October 2014, still blogging!

I'm officially a year behind in updating my blog on our family activities. Sigh. With instagram and facebook, is a blog a bit redundant? Maybe. However I like the archive aspects of it and making a family book out of it at some point as a family record. So I'm going to keep plugging away at it for now. But moving, working, homeschooling and having babies really makes the blog a low priority. I should be doing something else right now in fact. Anyway... on to October 2014.

First lost tooth!

We had a first lost tooth for Princess and many school projects of course. Dinoguy went to a merit badge fair for scouting and earned First Aid.

Building graham cracker houses for a school project.

Checking the family first aid kit

Mentos coke experiment for school project

He can make his own sandwich!

Newly 4

Brothers!

Happy dancing baby

 October is still sports season and we had two sets of soccer games each Saturday to attend. Trainboy and Princess loved playing soccer and had a lot of fun. Dinoguy chose to do wrestling this year and so only had practices in October. It was nice to not have meets yet for him honestly.

Princess is in Orange on the far left

Watching his little sister play

One of my favorite pictures of him all year

As part of soccer, Trainboy, Dinoguy and I attended a women's soccer game at A&M. Trainboy helped escort the players on the field at the start of the game, earning us free tickets. The boys enjoyed seeing the game, it was fun to watch people who know what they are doing play the game. However during the game I realized both boys needed updated glasses prescriptions as neither could see the scoreboard.

My little guy had his 4th birthday. He is growing up way too fast and I don't think I'm cherishing it enough. He's pretty wonderful. It is hard not to compare him to his older brothers though. He has a similar temperament to my second boy which is endearing most of the time. He spends a lot of time asking if he's big enough for things the older boys do though. Since he has older siblings his childhood is very different from theirs. I am a different mom too. I'd like to say its all improvements because I'm more patient and loving but I also believe I probably don't spend quite as much time with him as I did them at this age. We do preschool activities and play games but I have so much else going on...well he plays well independently and with his sister at least. I find comfort in the fact that kids left to their own play are doing important work and developing creativity.

Breakfast in bed

Great candid photo of him!

Cupcakes on his birthday

His official birthday cake two weeks later

My oldest boy turned 12. His birthday was on trunk or treat day so we did cupcakes on his birthday and a cake two weeks later after we all came out of our sugar comas. This birthday was equal parts exciting and terrifying to me. He gets to go to youth group at church now instead of children's classes! He gets to go on more camp-outs and do more with the scouting program! He is getting so old though! He is growing nicely overall and I am really lucky to have him around, he is a huge help to me in so many ways. How do you have lots of kids? You have older kids to help with younger kids, that's how.

Every kid got to paint a pumpkin this year.

Two kids to a pumpkin this year. They were still happy!

Traditional pumpkin face and Lord Business from Lego movie.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We did our first (and probably only year ever) themed family costumes from Despicable Me 2. Fixitman was on board because it meant shaving his head to be Gru. I was Lucy, and we had two good little yellow minions and one awesome little purple minion. The older two boys chose literature themed costumes that I didn't really know much about, but made them happier than being minions! Dinoguy was a dark elf named Drizzt and Trainboy was Cadderly from the Cleric quintet. We went to a costume contest at Fixtman's work and won 2nd prize. Fixitman took the older 4 trick or treating for a little bit and they collected plenty of candy, in addition to all they received at the trunk or treat at church.

A co-worker was Dr. Nefario being carried by a minion. Natural grouping!

Minion family!

July 2014

Okay I am going to catch up at some point I hope...Here's an attempt!
July 2014 was our first month in our new house. You would think that means I spent the month unpacking and moving in. Well, I did some of the time. But I'm not fast at that process and its hard so I prefer distractions. Fixitman was also working a ton all month. So here are pictures of some of the things we did.

Our new back yard is nice. It has grass and a large Live Oak the kids like to climb. Here are the kids playing in their boat. A few weeks after moving in, we learned it was good to have a boat here - we are in a flood zone! 

 Baby boy is starting to be interested in other foods besides mama milk. Love these first feeding type pictures.

 These three being cute on the bed.

 He started pulling to standing! What is happening?

 Eating Watermelon on Independence day. Such a handsome little guy. He does have pale blond hair, I promise!

 Jumping on a trampoline at a friends' house. Look at that tongue!

 Watching the fireworks that night.

 Doctors appointment random photos

 Daily walks in the neighborhood meant seeing the road crews repair and replace roads! The kids found this quite fascinating to watch.

 

The ditch behind our house was dredged out. If I'd known they were going to do it, there was a little baby palm tree I would have salvaged first!

 Princess received a half-birthday party this year. A great way to enjoy the new splash park almost across the street from out new home!

 Her cupcakes with blue frosting! She picked them, helped make them and decorate on them.

 She received a bunch of fancy dresses for her dolls as a present. We ended up playing for hours together. Here is her collection all dressed up. You can see the guys have lower standards for the fancy dances. These are the same dolls I used to play with at my grandmas house when I was a little girl, and their wardrobes were definitely falling apart. Grandma gave them to Princess when she was 2, but now she's started enjoying them.

Being in a flood zone and with a ditch behind the house,  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at all the frogs I run into outside at night!

 

 Summer and picking tomatoes in a friends' garden. Yum!

 

There was a regional swim meet. Pictures of swim meets are difficult. Here's a picture of a sweet sleeping baby instead.

 Okay one picture of the swim meet. What? You can't see one of my boys immediately?

 Look at this guy stand!

He still loves crawling though and has started coming to get the camera.

 This boy went to a math camp. (At his request!) He had a blast and made a short computer video.

 

Summer is hot. Of course we went swimming!

 I let the kids pick my new sunglasses. Purple!

 We went to the Houston museum again. It's another fun way to keep cool in summer.

 All the kids with their friend Sloth-zilla.

 How can I say no to this face?

Lastly, a picture of my haircut. It's a rare enough thing that I had a picture taken. :)