My Salmon Eater

Whenever we go to Chili's Restaurant, Natalie always begs me to order the Grilled Salmon with Garlic and Herbs so she can share it with me. Sometimes I don't feel like having salmon myself, but recently I've ordered it just because I know she'll eat well when I do. She usually eats most of the salmon and a few pieces of the broccoli. Last week when she was visiting in Houston, they took her to Chili's and she apparently ate most of her salmon and all of her broccoli.

Natalie has never been a big eater, but she always been a picky eater. As an infant, she ate mashed up bananas with rice cereal mixed with breast milk three times a day for months. She wouldn't eat anything else. When she has something she really likes, she can eat a lot of it. I remember when she ate a whole bowl of Easy Mac when she was two. I also remember being amazed when she first ate two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at one sitting (although I don't remember exactly how long ago this was).

We decided to take a "before" and "after" picture of her and her plate tonight. Look at that huge piece of salmon in the "before" picture and look at the missing huge piece of salmon in the "after" picture. Also notice how she looks so pleased with herself. She ate almost all her broccoli and would have eaten more if I hadn't mentioned leaving space for ice cream.

I think this means that she might start ordering her own Grilled Salmon with Garlic and Herbs at Chili's. Of course, the current menu price of $14.29 is rather pricey for an almost eight-year-old. Are my kids spoiled, or what?

Red Nail Polish

My little princess asked for red nail polish a few days ago. She picked out a nice bright red that I thought might be fun for me to use, so I bought it. She's been asking me ever since then if I could help her put on the nail polish. She couldn't contain her excitement any longer this morning so she started doing it all by herself while I was in the potty--not the best time for me to help her. Luckily I had thought ahead to make her apply it in the bathroom on the counter, because she got that red stuff all over the counter. She had been using a tissue to wipe off the excess nail polish around her fingernails, which of course meant that she smeared the nail polish that was already on her fingernails. I told her that next time she should wait until I was ready, if she wanted me to help her, that is, and then I gave a few tips in applying the nail polish a little more neatly.

If you look closely at her fingernails in this picture, you can see that she still went "over the lines", but overall, she did okay (although I did help with cleaning up the margins with some nail polish remover). It's nice that she wants to be so independent, I guess, as long as she cleans up after herself. Also notice all of those "Silly Bandz" on her wrists. Yes, she bought three packs with her own money on Tuesday after constantly badgering me since this past weekend. Also notice that she wore an outfit to match her bright red nail polish. Yes, that's my little princess. :)

Oh, and I wanted to add that I took this opportunity to practice some of the lessons from my photography class on focusing in different objects a certain distance apart from each other. I'm excited that I was also able to tinker with the white balance and the lighting to come up with a pretty good image right out of the camera (without any editing). :)

All Together Again

It's nice all being home together again, although anyone that reads my blog probably thinks that all my family does is watch TV while crammed onto the living room sofa. Here the kids are watching our DVR tape of Mythbusters. The story behind it is that the boys actually wanted to watch our "Terminator" movie from Netflix, but Patrick and I didn't think that was appropriate for the little ones. Natalie didn't want to watch it anyway. We were going to watch tonight's episode of "Wipeout", but we didn't tape it like I thought we did. Our next choice was "Unnatural History" but Alex had gone upstairs to take a shower all of a sudden so we didn't want to start it without him--and Natalie didn't want to watch that one either.

Patrick and the boys got home around 1:30-2am this morning. I didn't sleep well, maybe because I was waiting for them, or maybe it was just because I was overtired. I brought Anthony to his last day of PE Camp this morning at around 7AM so Patrick could sleep in. This meant that I got to work an hour later than usual, which made me feel a little rushed, and my day was long and hectic. The little ones didn't let Patrick sleep, of course. Instead, he moved furniture around so that our new AT&T U-Verse could get hooked up today. Well, long story made short--the AT&T U-Verse signal to our house was too weak, so we ended up going back to cable. On the up side, our local cable company gave us another DVR box, but AT&T would have given us many more features.

So, we spent another night watching cable TV while crammed onto our living room sofa. We were together again for the first time in a couple of weeks, though, so even if we had differences in opinion as to what we were going to watch, at least we were watching together. :)

Just The Three Of Us

I didn't get any good photos today, so I'm using this one from this past weekend. Eric has been obsessed with the iPhone/iPad game called "Plants vs. Zombies". He asks to play it often and every day. He was even playing it while walking to the car after getting ice cream this evening. I have to admit that I used it as a potty training tool today. When he wanted to play, the price was that he had to go to the potty first. I guess I'm desperate for him to proceed with potty training!

Only Natalie, Eric and I were home this afternoon/evening. Patrick left this afternoon around 1:30PM to pick up Anthony from his PE Camp and then on to Houston to pick up Alex and go to the big MLS (Major League Soccer) All-Stars vs. Manchester United soccer game. They're trying to fight the traffic out of the stadium and drive back home as I'm typing this. They're rushing back because Anthony doesn't want to miss the last day of PE Camp tomorrow. The things we do for our children...

I was pretty wiped out today after working last night, so I slept the morning away and I didn't do much for most of the afternoon either. The two "productive" things I did were to set up our Wii to stream videos from Netflix and to set up my new iPhone 4 that arrived this afternoon. Those two things actually took big chunks of time. I consider myself somewhat tech-savvy, but I still get apprehensive about messing stuff up, which slows me down while I check and double-check--and call Patrick for passwords and such.

After I was finished with all of that, we went to Target, the kids' favorite store. I always have to laugh when I say that, but it's so true. Natalie really wanted to go to Target so she could get bright red nail polish and gum, and she wanted to spend her own money for both. When we were there, she showed me the red camera that she wanted for her birthday. Last week she told my sister that her favorite colors for clothes are red and black. My favorite color is red, but I'm not sure where her professed love of red and black comes from, especially when she used to LOVE pink so much.

Natalie insisted on eating the Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets at Wendy's for dinner. I really didn't want to eat there and just when I was about to park, Eric got upset and said he wanted Chick-Fil-A for dinner. He could see Chick-Fil-A directly next door to the Wendy's but this was after I had already asked him if he wanted to go to Wendy's and he had insisted that he wanted to go eat AT Wendy's and not just pick up and go home. So, we picked up food for Natalie and headed to Chick-Fil-A. Because Natalie has been gone for a couple of weeks, the three of us haven't been to Baskin-Robbins for a few weeks, so we went tonight. Eric got distracted by Natalie playing on my old iPhone that he didn't even finish his Rainbow Sherbet. He wanted to play "Plants vs. Zombies", of course!

Chopsticks

This is what you see when your three-year-old eats with chopsticks. You see a greasy, food-covered mouth, his arms, and his food. You don't really get to see his face because his arms are in front of his face holding the chopsticks. Natalie ate her noodles with chopsticks too. At least they were both eating over their plates. They both pretty much finished their noodles and left their chicken alone. At least they ate well and they were quiet during lunch. :)

Toddler in a Tux

Success!!! Sort of, anyway... Eric will be in my cousin's wedding in a week and a half, and we got the tux yesterday. I asked him if he would put the tux on and he just looked at me blankly and ignored my question. He tends to be a little more receptive in the morning before he's too overtired, so he consented to put it on this morning. I managed to take a few pictures until I got a decent one. He had some M&M's earlier as a reward for going to the potty. I tried to reward him with M&M's again, but he didn't want them. If he looks like he's a little restless in this photo it's because he is. He wanted to take this thing off! Now we have to work on convincing him to leave it on for the whole wedding and reception. It's going to take more than M&M's...

Expensive Teeth

Today, Natalie had a dentist appointment to fill two more cavities. She had another cavity filled a while back (last year maybe?). I hope this is not a trend, because filling the two cavities today cost $320! We even bought her an electric toothbrush at the beginning of this year, but apparently that wasn't good enough. She seemed excited to show me her cute little crooked smile when I got home. The crooked smile is, of course, from the anesthetic.

Patrick said it was definitely noisier today than in the past two weeks when Natalie was staying with my family. Anthony pointed out, "At least there wasn't the sound of gunfire coming from the TV." That sound is usually due to Alex playing "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" almost daily. Alex is having lots of fun, though, and knowing that makes up for how much I'm missing him. Love you, Sweetie!

Car Washes and Movies

We all have such a great time when we visit family. This photo was taken yesterday. My brother-in-law decided to wash my sister's car. Upon hearing that, Patrick told the boys to go outside and wash our car. They were reluctant, but as you can see, they had fun getting wet. Later, Eric wanted to join in the fun too. He came inside saying, "I got wet!" and sounding very excited about it. The girls helped too. The truth is, the kids probably slowed down the process, but at least they all went outside for a little while.

I love this photo of my nephew Nick. Isn't he a cutie? ;) Look at those cute freckles! I was taking a picture of him to show how the water sort of just beaded up on his hair. His hair is thick and coarse and doesn't really move, rather like his father's hair. :) He usually doesn't like photos of himself, just like Alex, but I'm glad he posed for me this time.

Yesterday morning we went to a "presentation" at the local Apple store. Nick had taken an iMovie camp there where they learned how to edit and put together movies using the iMovie program. He and everyone else that went to the camp got to present their finished products at this "presentation." They even served popcorn to the audience. Nick's video was about the things he liked to do, like play soccer, ride his bike and scooter, and read books. It was even set to music. He put his mom as "Cameraperson 2" in the credits. He videotaped some of the action scenes himself with the camera on a tripod.

This is a picture of Natalie at Nick's iMovie event, hugging her Uncle John. She stayed with them the first week and then she stayed with Lola and my other sister Melissa this past week. Apparently when she stayed with Cynthia and her family, Cynthia's daughter Aly got a little jealous from Natalie and their other cousin Emily hugging on John. Natalie can be affectionate, but only when she feels like it. She had such a great time visiting Houston that she cried when we were about to leave. Alex is going to stay for another three days and she didn't understand why he got to stay but she had to leave. I think she felt a little better when I told her that Patrick and I missed her and wanted her to come home with us. We'll definitely have to do another kid swap next year. Our kids have so much fun playing with their cousins. I'm sad that we don't live closer to them, but I'm thankful that we live as close as we do.

Thanks for the hospitality, dear family!

Shopping With The Girls

I went on a shopping trip to the local outlet mall this afternoon with my Mom and sisters. It was so crowded there, but it was so fun just hanging out with them. Later, after dinner, my sisters and I went to a local mall with our daughters and Eric. He heard the word "mall" and he wanted to go too. I got the feeling that he expected a different mall, like one of the ones back home, but I think he still had fun in the end. This is a picture of Aly and Natalie trying on shoes at Macy's. They were probably a little bored, but at they found something to do. Notice the "attitude" in Natalie's post--that's my girl! Eric kept trying to get on and under the displays which was both entertaining and frightening at the same time.

We were pretty tired from all that walking when we got home tonight, but we bought some essential things, like a dressy dress for Aly and some dressy shoes for me. Both are for my cousin's wedding in a couple of weeks. I wish I lived closer to my sisters and parents!

Summer Switches

We're visiting family in Houston this weekend. We got here this afternoon and although we haven't seen Natalie for two weeks, my nieces and nephew were outside to greet us on our arrival way before she was. Patrick says he thinks she missed us a lot, but I'm not so sure. I initiated a few hugs that she returned easily, but she acted a little perturbed for one of the hugs because she was reading at the time and I "interrupted" her!

Eric has been in heaven because he's getting lots of attention and he has lots of people to play with. My sister Melissa even gave him a new "Thomas the Tank Engine" shirt. Alex has been enjoying his cousin Nick's company. Alex will be staying here until Wednesday while the rest of us will be leaving on Sunday. We have tickets to the MLS All-Stars vs. Manchester United soccer game here in Houston on Wednesday. Patrick will return on Wednesday for the game and to pick up Alex, only to turn around and go back home on Thursday. It'll just be Anthony and me at home then. Anthony was originally going to go to the game, but he decided that being with his friends at PE Camp would be more fun. Next Thursday is the last day of PE Camp.

We wanted my nephew Nick to come visit us for a few days, but between their family cruise, an away soccer camp, and visiting us, he said he hadn't been home very much this summer. One of these days I wish he and his sister would come spend some time with us at our house. Lots of kid-switching this summer--I used to love staying at my aunt and uncle's house for weeks at a time when I was a kid. I'm glad my kids are getting to enjoy a similar experience this summer.

Shattered

This afternoon, Patrick sent me a picture of our back door that he took from his iPhone. Alex was playing on the PS3 and Eric was playing upstairs with Patrick when they all heard a loud bang (yes, the bang was loud enough that they heard it from the gameroom). There was a cracking sound that they thought sounded like rain. Patrick saw that the outside pane of our double pane back door had shattered. He looked for a bird or something outside, but found no evidence of what could have caused the window to break like this. He forgot to take a picture with the big camera, so I took this one when I got home. He had already taped the outside with packing tape--half with clear and half with the more opaque brown tape, to keep it all from falling apart. This is horrible timing, of course, since we had planned to visit my family tomorrow and we just spent a lot of money yesterday. :(

On another note, this is Eric, our "little stinker". This afternoon, Patrick could smell the urine from Eric's full diaper, but when Patrick told him to go upstairs so he could change his diaper, he screamed and refused! Tonight he was trying to hide his face from me while I was trying to take pictures for my photography class. He only grudgingly "posed" when Anthony told him that I wouldn't let him play with the iPad until he let me take pictures of him. That little boy is addicted to Plants Vs. Zombies. He can be quite a "little stinker" sometimes!

Ka-Ching!

I haven't posted to my blog very much lately. It's the same old routine. I go to work. Patrick wakes up Eric and pops him in the car when he takes Anthony to PE Camp. Eric is exhausted but refuses to take a nap. I come home from work with Anthony or if I work late then Patrick picks him up. Patrick takes Alex and Anthony to Strength and Conditioning Training three times a week, usually either at 10:30am or 4pm. We eat dinner together then watch TV together, either a DVR tape or a Blu-Ray disc that we've rented from Netflix.

Tonight we broke with our routine a little bit. By the way, this is Eric snuggling up to Anthony and saying, "I'm Mama's baby." Isn't that the sweetest? Eric had been running around like crazy in the AT&T Store just a few short moments earlier. Earlier in the day, Patrick visited the AT&T Store to get some information about their cable TV service and about adding a phone line for Alex. He texted me at work to say that we were going to be going with AT&T.

The big advantage for us with switching from Time Warner Cable is that with AT&T U-Verse, we can record a program on our DVR and then watch it from any TV. This way we can record something for us and then watch it our bedroom without children running in and watching too. Also, since we already have our home phone and wireless phone services through AT&T, we could add internet service and save money on the bundle and recieve one bill.

We spent about an hour in the store. Anthony listened to his iPod and texted his friends on his phone. We're getting him his own iPhone, a reward for doing incredibly well in his freshman year in high school. We have to do some complicated exchange since we're not able to upgrade his phone to an iPhone (his contract is too "new"). Instead we have to get a new line (Anthony's iPhone), then Anthony's line will technically become Alex's phone line. Patrick and I are able to upgrade our iPhones because we already have iPhones and AT&T has been letting everyone sign up for another 2 years just so they can get the new iPhone 4.

Alex played with some of the display phones. He was really excited about getting his own phone today, but because of that aforementioned complicated exchange and the fact that there were no iPhone 4s in stock, he didn't get his own phone today. He was incredibly disappointed. Luckily, at least Eric was happy running around the store, hugging his family, and playing Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad. Patrick and I were a little disappointed about not getting our new phones today too (they'll be shipped to us), but we're glad we went ahead and ordered them now so we'll get them sooner.

So, when all was said and done, we spent a whole lot of money today and Patrick signed lots of contracts. It'll be worth it next week when we all get new phones, though. :) In the meantime, "Ka-Ching!" Ouch! That was a lot of money!

Out of the House

I might have talked about this before, but Eric loves the "Drawing Pad" app that is on our iPad. It's great because he can draw all he wants but we don't use any paper and there is no mess and no cleanup. The program lets him use stickers, paint, markers, stamps, and crayons. This picture just makes me laugh because he looks so relaxed in my bed. I guess he was just taking a breather from all of that hard work drawing on the iPad. :)

It's so hot outside right now that the kids mostly want to stay indoors. Patrick and I like being able to get out of the house, though. Yesterday it was the Cheesecake Factory for lunch at North Star Mall. Eric has been a bit tired this summer with his later bedtimes but almost the same wakeup times and refusing naps. I love seeing him go to Anthony here for some comfort although it means that he is a little cranky. Anthony loves his little brother and he's so good with him. Alex didn't want to come with us. Sometimes I worry about him!

Today, it was only Patrick, Eric, and I going to La Cantera Mall. Anthony and Alex wanted to stay home and play with their various electronics. Anthony got up early for an extra training session with his club soccer coach and a couple of his teammates, so he had his active time already. Alex was with a friend at least, but again, he didn't want to go anywhere. Patrick gets frustrated by this during the regular week when he wants to go do "something" but Alex just wants to stay at home (Anthony is usually at PE Camp). He said that is why he really misses Natalie, because she always wants to go do something too.

We walked around La Cantera for a couple of hours and mostly window shopped while Eric rode in the stroller. For the first time we went to the "new" area (just finished last fall) where we found this beautiful landscaping and a set of stairs next to some nice waterfalls. I took the opportunity to practice taking pictures while Patrick gave Eric some pennies to throw into the water features. They went all the way up the stairs and then came down, jumping part of the way. I love how Patrick is such a fun Papa and I love how Eric loves jumping. Sometimes Eric can be frustrating at home, but here he could run around as much as he wanted.

It's back to work tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to a short work week.

Seen and Heard

I was at work until 1AM this morning, so I didn't get a chance to post last night. My sister sent me some more emails and she's been titling them "Seen and Heard" so here are her stories and the photos. I'm so happy she sent these. They're so funny! My comments are placed in between the asterisks.

- Forgot to mention another gem from Wed., Mom's bday. We got the cake out for Mom, and Aly comes up to me with Emily and says, "Mama, something magical happened!"
"First it just said 'Happy Birthday' - and now it has Lola's name on it too!"
Apparently, she'd completely missed the fact that I was talking to the Kroger cake decorator while the girls were getting their complimentary cookies from the bakery.

**The girls still like to believe in magic. :) This is one of the things that really sets Natalie apart from her big brothers. They're "too old" and the magic is gone. :( **

- Yesterday, they'd made homemade clay, and they wanted to make some more at home, so we did. Natalie had made a "rock" and a "mouse" in class. Emily and Aly made "food" products, including a pizza, a tortilla rollup, and a hot dog. At home, they decided to make facial hair...

**Oh my, this is hilarious! When I first read her email, the photo wasn't open and I wondered what she meant by facial hair. I had this horrible image of strands of dark hair. Ewww...**

- At one point yesterday, Natalie was talking about body parts (again), and Emily told her, "You're becoming obsessive."

- We went to the library yesterday. Every afternoon, they've been taking quiet time to read. Natalie actually finished her 5 books today. I finally got a decent pic of them this afternoon.

**Natalie's reading just took off this past school year. It was like a lightbulb turned on suddenly. She is ALWAYS reading. Love it!*

We went to dinner at Wendy's last night, and their kids' meals were based on the show America's Got Talent. Aly got a CD w/ dance music on it. Natalie traded her CD in for this eyeglass/nose w/ joke book.

**Doesn't this picture just scream "Natalie!"? Eric saw this picture and just started laughing and laughing. Yes, this is a true-to-life portrait of my little princess.**

This is a better pic of the girls with their art boxes today, on their last day of camp. They're holding the painted canvases that they made today - sturdy enough that they could even put up the canvas in a frame in their rooms, if they wanted to.

**Great! More stuff to put in Natalie's room! Unfortunately, my girl is a pack rat like her mother...**

I rented Tooth Fairy, which Emily had already seen, so Aly and Natalie watched it last night/this morning when Emily was at her home. This afternoon, we all watched The Spy Next Door (with Jackie Chan). It was a cute movie - at least, I liked it better than Tooth Fairy. And good action sequences. The girls did their Jackie Chan poses here.

After lunch today, I had the girls help me clean up. Emily helped me wipe up a spill on the floor, Aly was wiping the table down, and Natalie was supposed to sweep up (she had fish maho and bread for lunch, surprise, surprise). After Natalie had put the broom away, Aly chided her for not picking up all the crumbs and proceeded to sweep some more on her (Aly's) side of the table.
Natalie says, "At home, we don't clean the table or sweep the floor. We just wait 'til Thursday when the maid comes."
And she proceeded to tell us how messy Anthony is when he eats.

**Patrick and I were completely horrified to hear that Natalie said that! Of course she doesn't even realize that her parents do that sort of cleaning in between visits from the maid. What this means is that Mama and Papa will be giving that privilege to the kids from now on. (Insert evil laugh.)**

Natalie Update

Natalie has been visiting her cousins in Houston this past week. Luckily, my scrapbooking sister C has been sending me emails with photos and stories about what the week so far has been like for my princess. This first one is of the girls with their "art boxes" after their art camp. These are the boxes where they'll store their art for the week.Their smiles in this photo aren't nearly as good as the first photo my sister sent me that she had taken with her iPhone. I guess they did painting on the first day and it wasn't dry yet when they were going home. Paint went everywhere!

Some other stories that I've cut and pasted from my sister's email from Monday:

--Made cinnamon rolls this morning. Natalie says he can eat 4. I made her stop with 3 (we only had 10 total) so that she and Nick could each have 3.

--We're going to the pool this afternoon. Nick wants to race Natalie, but he's not sure he'll win.

--The girls were talking about when they were babies, and Natalie said she was bigger than Aly when they were born. Emily, with a serious, contemplative look on her face, says to Natalie, "Maybe it was because you had a big mouth."

I copied her email from Tuesday as is below:

--First tears shed this week. This PM, Natalie got into Nick's room and knocked over one of his Lego creations - X-wing, I think. Don't know if she just picked it up to look at it, or just happened to walk by it and knock it, but Nick was upset and started yelling that she needed to find a missing piece.
It is VERY easy to knock his Legos over, since they're crowded onto his toy box/table. But - I've tried to make Nick's room off-limits to a certain extent, because of the potential for spats like this.
Natalie was quiet downstairs, while I went upstairs to talk to Nick. He was putting the thing back together, and it turns out he wasn't missing any pieces after all...so I told him he should apologize for accusing her of losing a piece.
I went downstairs and Natalie was crying in the bathroom. I told her that it was easy to break Nick's Legos - I've done it often, just trying to vacuum in there. But I told her she should apologize for breaking the pieces - Natalie really needed a hug though. She's a good hugger. :)
Anyway, they apologized to each other, and we all went to the pool to cool down.

Natalie did beat Nick in a freestyle race. Nick complained that she went into his lane, but she definitely had him. She was whispering to Emily and Aly a little while later, telling that she had a secret: "I beat Nick!"

--At the pool, Emily tells Natalie, "You're so dark! You look like an African-American!" And this morning, Nick notices Natalie (which he tries not to very often), "Gosh, look at your skin tone!"

--I think that they're all just getting used to Natalie. They're all saying that talking is Natalie's "hobby". And - Emily and Aly are used to playing certain things when they're together, and eating certain things too. So Natalie doesn't agree on everything, whereas E and A have that previous connection. Tonight, for example, E and A wanted to eat pizza using (Boboli) prepared pizza crusts, but Natalie wanted the Pillsbury pizza dough. Thank goodness for Mom's fish maho (sp?). I also got her some of that HEB alfredo sauce with the red pepper, and they've all been eating strawberries. Mango is just about gone, though!

--Aly is all excited that Nick is leaving tomorrow PM for his camp. John is going out of town Thurs. night and won't be back 'til Tues. afternoon. I'm going to miss both my boys!
The kids are all playing nicely together now. Nick is the girls' prisoner, or something. It's just quite LOUD, though. At least the girls aren't screaming every time they see Nick like they were on Sunday.

The stories below are from her email from today:

--The three girls were in the shower yesterday, where they were comparing belly buttons. Can't remember which girl they decided had the biggest button, but when they first got in, they were chattering away, I think Aly whispered, "I have to pee!"
Emily immediately shouted, "OUT!!!!"

--I talked to the girls this afternoon about our plan to go over to Melissa/Emily's house. Natalie says, "Good, because it gets boring being in one house!"
Later, when we were at Emily's, waiting for Mom and Dad to arrive, we'd been there about 10-15 minutes.
Natalie says, "I'm bored!"

Lots of "butt" talk going on. As in, "Get your butt out of the way!" "Don't put your butt on my face!"
It was particularly relevant in the following photo.
Don't be mad, Patrick and Melanie, but this was on Monday. (OK, OK, Aly does the banister by herself a bit, and they were all trying it, and then I just had them do it for a photo op, but I've since told them not to do it again.)

Today is my Mom's 71st birthday. I think it's cool that Natalie can be there for her actual birthday instead of showing up with us on the weekend before and after. Sometimes I really miss living in the same city as my family! I cut and pasted Cynthia's email from today below:

--There was a little bit of jostling going on to hug Lola. She was supposed to be at Melissa's at 4, but didn't get there 'til 5. Of course the girls were happy to see her, but they were also impatient because they wanted some of the ice cream cake we'd gotten her. ;)

--Let me know if you want this last pic of the girls w/ Mom and the cake in full-size resolution. It's a good one of all of them. (Yes, Emily's teeth are blue. I believe she was sampling the icing on that ice cream cake.) It just so happens that we found a number 7 and a number 1 candle...

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Sea World Show Observations

I was off today so we decided to go to Sea World. This was Patrick's first trip there this year. The kids and I went some time in March, I think, but we didn't really go to any shows. We just walked around. So, this was the first time we saw the Shamu show since one of the trainers was killed by a killer whale earlier this year. We also saw the water ski show.

I want to record some random facts about the shows today. First of all, it seemed like an "off day" for the animals. Usually they come out and one of them jumps up out of the middle of the pool for the opening sequence. They didn't do that. We only saw the animals casually swimming about. One of the trainers came out and educated us about how the trainers get the animals to do certain tricks. Basically she compared it to raising children and rewarding them for certain behaviors but ignoring them if they don't behave correctly. Eventually the killer whales did do a few tricks, but they didn't do as much as they usually do. The trainers also didn't go in the water and do tricks with the animals like they used to do.

As for the water show, they did do some amazing stunts, but maybe it's because I'd seen it all before, but it wasn't terribly exciting for me. Eric seemed very interested in both of these shows, but he seemed very tired and not very interactive. He didn't even want to walk the short distance from the stadium to where we had put the stroller and he didn't want to play in the water in Shamu's Happy Harbor. He did crawl through some of the tunnels but he didn't want to climb up the net ladders. Thankfully my sweet Alex carried him up the net ladder and stayed with him through the tunnels. Needless to say, Eric fell asleep in the van on the way home.

Shutter Speed Lesson

Nothing special happened today, just another work day for me and the first day of Freshman Camp for Anthony (who is a "camp counselor" this year) so I decided to post some photos from yesterday instead. I've been taking an online photography class and last week's lesson was on shutter speed. The assignment directed me to take photos outside and yesterday was the first day I could do that. The rest of last week was rainy and Saturday was filled with activities.

The assignment involved taking pictures at the same settings but changing the shutter speed. The photo above might have been better if I had taken it at a faster shutter speed (to stop the motion better), but I still like it because I can see Alex's smiling face as he catches up to his friend. They were moving quite fast and I had a hard time nailing the focus like I wanted to.

I was happier with this photo to the left that was taken with a faster shutter speed. I wasn't fast enough in pressing the button with some of the other photos. The ball would already be out of the frame by the time I took the photo. Alex was all defensive about his eyes being closed while he was catching the ball.

Notice that Alex is wearing his Spain World Cup jersey. We watched the Final yesterday. I have mixed feelings about the World Cup ending. I'm glad that now I have more free time and that I'll be able to drag my husband and older boys out of the house. On the other hand, watching the games was a nice family activity. Of course, I'm sure we'll have plenty more family activities.

iPad Boy

I had to post this picture right away because it's so stinkin' cute. Eric is playing on an iPad app called "Drawing Pad" where he can draw with different media (markers, crayons, stickers). His spread eagle position is just hilarious! He was so quiet that I had to call to him and ask where he was. He replied, "I'm right here! I'm playing on the iPad!" :)

Popcorn and the (Theme) Park

We got two large tubs of popcorn yesterday when we were at the movie theatre. I knew that Natalie and Eric would still eat popcorn even when it's stale, so I brought the rest of this tub home. This morning, while I was making the usual banana chocolate chip pancakes and turkey bacon for breakfast, they started eating the popcorn. Eric ended up eating some fruit (strawberries and blueberries), and then went back to eating popcorn. He ate quite a bit before we made him stop. He also ate quite a bit of pizza for lunch and then dinner, so this popcorn didn't seem to hurt his appetite for the rest of the day. He looks rather cute sitting on his little stool, doesn't he?

The forecast still had rain, but my sister, niece and nephew really wanted to go to Six Flags today. They mostly did water rides. NB also went on the big rollercoaster called Goliath where your feet dangle. He had to take his Crocs off in order to ride the coaster. They wouldn't even let people take bags on the ride.

We all went, but Eric started acting tired as soon as he got there. Patrick had to carry him in from the parking lot and he was carried for almost all of his time there. Here he is being carried back TO the parking lot. He fell asleep in the van on the way home and stayed asleep for a couple of hours.

I love these photos from behind. It was just me and my boys today. We left the park early while CB stayed with her kids and Natalie. She left for home with them this afternoon and the rest of my family and I went to church and then dinner. It felt a little weird to do that without our little princess with us, but she sounded pretty happy when we called her to wish her goodnight tonight. I love you, Natalie!

Activities For An Almost Rainy Day

It was supposed to rain all day today, so instead of going to Six Flags, we decided to go see the new movie "Despicable Me". First, the boys played on the computer for a bit. NB opened his birthday gift from us, a pair of remote control cars that can shoot at each other. As you can see from this picture, Eric was very interested. Alex has this toy and Eric loves playing with it too.

We all enjoyed the movie, except maybe Eric. He wanted to be held and he rested his head on my shoulder or chest, both sure signs of his being tired. We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch after the movie and he had a meltdown when we left because he wanted to play in the play area. We had to get home, though, because the boys had an afternoon soccer camp to go to.

Because of the forecast for rain, the soccer club had rented an indoor soccer field for this soccer camp today. It was really only when they left for the camp that it started raining. The rest of the day was only overcast. We could have gone to Six Flags after all! After the camp, we ate dinner at home and then the kids all piled on or near the living room sofa to watch our DVR tape of Thursday's episode of "Wipeout". I loved seeing all of those mesmerized but happy faces so close together.

My sister changed her plan for going home tomorrow morning. We'll try to go to Six Flags tomorrow, if the weather holds up. Of course, it might rain now that we actually have plans to be outside tomorrow. At least the kids had a lot of fun together today.

Cousin Visit

My sister C arrived with her two kids this afternoon. Thankfully, I had a shorter work day than I had anticipated so I was here when they arrived. Patrick came home with Natalie and Eric soon after, and then brought Anthony and Alex home from their conditioning training some time after that. As soon as Natalie arrived, she disappeared into her room with my niece AB. My nephew NB stayed downstairs to watch our DVR tape of the Germany vs. Spain World Cup game. Eric was sitting in the La-Z-Boy and moved over so NB could sit with him. Isn't this photo of Eric with NB just precious?

After a quick dinner of sandwiches and leftovers, Patrick took all the kids with him to the neighborhood pool and left my sister and I at home to chat and watch TV. Even though he was at home with the kids by himself all day (doing a lot of cleaning up), he still volunteered to do this. Isn't he a sweetie?

After they got home and took their showers, NB and Alex played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II on the PS3. I tried to take some photos of the two of them looking mesmerized by the game. NB is used to his parents always taking photos, but I think I kicked it up a notch. Even Alex reassured him that I was taking a photography class and told NB to basically ignore me. I was fine with that. :)

I wasn't able to get a good photo of the two boys together, so I took separate photos. This is a photo of Alex totally ignoring me. :)

It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow so Patrick and CB talked about what to do with six kids on a rainy day. My sister's original reason for visiting was so her kids could use their coupons for free admission to Six Flags that they got from school. Right now, the weather is not expected to cooperate.

A Little Mother-Daughter Time

I felt like spoiling myself today so I got a pedicure at our local nail salon. I felt like having some mother-daughter time, so I took Natalie with me. She got both her fingernails and toenails done in alternating bright red and bright pink colors. The cost for both of us was $22--not bad, I thought. Then, we did a little grocery shopping since the nail salon is right next door to the grocery store.

My sister C is coming for a visit tomorrow with my niece and nephew, and she will take Natalie back home with her on Saturday. In the spring, we signed up Natalie and her girl cousins for a weeklong summer camp together. I'm sure she'll have a blast hanging out with the girls and I didn't think she would miss us very much. After all, she totally ignores us when her aunts and her girl cousins are around. I thought I would also be okay with her being gone. She can be a little aggravating, after all, with her constant questions and chatter, not to mention her whining and her ignoring me when I call her name. Now that the camp is next week already, I'm not so sure. She's been telling me that she's going to miss me next week. I've been telling her that I'll miss her next week. So, I cherished this little bit of mother-daughter time today. Yes, I will definitely miss my little princess next week.

Scrapbooks

It's nice to see these two enjoying our scrapbooks. Natalie has actually memorized some of the journaling. The other day she saw the first tooth that Anthony lost on one of the pages. I didn't reveal any "secrets" on the page, so I think she still believes--for now. I guess it's a good thing I haven't scrapped the first tooth that she lost yet...

I love seeing Eric smile and hearing him laugh as he looks through the old scrapbooks. He always thinks he's in the pictures, even if it's Anthony or Alex when they were his age. Now he sometimes asks who the people are in the pictures because he's not sure. I haven't done much scrapping in the last few months. Maybe I'll do it again soon...

Sedate 4th

Since I was on call yesterday, I wasn't too energetic this morning. We went to 9AM mass then I promptly fell asleep when we got home, even before I had lunch (and even though I was hungry). After I woke up, Eric and Natalie had a snack, then we went to the pool. Anthony and Alex were only interested in playing their video games, so they stayed home.

Eric likes to "swim across the pool" with either Patrick or me holding him and with him kicking and moving his arms. We like it because he gets tired out more easily this way. We'll take him from one set of steps (in the shallow end) to the other. When we get to the other side, he "rests" by putting his hands together next to his cheek as if he is sleeping. After a short second, he is ready to "swim" back across the pool.

This is a picture of Eric telling me "no more pictures"! He didn't actually say that but when he saw me with my camera, he turned his face away and wouldn't look back even with some coaxing. I don't think he understands that I have to practice for my photography class. *WINK*

We watched a couple of movies this afternoon/evening, one that we had rented from Netflix ("9") and one on cable TV ("X-Men: Wolverine"). Patrick grilled burgers on the grill, a new "recipe" that included barbecue sauce mixed inside the burger. He even provided crackers and garlic and herb cheese for appetizers. What a great husband! :)

Patrick had planned on taking the older kids to see fireworks near Six Flags Fiesta Texas, but by the time he realized that the fireworks show started at 9PM, it was too late to go. The kids didn't seem too disappointed. Eric had already put himself to bed a little after 9PM. Natalie and Anthony wanted to go outside and socialize with the neighbors. Alex had already decided that he wanted to stay home and watch fireworks on TV with me.

I was playing around with my camera, as is the norm these days, and I took this picture of Alex while we were watching one of the movies. I've been kidding with him that he has "Justin Bieber" hair, just because it's something that some comedians have joked about lately on TV. In case you don't know, Justin Bieber is an "overnight teen sensation" who got a record deal after his YouTube music videos became popular. He has the same hairstyle as a lot of boys nowadays--long and in their faces. Alex hates it when I tell him he has "Justin Bieber hair". He says, "Justin Bieber's voice is higher than mine and he's 16!" He also says, "A lot of people have hair like this, Mama!"

So, we didn't do too many traditional 4th of July stuff today. If I had been more awake this morning, I would have at least made the kids all wear red, white, and blue and taken a picture. Oh well, maybe tomorrow...

Haircut Day

Taking a photography class has really made me dislike the photos that I get from my point-and-shoot camera so much more. This is a picture of my big boys playing Planets vs. Zombies on the iPad while Eric is getting his hair cut. Anthony and Alex LOVE this game and they were excited about teaching their father how to play. Natalie hasn't played the game but she likes to tell people who are playing the game how to play it. Eric likes to hum the tune that plays in the background while the game is playing.

All of the kids got haircuts this morning. I let the boys decide when to get their hair cut this summer instead of me automatically making an appointment for them every 4-6 weeks. They finally decided to get their hair cut this week after 2 1/2 months! *GASP* Natalie has been asking to get her hair cut, but since she is trying to "grow out" her hair, she didn't mind waiting so they could all go at the same time. Eric gets his hair cut at a different place (where he can ride on Lightning McQueen while getting his hair cut) and he did so well that it only took 10-15 minutes. No tears or tantrums this time. He's getting so grown up!

After Eric's haircut, we all went to see Toy Story 3 as a family. We don't see many movies at the theatre and now we remember why. It cost $42 for matinee movie tickets. Ouch! We all enjoyed the movie, though, and Eric sat very still for the whole movie, very much unlike his big sister did at this age. He did sit on my lap or Patrick's lap the whole time, but he didn't wiggle much at all. We think that meant that he loved the movie too.

Summer Shows

We really need more seating in our living room. Here we're all crammed onto the couch to watch a DVR tape of Wipeout. Patrick usually sits in his La-Z-Boy while the rest of us sit on the couch. It's not very comfortable and one or more of us usually ends up on the floor or on the stairs. Still, I love watching TV with the whole family.

We've been watching movies rented from Netflix like "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and "Aliens in the Attic". We've also been watching TV shows like "Wipeout" and "Mythbusters". We've also started watching a new kids' mystery-type show called "Unnatural History" which involves some teenagers that go to high-school inside a museum and stumble upon and then solve somewhat historical based mysteries. Alex keeps hoping that ABC will start airing a show called "Superstars" again this summer. It's a reality show where celebrities and athletes compete against each other and it was fun to watch last summer, but I don't think they'll put this one on this summer.

I started taking a photography class that started last week and that will continue until the end of August, so I've been practicing with my camera--a LOT. I should have probably read my camera manual by now, after owning this camera for a few years, but I'm more of a hands-on learner. I took this picture tonight (and many others) and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I didn't even edit this one at all. I finally figured out about the white balance on my camera (without reading the manual *WINK*) and some of the other settings so that I could take this picture without a flash. Yay me!