Welcome Baby Scarlett

Soo...about 7 months ago, I meant to post that we are expecting!! Then in January, I meant to post that - surprise, it's another girl! Today, I finally decided that given the choice between sleeping or updating the blog, I would do the latter.  There is a pile of dishes in my sink, a tower of laundry to be folded, and 3 little girls to entertain, but I am doing it!  Go me!! 

 

Little Scarlett Rose came on March 27th and weighed in at 7 lbs and 19 inches long.  She is a doll, but a real fusser.  I can't do ANTYTHING without holding her or wearing her in the sling. I remember when Annabeth was born, I seemed to have loads of time to upload pictures of her and document every developmental milestone.  Poor Camilla and Scarlett! I hope they will know that I love them just as much!  We are drowning in little girls over here, just trying to keep our heads above water!

 

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.  Don't expect any labels!  :)

 

 

 

First Day of Kindergarten!

Last Monday, we took Annabeth to school for her first day of Kindergarten.  As someone who has always had a tough time with change, I really thought I would cry.  But when the big day came, I actually held myself together pretty well.  Brent, on the other hand, had a really rough time with it.  I have to say, my husband is pretty much the sweetest dad in the whole world (with the exception of my own Dad).  He told me how much he was going to miss our lazy mornings together with her, how this was the first step to her leaving us, and how bitter sweet it is to watch her grow from a toddler into a "real kid".  He wants to be the one to walk her to school in the mornings which is just fine with me.  He usually doesn't see them very many nights out of the week because of work, so mornings have always been precious time with his girls.

When we dropped her off the first day, my only fear was that she wouldn't make a friend.  I never had a lot of friends at school, and I just couldn't stand the thought of her eating lunch alone or not having anyone to play with at recess.  Fortunately, she is doing just fine in the friend department and seems to really be enjoying school so far. :)  Even though part of me is sad to not have her at home with me, I know that she is so ready for this.  I can't wait for her teachers to discover how amazing and smart this kid is! Blow them all away, Annabeth!

Summer Photos

We had a great summer this year.  We went to Orange Beach with Brent's family in July.  The girls had a blast with all of their cousins at the beach.

Big Daddy and Gigi with Rylan, Eden, Ava, Camilla, and Annabeth

We tried desperately to get family photos taken on the beach, but the girls refused to cooperate. 

 

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Big Daddy and Gigi with most of their grandchildren.  We had NINE children there all under the age of 6.  It was a zoo, but the kids had so much fun with each other.

One of the girls' favorite pastimes is finding roly polys in the dirt.  They build little houses for them with their blocks and send them tumbling down slides.  The poor things don't last that long as Camilla usually pokes them too hard and brings them to me saying "It broke." When I took this picture, they had just gotten lucky and found a ladybug.  I love how excited they get about simple things like that.

Every time they say something funny, I tell myself I need to write it down but never do.  Camilla talks ALL the time about pretty much anything and everything.  She knows lots of animals and we are working on  colors.  Here are a few phrases Camilla loves to say:

1.  "What's that sound?"  - Any time she hears a loud noise

2.  "Whatcha doin?"

3.  "Dat's a BIG TRUCK!"  - hilarious because she says it in such a low voice (sounds like Fox :)

3.  "I can't reach!" - we hear this a lot

4. "MINE" - our least favorite

5.  "Where Annabeth?"  any time she realizes that Annabeth is at school.  She loves her sister :)

6.  "Tickle me, Daddy!"

7. "Scratch my back!"  - she loves getting her back scratched before bed and is very demanding about it.

There are a hundred more of these that I can't remember right now.  She is such a little ham, always making us laugh.  Annabeth started telling knock knock jokes (not my favorite thing) and Camilla has picked up on it and tells her own!  Funny girl.  She's such a tom boy and would be content to live in the backyard naked, playing in mud and eating the dirt.  Seriously though, she really does like to eat dirt.

Annabeth has been having lots of fun taking gymnastics classes. She also loves to sit at the piano and pick out melodies that she knows.  We started piano lessons and she is doing really well with her sticker chart!  She also just started swimming lessons and has finally started putting her head under the water.  She has come such a long way and LOVES going to the pool.  We have also been working on her reading skills.  She is doing awesome and can read the lowest level books at the library - with a little help from us.  She is really excited to start Kindergarten and talks about her "new school" every time we drive by it.

As for Brent and I, we are doing great.  Work, church, and family are keeping us pretty busy these days.  I feel like such a bum-of-a-mom because I usually sleep on the couch while the girls watch their cartoons in the morning, but I can't help feeling tired all the time.  I really thought we'd all be sleeping through the night by now, but it seems someone is always up wanting water or having bad dreams.  Annabeth has recurring nightmares about bugs in her bed, and just last night Camilla woke up telling me there was a snake in her bed!  That one really did kind of freak me out, but it turned out to be just her vivid imagination at work.  I don't think we'll ever have a full night's sleep again.  

Spring Photos

Lots has happened over the last couple of months, but I'm terrible about posting photos.  Here are a few from April and May.

We went to Annabeth's art show at school and watched her sing a few songs with her class.

Annabeth hunting Easter Eggs

Easter morning with the girls

Cute picture of Annabeth and Erin

Annabeth turned 5 years old last week! We had a cooking party with some of our friends and had a blast!  I can hardly believe she is getting so big.  Time flies!

Camilla's birthday was this week.  May is a crazy month for us since the girls are only a week apart.  We let her open her gift when she woke up in the morning.

She wasn't too thrilled about the candles on her cupcake and refused to blow them out.

This girl LOVES cupcakes. 

Resolutions in April

I'm out of breath.  My heart is racing, sweat dripping from my forehead.  But I am delaying my shower because it is important to write down the way I feel RIGHT now, at THIS moment. Because if I don't, I'm afraid I'll forget how amazing I feel after working out. And I. feel. awesome.

When I'm running, I feel like I can do anything.  I'm a total rock star. Sometimes, I imagine that I'm outrunning a cheetah or a tornado, and I'm winning!  Other times, I imagine that someone tries to attack me while running, and I go all kung-fu on them and kick them so hard they don't have a clue what hit em. The cops come to the scene and congratulate me on my amazing ninja fighting skills.   I won't lie - when I'm listening to my workout music, I feel pretty dang bad-ass.  Especially when I'm jammin' to NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys.  Yea you read that right!  I work out to boy bands.  They make me feel good about myself.  Especially when One Direction calls me "baby" and tells me that I'm beautiful in my sweats.

Please don't think I'm kidding myself.  I am fully aware that I DO NOT look cool when I'm running...far from it.  In fact, I'm not even sure it counts as running.  To the teenage skateboarder that I passed tonight, I'm sure I looked to be near death - all bent over, holding my side, and gasping for air whilst still trying to hum the tune to "Raise Your Glass" with my my ear buds in.  I know I look ridiculous.....but I FEEL like a celebrity, and that's what's important.

I write this because tomorrow I will try to convince myself that today was a fluke, a mistake, a habit I knew I could never continue. When I eat that 2nd piece of chocolate cake that is sitting my refrigerator, I'll tell myself that it is pointless to go for a jog because I'd have to run to Oklahoma just to burn off a single piece.  And when I go a few days without working out, I'll try to convince myself that I was never really good at it, that it was never an attainable goal, that I was foolish to think I could keep up the act, that I was only pretending to be something I never was.

But that is total crap!  A few months ago, I gave up Facebook - something I thought I could never do because it was freaking hard.  And at first, it was.  But then, little by little, it got easier.  And each day that passed by without checking my newsfeed was one more small victory for me until eventually, I stopped thinking about it almost entirely.  I learned that I CAN DO HARD THINGS!  So here's to New Year's resolutions in April.  I vow to work out 3 times a week from this day forth.  Because, despite all the lies I will tell myself tomorrow,  I really do actually enjoy it.  And because it makes me feel good about myself, and because I want to be a healthy mom for my girls.  And because I need as many extra endorphins as I can rack up to help me stay happy for them throughout the day. :)  And of course, because I want to look hot in my swimsuit when June rolls around.

Writing this down makes me accountable.  No more excuses.  No more blaming others for my failure to act.  From now on, only action!  Here goes!

P.S.  What's your favorite song to work out to?  I'm taking suggestions!

Week in Review

A few weeks ago, we finally broke down and bought a nice camera.  After practicing with it for the last few days, we decided to take it out for a spin.  We had been waiting for the bluebonnets to be in full bloom so we could get some nice photos of the girls. We waited for the light to be just perfect. I coordinated matching colored outfits for everyone, and spent WAY too much time on their hair. But when we got there, they went completely nuts!  Camilla refused to sit down and ran away from us the entire time. Annabeth complained that the flowers were making her itch and refused to smile.  It finally ended in hysterical tears when the two of them accidentally banged their heads together.  I am convinced that any time I attempt to take decent photos of my children, they conspire against me.  It is almost as if before every shot, they say to each other "Quick! Let's go crazy......wait for it........right now!"  Soo...unfortunately I have no photos to post today :(

While I'm on the topic of crazy children, let me just tell you that this past week has been a real doozy.  Last Friday, as I was cleaning the bathtub, Annabeth pummeled over Camilla while running through the house. Camilla fell on the tile and busted her chin open.  (Annabeth actually has the same scar from busting her chin open right in the middle of Barnes and Noble when she was 3). Then on Sunday night, she decided to climb on the bed and re-opened the wound when she hit her chin on the bed rail. Luckily, we have a friend who works in the ER and he was able to glue her up both times.  On Monday, I didn't let her climb on anything or run anywhere. I tried so hard to keep her from picking at the glue so we wouldn't re-open the wound yet again.  We nearly made it through the entire day...until she somehow managed to pull her elbow out of the socket - something called a nursemaids elbow?  Since I didn't want to call our friend for a third time in less than a week, we ended up at a CareNow so the doctor could pop her elbow back into place.  By the end of it all, my nerves were so fried, and Brent and I both agreed that we had had enough emergencies to last us the rest of their lives!  

P.S.  I registered Annabeth for Kindergarten this week, and had to fight back tears while waiting in line.  I can't believe I am old enough to have a child in school!