Sophie

Sophie is 4 months and she is so beautiful and so fun and we are madly in love with her. She is such an easy going baby and is very content which works out well since she is pretty much toted from event to event... She is rolling over both directions and weighs 12lbs and is 24.5 inches long. Happy 4 months sweet girl!

Houston Dynamo

Everyone in this house enjoys going to a sporting event, actually any event. This includes our newest doll baby. We had tickets to see the Houston Dynamo play LA Galaxy and the kids were thrilled and wanted to get decked out in orange. The boys are ready.
Isn't she precious, we are enjoying her so much. She is such a contented baby and smiles all the time.
Here we are really early to the game... We seemed to be the first there and last to leave. We stayed for the fireworks after. The Dynamo won 3-1 and got a spot in the playoffs. The traffic out of the stadium was a zoo and we were stuck with a curb in front of us so after waiting and waiting I say to John "do it, do it and then the kids got in on the chant and sure enough John and the expedition sailed right over and we were off and the kids had such a laugh watching all the other suvs and trucks follow suit.... There was a small toyota and everyone in the car climbed out while the car bounced over and then they all got back in... Its the small things that get us excited!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving... Pretty much everyone who reads this is Canadian so Happy Turkey Day or in our house Happy rotisserie chicken day!!! We are super thankful this year for Sophie who is just the best little baby and the love of our lives. The kids each told me what they were thankful for and Ella was thankful for a house and all the provisions we have and Christopher was thankful for Brown Bear and Mom and Jack was thankful for cookies and the Wii. After school today they decorated pumpkins and made turkeys. We also had delicious pumpkin pie with whip cream that Ella whipped! The kids love to be in the kitchen helping - kind of surprising since I like to be anywhere but there. We missed our beloved John/Daddy today and we are thankful for him. He is the best!

LOVE

The kids sleep together every night and I just think it is the sweetest thing. I have a picture of the boys when they were newborns sleeping just like this together and nothing has changed. Jack is such a snuggler and needs a buddy to sleep with and Christopher and Ella accommodate nicely. I personally don't know how its comfortable but it sure is cute.

Jack loves Sophie. He loves to hold her, kiss her, pester her while she's sleeping and generally just hang around her. Here he is holding her and I managed to get a shot of him giving her a kiss... LOVE IT

Sophie is Ella's very own baby doll and she loves to pick out her outfits and put bows in her hair. So far Sophie is agreeable.

Soccer

The boys have started their new soccer season and to their surprise their team name is Toronto... How crazy is that? We were pretty excited. The team is made up of friends so it is such a fun season.
Ella is enjoying cheering on her brothers with her gymnastics moves and seeing her friends as well.
Aren't they cute? They both scored a goal in the same game. They were so proud of themselves as they should be.

Artist

Jack loves to draw and he has mastered drawing Mo Williams' pigeon from his book "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus" Today he expanded his horizons and was working on other animals. He is so proud and he should be. Jack works hard at it and keeps trying till he gets it the way he thinks he should look. He has perseverance.

On the way home from church today he was telling us that he could knew how to make cookies. We asked him how and he gave us his list of ingredients.

Flour

Sugar

Eggs

Baby powder

He's always good for a laugh, I said do you mean baking powder? Oh yeah, thats it he said...

Sophie is starting to coo and babble and smile. She loves to spend time at dinner just laying on the table with us and tonight she was all smiles. Jack says I hope she grows up to be a famous artist like Monet...

10th Day of School

Its hard to believe that we have already finished 2 weeks of school. The boys came home on Friday with crowns on... They were so excited because their teacher threw them a Happy 10th day of school party. The boys are loving school, no complaints about going to school and they are making lots of new friends. I kept the boys together for Kindergarten and I am so glad I did. The transition has been so easy. Ella is also enjoying having them there. They all walk in together and she walks them to their class. She is a mother hen and the boys always get excited to see her in the hall.

Yesterday a friend asked Jack if he was liking school and he said "yes, but I am SOOO afraid of my teacher" We all had a good laugh since his teacher is so sweet... and I didn't think Jack was afraid of anyone.

When the boys were getting their picture taken with the party crowns Ella had to join in. Her she is in her party outfit...

We had to have a picture of Sophie. She loves to lay on the table while we are eating lunch. The kids think its great to talk to her and tell her about their day. Today Christopher thought Brown Bear needed to have a chat with Sophie. She will be 7 weeks tomorrow and she is starting to smile and make noises and we are all enjoying her and she is bringing so much joy to our home...

Jack is always doing headstands. You can't sit near him anymore since he is always on his head and when he lands his boney knees land on you so we steer clear of him on the stairs, couch, bed and pretty much everywhere he is practicing his moves...

Sophie

I fell off the blog writing wagon since our blog picture still has our sweet dog Sam and doesn't picture our crazy fur ball Belle and we are no longer a party of 5 because as of July 19, 2011 at 7.35am we welcomed a beautiful sweet girl Sophie Elizabeth. Isn't she lovely.

We are thoroughly enjoying her. She is so fun for all of us. With a 7 and 5 year age gap she is truly the baby and the big kids are thrilled to have her. She provides us with lots of entertainment and that entertainment is pretty much watching her sleep. The only issue we seem to have is who is going to sit next to her in the car. I said this poor sweet girl is going to have 5 parents. Jack doesn't like to hear her cry so any peep she makes he is trying to give her a pacifier and shhhh her. Ella wants to hold her and pick out her outfits and Christopher likes to kiss her head and give her brown bear to snuggle. I told John I was so glad he wanted a 4th because she is a wonderful addition and I am absolutely smitten with her...

So after a long blog hiatus we now continue our journey with 4 little miracles and their tales...

Gardening

This is during the planting...

This is after!

The weather is beautiful here and not too hot yet so we decided it was the perfect time to plant some flowers and put in some new mulch. The kids think this is the greatest activity because they are guaranteed to find rollie pollies and worms and ants etc. There is also dirt and lots of of it. Perfect family day. We took them to the store and they each picked out flowers and vegetables to plant. We will see how that goes but they were so excited, we couldn't squash the idea!!!

The day wore on and the kids went inside for a snack and drink and I am standing outside when the police slowly pull in front of our house. She gets out and smiles and John comes out of the house with Jack and tells me that he called 911. She was really nice and asked him his name and he seemed ok with the fact that he shouldn't do that again but poor Christopher who had nothing to do with it was so scared and crying. I asked Jack what was the emergency and he said "um I thought there was a fire in the cul de sac, Are the fire men coming to? He has been asking me what constitutes an emergency so we have been having lots of morbid conversations around here. The fun never stops!!!

Spring Break

The kids have been begging John and I to take them to Canada to see snow. So for spring break we flew to Canada to see the white stuff. There wasn't much but the kids thought it was perfect and it was so fun for us to see them enjoy it. We took them to Blue Mountain a couple hours north of Toronto to a little ski community.
Here they are all ready to ski. They did so well. We were going to put them in lessons but decided to see how they would do and well they loved it and did really well. They went up the magic carpet and down the bunny hill on their own with no troubles. After a little bit of this the kids informed me that they were done with the baby hills and ready to move on. I think we will definitely be taking them again. The highlight was that my parents also went. My dad has skied in the past but my mother had never been on the slopes and bless her heart she did it for the kids. They thought it was great. What a fun fond memory for us!!!
The boys got to bowl for the first time and Ella got to freshen up on her skills.
This is a model of a large maple tree. We took the kids maple syrup tapping and they got to taste the sap and then watch them boil away the water and taste the sugar/syrup remaining.

We also did a little glow in the dark mini golfing. A very busy action packed trip that was so fun. What a great time we had!

Kindness

Here is my KIND girl in red. The boys wore red head to toe to celebrate with her...

At Ella's school each month there are character traits that are emphasized such as respect, kindness, citizenship, responsibility etc... There are 9 traits and each month when teachers see kids exhibiting these attributes they get a blue ticket. At the end of the month they pull a ticket and they spotlight that child in a ceremony. Its a great thing the school does and its fun. They assign a color to each trait. Last year Ella won respect and wore yellow. The parents go to school and say something nice about their child and then the best part is punch and cookies (according to Jack and Christopher). This year Ella won kindness. This was particularly cool because kindness is the only trait that is peer voted. I was unaware Ella won until nonchalantly one day she says "mom I got spotlight this week" I was like what? that's awesome Ella. She told me the day the letter came home but she had already known for a quite a few days. I asked her why she hadn't told us and she said "because MOM you tell everyone! I told her I was so excited and proud of her so could I please tell my friends? She says NO, just tell Daddy. Silly girl. So I told all my friends not to say anything! SHHH.

We are so proud of her. She has always been kind and gentle with everyone. She shares amazing and would give up anything for someone. Yesterday Jack was complaining that he had only earned $1 and next thing Ella is giving him and Christopher a dollar so they could have some more money. She is lovely and I think she is the greatest gift God could give me...

Right now it seems Jack is being funny with all his antics and sayings. He's at that awesome age where they are just funny and don't know they are and aren't trying to be yet.. We are thoroughly enjoying his tales. Here's another....

This weekend John took Jack out to get the mail and when he comes back to the house he in his raspy animated voice says "Mom, I got mail, I say oh yeah who from, knowing it was from Johns dad but was surprised when he responded, "President Lincoln" What Jack? Look he shows me the stamp. John says that's George Washington. OH he says, I got mail from George Washington then!!

Rodeo

Rodeo Day at Ella's school

Decorating a cowboy boot

Obviously the blog has been on hiatus. This is for many reasons, I am tired, Johns in town, the kids are keeping me so busy that by the time I sit down at night I am exhausted. The kids are saying funny things all the time. I am constantly still taking pictures although most of them are on my iphone now and we are still doing all kinds of activities that are worth blogging to my family about but haven't. In an effort to redeem myself here goes.

Jack and Christopher pick up Ella from school with me everyday and we normally get there early (surprise) since I am never late. Anyways this area has quite a large Mexican population and everyday they greet you with a kiss. Yesterday being no different that any other day I was kissed on the cheek by a man at school. Jack indignant asks "Why are you kissing my mom?" I explain to him that in Spanish culture that is how they greet each other. Hours later after gymnastics we meet up with John for dinner and when the waitress comes over to our table Jack asks "Daddy, are you going to kiss her???" If you know John that is pretty funny!

Living in Texas we have the annual Rodeo. Ella celebrated at her school last week with chili and cow roping naturally and the boys have it this week. Its such a fun experience for them. The boys school brought in a real cow and they showed the kids how to milk a cow. Christopher comes home all excited to recant the day and tells me "Mom the cow had lots of penis's and when they pulled them, milk came out!"

Anyone who reads this knows that we have to change the blogs name since we will no longer only be a party of 5 but are swelling (literally) to 6. Our house is currently buzzing with baby questions, name suggestions and anything related to poop. Jack asks me yesterday morning while he was getting dressed. "Does she (pointing to my tummy) wear pajamas in there?" He has come around to being very excited about having a new baby once he was reassured he would not have to do anything related to diapers.

We went looking at a house and the lady said that it only had 4 bedrooms not 5 and Ella says that's great. The baby can have a room, Jack, Christopher and I can have our room together, Mom and Dad can have a room and there is still one left over for Grandma. Its so cute how the 3 of them still sleep together and are really enjoying being together. The time will come when the natural separation will occur and that's ok, but I am loving seeing them all cuddled in together every night.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! This year is already in full swing and we are having a great time and staying busy. The kids have been making John and I laugh with their funny stories and all their crazy antics. This morning Ella was drawing in her diary and Christopher thought it was so cool since it has a lock and key. He comes downstairs and informs me that he would like one of those diarrhea's.