Rolling with Three In Style!

This is how I roll through the neighborhood.  A sight hard to miss:)

Annual Apple Picking Trip

Last month, we took our annual apple picking trip!  With all the moving that we do, we have now apple picked in Connecticut, New Jersey and Virginia.  I wonder where life will take us next...

Chris was in charge of the big boys this year, while I was the lucky one to carry around sweet Abby!

 Aiden really got into apple picking this year, trying to twist the apples off the tree and filling his bag with precious apples.  

 Andrew...take a look at the pictures and you can figure out what this guy did the whole time!

Don't worry it wasn't all smiles and more smiles.  We entered toddler meltdowns as nap time was nearing and we realized that it was time to head home soon!

Overall, I would have to say we had a pretty fun time!

Hello Washington, DC!

This picture was from this summer, but my first picture with the kids in our new "home" for the next couple years!  

Our Month of September!

Another busy month in the Rogers household!  We have decided that the month of October is going to be a month for us to relax a little more in this house.  Settle into a routine.  And really savor some family time because the past month, although wonderful, was just a little too crazy!

We kicked off the month with Labor Day weekend at the Carolina coast with my grandma, mom, and sister Jill and her family!  The kids had a blast, of course, loving the water and sand.  And even this little girl was a little sand girl:)

Not long after Labor Day, these two kicked off their first day of preschool!  A new school didn't hold these two back.  Andrew has done wonderful in his first year of preschool.  He loves his teachers and has adjusted much easier than I ever thought!  Aiden goes four times a week (which is a lot more than just twice a week last year), but has adjusted quickly and happily.  We spend a lot of our days heading to and from preschool, but I know that they are thriving and happy there so I am one happy mommy with them there!

We took our annual Rogers family apple picking trip!  We had to drive about an hour outside of the DC area to get to some orchards, but we had some fun picking apples. 

We headed to New Jersey for the first time since we moved and had a great reunion with our besties.  We miss them so much!!!

My dad, Papa Mountain (as we call him), came to visit for the first time since we moved here.  He spent a week with us treating us to lunches out, doing the whole preschool routine thing, and we even managed to get all three kids out hiking a couple times!  The kids had a lot of fun with their papa!

Aunt Jill and Jack drove down for the weekend while Grandpa was in town!  We did some more hiking...

And visited the National Air and Space Museum where we got to see so many planes and this amazing space shuttle!  (Thank goodness we went when we did because this month everything has been closed around here due to the shutdown!)

The rest of the month was spent adjusting to preschool, enjoying lots of time in and out of the house, and just living life.  We had a wonderful month but are looking forward to slowing down the pace of life around here as fall is kicking in!

Happy Six Months Abby!

Sweet baby Abby turned 6 months on September 17th (yes, we are almost a month behind AGAIN!)

What a crazy sixth month of life this girl had---she headed north to the Jersey shore and south to the Carolina coast.  We enjoyed a quick visit from MeMe Rogers.  School started for her brothers and she started her daily rides to and from school everyday.  Through it all, she continues to be our sweet little girl.  We are so blessed to have Abby in our lives!

Abby had her six month check up.  She continues to be like her brothers, our petite little kids.  She was 13 pounds 12 ounces and I can't remember the height right off the top of my head, but short.  They remeasured her three times because they thought certainly she wasn't that small, but she is:)  And there were no shots planned, but for once I am ahead of the game and she had her first round of flu shots (while her brothers lucked out by getting the FluMist instead of shots).  Sorry baby girl for forcing on shots, but I'm hoping this will keep us from the doctor this winter:)

Abby is a MOVER just like her brothers.  She learned to crawl quickly and do you think she goes for the nice, colorful, vibrant baby toys?  NOPE...she goes for trucks, trains, and anything that the boys play with.  They aren't too happy about the idea of her getting to their toys but when the little ones are small, we always enforce "take a toy, give a toy".  She seems fine with that for now:)  She also sustains herself for a short amount of time in the exersaucer/jumper/walker, but she is most content just crawling around on the floor!

Abby continued to eat solid foods this month.  Looking back at the boys at this month, they definitely were ahead of the game on this:)  But as third child, we aren't as on top of our game as we used to be.  But she now gets dinner and seems just content with whatever we give her!  Her favorite so far seems to be sweet potatoes.  And it's funny because when I had Aiden, I made ALL of his baby food.  With Andrew, I made some.  And now with Abby, I make NONE (unless you count mashing up a banana). What was I thinking, it's so easy to just the store bought food and she seems to like it more anyways!

Abby hasn't fully mastered sleeping through the night.  She is usually up once during the night (sometimes twice) and eats, but is good about going right back to sleep 80% of the time.  The other 20% of the time, she has a little night party in her crib and makes for one really tired mommy in the morning.  (Again, first child I didn't drink coffee ever and now I have at least one, sometimes two, cups a day!) 

Happy Six Months Abby!  We love you so much:):):)

  

  

  

A little more Jersey love...

I shared in the last post about our wonderful trip to the Jersey shore this summer!  Of course, us moms got planning about future meet-ups while we were all together.  At first, we were thinking about doing a girls' weekend somewhere.  But I knew that my boys have been asking about their "old house" and Cranford, so I decided that it was time for the Rogers' family to take a trip back to their old stomping grounds!

Now that the boys are in preschool, our trips are planned around their schedule.  We decided to head up in late September (before it gets too cold, but a few weeks into the school year).  Chris took a half day on Friday and then we were on the road...

We arrived around dinner time and met Courtney and kids in our downtown where he had a nice dinner out at a new burger place in town!  Then, we headed over to Shannon's house where the kids ran around like crazy while all the parents enjoyed catching up.  I managed to get Abby down not too late and Shannon and I snuck out (while the husbands were left with the other kids) so we could meet Courtney for a girls' night out!  How I miss these girls too much!

We woke up the next morning, after a major lack of sleep, to the energy and wildness of our three kids (plus two more)!  We finally got our act together and headed over to Courtney's house for a play date with several of our friends that we miss so much.  After a full morning of playing, we headed back to Shannon's to get Andrew down for a short (but much needed nap) while Aiden, Abby, and I headed out to a birthday party of one of Aiden's friends that consisted of paddle boats!  

He had a blast and I enjoyed catching up with some more friends and then we had a wonderful BBQ with our dear friends.  Seven kids, four and under, means never a dull moment.  Courtney and Tom managed to get a babysitter so once all the kids went to bed, we had a great night just chilling at Shannon's house with all the adults!

We woke up on Sunday (again not enough sleep!) to a wonderful breakfast made by our amazing friends.  And then headed back to Courtney where we played, played, and played before finally parting ways and heading back south to Washington DC.  

Another fun weekend in Jersey was had and we miss our sweet friends so much!  No plans yet to see them, but I'm sure we won't let it go too long before we see them again:)  (And of course I was so busy enjoying life/surviving the chaos that I failed to take hardly any pictures!)

Jersey Love

Although we are enjoying our new home, we truly miss our dear friends in Jersey!  

When we had a chance to head up one weekend to meet our friends at the Jersey shore in August, we were pumped for some fun in the sun with our best buddies.  

The weekend was perfect:  nights spent catching up and days running around with all the little kids!

We love our friends so much!

We spent the entire day on Saturday at the beach and what do you do when you are five months old but fall asleep in the tent?!?!

The kids LOVED the beach just like all the parents!  We set up camp for the day just letting the kids run, dig, and play...

 (A very rare shot of Shannon and I!)

After a full day on the beach, these kids were WORN out!

 But of course, food is always part of our get-togethers!  The kids had a fun outdoor picnic while we had a fun BBQ outside as well!

And nothing makes the kids happier than a personal visit from the ice cream truck!

We woke up on Sunday to clouds and drizzle so instead of doing the beach, we headed out for brunch with our friends before visiting this famous lighthouse!  

We were sad to part ways, but are thankful for our amazing friends!