Update

Dilema! So much to share - should I create half a dozen seperate blogs or lump it all together?? Hmm... Here's the condensed version of a lovely week in the lives of the Texas Cuties...

Made meatloaf. Not our favorite food to eat but one of our favorites to make. Nothin' quite like squishing all that ground meat with our little hands. It's so funny to listen to the girl's dinner conversation and watch them eat. Mia dives into whatever vegetable side we're having. Ali starts on the meat (with ample amounts of ketchup).

Swimming lessons are going.. swimmingly!!

Mia has mastered holding her breath and putting her face in the water. Biggest accomplishment: picking a diving ring up off the bottom of the pool with her face in the water.

Ali's lessons are going well too. There was a slight hiccup when Ali misunderstood the directions to the game "tag shark". She nearly drowned trying to stay under water after she was tagged. Not what her instructor meant...

We got that cleared up and she agreed to participate the next day.

Evie enjoys observing the activity from her Mom's lap.

She is getting bigger and lovelier (is that even possible?) every day.

I surprised Ali with some "alone with Mom" time at a paint-your-own-pottery studio.

It was in celebration of her turning 6 next week! She was impressed with my choice of activity - the first thing she said was "Good thing we didn't bring Mia.." In reference to all the breakable ceramics, of course!

Auntie Leslie recently mused that we could probably leave Ali with the babies (Eva and Pierce) and return to find them changed, dressed, fed and entertained. She's quite capable for a 6 year old. Naturally - the girl loves to be in charge!

Ali does most of Eva's bath herself.

Mia waits until the baby has exited the tub to join her big sister.

(This is due to her tendency to play "submarine" with her baby sister.)

And finally - Mia has spent nearly every night stalking her parents from bed to bed. She is generally a snuggler at night, but lately she's been complaining of bad dreams and "wolfses" in her room. I've determined that her fear of "wolfses" stems from her recent discovery of

Pop-Pop's den... I found her in there staring wide-eyed at various antique firearms, hand-made bows and arrows and coyote and fox pelts decorating the walls, arrow quivers, saddle bags

(oh, pretty much everything).

So much for sleeping.