October...Here we come!

Obviously blogging has dropped on my priority list. I know I am losing my readers, but that is just life right now. Seems like I have had at least one sick kid for the last 8 weeks. Great start to the cold/flu season. Can only imagine how Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb are going to turn out. Other than chronic snot we are having a good time.Here is Isaac with his triplets. He has two of them in a sling...the babies are connected to the sling by their necks (like real mommies and daddies carry their babies of course).
Almost two weeks ago we met the Kizakeviches at the pumpkin patch to stock up on pumpkins and other crazy looking squashes. Here is Isaac with his best friend Evan.
Here is my little princess.
Here is my big princess with her best bud, Hayden. The height difference is crazy.
A wagon was necessary for toting heavy...little boys.
The gang.
Ah- here we are on any random morning...Leah sneaks into the sun room for some quiet time with the plant.
"Oh! Hi Mom! Don't mind me...just eating the plant!"
If I do say so myself, I made a fantastic meat sauce for dinner tonight with some penne tossed in. Leah loved it! Red sauce is great for one's complexion, didn't you know.
Took the girls to the grocery store today. Isaac was in preschool. Leah was in Heaven riding with big sis in the race car. She drove for both of them. Seriously though, I spend $800 a month on groceries. And I waste nothing. Groceries are crazy expensive...got to pay for those stimulus packages somehow! The only damn thing stimulated was my grocery bill!
Saturday we went to a Halloween birthday party. Spiderman showed up. He looks remarkably like my son Isaac.
Here is the ice princess. Who did not want to wear her beautiful sparkly shoes that she begged for because they hurt her feet just like her mother said they would.
And here is our precious little pumpkin who was honestly the hit of the party. Who can top this level of cuteness?

September and the fam...

So, I am not a big fan of people saying "Oh! I am just so busy!" Because really, I mean how busy can one be? We all choose to be busy- it's not like someone is making us be busy. I can imagine that Bill Gates may actually be busy, and maybe our Presidents...though our current one does seem to vacation and do a whole lot of talk shows. Anyway all that being said, I will be the first to admit that my pregnancies were not immaculate conceptions...I am well aware of how babies are brought into the world; so again, my level of business is/was a choice. But I am telling you, having 3 small children at home is a busy life. And I think most parents of school age children will agree that the months of May and September are the craziest of the year. So this September has proven to meet that expectation.

The biggest adjustment is having school every single day. There is always a drop-off and a pick-up schedule, plus a morning and afternoon nap schedule, plus a nursing schedule, plus 3 meals a day, plus snacks, plus diapers, homework, school projects, help in bathroom, bedtime, plus just spending time and having fun. This list doesn't even include chores and errands. :-) So obviously I am not performing brain surgery, but seriously to make it all work, and work well for us all, requires a certain level of busy-ness. And we do have fun- everyday. And that is what my goal is for everyday. To remember that I am staying home to make my children a priority and to do that I have to spend quality time with them. And with all that has to be accomplished in a day, it is easy to say that running errands with little people in the backseat is "spending time" or that merely being in the house with them while folding laundry is "spending time"- but kids don't like to run errands and fold laundry. Kids like to read and play outside and show off and be pushed on the swing. So, our busy schedule includes all of those things too.
Our sweet Leah is a terrible night time sleeper. Awful. Up 3-5 times a night. But she is so happy and sweet during the day it is hard to hold a grudge.
Isaac loves shoes. His daddy loves this picture.
My princess. She is the youngest in her K class and she is kicking booty and taking names. That's my girl. Just started reading her first words this week. My heart swelled with pride.
Uncle Ben sent us Oregano the Orangutan... he is a huge hit and he is huge.
Isaac sporting Daddy's triathlon gear after his race two weeks ago.
Sid and some of his buddies roomed together at the White Lake Triathlon. Sid's buddy Gary is a big guy- but the shower is tiny anyway. Gross.
Leah tackling daddy at the pool- the last weekend it was open. We miss the pool so much.
Isaac and Daddy digging at the museum in Durham...hoping to find some dino bones.
Nana with Leah. Check out the rolls on that baby. I am so proud!

And finally- Isaac got a new bike. He was way too tall for his old one and way over-due. He loves it and is now, officially, a big boy! :-(

Grace's First Day of Kindergarten!

Grace started Kindergarten today! She attends at Bay Leaf Baptist Church about 4 miles from our house. It is a half-day Kindergarten taught by a teacher with 32 years experience. Her teacher taught at a much larger Christian school in our area for 25 years. There is also an assistant and a total of 12 kids in her class.

Grace has been waiting for this day since summer began. And she is ready. However, it has been a little hard on me the last few days. I am thrilled for her and so happy that we made the decision to enroll her in this program, but sad for me. Grace and I have been together constantly over the last 5 years. Kindergarten marks a new time of school and friends and, well, separation. :-) Hard to let go.

We all went to school today to see her off. We had to do a little hair redo in the parking lot. Daddy had the baby and took pictures and Isaac was probably off peeing and saying "poop."

Here she is at the front door. Smile bigger than that ridiculously large backpack!

And here she is outside of her classroom. She went right in and found her name. She was so excited I was afraid she was going to kiss a boy. Fortunately a little boy named Isaac sits at her table, so hopefully he reminds her too much of her brother.

Yesterday she got to meet her teachers. This is her classroom. Her teacher is the one in the turquoise in the back.

When I picked her up today she had the biggest twinkle in her eye. She said she had so much fun but it was a lot of work! I was relieved that she was not exhausted and overwhelmed as so many of our friends' kids have experienced after being in school for over 7 hours as Kindergartners! However, she did throw out all of the Tupperware I put in her lunch today. That was the only bummer.

I am so proud of my daughter and the little person God is molding her to become. She is brave and smart, sweet and thoughtful.

Our New Wheels

Please note we did NOT buy a minivan as foretold by lots of friends! :-) This is our new Yukon and we love it! I can fit all 3 carseats in the second row so we don't even need the 3rd row. However, the 3rd row is huge and also seats 3 people. And even when using the 3rd row there is lots of storage behind it. The kids love the car for only one reason...it has a DVD player in it. They were really bummed when they first found out we were not getting a minivan. I couldn't figure out why...then I discovered it was because they thought that only minivans have DVD players. Pitiful. Anyway, they love the big truck now and how high they sit up. I love that we are super safe (I think only a semi-truck rivals this thing) and that I have Onstar! So wonderful. I highly recommend GMC cars if only for this option. My kids will never be locked in the car and I can never get lost! This car has already blessed us in many ways. Isaac now sits up close instead of the very back. We have fun conversations in the car and everything including strollers, groceries, and pool toys all fit at the same time. This is my very funny little boy wearing Strawberry Shortcake. Grace and I were in stitches over this one.

What a big week for Leah!

Leah had a big week. Lots of milestones. Her 7 mos birthday was on Sunday, please keep that in mind. First, she learned how to go from the crawling position to the sitting position. The first couple of times she did it she wasn't exactly sure what she had done- but we all cheered her on and she was extremely pleased with herself. However, the excitement was short lived as her new skill kept her up much the following few nights. She would constantly sit up through the night and just cry. No matter how many times we laid her down she would sit up again. After my 3rd night of severe sleep deprivation I was not thinking that this skill was so cool after all. Then, during this "new skill" phase she cut two teeth on the bottom front. They are very cute. Those also caused some night time disturbances.

At this point I haven't slept in 3 months, and things are not looking good. For whatever reason, Leah just likes to be up at night and has a hard time soothing herself. She recently began to stuff her blankie in her mouth and that was worrying me. So we tried the paci again. I tried to give it to her a couple of weeks ago and she wanted nothing to do with it. She took it! Praise the Lord! The child really does need to suck on something to sleep, and the paci has helped the last few nights, but she still has a love/hate with it. Sometimes she wants it and sometimes she doesn't. I cannot figure it out. So she is sleeping a little better at night, but when she does wake up, she still sticks her blankie in her mouth, rather than the paci, and I still have to go in her room to get her back to sleep. So the sleep deprivation looks like it may continue for a while.

But the really big news is that Leah started standing yesterday! She actually did it in her crib on Sunday night when I put her down. She was fussing and I looked on the monitor and she was crying because she had stood up and couldn't figure out how to get down! Needless to say, we have dropped her mattress to the low position so she cannot topple out of the crib. So yesterday she spent most of the day finding things to pull-up on. She was absolutely thrilled with her accomplishment and was screaming with joy. Of course Grace and Isaac were also thrilled and screamed with her too. I was hoping that she was so tired that she would have a good night of sleep, but she didn't. Ugh. Maybe she just got Grace's night sleeping gene.

Anyway, good times here. My little baby is right on track with her big brother to be walking at 10 months old. I cannot even imagine what kind of toll that will take on the Christmas tree this year.

This is Leah standing with big brother nearby to catch her if she falls.

And here is the action live!

Isaac is still 2!

My handsome little prince is slightly lacking in the etiquette of a prince. No matter- he is adorable and hilarious most of the time. Lately he throws out the word poopy like Obama throws out tax dollars. My only request is that he refrain from using his favorite word at the dinner table. This is challenging at times as the word poopy goes well with food words. See video at the bottom for a good laugh. Of course Nana was egging it on. I was filming on the deck of our beach house.

Grace is 5 years old!

Some photos I took on the boat dock behind the beach house on Ocean Isle.
I am flattered that I look like my daughter. :-)

Well, actually she was five on July 13th...but as I mentioned earlier, when you have 3 small kids, everything is a little delayed.