Easter

We are so blessed to have the majority of our family living within a few miles of us. That being said, it makes for very busy holiday seasons. The girls participated in 3 Easter egg hunts! We now have more candy in our house then all the other holidays combined! We hosted brunch at our house on Saturday and spent the afternoon at the McCuistions after church! I have included some of the photos but somehow misplaced those from the church hunt and our time celebrating at our house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eagle Crest

We try to make it down to visit our dear friends at least twice a year, once in the winter and again for a summer time visit! Lucky for us, we can usually find an affordable price at Eagle Crest (thanks MOM). It was a bit more challenging coordinating winter weather events around a 5 month old, but we made it work! Realizing that the uninterrupted conversations, competitive game playing, and relaxing mornings with coffee and cinnamon rolls are pretty much non existent when you each have three kids!

Corinne and Olivia taking a little break in the sunshine!

The sledding hill provided to be very fast, like scary fast. Luckily I only had to ride it once and then I held this handsome little man down at the bottom for the rest of the time!

The first time ice skating, even for JJ! Talk about a learning curve!



He doesn't look so happy!

The older girls ready for some hot chocolate!

THE MITTEN

Ellinor was especially excited about her birthday this year. We decided to use one of her favorite book as the theme. She would have me read this book every.single.night. What I love most about this is the character traits that are common in the animals hiding in the mitten are the same ones she will portray throughout any given day! What a blessing she is.  Due to the fact that we celebrated during a weekday this year, unfortunately there were several people who couldn't join us! We had a few games (which turned out to be flops), had some good food, enjoyed some cake and then crashed at nap time!

What could be better then breakfast in your undies and a birthday candle in your oatmeal?

The neighbors had both just cut down trees, so we were able to use some of their remnants for the party!

It takes so much more energy to blow out three candles!

 

February

Such a short month to accomplish so many fun things....

SHARING A LITTLE LOVE

AND THIS LITTLE PIGGY CRIED WAH, WAH, WAAAAH...

Poor little Ellinor was enjoying some very structured play with a bean bag. She crawled out and said to me in a very calm but serious voice "mommy, my toe's not really working right!"

ENJOYING A FAMILY PLAY DAY IN THE SNOW
(which ended with 3 crying kids!)

HENRY HANGING OUT ON OUR SNOW DAY...SURROUNDED BY BLANKETS! WHO KNEW THAT CAR SEATS MAKE THE BEST SLEDS!

 

RELAXING IN THE BACK OF THE TRUCK AS WE PREPARED TO TAKE THE GIRLS SKIING!

WE SPLURGED ON GENTLY USED SKIS FOR THE GIRLS TO SHARE THIS YEAR. ALTHOUGH WE ONLY MADE IT UP TO THE SLOPES ONE TIME THE GIRLS REALLY HAD A BLAST. HENRY AND I HUNG OUT IN THE LODGE AS JJ ALTERNATED TAKING THE GIRLS FOR RUNS. THEY DID THE BUNNY HILL ONCE THEN DADDY HAD ENOUGH CONFIDENCE TO TAKE THEM DOWN AN EASY ADULT RUN! JJ REALLY ENJOYED TEACHING THEM AND THEY LOVED THE CHAIR LIFT!

those cheeks

Judging by the size of his cheeks, and just about every rolly polly part of his body, you would assume this little man like to eat. And you are right, he does. He love his breastmilk,  but cereal; not so much. Here are a few pictures from those first few bites...

 

look at that concern..."really mom, another bite? "

"this doesn't really compare. How long do I have to keep this in my mouth before I spit it out?"

                                                                giving mixed signals

"this is horrible"

"now can I be done?"

 

 

So we will try again, and again, and again. One day He will surely take to it!

here goes...

Here goes the mass update. I apologize in advance because the pictures bounce back and forth all over the place and the picture quality is lacking but the shots are meaningful.

 

 

The girls were butterfly fairies for Halloween! we played it very low-key this year and it was very enjoyable!

This was a huge highlight for me! We made te drive to Nampa to visit NNU and catch up with friends from the good old days. So fun to see how everyone has changed and to meet all the little people that are now on loan to us!

We hit the pumpkin patch the first weekend in October this year. I definitely thought it was a bit early. On the plus side we didn't have any crowds, the weather was gorgeous and there were plenty of mall pumpkins to choose from!

 

Christmas morning. The girls both got princess dresses and harmonicas from Santa.

And Santa brought this GIANT bear. Not sure what had come over me, ahem, him. but seriously the girls love it. It has turned out to be a helpful tool when my hands or other parts are busy with HENRY and they need extra snuggles!

One of favorite holiday traditions, hunting for the perfect tree, was a bit lonely this year. We went up by ourselves and had our tree chosen, cut and loaded withing 30 minutes of parking. The girls enjoyed playing in what little snow there was and I spent most of the time in the truck nursing Henry (hence the reason for the lack of time spent on choosing a tree!)

This is from the first few weeks that Henry was home with us! Ellinor was wondering when she would get a chance to use my "nursur".

Terrible picture I know, but this girl seriously loves having earmuffs, headphones or earplugs. She just gets all goofy and has to have a set on whenever daddy is wearing his.

 

Again, terrible picture, but happy memory. This is again from the early days of Henry being home. The girls made all sorts of things with  foil and yes they have suckers and it is only 10am! Again Ellie is in her undies, we have a very loose dress code!

The girls are finally letting me braid their hair. I have always dreamed of doing fancy and creative things with their hair. They mostly love when they take them out at the end of the day and they get crazy hair!

I am very strict about not letting them try the batter if there are raw eggs in the mix. This time though I made a chocolate mousse pudding dip. I wish I had a picture of their eyes when the heard me finally answer that yes, they could lick the beaters! We have been baking one day a week together. I know it is so beneficial for them and it helps to have all the mess on the same day. They have also started helping with dinner more. Again, a process of letting go...

Both the girls are great with Henry, but Olivia has just the most special touch with him. She is a natural little mommy and I would be shocked if she didn't grow up to have a large family of her own...many. many, many years from now. She is often asking in the morning to have some special cuddle time alone with Henry. He lays next to her in bed and she talks to him, reads him stories and shares her blanket.

Another new tradition we have started is a PJ day. One day a week we stay in our pj's all day long and the car never leaves the driveway and no visitors are allowed! Most days the girls are dressed before heading downstairs for breakfast so this is a special treat! They really seem to play well together and I love how creative they can be when playing. It is a great way to detox from our busy weeks and weekends.

 

 

The church has orchestrated some park days over the summer. It usually ends up being the same two or three families and it is sure nice to have a specific destination to let our kids run and shout. I want so badly for my kids to have solid, life long friendships with kids from families we respect, parents who discipline similarly, and have the same morals and values we do

 

Our carrots did well this year. I am always amazed at how well our little garden grows despite our lack of consistent attention. The girls continue to be interested in digging in the dirt and rounding up the harvest.

 The girls were both tall enough to ride a few rides at the fair this year. Olivia is a bit more timid so having her sister along  for the ride helps her feel more comfortable.  So cute to see them on the rides together and nice to give and daddy and myself a break!

Those first few weeks when the little man would fall asleep milk drunk on your chest and curl his little gumby body up on your chest. I tried hard to enjoy all of those moments and let my to-do list go before this fleeting time passed me by.

 

This picture tugs on my heart strings. it is one of those moments I will never forget. Here he is making the call to his dad that we just gave birth to a son!  Hidden within this picture, in that vulnerable pose he is giving, one which is not often seen, a small tear welling in his eye, his heart is humble, giving praise to God for his goodness which we never deserve!

 

catching up

I have a good excuse right? To be honest I feel the transition to three littles has been relatively smooth, I just seem to have less time and energy on my hands at the end of the day! So, for now I will do a mass update and hopefully I will schedule a regular time to put updates on the computer!