a summer Thursday

My oldest and youngest looking cozy.  We all adore Beatrix.  This is at Mesa High, our favorite free lunch spot.  We like to go right after Rupert's swim lesson and Zara's swim team at Kino.

Love these goofballs. :)

 Thursdays are our swim meet days.  This week Mesa High hosted.  The kids get there at 5:15 and the meet starts at 6:00.  Zara is in the 5-6 age group, we have no swimmers in the middle age group, and Elliot and Avery are in the 9-10 age group.  This week's swim stroke was breast stroke.  If the swimmers don't swim correctly they are disqualified and get a participation ribbon instead of 1-8 place ribbon.  None of our kids disqualified, although Zara wasn't consistent.  We are so proud of how hard they push themselves and do their best!

 Third place!

Sixth place!

 They each got two ribbons.  One for their individual race, and one for relay.  They have to qualify for relay earlier in the week to compete and Elliot was the only one that qualified this week, so we were surprised when Zara and Avery ended up doing relay as well!  Elliot has qualified all four meets, this was Avery's third relay to swim, and Zara's first!  How is Elliot a foot taller than Avery!  They are a year closer in age than the girls are. :)  

Beatrix was so content the first half of the meet before crying.  She did so good, just a little hungry.

 To celebrate finishing all 4 swim meets (freestyle, back stroke, butterfly and breast stroke) we took them to Zoyo's, a favorite frozen yogurt place of ours.  Some of the kids got more candy toppings than frozen yogurt but oh well.

This was my best one yet!  Chocolate and vanilla swirl with oreo and fudge, and blackberry frozen yogurt with fresh raspberries.  Amazing!!

Father of FIVE

 I still haven't shared about our little baby apart from a mention in yesterdays post but we had a baby and we love her so much!  I'm crazy about her and love these photos Julie Larson took less than two weeks after she was born so I'll share some daddy ones here in honor of Father's Day yesterday. 

We never met Julie before the shoot but I found her through instagram and love her work.  She's so talented and was so great to work with, I totally recommend her for baby or family photos.  I mean, it helps that we have a perfect baby to photograph and some cute kids. ;)

* Pure magic! *

Andrew is such a fun and patient dad.  He balances me out so well in parenting.  He comes up with great solutions when we're struggling with a child, even when I think my ideas are better at first. ;)  Andrew is a hard working and is a good balance between being laid back but not settling.

And look at that beautiful little face!  She's already grown since this picture and I'm trying to soak up every moment with her but it's still going too fast.  It's hard knowing she's our last but we feel good about it too.

I'll make sure to share some more photos because they are so good!  I also haven't written the birth story anywhere yet so maybe I'll do that later this week.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!  Today was pretty low-key as far as Father's Days have been today.  Elliot and I made Andrew a smoothie for breakfast (part of what he asked for) but it wasn't served in bed.  I got Andrew some fancy, manly protein powder (not just the Target brand I usually get) and a card from all of us but that's pretty much it.

Oh, and I gave him a couple for any class he wants to sign up for.  He told me a week or so ago for Father's Day he wanted to take a landscape photography, or grilling, or guitar class.  I had no idea what to sign him up for or where, especially because he's so busy with work and as YM President.  Hence the coupon.  He already sign up for a couple private swim lessons with that coupon.  He wants to work on breathing technique so he can do better at the triathlon this fall.

Oh, and I made a yummy salmon dinner which Andrew loves, something I never cook.  Sooo good.

^ ^ ^ Rupert is holding Andrew's Father's Day card. :) ^ ^ ^

Life has been pretty amazing but busy in my world lately.  Beatrix will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and she's a normal baby that needs to nurse often and be with mom a lot.  I love my babies, and having 4 other kids at home is a handful every day this summer break.

I had two goals this summer:

1. to read to the kids every night //

I have been doing this!  We're over half way through The Secret Garden.  We're going to watch the movie after we finish it.

2.  to publish a blog post at least 5 times a week //

I hadn't even started this until tonight!  Hopefully this will jump start me into the rest of summer.  It's not like I'm not taking pictures constantly. (hello new baby!!) Blogging is something I've made an effort of the last two summers and I didn't last long last year.  It's not that I don't love to blog, because I do!, it just takes time and summer wears me out and now I'm nursing a couple times in the night (Beatrix is a great sleeper though) and sleep is a higher priority mostly.  

Well anyway we have been having a great summer so stay tuned for more updates. :)

Life is beautiful with a baby.  She's just beautiful and magical and the best.  This picture with my dad is from yesterday.  So grateful for an amazing dad (who just retired last month!), and for Nev my father in law, and Andrew who is such a good daddy to our 5 babies!