Enjoying the backyard

I don't think I've ever been as ready for warm weather as I was this year. I still haven't really wanted to take all 3 kids too many places by myself yet, so hanging out in the backyard is GREAT! It's kind of like leaving without actually having to leave :) I still want to get a sandbox set up in the backyard, but for now they seem perfectly content playing in the dirt :) Both of them have spent HOURS filling up the wheel-barrow and transferring dirt and leaves and rocks to other parts of the yard.

It has been pretty windy here unfortunately and the other night the wind blew the umbrella out of our table which caused the glass tabletop to shatter :( But the kids still figured out how to improvise and just use the edge for their drinks :)

And you know Bradley, with his dressing himself lately you never know what he's going to come up with. It's shorts with snow boots a lot lately :) And he just loves picking out sunglasses from Daddy's collection :)

Are you a puppy?

Is this wrong that I think this is funny? :) She does so many things (Bradley too) that I just think is hilarious, but I know that it's wrong, but it's hard not to laugh...

Aquarium

Tammy asked us to go with her and Craig to the Downtown Aquarium and I jumped at the idea because I can tell my poor kids are bored to death with me! I feel so bad, I don't leave the house a lot lately because it would be venturing out with 3 kids all by myself which doesn't sound all that fun to me just yet :) I know the warm weather is going to help me want to get out of the house, so I'm excited for that. A few weeks ago I was actually contemplating taking them all to the grocery store during the day... by myself. I was proud of myself for even considering it and I told my Mom and she told me it was so cold outside and I should wait for a warmer day to take them all out, so I quickly changed my mind and decided to stay home. I'm still adjusting to not a lot of sleep and it seems like it would take SO much energy to get everyone ready, time it right, and take them all somewhere. So unfortunately, my kids are going a little stir crazy! So the Aquarium was perfect timing. Our good friends, the Larsen's, met us there as well which was so nice because we hadn't seen them in a while. They have a daughter who is about 7 months older than Gracie and they were SO cute together, Gracie has asked about her every day since we went :) I hadn't been there for probably about 11 years, so it was really nice to go. Sammie did SUCH a good job, she slept the WHOLE time and ate in the car right before and after. We tried SO hard to get all the kids to look at us and smile but it just wasn't happening, they were too distracted!

AFV

Kevin has been addicted to watching America's Funniest Videos on netflix lately, and every time someone wins we always look at each other and think how our kids do more funny things than that every day. I wish I could have a video camera on them ALL the time! They crack me up! So here is my first submission to AFV. They came downstairs doing this and after we stopped laughing we said "Ugh! Why didn't we get that on camera!" So we told them to go back upstairs and do it again :) Gracie just learned how to actually leave the ground when jumping with 2 feet so now she does it all the time, even when dancing like this :) But here she was just learning and still falling down all the time :)

First Month

Sammie's already a month old! She is a sweet, sweet baby. She is starting to make more talking sounds instead of just cries. She's a really good sleeper, so much so that I still feel like sometimes I need to wake her up to get her to eat, during the day and at night. She's always been a good eater though, at her 2 week appt she was supposed to be back to her birth weight which was 6 lb 15 oz and she was 7 lb 10 oz, so well over that. My doctor was very impressed with how big she was and how well she was doing. She wakes up about 3 times a night. Once she goes down she's usually down for a good 4-5 hours, then the later part of the night is when she wakes up more. She definitely likes to be held and doesn't stay content laying by herself for very long.
Which brings me to the pacifier :) When I had Bradley I had heard that you should hold off on giving a pacifier for the first month so that it doesn't interfere with breastfeeding in any way. I think I tried to give him one around 6 weeks and he just was not interested. With Gracie we felt like she NEEDED it early on, and ended up offering it around 3 weeks and I KNOW it was a life saver in many many occasions. She still has it strictly at night but we've been talking about taking it away in the next several months so right now my mindset is against pacifiers because I'm dreading having to take it away from Gracie. SO it's messing with my decisions on giving one to Sammie. She seems a lot like Gracie was when she was little, sometimes hard to console and sometimes very difficult to understand why she's upset. I have given her a pacifier a couple times now and she LOVES it but I keep taking it away because I don't want her to get dependant on it. My mind is just having a hard time remembering all the times it saved me JUST because I'm feeling bad about having to take it away soon. I need to stop having an issue with it, just go with it and stop stressing out about it. That's my little pep talk to myself :) It has already allowed me to actually sit down and eat breakfast when I'm here with the 3 of them by myself, I'm sure it will come in handy in the future :)

She likes to be held upright and likes to be swaddled when she's sleeping. She loves looking at Kevin's hat when he's holding her and likes to stare at her brother and sister when they're talking to her. She's starting to smile every now and then and I'm so excited to see her personality start to shine through even more. We are so blessed to have our three little angels!

Birthday Party

Gracie's Birthday party was a lot of fun and maybe a little more hectic than usual with Sammie being so little :) I missed part of the party since I was upstairs feeding her, which takes a while when she's so young. But, I think Gracie had a good time and that's all that mattered really! She was very excited for her party!
 

She sure loved opening all of her presents and it seemed to happen very quickly.

She was so happy when everyone sang Happy Birthday and I think her most favorite part was blowing out the candles, she wanted to do it over and over. She still out of no where says "Birthday!" and blows like she's blowing out candles.

These glasses were party favors and I think my most favorite party favor I've found so far. They are hilarious! I love them, and so do they, they wear them all the time now.

Mighty Machines!!!