Happy Halloween

Our kids were Raven Queen (from Ever After High), Aurora, A Ninja and Pirate Princess. 
A few friends asked, "how do you get Annette to keep her hat on?" Anytime she would grab for her hat, I'd say, "ahh!" which is baby lingo for "no" in our house.  This is the sequence of pictures I took right after I gave her the "ahh!" for trying to take it off at the kids Halloween parade.   You can see she is pretty sensitive to reprimands.  She was a happy pirate the rest of the day, promise!

April Fool's Fun

The world of pinterest, facebook, blogger, and the like has given us a mixed bag when it comes to parties and holidays.  On one hand it's awesome to skip the step where I have to think, and let someone else come up with all sorts of cute ideas for games, decorations, and food.  But on the other hand, I think we all feel the pressure to make every holiday amazing, memorable, and pin worthy.  I of course did not think of the sneaky meatloaf/mashed potato cupcake for April Fools Day, nor did I execute it with skill, but I did take a picture! So now everyone else can see what I cool mom I am and feel that they too must make these next April Fools Day.  Good thing I am behind on my blogging so that you have many months to prepare. 

P-U

I'm here to tell you that kids benefit from having a mom and a dad.  If it were up to me, my kids would have never seen nor smelled a plant that smells of a rotting corpse.  But Ryan stepped in and made sure they had that choice experience.  Thankfully I was "with child" when this plant was showcased at UCSB and I got to pull the pregnancy card and excuse myself politely from the excursion.  Clearly the smell would have made me nauseous.  Do you know they actually waited in line to see (and smell) this?

Nap Time at the Park

 Annette has taken many naps at the park.  So many that it is really not a photo worthy opportunity.  But when Rex takes a nap at the park, I pull out the camera.  Also it should be noted that I sent Marielle home to grab a pillow for him after he fell asleep.  I'd hate for anyone to think I was planning for him to nap on the park bench.  Our weather is nice enough to take an afternoon nap outdoors, but I don't want to encourage vagabond type behavior. 

PS Isn't that sleepy baby cute?

These Towels are Really Great

Last Spring we got a summer fun box from Shula.  Each kid got a disney towel with their name embroidered on it.  Two summers running we sure love these towels.  Here is Mary Karlee's hierarchy of kid towel utility.

1.  Towel
2.  Beach Towel
3.  Beach Towel with animated character on it
4.  Beach Towel with Disney animated character
5.  Beach Towel with Disney animated character and kid's name embroidered

There you have it future towel buyers, make your towel purchase go from boring to soaring!

Bedtime

Can I have some water?
I need to go potty!
Will you spread my covers?
Rex is out of his bed!
I can't find my flashlight friend.

I've heard all these and many more stalls from my children in their last stitch effort to avoid going to sleep.  Tonight they were up to their usual antics, but in kinda funny, I'll look back at this and laugh kind of way. Here's how it went down:


I was finishing up the dishes when Jenna startled me with a hug from behind.
MK:  Ahh!  Oh, Jenna.  Hello. Back to bed.
Jenna:  Mom, I love you.
MK:  Yes, I love you too.  Now back to bed.
Rex (running into kitchen): Can we go to a waterpark right now?
MK: No, it's bedtime.
Jenna: The waterpark would be closed right now.
MK:  That's true.  Back to bed kids.
Rex:  Den can we go to Disneywand?

If you give a baby a sword

If you give a baby a sword,

She'll probably bop you on the nose.

Respectable in the 80s

For Father's day we did a parody of "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and titled it "The Power of Dad." The kids and I had a great time practicing and getting all punk rocker for the occasion. I'm trying to do an air guitar, though the picture makes it look more like air ukelele.

Don't these girls look cute? After trying to recreate poofy bangs with such fine hair, I'll say it's a good thing that style is out.

And here is the Dad of Honor after the concert.  Happy Father's Day!!!

Letter of the Law

We have a rule that the kids can not bring in any toys they find outside.  I think Jenna's working the system.

Annette and Piper

 Many moons ago Ryan was talking to his mom about the great news that his sister Megan was expecting.  His mom mentioned how great it would be if "someone" would have another baby soon so Piper would have a cousin to grow up with.  At that moment Ryan knew we were in fact having a baby but we hadn't shared the news yet.  Two weeks later we got to give Shula that happy call that we took her advice and whipped up a baby.  :)  We were even happier once we knew both cousins were girls.  I'm so glad they'll get to grow up together.  

Piper is only two weeks older than Annette, but it definitely seems she's got the firm upper hand in the relationship. 

Double Stroller

If Annette was a twin I don't know how I would bring in the groceries.  Come to think of it, if Annette was a twin I don't know I would do anything.  I'm pretty glad she's a single baby in a double stroller.

How do we love thee, let me count the ways...

One morning while making breakfast I saw all the kids plus Ryan gathered around Nettie singing to her.  I can't decide if it reflects more about how much they love her, or how much she hates getting exiled to her exersaucer. 

Picturesque

We took a few pictures on Easter as many a family are prone to do, and while our traditional family photo turned out as usual (not a single one where each kid is looking and/or smiling) we captured a few choice snap shots that I loved. We took these right before our Easter Family Devotional at Bacarra beach on Sunday morning. It's only been a few months, but I already feel so nostalgic when I look at these.  Maybe I'm feeling our Santa Barbara mortality, or that I simply adore these kids of mine.  Either way, I hope you like them too.

Lunch with Cousins

My mom and I had a great idea to get the kids together for lunch.  It seemed simple enough: buy kids lunch, let kids play.  It wasn't that simple.  Grandma and I were exhausted after lunch.  Before we even ordered, Abbey skinned her knee.  She was "too sad to eat" she said and would only be consoled by cheese crackers.  Grandma obliged and left me with the kids while she walked to Thrifty to buy the crackers.  The food came and Abbey held her ground, no offers of fries or chicken nuggets were accepted.  Grandma arrived with the crackers and it seemed all was well in the world.  But Grandma started passing out Cheezits to all the kids which sent Abbey back to tears because she didn't want to share. I left at this point to go order lunch for Grandma and I from Panera down on the other side of the mall.  Just as I got back,  Jenna needed to go to the bathroom.  My stomach grumbled from the wait, but I took Jenna, Marielle and Abbey back to Panera to use the restroom.  We came back to the table to find Mikey sobbing because he had fallen and gotten hurt.  Just as he settled down, he knocked over his cup spilling orange soda all over his pants.  He cried and earnestly wanted to know, "why does everything bad happen to me??" We cleaned up the mess and then I finally started to get out lunch for Mom and I.  By this point Marielle was done with her lunch and wanted second lunch.  I shared the bread and broccoli soup with her and Jenna. Funny enough, after all this I still finished my lunch before Rex and Mikey.  Probably because they were eating about one french fry per two laps on the kids play yard.  Despite my attempt at making this story more dramatic than it probably was, I love having cousins and Grandma just an hour away.  Here are a few poses I took while we waited for our lunch.

Jenna hasn't quite mastered how to smile on cue.

Can you see the orange soda? It looks so innocent all nice and contained in it's cup.

Abbey in the background looking a little sad.

Jenna has mastered the sticking out tongue on cue.

Lunch with Grandma is the best!

Baby + Sunglasses = Adorable

I can't say much to elaborate on this post since Annette's extreme cuteness speaks for itself, but I will add two notes:
1. Annette seems to wear this green shirt a lot (or at least I take pictures of her in it a lot). 
2. What is it about a baby in sunglasses that ramps up adorableness to off-the-chart levels?

Public Service Announcement

Don't forget to brush your teeth!

 

Love, Jenna

3.14

With four kids in tow, I'm learning to drop the phrase "real quick" from my vocab.  The pie I was going to whip up real quick, actually wasn't that quick. I finished our "pie day" pie at about 9:00pm, so it was not quite ready for the family celebration I envisioned. However, those of us lucky enough to still be awake at 9 got to enjoy some yummy coconut cream pie in honor of that famous number.

Big Chair, Little Baby

We have a big stuffed chair that we love to pose our babies on.  The kids love to see these pictures in their baby books and Jenna made sure that I got a "Queen Annette" pic to match the rest of her sibs. Here a few of the pictures we've captured through the reigns of each baby.

Queen Jenna

Queen Annette

Annette graces her throne

King Rex (don't be fooled by his suspicious WT outfit)

Queen Marielle

It's sorta like the kids in Naria: rour Kings and Queens reigning harmoniously together.  Now if I could just find that wardrobe and send them into the woods occasionally when I need a break.

Don't Be Fooled

Rex loves Annette.  Rex LOVES Annette.  From day one he started calling her "Nettie" and now we all do.  The most frequent phrase in our house right now is some variation of: "Rex soft!" He wants to see her, hold her, step over her, sit on her, sing to her, and tug on her hands or feet.  These pictures portray Rex how we would like Rex to act around Annette -- sweet, gentle, and soft.  And I guess if I caught it with the camera he does manage to be soft with her at least some of the time. But most of the time he acts like a rambunctious three year old (shocking right?) and needs reminders to tone it down a notch.  I'm glad that he loves her though, and hope they will grow up as friends.

Pin It!

A few weeks ago it was Rex's turn to choose the treat for family home evening.  He came up with a new and inventive dessert that I'm sure is going to take off.  His instructions were specific, "Lucky Charms dipped in chocolate."  And so we made it. 

They tasted just like the name suggests: like Lucky Charms dipped in chocolate.  Yum!