Catching up

Here are some pictures of our life lately-not necessarily in order by date:

My razorback boys:

Only half the people in this picture are asleep…can you guess which two-ha?

The girls are so good with Rives and are great about giving him his paci if he is crying…helps a mama out!

Nora continues to LOVE Rives and is always such a helper!

Chillin’ out during some tummy time-

A few Saturday’s ago it was gorgeous outside, the girls got their jeep out of the garage and wanted to drive around.  Well, before that could happen it needed a good washing-

One day I was in the kitchen fixing dinner or washing dishes or something productive (I’m sure) and heard nothing but the television.  I walked over to the family room and this is what I saw…Rives had fallen asleep right beside his sisters-so sweet!

Last weekend we went over to the Graham’s house for a cookout with our old small group…good times!

My college friend, Joy, came to see me and Rives and bring us some dinner…love Joy!

Gram made the girls some dresses…thanks Gram!

On Matthew’s last day of school (or maybe 2nd to last day of school) he made trashcan milkshakes for all of his 8th graders…delish!

The girls took swim lessons at the beginning of the month.  We went to the same swim teacher we had last year and she is AWESOME!  This was Elyn’s first year to take lessons from Mrs. Dana.  Here she is on her first day:

Elyn did great!  However, she had to miss the second week because she was sick (more on that later).  Before the swim lessons she was timid about going all the way under the water and wasn’t too sure about jumping off of the diving board.  I’m happy to say she is confident with both of those now!  She refuses to wear her floaties now-ha!

Nora is an old pro at swim lessons.  She is a little fish and loves the water!  She was pretty confident in the water last summer and we felt pretty confident letting her loose in the pool.  This summer she had to step it up in swim lessons and learn some technique.  Actually, the first day, she got back in the van and said, “Swim lessons aren’t any fun…we have to do hard things.”  Ha Ha!  She wasn’t happy about having to tread water for almost a minute in the middle of the pool.

Here she is on her first day of swim lesson…can you see what she is doing?  Trying to get Rives to smile-ha!

Love those chins!

Rives at his 3 week check-up…almost 9 pounds!  He had gained a pound in two weeks!

The girls enjoying some TCBY after Rives doctor’s visit…hey, he couldn’t have any.

Drinking his first bottle

Ha ha ha!  He’s ready for Cuba and some Latin dancing.

This is what he looks like after a night a sleep and spitting up.

Last Monday we went to our local splash park.  It was a great day for it and I just knew the girls would have a blast.  Poor Elyn just sat on the side and hardly participated…I thought maybe she was tired.

However, when we got home I took her temp and it was 103!  Here she is…sick little girl.

She looks horrible!  Her temp stayed between 100 and 103 for 6 days…it was so sad!  I felt so bad for her!  I took her to the doctor and he said it was probably a fever virus.  After the 6th day, the fever was completely gone and she was back to her fun loving self.

The day I took Elyn to the doctor we came home and found Matthew and Nora cleaning the cars.  Thankfully Elyn’s Motrin had kicked in, so she went outside and joined in on the fun…you just can’t see her in the picture.

Two of our kitchen chairs now look like this…I really like them!

My little helper-she felt well enough one day to help me pick up a little.

And look, I had 5-6 inches of hair cut off!  I was tired of always wearing it in a ponytail and was desperate for something new.  Since none of my clothes fit and it is extraordinarily depressing trying on new clothes, I thought this might make me feel better-and it does!

Father’s Day 2011

I am so happy that Nora, Elyn and Rives have THE BEST DAD EVER!  I told Matthew tonight that it is sad that Nora and Elyn are not going to be able to say that their husbands are the best dad that they know…they will have to compete with Matthew and their daddy will always win.

Poor future husbands.

Thank you Matthew for putting your family before everything else, for looking to your FATHER to guide our family and loving Nora, Elyn and Rives.  What a blessing you are to them!

Time is flying by…

Guess who is ONE MONTH OLD???????

This guy!  And he is pretty shocked by that fact too!

Absolutely precious!

I literally have no time to blog these days.  I have been asked several times how it is having three kids…is it any different?

Yes, it is different and no, it’s not that different either.

It’s different because I now have ZERO “me” time.  I am constantly with SOMEONE.  In the past month I have been alone once, for about an hour span.

I went to the grocery store…it was awesome.

Or, if I’m taking a nap I am usually alone…and asleep.  Which means I am missing out on the joy of getting anything accomplished by myself.  But I am LOVING the extra sleep that a nap affords.

When my kids are napping I am either doing dishes or laundry or sweeping or picking up clutter (which is NEVER picked up) or staring into space.

Don’t get me wrong, I am really enjoying this new life and figuring it out but it is DIFFERENT not having any “alone” time.

How is it the same?  Well, it feels as if Rives has always been with us!  He has fit in perfectly with our crazy family and his sisters act as if they have had a baby brother forever.

He has made the transition super easy.  Matthew actually said to me last weekend, “You know, 3 kids isn’t so hard.  We HAVE this!  We could totally have four.”  Keep in mind, Rives was 3.5 weeks old and all he had done up to this point was sleep.  I quickly reminded Matthew that this was IT, the baby factory was closed.

He is so go with the flow and fits right in…a lot of the same.

I absolutely cannot believe that Rives is one month old!  Here is what he is up to:

• He is meeting his “milestones” for one month.  (Yes, I looked them up because I couldn’t remember what a one month old is supposed to do.) He can lift his head up when he is on his stomach, he stares at lights, responds to sounds, can turn his head from side to side, follows objects from side to side-genius stuff.
• He eats precisely every 3 hours…it’s like he has an alarm clock built in.  This kid is already telling time, in 3 hour increments.  It’s crazy.
• He also goes to sleep pretty much immediately after eating.  It’s awesome.  Seriously.  At nights when I am in zombie mode he will go to sleep after eating and I LOVE THAT!
• He spits up ALL THE TIME.  ALL.THE. TIME. I am constantly doing laundry.  We go through about 10 burp cloths a day and about 4-5 different outfits.  The spitting does not seem to bother him though.  He never appears in pain and seems to be gaining lots of weight.  It’s just a pesky problem that will go away with time, I’m sure.  His sisters were the exact same way.
• He is still sleeping in a bassinet in our room…because we still haven’t gotten his room put together.  We are horrible, horrible, horrible parents.  Sigh.  Hopefully soon.
• He is wearing 0-3 month clothing and size 1 diapers
• He has had 2 bottles of pumped milk.  I am teaching 2 classes for Harding in the fall and am teaching them on the same night.  I will be gone from home for about 6 hours on that night.  Rives might starve to death if he won’t take a bottle (and Matthew might lose his mind).  Nora and Elyn never took a bottle because it was never really necessary.  He takes a bottle like a champ…I am so thankful for that!
• He takes a pacifier, thank goodness!
• Has no real preference about sleeping spots.  He will sleep in his bassinet (swaddled), in his bouncy seat, in his swing, in his car seat, or, where he is right now-right beside me on the couch.
• Doesn’t seem to have lost any hair at all…I wonder if it will all fall out like Nora and Elyn’s hair did.
• He enjoys bath time…which are necessary quite often because of all the spitting.
• He doesn’t seem bothered AT ALL with all the sisterly attention his is constantly receiving.  THANK GOODNESS!
• He has proven to be a decent car traveler.  We have gone to McAlister twice, it is about a 3 hour drive.  He has traveled great both times.  We are doing some MAJOR traveling next month and I hope to write the same thing in his 2 month update.

He is such a blessing to our family and we are so thankful that God knew how perfect he would be for our family.  We are also so thankful for God’s perfect timing!

It’s still hard to believe we have THREE kids!

A quiet week

The girls have been in Texas for the past week.  And it has been QUIET at our house!  I was afraid that Rives might freak out because of the lack of noise, but he behaved as usual…very laid back and super good.

Everyone should have a third baby!

(Especially if your first was extremely high strung and required massive amounts of attention and your second cried for the first four weeks of her life.  Then definitely have a third baby. They are great!)

Since the girls were gone I thought I would get a ton of things done and catch up on blog posts and dedicated massive amounts of time cleaning and sorting and decorating.

But I didn’t.  I spent a lot of time holding my baby and rocking him and nursing him and sleeping in and running a few errands and spending time with my husband and watching some movies.

It was a good week…but I missed my pals while they were in Texas and I’m glad they are home!

What I didn’t do was to take a lot of pictures of Rives and I could just kick myself for that!  I will have to make up for it in the next few days.

Even though I was a slacker on taking pictures this past week, I have taken some in the past…here they are:

Rives first Sunday of life…he didn’t make it to church (and neither did I-ha).  He really was glad to see his sisters, despite was his face is showing…

That same day we had really bad storms with tornadoes in the area (it was the same night those in Joplin, MO were hit).  The tornado sirens went off twice and we all took shelter in a hall closet.  Let me tell you, I am NOT comfortable!  Rives was 5 days old at this point…I am still swollen and my c-section incision was hurting as I was sitting, scrunched in the closet.  Good memories.

One week after he was born, we went to see Dr. N for the very first time.  Rives weighed 7 lbs 12 oz when we left the hospital (he lost 12 oz from birth) and he was back up to 8 lbs even by one week!  We go to see Dr. N again this coming Tuesday, Rives 3 week birthday.  I’m curious to see what his weight is up to.

Nora had a little “carnival” at her school as an end of year party.  I was ZERO help in planning or helping bring stuff in…slacker-ha!  I did make it to the party though and took a few pictures.  One of the games that Nora liked was a bean bag toss…

Her first experience with Twister…

Look, no hands!

Rives enjoyed the party too…this is what he did the whole time.

Sweet girl…ready for kindergarten, sniff, sniff!

Nora got her picture made with each girl in her class…

Annabelle-

Hadlee-

Callie-

Zyra Lynn-

snack time!

How cute is that little bottom, up in the air!  I was changing his clothes and put him down to unsnap this little outfit and he put his hands under his chin…so precious!

Julia, Brian, Noah and Esther and Beth came to visit us!  Esther and Rives are a little over 3 months apart in age…here they are at almost 2 weeks and almost 4 months.

All 5 cousins…the oldest is 5 and the youngest is two weeks.  I pray they grow up good friends!

Rives and Esther hanging out Sunday morning before church

Our first Sunday at church as a family of five.

And now to iPhone pics…so much easier to take these days.

Nora and Elyn in the closet during our “tornado drill”.  Cracks me up!  Nora looks terrified and Elyn looks like she is having the time of her life-ha!

First “faux” hawk

Nora and Mrs. O.  Nora painted a flowerpot for a gift for Mrs. O and picked out some flowers to give her.

Look at that cute froggy bottom…

baby burrito

I went to the grocery store one day and this is what my cart looked like when I was ready to check out…it was a little crowded with the baby in the middle of everything!

Thankfully Julia brought me her Moby Wrap…shopping has been much easier since I learned how to use this thing!

And to show you that Rives looks like Elyn…Rives on top, Elyn on bottom.  It’s crazy!

I told Matthew, I find myself holding Rives and calling him “Elyn” because they are so similar.  I hope I’m not damaging him-ha!

What Rives does all day long…

Woooo, Mom, that is a lot of pictures…maybe you should do a better job of updating your blog…

It’s hard to believe that we have had Rives for almost three weeks!  He is so great!  I feel like our family is complete.  It’s amazing because I don’t dread the middle of the night feedings like I did with the girls.

I remember with Nora, as soon as the sun would go down, I would start to get sad.  I knew that she would wake up throughout the night and I would feel like I was the only person on Earth awake at that time.  I could not wait until she was sleeping through the night!

With Elyn I was less panicked about it because I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  However, I was exhausted all the time because, in addition to my infant, I had a 19 month old to deal with every day.  I was ready for a good nights sleep!

Now, knowing Rives is our last baby, I am not wishing the every 3 hour meals away.  (Now if he is still not sleeping through the night at 8 months old, my tune might change).  I don’t feel as tired during the day either…granted, it hasn’t been that long and I did just have a week of just him.  I am realizing at how quickly time flies…sleep is not as important to me as it was 5 years ago.  Spending time with my babies is more important.

The girls start swim lessons next week and Matthew is FINALLY done with school next Wednesday (snow days really don’t seem so “snowy” when school goes into June).  I am so looking forward to our summer together!