Summertime!

It's going to be difficult, but I'm going to try and select just a few representative photos from this summer.  There was our annual trip to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, multiple trips to the bay, swimming and sliding at home and a visit to Splashway at Sheridan.

The above photos were taken at Schlitterbahn

The ones below were taken during several trips to Port Alto

These two photos were taken in the backyard

The photos below were taken at Splashway

Dining with the Bubelas

Wayne and I were invited over for hamburgers this afternoon. Wayne never made it there...at least, not before I left.

Jax is walking a little more now. He finally took a few steps just before he was 16 months old. I figured that once he realized he could walk that he would give up crawling. But, no...he has continued to favor crawling. He seems to have gotten really big during the last month...tall and sturdy.  He had his own hamburger tonight, just like the rest of us, along with sweet potato fries. 

In the above photo, Jax had just been given one of his gummy vitamins.  As you can tell, he really likes them.

In the video below, Brent and Kate started dancing, so Carlee joined in and pretty soon Jax made his appearance, too.  He found Carlee's headband and was wearing it around his neck like a collar. 

Swimming Lessons

Kate and Carlee were very excited to start swimming lessons. In the photo below they are all dressed in their cute suits, both wearing goggles and Kate with a swim cap. Carlee is wearing her very favorite swimsuit...she wants to wear that one every day.

Of course, since Kate had a swim cap, Carlee wanted one too.  Brent found her the one in the next pictures.  I can't wait to see what it looks like when she has her face in the water with the teeth and the fin.  Jax looks pretty interested in the cap in the last photo.

Carolyn reports that both girls really enjoyed the lessons and did really well...swimming, jumping off the diving board, etc.  Maybe we'll go to the water park in Sheridan soon so I can see them in action.

!!! Rock Star Party !!!

Carlee had her 3rd birthday party recently...a Rock Star Party! Perfect for her big personality! She loves to sing and sometimes takes the floor and fields requests from the family members present.

Brent had the garage all decked out in rock star style...with a "stage", real mics and a strobe light. Before the party started, Carlee (in mismatched pajamas) gave us an early preview of her style. She started out slowly, but eventually got focused and gave it her all. Kate (in an interesting choice of red, filmy nightgown and sneakers) joined in about halfway through and they managed a rousing sister act. Carlee gets quite theatrical with her arm and hip movement. I think she tries to tap dance, too, but doesn't quite get her foot to the floor. She'll be taking dancing this fall, so I'm sure she'll be much better next year at this time.

Carlee's friends had play-doh and other activities to keep them busy

Time for the chocolate chip cookie cake!

Carlee blows out her 3 candles!

Kate takes a whack at the guitar shaped pinata

The pinata finally broke and all the kids rushed in to grab candy!

Hold on! That's not a kid...it's Tracy!

Carlee sings into a party favor...an inflatable mic

Carlee's Birthday (the REAL one!)

Carlee had her birthday party...a Rock Star Party on May 15. (I need to get some pictures posted soon. It's been almost a month.) But, her real birthday was on May 17. Not ever wanting to miss a chance to have cake, we schlepped over there and sang to her. She blew out her candles and then we all got a piece of her strawberry "cupcake cake". Aunt Robin brought her a big bag of goodies and Carlee enjoyed another day of being the star of the show...with boas and fancy flip-flops and other sparkly things!

The Gift Box

Jax has truly enjoyed the box that held the birthday gift sent by Uncle Bert, Aunt Leslie, Paige and Will. I don't remember if the box held his gift or Carlee's. But, he has spent much time opening and closing and studying it.  After playing with it for a little while, he will crawl away, but he soon returns to examine it again. 
 

Jax's First Birthday

We gathered at Carolyn and Brent's to celebrate Jax's 1st birthday. The birthday boy had been a little cranky during much of the day...or at least the part of the day when I was there. He had a cough and a runny nose, so he wasn't in tip-top form. The theme of the party was "baseball", so his personal little cake was in the shape of a baseball.  The cake intended for the rest of us was decorated to look like a baseball field.

After thoroughly plastering himself in cake (his first true adventure in big kids food), we moved to the living room for the gift opening.  He was surrounded by gift bags and boxes and one curiously wrapped large gift from the Garner family.  He didn't know what to do.  He went from gift to gift, pulling one thing out of a bag and then moving on to the next bag.  With a lot of help from his sisters, he managed to get everything out of the wrappings and onto the floor.

The hit of the evening, for all the kids, was the Elmo carpenter workbench (which was the curiously wrapped gift) that Wendy and Zane brought.  Gage and Kelly couldn't be there...they were at baseball practice.

At first, Jax didn't want to try his cake.  But after he got a 
little "forced" taste, he went to town on it!

Wendy and Robin got a laugh about something, while Carolyn directed a "look" at Carlee for some reason.

Pa, Pop, Kate, Jax and Carolyn...all doing their own thing.

Tyler, Carlee and Kate "helping" Jax with the Elmo carpenter bench

Sunday Lunch

The Little League barbeque chicken dinner was today, so Kelly took all the tickets and picked up the meals for us. Since Wendy's birthday was just a few days ago, we decided to make this her special celebration, too.

Here are a couple of videos, one of Jax doing nothing in particular, and the next of Carlee, performing, as usual. She was reciting nursery rhymes in her own special way. Sorry for the poor video quality of Carlee. It seems as if my photos and videos of her are often over-exposed looking.






After dinner, we sang Happy Birthday to Wendy...in several keys. She blew out our ceremonial two candles and then we dug into yummy brownies and ice cream.

Kelly and Brent then took the older four kids out with baseball gloves, tees, bats and balls and they had a little practice. Well, actually Carlee didn't participate in that...instead she morphed into her school marm persona and put her mom and Wendy through their paces.

Observing Jax

Carolyn had an appointment at the salon so I'm sitting with Jax. Carolyn always tries to schedule her appointments around his naptimes if I will be sitting with him to make it as easy as possible for me. Jax has always cooperated by taking a long (2 hour) nap and waking up just long enough for a little play time with me before Carolyn returns home. Lately, however, he doesn't go right to sleep upon being placed in the crib. He's learned some new skills and practices them for a while before he grabs his small lovey blanket and settles down long enough to fall asleep.

The new skills? He crawls. He sits. He pulls up. He's even tried a little cruising around the crib. After a half hour of all that activity, he has dropped off to sleep.

I love watching him on the video monitor. What a treat to be able to view without influencing activities. He's perfectly happy in there on his own. Wouldn't it be wonderful to know what's going on in his little head?

Today, Carolyn has told Kate that she will eat lunch with her. So, I will have a couple of hours to read without guilt.

The video below was taken yesterday. I stayed with Jax while Carolyn & Brent observed Kate's dancing lesson and then picked up Carlee. Jax was asleep when I got there and woke up about 5 PM. He was excited to see me walk in and laughed when I clowned around for him.

Laughing Baby!

While I was making sure all my photos from my camera had been saved in a file on the computer, I came across this video of Robin, Jax, Kate and Carlee. It was December 11th, the weekend after the Wendel/Rioux Family Christmas. Carolyn and Brent had traveled to New Orleans to attend a party given by a friend who had played minor league baseball with Brent. Robin was at the house helping me. In this video Kate and Carlee were running around in their usual manic fashion and Jax was enjoying it enormously. Who doesn't like hearing a baby laugh?