Ice Cream

My kids are all getting bigger and developing their little personalities. Which some of you might know but it still amazes us as we watch the changes. I really noticed it the other day when Isabelle's school had an ice cream social. Besides ice cream, there were several bounce houses set up for the kids to play on, and really only one for Cooper. Now Bear at the same age as Cooper was a flight risk, Cooper not so much. But I'm sure he'll prove me wrong later today. Anyway our chairs were set up close to the bounce house, we could see the line if we were sitting down, and he did such a good job of waiting and checking to see if Ben was still close by. Since I was walking around taking pictures. It was too cute, one time I came over to check on Ben and Decllan and Cooper was standing in line with his little hands on his hips, like why are you guys not going faster, I'm waiting.


I think that all the kids had a lot of fun and a lot of ice cream. I'm pretty sure that Bear got at least three cups, which he was not suposed to but hey they actually over planned how many they were going to need. Isabelle just had a lot of fun runnning around and playing with her school friends, at school but outside of school as well.

Applesauce

Today for part of school we made applesauce. Let me just say with the help of my kids, we make some pretty good applesauce. In a couple of weeks Isabelle and her Girl Scout troop are going to visit an apple picking location, I think we might get some "farm fresh" apples to make applesauce with. Homemade is so much better, than store bought, you can flavor it anyway you want and plus you know what is all in you sauce. Nothing but apples, cinnamon, lemon, vanilla and water for ours. Isabelle really wanted cinnamon flavored, so I let Bear put the cinnamon in and he did a fantastic job, it tastes wonderful.

While getting it ready each of the kids had to have a turn at the apple; peeler, corer, slicer job. Each one was able to complete the task all by themselves including Cooper. I just had to help hold it in place since I was having trouble getting it to stay in one place.


Anyway, they had a lot of fun creating a healthy treat for themselves, and I know we will do it again. Plus it is pretty easy and quick, since we sliced everything up before taking Isabelle to school.

One Month

Decllan is one month old, already. Where does the time go. I'm sure that means he'll be in college in just a few years. At least it will seem that way. Who would have thought that I would ever have four kids? Surely not I, but they are each a wonderful blessing and who could ask for more.

He has finally made it past his birth weight and came in at 9 pounds exactly, and I think he was 22.5 inches, which seems short to me but I could be remembering this incorrectly. He is getting stronger everyday and seems to be fitting in to our daily life well with little complaints.


I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for his one month pictures so this is what we have for now. I have a really cute idea I want to use on him, I just need Ben's help so maybe this weekend we will knock that out. Until then here is a litte bit of cuteness.

Labor Day Fun

We decided to spend Labor Day in San Antonio. I think I had not been down for a visit since Spring break in March. At least I had a good excuse! Either way the kids were very excited, because that meant they got the chance to swim to their little hearts content. They have each come so far this summer and are all swimming like champs. Cooper being the youngest I think has improved the best. He is not coming up to breath before reaching his destination and of course swims mostly under the water to return. Bear is a dolphin, he can hold his breath for a really long time and he dives beautifully. Isabelle really worked on her strokes and can now keep her but up instead of dropping down every time she comes up to breath.

Cooper shows off his skills.

Decllan got his first taste of the pool as well. I think I should have gone in sooner with him since by the time we made it into the pool it was a little cooler. Although as long as he was close to Mom he seemed to like the water. He should be swimming in no time.


Isabelle and Cooper are my little shutter bugs, and had to take pictures of each other and I must say they both did a pretty big job. Especially since my camera is about as big as Cooper. It's too cute to see him try to hold it, but it makes me very nervous.


We did have lots of fun and had some really good food as well. Which of course is always the point when traveling, even if just to visit family.

Isabelle shows off her skills.

My First project

I have completed my first Pinterest project and I'm so excited to share it with you. Who knew that making pleats into a shirt would be so challenging. I almost think I would sew the pleats together first somehow then sew it onto the shirt but who knows if that would work or not. Here is the link to site where I found the project so you can try too.

Now I did not make my shirt in white for three reasons: 1. I could not find white shirts where I was at. 2. I have a newborn, can you say spit up. 3. I have three boys, enough said. You just don't wear white with boys.

Here are my notes or thoughts on this project. I would be sure to get the shirt you are going to cut up in at least three sizes larger than the size you wear. That way your shirt is long enough when pleated. I thought it would look a little better if my pleats came down lower. Plus it would help hide my baby belly, so I could wear this now.

And I would switch the neck options, ie have the larger shirt with a scoop neck while the shirt the correct size could have a regular neck. That way when you sew them on to the shirt you don't have to make as many adjustments with the colar. Or you might be able to leave the shoulders a little longer.

Anyway this was super fun, and after a lot of pinning and repinning I finally got it done. I think will try to make another one, to see if my notes are actually helpful. Anyway, it looks cute and maybe I'll make something else to go with it later.

Sorry no pics with it on, since that is hard to do without help.

First Day of School

Isabelle is starting a new school this year and we could not be more excited. She will still be attending a public school but instead it will be a Charter school. It has been said to us that we will get a private school feel but with the public school price tag. She does have to wear uniforms, so that at least will make what to wear to school that day an easy choice for her.


I'm excited because she will be getting a better education, than what she would have recieved at her districted school here in our area. Yes I have to drive her to school but I think that it is worth it. Her school will teach her spanish now and I believe other languages as she gets older. They generally work a year ahead in math, so that will be beneficial as well.


Plus since Isabelle has made it into the school her brothers all allowed in by the sibling rule. So after this year Bear will be able to attend and not have to be placed into the lottery. The school is even growing, we hope that after her eight year there or a little before the school will have expanded again to include a high school. We have not heard any long term plans to this information but the hope is there. In the meantime she will get a chance at a better educational foundation.

Dog House

Our first full day back home from the hospital Ben and the kids built a dog house for Skippy. Ben had so much fun working with the kids and building the dog house. Of course this was right up Bear's alley, he loves to build projects. And this was doubly special for him since it was for the dog.


Although I don't think that the dog has actually been in the dog house, Cooper has. I think that he might feel like this is his own playhouse. Hopefully the dog will go into the house soon, because other wise it will just be Cooper.

Decllan Jude

He has at last arrived and we are all very excited to welcome him home. Especially mommy since this summer has been so hot, I think my temperature has dropped at least 20 degrees, since his arrival. I seem to remember walking outside late in the afternoon and thinking, wow it does not feel that hot, which is funny since it was probably like 102. Anyway, enough about that, I'm sure you would rather hear more about Decllan.


He is our first middle of the night baby, and not what I would recommend ever. It makes for a very long, tiring day. I had a doctors appointment on my due date and she asked if I would like my membranes stripped and I said yes please. Although I did not give it much thought since I had never had that done before, I was not sure if it would work or not. I should have tried it out with Bear and maybe he would have come out sooner. Anyway, that was around 3:30pm. Nothing exciting happened after that so we were just at home hanging out and thinking about taking the dog for a walk and eating ice cream, man I wish I had actually eaten dinner. I started to have some contractions that felt the same as those before sometime between 7 and 7:30p, I had to text Ben to find out when he was going to be returning since these lasted for about and hour and did not ever stop.


Ben goes let's get this baby out, he has not been sleeping very well. We took the dog for a walk to see if that would help things along and I think it did, either way, I think this baby is going to be coming soon. So we began to make arrangements, called Oma and asked if she would please come up and be with the kids. Then we had Ben's sister Penny bring over our niece Morgan to sleep with the kids, since by now it's close to 10pm and they really needed to go to be. We finally left the house around 10:30pm to head up to the hospital. The advantage of leaving then is that there is no traffic. We had to visit triage to actually make sure we were far enough along to be admitted. That was my fear that they would turn us away. After about an hour, we got our room.


I think it was about 12:30am or so, they broke my water and Ben asked me what time I thought the baby would arrive and I said 1:30am. Well I was wrong, but not by much, at 1:22am I squatted down and out came Decllan. The nurse who was supposed to "catch" him did not believe me that I was ready and kind of blew me off, we I told her umm no, you need to get the doctor now, because I am ready. He came out in one push and at last our little family is complete.


The only issue we had was that the doctor did not like how much I was bleeding and we had to take some actions that were not ever in my life plan. I had my first spinal ever and that was strange because you can't feel your lower body at all which is probably good since I'm sure the D&C would have hurt a whole lot more if I could have felt everything. Unfortunately that did not stop all of the bleeding and they had to put in a balloon, which seemed to help. The other downside to all of this was that they did not let me eat again until almost 12:30pm in the afternoon. And if you know me at all that just does not work well, I'm pretty sure they just wanted me to waste away to nothing after almost bleeding to death.


At least Decllan was born healthy and fit, coming in at 8 pounds 2 ounces and 20.5 inches long. He is the smallest of all the kids, but you know he is ours since they all look the same as babies. We are home now thank goodness, since hospital food sucks, and he is doing well and so is mommy.

Quick Trip Park

Since the Y really sucked this year in their planning of T-ball and made quite a few mistakes with the entire season they thought they should do some damage control. They arranged for our last T-ball game to be played at Quick Trip Park in Grand Prairie where the Air Hogs play. They took two corners of the field and set up minature fields for the kids to play their games on.


It was kind of nice except for the fact that we sat in the dirt tract and Cooper thought that was meant for him to play in. Not so good especially when the wind would kick up and blow dirt into other spectators eyes. Oh well, I digress.


It was hot as usual and since I had not taken any pictures at other games I thougth why not this one since it was "special." The kids did enjoy playing at the park and thought it was pretty cool to meet some of the players during and after the game. I did make the players pose with the team to get a photo and I think all the parents really appreciated that one.

Bear and Daddy

Look at how excited Bear is to be taking a picture with his Dad. He is too cute! They normally put both kids in the picture, but Isabelle opted to go to a Girl Scout function that day instead of attending the t-ball game. I just wanted to share the picture since they don't give us digital copies so thanks to Bloomfield Photography for taking out T-ball pictures.

39 weeks

That's right I have exactly one full week to go until my due date. Now when will baby appear? Who knows, at this rate we will have to kick him out because he seems to be very cozy and unwilling to leave. Does this remind you of anybody? I was going to have Isa take a picture of me today, but she actually fell asleep durning rest time, go figure. The kid must have been tired. Anyway, have I mentioned that I am done being pregnant? I'm ready to be able to not have to get up to pee five times a night. I'm ready to be able to drink my margarita or glass of wine and not just a sip here or there. I'm ready for Ben to stop complaining that I'm keeping him up at night because I have to get up to go pee. Whatever, snore much. Either way I'm sure my kids are ready for baby to get here and have their regular mommy back, or at least some semblance of their regular Mommy. Who knows if that will ever return because I'm not sure how much having four kids is going to change my life and they way I do things. I know there will be an adjustment but how much of an adjustment. At least we are mostly ready for baby to arrive. We have the pack n' play all set up in our room so he at least has some where to sleep. We have a car seat for him installed in the car. I think I might have to get the bucket down just for the ride home from the hospital, I guess that will depend on who has the other three. But at this point I'm done. I know this will sound strange but I get better sleep when I have a newborn then while I'm pregnant. Who knew! Hopefully baby will get here soon, because I know some of you are dying to know his name, me too. Ha Ha! Here's to one more week.

Well I made them . . .

after all. I still had quite a bit of left over fabric so I thought cute little bibs would be a perfect addition to our collect of baby stuff. And I was right they are too cute for words. I just hope they fit ok when he gets older, since the neck opening seems a little small. Here are a few of my favorite, some are reversable, some are just fun and others have a super yummy soft side. I like the foodball one because the back is so soft, it's great to have left over diaper material. I'm sure later on I will come up with something cute to make this little guy but until then I have these adorable bibs.

New stuff

I was feeling a little bit like a bad mother the other day because I had not made anything for the new baby as of yet. So I was thinking about things that I could do fairly quickly since, you know I only have a little bit of time left, and I came up with fancy burp clothes. I'm sure you have all seem them they are used or made from cloth diapers and then just decorated with extra fabric and maybe some ribbon. Well I decided to do some of these. I figured why not, I don't really use burp clothes but maybe now I would. For some reason, unknown to myself, I actually had to go out and buy the cloth diapers because in all my boxes I did not remember coming across any, which probably means I got rid of them because I do not use them. So silly. But I was able to use material I have here to decorate them up very nicely. After I had already made my choice I found some more matieral that would have looked great as well. I'm thinking if I have time I might even toss in some fancy bibs as well. I just have to find a pattern for those. At least I feel pretty handy and have made something special for this baby before he comes home.

Who is the best wizard?

As I have been know to do I was listening to NPR and they were doing a small piece about Harry Potter. Imagine that since the last installment of the movies opens this weekend. The "reporter" made some comment about Dumbeldore being the greatest wizard to ever live and I wondered if that were true. I know these are all mostly in some opinion to be fictional characters but what if someone were to write a book, paper, short story or whatever comparing, contrasting and displaying the many talents of Dumbeldore, Merlin and Gandalf? Who would turn out to be the greatest wizard of all time? Would the "reporters" statement be true the Dumbeldore is the greatest or would it be a different wizard from fiction? I told Ben my thoughts and he said are you going to do it and I said uh no. One I really don't like research and probably by the time I got around to getting it all done someone else would have beaten me to the punch. Who knows maybe someone already has.


I have already thought of several things that stand in my way, I won't really born you with them but I just know that they are there. Oh well, maybe someone else more scholarly and with a bit more knowledge on the subject will take up the reigns and write this one. I know I would read it. Gosh I did not even think about if you would make a comparison between Gandalf the Grey and Gandlaf the white. Do you think it matters, is he two different wizards?

Barrett turns 5

I know some of us can hardly beleive that he made it but he did. I think he gets better and better every year. I know ask me again once he becomes a teenager but that is a few years off so for now I will enjoy my sweet and loveable little boy. I felt bad for Bear this year since he really wanted to go to Sea World, but since I am huge and very uncomfortable we decided to stay home and visit a local water park instead.


He still had a blast with this cousin's and family. Plus the water park is just the right size for younger families, the lines are not too long and most of the kids are just tall enough to ride the rides. Now there is one we do not let them ride just yet, maybe next year. The bottom drops right out from under your feet and down you go, not sure they are ready for that one.


Anyway, Bear said his favorite ride today was the one that acts like a toliet because you go round and round and round before you get down to the end. Pretty fun, but that line can get long, so you have to jump on that ride pretty early. I think another favorite is the wave pool. Especially when the waves are going, the kids love to jump and try to swim.


We also went bowling on his actual birthday, with his cousins, which was pretty good. Most everyone did really well, and paid attention and did as they were told. Cooper is finally learning how to sit and wait his turn, very hard for a two year old. Then of course more swimming, because what Texas, July birthday would be complete without some amount of swimming.


I'm pretty excited that Bear has made this jump to five and I think that he will continue to improve with age, just like a good wine.

Happy 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th on the 3rd this year with the kids. We had a really fun day with family and friends. The kids' T-ball team went out to the Independant baseball league game and had the chance to go out on the field when the team went, run around the bases and watch a fireworks show. They all had a blast! I think the kids thought that going out on the field was pretty cool. They even had a chance to get balls signed by the player who they were standing by. Isabelle helped one on of the little 3 year olds out to the field then took up her position as Pitcher. Bear made his way out to center field, and once the National Anthem was played they all came back into the stands. The "event oganizers" made sure to tell the kids not to run on the white lines which none of the kids did so I figure that helped to make the event successful all by itself. Cooper did not go out on the field for the start of the game but he did run the bases, just like a big kid. It was pretty cool to see all the kids go around the field. I think they really enjoyed that one as well. As for the fireworks show, it was pretty good. This year the horse track and baseball field teamed up to make one great big show. We went a couple of years ago when they each did thier own, very silly. Overall it was a good day and a wonderful way to celebrate our nations independance.