Cute baby talking

Gabe was happy and chattering away this evening. Sorry for the poor quality here but Rudy has the good camera in Florida.

America's Pasttime

Baseball anyone? This is our homeschool baseball club. Lori and Matthew are official participants and Devi and Katlyn are along for moral support. They had a great time.

This one has a story behind it...

Back in 2003 when we bought our first digital camera, we went outside and took some pictures of the kids. I was shooting and Rudy was posing them. In one photo, we decided to let Devi hold Matthew but Rudy was to hand him to her just before I snapped to minimize risk of her dropping him. Well he hands her Matthew, who was about 6 months old at the time, and stps away and without looking I snapped and he grabbed Matthew back away from Devi. Here is the result.



Now, 5 years later, we've attempted to re-create the scene with Gabriel. Matthew has grown a little wouldn't you say?

Going home

Aislin, Michael and David will be going home today after a full summer with us here in Albuquerque. As has become a fmily tradition, we gathered up all 8 grandkids and attempted to get some photos of them as a group. My mom does this every year and while I think she's totally nuts for wanting to try to photograph 8 kids from age 15 down to 3 month, I admire her tenacity and the pictures are priceless.

Gator wrestlin'

On his trip to Orlando daddy went to Gatorland.

For daddy

Gabriel's new toy

I bought this for Gabriel last night. He holds his head up and loves to kick with his feet so I got it and he loves it. He sat in and and spun himself around for about 15 minutes.

Another birthday breakfast

Today is Lori's birthday and we had pancakes for breakfast again. Am I a bad parent for giving them chocolate for breakfast? Its only once a year. Won't hurt right? LOL

Baseball anyone?

So I've signed Lori and Matthew up for a baseball club with our homeschool group. We were supposed to start this week but the weather decided not to cooperate. That did not stop Rudy from getting in a few practice swings before the weather went bad. Take a look...

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Monday was my b-day and while I was at park day today Rudy installed the rain shower head I've been wanting in my shower since forever. I am so excited. It has the little hand held thingy too!

Cliff's Amusement Park

We took a trip to Cliff's with Mike, David, Aislin and my parents. We had a great time. Here is a funny video. Watch Matthew's hair.

He speaks...

Birthday Boy

We had 24 people for Matthew's birthday this year. We haven't had a party like this since we left AZ. It was a wonderful time.




Matthew loves cake and after he blew out the candles
we let him dig in! He didn't make too much of a mess.



After that, he helped us cut the cake with his
Sword of Heroes.

Happy 4th of July!!!

This is the first year that we had fireworks right in our own backyard, literally. The neighbors always send them up but we never have. This year Uncle Marc and our friend Matt L. helped Rudy light fireworks! When all the big ones were done the kids went to the yard and got to hold sparklers. We had a great time.

A very special party

Last night we had Matthew's birthday party. It happened to be the 4th of July so let me tell you just how special he felt to have fireworks on his birthday!

We had a BBQ, opened presents, did cake and ice cream then watched the fireworks from our yard and around the neighborhood. We kept the little kids up on the balcony so that there would be no risk of them running out into a lit firework. The bigger kids ot to watch from the monkey bars in the yard.

Matthew got a lot of great gifts. He got Kung Fu Panda, Hot Wheels, Transformers, Spider Man and even some Diego things. He was very happy with all of his gifts but for the very first year (now that he's old enough to understand) cold hard cash gave him the greatest reaction. Here's a photo and some others to enjoy.

Happy 4th of July!

Cute baby...admiring sister

Devi took this video and photo. She was very happy to see him smiling and cooing. He's staring up at his Pooh Mobile, and in case you're wondering, no we do not have birds. That sound is the ambient noise box we have for soothing him. He loves it.

Breakfast of champions...er, well birthday boys anyway!

Today Matthew is FIVE years old! Hip Hip Hooray! We started our celebration by making him a peanut butter, m&m, frosting waffle with 5 candles!









Later we'll go to park day and share cup cakes with our friends. His party is beig held on the fourth of July and his Nana and Papa will be here to celebrate with us!