Third Week of Summer Break

  The past couple of weeks have been quite busy.  Kate's first week off of school had minimal obligations but it has since picked up a lot.  She has swim lessons MWF, Taekwondo MWF, and piano on Tuesdays.  This week we ended up going to our friend's house to swim on Tuesday and Thursday as well.  All and all, it doesn't seem like much when I type it all out, but man, our days were so busy!  The time flies and before I know it I'm wondering what's for dinner.  

This week Kate, Abby, and Ellie had a lot of fun catching toads, frogs, lizards, and various kinds of bugs.

 Abby LOVES making Becca laugh.  She started pushing Becca around in the laundry basket and it transformed Becca into a basket of giggles.  I love watching my girls take care of each other and play nicely together.

 Tuesday was a birthday party for Abby's friend, Jack.  The theme was science!

 The kids were given lab coats and protective eye-where. They all looked so cute!

 The first experiment was getting a boiled egg sucked into a bottle whose neck was smaller than the egg. 

Ellie thought it was super funny!

 The next experiment was filling up a balloon from the gases put off from the combination of vinegar and baking soda.

 The kids loved it and giggled about the stinky smell of vinegar.

  Sadly, Kate, Ellie, Becca, and myself had to leave early to take Kate to piano lessons.  Abby stayed and enjoyed herself.  More experiments were created; cake and ice cream was enjoyed; and presents were opened. 

Every day this week after swim lessons we would come home and have lunch "quickly" so that Ellie could take her nap.  The girls are always silly but they seemed extra silly on Wednesday.  I love looking at these pictures because they show the sweet relationship the girls have with each other.  

 Becca was the first one to try out the new sit-and-spin toy that came in the mail.  

 Corn has been $0.25 a cob and is so yummy that we've been eating it often.  Becca loves going to town on her corn.  Makes her feel like a big girl.  

 Gerald finally got a hair cut this week.  I had to stop mid cut to take care of the girls so he chilled like this for a while.  

 Becca fell asleep on her daddy while watching our favorite show ever, The Office.

 The only picture I have of swimming at our friend's house this week.  Ellie loved walking on the diving board but only jumped off of it a few times, and usually with help.

 Getting a back rub from Daddy.  Becca had been crawling around and then saw Andrew and quickly crawled over to his lap.  She adores him so much.

 Thursday after dinner, Kate treated us all to fro-yo at Sweet Frog.  She had been given a gift card for her birthday and was more than happy to use it all on us.  

Sweet Ellie Mae shared hers with Becca.

 And here is my dark chocolate, copper bottomed baby after another morning at the pool.

 Abby was happy to help keep Becca happy for me while I took pizza out of the oven for dinner.  And Becca was happy to keep chilling with Abby even after the pizza was out.  I loved hearing Abby tell Becca all about the animals in our latest issue of NatGeoKids.

 And as for today, the girls have all had fun playing in the water this morning. Ellie and Becca have learned to love water at a younger age than Kate and Abby.  They both played for a good hour outside in the water and sand this morning before I had to hose them off and bring them in for some lunch.  Oh, to be young.

Fun times in Albuquerque

  Getting out the door to go to the park is quite the process with four little ones.  It's always worth it in the end though.  The girls always have fun riding their bikes up ahead of me and then waiting for me to catch up.  Gerald, of course, joins us now and loves tagging along next to big ol' Duke.

At this park a neighborhood dog decided to jump up onto his wall to say hi and keep a watchful eye on us.  I was very impressed with both his ability to hop up onto the fence but also having the discipline to not jump down and run over to us.

 Little dare devil Ellie climbing to the top of the ladder, something that took a lot of coaxing to get her older sisters to do. 

 Kate just "hanging" out.

 Duke and Gerald chased a gopher back into its hole.  Gerald had no idea what Duke was running for but wanted to be a part of the chase.  I think he might have smelt something because he was definitely interested in the hole, but then lost interest after a few seconds. 

 Duke, however, was determined to get that gopher.  I eventually called him off.

 Ellie loves chillin' with Baby Becca in the stroller.

 Here we are enjoying dinner at Blake's Lotaburger. Great food for a great price. 

 McDonalds on base is right next to a big outdoor park.  Often we would go play for a little while and then head over to McD's for some ice cream if the girls were well behaved.  

This day that we went Ellie was happy to sit in a highchair if it meant sitting next to Becca Boo.

 Becca loves chilling in our laps the most out of all our girls.  She especially loves chillin' with Daddy.

 One evening Kate asked to help prep dinner.  She was reading the directions out loud for frozen pizza but Andrew told her she needed to read with an Italian accent and hand motions.  I got a good kick out of it.  Kate did too, kinda.  She's good at masking her emotions. 

O Christmas Tree

  This year we went and got our Christmas tree at an outdoor tree lot. Our first ever live Christmas tree so we were all pretty excited to go pick it out. The gentleman that sold us our tree was very kind and friendly. The tree was only $20 too. Pretty good for a 7 foot tree.  

Once home Ellie stood by the door watching Dad prep the tree with Gerald by her side.  

 Good thing he's so little.  He can't quite reach the snacks in her hands.

 Gerald took a turn getting vacuumed. This little puppy is like a generic Swiffer duster.  He picks up dirt and dried leaves every time he goes outside.  As he bounds around inside all the dirt and debris fall off of him and then it is time to vacuum or sweep for the fifth time that day. 

 Becca still loves to be swaddled.

 And the tree is up!  Now for the decorations.

 And help from the children.  

 The star getting placed on top as we all looked on.  Well, most of us.

 Ellie is impressed.

 And now it's time for bed.  A jump into Daddy's arms and then off to get tucked in for the night.

Christmas Crafts

  One of the fun things about Christmas time is doing crafts.  Really, you can do crafts whenever, but Christmas time is the time to do Christmas crafts.  So maybe that deadline puts a little fire under me to get things done?  I don't know, but the girls loved all the painting we did this past Christmas. 

  I usually tried to do the paining during Ellie's nap time but I'm glad she was able to participate a few times.  Trying to figure out what to do with Becca took a little more effort.  We brought her walker to Albuquerque and she ended up taking a nap in it a couple times.  Both totally adorable and convenient. 

Fall is in the air

  My girls have never truly experienced fall; with the crisp air, the changing colors of leaves, the leaves falling, raking said leaves into piles, jumping into them, and then raking them back up again, and repeat!  So much fun that they have never experienced, until this past fall.  And they LOVED it!!  We did not have rakes, but the girls got creative and took the brooms outside to make leaf piles.