Winter Days

Addie and I our back to enjoying our alone time. In truth I am not sure what is easier, dealing with Addie when she has full run of the home or having all 3 kids home. I love having all my kids home but I really try to savor my Addie time. Now that the boys are in first grade and on their way to becoming 7, (physical pain from that last statement)I know how fast this time goes. I should add that, even with that knowledge it doesn't make it easy to focus on her. The rest of life pulls at me regularly, as it should. I find that balance is needed between our entire universe revolving around our kids and giving them the attention they need. Moving on. Deep thoughts with Becky (Jack Handy reference in case you missed that).

Anyways, it is downright balmy in Michigan. We are no longer suffering from wind chills well below (-30, WHAT?) zero. I was recess Mom today and as we stepped outside on our way to the gym one of the kids said "Man, it is warm out here!!" I had to laugh. It was 35 degrees out. I was amused by his enthusiasm but just yesterday my sister Missy and I went for a walk outside and dodged snow, puddles and large icy surfaces just to get out into the warmth of 45. What can I say? we are Michiganders through and through.

So here are some of my Addie pics from the week. The girl knows how to completely destroy a room in mere minutes. And she had a lot of fun with Eli's glasses.

She is napping right now, which is a blessing because she woke up at 6:00 a.m. The boys are almost ready to be picked up from school and on go these days that are flying by way to quickly.

It's a hard-knock life

This pouty little girl......

with her big, sad, brown, eyes

has to wear a sweater and pajama pants with her "ballerina dress" (so that she doesn't freeze to death). Mom ruins all the fun.

Poor child.  Rough life. :)

Adieu Christmas Break!

Jared and I thought Alex was channeling his inner Frenchman here while enjoying his baguette.  Hence the Adieu!

The kids have LOVED all this snow SO MUCH.  They were outside today despite the fact that the wind chill was below zero.  Ugh.  I fought it for two days straight because it was insanely cold but today it was in the upper teens (ie heatwave) so I relented and they enjoyed every last second of it.

We ended up getting an extra 3 days of break due to the cold and snow, which has been so great but tomorrows the big day and Mama has plenty to get done. Addie-adds and I will be hitting the grocery store for sure.  Stay warm!

A New Year

AND I return from the longest blogging break in the history of this blog. Oy. Moving on. We are coming to the end of Christmas break and were given 2 extra days due to the snow and well below freezing temps. The boys are dying to go outside and play in the snow. It is 2 degrees out. 2. That doesn't include the windchill which I believe makes it about 20 below.

It has been such a nice break. We stayed home a lot and had time with friends and family. We sledded and played in the snow. Jared took an entire week off which was wonderful.

Currently, they are each on a device of some sort. Alex is beating me 47 to 1 in tic-tac-toe on the ipad. The only issue is I only played 1 game. Ha ha. I am now attempting to move all my 2013 pictures over to a hard drive. I kept up for the most part this year with organizing each months pics at the end of that month. I do, however have November and December to do but that is to be expected. So 2013 almost complete. Now 2011 and 2012 are a different story so I have my work cut out for me. Luckily, I have a long cold winter ahead in which to do some of these nagging tasks.

The boys are headed back to first grade tomorrow. They continue to love their school and their teacher, Mrs. Miller. They are doing well academically and we are proud of their efforts. Addie is still home with Mama. We just started gymnastics 2x/month and she is looking forward to soccer in the Spring. She is every bit of 3! I remember 3 with the boys being the absolute hardest age. I thought now only having one to go through it with would be a breeze. I was mistaken. As was the case with Alex and Eli she is also so hysterical at this age which I am positive God knows is necessary in order to endure this season in the life of a child.

As for the rest of the day, I plan to take in a movie in the basement, snuggled up with all 3 of my babies and this laptop if I stay motivated. :0 I fear that this ole laptop may be on its way out. It connects to the internet when it feels like it and the keys work if you are lucky. I am hoping that moving my camera hardware onto the desktop in the basement will alow me to blog consistently because I will have a more reliable internet connection.

Here's to 2014.

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.