afternoon, we went ahead and took them to the doctor.  Paige just kept throwing up and I couldn't remember how long she could go without a bottle.  She drank her 9am bottle, threw up her 12 bottle and that was it for the day.  Poor kiddo, she was so hungry the next day.  Harper was about the same, barely ate breakfast or lunch and didn't really eat until lunch the next day.  Of course both girls threw up as we were getting into the car, in the doctor's office, and in the room.  Being so little, Paige would just fuss and then throw up all down her self.  It went everywhere.  Thankfully, Harper is big enough that she would tell us she didn't feel good and then throw up in the bowl.  She really didn't make any mess except when she threw up in bed in the middle of the night, and no one can blame her for that.  Wednesday was ok.  Cody helped with the girls and I laid around when they napped and played with them when there were up.  Thankfully, we were all feeling better by Thursday so I spent the day de-germing the house while the girls played.  I am hoping but not feeling optimistic that this flu season isn't horrible!

I will say, they were so good for each other.  They love each other so much.  Harper would just love on Paige when she got sick and would tell her how sorry she was and to feel better.  Makes a mama's heart feel better.

The Hempkins' go camping!

We have toyed around with the idea of buying a camper for almost a year now.  I grew up camping and loved it and Cody grew up taking tons of road trips.  My parents had a camper and we enjoyed going with them.  When Harper was 2, she asked to sleep in the tent instead of in the camper.  I agreed and it was a horrible night.  We ended up in the camper at 2am sleeping on the dinette withe Cody (there was definitely not enough room!).  So I told Cody I would not be camping again without a camper.  When my parents sold theirs, we decided we needed one of our own.  We bought Cody's truck this summer and started looking for a camper.  We kept going back and forth between a pop up, because it offers so much room for less money, and a travel trailer because it is less work and has all the amenities.  We finally found a hybrid travel trailer popup, which is perfect!  It is a Fleetwood Orbit Hybrid, 20 ft travel trailer with bed popouts.  It is a 2006 so it's a little older than Cody wanted.  He didn't want to buy something that would need lots of fixing.  But it's in great shape.  It was owned by people who took fabulous care of it and did a great job keeping the camper clean.  Plus, it was a great price, in budget and afforded tons of room inside.  It has a small kitchen, sink, fridge, stove, microwave.  A small bathroom with sink, toilet, full (skinny!) shower.  It has a dinette and couch that both turn into beds.  And both ends pop out into full beds.  So it can sleep 6-8 which is awesome!  Plus, it has a slide out so when the couch and dinette are pushed back, you have like 3 feet of space in the middle to just live.  We love it!  Harper is in love too.  She loved camper shopping and running in and out of all of them.  When we finally brought it home, she still begged to go camper shopping.  She likes that she gets to pick her bed and loves that we get to have dinner outside and make a campfire.  The 6th day that we had this, it rained and the camper leaked.  It was so frustrating because we were told it didn't leak.  Thankfully it was a quick fix and sellers were kind and helpful.  And now we are ready to go!