2014 - Week 40

Monday was a pretty typical Monday. It came too fast, and way too early. But, we were all up and at it, off to work, school and “daycare”. After our little heatwave the last few days, it was FREEZING today, and we’re in for a major cool down (though, I still have my fingers crossed for an Indian summer still!). After work, I picked the big girls up and we were off to Amelia’s soccer practice…with a few extra layers for each of us. Luckily the kids playing didn’t seem to mind, but the rest of us were pretty grateful that the coaches ended practice a tad early! Christian picked Eliza up from his parents’ and met us at home. We warmed up, had some dinner and relaxed for a while before bed. Man am I glad we got our Sever’s trip in before this cold spell hit, and got the pool finished!

My annual collage of our Sever's Trips

Olivia, showing how shockingly cold it was suddenly!

Tuesday was another standard day. But, I’ve been noticing my pump seems to be making some pretty sad noises lately, and sounds like it’s start to lose power. When I had Olivia, I didn’t know better and I bought a single electric pump. It worked, but took FOREVER to pump, especially once back to work. I was having such supply issues as it was, I was really frustrated. I invested in a Medela PISA, but only used it for a short period of time before I stopped pumping. I then used it my entire +year of pumping/nursing for Amelia, with no issues. I debated buying a new one when I had Eliza…insurance now covers a portion of it, 80% for an electric pump, but I just didn’t want to spend the extra money. Now, almost 5 months in, I’m wishing I had just bitten the bullet and bough one. Well, I posted about my dilemma on facebook and I was shocked…my friend Melissa texted me and offered up her old pump to me…she’d had it for a while, but didn’t use it much, so it was practically brand new. So awesome! But, but the time I got home this evening, my friend Sara, who lives across the street, popped over with her barely used pump from having her baby this past July. I was so surprised, and so grateful! So, I just have to replace the motor in my bag, with the one she gave me, and I’ll be good to go. Seriously, SO GRATEFUL! Outside of that excitement, the girls and I were off to another COLD practice tonight. This time I had Eliza with me though, and she was not a happy camper. I tried so hard to keep her in her stroller, where it was much warmer, but she wasn’t having it. We were all very happy to get home and out of the cold, that’s for sure. Christian had started dinner while we were gone, so we ate, gave the girls their baths and it wasn’t long before everybody was off to bed. I am so not ready for this cold. AT ALL!

Not only were we twins, as usual, but we matched today!

On Wednesday, after a looooooong stretch of getting little to no sleep, I finally woke up feeling refreshed because Eliza actually slept pretty well. Thank the Lord!! We were all off for the day (well, I was working from home, but I dropped the girls off as usual), and the day is always much happier and brighter when you actually get some sleep, let me tell you! The rest of the day was pretty standard. Amelia did tell me about a new girl at school. I asked her if she was going to be this new girls friend and she told me “yeah mom, she’s my new best friend”. Ha, how wonderful it must be to make new friends, let along new BEST friends at the drop of the hat! Wouldn’t it be nice if it were still like that when you were adults?! I do admit though, it makes me pretty proud to know that welcomes new kids to school so openly. We try hard to work with the girls on being kind to everybody, not leaving anybody out and being friends with everybody, and it’s refreshing to see it paying off. My girls, I just love them!

Thursday was pretty standard, but a great day. Eliza, again, slept GREAT last night, all night long in fact, and it felt amazing. Seriously, please let this continue, the rest is so needed! We were all off to work and school (my Friday, woot!) and the day progressed as usual. I arrived to work to find that my friend from work, Kelly, had left me a bag of leftover nursing pads and milk storage bags from her last baby, which I was pretty excited about. THEN, when I arrived home with the girls after work, I checked the mail, and I had a wonderful “just because” card from my friend Dawn, from Indiana. She is seriously AMAZING at picking out cards, always finds the perfect ones…it’s an art, I swear. It felt nice to get a special little “hello” from her, from so far away. I would seriously give just about anything for her to move here, that’s all I know. We spent the rest of the evening having a quiet Thursday night…dinner, a little family time together. Life is so much more relaxed when it’s “Friday”!

My Throwback this week, in honor of Halloween month, little chicken Olivia on her first Halloween. LOVE!!

Friday brought us a sun-shiny morning after another great night of sleep. Seriously, hallelujah! It was also my day off, so after I dropped the big girls off at daycare, it was just Eliza and I, hanging out at home. Little beats it, and it never gets old. Christian was off to work, and I was nervous because it was picture day for Olivia at school. First real, official, picture day! Of course, she’s my little photo pro, so I’m sure she’ll do great, but we practiced a little and I gave her a little speech on making sure she stays clean and put together until her photos. Fingers crossed! Eliza actually slept in a bit today, and took a super nice long nap, so our day was pretty quiet and low key. We did make a quick run to Target. Mainly, we have a birthday party tomorrow, so we were purchasing a gift to bring. I’m also way too obsessed with buying the girls clothes. This I’d say is the definite “pitfall” in having all girls – and, you’d think with 3 of them I would just learn to stay away from the clothing section, but I can’t. I found a couple of clearance items for Eliza (who actually NEEDS clothes), and a super cute sweater for Amelia (who definitely does NOT need clothes) – I couldn’t help it though. After Target, I spent a little more time relaxing and catching up on some shows before heading off to pick the big girls up. I had to pick them up a little earlier than I usually do on my Friday off because they, and I, had appointments to get flu shots this afternoon. My friend Sara threw her back out earlier this week, so I also picked up their little BFF Bella…she got to come along and be a spectator for the event. The girls each got the mist again this year and did really well with it. I got the shot (I cannot stand the thought of shooting something up my nose)…while it typically hurts for a while, it actually didn’t hurt at all this year. YAY! We made our way home and the girls played for a while before Sara stopped over to pick Bella up. Christian ended up going out on a delivery run for work tonight, so he didn’t get home really late, so we girls had dinner and hung out for a bit before bed. I spent a little more time with Hulu before passing out myself. It was a busy day, but boy do I love my Friday’s off!

Olivia, ready for picture day!

My Sweet baby, I just love her to pieces!

Saturday was a HECTIC day, for sure. Christian was up bright and early and off to work for the day. He hasn’t been getting much overtime for a while now, so I’m excited for him to get a little more work in. Hopefully it continues. The girls and I had some breakfast and were off to soccer. Holy Moly, it was SO COLD! The girls had a few layers on and survived, but poor Eliza was miserable in her snowsuit, and I was freezing my butt off! We ran right home after soccer to change, get ready, and head out for our next activity…a birthday party for my friend Kelly’s daughter, Annabelle. The party was at a bowling alley, where they got to bowl one game, and each got a $5.00 credit to the arcade. So, they bowled, then did the lunch, cake, present opening chaos, and then we finished up in the arcade. After  buying a couple of trinkets  with their arcade tickets, we were finally off on our final adventure…we met my best friend Kari and her kids at Edinborough Park for some playtime. She had some free passes, so the big girls and her older son ran around, climbed, biked and went crazy for a while, while she, I and our babes caught up. We don’t see each other nearly enough, so it was great being able to hang out and catch up. Needless to say, after all of the activity, we were all pretty exhausted. The girls all passed out on the way home and napped a little bit. Christian had arrived home from work while we were still out, and did some work cutting the grass and cleaning up the yard. We had some dinner, hung out for a while and had a quiet evening after all of the chaos. Once the girls were in bed, we watched “The Other Woman”, which was actually much better than I was anticipating. We started watching “Captain America” as well, but I of course ended up passing out. Those movies aren’t really my thing, so I wasn’t too sad about it.

Christian didn't get home until I was in bed last night, and was gone before I woke up this morning, so he left me a little love note. Sometimes he manages to surprise me!

Ready to Bowl!

BFF's from Birth!

She was so tired, she pulled her hood down over her eyes and passed out, LOL

Sunday was chore day, very exciting. After breakfast, I spent much of the day doing laundry and a ton of dishes while Christian cleaned the entry, including the windows and curtains, which needed a long overdue washing. We also picked up the main level…living room, kitchen, bedrooms…and it always makes me feel so accomplished when, for a brief moment in time, I feel like things are in order (I do have to pretend that the basement doesn’t exist to get that feeling though). The girls and I were off to swim class while Christian stayed back with a sleepy Eliza. He made dinner while we were out, so that’s a bonus. Olivia and I filled out her “Star of the Week” posters for this upcoming week at school while he finished up dinner. After eating, and getting the girls to bed, Christian was off to have a couple drinks with his friends and I got the house to myself for a little while after a chaotic, busy weekend. Not a bad way to end it, that’s for sure!

Morning Twin Cuddles!

Working on her Posters

Until Next Week! XOXO

2014 - Week 39

Well, this week started off with hitting our families latest milestone…Monday was Christian and my 7^th wedding anniversary! It’s so weird. In some ways, I feel like our wedding was just yesterday. I feel like we were just these carefree, mid-20-something-year-olds with the whole world at our fingertips. Surrounded by friends and family, with endless possibilities and opportunities ahead of us. Just beginning. Now, 7 years later, we’re 30-year-olds, with these three amazing, beautiful daughters and our entire lives surrounding them. We still have the world at our fingertips and endless possibilities and opportunities ahead of us, but that vision has definitely shifted than what it was 7 years ago. Yet, I still feel like our lives are just beginning. Our marriage, our relationship, is far from perfect. We fight, we argue, we push each other’s buttons, we drive each other crazy. At the end of the day, we move on, we forgive and forget (or at least forgive), we start each day fresh and new. He’s spontaneous, carefree, friendly, outgoing, loud and adventurous. I’m stable, a planner, shy, quiet, and somewhat of an awkward introvert. Somehow, it works. So, 7 down, and many to go! In other news, Eliza has NOT been sleeping well, and it’s really starting to drain me (again). I know these phases will continue to come and go for quite a while, but it doesn’t make it any less exhausting! I did however start using new bottles for her. I use a Medela pump, but we’ve always used Playtex Drop-In’s bottles. I finally gave in and bought some accessories and extra Medela bottles so that we could just start feeding her with the bottles that I pump into. Holy Crap is that a timesaver…in both bottle preparation, and more importantly, in bottle cleaning at night! Seriously, I’m kicking myself for not having done this with the other two, or at least with Amelia. I did leave work a tad early today so that I could make a run to the grocery store. Stopped home to put everything away, and was off to pick the girls up and head to Amelia’s soccer practice. We are now permanently practicing with the other team, which I think is best for all. Our 4 kids would not have a very productive practice on their own, and I think even with their bigger team, the more the merrier. Amelia has been doing really well in practice, and getting better at games, so I think this will only help her gain some confidence, and get used to playing with more kids in the mix. Meanwhile, Christian picked Eliza up from his parents’, and picked up some Chipotle for dinner (our celebration, LOL). After practice, we finally made our way home, ate, and relaxed for the evening. Life is sure exhausting!

Amelia tonight...I always know when Miss Carla is in her classroom, because she comes home with a new hairdo every time!

Tuesday was a pretty standard day. We were all off to work/school/daycare and carrying on as usual. After work, I picked the girls up and we were off to Olivia’s soccer practice. Her team is still pretty hit or miss on showing up, but there’s usually at least 6 of the 8 kids there. I still just don’t get it…why sign your kids up for something, and then just randomly show up? This is one of the many reasons why “today’s youth” is so “me-oriented”, and fairly selfish. I don’t care how old you are, if you are on a team, you need to show up. Period. And, in my opinion, kids need to be taught this starting at a young age. Sure, we all have things come up that you can’t avoid, I get that, but some of these kids, it’s just ridiculous. Christian ended up going straight home after work, and started dinner. When we girls arrived, we played some music while he finished cooking, and had a little dance party in the kitchen. We don’t often have a house full of good, happy moods and some free time to just kick back and have fun together, so it was a welcomed treat. Eliza was laughing up a storm, so we were treated to baby laughs galore, and there isn’t much in this world that beats that. Ugh, heart-melting! We finally settled in for some dinner and some relaxation time before bed, but it was definitely a good night in our house.

Wednesday was work at home day, YES! It will never, EVER get old, I can guarantee that! Even better, the final season of How I Met Your Mother was FINALLY released on Netflix, so I was able to start that and had it on in the background most of the day. So excited to finally finish it off. We did hit a snag partway through the day…Olivia started complaining of a headache a little before lunch, so her teacher sent her down to the nurse’s office. She ended up registering a fever, so they called me to come pick her up. Usually you can tell if kids are starting to come down with something, but this seriously came out of nowhere, I was so shocked and felt so bad sending her off to school if she was feeling that bad. Once we were home, I have her some medicine and water, and sent her off to bed for a nap. I did check her temperature and it wasn’t that high, but she definitely wasn’t herself. I tucked her in and went back to working. After her nap, she ate some lunch and relaxed on the couch watching some videos. She was definitely feeling better, and eventually drove me crazy wondering when Amelia would be home, LOL. Hopefully it was just a fluke. After I finished working, I started dinner, picked up the other girls and we had some dinner when Christian arrived home. Olivia seemed perfectly normal the rest of the night, but we did send her to bed a little early for some extra rest. You just never know where a day will lead you!

On Thursday, Olivia  was off to my in-laws for the day. No fever and she seemed perfectly fine, but she couldn’t go to school because of yesterday’s fever. I finalized Olivia’s fundraiser information on lunch today…instead of handing in the sheet, we had to enter everything in online, then print their “summary” sheet and hand that in with the money. So weird. She ended up getting more than enough to win a ride in the limo, and she’ll get 5 little prizes, so she’ll be really excited about that. Our ended up being a little hectic. When I picked the girls up from daycare, Amelia was complaining that her stomach hurt, later claiming she was just really tired, then passed out on the couch while I was making dinner. Eliza was super crabby, crying up a storm and nothing would console her, so I finally had to put her in the swing while I made dinner, and she cried herself right to sleep, resulting in a much needed little catnap. Christian picked Olivia up from his parents and we ate when they arrived home. Eliza woke up right after, so I hung out with her, fed her and got her to bed. Amelia FINALLY woke up and also ate a little bit, but still seemed pretty exhausted, so she was right back to bed shortly after. I sure hope we don’t have some bug making its way through the house! It’s been pretty cold, but today marked the return of nice, warm weather, so we need to be able to take advantage! I also noticed that my Hulu cue is starting to fill up mighty fast with the return of all of the fall shows, so I’m looking forward to lots of catching up in all my “downtime”, LOL

Eliza loves Chuy, it cracks me up! He kept photobombing my selfie with her tonight.

My throwback photo this week, in honor of our upcoming visit to Sever's, our first visit back in 2009 with baby Olivia

Friday started off after a seriously horrible night of sleep. Seriously, I was pretty much like the Walking Dead today I was so exhausted. I don’t wish away these sweet baby days, but I am definitely looking forward for the days of consistent, awesome sleep again! Olivia was back to school today, Amelia off to daycare and I was off to work (I hate when it’s my Friday to work!). Christian ended up staying home with Eliza today…my mom and I attempted to adjust our schedules because she went out of town last weekend, to my uncles, and is away at a conference this week, but somehow we messed up our planning and I wasn’t actually able to stay home with her today. Christian had a few days he needs to use up by the end of the year, so it wasn’t a big deal though. I did take some time to schedule dentist appointments for Olivia, Amelia and myself, along with some fly shots for us, and that was pure chaos. I love that I can do all of our medical scheduling online…I sure wish the dental stuff would follow suit. It’s such a pain trying to talk to people and tell them what you are looking for. I’m trying to switch the girls to the pediatric dentist at the clinic closer to home, and while it’s no big deal for Amelia, I don’t want Olivia missing school for a teeth cleaning, so our times of day are pretty limited. She has a few days off of school coming up that I was shooting for, but the dentist by us only works on Wednesdays. Seriously, ONE DAY A WEEK?! Luckily, it’s my day working from home, so I can work with that, but after explaining the appointment needs to be either REALLY early in the morning, or REALLY late in the afternoon (and yes, I did clearly emphasize REALLY), she offers me a 12:40….to which I not so politely declined. The best we could do was back to back starting at 8:40, so Olivia will probably just have to be a little late that day (they start school at 9:25). Life would be much easier if I could just look at what was available and choose, that’s for sure. We also had computer issues at work pretty much all day, which makes for a very long and frustrating day at work. Technology, sometimes it’s definitely not so great. Once (finally) off work, I picked the girls up and we made our way home. The big girls played outside for a while, while Christian and his friend Lorenzo finished folding up the pool and getting it packed away. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed by how small they managed to fold it up. Outside of that, it was a pretty standard night…dinner, hung out with Eliza, bedtime and some TV…the usual.

My sweet baby, she was not a happy camper tonight!

Working on her sitting skills!

Spoiled Olivia conned a "Brave" Bow & Arrow out of her grandparents yesterday!

Me & My Girls - LOVE!

Saturday started off pretty standard, and pretty early. Eliza is DEFINTIELY teething, and she still has not been sleeping well. I feel like this round of bad sleeping has been going on forever, that’s all I know. We had some breakfast and we were off to the girls’ soccer games. This week was the first, and only, week the girls play at different times, Amelia at 9:00 and Olivia at 10:15, so we were both able to watch them both play. And, my Dad and stepmom came down to watch them as well, which they were pretty excited about. So, we all watched them play and did some catching up. Amelia managed to score a goal for them, but Olivia still has yet to score one. She still gets SO close, but just can’t get it in. And, I swear, every team we play is way more aggressive and skilled than our poor little team of misfits. They have fun, but you can tell they’re starting to get more and more discouraged every week. Her coach is just a little too passive, and is still a little too focused on the basics rather than REALLY teaching them how to defend and how to cover players on the other team and building up their confidence. I think next year Olivia moves to an all-girls league, and I’m hoping she’ll do better there. After their games, we made our way home for some lunch, a little TV, and naps for all of the girls. The big girls were crabby and acting up, so while we’ve been a little lax on weekend naps lately, there was definitely a need today. Christian cut the grass and I did some laundry and relaxed. Lorenzo came over again, this time to clean and pool cover and tarp, and get those folded up and put away as well. The pool is finally, officially, packed up. That was far too short lived, and I already can’t wait for next year! They decided we should grill some dinner tonight, so they ran to the grocery store to get some food. Meanwhile, when the girls woke up from their naps, we were all off to Target. There was a Cartwheel for 40% off of costumes, which expired today, so we had to jump on it! I ended up saving about $30 on their costumes this year, AWESOME! The big girls are going to be witches, but not your standard variety. And, baby is going to be a pumpkin. We’ve never done the pumpkin thing, and it’s pretty much a requirement that you do it at some point, so we thought this would be a good opportunity. Of course, the girls would DIE to be Elsa and Anna, like every little girl in the world, but we didn’t encourage that idea. I really didn’t want them to have the same costume as 80% of the girls we’d cross, and I didn’t want to go through the trouble of finding them at this point. Luckily, they’re pretty easy to convince otherwise. We made our way home, had some dinner with the boys, played for a bit, and the girls were off to bed. The boys hung out in the garage for a bit, while I ditched them for some TV time before passing out. This ended up being quite a busy day!

Taking a snooze with my babe, it's probably my favorite thing to do right now!

Having some fun while looking for their costumes

Sunday was another hectic day. We had breakfast and immediately got ready to head out for the day. Off to Sever’s we went to spend the day enjoying some fall fun. We arrived there shortly after they opened, around 10:15, and met Olivia’s BFF, Bella, and her dad there. My BFF and her family usually meet us for the day as well, but something came up last minute and they weren’t able to make it. It was a bummer, but we did have a great time. Their friend from baseball/soccer, Rio, and his mom actually met us for a little while as well, so that was a fun surprise. Last year, we were FREEZING the day we went to soccer, winter hit WAY early, this year, we were sweating our butts off it was so hot. I can’t believe how different the weather is from year to year. This is our favorite fall tradition, and this year’s visit was no different. We hung out in the pumpkin patch for a while, jumped on the giant pillows (twice!), hung out in the corn pit, took a couple trips down the giant slide, hung out no parakeet island feeding the birds, watched some pig races, rode the camel, checked out the petting zoo and climbed the tire mountain. There was so much else we wanted to do, but time just ticks away, and we were all pretty exhausted. Some highlights include: Parakeet Island wasn’t as robust with birds as it usually is, so the birds that were in there were pretty full and not very interested in hanging out with us; we sent the girls down the giant slide together this year, and Olivia somehow convinced Amelia to ride down behind her…both times; the petting zoo has ostriches, which you have to feed using a spoon (obviously, they’re evil), but Olivia snuck by me and went to feed them before I could catch her…the Ostrich but her hand and I screamed from across the way like a maniac, causing a big scene and probably scaring her more than the bite actually did. We left around 2:00, and stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch….not really thinking about the fact that it’s Sunday, and football is on. Oops. We only had to wait about 25 minutes though, so not horrible. And, we got to watch the beginning of the Vikings game, so YAY!  After lunch, we stopped home…Christian and Eliza stayed home, while I got the big girls changed and took them to their first swim class of the new session. Not the best planning, they were definitely exhausted, but they were still excited to get back in the pool, so it worked out. Olivia did great, and picked it all right back up after having the past +month off. Amelia already got in trouble, and her teacher actually pulled me aside after class. Amelia is still very unpredictable in the water, and she’ll let go of the wall or walk off of the platform without even thinking about it. I’ve talked to her, and yelled at her, about this so many times, but she doesn’t get it. Her teacher was concerned because, obviously, she can’t just watch Amelia when she has other kids that need her time and focus too. So, we discussed option so how to deal with it. I told her flat out, do whatever you feel necessary, because she won’t learn otherwise. So, from now on, she gets one warning and after that, she has to sit outside of the pool for a few minutes. Hopefully just the threat of that will help, but who knows. After our discussion, I took the girls to shower, dry off, and head home. Christian made dinner while we were out so I finished up some laundry while the girls ate. He was off to watch a soccer game at his friends while I got Eliza to bed, did some dishes, got the big girls to bed, and FINALLY sat down to relax for a few minutes. Man, this weekend just flew by!

Sever's Fun!

  

First Day of Swim Class!

Until Next Week! XOXO