Happy Friday!

Donuts Before School

We had some extra time this morning, so we stopped for donuts. The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. I let them each pick their donut, (purple sprinkles for Madeline, rainbow sprinkles for Caleb. Eleanor, unfortunately, just had to watch.) and I let them have chocolate milk. ( thrilling, I know!) We were pretty much the only people in there, so the donut lady chatted with the kids. She even complimented their behavior when we left. What a fun start to the day!

The girls

Caleb...

... has discovered Mariokart.

Small Victories...

I made a quick trip to the mall by myself with all three kids. They needed to pick out Christmas ornaments. We managed to find everyone an ornament, grab a fancy Christmas cookie, and get back out without any meltdowns or crying babies. It was my first real shopping experience with all three kids. Yay for small victories!

Playing at the Park

We've had some really pleasant (if somewhat changeable) weather lately. Yay for playing outside!

Fall Pictures

I love these pictures. I'm really lucky that the kids' school makes the extra effort to get siblings together.

Ok, so I'm trying to publish from my phone, and the pictures are not showing up properly. For now you can click on them to see them. I'll try to fix this mess later. I'm not really impressed with this app. :-(

Randomness

Hi... How's it going?

We're okay here, I suppose.

Eleanor has her first cold, which I'm not thrilled about.

 I can't say I'm surprised. We've all been just a bit under the weather lately.

 Even so, I've gotta say I love these kids.

 They are so fun, and they're getting older too fast!

Have a great day!

My Girls

Here's something fun for me: dressing Eleanor up in clothes that Madeline wore. I think they really look alike. You can tell who is who fairly easily with Eleanor's crazy spiky hair. (She's the one in the big pink bow.)

 In all fairness, though, Madeline was actually three or four weeks older in her picture. I should really do this shot again when they're the same age for a better comparison. I just took advantage of the cooler weather today to use some of Madeline's long sleeved outfits before Eleanor was too big to wear them.

But I've gotta go. Eleanor had her 2 month shots today, and she's quite cranky. Hopefully I can get some more pictures on here soon. 

Have a happy day!

Eleanor

     Okay, so we've been a bit busy around here. Apparently some people think that large life-changing events like having a kid deserve blog entries.... and that's probably true. Here ya go. There's not really a good way to catch up, so I'll summarize:

 Eleanor joined the family on July 2nd. She's beautiful, fairly easy-going, and she likes to spit up.

Caleb and Madeline really like her, and they seem to be adjusting well. Madeline is a little overly enthusiastic. She tries to help a little too much, and isn't quite as gentle as she needs to be. Caleb likes to hold her, but he's always afraid she'll spit up on him. 

We are working on finding a new routine, and establishing a new "normal." It's taking a while because honestly, there are days I don't even get a shower. Life is a challenge with three kids under five running around the house. I keep thinking that things will become easier when the school year starts. If nothing else, it will help us stay in a routine. Right now I'm having a hard time keeping the kids and myself sane. It is way too hot to play outside during the day, and there aren't really any indoor play areas that I feel comfortable tackling alone right now. I'm not sure I can keep track of Madeline in a crowd while still caring for Eleanor, although I know that will get easier as they both get a little older. Luckily, I have a lot of indoor activities that we've been switching out in an effort to keep the older two occupied. 

The past few weeks have been challenging. I'm exhausted. My house and hair are a mess. I don't have time to do laundry, much less work out to lose this baby weight. BUT, I'm loving (almost) every minute of it. I am very blessed in so many ways. I'm especially thankful that I'm not a prisoner to the postpartum depression that followed the birth of my first two. I'm not sure I could have handled that gracefully in front of Caleb and Madeline. 

So, basically, life is going on like it tends to do. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of blogging more often. Just don't judge too harshly; we all know how consistent I am with that. 

Have a wonderful day!