I like her

The light was horrible but I realized I hadn't taken any pics of the little one in awhile.

(This one screams "Clean me mom")

She is getting ready to start crawling. 

And she reaches and tries to hard to push herself up. If only she wasn't just 7 months and not strong enough. I hate it when my body won't do what I want it to. 

A Year of Dates - January

This past Christmas, Cster and I decided that we would not give toys as gifts.  Christmas morning the kids all opened their presents to find a binder full of 12 pages, sheet protected, that told them who whey were going on a date with, a place to write what fun things they did and a place to put a photo of their date.

The books kind of got tossed aside Christmas morning but not soon after they were talking about their dates.   When would we go? What would we do?

Kster and I were first. He was pretty upset. Why do I have to do something with JUST mom? Why isn't everyone coming with us? What? So confused. But I found this fun bouncy house place and the 2 of us had so much fun. They let the parents on everything but the velcro wall and so we climbed, slid and played. He could not stop smiling.

This was Ksters first play area. The cone blows air and the balls float for you to swing at them with the bat. This is the most perfect activity for my ball loving boy.

Our first attempt at having someone take our picture resulted in Kster being super shy and avoiding even looking at the person with our camera. 

(I borrowed my daughters hat and didn't realize how much it didn't fit.oops)

So we had to resort to taking the classic, how far away can I hold the camera away to take a pic of us both.

Date #2 was Cster and Lster. They discussed forever what they were going to do. Lster was unwaivering in his desire to play Wii Lego Star Wars. No dinner. No food. No treats. No going to the movies. 

Nothing but Wii. He loved every minute of saber fighting action. (And they did go to dinner too)

 Mster and I went out the next night and we decided to return to our roots and go ice skating. We were both very nervous but had SOO much fun. It didn't take long for her to race ahead of me and weave in and out of unsuspecting skaters. She's a natural. We talked about hot chocolate and I told her that I had never been to a skating rink without hot chocolate so we would just take a break and get a drink at the rink. Apparently hot chocolate is not so prevalent in Yankee rinks so we stopped off at Panera for some hot chocolate and Mster even got a complimentary Valentine's cookie. She also said, "Mom, you know what is better than this hot chocolate? You. And this hot chocolate is goooooood!"

The kids are already talking about their next date. They are so excited and I'm so glad that we chose to do this for gifts.

Mom, the Tyrant

We don't always see eye to eye but this morning Kster and I have been getting along well. Which is why I was a little surprised when he informed me that he did not want me to go to Grandma's house for Christmas because he wanted to have fun.

News flash buddy. Grandma's not going o let you go commando either.

A commentary on my parenting?

Yesterday, being Thursday, meant I got to go through my children's Thursday folders. They are full of important notices from school, past schoolwork, and other school related pages. To be honest, its usually pretty dull. But, not yesterday!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of finding this treasure in my sons folder.

When I asked him to tell me about it he told me that it was a picture of him, throwing zombies off a mountain.  

And, this gem was found in my daughters folder. Last Friday her class dissected an eyeball. Apparently, they were also supposed to do a little write up of their experience. 

I swear that I never told her any of my squeamishness before the dissection. This is all her. 

Homemade Ornaments

We made ornaments!

I took the recipe from this site. Its only, cornstarch, baking soda and water.

I think it was a success!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

How are you feeling today?

Kster drew a picture. Can you see the smile and frown?

Ignore the drool...if you can

Here is the happiest baby on the planet. I think her only competition might be the quadruplets that got caught on video laughing at their dad but she is seriously happy a lot.

And look! She's sitting. All.by.herself. And of course, she's happy about it. What the camera doesn't catch is the fact that moments before she was eagerly trying to get the toy in front of her. I called out her name to take a picture. She looked up at me, lifted herself up with some amazing abs, smiled, and then when I put the camera down went right back to work on getting that toy.

Thankfulness

Overheard in the car on the way home from attempting to trot with turkeys.

Mster - I'm so hungry. I wish it was Thanksgiving.
Lster - it is Thanksgiving.
Mster - no the dinner part. Where we stuff ourselves.

So today I am grateful that my children do not have to know real hunger.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's an app for that - potty traing edition

When discussing the currency factor of potty training my friend suggested the Huggies Potty Traing app. It's officially called Pull-ups Igo Potty.

I immediately loaded that puppy up and Kster has been on fire ever since. He loves the "stickers". He loves the games (they are vey basic but he doesn't care). And he loves the chance to use my iPad since I'm pretty strict about it being for me and not for the kids.

He hasn't had an accident since Saturday night. Hurray for finding the right currency!

Me with a perm...and a pogo ball

and awesome shorts

and a headband

and shoes without socks.

Look who's talking

More smiles and giggles

 

I love to see the Temple...

I just had to share this picture because I love it so much. Its my mom and her Uncle going through the open house of the Calgary Temple. 

Picking a Bale of Apples

We had a HUGE list of things we wanted to do over fall break and this day had to be a HUGE highlight. We went with some friends to an apple orchard and had the orchard to ourselves and picked till our hearts content. The kids had smiles on their faces the entire time.

She's All Smiles

I can't tell you how much and often this girl is smiling. We are all smitten.

Scary Men and Sugar O.D.s

Halloween has come and gone and here are some pics to show some good times at the Burrito household.

 Halloween night shot

Can you see the eager anticipation of running from house to house in their smiles?

Dressed up warm for a stroller nighttime nap.

Its always more fun to go trick or treating with friends and family.

I told Kster to draw a face on his pumpkin for me to cut out.

How was my interpretation? hahaha Mster was the trooper carving pumpkins this year. The boys gave up pretty quickly but she scooped out most of her gunk and started on Kster's too. I rewarded her by letting her carve her pumpkin all by herself. This picture was after the pumpkin carving and before our Church's trunk or treat.

Sadly at the Truck or Treat Kster and his friend got REALLY REALLY scared of the "scary guy".  We are still helping Kster get over his fear of the "scary guy" :(

These are the 2 of them peaking into the gym through the small slit in the door to see if  its okay to come inside. (They still never went back into the gym.)

Garage Party

The garage light went out the day Cster had his surgery so we've been walking in pitch dark in there for awhile. Today I finally bought the replacement bulbs and Cster put them in. 

The kids jumped for joy like it was Christmas and have been playing in there for over an hour.

They've never played in there before. Kster ran inside yelling how much fun the garage is, raising the roof with his hands and saying "it's a PARTY".

We have a whole new boy

Lster thinks its hilarious that he lost another tooth AND he can make his hair stick up. He told us today that we got a whole new boy. I love that new boy. Lster decided awhile ago that he no longer wanted the buzz cut and wanted to be able to spike his hair. Today, I bought him some gel and Cster taught him how to style it and Voila! a happy boy with styled hair.

Happy Birthday!

Somebody turned 6! He had a GREAT birthday. He really wanted Little Caesars pizza for dinner.

His siblings were happy with his choice.

He also requested a donut cake.

Hurray for turning 6!