Little Adie

How can it be possible that you are already two months old little one?

Growing up so quickly.

Too quickly.

My little baby daughter, I cradle you in my arms at night, staring in to your eyes as the rest of the house is so quiet. My heart aches with love at the sight and feel of your precious body curled against mine.

Even though my eyes long to close and my body yearns to lay back down in bed during those night feedings, I find it so extremely difficult to put your grinning little face back to bed instead of sit there and coax you to get some more of those dimpled smiles.

You are amazing.

A real gift.

You now weigh 12 pounds, 2 ounces.

You have grown over two inches since you were born.

You eat about once every 3 or 4 hours. At night you can go anywhere from 4-7 hours between feedings (okay, so 7 only happened one time...but it still counts!).

You are a sound sleeper. You need to be when you have two big brothers that scream up and down the hallway and ram their head in to you on the couch while you're trying to get a little cat nap!

You are going to be one tough little cookie with those two to keep up with!

Ethan and His Moose

Ethan has recently become very attached to his moose.

It was given to him for his first birthday from his Uncle Mike and Aunt Hayley. He has begun in this past week or so to carry his moose, tucked under his arm, with him everywhere. From the minute he wakes up in the morning he wants his moose to sit on the table and watch him eat his breakfast.

The other night as were saying our prayers and singing our bed time song Ethan folded the moose's hands and also had him clap along to the song. That night as he waddled down the hallway in his little lighthouse pajamas he looked down in his arms, got a huge grin on his face, and said "Moose! Blankie!" Both his favorite loves were in his arms, and off to bed as a content little boy he went.

It completely melted the heart of this Mommy and Daddy and it was just one of those moments I never want to forget.

E

Grandma

I long to call you today and hear your voice.

To hear you say "Oh Beth!" when you answer the phone and hear me say "Hi Grandma!"

I know where you are celebrating this year blows the socks off any party you ever had here on Earth!

I miss the feel of your hugs.

Your smell.

Your voice.

Your laugh.

Your entire family feels the loss today.

We all stop today and take a minute to remember you, to think of you, to feel our loneliness.

Happy Birthday Grandma.

Adder Padders

Incredible daughter of ours.

We are so in love with you.

In My Head...

are many random thoughts. I try and think about where to hop back in to this whole blog world that I haven't been much a part of lately, and it just seems overwhelming to try and cover every single topic...so instead I will just do a potpourri of all the going-ons inside this head of mine!

My daughter is seven weeks old now. She is smiling all the time. I don't remember the boys smiling as often or as frequently as she does. She has the cutest little dimple in her right cheek and it just melts me every time I see her grin. She is eating about every 3 to 3 1/2 hours during the day and at night she goes about 4-5 hour stretches. One night she did a 7 hour stretch, but it appears that was just a fluke! I really love getting up with her. It's usually only once a night, and she has gotten to be a fast feeder and can eat in about 20 minutes. I just love snuggling her in my arms when the house is dark and quiet. It's just a special time for the two of us.



Grayson and Ethan are starting to put together mini sentences. They love to walk around now and say things like "Mommy's chair." "Grayson's cup." "Goodbye cow." They are such little hams and LOVE to make us laugh. Grayson's new game now is to hold up his food at mealtime, look at us and say, "Apple?" when he clearly knows it isn't. We'll say "Noooo..." and he'll smile and say whatever the correct food is. I love seeing them develop and change.

Ethan is such a little cuddler lately. He became VERY attached to Ama when she was here. He would often follow her from room to room and say "Hold you, hold you" with his arms up in the air. He loved being with her everywhere she went! One night he clung to her as she put him in his crib and Chris had to peel his arms off of her. He had a hard time when she had to say goodbye!

My body is slooooooowly recovering from the trauma of bed rests, births, and babies that has happened to it over the past two years. I am in desperate need of starting an exercise program again. I think Mr. Power 90 Tony and I might be getting reacquainted here again soon. I need to build my core strength back up and get my girlish figure back again. Ha! I have BAGS of clothes tucked away that I swear I will get back in to. I don't know when, I don't know how, but it will happen someday....right???!!!

Our house is now officially on the market as of yesterday. No showings yet, but we're ready whenever they call. It seems so surreal to look out the window and see a sign in our front yard. I have such mixed emotions as I look around this home! I love our home. If I could take it with us and add on a couple additions it would be the perfect home for us for many more years to come. It is so full of memories here! It is so hard to imagine another family calling this THEIR home. Sigh. At the same time though I have such an excitement as I think about this adventure before us and our family!

I am finally (ahem) taking over full time care of all three children. Tonight ends day 2 of Operation Mommy Only and I am still alive AND even better...SMILING! There were those moments, don't get me wrong. Moments where I just had to laugh because every single child needed me at the exact same time and I didn't know who to take care of first! For the most part though I feel like we are finding a groove. I feel like I can successfully take care of Adelyn. Feed her, hold her, change her, bath her, cuddle and kiss her - all while giving that same care and attention to both Ethan and Grayson. I have really been taking time to make sure that every single one of them gets some one-on-one time with me each day. At the end of the day when I tuck the boys in to bed I don't feel like I've accomplished a whole lot, but when I think back on the day I guess I would say that caring for a 7 week old and two 22 month olds is enough! I think so often to my Grandmother's though who raised 6 kids all on their own. One of my Grandfather's was a farmer who worked outside from sun up to sun down, and my other Grandfather was a car salesman who worked similar hours. My Grandmother's were able to care for all those children - so I can certainly do it with three!
Today as I was breaking out in a sweat from wrestling with the boys mattresses washing sheets nad putting fresh ones on, I was thinking about the days when the women would wear those fancy dresses and high heels all day long. Their hair perfectly done, make up on... I just had to laugh imagining how completely opposite I was from that picture of perfection at that moment!

I love being here. I love this time in my life. Adelyn is our last baby and so it is a time that I am just trying to soak in and not forget. Even in those moments of craziness I just try and remember how quickly these moments will pass and I just stop my worrying and frustration.

Chris starts his new job so soon! He turns all his work stuff in tomorrow, and will soon be making his first weekly trip up to Minnesota. He will be flying back and forth every other week until we all move up there permanently. He is really excited about this new opportunity and I am so excited for him and all of us!

Mom just left this past Sunday after 3 fabulous weeks here with us. She is just amazing I tell ya. She just fits in here with us so smoothly. I loved her company, and I loved seeing how much she enjoyed helping out with the kids. We shared many special moments together and I will always cherish this time we've had with her living here with us.

The biggest challenge of this entire house selling adventure is going to be keeping up with the cleaning. I want it to stay clean enough where we could get a call for a showing and I could quickly do a few things and we could be locked, loaded, and out of the house in less than half an hour. I have a chore chart that I am making myself stick to. I have had chore charts for years, but so often I would just move a chore to the next day, and then the next, until it would be a month before I would have changed our bed sheets. Okay...maybe not a month...or was it... :)

I really need a pedicure and a haircut, not to mention a shower and a shave (kidding about the last two. They actually DID happen today...but check back tomorrow). But things like getting out in public to get them done are rare these days. Some Super Moms can do it. They stick a child on their front, a child on their back, a few in the stroller and off they go...but the thought of it just wears me out! I often think that someday soon my kids will all be old enough where I will be able to take a shower without two of them wanting to see where Mommy is the entire time I'm in there, or the day when they will no longer want to put on my make-up along with me. (On a side note - I realized tonight that I must do a lot of ponytails around here. I had my hair down this evening and the boys were AMAZED by it! They kept jabbering on and on about it and putting their hands through it.) Maybe someday I will even use the bathroom alone again too!

I'm in no rush!

A Whoa Kind of Life

Life is moving along and some big changes are on the way for our family.

Those big changes have been keeping us busy (aside from having 3 wee ones under the age of 2!)...and therefore I have been horrible about documenting this past month of our lives.

The big change I am speaking of is that the five of us are relocating back to Minnesota. Surprise!

Chris accepted a new position and will begin his new job on November 1st. We will be putting our house on the market October 18th and will be living here until it sells, up until next May.

As you can imagine this is an exciting time for our family. We are excited about this opportunity for Chris and the opportunities it will open up to him after just completing his MBA. I am also excited to live close to my parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and nephew, as well as many members of my large extended family as well.

In the same breath though, it is very tough to leave our home here! Virginia has been our home for the past six years. We have started our family here, made some amazing friends, found a great church, and enjoyed living close to Chris's family during this time. It is hard to leave all that behind and start all over again.

We are stepping out though, really believing and feeling like this is the right move for our family.

As you can imagine, this makes for an even busier life as we prep and prepare the house to go on the market. There are decks to be re-stained, closets to be de-cluttered, floors to be cleaned, toys to be removed...

My Mom has been here for the past week and a half. She has been such an amazing help with the house and the kids. I am LOVING this time with her here. What a gift.

In other news, all three kiddos are doing just fine.

Adelyn will be six weeks old already this next Sunday. I can't believe that! She is just starting to crack many smiles for us and she is such a sweet little cuddlebug. We are still trying to figure out what makes her tick and what type of schedule she seems to be following. She has a mind of her own on that one! I love her to pieces!

Ethan and Grayson are now almost 22 months old. I have no idea how they can be almost two already. I love them at this age. I love the cute things they say and do. They constantly entertain us and keep us guessing. They are such affectionate brothers to Adelyn. They love to hold her, kiss her, and lay their heads on her tummy. I love watching the three of them interact together.

I still have no idea how I have become the cat lady of children. You know what I mean? The lady who goes out in public all disheveled, hair not combed, a few teeth not brushed, extra pounds hanging around the middle, crumbs clinging to my clothes, putting off a funky smell? The lady who seems like only yesterday was a college kid boppin around NWC drinking way too much Mountain Dew and eating way too many nachos at 3 a.m., and here now I have three children? For real? Are they all mine? When did this happen? How did this happen? (I think we finally have the "how" part figured out!). I have had to resort to doing head counts in public to make sure I have all my children. I feel like I'm back with my students on field trips again reading off the class roster "Grayson?" "Here." "Ethan?" "Here." "Adelyn?" Here.

More to come later. My recess is over!