Squeaker here.  Mom and Dad said since we’re covering my birthday in this post I get to be the storyteller.  I love stories.  I love going to the park too.  Anyway, it’s been a long time since we blogged because we have been even more busy than usual – we moved!  And we got some pro photos done, so those will be included below as well.  Even though this post won’t catch you up to November (the timing of this post), we hope to post again soon, but we all know how that goes.  Haha.

Well, let’s go, shall we?

Here are a few photos from my birthday. I’m 3 now.  That’s one more than 2, and one fewer than 4, just in case you didn’t know.

No, I’m not saying I’m 5, just showing you my frosting fingers and face.  I like cake, too.  Did I mention that already?  Oh, and presents!  I love presents!

Okay, enough about me… let’s see how our Spring and Summer went… kind of crazy since we moved.

That’s right!  We finally got out of the duplex in south KCMO and into a nice house in the Piper area of KCK.  We love the neighborhood, though we wish there were sidewalks.  We have nice neighbors, a pond a couple blocks away, and a few different families we know from church within a short drive from our house.  Anyway, here’s some of our Spring and Summer.

Above: Little Boy at 3 months old; and the rest of us with a couple friends, playing dress up.  We LOVE playing dress up.

   We took advantage of some nice Spring weather and went to the park one day in May.  Cruz picked some dandelions while I begged to ride in the swing.  Junior learned how to ride a bike not long before this day trip, and he got lots of practice in at the park that day.  I can’t wait until I can ride a bike!  Little Boy is about 4 mos. in the picture above with Mom.

Let’s hear it for the boys!

Minus one… Little Boy was taking a nap…… but we sure had fun without him.

A little fun time with Dad.

And now for some pro pics, taken in July.  The whole gang, looking their best… except for Cruz, who refused to smile.  Mom says she was a little surprised, considering everyone calls him Smiley.

Jr.: 5 1/2, Bumblebee: 4 1/2, Squeaker: 3, Cruz, 22 mos., Little Boy: 6 mos.

Such a cutie!  Little Boy is about 6 mos. old here, too.

Hanging out.

We took a little day trip to Atchison and visited the train museum… or at least some museum that had trains. The building itself was closed, but we were able to climb on the trains, so we still had fun.

Well, we will leave you with these two fun videos of me! (some of you have seen them already, if Daddy or Mommy had a chance to show you in person.)

We will attempt to catch up with Cruz’s birthday and Fall very soon.  Email us if you want our new address.  Until next time, God bless you all, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Isn’t it nice that the snow melted and warmer weather is starting to sneak into the forecast?  Well, okay, for most of you it’s getting ready to snow again, and maybe a lot, but that recent day of near-80-degree weather has us excited to be able to get out and play in the sunshine more.  Oh, Bumblebee here.  Mom said I could have a turn at narrating the picture line-up this time.

Our new baby brother sure is getting big, and he’s such a cutie!  We have decided his screen name should be LB for “Little Boy,” at least for now.  If we come up with something better we’ll change it.  He’s gaining a pound a week, and only wakes one or two times each night.  I think I might like him better than the others do, but they say no way.  Anyway, we have some more pictures of him, and a video of Cruz that’s pretty cute.  Hope you enjoy.

The first set of pictures were taken at the Picture People Studio.  We thought they turned out pretty well. It can be very difficult to get 5 young children to all smile at the same time, look at the camera at the same time, hold still for longer than 2 seconds and not throw any fits.  By the end of the session mom was just glad to get this many to turn out well.

LB doing his best impression of Dad. hehe.

This video is from early December, but we wanted to show you, since it was pretty cute.  At this point Cruz had only been walking on his own for about 2 weeks or so.  Just like his sisters, he started walking at about 14 mos. old.

Here are some candid shots of birthdays, as Jr. and I turned another year older in Jan. and Feb.  Squeaker will be turning 3 soon – she is so excited for her birthday.

Jr’s 5th, celebrated at his Godparents’ house.

He got cheesecake!

Here is one of LB at just a few days old, and then a few from his baptism.

With the Godparents, mommy’s brother and his wife.

…and one from the family Jan./Feb. birthday celebration.  Lots of birthdays in two months!

Now for MY birthday pics!  Okay, there are only two, but that’s because we don’t want to make this blog post REALLY long.

How about a few fun pics?  Here are some of us including a couple with mom and dad.

LB’s need for a haircut is very obvious in this next picture…

…so mom gave him one!  The lighting isn’t great on either one of these pictures, but you ought to be able to see evidence of a haircut, especially when comparing it to the previous picture.

More fun pictures.

We will leave you with one more video, of LB, trying to learn how to smile. I sure love him!

We will be back again sometime with pictures from Easter and Squeaker’s birthday.  God bless you all! Have a Happy and Holy Easter!

Hello, family and friends!  Jr. here.  As you probably already know, we have another member in the family now.  We haven’t decided on a screen name for him (you can offer your suggestions in the comments section if you like), so for now we will just call him Little Boy.  Mom really thought she was having a girl this time, but she’s very happy to have her Little Boy – the first boy to have lots of hair at birth.  We will keep this blog post short, but hopefully we can blog again soon after a couple birthday celebrations, when we have more photos to share.

And now… Little Boy!

These first two are from Day 1.

These next two are from Day 3.

And the following are from Day 5.

He had his one-week check-up and is already back up to birth weight – yay!

Finally, here’s one of me, holding my new baby brother on Day 2.  I sure love him a lot!

That’s all for now.  We’ll let you know when we blog again.  Thanks for all the prayers!  God bless!

Jr is back!  Hello, all!  I hope you have been having a pleasant change of weather.  Now that we’re starting to see some real Fall weather I almost want Summer back… almost.

Can you believe we’re writing again so soon!?  We have some fun highlights to show you – the most memorable ones are our camping trip, our vacation and All Saints Day!  Let’s get started. "

We went camping for one night (we weren’t sure if Mom and Dad could handle us out in the “wild” for more than one night, hehe) a couple weeks before the particular camping site closed for the season.  It was the first time Dad has been camping since he was a teenager, and it was the first time ever for the rest of us except Mom, who used to go with her family when she was a lot younger. We camped right next to a little playground, which was great, because Bumblebee, Squeaker and I all took advantage of it many times, which gave Mom and Dad the chance to set up the tent, make the food, clean up messes, chase Cruz all over the place and so on. Here are some pics we took.

Dad and Cruz enjoying their bottles…

Dad cooking meat over the campfire – we had a tasty dinner!

Mom washing dishes by lantern-light, and the fire Dad built.

Here are the girls helping Dad set up beds in the huge tent we got, and Squeaker proudly pushing the stroller around to content Cruz for awhile (and keep him from eating the gravel – yuck!).

In between our camping trip and our vacation to Colorado, we had some quality time – I read to Squeaker and Bumblebee counts poker chips for Dad.  Cruz just hangs out waiting for a snack.

And now for some fun pics from our trip to Colorado.  It was a blast!

The first pic is the mountains on the horizon as we approached Denver.  Then there are a few of us kids enjoying the motionless “wildlife” in Winter Park, as we window-shopped and found some neat postcards.

Here are Mom and Dad (I think Dad has her in a choke hold) on the balcony/porch to our cabin with Snow Mountain in the background.  Then there is a picture of Bumblebee and I hiking up a mountain with Dad – we made it to the top!  So neat!

On the last full day of our trip Mom and Dad went on the waterfall hike – Mom, being 6 months pregnant at the time, wasn’t sure she’d make it, but she did. And even though it wasn’t THAT cold out, there was ice on the falls. It started raining on the way back down, but since it was only a light mist for the most part they didn’t get too wet.

Next are a few pictures of us when dad was having one of his photo-bug moments. Mom thought it would be fun to put our heads together for one shot. It sure was hard to keep Cruz from wandering away. Crazy boy is just so squirmy.

Here is a picture from the All Saints Day party. I was St. Patrick, Bumblebee was St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Squeaker was St. Rose of Viterbo.

The next picture was just a random sappy moment between Bumblebee and me, and then there’s a funny picture of me that mom couldn’t resist taking after I dressed myself as a… well, someone ready to work, at Grandma’s house.

Last but not least here’s Dad painting the very hard-to-reach places on the entryway ceiling just a couple days ago (the whole living room was done!). Mom says he’s her hero. There’s nothing like a clean, white ceiling to brighten up a room. The walls will be painted in the coming weeks – we’re so excited for a fresh, new look.

Well, that’s all for now.  Hope you enjoyed this post.  We’ll try to have some videos for next time.  God bless you all!

Greetings, friends and family!  Long time no… post.  Sorry about that.  Mom and Dad have been super busy (of course) with trying to keep us in line, get work projects done (Dad), run a household (Mom) and still have some down time (yeah, right!).

We have been  busy too, my siblings and I.  Jr., Bumblebee and Cruz are all pretty impressed with how I (Squeaker) have been talking so well, and not squeaking so much.  Everyone says I enunciate so well… whatever that means.  I think it’s a good thing, since they seem to have such wide eyes (and grins) when they’re talking about me.

The most exciting news we have to share, for those of you who don’t yet know, is that we’re going to have another new baby brother or sister in January.  Mom thinks it’s a girl, on account of her hairline wispies going a little crazy like they did when she had Bumblebee and me in her tummy.  Anyhow, the new baby will be born VERY close to Jr’s birthday, if not on the same day.  Jr. is very excited, of course.  He wants another birthday buddy – he already has a few, among our friends and acquaintances.

Anyway, down to the fun stuff.  We have a load of pictures and a few videos to share with you.  Since it’s been such a long time since the last post the first few pictures will seem a little old, but really they’re only from about 6 months ago (of course, that’s 1/5 of my life, so that’s kind of a long time for me).   Enjoy!

Here are a couple pictures of my second birthday… 6 months ago.  😛

You can hear me talking in the following video, which was taken around the same time as my birthday. Cruz is so cute!

Here I am trying on Daddy’s shoes… my mom says there is a picture of her just like this when she was about my age, except she had her daddy’s socks on, too.  Oh, and there’s a picture of me in a swing at a local park.  I LOVE the swings!

And now for a clip of Cruz when he started learning to scoot. We’re not sure why his scoot turned into a roll at one point, but now that it’s September he is working on his walking skills, so this is old news. 😉

Here are a couple pictures from early Summer of the 4 of us kiddos.  Aren’t we adorable!? hehe.

Mom says this next picture had to be nice and big so you could see the full disaster… Jr. and Bumblebee decided to have a dump fest. Jr. and Cruz’s room was the location, and Bumblebee looks at the mess as if it’s going to clean itself.  All I know is I was fast asleep. 🙂

There has been video of me in the past exhibiting my singing skills, but I’m getting a little better… take a look!

Cruz caught Mommy taking his picture, but he was a good sport about it.  He just loves pulling toys out of the toybox. These pictures were taken in June.

The 4 of us got caught by Daddy when he was camera-happy sometime in August… we weren’t exactly photogenic in terms of our clothes and hair – I was already in my pj’s and by this time of the evening Bumblebee and I had sufficiently messed our hair up to look like we had “bed-head”, but Daddy can’t resist putting us in poses and getting us to smile and laugh, ready or not!  It was a good time.

I love books – below are some pictures of Jr. and Bumblebee reading to me, then one of me reading to a puppy, and finally one of the three of us reading on Jr’s bed.

In the following recent video of Cruz he displays one of his newer skills – saying “hi.”

Now for some of Cruz’s first birthday (some were taken ON his birthday, others the weekend following, hence the different outfits and birthday desserts).

Cruz also got a haircut for his birthday – here are some before and after pictures.

And a portrait shot of each of us, taken early this month.

I hope you liked the post.  If you’re lucky you might see more by Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the cooler weather!  Happy Autumn!  🙂

Wow, what a busy Christmas we had!  It’s hard to remember everything we did, but our photos will help us remember some of the highlights.  I’m so much bigger and smarter than last year, now that I’m 4, and Bumblebee is super-excited to be 3 – you will probably get to see photos from her birthday as well as mine in the next blog post, but for now we’re going to look at some Christmas photos.

We got to help decorate the tree the week before Christmas.  It was a lot of fun.  Here we are being big tree-decorating helpers!

This was taken right after Christmas morning Mass, at Old St. Patrick’s Oratory downtown.  It is a beautiful church, and we really liked the nativity scene they set up (behind us in the photo).

Before going to Mass we got to see what was in our stockings.  We each got our own cord rosary and a little pouch for it, as well as a small stuffed animal, holy cards, balloons and some treats.  I got a pocket saint book, Bumblebee got a doll outfit and Squeaker got a pair of little gloves.  Cruz has a stocking, but mommy and daddy didn’t fill it because they said he didn’t need anything but hugs and kisses, and you can’t put those in a stocking.  Anyway, here are some pictures and videos of Christmas morning.

Later in the day we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a big dinner in honor of Jesus’ birthday. Squeaker found an old clown wig with the toys and decided to try it on – the results were quite funny.

We opened more gifts in honor of Jesus’ birth at a larger family party on the Sunday after the 12th day of Christmas (Epiphany). Here are a few photos from that party.

Here is one more video of Squeaker singing her favorite song.  She had just woken up from her nap, so her hair and outfit were a little lacking, but she sure is cute anyway.

And finally, here are just a few of our pro Christmas photos, which were actually taken in November.

We hope you enjoyed looking at our pictures and videos.  Mom and Dad say they’ll get the birthday blog done soon… but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen until after Squeaker’s birthday at the end of this month.

We will leave you with a photo of a Gingerbread house that mommy let us help make.  It was a lot of fun, and thankfully not as messy as we thought it would be. The kit was from Grandma M.  Mom says maybe we’ll get lucky and receive another one next year.

Have a blessed and Holy Lent!

Love, Jr.

Dad and Mom said it was my turn to share some news.  Seeing as how I’m the oldest girl, and it was appointed to me to invoke the patron Saints of my newest little sibling, I get to tell about him.  My new little brother, Cruz, was born in the evening on Sept. 13th – 8:11 pm, to be exact.  He was bigger than Jr. and I were when we were born, but not quite as big as Squeaker.  Mom says he is the same as she was at birth – 8 lbs. 10 oz.  I guess labor was short, 5 hours total.  Well, 5 hours is a long time to me, especially when that’s how long I have to wait before dessert!  Oh, I almost forgot, Cruz was 22 1/8 inches long.  About the same as Squeaker.  We sure love him, and Mom says he’s a good baby.  I must agree – he lets me hold him without getting fussy, which is always a good thing. 

So, without further ado, here he is!

If you think he looks like Daddy, well, you’re not the first.  Just wait, it gets better. 

How’s that for a line-up?  What a cutie, eh?  Mom calls him her little gorilla boy, because he has wide hands like Daddy’s, and he had more bulky looking limbs at birth than the rest of us kiddos.

Life just gets busier around here, which is why we are so late in getting the blog updated, but then you all are used to that by now, eh?  Anyway, here are a few more pictures of Cruz and some of the rest of us, too.  To start off, how about a couple of the kiddos with daddy?  That second one is something about hear no evil, speak no evil… I don’t get it myself, we just did as we were told.

And from the baptism, Cruz with his Godparents and then with mom and dad…

The big kids… pictures taken over the Summer. 

Don’t ask me what this next one is about… I guess Dad thought it was a Kodak moment, which makes no sense (Kodak makes something called film… what does that have to do with pictures?).  We went with him to the hardware store to help him find some things… we weren’t much help.  Then there’s a picture of Gerard looking a little, uh, forlorn.  I think that’s the word mommy used.

And some more of the new addition!

And one more each of the proud older siblings.  Yes, I was posing for that picture in the middle, but you have to admit, it’s pretty cute if I do say so myself. 

Thanks for visiting the blog.  Mommy says she will do her best to get a few more pictures and a couple videos up in the near future, but don’t count the days or you’ll get bored pretty fast.

Bumblebee signing off.  God bless you all!