The Wernli Family: 5 Months Continued & The Lake House

Christopher's family has a reunion in Georgia every other summer. I was determined to go, even with our four small children! We drove the almost 10 hours in one day. Driving isn't that big of a deal for me. Unlike flying, you don't have a scheduled departure time, baggage restrictions, or noise level concerns. We left practically around 4 am and the kids slept for the first few hours. We had breakfast in the car, watched a movie and then stopped for lunch at Stake N Shake. The best part was that we planned it so that we could meet up for lunch along the way with our BFFs the Tolberts who were driving home to Florida from a family trip to North Carolina. The kids were soooo happy to see each other! Jada and her best boy friend Carson...

I think the workers thought we were nuts with all of our children - 7 kids and four adults ;-) We took over practically half of the restaurant hahaha...

We made it to Georgia without too much trouble. 3 of our 4 kids were awesome in the car. Only 1 gave us trouble. And 1 is more than enough unhappy campers in the car! Lets just say that Chris, Jada, Kalle, Dax and I were all happy to get out of the car away from TYCE!!!

But both little monkeys were all smiles once we got there... (Dax is on the left though, oops)

The twins literally discovered each other this month. I mean, really really discovered each other with their eyes. I think they have always sensed the other twin was either near them or missing, but they finally connected and you could see it in their faces that it really registered in their brains. We all witnessed a most amazing exchange between the two of them when they were held up in front of each other and they smiled and reached out to touch one another for the very first time! It was INCREDIBLE! What an amazing twin connection :-)

I love how they are so interested in each others toes and fingers too. Tyce & Dax...

This year for the family reunion, Chris' fabulous uncle rented out a house on Lake Lanier! Since it wasn't large enough to sleep all 30+ family members that were there, some of us slept at the Lake house, and the rest slept down the road at Chris' parents house or at his aunt & uncles house. But we all spent our days at the lake house or on the dock and boats...

The kids spent almost every moment they could swimming in the water. Of course we made them wear life jackets the whole time, but they still had a blast! To my great relief, Jada was surprisingly brave and swam allllll over around the dock and the little cove we were in. She was awesome!!

She and Chris' cousin Tabitha are less than two years apart and played together every second. One of their favorite things to do was bother their poor newly married Uncle Tyler while he was trying to have some 'moments' with his beautiful bride Valentina! I tried to tell Jada and Tabs to leave the newlyweds alone...but sometimes it was too funny to watch the little girls try to break up the kissing couple!!

Tabitha, Auntie Valentina and Jada...

Jada and Tabitha getting ready for a boat ride!!!

Chris and I tried to hang out with the family as much as possible but (as you may recall) we have our twins on a fairly strict schedule. So we ended up heading back to my in-laws house every afternoon so we could get our nighttime routine going. Listen people, my sleep is VERY important to me and I am willing to do just about anything to make sure I'm not up all night with fussy babies who CAN sleep through the night on their own but are just confused because their schedules are thrown off. Chris and I missed out on some family fun, but we also didn't suffer the wrath of miserable twin babies either. So, I guess you just have to 'pick your poison.'

The twins shared a playpen to sleep in, in my in-laws closet :) It was dark, but really really hot in there. Poor babies. We put them to bed in their diapers more than once... (Tyce & Dax)

Our girls are lucky enough to have their own princess room at their Nana's house. They each have a pink toddler bed to sleep in and they love it! It is also a really large laundry room, but the running dryer helps soothe them to sleep I think. Chris was kissing the girls goodnight one time while he was still holding Dax and Kalle decided that she wanted baby Dax to sleep with her. Now when Kalle even acknowledges the babies at all, let alone acts interested in them, we jump on that opportunity immediately! It rarely happens, unfortunately, most of the time Kalle tries to pretend that the babies don't really exsist. So, Chris of course obliged Kalle's wish and he laid Dax down in bed with Kalle...

Kalle was so sweet to Dax that we could barely stand to take him away! Dax actually seemed quite content himself and he closed his eyes he was so sleepy...

Since we spent some time by ourselves, I took was able to take a bunch of photos of the babies for fun...

Tyce snuggling with his Nana...

Dax smiling at his Daddy...

We did spend a couple evenings over at the other house and my girls were in heaven! Chris' aunt & uncle have 7 kids, 5 of which are girls. I literally walked around the corner in the basement and was met by my own daughter holding me up with a dart gun looking like this...

Other nights we relaxed at my in-laws house. My girls had NO problem forcing their grandpa to watch movies with them...while sprawling all over him too... ;-)

Two weeks before our trip to Georgia, Jada had come down with a yucky cold. Of course that cold turned into an ear infection - something that seems to happen to this poor kid every other month. She had finished her 10 day round of antibiotics right before we arrived in Georgia. Apparently the antibiotic wasn't strong enough and her body has been building up a resistance to meds so she came down with another horrible ear infection that landed her in the urgent care two days in a row. Long story, but sometimes I think that doctors really just need to listen to me the first time. Anyways, she was a trooper (as always) and spent our second week in Georgia completely out of the water so her ears could recover.

But on our last day in Georgia we went out on Lake Lanier in my in-laws boat. Just our family of six, my in-laws and my sister-in-law Lindsay. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the girls were in heaven. Just like their daddy. I think everyone in our family has Lake Fever - we all looooove being out on the boat!

I love this sweet photo of my Kalle bug, snuggling her special purple kitty with her mini pigtail blowing in the wind...

And my darling Jada, the boat rider pro. She was ready and willing all week to jump on anyone's boat and go for a ride...

The Twins. All four of our kids have done this exact same thing their first summer of life. Slept on the floor in their life jacket in Steve and Linda's boat. They slept like champs with that loud engine running...

We found this perfect little beachy spot to anchor at and we brought a picnic lunch. The boys took a much needed, refreshing dip in the water. Here's Chris and Dax...

And Nana and Tyce...

Kalle was in her element. She truly is a fish in the water. That child has no fear...

Back on land I was trying to capture Kalle's cute smile. I took close to 50 shots of her hiding behind this rock and laughing at me. Not once did I catch that adorable face though. Stinker...

But she made it up to me by actually POSING for a photo! I think I almost passed out. I was SOOOOOO happy. Look how awesome this picture is!!!!

The boys turned 5 months old that day :-) And then we headed home bright and early the next morning.

What a fun month for these babies - they went on our first family vacation/trip/reunion, they met so many new family members, went out of the state of Florida, went on a boat, swam in the lake, played with the dogs, ate at a restaurant, took their first trip to Ikea, and started really noticing each other and GIGGLING!!

See how they are grabbing at each other and looking at each other now? And Dax is grabbing at his own toes? Its soooo fun!

Tyce at 5 Months...

16 lbs

26 inches long

This month Tyce...

-perfected his raspberry blowing skills :)

-practiced his laughs (which he reserves for truly funny things)

-sleeps alllll night long!!!

-squeals with delight

-still cries like a kitten, but he has big elephant tears

-did not like riding in his carseat for 10 hours to Georgia

-tried rice cereal on his five months old day and was confused about it

-decided that he doesn't want to eat before he goes to bed - he puts up a huge stink about drinking his nighttime bottle and someone has to spend a looooong time getting him to drink it because if he doesn't drink his ba ba, then he won't sleep and we can't have that!