Painting with Pudding?!?

and enjoying the medium…

Have a great weekend!

Love,
Kami

18 months and counting…

Since this is our virtual baby book, I need to take the time to write down everything about our 18 month-old quaddies.  Rest assured, this post also has pictures and even a video so if you want to skip over all this baby talk…by all means go right ahead!

What’s a household with four toddlers like?  Busy, busy, busy.  We still stick to a schedule…although we may deviate from time to time.  I think this is still  best for both momma and the kiddos.  Our schedule these days looks a little like this:

7-7:30 – Wake up and breakfast 
9:30 – 10:30-45– naptime (all four on a good day!)
11:00 – snack
12:30 or 1 – lunch
2:00 – 3:30 – naptime (yes…we still have two-a-days! Hallelujah!)4:00 – Snack
6:30 – Supper
7:00 – Baths
7:30 – Bedtime (We are a long way from our 2 hour nightly routine!)

And when they are not eating or sleeping, they are busy destroying playing in the living room.  It’s too hot to go on walks outside these days so if we are in the mood for a walk…we load up and go to the mall.  At least once a week, we head to G.G. and Big Pop’s to go swimming…they love that!  The babies still get OT and PT so the therapists come to “play” with them a couple days a week too! 

Words we are saying (consistently):  tiger (a favorite in our house – still working on LSU), dog, cat, bear, daddy, momma, fish, book, nose, bite, toes, eye, shoe, peek-a-boo, G.G., nanny, Pop, ball, light, duck, more, go, night night, bye-bye, car, juice, truck – to name a few. We have heard some tougher words that they say but maybe not as consistently as the others – kangaroo, grandmama, grandaddy, dinosaur, library, church.  And of course, they love animal sounds too!

What are our favorite activities? reading (or being read to rather), playing in the ball pit, sliding, swimming, taking baths, watching Einstein, singing songs, climbing on furniture (a fairly new activity!), playing chase and being tickled. Oh, they LOVE to be outside…it’s just SO hot right now.  We can’t wait for the cooler weather!

I am always looking for little outings that are fun and manageable.  Just last week we took them to Portrait Innovations for their 18 month photo shoot.  The photographer, Mary Beth, pulled me aside before we began to ask me about my “expectations.”  I had to laugh because I know she was trying to feel me out to see how much pressure she was under to get all the kids looking, smiling, and in position.  I think she was relieved to know that all I was expecting was four in the shot together!  I believe she took 127 pictures in 20 minutes.  We got a couple of decent shots…

Madden, Sloan, Rocco, Jagger

I love this picture for 3 reasons:
1. The boys are staring at us like we are idiots – if you only knew the shenanigans going on behind the camera, sometimes I think that would make the better picture!
2.  I love Rocco’s hand on Madden.  Too sweet!
3.  Sloan, Sloan Sloan – that girl!  She just would NOT sit down.  You can even see in the first shot she is about to come out of that chair. This is just HER at this age, and I have proof…

Oh it is so a game!  Since this is the reality of the situation, I always end up with a lot of pictures that look like this…

 

So these days it’s hard to get that perfect picture…maybe one day soon they will cooperate a little better!  Until then, let’s remember this one…

Ahhhhh!

And now for 18 month stats… 

Sloan
25#10ozs
31 3/4” tall
11 teeth                         

Rocco 
24#13ozs 
31 7/8” tall
13 teeth 

           

 

   

Madden
22#3ozs
30 1/2” tall
12 teeth

 

 

Jagger 
23# 11ozs
30 3/4” tall
14 teeth

 

It’s already hard for us to remember how small they use to be.  I really had fun putting this video together and seeing just how much a difference a year makes!  WOW! 

Love,
Kami

Cut-n-Up

Well, we finally decided it was time for our little babies to become big boys and get their first big boy haircut.  The haircut was overdue, sure, but I think I was a little hesitant to take that baby look away from them.  Just a little clean up…this would be good.  Big Pop, G.G. and I loaded up all 4 and brought them to this wonderful salon that caters solely to children.  It’s walk-ins only so we went on a Tuesday hoping that we wouldn’t have to wait too long….very good decision, we were in and out in no time!

Before shots:

Rocco - I mean, we always consider a mullet sighting a score, but I guess it is a little different if your own kid is rocking one!

     Madden – saying goodbye to his not-so-cool do!

Jagger - “What momma? what’s wrong with a butt-cut?!”

Up first…Madman.

“OOOoooh Nice!”

Big Pop and Sloanie watching from the viewing room

Jag’s turn…   

“Yeah, I’m cool!”

Roc Star…

“What is this lady doing to me?!?”

Finished product…

Thanks Brooke for making our dudes even MORE handsome!

Hope you are having a great week! Oh and by the way, the kiddos are 18 months old today!!!! Happy half birthday little Lambes!

Love,

Kami

Our First Family Vacation

Orange Beach, Alabama - 7/7/10 - 7/14/10. We survived! Not only did we survive but we had a wonderful time. Let me just tell you about it.

What typically should be a 4 hour drive, it took us about 5 hours to get there...not too bad considering our load! We (Big Pop and G.G. were following us), stopped for about an hour to eat lunch and give the kids a break. My brothers and their families along with our friends, Jeff & Heather, and their two girls were all meeting us there. That's 10 adults and 11 kids(all under the age of 9)! It was wild but SO much fun. Before we left, I was quite concerned on how well the babies would adjust to being away from home an extended period of time. We have deviated from our strict schedule in the past, but this was going to be the ultimate test. I was especially concerned about them sleeping. They were going to be in our bedroom on the floor each in their own peapod. They have napped in them a handful of times but never slept in them all night. I was sweatin'. Whew! They did it and did it pretty well, I must say! I am so thankful because if our nights weren't good, our days were bound to be rough! So how did we spend our days? Swimming, of course, now that they are swim school graduates ;), eating, napping, and playing with our cousins! We only went to the beach one day - that sand creates all kinds of problems when you have four toddlers! BUT this would be their first time at the beach and in the sand so we couldn't wait for them to experience it...

Love it!

Madden: "Is it time to go yet?"

"What's the big deal?"
Once she got used to it, she loved it!

Rocco: "Can someone pick me up now?"

Jagger: "I'm not sure I like this stuff."

Probably my favorite picture from our trip...their first real look of the ocean. I wonder what they were thinking?

On Friday, we had a short but SWEET visit from the Cochran family. Sandra and Matt came to visit with their four almost 2 year olds, Cannon, Gunner, Lauren and Avery, along with their five year old...beautiful, sweet, hilariously funny and oh so helpful daughter, Hannah Noelle! I adore this family and am so glad they got to come play with us! As you can imagine when swimming with 8 toddlers, there wasn't many free hands to take group pictures. Sandra manage to capture this one for us...

the Lambes and the Cochrans

Nick left half-way through the week so he could get home and get back to work, and Nanny Alicia drove over to stay the rest of the week with us. What a blessing she is! Before Nick left, we made sure to get a family picture. I guess this was the best we could get...

5 out of 6 looking is not bad, right?!?

I took SO many pictures of our trip. So many that I really had a hard time condensing it to one song! But here goes, hope you enjoy!

Hope you have enjoyed your summer with your family!

Love,
Kami