Feeling Thankful

Wow... where did November go? And the start of December for that matter? I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted. November was a crazy month. E had a really busy start to November, Baby C's sleep was ridiculous and Little J turned 3. So many updates to get to. But first I have to share our November thankfulness project. 

The start of our thankful tree

In the craziness that was our November we took time to talk about what each of us was thankful for each night. I put up a construction paper tree on our sliding door, and as each family member said what they were thankful for, I would add that to a dot and add the dot to our tree. I really enjoyed spending this time together every day, and the girls continue to talk about the things they're thankful for even though we've stopped adding to our tree. Every night Little J would say, "I am thank you for..." Miss A picked it up by the end of the month.

Our finished tree

A sampling of things from our tree...

• dance parties
• milk & cups (Little J)
• warm house
• Little J, my best friend (Miss A)
• Christmas
• pictures
• dessert
• squeeze hugs 
• healthy kids
• friends
• time at home together
• kitties
• family
• grandmas & grandpas
• friends
• memories
• God 
• our church
• birthday celebrations
• our neighborhood
• Como Lake
• Miss A's teachers
• the blue sky
• fun & our house
• YMCA
• Netflix
• Little J's smile when I give her hugs
• morning snuggles with Miss A
• that I can play & learn at preschool (Miss A)
• the color purple
• birthdays & birds that sing
• long weekends
• blankie
• to be able to run & play
• ice cream
• that I can feed the baby
• Daddy-daughter days

Treat Yourself Tuesday: Birthday Treats

It's now been just over a month since my 33rd birthday so I today I'm linking up with Becky to share some of the ways I treated myself during my birthday month.

A babysitter for girls night. I set plans with some girls from school, and then E had last minute travel come up. Normally I would have tried to reschedule, but knowing that I was going be on my own with all three girls for a few days I checked with our babysitter and she was able to watch the big two while Baby C and I headed out for dinner and dessert. Because at Cafe Latte you have to do dessert :)

A babysitter for date night. We were out of town a lot around my actual birthday, but we were able to set up a babysitter for later in the month. We had gift cards for the Blue Plate Restaurant Company, and decided to check out Scusi. We ended up sitting outside, and it got a little chilly, but the food was good (the zeppole we had for dessert was super tasty!) and the service was even better. Baby C was along for date night, so the waitress told us our drinks were on the house to celebrate our new little lady. So nice!

A bunch of washi tape from Freckled Fawn. Thanks to Heather for telling me about the sale! One dollar washi tape was too good to pass up!

A haircut. My hair is thick to start with, so during pregnancy it gets a little extra crazy. My hair finally started falling recently, and I am so thankful. I was also thankful to get a night away to get my hair cut recently. I only had a few inches taken off, but it feels so much better. Any curly haired Twin Cities friends, I highly recommend checking out The Hive.

A gym membership. I cancelled my gym membership shortly after Miss A was born, and hadn't been back since. We got an elliptical for the house and I started running. Great options much of the time, but I decided that while I'm home for the year I wanted to go to the gym again. Best decision. I started going two weeks ago, and I am loving it. Miss A and Little J enjoy the child care activities and I like that they can burn off a little energy there, especially now that it's cold and snowy. Baby C seems to like it too, or at least is sweet to the workers. I'm super excited to be going to Body Pump again. I used to go all the time and loved it. And I still love it now.

Baby C: 3 Months

Here's how Baby C really feels about Mommy getting the camera our for 3 month pictures. Ha!

Personality: At 3 months, Baby C is very chill little girl. She doesn't cry often and when she does she's pretty easily comforted. She's getting more smiley, but she makes you work for those gummy smiles and gets very shy if the camera is out. When she's in a really good mood we're starting to get some squeals and laughs out of her.

Likes: Baby C still likes her swaddle and pacifier. Lately she's also been chewing on her hands a lot. She also likes being outside and looking at the trees, though she was less impressed by playing in the big pile of leaves with her sisters. She likes Daddy growling and watching The Walking Dead. She really seems to like her sisters. Miss A gets the biggest smiles. She's also very smiley on her changing table. It makes changing diapers a whole lot better when I get big smiles. E and I like when she sits and hold her hands. She looks like such a proper little girl.

Dislikes: Baby C doesn't like being left alone in a room when she's awake. If E is sitting with her at night, and gets up to go to the kitchen for a minute, she gets cranky. Same during the day if I leave her in another room.

Sleeping: Baby C was in a good routine of sleeping until 3:30am or later, eating, then sleeping another decent stretch before being awake. It was awesome. The past couple of weeks she's been waking up more, but hopefully she'll go back to the longer stretches soon.

Eating: She's still a good nurser, and eats pretty consistently every three hours during the day. We had a rough week this week as I developed mastitis (technically after 3 months, but close). It was a rough couple of days. I was tired and in a lot of pain, and baby girl didn't want to nurse so there was a lot of pumping and bottles. Miss A and Little J were excited to get to help with bottles, which was the only positive part.

Halloween 2014

Halloween is over and there is SO much candy in my house! And I can't stop eating it! I've eaten many times the amount I've allowed the girls to eat. I may have to make these brownies to use up some of the candy. They look super tasty!

Before I crash from my sugar high, I thought I'd share a little more of our Halloween 2014 happenings.

We visited a pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago, and finally got a chance to carve the pumpkins Thursday night (there's nothing like the last minute). Miss A was willing to help, but Little J was less than thrilled to be touching the pumpkin guts. She didn't want her hands to get messy.

Also, I couldn't resist putting Baby C in a pumpkin. She's just the right size. I thought it would be totally cute. She disagreed.

Miss A's preschool class celebrated Halloween on Thursday, and Little J helped me hand out treats for trunk-or-treat. The preschoolers were adorable in their costumes. After trunk-or-treat we went inside and her class sang a few songs for us. So cute! There were also some very creative parents there handing out fun treats. I'm going to have to step up my crafting while I'm doing the SAHM thing ;).

Tonight the girls headed out for trick-or-treating. Little J was so excited when she went to the first few houses, she would come back and say, "I got candy!" Baby C and I tagged along to a few houses on our block, then came home to hand out candy to the kiddos. Miss A and Little J stayed out with E, and they met up with some friends who live nearby. After awhile he brought Little J back, but Miss A was really a trooper and stayed out for a long time.  

I'm a little biased, but I think they're the cutest bugs ever!

Halloween was a big success! The girls are already planning their costumes for next year. As of right now they want to be the girls from Despicable Me and E can be Gru. I think that would be super cute, but I have a feeling they will go through several other costume ideas before we actually get to Halloween 2015.

Fall 2014 DITL

I'm linking up with Laura at Navigating the Mothership for another Day in the Life post. This DITL is from Tuesday, October 28, 2014. I am 33 and E is 34. Miss A is 4.5, Little J is just a month shy of 3 and Baby C is almost 3 months. I got out my big camera to take pictures for the day, took one picture, then went back to my iPhone for the rest (and took a lot of selfies).

Baby C swaddled and ready for bed Monday night.

1:30am: Baby C is up. This is really early for her. Not a great start to the night (most nights she sleeps until 2:30-3:30am). As I get out of bed I realize how sore I am. I went to my first Body Pump class since having kids on Monday, and it totally kicked my butt (in a good way). I take Baby C downstairs to feed her and we stay downstairs to sleep. She's up again to eat at 4:30am. She's really restless all night, so neither of us get a great night sleep. 

7:00am: Baby C is up again. I feed her and snuggle for awhile. I check in on social media, including my new favorite, Timehop, which is making me super sentimental about how quickly my girls are growing. Especially a recent streak of photos of Miss A back when she was our only child. Craziness!

7:45am: Miss A comes out and wants to snuggle a little. E is also up now. He is normally off to work by this time, but today he is driving to St, Cloud, and doesn't have to be there until a little later. I get up to iron a shirt for E and Miss A snuggles Baby C while I'm gone. She can be quite sassy, but she is a really sweet big sister. In addition to snuggling Baby C this morning, she also tells E to make sure he gives Little J a kiss before he leaves, and she tells me to make sure I do something fun with Little J while she's at preschool.

8:00am: Little J is up and looking for me. Normally the girls take their bath at night, but they were watching part of Despicable Me with E last night, so bath time was moved to the morning. I get Miss A and Little J ready for their bath, and get Baby C changed.

Every morning her arms go strait up when I unwrap the swaddle. Big baby stretches!

Such a happy girl!

8:20am: Get Miss A and Little J out of the bath tub and get them dressed.

8:30am: I set Miss A and Little J up with some cereal for breakfast, and I decide to put a little make up on. I showered Monday night, so I don't need to shower right away today.

8:45am: I almost forgot to do Miss A's hair, so I quickly get her hair in pigtails. Nana put her hair in pigtails when she was here for Mother's Day, and Miss A has stuck with the style all but a handful of days since. It's cute and out of her face, so I'm happy with it! Rush the girls to get shoes and jackets on so we can get Miss A to preschool.

*See my scarf? It's made by Itzy Ritzy, and it's actually a nursing cover/scarf. When you unfold it it's really big and covers everything up really well. I've been wearing it a lot when we're on the go for feeding Baby C and it brightens up my normally very black/grey outfits. Another thing I love about it, the tag says "You're doing a great job." Such a nice reminder :)

8:55am: Get everyone out to the car, seatbelts on, and we're off to preschool. Thankfully Miss A's preschool is less than 2 miles away, so we make it pretty much on time.

9:00am: Arrive at preschool and get everyone out of the car. Miss A insists on taking her jacket off when we're in the car, so we have to get it back on before going inside. I take Miss A to the bathroom, then to her cubby and class. I see sign up sheets for parent teacher conferences so I call E to see what works for him. So weird to think about being the parent at conferences after years as the teacher.

This is how Miss A smiles for the camera now.

9:15am: I'm back in the car with Little J and Baby C. I try to run at least one errand while Miss A is at preschool. Today we're off to Ikea to get some frames and a new apple slicer.

9:45am: We get to Ikea, but it doesn't open until 10am, so we hang out in the car for a few minutes. I brought a coloring book for Little J and she's excited to color and use all the stickers. I write down a few notes about our morning for this post.

10:00am: I see a worker unlocking the doors, so I get the three of us ready to go. I brought the double stroller so I could keep Little J confined, but she really wants to walk. I agree to let her walk as long as she stays by me. She does an awesome job helping me find the things on our list and not running around or touching too many things. Way to go Little J!

Why is it that the water from my water bottle is so much better than all the rest of the water??

This new gift wrap/paper goods/party section could be dangerous for me ;)

10:40am: We pay for our things and Little J tells me she's hungry. Not surprised because she didn't eat much of her breakfast, so we get cinnamon rolls. Yum! I also get a Diet Pepsi because I'm already feeling so tired.

Little J's fake laugh

11:00am: Back in the car and on our way to get Miss A. 

11:30am: Pick Miss A up from preschool. She's excited to see us, Baby C most of all. She must be kissed immediately.

11:45am: We make it to the car and head home.

11:50am: We're home. I unload the car, bring in our recycling bin, check the mail and pick up a few things before I remember that I haven't fed Baby C since 7am. Oops!

12:05pm: Sit down to feed Baby C. Miss A asks Baby C, "Are you ready for Mommy's famous milk? It's going to be tasty!" Ha ha! The big girls convince me to let them watch a cartoon. Doc McStuffins it is.

12:30pm: I put Baby C down on the Boppy and get started on lunch, PB & J, Honeycrisp apples and pretzel thins.

Yay for my new apple slicer!

12:45pm: While we eat lunch Miss A tells me about the rules for Halloween at preschool (no masks or weapons). Little J sings her version of a song from Miss A's preschool, "I'm thankful for my family, I'm thankful for my family..." So sweet! She also tells me "I don't feel good," (constant lately) and asks, "What animal does this (bread) look like?" Miss A sings a "booty butt" song. Both girls tell me about their "great ideas!" Dangerous! The girls eat all of their lunch, so I give them each a blueberry yogurt. They're excited that the yogurt is purple. After lunch I give the girls two pieces of candy corn. I tell Miss A she got two because that's how many I got in my hand. Her response, "What if you got 59 in your hand?" Silly girl, if I had that many, I would be eating them. Baby C hangs out in her swing while we eat.

1:15pm: We're done with lunch so I clean up a little. Baby C gets hiccups and is not happy about it.

1:30pm: I change diapers and start getting the girls ready for a nap. Little J has started wanting to use the changing table again. She looks extra big on the changing table! I read stories with all three girls. When I'm almost done with the second book, Baby C starts losing it. I quickly wrap up the stories, get the big girls in their beds and go to feed Baby C.

Little J trying to help, giving Baby C her nuga (pacifier)

2:05pm: Feed Baby C. She falls asleep and I check in on Instagram and read a few blogs while snuggling.

Nothing better than a sleeping baby :)

2:40pm: I make myself get up to do a few things while the big girls rest. I pick up more stuff from around the house, pay bills, take a few notes about the day and check my planner to see what I need to do. I decide to clean out the front closet. Miss A comes out of her room and asks, "Why did you make such a big mess." The big girls are not resting well. I tell them many, many times to be quiet. GRRRR!!!

I need to find a better scarf solution.

3:00pm: E comes home early (yay!) but has to do some work from home. He checks on the girls, and heads upstairs to work. 

3:30pm: Miss A and Little J are up from their "rest." I get the girls started cleaning their room. I tell them that we will do a craft project as soon as their room is clean. E comes down after a phone conference, and plays hide and seek for a few minutes. He goes back upstairs to work, and I try to get the girls refocused on cleaning their room. 

4:00pm: Their room is still not clean. In fact, it's a bigger mess than when they started. No craft time today. I do some cleaning and fold laundry.

4:45pm: Miss A and Little J's room is finally clean, after I took some of the toys away. I tell the girls they need to rest more while I take a shower. My phone dies :(

5:15pm: I get out of the shower, and find the girls are sleeping. Really? All that rest time this afternoon, and now they sleep? I finish getting ready and feed Baby C.

5:30pm: E gets Miss A and Little J up because we need to get ready for Miss A's end of the season soccer pizza party. 

5:50pm: We walk to the rec center for Miss A's party. It's only half a mile from our house, so it's a quick walk. 

6:00pm: We go to the gym, and the kids run around, then the director gets the kids together for a short "ceremony." By that I mean he calls each kid's name and gives them a certificate. Little J thinks it's super fun to clap for the kids. When the ceremony is over, we move to the other side of the gym for pizza. We sit with neighbors and one of Miss A's preschool friends. After pizza, we talk with the other parents and the kids run around again.

7:05pm: We leave the rec center and walk home with our neighbors and check out some crazy Halloween decorations along the way. Some people really go ALL out for Halloween. Wow! Girls find a big pile of leaves and decide to jump in it for awhile (sorry neighbors!).

7:25pm: Finally back home, E sets the girls up watching the rest of Despicable Me. I'm still hungry so I suggest making popcorn. E makes the suggestion to the girls. Little J runs in the kitchen to tell me, "Daddy has a great idea!" I put E in charge of the popcorn and start getting Baby C's bottle ready. When the movie is over Miss A has a little dance party.

8:00pm: Bedtime! Well, bedtime routine anyway. I'm in charge of Miss A and Little J tonight because E is feeding Baby C her bottle. The girls put their pajamas on, brush teeth and then we read books. After the books they get lots of hugs and kisses and then I tuck them in bed. Little J is very particular about how I spread out her blankie before bed.

Little J is so helpful when you try to read her bedtime books ;)

8:25pm: The big girls are in bed so I write down more notes about the day, fold some laundry and eat more Halloween candy. E and I watch part of the World Series and then an episode of Fargo. I don't really love the show, but it's okay and once I start a show, I like to have resolution. After Baby C's bottle I take her to change her diaper, clothes and swaddle her for bed. She lays on the couch by E until we go upstairs.

9:30pm: Time for me to pump before bed. Not my favorite time of the night. I check over my list for the week and think about what to do tomorrow (Wednesday).

10:10pm: E, Baby C and I get ready for bed and go upstairs. Baby C is sleeping in the pack-n-play across the room from us right now. Goodnight!