Kate Cooing-6 weeks

Kate was talking to me the other night. She's so dang cute.

Noah swinging from tree

I just wanted to show my mom how Noah swings from our tree in the backyard. It's actually a few months old, but I just figured out how to upload video. I think I must still have pregnancy brain.

Love that Noah!

I just had to post how much I love having Noah as my firstborn. He is a great example to his younger siblings...always level-headed and dependable. I notice when I'm nagging the kids to hurry and get ready or to stop fighting it is usually NOT Noah that I'm addressing.

He is quite the diplomat; never wanting to take sides. If he tells Rob he loves him and I'm around he will also include me in his affections. Rob and I have a constant battle whether to call soft drinks "pop" or "soda" and my kids say it based on who they are trying to please. Today Noah tells me that it's 1/2 pop and 1/2 soda to appease us both.

Earlier on the trampoline he was playing with some neighbor kids (who are 8 and 9). The other boys were talking about not having a girlfriend yet. Noah was like, "I have a girlfriend." I shot around, not realizing he had an interest in girls, and asked him who. He them named all his girlFRIENDS... girls that we just hang out with in our circle of friends. He didn't realize the romantic notion of what a girlfriend is. He just knew he had friends that were girls. I love his innocence and I'm kinda scared to send him to kindergarten and have that taken away.

He always sticks up for his family fiercely. If someone is bothering Ben or Issy, he intervenes. He LOVES baby Kate so much. If she so much as peeps he is right there giving her a binky or just soothing her.

He is a "clean" boy. He always throws away his wrappers and takes his plate to the kitchen. He washes his hands and I don't think he's ever peed on the seat.

I love his hair and that it has a natural wave to it. It lays so nice and I've always wished I could trade hair with him (or Rob).

He's a natural athlete taking after his dad (and I'd like to think his mom too!) It's fun to watch him ride a bike or succeed in sports he tries. He loved karate, but didn't have the dedication for 3x's/week for 1.5 hours each time. He is starting T-ball in a few weeks and I'm excited to not only see how he does, but to also see him have fun.

I could go on and on (I think I already have), but I'll stop here. This isn't meant as a bragging post, but since I'll be printing this out for posterity sake and I don't keep a very good baby book I need to write things like this from time to time. I love you Noah!

Kate's first smiles

Kate's been smiling since she was born, but it's certainly more consistent now that she's 5 weeks old. Here are some pics I took of her this morning.

Wedding Dress

I saw an article in a parenting magazine when Isabella was just born that showed a girl growing up into her grandmother's bathing suit. I thought it would be a fun idea to show my girls growing up into my wedding dress. Each year on Issy's birthday I take a picture of her in my wedding dress. Here's the pictures from over the years.

Issy-3 mos

Issy-1 year

Issy-2 years

Issy-3 years

Kate-3 weeks

Melissa

Aquathlon Part One

The morale folks in the Marines plan lots of competitions for everything from tennis to crafts to triathlons. There are also several aquathlons too. What is an aquathlon you ask? Well, it's a run, swim, run event. Yesterday Rob and his buddy Rick swept the competition winning the 30-34 age category (I won't tell you there were only 2 guys in that age group). I was really proud of Rob...we think he actually came in 5th or 6th overall. Way to go Robbie!

And they're off...

Check out Rob strides above his compitition.

The Tri suit is bad, but not as bad as speedos. Thanks for not wearing those, Hunny.

The Victors. Yahoo!

On a side note we realized there is another aquathlon coming up. There are two races and the shorter one is only a 420m run, 100m swim and another 420m run. I said, "I can do that!" So, in two weeks I'm going to run this sprinting race and try to remember that I'm 33 and 5 weeks post partum instead of reliving my glory years and thinking I'm 18. Wish me luck!

Family Fun

We've had a lot of fun getting out and exploring Oki. Now that I'm not pregnant I actually have the energy to be a fun mommy again! Plus, Kate is a dream baby. She sleeps great (I only get up once a night for about 25 minutes...then she's right back to sleep) and she rarely fusses. She has given us little smiles right from the get go and doesn't mind the noise going on around her. I am enjoying this newborn stage so much! I feel like we had such a huge gap this time in between kids that I can actually enjoy baby Kate. Don't get me wrong...I love having our first 3 close together because they always have a playmate. However, I can see the advantages of having kids spaced far apart too. The older kids are so helpful. Anyway here are some pics of our adventures.

Comprehensive Waterpark. Sooooo fun! We spent 4.5 hours here yesterday. They had a cool kiddie pool with some safety retarded slides and a huge lazy river. I could have floated down that river forever. They also had these water slides, but the kids weren't tall enough to ride them. We will certainly be visiting here again.


A lunch break with friends. Note the peace sign...totally unprompted. Are these Japanese kids or what?

Noah and his stash of crabs at the beach. We had a fun day snorkeling, but it poured rain the minute we got there so everything was soaked. We also visited a cute lighthouse with portholes under water to view fish. We took a trolley ride to get there and tried to ignore the rain.



Our family of SIX!

Sunset at the seawall. Kate's shirt says, "Milk junkie".