Thursday, April 23, 2009

New Video: WQ+2 Super Short 1

Here is the latest WQ+2 video, with a little different format than the Quint Olympics. With how crazy things are at our house, we haven't had a lot of time to put together videos, so we finally decided that shorter videos were better than no videos at all!

Happy Viewing!






P.S. If you missed out on the Quint Olympics videos, you can watch them HERE.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Bluebonnet Pictures



The bluebonnet is the Texas state flower. It is a wildflower that can typically be seen along Texas highways in late March/early April. The plenitude of flowers depends largely on the amount of rainfall during February and March. It is the tradition of many who live here to take annual pictures with the bluebonnets. Since we have lived here, we have had a good showing of bluebonnets about every other year. Here are a few pictures from previous years:

2003: Jayson, Rachelle, Riley and Kaiya


2005: Kaiya


2005: Kaiya and Riley


2005: Riley


2007: Riley and Kaiya---I took this picture the week before I flew to Arizona to be on bedrest with the quints


Last year I wanted desperately to take pictures of all the kids in the bluebonnets, but the drought-like conditions meant there were none to be found! This year has also been on the dry side until recently so I was really excited when my friend, Cassaundra, told me about a decent patch of Bluebonnets near her house. The day before Easter we piled everybody into "The Beast" and headed out to take pictures. We brought along several helpers and cracker "bribes" to help with the photo shoot. Unfortunately, not everyone was as excited about taking bluebonnet pictures as I was!


The Boys: Ryder, Riley and Rustin


The Girls: Rachelle, Kaiya, Kyndall, Kaydence and Kassidy


Ellis brings out the crackers to try to cheer everybody up.


Not even chocolate chip bunny shaped crackers could work their magic today!


Riley and Kaiya--thank goodness for a couple willing subjects!


Riley and Kaiya


Riley


Kaiya


Kassidy--She actually enjoyed the photo shoot and kept trying to get in every picture (which is unusual for her)

Kaydence with Holly


Rustin---true to his nature, Rustin did not want to sit still long enough to have his picture taken!


Kyndall with Rachelle---Kyndall, who is normally the star when it comes to pictures, started crying the moment we got there and didn't stop till we left.


Ryder


Since the babies were NOT happy about sitting in the flowers, we decided to try sitting them on this giant rock, but they didn't like that any better. This shot is a good depiction of what was going on for most of the photo shoot---all the helpers would hurry and set the babies in position and then try to move out of the way so I could take the picture. The babies hated the rock and tried to get off the second they were put on it, so then the helpers would all rush back in!


Helpers: Shelby, Ellis, Holly, Troy, Jayson, Kids: Kaydence, Rustin, Kaiya, Riley, Kassidy and Ryder


The BEST group shot: Jayson, Kassidy, Kaydence, Kaiya, Rustin, Riley, Kyndall and Ryder



I loved this shot of Kaiya trying to cheer Kyndall up by giving her a flower!




Maybe we will have better luck next year!






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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Happy Easter!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! We have had a lot going on, which means I have lots of great pictures, but no time to post them! I plan to play a little "catch-up" this week.



The day before Easter, Virginia brought over this adorable bunny cake for the kids to eat. The babies thought it was interesting. Ironically, Kaydence, the girl who usually tries anything, refused to even touch it. Ryder, my carb/sugar addict loved it and the rest of the babies tasted it, but thought it was more interesting to smoosh it in their fingers than to actually eat it.




Kaiya and Riley, who loved the cake :-)




Yum!




Saturday night we dyed Easter Eggs with Riley and Kaiya. I must admit that when it comes to messy art projects, like this one, I usually spend the whole time paranoid that someone is going to carelessly knock over the cups full of dye and stain everything in sight. I think when the quints are old enough to dye eggs, we will have to do it outside wearing old clothes! Fortunately, we made it through spill-free and Riley and Kaiya had fun and ended up with some cute eggs too.



Kaiya and Riley: Ready to "dye"




Riley's favorite creation, a bunny




Kaiya's favorite egg---I think that her name is written on it





Kaiya and Riley display their egg masterpieces!




Easter Morning the kids woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had made a visit. At our house, the Easter Bunny color codes all the eggs, that way everybody gets the same number and the difficulty of the hiding spots can be changed according to age. This year was the first year the quints could really participate in an egg hunt, and I was surprised at how quickly they caught on. Kassidy was the first one to get it, and the rest of the babies would follow her as she ran around the house looking for the eggs. It was so cute to watch!


The hunt is on! Kyndall, Kaydence, Ryder, Kassidy and Riley





Riley



Kaiya



Kassidy





Kaydence (who was more interested in the baskets than the eggs!)




Rustin




Kyndall




Ryder



After the hunt: Rustin, Kyndall, Kassidy, Ryder and Kaydence




Kaiya and Riley




All the kids looked so cute in their Easter Sunday outfits, that I decided to get out the backdrop and take some pictures before church. None of the babies wanted to cooperate with that idea! In fact, I have started to wonder if I will ever get a really cute picture of all five of them at the same time ever again! Maybe when they are old enough to bribe... I may not be turning any of these pictures into poster prints to hang on the wall, but I did get a good laugh out of some of them!



Group shot with all the kids: Kaydence, Riley, Kassidy, Ryder, Kaiya, Kyndall and Rustin. This was the best one I got with all seven kids! I love the mischievous expression on Ryder's face.





Just the babies: Kyndall, Ryder, Kaydence, Rustin and Kassidy





Kyndall, Kaydence, Kassidy, Rustin and Ryder. I finally got desperate and pulled out the portable DVD player--it was the only way to get the babies to sit in one spot for more than a second. The downside is that everyone was too interested in "The Wiggles" to smile at the camera.




Kaiya and Riley (who are old enough to be bribed) did get a few cute pictures!





This pose is reminiscent of High School Dance photos, but I still thought it was cute!



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