He's so pretty

Babies, big kids and my beloved

I have nothing this week.What's up with that? So here's some random ramblings for you:

Another baby is in the talks. Not too soon but maybe sometime next year. We're currently discussing what month would be a good month for a baby. Is that weird that we can plan the month? Because we really can. No fertility problems here so far. My brother-in-law likes to say that you just have to look at us wrong and we end up pregnant. And he would know. He's about to have baby number 2 next month.

I hung out with one of my best friends yesterday and we were discussing how old Frejya has gotten. It really does seem like she was just a baby. And now she'll be starting 4th grade in less than 2 weeks. How does that happen? Nellie was telling Frejya how much she loved 4th grade. California history, Sutter's fort, missions and all the other cool things you get to learn about and do. And it reminded us of Frejya's overnight immersion trip to Sutter's fort. What a cool experience for her. I wish I could have gone with her but it was the day before Gabriel was born so I really wouldn't have been too comfortable sleeping on the ground with them. Isn't she just the cutest little pioneer ever?

We are really in the final stretch of the swim season now. Just 2 long days of championships left and then we are done for the year. Or at least for a few weeks. So that means I will have my hubby home with me. Yay me! This is always my favorite time of year. We'll get to eat dinner together as a family and he can actually be home to say goodnight to the kids. Love him!

Earning their keep

There is no room for freeloaders at our house.

Frejya complains the whole time about carrying the groceries in, but Gabriel is still young enough to think it's fun. And it's nice until he realizes there's food in the bag he's carrying and starts taking everything out before he makes it into the house.

Picture thief

It's a good thing I have friends who take pictures of my kids, because I've been doing a horrible job of it lately. So I'm telling you now that this post is all pictures I stole from friends.

We are almost done with swim season. Saturday was our last dual meet of the year. I love swim but I don't think I've ever been so ready for it to be over. This has definitely been a stressful year for the coaches which doesn't make for a super fun season. But Saturday was fun. Especially since our dear friend Baylee came just to play with Gabriel for the day. It was so nice not having to keep track of him and he had a blast playing at the park and putting his feet in the pool. And I actually got to sit and enjoy some time with friends. Steph always takes the best pictures of my kiddos and she definitely didn't disappoint this weekend. Look at how crazy blue his eyes are in these. I love it! Plus it looks like my kids are actually enjoying each others' company. And that's always a good thing.

Frejya swam pretty well. And just look at her awesome dive. Makes me happy.

She has had so much fun playing with Coach Greg's kids this year. Here they are goofing off (minus Cooper) at Coach A's house. I guess those coaches' kids need to stick together.

And Gabriel has fun at the swim parties too. Here he is relaxing. This is before we made him wear a life jacket. He just gets way too close to that pool than I am comfortable with. And as a bonus, the life jacket totally broke his fall when he fell down these steps later in the night. So it did double-duty.

  

(Thanks to Pinky for all the pics of my kids at the swim party and for capturing Frejya's awesome dive!)

Peace and quiet

I'm not sure how it happened and it may never happen again, but somehow the kids entertained themselves for an hour last night. A whole hour! They played by themselves (separately) and had a grand old time. It was amazing. It actually worked out really nicely because I made a super yummy dinner (these amazing enchiladas). They're a little more labor-intensive than I like for a weeknight meal, but their awesomeness makes up for the extra effort. But now I digress. Back to the kids. Frejya decided to give her dolls haircuts. I've never allowed her to cut her dolls' hair before and now I'm realizing how stupid of me that was. She was entertained by it for so long. And it's practice for when she's older. Because of course she wants to either be a hair stylist or a pop star when she's grown up. Why not?

Gabriel entertained himself for an hour with a piece of string. Seriously. He found part of one of Frejya's dance costumes and played with it for a really long time. I still don't understand how that was so entertaining for him, but it really was. And he got really mad at me for interrupting him by taking a picture. Right after I snapped this shot, he yelled at me and then turned his chair around so that he could play in peace. He is a force to be reckoned with.

They call me mellow yellow

I have no idea where we got this outfit. It was a hand-me-down from someone. Maybe my sister? Anyways, I think it is ridiculously awesome. Gabe does not. Not at all. So of course I had to put Gabriel in it one time for him. Because just look at how cute he is. He even matches the kitchen table.

And because I promised her, here's a picture of my little cheerleader. She went to cheer camp for a day. She loved it.

Tales from the toilet

I got the little guy to go pee on the toilet 3 times last night. So awesome!! He is not nearly ready to be out of diapers yet, but he's really good at peeing on command so I figure we should practice those skills. And he got really excited (probably because I did too). Plus it means instead of him peeing all over the house like he seems to like to do, maybe we can work on just having him watch himself pee in the toilet. Because he really does like to pee all over the house. It apparently is really funny to go pee if you are Gabriel. And so he does it everywhere, all the time.

Water babies

We spent a whole weekend in the water. Swim meet Saturday, followed by three parties that afternoon. Frejya swam at all of them. She didn't get out of the water until 10:00 Saturday night! I don't know how she did it. Gabriel only swam at one of the houses and yet he was completely wiped out by the time we left. Isn't he just so cute when he's sleeping, though?

Then Sunday we got up and went boating with some friends. Look how excited the kiddos were to be going out on the boat.

Two boats, lots of teenagers and adults, and our two little ones. Our friend Austin was a trooper and hung out on our boat with us for most of the day. He even took Gabriel on the tube for his first time. It was super cute and Gabriel seemed to love it.

The rest of us did some tubing and kneeboarding also. Fun, fun times. I'm so glad Adrienne took pictures of us. Frejya had so much fun with all the big kids.

Gabriel didn't last the whole time of course. He snoozed under one of the seats for awhile.

And when we got home Gabriel kept the hat on the whole rest of the day. He would not let me take it off of him. He's a funny little guy.

Why I love my daughter

Check out this recent text exchange between the hubby and myself:

G: blah blah blah? (asking me a favor)
Me: Ok
G: You're the best !!!!!!
Me: Thanks Frejya!
G: How'd you know it was me?
Me: Dad would never tell me I'm the best
G: He told me to say it but then he said you really aren't but in my world you are.

Isn't she the best?!! I sure think so.

And can I just point out that this is post 3 for the day. I'm on a roll!!

Driving lessons

It only makes sense that my kids would learn to drive a boat before they learn to drive a car, right? So that's what Frejya is learning today. I'm working. Whatever. Hopefully she doesn't learn how to drive it before I do. That would not be good. I guess I'd better get back out there soon and practice.

Happy Birthday to the Grandpas!!

Grandpa Ireneo's and Papa Pete's birthdays were yesterday and today. Happy birthday to them!!

Why couldn't this work for me?

This is all I had wanted the other night when I was trying to get a picture of Gabriel and me. Auntie Kellie managed to take a totally cute picture of the two of them and mine was ridiculously less than stellar. And I ended up with a huge foot bruise. I'm obviously doing something wrong in the photo-taking department.

Babies are bad for your health

Or at the very least, they're bad for your feet. And maybe it's just my book-wielding, super-baby. Who knows? At any rate, he's dangerous. Like, tried to break my foot dangerous. It all started because I was trying to take a picture of the two of us in the mirror. Perfectly innocent, right? Gabriel is always super happy to see himself in the mirror after his baths. We make faces at each other and play there for a few minutes every night (Ok maybe not every night since I'm admittedly awful about remembering to bathe him when Gabe's not home. But that's a story for another time. Or maybe I've written about it before? I can't even remember). So I thought it was a great idea to try to snap a picture of him making faces. I'm still not sure what I was thinking because a) that means I was making horribly crazy faces also and b) I apparently have no aim when trying to balance a baby in one hand and taking a picture with my other. Here's the best we got:

Silly, right? But that's not even the bad part. About 2 seconds after this picture was taken Gabriel grabbed the book off the counter and slammed it down onto the floor. And my huge foot was sort of in the way and tried to help soften the book's fall. So nice of it, but seriously what was it thinking? Holy moly that hurt. And I actually didn't even notice it at first because Gabriel was flinging himself around and I really didn't want to drop him so by the time I looked down at my foot and registered that something had fallen on it, it had a nice little bubble of blood pooling up under the skin. It looked like this:

And now today, it looks like this:

And now that I have the picture up in front of me, it doesn't actually look that bad. But I think that's because I'm so pale. There's a big bruise there. I swear. And I think there was a point to this story when I started it, but it didn't end very well, did it?