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July 4th Weekend

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This past weekend was 4th of July Holiday Weekend.  It really was a great mix of family, friends, neighborhood, bbq’s, pool time, fun, and even a few errands in between.

The weekend started out with horrible thunderstorms late Thursday night.  They lasted through the night and when I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to nurse Harper, I was a little worried that the neighborhood picnic event scheduled for 10:00 would be called off.  I shouldn’t have been worried though.  In a few hours timeframe the weather turned sunny and was in the high 70’s and not humid.  It was gorgeous.  We went to the event and had a chance to meet a few more neighbors, which was nice.  The girls were a little too young to participate in some of the events but it was still really neat nonetheless just to see yet again what a great community we live in.

Friday afternoon we set out to take pictures of the girls with the primary goal of getting a good picture of all three of them….one that we could use for their birthday invitation.  EPIC FAIL in that sense!  The girls just did not want to take their picture together. I don’t know what was going on but they just wouldn’t cooperate and all three stay put at once and that stayed true for the whole weekend. 

Friday’s pictures and this includes several rounds of photo sessions throughtout the day.

By the way this orange outfit has become Emerson’s all time favorite outfit the past few weeks.  If the pants are dirty, she wears an orange skirt to go along with it.  We do laundry fairly often so she probably wears this outfit about 3 times a week.  Maybe I should do laundry less…lol. 

Avery on the other hand is wearing one of her bathing suits from two years ago.  I was planning on having Harper wear it and Avery wanted to try it on and I think it actually fit better now than it did two years ago…guess that diaper took up a lot of space!

Friday afternoon we went to Brophy’s.  Avery even wore this bathing suiit there….and not even under her clothes.  This was her outfit!  The Niday’s were there as well.  Emerson’s tummy didn’t feel well at first but after awhile I think she forgot about it and was fine.  The girls had a great time playing with Hannah’s toys and each other.  The girls are becoming increasingly independent in their play especially when we go to someone else’s house.  It is nice! 

We got back to our house in time to watch our neighbors do a few fireworks in the cul-de-sac.  All three girls were scared at first.  We ended up putting Harper down to bed.  Emerson eventually was okay watching them but covered her ears the entire time.  Avery never really warmed up to them so she went inside with daddy to watch them from the kitchen bench.

Saturday morning we went to the Farmer’s Market. Karolin, our new au pair, even joined us! 

Saturday afternoon Justin and I did something that we don’t do very often and actually spent 6 ½ hours together without the girls.  It was good.  We went for a nice bike ride to Reston followed by some yard work (mostly trimming our overgrown garden).  Then after a quick shower we ran a few errands and even went to Matchbox for a late lunch/early dinner.  We got back in time to even spend a few hours with the girls before it was bedtime.

Sunday morning we went to Meadowlark.  While we brought the camera as we always do when we go to Meadowlark, the goal of the trip was certainly not to get a picture of all three girls together, but once we got there, I thought why not try AGAIN….

Their lack of cooperation for the staged picture had me becoming increasingly frustrated.  Justin kept having to tell me to let it go.  Finally I gave up on the picture and we all continued to enjoy ourselves more. Thoughts of getting Harper in the picture began brewing in my head. 

 The girls started running in the fields and were having a great time!

I thought if I placed Harper in the grass the girls could run on opposite sides of her and we could get a picture of all three of them and the girls would be more cooperative since it wasn’t as staged.

As you can see both girls ran to the same side of her!  The idea worked much better in my head!

We got some cute pictures but not the one that I was trying to create for their birthday invitation.  BUT I am all about the flowers….and I LOVE some of these pictures of my babies!

Sunday evening we went to my parent’s house for some pool time and a barbeque.  Each time we go in the pool, the girls are gaining more and more confidence.  I just smile as I see them playing in their rafts…it is so cool to see these little kids that they are becoming.  All in all we had a really good weekend! 

My Life Unfiltered

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I’m overdue for a post.  I think it is fair to say that our life is busy right now!  So without going into details, I think this one pictures does a pretty good job of summarizing my life right now. Me in workout clothes, no makeup, all three kids in a different direction…yup, thats my life!

And that’s me smiling!

What A Fun Ride It’s Been

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This past week we said goodbye to our regular routine of Ana and Ari as our nanny for the girls.  Ana has been with us since the girls were 10 months old…exactly two years.  Ari has only been with us since this past January but we grew fond of her very quickly.  Both were awesome nannies for the girls.  On each of their last official day with us, we  had a photo session.  These are some of my favorites with Ari.

What do you say there Harper!  Pick me a WINNA!

These are some of my favorites with Ana.

 

Indeed….what a fun ride it has been!

These Precious Moments

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These precious moments with Harper are constant.  It’s hard to believe that the majority of the moments I have had with Harper have been moments like these.  Harper has never been much of a crier.  I can think of only two nights where she had trouble being consoled and even those times were no more than an hour at best.  During times when my stress level is about to go through the roof usually as a result of having two two and a half year olds who refuse to listen, hugging and holding Harper calms me.  Harpers temperament and constant smile and giggles are constant reminders of what really matters in life.  I know it is hard to believe, but I am being completely truthful when I say that this picture is truly representative of how I feel every moment with Harper.  

Our New HOME

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We officially moved!  We are loving our new home! 

It’s been two weeks and we are getting settled in and coming up with our new routines.  The adjustment for the girls has been pretty seamless.  They love their new home.  We only had one moment where Emerson told us she liked Papa’s house and not this house…her reasoning was that there was no park in the neighborhood.  We have gone on a few walks on the weekend and a few evening strolls and have had a chance to meet some neighbors.  The neighborhood is very friendly.  Harper even got to ride in the wagon for the first time and she LOVED every minute of it. 

Harper is growing up so quickly and fairly soon she is going to be running around just as much as Avery and Emerson.

My Easter Bunnies

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Easter morning the girls opened up their Easter baskets.  Here is my littlest bunny.

Followed by a morning excursion to Meadowlark Gardens.

Followed by an Easter Egg Hunt at our new home!  Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Spring Has Sprung!

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Finally a weekend of GLORIOUS weather!!!  As much as there is still to do in the new house, Justin and I decided we needed to spend some good quality family time together with the girls doing something outdoors.  So Saturday we went to Clemojonytri Park in Great Falls.  It felt so good to finally be outside! Avery and Emerson loved the swings!

And the slides…While Mommy normally likes the slides too there was definitely a lot of static electricity to go along with each ride.

Harper even had her first time going down the slide in tandem with Mommy.

Harper even got to try her first experience on swings to celebrate her 8 month birthday!

And there is always time for lunch after working up an appetite! 

Also ALWAYS time for snuggles and kisses.

 Sunday we took the girls up to Glyndon Park.  Again the girls loved the swings.

Harper got her second taste of the swing experience.  She LOVED it!

And she also sat on a slide for the first time.

Followed by snuggles from Daddy. 

We then went to our new house later in the afternoon to enjoy the beautiful cherry tree and flowers.

 We even had a little picnic in our backyard!

Spring has sprung and we all had a little pep in our step!

 

Each Little Lady

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Harper! Harper! Harper!  Harper is seriously the sweetest baby ever…one look at her and she has the biggest smile and makes the sweetest sound. She loves to be a part of things. I feel like she is already going to do things sooner than her sisters at the same age, just because she wants to do everything they are doing.  Harper is really playing with toys now.  She even crawls to get the toys or things she wants now.  She is still mostly army crawling as one arm often gets stuck underneath her body as she moves, but she is still getting around!  Now that she is sitting up and playing with toys, I feel like she is even playing together with the girls some too.  The other day I sat her on the floor in Avery and Emerson’s room while I got them ready for a nap; Harper crawled right over to the book shelf and took out all the books.  The other day Harper even pulled herself up using the help of the toy basket. She did it a few times in a row and was SO proud of herself.   Mommy and Daddy were pretty proud of her too.

In other news, Emerson does not have to wear her special shoes anymore!  She was such an awesome patient!  When we took her back to the doctor in mid-February the doctor could not believe the drastic change in such a short amount of time.  Although I was expecting the doctor to be impressed with Emerson’s results, I was not expecting her to say that she was done wearing them!  I reminded her that Emerson had only been wearing her special shoes since September (when we first started the process I was told to expect a year minimum).  So she said 6 more weeks and then she wanted to see her back in 8 weeks.

The first night we put on Emerson’s special shoes, our hearts broke.  We talked them up and she was actually pretty excited about them.  But once that bar went on that connected the shoes, she realized just how restricted she was and her cry and pouty lip was almost enough to make me cry. But after only a few days she really began to believe that her shoes were indeed special and she welcomed them as part of not only her bedtime routine but also her naptime routine.  In fact, there were a few times where Justin and I tried to get her to nap without them in order to expedite the naptime process and Emerson refused to go down without her special shoes.  They became a part of her and in time they weren’t so restricting.  She learned to crawl on her knees with them. She could stand in them and Avery often would taunt Emerson and tell her to walk in her special shoes; a challenge in which Emerson would always try and then all four of us would laugh.  Some nights Avery would even take Emerson’s special shoes and try to put them on as she wanted special shoes too.  So this past Saturday night when Emerson no longer had to wear her special shoes, we knew that we needed to let her know this in a way that she wouldn’t become upset.  We let her know how awesome she did wearing her special shoes; we were high fiving, clapping, and even Avery was offering congratulatory words.  Low and behold…Emerson thought she was something special and while she did ask a few times why she didn’t have to wear her special shoes anymore, once we provided her an explanation (again with many high fives) her face lit up and exuberated pride knowing she did worked really hard to achieve a goal and had reached the desired outcome.

As for Avery, Avery continues to be our little fashionista and comedian all rolled into one.  She likes to pick out her own clothes…a task that sometimes leads to her matching, sometimes to an outfit that I likely wouldn’t want to take her out in public in (but mightJ), and sometimes an outfit that doesn’t quite go together but is super adorable none the less.  She also continues to tell jokes and loves to make people laugh.  She has a habit of telling some of the same jokes repeatedly (like the fact that Emerson told Dr. Harrison that she doesn’t like Chinese food anymore…Chinese food is bad)…an ongoing joke for 6 weeks now that is still pretty funny most the time although it is starting to lose some of it’s luster and when the laughs aren’t as hearty as they were in the past, Avery demands laughter.

In other news with Avery, she is currently going through the evaluation process as she ages out of Early Intervention at age 3 and FCPS takes over and creates an Individual Educational Plan (IEP).  At first I was a little nervous about the process since Avery is doing so well and I felt that although she absolutely should qualify to make sure she has the tools necessary to do well in a classroom setting.  However, more recently I have started to feel a little better about the process as her main evaluation will be with the vision teacher Jenn, who used to be a part of Avery’s early intervention, and Lorna her weekly therapist will be in attendance.

And finally in household news…we closed on March 17.  We are doing some work on the house before we move in…nothing major….but enough that we are still about 3 weeks away from moving in.  We are anxious but know that we will be in our new place soon enough!!

Overdue Randomness

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This blog is way overdue.  Since I started my blog in September 2012, this entry will be the longest lapse in time since the prior entry.  We have just had so much going on.  I know we are always going to be busy and while the things that occupy our time will change, the fact is that life with three kids will probably never change the fact that we are a busy family.  We closed on our house on St. Paddy’s Day March 17!  While we aren’t making significant changes to the house we are making some, and the truth is even the littlest things such as cleaning windows and replacing electrical outlets take time. The biggest changes (cost wise) that Justin and I may be doing to the house are related to giving the kitchen a facelift, painting much of the house, and redoing some of the upstairs carpeting. We think it makes most sense to make some of these changes before we move in so most my spare moments during the day and my evenings after the girls have gone to bed have been spent browsing the internet for ideas instead of blogging or doing squats or sit-ups or anything else for that matter. We want to get a lot done before we move in; yet at the same time, I am realistic that there is going to be a lot to do with regards to getting furniture and decorating even after we move in so at some point I need to stop spending every spare minute focused on the house. 

SO….the girls are still as crazy and awesome as ever and we have had a lot going on this past month:

–          Potty Training – is going quite well.  Occasionally the girls have an accident at home in their panties but we have yet to have an accident outside the home.  At the same time we do still wear pull ups outside the house some so I don’t know that it is fair to say that they haven’t had an accident outside the home…but I can say that in general their pull ups are fairly dry.  In terms of “number two” the girls are infatuated with pooping.  Avery’s time to poop is at night.  She HAS to go poo poo EVERY night after we are in pajamas and the bedtime routine is complete.  We sometimes think it is a tactic to delay bedtime but 9 times out of 10 she goes.  At first Emerson was content to wait in her chair with her special shoes for Avery to return, but more recently, Emerson now claims she has to go poo poo as well.  Occasionally she does; however, most the time I think she just wants to go to the bathroom because Avery is.  Avery usually uses the big potty while Emerson sits beside her on the little potty.  One evening they both had sour stomachs (poor things) and it was like a marching band was playing in the bathroom…lol!  They are also now into looking at their poop. One evening they made “corn poop” and the next night it was their goal to make not only “corn poop” but also “pasta poop”.  Sometimes the girls ask for their privacy on the potty while other times they like to use the time to talk.  One evening I was in the bathroom while Avery was using the potty and she pointed to the middle of my forehead and told me I had a hole there.  I told her my hole was from scratching when I had the chicken pox and from that night on Avery thinks it is funny to tell others of the hole I have in my head from chicken fingers and then she waits for others to laugh.  If others don’t laugh, she’ll tell them to laugh.  She also knows that she won’t get chicken pox because she had a shot from the doctor (a.k.a. a vaccination). They don’t quite realize that pooping isn’t something that one should freely talk about outside the home…guess we will need to work on that but for now, it is a great accomplishment that makes for a lot of conversation in our household.

–          We have also spent a lot of time this past month telling stories about “Snusan”.  Snusan (a.k.a. Susan) is little girl the very same age as Avery and Emerson.  In fact, Snusan is Avery and Emerson and it started one day when I was telling them about Susan going to the park with her friend Jackson and slowly but surely Mommy became a writer for the Snusan series and the girls regularly request that Mommy and Daddy tell them about Snusan.

–          In other events the girls attended their first wedding!  My little cousin Ryan(not so little anymore….just turned 27) married Christine March 15.  My Grandma Adele and sister came for the wedding so my parent’s house was definitely a full house for about 5 days!  The wedding was fun and the girls especially Emerson had a great time dancing on the dance floor.  Avery had fun dancing too but she wanted to dance by being held so she was my dance partner for much of the night.  The girls had a great time with Great Grandma Adele and Auntie Lauren.  Emerson especially LOVED hanging out with Auntie Lauren. Seriously she would get up in the morning and the second she was picked up out of her crib she would dart downstairs on a mission to find Auntie Lauren!  It was really special to see how much the girls adore her and hopefully they will continue to always be so close to her even with the physical distance.

–          The girls have had a few birthday parties this past month as well.  One weekend we went out to Round Hill, VA for Garrett McMillan’s first birthday party.  That same weekend we also went to Adrien Nowak’s third birthday party that was at a fun indoor play place.  Another weekend we attended Dylan Roger’s third birthday party.  Each time we attend a party, I find myself grinning at how the girls are really starting to interact socially with other children.

–          Harper!!  Our baby isn’t a baby anymore!  She is already almost 7 ½ months old and she started sitting up about a month ago.  Honestly it was like one day she could sit up and she did it well.  I remember with the girls we would surround them by pillows incase they fell backwards and I don’t think I put a pillow our for Harper more than once.  So either she really did learn how to sit almost immediately or she is truly has third child syndrome and I don’t want to admit it.   Just over a week ago she started army crawling and boy is she getting around.  She now plays with toys sitting up and crawls from one side of the room to the other to get a toy.  It seriously seems like Avery and Emerson were just doing this….CRAZY!  Harper’s night time sleeping has improved some this past month but she still isn’t sleeping through the night.  On average she is still getting up once; however, she is going to bed much earlier now (around 9:00…I know still considered late for many but for us right after the girls go to bed) but I won’t nurse her now if she wakes up before 5:00 a.m. (although I usually make an exception if she wakes up at 4:45).  Harper is now sitting in a high chair too during meal time!  Harper has become clingy some lately so we may need to address that if it continues.  I know I am biased but she is seriously still the sweetest most loveable baby!

And yes while our life is busy right now, here are a few things I never want to forget:

–          Avery likes to randomly tell family members that she loves them

–          Avery likes to tell jokes and loves to make people laugh

–          Emerson is a great helper around the house and she is one of Harper’s biggest cheerleader

–          Emerson feelings get hurt when she does something wrong or gets embarrassed and she freely tells mommy and daddy that her feelings are hurt

–          Both girls LOVE to snuggle and cuddle with mommy and daddy

–          Both girls are very excited about the upcoming move and love to talk about the new house every night before bed