Dad's Day!

At the beginning of this month, the boys had a special Dad's Day at school one Saturday morning!  Each boy got to take Daddy to school by themselves for an hour in their classroom, just dads and kids.  

Aiden was up first and the big thrill was donuts (and coffee) for Chris as it started early, 8:45!  

Andrew showed Chris a little of his "school" side as he sang songs, cleaned up, and enjoyed every moment with Daddy at school.  This kid has a whole other personality at school, it's so cute!

And you think most moms would get the morning off, but I held down the fort with whatever kids were at home playing toys and cleaning house!  What a fun way to kick off the weekend:)  

Happy 10 Months Abby!

It's hard to believe that this girl is 10 months!  It's hard to believe that in less than two months you will be turning one!!!!!!  Seriously, I know I keep saying it, but where does the time go?

At ten months...

You FINALLY sleep through the night!  Mommy took a couple nights to let you cry it out during your late night feeding session and despite a few cries and screams those nights, you quickly understood that Mommy wasn't coming back and started sleeping through.  It's amazing for your mom to FINALLY get a full night's sleep!  You even surprised me when we traveled this past weekend and you slept from 7-7 in the pack and play at our friend's house without making a peep.  I think you may be the best sleeper in the house;)  You love to have all your stuffed animals in the bed and always sleep with your soft pink blanket and your swaddle blankets with a pacifier nice and close!  You still love your Soothie pacifiers and we aren't going to mess with something that works. 

You are an eater, baby girl!  You love lots of different foods and choose to feed yourself rather than us feeding you!  Your favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, cereal bars, yogurt melts, cheerios, cheese, and anything that we are having for dinner.  So far, I am enjoying your unpick habits and you are also the best eater in the house:)

You are so close to walking on your own two feet but you are very content crawling quickly around the house and cruising from place to place.  You often look for your brothers when they are not in the room and will crawl around until you find them.  Some of your other favorite places to hang are...the dishwasher, the refrigerator, the pantry, and the cupboards.  You love to hang with Mommy and make a mess while she is either cleaning or doing dishes!  

You are such a chill little girl!  You rarely cry and often have a smile on your face.  You have the most adorable giggle and are easy to make laugh.  You like to play with toys, people, or anything that is near you.  Seriously, I think I may jinx myself one day, but you are such a sweet, happy baby!

In your 10th month of life, we celebrated Aiden's birthday, Christmas, New Years, welcomed fun visits from Grandma Ruff and Aunt Jill and cousin Jack.  It was another fun month full of family and fun and you seemed to love every minute of it.  You are definitely a third child---along for the ride and it doesn't take much to make you happy!  Your naps are adjusted at time, bedtimes get pushed back, and your meals are all over the place according to our schedule and it doesn't bother you a bit!  You do really well when Mommy says good-bye to you at the gym or church which is HUGE for Mommy just to get a short break!

You are often found playing near your brothers and trying to crash whatever they may be working on!  They, for the most part, are good sports unless they are cranky boys and then we just move you away from them.  Trust me, don't mess with two cranky brothers!

Happy 10 Months Abby!  We love you SOOOO much!

My Little Lovebugs!

These were posted over on The Chirping Moms last week, but I know that some of my family only reads this blog so I thought I better get these adorable pictures live for you!  

My little love bugs...

I have lots of great ideas about things to post about if only I had more time.  Seriously between the flu last week and all the snow days this month I have hardly had a moment to myself...

But these three crazy kids and I are spending LOTS of wonderful time together!!!!!!

Call Me A Sick Day...

There's only one thing worse than being sick...

Being sick as a full-time stay at home mom.  Try chasing these three wild children when your body doesn't feel like leaving the couch, you can hardly think straight, and your head feels like it is going to explode.  

That's how our week has been.  Let's just say that my kids have mastered the art of "free play" while I am trying to "rest" in this house of no rest.

January, the first month of every year, is never my favorite month.  I know new year, new attitude.  But remember I am married to an accountant whose busy season happens to kick off January 1st.  Now that Chris is in the fellowship for the next couple years, we have said "good-bye" to busy seasons but hello to "busy work" all year long!  But I am thankful that he does arrive home by bedtime most nights to get the two older rugrats asleep while I nurse Abby down to bed.

But back to January, this year.  I was anxiously awaiting the kids to head back to school just so I could have 2.2 seconds to think straight again.  Well, of course, the extreme cold hit the country including the DC area and two out of the four days of school last week, our first week back, were cancelled.  But we survived our long days inside thanks to our new bounce house from G and G Rogers, my new beloved gym membership (with child care), and lots of again "free play"!  All weekend long, I was looking forward now to this week, a full week of school for the kids.  (Which again doesn't add up to too much since Aiden only goes 4 afternoons a week and Andrew goes 2 afternoons, but I will take what I can get!).  A few minutes to catch up on some household tasks, work on a few much-needed tasks at The Chirping Moms, and maybe even sneak in some actual free time!  But then, what do you know, but I am struck with the flu.  The only one in my house who has it, as of now, and it has lasted all week long.  I have taken any moment of downtime to sit on my couch and do absolutely nothing but try to ease the aches and pains away.  Seriously.  

So yes, I always love a new year.  But seriously spring, can't you please come soon enough?!?!  We need some good health, some major outdoor play time, and some bright sunshine beaming in our windows.  

Christmas 2013

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don’t clean it up too quickly.” – Andy Rooney

  

Holiday Happenings 2013

So this is a full recap of our holiday season (or as much as I can remember!) up until Christmas time!  We started off our holiday season before Thanksgiving with our hunt for the perfect Christmas tree.  Three kids, four and under, and two parents walking through the Christmas tree fields looking for the one.  Thankfully, we found it pretty quickly, chopped it down, and Chris dragged it back to the main area to be loaded onto our car.  We also enjoyed some roasted marshmallows and a quick hayride in the COLD temperatures:)

On the first Monday in December, our new town here in Virginia does a "holiday stroll" in their downtown area.  Chris, of course, had to work but I decided to brave the crowds with all three kids and head down there on my own because I knew this may be the one and only time that we would catch a glimpse of Santa.  Was it worth it?  Yes, the boys were ecstatic to see Santa rolling into town on the fire truck and it was a great way to kick off the holiday season.  We also ate lots of roasted marshmallows (again!), got to explore the historic train, and even see a few friends from school.    A couple hours later, I loaded three tired kids back into the car to head home to their warm beds!

Another thing that we love to do during the holiday season is enjoy some nightly walks to visit some of our neighbor's lights!  We did some walks, scooter rides, and wagon rides all taking in the night time Christmas viewing!

It snowed one of the first weekends in December and we are blessed to have a great private sledding hill here in the neighborhood that no one else even took a slide on!  We loaded up all three kids while enjoying having Daddy working at home (versus heading to the office on his snow day) and took the boys for a few joy rides down the hill.  Aiden, of course, bravely had to go on his own over and over and over.  One thing we have learned that if we ever move to a little colder (and snowier) climate we have to invest in some more snow clothes for the kids.  The boys wore rain boots and were jammed in snow pants about two sizes too small!

Of course, we had to take a night to decorate the tree which is always an adventure with two boys who want to hang ALL the ornaments, including the breakable ones and Abby who was rummaging through anything she could get her hands on!  We also decorated the outside of our house with lights and those tacky inflatables that our kids love so much so we do it:)

Of course we had some holiday movie nights in our cozy Christmas pajamas!  Our favorite movie this year was The Polar Express.

We headed to church several times during the Advent season to help not only celebrate Santa coming but baby Jesus' birthday.  This year, we were excited to adopt a little boy from the church's Angel Tree.  We took a special family trip to Target where the boys had a great time picking out a little present for him.

The boys had their annual Christmas programs at school.  The two year old classes had a sing-a-long for the family so the kids and I enjoyed a morning of festive songs with all the other fellow families.   And Aiden's class had their holiday program where he sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Go Tell it On the Mountain".  Of course, we happened to get zero pictures or videos because I left the camera in the car and Chris' phone froze right when the kids were on stage!  Thankfully, we have a few videos from fellow parents in case any one wants to see a bunch of rambunctious four year olds singing!

We took a break from the holiday festivities to celebrate someone's FIFTH birthday.  Yes, did you hear that???  FIVE!!!!  I made my life a little simpler this year.  After making cookies for both Christmas programs and birthday treats for school all in the same week, I took Aiden to the store and let him pick out cinnamon rolls for his birthday breakfast and bought my first-ever store bought cake!  And trust me, he didn't care a bit, he was as happy as could be to celebrate his big special day.

He had a wonderful birthday celebration.  We headed out to eat the night before for Mexican food and cupcakes while Daddy had a half day off.  On his birthday, we had a nice day at home ending with his birthday celebration.  Of course, he wished for the sweetest thing to have "Daddy at home a little more".  Amen!

And someone else enjoyed a little birthday cake too!

I have found this holiday season with three little kids that we have done a lot more celebrating at home versus heading out and about to do things.  I have realized that the kids are just as happy doing simple things at home as doing great "planned" things out.  We did holiday crafts, made Paw Patrol ornaments, decorated gingerbread houses, listened to more Christmas music than you could imagine, enjoyed fun holiday tv shows, and throughly enjoyed the holiday season.  

Of course, we couldn't end the holiday season without some holiday baking!  My mom arrived on December 23rd to join us for our Christmas celebration.  Chris was "on call" Christmas Eve at work and has a very limited amount of time off with his new job so we knew that we wouldn't be going anywhere.  We were very thankful to have her join us for our Christmas festivities.  Christmas Eve in this house is dedicated to baking SO many cookies and wrapping gifts.  Our cookies for Santa were all ready by the end of the day...

 And we celebrated Christmas Eve night with attending our church service, looking for lights, enjoying a laid-back dinner and getting ready for Santa, saying good-nights, and wrapping like crazy!  

What a wonderful and special holiday season we had this year!  

Happy Nine Months Abby!

Happy New Year!  More about all the holiday fun and our new year coming soon, but 

someone turned nine months recently...

It's been a busy ninth month of life for this sweet girl!  Both brothers had birthdays, we enjoyed a visit from MeMe Ruff as well as Uncle Nate and Uncle Jason.  We have been busy preparing for the holidays, enjoying lots of holiday traditions, shopping, and more.

At nine months...

• Abby continues to be an active little bug.  She crawls all over the house, can climb up stairs, cruises on furniture, stands on her own for several seconds, and we are anxiously awaiting that first step (although I am definitely not ready for it).  You love to be in on the action crawling to where your brothers play and you do not like to be in a room by yourself.  You cry until mommy comes to find you.  You definitely aren't used to alone time when you have two older brothers and a busy mom always around.
• Abby continues to nap twice a day most days, unless our schedule doesn't allow.  You are easy to get to sleep and I enjoy my few quiet moments at bedtime with you as I nurse you to sleep.  You rarely sleep through the night, but I am definitely looking forward to the day you do!
• You continue to nurse exclusively are a great eater, as long as it is quiet.  Your mid-morning feed is usually a pumped bottle since we are either out and about or surrounded by your noisy brothers.  Your dinner feed, I often sneak in while your brothers are busy playing "house" or watching a quick show before dinner.  The other feeds are easy to sneak in before they wake up, while they are at school, or at bedtime.
• You continue to eat solid foods for three meals a day and usually an afternoon snack. Some of our favorites include cheese, yogurt melts, baby Goldfish, noodles, fruit, and peas.  You also love pureed sweet potatoes and most of the fun combos available nowadays.
• You watch and watch and watch your big brothers!  You rarely have a quiet time in our house but I don't think you know what to do when your brothers aren't around because they think you fully entertained.  (Which also makes me feel guilty because I definitely don't have as much time to spend with you as I did your brothers)
• You are a quiet little girl.  No babbling here.  But it could be that your brothers are so noisy that you can't even hear yourself talk.  That's how I feel most days!

You are such a sweet baby girl!  Can't wait for another month to see how much you grow.  We love you!