Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Going Digital

Look. Look. Look.
LOOK!!!


One of Saoirse's first "real" smiles, and I captured it quite by accident, or simply sheer luck, on film. Well not exactly on film, but close enough. And I only had to take about 34 photos of her in the bathtub (again) to get this ONE, but that's the beauty of going digital, right?

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Bath Time

Bath time is so much fun when you are a little one, especially when you get to splash around on the kitchen counter while your parents tell you over and over and over and over again just how cute you are.


Don't let the tongue fool you folks, this little girl LOVES bath time.


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sneaking a Peek

The twins have been very interested in their little sister since we brought her home. Nuala loves to talk about her and will shush you with one finger over her mouth when she thinks the baby is sleeping, or will tell you when she hears the baby.

"Baby cry. Baby cry. Baby cry", she'll say over and over again, as if there was any chance you didn't already hear the crying yourself. Here they are sneaking a peek....





Almost

We almost accomplished getting our family photo taken.
ALMOST.



Finn, Sidhe and Ruari left this morning for a vacation out east and so we decided that a quick photo shoot in the back yard was in order, unfortunately we forgot to factor in the need for a photographer which of course is why we still couldn't get a shot of all 10 of us together!





Heat Wave

The heat wave is finally here and so we have been coming up with creative ways to stay cool, although I suppose water and wading pools aren't really that creative.

Earlier this week I took 6 kids to the pool all by myself and it actually went very well. Saoirse slept the entire time we were there, the older kids were absolutely perfect and the twins, well, I did have to devote all of my energy chasing them around the shallow end, but since everyone else was so agreeable this was not a problem (and was actually a ton of fun). 
Yet even though I have passed the first test with flying colors, there are some days when it is too much to even think about loading everyone up for a day at the water park and so on these days the driveway will simply have to do!










Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Jungle Gods

We keep talking about it (and trust me so do our neighbors) but so far this year we have actually done very little about it, and so for now we still have a gigantic thorny mess in the front yard.
Garden of the Jungle Gods......



Nuala really doesn't find much humor in any of it.



Oscar on the other hand has no problem digging in.


Thursday, June 18, 2009

Down By The River

These pictures are actually from June 8th, 2009.
Brendan took off of work all last week (and is only working half days this week) and so we took a lot of field trips with Saoirse and the twins while the big kids finished up at school. Nuala and Oscar loved our hikes down by the river. Saoirse was pretty much happy to go wherever the Baby Bjorn took her.







Busted again: Socks with sandals.....poor kids!!!!

Summer Time

Summer time is upon us. Yesterday was the first official day of summer vacation and we decided to take our first dip! The kids were great, Nuala and Oscar were speechless, Micah was officially tall enough to ride the tube slides by himself (just barely, but a nearby life guard gave him the all clear) and baby Saoirse slept the entire time we were there. 
What more could I ask for? 












Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Dust


Dust. Dust. Dust.
There is dust everywhere.
There is dust under my couch. There is dust on the mantle. There is dust on the picture frames and dust on the lamp shades and dust on the computer and even just some nice free floating dust dancing around the living room. I can see it peeking out at me from the corners of our home, in the streams of sunlight coming in through the windows and sometimes I can even see it when I close my eyes. 
Dust.
There is dust everywhere and I am trying really hard to not let it bother me.
Because let's face it, I don't have much of a choice at this point. 
There is simply too much to be grateful for.
To be joyous over.
To smile about.
I am not going to let a little dust rain on this parade.
No sir. Not me.

(but.....if someone could please send for the maid, it wouldn't hurt)

I have been trying to write out our birth story for nearly 2 weeks now, and today is still not the day for it. We've reached the LAST day of school here and I am working on chocolate chip zucchini bread for our teachers, which would seem easy enough, except that we have about one hundred teachers to thank and so our oven is working overtime. 
I have so much to catch up on though, so many stories and glimpses to share from our first two weeks together as a family of ten, but I just don't have the time yet. 

I will say this: One baby is sooooo much easier than two babies. I am absolutely amazed by how much easier these first few days have been with Saoirse than the early days we spent with newborn twins. However, even one baby is still a lot of work, demanding in a physical way that I somehow managed to forget about. She is an incredible night sleeper, ever since my last post she has been averaging 6-7 straight hours at night, and I almost worry that maybe I should be waking her up! I mean, I know better, but still......SEVEN HOURS?!? 

Of course the trade off is that then she needs to power nurse her way through the afternoon and evening hours and I mean POWER nurse. Last night I nursed her for what felt like 4 straight hours, but it was worth it in the long run when she slept from 11-5am. 
Totally worth it.

I think today we're going to work on a family picture, but for now check out my little Calvin Klein models:





I even tried to get them in a few shots together, just ask any twin toddler mom how easy this is, or just see for yourselves....





Money saving tip #33
Instead of spending way too much on summer PJ's, invest in thin cotton onesies. The Carter's pajamas I was looking at were $15/2 pack. These onesies were $9/5 pack. Not on my best math game right now, but the savings were upwards of $60 for 10 pairs of PJ's. Am I even making sense?

Friday, June 12, 2009

Six Hours

Last night little miss Saoirse slept from 1-7am!!!!
I am totally speechless.
Granted for about 4 hours prior to this she was wide awake and fussing and cluster feeding as if it might be her last meal ever......and honestly, by the end of that 4 hour stint I was rather unamused by it all and getting rather tired myself, BUT the 6 hour stretch of sleep was more than worth it! And for the record, it took the twins weeks, heck even MONTHS to give us such a generous chunk of uninterrupted slumber.
Seriously, MONTHS.
And here's little Saoirse, only one week old, making it feel sooooo easy.
I cannot believe how lucky we are.