Blessings

There are a lot of Smiths now, huh. Kind of surprises me to see us all shoved in one picture together. When people ask how it is having three kids my first thought is LOUD. Taj and Eden haven't stopped talking for months now. Throw some crying in there and hand me the ear plugs please. Love this picture though. First one all together since the hospital. It was Olivia's blessing, and time for a feeding.

This dress is amazing. Hand sewn about 35 years ago. This was the 3rd blessing in it (Auntie Alissa, Eden, and now Olivia).

This is one of the few pictures of us together. I will cherish it.

Eden turned 3 on October 4th. We had a special family birthday for her. I LOVE having an excuse to spoil my kids. There are few things more satisfying in this life. She is at a tricky stage-time outs and attitude a plenty. She comes up with "leave me alone Mom", and "I have to go potty. My heart told me." All part of the roller coaster of emotions. She's such a blessing. We knew both our girls needed to come to our family well before we had them and I'm reminded of how blessed we are daily.

Party Time

Taj and Eden's birthdays are a couple weeks apart, so being a little selfish and realistic we decided to do a combined store bought birthday party themed party. Two cakes, a bounce house, double the presents and it was still cheaper than last year's. Go figure. Pixie Stix were a hit.
As was the Jumping Castle.

We have a five year old? We have a three year old? Wow, time is flying by.

Busted

I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but i recently busted Olivia sucking on her fingers. The two middle on her left hand seem to be her favorites. I think it's stinking cute, but also have a feeling a little like panic. I know it'll be trouble down the road. I've been pushing the pacifier, but apparently the paci's got nothing on her fingers. This is just another of my frequent reminders that even though I've raised two babies (still in the process of...) I've never raised an Olivia.

She's a sweet baby. We smile and talk with each other more than my others did. She sleeps great, especially right now. She just got her 2 month shots, poor thing, and wants to sleep it off. We're getting a lot more face time with her these days and the kids are loving it. Eden gets a little cookoo when Livi's around. Super hyper and you can see in her eyes she wants to squeeze her. I just tell her that Olivia still hasn't burped yet. Eden is terified of getting spit up on her.
Let's just say I'm not going to leave Livi around Eden without supervision :)

Overload

Our lives have been as crazy as this jumble of photo's.

*Taj turned 5!!! I'm in shock still.

We had a mellow family party- the big combined party is coming...

Taj chose to golf and play at Boondocks.

He smiled all day long, and is just starting to look up from all his new toys.

*Eden started Preschool! She was so proud that she could go by herself. I was too.

* We went boating on Jordanelle. Taj and Eden both surprised us by tubing. Eden also came on the surfboard with me.

Eden says I'm "regular" now so I can go in the water. I'm more excited about that than she is.

*Olivia is a peach. She is full of smiles and has been sleeping through the night for about a week now- GO BABYWISE!

*the zoo still rocks. Or so I'm told. Micah and the kids had a great time riding the train and visiting the new baby elephant.






*We bought our one way tickets to Hawaii~ October 21 can't come soon enough!!!

Progress

Gracias, Mahalo, and Thank you to my mothering brain trust. Your experiences comforted me a lot and after hearing what you had to say, I did some research on spit up. I've decided Olivia is getting too much too fast and not getting the burping attention she needs. It's pretty annoying, but doesn't seem to be bothering her and she's definitely got baby chubs so I'm not too worried about her weight gain. Thanks again everyone. You all help so much.

I'm in love with this van. We saw it on a colder day. Yup. Summer is officially over here already. It hurt a little to see it because it made me want to be that girl holding the surfboard again, but I can't complain since we'll be in HI next month. It made me re-realize how much I need to work on being happy in the moment instead of always looking forward to the next thing... Hawaii, the kids in preschool, Olivia eating solid food and sitting up instead of spitting up. Here's to living in the moment. Speaking of which, I better go get Taj and feed Olivia. Joy.

Oh boy

So Olivia has a spitting up problem. I think it's a problem, but my other two never spit up so... I'm needing comfort, info, insight of any kind. Can it be stopped? Am I doing something wrong here? Anyone? Beuller?

Motherhood a.k.a Learning Patience

Last week in church (made it for 2 of the 3 hours!!) we had a lesson on patience. The big P. We got talking about how when we're feeling impatient it's because things aren't on my schedule. That's motherhood in a nutshell. All week long I've been thinking about how impatient I can be, but also how much patience I've learned since becoming a mom almost 5 years ago. It starts with, "when will this baby come?" then, "when will this muffin top go away?". Don't forget the, "when will I get a good nights sleep?". It never ends. I went for a run a couple times this week and there was the new lesson my body is teaching me.... it'll be a while before it feels like my own again.

I can see a lot of growth in Micah and I, but am constantly reminded of how much I have to learn still. At least we're able to stop and take a breath and remember that these moments are fleeting (most of the time). Usually I realize there is really no reason to be stressed or pushy and I am humbled to see how patient our kids are with us as parents.
*Olivia knows and loves her Daddy already. She follows his voice around a room. She's smiling and cooing. She lifts her head during tummy time and is A-Dor-Able!

*The kids learned patience waiting for the ice cream truck. It's silly around here.

Oobleck

Despite my better judgement (this stuff is crazy messy) I made the kids a batch of Oobleck (1 1/4 C. cornstarch and 1/2 C-3/4 C water) and let them play while I nursed Olivia. It was messy, but they loved every second! They seriously played with the stuff for an hour, then went back for more later on, outside that time. This was one of the good days. Thank heavens for those.

Us Lately

4 weeks later...my arms are starting to get tired

we"re leaving the house a little more

I'm really missing my other 2 kids and our old routine

names are getting all mixed up- Olivia- I mean Eden

It's crazy around here, but wonderful. I remember how crazy it was when Eden was born and thinking we might have ruined everything. Those moments never lasted though and now Taj and Eden are the best of friends. Taj gets Eden her gummy vitamins in the morning. Eden gets Taj his toothbrush. They got their first tag team time out a couple days ago, and while it wasn't fun I was marking down in the book of Smith as a first and like that they have each other.