Sweet little girl

Kylie is such a great baby. She is so easy going. She loves to play sitting on the floor. Right now her favorite things are playing with her bucket and blocks, hitting her book to get me to read it to her, and closing the lids on her pop up toy. When you put the blocks in the bucket, she has to make sure they all come out and when you open all the tops on her pop up toy, she wants to close them all as fast as possible. She is so fun to watch. No crawling yet but that is just fine with me.

She loves to eat cereal and baby food. I have given her finger foods like rice cakes for babies, she loves them. She really likes to drink out of her sippy cup, no bottles for this girl. She is definitely a chewer, not a sucker. I'm assuming she is teething from all the signs. She is still getting up during the night and I'm debating on trying to just let her cry through the night... She is 6 months today!

So much fun!

Today was some much fun. The weather was much more pleasant so that made playing much more enjoyable. Sarah and her boys joined us at my home in the morning and from there we caravaned over to a water park nearby. The kids got nice and cool in the water and then run all over the playground. It was a huge place. Then we headed back over to my place for lunch. Grandma Root drove up to spend the afternoon with us. The kids watched a movie while John and Karl played a little video games and us ladies broke out Settlers. We got about 45 minutes of play time in before the kids needed all of our attention and Grandma drove John and Paige to her home. Sarah and her kids took off to spend dinner and the rest of the evening with Deana and her family. We had such a great time!

Now things are quiet at my house as we watch the sunset and enjoy the silence. We loved having everyone over and doing so much fun things with the cousins. Natalie and the boys all got along great. We feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family!

Play, play, play

Today was so much fun! John, Paige, and Thomas stayed at our home so bright and early (yes, I'm talking 6am) we took the little ones out for a walk to enjoy the cool morning before the heat hit. Then we relaxed and played guitar hero on the Xbox for a while. The kids played great together. After lunch we went over to visit Sarah and her kids at their hotel and took advantage of the great indoor pool. It was perfect. The kids swam and played all afternoon. Even Kylie went in for her first time in the pool! She loved it. Dinner time we split up and then Deana, Sarah, and John took up the torch for the evening playing games all night. Paige, Karl, and I opted for a comedy movie after putting the kids down for the evening.

Tomorrow promises to hold more fun so stay tuned!

HOT, Hot, hot

So today was my day to play hostess for the group. It turns out that it was like the hottest day of the year and even though we planned for that, it didn't work out the way we hoped. It was SOoooo hot! So the kids had water toys outstide to play with and a pool to play in but for some reason, tons of bees decided they wanted to come play too. The kids were crazy enough to get the idea to catch the bees and put them in Nat's bug catcher. Well, they caught and trapped three until the first kid got stung. Kids are nuts! It was even hot inside the house. With all the comings and going the AC just didn't stand a chance keeping us cool. It was over 80 for most of they day and NIGHT inside.

But despite the heat, we still had a really nice time visiting, eating, and playing games. Karl cooked his awesome salmon for dinner and the kids had good ole hotdogs. There was lots food but we all loved the water. It was so funny when the kids got the water guns and drenched Grandpa Dan and Uncle Karl. It looked as if they had jumped into the pool!

Miracles Do Happen

Well, the amazing finally happened. We always talk about how much we miss each other and wish we could get the cousins all together, and WE DID IT! All of my siblings, Sarah, Deana, Leah, myself, and John, with all our kids, got together today in Manteca. Leah was our fearless hostess. We all had a great time reuniting and watching as our kids played together. It was so awesome.


We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.
Thank you to everyone who made this dream a reality.

Oh my little baby

I just love my baby girl. As I watch her, it reminds me of my first baby girl. Sometimes I even find myself wanting to call her Natalie! I guess that's not too unusual but I really am reminded of Natalie as I watch Kylie grow.

She does the cutest things that I know I'm bound to forget. Each little thing is so precious and yet time will take them away from me as she takes new and more advanced steps.

I love it when she stokes my skin as she nurses. She even tickles me with her hand that is wrapped around me. Lately, instead of sweet careses, she has started aggressively exploring my face, or more just my nose and mouth, while she eats. That is better though then the hair pulling I get when she catchs my hair. That is one of her favorite things to do, eating or not. The bangs and baby hairs around the face and neck are her favorites.

This last week, Kylie learned how to screech. She did it constantly for two days! Then she started to alternate between the screeching and deep grunting. It was so funny. She is really all over the place these days. She flips over and all around. She really likes to play sitting up but can't get up and down by herself yet. We got her a new blanket to lay on, twin size. Wouldn't you know it, she likes to roll until she is off of it! Yes, she is a silly girl. She loves to play peek-a-boo and be tickled. Her favorite kind is loud and rough. When she is startled, it makes her smile and giggle!

She hasn't cut any teeth yet, yeah! I'm not looking forward to that. She doesn't sleep through the night yet either. That I wouldn't mind seeing happen. I'm debating whether or not to see if she will comfort herself back to sleep... Maybe in a few weeks when she is 6 months. She LOVES eating baby ceral and food. Thankfully she is a pretty neat eater right now. She is still getting use to the highchair. She is more interested in playing with it than eating most of the time! The bouncer works better but she likes to sit up more than it lets her. All in good time.

Let's Get Together

For the first time, we invited all of Karl's side of the family to come over to our place and kick off summer with a BBQ. Everyone but Kerry's family was able to come. Dan, his daughter, and his girl friend and her three girls came out. Kelly and Brian came, and Rhonda - who might as well be part of the family! Of course Grandma Mary Jo and Grandpa Fred came too. It was great! We had a full house and to celebrate the occassion, Karl and I bought a new ping pong table. The day was beauitful and we had a great time playing outside and visiting.

Growing Girl

Kylie is getting so big! She is such a good little baby. She is always happy and smiley. We call her Smiley Kylie! I am having a great time being her mommy. She is such a joy to have around, no matter where we are. Right now she is getting ready to start crawling. I tried to catch her up on her knees but when she saw me looking she just started smiling! So here are some of her sweetest smiles.

During bath time she has been fascinated when I pour water onto her hands. Well this last week, she actually started to splash in the water! It was soo cute. She kept doing it again and again, soaking me, the mirror, the floor, and getting water all over her face. So I had Natalie rush me the camera to capture it all on film. But it won't load - bummer...

Making Music

Stephen has really progressed on the guitar. He has picked up on the techniques so fast, his friends who have been playing for years are even impressed. He enjoys playing the acustic a lot and we really enjoying hearing him play. His class performed at the school's spring concert and he played lead. Again, Karl is working on getting me the footage but you can see him on stage at least. We are very proud of him!

Congrats Yellow Belts!

Stephen and Natalie both did a great job at their karate graduation! Each age group performed moves that they have been training on this last few months. We are really happy with the program and how much the kids are learning and enjoying it. We took some video but Karl is still working his magic so stay tuned.