Going to the zoo

My niece and nephews have been in town all week staying with my mother-in-law.  My sister-in-law and I had the idea of taking them out for the day and we chose the zoo.  In my attempt to be timely, however, I forgot several very important things like sunscreen and a hat for the baby (it was going to be over 80 degrees) and a stroller.  Oh yes, 8 kids including 2 roaming toddlers with minds of their own and 2 babies and I had no stroller!  The worst part was I took the jogging stroller out of my trunk before I left thinking I had the double stroller in there, but I didn't have the base that the seats clip in to and so it was useless!  All we had was my sister-in-law's umbrella stroller that held the lunches.  At least we had a moby wrap and ergo for the babies or we would've been done in!

All in all it still turned out to be a great day!  The kids were fantastic!  It was a lot of fun hanging out with my older niece and nephew (ages 6 and 8), who were soaking up all the information they could.  My sister-in-law and I wanted to make sure they were getting something out of it instead of just helping their crazy aunts with the babies.  I loved seeing them love learning and telling me about all the different animals.  Next time I'm just taking them!

Ruby Red later told me her favorite part was seeing the sea lions underground and her big cousin Timmy teaching her all about the snakes.  It's adorable how she looks up to him and I'm glad they were able to spend some time together!

I wish I had a picture of them all but, alas, my camera battery was dead and I couldn't find the charger....:(

I was so tired afterwards that I dozed several times the rest of the afternoon.  Even my kids....no.....even RUBY RED was exhausted!!!!  I never thought I'd be saying that sentence!  My older two went down for naps at 4.  Ruby Red woke up at 8pm for some apples and peanut butter and went right back to bed.  We didn't see Baby Blue until 4am, where she had some quality time with daddy and then snuggled with him in bed until 7:30.

I'm so glad we were able to pull it off.  Next time, though, if I don't have a stroller it would be worth it to drive home to get it!

New Hip Hold

I've once again discovered that baby wearing is essential for a happy baby and half-sane mommy in this household.  However, Sapphire Sweetie wasn't content with the usual hold in the Moby wrap and it wasn't comfortable for me anymore since she always wiggles around trying to see what's going on.  After watching what seemed like a bazillion YouTube videos on different holds I have found one and wanted to share it!  This hold has become indispensible and we both love it!  It leaves me with all the comfort and mobility that I need while giving her comfort, freedom to look around and closeness to mommy.  I highly recommend trying it!

(Note: This hold is not origunally for the Moby wrap but I've found that it works perfectly with it!)

What We've Been Up To

Our girls have been keeping us very busy.  I can't believe that it's been over 3 months since I last wrote!

Baby Sapphire is now 6 months old.  6 MONTHS!!!!!!!!  This blows my mind!  She's getting so big too.  Her smile is absolutely infectious and she's always giggling at her big sisters.  She's our first baby to ever roll over before they start crawling.  I don't know why the other two wouldn't but they hated being on their tummies for even a second.  We call her our little "koala" becuase she's always perched so cutely on my hip, and only my hip as she sees my husband and starts screaming.  I honestly think she's saying, "Don't you dare try to take me from my mommy!"  As heartbreaking as this can be, the hubs has realized this is only a phase and she, like the other 2, will find him waaay more fun than mommy once she's older.  ....I'm not sure if I should be happy with that or not.  ;)

Ruby Red and Baby Blue just got bunk beds.  This has proven very cute and extremely frustrating for bed and naptimes.  Just today I went in to see what Baby Blue was up to and couldn't find her.....anywhere.  I looked in her bed, under her bed, and in the closet.  Then I saw those cute blue eyes peering from under the covers of his sisters top bunk- that she had climbed u[ by herself.  Uh yeah, I'm in trouble!  Now, and I mean literally right now, she just came to me bare bottom (she's supposed to be sleeping) and told me, "I took diaper off".  Well yes you did.....and now I have to leave this.....

.....Ok, so now where was I.... ah yes, I've completely forgotten my string of thoughts....

Ruby Red has been keeping busy learning her letters and numbers, reading (not by herself, yet), and is so excited to finally play outside again.  She's so much bigger than she was last fall- I can now send her out back to play by herself and since we have a fenced in yard I'm thinking this is pretty awesome!  I leave the doors hitched open so she can come and go as she pleases.  This is a very exciting moment for me as it leaves me "time" to frantically do stuff around the house while the little girls sleep.  Yesterday she told me she wanted to go swimming.  After I convinced her she would freeze because it isn't that warm out yet, I went inside to cook dinner while I watched her out the kitchen window.  I couldn't understand why our well pump was turning on since the well water is only for the outside and I wasn't using it.....but Ruby Red was...  She dragged her water table out of winter storage, flipped it and proceeded to fill it.  She looked so cute and utterly ridiculous standing there soaked and muddy with winter gloves on because, get this- she didn't want her hands to get wet and muddy....  Mmmm hmmmm, apparently you had great success with that!  ;)

We've been remodeling our kitchen and although it does NOT look like it at the moment, it will finally be DONE by Baby Blue's birthday in 3 days!!!  It's been 3 months of having a torn apart house and I'm so excited to get it back together and get all these tools and dirt out of my house!  Of course, it's "crunch" time and I think I've grown 20 new gray hairs this week alone, but it will be wonderful next week.

I've been sewing in my, wait for it......spare time....  Honestly though, I've really gotten a lot done at midnight!  I will have tutorials following with my lovely creations so stay tuned!  I've also begun making a whole bunch of new things from pinterest.  I will be sure to have some reviews of the likes and dislikes in the upcoming weeks. 

For now that's it since I have to scramble to get the girls ready for Ruby Red's dance class.  I will be on here more for sure as the hubs told me he misses reading my blog- that's the nicest thing he could have said, well about my blog anyway!