Tri hard.

David and Uncle Andy (his twin) did the TriIndy this past weekend.  The weather cooperated, the sun stayed in the clouds for the morning, and they both PR'd.  I think one of David's favorite things is to let the kids wear his medals he gets from competing.  Although, if you were to ask me, the wives trying to keep track/feed/carry all of five kids while the daddies compete should get a medal too. 

Yes, I'm serious.

Uncle Andy & Daddy's jeeps parked next to each other.

Show your muscles!

I don't have a picture of my award.  Let's just say it's probably in the form of a massage gift certificate.  Ahem.

Yo, I'll solve it.

You know how every one always makes New Year's Resolutions?  And you know how most people don't last the whole year month?  You know how it's probably because they set too many or too difficult of goals to be completed all at once?  Well, I'm going to solve that.  At least, I'm going to try.

Introducing my brilliant Monthly Resolutions idea.

Every month, I will choose ONE single goal to accomplish.  I will start it at the beginning of the month in hopes that I will have made a habit of it 28 days later.  (Isn't that what the rule is?  28 days?)  As I enter a new month, I will set a new goal.  So I will then be implementing TWO goals.  And so on. And so forth.  Until this whole dang house is clean.

I get very easily overwhelmed with goals I set for myself.  It usually stems from too much caffiene paired with a very messy house.  Tell me I'm not alone here?  Right?  ...  Hello?

So, without further delay, here is my M|R for August:

WASH & DRY & FOLD & PUT AWAY ALL LAUNDRY - EVERY DAY.

I would choose laundry service over cleaning service is what I'm saying.  But they would have to come into my house and actually put away the clothes too.  A girl can dream right?

I always get ambitious and wash a bajillion loads of laundry, but I always find an excuse to not fold it.  And then it stresses me out.  A very fixable problem is present, and I'm going to mend it.

Blogging is an excuse not to fold clothes, right?

Also,

Since yesterday's post was void of any pictures, I thought I would share some today.

I also think I might be one of those people who uses waaay, too, many, commas.

Pretty girl.

Saving money with a diy haircut.

I taught her everything she knows.

One of my favorite pictures of all time.

She went on a run with Daddy.  She loved it, but he loved it more.

Dean not wasting any chocolate ice cream.

Our first movie night!  We watched Princess & the Frog, had homemade red beans and rice, popcorn, and gummy bears!  Emma loved it.  Dean talked the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME.

Dean's favorite part of the fair.  He was obsessed.

Calvin @ 5 months.

Fast asleep.

He's warmed up to baby food since.

Sitting on the front porch while it rained for 3 whole minutes.  Is she proud of him or what?

I kind of love this picture.  He's my baby baby.

Growing up.  Cal @ 6+ months.

They're, the, greatest.

a journal.

So, hey.

It's been a while.

I had practically given up on writing this blog.  I have been pretty busy, you know, with THREE kids.  But after much consideration, I have decided to write again.  I was looking at it all wrong.  I was equating writing this blog to "another thing to do", and that's not what I ever wanted this to be.  I was letting myself get stressed out about it...and that's just no fun.  But, I recently read through some of my old posts and realized how happy I was that I had written them.  So, here goes.  Try number five, I think.

Let's list the updates since I last wrote (which was November, by the way):

-I had a baby.
-Now I have three kids.
-So, there's this baby in the house now.
-Another kid happened.
-THREE.  KIDS.
-I went grocery shopping.

That should sum it up.

But really, it's been pretty great.  Calvin is a perfect mix of the older two muchkins.  His sleeping habits are not Emma's, but definitely not Dean's.  He is almost 7 months (!!) old and is not yet sleeping through the night.  But I'm more okay with it than I ever was with Dean.  I guess it's that whole "but he's the baby" logic that will get me in trouble in the future.  I'm pretty sure if I thought about him going off to kindergarten, I could cry right now.  Sniff.

This is Emma's last year home with me before she's off to kindergarten next year.  Now that - THAT - is crazy.  We have lots of plans.  Lots and lots of plans.  It's my goal to make it a year at home she won't ever forget.  Sniff.

Dean is a talking machine.  He loves to say "How 'bout dat?  How 'bout dis?" or "I too! I too!".  He's most talkative when he's tired.  The longer he stays up, the more he chats with you.  He doesn't go to bed until about 9, which goes against everything I ever believed in when it came to kids and bedtimes.  But we were battling bedtime with him for at least an hour every.single.night and it became too stressful for the both of us.  So 9:00 it is.  Sniff.

David and I celebrated our 6-year-wedding and our 10-years-of-being-together anniversaries.  Good guy, that husband of mine.

Sniff.

Boo.

If everything goes as it has with my last two children, I should have this baby in about 8 weeks.  Yeh, I know.  Scary, right?

And here is the exact opposite of scary:

My cute little bunny.  :)

I'm starting to get really excited about something kind of silly.  I've never been able to buy some things I've wanted because I've never really known how big our family was going to be.  Well, now I know.

I'm talking about things like plate sets and jewelry with birthstones.  One thing I will be able to do next year is get our family's matching stockings.  I've already found the kind I want.



via

Purrty, right?  I can just imagine these on my fireplace.

Now, time to go shop for some birthstone rings.

okay, okay.

An exciting development has taken place.  My bff (yeh, I'm 28 and still using it) Lindahl figured out how to erase all 1,571 (not joking) from my memory card all at once.  I simply did not think it was possible, and she figured it out in point.two seconds.  So, instead of my stalling on my picture taking due to lag time of downloading, I will now be able to take/update/print pictures at a much better pace.

Hence, this (non-edited) picture-loaded post:

 The cutest boy there ever was.

Emma & her Aunt Kelly the day before the wedding.

Bubbies proving why I can't stay mad at him.

Ugh.  26 weeks with Baby #3.

This is a horrible picture.

And this is my little helper for today.

We made homemade applesauce in the crockpot.

Yeh, it's gonna be awesome.





Emotional v. Physical

Having a baby is a stressful event.

Of course, this is my third baby and I'm sure I know what to do by now.   Right?

With Emma, I was physically ready to have a baby.  We registered and had the showers.  We had every baby item we thought we needed.  We had a huge house so there was no question where she would sleep.  We both worked full-time so money was not a concern.  I would say we were more ready physically than we were emotionally.  Emma was a surprise baby (you think I'd have learned by now), and so it took some time to get ready for her arrival in an emotional sense.  I remember it didn't even really HIT me until the day we took her home.  I cried for the first hour we had her home because I realized that this sweet little baby girl was ours, and she was here to stay.

As far as Dean goes, he was planned.  I was ready for another baby.  But I was also ready to sell my house.  So we moved out of our house when I was about 5 weeks pregnant and feeling sick as a dog.  We moved in with my in-laws and stayed there until Dean was born.  The main reason we found out his gender was so I could feel prepared for something, anything.  I didn't know where I was going to live.  I didn't know how money would be since I was only going back part-time.  I didn't know if he would have his own room.  I just wanted to know.  So, I felt prepared for Dean emotionally because I was so ready to be a mom again.  I wanted a newborn.  I was ready for sleepless nights. (Although, had I known he would be the kind of sleeper he is, I might have changed my mind.)  I was ready for bottles and newborn-sized onsies.

Or so I thought.

What I wasn't ready for was the full-on-mom-mode I would have to be in 100% of the time.  Even though I thought I was ready for this second kid, there was nothing out there that could have prepared me for the stress that is two kids.  But, that's gotten better.  I was just getting the hang of it when along came the positive pregnancy test and all my energy went down the drain.

I am ready for this baby.  Emotionally, that is.  I feel like I've learned so much about myself in the last 16 months that Dean has been here.  I am absolutely prepared for the world of mutliple children.  I understand it will be insane and I can't do everything.  I am fairly educated on breastfeeding and have a strong desire to do whatever it takes to make it work.  I already know what the money will be like, and it will be hard.  But, given the choice to make more money away from home, or stay home with my babies while I can -well, the choice for me is easy.  I know what the hospital stay will be like.  I understand this baby will probably be jaundiced like my other two.  I am prepared for the multiple trips to the hospital for bloodwork.  I am emotionally ready to connect to this little baby - my last - my true baby.

As far as being physically ready goes....


...well, do you have a room we could borrow?