April

Between injuries and events, it's been a busy month.  Mina went with Milo and family to Pheasants Forever. Twinsies!

Simon has been working on some skills. He can sit up (better than pictured here now). He can roll, but chooses not to in general. He says dadada all the time.  He continues to want to be held most of the time, but he enjoys his exersaucer sometimes.

 Easter happened. We dyed eggs and went to church. The kid had lots of candy.

 Mina and Charlotte both wore beautiful dresses and refused to pose properly.

Charlotte sprained her wrist and we took her to urgent care. Mina broke her arm and didn't get taken to the doctor until after this picture was taken and we realized just how gross her arm looked. She was in a splint for a week and used a sling for three weeks.

 Mina also lost another tooth. She loved messing with it before it finally wiggled out.

I finally took some decent pictures of Simon in his nursery. I was pretty pleased with the outcome.  By the time I figure out how to use my camera better, he won't stay still or pose I'm sure.

 Nothing like some finger sucking at nap time.  I'm jealous!

I went through all my closets and drawers and got rid of a ton of clothes. See the heap behind me?  Many of my clothes were too big or too old. I'm now ten pounds less than I was when I got pregnant with Simon and about five pounds less than I was when I got pregnant with Mina. I exercise a lot. That's the key to weight loss for me. Jon had to take a picture of me when I tried on my prom dress for fun.

 The kids love to listen to music and snuggle after baths. There's nothing like clean kids.

Charlotte is so adorable that it keeps me under control when she's soooo naughty.  You've gotta take the good with the bad with her.  She's really, really good...

Sometimes Simon puts up with playing with his sisters. They were busy with barbies so he got to hang out in peace.

It finally stopped being crappy outside so we went to a park play date.  The snow this year has been ridiculous. It shouldn't snow in April!

I can now pretty much leave Mina and Charlotte to their own devices at the park and tend to Simon. That makes me really happy.

This is the Charlotte that makes my heart surge. She's such a joy.

We had a mysterious poop incident occur while Simon was wearing these pants. Somehow he filled his diaper and socks with poop and completely bypassed his pants.  How in the world did that happen? I'll never know.

I have probably five different baby wearing devices. Most of them are hippy approved, but he prefers the hip and spine killing Baby Bjorn. Hey, whatever makes the kid happy.  Jon was wiping out the the ever present poop from the baby swing.

 At least Jon cooperated for the camera.

Charlotte participated in the United All Stars open house last night and wasn't shy in front of the huge crowd. We were so proud of her. She did somersaults and was adorable.  The pictures are on my phone and I'm lazy so we'll see if they ever make it onto the blog.  We'll save the video.  Mina didn't get to perform since her arm has just healed. Bummer. She's awesome at cartwheels and flips (though she DID break her arm doing a cartwheel).

My other big news is that I'm currently training for a 5k on June 1st.  I know it's only 3.1 miles, but I've never been a runner.  My goal is to run the whole thing and to finish under 35 minutes. I'll keep running until I can run a 5k under 30 minutes or I hate it too much to continue.  So far I don't hate it entirely, as long as I go slowly. Jon and I have been running together on Sundays. He has to go at about half his normal speed, but at least we're spending time together.  Yesterday I ran a 5k on the treadmill within my training program and easily made it under 40 minutes with plenty of walking (because I was following my intervals; I could have kept running).

As Usual

I let another month go between posts. I guess that's become my new norm.  Something had to give and I can't completely neglect the children, husband, or kids.

As I'm writing this, Simon and Charlotte are napping, Mina is playing games on the iPad, and Jon is on a plane to Minneapolis, then California.  So far, so good.  It's exceedingly rare that Charlotte and Simon nap at the same time.  I try to enjoy every minute of it, whether that means catching up on my to-do list or sitting on my butt.  

I have tomorrow off so getting the blog done today means more sitting on my butt time in the future. I might even watch a chick flick or take a nap.  Whoever says that mother-in-laws are awful, obviously doesn't have one like mine!  She's taking all three kids for me all day tomorrow, then making us all supper. Score.

So now we come to the photo bomb. Jon  bought a new camera for me for Valentine's Day so there's a mix of photos from the old and new camera.  Some day I'll actually try to take more than quick snap shots.  I don't know when that will be since I don't take the time to put make-up on most days, but at least I have a nice camera for when that day comes.  When I was in high school, I used to spend a whole afternoon hiking around taking nature photos. I can't even imagine having that kind of time on my hands.

My oldest niece, Hailey, came over for some math help one day.  Charlotte just loves teaching other people the joy of algebra. Ha!  I did enjoy going over graphing with Hailey. Her family's house sold and my brother in law, Matt, found a job in another town so they're all moving away.  I try to not even think about it because I'm going to miss them all.  It will give us another reason to visit in the Des Moines area.  Hailey won't have me close by for math help though.  Maybe they should just stay.

 Charlotte enjoys how huge the new camera is. She'll even cheese it up for me. Here's a senior picture pose.

 I know this is random, but it gives me the giggles. Charlotte loves croutons. I made some popcorn and had croutons out to put on a salad. Charlotte decided her popcorn needed croutons. All of the croutons.  This is proof that my kids don't always eat the best food.

 Here I am doing my favorite thing.  There's nothing like snuggling a three year old.

It's been a pretty awful winter unless you like snow. I hate snow.  My girls, however, LOVE snow.  They get all dressed up and play out there until their faces are pure red. They come inside demanding hot chocolate afterwards.  I enjoy watching them from inside the house.

Simon is just too cute. He's pushing up more when he's on his tummy. He can roll both ways. He looks so much like Charlotte with those big blue eyes.

I tried to get a picture of him sitting, but this is all we caught. He can do the tripod sit briefly (where his hands are held together on the floor in front of him).  He's a chill baby and doesn't have an urge to blow through all the milestones like his sisters. That's fine by me.

 Simon loves riding on my legs.

 Simon was baptized last month also.  He was very well-behaved. His sisters entertained the congregation. Mina kept pulling on Simon's legs. Charlotte almost pulled down the whole baptismal font.

 Go Cyclones!

 Here's a picture from yet another snow storm. Mina and Jon made this awesome snowman.  It has grapes for eyes, a real carrot nose, rocks for the smile and buttons, golf clubs for arms, and a Bacon Fest hat.

 Facetime is cool. We made use of it when Jon was in Iowa City last month and we plan to use it again while he's in California. I'm so lucky to have a husband that is rarely out of town. Facetime isn't nearly as good as the real thing.

 Mina loves her little brother so much. She spent part of a nap time snuggling with him in my bed. Cute.

 Simon has the same opinion of snow as I do.  Not a fan.

 Jon bought this snowsuit for the little guy before he was born so we took him out to "play" after the last snow storm.  Seriously. It shouldn't be snowing in March.

 What a pair.  It was darn windy outside.

 Here I am faking happiness for the camera.

We've done naked time for Simon a couple of times. I'm amazed that he has kept the blanket dry.  Anyway, he's awfully cute in his birthday suit.

 He's a happy guy most of the time. Finally!

 Charlotte and Mina love to pick out their own clothes.  Here they are all dressed up for tumbling class.

 I love my cute guys. 

 Mina had me take her picture because she knows how much I love purple.

 I can't help but giggle at this self portrait. I was trying to take a picture of us with Simon. Poor Simon.

 We took Simon to Florida for a vacation/conference. He was terrible. Terrible.  I don't even really want to write about it.  There was lots of screaming and not a lot of putting him down.  We did have some fun times - He was great on the plane both ways. We got to see friends that live down there. He was happy sometimes in his stroller outside. He enjoyed his bath.  I'll just leave it at that.

 Mina, Mina, Mina...she knows just how to make Simon happy.

Until next time...

Calming Down

Now that the holidays and birthdays are over with, things are finally settling down.  I can spend all my time kissing and loving on the kids again. Well, maybe not, but at least my stress level has significantly decreased.

It also helps that Simon is soooo much easier. He's getting stronger and more interested in his surroundings. He smiles a lot and giggles once in a while.  He's the perfect size in my arms.  I call him "the snuggler" sometimes.  Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.  

Si tried out the exersaucer for the first time. He was a bit small so we stuffed some blankets in there with him. I love how chubby his neck looks in this picture.

 Simon has gotten to experience naked time.  He was a fan.

 Mina is even more nuts for Simon now that he smiles.  She can pick him up into sitting position for a nice squeeze.

 He's an old pro at the exersaucer now.

 This gorgeous outfit is on loan from a friend.

 Simon was putting up with Mina while she blew on his belly.

I'm sort of dreading next week since that's the week that Jon will be gone for a few days.  We have a lot planned so hopefully time will pass quickly.  At least I'll be able to watch whatever I want at night.  Too bad Duck Dynasty doesn't have new episodes until later in the month.

I've been spending a lot of time at the gym.  Yesterday I was asked if I lost all my baby weight and I was happy to be able to say that I have.  Now I need to put down the peanut butter M & M's and work on those last ten pounds I'd still like to lose.  I've added running and zumba in with my regular exercise.  Running sucks, but zumba is fun. I'm a terrible dancer so I just laugh and try my best.  That's a great improvement in my attitude.  Simon loves to be in kid care and watches all of the kids around him.  Sometimes I go in to pick him up and he's getting a good snuggle in with the workers.  They've told me how wonderful he is repeatedly so that makes it really easy to take an hour to exercise.

On the other hand, I've been overscheduling some of my days. It got to the point that I had to think long and hard about when I'd have time to get gas in the van.  The fuel light was on, but I had kids to drop off, Simon to feed, a gym class to get to, etc.  I've started getting groceries at 6am just to avoid bringing the kids along.  It's an adjustment, but it's getting easier.