Alena's Baptism

My parents were here this past weekend and Dad was able to baptize Alena at our church on Sunday. Here are a few of the pictures .

Alena after it was all over. Mathu Alena and Pathu

Mya, me, Gabriel, Noi, Mathu, Alena, Nae and Pathu

Mya, Me, Gabriel, Nae, Alena, Grandmama, and Grandaddy

Our family

Grandaddy with Gabriel and Mya acting very silly.

Alena with that oh so cute smile after bath time the other night.

Really Random

First, let me just say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" t o my sweet husband who fixed our computer to allow all of these pictures to load up correctly the first time. I was getting very frustrated with all the time it was taking to put any pictures on this blog since I had to re-load each one many times, but today all is well once again. Nae, I have no idea what you did but you fixed it (as usual, I might add.)

Now on to the pictures which I'm afraid aren't very exciting but at least something different to look at. Alena is now rolling over, from back to stomach that is, and, as you'll see in the picture below, is reading as well. :) We actually got this book in the mail as our free one this month, and she seems to really like the pictures which are all big and black and white. If I open the book up for her to look at then Gabe or Mya will turn the pages for her every time they go by. I guess she must give them some secret code to let them know that she's ready to look at something different.
The shower head in the kids bathroom broke recently so Nae went Tuesday and purchased a new one. Gabe was very excited to take a shower with the new shower even though I have no idea why since he never used the old one. He pulled the curtain and said, "I'll be out in a few minutes." I don't know where he's heard that from. I told him to be, "Quick like an ambulance!" which is what he told me the other day when I was getting ready to take a shower.

Rain and Cupcakes

We were so happy to see rain on Sunday after several weeks without, that we allowed Gabriel to go enjoy splashing in it. Instead of splashing he ended up getting drenched, but had a great time. We laughed at him with the umbrella because it really did no good. He came in and went straight to the bathtub.
Mya had her boots on ready to go, but refused to leave the porch. I've noted on here before her hatred for falling/spraying/dumping water. She pretty much likes water to stay on her feet only. She was saying, "Mya not like it! Mya not like rain!"
Nae took this picture through the patio door the other night after dinner when we sent them out to play. If I remember correctly, this was the night that Mya had dumped her entire bowl of spaghetti on the CARPET under our table. It was an accident but still a huge mess to clean up. Who knows what they were up to in this picture.
Noi came over today and made brownies and cupcakes with Gabe and Mya. They had a great time as you can imagine and Gabe is still talking about the magic icing that changed colors (with the help of a little food coloring). They each had a cupcake while Noi was here and then she left them each one more. I suggested that we save that one for tomorrow but Gabriel said, "No, Mommy Noi said those were for tonight after we eat our dinner!" Thanks a lot Noi! So here are the pictures of what they looked like after eating said cupcake. Mya kept her hands totally clean by using the face plant method of eating hers.
I had to include a picture of our little Alena who weighed in at 12lbs and 7ozs at her 4 month check-up yesterday and was 24 3/4 in tall. She hasn't been her normal happy self today thanks to all those shots, but here she is a couple days ago so close to rolling over. She still hasn't made it all the way over, but it won't be long.

Sunday Shots

We attempted the impossible today - to get a good shot of all three kids, dressed for church this morning. We ended up with these two the first one where Gabe and Alena are smiling and looking at the camera (somewhat) and the second one where Mya and Alena are smiling.
Mya in the naughty chair. Just kidding! I'm not exactly sure why Nae had her in this chair posing.
I usually hear Alena (who is now sharing a room with Mya) start to stir around 5:30 or 6 every morning. I'll go and get her and put her in the pack n play in our room (where she still takes naps), put her pacifier in, and take a quick shower while she dozes back off (hopefully). Sometime during this process, Gabriel almost always gets up as well. One morning last week I was in the shower and Gabe comes in and says that Alena is crying; I asked him to please put her pacifier back in and when I get out of the shower this is what I found. When Alena was sleeping in the cradle he could easily reach her to put the pacifier in, but the pack n play is too far down. He couldn't reach her so instead he climbed in and laid beside her. I thought they looked so cute, but we did have a little talk about climbing in on the opposite end from her head just in case a fall should occur :) By the way, Alena still enjoys being swaddled at night which is why she looks kind of like a mummy in these pictures.

To Arkansas and back

Over the Labor Day weekend, we went to Na and Todd's (Nae's sister and brother-in-law) in Arkansas. Here they are with their little boy Henry. It's fun for us city folk to go spend some time in the country and enjoy the great outdoors. This time the guys got to put together a huge swing set/fort. On a whim, we decided to leave late Thursday evening instead of Friday morning. We stayed in a motel in Memphis and went to the zoo Friday morning. It helped to divide the trip up some. Here are Gabe and Mya at the zoo.
Noi and Billy met us at the zoo around lunch time and Noi was kind enough to carry Alena in the Baby Bjorn. Yes, I forgot Alena's hat so Nae's was used as a stand-in.
I've always thought that Henry and Gabe favored each other, but after seeing this picture of Mya and Henry I think they look enough alike to be brother and sister. They had a great time together splashing in this pool.

Billy and Mya posing in the bottom half of the fort.

Noi and Henry on the top of the fort. I didn't get a picture of the finished product but this swing set was huge. They worked on it all day Saturday until midnight and still didn't get totally finished.

The siblings - Noi (the youngest), Na (the oldest) and Nae. There's two more boys, Nee and Bing in between Nae and Noi.