Bath fun

Tess loves to fake cough. Sometimes, she gets a little carried away.

(Pause the music)

It's the little things

That little people find entertaining. Ignore my other girl who is wandering around in her panties.

Summer Fun

To get some relief from the heat, the kids dragged the slip and slide out today. Teagan didn't quite figure out the belly slide.

Tess watched for awhile. Then she got bored.

T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

What? I'm not eating toilet paper.

A Heavy Subject

I'm talking about me. I'm heavy. Not as heavy as I was 3 months ago, but I've hit the wall. While I have lost about 20 pounds since my pre-Tess weight, I'm just hovering now, between 171-173. I've been slacking on the whole diet thing. Can't remember when I counted points last. And my daily walk? Hmm, let's just say, my walking shoes are getting dusty.

For a little inspiration, I've joined a weight loss challenge at work. (That work place that I am not allowed to mention on a blog. By the way, the views expressed here are solely the contributors and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.) I hope you all won't be able to figure out my place of employment now that I've mentioned there is a weight loss challenge going on.

Enough of the snarkiness, is that even a word? I bet Krista would say it is. She says snarky all the time. See??? No wonder I can't lose weight. I can't even stay on track long enough to blog. Geesh.

I've come to the realization that altering my diet is only a part of it. I'm apparently, going to have to exercise. Dammit. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. I've been ogling the 30 day shred for awhile now. But would I actually use it, or would it sit on the shelf next to Yoga Booty Ballet and Windsor Pilates? Perhaps I should try one of the videos I already have. Of course, that would mean clearing a space in the little kids room since most of them are on VHS and they have the only TV with a VCR. That in itself, could be considered exercise.

I'll let you know what I decide.

And on a lighter note, Tatum scratched her leg earlier. Didn't even know how she did it, just happened to notice that she had a long scratch behind her knee. She then had to walk with a limp because, you know, she was seriously injured. Teagan said, "My sister's crazy".

Yes son, I couldn't agree more.

So it ends...

Baseball season that is. Travis had his last tournament game. They won two in a row then lost last night. They did pretty well considering they had most of the youngst players in the league.

It was a night of baseball and Mickey D's.

Tess decided she wasn't that interested in the fries and went for the chicken nuggets instead.

Mmm, good.

So with ballet and baseball over, it should be a pretty relaxing summer. Oh, except for school and work and kids running around all day..........

T.E.N.

My baby girl's 10 month anniverary passed without any pomp or circumstance. Not purposely, despite that subconsciously, I would like to ignore the fact that she is almost a year old. I don't know if it's possible but I swear she gets cuter every day. She is finally cutting teeth with her two middle bottom teeth starting to poke through at the same time. They don't seem to be bothering her too much, although watch your fingers if you try to fish something out of her mouth.

She has mastered the crawl, although she'll still resort to her belly crawl sometimes if she's in a real hurry.

She's pulling up and climbing on everything she can grab hold of, including the stairs. She gets up one step then cries because she can't figure out how to get back down. She also likes to climb onto the bouncer seat backwards and bounce. It makes me a bit nervous but she thinks it's hilarious.

She is a cackler, and a squealer, and a screecher. Basically, if you hear a loud noise, it probably came from Tess.

She is still a little peanut with plenty of room in her 6-9 month clothes. Surprising really, considering that she eats whatever we put in front of her. And I do mean whatever. Her most recent taste tests included spanish rice and baked beans. She hasn't found anything she doesn't like. Oh wait, ketchup on scrambled eggs. She's not a fan, although she will scarf down plain scrambled eggs and maybe take off a finger in the process.

She loves her big brothers and sisters. And bath time. Those are probably her two favorite things, the bath tub and somebody to play with.

I love this girl of mine.

Miss Tess Caroline.

Pretty Kitty

Tatum's dance recital was this weekend. We were busy, busy, what with studio rehearsal, dress rehearsal, and the insanely long recital. I've been trying to catch up the rest of my life since then.

Tatum is right in the middle

There was a wardrobe malfunction. One of the girls lost their tail, so they were all a bit distracted trying to figure out who it belonged to.

On top of all that

Someone is 10 months old

And cutting two teeth

Can you guess who?

Celebrating 100

Today is my grandmother's 100th birthday. We celebrated this milestone birthday with a party in her honor on Sunday afternoon. Tess and great grandma

Enough cake to feed an army. Or the many, many descendants of this lady.

There was lots and lots of picture taking. This is Grandma and her 5 children.
Bob, Carl, Edith, Howard, and Charles

Each of the kids had pictures with their offspring.

This is my Dad, the baby of the family with 3 of his 5 children, and grandchildren.

(Yeah, I have 5 kids too, and so does Uncle Carl. It's apparently an average number in this family.)

These are all the great grandkids. It's funny how they range in age from 10 months to the married with children girls in the back. In fact, there are some great, great grandkids older than some of the great grandkids.

And so begins the Tessapalooza!

The big kids were two busy running around with all the little cousins to stand still for pictures.

Remember this dress?

If you're a Reds fan, listen for the shout out for my Grandma Wilma during tonight's game!