Start of Huntin' Season

Tony and I have got a great weekend schedule figured out. He gets up early with the kids while I sleep-in on Saturday and then I get up on Sunday. Its great because we each get a day to lay in bed until whenever we want - well, within reason. Blakers has started to find his lungs and now usually yells all morning long. The girls are generally quite until Taeya does something and Aliya starts screaming. Tony can sleep through most of the noise but I always wake up (and then lovingly go back to sleep). Last Saturday my cute hubby took the kids out for a "Breakfast Picnic" at the park so I could sleep uninterrupted. 

Blake loved eating outside. He is one of those super curious kids that is always looking at everything around him. You'd think we never take him outside. (Side note: Can I tell you how proud I am of Tony for thinking to grab the camera? Granted he took our old camera -- I've threatened him with certain death if he starts playing w/ and messes up our new one -- but he not only thought to bring it, but took pictures. Kudos honey!)

Blakers LOVED watching the geese, ducks and pigeons. They are not afraid of people at all. They'll get so close, there are times I am afraid they are going to nip at my kids.

This was the method Tony used to keep Blakers on the blanket. I bet Aliya was in her glory because she got to keep Blake from doing something he wants to do.  She is constantly taking things away from him and blocking his path. Ah, the joys!

Finally the great hunter escaped and all that was left was a bunch of feathers. I am assuming he let out a loud war cry (okay, it was most likely a scream) before he started after the birds.

Goin' Commando!

I rarely get the opportunity to completely mortify my cute hubby but the day has finally come! He rarely does dumb things (or in this case has dumb things done to him). I finally have a rather entertaining story about him (okay, I at least got giggles about it throughout the day). His days generally begin by getting up at 5:30 a.m., packing his clothes for the day then heading to the gym where he works out then gets ready for work. Yesterday began like all the others. He grabbed his undergarments which I have rolled together so he can just grab a set and go rather than grabbing individual tops and bottoms. I got a call at about 8:00 from him saying "Ha ha ha, very funny". He further explained that I had wrapped two tops together so he was going commando (he changes in to his workout stuff at home so he didnt even have dirty bottoms to change into). I got giggling which made him think that I had done it on purpose. I hadn't, but had I known it would give me a full day of entertainment, I just might have!

Throughout the morning, I'd text him random things: "do your balls hang low, do they wobble to and fro" or "be careful when you zip".  You know, all those sweet, kind words of support. We decided to meet and do an early lunch so he could get his underoos on. I ended up running around in a whirlwind trying to get Blakers and I ready to go. I got half way to his work when I realized I had forgotten his bottoms. Again, the giggles hit. I calmed myself down enough to call him and tell him the news. Very funny wife! I was nice and offered to turn around to get them but he said No (I think he was enjoying it at this point). 

When he got home he said he wasn't talking to me because I had done this all on purpose. Nope, but I might do it again, it caused me so much entertainment! I wonder what he'd do if I were to put his bottoms and my top together? Needless to say I wasn't about to get a picture to put on the blog. Hopefully my DH's lovely day at least brought a smile to your face, I've been grinning ever since it happened!

Swingin'

Forgive me people but I've been playing with my camera. There are bound to be a ton of pictures of Blake because I am with him 24/7 (plus he is pretty stinkin cute).  One gorgeous afternoon (low 100's) we went out to play. He ADORES the swing so I caught a couple cute pictures of him swinging away. One of my favorite parts of babies are their feet. They are so chubby and squishy. 

I love his big old cheesy grin. He loves life and really enjoys every new experience. I just hope and pray he continues to be as easy going as he has the first 9 months of life!

Since I am with Aliya almost as much as I am with Blake, I've got a ton of picture of her too. What a ham she is! She loves this teeter-totter thing because she can do it by herself. She is so passionate about life. When she is happy, the world is right. When she is upset, everyone knows it.  Luckily for us she loves life 96% of the time!

Outdoor Fun!

The girls have had a ton of fun playing outside. This day, Tae wanted to have a "photo shoot". They last for about 20 pictures which was fine with me. I had fun playing with the different settings and found some cute pictures of the girls! They are quite the little posers aren't they?

I finally figured out how to make sure their faces don't get darkened due to the bright sunlight behind them. I also had fun playing with the different white balance settings. Below is the Tungsten setting which made all the colors more blue. I can't wait to use this setting on our cruise. The water will look heavenly (as if it wont already)! Cute kiddos if I do say so myself!

Calling all Mommies . . .

Yet again, I need your help. As I posted earlier my dear little Hector (aka Blakers - for some reason when my kids reach the crawling stage I give them a hispanic nickname that I only use when they are driving me crazy) is mobile. Its killing me! I realized the other day that I have never had a crawler with stairs in our house. With Tae we lived in a ghetto duplex until she was 2. Aliya was born into an awesome home with stairs (we still miss our Boise house) but we moved before she was crawling. In Sierra Vista, the land of ramblers, there was no need to worry. Here I am certain my youngest is going to meet his death on the rock hard tile at the end of our stairs. Here is my question:

 Any suggestions for blocking the stairs, aside from a gate?

With two older kiddos, it is hard to do a gate unless I want to haul their hineys over the gate each time they want to go upstairs. Nor do I want to buy the gate that you have to screw into the wall (which in our case is the wooden spindles).  Any suggestions/remedies would be greatly appreciated. Its nice to know I can turn to a whole slew of women wiser than me!

On the move . . .

I realized that I have been a bad Mommy and forgot to blog about Blake crawling. The day I have dreaded has finally arrived. I fish little objects out his mouth hourly (hair elastics, Polly Pocket shoes, stickers etc). Luckily he has yet to choke but I know it is coming.

 The girls don't enjoy him interrupting their play. For a long time they've been able to play near him without being disturbed. Now they've learned that if they want to play anything, its best to do it up in their rooms. They have also discovered that unless they want things to come back slobbery, it is best to put it up where he can't reach (sounds good in theory but RARELY happens). 

Here is Blakers on the move. I feel bad for his poor knees. Tile sucks! I've never liked it but after living in AZ, I hate it even more. People have it everywhere, some even tile their entire home. Yes, it's much cooler but it is so stinkin' hard! What I wouldn't give for hardwood floors! It's a good thing he's got a nice thick padding of fat on his knees! His rear has a nice set of padding on it too! I love when he sits on the hard floor because you can see all the dimples on his butt!

I'm a Cowboy Baby!

We bought these cute Cowboy hats for the girls (which they've loved) but old Blakers has loved it as well. It is fun to see him interact and play with things. What a handsome Cowboy. Now we need to find him a pair of Wranglers and he'll be set!

My kids are obsessed with horses. Tae and Aliya love anything horses (as you've seen in earlier posts). The majority of this is thanks to their Grandma Nette Nette and Papa Bruce. Annette is a barrel racer and they've got a bunch of horses up in Utah. Last week I noticed Tae had her hat and boots on and was running around the house on her little stick horse. I came around the corner and heard Aliya cheering "Go Grandma". How cute is that?

Faces of Aliya

For my Birthday, Tony got me a KILLER new camera! I've had so much fun playing around with it and have already taken a ton of pictures (mostly I've tossed them because I've just been playing around with the different settings). One thing I've had fun with is the continuous shooting mode. It'll take 3.5 pictures per second. One afternoon I was playing around with it and discovered that Aliya's mood can change from sad to happy in the blink of an eye (had I known the pictures would be so cute, I would have wiped the pizza sauce off her chin)!  I loved seeing the transformation! I'm going to see if I can get something similar out of the other two kiddos. Yeah, I love her smiling pictures but I think its so much fun to see her various facial expressions. Sad to admit but she's easily got a hundred more expressions. She is the most expressive kid we've got!

My futures so bright . . .

I love the first time kids put sunglasses on! Blake got the biggest kick out of wearing his sissies glasses. He just laughed and laughed. Of course he kept trying to pull them off but he thought it was hilarious. How sad is it that we are no longer entertained by such simple things? 

He is such a cute and awesome baby! He has so much personality and we just love him. The girls continue to adore him and immediately try to make him happy when he cries! We love you Blakers!

Missing Tooth!

My big girl finally lost her 2nd tooth. She had been wobblin' it for a couple days and eventually decided it was time to come out! Tae said she wanted to tie something around it and shut the door to pop it out like we did with her first tooth. After a couple tries of her pushing the door to shut it, and then running after it, we decided we needed to do something different. Tony got the brilliant idea to let Aliya participate. She willingly stepped up and SLAMMED the door shut. Out popped the tooth and viola: Aliya pulled her first tooth. Tae was excited for the tooth fairy to come and Aliya was excited that she got to do it. Taeya of course immediately wanted a picture so we could post it on the blog. So far her teeth look fine but I am dreading when she loses her top teeth and in grow these huge teeth. I don't think its a cute time for kids!

Tree Huggers!

Now that the weather has FINALLY started to cool off (by cool off I mean like 100-105 degrees) we've started back on our family walks. The girls love to ride their bikes wherever we are going. We often set out to go on an adventure (that means to try and go a new way) but inevitably we end up the lakes (we call them the duck ponds) and the playgrounds. Along the way our girls 'found' this fun tree that was perfect for climbing. How sad is it that our kids have never climbed a tree? Most of the trees here are pretty scrawny or are really prickly. The other thing I freak out about is an obnoxious bug called a Cicada. They live in trees and make the most hideous buzzing sound. It drives me crazy. They love the hot time of year so anytime you go outside all you hear is this constant buzzing. I have yet to see one of these ugly suckers but I am NOT letting my kids climb up trees where they live. We didn't hear them near this tree so figured we were safe (doubt it but it made me feel better). Thanks Amy, I pirated your Cicada picture!

Granted the girls were in flipflops but they still had fun. And before I get a few snide comments, no, we did not make Tae leave her helmet on (if anyone we would have made Aliya -- she is a walking accident most days). She had been riding her bike and didn't want to take it off!

Broccoli anyone?

Crazy kid loves broccoli! I'm still not sure how much he actually gets in his mouth. I find little broccoli bits in the oddest places (I am still trying to figure out how it got down the front of his diaper when he was fully clothed).

OH dear!

I've blogged numerous times in the past about the fun things Tony lets our kids do that I would never let them do (entirely because I don't want to CLEAN it up). Here is another event!  I was off gallivanting around on Saturday and came home to these pictures! I guess Tony had turned the sprinklers on to let the girls run through (since it is still pretty dang hot here). At one point they started to play in the lovely red Arizona mud. One thing let to another and the mud-slinging began. 

Aliya was hit first which of course resulted in tears. Her tears didn't last long and Taeya soon learned that payback is a *****! (I added my own editing, aren't you proud of me)

Needless to say there was mud everywhere but the girls had a BLAST which makes it all worth it (right?)!

True LABOR Day

After being lazy all weekend, I spent all day Monday bustin' my butt trying to get everything done. I had cleaned all the bathrooms, bedrooms and more then I got the brilliant idea to make peach jam and pie. As I was in my misery peeling peaches over the sink, I consoled my self by remembering that Tony was outside in the heat of the day mowing the grass.  To my surprise, I looked out to see my SIX year old mowing the grass (in flipflops none the less). Uh, hello lazy Dad! Tony said next weekend he's going to teach Aliya how to trim. Lovely!

Disclaimer: Tony is anything but lazy. He works his tail off both at work and around our house. I have so few things to give him a hard time about so when I can, I do! He was right by her side the whole time and did a good job supervising! Just in case any of you were thinking of reporting him to CPS!