When I woke up this morning. . .

. . . I didn't think the phrase "Put the poop back in the potty NOW," would have come out of my mouth. GROSS.

I'm so excited---I found a gymnastics place where Hayley and Jack can take a class at the same time! Hayley goes w/ a 3/4 group and Jack and I will do a mommy/me class in a separate group, but we'll all be in the same gym! (Actually, it will be Jack, Riley and me---she'll get to be in the little Snuggly pouch thing if she isn't sleeping in her carrier--which she did today!)  I've been so bummed b/c it is something I've especially wanted to get Hayley into, I just didn't know how to make it work w/ the other 2 tagging along. We did a free trial class this morning and it was so cute watching her do everything. She loved it. I didn't know until we got there that Jack and I could do a class at the same time, so he sat with me in the bleachers while we watched Hayley for an hour. He did pretty good, but did have some meltdowns b/c he wanted to go "pay" too! So I'm looking forward to going back next week and seeing how he does! And an extra special treat--one of her friends from church is also in the class she is in! We didn't know it until we got there today---fun!!

Why did they have to move LOST to Thursdays??? Every Wednesday I've gotten so excited only to have the let down when I remember it isn't until tomorrow night. 

And that's my random post for the day! : )

WHEW!!

Today was one of those days that I imagined in my head it would be like having 3 children. It started out with Hayley getting up earlier than usual and she found me laying on the guest bed in Riley's room (I had fallen asleep there after getting up what seemed like at least 20 times to put the paci back in the mouth.) LOVE IT when that happens. I wake up and feel like I didn't even sleep since I am on top of the comforter and not in my own bed. So I take her back to her room and go down to Riley crying in daddy's arms needing to be fed. (Riley, not daddy) : ) Hayley comes back down as I'm feeding Riley and hangs out with me as I get ready for church. She complains of a tummy ache and I respond every time with, "I'm sure your pretty hungry. It will feel better after you eat." So I make her breakfast, still complains of tummy ache. Says, "Mommy, I have to stay home from church b/c I'm going to throw up." I say, "Noooo, you're fine! We're going to church." We get to church (all 3 kids in coordinating outfits---not typical for me to do but made me want to do more of it--they were so cute!) While sitting on floor w/ Hayley putting her shoes on the right feet : ) she starts to whimper, "If I go to my class I'm going to throw up!" At that point I start to panic. This girl LOVES going to class at church, school, wherever. You don't have to bribe her to go places. I say, "I'm sure you're going to be okay. You'll be fine! (Big smile on my face trying to cover up concern.)" So she goes. We make it through w/o being paged, get in car and head home. And then it happened. For the FOURTH time in her life she threw up in the car. So it's chaos from there for what seemed like the rest of the day. We get home, get 2 clean kids in house, transfer H from car to garage, strip down to take to bath, Riley's screaming at this point, Jack's hungry, Tra's cleaning out car seat/car. CHAOS. So we get everyone situated finally--things are going better. Hayley feels better, is up playing acting FINE, she and Jack take off around the corner and go upstairs (so I thought.) Tra had gone to get the car washed and cleaned out, Riley swinging, I'm eating lunch (finally) talking to my mom on the phone. After a few minutes I head upstairs to check on them and I hear them in my bathroom. So I go in and they are standing in the shower---Hayley has my little pair of scissors in her hand and you can imagine it isn't pretty. Thankfully she didn't think to cut her OWN hair---but she did decide to cut her brother's hair. Lots of hair---chunks in the shower floor, shirt covered in hair. It actually doesn' t look too bad and we're considering having her cut it on a regular basis. : ) Ohhhhh boy. The day ended with Riley crying if she wasn't being held from 5-9 and Hayley again complaining about her stomach and at 9:00 I headed out to the store for my weekly run and actually enjoyed the quiet time in the car and walking around for an hour by myself.

And if you're still reading---(didn't mean for this to be so long!) I guess you need crazy days like this to fully appreciate the days that are semi-normal. What a joy to have these crazy days though. I wouldn't trade them for anything! (Well--- maybe a spa-day) : )

THANK YOU!!!

How cute is this template and header??? Amanda (see link) did this for me and I LOVE IT!! Thank you for using me as a guinea pig! It is going to be extra fun to blog now! 

Bummer!

Apparently the new, cool template I downloaded the other day caused problems on other people's blogs too and erased their links. What is the deal with that??  Oh well---back to my search for a cooler, cuter blog template that doesn't cause problems. : )  Sorry Angela and whoever else was affected by that particular website. For now, I will settle with blogger's pink template.

Riley turned 2 months old yesterday! She is so much better in the evenings lately. She is doing lots of smiling and cooing---so fun! She's also wanting to hang out in the middle of the night more than usual lately. Lots of "bonding time" last night. 

Hayley picked out the book "Love You Forever" last night before bed. I cannot EVER get through that thing w/o choking up! And then I get to the part where the mom drives across town and climbs into her "little boy's" window and crawls across the floor and picks him up and rocks him in her lap and it kind of creeps me out. That's just weird. It is a sweet book though. 

Jack is becoming more and more his own person. Last night I learned he does NOT want his food to mix together---never mix guacamole with his beans!! He screamed and cried about that for several minutes. Tra and I were having a hard time being serious trying to get him under control b/c we were laughing so hard! He is very much into routines at bedtime in particular too. He has a certain order he likes to do things in and heaven forbid if you mess it up! Hayley is actually the same way. Hmmmm. I wonder where they get their OCD-ness? I'll give you a hint---it's NOT from mama. : )  I say that, but I have those tendancies. Our everyday plates and bowls are 3 different colors, and I always make sure to order the colors before I put them up out of the dishwasher b/c I don't want 2 of the same color together. So maybe I'm weirder than I thought. : )  I need to finish this book I "borrowed" from my mom (sorry I haven't returned it yet, mom!) but I love the title---"Everybody's Normal Until You Get To Know Them."  But life would be boring if we were all normal! Hope you other "weirdos" out there have a great day!

A New Look!

I'm so excited about my new blog template---not too excited that somehow my list of "Blogs I Read" was deleted.  That's like losing your cell phone in the sense that I don't have people's blog addresses memorized!! : (  I've been wanting a cuter template for a long time but haven't been able to figure out how to make it happen. This particular one was SUPER easy! The link to the site is on top of my page. It's the nice orange strip that I will change to a softer color if I can ever figure out how. : )

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Road Trip!

Thursday morning Tra went to the dr. and found out he had bronchitis and spent the rest of the day in bed. As I went about my day I thought to myself, "Stay at home and take care of 3 children by myself AND a sick husband, OR take 3 children to Austin to stay w/ parents and celebrate my mom's birthday." Either way would take some serious effort, but I opted for our first road trip of 2008! We said goodbye to dada at 7pm Thursday and were at my parents' house by 10! We didn't stop on the way there. Riley did great and slept the whole way. Hayley slept half of the way, and Jack kept me company the whole time. About an hour outside of Austin he was wanting his juice that he had dropped that I couldn't reach, so I handed him my large chick fil a cup of ice water that was about a quarter filled and he spilled it ALL over himself. I thought about stopping to change him but he stopped screaming after a couple of minutes so I kept on truckin'.  Poor baby was SOAKING wet when we got there. : (   He's the best little kid. We had such a great time being w/ Nana and Big D! My dad was working in Florida all week and we surprised him at the airport Fri. morning by all going to pick him up! Neither of my parents had seen Riley since she was 2 weeks old! Needless to say, they were both very excited to have us hang out for the day yesterday and this morning.

We headed home around 1pm this afternoon and made it back by 5. I stopped to get gas in Belton and ended up feeding Riley and making the dreaded trek into the gas station w/ all THREE children b/c Hayley had to go potty. grrrrrr. At least she let me know she needed to go and didn't go in her car seat. It actually went fine--much better than I played it out in my mind--and we got treats for the rest of the way home. I'm hoping Jack doesn't get sick tonight from eating a whole package of Skittles. : )  Whatever keeps em' happy---if the babies ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!!  : )  I was in such a hurry packing before we left, I forgot my camera. So no pictures of the weekend. It sure was fun! We love you, Nana and Big D!!  (These pictures are of the last time my parents were here---Nana making gingerbread house w/ Hayley and Jack and Big D holding Riley for the first time at family Christmas party!

Happy Birthday, Jack! (and a Hayley story)

One of the funniest things Hayley has said lately is, "Hey mom, for Christmas I want the Charmin video!" Yes, Charmin--as in the toilet paper. They have those cute little cartoon bears on the commercials. : )  She was very disappointed that they do not have a video. Then a couple days later when a Charmin commercial was on she said, "I sure do wish I had some Charmin. Next time you're at the store, will you get me some?"  So we may be saying goodbye to our "Quilted Northern" on our next toilet paper purchase.

 Jack is officially TWO years old! We had a fun family day on his actual birthday. We loaded up before breakfast, drove through a donut place and brought them to a bounce house place. We all 3 played in the bounce houses while Riley hung out in her stroller sound asleep. After a couple of hours we headed home for lunch and naps, got up and loaded up again--this time with dad--and went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner! We went for Hayley's birthday in August for the first time and they LOVED it. We didn't know it, but last Wednesday night, kids' meals were $1.99! They also had a guy going around making balloon animals, and a guy in a frog-suit costume walking around waving to the kids. The looks on their faces when the animals "come to life" is priceless. It was a GREAT day! Happy Birthday precious boy!! 

Happy New Year!

I went on a blogging fast the first week and a half of this year and it appears I am still fasting! I've actually been a faithful reader---just haven't taken the time to post. Things are going great over here with 3. Riley is such a good baby---until about 6pm-11pm.  I have always been skeptical of the "colicky" baby thing. God humbled me with my 3rd. I can count on one hand the number of nights she hasn't screamed and been fidgity since about her 3rd week of life. So for the past month (she's 7 weeks tomorrow!) every night we are bouncing, rocking, feeding, patting, bathing, ANYTHING trying to calm her down. It is so weird and SO exhausting. I know many of you have gone through the same thing with yours and can empathize. Hayley and Jack were both so calm and chilled out as newborns. So this is a whole new experience for me. Any ideas or suggestions to help calm the child down are MUCH appreciated and welcomed. Thankfully during the day she is an angel and very easy. She's still and angel at night---just a noisy one. : )  

I took all 3 to the mall by myself for the first time last week and it was so funny to watch

 people's mouths drop as they said, "You have 3!!"  I wanted to respond, "Great job! You can

 count!"  Hayley is turning into such a little lady and is so much fun to hang out with all day. She says and does the funniest things. One of my favorites lately is "Today is today, right mom?" To which I respond, "Yes--today is today." And she says, "Today is not tomorrow, right?"  And we go on for a little while and I'll throw out an occasional, "But tomorrow it will be today and today will be yesterday."  It totally shoots her wheels off---yours too, didn't it?? : )  She also likes to put Jack down for naps in her bed at the most random times. It's hysterical because Jack obeys her. Sometimes he just plays along for fun, but other times it hurts his feelings and he goes reluctantly into her room, lays down and sucks his thumb while crying his eyes out and STAYS in her bed until I come up and tell him he does not have to take a nap and he does not have to obey Hayley. It's sad, but it cracks me up to see him in there laying down by himself just crying. Poor buddy. I'm having a hard time believing he is turning 2 on Wednesday! Goodness---where does the time go??

 

Family picture

I got a new computer picture program for Christmas so I was going through old pictures and ran across this one from Thanksgiving 2006. My how things change in a year! I love this picture of all of us at the lake! I need it in a frame! 

Random question. . .

Hayley, Riley and I were driving home from a visit to the dr. yesterday and Hayley asked, "Hey mom, is a pickle a fruit?" I don't know when the last time was that she even saw a pickle. And why is she concerned about which family it belongs to? It made me laugh out loud. : ) I LOVE this age!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We certainly did. I have LOVED all of the Christmas cards and cute pictures of your families---we did not end up getting ours out like I had hoped this Christmas. Oh well---maybe next year we will not have a major event 3 weeks before and I'll be more on the ball!

Jack turns TWO next month!! WHAT???? How is my baby boy already turning 2?? Apparantly the more kids you have, the faster your days go. I feel like they went a lot faster when I had Jack, and then the past 3 weeks have really flown by. How I want to enjoy every crazy moment! We've definitely had some crazy moments, but overall it has been such a great transition over here. Looking forward to more days like today of just being at home and being mama.

The picture is of Riley and her cousin Ryder in their matching Christmas pj's! I think it's so cute how Ryder appears to be smiling and he's only 4 days old in this picture! He is so precious!!!

2 weeks. . .

We've been home with Riley for 2 weeks now and things are going SO well! She had a clogged tear duct yesterday but we massaged it out and it is looking MUCH better---poor baby! It was matted closed yesterday morning and pretty goopy and gross looking. We had our first outing just me and all 3 kids to McDonald's yesterday! It was a spur of the moment thing and I'm so glad we did b/c I got to run into a bunch of girlfriends and their sweet kids! It was fun seeing all of you!! What a treat! Everything went really smoothly---Jack and Hayley ate and played and when it was time to go, we left with no tantrums or anything! Riley just slept the whole time we were there. So far for me, going from 2 kids to 3 is MUCH easier than 1 to 2. I think a big part of it is that Jack is almost 2 instead of almost 18 months (like Hayley was when he was born). And he is such a laid back kid overall. And Hayley is such a good helper and she and Jack play together really well most of the time. I am trying to enjoy every minute---even the crazy ones! I'm so thankful for these precious gifts and have had many moments of being overwhelmed (in the good sense) that God gave them to me! And every night when Tra gets home and plays with Hayley and Jack, gives them baths, builds with blocks, plays in the pillows, then holds Riley and spends time with me---I'm overwhelmed even more.
Here are some pictures that crack me up:

Santa came to Tra's work last Friday night and all the families were invited up to have pictures taken. Jack isn't a Santa fan. : )


And the one of Hayley feeding her baby is the greatest! Right after the picture was taken she goes, "Okay sweet girl---time to switch sides!" Ha ha ha! Future La Leche leader???

Pictures. . .

Here are a few pictures of Riley! Things are going great! She is such a good little baby. . .
Before (7:00am)

Home with all 3 of my babies!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

For anyone who hasn't heard yet, our sweet Riley Kate was born at 3:51 pm on Tues. Dec. 4. She was 8 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. We just got home this afternoon so I'm hoping tonight after big sister and big brother are down I can download pictures and I'll post a few. We could not be more thrilled about our new baby girl. She is a GOOD baby (so far!) and looks JUST LIKE HAYLEY!!! It is weird how similar they look. Thanks for the prayers, emails and calls! Stay tuned for pictures!

39 weeks. . .

Check out the last line of my baby ticker up there ". . . unless I'm feeling extra snuggly." My kids LOVE being in my tummy!! Even Hayley at 41 weeks had to be "forced" out with pitocin after making hardly ANY progress being in labor on my own for about 12-15 hours and a vaccuum at the end! : ) Today is officially my last day of being pregnant. Tomorrow (unless a minor miracle occurs today) I will wake up pregnant and go to sleep with my baby in my arms! (not that I will most likely sleep much tomorrow night---and I won't hold the baby when I am asleep---I know it's not safe) Tra and I got to go on one last date last night---Cheesecake Factory. YUM. We were going to see a movie but got too late of a start. We're both SO excited about tomorrow and finding out who this is! My mom will be here later today. My hair is cut, my toes are painted, my bags are packed, my lists are made---we are READY!! My Hayley is sick. She's running fever and stuffy. I was afraid this might happen b/c Jack was sick last week w/ similar stuff and I had a feeling she might end up catching it. So say a prayer that whatever it is will be short-lived and she'll be well enough to come see us in the hospital tomorrow or at least on Wednesday! Keeping it all in perspective---thank you God that all she has is a cold and it will GO AWAY!

Stay tuned for pictures!!!

Pregnancy Comments. . .

You expect them from strangers, but you KNOW it's time to either have the baby or stop drinking peppermint mochas when your 3 year old casually walks by, glances at you, keeps on walking and says, "That stomach is HUGE!" Her dad got a BIG kick out of that one. : ) So did I.

I was just glad we were at home and she made the comment to ME and not a random person at McDonalds or something. Love my Hayley!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving last week! Somehow I ended up with ONE picture of Jack patting Toto. Not sure how that ended up happening. We enjoyed the day at Tra's parents' house with EVERYBODY there and then some! Weird to think that next year there will be 7 cousins instead of 4! The kids all did great, despite 2 of them not feeling so hot. And Tra's aunt, uncle and 2 cousins came too---it's always so much fun being with them! We had lots of good food, great conversations, and good laughs! It is such a HUGE blessing to love my in-laws like they are my own family. It's a good thing I do too, b/c we've spent lots of holidays with them and I've missed a lot with my family due to chemotherapy and pregnancies. : ) My family is the greatest to never make me feel badly that I miss out on time with them. What a GIFT to have 2 WONDERFUL families that I completely adore!!! I pray that my kids end up with the same blessing one day.

Speaking of families---I can't BELIEVE we're just days away from adding our 5th family member! After seeing sweet Ansley Walton yesterday I am just giddy inside thinking about the moment I get to hold my little one for the first time! If I don't have him/her before, I'm going to be induced a week from TODAY!! We're all anxious and ready to see who this little one is! The names we've chosen are Riley Kate or Bennett Michael (we'll call him Ben). Riley means "courageous one" and Bennett means "one who is blessed." Looking SO forward to introducing my "blog friends" to our newest little addition soon!

Little Boys. . .

Over the past month, Jack has been initiated into "boyhood" with a shiner from being hit in the face with a golf club by his sister first, then last week falling into a table at school nose first. He is such a tough guy! Here are some pictures after the latest incident. : (

Friday (the day after)

Sunday

Why we need another GIRL!

Sweet Potato Pie. . .

Today was "Peggy Baldwin Eat More Pie" day in honor of my grandma who went to be with Jesus almost 2 years ago. My mom had the idea last year to do this on her birthday every year in memory of her, and November 7 is her birthday. My grandma made the BEST pies! She did it so effortlessly too. My pie-making experience this year was a comical one---I'm sure if she was watching she would have had lots of giggles. Like when I opened my oven and so much smoke came out that our entire kitchen/living area was foggy. : ) Obviously today I made a Sweet Potato Pie (my dad's favorite of hers and one of mine too!) and it turned out pretty tasty---at least my kids thought so! I sure miss my grandma. She was so special and dear to my heart and always will be. I can't wait to see her again and have her squeeze the crud out of me like she always did every time we saw her. This is kind of neat to me too---one of the last things she said to me before she died was, "You make sure to rock those babies!" Well, we ordered a rocking chair for the living room for the new baby and didn't expect it to come in until after he/she was born, but guess when it was delivered?? TODAY!! My grandma's birthday. It didn't really hit me until later how sweet it was that of ALL the days it could have been delivered to us, it just happened to be today. So I rocked my biggest baby in it tonight and read some books and thought about my grandma. It was a good day!

Aunt Shelma

I LOVE being an aunt!! My nephew Scout stays with us on Wednesday mornings and it is so much fun watching him play with his cousins and seeing them all enjoy other so much. And the other night at the Fall Festival he reached his arms out for me to hold him and it totally melted my heart. I was the first to have kids in both families, so I was mommy before I was Aunt Shelma. It is so much fun to be an aunt and not play the role of "disciplinarian" but to just love on and play w/ the babies (who aren't really babies anymore) and leave it to their parents to do the "hard work." I love my niece and nephew SO much and can't wait to see Ryder in a few more weeks and start loving on him too, and then baby Booth in April!

Who says having 3 kids is hard??? Just stick em' all in the shower! Hours of fun!!! Wagon rides are our FAVORITES!!! Radio Flyer needs to make some bigger wagons in a few more months! This 2 seater isn't going to cut it when we have cousin playdates! Are they REALLY big enough to sit at a big boy table and eat like big boys??? Where does the time go??