Little Miss Emerie Belle loves to do many things by herself. Eating is one of them. for the past few months she refuses to let us feed her because she likes to do it. she has gotten a lot better at it now however mealtime can be very messy for all involved! 
Emerie gets to sport a new hair do on occasion these days (if I can get her to sit still for a moment). She looks so cute and grown up in her piggy tails. She is such a sweet girl. They other day when Jake was leaving to work she said, "Bye daddy, I love you!" She has said bye daddy before but that was the first time she said I love you, it just melted my heart!
Madison loves water, especially water and mud! She helps us water the plants and it isn't long before everyone is wet and Madison is muddy. There's nothing like sinking your toes in some gooey squishy mud!
Madison loves to dress up. Whenever we have friends over to play it isn't long before I get to see some very cute imaginations at work. One of Madison's friends, Ethan, was determined to turn Madison's princess dress ups into a prince outfit. He did a very good job and Madison was happy to ride alongside him on her horse. Another day when he came over in his Spiderman outfit and Snowwhite and Spiderman were able to go to the park in style! Such cute friends and so much fun!
Jake and I love to camp. This summer we tried to convince the girls that they like to camp too. In the end I think we succeeded however a few times I almost changed my mind about liking camping. Camping with kids is a whole new experience. Last year we did it once and it went so well we thought we would have an easy time this year.
So, our first attempt was the weekend after getting back from Utah. I think that is where we went wrong. The girls were still off schedule and it was still really hot and humid. Things were great and we had a lot of fun until it was time to get the girls to sleep. Madison and Emerie kept waking each other up and it wasn't until at least 2:30 that we were able to convince Madison that sleeping was a good idea. And... we felt so refreshed to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to the sounds of chirping birds (especially the one that sounded like a car alarm ;).
We were all very tired that next morning and packed up pretty quickly before the girls (and Jake) had too many meltdowns. The picture of Madison cheesing it is her over tired face. Both girls were laughing and giggling out of control which is a sign of the "calm before the storm". The beyond tired silly "drunk" phase before the crash and meltdown.
Two weeks later we were brave enough to attempt our camping trip #2. We went camping at the same place so Jake told me I didn't need to print out any directions. I know now to print them off and put them in my back pocket "just in case". So... we got a little lost which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't get car sick. Hocking Hills fits its name. There are lots of hills and curvy roads. It didn't take more than a few missed turns before I was feeling awful. Luckily we had a few bags to hold the gallon that didn't want to stay in my stomach any longer. It was classic, the girls were done with driving, crying, Jake was lost, and I was puking. Finally I said, "Jake, don't drive anymore until you know where you are going!" We finally make it and luckily everything else went really well.
We had a great campfire dinner, got the girls to bed without too much trouble. It helped that I didn't let Jake tell Madison stories of ghosts and bats like last time (even though she requested it again). Then we were able to play some fun games around the campfire with the grownups and stayed up until two in the morning by our choice this time:)
The next morning the girls explored, Emerie loved throwing rocks with the boys, and we were all able to go on a hike to a really cool cave. We saw a really big snake on the hike and Madison loved the hike since she is amazed by bats. 
curious and amazed by bats. We didn't see any bats but there was a really big snake on the trail. 
