2015 Week 3

I'm still wrapping up my 2014 photos and as I've been going through our fall photos I've noticed a lack of pictures of Baby C with my real camera, so this week was all about that baby. She seems like such a big baby lately. She's playing with toys, talking and rolling over! I love the baby stage where they are not mobile, so when I saw her roll over I may or may not have called her a stinker. Of course the big girls thought that was hilarious and call her a stinker every time she thinks about rolling now. 

2015 Week 2

Baby C didn't make an appearance in my Week 1 photos, so I had to make sure to fix that in Week 2. Isn't she getting so big?!

We also took a short trip to South Dakota this week. E had work to do in Sioux Falls and his family is only about half an hour away so the girls and I went with. The girls loved the hotel, especially the pool and breakfast. Baby C took her first dip in a pool, but I only got pictures of that on my phone.

Finally, I caught this sweet time with Miss A and Baby C. One thing I can always say about Miss A is that she's an amazing big sister. She has loved both of her little sisters since the moment she met them. She is such a big helper with Baby C now. She doesn't always listen to my requests, but if I ask her to help with Baby C she always does. Seeing the two of them play together makes me so, so happy!

Christmas 2014

I know the rest of the blog world was sharing their Christmas recaps, oh, a month or more ago, but I am just now feeling like we're getting back on track after the holidays. I thought about skipping the Christmas recap, but it was a fun season for us and Baby C's first Christmas!

On Black Friday we headed out to a nearby Christmas Tree farm to cut down a tree. We went with two other families. Six adults and eight kids in search of three trees. Santa was there too, so we got a quick visit. The only thing the girls asked Santa for this year was books. Loved that!

Miss A was not too happy to have to break away from her friends to get our tree, and Baby C slept through most of it, but Little J was such a little trooper. She helped E cut down the tree, then pulled the tree back all the way to the warming house.

This year was the first year Miss A was able to participate in the Christmas program at church. The children's music director is wonderful, and put together a baseball themed Christmas program that was very cute. She writes the play and songs, then sends a CD home with all the kids so they can practice. We listened to the CD every day in the car. The girls LOVED it. Little J was upset that we weren't still singing Christmas songs at church this morning. One of the songs had "glory, glory" in it. Little J sings it all the time, but glory comes out more like, "gory, gory." Makes me smile every time. 

Miss A also had a short program at preschool. My favorite part was when they gave all of the 3, 4 and 5 year olds bells and tried to sing Jingle Bells. I think every kid was singing a different part of the song. So funny! The teachers had them try again without the bells and they did very well.

We only had two weeks between Little J's birthday party/Baby C's baptism and Christmas, so we tried to fit a few Christmas activities in. Miss A and Little J made salt dough ornaments. This was our first attempt at salt dough, but it went pretty well. We hung a few ornaments on our tree and took a few to the grandparents too.

The weekend before Christmas we went to Wisconsin to celebrate with my family. Little J got a fever Friday night, then Miss A followed Saturday. They did pretty well for the weekend, but after celebrating with my mom and family Saturday they were a little extra tired on Sunday. After celebrating with my dad's family on Sunday Little J put herself in bed for a quick nap. Even sick, the girls had a lot of fun and were seriously spoiled by my family.

Christmas day we didn't have to do anything or go anywhere, and it was wonderful. We were all just starting to get over being sick, so it was nice to be able to relax at home. When the girls woke up we opened stockings, then made monkey bread for breakfast. We tried not to go overboard with presents, so Santa just brought each girl a book, a kid's nativity set for all three girls and some new plates for the family. Miss A and Little J are really particular about the color of their plates, so they were super excited to get some new plates. They also got a few gifts from us, but nothing too big.

Little J's book, Pete the Cat has been a HUGE hit!

The girls really liked playing with their nativity set. I packed it away with our Christmas stuff a few weeks after Christmas, but in the weeks it was out, they played with it a lot. There were a lot of strange guests visiting Baby Jesus, including Elsa, Anna, Belle and Boots the monkey.

We got Baby C a wooden block puzzle with insects on it for her main gift. We've gotten a nice wooden present for each of the girls' first Christmas so it can be something we save for them when they are older.

THREE!

It still feels a little weird to say that I have three kids. Three. 

When E and I first talked about someday having kids many years ago, I envisioned having two kids (E was in favor of more). By the time Miss A arrived, I was pretty quickly knew that I would want to have more than two kids. Now, here we are with three sweet girls. The past (almost) 6 months have FLOWN by. The early months with Miss A seemed to last so much longer than these months with Baby C. I ask her to stay little every day, but so far it doesn't seem to be working. 

When we go out I get a lot of comments from people at Target about having my hands full. There are certainly times during the day when I feel like life is crazy. Many, many times in fact. But there are other parts of the day that go so well, and I think, I'm totally rocking this mom of three thing. (But then, just as I finish cleaning up the kitchen at the end of a long solo day, after hosting friends for dinner I spill a glass of red wine all over everything in my kitchen (including white counter tops) and get put back in my place. Ha!)  

I was really excited when I found out we were expecting Baby C, but I was also a little worried about making the transition to three kids (seeing this article circulate was not helpful). To help myself get ready, and get better at taking care of three kids I've talked to my mom friends and read lots of blogs to find out how other moms are making it work. I'm not too far in, but knowing how much I loved reading what works for other families, I thought I would share what's working for me (for now!).

1. Be a Morning Person. I am absolutely not a morning person. At. All. I would much rather stay up late to work. But that doesn't work for my family at this point. So I get up early. Miss A and Little J love to sleep in. Most days they sleep past 8, which is amazing, but the trade off is that they don't take a nap. So if I want some quiet time to get things done during the day, it needs to happen before they wake up. Our days go so much more smoothly if I get an early start. So I'm trying to become a morning person. How I wish I liked coffee!
2. Meal Plan. If I don't plan our meals for the week, every night is chaotic. The hours between rest time and when E gets home from work are always a little crazy, so having a plan is super helpful. It also helps me when I'm grocery shopping to plan ahead, and have a list ready. Going to the grocery store with three kids is an adventure, so once a week is more than enough for me. I try to use freezer and crock pot meals on Mondays because even as a SAHM, Mondays are hard.
3. Plan for the Week. In addition to meal planning, I like to make a general plan for our week. I look at what fun adventures we have planned, then think about what days work best for the gym, grocery shopping and other things we need to get done. I keep our plans for the week and a running to do list in my planner to help keep myself organized. 
4. Get Out of the House! My neighbor once told me that her key to keeping the peace was to get out of the house by 10am. I couldn't agree more! For some reason, if we get out of the house for a little while in the morning, even if it's just a trip to the grocery store, the girls get along so much better all day. I can't explain the magic of  10am, but it's so true. 

What helps your days run smoothly? Please share!

Baby C's Baptism

In early December, we had sweet Baby C baptized. My little brother and youngest sister were her Godparents. Baby C did great during her baptism, no crying at all.  Most of our family was able to make it up to celebrate with us for the weekend. After church we had everyone back to our house for a low key brunch with lots and lots of donuts.

 

She wore the same outfit that her big sisters wore. A friend of a friend made it using the shawl that came with my wedding dress and I love it! I also love that adorable little face!

2015 Week 1

One of my goals for this year is to take more photos with my real camera. My phone takes nice photos, but they just don't compare with my real camera. Back in 2012 I did a full 366 project, with at least one photo each day. I'm not feeling quite that ambitious this year, so I think documenting the 52 weeks of the year is a more manageable goal.

Week 1

Much of this first week of the year was really cold here in Minnesota, so we spent a lot of time inside. A lot of time. We went through a lot of activities and a lot of paper. The girls are crazy for coloring right now. One day this week we got out the water colors because they also love painting. About 90% of Miss A's pictures look like the one in the photos. A sunshine, grass and flowers. This drawing/painting is one thing that really stands out about her at 4.