All I want for Christmas

 

Ali's "lego mouth" as Nick calls it.

 Jack had his first haircut today. I went for the mohawk. It was much trickier than I thought it would be. This guy loves to wiggle.

 He wiggled the whole time I was cutting, and then made it almost impossible to take a picture afterward. (Come catch me if you can!)

 Just because. Here is princess Kat. Isn't she lovely?

Tantrums

When Ali was a baby she was amazing. She slept about 20 hours a day, and the other four she would be eating and playing happily. I paid dearly for such good behavior when she hit about 18 months. She threw epic tantrums. My sister still jokes about how bad they were. Well, it appears that this trait is hereditary. Only Jack is just 9 months old. His tantrums are not epic, but what nine month old even throws a tantrum. Usually when they are mad about one thing, a shiny other thing can distract them. Not this boy. He is focused. Here is a sampling.

9 Months and more

A friend of mine recently asked how I was handling all 5. She went on to praise my wonderful mothering skills and mentioned that I always seem to "have it together." She then asked if I ever lose it with them. Well today I lost it. Props to all those photographers out there who manage to take pictures of babies. Especially 9 month old babies who refuse to sit still for more than 1/4 of a second.

I had to put up with this...

in order to get this.

 (Their legs are not in the picture because you would see me holding them down)

Ali made that sign, she said it is a '9' winking.

 He would not sit still, so I tried the sit him in his high chair so he cannot move... then he refused to look at the camera. (plus he ate Ali's picture)

 I think he thought that if he ate the paper he would be done. But the trick is on him because I just made another!

 Haha Mama, I will just block it!

 I am already dreading the 10 month picture. It will probably end up as a blur moving across my room. Okay, enough of my horrible photo shoot. Now on to other fun firsts.

 Jack has come to love food. I feel like he eats non-stop, and EVERYTHING. He does have things he loves more than others, such as black beans. What a cute messy baby he is.

 He also gets into everything. This is the first time he stood up on anything. I only got to take the picture because he was stuck. (it is a weird angle, he is not really that skinny.

Speaking of skinny, these boys are thinning out. Jack actually lost 3 oz since his last appointment a month ago, but gained 2 inches. Thank you crawling. Here is a point of reference, pre and post crawling.

pre-crawling;  April 20th

 Now (I tried to get Jack to keep his legs crossed too, but it was not working).

Happy Birthday Kat!

 4 Years ago today this 7lb 7oz girl was born to our family. She came with a lot of spunk and fat cheeks.

 Oh, and the cutest dimple ever.

 Today she is 4 and while she may have outgrown some of her cheeks, she is still full of spunk.

 For her birthday Abuelita and Tita took us (Me, Nick, Ali, Kat, Jack, Tia Gaby, Dez and Dom) all to Legoland. I have no pictures of us adults, but would you if such cute models were available?

The princess on her trusty steed. (Her crown says, "Happy Birthday")

 Dez and Ali loved this guy!

 R2-D2 is a favorite in our home, so they were excited to meet a life-sized version.

 Since we went to Legoland last week, and her birthday is today, I asked her what she wanted to do. McDonald Play Place. Sure, why not. Invite a bunch of friends, bring a cake, and it is a big party!

8 months

 Before Jack was born Nick and I got this super great camera. (Thanks Abuelita) I thought it would be perfect for taking photos of the kids on a regular basis, and documenting other "important" events. Well I might have been right in the planning, but Nick likes the camera too much, and often commandeers it. So for my birthday he bought me a small/cheap (though it costs an arm and a leg) video camera that also takes pictures. That is the long explanation of the bad quality of these pictures.

 Here is Jack the second I set him down.

Here he is one second later... on the move!!!

(the rest of the photo shoot is almost useless, despite the handy 6 year old helper to hold the card)

I did manage to get one of him sitting up.

I had a firm plan in my mind of taking pictures of him on the 8th of each month, to document his growth, but if this session was hard, I can't imagine what is in store for me when he starts moving faster. Any advice???

My tree

 It has been a long time since I posted about my avocado plant, and most people who know me probably think it died. It didn't!!! For once I have a success story in a plant (Although, success is relative, since it has taken 3 years to grow what my mom could have probably done in a month).

 June17, 2009

It all started with an organic avocado bought at a nearby grocery store.

 

By November of 2010 I was able to move it from the cup of water to a pot with soil.

Today, July 5th, Kat is dancing next to the "tree". Once an actual avocado grows on it I might throw a party. Irony, since growing the tree Nick has developed an allergy to avocados.

A long road it HAS been

 Ali's last day of school. Kind of a bittersweet moment. My little girls is going into first grade next year!!!

 

My brother, Jason got married this weekend in Utah. I planned to drive there Friday, and come back Sunday. The drive both there and back was horrible, but at least on the way there I had my sister-in-law Nadean and my brother with me.

  

As we were leaving LA there was a flashing road sign that warned of "Major traffic" due to a chemical spill at the Nevada border. About halfway to the border another sign warned of "Extreme traffic." Not surprising that shortly after that we were stopped. My brother got out and took this picture.

 Traffic still didn't move, so he began to climb the hills where he took this picture. If you can zoom into this picture you would see other people climbing the hills and walking around on the road. I am also waving from our Pilot. After about 13 hours on the road Kat told me, "Mommy we should have just flown there!" I heartily agreed.

 Despite being on the road for what seemed like two years, we made it. And I guess it was worth it for this. Family is awesome!

Proud grandparents! 6 grand kids didn't make it, but here are the 10 that did.

 If nothing else, it was worth it to see these awesome people. My siblings are so amazing.

Speaking of amazing siblings, I came across this picture of my sister in her new shabby apple dress, and thought, "she looks better than the model on the website." Maybe when my blog goes viral someone will discover her.

Anyone want to know what it is like being on the road alone with 3 kids for WAY too long. This little video is exhibit A for the next time I think I can do something this crazy. (PS Ali had been crying too, but as soon as she saw I was filming, she immediately stopped) (Post-PS Sorry for the horrible filming, but I was driving at the same time)