The Mooney Clan

We had another sunny and fun saturday. We met up with the Reids and the Muirhead's and Crystal D at the park for a picnic. Caden and Kellen seemed to really enjoy each other. They don't get a chance to hang out much so it was nice to see them have some fun together. The are both into so many of the same things. Lightning McQueen and construction stuff being the most obvious! Here are a few pictures from our day: Lanelle Leah and Craig Hey Dylan, look down here (he really is getting around these days - this is the roof of the little picnic area) Janet, Ian and Lanelle Crystal (She and Leah had the magic touch for putting our babies to sleep for us) Kellen (Janet and I took the big kids down to the water to feed the geese - it's amazing they didn't topple in - Kellen had a close call but thanks to his mom's swift movements and a dive that skinned her knee, he only ended up with one wet shoe! Whew!) The boys enjoyed some time digging in the sand. They even had a

Caden was lucky enough to have yet another birthday party and another birthday cake. He's a big fan of cake and blowing out candles. He got another hockey cake. This symbol does still refer to hockey of some sort right? OH, just kidding, I'm actually a fan too but jeepers! Anyway! If you take a close enough look you may notice something odd. Something you don't often see in our pics. THE OUTDOORS! Yep - we spent this evening outside. Isn't that marvelous! The kids ran around. Well, the big kids! The babies hung out and ya know- Liam doesn't seem to be much of a fan of the outdoors. Any time we've gone for walks or I've brought them into the back yard with us - he has this constant scowl going on. He doesn't smile like his normal self. It's interesting. He might be the kid, waiting by the door, until recess is over and he can get back inside. Who knows..... Justin and Evan Lindsay and Dylan Jasmine (Jasy - Caden's little girl frie

Caden decided to entertain the boys yesterday. They just love their big brother and they find him SO interesting. He is able to get them laughing so easily. He sing songs for them. He's such a sweetheart. ' Circle Time ' with big brother Evan and Liam Liam and Caden (the 'teacher' appears to have powered out) Have I mentioned that this is just the happiest baby ever? Evan is almost always smiling. And he'll play contentedly for so long. He always gets fed last because the other two are being fussy first. So not fair but what can I say :) I am quite certain that Dylan is thinking "what can I get into now?". That goes for this picture and all of his awake hours. Either that or he's thinking "I'm going to start whining right away so that someone will pick me up. Then I'm going to be so content so that they will never put me down." .....or he is going to get himself stuck under something - this time it's the couch

I think it stinks that it isn't even 6 am yet and I've been up for an hour and a half.. It's getting pretty tiring. We take turns getting to sleep in until 7am. And that feels like a real treat when we get it. But the person getting up tries to keep 3 babies quiet for 2 hours (or more) so that spouse and 3 year old can sleep longer. The last thing we need is Caden getting up before 7ish. He's a bit of a bear on those days. Oh - I just want to go back to bed...

So, just a couple of posts ago I mentioned the freedom that I'll have once these kids can really hold their own bottles and that they are really close to doing that. Then I went on to say that I didn't want to think about what other abilities will come with this 'growing' up stuff. Well, I didn't have long to pretend it was going to be any easier. Dylan now rolls all over the place. He just log rolls across the room. Once I realized that he wasn't getting hurt I had to take these pictures of how he had rolled himself under Liam in the jolly jumper. What a kid! But he's also rolled himself under our black rocking chair and into the corner with the speaker wires and he plays with the stereo equipment (we have doors that we will now put back on). After we moved him from the jolly jumper he got himself over to Evan in the exersaucer and tried to climb right in. AND... he pulls boxes of toys out of our coffee table shelves now. So - that's Caden'

Yesterday's horoscope in our 'sun news' was right on the money for me: Capricorn: "Your own behaviors seem unlike you. But that's how it's been lately. Abnormal happens so often, it's the new normal. Go with this strange state of mind, knowing that it's temporary."

Did you all see that? Do you see what is happening here?!!!!!!!! Take a closer look...... YES - there it is - the simplifying of my life is about to commence... Yes... He is holding his own bottle! Thank you Dylan. He hasn't quite perfected this yet but is so so close. Now please - do not point out that with this ability soon comes mobility (and therefore life is not going to be so simplified after all), rather, just let me just bask in my naivete for awhile.

I don't even know what to say - they are just so incredible. I feel too small to have a right to even say anything about it. What do I know about music? I do know that I really enjoyed it and was 'moved' if you want to put it that way, by a few songs. I lean toward the slower, calmer things. The songs that are less operatic and with less loud orchestra behind it (I'm an acapella girl at heart - I want to hear those voices, what can I say!). But the intensity of some of that stuff was enough to knock the wind out of you sometimes. Here is a one of the songs I really liked, if you want to have a listen.

Today has been such a great day! We spent the morning tidying the yard a little, had some lunch and then headed for the Cathedral Village Arts Festival. We hit the kid friendly stuff and we learned even more about Caden. The first place we went to was this jumping tent and he waited in line but then would not go in. I was really surprised but he seemed kind of unsure about it and just didn't want to do it. He tried again a little later and even went up to the door but chickened out again. But.... ...He loved the bouncy slide. He went on this a couple of times. It looked like fun to me too! Then we spent a few minutes at the sand castle area but he didn't do much there. Just played in the water a bit. Then we found an area where you could get balloon animals and play with kid sized instruments. He had no interest in the balloon animals whatsoever - which I was surprised about. He loves balloons... On the other hand though, he LOVED the guitars. He played just with t