Everything But The Kitchen Sink

So I have a ton of stuff to catch up on.
It's been a little strange around here lately. I've been feeling really out of sorts, to say the least. Just crappy. I can't even put my finger on a reason why. On top of that, Max has gone on a little vacation from us. He was getting so uptight. We have kids in the yard a lot playing and he is always on guard, watching over the babies and Olivia. He feels the need to protect them - every minute. He never relaxes. Even at night, when we're all in the house together, he gets nervous and paces when we go in different directions. He can't sit still until we're all together in one room and he can see us all. By the time the kids go to bed, he is exhausted. It's just so unfair. I felt like he was miserable all the time. In lieu of putting him on heavy duty meds, we sent him to spend some time with Eleasha, his former trainer and current love of his life, and Gunner, her Rottie, Max's boyfriend. She lives on a huge piece of land in PA. Max has the run of the place and hangs with the horses. I'm sure he thinks they're his long lost cousins. She sends me pictures, but I miss him so much and OG keeps asking when he's coming home. Sadly, I don't know and we're just taking it one day at a time. I took this the morning we dropped him off.

I thought it was about time Emma and Jake learned to use a spoon. It's going as expected - messy. I should have tried mashed potatoes instead of cottage cheese.

Yes, Jake is man enough to eat with a pink spoon.

Jersey corn is perfect this time of year and they LOVED it.

They decided to walk around and chew on it a little more, and slowly made their way to the kitchen and...

the little scoundrels left us a surprise in the letter drawer.

Olivia and the other kids from vacation bible school gave a performance on the last night. Emma couldn't help but get in the action. I have a video of it, which I will attempt to download later.

OG loved her space scooter. We gave it to her the morning of her party.

The party was fun. I didn't take a lot of pix, but I got this one, which is so sweet. Jake spent hours on my brother's lap.