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Happy 4th, Happy Family, Happy Life

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Saturday morning….having fun at the neighborhood 4th of July parade….

Saturday afternoon….just hanging out at home after the neighborhood 4th of July parade….

Saturday evening…..celebrating 4th of July with an awesome fireworks show in the cul-de-sac!

Sunday morning hanging out in our jammies!Sisterly love!This next one Emerson yelled out funny face just before the picture….This is Avery saying cheese……and Avery saying Cheese even bigger and louder

Harper gets in on the mix…Sunday afternoon pool time!  Harper loved the water!  She had absolutely no fear.

The girls alternated between playing “Shark” and jumping in the pool.

Harper even got in on the jumping action which made Emerson quite upset to say the least as she wanted to jump when she wanted to jump and didn’t want anything or anyone to get in her way.  She decided to throw herself on the ground and pout.

Harper meanwhile was having the time of her life as her sister pouted right near her.

Since Justin was the one snapping away behind the camera all weekend, I decided to grab the camera to capture a few pictures of him with the girls. FOLKS, sadly THIS is as good as it gets.  I can only hope that if I continue to practice, that one day I will reach mediocre status!  

Happy 4th!  Happy Family!  Happy Life!!

My Disco Ducks

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The girls first recital is now in the history books.  I was so nervous about it for the last few weeks….I had seen the girls rehearsal a few times the past few weeks and at times the girls would pay attention to the teacher but then other times, Avery especially, would not even be looking at the teacher.  Well during the whole one minute and forty five second performance today, all I could do was laugh.  Avery actually followed pretty well.  Emerson had severe stage fright.  She stared out at the audience not looking at the teacher once and practically did the same first move from start to finish.  Emerson generally really got into the routine so I really hadn’t expected her to freeze, but she did.  After the performance, she really didn’t want to talk to anyone and you could tell she was upset but didn’t want to talk about it.  Anyway, I captured a video of the dance on my phone during rehearsals and as much as we wanted to have this performance, I couldn’t bring myself to shell out another $40 for the video.  And here is little Harper who was mesmerized by the performances!

My Harper and The Girls Trip to the Opthamologist

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Harper went from saying a few words to literally saying everything overnight.  It’s crazy…..she knows what everything is….it is just so amazing to me because it isn’t like she learned all those words overnight and then said them the next day upon learning them.  But her little mind had been storing all that information and finally one day she just decided, I’m going to blurt out everything now.  She has even started to put two words together sometimes…often the word “mine” is one of those words.  She is still the happiest, cutest, smartest, funniest little girl and we all adore here.

Today I took all three girls to the ophthalmologist by myself.  I was a little nervous about it, but they were angels.  Emerson and Avery both had appointments and Harper came along for the ride.  Avery and Emerson took turns sitting on my lap when it was their turn to be examined.  When it wasn’t their turn to be examined, Avery and Emerson both sat with Harper…holding her hand, giving her a boost, asking her if she needed anything.  They are both so great with her…they are constantly making my heart smile.

On the way to the ophthalmologist, I was having a conversation with the girls and I asked Avery and Emerson if they knew what a twin was.  Emerson responded “yes”.  I asked her what it meant to be a twin.  She said “to be happy”.  How awesome is that.  I posed the question to Avery and Emerson because I’m not convinced that they know that they are twins and after my conversation with each them, I’m still not convinced.  I think the fact that they have a younger sister who is so close in age they tend to focus on the fact that they have two sisters.  We generally do not refer to them as the twins, although we certainly do not intentionally not use the word twins.  I really think they define themselves already more as individuals with two sisters.  My girls fascinate me and I hope this fascination and admiration for my girls always is a defining factor of me.

Just The Seven Of Us

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As Justin and I ate dinner last weekend, I looked over at him and said, “when did this happen.”  At the kitchen table was not only me and him, but also our three little girls and our two “teenagers” a.ka. our au pairs who take care of our three girls while Justin and I work.  We truly consider them family.  I said to him, “seriously, just four years ago it was him and me (okay so I did have two babies in my belly and I was nearing bed rest so I probably wasn’t doing the cooking but we were still eating dinner together at our dining room table just the “two” of us).  And here we were now just four years later and we are a family of seven.”   Even though we are in transition and have an overlap in au pairs and will only have one living with us soon, we are an extended family of 7!  I never envisioned myself as having a big family, but I think it looks good on us:)

My Favorite Weekend of the Year

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Memorial Day has always been my favorite holiday weekend of the year!  May is my absolute favorite month of the year so the long weekend in itself coupled with the warm weather and the unofficial start of summer, gets me excited regardless of what else is or is not planned for the rest of the weekend.  Add in Viva Vienna and Memorial Day Weekend Barbecues and I love everything about this weekend.
 
This Memorial Day Weekend the girls got to experience Viva Vienna twice.  Saturday afternoon Avery and Emerson got to go with my parents. Sunday afternoon, the whole family including Karolin went for a few hours.  The weather was perfect…not too hot, not too cold.  
 
Harper watched the girls on the first few rides and you could just tell she was itching to experience some of the rides herself.  After the girls rode a few, Justin took Harper on the chocho train, which was the first ride Avery and Emerson rode at Viva Vienna two years ago.  
I think she enjoyed getting to go on a ride herself. Avery and Emerson enjoyed watching their sister experience her first ride!
 
Harper got to go on a second ride…the carousel! She absolutely LOVED every minute and did not want to get off when the ride ended.
(Ignore the grumpy old lady in the background….I swear I was having a good time!)
 
Emerson was braver than Avery and tried several additional rides that Avery refused….the same rides that Avery had either gone on the previous day and disliked or had chosen not to go on the previous day as well.  That gave Emerson a chance to go on one ride solo and one ride with Daddy.  Look at this big girl!
Both girls really enjoyed the motorcycles and went on those a few times each.
We walked around and had ice cream for lunch!
Although as we were eating our ice cream, Emerson asked me what was for lunch.  When I told her ice cream, even though she enjoyed her ice cream, she didn’t seem to be satisfied with my answer. 
When we got  home from Viva Vienna, Harper threw up all over the kitchen floor.  This was actually the second time she had thrown up in two days. Not to mention she did have diarrhea twice earlier in the day, but I really didn’t think too much of it because she was acting her normal silly self including eating and drinking normally. It wasn’t until Monday morning that Harper woke up drenched in diarrhea (I know it was gross) that her spirit was gone and it was apparent that she didn’t feel well.  She didn’t eat all day and for the most part just wanted to cuddle and be held.  
When she did stand on her own for a few, it was usually only minutes or seconds later that she would crawl up and find a spot on the ground wherever she was to lay down and rest.She was so pitiful but it was so ridiculously precious at the same time. And just in case you are wondering, it took a few days but she is now back to her normal self.

Sunday Funday

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This past Sunday was truly a Sunday Funday.  Our morning started out rising early to go to our 4th Annual Foundation Fighting Blindness Vision Walk.  Emerson was actually the first to get up telling us that she wanted to get up early so we weren’t late to the Vision Walk.  While we woke early, it certainly wasn’t the crack of dawn.  I think it was about 7:15 and we still got out of the house fairly easily by 8:40…..granted we didn’t eat breakfast at home as we knew they would have cereal bars and fruit that the girls would eat at the event, but even so getting out of the house is becoming easier and easier.   We took both strollers although Emerson walked probably about 2/3 of the 3 mile walk mostly with Papa as her buddy.  We were so proud of her.  Avery would get out for seconds at a time only to get back in moments later.  Harper wanted to get out at times but we wouldn’t let her.  The weather was gorgeous and it really was a good energetic start to the day. On the way home, all girls soundly slept in the car seats for close to an hour.

Later that afternoon we went to Meadowlark.  Normally when I go to Meadowlark, I want to walk as much as I can but since we already had done quite a bit of walking already, I was a little more content to just enjoy stopping and doing whatever the girls wanted to stop and investigate.  Meadowlark was packed…I have never seen so many people there at once….we even had to park on the over flow parking area.  Anyway, the girls had a great time exploring and running around.

I tried to get their picture on “the bench” that Justin and I took our first pictures on as a married couple.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the afternoon.

While they enjoyed Meadowlark, they really wanted to go to a park that had swings so after Meadowlark we stopped at the local park by Trap road.  Justin and I were trying to recall if we had been there since having Harper and neither of us thought so.  It was really fun to see Harper climbing and going down the slides.  Every time she turned a corner, she would say to whoever was there…hello…it was super adorable. The girls had a great time and it warms my heart when they are having so much fun.

One highlight of the day was that I didn’t cook all day!  And we didn’t eat a single meal at our kitchen table.  We spend a lot of time prepping meals and cleaning up our kitchen and while I do enjoy cooking, every once in a while it is awesome to see just how much additional time can be spent doing other things doing the day when no cooking or eating occurs in our kitchen.  Breakfast and lunch were at the Vision Walk.  And we picked up some Chinese Food earlier in the day when we were out and we ate in the backyard on paper plates for dinner. Seriously not having to sweep the floor even once Sunday was pretty darn awesome.

The Sweetest Sounds

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8:20 Sunday morning – Justin and I turned to our alarm clocks to see the time and were pretty elated to find that the household was still sleeping.  Moments later we could hear Avery and Emerson open their bedroom door and come out but much to our surprise, they didn’t come in our room.  They played together in their bedroom and their bathroom instead of waking us up.  We heard their sweet voices playing and it was literally the sweetest sound!

Recurring – Harper is attempting to say more words and some words she does say pretty clearly.  She probably is somewhat still behind in her spoken language but her receptive language is above and beyond. She nods her head VERY slowly for a yes usually and she is finally starting to say no.  I need to video her no because just like her slow yes nod, her “no” is quite slow, drawn out, and so soft spoken.   I’m sure in time her spoken “no” won’t be so sweet, but for now it too is literally one of the sweetest sounds.

Glen Echo Park

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In Spring 2010 just as Justin and I were starting to think about starting a family, we randomly went to Glen Echo Park one weekend afternoon.  We walked around and explored the old train and the art galleries and both us couldn’t help but think that this would be a great place to come with our future kids one day. Fast forward exactly five years and three kids later, and we went back to Glen Echo for a second time, the first time since having kids….kind of funny that we had three kids by the time we went back, but that’s us:).  We had high expectations that it would be a fun event for our family as we both recalled how we felt five years ago.

While Justin and I both enjoyed the hour plus we were at the park as we love being outside with the kids, we both couldn’t help but feel an overall sense of disappointment.  The park was an amusement park starting in the early 1900’s so it still has the old amusement park look.  Today the park has art studios, dance classes, a small playground, a restored carousel, and other visual arts and performing arts classes.  But unless you go on a family day or another time where there is a big event, there truly isn’t a whole lot to do unless you plan for one of the classes in advances.  They did have a puppet show while we were there but it was recommended for kids ages five and over.  Anyway, we tried to get a few pics of the ladies together…these were the results…

They had lots of picnic tables so we had our little picnic….Harper loved her hot dog with ketchup….

Emerson was a little moody at times while we there….she really wanted a cupcake and Mommy and Daddy said no…

Avery only ate chips and clementines and was a happy camper….

After lunch, the girls were eager to play on the playground.  It was actually a weak playground in comparison to many of the playgrounds that we have closer to home; however, the girls enjoyed it (especially the swings) as you can see from these happy faces.

Easter 2015

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The Easter Bunny came through the open dining room window and left these baskets for the girls.  We assumed the peeps were left for Daddy:)Avery couldn’t wait to test out her new jump rope!After Church we tried to get a few pictures.  Harper did not want to partake and hung out with me on the sidelines at first.Emerson and Avery unprompted!Mommy and all her girls!Daddy and his girls!Waiting patiently to find Easter Eggs!And the hunt is on….they are off!Harper for the most part took turns being held by me and Justin.  Emerson made sure that Harper got her fair share of Easter Eggs even though she didn’t want to hunt for them:)Time to enjoy the jelly beans!Emerson made sure that Harper knew to only eat one at a time!Later in the day it was bike time in the cul-de-sac!Followed by a second Easter Egg Hunt of the day!Lots and lots of laughter present through out the entire day!

Ordinarily Extraordinary

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Again the past few months, I haven’t had many specific events that I felt warranted a blog. Believe me we have been doing things on weekends. We’ve had 6 kids birthday parties in less than 2 months which have all been so different and a lot of fun!  Luckily they have all been different weekends or days of the weekend so we have managed to go to all.  Between the birthday parties, our normal weekend errands (grocery store, laundry, cooking meals ahead for the week, etc.), there hasn’t been much time for other big events….other than buying a Honda Odyssey one Sunday last month!  We knew the Odyssey was in our family’s future; however, we held out for a really long time….and every month we held out was one less car payment.  Truthfully we probably could have even held out a few additional months; however, the Honda had two separate incidents (dead battery, and some other issue that caused the car to not steer) in the course of one week and it left us sharing one car between three drivers.  While we got the Honda fixed both times, I think that really sped up our car buying process.  We even took the girls with us and they were very well behaved. Now that we have the minivan, it’s proving to be really great.  Karolin now has a car every day of the week and now that it is getting warm, it’s nice that they have the ability to go places if they want.  This past week is Spring Break.  Karolin’s sister Louisa is here visiting from Germany and they have been having a great time taking the girls places.  Friday after school they picked the girls up, took them to the dentist (which the girls love) and then out for lunch at Wendy’s.  Avery and Emerson both told me the play by play of what the dentist told them quite accurately!  Monday and Wednesday they all went to Great Falls Park since the pass was good for three days, they went back a second time on Wednesday! Tuesday they all went to Udvar Hazy where they had story time and learned about astronauts and spaceships and had a fun time viewing all the airplanes. Thursday they went to Clemyjontri Park and Friday (tomorrow) they will go to a kid’s concert at Jammin Java and then out to lunch before going to my mom’s  (Grandma’s) house for the afternoon.

Back to our activities the past few months though, weekends have also included going to the gym regularly, which all three the girls now thoroughly enjoy.  The first two months Harper just cried or stayed in the same spot while she was at the gym.  Now she can’t get her jacket off and walk away from us fast enough when we get there.  Perhaps it’s the fact that our activities are becoming more routine and easier (in a good way) that the weekend events haven’t seemed like significant events. Perhaps it is because we haven’t taken many pictures the last few months to document the events.  Life has been good though…busy as always, but good, real good!  Avery and Emerson are really starting to show some more independence like getting dressed themselves, going to the bathroom themselves, putting their own jacket and shoes on, taking their plates to the sink, and even sometimes helping themselves to their own snacks.  They don’t always do these things on their own, but the CAN now, which as Emerson would say is “wonderful”.

In other events, we started the au pair search again in February.  It’s hard to believe that Karolin only have a few more months here.  We would never have chosen Karolin in our initial search as we were only looking at Brazilian au pairs at the time, we are so fortunate to have found her.  She is part of our family and the girls adore and respect her. The au pair experience has been wonderful for our family and we are cherishing these last few months with her as she will be missed.  As a working mom, it’s hard to leave your kids each day but I have always been able to do it because I know that my girls are with someone that truly loves and enjoys being with them….Karolin now and Ana and Ari before Karolin.  In just over two months, Ludmila will be joining our family!  We are quite excited and while we know the girls will need a little time to adjust, they have already started welcoming her to our family.  Today is Ludmila’s birthday so the girls and I skyped with her for a little bit and we sang Happy Birthday to her a few times!  They were even “fighting” over having their own turn.  And tonight we are going to celebrate Ludmila’s birthday with cake and ice cream!

So life is becoming ordinary…ordinarily extraordinary!  Life is great…I love my life and my family!  Every night (well most) Justin and I and the older girls say what they are thankful for…occasionally they say they have nothing that they are thankful about that day, but most days they have a range of things that they are thankful for (their family – often naming individuals by name including both immediate and extended family), their dinner, school, ballet, vacation, going outside for the day, or whatever they did that day, and often circling back again with FAMILY.