Life Lately- Spring Edition

Life this Spring has been pretty busy. But isn't it always? 

We've all had countless colds (thanks Kindergarten germs!) 

plenty of sleepless nights (thanks teething!) 

hours of yardwork to tackle

and lots of trips to the park when the wind isn't trying to blow everything away.

Here's a peek at the hightlights 

(I'll spare you all the details of the 2 costco sized

 kleenex packs we've gone through in the last month!)

Savannah's first taste of Krispy Kreme on a Sunday Morning in our jammies-

 she loved the little bit of blueberry cake doughnut she go to try!

After doughnut snuggles- these sweet sisterly moments are the best! 

Baby doesn't want to take her nap....then lets take some selfies! #whynot #shessovain

Someone has been SUPER helpful with chores lately.

(Note: I was loading the wet clothes IN the dryer at the time)

We celebrated the awesome guys big 3-5!

 It seems like yesterday I was just throwing his 30th birthday bash....

I sure am grateful for this man!

I attempted making classic tiramisu for the first time (his favorite), and it was delicious!

Tiramisu on a paper plate #classy

Recipe can be found here 

We had some warm weekend mornings before the wind and thunderstorms rolled in, so we broke out the water table and sprinkler while the girls cousins were visiting.

Savannah LOVED her first water table playtime, 

but that's no surprise since she loves all things with water!

 The kids begged for otter pops, so....another first for Miss Vanni- 

don't worry, she only got a few sips, then mommy took the rest 'away' ;o)

Kinsey had her Kindergarten Musical- it was an Under the Sea theme

(she's in the back row)

Her class was the Jellyfish, and they did a cute little song and dance to the "Jellyfish Jump", and Kinsey even got to say a fact about Jellyfish!

I cannot believe that she will be done with Kindergarten in less than 2 weeks! 

Makayla had her two week Post-Op following her Strabismus Surgery

Her vision is still 20/20, but her Dr recommended she continue to wear her glasses to hopefully correct the last little bit of crossing we are still seeing. 

He's hopeful that in 3-5 years she will outgrow the need for glasses to correct the lingering crossing. Since the RX she wears is very weak there's no real concern for her becoming dependent on the glasses either.

She got to pick some new frames since her last ones were broken and no longer available. She picked these all on her own- so adorable!

We celebrated Mother's Day with a quiet day at home,

 a BBQ lunch and mommy having a cold (boo!)

 But at least I got some pictures with these three beauties that call me mommy. 

I'm forever grateful for the blessings that I have received in these three girls.

 Motherhood is something sorta crazy, but also really beautiful.

On a final, and somber, note.

 My childhood pet, whom I adopted as a kitten in 1995, 

passed away this weekend at my parents home. 

He was just shy of 20!

Cinnamon was a wonderful cat, my first 'baby', and I will forever cherish the memory of him.

 He was so smart, I taught him as a kitten how to open the treat container with his claw

 and get one at a time out.....to his last days he loved his treats!

 Hopefully there's plenty of them to go around in Heaven,

 along with bunnies, birds and lizards to chase all day. 

Top- 1996, bottom L- 2000's, bottom R- 2013

Life Lately

Life lately is a usual, busy. I'm constantly wanting time to slow down and wishing there were more hours in the day to get everything done and while still soaking up this precious time with my babies.

Also, I put them to bed and then promptly fall asleep on the sofa most nights....zzzzzz.

They wear me out and I'm typically up several times a night 

with little Miss Insomniac (aka Savannah)

It's a good thing she's cute.

This is her after bath hair-do. 

Makayla often plays dress up while big sis is at school.

The girls are still giddy and screaming with excitement with every balloon sighting,

 even though they are near weekly occurrences. 

Makayla has started drawing people and animals- this is her and daddy!

Someone is crawling everywhere. Sometimes like this, and other times on her knees.

 Her days are currently spent working hard pulling to stand up on things 

I cut about 4 inches off my hair. 

With post partum hair loss it was looking a bit lackluster being so long.

We've been sick.....a lot. Each time it seems to drag on for weeks, one down....3 days later the next kid catches it, etc. Finally we are better for a week and then the next bug has stricken us! So ready for a healthy household, especially after this sweetie having her first ear infection.

Kinsey has been helping more around the house- her current favorite thing is peeling...potatoes, carrots, etc. She LOVES to help me cook. 

She's also been branching out and more willing to try food she had previously refused, like mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs. Makes life a little easier when your kids are less picky!

Lots of tea parties with this sweetie. 

I'm planning a post about her eyes soon,

 but she's scheduled for a surgery in late April to further correct her strabismus. 

My little fashonista. All decked out for school one day in an outfit she picked. It's getting harder and harder to chose her clothes for her! She's going great in Kindergarten, reading ahead of where she needs to be and catching on to the math concepts they teach quickly. Her current obsession is jellyfish, she loves watching you tube videos about them and then reciting facts she has learned.

So that's a little of our daily life. Between diapers, dishes, school drop of and pickup and running my design business  we plan to have a lot of fun this Spring! 

Our Newest Family Member

Well, looks as though it's been 5 months...time for another regular blog post!

I like to keep things frequent and timely.

I won't make excuses, I'll just share with you the cuteness that is my #1 excuse.

Exhibit A: 

Savannah Rose

Born July 1 @ 9:45pm

6lbs13oz

She arrived at 39 weeks 2 days gestation, my longest pregnancy! (by one day...but still!) She was also my smallest baby, and quite possibly my longest labor. 

Kinsey's was roughly 24 hours, Makayla's was 8, and Savannah started giving me the pains about 36 hours before she was born.

We actually headed to triage the evening before she was born, I had been contracting all day and since I was Strep B positive again I wanted to arrive early enough to get both rounds of antibiotics. Makayla's labor had been so quick that I didn't receive both rounds, and she ended up with a high WBC count and a 3 day NICU stay for treatment. I wanted to avoid that at all costs this time around!

So we jumped the gun, I was barely dilated and not progressing so they sent me home to rest. 

Fun fact- the triage nurses and midwives all said that they see the most 'false labor' trips to triage with third babies. Who would have thought, right? 

I won't bore you with all the details of the next 24 hours, but they involved lots of walking, plenty of questioning whether my water had broken or not, a couple google searches on how to speed labor up and then an eventual mad dash to get the second round of antibiotics in so I could push!

About an hour before delivery, in between contractions I was still smiling!

Thank goodness for my midwife...who realized I was going to be ready to push soon and didn't leave my side. She looked the nurse in the eye and said "lets start those antibiotics early....it's okay to fudge the numbers a bit in this case" ha. I was screaming at them to push those meds full blast into me, I didn't care how much it might have burned...I was soooooo ready to push! 

Did I mention I had my third natural delivery?

Also good to note...my husband is an awesome labor coach. The best. I couldn't have had any of my babies naturally if it wasn't for his mad skills at keeping me focused and calm. 

Anyhow, about 2 minutes after the antibiotics were finished I made one big push and Savannah was born! 

About 10 minutes old

My first words were "She's SO TINY!" 

I was honestly worried about how small she was, I thought something was wrong until I realized that I just forgot how small newborns are! 

Proud daddy...again :)

So even though we got the antibiotics in, we still ended up staying in the hospital for 3 days post delivery. Savannah and I have a different blood type, making her more prone to jaundice, and she required 36 hours under the bili lights for good measure. It was hard to see her under there and only be allowed to only hold my sweet newborn once every 3 hours for 30 minutes. But it was much, much, much preferable to the NICU stay we had with Makayla. 

Big sisters meeting Savannah for the first time!

Our family finally came together again on July 4th, when we brought Savannah home to a house full of family and friends, a BBQ, and some awesome fireworks viewing from our backyard. 

First family of 5 picture!

Over the last 7 weeks we have been adjusting to our new normal. Having a newborn, a toddler and now a kindergartner (!!!) has left my head spinning most days, but I'm starting to feel a little more in control with each new day.

I'm just a sleep deprived mom zombie just trying to enjoy every moment of this chaotic and beautiful life with three awesomely crazy littles. 

Life is good. 

I'll try and post again soon...no promises, though.

2014?!?

Some resolutions are better made in late February than Jan 1st, right?

 Please tell me they are more likely to stick ;) 

I'm not a resolution person anyway.

But- I do want to blog more often in the coming months, if nothing else but a way to remember my crazy life, share it with family and friends, and maybe inspire and relate to someone out there whom I have never met. 

I'm also HORRIBLE at scrapbooking, which I have mentioned before, and this blog needs to serve as a written and pictoral memory of raising my family. Because my memory is atrocious, ask my husband. Whatever his name is. 

So, to dive in.....again.

A recap of the past 6 moths or so.

Sept-Moved to a new house and town, same general area of New Mexico.

Oct-Celebrated Kinsey's 5th birthday 2 weeks after moving into said new home.

lalaloopsy themed cake for her 5th birthday party

I celebrated the big 3-0!

                  Kinsey started 4 day a week morning preschool with speech therapy.

One month to the date of moving in, discovered this little surprise.

Nov- Sold our old home 2 weeks later. Whew!

Dec- Cut 14" off Kinsey's hair- her first real haircut!

Bought a new car just before Christmas.

Jan- Told our extended family and friends about our growing brood.

Started a trial of glasses to hopefully further correct Makayla's strabismus, In hope that another surgery won't be necessary over the summer.

Feb- On Valentine's Day, learned we were adding another girl to the group!

So that's it for now...Hopefully I'll be back before the next 6 months are over!

What...It's been over a year?

Wow! March 2011. That's the last post I wrote. It's now July 2012. Time. Has. Flown.

Here are some things that have happened since my last post (In no particular order):

- I crafted a lot.

- I left a lot of those projects unfinished...as usual.

- We went on a family vacation to Padre Island, Texas and then didn't want to come home.

- I photographed my second wedding and did some portraits along the way.

- Oh! I had a baby... Makayla Ann,  aka. Boo, was born July 28, 2011- she is the cutest little thing and I cannot believe she is about to be ONE!

-  I went brunette...than back to blonde 2 weeks later. I didn't like looking so serious, it made me depressed 

-  Kinsey turned 3 and will be 4 soon.

- We got the house all fixed up to sell, then met with a Realtor who promptly squashed all our dreams of selling. 

So now that you are all caught up, lets get down to why I decided to come back to this blogging world after so long. I missed writing. I missed sharing even if no one was reading. But most of all I missed knowing that someday I can look back on all this for myself, or with my girls, and it will be like a journal of our lives as a family. Of all the crafty things I do, scrapbooking is not one of them. So this is my little scrapbook for myself..and hopefully an interesting, insightful or just plain funny take on a normal mama's life. 

“There are two kinds of perfect: The one you can never achieve, and the other, by just being yourself.” 
― Lauren King