Just a few more pictures...

Today was Alex's first time riding the bus, so I have a picture of him getting on it and then one of him getting off it when he got home today. He was pretty excited to go this morning and yelled out, "Awesome!" when he saw the bus coming around the corner. He said he had a pretty good day too, and is excited to go back tomorrow. That's always nice to hear.

And of course, Daniel fell out of the stroller when he tried to turn to see behind us and bonked his forehead pretty good, but I didn't take a picture of that. Just thought I'd share, since his accident-prone phase is continuing.

Getting on

Coming off


And now, just for fun, here are a few pictures of Abby

First day of school! And other pictures

So yes, today was the first day of school for Ben and Alex, although Alex just had a kindergarten orientation for an hour and doesn't really start until tomorrow. They both seemed pretty excited, although Ben was a little more nervous since his teacher, who was going to be moving up with the class, was no longer working at the school. So he got a teacher who just moved here from Colorado Springs 3 weeks ago. She seemed pretty nice at the meet the teacher night last night, but Ben isn't sure if he likes her yet.

After we dropped Ben off at the bus in the morning, Alex asked why he didn't get to go for his full class today. He was a little sad about that.

So anyway, here are some pictures from today.

Here are Ben and Alex ready for their first day:


Here's Ben


Here's Alex


Here's Ben getting on the bus. The face wasn't because he didn't want to go, but because he didn't want me to take his picture:


Here's Alex in front of the school before orientation:


Now Alex, Chris, Daniel, and Abby:


This morning after we dropped Ben off at the bus, we walked down to the park to play for a bit. Here's Alex hanging on the bars:


And the 3 boys playing:


Chris and Daniel going down the slide:


Alex going down the slide:


Alex likes to take random pictures. This is one of the irrigation canal by the park:


Here's Alex pretending to be a frog at the zoo:


All the kids by the tigers:


Here are the boys by the river at the Nature Center:

Daniel's accidents

Daniel had a rough week. Last Wednesday, he fell through a hole where a slat was missing at the walkway in the park, hitting his chin on the way down. Last night, he was on Ben's bed and reached up to grab Alex's bed and slipped off, hitting his back on the open drawers (Chris's clothes are in the drawers in Ben's bed and he tends to leave them open) on the way down.

I've decided that Daniel, even though he's a 4th child, is like your typical fearless 2nd child. He's not afraid to climb on anything or get into anything. I told Bryce that if we didn't already have Abby and weren't expecting her either, at this particular point in time, I would probably decide to be done. He's a very pesty 2 year old. But he's cute. That's probably the only thing that saves him right now.

Here are some pictures of the results of his accidents:

Abby's 4 month WCC

I took Abby this morning in for her 4 month WCC (well child check-up). She's still developing normally and is healthy. She now weighs 14 pounds, 7 ounces (66th percentile) and is 24-3/4 inches tall (also 66th percentile). She still has a little head at 16 inches (20th percentile), but it's going up in the percentiles and is growing normally, so she's fine. The doctor said I could start giving her some rice cereal now if I wanted to, especially if it would help me remember to give her vitamins, since they really recommend that breast-fed babies take at least some vitamin D.
She got two shots and the oral immunization again, which she didn't like. She kept making faces at the nurse as she'd give her the oral one. It was actually pretty funny.
I take her back for her next check-up at 6 months, as normal.
And of course, my PDA decided it needed to reset itself, so all the appointments I had scheduled there and all the birthdays and everything are now gone. Ah, well.

Ben's birthday, swimming lessons, and changes

So yes, it's been a while since I've actually done a post here. I just haven't gotten around to posting things.

Ben had his 7th birthday on the 11th. It's crazy to think how fast he's growing up. Since it's an odd year birthday, we were just celebrating with our family and not having a party with friends. Ben decided that he wanted to be able to play the Xbox 360 with his dad for his birthday. He had wanted to go to a movie, but then changed his mind and just wanted to play. He also said he just wanted a chocolate cake with no frosting, so that's what he got. I put the candles in the shape of a 7 for him at least though. He got to pick what we had for dinner that night too. He wanted quesadillas until I came home from the store with some fish sticks and tator tots and pizza rolls, then he wanted those instead. Despite it being a low-key birthday, he said he had a lot of fun.

The boys with Ben's cake:

All the kids and Bryce ready to sing to Ben:

Abby, Chris, and Ben:

Ready to blow out the candles:


Ben, Alex and Chris have been taking swimming lessons last week and this week. Ben and Alex are in the Level 1 class together and Chris is in the Preschool class. I really thought that Chris might be one who refused to participate and just sat on the edge watching everyone else, but he's been getting right in there with the rest of them and doing what his teacher asks. They all seem to really enjoy the swimming lessons. Usually I leave Abby with Katie and bring Daniel along with us and let him play in the water while his brothers are doing their lessons. Daniel tends to watch Chris's class and copies some of the things they're doing, especially when they're blowing bubbles in the water. He really wants to be able to go over and join them, but he's too young.

Ben's and Alex's class. Alex is the one floating:

Here's Chris with his class:


And here are a few more pictures of the kids:






And now for the changes portion of the post today. I'm going to be changing this blog so it's open to invited readers only. I'll be doing it within the next couple of days, so if you want to be invited, make sure you let me know so I can make sure I get the invitation out to you and you'll be able to access this. I'm also going to start another blog that I'll be updating more often than I'll be updating this one. I'm trying to give the kids more structure during the day, and the other blog is going to be my motivation to keep it going and where I'll make myself accountable for keeping it up. I'm going to try to keep that one a little more on the anonymous side, since it will be open to whoever wants to read it. I haven't gotten it set up yet, but I hope to get it up and running at some point today and I'll put back the address to it back on this post. When it's up and running, feel free to post suggestions and comments as much as you would like, I'm sure I can use all the help I can get. Thanks a ton!

Edit: I just got the new one up and running. I will probably change things a bit later, but it's up for now. If you want to check it out, go here.