baths, giraffes, and fun stuff

Oh the joys of summer are here.  We got outside for the first time the other day.  The wind took Katie's breath away every time it kicked up, Zach was glued to me, and Addie just smiled.  We lasted 5-10 minutes before calling it quits.  I'm hoping to get to the park here on base someday soon.  Tonight would have been perfect because the wind is almost nil, but seeing as daddy is asleep instead of watching/playing with the littles, that wasn't going to happen. This weekend at the latest for sure!

I loaded my camera pictures today.  We've got some good ones of our first "all-together-now" bath, the kids on their new giraffe rocker that arrived today, and just some good everyday pics.  How we are ever going to organize all these pictures, I honestly have no clue...every time I think of it I try to envision fields of flowers and beaches...you know, happier thoughts.  Haha.

So, here is our first bath.  Hopefully no surprise to anyone the pictures I'm sharing are very limited.  Needless to say they LOVED it.  For the first time Addie played with the water.  She was always the timid one before, I figured it was because Zach and Katie hung out in the tub when they were in diaper-rash-from-you-know-where mode. 

Katie liked the splashing water a LOT.

And here is a pic of the three of them.  Zach spent a lot of the time in modesty mode facing the faucet.  He was having fun though.

Our other big adventure lately was today's arrival of our Raffi the Giraffe.  I love the size of this guy.  If I wasn't hoping to get them chairs for their first birthday I'd buy another (hmmm, maybe the frog mom), especially since they come up on Zulily and Totsy quite often.  Heck, if we move into a house I will buy another!  (yes, I said house.  A current obsession of mine...another blog post)

Zach was more interested in getting his mitts on the camera.

Addie liked it, as evidenced by this "what?  I was just taste testing his ear." expression

And I also found some great every day photos.  Such as Zach, who was most definitely Born to be Cool!

Katie the explorer

Addie's little feet

Daddy reading to his daughters

Addie being cute

And the FUNNIEST picture of Katie!  Every time I see one with their hair plastered to their head like this I think of an old Seinfeld episode.  

So, that's what was on my camera this go around.  Hope you enjoyed.  Once we get out in the sun I'll be sure to get some photos up.  Until then, dad is struggling with bed time so I gotta run.

Loves!!

Mother's Day (part 2)

We did take some more "formal" pictures on Mother's Day.  Did I tell you how cute my girls were?  Even though they weren't on sale, the skirt overalls from Gap outlet were definitely worth it!  Mother's Day was a great day for me.  I got to sleep in, I took a long shower (hygiene is a beautiful thing), I received the best necklace that the kiddos already broke the chain on, and I had a great brunch with friends.  Oh, and had the BEST french toast recipe EVER!!  French toast roll ups, yum!  The best part is that the crust gets cut off the bread and anyone who knows me knows I hate the crust of bread. 

And after all of that, we came home and played with our trio.  Everyone had some fun, as evidenced by the previous post.  But knowing my family as I do, all good holidays must have photo shoots.  So, here we go....

my pixie girl

love this little guy, he is the absolute BEST cuddle-er

do you get the feeling Z & A are just waiting to see what K's going to do?

and Z decides a two on one attack will work better

one lucky momma!! (notice the little pig face Addie's got going on? lol)

and saving the best for last....
well, in a second.  Can I just tell you I had a brilliant idea and the conversation went something like this:
me: Hey John, doesn't your camera have a remote?  We could put up the tripod and take a family picture! (great idea huh?!)
John: ok (as you all know, he's a man of few words) ...gets out the remote
John: this probably isn't going to work (as he shows me the cord that would go between the camera and remote is maybe a foot long)
me: uh, when the heck would you use that thing? 
John: well, we could use the timer on my camera and see how that works.

Then we get to see the comedy of John setting up the tripod with three little people at his feet trying to help.  Two of the three little people are standing now too, so that means pulling up on whatever they can find to include tripod legs. It was a bit comedic to see John messing with the extensions trying to get all the legs the same height...but we finally had success (while I occupied some kiddos).  And this is the best of the three results:

 my family

Zach doesn't look too impressed, Katie's wondering where Addie and Daddy came from and Addie just wants a little more room I'm thinking. Get used to it, from what I hear the older they get the harder it is to get three littles facing the same direction, let alone smiling.  I hope everyone else's Mother's Day was a joyous as mine.

*last weekend we started bathing them all together in the tub...yep, lots of pics, another post to come soon*
loves!!

Mother's Day (part 1)

Well, in wanting to make my sister happy I got prepared to write my late Mother's Day post. However, all the photo session pics are on the laptop, so you get the fun pics of the day first. And for good measure, a video too. Here's hoping this tides everyone over until (hopefully) tomorrow when I get to the fun pics we took. We even took some family pics...boy will that be a story.

So, for MD I dressed my girls as cute as buttons! They were in jean skirt overalls and baby legs. Katie likes showing of her baby legs as you can tell. And no, Zach's pants weren't that small, but they have been relegated to the "don't fit anymore no matter how much mom loves them" pile.



Addie was full of smiles that evening.



As was Katie



And Zach was trying to figure out the stairs. He's still not too sure on them, it can get up to the first one. Katie on the stairs, a master...too much so in fact but I'll save my heart attack post for another day.



Also, for those that read fb, you know this is the first day we saw Addie stand. Notice her little bit of chunk on her legs. Little peanut is trying to catch up.




And this was Addie before standing. We do NOT give our kids sugar (or crack for that matter). This is just standard Addie. Remember a few posts ago I told you about her gentle index finger? Yep, you will see all sides of her here.

Hope this little glimpse into our Mother's Day evening helped with the baby fix. Promise to get the rest of the pics up SOON.

Loves!

10 months

Yep, that's right.  We are 10 months old!  Ok, well, WE really aren't.  I'm much much older than 10 months, but the trio is 10 months old and surprisingly enough we DID take pictures.  They aren't the nice composed pictures of prior months because they are getting too mobile and too restless for that.  They are 10 months old ya know, who's got time for pictures when there are boppies to scale and tables to explore!

We started with Zach and Addie.  Zach is always Mr. Compliant.  You put him in the chair with his arm up, his arm is going to stay up.  He is Mr. Sensitive as well.  If one of the girls starts to cry about something, Zach's face goes from concerned to upset to maybe going to cry with them.  He weighed 18+ pounds at his 9 month checkup, so he is not lacking for cheeks, belly, and thighs to cuddle, tickle, or just plain kiss on.  Although he saves his smiles for rare occasions, he has the BEST smile and giggle.  He just started crawling while on vacation.  His motivation?  A bottle.  Yep, he woke from an off-schedule nap, saw a sis with a bottle and decided the best way to get it quickly was to crawl to it so off he went.  He is very deliberate in his crawling, like you can almost see him thinking "arm, leg, arm, leg."  After we got home he started pulling up to his knees and just very recently his feet.  Sometimes the feet still confuse him, especially if he gets too close to the couch.  John has a great video of him just not understanding why he can't get to standing.  Mind you he is literally hugging the couch.  Silly boy.  He is my cuddler, my snuggler, my boy.  Oh, and his theme song?  LMFAO's "I'm Sexy and I Know It!" 

Oh that Addie girl!  Addie has always been a snuggler.  As a baby, even when swaddled, she would find a brother or a sister to cozy up to when sleeping.  Like so *Katie on left, Addie on the right*:

So, knowing Addie is such a snuggler, she has always complained a bit about being in her crib alone.  She'd really rather be with her sister or brother.  However, I'm so determined to limit sleep issues with them I wanted them to learn to sleep in their cribs early on.  Since vacation they have done AWESOME!  We pretty much take them up, snuggle, kiss, cover, and walk out.  Umm, well, except for their 9am nap.  For that one, well, confession time...I've been letting Addie nap with me.  :P  She LOVES it.  Instead of being upset in her crib for a few minutes she lets a big sigh loose and lays her head down.  I can totally see how people get sucked into co-sleeping!  Milestone wise, she has three teeth and maybe a fourth starting to think about it.  She is the BEST Army crawler around and just recently started pulling up to her knees or toes.  Notice I said toes, not feet.  When she stands it is toes only baby.  She is an awesome eater and has mastered the pinch grasp to put food in her mouth. She has a smile at the ready any time of day.  She is a total love.  My peanut.

Then there is my Katie girl.  Ah, my Katie girl.  I'm pretty sure she has no clue she is only 10 months old.  She's probably convinced she's two or three YEARS old and we're just holding her back.  She has mastered standing and in fact cruises along the couch even.  She has taken a few steps with a push toy, but isn't too sure about that yet.  She is quite the devious one (see previous post) as she has also mastered climbing almost anything to get to the side table or couch.  If electronics are in sight, she is actively trying to get them.  Case in point, we had the Infant Learning person here yesterday...Katie....climbing UP Crystal's bag like it was a ladder to get to her paperwork on the couch!  Needless to say Crystal confirmed little miss determined will be walking before she is one.  She is the one of the trio to investigate and discover the most.  At times, this can be crazy making, but it's clearly the engineer side of her shining through so she makes her daddy proud.

These are my littles.  We laugh, we love, we giggle, and we capture sweet sweet smiles/giggles from Zach.  Happy 10 months my too-fast-growing trio.

Happy Mother's Day

For a first Mother's Day, today was a pretty darn good one.

I was able to sleep in a bit
I baked (brown butter blueberry packed muffins ~ Joy the Baker cookbook)
I dressed my kiddos in ADORABLE outfits (pics to follow soon)
I skyped with my family
I enjoyed a brunch with friends
I ate the yummiest French toast roll ups
I received the best gift ever -crappy pic, but it's the trios birthstones and diamonds-



I saw my youngest daughter stand for the first time



I saw pictures of my oldest daughter not only crawling around the gate but also knocking it down



I cuddled my sleeping son. This is not a pic of us cuddling, but him being the first to discover end tables yesterday. Needless to say we are more aware of what we put on them now. Also note, coasters are great fun to play with!



I love my life. It is very difficult at times, but it's a pretty darn good one. I am a lucky wife, mom, sister, daughter, niece, cousin.....



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My Katie girl

Ah my Katie girl. I swear her first birthday gift is going to be a mini-oscar. She is a drama queen for sure. I know I've told you all about Zach's back and Addie's toes...with Katie, it's her eyes.


Those eyes tell you all you need to know, whether happy, sad, or simply trying/pretending to be sad. What's that you say? My oldest wouldn't pretend...well, you just need to see her in action.
It all starts with the perceived wrong. This could be her not getting the phone, ipad, remote control; her getting her hair pulled, toy taken, paci taken out; her falling from standing, getting frustrated from standing, ... do you get the point? So, perceived wrong makes this:



Go to this:




This face is usually accompanied by a 15-30 second silence. It really is quite funny as she silently screams (it makes me think she will also inherit the famous silent Hermann laugh). One she finds her voice again, oh boy bring on the ear piercing scream.




Followed by the sobbing.




Now that sobbing. Most of the time our sweet Katie girl sobs, then squuueeeezzzzeeeesss her eyes together for this effect.




Did it work? Those eyes are asking. For those who aren't experiencing this multiple times a day, it might. But me, I try not to smile as I give her a hug and wipe away the tears.

Those eyes can also be filled with mischief. As you recall, I mentioned electronics. These are what her eyes look like when she spots said electronics.


Those eyes hold the answers to many of the world's questions. I can't wait until she can tell me just what's behind them, how about you?



Love my big girls eyes, my boys back, and my itty bitties toes. Those are my littles.

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The Land Before Time (Slette addition)

So we all know Mom and Kim buy some of the cutest clothes, but according to John Kim's fleecy rompers for the kids are the absolute cutest things EVER! As the weather has been beautiful here lately it was time to break out the fleece and take our kiddos for a walk. This walk killed multiple birds with one stone. First, our kiddos got to wear their fleece outfits and be the cutest-babies-ever!, second, we got to test our strollers sans carseats in preparation for Seattle, and third, we got to look at some new housing options we may need to select from.

Attack of the dino-babies!



Did I mention, these Columbia fleecies are the cutest ever? Just want to make sure we have that covered. In case you aren't sure yet, here's Zach to convince you.



And Katie


And Addie




Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics of them in the strollers, but maybe tomorrow. The walk did teach us many things though. For instance, my babies get their post-dinner-must-nap from their daddy. I'm sure it had something to do with the fresh air, but at some point all babies took a snooze. We also learned that the strollers going up to 50 lbs and our babies not being 20 lbs yet means they swim in the harnesses, must tighten more than we did already. We also learned it is quite the process to load all babies, walk to first destination, unload all babies for approximately 5 minutes, load babies, walk to next destination (45 seconds away?), unload babies for approximately 5 minutes, load babies, walk to final destination - wait, I mean third destination (did anyone else think of Final Destination, the movie, which freaks me out?), unload babies for approximately 15 minutes, load babies and walk home. Whew. Somehow all of this took us 1.5 hours, past their final feeding time by about 15 minutes. That was all fine and dandy on the walk, but not quite so once we got home. Maybe also because mom wanted more pictures...





















To leave you with a cute cute image. John and I, holding Zach and Addie,
roamed an apartment looking at the layout...come back to find a hot pink hiney in the air, dino head on the floor. Katie, eyes closed, snoozing away. LOL Again, wish we had taken the camera with us.



Loves to all!!

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