6 kids, the preview for summer

Sometimes I look at my 6 kids and want to remember the moment forever, so I take a picture. And sometimes it's so sad/messy/chaotic that I take a picture b/c I hope I'll be able to smile later. 

Homework time. 

After their morning naps, the babies share lunch. Ivy is a picky eater. She can sort foods in her mouth even when coated with other foods. Out pop the polished peas or meat from her chicken and stars soup, for example. And when she's done eating, she'll still open her mouth to take the bite, then will spit the food right back out; all of it. Sometimes it'll just slowly drop down to her bib, but other times she puts some force behind it and it's on me. Gross. Tyler, on the other hand, will purse his lips together and/or will swat me away with his arms and hands. Messy. He'll hold out for the good stuff, like finger foods. I still only feed Tyler about once/day (and nurse the rest.) 

 They can both climb up the couches. (And the stairs, and we need 2 more baby gates, plus at least one for my mom's house.)

 Ivy likes to pet her own hair when she's drinking a bottle, she feels her hair between her fingers, not usually using her thumb. Sometimes she likes to pet Tyler's hair too, his is a softer texture. Other times, she climbs on him and/or pushes him down. He'll climb over her and they both put their hands in the other's faces at times. For the most part, they play well together and are aware of the other and like the company.

 The big kids are getting good at making barricades.

 Neither baby likes to stand alone, but they both like to pull up and walk around things.

 I don't really go outside much b/c the babies crawl all over and put random things in their mouths. I'd like to be in the sun. I'd like to clean the pool, and I get to run only a couple of times/week in the evenings. (I don't like treadmill running and don't like poeple to watch me run, and think it'll wake people up if I do it when they're sleeping. I need something to train for or someone to train with. The good news is that I'm only 4lbs away from my pre-Tyler weight. I guess it really does take 9 months to loose it. (If I ran nightly, I'd be there already, Tyler is almost 9 months old.) My mom said she gained from 20-50 lbs, and after each of her 5 pregnancies, it didn't matter how much or little she gained, it always took the full 9 months.

 Tyler wears "baby legs" a lot, or pants since he's a master crawler. Sometimes he crawls with just his knees and his feet don't touch while in motion. So I put socks on him or pull his baby legs down for him. He still sometimes lets his feet hover behind him.

 Tyler usually likes it when his brothers pick him up from behind in the Heimlich hold to drag him away from danger. He laughs and lifts his legs in the bow legged pike position. Here's a picture of when he's really wanting to play with the big kids' creations though. (And a reminder that it's time to shampoo the carpets again, they're due about once/month.)

 Thank goodness my brother is home from BYU and hasn't started work or left for his mission yet. I put that kid to work. I hope he doesn't feel like I'm taking too much advantage of him. I want a nanny. For another set of hands, then maybe I'd get some sleep. (no, probably not, but maybe the house would be a little cleaner.) Tyler is pulling up on his swing behind Jonathan, I wonder where Isaac is. He's not a fan of big groups like this. His feelings get hurt. He's more of an independant sort of kid.

 Here's a good example of the "before" play room. I LOVE that everything is organized now. I was going nuts with starting to clean one room while there were crazy messes everywhere else happening live, right then!

 See, Tyler's under the chair, licking the cookie cutters that were recently used for play dough. This was Isaac's way of putting the things away.

 Here's a baby gate. It's probably saved their lives because it has prevented them from climbing up those stairs then falling down to the tile.
 I open the door to come in from checking the mail and it's like I have 2 puppies on all fours waiting to nip at my heels, chew my shoes or squeeaky toys, bring me my newspaper (or random trash) in their drooly mouths.

 This was Cuatro de Mayo, because our Cinco day was booked with other festivities.

 Ivy's crazy! But she's so sweet. She will sit still and drink her bottle, or 2/3rds of it, then will cry for a minute in the pack 'n play and will sleep for 2-3 hours. Perfect. But when she wakes up. She's loud! I mean really loud. She has lots of teeth already, and has squishy big Darren thighs like her older siblings and Isaac had. She likes to kick one leg when she's being held, kick kick kick kick. Tyler waves an arm.

 I do love that I get to be home with these cutie sillies so much, but am also so thankful that I have gettaway jobs that I enjoy and a husband who lets me sleep in and does so many chores for us so that I can handle the blessing of not paying for day care. I love that I don't have Tyler on a schedule and I can nurse him in the middle of whatever we're doing. He's such a little baby still, like a ball-up-in-a-rocking-chair sort of sweet little baby.