holy shit they're ONE

in true form i am a good month behind in posting this, but, they're ONE, we made it!!!

these two, oh what a year. They are finally sleeping and went from walking to running in a blink of an eye. both boys are climbers and are "practicing" their dismounts......

They have 10 teeth apiece and continue to eat every morsel of food that comes in their line of sight. They are very happy boys who love their sister and will sit in any available lap on the playground. Can't wait to start the fun of summer...too bad they go to bed well before the lightning bugs come out ;)

Hooper

Jules

first christmas + 9 month olds

This has been a big year for this little (not so little anymore) family.

Our first year as a whole family(growing from 3 to 5 members was quite an adjustment).

first christmas dottie can kinda 'get' santa

first christmas where we didn't have massive construction/leaking in some part of our home(our addition has been amazing and i'm not sure how we would've fit everyone together without it)

the boys are a whopping 9 months old now and are EVERYWHERE as well as huge. they eat everything in sight and scream if you're eating something that they want. we're venturing out of the house on our own more and more - i've even tackled the park and santa - HA! it only truly hit me that i might need a double stroller when we went to see the big man at the mall. being ever so grown up, dots usually likes to walk and be a big kid. unfortunately upon arriving to the mall and seeing all the cars - she refused to walk through the parking lot. So i was forced to schlep all 3 of them to the front door under my own power - thats around 70lbs of baby. boy did i get some looks. needless to say my christmas present to myself has been a new double stroller to keep in the car, for just such emergencies ;)

dottie is so grown up from the baby she was when the boys arrived. she is now speaking in sentences that other people can understand and has quite the opinion on what she gets for snacks and the clothes she is wearing.

looking forward to what the next year brings and all the giggles that go with it :)

Merry Christmas everyone -

settling in

Routine. That has been our main goal for the past few months and I'd like to think it's working. the boys still wake up way too much at night, but atleast they, typically, go to sleep without much fuss. They've also started crawling, every where. They went from moving backwards to full on crawling and standing overnight. Nothing in the house is safe as they put everything in their mouth aside from actual food. These 2 are going to keep me on my toes.Dottie has grown up so much in the past few months it's amazing. She has become a great little momma to her baby. Whom she feeds, changes, puts down for naps, takes for walks and rocks to sleep. She rarely goes anywhere without her.The days are getting colder and Dottie is fascinated by the sky still being darker when she wakes up and the leaves falling from the trees elicit great gasps of excitement. Fall is here and we are going to get the most out of our time outside :)

me + 3

the last of our help has come and gone - we are on our own. it's a lot to take in having 3 babies under 2 and just one adult most of the time. but someone's got to bring home the bacon. most days are honestly pretty good. dottie does amazing and the boys somewhat cooperate. then there are days like today - where there seems to always be at least 1 of the 3 crying (and lets be honest sometimes all 3 and the dog to boot) and i didn't even put real pants on until after 1pm.

every time i think i'm getting the hang of this, we have a bad day and someone throws me for a loop - but i guess that's just parenting. the boys have stopped sleeping where they lie. we've adjusted by setting up a "nap room" downstairs for them. they nap side by side in a pack and play for now with a sound machine and fan to drown out some of dottie's noise. we're lucky if they go 45 min. on the rare occasion that they do try to go longer, one of them usually wakes up early which means #2 gets woken up 15 or so minutes later. :(they can sleep through each other crying right next to their face but the dog and dots are a whole other story.

the newness of brothers has started to wear off and dots is becoming increasingly jealous. mostly while i'm trying to put the boys down for their gazillionth nap of the day and have to stop what we are doing to check on them - inevitably one will take 3-4x before they are actually asleep, can't say i blame her...totally

i've started venturing out a bit with all 3 - mostly to places i can keep them contained, like the target cart or a friends house - as i have the help of said friend. the older kids mostly entertain themselves so it's a nice break for everyone.

this is life - 3 months in

next on the bucket list sleep.

they're here

the boys have arrived, yep BOYS :)

julian shepherd and hooper walton

born march 15th at 6:07 and 6:22 pmweighing in at 6.13 and 7.9

(first few days home)

it has been 3 weeks and we've all survived(thanks to a lot of help from my parents - and soon my in-laws)

dot's is handling her new title of big sister like a champ.always giving them hugs, bringing them blankets, and well, stealing their binkies.

(a princess & her minions)

she is now the 'princess' of the house and has taken to decorating the boys with stickers and whatever else she can find, along with the dog - which he is quite thrilled about

dots is upstairs

We took the plunge this weekend and moved Dottie upstairs to her new room in hopes that she will have a chance to get used to it for a week or 2 before the new littles arrive.

The transition has gone fairly smoothly. I guess we'll see how the rest of the week plays out.

She also had a chance to hang out in studio with daddy for a bit. Definitely liked all the glowing buttons to push.

Poor booger doesn't realize how much more change is coming her way :(

4 more feet coming

Funny thing happened. Dots is going to be a big sister.(Guess I'll have to change the title of this section)

And to make it even more fun, it's twins - the identical ones -

Say hello to the new additions 'A' and 'B':

Yes, I realize this is crazy and with all our construction going on it is going to be a hectic couple of months, to try and get everything done, livable, and ready for when they decide to make their debut. We're still not sure how we are going to handle having 3 under the age of 2 (holy cow!), with a minivan search underway we are plowing ahead and hope to have   somewhere to put them in March - our new closet is the #1 choice so far.

Wish us luck!(we're going to need it)

little miss

Everyone always says time passes by quickly when you have kids - they are all right.

Little miss Dots is 10 1/2 months old already.

She's got 6 going on 8 teeth, crawls, is on the verge of walking, plays hard, loves music and being tickled.

She also LOVES reading.

And climbing.

And playing in the tub - whether it's inside or out :)

6+ months and we're all still alive

 

Yes, yes yes, I am a tad behind. The snuggle bear above takes up quite a bit of my "free" time.

The last few months have been full of new things. She sits on her own and can stand pretty well as long as she's leaning on something. Rolling over is a piece of cake now a days. It's the actual moving part that is still very hard. She scooted herself into a corner the other day and got "stuck" since she can't go forward yet ;)

We discovered 2 teeth coming in (i have yet to be able to get a photo of them - she's too wiggly) just about the time we broke down and gave her some real food. She was trying to steal anything and everything off our plates, so we figured she might just be ready. So far i think she's more excited about the prospect of playing with the spoon than actually eating. But i know some gets in there as her poo has peas in it...hahaha.

She's adding food to her list at lightning speed:acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potato, apples, banana, avaocado and peas.

Made some teething biscuits today - bunnies for frank (yes he's still here - but getting mighty old)

so far i think they are a hit

It's starting to get warm outside and we can't wait to spend our days outside playing.

a skeleton pirate & 3 months old

We were racking our brains trying to think of a good costume for Dots this Halloween. And we had a lot of good ones, but in the end we went with the cheap target sleeper route. I'm glad we did as she was only wearing it for 3 hours and we never left our porch. Halloween was cold and rainy and she was being a bit of a fuss-pot. We sat on the porch and handed out candy until the wee hours (aka 7:00) which is when bedtime starts and trick or treaters don't bode well for sleeping babies when there's a dog around. Needless to say we had a lot of candy left over and are still picking through it.

Now it's November, geez. you'd think time would slow down when you're not sleeping, but somehow it goes by even faster.

Sadly it was time for me to go back to work and start sending Dot's off to daycare (which is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do). I've got it worked out so i'm not working full days and can leave by 2:30 which leaves the afternoons for some fun.

3 month Loves:

Taking bathes, having long conversations with all of the fans in the house, eating, smiling, funny faces, "sitting", and munching on her hands.

In honor of her 3months we took her into the studio for a quick photo shoot.

Behold the many faces of the Dot's:

munchkin is here!! (and 2 months old)

Wow time flies, I can't believe it's already been 2 months since Dorothy Mabel made her entrance on August 15th 2:18am -  9lbs 4 oz, 20" long.

Now that we're getting a bit more sleep (knock on wood) we're able to get a few more things done, like update this blog, and introduce her to the world.She is quite the little stinker with loads of personality already.

We've been setting up photo shoots with her around the house and she humors us for now and I've only been peed on once during (so far ;)

She's already had so many 1sts:

1st visit from grandparents:

(Mimi and Pops)

(Nan and Grandpa aka Mad Dog)

1st Snooze on the porch:

1st Bath (this little one LOVES her bath time):

1st Smiles:

1st Plane Ride:(She was such a trooper. We had a 7 hour flight delay and didn't hear a peep from her)

1st Play Date:

(Gemma Clark - 4months and Dots - 2months)

We give little Dot's a lot of guff - but she's a pretty awesome baby and we love her a ton already and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Per Kent's request here is "where'd my weekend go?"

the munchkin

At 21 weeks we got another sneak peak - finally starting to look like a human:

So this week the family is out boating in the BVI. Being 6 months pregnant (and really needing all of my vacation days for when the munchkin arrives) I opted out of going. Working while everyone else is out on the ocean isn't fun, but at least I have plenty to keep me busy. I've started clearing out the guest room and yesterday put together the crib. It's all starting to get real and still a lot of work to be done.