2015 - Week 40

Here we are, Week 40. This week brought us a new month, and we ended it by kicking off fall with our favorite fall activity.

On Monday we were all off to work, school and daycare, jumping right into the week. I was pretty exhausted, and we had a pretty slow start to the day though – I REALLY need to start getting to bed earlier. Seriously, my late nights are my Achilles Heel! I had to sit on another interview panel today – and man am I seriously getting OVER those! I’m really hoping this will be the last one, at least for a very long time. The only benefit, is the day goes quite a bit faster being away from my desk and out of my normal routine. After work, I ran some errands before picking the big girls up from daycare….I stopped at the Vet to get a new prescription card for Rico, and his million dollar food, stopped at Payless to return some shoes – when I ordered the girls’ back to school shoes, they sent me a completely wrong pair, so that was a pretty big pain to explain and return – and finally Target for some weekly groceries and goodies. I ran into our friend Sara at Target so we chatted for a while and we filled each other in on some daycare and school gossip. FINALLY, I picked the big girls up and we played outside for a while. When Christian and Eliza arrived home, he got to work finishing up the pool cleaning, with his friend Lorenzo, and got that all folded up and stored away for the winter. The girls’ friend, Bella, stopped over to play and we ordered some pizzas for a nice, easy end to the day. We watched some TV, had some family time, and everybody was in a pretty good mood tonight. Not much beats that!

I can't hardly stand how beautiful this girls is.

Tuesday started off REEEEEEEALLY slow, as in….we were all late slow. I overslept, and the girls would not get out of bed for anything. Luckily I’ve continued to stay pretty on top of my workload, which has been a huge relief and makes me feel a little better about it when I have to take some time off…but, I still don’t have a ton of leave time, so I hate when I have to eat into it. But, I just have to remind myself…down the road, I’ll have more leave time than I know what to do with, and it’s not something I need to worry about right now. After work, I stopped home to get the dog out and grab some snacks and the soccer gear, picked the girls up, and we were all off to soccer (a pretty chilly night of soccer at that). Tonight I was with Amelia and she continues to do really well, and participate in her practices. Another team mom made all of the kids little sweatbands with their names on them, and they are SO COOL! Man, I wish I could do fun stuff like that; it was such a sweet little surprise. Super fun, and Amelia loved hers. After soccer, we met up at home for dinner. We ate, watched some TV, did homework and settled in for bed. Christian has been working earlier and earlier lately, and still staying late, so he’s been pretty exhausted. They still haven’t decided what they’re doing with the open night supervisor position, so in the meantime, people have to fill in those gaps. The extra pay is obviously pretty great, but I know Christian has been so tired. My hardworking man!

Olivia lost tooth #3 at school today. She told me she pulled it out in the bathroom and there was SOOOOO much blood. Ick.

Amelia, rocking her new headband!

Wednesday was a pretty standard day. Christian was up and off to work bright and early, so it was just me and the girls. I’ve been trying to get the big girls to get up a little earlier, and start getting dressed on their own so that I can get Eliza ready while they do that. Some days it’s easier than others. I have to get them up by 6:00AM, so they’re pretty exhausted…it’s hard to get them up and moving, and some mornings are so frustrating. I usually just get all three of them ready myself, but any little bit they can do on their own definitely helps. We were finally up and on our way to our daily locations, and all went off without a hitch. I picked the girls up from daycare after work, and Eliza was so crabby and clingy all night…it always makes for a pretty stressful night when she decides not to cooperate. While I dealt with her and tried to make some dinner, Christian got to enjoy the “peace and quiet” of the great outdoors for a while and cut the grass. I have no desire to cut the grass, but man does it make me jealous sometimes! Eliza was off to bed as soon as we finished dinner, while we cleaned up from dinner, did some homework and settled in for the night.

My heartmelters!

Thursday was the most successful morning that we’ve had in a LONG time. We were all up on time, the big girls dressed themselves, we left the house on time, and I arrived to work on time. I mean, WHAT?! It doesn’t get much more perfect than that, ya’ll!  And, I finally, officially, signed the big girls up for gymnastics today. They don’t start until mid-November, but they are SO EXCITED, and I think they’re really going to rock at it. Gymnastics is way more expensive than I ever thought it would be, and I still don’t quite understand why it’s so expensive, but our community ed program, where they take swimming lessons, finally has a program that is a little more affordable. We’ll see how it goes…if they do really well and really get into it, I might start looking into bigger programs again. I’m not sure what we’re going to do when Eliza is old enough to start trying out different stuff – then we’re really going to go crazy trying to schedule everything! After work, I picked the girls up from daycare, and all of the little kids were all upset over something that had happened. Apparently some masked stranger came up along the side of the fence while they were playing outside, and started making noises and telling the kids he was “going to get them” and scaring them. Then, of course, the older kids had to make it worse by exaggerating the entire thing to the younger kids and scaring them even more. As I was getting out of my car, the director was walking the perimeter of the center to make sure everything was clear and nothing was going on. I know they’re safe there and I’m not really concerned, but it’s definitely kind of creepy. After hearing all about the incident and gathering up the girls, we were finally on our way home. We all walked over to Walmart for a few things, where I noticed Amelia had chewed a hole in her brand new, never before worn shirt. Amelia has all of these weird habits and ticks that she cycles through…blinking, clearing her throat, chewing on her hair, chewing on her clothes. It’s so frustrating, but no matter how many times you tell her to stop, she keeps doing it. Lately, it’s been chewing on her clothes…today, the wrists of her shirt were so dirty and gross, soaking wet, and one actually had two good sized holes in them. BRAND NEW. I was so angry, and embarrassed her right in the middle of the store drilling her about it. A large majority of her clothes are hand-me-downs from Olivia, but I try to get her a few of her own special things every season...maybe I’m just going to have to stop doing that. Seriously, big or small, I swear there’s some new issue to deal with every day with those three kids! We finished up shopping, and walked back home and started dinner. Our friend Sara stopped over with a bag of clothes and shoes for Olivia, so while we chatted and I finished dinner, the girls played downstairs for a while. Finally, it was bedtime! The big girls ended up falling asleep on the couch they were so exhausted. Poor things, it’s taking a long time to adjust to the back to school routine.

Throwback to our Sever's Visits, ahead of this weekends annual trip.

Friday should have been my Friday off, but having switched with my mom last week, off to work I went. It was a pretty quiet day today though, so it was quite productive. I picked Eliza up after work, we grabbed the big girls, and made our way home to play outside for a while. When Christian arrived home, Olivia and I were off to the store to pick up a birthday gift for a party tomorrow, and we grabbed dinner on our way back home. We all ate, watched some movies, and cuddled up on the couch for a quiet night at home. We were all pretty worn out after a long week, it was an early night for all of us.

Eliza is jealous that her sisters leave her behind...

Saturday was a busy day. We had so much going on that Christian even stayed home from work for the day! Always tough to give up that overtime. We showered, had some breakfast, and started getting ready for soccer. My dad and stepmom came down to come watch the girls’ games this week, so they met us at home and followed us to the field, where we also met up with my in-laws. We all settled in at Olivia’s game first…it was our first really chilly Saturday morning, so that part was no fun. BUT, Olivia’s team played really well today…the game was all tied up, and Olivia ended up scoring the winning goal for her team!! I have to say…after she scored, she came running over, straight to me, and gave me the biggest, most excited hug ever. It seriously warms my heart that out of all of us there, I’m the one she wants to celebrate her success with. Makes me feel like I’m doing pretty well at this whole mom thing. So awesome!! Christian and his parents ended up leaving shortly after her goal, to get Amelia to her game…where we all met up after Olivia finished up. Amelia’s game was not nearly as exciting…she was just kind of walking up and down the field, not trying at all – very reminiscent about how she played last year. She hadn’t been acting like that at all this year, and I was getting so frustrated with her. After the game she said she was upset because Olivia was eating a snack, and she wanted a snack too. Apparently she just couldn’t wait until the game was over and she got her snack, she needed one right then and there, and refused to get over it. These kids can be so ridiculous! After that fiasco, we all stopped at the playground, and then back to our house. We all chatted for a bit, until I had to get the big girls ready for a birthday party. My dad and stepmom left for home, Christian, Eliza and his parents went out to lunch, and the big girls and I were off to our friend Annabelle’s roller skating birthday party. I was worried about the girls skating – we hadn’t been for a while, but when we have done, the girls have always been so nervous and wouldn’t really participate. They were shy about it when we first arrived, but eventually warmed up, participated and by the end of the party, they were actually getting pretty good. It’s so fulfilling to watch your kids start to get the hang of something they didn’t think they could do, to see them keep working at it, to see them so proud of themselves. I just love those parenting moments! After the party, we made our way home for the night. Christian cut the grass, we had dinner, watched some movies with the girls…just hung out and relaxed for the evening. We even had a bonfire, complete with YUMMY s’mores, of course. Once the girls were settled into bed, Christian and I watched “Get Hard” before heading to bed ourselves. We do love ourselves some Kevin Hart, but this was definitely not one of his best movies.

Soccer Morning

Rollerskating Birthday Party

Bonfire to End the Day

Sunday was our super fun, kick off to fall day. We were all up pretty early….we showered, had breakfast, and I got some laundry going. And then, finally, we were all off to spend the day at Sever’s Corn Maze and Fall Festival. This is our most favorite fall activity, and tradition, and it was such a perfect day to be there. Amazing weather, our wonderful little family, some fabulous friends – just perfection. My BFF Kari and her kids, our friend Misty and her son, the girls’ BFF, Bella, and her dad all met us there for a day of fun. We checked out the pumpkin patch and took some pictures. The kids hit up the jumping pillow, the corn maze , the giant slide and the hay maze. And then, we all traveled into the corn maze to take it on. Eliza ended up falling asleep, so she got a nice little nap, and we only got lost a couple of times, so I call our maze adventure a complete success! After making our way through the maze, we were off for some pony rides, a trip into the petting zoo, and a finally stop in the extreme corn pit. One by one, each of our friends started to leave. We were all exhausted, dirty and SO ready for a nap by the time we called it a day. On our way out, we let the girls each pick out a couple of mini pumpkins, loaded back into the van, and we were finally on our way home. I got right back to work on laundry, we had a late lunch/early dinner, and before I knew it, it was time to load the big girls back up into the van and head to swim class. Christian stayed home with Eliza this week, which was probably a great idea with how exhausted she was. The big girls were pretty tired too, but they did great in class. After showering and getting them into their jammies, we stopped a Orange Julius for some smoothies before settling back in at home. The girls had a snack, Olivia finished up her weekend homework, and they were off to bed. I had a TOOOOOOOOON of folding to do, so I worked on that while catching up on some shows. I already knew that tomorrow was going to be an extra rough Monday…oh well!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 39

Another week came along, and Monday was here just as fast as usual. This week Christian and I celebrated our anniversary, the girls started up a new session of swim classes, we continued to get a lot of attitude from the girls, fought off a little 24-hour bug with the baby and Christian had a long weekend of work. Needless to say, the week went by pretty quickly.

After a busy weekend around the house, Monday came WAAAAAAY too soon. I did get up and out of the house a little earlier than usual, dropped the big girls off at daycare and arrived at work on time! Go me! After work, the big girls and I were off to do some target shopping, before meeting up with the rest of the family at home for the night. Christian played outside with the big girls, and their BFF, Bella, while Eliza and I hung out inside, and I got dinner ready. The rest of the night was pretty quiet…we ate, did homework, watched a little TV and relaxed before bed. The girls got their fundraising packets from school today, so we’ll have to get to work on that. They are both SO excited about it, and are dying to “win” a limo ride, so we’ll have to bust our butts to make that happen. Things get a little harder once you have multiple kids in school though – I’m learning that quickly!

Tuesday was a pretty busy day. First and foremost, it marked our 8^th Wedding Anniversary. It’s so crazy how 8 short years can seem like such a lifetime ago! When we married, we were 23/24 years old. We had been together for over 6 years at that point, we lived together – and we lived such a carefree life. We rented a small, cheap apartment, we went out every weekend, spending as much time as possible with our awesome little circle of friends, and we had good, stable jobs. We had the world at our hands. Our lives changed quickly, and overwhelmingly. We unexpectedly ended up paying for our wedding with little help (which, is fine – but we were told differently…had we known the truth, things probably would have been planned a little differently). And, I feel like we’ve been playing catchup ever since. But, that didn’t stop us from moving forward with our lives, and starting our family. A little over 3 months later, we were buying and closing on our first, and forever, house. Shortly after moving, and settling in, and adjusting to our new roles as homeowners…we found out that little Olivia Rose was on her way, and our world just kept moving and shaping and changing, seemingly day by day. Here we are, 8 years later, and honestly in the best place we’ve ever been. We have turned that first house into a beautiful, comfortable home to raise our family in. We’ve brought three beautiful, amazing, smart little girls into the world. Even though we’re very different people, opposite in just about every day, we’ve built such a strong relationship and foundation for our family – we get along better now than ever before, we work together well, we honestly “complete” each other…where I’m weak, he’s strong; where I lack, he excels. I mean, what more could you ask for?! It hasn’t been the easiest 8 years known to man, but everything we’ve been through has made us stronger, and I can’t imagine doing life with anybody else but my hubby! To top it off, he surprised me with some flowers when we got home from work! Love!!

Outside of that, the day started off as usual – off to work, daycare, school. It was a long day at work for me – back to that exhausted, unmotivated mood. So draining! After work, I picked the girls up and Olivia was complaining that she had a headache. She looked pretty tired and drained, but she still wanted to go to soccer practice, so we got the girls changed, split up, and were off. Olivia’s team scrimmaged one of the other teams, and her team actually did REALLY awesome. Hopefully they can keep it up now, because their games have been pretty rough. I’m not too worried about them winning/losing, but they’re 6/7/8 years old and they know what’s going on…I feel bad when they know they aren’t scoring and they’re getting their butts kicked. Bella stopped over to play for a bit when we arrived home, but it was soon time for dinner, baths and homework. We ended up giving Olivia some Tylenol…her headache seemed to be getting worse and she was pretty exhausted. We put all of the girls down for bed together, which has been working pretty well, so fingers crossed for that to continue.

Wednesday started off with a sloooooooow morning. Mornings have been REALLY rough lately. I mean, they’re always pretty touch and go, but more so lately than usual. Like, I literally want to cry when my alarm clock goes off in the morning. I start off every morning, rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off – I’m so exhausted by the time I even get to work. Maybe that’s why I always feel so exhausted and unmotivated! Alas, the day proceeded as usual…we got ready, loaded up in the van, and we were off. After work, when I picked the girls up from daycare, Eliza walked over to me so sad looking, like she was just miserable, and she had a little tear in her eye. I picked her up and she right away felt pretty warm. The teacher said it must have just started to come on, because she was perfectly fine all day (which, I believe, because let me tell you – they KNOW when those little ones have a fever). I grabbed the other two, we made our way home, and I took Eliza’s temperature right away – sure enough, she was just under 102°. Poor baby. To top it off, she wouldn’t really eat and she just seemed exhausted. It could just be teething, because it’s so weird that it just came out of nowhere, but we’ll see. She ended up going off to bed pretty early, and with little fight though, thankfully. After dinner, baths and homework, the big girls were off to bed a little earlier than usual as well. Hopefully we aren’t on the brink of some kind of breakout in the house!

Thursday started off pretty much as you would expect – I showered and started getting ready, then checked on Eliza. Sure enough, she was on fire! I got them all up, just to make sure she wasn’t overheated from sleeping/her blankets, brought them all into our room, and they were all little zombies. Olivia and Amelia passed right back out in our bed, and Eliza was just lying there, sprawled out on the bed. After a while, I took her temperature and sure enough, it was up over 102° again. There was no way she was going to daycare, so I called in right away. The other two were so exhausted, I let them sleep in for a while, before getting them up and ready, and dropping them off at daycare. Eliza pretty much slept all day long…the couch, the living room floor, in her room. On my chest for a while, which I relished in a little bit. My heart just broke watching my poor baby so miserable all day long. But, with her being out of commission all day, I was able to put in a few hours of work, saving some leave time, so that a little silver lining. Eventually, Eliza and I were off to pick the big girls up from daycare. We had to stop at Target real quick – there was a Cartwheel today on Halloween costumes, so I had to take advantage and pick up a couple things for Olivia’s costume. Finally, we settled in at home. Eliza had some medicine, at a tiny big, and started to perk up as the night went on. Her fever was coming down and she seemed much more awake and alert – it started to look like it was definitely some kind of 24-hour bug, thankfully. While she perked up, the rest of us ate some dinner, the girls took a bath, and we relaxed before bed. With today’s unexpected day off, and tomorrow’s “swapped” flex day for me at work, I’m in the midst of a 4-day weekend, and I definitely don’t hate that!

One of her pass out sessions, snoozing with Rico on the floor.

While not my typical Friday off, my mom had to switch Friday Flex Day’s with me, so I was very excited to have (another) extra day home. That’s a big YAY for this week, but that does mean I have two full weeks of work ahead of me, which isn’t so YAY. Eliza seemed pretty much back to normal…no fever, she was more alert and playful, she ate a little better. So, all of that was pretty dang amazing. However, she started breaking out all over her body, in these little red dots. I’m hoping it’s just a reaction to the fever she had, but seriously – it’s always something people!!  After lots of playing and cuddling and fun, she took a nice long nap in the afternoon, so I watched lots of TV, catching up on all of the shows that have been premiering. It’s that time of year, where the Hulu Queue stays way too full, all the time. I picked the big girls up from daycare around closing time, and Christian was already at work starting to clean out the pool when we arrived home. I can’t believe it’s time to take the pool down already, so sad! We had dinner, did homework and watched a movie before sending the girls off to bed, and it was a pretty early night for all of us. It’s inventory updating time for Christian’s work – so he has a long weekend of overtime ahead of him. Good for the extra pay – but sad that he’ll be gone and exhausted most of the weekend.

Saturday kicked off with Christian off to work super bright and early. The girls didn’t sleep in very much either, so we were all up and going. I showered and we had a quick breakfast before heading off to soccer. Olivia just had practice today, and the other two did pretty well sitting and watching her. Her team had a little inter-team scrimmage and Olivia scored a goal! WOOT! It may not have been an actual game, but she was so proud of herself. It was sweet. Next up, we loaded back into the van and scurried over to Amelia’s game. We were a little late, but she was put in shortly after we settled in, and she played amazingly today! She was running, and trying so hard, she broke away with the ball a few times and came SOOOOOO close to scoring. She had another awesome assist today though, which we told her was just as important as actually scoring. She’s doing so well this year, I just can’t even believe it. So proud!! My mom had met us at the game, so while Eliza and I made our way home, she took the big girls over to play at the park for a while before bringing them home.  My mom dropped the girls off and was on her way home, so we settled into the house. Eliza still seems to be feeling well, but her rash is getting worse each passing day. Those same little red dots, all over her body. Poor thing, I sure hope it is just from her fever, and it starts to fade soon. While she napped, the big girls and I had a little lunch and relaxed…until they started up again – fighting, arguing, yelling at each other, pushing each other’s buttons. Of course, eventually waking Eliza up, again. At that point, I seriously lost it on them, and sent them both down for nap. I was so angry and fed up, and they both threw the biggest fits, kicking and screaming and fighting me the whole time. They eventually passed out, but Eliza refused to go back down. So, no rest for the weary today! By the time they woke up, I had cooled down quite a bit, and they were in significantly better moods. And, we were off on a playdate to meet up with our friend Misty and her son Rio at the park. Misty and I chatted and caught up with each other while the kids played and played and played. They had a blast running around…I think we were there for almost 3 hours! Things started to get a little rough when Eliza decided to go down a slide head first, and took a header into the sand. She was so worked up and upset, that she ended up falling asleep while I was rocking her, comforting her. Poor baby – she thinks she’s so grown!! And then things REALLY took a turn when the big girls started throwing sand, not listing and not playing so nicely. I finally packed it up and told them we were leaving, so Amelia decided to throw a fill on tantrum and refuse to leave….so we left her there, by herself, to throw her fit and walked to the cars. Misty and Rio left, the other girls and I loaded into the van, and eventually she joined us. I was going to “splurge” on McDonald’s for dinner, so they were even more upset when I told them that was no longer happening. I wish I could get through to them, and get them to stop acting up like this – but NOTHING I say or do seems to help. They are so stubborn and so defiant, I’m almost at a loss of what to do completely. Meanwhile, while I was dealing with all of this, Christian had gone from work, to the Gopher’s Football game with the owners of his company. Must be rough – he gets to live it up, while I deal with all of the drama! He met us at home shortly after we settled in, we had a late dinner, gave the girls a bath and sent the girls off to bed. Eliza had a rough night, waking up all night long. Between that and the rash she has going on, I started getting a little worried. Once the girls were off to bed, Christian was off to watch the last of Mexico’s soccer game, while I finished watching the “Scream” TV series online. It was actually not too bad – much better than I had anticipated! Christian wasn’t out long, he has another long day of work tomorrow, so he was already home and passed out by the time I sent myself to bed. What exciting lives we live!

Sunday was a fairly quiet day around the house. Christian was off to work again, but the girls actually slept in a little bit today – so HOORAY! We watched some videos, had breakfast, hung out and had a pretty happy morning. I got the girls ready, and then I dropped Olivia off at a friend’s house for her first, real, official playdate! Oh man was I a pretty nervous wreck! At her curriculum meeting a couple weeks ago I met another mother, who said her daughter had been asking to have Olivia over for a playdate. So, I gave her my number, and earlier this week she contacted me about setting up a day for them to hang out. And, major bonus for Olivia, they have a pool and the weather had warmed up quite a bit, so she got to take advantage and swim for a while too. Amelia was pretty upset when we dropped Olivia off, and wanted to stay with her. I had to explain that she didn’t know this friend, so she couldn’t stay. That it was just for Olivia. That was tough. They’re so close in age that they’ve always done everything together, had the same friends, and have gotten to experience most things together. As they start to forge their own paths, I think it’s going to be pretty rough at times. While Olivia was gone, Amelia would randomly look at me and ask “Mom, do you think Olivia is having fun right now?” Awww, being left out is no fun! After we dropped Olivia off, and while we waited for Christian to get home, we played outside for a while. Riding bikes, coloring with chalk, running around. Finally, I got Eliza down for a nap, started some laundry, and settled in to watch the Vikings game. And it was an AWESOME game at that! I sure do love me some football season. Meanwhile, Christian worked on the pool some more, and Amelia switched between “helping” him and relaxing inside with me until I was off to pick Olivia up, around 3:30. We relaxed, hung out and had an early dinner before heading out to the big girls’ first swim class of the new session. Eliza was super crabby all night….she did OK at swimming, otherwise being a little busy bee, but she was miserable before and after class. The big girls both did really well at swim class – Olivia jumped right back into her skills, and Amelia already seems way more advanced than where she left off last session – all those days in the pool at home must have helped quite a bit! After some showers, we were on our way back home to settle in for the night. The girls had a snack and were off to bed, one by one. Eliza has still been going to bed on her own pretty well, so I’m really hoping we’ve made that transition (but, I still really, REALLY miss those bedtime snuggles!). Tonight was the Solar Eclipse/Super Moon night, and it was really pretty cool! We had perfectly clear skies, and it was at a pretty normal time, so I was able to watch the whole thing unfold. Super awesome!

Until Next Week! XOXO