the naked chef

no, she is not really naked, she's got her undies on under there.

tea party with friends

We went to have a play date with some of my girlfriends who all have kids, and the kids are all pretty close in age too!  

Xaris is the oldest, Nory is one week younger than her, and Susanna is 2 months younger.  

Ellie is close to a year younger than those three.

Then come the second generation of babies.  

Elliott is the oldest at 15 months.  iXy is next at 10 months, Peter is 2 days younger than iXy, and Lydia is 2 months younger than iXy.  

Cute girls enjoying their tea party

Trying to get them posed for a picture

And...this is the best we got!

Still kicking myself that we didn't have Ricardo come in and take a photo with the mamas too!

birthday

I had an amazing birthday this year.  Family dinner, lots of playing, it was incredible!

X does serious damage to an ear of corn.  She eats a LOT...where does she put it all?

Trying to whap my pineapple pinyadayada

Singing happy birthday to Mama

Helping with the candles!

family photo on my real birthday (the birthday dinner was the previous night)

Golden Gardens

It was nice and {Seattle} hot on Saturday, not to be confused with {Dallas} hot.  We went to the beach in the afternoon to build sandcastles.  Kira came, and my bff Carrie and Carrie's sister in law Kara and brother Alex and their new baby Molly.  I kept calling people the wrong names, since we had Xaris, Kira, Carrie, and Kara.  

Sisty Cuter

She ate sand...

Friends Forever!

Strong arms with Xaris

Too cold for Ricardo

But...we got him in for a photo

bluebabies!

We got to go blueberry picking with Abby H (and Susanna and Lydia), Abby K (and future baby Julie?), Judy (and Nory and Elliot)!  It was buckets of fun! (see what I just did there?)

X seemed to really enjoy it, and even the babies were ok for awhile in backpacks, strollers, and a pack'n'play.

Ricardo was there too, and so we had a photographer for the journey.  

And...the 3 year old crew pretty much just ate blueberries all morning...

The lovely Susanna

Hi Nory!

and Xaris!

Abby K...the remarkably efficient blueberry picker

Group photo attempt

iXy striking a pose in the blueberry fields...

getting kisses from Susanna and Xaris

Oh Elliott :)

Seattle!

We made it!  

We took a vacation to Seattle to get out of TX heat and visit friends and family and it was Fantastic!

We flew out at 7am, which was a little tough.  Earlier than the girls wake up ever, and earlier than Ric and I like to wake up, by the time we arrived in Seattle we were tired, starving, and ready to rest!  We had breakfast at a little cafe on Queen Anne, and walked back to the car in the cool-ish weather and Ricardo said.... "I belong here"....  what a GREAT start to the week!  

During the week we:

visited with family

visited with friends

went to the Woodland Park Zoo

went blueberry picking

celebrated my birthday

played on the beach at Golden Gardens

dipped our toes in the Puget Sound (Pacific Ocean)

got family pictures taken

had a kids playdate with dear friends

and...watched LOTS of olympics!

I'll post some more pictures in separate entries. 

ALSO, there are several other new entries below in between a few that I had already posted.  I am not sure I will get around to posting links to them, but you are welcome to play hide and seek. 

eleven

at 11 months iXy:

is getting close to walking, by doing everything else! climbing, scooting, shuffling, skooching along furniture, and she has done some single steps unassisted.  

still sleeps decently, and the girls have shared a room for close to 6 months now, and they both prefer it that way.

loves to 'read' books with mama and sister (she learned how to climb up into X's bed, and so they both sit there looking at books...usually multiple times a day)

likes to color, play legos, blocks, and loves the play kitchen as much as Xaris does.  

still only has 2 teeth.