Almost 9 months...

Thats insane! How did that happen!?!? It seemed like we had newborn babies for sooooo long...Really we had them 2.5 months longer than most people... it seemed the baby barfing, laundry and night wakings would never end and now all of a sudden they are just changing and growing so quickly I can't believe it! We are still working on sitting, Leah keeps practising her standing and Blake has a little poke of a tooth coming up!! They are both eating table foods and actually prefer it to the baby food..Next week I'm going to cook them up some freezer meals of chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots etc...they will be all over that, especially Blake!

As we near the 9 month mark I find myself almost ready to pack away my pump :( I am soooo done pumping 4 times a day...I do feel proud of being able to give my babies mostly breastmilk for as long as I have, and somehow I need to pack the guilt away with the pump and be happy with what I did accomplish...I still have a deep freezer full of frozen milk that will last until November/December..and really I already put in the time and effort for that milk so it still counts right!?!? Anyways I might still try and see how long I can keep at least the morning nursing and slowly phase out a pump session here and there...By the time I quit all together plus my frozen stash I should be able to get to their birthday before it runs out...

Nothing really exciting happening this week. We did have a great day at Calaway park with Alyssa's little boyfriend Reid...and his mom Renee then we continued the party here with the kids running around in the yard for a bit...they had a great time playing and laughing...No plans this weekend, weather isn't suppose to be great so we'll see what exciting stuff will happen...

I had to take a picture of Oscar as he was sleeping...this is how he sleeps beside my head every night...I wake up several times through the night to cover him and it makes me laugh every time because he always sleeps on his back...his snoaring is a little ridiculous some nights too...

Note the blanket...that was my baby blanket I came home from the hospital in..Funny how the dog has it!??! I guess since he was my first "baby" he got it first, then how could I give it to the real baby...

Alyssa was eager to be the sitting teacher this week and helped the babies with their sitting...

Shows you the sign of the times we live in...Alyssa faithfully checks her "email" everyday...When we check the real mail she always says "Oh mom did we get any emails?"

A few weeks ago we found at Michaels all sorts of cute ceramic critters, they were on sale for 47Cents each so we bought a whole bunch to pull out on rainy days...Yesterday we were Peggy-less so we spent the day inside painting critters...

Alyssa is the entertainer around here, we are always telling her to go make her brother and sister laugh...Usually at meal time they scream waiting for their dinner, Alyssa always cheers them up and buys us some more time!

Check out the eyelashes on this girl, they look like they've been curled straight up..excuse the carrot face!

This little dude actually has some pretty cute eye lashes too, but he's got nothing on his cousin Gabes eyelashes

Ohhh that face...muahhhh!

Blakey eating his toes...

Blakey eating his sisters toes

Mmmm foot!

My friend has a necklace like this and when I saw it I had had to have one too! So I ordered it for myself!! I love it! It's got all the kids name engraved and their birthstones...I kind of wish Alyssa's blue one was in the middle but I guess since she came first it makes sense for it to be first, but then Blakes name is in the middle and really it should be Leah if you want to be technical..In anycase I love it!

~ Hasta luego ~  See you later in spanish

Carseats, Camping and Cow boots

Its been a long 2 weeks with the 3 sick kids, but now I finally think they are on the mend...we ended up taking them to the Dr...Blake wasn't feeling good at all and started pulling on his ears, so I thought I'd better take them in...Turns out they were both fine, and now I think its just that he's discoved playing with his ears...haha...Mommy on the other hand has it now and hasn't been feeling great the last few days...hopefully its short lived, moms don't have time to get sick...Thankfully the babies had a good night last night for sleeping so I'm hoping they are back to normal...

Leah after a bath...she looks so much like Alyssa did at this age...This picture makes her look bigger than she is, she is just this tiny little thing..I think she is barely 14 pounds...

Funny this picture of Blake makes him look small..He is a solid little guy, even though he's probably only 15 pounds he's 50% of the weight/height ratio so he's perfectly preportioned (as is Leah). We had our Peri-natal follow up awhile ago that said they have to age 3 to catch up, so I'm sure by then they'll be passed the 3% mark

Daddy feeding his baby girl before bed...

Blakey eating a cracker in his highchair with his feet on the table

The kids all got new car seats last week...We got a new big pink car seat/booster for Alyssa which is good up to 120 pounds, which means we can keep her safely strapped in a 5 point harness until she's about 25 years old.....or until she discovers thats not really cool! Blake got Alyssa's old one and we got Leah this fancy new yellow and pink flowered one...(Leah was sleeping so Blake was trying it out for her)

First outting in the new car seats...we were going to the Dr, look at how sick poor Blakey was..

Leah's car seat took me forever to find..I wanted this girly pattern specifically and they were sold out across the city, I ended up buying the showroom sample, I'm glad I got it, she looks so cute in it!

Leah's new trick is Standing up, she is very solid on her feet and gets so proud of herself she smiles and laughs...She sometimes refuses to sit and goes stiff so she will stand up...This tiny peanut will be walking before she learns to sit!

We got our replacement sod in this weekend and the backyard looks great...Alyssa of course was a huge help filling in all the little spots.

Alyssa got a pair of Pink hand me down "Cow Boots" as she calls them from her friend Kyla, and she won't take the stinkin' things off! She has worn them everywhere the past 2 weeks..I mean everywhere with every outfit..they are apparently the perfect foot wear for +30 temperatures and compliment a swimsuit like nothing else!

Work it girl!

If she could have worn them in the pool she would have.

We had such nice weather this weekend, we all got to enjoy the outdoors...

Since it was such a nice weekend and Alyssa  has been bugging us to go camping, Kirk thought it would be a great weekend to set up our pre-kid tent and do some camping in the backyard...

She was so excited, it was worth all the hassle..

Her actual mattress and sheets from her real bed...

The campers...(minus Oscar)

Running around the "campground" in those boots...Perfect camping shoes!

Enjoying the campfire with some hot chocolate and popcorn...

Almost ready for bed with her beloved Daddy!

What a perfect night it was...

They made it through the night, although it was cold and Kirk ending up crunched up in her little bed for warm snuggles...The perfect end to the "camping trip" was daddy's pancakes which he makes for her every Saturday and Sunday...

I just had to add this pciture in, Blake was napping this afternoon all snuggled up with his blue teddy bear..aww..

A video from camping

Completely Satisfied

Do you ever stop to think of how satisfied you are with where you are at in your life? Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about that...

When I was younger I couldn't wait to be done school..Oh when I'm done school I can't wait to be in the work force...After that I couldn't wait to find the right job or get a raise or keep moving up the corporate ladder...

It then moved onto I can't wait to Meet the right person...Once you find that person you Can't wait to get married and start a life together...Once you are married you  keep thinking of whats to come, Jobs, cars, houses, vacations...Even along the way I wanted my beloved Dog Oscar...all of these material things we wanted and ended up getting, but still wanting more...

Then we decided to have a family ...this was the most challenging thing in my life and literally consumed me and changed who I am today...I wanted it so bad my heart ached and I longed everyday for a child. 4 years later we were so blessed with our little Alyssa..our hearts so full we thought they would burst...only 4 months into Alyssa's life we knew it could take awhile so we started the journey again hoping and praying for another child...I think back now to how unfair it was to have not given my all to her without worrying what would be next...would we be able to give her a sibling...the pain and sadness I felt even while I was blessed with 1 miracle...how sad to think of the time I lost because of it...

2 years later we were so happy to learn that our 2 precious miracles were coming...BUT we had a few scares and wished we could just make it to the end with 2 healthy babies...They came early and spent 7 week in the hospital and we prayed for the day we could take them home...

After all these years of dreaming, hoping, wishing and praying for what was to come, I find myself in the most beautiful place where I am Completely and utterly Satisfied with everything in my life...I wish for nothing but to stop and smell the roses in this beautful garden we have created...and thats it...I want to watch my flowers blossom and grow and enjoy these moments that will no doubt be gone in a flash...

Thankfully for me, I have a forward thinking husband who will forge ahead and take care of things for me and our children so that we can truly enjoy these years without another thought...I feel so incredibly blessed for such an amazing life surrounded by amazing people...I plan on staying here for awhile :)

Sick

This was a long week...All 3 kids ended up sick this week and it meant for a few long nights for me. Thankfully its nothing too serious...Alyssa started getting sick last Saturday and it ended up as a croupy cough, which it always does for her...stuffy nose and she just wasn't feeling that great. The rainy weather just set the mood for the whole week, I guess it was a good week to lay low...Mid week the babies started getting sick.

Blake woke up Wednesday having soaked through his diaper, jammies and sleeping bag with diarrhea...Leah had a fever all day ended up throwing up her dinner....Both ate poorly and napped poorly all day..That night I ended getting up 8 times between the 2 of them...Normally I would wake the other one if I was up already but decided to to just let them sleep and get up with who ever needed it...the next 2 days it was more of the same, although the night sleeping was WAY better at 2 to 3 times...I decided after the 8 times the night before I'd for my own sanity wake the other even if they were sleeping...

We are finally on the tail end of this I think, there is still some coughing going on and poor Leah really had a runny nose and watery eyes today but I can't see this dragging on much longer, its already been a week since Alyssa got sick...

We didn't end up doing much during the week, just layed low at home (and drank lots of coffee!) I did have Peggy here and Mom and Dad popped by after she left to help out til Kirk got home... Friday we had some sunny weather and spent some time outside for some Sunshine and Vitamin D...the babies really enjoyed it as did Alyssa and I...

I was able to get out of the house on Friday night for my firend Summer's birthday, it was a much needed break after a long week at home...Saturday we had my friend Shara, her husband and kids over for dinner, the kids played outside for hours and had a blast...Sunday Kirk got lots of dead sod removed and taken to the dump, our backyard projects are hard to complete but slowly they are coming along.

Mama Joyce would be proud of me, I bought a slow cooker! Peggy said if I bought one she would start making dinners for us :) So what do you think I did?? I bought a slow cooker..haha. Hopefully I can learn the art of slow cooking, I have a hard enough time making dinner...we'll see if I can get motivated enough to cook dinner at 8am! Anyways I was so proud of the first dinner I took a picture! I turned out ok but even after 8 hours on low the veggies were still hard...not sure what the problem was, not enough liquid?!? WHo knows...if anyone has any great slow cooker recipes feel free to pass them my way!

Alyssa found these and thought Leah would like them..These are my antlers from my bar days..haha they only came out for special occasion and when they did my friends knew it was going to be a fun night ;) I am calling them officially retired!

Picking my flowers

My 3 loves..I love this picture! I seem to have a lot of pictures of Kirk with the 3 kids but not many of me..

The littlest darlings...

Enjoying their swing

Alyssa enjoying her pool and her Sandbox, playing "Starbucks"

Pushing her baby on the swing...Even little Oscar was enjoying the nice day in the little sliver of shade.

Aww what a cute boy..

Him too...

and Papa too!

Thats about it for this week, I hope the coming week brings lots of Sunshine and healthy kids :) Cheers!