A Couple of Pictures. Babies grow too fast!

It's not that I'm too busy to blog, but it could well be that I'm too tired :).  The goal at the moment is to post at least once a month.  In this way, I may still end up with some sort of memoir or "journal" when I can't remember my own name anymore.  Sadly, a child dropped the hard drive with my journal on it, which, sadly, was not backed up.  I thought it was, but it wasn't.  A whole year and a half of journal gone just like that.  Pouf!  But, I still have my blog, which has Lorenzo's birth story at least...

I tried to print pictures to send to grandparents today.  That was a waste of ink.  I should know to wait until Shawn comes home.  So, I'll do the next best thing and post some here.

This is Renzo way back in June.

 But I believe this one is July :).  I looked around and saw him with his mouth on the diaper box, and realized that he was kissing the Huggies baby.  He talked to the baby, tried to play with the baby and grab his face.  It was adorable, and hilarious. 

 This is currently my very favorite picture of Xander.  I love this age!

 All my guys (wishing the baby wasn't in the hiking backpack about now) hiking to Manoa Falls.

Someday soon, when Shawn lives here again, we'll go hiking again.  We love to hike, and we love to swim.  So Hawaii is pretty awesome.

This week we're just working on feeling better.  I'm glad they only seem to have mild cases of Hand, Foot, and Mouth.  Still, had to cancel all our plans and appointments for the week, and we have had an I Dream of Jeannie marathon and a Bewitched marathon.  Other than that we've been working on sharing- 2 computers and 3 kids who want to play Khan academy.

This is Me Following Through

With PICTURES :)
So many pics, so little time.  These are the more recent ones, not the earlier ones I haven't sorted through.  Some days I'm glad Shawn likes to take pictures!

Okay, so he doesn't look too happy, but I'm happy to have him!

 One month old!

 Up close he looks like a doll-- well to me anyway.

 Demetri found a way to get out of chores AND use all of my dish soap!

He made the "bubble blower" out of yarn and straws :)

 This guy is resourceful.

 I love it when he smiles!!!

 The boys at the park.  I think each of these shows the character of each kid pretty well.  Maybe not Olie, though that cheesy smile of his is very common.  He was just happy to get up on the monkey bars like his brother.

A Word About Comments and Pics

Comments- I like them, I read them, I try to reply.  But my account is screwy, and not only am I not able to reply to comments on my blog, I'm not able to make comments on other blogs.  This happens randomly as far as I can tell, for random amounts of time, and I'm sorry, and greatly annoyed by the whole thing.  Seriously considering defecting to some other type of blog when I have the time to look at them all.

Pictures- I have not forgotten.  I just don't know where the sd card is.  I have some somewhere.  A couple are even cute.  I'm still trying to capture one of Lorenzo's adorable smiles.  And I will post some here, sometime, soon.

Midsummer Update

Cooking club every Friday has been a hit!  After deviled eggs we learned ants-on-a-log and fruit salad, dirt cups, personal pizzas and smoothies, and today was yogurt parfaits- because it was easy. 

 Science class has been fun too- for the kids.  I thought it was an overkill, but everyone apparently liked the 30 ft. homemade slip n' slide.  Crazy people.

And these are just bonus pictures, because life is fun.  Pushups with Dad, and the Polynesian Cultural Center (the main character of the night show).

This Post Is For My Dear Sister

This is actually just before Thanksgiving.  But it's the most current picture we have with everyone.

(January)It has rained a lot.  So these boys thought running around out there with umbrellas would be lots of fun.  What were the other two doing?

Well, Demetri was doing this...which is what he spends a lot of his day doing now.  (He's getting so big and handsome!)

And Xander was probably sleeping.  But here is another picture of him playing outside with Daddy (football to be specific) just because he's so cute!

There.  You can't say I never post pictures :).  That was instead of a nap this afternoon, which I probably wouldn't have gotten anyway, due to children who need me every minute of the day!  And now, we must go get ready for gymnastics.

Learning how to get pictures off my phone :)

So, we were stuck on Post one day waiting for Shawn for a couple of hours, and the boys were climbing trees.  I had just gotten my phone and they all wanted pictures of them in the trees.  We managed to get in a pretty decent improv shoot (for me- a nonphotographer). 

 The Pinewood Derby of course :).  He was pretty bummed about not winning any races, but it really helped that everyone got a certificate and a little bag of candy.  He felt better after that, and they really did have fun making the car.

 He steals this hat at every opportunity!

 We went to Dennis the Menace Park this weekend.  It's a great bribe, reward, family time, etc.

Okay, this isn't a great picture, but the point is that Demetri got a new bike for Christmas (he REALLY needed a bigger one) and Olie inherited Demetri's little bike.  He learned how to ride it a couple of days after Christmas :).

How to Turn the Day Around

I should be in bed…but I have this blogging addiction.  Okay, it’s not for the sake of blogging.  I just like to write.  Nevermind that I have already written two papers (short-ish of course) today.  Those were predetermined topics.  When I write in my journal and on my blog I get to write about whatever I want.  Besides, blogging somehow keeps my journal going.  Weird.  

Found the camera, which has been lost for about 3 weeks…in a pair of Shawn’s pants that have been buried for about that long.  (Gives you a rough idea of the state of my house.)  So I’m going to start posting pictures again…because I realize that sometimes they can be the best part of a blog…even when I take them and they’re not very good.  Kids just grow fast.

I cut Shawn’s hair today.  Military cuts look funny anyway, but when I do it they’re just downright hilarious.  No pictures of that effort forthcoming; poor Shawn.  

It was a rough morning.  I talked my poor mom’s ear off.  Then I decided to do something for the kids instead of wallowing in my own self-pity (aren’t you proud of me mom?!).  So when Olie asked if we could please do something fun I surprised him by saying, “Sure, what do you want to do?”  The stunned child happily chose the game Categories.  Because you get to pour water on people.  They thought it was great fun and that mom was being a real sport to let them fill the very large lid full.  We all got soaked, including one of my couches.  Then we read whatever books they wanted.  We (I) have to read very slowly because they all like to say the words with (or right after) me.  They all have The Very Hungry Caterpillar memorized.  It’s probably good for them.  Just sitting there with them and watching their absolute joy over simple things did me a world of good.  I think I’ll survive here after all.  I mean, the odds are going up...

I did enough homework today that I’m satisfied that I won’t be scrambling against deadlines at the end of the week.  I want to read a good book.  But I think I will retire to my bed earlier than I did last night, that I may be less weary tomorrow than I was today.

August in Pictures

Demetri at Lover's Point.  A pretty nice beach as far as the beaches here go :)  The kids had tons of fun exploring!

Teddy on our field trip to the Art Museum...okay, so this is outside of the museum.

We had a temple trip this month.  Babysitting was provided at the stake center there.  The kids now LOVE the Oakland temple and ask when we can go back; they had a tour of the grounds (even went on top of the temple!) and visitor's center.

Demetri is now my picture guy.  He loves being in them, taking them, videos of everything...and I must say, some of his stuff doesn't turn out half bad!

After the temple we went out to eat.  A group wanted to give the kids these homemade cupcakes left from their huge birthday party.  My kids were only to happy to comply, and we sang happy birthday to Olie several times.  He even got a candle in his ice cream.  They loved it :)

A Tie-dye shirt from his Pitcher Grandparents

Writing (tracing) thank-you letters...which he actually likes to do.  We've been writing a lot of letters this month!

The new bunk bed, which all of the children like and which has been the cause of several mishaps (usually while doing something they weren't supposed to like jumping off of it).  There is now a "no playing in the bedroom" rule...which works sometimes.

Shawn and Demetri made this fort out of Lincoln Logs.  I now have about 15 videos of it, and Demetri completely freaked out when anyone came near it because he didn't want it knocked down.

 As I was looking through my sister's blog, I noticed that mine lacks any visuals of any kind.  So, taking a cue from her, I actually relearned how to put pictures on my blog.  This is August in a nutshell.  I don't take a lot of pictures, but we try.  Maybe I'll be a little more diligent about getting them posted!