Stephen Funnies

While shopping at HEB, as I have my back turned, Stephen reaches for some candy and knocks the whole box off the shelf, spilling it everywhere. I turn around and say, "Stephen, did you do that?" (knowing full well he did). He has a tremendously guilty look on his face. A passer by, a man with a voice box, says, "You did it. I saw you. You did it." (I think he was teasing, but when you have a raspy voice it comes off a little creepy!). Stephen runs down the aisle toward me saying, "Mommy, Darth Vader told me 'you did it'!"

Last night as we all crowded into the half bath downstairs for toothbrushing (so as not to wake baby sister upstairs), for some reason Mariana rinsed her toothbrush and then, while holding it over the sink got very distracted with something in the opposite direction...perhaps looking for her special toothpaste (she tends to be a little whimsical). The problem is that she happened to be holding the toothbrush right in Stephen's face. The boy loves to suck and chew on toothbrushes, so he joyfully helped himself. Realizing that she had no idea what was happening, I started to giggle. She finally woke up and yelled, "Hey, stop sucking on my toothbrush!" at a very satisfied Stephen. Allia and I were cracking up!

Cute girls

Here is Mariana enjoying the privilege of holding her sister again after she, ahem, dropped her twice. This girl gets a whole lotta loving!

Don't you wish you looked this cute in sunglasses?

Manah moment

Snacking together

Grandparent time

Manah and Pawpaw are in town for the weekend and Anastasia (as well as all the other children!) is enjoying them. :)

School time

We started school this week! It is going well so far, of course all is still new and exciting. That will wear off soon I am sure! We did school outside this morning because the weather has been so nice and cool (relatively speaking). Stephen likes outside school a lot better too. :)

More birthday fun

Saturday we went with the P family to the city pool where the children have swim lessons as a final birthday celebration for Austin. It has water slides and other fun stuff . The children were such troopers, picking up trash at local parks the last few weeks so we could all get in free (it is $6 per person!). Children of all ages had a great time. ;)

Here are the two Stephens in the kiddie pool

Little Josephine loved the Froggy slide

Stephen P really liked this bigger slide and swam great with his life jacket

Stephen worked for quite a while building up confidence to go down this slide. Once he did, he slid constantly for about half an hour.

The threat of rain kept the place wonderfully un-crowded, so we didn't have to wait in any lines for slides. It was great. The adults and older girls had fun on the big water slides, but we had to take turns watching the little ones, so I have no photos of that! I had my hands full. ;)

Baby games

Anastasia started playing this cute little game with Allia this afternoon. She had a little toy she was chewing on, and she would chew it for a few seconds, then offer it to Allia. Good big sister that she is, Allia played along and pretended to eat it when she shared. This got big smiles and many more repetitions of the game. So sweet! Kudos to our photographer, Mariana.

Another milestone!

Yesterday when Daddy came home he had another birthday surprise...Gloria rides without training wheels! Yay, Gloria!!!

Baby updates

Anastasia is doing a much better job sitting up these days. She still tips but only after sitting for a while. She is also saying "Baba" in addition to "Dada" that she started for Austin's birthday. :)

Happy Birthday, Austin!

We are so blessed by you!!!

The children and I took advantage of his out of town trip a few weekends ago and went shopping for a cookie cake and birthday gift. So we have been anxiously awaiting the celebration ever since! His favorite cookie is the Domino, so we had a cake made out of that batter. Yum! We are so happy to celebrate such a wonderful husband and father.

And on a side note, Anastasia had a special little gift for Daddy's birthday. At breakfast after we sang to him, she started saying, "Dada." It was so sweet. She said it all through breakfast then stopped until we went to his office to eat lunch with him. I really think she has been saving it for a birthday gift! ;)

Kitchen helpers

The girls have been such great helpers in the kitchen lately. Here they are joyfully licking the utensils after we made a cake that didn't have eggs in it! The three of them have also taken over cleaning up after dinner, which is wonderful for me. And they have done a great job! Yay for my growing girls.

More wedding photos

Lita sent the photos from the wedding photo booth. Yay! I am only putting the best few because there are a lot!

Austin and his cousin Patrick with Allia and Mariana

The girls with Patrick, Uncle Matt and Tia Nana

 The girls with Lito

Allia with Serina

Visit with friends

I have a very good excuse for the light blogging lately! Austin was sent out of town for the weekend at the last minute, and then right after he returned Sunday, we had our sweet friends the K family visit from out of town. It worked out great because he had Monday and Tuesday off to make up for his weekend trip, so we were all able to spend lots of fun time together. The only downfall is that I forgot to take photos! The only ones I took were these of Stephen and Ann dancing in the living room together. We also went to the pool, hit Grand Station arcade for some game action and just had a great time! So great to have such wonderful friends!

7 Months Old

Anastasia is 7 months old today! She is sitting up a little better on her own but still tips a lot. She much prefers her back to her tummy and standing (in the exersaucer or ducky jumper) to anything else. She is pretty much a typical Riddle baby girl because the others were the same way. Stephen was my only crawler! She takes most of her naps by herself now but still requires an occasional Moby nap. She is just a sweet growing girl! She had gained almost a pound when I took her back in for her weight check, so she is back in normal range. Yay!

She scooted out of her baby gym, and I found her laying in the middle of the floor...still on her back of course!

And this is her close up because she is cling-y lately. She hardly lets anyone but me hold her these days!

Olympic Commentary

Last night we relived some Olympic moments via the web...

(while watching the divers)
Stephen: I don't like those yucky panty guys!
Gloria: Eeeeew, they are wearing panties.
Mariana: I don't want to watch any more of those panty guys.
Daddy: Ok, ok.

We are not fans of the Speedo here. ;)