Ponderings....

I apologize for the prolific amounts of pictures uploaded from my phone.....it's just that getting pictures off my real camera and onto the computer is harder than hooking up my phone....it's just ironic since my camera costs more than my first car, and all my blog pictures are from a 49 dollar phone.  Oh well.

Today I'm wondering why the baby refuses to nap when I want to lay down, but when I'm up doing stuff, (like today) she's taking a marathon nap. What in the world?

I'm wondering how my house goes from COMPLETELY and totally picked up, neat as a pin...to looking like a run down crack house in less than twelve hours.

I'm wondering if my husband expects me to make dinner tonight.

I'm wondering if the dude who is supposed to build our patio cover is actually going to start tomorrow like he said he would.  He better.

I'm wondering what crappy house in my neighborhood is going to be awarded yard of the month tomorrow.  I know our driveway needs to be replaced...but seriously??  Our yard looks better than 90 percent of the houses that get the stinking yard of the month award, and we never, ever have gotten it.
Can you tell I'm bitter about this?
I told my husband I'm making a "Yard of the Millenium" sign and put it in my own yard.  He says they'd probably make me take it down.

I'm wondering who taught my baby to plug her ears and holler "Nanananananana I can't hear you!"  Thanks for that, whoever did it.

I'm feeling a tiny bit grumpy right now...can you tell?

p.s.  the picture above is my screen saver on my phone.  I love it because...a: the big ones have their arms around the baby and b: it's taken in front of a restaurant, and Sis has a purse and Bub has his Zoolie bear with him.  I love their accessories that go everywhere with us.
Looking at that picture makes me less grumpy.

What I'm loving today....

I love these people.....

I love that they are still little enough that they want to be loved on.  This morning, they all crawled into my lap like a bunch of puppies.  I know that won't last forever, so when they do it, I'm grateful.

I love that the twins start sentences now with "Mom, I've got some good/bad news...."  

That cracks me up.

I love that while I was getting dressed this morning, Hayden poked my stomach and said, "What happened there?"

I told her: "YOU happened there...."

I love that my little boy that typically only eats bread and tortillas has tried both shrimp AND a turkey and cheese sandwich in the last five days. 

I love that both twins came home last night from being out with Daddy, and wanted to run and jump all over me and tell me what they did while they were away.

I love that I still have a baby in the house.  She's still asking for (and getting) her bottle and paci, but I can't manage to tell her NO quite yet.  She's still my tiny one....

I love that the tiny one LOVES her siblings....today she kept running to Hayden with her arms open for a hug.  She loves me, but she REALLY loves her brother and sister.

I love that the polaris machine in my parents' pool has been renamed the "Wicky Bug" because Livi thought it was a "Yucky bug" when she first saw it, and said it was going to bite her. 

I love days like today....

Nothing we really HAD to do...just stuff we WANTED to do...a trip to Gruene Market days to buy plants for the back patio....it was 1000 degrees outside at ten in the morning, so we didn't last long there.  We headed back to SA (after a quick trip through the Granzin's drive through for BBQ sandwich for the hungry husband) and hung out at home.  Kids napped, we puttered around the house, and husband got to go off and wander around in Academy for a few hours.  I'm not sure how he always manages to come home with nothing though.  If I could do that, we'd be a lot more well off financially.
The kiddos woke up, and we headed to Lowe's for a quick errand.  We went to a few other stores, one of them being Goodwill, because I need a wooden coffee table that I can make over for our back patio.   Sadly, there were no cute tables there, but there was a HUGE buffet thing with drawers and two doors.  It would have been AMAZING for our back patio, painted a cool color and antiqued.  Too bad for me, it already had a SOLD tag on it, and it's no wonder...they only asked 9.99 for it.  Can you believe that?  I would have loved an outdoor buffet that I could tell people I got for less than ten bucks!
We had mexican food for dinner at one of our favorite spots, and the kids were really well behaved because we set up our tables right next to the fish tank, and that was entertaining enough to keep them focused.

After dinner, we ran by my friend's house to drop something off....we tried to make it super quick, because I knew they were about to bathe their kids.  Anyway, our "super quick" trip turned into mojitos on their porch...our five combined kids had fun drawing all. over. their. bodies with crayola markers....my mojito was too yummy to worry about that.  Let me tell you, it kept them busy and it came right off in the tub!  Totally worth the mess.
Now, babies are all in bed, and I can hear the husband watching baseball in the other room...now I'm off to read in the tub!

**sidenote:  the tiny one is starting to need some discipline.  She hollered "NO" at her Daddy this afternoon, and ended up with her tiny hiney in time out.
***sidenote number two:  I have plans for a little bit of this in the back yard...

No, this is not our house, just a photo I saved on my phone.  I am still on my "must get shade" kick for my backyard.  We're working on accomplishing this, soon hopefully!!  Stay tuned!

She got her groove on....

Yesterday, Sissy had her first ever dance class.  She's been talking about his for WEEKS and has been so excited for this day to get here.  Building up to yesterday, she kept wanting to try on her taps and ballet shoes, and kept asking where her dance bag was.  She was so excited about her new leotards, tights and shoes....yesterday as we were getting ready, we had her practice putting her shoes on and taking them off, because I knew she would be in the studio without me and needed to know how to do it alone.  We got her ready, and put her little hair in a bun.  That ALONE made me want to cry because it was so adorable, and she looked so grown up.  She was so sweet in the car on the way there, and tried not to mess up her bun.  Her best friend Logan is in her class, too...but we coached her on the way there that they were NOT supposed to play, talk or act silly during class.  She was to listen to her teacher, and do her best.

My little one did not disappoint!  She tried so hard, and looked so cute doing all the dance moves.  Her class is tap, ballet, and creative movement.  I knew we had "creative movement" in the bag, right from the start.  This tiny one has been all about creative movement, even in utero!  The first class was a little bit crazy, but I guess that is to be expected from three and four year old girls.  The main thing is, she had a good time, and can't wait to go back.  It's too early to tell if this is going to be "her thing" or not, but she's certainly built like a dancer...she was the tallest one in the class, and she's certainly a string bean.  I especially loved this milestone with my big girl...

Rockport weekend....

Clearly, we are beach going fools this summer!  This weekend marked our second trip to Rockport with the Zunkers.  Every summer, they rent a house on the water, and we are lucky enough to spend a few days with them.  We headed down there on Saturday, and quickly got our bathing suits on.  First on the agenda: searching for hermit crabs, digging in the sand, and walking the pier.

Daddy found a crab, and caught it for everyone to look at.  Livi wasn't too sure about this thing....

Other than worrying about my kids falling off the pier into the ocean, we had a pretty relaxing day.  Shawn kept reminding me that they had life jackets on, but I know the experience would have been traumatic nevertheless, and wanted to avoid it at all costs.  We just got these kids excited about the water!  I didn't want to take fifteen steps back!  We grilled fajitas, and got the kids washed up for bed.  Once again, I was reminded how "fun" it is to try to get all my people to sleep in the same room.  Ugh.  Sissy and the baby would be fine, but for some reason, Cale is one of those kids that literally vibrate with energy when they are tired.  He gets more ridiculous and bouncy, and can't be contained.  I had to lay with him in bed, and physically hold him still to get him to settle down.  I called this "snuggling" so that he wouldn't know he was being put in a human straight jacket.
The next day was more playing outside, more crab hunting, more pier walking, and more relaxing.  That evening, we were invited on a boat ride and to dinner with another family and we were super excited about that.

My kids LOVED the boat, especially the cabin.  They thought they were in a floating playhouse!  Nevermind that there was no airflow to speak of and it was a veritable oven down in that thing....we had to convince them to come above deck and enjoy the ride.  So fun!  Reminds me how much I would love having a boat someday.  We enjoyed looking at all the beautiful houses, and Livi ate her weight in watermelon.
Back at their house, we swam in the pool, and my sweet son, who JUST RECENTLY AGREED TO GET OFF THE STEPS OF THE POOL, asked me to take his life jacket off so he could "swim without it".  Well, okay.  I took it off, and stood up to follow him.  He jumped right into the center of the hot tub, and sunk straight to the bottom.  I jumped in after him, and he wasn't deterred at all.  Back and forth, back and forth he went....sinking a little more than he was swimming, but still getting closer and closer to actual swimming.  I was so proud of how brave he was, and how hard he was trying!!

The picture above is a horrible one of Livi, but I posted it because I'm pretty sure she's pooping in this picture, and that is the BEST part of this story.....the hostess noticed her standing by the side of the pool with POOP COMING OUT OF HER SWIM DIAPER, and pointed it out very nicely to me.  In horror, I ran to her, noticed a tsunami of wet poop running down her leg and dripping onto their beautiful deck....it was one of those moments where you are looking around, frozen...because you can't grasp what is going on, and you don't know what to do first.  Being the brilliant problem solver I am, I grabbed a bucket, filled it with pool water, and washed the poop off the deck and down the steps that lead to the ocean.  All this really did was splatter the poo down the steps.  I grabbed the baby and her bag, and headed down said steps, out of the general vicinity of other swimmers/party goers who were, at this point, probably gagging.  I laid her on the dock next to the boat, and managed to tear her swim diaper in half while she tried to flip over like a fish.  Because of all her hijinks, poop and RAISINS flopped out of her diaper, onto the deck and all over my leg.  I hollered at Amy to tell Shawn to bring me an HEB bag, when what I really needed was a HazMat mask and a flamethrower.  He came down just as I was finishing dangling my poop covered baby by the arms down into the ocean to wash her off, and we managed to clean up, re-diaper her, and ensure we never get another invite back to these nice people's house.  They were SO gracious and sweet, but having your baby explode at a pool party still makes you feel like a Beverly Hillbilly.  Sigh.  I thought we were almost past this point, considering Livi says, "I no poop in my suit." every time I get her dressed for swimming.  I guess she's just hoping for the best, not making any promises. 

We headed back to SA Monday, and were a little sad to go....Shawn needed to get back for work, and we had a busy week ahead of us, but we were going to miss the lazy days of needing to be nowhere.  I'm already trying to plan our next trip back! 

Occupying our summer days....

We are filling up these lazy days with fun, fun, FUN...as much of it as we can stand!  We play in the backyard in the splash pool, we make a water slide out of our regular play ground slide, (which is probably critically unsafe and illegal in fourteen states),  we have friends over...we swim, swim and SWIM until we can't take it anymore.  Mimi's pool is the usual spot, but we are trying to create summer fun in other ways too.  Last week our friends came over and one of my mommy friends, Sarah, brought along a giant inflatable water park for the kids to play in.  Sarah deserves a mommy award of some kind (or at least a stiff cocktail)  for setting up that thing....after losing some accessories and sweating like a champ, she had it up and running and the babies had a great morning playing in it.  Sitting outside watching them play started me thinking about outdoor projects I need to start on....namely, some kind of stinkin patio cover for our back yard.  If you had been there that morning, you would have seen four grown women basically all sitting in the same chair, trying to relax in the sixteen square inches of shade that our little umbrella provides.  Not good enough.  Not good enough, at all!  What's the point of having stuff for the kids to do out in the backyard if I have to sweat like a wrestler to supervise?  This week will include a visit from a carpenter guy, who will hopefully see my lack of shade and be so crippled with pity that he offers to build something beautiful and classic at little charge.
If setting up a waterpark in your backyard isn't crazy enough, I ventured to SEA WORLD alone, to meet Leni and her brood for a day at the waterpark area.  I brought my double stroller, so one kiddo was going to have to walk.  Of course, when we have three stroller seats available, no one wants to ride...but when there is only two, everyone wants to be in a stroller and be pushed.

I was a little nervous (okay, maybe more than a little) to be around water, with three kiddos four and under, none of which are independent swimmers yet.  Luckily, there are life jackets there for them to use, and that made me feel a little better.  After a little mishap involving Livi (she isn't used to a life jacket and  ventured out over her head in the wave pool, only to realize it didn't hold her up the same way her puddle jumper does...causing her to tump onto her stomach, face in the water, or flip onto her back, flailing like a beached whale) we had a great time!  The twins loved the wave pool, and stayed right by me.  There was another little splash area they loved, and a pool with a water slide that only LIVI would ride with me.  That one is a daredevil, and is going to cause me some gray hairs in the future.  I thought she would be scared because the slide dumps you into the water at the end, but she was happy as can be.  She told Leni afterwards, "I SIDE!"  We left Leni and her kiddos at the wave pool, and headed back to our car.  This was akin to climbing Mt. Everest.  All three kiddos got in the double stroller, and I pushed the whole 100+ pound thing for what felt like ten hours to get to the car.  Somehow, it was all uphill, and I had to bend myself in half to get it moving at a snail's pace.  Having the twins walk would have been easier physically, but hollering "GET OVER HERE AND STAND BY ME" a thousand times might have been just as exhausting.  Finally, FINALLY we made it to our car and headed home.  Two thirds of them were asleep before we left the parking lot. (Cale, in true form, chattered the whole way home, never showing one sign of tiredness at all.  The kid is a machine.)

 Livi's favorite part of Sea World is the refillable popcorn bucket. 

Despite slathering on SPF at every turn, and making my tiny ones wear their rash guards, they are still turning into brown bunnies, and June isn't even over yet!

Livi-isms....

I just know I'm going to forget the way her tiny voice sounds right now....someday I'll try to remember how she talked/laughed at this age, and it won't come to me.  I already can hardly remember the twins at this age...until I get out the home movies and watch their adorable little selves in action.
I need to get better at video–ing all of them!  The days just seem to happen, one after the other...filled with activities that I should be taping but I forget....I'm resolving to change that!  I know someday, I will really treasure the movies I make of them....until then, I blog.  At least I'll have this!
I love, LOVE the age Livi is at right now.  She is full of hilarious commentary all day long.  Today, I heard her telling her baby, "Hiiiiiii, sugar!"  At least her "mommy voice" is nice, huh?  If she hollered in her baby's face, I would know where THAT was coming from!
She is still telling us that everything bit her...from the killer whale at Sea World, to the little girl walking down the road.  I guess that is the third kid in her....she has figured out how to tattle, but hasn't yet figured out believable ways to pin things on people.
She is a swimming fool at this age!!  She's still wearing her water wings, but I am willing to bet she'll be my earliest swimmer.  She has. no. fear.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  She is so fun!  Laughing and happy all day long, unless she's asking for a bottle or paci, both of which I am trying to ween her off of.  I tried saying "No, paci's are only for sleeping."  but she literally screams until my eardrums bleed in the car, and I give in just because I CAN NOT TAKE IT.  I guess I'll try weaning her again in a few months.

She's super interested in the potty, and wants to sit on it all the time, but nothing has happened on the pot yet.  She grunts and says, "I'm done!" so we still have a way to go.  She likes to talk about pottying (she's her mother's child!) and tell me who uses the potty, but no luck with training yet.  We were sitting on the potty at my mom's house the other day, and I was telling her to toot.  I thought that might make something happen, so I was encouraging tooting, and she was performing quite well.  Her sister came in to see what was going on, and my baby made the grumpiest face at her sister, and hollered, "HEY!  Yet me toot!"  That baby cracks me up!
She is really, really verbal for her age, so she loves to play with bigger kids.  Luckily, they indulge her, because she actually plays pretend, and follows directions...it's funny how much OLDER she seems at this age than the twins did...I know it's because she is the third baby and has to keep up with them all the time.

She is IN LOVE with Hayden and Cale, and does most everything they tell her to.  If they are trying to push her around, though....watch out!  She'll holler and defend herself, which cracks me up to no end.  She mostly adores them, though....and brings them up in every conversation.  Here are some examples:
Me:  "Livi, you want to start going on the potty?"
Livi:  "Bubby potty.  Sissy potty."
or this one...
Me:  "Hey, what is your name?"
Livi:  "Bubby name Cale.  Sissy name Hayden."
Me:  "Yeah, but what is YOUR name?"
Livi:  "Bubby name Cale."
If they are somewhere without her, she has to talk about where they are the whole time...."Bubby at Mimi's?  Sissy at Mimi's?"  It won't be long before she is doing everything they are doing....she doesn't want to be left out!  Sissy was asking Mimi when she could spend the night again, and the tiny one heard the conversation and hollered, "I pend the night, too!"  You can't sneak much past my tiny one....
I can't believe she'll be two in less than two months?  Where did the time go??  This one flew by even faster than the first two....

Photo Shoot Rejects

I think I've lamented before about the impossibility of getting more than one kid to look normal in a picture.  I'm not picky! I don't even care about smiles and happiness anymore.  I just don't want looks of constipation, or someone slapping the back of someone else's head.  During a recent attempt to get ONE good picture of my three chicklets, I had to laugh at these horrible rejects.

Dad's arm in the picture, trying to fix baby's hairbow (at my request of course)

Sissy trying to squeeze baby's head off.

Cale's "what the hell is going on?" face.  At this point in the photo session, I think I might have been wondering what the hell was going on, too.

And baby has had enough!  Off the step she goes!  And now, for some adorable single shots...

Either growling or trying to gleek on me.  Not sure which one.

This is what I'm talking about with the constipation.  This kid looks like he hasn't had a BM in a month.  

And maybe my all time favorite reject.  Bubby FINALLY looks sweet and happy, but Sis has to look like she's trying to recreate a Stones album, while covertly shoving baby off the step onto the pavement below.