Camping '15: Part 1

I realize that I've been neglecting this blog for a few months, but we're hopefully getting settled back into our routine, which means I'll start this back up. Hopefully. Here are some photos from our second, and last camping trip of the year. It was back in August? I don't even remember. We went back to the same campsite and it was just as much fun, just not as hot. Different company and no campfires allowed but just as enjoyable.

We backed our car into our tent and had charlie sleep in the car. It worked pretty great.

The first thing we did when we got there was bike to the lake. Charlie started out fully clothed...

...then lost his pants and shoes...

...and then we stripped him down to his diaper. This is also the first time I ever skipped stones. I was extremely pleased with myself. Unfortunately I never got to show off to anybody else. But Andy believes me, so that's all that counts, right?

Uncle Benny teaching Charlie some volleyball, but I think the ball just bounced off his chest every time.

Keeping those kiddos entertained with coloring books was brilliant.

These girls are the cutest.

Cousins

These two have the sweetest love/hate relationship. They play well together about 75% of the time, and then scream at each other for the remainder. They usually are yelling for no reason, but because one starts screaming, the other one has to retaliate on the same level. Their current favorite past time is playing "mommy and daddy" or knocking down everything in the playroom. I'm so excited to see how their relationship will change while they grow up. They are only four months apart and live six houses away from each other. They are going to be seeing each other a lot. Like every day in school and then probably at dinner three times a week. It's going to be so much fun to watch them grow up together. I can only imagine what shenanigans they'll get each other into.

The Hatching Hen

One of the very exciting reasons that I've been absent on here is that I've been working on opening an online shop with my sister-in-law! We just launched The Hatching Hen yesterday and we are having so much fun! We were blown away by the response that we received from all our friends and family. Thank you to everyone who liked, shared, and bought our stuff!!! We are so grateful!

The story behind the shop is that Rebecca wanted to find something to keep her and Line busy while the other two girls were napping. She really was drawn to the idea of making teething necklaces, for obvious reasons because they are AWESOME; but also because Line loves to make jewelry and is very creative when it comes to stringing them together. A few weeks later we were doing a photo shoot together and decided that this was something we wanted to do as a team. I have been making braided pacifier clips since 2013 when Charlie was born and all four of our youngest have been using them since birth. They are seriously a lifesaver and I love the way they look. I was very excited to expand the colors of the leather suede and think they look better than ever!

The teething necklaces are seriously amazing. If you have teething children, you need to head on over and buy one now! I never had one with Charlie and I am wishing that I would have known about these before. These necklaces are made with a mixture of natural wood and 100% food-grade silicone beads so they are so great for babies to gnaw on when they are pushing through some teeth. Pip has been pushing through her fourth tooth and she grabs this thing as soon as she's in reach. Holding her is 10x easier because she has something to play with rather than my hair. Much more enjoyable for me :)

This is new territory for the both of us and we are loving it! So head on over to the shop and take a look at what we've made! You can also follow us on Instagram.

These necklaces and pacifier clips in action!

Charlie loves to help model the necklaces too :)