Some other recent pictures

The other night we we impressed by how quickly the girls settled down after we put them to bed. We didn't hear any playing and thought they had gone to sleep right away. Um, no. Kylie and Beth somehow snunk into Meg's room and all of them were cuddled up next to each other, all sound asleep in Meg's bed :)

An outfit Beth put together by herself. Note the purse and the sparkly shoes (on the wrong feet). She is "Superman Girl"

Kylie as a diver I think? She has Jack's drum on her head and an old swimsuit with floaties in it.

Not quite sure what she is doing here, but pretty sure Meg posed her (Megan took this picture and the one above)

1st Day of 1st Grade!

Today was Megan's first day of 1st grade! We were a little bit less nervous this year than last. Megan picked out her own outfit (she actually picked it out two weeks ago and it's been hanging on the back of her door since then). We couldn't find her new High School Musical lunch bag, so she took her old one from last year. Rob carried her backpack as it was very full with the supplies she needs for this year. I packed it all up last night and sharpened all her 24 pencils (by hand - we are definately investing in an electric pencil sharpener for next year! 24 was bad enough - I don't want to sharpen 48 pencils by hand!) and thought of the quote from "You've Got Mail" where Meg Ryan says that every time fall comes around, she wants to send someone a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils. Well, I have to admit that it doesn't feel much like fall today down here, although it's much cooler than it was last year at this time, but there's still a bit of excitement in the air :) Rob shared stories of his first day of school - although his stories were of his first day of kindergarten. Apparently he couldn't figure out why his parents weren't going on the bus with him. He still remembers being scared as the bus pulled into the school parking lot. I shot him a withering glance as those memories are not exactly helpful when sending a little one of your own off to school.

Meg and Mom

Meg and Dad

Meg in her outfit, complete with "high heeled" strappy silver sandals

Waving good-bye as she heads off

Jack waved back at them. I tried to get a picture, but of course, he stopped waving at that point

Umbrellas and rainboots :)

It rained again on Wednesday and so the girls finally got to use the umbrellas that the Easter Bunny brought them. It was pouring, but not thundering and lightning, so they went out in the back yard to play in the rain. Megan has a green "bug" umbrella (complete with wings on the back), Kylie has a pink panda umbrella, and Beth has a Dora umbrella.



I really don't know why I bothered to have Meg wear rainboots and use an umbrella - I should have known that my little mudpuppy would end up soaked and coated in mud! I can totally see her becoming an archaeologist when she gets older - she loves dinosaurs and her very favorite thing to do is play in the mud. She gets clothes dirtier than I have ever seen anyone get them!

Beth was her neat little self and slowly and precisely collected water in her little buckets, then poured water from one bucket to another.

Megs and Kylie had fun trying to squash the june bugs they found floating in the rain water. (They think all bugs except ladybugs are bad - which in TX is mostly true - everything bites down here it seems like!)

Megan posing in all her muddy glory :)

A couple of pictures of Jack since he was napping while the girls were playing in the rain. What a cutie pie (not that I'm biased, but seriously, isn't he the cutest little guy you've ever seen?)

By the way, for those of you who don't already know, Jack has the chicken pox. He got his first spot on Monday, but it's a very mild case, so I didn't even think it might be chicken pox until Wed. The doctor verified it on Friday, but it's a very mild case - he only has about 20 spots. Dr. Robert (our pediatrician) said that the average case of chicken pox used to have between 300-500 spots, but he hasn't seen one like that in over 5 years since the vaccine has come out. Thank heavens for vaccines!!! I would NOT want to have the kids have to go through that or have me have to deal with kids having bad cases of chicken pox!

Just a side note, I love our pediatrician! He is such a perfect fit for us! He promotes homeopathic remedies, but also uses modern medicine. He's even a member of the same organic co-op we use! I found that out on Friday :)

Belated posting of Jack's birthday party

My baby turned one last week! I can't believe how fast this past year went by! Jack has brought so much joy to our lives. He was such a surprise, but we are so glad he is here! I love watching him play with his sisters. He is definately not a push over and knows what he wants, but he is so willing to share anything he has with anyone who wants it. He will often share his bottle of juice with Beth. He loves exploring and climbing and I know whenever I hear him yell that he's stuck on top of something else. He is always smiling and grinning and making funny faces. It's so easy to make him laugh and all of us love to do so. He is so full of joy and life and light and I'm so glad the God blessed me with him! I love you Jack-Jack!!!

For his birthday party, Aunt Kiki and her friend Ron came over and we invited the Footes over as well. We grilled hamburgers and had potato salad, homemade mac and cheese (thank you Beca!), sliced vegetables (thank you Kiki!) and ice cream cake. For the record, I would not suggest ice cream cake for first birthdays - I think the cold hurt his hands.

Jack opening his present from Kiki and Ron

A dumptruck he can ride on!!!

And it even makes noise! Perfect :)

Daddy helping Jack blow out his candles while I stop him from grabbing the frosting

Eating cake (he insisted on a fork)

Hot Wheels cars from his sisters

And leather shoes from his sisters as well

A drum filled with other instruments from Mom and Dad

First a couple of pictures of the train that the kids made. They emptied out all the bins that we keep small toys in (yes, that made quite the mess) and turned the frame sideways. Meg then put Jack in it and pushed him around the house. Jack loved it and just sat back and enjoyed the free ride! Meg and Kylie loaded it up with books as well - apparently so Jack would have something to do :)

These are pictures of Megan in her birthday princess gear that Molly bought her. She wears at least some of it around the house almost every day!

Posing :)

This week things cooled off down here. It rained on and off for most of the day on Monday. We spent the morning playing at a friend's house then when we got home I let the kids go play outside in the back yard in the rain. Jack wasn't quite sure what to make of the wet grass and Beth came in after just a little bit (she got wet and didn't like that), but Kylie and Megan stayed outside for quite a while. They jumped on the trampoline and loved making the water bounce around on it. By the time they came in, they were soaked and happy :)

Last night for dinner, I made potato vegetable soup. This has become a family favorite as I season the broth with the makings of alfredo sauce. Usually the soup includes potatoes, carrots, celery, onions and kale. Last night we made a small change and added the beets we got in our last co-op order. Not surprisingly, iturned the whole soup very pink. Kylie was thrilled as pink is her favorite color :) The soup tasted fine, but man, the color really threw me off when I ate it! Beth and I also made homemade bread with organic whole wheat flour and oats and it turned out fantastic!

Jack walking really well :)

Nothing horribly exciting . . .

Well gymnastics is over and school starts two weeks from today, so we've been taking things easy lately. We've decided not to put Kylie in pre-k. I will teach her at home for this year instead, so we went out and bought a pre-k workbook and flashcards. Yesterday I worked with the girls for about 45 mins on school work to get Meg back into the swing of things. Megan wrote a story about the gecko we found in Kylie and Beth's room yesterday morning when we cleaned up their bookcase and Kylie worked on writing the letter "A". Beth colored while we did school work.

Here are some random recent pictures ~

My friend Beca brought me a chocolate cake last week just because :) I shared with the family and Jack really enjoyed feeding himself cake. I guess this is a preview of things to come tomorrow on his birthday! ~

Kylie and Beth "washing" the dishes

We do Family Home Evenings on Sundays and last Sunday for our dessert, the girls made fruit and yogurt parfaits for every one :) They used organic vanilla yogurt, then layered organic blueberries and strawberries and more yogurt. We topped them off with organic whipped cream, then one strawberry and finished them off with organic sprinkles - Yum!

Yesterday Jack was playing with my iPod while rocking on Tigger. He was having so much fun, I had to snap a picture of him :) My baby has gotten so big!!!

Last day of summer gymnastics!

Yesterday was the last day of the girls' summer gymnastics classes. Beth's class was first, then we had an hour break before Kylie and Meg's. They take classes through the local rec center. The teachers are Miss Sue and her sister-in-law Miss Dawn. The girls have been taking gymnastic classes from them since I was pregnant with Beth. They are wonderful teachers and the girls have so much fun! Megan was so excited that she could take gymnastic classes again as she couldn't during the school year.

Beth walking on the balance beam with Miss Dawn's help

Beth "smiling" as she swings on the rings

Beth swinging on the rope - there is a lower knot, but Beth would have none of it - she wanted to use the higher one.

As Beth got stamps on her feet at the end of her class, Jack rocked back and forth on the half-circle thingy. He loved it!

Kylie pushing up on the bar with Miss Sue's help

Meg on the bar

Beth hanging out on the sidelines waiting for me to be done taking pictures

Meg and Kylie

Kylie on the balance beam with Miss Dawn

Meg's turn on the beam!

Kylie on the rope (she wanted the higher knot too)

Meg on the rope (her favorite part)

Beth, Miss Sue, Megan, Miss Dawn, Kylie