Happy New Year aka Joey's Birthday

In our house the turn of the new year is always a special occasion because we celebrate the birthday of our 2nd child. Jojo, Joseph & Joeeeeeeeeey (his new reference to himself). He is even more stubborn, more playful & feistier than ever. It's hard to believe that so much personality can be packed into such a small package but if you have ever spent even just a few minutes with our boy then you know he's hard to forget. Just the faces I captured in a matter of 30 seconds shows how full of life he is. He is still all about daddy. Can't get enough of his trucks. Inside the house or outside. Adores chocolate. Loves playfully hitting. Can't say the word NO enough. And overall is just such a joy when he's not being naughty that is. We love you Joe & can't wait to see what changes your 4th year will bring.

4 Month Baby

Holly actually turned 4 months old almost 2 weeks ago & I didn't want the holidays to get too far away before I gave a quick update on our baby girl. She is now 12 pounds 14 ounces (35%) & 24 1/4 inches tall (50%). She started daycare this month & took about a week to get used to her bottles but is now drinking them like a champ. She celebrated her 1st Thanksgiving, her 1st holiday party & rolled over from her back to her belly for the 1st time. She laughs out loud when her neck is tickled, sleeps 10-11 hours with one feeding & she is always trying to sit up. Holly is such a calm baby & has adjusted to her new daily routine without a hitch. I had so much fun taking her photo this month. What better way to celebrate the holidays than with a Christmas baby.

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours! Now that all our Christmas cards have been sent out I wanted to share some of the photos on the blog. We were so happy with our family photo because it's never easy to get the boys to look at the camera & now we have a baby to worry about as well.

We decided to let the boys be themselves wearing superhero shirts even though we wanted to let Holly stand out as our only little girl.

She already has a hold of daddy's heartstrings & this is my favorite photo with her.

Christmas is a whirlwind of crazy chaos in our house but we love it. I will be back to share more photos later. We hope you had a wonderful day spent with family & friends.

The Stockings Were Hung

by the chimney with care. The entire family was decked out in new Paul Frank jammies. The cookie was ready for Santa's visit. And the tree was surrounded by gifts just waiting for the pitter patter of little feet in the early hours of the morning. I hope your family is as blessed as ours this Christmas Eve.

10 on Tuesday

1. So last week was a big week for Holly Moon. She started daycare. She spends her day under the watchful eye with the same 3 ladies that took care of Johnnie, Joey & Jimmy. She was happy watching all the other babies & smiled most of the day as long as there was not a bottle in sight. The sight of those caused many a tear. But by the 2nd day I think she realized that she had to drink the bottles to get food so she happily drank all of them. She is adjusting well & although I miss spending my entire day with her I'm happy that I trust & care deeply for her caregivers.

2. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Lots of yummy food, football, family & friends. No pictures of us from that day because we take the opportunity to take our Christmas card photos each year on Thanksgiving since we are dressed somewhat nice & have lots of family around to motivate the kids to look at the camera.

3. My sisters were here of course. 4. Us girls made sure to pull our dad away from the football game to get a photo with him.5. Kayci's boyfriend Christian spent part of his day here. Eating the 1st of 3 Thanksgiving dinners. 6. Kim & Joe ate the 1st of 2 dinners with us. 7. And Jen spends every year with us.8. The boys weren't interested in turkey dinner so they feasted on cereal in the evening & paused for a few seconds to smile at my camera. 9. And Holly Moon is now 15 weeks old. Such a happy baby with dark big eyes with long lashes, chubby cheeks & pouty pink lips. 10. After taking pictures of each of the kids for the Christmas card I decided to try to get some more photos of Joey . I don't like to use bribery but I'm not above offering candy to get a good photo. As soon as Jimmy heard the word candy he came running outside yelling I'll smile. I already a great photo of him for the card but I absolutely adore this picture of him. He looks so happy but he also looks like such a big boy.

13 Weeks & Counting

Holly Moon is 3 months old now. Still in the 50% (23") for height & 40% (12 lbs) for weight. She has changed so much this month. She stays awake a lot more during the day. She is sleeping 10 hours at night with one feeding. She still can't stand tummy time so we are trying other ways to build up her neck & tummy muscles like sitting in her high chair during dinner & watching us from her bumbo. She still has weekly playdates with her 6 week older bestie, Whitney. She loves napping with the sunlight on her on the living room floor. She absolutely adores sitting in her carseat as long as it's not in the car. And she loves me. Her mama. Probably because I'm her only food source & I'm constantly doing funny dances for her. She is such a doll & her brothers are finally starting to entertain & be entertained by their baby sister. Her life will drastically change in a few weeks when she starts spending her days at daycare. I will miss her dearly but I know she will be okay with the same caregivers that took care of her brothers. We love you baby girl. Happy 3 Months!

My love.

I write this blog mostly to keep a record of what our lives are like with all of our children as they grow up. I look forward to being able to read about memories of our day to days along with photos to remind myself of the little things that will probably fade with time. But tonight I want to remember who makes my happiness so possible. My best friend. My husband. My love. We spend our days waking, feeding, bathing, disciplining, laughing, reading, doing homework & playing with children. We also manage to fit in full time jobs, the occasional work out & the rare date night. A night to spend completely alone (well Holly tags along right now). Trying to catch up on how our lives are going. We talk about where we want to live, what things we want in our future & quite honestly we just enjoy talking uninterrupted. There is something so nice about being able to have an ENTIRE meal including dessert & coffee without once having to take care of anyone else. We look at it as our time to just be us. Our conversations always make their way back to the children but during these dinners we only remember the best moments. The ones that make us smile & laugh. I love my life. I love my kids. But most of all I love my Rick & our moments together.

Trick or Treat

So with the pumpkin carved (design by a very proud Johnnie) & sitting out front we were ready for the big night to arrive. And arrive it did. Halloween came & went quickly this year. We decided to let the boys pick out their own costumes. And then we in turn tried to choose costumes that would go with. Johnnie decided that he wanted to be a parrot. But not just any parrot. A Pirate's parrot. So we found a Pirate costume for daddy because what is a parrot without a shoulder to perch on. And daddy made a fantastic pirate. He was quite the swash buckler. Our friendly dog wanted a picture with the pirate too & I think he thought the sword was a bone. Knowing that Holly would probably sleep in the stroller the entire night I wanted to get her a costume that would be really comfy but still cute. So a ladybug seemed perfect. But a baby bug needs a mama bug to protect her so that's how my costume was chosen. A few more pictures & we were ready to head out. Our 4 cuties & a family photo. At first the boys would walk up to the door together. They would all say Trick or Treat in unison quickly followed by Joey telling every neighbor that he is Scooby Doo (in case they couldn't tell.) But it soon became obvious that Jimmy as Elmo wanted to go at a slower pace. So Daddy stayed with the big boys, I stayed with Elmo & thankfully Auntie Kim enjoyed pushing Holly (who was alseep) in the stroller. This year we made it 2 block & 45 minutes. Not bad!

And of course we had to check out the loot before we could let the boys (& ourselves) eat any. It really was a Happy Halloween.

The Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year again. The time when we all pile into the car & drive the whole 3 miles to our local pumpkin patch. Not a lot has changed at George's Pumpkin Patch. Nothing fancy. No hay rides. Only a few animals wandering around & rows of pumpkins. But the boys are still happy just being pulled around in the wagon. And of course they still love picking out their pumpkins to take home. Johnnie always goes for the big ones but the rule is that we will buy the one he can carry himself. And he did. A perfect round one that we will carve for Halloween night.Jimmy spent a lot of time with grandpa trying to pick his perfect one. At one point he tried to convince us to get two but in the end he settled on one. And once again Joey was connected to daddy who helped him find his pumpkin. With the pumpkins picked out this left us free to get some photos. A little grandpa love& photos of our baby girl's 1st visit to the pumpkin patch with her auntie Kim, her biggest brother & her mama. And before we went home we took the chance to get a family photo. The first of many I hope since for now it's like pulling teeth to get all the kids together but that's okay since it gives me such joy to see the whole family in one photo.