Thank you.

I don't know about other bloggers, but for me...when I get behind in my blogging, I have to make a decision. Do I play catch up and go back and blog things that happened over a month ago? Or do I just pretend those things never happened and pick up at the current time? In general, I tend to take the easy route and do the latter. But today, I'm going back. Cormac is 7 weeks old. And I'm just now writing a post to say a huge public thank you to my mom.

Adjusting to life with 3 kids hasn't been easy. But we were so lucky to start that adjustment with an extra set of hands for almost 2 weeks! Someone asked me what it's like to have 3 kids and the first word that came to mind was BUSY. It's a lot of things, of course. It's amazing, wonderful, fulfilling, and absolutely a blessing. And then it's hard, crazy, exhausting, frustrating and overwhelming. But more than anything- it's just BUSY! We're settling in now- by no means would I say we've mastered it, but we're doing OK. However, I can't imagine doing it with just the 2 of us from day one. Having my mom here was absolutely WONDERFUL.

She came the day before my induction was scheduled. And before we even got home from the airport, she was on grandma duty. I had a dr.'s appointment and we had to go straight there. They were way behind and between the waiting and the appt, it was over an hour and half. Thankfully, grandma kept Aidric busy and happy out in the waiting room for me. (There may have been cookies involved here.)

While she was here, I'd like to note that a piece of laundry was not allowed to stay dirty for more than 24 hours. Seriously, I had to slow her down on Juliet's laundry. (I've learned that Juliet will wear the same (favorite) outfit over and over if it they are clean, so I only do her laundry once a week or less.)

She did much much more than just laundry though. The day before she left, she kept asking, "OK, is there anything you want me to do today before I go?" and I kept answering, "yes, change your plane ticket to next week" =) She cooked and cleaned and most importantly, spent quality time with whichever kiddo needed it at that moment. When I was feeding Cormac, she was outside with Aidric and Juliet. When I was trying to get him to sleep, she kept them busy in another room. When I needed a break from the baby, she took him in the other room for snuggles and I got to hang with the big kids. All in all, invaluable and I can't thank her enough. I know she enjoyed it, but was likely exhausted at the end of 2 weeks!

So...THANK YOU mom..and thank you dad too, for giving her up for 2 weeks! We want you to know how much we appreciated it. Love you!!

more bones

If there is anything cuter than 2 siblings in matching jammies, as seen HERE, it's 3 siblings in matching jammies.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Quick trip on Sunday to a local pumpkin patch. Such a sad little excuse for a "patch" really...made me think of the years when I was younger...going over to my grandparent's house to pick our pumpkin out of an actual field!

Regardless, the kids enjoyed it...took a quick pony ride, jumped in the bouncy house, checked out the petting zoo and took a few pics with the piles of pumpkins. Good times =)




Our first attempt at a 52 week picture...





pumpkin pics



and our 2nd attempt at a 52 week pic

Public Service Announcement: Apple Crisp

I know this blog is generally about the kids and what they are up to. But, this apple crisp truly deserves its own post. It is absolutely amazing. I can't give credit to the original baker b/c I have no idea who that is. My mom made it while she was here helping after Cormac was born and apparently, it's the recipe my dad is famous for using.

My pictures really don't do it justice and while I meant to just barely soften the butter, I accidentally melted it. That means the sugar/flour/butter mixture isn't as lumpy as it should be. Delicious despite that though!!

Apple Crisp

4 c sliced apples
1/4 cup water
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter

Place apples in buttered baking dish. Add water and cinnamon. Combine flour, sugar and butter with fork. Sprinkle over apples. Bake at 350 for 40 minute. YUM. (serve plain or with ice cream over/on the side)

Sweet Girl

We had a little scare yesterday. The kids and I were at the park, I was walking Cormac around in circles to keep him asleep when I heard Juliet screaming/crying. I looked up to see her laying on the ground, on her back, with her arms splayed out on either side. One arm, in particular, was in a really awkward position and I immediately thought it was broken. I ran over to her and couldn't get her to tell me anything, just continued sobbing. I didn't want to move her because I had NO idea what hurt at this point.

Eventually, I got her to lift her arms and move her body and I figured it was ok to move her. I picked her up, carried her over to a bench and sat down. She told me she fell from the top of the ladder onto her head. I have NO idea how this is possible and I'm still confused as to why she was face up. I continued to ask her to move things and everything seemed to be working fine. I asked her a few questions and she answered them correctly. She then told me she needed a bandaid for her face and promptly fell asleep. In my arms. At the park. Honestly, the falling asleep scared me more than anything! I called Chris and told him to get on google and see if this was a huge concern and told him we were on our way home.

He met us outside and carried her in. He woke her up a little and after our incredibly professional medical assessment, we both determined she was fine...sleepy, but fine. She had skipped her nap that day, which I had forgotten in my initial panic. She cuddled for about 10 more minutes before perking up and joining Aidric outside for a little soccer before dinner.

The whole thing just made me realize how quickly life can change. She's ok and I'm so thankful. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of her in this sweet moment of cuddling with daddy.

Milk Art

One of our favorite (and easiest) ways to pass our afternoons is with an art project at the kitchen counter. I think this works well for a few reasons...

1) they love art
2) they are far enough away from each other that they can not touch each other

I like to mix it up and provide different materials for them. We do a lot of coloring, markers, watercolors and dot dot markers, but it's fun to go beyond those too. I found this idea on pinterest of course...the original blog post is here:

We used condensed milker to make it thicker and when I told them it was ok to lick the "paint" off their fingers if they wanted to, they tried it and declared it "basgusting" (juliet's word for disgusting). Regardless of not wanting to eat it, they loved painting with it!








I had Chris snap a few candids to use for my 52 week project. I really want some of those pictures to reflect what we are doing day to day..not just "smile for the camera" type pictures. And if that means a picture of me fresh out of the shower with no makeup on, so be it. (went for a quick run and grabbed a shower during naps!)

Cormac - 1 month!

How has a whole MONTH already passed??? It's really going way too fast. I remember saying that Juliet's newborn/infant stage passed so quickly, but this is just flying by.

I took monthly pictures with both of the other kids, but I'm going to do something slightly differently with Cormac. Instead of a "sign" next to him with the number of months he is, I'm going to steal this idea from one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love.

So, here's Cormac's first monthly picture, admittedly taken one day late and posted 2 days late. What can I say..he's the third child. This is to be expected. At least I'm doing it!



I weighed him on the 8th...just our home scale, so who knows how accurate, but he was 10 lbs. even. This didn't really surprise me....even Aidric and Juliet say, "Cormac sure does love his milk!" b/c he eats ALL THE TIME! (well, about every 2-3 hours during the day)

Speaking of night...so far, I can't complain too much. There's only been one night he's been up more than twice, so I count myself lucky on that account. Starting around week 2, he struggled to go back to sleep after eating, but I realized soon enough it was directly related to being on his back. He would start groaning and grunting and eventually spit up all over, gagging on it in the process. I decided to try putting him in the Fisher Price Rock n Play and things got much easier. I can pretty much feed him, burp him, keep him upright for 10 minutes or so and then put him back in this for instant return to sleep. (knock on wood...I don't want to jinx anything here) Generally, the "schedule" he's kind of set for himself is bedtime around 7:30/8:00, up some time between 12:00-2:00 and then again between 3:30-6:00. I've been lucky enough to get a handful of nights when he's slept 6-7 hours straight for that first stretch, going down around 7:30 and not waking until 2:00!

I wish I could say his days are as blissful. He is by far, our fussiest baby. That's not saying too much though, considering the first two were such easy babies! Cormac has a hard time just chilling out. If he's awake, he likes to be held and he likes interaction. The longest I think he's gone "unattended" and awake is maybe 15 minutes? And that's been a RARE occasion. He has a super fussy period in the early evening..from about 5:30-7:30 (yes, right when I'm trying to make dinner and then we're trying to eat). He spends the large majority of these 2 hours screaming. And it's hard b/c it doesn't really matter if we're holding him and trying everything we can think of or if he's sitting in the swing by himself...he continues to scream.

Despite the fussy evenings, he's pretty amazing, and I'm more in love with him than I thought possible. I'm anxiously awaiting the first real smile, and I can't wait to start seeing glimpses of his personality...to find out who this little man is going to be. A sensitive, thoughtful people pleaser like his older brother? Or a spirited, independent goofball like his sister? I'm sure it will be some unique combination all his own and I'm so excited to get to know him too!