Three

Simon turned three months and Charlotte turned three years this month.  It also turned 2013 and we had a big New Year's Eve party at our house. It was so nice to not have to travel this year.  A bunch of our college/tailgating friends came over with their kids and some even stayed overnight. The kids had a blast playing together. No one was majorly injured so it was all good.  The night almost fell apart when we couldn't find Charlotte's pinkies, but they were found before she needed to go to sleep.  

 Simon got to snuggle lots of people.  He enjoyed that.

As usual, I haven't blogged for a while so this will be a mish mash of pictures and activities.  

Charlotte has been making this face when she's a monster. I hope you're terrified.

Simon loves getting a bath.  He doesn't splash too much yet so he's staying in the baby tub for a while longer.

 Mina loves showing off the gap in her smile. She knows how cute she is.

 Jon got a bonus check at Christmas time so we indulged Bubba with a new sofa. He's getting old.

Mina just loves Simon. I've had to make up a new song called, "Don't touch my head. Don't pull my legs."  She's not catching on to that one.  Simon was putting up with the head snuggles in this picture, but he really doesn't like it when kids go anywhere near his head. Poor guy.

 I can't believe I'm lucky enough to have these three kids.  They're awesome.

 And a little bit crazy...

The girls look so old in this picture. Mina loves to play Star Wars Angry Birds and Charlotte loves to do puzzles and mazes on the iPad.

Simon is so smiley and alert.  I just got him to start laughing a couple of days ago.  He's much more pleasant than he was last month.  I can lay him on the carpet and talk to him and this is what he does.

We went to the Yo Gabba Gabba! concert in Des Moines on January 15th.  It was a fantastic time for all five of us. Jon had originally only bought three tickets, thinking I'd go with the girls and he'd stay home with Si.  With nursing, that was going to be really challenging, so he bought a couple more tickets and we were able to all go.  I hope it's one of Mina's first memories.  It was Charlotte and Simon's first concert.

Confetti paper flew out at the kids at the beginning and Charlotte clutched a piece she caught in the air for most of the concert.  I loved seeing her so happy.  Mina is more like me and sat quietly taking it all in.

 The Gabbas!

 Charlotte danced and danced and danced.

 Jon bought the girls toys during intermission.  What a sucker. :)

Simon was happy during the whole thing.  I wore him in the bjorn for a while, then Jon held him in his arms until he fell asleep. Yes, he fell asleep.  It was amazing how the timing all worked out perfectly. He nursed while we ate supper before the concert and then nursed in the van while we sat in the parking garage afterwards.  I love it when things work out well like that.

 Charlotte and Mina collected some papers. They wanted to get it all, but my pockets weren't big enough.

I got out from behind the camera for a second to show off my YGG! shirt with the girls.  I felt so cool since multiple people asked me where I got my shirt.  Delia's.

We were so excited and surprised when the girls got asked to go up on stage.  I didn't have the camcorder and rushed around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get pictures and video of everything. Jon was busy holding onto Simon.  My cell phone was full of pictures and videos already so I missed a bit, but got the most important stuff on either picture or video.

Biz tried to get Charlotte to do some beat boxing, but she was too shy.  The audience seemed to think she was cute though.  My phone died about 30 seconds before this so I don't have it on video.

 Mina wasn't afraid to beat box with Biz.  Yay!

They got to stay up on stage for a while and danced. I do have that on video that I linked up on Facebook.  It's on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRs9YaP4D8I

One night we went to Target so Mina could spend her dollars on something at the One Spot.  She picked out a microphone so Charlotte picked a microphone also.  Not good.  Not good at all.

You might notice that Charlotte wears this same outfit all the time.  The only way you can tell one day from the next is by looking at how faded her tattoo gets.

 Mina showing off her hilarious smile once again.

 I asked Charlotte how old she was turning and this is what she showed me. Oh my.

The girls played together really nicely on Charlotte's birthday.  My rule for the day was "Charlotte always wins."  That greatly reduced their squabbles.

 They built a huge castle for the princesses with an enclosed walkway.

 Charlotte made the princesses walk in the walkway and talk with funny voices. Mina was the builder.

We held Charlotte's birthday party at the hotel so we could swim and so I wouldn't have to do as much work. Mina practiced "swimming on top of the water."  She's getting pretty good. I'm glad she'll be old enough for real swim lessons this summer.

Charlotte was so happy to be able to reach everywhere in the hot tub. I couldn't believe her ability to go from cold pool to hot tub and back and forth without issue. Brr!

 Here she is showing off how she can reach if she walks on her tip toes.

 We had pizza, fruit, and veggies before it was time for cake and ice cream.

Charlotte was all about blowing out the candles. She knew just what to do (though she had to blow harder than her first try).

 Mina made a wonderful card for Charlotte, complete with a picture of them together with appropriate hair.

 Charlotte was such a happy girl at the party. She loved having all of the family there.

Now that Charlotte is three, she's old enough for story time at the library. We hadn't been to the library since this summer.  I've been lazy about it.  It's a lot of work getting all of the kids in there together and we have a lot of books at home.  I use up all my energy getting them in and out of the gym instead. Anyway, Charlotte had a couple of friends in story time. She held hands with Nicole while they were waiting to get their name badges.

 At least one kid cooperated for the story time picture.

 Typical.

So that's what's been going on with us.  Simon is probably going to be baptized next month and I'm going to have a few days without Jon. Those should make for some interesting photo opportunities and chaos.

End of 2012

I'm going to end 2012 with a photo bomb. Enjoy.

We had our first measurable snow storm on December 19 and 20.  Mina, Charlotte, and Bubba all played out in the freezing temperatures and had a grand time.

Simon and I stayed inside. He has a snow suit, but it was way too cold even with that. Plus, I don't like snow.  I'd live where it never snowed if I could.  Snow is scary to drive in and cold. Yuck.

The girls even made it down to the playground. If you look closely, you can see Charlotte attempting to climb the wall, but she kept falling down into the snow. It's a good thing it's soft and she had cushion.

 Simon was so happy to have me all to himself.  I love that he smiles every day now.

The girls were very rosy cheeked when they came in.  We had hot chocolate. They ended up going out three times that day and twice the next day.

Jon got home and they "helped" him with the snow.  They actually made it take longer because they got in the way, but he only complained a little.

 Jon has this daddy thing figured out. He can hold a sleeping baby and still use the computer.

 Mina got my attention outside on the deck, then laid down. I'm not really sure what she was going for.

Simon has started to enjoy his play gym, but he was fussing in there the other day. I came into the room only after he had stopped fussing to see this.  Charlotte had helped him out by giving him some attention.

 This is a common thing in our house. Charlotte loves to lay down by Simon and she calls him bruh-thah.

 Simon cooperated really well one day and took a long nap in the front play room.

 We took that opportunity to do a Christmas craft. Mina loves arts and crafts. Charlotte loves to do anything to help me.  She usually specializes in cooking, but she loved gluing on the circles.

 Mina decided that the Christmas tree pictures were a present for Santa so we only got to hang them up until Christmas Eve. We set them out for Santa to get along with his cookie and carrot.

 Charlotte is so beautiful. <3

We celebrated Christmas with Nana and Papa and this is pretty much what went on the whole time.  Simon hadn't slept much the night before so Papa took care of him while we were at their house.  It was great!

 Nana was a very good girl this year.

 The girls taught Nana how to play Fruit Ninja on her new iPad.

 I just love that Simon enjoys his play gym. He was talking to his musical star here.

 Christmas morning came and the girls received exactly what they asked for from Santa.  Charlotte wanted a Lalaloopsy car and Mina wanted a tolly tot doll.

 Simon got a musical animal of some sort or another. Is it a cow? Is it a giraffe with a short neck? Hmmm...

 Mina drew Simon a picture, wrapped it up, then put it under the tree. Here she is presenting it to him.

Mina was excited to get the Disney princess barbies.  Her first comment was that one of the princesses was missing. At least she was only commenting about it and not complaining!

 I was even more exhausted than I looked here.  This picture is representative of the day. The girls had an awesome time. Jon and I were miserable. Simon had been up every hour after 12:30. We were grumpy and stressed out.  Yes, we're extremely lucky to have three beautiful kids, but they can be overwhelming. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. For instance, Simon cried pretty much the entire time while we decorated for Christmas.  There's nothing like hearing a baby scream loud while listening to Silent Night.  Next year should be less stressful, right?

 Simon was not impressed.

 Once Christmas was done, we quickly had to switch gears for Mina's birthday.  I even wrote out a schedule.  This was Mina's first friend drop off party and I didn't want to have a house full of kids without a plan. It went pretty close to my schedule until the presents. Not bad.

My parents came over to help.Charlotte wanted attention while my mom tried to help with making pigs in a blanket.

 We ended up having 10 kids total, including Mina and Charlotte.

Mina was so happy the whole time, didn't complain about anything, and was gracious to her guests. Win!

My favorite games were Scary Bear (like hot potato) and Musical Bears.  The party had a Brave theme so that's why we did games involving bears.  This is the kids playing Musical Bears.

Simon Says was a hilarious flop.  The older girls were really good at it, but the younger kids didn't understand what they were supposed to do at all.  In this picture, everyone should have looked sad, but as you can see, only one girl kept looking sad when I said, "Look excited!"

We had a castle photo booth set up and I took pictures of almost all of the kids in there. I plan to print them out and give them to their parents. Anyway, here are my two dressed as Merida.

And my strange husband dressed as Batman.

Notice that all five kids in this picture are sitting with their arms the same way. They were adorable.  If I remember correctly, they were singing Happy Birthday when I snapped this picture.

Charlotte obviously enjoyed the cake.

Cute party boys Leif and Ethan.

Mina was so tired and happy at the end of the night. She told me she wished she could have a party every night and that I was the best mom in the world. I kind of felt like the best mom in the world too. :)

Mina surprised us the next night by losing her first tooth. We weren't even aware it was loose!

Mind the gap.

What's a photo bomb without a strange family photo?

Mina loves to see what she can fit in the gap.

I spent a bunch of time putting away the laundry this evening and I came downstairs to see this.  Cute!

I'm a lucky lady.

I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be even better than 2012 - no morning sickness and no pushing a baby out (though that turned out to be strangely fun and exciting).  Simon will be running around the house spreading terror at this time next year. It's going to be awesome.