Ahhhhhhhh!

There are very few drinks more refreshing on a hot day than The Slurpee. Actually, I can think of tons, but none of them are appropriate for kids. Regardless, Dan brought home Slurpees yesterday as we experience a heat-wave and they, well, slurped them down;) Callie took one look at the frosty beverages, tossed her water cup aside and demanded a drink. Homegirl totally hijacked that Slurpee! She's over a year old, so anything goes at this point! I know...I know...I'm a super good mom;)

Whenever we drive in the car, Ben inevitably says, "It sure is hot! I'm thirsty!" because he's angling for a Slurpee=)

Callie is super-smart. If the straw stops working,
she just takes it out and drinks it from the top.

Emily chose to drink hers while wearing butterfly antennae and wielding a wand.

Laundry Helpers

This is how they "help" me with the laundry;)

Moving Downward

The apartment below us opened up and we moved heaven and earth to move down there! It's been a week since we moved and I am SO glad we did. We have a huge side yard, complete with covered patio, a gate with access to the back area(leads to garbage and laundry room) and it just feels more like a home than an apartment. Ben and Emily can run around, jump as much as they like, play outside in the front, side or back area and it makes it SO much easier for us to do laundry and basic chores. We are all loving it and I hope we live her for a long time. Because the last week was spent moving, the few pictures I have to share are disjointed and un-themed.

Playing under Emmie's bed

Callie, coming to get me!

The only decent family picture we could get for Ben's class!

Emily showing Callie how to work the Lightening McQueen laptop

What passes for a decent group-shot these days;)

13 Months!

Miss Callie is 13 months old and getting bigger by the day. She continues to work on her walking skills. She loves to be led around by her hands and use her dolly-stroller, a chair or one of her siblings as a push-toy:) She's started referring to babies, bottles and Ben as "Bah-bah". She seems like she's really paying attention and trying to process language. I can tell she's very clever already, even though she has few words. For example, she found a magnet on the floor of the living room, looked it over then crawled to the fridge and stuck it back on!
She already knows how to work all our electronics(computer, cable box, blu-ray, tv, cell phones and camera), too. She LOVES buttons and can't get enough of cause-and-effect. Her new favorite game is peek-a-boo. She only covers one eye and stares at you with the other to make sure you're playing:) She is pretty patient and waits til you've asked, "Where's Callie?" several times before popping up and laughing. She also picked up a less-desirable game called, "Ow!". To play this game, she smacks you while saying "Ow!" and waits for you to say it, too. I LOVE that she says "Ow!" for you=) It makes it *almost* funny, once you look past the part where a one-year-old hits you and then laughs. Emily and Ben are great at telling her to use soft hands. However, she is less enamoured with her bigger siblings lately. If they approach her while I'm feeding or holding her, she yells at them and pushes them away or kicks them! They think it's funny, especially when I reprimand her. She's having trouble learning to share me with Baby John, so I make sure to give her extra snuggles and attention when I can. All in all, she's had a great month. It's pretty thrilling watching her learn new things daily=)

County Fair

Mimi and I took the littles to our county fair today. I have so many fond memories from childhood centered around the county fair. Ours used to rock. Now, it's just a sad little affair. They don't even charge for admission or parking. They have reformatted it so many times to try to lure back patrons. This year, it was called the County Youth Fair in hopes to lure families down. Since it was free and we had little else to do today, we went to check it out. They had fun, at least! And we didn't even spend any money. I don't trust the rides or the food and anything fun was too expensive:( They loved looking at the animals and doing the few free activities they had.

Ben gave Emily a tractor ride

Callie laughed and squealed over all the animals

Posing in front of a cardboard cow

Mimi, riding a horse;)

Me, doing my best yokel impression.

Callie the Cowgirl

Yee-haw!!

Emmie Oakley

Ride 'em, Cowgirl!

Benny the Kid

Recent Museum Pictures

We went to the museum TWICE last week! Mimi took us on Friday and Ben loved it so much that he asked Dan to take us again on Monday. The have a section just for babies which Callie almost never gets to go in. She got to spend some quality time there on both days and loved it. Ben and Emily want to go in there desperately, but the sign says 'no older siblings'. No one ever follows the rules but me, apparently. There are always bigger kids in there and no one says a word. The one time I let Emily in, too? They reprimand me! The fact that it's a teenage volunteer just makes it all the more annoying. I just wanted to slap her silly and ask, "Which of my children should I leave alone, then? The baby in here? Or should the 3 year old be allowed to roam free?". Ridiculous. Never-the-less, they all had fun.

Emily and another "bigger kid" enjoying the baby section

She was showing me something pretty:)

Callie crawled all over the place

Her favorite area was the little mirrored room. Wall-to-wall mirrors.
When you're this cute? You can't help but be vain.

Dan was great about letting them pick their favorite things to show him.
He even let Emily paint his face.

She just did a big slash of red. He got lots of alarmed looks!

Ben couldn't wait to go back to the Bob the Builder exhibit and get some work done.

Emily was pretty pissed that this sink didn't really work. No fun!

Callie's new thing is "talking on the phone".
Anything vaguely rectangular gets held up to her ear.

Surfing/Snowboarding on this boards is also a huge hit with Ben!

Pretty girl:)

Doing the splits

Doing her barre routine. We have a ballerina in the making.
Maybe it's the legwarmers?

Our New Baby

This is Baby John. He will be spending T/W/Th with us for the foreseeable future:) He is the baby brother of Ben's friend Nora and we couldn't be happier with our part-time baby! Ben, Emily and Callie adore him. Maybe a little too much for his own good. He isn't used to the mayhem that is our household yet and gets really overwhelmed by the Troublesome Trio. They just want to be in his business all the time! He's getting the hang of things and starting to enjoy all the interaction, though. I'm totally loving his sweet, chubby rolls and fuzzy red hair. He's not yet 4 months and is probably only 3 lbs lighter than Callie! So fun to squish and hug=)