This afternoon was finally our performance. To clarify, it was the last Spring concert choir that the school will have, unless something amazing happens and they reopen somewhere down the line. But as it stands, Bethany will close its doors after commencement tomorrow. It was the last concert, and I was thrilled to be part of it.

Of course, as it would happen, it snowed like you wouldn’t believe today. Thankfully, when Jerilee came to pick me up for warm ups, the weather had really just begun, and we made it on time no problem. We ran right into the gym and saved my family a row of seats before hitting the stage for a quick run through of a few songs.

While I was at practice, Brady was getting the kids ready to come. I’ve taught him well, obviously, because he took pictures 🙂

Between practice and performance was about a half hour, where I ran into a couple of beautiful people who came to watch. These people included Brady and the kids, my parents and grandma, Willa and her friend from church, Jerilee’s parents, and lots of other alumni that I didn’t know was coming. So many nice surprises!

I won’t minimize it. Concert choir was a lovely time of praise and worship and reminiscing. I loved it, and from what I heard, the crowd really enjoyed it as well. Extra points if you can find me!!

When all was said and done, we inched our way out to the main doors to meet Brady with the van. The kids walked super slowly and Laela specifically attracted an unbelievable amount of attention. Ok, it wasn’t unbelievable. It made perfect sense, she was SO gorgeous in her huge skirt and pink leather jacket 🙂 They were all so adorable today.

The kids were asleep within minutes of leaving the school.

Now, we’re home, and Brady and I specifically are completely wiped. I could barely understand anything the kids were saying, and I even started to make up words. Doesn’t “yumby” sounds yummier than “yummy” anyway? I mean yumbier… Now I’m confused. I got some good cuddles in with Rowan while Dekker and Laela ate their supper at the table.

While I love my kids, I am relieved that they are finally down so that I can get some supper and hit the sack!

I’ll send you off with a photo shoot, feature myself and the lovely Jerilee. I picked many of the super unflattering ones, just for fun. It is a good thing that Instagram didn’t exist when we were in college 😉

Yup, we’re cool. We know.

Sleep well, all.

This has been a super busy week for me. I know many of you lead considerably busier lives than me. I am not always out and about at all, but I don’t thrive in busyness like some people. If I have one outing, task, or what have you in a day, I’m good. I’ve been out each evening this week, twice getting home after 10:00pm. I know its not late for everyone, but around here, its kind of our cutoff time for a soak. 10:00pm is too late to run a bath, so it constitutes as “late” in our house currently.

Our morning was pretty rocky, but I am feeling relieved now. All three of the kids are asleep, which I never ever thought I could make happen. I’m in bed with the fan blowing, watching some YouTube, and doing not a whole lot else. I did all of our laundry yesterday, and did the regular stuff around the house today. No real chores. As it turns out, nothing is on our calendar for today!!! I’m so happy to have one free day this week.

Of course, moments ago, Brady texted to tell me he may need stitches, so thats a win and will throw a bit of a wrench into our lazy evening at home, but likely it’ll just start later. I guess stitches once every 4.5-5 years is ok, if he even needs them.

Tomorrow will be busy. Our choir is performing at 2:30pm. It it the only show, and it is the very last concert choir there will be in this setting, as the school is closing 🙁 It will be an unbelievably emotional time for many, and the music and all that surrounds it will be pretty epic. Seriously, if any of you are local and want to come, please do! I can give anyone interested more details. I’m so looking forward to being a part of the final concert. Hopefully some of you can be a part of it too 🙂

Our kids are great sleepers! Rowan currently gets up twice-ish per night, but he always goes back to sleep on his own, and never with much fuss at all. I honestly don’t know if we’ve ever rocked him to sleep. He just sleeps. Awesome sauce.

But I’ve started to notice something about his beds. He sleeps in his cradle in our room for night, which has a thin little foamy mattress inside. For his naps, we put him in the crib in the older kids room, so we can watch him on the monitor. That crib has a fairly firm mattress. Both beds just have a regular sheet on them, no extras really at all.

In the morning, sometimes Rowan wakes up a bit too early for me. I wait until he’s past the lulling in and out stage, and I know he’s good and awake. Now, we do not co-sleep, but those mornings, I bring him to the bed and lay him on Bradys side. Not under blankets, not even in my arms. He basically lays on the quilt. I bring him there so I can give him a soother and try to convince him he needs to rest a bit more. We never use the soother to put him to bed at night, but occasionally use one to hold him off for a bit, or encourage him back to sleep during naps and such. However, he falls asleep on his own. And sleeps for a few more HOURS.

This morning, we had the same set up, and after a while, he started to move a little. So I secured his soother in his mouth, and lay my chunk of the quilt over top of him. I KNOW! It sounds unsafe, but it wasn’t. His soother is one of those cute ones with the little stuffed animal hanging off of it, so I wrapped the quilt overtop of his chest and the stuffed lambie. His eyes immediately rolled back and he was out. FOR ANOTHER HOUR!

So what this boils down to is  the fact that Rowan is sooo comfy in a softer bed. I’m not suggesting I surround him in quilts in his little cradle or anything, but is there any harm in laying some squishier blankets underneath him? Or something like that?! Laying him in his crib feels like I’m laying him on a hard floor 🙁 He’s not at a stage yet where I’m worried about him grabbing things and not being able to control where they go, but he’s not far off from that really either.

Any suggestions on how I can make my baby’s bed more comfy without making it unsafe?

Guys, I finally got my legs waxed again! I haven’t gone since Rowan was born, which has been eight whole weeks! I know, it seems like he’s been around for ages already, but its actual just shy of eight weeks, and I wasn’t even going to consider going in until it had been six weeks, so I’m not that gross, ok??

It was really nice, though, to go in and see my waxer and friend, Jenn. I love the girl talk and the relaxing environment. Granted, hair is being pulled out of my body at warp speed over and over again, but it feels luxurious and pampering to me. I now have fresh legs, arms, and brows, and I feel ready for spring. While I was doing that, Brady and the kids were doing this…

Suuuper cute!

After my wax, we hit Walmart for a dress shirt and a pair of shorts for Dekker, a couple of groceries, and the most exciting for us – a card reader for our camera cards!! The wifi capability is a great feature, but when your wifi blows like ours does, its pretty meaningless. Instead of fighting with the camera every single day to try to load the pictures onto the laptop, we now have a new option, and it is SO fast! Only $12 and I loaded the whole camera card onto the laptop (about 200 pics at this point) in moments. We also snagged a little tripod, because I love accessories and trinkets.

We snagged some food and made it home just in time to put the kids down. They hate that, but they actually went down pretty well. Once they were in bed, we had about 15 minutes before we had a meeting about our life insurance. Thankfully, our girl is wonderful and comes to our house. We did that in less than an hour, and now we’re going about our routine of having a soak and a snack. With last nights choir practice going so late, I didn’t get a bath, and it will be an even later practice tomorrow, so tonights bath better be borderline perfect.

Sleep well, all!

Brady was so sweet this morning and fed Rowan at 5:15am so I could keep sleeping. Ro is particularly annoying to feed right now, as he’s cutting his amounts down pretty significantly, and we’re having to work for every ounce. Thanks to Brady, I was able to sleep until 8:30ish and feel more refreshed. For whatever reason, though, I was shot by noon. I ate lunch with the kids but wasn’t revived at all. I was droopy by 1:00, and decided to try a new nap time.

The kids usually go down at 1:30. They tend to take quite a while to fall asleep at night as well, so I figured an earlier nap time couldn’t hurt. We’d try it, anyway. I went about my normal system where I warn the kids a bit in advance, and then put them down a half hour early, unbeknownst to them. Laela was ready, and slept. Dekker started to talk right away, so I shushed him through the monitor and surprisingly, he fell asleep too!

Rowan had pretty much slept all day up until that point, so he was tucked in his bed, and I went to cuddle up in mine and relax a bit. But it was shortly after 2:00 that Dekker woke up and started moving around. Normally, I talk to him through the monitor and try to keep him down for a bit longer so that Laela can sleep, but the earlier nap time was an effort for an easier nighttime, and wakefulness could likely only help with that. So I whispered into the monitor “Dekker, if you can walk really quietly, you can come cuddle with Rowan and I in my bed.” He immediately rolled out of bed and walked quietly across the room and out his door. He appeared at my door, climbed up onto the bed, and gave me a big hug and kiss. He greeted Rowan the same before tucking himself under the covers and snuggling in for a bit of YouTube. It was sooo sweet to cuddle with my boys.

Once Brady texted to say he was on his way home, I knew I had a short period of time before I had to get on the road for choir practice. The performance is this weekend so there are extra long practices this week. I asked Dekker if he would mind if I did my makeup and he said he’d bring toys. He went downstairs to retrieve the trucks he had in mind, and I had just begun my foundation when he came back into the room. Without a moments pause, he said “Your makeup looks beautiful, mommy.”

Turns out I can’t trust his judgement. Of course, at the end, he told me “You fixed it!” Yes, yes I did. Promise.

When Brady made it home, Rowan had finally woken up a bit and I was feeding him. Dekker was playing toys around me, and Laela was going on HOUR FOUR of her nap! What a crazy day for schedules, or lack there of. Brady came bearing a large parcel from the post office for us. A VERY intriguing parcel!

Dekker was so excited to open it and see what was inside. It was a crazy beautiful care package put together for us from my aunt and uncle, and their two kids, to celebrate Rowan, and also Dekker and Laela. My Aunty Sandy never disappoints. She gifts us such beautiful, thoughtful things for our kids, and they’re always unexpected and SO appreciated! This particular gift contained some gorgeously soft clothes for Rowan, including these hilarious onesies that I just can’t get enough of.

The toy that was very specific for Dekker was one of those vintage looking tin spinning tops with the handle-ish thing that you push down to make it spin. Am I making sense? I couldn’t get a picture of it because he was off with it too fast, but he LOVES it!

I think I love Laela’s present the best, to be honest. As I don’t want to put her in dance already…

It is gorgeous and full and soft and unbelievable and I’d wear it if it were my size! As you can see, there is even a little matching headband. This is PERFECT for Laela.

On top of all of this was a card, a couple more toys, some stickers, and a handmade blanket for Roro. I was completely blown away by such a gift. Its all still in the box (except Dekker’s top and Laelas skirt is hanging) because I want to look through it all again tomorrow. But tonight I was out practicing for Saturday, and got home later than usual. You guys should really all try to make an appearance. Its going to be beautiful and emotional and memorable.

What a FABULOUS day!

If I can be totally honest, today was a solid mix of good and bad. I love it when a day feels like its all good, and I really dislike when the whole day goes awry. So I guess today was a healthy, happy medium.

Rowan slept awesome but his last stretch of sleep, usually from 5-8:00am-ish, was really choppy. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep in there really. Rowan did, but he slept so lightly that I lived in fear of rolling over. Not ideal. He also ate very little. Ok, well, I’m pretty sure he’s eating more than lots of babies his age, but he has been growing like a weed over the last week or two, and he ate considerably less overnight and in the morning. So the feedings were frustrating as well, adjusting to yet another new feeding schedule he’s working us into.

When it came time for the other kids to get up, they were really excited to get dressed and eat, with the promise of grandmas house soon to come. They all looked adorable and were behaving well. The drive was smooth and when grandma ran out into the driveway to meet us, the fun began.

We had a nice hour and a half before my mom had to head off for a massage appointment. I fed the kids lunch, and it was right around then that they started to go haywire on me. Now, I’m aware that I have a good sized brood of young children, so haywire is nothing new to me. I can rock that. But there was SO much screaming, and fighting, and tears, and I was finally at the end of my rope. So it was time for their naps. Maybe twenty minutes earlier than usual, so not a big deal, but a very necessary one.

Rowan was so ready, and just lay in his bundle quietly until he fell asleep. Laela was tucked away in a playpen in my moms room, and Dekker in his room downstairs. (I know that sounds cruel! But when we spend the night, we sleep down there, and Dekker actually asks to nap down there. His choice!) After tucking everyone in, I hear Dekker talking, so I scolded him through the vent and he was quiet after that. I went to Laela and lay her back down only once before she stayed quiet too.

Two. Hours. It was sooo nice! My mom came home, and we had some lunch and a lovely visit before it was time to get the kids. Well, the big kids anyway. Rowan had lulled and was now sleeping in my arms. My mom went to get Dekker from downstairs and I went for Laela.

And my goodness, had she ever pooped. It was on my moms bed, on the sheet in the playpen, and all over my hands. Thankfully, my mom came to help me out. Poor Laela was stripped bare and wiped down with cold baby wipes. Lucky for us, I think she had just pooped, so there was no scrubbing involved, and she didn’t wreak from sitting in it for too long. She was unimpressed, but compliant. Because her clothes weren’t stinky, we were able to get her back into her stuff and go about the evening as normal. But MAN! That was a ton of poop.

When my dad and Brady arrived, we all had a delicious supper of chicken in a golden mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, and cooked carrots. I ate two helpings. Delish. Then we all played a bit more and cleaned up a bit before leaving. Success!

The drive home was rough. I won’t go into it, but I’m so thrilled that they’re in bed. So much good and so much bad. I want to focus on the good, I really do! But upon arriving home, I see tire tracks THROUGH my yard. No joke, someone actually drove through my yard. People haven’t used our yard as a place to back into and turn around before, and it left enormous ruts in our grass. Thankfully, its not so soft anymore because I would have been more angry than I am now if there were huge rows of my yard ripped up. Its just already hard to be happy here when we’d so much rather be somewhere else, but this really doesn’t help me feel thankful for my home.

All of that considered, I’m happy to be in my bed, writing this out, and soon I’ll be happy to have a soak, a snack, and watch That 70s Show with my husband, while our three children (hopefully) sleep soundly. My life is a good life.

Bradys parents headed home this evening. After a lovely morning filled with TONS of strawberries and bananas and breakfast at Cora’s restaurant, and an afternoon filled with naps and visiting, they are headed out on the road to get a few hours of their trip under their belts. We’re winding down, the two big kids are tucked in and Rowan is sipping away at his last bottle for the evening. I figured I’d round out the weekend with some photos with the kids and their grandparents 🙂 (Elvira, feel free to steal as many as you’d like!)     

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 Its been a lovely weekend. Monday looms…

We had a really nice day today, based around yummy food and relaxed play. We were hoping to surface at some point and maybe go to the zoo, or at least for a walk, but it was below ten degrees and very very windy. So we rather took our time during our meals and filled the rest of our time with lots of stories, and singing. Oh, and Dekker did laps. Everyone had a nice afternoon nap and we were all fresh for supper. We had chicken breasts and my delicious cheesy potatoes, which I’m going to be bold and say were completely delicious. I could eat the whole pan of them, no question. After dishes, the kids played HARD and ended up going to bed with sweat-soaked hair. That should smell yummy by morning, right?

So yes, it was a fairly uneventful day, but it was cozy and relaxed and warm inside. Since Rowan missed being on the blog yesterday, here he is today!

He’s so cute it hurts.

Tomorrow holds a morning in the city!!

So after being completely intimidated for several days, Brady and I cracked into our new camera this morning. We went through a ton of the settings and got it all arranged how we wanted. We figured out how to connect to wifi, and played with a couple of different effects. The kids loved being able to see themselves in the big flip screen, and that paired with the 20.2 megapixels, we got some pretty awesome pictures. We couldn’t be happier with this thing!!!

Obviously Rowan slept through this particular photo shoot, but we got some more of him later into the evening. However, our wifi blows at the moment and loading pictures is taking forever, so I’m going to be done for the moment. But there will surely be home! Bradys parents are out for the weekend so there will be many opportunities to take pictures 🙂 Much, MUCH higher quality pictures than before!

Brady finished work early today, thanks to working himself to the bone basically, so instead of meeting him in the city, he came home, got dressed, and we all went together. We finally dropped off Jerilee’s gift that we “paid” her with for watching the babes while we were off having Rowan. After that, we whipped through Walmart, in and out in a half hour, and then made it to Dr. Mikes a few minutes early. We didn’t expect everything to have started off quite so smoothly, but it did!

Brady and I both needed treatments, and while we were really happy to be there, Dekker was pretty clear on the drive over that he did not want to go to Dr. Mikes. However, upon arrival, a nice woman in the waiting room passed him a book about tractors and he was immediately happier. Dr. Mike asked him some questions and even teased him and tickled his ears, and Dekker just giggled and squirmed and totally let it happen! Big wins all around. He asked where we were headed for the evening, and we made a joke about our exciting lives and our anticipated Superstore and Costco shops. He looked at us like we were crazy and laughed, saying we had sure picked two big things to do in one day with all three kids. I laughed back at him and said we had already hit Walmart, so we were already a third of the way done. He just shook his head and smiled. Its true, we might be crazy. But living so far from the city, we sort of need to get lots done in one day, rather than being able to duck in for a thing or two each and every day. It makes sense to us anyway.

Once Brady and I were all tuned up, we went for supper. Our kids are SO cute today! They ate amazingly well, as in TONS, and very happily. Dekker was eager to get to the next place, anyway. He LOVES the free cookies as Superstore.

It was worth the wait. Dekker was such a good helper, remembering what we needed to get from each section. My favorite part was buying the kids hats from the clothing section. I’ve never been a “hat in summer” kind of person, and I didn’t think I’d make my kids wear them much, but since the older two have done blond and pale like me (so far, anyway) its necessary. I slipped one on Dekker’s head and there it sat for probably two hours until he was home and in bed. He loves that thing. And his cookie, of course.

We did Costco last, and by that time, it was quite late, and Costco was about to close, so I ran in to grab the few things we needed and Brady stayed in the van with the kids. I did a very quick run through and was actually out the door before the entrance had closed, so I felt less guilty about coming so late. Then a quick stop for coffee for Brady and I, and we were off.

Deks and Laela giggled at each other the whole way home. Its so funny, because when they get in their moods, they can just stare at each other, and it sends them into uncontrollable laughter. Over nothing at all! Except the other ones face, I suppose. It was so nice to have the van filled with happy sounds rather than overtired ones. These kids were just SO cute today!

Twas a good day. Time for a donut and a bath. I love our evening routine around here.