I'm in love with my kids

No one loves my kids like I do, and I'm ok with that.  You might think all my blogging is overkill, but since this blog is really for me and my memories, (I just happen to share with all you who are procrastinating something) I will blog what I want.  I want to remember these faces.  I want to remember this day. It was hilarious. I want to remember this phase of life and even though it is busy and some days are really, really, hard, I look back (let's be honest, in the moment, this is not what I'm thinking), and love every. single. second. with these kiddos.  I cannot get enough of them and their personalities.

My little Helper

While the kids are entertained with the TV, and I cook dinner with no one hanging on my legs, this little guy keeps me company in his Bumbo in the kitchen. He finally is liking toys more, although he still preferrs his hands. He's at that classic immobile baby stage.  I just absolutely love it! Oh wait, I just love babies!

Changes!

We've made a few changes around here. I finally have my act together and am mean mom with TV time again (so many things slide when you have a baby). The kids were watching way too much tv and it was affecting behavior. They get to watch one show after the living room is cleaned while I make dinner. They come unload the dishwasher and help set the table and do whatever else I need them to do, and then they can start another one until dinner is ready. The rest of the day, imaginations have run wild again. I LOVE IT! The other day they used the baby changing thing as a boat. They had "paddles" and were trying to stay away from the "waterfall" and kept getting things for their boat. It makes me happy to play and watch my kids pretend.

Another change I've made is my behavior. I'm loud. We all know this. I'm even louder when the kids aren't obeying and found myself yelling lots. Isabelle had begun to copy my behavior and it was not ok. How is it not ok for her to do it but it is ok for me to? I realized I needed to make some changes. So we are on week 2 and I haven't yelled. It's making a difference. I can't believe how calm and collected I have been in this experiment. I'm not a crazy person. I haven't lost my temper at the kids and have just enjoyed them so much more.

My perspective has also changed on what's important in general and I have felt a huge weight has been lifted. With 3 little kids, I realized I just can't do it all, nor should I. Priorities are falling into place and it's great.

BRAIDS!

And so Isabelle's hair saga continues.  Her hair is FINALLY long enough for french braids!  She sat in my lap during quiet time and we chatted while she let me fix it.  She said, "Mom, let's talk about something."  "Ok, what do you want to talk about?"  "Let's talk about why we love quiet time."  I wish I could remember the rest of the conversation.  It was adorable.

Where's Michael?

We ask this question all day long.  He's a tricky one.  If he's not in sight, he is into something, guaranteed. The other night at dinner we were visiting and then realized Michael had left the table without a peep.


And where is he found most of the time?

Under Mike's desk hiding with the ipad.  Mike had to get one for work, and we don't let the kids play with it.  We always try to keep the office door closed (he can't open that door), but....it doesn't always happen.  He has figured out how to unlock it, almost downloaded some "Cars" app and has it all figured out from his few forbidden moments with it.

Michael is a technology junkie already.  He plays with Isabelle's Leapster more than she does.  He finds our phones, the camera, messes with the computer, wants to watch tv all the time...the list goes on.  He plays with the fake cell phones around the house and calls them, "Dell bones."  Even when I'm careful, he still finds them and figures them out.  He's a tricky one alright.


A side story:  This morning, I was laying next to him in his bed.  He sweetly rubbed my cheek, then he said, "Love ma-ye" and gave me a kiss.  My heart melted on the spot.  That's why I love being a mom.

"I love my hands!"

Luke cannot keep his hands out of his mouth.  Even when he does have a toy, he holds it and just sucks on his hands.  His poor little hands are always chapped.  And who can resist a baby in a onesie?

I think....

her favorite color is still blue.

The Boat Show

Mike and I love the boat show.  In Utah, it was a favorite date every year.  We didn't get to go last year because we never heard about it here in Spokane.  So this year we were excited to go!  We loaded up the kids for a fun trip to the boat show....well....Spokane's boat show isn't near as kid friendly as the Utah one.  There were signs on the boats that said no children.  We also remembered mid way, that we had left the kids at Grandma's the last couple of years in Utah.  We were quite the sight apparently with the double stroller and Luke in the baby carrier. We got lots of interesting looks and comments. And then to top it all off, the Spokane boat show is really lame.  What did we learn?  The Spokane boat show isn't worth going to.  If we decided to hit another boat show in our future, we will leave the kids with a babysitter.  After wandering through for about an hour and got to go on two boats, we decided to hit McDonalds for some ice cream on the way home to make it worth our trip out of the house.  The kids had fun anyway.







The one boat with a sign that said, "Kids welcome!"

Refreshed...sick....Rejuvenated

A few years ago, Jill, Melanie and I met up last minute in Vegas for a weekend.  Melanie and I were both very pregnant with Andy and Isabelle.  We lounged, ate, got pedicures, and talked, and talked and talked.  It was a perfect blissful weekend away back as sisters.  It started something.  We now try to do a sister's weekend every year.  We often don't do much other than talk, eat, stay up late talking, do a craft of sorts, and talk some more.  No kids except nursing babies allowed.  This year we went home to my parent's house. My dad was there, my little brother Matthew was there, and Karen didn't make it, so this year it was a modified sisters weekend.  It was so nice to go home.  I only got to be there from Friday night to Sunday, but it was still worth every second. I always come home refreshed, renewed and ready to be a mom again.

Here we are on a walk.  Don't we all look lovely?  The sad thing, this is actually the best picture we got this weekend.  All the others are even more embarrassing.


Our craft was sugar cookie valentines to take home to our families. Casey is quite the sugar cookie extraordinaire.  I learned lots of fun little techniques.


Yes, I stole this off of Casey's blog too....This is what Luke looked like most of the time.  And this is Penny, the dog. I am absolutely smitten with this dog.  I want her.  In fact I tried to take her home with me.  Jake would love her.  She's quite attentive to the babies.  Wherever Luke or Bradley was, there was Penny.


Luke and Bradley were adorable together.  I don't have a picture of them together.  Are we surprised?  Jill will send me one eventually.

The only downside of the trip was a 12-24hour-ish flu bug. It hit me the last 20 minutes of my flight home. They all suffered together (they didn't leave until Tues), while I was home, no longer feeling refreshed, trying to take care of little kiddos with the flu...I don't recommend it.  After I got over it, I felt great again and rejuvenated, which was good, because I was the lucky one that took it home to my family and we have been reaping the rewards of that all week.  :)  Funny how no matter how much you talk on the phone, it just isn't like hanging out for a weekend.

Baby Date with Luke

So when Michael was almost 3 months old, Mike and I got to go on a Mexico trip and carted him along.  It was so fun to get to spend one-on-one time with my new baby, get to know him a bit, and not have to worry about anything else.  I wanted to do it with future children even just a short weekend somewhere close.  Well, for Luke it was just me and him, to Texas for a short sisters weekend (future post).  It was so fun to get to hang out with just Luke and no other crazy kiddos.

What did I learn about Luke?  He is NOT an adaptable baby.  He likes things he is familiar with, his surroundings, his routine, and his stuff.  It took an entire day to become his normal self in Texas and took an entire day to return to normal back here at home.  Thinking back on our other trips, he was similar, I just always tried to attribute it to something else. No, he just doesn't like different. He's super easy here at home with his routine, but mess with that, and you get a crabby baby.

Despite this picture, he didn't particularly care for the plane rides.  He cried alot on all but one.  With one flight, he was that baby. You know the one that screams the entire 2 hour late night flight when the rest of the plane is attempting to sleep...yeah that was my kid despite my best bouncing, patting, nursing, try anything attempts.  He didn't sleep much on any of the flights, and then didn't sleep in the different carseat to my parent's at 11:30 at night.  Owl eyed the entire 45 minute drive.  He didn't like the pack and play, and was so over-tired, he startled anytime the toilet flushed....it was mostly all pretty funny to me.  I actually didn't get too frustrated.  It was fun to see some personality.

The rest of the time, he was happy, but not near as smiley as normal.  He always had the "deer in the headlights" look. He loves to just sit back and watch and soak it all in with his huge eyes. It was fun to have him and same aged cousin Bradley together again.  They were cute to watch.  Luke didn't mind getting passed around with all the love he got from grandma, grandpa, and doting aunts.  He also liked Penny, the dog.

I love baby dates!!!  So much fun!