After two years of being a Dasiy Girl Scout, Isabelle is on her way to being a Brownie. I can hardly believe it. I'm so proud of her and I know she is having lots of fun in her Girl Scout troop. Her leaders did a great job of creating a very cute bridging ceremony for the girls, and now they are brownies. I am also so excited for Isabelle since this year she will get a chance to go to sleep away camp for Girl Scouts. I have really great memories from camp, and I hope that she has as much as I did. Some days I can hardly believe that my baby girl is growing up so fast.

After a full school year of learning to play the Viola, Isabelle and her classmates have thier recital. So sweet to watch these kids come together and play their songs and solos. I will not miss the early Monday mornings but I know that Isabelle will miss her teacher. She had a great time learning from Ms. Blair. I was so proud of her to take on this challenge and do well. I know she can set her sights on whatever she chooses to accomplish. I forgot to bring my camera so we have to deal with crummy phone pics. At least it's something.

Earth Day

I have one of the coolest kids going. Isabelle is amazing and the ideas she comes up with on her own are great. Besides having lots of fun on Earth Day, we also helped to make the earth a little bit cleaner around our neighborhood. There is a wash, or run off area close to the house that sees lots of trash. So Isabelle thought it would be a good idea to clean it up. We collected six bags of trash from said area. Granted there is a little bit of construction going on right now so that does not help with the amount of waste, but we helped clean up. All the kids help to make the world a better place to live and a healthier place. I did hurt my heart that we bagged up recyclable items, I just was not sure how to handle that. Maybe next year we will bring out our bins to collect those items. Either way, happy Earth Day. What did you do to help make the Earth a better place to live?

The Renaissance faire is always one of my favorite spring time activities to do with the whole family. But of course we have a very busy spring so it seems to get harder and harder each year to get there. The kids love it so I think we will have to make it a priority. This year we were joined at the fair with my parents. The got a chance to see the kids enjoy something they introduced my brother and I too when we were kids. I know they have gone with us before but now that the kids are older it is so much more fun, to see how excited they get over the fun, food and games. We did things a little differently this year, we gave each of the kids an allotment of money and that was theirs for the whole day. Once it was gone they were all done. Mom and Dad were not going to pitch in any more money. Barrett had to learn the hard way what that meant. But in the end it all worked out and they still had lots of fun. They were asking to go back as we were leaving. If only we could scrape out two weekends to go to the fair. Maybe in the fall we can go down to Plantersville.

Easter

I know I'm way behind but last week was a little rough. Either way, here we are now and who could pass up the fun times we had on Easter day. We started our morning off my dying eggs. We were super busy that week and did not have time to do it before hand so we dyed them on the day. Everyone got in on the action including Decllan. And why not Easter egg dying is great fun. Cooper did a little two fisted dying and so did Bear.

Then before we had lunch we started the Great Egg Hunt of 2012. Cooper got a couple minute head start since he is younger than all the other kids, and they were off. There were tons of eggs and no one was left out in the goodie department. Collin had lots of fun scaling the playground to reach the eggs. Isabelle was pretty intense about her searching and Bear was just a little perplexed at times. Not really but he sure does look so here.
All of the kids had a blast and found a great amount of eggs. Money, play dough, silly putty, and candy were just a few of the scores. Cooper even stopped to eat one his hard boiled eggs during the hunt. Too funny, I don't think it cost him any time or booty.

Quater Review

Well, I don't think I have been doing so well with the blog posting as I would like. Part of that is my own nerosis, of wanting to post a picture with each post and lack of time. What lack of time you say, surely you have all the time in the world, as a stay at home mom. Ha, ha, what a myth. But most of you should already know that. Either way, I will still try to post something once per week but it might be hit or miss, or a little bit of catch up.

I have done ok, with my scrapbooking, I think I really only lack about 5-8 pages to keep with my goal of 5 pages per week. Which when you consider I scrapbook for five different books is a not so bad. But I am happy to report soon it will just be two, and the others will get "copies" from the family album. I have a plan, I just need to put it into work.

I think I have been doing ok at taking more pictures of Decllan, although some have been on my phone, which is not so good but easier than bringing out the big camera. I might need to get a point and shoot to carry in the diaper bag.

My house, ah what can I say. I have four kids and it is a full time job keeping this place picked up. Makes me want a smaller space but then where would I put all of the crap. Maybe, I would have to get rid of some of it. Oh, usually it's really not too bad, today would be an exception. It will be clean before the weekend, we have friends coming over for Easter dinner.

sports, for everyone

Ok well maybe not everyone but we did have a whirlwind weekend of sports. Three soccer games, and four baseball games. I can hardly believe it that we have made it to this point in our lives. Now I will say that these were with just two kids, can you imagine what it will be like with all four kids playing a sport. I might have to get very creative and ask for help to get them to and from their games. At least one game was actually mine, so maybe that helps it to be a little better. Either way, it was a great weekend and we would not have had it any other way.

Bear's baseball team won the Championship game in the tournament they played in this weekend. So instead of just getting a trophy for showing up they got a trophy for a win. They were all so excited. Bear played great, he hit two triples, and a double, off of a coach pitch ball. This is pretty big since he is the youngest player on the team. He is such a little risk taker too. He forced one of his triples but it worked out for him. He did cause a few heart attacks and whatnot but in the end he prevailed.

Isabelle did great in her games as well. She is one of my best scorers for rec soccer and she is finding her grove on the field for academy ball. She has a hard time since coach likes to play his best players back and have a strong defense, and so she has been playing back. Not her best place to be, but I think in the end it will all work out for her. I just want to make sure she has lots of fun.

My game was good, our team won. Some woman pushed me down for no reason and then was wondering why I was pushing into later while playing the game. Honestly, it took a lot not to come up off the ground and pop her in the face. Some people!

She cracks me up . . .

Isabelle is just too darn cute. Recently my mom brought up a big suitcase filled with costumes used a various parts of our lives. Mom and Dad use to live it up when they were younger and attend Halloween parties for adults and they had some very interesting costumes. So Isabelle is playing dress up and this is one of her creations. A costume too big for her plus my boots. I told her to ask her dad if she could wear that outside of the house.

Too Fast

Decllan is growing up way to fast. He is now seven months old, and just doing too much new stuff. He is crawling that is one of his big new skills and he recognizes his name. I think that is pretty cool myself but hey, I have three other kids who only sometimes listen to me. Maybe he'll be different. In the mean time he is doing a great eating and just getting so much bigger. Sorry for the crummy video it looked much better on my phone.

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.