seaport village

finally the lady bug gets a spotlight post - seems like her brothers have been stealing the show lately. today during pete's school, great grandma jan and i took the littles down to sea port village (after swinging by the base to get some of our overseas screening paperwork turned in) to enjoy a beautiful morning before scampering back to pick up our big boy.  we thoroughly enjoyed watching some super sweet brown baby ducks swimming in the ponds, tossing pennies in the fountains, wandering the walkways and climbing up on the benches - the highlight for me was riding the beautiful, hand-carved wooden carousel (the horses even had real horse-hair tails-woa) with betsy and seeing the perma-grin on her face for the entire beautiful ride. she waved wildly to great grandma jan every time we circled past her and curtis waiting by the exit. the highlight for betsy may have been the visit we paid to the darling and delicious cupcake boutique. we each picked a pretty treat and then sat along the sea wall watching all sorts of boats go by as we ate our amazing snacks.  i must admit, i was feeling both grateful and guilty, sitting there with some of my favorite people in the whole world, perfect temperature, sun smiling down, flickering off the water, coronado bridge in the background, happy as a clam licking the whippy frosting from my fingertips.....and thinking about what life was probably like for my amazing, brave hubby in that same exact moment. if only i could click my heels and magic him home to us in blissful moments like those (of course i'd take him back home in the most chaotic of moments too, but he'd sure enjoy harbor-side cupcakes right about now). well, soon enough he'll be joining in all the magic (and the messy too!) but for now, i'm doing my best to keep some pictures coming your way. we love you, babe! xoxo
this afternoon even baxter got a dose of blissful play - we made it to the dog park!!!!
and for our evening fun, i taught grandma how to use my iPad. :) i love that one of the first things she wanted to know was how she could play solitaire. pete will have to show her how to play angry birds tomorrow. :)

cute cow bench outside the cupcake shop - after taking a seat, she shimmied up his back and rode him, hanging on to his horns with a grin. she's such a monkey!

happily licking the blue frosting from atop her chocolatey cupcake - then she got to the cupcake part. she knows her priorities.

cupcakes with great grandma jan - thanks for such a yummy treat!

watching the water traffic, she kept telling me there were fish down there. i had a feeling she was plotting a way to climb down the wall and rocks and take a swim. i love how adventurous she is and she doesn't let any challenge stop her from trying.

when we stopped to pick up pete his teacher asked if we'd come in - today was the first day he accomplished rolling up his work mat all by himself and after he had done so he told his teacher he wished his mom was there to see it because she would think it was really cool. so we all went in to see him perform his latest learned task - and great grandma got a tour of the school too. daddy - you are invited to spend a morning at the school when you get back, they said. :)

great grandma and sweet curtis - whoop whoop for starting a little double chin of chubby! love love love.  also, hip hip for him starting to have a long sleep in the evenings - is making that right-after-bedtime period of time sooooo much more productive for me. thanks little  buddy. xoxo

story time with grandma after big brother hit the hay. we have all been tired out at the end of our fun days with great grandma - but keep the fun coming! i love having her here with us.

great grandma jam's arrival

great grandma jan is here - and the kids are thrilled!  its adorable that they both insist on calling her by the full title, and betsy with her sweet little pauses between each word...takes awhile to say it, but she's dedicated.  "great...grandma...jam" - am pretty sure she is saying jam and not jan. adorable.  peter has already had great grandma building train tracks and assembling puzzles and tasting felt sandwiches and trying on bead necklaces made just for her. am looking forward to a fun week of watching my grandma get to know my big kids.

happy easter

is it really easter again? it doesn't seem possible that a year has gone by since we were at the flower fields with deedee last year this time. but time continues to fly by at its run-away-train-pace and i'm doing my best to keep up.  the kids enjoyed their easter baskets this morning - thank you to the grandma's for supplying some goodies for the easter bunny's sack.  we spent the day with our amazing red devils family, lots of mommas and their babes...it will be wierd (and wonderful) to see daddies around again when they all get home to us.  while it felt a bit frenzied trying to keep track of two busy kiddos (and be sure that no one was investigating the baby too closely) moving in opposite directions, it was really fun to see all the kids together. it was fun to see who teamed up and who wandered off to do their own thing. it was fun to reminisce about a time when most of our babies were just lined up on blankies and we'd sit there watching them watch the world. thank you christine and your kiddos for welcoming ALL of us into your home today, you are a brilliantly welcoming hostess. xoxo

mr. anthony

poor curtis...momma was so intent on getting everyone organized that i forgot to include him in the mix. he was sleeping soundly inside. snooze away little dude. next year you can run amock for the easter picture. :)

Ryan: "Momma, Petey is exploring what is inside his eggs. I want to do that!"  And there they sat, those two sweeties, devouring the sugary contents of those eggs.  Some battles are not worth fighting. :)

Jen and "baby" Claire the bunny

Curtis and Momma doing what we do best

brothers in matching shirts. i can't believe i failed to take a picture of all three kids together. where was my head today???  when their outfits are all cleaned (lots of candy stickiness on those shirts) i will reassemble the kids in their easter attire and stage an "easter" photo for daddy and the grands. so sorry!!! :/ its hard being outnumbered!

8 weeks and bye bye "b-nama"

 time is flying - 8 weeks old already today? how has that happened sweet baby curtis? oh my this little one is SUCH a joy, i can hardly stand it. he's too adorable and i feel i can literally see him growing by the moment. still sleepy most of the time, his awake times are spent intensely taking in everything around him. he's so close to finding his thumb or his finger with his mouth, but for now he is still exploring his fist voraciously. he's already arching his back and twisting with all his might to see all the action around him, seems like he's intent on rolling already. i'm sure in another month or so he'll have it mastered just like his big brother and sister did. tummy time is more fun now that he's got his head pretty well under control and can actually glance around the room, moving his whole head as he watches me walk across the room.  he's a wonderful little snuggly side kick and goes with momma whenever i head out without the big kids - happy to be along for the ride, snooze while riding in momma's mei tai baby carrier and peep out for a sleepy look around every once in awhile. i'm so grateful for this wonderful happy, healthy baby who has just slid into our family with ease. there was so much anxiety about adding a third baby and how would i possible manage it - but honestly, with the help of some wonderful friends and family these first weeks along with his precious personality, it's been a breeze transitioning to 3 (and now i have the perspective of two "big" kids who easily require more emotional and physical investments of my time each day). i'm loving seeing big bro and sis always running to play with him as soon as he laid down on his comfy blankets for some (very closely supervised) tummy time. i'll love it even more when he's a little chubbier, a little more resilient to bumps by the big ones and they are more well-trained in the art of being gentle--soon when they can all actually PLAY together. i'm most excited for his super proud daddy to finally get his big daddy arms wrapped around him, for those two to meet and bond and play. because that happy twinkle in that daddy's eye makes my heart the happiest of all.

 aunt briana came to spend an almost-week with us during her spring break. it was fun to see the kids and her connect and play. am looking forward to much more family time together this summer in illinois when we will have all the aunts and cousins and grandparents and great-grandparents with us in one state for a good long bit of memory making.

i scolded pete for picking his nose in the picture, so betsy refused to take hers out of her nose after that...she's basically two. anything momma asks her not to do, she will double down her efforts to ensure that she DOES continue doing it.  however, the potty training has been her idea and she is EXTREMELY good at getting that job done. i think ornery two year old antics are generally pretty cute - as long as it doesn't involve poop. :)

thank you

my goodness, grandma and grandpa are on their way back to illinois after spending a total of 5 weeks with us in the past two months. i am so grateful for their willingness (and ability) to spend so much time with us - helping me - and the kids have absolutely adored the extra attention. it was sweet to see how each child gravitated to their own special person. betsy is enamored with her grandpa and peter tends to hang with his grandma - although they both just love their grandparents.  i've learned an important lesson with this third sweet baby of mine; how to ask for AND receive help when i need it (and sometimes when i don't, just because its there and why not?) and i have been completely overflowed with so much help that i am feeling so wonderfully taken care of in what could be an overwhelmingly busy and transitional time in our life. thank you grandparents and friends and family everywhere for reaching out and keeping us all afloat and making this time even more special for us. we're already looking forward to our long summer trip home in the midwest to visit with our bigger families and make some wonderful memories. bring on the summertime! xoox

grandma snuggling her boys

look who grew a ponytail!

this is what our evening looks like after big brother is in bed - the kids are really enjoying puzzles lately

little man is growing OUT of his 3 month size clothes....tonight I am busting out the bin and breaking out the next size up. :)

i was trying to capture his sweet smile and mini dimple on the lower left cheek - i will keep trying

thanks for coming!!!!! xoxo

REAL LIFE

this is it....Daily life with three babes and one momma(and a far-away super star dad). its busy. its not always pretty. actually, its not pretty a lot of the time, however - its also a whole lot of awesome. its forcing me to slow down on the "other" stuff in my life and focus on staying in the midst of managing everyone's needs.  we're doing it and i'm pretty proud of myself...we four even did the grocery shopping yesterday; me my three babies and two shopping carts strolling through the produce section. but mostly its going smoothly because of all my awesome friends here who have picked up helping out where the mothers left off when they packed up and shipped out.  i've had meals delivered and helping hands a couple evenings, a walk for baxterfurlongs picked up from the store and even babysitting for one of the kids during an appointment to make things easier on me. thank you to everyone who is reaching out to help me hold up all those spinning plates!!! xoxoxo

chatting to daddy on the phone...."how is your day, daddy?"

deedee with her three babies all together in one place at one time

adam came down for a visit so we spent the sunny saturday morning at sea world

betsy running in the squishy baby-play area while pete and adam climb the cargo nets

"i'm ready!!!" she said it over and over and shrieking with delight while adam flew her around in the bucket

having so much fun having a man around

peek-a-boo!

adam getting a snuggle with baby curtis while momma gives the big kids baths

giving her baby kate momma-milk

our sweet baby curtis growing bigger by the minute!

giving his baxter some love on the couch during betsy's nap

wearing his baby kate in the sling - his new thing this entire evening. the baby is sleeping with him tonight too!

fun activities before bath time...Betsy is wearing panties at her own insistence and she used the potty successfully twice today!

baxter cleaning up the dinner time "samples"

story time on pete's bed

there's his baby tucked in ready for bed :)