Fired Up 2012

Well, you completed your 2nd year of camp! It was your mommy's 6th year of directing the Sr High American Baptist Camp! You LOVED it! You really enjoyed all the attention you got from everyone! :) All the staff loved you and all the campers loved you too! By Wednesday evening though you sure did want your mommy.....if I was around you threw a fit until you were held by me. We're going to have to work on that seperation anxiety -- or better yet, when you're 16 remember how much you loved me and wanted me around all the time! ;)

So for our week at camp we stay on Ottawa University's campus. We do all the camp stuff - and we totally ruin your schedule! though, this year we did keep your nap time. Mimi comes to camp with us so she can hang out with you and I can do camp stuff when needed! :)

So here are a couple of photos I took of you during the week! :)

Audrey and David showed you how a microphone works! :) You LOVED it! which meant any time we were near a microphone you thought you needed to talk in to it! :)

Your Grandma got you this shirt just for camp: "Mommy's Personal Assistant" I love it!! :)

Ready to get camp started! :)

So the cafeteria didn't always offer food you liked. So we made sure we had yogurt and applesauce on hand. One night you decided you needed to bathe in the yogurt! Silly girl! Typically when you start to do this it's my sign that you are all done and I quickly stop you. However, I knew directly after dinner this night you were going to be taking a bath. So, I went ahead and let you do it -because you weren't causing any problems to anyone else! :) hehe -- you were seriously putting it on your head and rubbing it in like shampoo!

This is your friend Lexi. You had many friends at camp this year. Lexi P, Ashton V, Mazie V, Piper B, and Reese B. You loved all the babies that were around. It sure made for a fun and exciting camp with all the little ones!

Here you are playing outside during games time.

Your first time down the slip n' slide! We didn't go very fast. But mommy went later without you and they had just dumped a bunch of shampoo on it - and boy did I go fast!

There you are sharing your snack with Reese!

Mommy and Eliana at the dance! It was WAY past your bedtime but you were a trooper!!

I look forward to all the future years of camp that I get to share with you! You'll be a camp pro by the time you're old enough to actually go as a camper!

I love you sweetie!

Mommy

Biscuit Making

Making Biscuits for Biscuits and Gravy is a huge tradition in the Higginbotham household. So, of course our trip would not have been complete without making biscuits and gravy! :)

So your Grandpa started with Gabriel to make biscuits..

You and Natalia were NOT patient in waiting on him! :) we ended up getting the two of you your own bowl and spoon to play with :)

Natalia was next....

Then it was your turn! :)

This was your first REAL time to help make biscuits. You had watched your grandpa before but this was your first time helping. I love all your facial expressions - you were SO focused! :)

Of course you had to taste the dough! :)

Yay! This is the first of MANY biscuit making experiences!! :) :)

Love you!

Mommy

Iola Vacation

Well, we didn't want to travel with you too far this year - because you really aren't too big of a fan of your carseat! Plus ALL of the family was in Iola so we thought we would join! :) So we spent from June 27 to July 8 with Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, Auntie M, Uncle G, Jessica, Joseph, Naomi, Gabriel, Natalia, and Brian. Plus Aunt Glenna and Uncle Glenn were there for a little while, Uncle Benny and Katherine came for a bit, Great Grandma Sam was there, Great Grandpa and Marge came for a bit. Cousin Cindy, Jimmy, Dylan and Dalton stopped by. Aunt Rhonda came by. We were on Family Overload and it was fabulous! You had never met the Taylors: Jessica, Joseph, Natalia, and Gabe. They have been in living in Japan because Joseph is in the Marines. So their 3 years there has ended so they came for a long visit. The last time they were here you were in my belly, so you hadn't met them yet! :)

 Here are some of the things we enjoyed while we were there. (Warning, there are a lot of photos. I took over 800 photos while we were there!!)

We enjoyed skyping Taylor and Austin. They were in Texas and couldn't come visit.

We enjoyed walking down to Dairy Queen. We took up two blocks at one point.

We enjoyed eating our Dairy Queen :) Yum Ice Cream!

We enjoyed playing in the pool. You were so nice bringing your pool to Iola to share. It was 100 degrees or higher all week - so we tried to spend time otuside and in water!

We enjoyed holding hands as we played in the water! :)

We enjoyed playing with Water Guns!

We enjoyed playing with our Boo-Boo Buddies that Daddy got all of you kids!

We enjoyed walking down to the square to listen to the Community Band and eating free ice cream! :)

We didn't really enjoy all the boo-boos that happend. Gabe flew off his scooter and scratched up his face. You fell a lot and got many bruises and scrapes on your knees, you fell and hit your head a couple times. And Natalia got a HUGE goose-egg on her head when she fell.  

We did enjoy coloring together. And spending our day in our pajamas.

We enjoyed playing with Play-dough with Great Aunt Glenna and Great Uncle Glenn

We enjoyed cooling off by sitting in front of the fan :)

We enjoyed learning how to honk everyone's nose! :) Thanks Auntie Jess for teaching me that :)

We still enjoyed playing with water and water guns :)

We enjoyed sharing snacks

We enjoyed watching Murphy jump HIGH to eat bubbles :)

We enjoyed home-made ice cream! :)

We enjoyed looking on pinterest for some fourth of July ideas :)

We enjoyed playing golf

We enjoyed wearing matching outfits

We enjoyed visiting Great Grandma :)

We enjoyed getting dirty and then getting all clean again :)

We enjoyed cooking large meals for many people :)

We enjoyed eating popsicles together :)

We enjoyed taking many baths together! :)

We enjoyed Snuggling....many snuggles

 We enjoyed making glitter firework masterpieces! :)
It was very messy! A lot messier than I expected! :) But oh so much fun :)

We enjoyed playing games!

We enjoyed reading books and singing songs

We enjoyed making s'mores!
Tex enjoyed eating the s'more
Eliana enjoyed eating the rolos - the chocolate we put in them :)
And Natalia enjoyed taking a bite out of the marshmallow then putting it back in the bag....then taking a bite out of another, then putting it back :)

We enjoyed standing by the fire that we built in the 100 degree weather :)

We enjoyed pushing our baby strollers

We enjoyed hanging out and playing on Auntie Naomi's bed :)

 

 We enjoyed taking walks with :)

We enjoyed snuggling and taking naps :)

We enjoyed playing games on the IPAD

 We enjoyed pushing our stroller and wearing Aunt Naomi's heels!! :)

We enjoyed playing with water guns and hiding ready to get the others! :)

We enjoyed finger painting!!

We enjoyed just hanging out on the couch

We enjoyed wearing our matching OU outfits! :)

We enjoyed giving hugs!!! :)

We enjoyed wearing our matching outfits from Great Grandma :)

We enjoyed celebrating all the birthdays we had missed

Eliana = Bubble Cake
Natalia = Minnie Cake

Gabriel = Jake and the Neverland Pirates cake

We enjoyed getting to know our cousins and becoming best friends! :)

One thing I didn't get a picture of was the joy of you throwing up three days in a row! You poor thing. I'm pretty sure you were teething  and a bunch of your back teeth showed up - so I'm not sure if you were in so much pain that it made you throw up or what - but you acted pretty much fine after you would throw up. :( You also ended up with another ear infection. :(

I'm so thankful that I'm a teacher so I have the summer off! Glad we got to spend all our time with them! :)

Love you Little Girl,

Mommy :)