At long last . . .

Here are the pictures of Decllan. He is just too cute and so much fun to watch as he grows. This kid has a smile for everyone he meets and rarely is in a bad mood. How could you not love this face.



He is my first kid to really play with his hands and feet. So I had to be sure to capture a memory with him doing just that.

Dance Time

Ok so this happend a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to see how this picture looks and I should have bloged about it anyway. So now I am.

Isabelle's school hosted a Father Daugther Dance located at the Ball Park. The Ball Park is where the Texas Rangers play, baseball for those of you who are just now starting to read my blog. Anyway, they danced, and had great time while I took pictures all night long. Yes I really mean all night long for three hours pretty much non-stop.

They had a blast and so did I. Mom helped me with pictures, while Dad stayed home and watched all the boys. They had their own crazy good time.

Basketball

Well Bear is not going to be playing in the NBA anytime soon. He is so silly when he plays basketball, he can hardly focus on the game long enough to get his hands on the ball. And when he does get the ball by "accident" he almost does not know what to do with it. Oh well, he is still pretty young and is just trying things out. I actually find it kind of funny, but I'm sure it is frustrating for our fearless leaders. Maybe next year or the year after.

Confused

My cilantro is very confused as to where it is supposed to grown. Not really, it was just planted really close to the edge of the barrier and leaned over a bit when the wind blew and released it's seeds into the grass. I guess I can't complain we have fresh cilantro to use when we need it.


Did you know that Rosemary grew purple flowers? I had no idea. You would think that I would since I have had rosemary for several years and knew that at some point it would have to flower and seed to keep growing but I guess I just never looked at the right time. Very pretty.

6 Months

Ok so he has been six months for a couple of weeks now and I still have not taken his pictures. We have been super busy. At least here are the highlights:

Eating solid food

Attempting to crawl - rocks back and forth, and worms his way around

Smiles a lot

Loves the gym

Is super cute. I know you would love to see just how super cute he is and I will get to that this week. It is on my list of things to do. Until now, just picture what he looked like before and add an inch, and a big smile.

Time to Eat

We are begun the adventure of feeding Decllan solid food. This is always a very fun time, I think with babies. He seems to fall right with being a boy and eating food. He likes to show off what he is eating, and of course makes sure that he wears some of his goods as well. I'm sure it's too much to ask for all the food to end up in his tummy. Oh well at least he is pretty cute. So we started our food journey with homemade sweet potatoes. He seems to enjoy them a lot, well see how he feels about what is coming up next. Plus I'm excited that he gets to use his bibs, for more than just drool now.


Along with getting to start eating food, Decllan is sprouting new teeth. Finally after about six (6) weeks of swollen gums he has made the push through the skin to show off his new pearly whites. I'm grateful that my kids seem to be pretty good teethers and do not get terribly upset about the changes in their little mouths.

Cooper is 3

This kid is too funny! He just has a great way about him that makes me laugh at least once per day and usually more. Plus he is so sweet. He still really loves to play with Isabelle and be by her. I think the will be a lot like her but also have a little bit of Bear. After all who will teach Decllan how to get in trouble while Bear is at school.


This kid loves Mickey Mouse, and so this year he asked for a Mickey Mouse cake. I was more than happy to oblige him and made my first ever cake from scratch, icing and all. It was so yummy!


We took Cooper out for an entertaining dinner of Hibachi, where of course they light things on fire. What three year old would not like that. Later in the year we are going to celebrate at Great Wolf Lodge all of our winter birthdays. I hope they will think it is fun.


Well I just love this kid so much, he is creative, inquisitive and sometimes up to no good. He loves to ride his bike, and can skateboard and ride a two wheel scooter with the big kids. He plays the role of the "mascot" for all of Bear's teams, since you know he just wants to be a big kid. I can hardly wait to see what the next year holds.

Cozy

Since Ben and I have gotten new phones the kids have been all over them and want to use them more than us. We actually have to take them away to be able to get anything done sometimes. Cooper is currently using my phone to watch something or play a game, it's hard to tell at the moment. But this is where I found him. He seems pretty happy with himself and is more than pleased with the arrangments.

Spirit Week

Spirit Week at Isabelle's school is a pretty big deal, after all they wear uniforms everyday, who would not want to change things up. They had all sorts of fun ideas for dress up and the last day was Time Warp day and she chose to dress up as someone from the 80's. Big hair, leg warmers and everything. She was too cute. Although her hair did not make it big the whole day, she still looked great. Plus it was fun trying to put together her "costume" for the day. I just loved it!

Time flies

Decllan is already five months old; I can hardly believe it. He is such a joy to have around the house and all the kids have really been a big help. After all how could you not love this face.


He is working hard at trying to crawl. He goes up on his knees and rocks back and forth, sometimes making a little forward progress only to push himself back and have to start all over. He has a ready smile for everyone he meets, especially if you smile at him, it's just too cute. We are working with him on his sitting up skills. A Mommy prerequirement for being able to start solid food.

He has also been working on his two bottom teeth for about the last month. They sure do seem to be taking their sweet time coming in. Soon I'm sure, I think I felt a rough edge of one about to pop through.


He loves to reach and grab for things and is always talking his little nonsense talk. Ben was amazed one day and asked if he talks like this all the time. I said yes. Even more so when the kids are not watch a show.

Each day is one more day of fun and adventure in our house. I can almost hardly wait to see what the next one holds.

Resolutions

Now I do not usually like to make New Year's resolutions because I think sometimes people set make these resolutions and do not follow through. With that being said these are my goals for the New Year. Sounds better right:

1. Keep my house clean, so that if someone popped over I would not be embarassed. (we'll see)
2. Complete 5 scrapbook pages per week
3. Take more pictures of the kids (read Decllan)
4. Update my blog once per week

So far at this late hour this is all I can remember. At least I did take more pictures of Decllan. Here he is showing off his skills at reaching and grabing at things, on one of the rare early January days where the temps were in the 70's. This was a bike riding, trampoline jumping, pinic kind of day. He is so focused!


What do you plan to accomplish in 2012? You can leave the short list.

Kidz ONLY

We had a kidz only New Year's Eve party and everyone had a blast. I think that the trampoline really helped, these kids burn off some energy of being around each other and just to have some fun. They jumped, danced, played, watched a movie and rang in the New Year with friends.


We had about ten kids over for the holiday and allowed those that wanted to, to spend the night. All of the girls stayed the night but the boys went home. Kind of strange but probably for the best, Bear likes his own space.


I think that this might be our new tradition and it will only get better as the years go by. I can already see the party grow, we just might have to rethink the slumber party.

Merry Christmas

Wow I can hardly believe that Christmas is already here. I'm pretty sure we just had Christmas and Isabelle was just born. Well I guess not really since we now have four kids and just a few years have passed. Each one more exciting than the last.

This year was great. We had the chance to stay in our hometown of Arlington, Texas and celebrate the holiday with my parents, Ben's parents, and his sister Penny. The kids really enjoyed themselves and so did the adults.


Isabelle got the chance to "perform" in the church program this year as an angle, when before she was supposed to be a sheep. She was a little sad about the change of character but she handled it well and went on with her new roll as planned.


The boys were wild and crazy little things but they enjoyed presents, food and family fun as well. They are still waiting for a good windy day to fly their new kites that Santa brought. I hope it is windy soon since I think these kites are going to rock.


Our elf made is final debut being a little naughty himself and wrapped the tree in toilet paper. Pretty fun, or so the kids thought. Isabelle was sad when he had to go back but we told her, he would be back next year. I'm not sure how effective it was but Cooper sure did find the elf at other people's houses, it was kind of cute.


Until next year and another round of madness can begin. Maybe in 2012 I will plan better and get their presents ahead of time. Ha, like that will happen.

7 All ready

Isabelle is 7, I can hardly believe it, now she is closer to 10 than before. Where does the time go. I am constantly hearing great things about her from other parents, teachers and the people she meets daily. This kid is wonderful! Who could have asked for a better child. Her personality is really starting to come out in her everyday life and it just seems to blossom and grow each day. I can hardly wait to see what the next year holds.


I'm sure we will have lots of soccer, possibly baseball, maybe some tennis, Girl Scouts and so much more. She is doing great is school and loves her teacher and new school. I could not be happier with her progress. She has learned so much and come so far, in her learning. I hope that she will continue to love to learn through out her life.

Santa

This is the first year that I have gotten a picture of Cooper and Santa where he is not crying or trying to get away from "the man." He was actually pretty excited to see Santa this year and did pretty well going up to him and taking a picture. Bear of course went right up and jumped in his lap, and proceeded to tell him what he wanted for Christmas. If you guessed toys, trains, a new bike, or nerf stuff you would be wrong. Bear wants money for Christmas. Do you think Santa will deliver on that one? He is just too much some days. At least he is pretty darn cute. And then there's Decllan, he really had no idea what was going on, but knew that people were looking at him, so he of course was cute as can be.

4 Months Old

I can hardly believe that Decllan is four (4) months old already. It seems like yesterday he was just born. I know four months is not that long, but I think about all that we have done time just seems to have flown by. This little baby boy is getting bigger and doing more each day.

He watches those older kids with an eye of interest, and awarness, just taking it all in, each and every action. Watch out we have another boy on the fringe. He really likes to watch Cooper, I can already see their bond; before long they will be thick as theives.


In the meantime here are his stats: Height: 25 3/4 incesh, weight: 13 pounds 13.5 ounces. He already rolls over from front to back and back to front. He holds he head up really well and I think he is contemplating crawling. I'm sure by the end of the month he will be up on those knees trying to figure out how to make them go. He loves to play on his play mat; trying to reach out to all the hanging objects. Decllan really enjoys trying to pull down the one toy with a plastic end so that he can put it in his mounth.

I am always telling the big kids to make sure nothing is on the floor so that he won't get anything dangerous in his mouth. He also likes to watch his hands and see how they move and what they can do. He is trying to grab onto items and move them around. He follows objects really well and just love to smile.


This kid can light up anyones bad day if you just take a look at him and give him a little smile. His whole face lights up when he smiles and it is just perfect. I love this kid!!

The Tree

As I watched the kids getting very excited about decorating the tree I could remember how my childhood was just like that. I could not wait to see the next ornament that came out of the box almost as much as I could hardly wait to see what that years ornament was going to be. They were so cute looking through the box to decide who's ornament was who's and trying to remember when they received said ornament. Then of course where should they place the ornament on the tree. Bear of course was one extreme or the other, the very top of the tree or the very bottom one. Where as Isabelle was all over and Cooper was right about about Cooper height. Of course Decllan got a chance to put his "First Christmas" ornament on the tree as well, with the help of Mom. It was some rowdy, crazy, fun. But once those kids were done or had lost interest that was it. So hopefully the tree still looks pretty good.


I pretty much need a second tree of the same height in order to get all the ornaments on, but for right now I love to focus on the kids ornaments. I love the fact that nothing matches and each one has a different story for each kid. I hope they enjoy their ornaments as much as I do when they are older. It is so much fun to see the history and memories each year.

Lemonade

Today in school one of our activities is to make lemonade. The boys had lots of fun squeezing out the juice and then adding sugar and water to taste to help make it just the right flavor. I had a lot of lemons to use and this was the best thing I thought of to use them for. I did also save some of the juice for fresh lemon juice in cooking. Hopefully it will last a little while, not sure about that one.

Elf on the shelf

We have joined the masses in using the Elf on the Shelf book and Elf to help the kids be extra good these last few days before Christmas. I think it is going to be a lot of fun coming up with fun places to put the Elf and see if the kids can find him. I hope they enjoy it as much as Ben and I will. So here is where our Elf named, Candle Chippy landed his first day here.

Thanksgiving

What a weekend! So much to do in so little time. But I think all the kids had a blast visiting with their cousins and being away from school. Here are some of the highlights:


* Crafts, crafts, and more crafts

* Food, beer, and wine

* Car races (wooden not real)

* Decllan's Baptism

* Christmas - all the kids with Grandma Susie and Grandpa Bernie

Everyone had a wonderful time and now we just have to get back onto a regular schedule. Pretty hard to stay on schedule when you are with that much family. Isabelle won the car race, her car ran the fastest down the ramp, even with Grandpa Don's silly starts.



Cooper did not feel good by Saturday and this is where he fell asleep. I just left him there because he looked cozy and I figured if he was asleep he needed the sleep.