Guys, I finally got my legs waxed again! I haven’t gone since Rowan was born, which has been eight whole weeks! I know, it seems like he’s been around for ages already, but its actual just shy of eight weeks, and I wasn’t even going to consider going in until it had been six weeks, so I’m not that gross, ok??

It was really nice, though, to go in and see my waxer and friend, Jenn. I love the girl talk and the relaxing environment. Granted, hair is being pulled out of my body at warp speed over and over again, but it feels luxurious and pampering to me. I now have fresh legs, arms, and brows, and I feel ready for spring. While I was doing that, Brady and the kids were doing this…

Suuuper cute!

After my wax, we hit Walmart for a dress shirt and a pair of shorts for Dekker, a couple of groceries, and the most exciting for us – a card reader for our camera cards!! The wifi capability is a great feature, but when your wifi blows like ours does, its pretty meaningless. Instead of fighting with the camera every single day to try to load the pictures onto the laptop, we now have a new option, and it is SO fast! Only $12 and I loaded the whole camera card onto the laptop (about 200 pics at this point) in moments. We also snagged a little tripod, because I love accessories and trinkets.

We snagged some food and made it home just in time to put the kids down. They hate that, but they actually went down pretty well. Once they were in bed, we had about 15 minutes before we had a meeting about our life insurance. Thankfully, our girl is wonderful and comes to our house. We did that in less than an hour, and now we’re going about our routine of having a soak and a snack. With last nights choir practice going so late, I didn’t get a bath, and it will be an even later practice tomorrow, so tonights bath better be borderline perfect.

Sleep well, all!

Brady was so sweet this morning and fed Rowan at 5:15am so I could keep sleeping. Ro is particularly annoying to feed right now, as he’s cutting his amounts down pretty significantly, and we’re having to work for every ounce. Thanks to Brady, I was able to sleep until 8:30ish and feel more refreshed. For whatever reason, though, I was shot by noon. I ate lunch with the kids but wasn’t revived at all. I was droopy by 1:00, and decided to try a new nap time.

The kids usually go down at 1:30. They tend to take quite a while to fall asleep at night as well, so I figured an earlier nap time couldn’t hurt. We’d try it, anyway. I went about my normal system where I warn the kids a bit in advance, and then put them down a half hour early, unbeknownst to them. Laela was ready, and slept. Dekker started to talk right away, so I shushed him through the monitor and surprisingly, he fell asleep too!

Rowan had pretty much slept all day up until that point, so he was tucked in his bed, and I went to cuddle up in mine and relax a bit. But it was shortly after 2:00 that Dekker woke up and started moving around. Normally, I talk to him through the monitor and try to keep him down for a bit longer so that Laela can sleep, but the earlier nap time was an effort for an easier nighttime, and wakefulness could likely only help with that. So I whispered into the monitor “Dekker, if you can walk really quietly, you can come cuddle with Rowan and I in my bed.” He immediately rolled out of bed and walked quietly across the room and out his door. He appeared at my door, climbed up onto the bed, and gave me a big hug and kiss. He greeted Rowan the same before tucking himself under the covers and snuggling in for a bit of YouTube. It was sooo sweet to cuddle with my boys.

Once Brady texted to say he was on his way home, I knew I had a short period of time before I had to get on the road for choir practice. The performance is this weekend so there are extra long practices this week. I asked Dekker if he would mind if I did my makeup and he said he’d bring toys. He went downstairs to retrieve the trucks he had in mind, and I had just begun my foundation when he came back into the room. Without a moments pause, he said “Your makeup looks beautiful, mommy.”

Turns out I can’t trust his judgement. Of course, at the end, he told me “You fixed it!” Yes, yes I did. Promise.

When Brady made it home, Rowan had finally woken up a bit and I was feeding him. Dekker was playing toys around me, and Laela was going on HOUR FOUR of her nap! What a crazy day for schedules, or lack there of. Brady came bearing a large parcel from the post office for us. A VERY intriguing parcel!

Dekker was so excited to open it and see what was inside. It was a crazy beautiful care package put together for us from my aunt and uncle, and their two kids, to celebrate Rowan, and also Dekker and Laela. My Aunty Sandy never disappoints. She gifts us such beautiful, thoughtful things for our kids, and they’re always unexpected and SO appreciated! This particular gift contained some gorgeously soft clothes for Rowan, including these hilarious onesies that I just can’t get enough of.

The toy that was very specific for Dekker was one of those vintage looking tin spinning tops with the handle-ish thing that you push down to make it spin. Am I making sense? I couldn’t get a picture of it because he was off with it too fast, but he LOVES it!

I think I love Laela’s present the best, to be honest. As I don’t want to put her in dance already…

It is gorgeous and full and soft and unbelievable and I’d wear it if it were my size! As you can see, there is even a little matching headband. This is PERFECT for Laela.

On top of all of this was a card, a couple more toys, some stickers, and a handmade blanket for Roro. I was completely blown away by such a gift. Its all still in the box (except Dekker’s top and Laelas skirt is hanging) because I want to look through it all again tomorrow. But tonight I was out practicing for Saturday, and got home later than usual. You guys should really all try to make an appearance. Its going to be beautiful and emotional and memorable.

What a FABULOUS day!

If I can be totally honest, today was a solid mix of good and bad. I love it when a day feels like its all good, and I really dislike when the whole day goes awry. So I guess today was a healthy, happy medium.

Rowan slept awesome but his last stretch of sleep, usually from 5-8:00am-ish, was really choppy. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep in there really. Rowan did, but he slept so lightly that I lived in fear of rolling over. Not ideal. He also ate very little. Ok, well, I’m pretty sure he’s eating more than lots of babies his age, but he has been growing like a weed over the last week or two, and he ate considerably less overnight and in the morning. So the feedings were frustrating as well, adjusting to yet another new feeding schedule he’s working us into.

When it came time for the other kids to get up, they were really excited to get dressed and eat, with the promise of grandmas house soon to come. They all looked adorable and were behaving well. The drive was smooth and when grandma ran out into the driveway to meet us, the fun began.

We had a nice hour and a half before my mom had to head off for a massage appointment. I fed the kids lunch, and it was right around then that they started to go haywire on me. Now, I’m aware that I have a good sized brood of young children, so haywire is nothing new to me. I can rock that. But there was SO much screaming, and fighting, and tears, and I was finally at the end of my rope. So it was time for their naps. Maybe twenty minutes earlier than usual, so not a big deal, but a very necessary one.

Rowan was so ready, and just lay in his bundle quietly until he fell asleep. Laela was tucked away in a playpen in my moms room, and Dekker in his room downstairs. (I know that sounds cruel! But when we spend the night, we sleep down there, and Dekker actually asks to nap down there. His choice!) After tucking everyone in, I hear Dekker talking, so I scolded him through the vent and he was quiet after that. I went to Laela and lay her back down only once before she stayed quiet too.

Two. Hours. It was sooo nice! My mom came home, and we had some lunch and a lovely visit before it was time to get the kids. Well, the big kids anyway. Rowan had lulled and was now sleeping in my arms. My mom went to get Dekker from downstairs and I went for Laela.

And my goodness, had she ever pooped. It was on my moms bed, on the sheet in the playpen, and all over my hands. Thankfully, my mom came to help me out. Poor Laela was stripped bare and wiped down with cold baby wipes. Lucky for us, I think she had just pooped, so there was no scrubbing involved, and she didn’t wreak from sitting in it for too long. She was unimpressed, but compliant. Because her clothes weren’t stinky, we were able to get her back into her stuff and go about the evening as normal. But MAN! That was a ton of poop.

When my dad and Brady arrived, we all had a delicious supper of chicken in a golden mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, and cooked carrots. I ate two helpings. Delish. Then we all played a bit more and cleaned up a bit before leaving. Success!

The drive home was rough. I won’t go into it, but I’m so thrilled that they’re in bed. So much good and so much bad. I want to focus on the good, I really do! But upon arriving home, I see tire tracks THROUGH my yard. No joke, someone actually drove through my yard. People haven’t used our yard as a place to back into and turn around before, and it left enormous ruts in our grass. Thankfully, its not so soft anymore because I would have been more angry than I am now if there were huge rows of my yard ripped up. Its just already hard to be happy here when we’d so much rather be somewhere else, but this really doesn’t help me feel thankful for my home.

All of that considered, I’m happy to be in my bed, writing this out, and soon I’ll be happy to have a soak, a snack, and watch That 70s Show with my husband, while our three children (hopefully) sleep soundly. My life is a good life.

Bradys parents headed home this evening. After a lovely morning filled with TONS of strawberries and bananas and breakfast at Cora’s restaurant, and an afternoon filled with naps and visiting, they are headed out on the road to get a few hours of their trip under their belts. We’re winding down, the two big kids are tucked in and Rowan is sipping away at his last bottle for the evening. I figured I’d round out the weekend with some photos with the kids and their grandparents 🙂 (Elvira, feel free to steal as many as you’d like!)     

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 Its been a lovely weekend. Monday looms…

We had a really nice day today, based around yummy food and relaxed play. We were hoping to surface at some point and maybe go to the zoo, or at least for a walk, but it was below ten degrees and very very windy. So we rather took our time during our meals and filled the rest of our time with lots of stories, and singing. Oh, and Dekker did laps. Everyone had a nice afternoon nap and we were all fresh for supper. We had chicken breasts and my delicious cheesy potatoes, which I’m going to be bold and say were completely delicious. I could eat the whole pan of them, no question. After dishes, the kids played HARD and ended up going to bed with sweat-soaked hair. That should smell yummy by morning, right?

So yes, it was a fairly uneventful day, but it was cozy and relaxed and warm inside. Since Rowan missed being on the blog yesterday, here he is today!

He’s so cute it hurts.

Tomorrow holds a morning in the city!!

So after being completely intimidated for several days, Brady and I cracked into our new camera this morning. We went through a ton of the settings and got it all arranged how we wanted. We figured out how to connect to wifi, and played with a couple of different effects. The kids loved being able to see themselves in the big flip screen, and that paired with the 20.2 megapixels, we got some pretty awesome pictures. We couldn’t be happier with this thing!!!

Obviously Rowan slept through this particular photo shoot, but we got some more of him later into the evening. However, our wifi blows at the moment and loading pictures is taking forever, so I’m going to be done for the moment. But there will surely be home! Bradys parents are out for the weekend so there will be many opportunities to take pictures 🙂 Much, MUCH higher quality pictures than before!

Brady finished work early today, thanks to working himself to the bone basically, so instead of meeting him in the city, he came home, got dressed, and we all went together. We finally dropped off Jerilee’s gift that we “paid” her with for watching the babes while we were off having Rowan. After that, we whipped through Walmart, in and out in a half hour, and then made it to Dr. Mikes a few minutes early. We didn’t expect everything to have started off quite so smoothly, but it did!

Brady and I both needed treatments, and while we were really happy to be there, Dekker was pretty clear on the drive over that he did not want to go to Dr. Mikes. However, upon arrival, a nice woman in the waiting room passed him a book about tractors and he was immediately happier. Dr. Mike asked him some questions and even teased him and tickled his ears, and Dekker just giggled and squirmed and totally let it happen! Big wins all around. He asked where we were headed for the evening, and we made a joke about our exciting lives and our anticipated Superstore and Costco shops. He looked at us like we were crazy and laughed, saying we had sure picked two big things to do in one day with all three kids. I laughed back at him and said we had already hit Walmart, so we were already a third of the way done. He just shook his head and smiled. Its true, we might be crazy. But living so far from the city, we sort of need to get lots done in one day, rather than being able to duck in for a thing or two each and every day. It makes sense to us anyway.

Once Brady and I were all tuned up, we went for supper. Our kids are SO cute today! They ate amazingly well, as in TONS, and very happily. Dekker was eager to get to the next place, anyway. He LOVES the free cookies as Superstore.

It was worth the wait. Dekker was such a good helper, remembering what we needed to get from each section. My favorite part was buying the kids hats from the clothing section. I’ve never been a “hat in summer” kind of person, and I didn’t think I’d make my kids wear them much, but since the older two have done blond and pale like me (so far, anyway) its necessary. I slipped one on Dekker’s head and there it sat for probably two hours until he was home and in bed. He loves that thing. And his cookie, of course.

We did Costco last, and by that time, it was quite late, and Costco was about to close, so I ran in to grab the few things we needed and Brady stayed in the van with the kids. I did a very quick run through and was actually out the door before the entrance had closed, so I felt less guilty about coming so late. Then a quick stop for coffee for Brady and I, and we were off.

Deks and Laela giggled at each other the whole way home. Its so funny, because when they get in their moods, they can just stare at each other, and it sends them into uncontrollable laughter. Over nothing at all! Except the other ones face, I suppose. It was so nice to have the van filled with happy sounds rather than overtired ones. These kids were just SO cute today!

Twas a good day. Time for a donut and a bath. I love our evening routine around here.

I was doing laundry today, and I caught myself thinking “I have a sickness that is jammies.” Sooo many jammies!

And then I realized that this is actually just five days worth of jammies. Five days, fifteen pairs of jammies.

It was then that I inwardly almost rolled my eyes as I thought of all the things people say about having kids. Specifically, the negative things they say. More laundry, more dishes, broken sleep. Pee, poop, barf, drool. Tears, communication blocks, tantrums, stages. The list goes on.

I hope its not a surprise to you guys that my list is entirely different. I mean, lets be fair. That first list is incredibly accurate. Kids bring all of those things. With my three kids, in five days, we go through fifteen pairs of jammies, ten sets of dishes, maybe 35-40 bottles, and I’d say roughly 75 diapers. I break up a good handful of spats in a day and everyone cries at some point, or at many points.

BUT! Someone falls asleep on me every day. I get more three times kisses than the average person does in a day. Same story with hugs and cuddles. Every diaper change gives me an opportunity to tickle toes or blow raspberries on a soft little tummy. I can observe my children learning to play together in between their spats.

I had Rowan on my lap today and I was giving him kisses, and he was so wonderful! You know that stinky baby breath that babies get? Its stronger with my formula fed babies 🙂 I LOVE that smell. To me, thats the delicious baby smell that people talk about. Kissing Roro’s lips gives me all the opportunity in the world to smell him. His lips are some of the softest ones in the world, and my nose inevitably pokes his adorable, also super soft little cheeks in the process. In the process, I usually tease his lips with my nose and he does this hilarious head twitch, thinking its a bottle. But if I bug him enough, I can get him to smile. Smiling lips are good for kissing, as are drooly ones, milky ones, and one that are blowing bubbles.

My kids just seem to fill my senses some days. While today has been a busy day of laundry and crowd control, I can easily see why I signed up for this road that we’re on around here. Its the very best road I could have chosen, hands down, no contest.

The kids were so cute this afternoon! Rowan needed to sleep around noon, which I was initially bummed about. With that timing, the other kids go down around 1:30, making it very likely that Rowan would be up as soon as the others were down. But there was no keeping that boy awake. Well, maybe awake, but not happy. I gave in and brought him up to his bed, and he didn’t make a sound after I put him down.

It was nice to pay some closer attention to Dekker and Laela with my arms empty. They were very sweet together. I heard Dekker occasionally suggesting Laela to come with him rather that doing the thing she was going for that was going to get her in trouble. At one point, Laela had broken a rule and couldn’t have what she wanted, and was making a big show of it. Dekker walked up beside her and asked “Laela, you want to play catch with me?” She lit right up and chased after him, and all was well again. They’re fabulous, plain and simple.

When it was time for them to have their nap, Rowan was still out and I wanted to keep it that way, so I made it a game to walk as quiet as possible. Dekker didn’t buy it at first but I made sure I looked as idiotic as possible doing it, and he was mirroring me soon after. I’ve never seen that boy walk so slowly 🙂 Laela, on the other hand, walks like an elephant no matter what. So I carried her. But they went down beautifully and didn’t make a sound. I figured Rowan would be up anytime so I made a bottle and climbed into bed. Ro sleeps in a cradle next to our bed, so I figured this way, I could rest and still be available right when he woke.

An hour went by and he finally started to stir. I went go grab him right away. I don’t usually rush to get my kids the second they make a peep, but if I let him get too loud he would wake his siblings, and when they go down quite that smoothly, its because they really really needed to. So I grabbed Rowan and climbed back into bed with him in my arms. I went to grab his bottle to give him some milk since he hadn’t eaten in a few hours, but he was wearing his sleepy eyes again! After 2.5 hours of solid sleep, I didn’t expect any more! I patted his back and easily lulled him back to sleep.

AN HOUR LATER he officially woke up. He drank his whole bottle right away without any doddling or dribbling. He was well rested, had a dry diaper on, and a full tummy, and he was SO alert and happy!

I know, he’s not smiling in this picture. We’re just starting to be able to coax him to smile, so its still not an easy thing to capture on film, but he was very animated at this point in the day 🙂

It was so refreshing having so many nice, squishy encounters with my kids! They made today easy peasy.

This morning started off so well! Dekker and Laela slept quite a bit later than normal, which is always a treat and bodes well for good attitude and lots of fun. Rowan woke up quite a bit earlier and couldn’t seem to be consoled, which brought about really good snuggles while we lay in bed together and started a movie. When we did finally all get up, breakfast was a success. The day started off so well.

Just a few hours later, I am so tired. Everyone is down for their naps much earlier than I bargained for, considering how long Dekker and Laela slept in. The time between breakfast and now has been filled with reprimands, throwing toys, hitting, attitude, and sooo much screaming!

So now, three out of three kids are safely tucked away in their comfy bed, wailing their freaking heads off. I might join the crowd…