Tah Dah!

All Finished. The Playhouse is complete. Nice Work Darin.

What A Week!

About a month ago, the music teacher in Rockland asked me to substitute for him for the first week of school. I said "sure" thinking I would do him a favor and get a little experience teaching K-12 General Music, Band, & Choir. Then I remembered that I have children and a family which is the whole reason why I am not teaching in the first place. After making childcare arrangements for my three little cherubs, I realized that I would only be making between $15-$22 per day after the school takes out taxes and I pay for babysitting. Worth it? I think not. I had already committed myself to the music teacher, and really I was his only choice, so I went ahead and taught 7 classes of music each day for the first week of school (Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday). Those of you that know me, know that I am a perfectionist, so I went over my lesson plans for several hours each night to make sure that I knew exactly how I was going to do things. I think the classes went well, I had fun. It was nice to have a little change in my life, but I definitely am still not planning on teaching anytime soon. I was so tired by the time I got home from school, that I didn't want to see anyone or do anything, but yet I still had to be wife and mom (which I prefer) and it is just too much for me to juggle. Kudos to those of you that can be working mothers, I don't know how you do it and keep your sanity.

John Deere ZZZ's

Abigail asked her daddy if she could go for a ride in this John Deere Wagon that pulls behind his lawnmower. Darin said, "sure" so they went for a ride around the property. About 5 minutes later Darin turned around to ask Abigail if she was having fun and this is what he saw. Abigail is dead asleep. She is even sleeping with her shoes in her hand.

Abigail's Little House on the Prairie

Beginning the project.

Darin has been working on building Abigail a playhouse for a couple of months now and it is almost finished. He has to install the door (after we strip all of the lead paint off of it) and put railing on the front porch and then it will be finished. Abigail and her friends love to play house in it. She put her little kitchen, play food and a table in it. Darin is such a fun, handy dad. Now Abigail has her own Little House on the Prairie.

Almost done. Yes, Abigail has her own John Deere Lawn Mower of course. She wants to do everything that daddy does.

The Twins Are 7 Months Old!

Emily Celia - 7 Months Old

Elizabeth Claire - 7 Months Old

W0w! I can't believe that the twins are already 7 months old. Time goes by so fast when you are having crazy, chaotic, fun. I love their little personalities and I couldn't imagine my life without them.

First Finger Food

The twins got a taste of their first finger foods the other day. They are gumming a Baby MumMum Rice Biscut and they also got to try some Sweet Potato Puffs. They love the finger foods, much better than baby food.

Emily's Quirks

Emily has been rather difficult to get to sleep lately. She thrashes around, takes her pacifier out and won't stop babbling. So, when she does fall asleep I don't dare try to move her. Here she fell asleep in her boppy and I quickly remembered why I love her so much. She looks so peaceful when she is sleeping.

Emily LOVES this frog. She must have it in her crib if she is even willing to attempt to fall asleep. The frog seems to calm her down fairly quickly cause it sings about 6 minutes of lullaby music.

Wrestling

The twins are starting to interact with each other more and more. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It is hard to leave the girls on the floor playing for a few minutes unless they are separated because I will hear a scream and one of them will have the other pinned down or they will pinch, scratch, or take toys from each other. Of course they don't know any better I guess I am getting prepared for what is to come when they are toddlers. In these pictures Emily is wrestling Elizabeth and Elizabeth has just decided to take it. Emily outweighs Elizabeth by 3 pounds, so I think Elizabeth just decided this time not to fight back.

Harvest

It's harvest time here on the farm. These are John Deere Combines (if you didn't know) and they help with harvesting the wheat. Darin hasn't been able to drive one of these yet, but maybe they will let him help sometime soon. He has been helping in the alfalfa field by moving sprinkler pipe and has been fixing alot of barbed wire fence. I think it is really neat to see how the farmers do things around here. A real farmer. I can definately say that Darin has his own sense of style.

Elizabeth's 1st Tooth

Elizabeth has been drooling excessively the past month and has been pretty cranky the past couple of weeks, but not without reason. On July 23rd, Elizabeth's 1st tooth popped through and on Friday (August 1st) her second tooth came in. She is now the proud owner of two cute little bottom teeth. I was pretty surprised, seeing as she isn't even seven months old yet and Abigail didn't get her first tooth until she was almost 9 months old. I thought I better document it though because I tend to forget these kind of things. I tried to take a picture, but you can't really see her tooth and she kept biting my finger because she wants to chew on everything that comes close to her mouth. Ouch!

Family Pictures

We had some pictures of the family taken while we were in Texas. Storytime with Abigail.

Darin

What a stud muffin!

Misty

Abigail Lynn - 4 Years Old

She is growing up right before our eyes.

Emily Celia - 6 Months Old

Could we get some more drool please?

Elizabeth Claire - 6 Months Old

What pretty blue eyes!

The Fabulous Five

This was the best family shot, it is not my favorite picture of all of us, but it is pretty difficult to get everyone to look at the camera all at once when you are dealing with the Ralphs crew. I wanted to put this picture in my blog heading, but I couldn't figure out how to, the picture kept showing up huge. Any suggestions?

Everyone Is Growing Like A Weed

Darin and I took all of the kids to the doctor yesterday for their well check-ups and immunizations. Everyone is growing wonderfully and each kiddo endured 4 shots and I made it (barely) through all twelve. Good thing Darin was there for all of his girls. Elizabeth - 6 months old
Weight: 16 lbs 15 oz
Height: 25 3/4 inches
Head Circumfrence: 17.9 inches

Emily - 6 months old

Weight: 19 lbs 9 oz

Height: 26 1/2 inches

Head Circumfrence: 17.6 inches

Sitting with support. Aren't They Cute!

Abigail - 4 years old

Weight: 35 lbs

Height: 40 inches

Abigail - 6 months old

Weight:16 lbs 4 oz

Height: 27 1/2 inches

We're Back From Texas

It has been a while since we have blogged cause we have been in Texas for the past three weeks visiting friends and family. We had great fun and soaked up lots of Texas sun. So, since we haven't blogged in a long time, we have a whole bunch to post.

On The Road

The girls did great traveling 24 hours in the car to Texas and 24 hours back from Texas. Just a few moments of chaos, which is great considering what it could have been. Elizabeth
Abigail
Emily

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July with the Stocker Family.
Independence Day Dresses
We watched fireworks at UNT.

We Are Family

Unfortunatelly, I kept forgetting my camera when we would go visit cousins and friends, but here are some of the shots we got because Darin remembered to take pictures. Grandma Mimi & Emily
Grandma Mimi with Emily & Grandpa Del with Elizabeth
Cousins Victora & Savanna Mitchell with the twins
Aunt Tracie with Elizabeth & Aunt Sheralyn with Emily
Big Laughs with Papa Carl

Swimming

I have decided that the thing that I miss the most about Texas besides family of course, is swimming. We made it a point to swim almost every day while we were there. Abigail took swimming lessons at the Stocker Swim School of course and I taught the twins in a Water Babies class. She is doing much better because of the lessons. Now, I have to find a pool in Idaho that we can practice in, so she doesn't forget everything that she learned.
Abigail was fortunate to have Grand Nan as her teacher.
Abigail is floating all by her self for Sherry, a swim school assistant.

Birthday Parties Galore

With 18 grandchildren on the Ralphs side of the family, you are bound to attend a birthday party or two if you stick around for a couple of weeks. Abigail's cousins Brendan & Triston (yes they are twins) turned 5 while we were in Texas. Abigail had a blast at their Batman birthday party.

Abigail turned 4 on July 19th and her birthday wish was to have a Little Mermaid swimming party at Grand Nan's house. This is abigail's pre-party present. Abigail was Ariel for a day in this gear.


Abigail had so much fun with her Texas friends and cousins and grandparents. Thanks to all that attended, you made her day very special.