New Baby Friend

We are happy to welcome little Gabriella into our home for some hours each day! Amanda went back to work as a speech therapist last week. It was a tough week for little Gabi for several reasons, first time nursing from a bottle, first times away from mom and dad, had to get 4 mouth ties release so her poor little mouth was hurting. She is accustomed to napping in her mom's arms, not so much fun to hold her for hours while housework piled up. I got a rock and play that auto rocks in hopes it would help her sleep for longer. We've got some work to do with her napping and eating but it will get better. Looks like I will just watch her for a couple hours in morning each day. She is very cute with deep blue eyes. Phillip says her eyes remind him of the deep ocean! The kids get to hold her a bit before school on some mornings. Josie is quite unsure about having a baby to take up my time! She had a meltdown over Gabi's binky because she has a similar one. It's good for her to learn how to act around a littler person. The clutter was worse than usual since my extra time was spent snuggling a baby.

Amelia helped Everett whip up some fliers to pass out in our neighborhood. He wants to earn more money so his wallet will get full. They passed out 9 fliers one afternoon last week. He got a call to dog sit for our neighbor. He is so excited to earn $6 per day! Amelia is helping out so she will also earn $6 per day.

Evelyn decided Josie can play with her now. She lured Josie upstairs to play doctor with American Girl dolls and Doc McStuffins props. I snuck a couple peeks into the bedroom since it was so quiet, both girls were happily playing together! Makes my heart happy when those two give each other positive attention.

Saturday the kids got through all the chores before 11 am! Amelia said she got up determined not to whine about chores, she stuck to her challenge! Everett and Amelia had the side rocked area all weeded in record time. Phillip helped me clean up the patio. Amelia mowed the lawns with just a little help from Justin! Justin had more tedious work on the ever-leaking watering system, fix one leak and another shows up. We treated our hard work with a slurpee run to 7-11. Justin scored a radical straw hat, breezy and shady all at the same time. I had to laugh, looks pretty darn amazing on him. Amelia went to her cousin Anna's birthday party. I brought home Anson and Gary for the boys to play with. Amelia said Anna's friends are quite intimidating! We enjoyed having the boys. After a scrumptious meal of carne asada (gracias to Justin for marinating and grilling the meat), everyone except me enjoyed some pool time. I threw my lume cube (a waterproof photography light) into the pool for some light. The kids thought that was so cool! I made a large batch of caramel corn while the kids watched Paw Patrol. The party was over at 10 so it was quite a late night for the kiddos.