Summer Snapshots

Last week I shared some of what has been going on here but didn't add pictures so I though a Summer collage would be good. It was at this point I realized 90% of pictures I take are on my phone. I am roddfam5 on instagram by the way. So here are few times that I busted out the dslr.



1. The boys baptism. Alex and Eli and Pastor Tom
2. Summer basketball. So cute and fun despite the sweltering gym.
3, 9 & 10 are from the 4th of July. After attending a party with friends we headed home early and did sparklers and caught fireflies, just the 5 of us. Great summer memory, for sure.
4 & 11 Summer puddles! Need I say more.
5. The kids dressed up in Jareds clothes and shoes for a picture that we framed and gave him for Father's Day. Adorable!
6. Addies 3rd birthday at Mimi's.
7. Girlfriend is officially potty trained. Amen!
8. My 37th B-day.

Such a great Summer. School starts in 1 week and it feels like Fall here in Michigan so I guess it is almost time to say goodbye to the long days of this season we call Summer.

Motherhood

Between the end of the school year and Summer now in full swing it feels like I'm taking a crash course on Mothering. The birth of our third child, sweet little Addison definitely upped my parenting game. It was so challenging to find out how to parent another completely unique personality. And to be honest I'd forgotten quite a bit of the logistics. It truly was amazing that in a mere 3 1/2 years I'd forgotten all the secrets I'd learned while raising twin infants. Anyways, back to the present. I have all three kids home now and I have been looking forward to this since January, practically. It is fun. I love the decreased amount of "have to's" that can tend to dominate a day and it's schedule. I love soaking up their unique personalities. I am however also seeing all the little attittudes that creeped in throughout the year that require a lot of patience and a few adjustments.

7-31-13 I started this a while ago and wasn't sure where I was heading with my thought process but thought I'd share it as it was.

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

So Summer is dwindling down for us in our neck of the woods. 3 weeks from today the boys go back to school. Crazy. They are excited but also want to be 1/2 dayers (not a first grade option). :)

I have a few minutes this morning because we were all heading out the door for Alex's OT appointment and it was cancelled. I was annoyed at first and now it kind of feels like we were graciously given an hour of down time. Love that. Funny, how that works. We have plenty of down time in the Summer but when it's unexpected, ahhhhh.

Summer's been fun and we still have a little Summer list of things we would like to do with the kids. Alex wanted to add Disney World to the list. Ha Ha. Funny.

Addie turned 3 on July 11th which is insane. We had a great little party at Aunt Mimi's. Fun was had. Food eaten. 3 year old spoiled rotten.

Also in big news the boys swam on their own a couple of weeks ago at Aunt Mimi's pool. Kim is a great swimmer so I aked her to show the boys a few things and the next thing I knew they were swimming. Alex took to it immediately while Eli was determined yet a little too "kicky". He was a bit panicky, however he settled down and got it too. Very fun to watch. We are moving onto: tying shoes and riding a bike without training wheels. When you have coordination/fine motor issues these thing FEEL huge. So exciting!

The boys and Addie have been painting. Both boys declaring they are going to be artists when they grow up.

We just finished with VBS at church this week where Eli got saved AGAIN. We explained once saved nothing can remove you from God's hand. He gets it and I think it is sweet that he wanted to MAKE SURE! I think anyone who grew up in church gets that.

They were both baptized at the beginning of Summer. We were proud that they both took this step of obedience to God and wanted to show everyone that they are believers. Poor Alex could barely touch and his feet kept floating to the top of the baptismal.

We started Occupational therapy for Alex and Physical therapy for Eli. Thankfully it is really close to us and right across from Greenfield Village where we LOVE to visit regularly.

We enjoyed our annual trip to the lake this year. The boys fished and we took turns canoeing and kayaking. I READ BOOKS! Yay.

So as we wrap up these weeks before school, we go out with a bang and have lots of fun things to do, in true Summertime fashion.

2013 Grads!!!

The boys did such a great job at Graduation.  It was such a blessing to watch them show off what they'd learned.  Loved having family and friends come out to love on them too. It was a great night.

Congratulations boys!  Mom and Dad love you and are SO proud of you!!!!

As if turning 6 wasn't enough.....

THESE came home from school last week!!!!!

We only experimented with the Caps.  Mama can't handle gowns quite yet.  It's kind of like a 12 step program for ridiculous Moms.  :)

I asked them to pose with their caps.

This was Alex's response

Eli's Response.


This is why I crack up when people ask:  "Do they act the same??"  Ummmm no.


Congrats Boys.  Only 23 days to go.

6 years old!

It is official.  Last week on the 18th the boys turned 6.  So crazy. Many times in the past couple of weeks I have had the thought "6 years ago at this time I was .......".  It's very strange.  Instead of focus on the sadness that they are no longer sweet little babies.  I will talk about some of the upsides to 6.

They got Ninjago books.  Oh my.  Reading these books to them is a form of torture but THEY LOVE THEM.  

1.  They clothes themselves (to some degree).
2.  They feed themselves (to some degree).

I had to make 2 birthday cakes because Alex wanted "banilla" and Eli wanted chocolate.  If you look at the 2nd pic closely you will see that Addie became a bit impatient waiting for the cake to be cut.  :)

3.  They sleep through the night (to some degree).
4.  Going out for the night without them no longer involves 2 typed pages of instructions (not exaggerating) and so much prep that by the time you get out the door it hardly seems worth the 2 hours you manage to be away without worrying about them.  Now were are out the door in 30 seconds and kicking up our heels in the driveway (I may be exaggerating a little).
5.  On Saturday Mornings (when we have no place to be) we can send them to the TV and doze a bit until the sun comes up. (They still wake quite early).
6.  No middle of the night feedings for two.  Not sure how I survived this.  I still remember the nauseous feeling I had some nights.  I was literally sick from tiredness.  Ugh.
7.  No middle of the night arguments with Jared.  (See above).  It didn't happen much at all and now it makes me laugh BUT we had a couple of good ones.  I'll never forget when he asked me to shut the bedroom door because the light was in his eyes.  (I love you honey!  and in case this seems like a dissatisfied wife's rant it is not.  He was SUPERDAD then and continues to hold his title. However, we were BOTH exhausted!)
8.  This age is hysterical!  Eli was asking some questions recently that made me squirm.  It was kind of like I may have to have "the talk" with a 6 year old.  In fact at one point I said "That's a good question for Dad" (This coming from a Mom who wants Very open and honest communication with her boys.  Not my finest moment.)  Anyways, it finally boiled down to him saying "So when a Mom and Dad fall in love God gives them a baby?"  "Yep, pretty much" was my response.  To which, he replied "Hmm, that's pretty impressive?"

Poor Eli is not animated AT ALL.  Such a wallflower. ;)

9.  You can have logical conversations about how to treat others and it challenges YOU in the process.  Love that.
10.  You get to live a sort of childhood through them.  Don't worry not in a "Toddlers in Tiara's" kind of way.  For example, this weekend at the water park Eli realized that he was big enough to ride the water slide BY HIMSELF.  He was nervous and scared and brave and it was just really fun to remember what that felt like.

There are SO many other beautiful things about parenting that I can't even begin to touch on and while this list is mainly just silly, I am so blessed to have been given the gift of Alex and Eli for this past 6 years.  I have been taught more through them than I could ever have imagined.  They have changed our marriage, our lives, our relationship with God ALL for the better.  They will always be our miracles.  We love you guys!

Random Silliness

Some days we eat peanut butter like Pooh Bear eats honey.  :)






Yum!

Cousins

We had some cousin time over the Easter Holiday too. My favorite part was the Disney Dance Party.  Eli was really into it which was SO fun to watch.  Lots of video was taken I assure you!




Getting ready for the Easter Egg Hunt!




These Beautifu Girls were singing us some songs from their Spring Concert.  Very Entertaining!

Amanda came over and dyed eggs with us.

Addie ate slimy egg/water/dye goo.  Yum.  She survived!

Easter

We had a lovely Easter.  We packed a little too much into the weekend with a room re-do (lesson learned) but still managed to calm our hearts and minds and worship with our church family on Easter Sunday.

The Easter message that my pastor preached was so, so, good.   I think it will always stay with me.  It was one of those.  Here's the link.

Now without further ado.  Here is my, albeit LAME, attempt at a family pic.  You'll notice Jared and I aren't in them.  He looked great.  Every pic of me however is not so great.  Just call me vain because I am NOT posting them.  BUT here are my cute kids!  :)  That makes up for it right????





Yep these are the best I got.  It was a bit cold and NO ONE was excited about taking the pictures.  I'm glad that pictures of the kids with perfect smiles are not what Easter is all about because I would be in SERIOUS TROUBLE.  :)  They are precious nonetheless.  Hope everyone had a good Spring Break.

Oops almost forgot to discuss Eli's hat..... first and foremost let it be said that the boy pulls it off!  Am I right??  Secondly he walked into the store with Aunt Linda and I and went straight for this hat.  He wanted to get it so that he could be like Indiana Jones.  Nuff said!!  When I thought Alex might want one he was quick to tell me "NO WAY!"  He did however pick out the shirts AND he wanted them to match, which I thought was kind of funny.  Love these kids.  As for Addie's wardrobe she picked that out.  Her main request was a "PINK DRESS!!!"

My Crazies

Eli likes to mix things up a little from time to time with a tie.  It's pretty random and adorable of course.

Me capturing his fashion turned into a little sibling photo shoot.

It went downhill fast.

Love these crazies.

Addie at 2 1/2 - ish

Funny Girl!

Still loves her books.  Here she is with her cousin Andrew.

LOVES to play outside.  She always has.

Likes to pick her clothes.  Her current obsession is tights.  Like every. single. day. if possible.

Is not ashamed to twirl to show off her fashion choices.

And as of today has officially started potty training.  She picked out "Tangled" underwear and wanted to come home and watch "Tangled".  I brought the potty out and while I was on the phone with my sister she went on the potty and has gone another time since.  Crazy!  I am not naive enough to think it could be this easy but wouldn't that be nice????

That's a bit about my Addie-girl!

Winter Break

(Started this post on Tuesday, finished today, Saturday)

We have a week off school this week.  We are on day 2 and I am loving it.  I am already looking forward to having all 3 of my kids home this summer.  It just really simplifies things.  Not sure how 2 more kids than I usually have makes things simpler but I am enjoying it nonetheless.

They are enjoying the extra time at home too.  Addie is in brother heaven!  Such great playmates.  Yesterday I took the 3 of them grocery shopping and suddenly realized Addie has good reason to get cranky during our weekly grocery sessions, even her almost 6 year old brothers got antsy. Definitely gained some perspective.

Speaking of Addie, she is changing SO much.  I forgot how fun this age is.  She is saying new things every day.  She is also surprising me with her desire to do things like Mama and act like Mama and have her hair and nails like Mama or bake with me or cook with me or workout with me.  The boys wanted to be big & strong like Daddy but I wasn't prepared for this sweet spot when my daughter would want to mimic me.  It is precious and I have to document it because I KNOW this stage will pass too quickly.  In the meantime I am sewing us matching dresses and hair bows.  Ha!  Just kidding.

A big change in our lives right now is that the boys are "full dayers".  They have begged and begged and begged and I finally relented.  They love being at school all day.  They do a lot of fine motor work in the afternoon in centers.  This is great for them considering they are a bit behind in fine motor.  They are thriving in kindergarten.  Their last progress report showed that they were proficient in each area.  That is how they score them at this point (proficient, developing skill, not at grade level).  This is mind blowing.  As we near their birthday I always think back to the run down that the NICU gave us when they were born at 27 weeks.   I really wish I could have a recording of what was then the most devastating thing they could have told us outside of having lost our children.  It was so grim.  It is SO NOT the life we are living.  We are grateful.  I pray we'll be grateful for whatever the future holds. God is good all. the. time.

On that same, preemie note.  Addie-adds is doing well with her speech also.  Her Daddy and I think she is ready to graduate from her hearing impaired program however they want to hold on to us until the end of the school year.  No need for future HI involvement after that though.  Her hearing is near perfect and as mentioned in a previous post she is speaking sentences.

So this post definitely evolved into more than planned but that is what floated through my mind on this cold February Saturday.  OK off to play with some play-doh.

5 Years of Blogging

Had some spare minutes and thought I'd sit down and blog.  Not having a specific topic in mind I began to evaluate the reasons to continue blogging.  I've discussed this before but it has become a question that increases in urgency as more and more days inch by and I haven't blogged.  I have entered the world of instagram at full force and equate it to mini-blogging and love it.  The problem is that it doesn't really FULLY capture our lives at the moment and that is what I love about blogging.  Allllllllll of this to say....I just realized that as of February 20th, I have been blogging for FIVE years.  That is crazy.  And every time I read back over old blogs I realize that I have already forgotten much of what I'd written.

So my new blogging goal is to at least blog weekly.  If for no other reason than to try and keep record of some of what that 3rd child of mine is up to.  :)

In 2009 I had close to 200 blog posts.  Last year I had a whopping 46.  So, if I weekly blog at least I will be at that.  Assuming I make up for the weeks that have passed.  The point is not that it will just be on my "To Do" list but that it will be a conscious effort to keep track of this sweet time in our lives.  These years FLY BY.  My 2 pound baby boys are about to turn SIX.  Ridiculous.  Too fast.  I will attempt to slow time down and keep these memories bottled up in this jar of mine, also known as, my blog.

So stay tuned.  I also want to focus on making this my gift to my children and family.  So blog reading friends and family.  Here's to 2013.  Speaking of that, I should probably change my 2012 header.  Oy!

Christmas Break

Me and my family have thoroughly enjoying our Christmas break.  We recently returned from our trip to Colorado.  Before leaving we enjoyed some fun holiday stuff.  Cookie baking, gift opening, class partying type fun.  :)  It has been such a nice break.  TRULY a break.  Not a rush to do a million things to make it "memorable" by some standards but many memories were made nonetheless.  We are now back from our trip and have enjoyed playing with our Christmas toys and getting together to play with our cousins.

I have a million pictures of which I will never add to this blog but fun was had and pictures were taken.  here are a few.

The boys gift from Aunt Laurel and Uncle Steve was A TON of legos.  Some of which were Jared's when he was their age.  So cool.  They LOVE them!

I