The perfect trio

So remember this picture of "the prego trio" just before the first precious baby arrived in July? From left to right: Victoria (Christian's Mommy), me, and Ashley (Nick's Mommy)

Ashley delivered her perfect little bundle on December 8th! Here are our sweet little angels together on December 9th! :) From left to right: Christian is 20 weeks and 22 lbs, Livy is 11 weeks and 12 lbs, and Nick is 1 day and 6.5 lbs!
It continues to be a blast sharing our new baby moments with one another! Little Nick isn't yet too interested in the other two babies, but Christian and Livy are starting to interact and make each other cry already... girls and boys with their drama...haha!

MASSIVE randomness

I've had a lot on my mind today so here is a glance (okay it turned into a novel) of what is going on around here...

FRIGID!!!

It is so cold in our house that my oldest daughter has resorted to sitting on top of the heat vents when she plays. Why you might ask would we turn our heat down in the winter??? We had an $800 utility bill this month!!! I almost fell out when I saw it and so we had to turn the thermostat from our toasty 72 to a very chilly 67. Who can afford that? Our dogs will also no longer enjoy the luxury of us running a heater in the garage for them on these frigid nights, and my laundry room will just have to stay 35 degrees. Sigh. But I refuse to give up the space heater for the 40 minutes I spend in the bathroom for my shower and getting Addie and I dressed! It is SO cold in the master bath that you will literally sit there shivering if you don't have something to knock off the chill (and I was running it all day since we are in and out). Yes we live in an old house but for crying out loud, we have new vinyl windows and a relatively new heating unit, AND we don't use the upstairs... so nothing is on up there ever (and 72 isn't that warm in this house, it's actually kind of cold)! What the heck??? If the things I've done to reduce our bill don't work this month then the house is going on the market next month!!! No way around it because we'll go bankrupt trying to pay a giant bill month after month!

Dieting...

I got tired of having to wear a "body slimmer" to fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans and dresses so I decided to start watching my calories. I got a little out of control over the holidays with my eggnog and chocolate milk consumption and barely drank anything else but water...and then I discovered Target's mint chocolate milk... oh my heavens, it was DELICIOUS!!! But I was taking in like 1800 calories in JUST DRINKS per day... not to mention I ate whatever the heck I wanted...Gross. Since I exclusively nurse Livy I am supposed to eat 1500-1800 calories a day. I started keeping up with my calories and in ONE month I lost 6 pounds just by watching what I ate! I weighed more than I was comfortable with before I got pregnant, so I have about 20 pounds to lose to fit into my "skinny" clothes, 10 of that is still baby weight. I can't wait to be myself again and comfortable in my own skin! And all the shivering I'm doing now that our house is cold has surely got to make me burn some calories, right?! Luckily my Mom, sis, and best friends are watching their calories too so we all encourage one another and keep tabs on what we are each eating with our online food diaries! Love you ladies!!! And I'm happy to report that I now fit into pre-pregnancy jeans and a few of my dresses without a slimmer! Hallelujah!

Spit up and poop...

Livy is the spit up QUEEN. I know now to expect the "flow" after each burp and get puked on pretty often... It's not fun!!! I am hoping this slows down when she starts sitting up... And the child won't poop. She has nasty rank gas all day every day but we rarely see any poop around here. What poop we do see is normal, but just small amounts... Who would've thought I'd ever be so interested in poo???

Addie...

has shown a little more jealousy since the novelty of new baby has worn off. She still is incredibly sweet and loving to Livy but if I take a picture of Livy she wants her picture made. And if I get excited about Livy putting weight on her feet, Addie promptly points out that she can stand too! I've been trying to make sure I get excited about the little things Addie does that are "out of the ordinary" now and I've noticed a difference. Addie still loves to hold her sissy and likes to help me with her but Addie is at her happiest when it is just "our" time during bath time, Livy's naps, or bedtime, though she still wants to be all over Livy while Livy sleeps! I make sure that I make time for just the two of us even if it is just while I cook dinner and Addie loves it. The funny thing is Livy loves "us" time too! Luckily she wakes up about 2 hours before Addie does, so we have a lot of time together and then she goes down for a nap about the time Addie is waking up so it works well. Addie and Livy have a sweet bond between them though and Addie knows just what to do to keep sister happy. The other day I don't know where the heck I was but Mom and Dad were in the foyer at church with the girls. Livy's bottom lip started to tremble when she realized I wasn't near and Addie saw it and started to "fake" laugh. Livy immediately started smiling. When Livy's lip started quivering again Addie did it again and kept Livy happy until I got her back. Addie can make Livy laugh out loud and I love it.

Livy

is such a happy little girl. My little round bundle is so fun to squeeze and her cheeks are so darn kissable! She's drastically changed this past month and is so much more animated and her little personality is really showing. She is very much a Momma's girl but she will now let Jarom, Mom, and Dad hold her without a meltdown and has been okay when I've left her for up to two hours with Mom or Jarom! Definitely an improvement! She finds it HILARIOUS when I have her pretend to box with Daddy because he is so animated with it. Her little laugh warms my soul. At least something is warm around here!

Need for spring!

Winter is so depressing to me!!! The gray skies and cold air are almost enough to send me packing us up for a warmer climate. It has been unusually cold this winter and we've had TWO huge snows (huge meaning more than an inch, though everything shut down, haha!). This is Alabama people... we don't get snow!!! Usually we have a few days in January that are "flip flop" weather that hold me until spring, but not this time. I'm even itching to get out in my massive amounts of flower beds and start tidying it all up... and I'm not a yard person!

Sad...

I have only a handful of ladies that I can truly call "best" friends (besides of course my sis and mom). Ones I can share ANYTHING with. When Victoria moved here we didn't really even get a chance to talk until my Aunt Margaret placed her as my visiting teacher almost a year later... I swear it was divine inspiration!!! It was like I found my girlfriend "soul mate", haha!!! She stepped into my front door and I asked that she take her shoes off (remember we don't allow shoes in the house) and she said "OF course! We don't allow shoes in our house either!!!" and the rest is history, LOL! I don't have to filter a single word that comes out of my mouth for fear of what she might think of me (which is SO refreshing) and we are so much alike that its truly a little scary, haha! We even survived giving each other a baby shower which probably would've broken us if we weren't so open with each other since we are both perfectionists and procrastinators! She's seen me at my absolute worst, sobbing, swollen face, makeup-less, in the midst of a miscarriage, and helped me out when I was in need. We went through pregnancy together, along with another best friend Ashley, and the whole experience just brought us all that much closer. Since they are a military family they just found out that they will be moving to TX this September, and while I'm happy they get to stay a little longer than planned I'm mainly just sad because I enjoy being around her SO much. AND she's taking another one of my besties with her, her sissy Vanessa!!! That also means that Addie's best friend Trevor will be leaving too. Come on now!!! Addie is gonna have a hard time saying goodbye to as she calls them "Uncle Ron, cousin Trevor, Toria, and Nessa". :(

my husband

While he frustrates the HECK out of me with his love of video games and his inability to finish a home improvement project through to 100% without some mega nagging, I sure do love that man. He is such a good dad to his girls, and has such a kind heart. Every month when I go to play Bunco (my one "girls" night) a month, he takes Addie on a date. Last week he took her to Chuck-E-Cheese and they played all kinds of games and ate pizza. He is such my opposite in so many ways. I would never consider taking Addie there "just because" for fear of germs, sick kids, and just how darn expensive it is (and possibly because growing up my Dad referred to it as "upchuck cheese"--GROSS!) but he knew it was something she'd LOVE and treated her to a night of fun. He NEVER complains if I want to order in dinner instead of cooking, even if we ordered in the night before, and is happy when I pack him peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. It doesn't take much to make him happy and I love that.

Front Porch

Did I mention I hate the front of our house??? It is truly ugly... with some awful iron work and a red, green, and blue awning over the terrible leaded glass front door. The plan was to add a porch right after doing the kitchen, but the kitchen ended up being more than we expected and we didn't have the funds for a porch. Out of curiosity, I got a quote the other day for a porch and it was $11,000. Sigh. Looks like the porch will have to wait longer... We have another estimate due in this week, so we will see. Though if our utility bill isn't cheaper we won't need a porch because we will be relocating to a smaller, more tightly insulated home or we'll be under a bridge somewhere from the utilities breaking the bank!!!

Hairless?

Almost three years ago Jarom gave me a birthday gift of "laser hair removal" for my legs and arm pits (I requested it due to my hatred of shaving!). I was supposed to get 10 treatments and was supposed to have no hair left after the treatments were finished... Liars!!! 22 treatments later and I do have LESS hair, but there is definitely hair! Darn.

A kind word

A girl I went to high school with sent me a note on facebook today that brightened my day:

"Hey! I had read someone's post on Facebook and It had really upset me BUT it had made me think about you and I wanted to say THANK You for sharing your struggles and having a kind word about Parent hood! Being a first time parent I am GREATFUL for MOTHERS like you!"

I know I post a lot of random things on facebook and probably "over share" about our "poo/puke mishaps" that I find slightly amusing or disgusting, but at least SOMEONE appreciates it, haha!!!

Blessing

In my patriarchal blessing it says that I will be a leader among women. I have always pondered what that meant and it has been on my mind the last few days. When I was younger I thought, "oh crap, they are gonna make me the Relief Society president one day!!!" Hopefully that WON'T happen, haha, but if nothing else, I am to be a leader for my two girls. I think the Lord knows me and knew that I would be better with girls than boys (boys really scare the mess out of me with all of their wild energy!). And maybe (possibly) just by "keeping it real" I am helping other women, like the new mom.

And if anyone is STILL reading this...now my girls are awake from naps (yes I am on day 3 of my quest to conquer nap time again since Addie hadn't napped since Livy's arrival) so it is time to start getting dinner together.

Addie's Third Birthday!

On the morning Addie turned 3! She was SO excited that it was her birthday when she woke up!

We decided to move Addie's birthday party to Thursday even though her birthday was on Tuesday for random reasons, but it turned out to be a very good thing. My dad's mom, Mawmaw fell early that afternoon and broke her left hip and was in the hospital. I stayed up late Monday night decorating the kitchen for Addie so she would have a surprise to wake up to on her birthday. I had Addie earlier Monday evening go into her room so I could wrap her presents and this is how I found her. Sound asleep. She fell asleep looking at a Pottery Barn magazine... haha! This child LOVES to look through my magazines and usually goes through them before I even can.
On her birthday Addie woke up super excited! She LOVED the balloons on the chairs and all of the pink, especially the princess pink wrapping paper. She woke up late that morning and so for brunch she requested apple cheerios, even after being offered everything I could possibly think of including pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc. Jarom came home to eat brunch with us so we all chowed down on some cereal to make our princess happy! We let her open one present at lunch and she opened up a little Dora doll that came with a little puppy. She was SO excited and exclaimed over and over "it's Dora! it's Dora!" Later she wondered where Boots was, luckily Uncle Scott had that for Addie's present already!
So excited it was FINALLY cake and present time after a long evening at the hospital. :(We played the rest of the day and Addie got to watch lots of Dora on TV as a treat since we usually don't watch TV during the day. That evening once Jarom was home we ordered pizza per Addie's request and of course she wanted her pizza topped with black olives and pepperoni. Her favorite. I hadn't made a cake for that day since I was making a big cake for the party and just had some ice cream and cookies that we were going to eat for dessert. That was a big mistake. At lunch Addie told Daddy it wasn't her birthday because she didn't have a cake, so we hit up Star Market that evening and bought her a cake! Addie prefers chocolate cake, but they only had yellow with chocolate icing, so that is what we got and she didn't seem to mind.

We headed up to the hospital after dinner so that Jarom could help Dad give Mawmaw a blessing and visited with her for a little while before heading home so Addie could open the rest of her presents. Addie also had a new cousin born on her birthday! My cousin Bruce and his wife Tanya gave birth to a little boy, Patrick. So Mawmaw sure did pick a heck of a day to fall with it being two of her great grandbabies' birthdays! (Mawmaw had a partial replacement on her hip, spent about a week in the hospital 2.5 weeks in rehab, and is now at home with her kids taking turns watching her around the clock. She is doing much better now.)

SO excited to finally get to open presents and eat cake after a long evening at the hospital.
Once home we sang Addie Happy Birthday, ate cake, and opened the rest of her presents from us. She got a princess tent, a dress (pink of course), the Dora and puppy, and a pink prelit christmas tree from Lulu.

This child LOVES birthday cards too, so she was really excited to open up the cards from her great grandmother's Brimhall and Haynie. We got her a Dora card that sings Happy birthday in english then spanish and during the spanish part it says "a ti" and Addie thought it was saying "Addie" and was beside herself that Dora was singing TO HER. Addie carried that card around for weeks singing it.

On the day of her party, I spent most of the day working on her castle cake. When we were talking about what kind of cake Addie wanted she kept telling me she wanted a pink castle. I tried to talk her out of it to no avail, so I finally just gave in. I've always had a hard time with cakes and they never turn out right so I was afraid to make it, but it turned out pretty good! I even made the pink buttercream frosting from scratch and it was super yummy! The cake didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to, and Addie looked at it as I was icing it and said "I wanted a big castle!" STINKER. But she was happy with it and LOVED that her cake was pink! Addie kept asking all day when her "friends" were getting there. She calls all of her cousins "friends" and has a hard time distinguishing friends and cousins so she calls Trevor her cousin too.

We asked everyone to wear pink since this was an ALL PINK party and we played "pin the fire on the dragon" since Addie is fascinated with dragons and castles. I asked Mom to draw the poster for me since I am NOT artistic. Isn't it cute? I have to tell Addie the "dragon at the pink castle with Princess Addie, Mommy, Livy, and King Daddy" story almost every night, so Addie was excited to play the game. Carden won the game, though Emma had the funniest placement of the fire! Emma's is the one on the bum!Jarom made it hard on the older girls by spinning the poster. We sang to Addie, had cake, opened presents and then the kids played. The girls at the party recieved "princess wands" that I made and the boys got swords. Addie LOVES her Dora umbrella from Gramps and Grandma. At the first sign of rain she grabs it and she uses her own umbrella now when we go out and its raining.Admiring a puppy Uncle Bobby gave her.Addie also got her first "on the lips" kiss from a boy, haha! Trevor came up to Addie, swept her hair to the side and planted a big kiss on her lips. SO sweet! HAHA!

Right after "the kiss".It was a fun evening and Addie got lots of presents. She got a princess ball and bat, Boots and Isa from Scott, Katie got her a swimming Dora doll, Grandma and Gramps got her a Dora umbrella and some books, her cousins got her nail polish, a princess puzzle, and some pink dress up clothes, she got a pink basket full of goodies including princess suckers, princess pencils, a hello kitty notebook, and princess magnets from Trevor, the Mazanis' got her a purse and some princess dress up stuff, a giant pink sucker from the Bruce's, and a stuffed puppy from Bobby. Addie was a little sad to be done with the celebrations and kept asking when her 3rd birthday party was. When a package arrived from Nuna and Papa containing this princess dress for her birthday she was SUPER happy and had to try it on right then!She's already asked when her birthday will be here again!

Livy- Three Months

Livy at three months:

• is finally now putting weight on her legs. I started acting like a bafoon each time she'd do it for even a millisecond and it worked. Now she loves to stand just to watch my reaction!
• is SO expressive. She is constantly running her mouth "talking" to us and if you look at her she grins the biggest smile.
• has been laughing out loud more. Sometimes you can give her a silly face and she'll laugh at you. So sweet.
• averages about 8 hours at night. I can usually stick the paci in a few times and extend her sleep to 10 hours.
• naps on and off all day. I haven't got her in a schedule yet, but she does a good long nap usually with 3-4 little catnaps.
• is losing her hair around the sides and back.
• has the biggest rolls on her legs. You can lose your pinky in them. So yummy!
• still loves to nurse
• rubs her eyes when she's sleepy but doesn't have to have a paci to fall asleep
• falls asleep super fast once she's tired
• is better about sitting by herself. She will sit happily in her bouncer or swing now for about 30 minutes usually. Just enough time to get a chore done.
• loves baths but has really outgrown her baby tub. I don't know what we are going to do if she doesn't start sitting up soon because now I am getting soaked when I bathe her due to her splashing like crazy!
• still spits up nonstop. We stopped the Zantac because it seemed like she started getting fussier with it. So now she's a happy spitter and doesn't scream all the time. Works for me though I don't enjoy being covered in spit up. (or having my bed, couches, etc splattered too)
• has poo issues... She isn't on a regular schedule and even went 12 days with no poop this month. I finally resorted to apple prune juice from a dropper and it took care of the issue. But here we are on day 3 again of no poo. Dr says as long as when she poops it is runny, she isn't fussy due to pain, her tummy isn't hard, and she's passing gas to not worry about it... but this isn't normal!!! Come on Livy... POOP! When she finally does poop, she blows out her diaper several times that day.
• Will finally take a Nuk, Avent, or other paci! I hated the soothies and she will accept any paci now, woohoo!
• is starting to wear 3-6 month clothes now. We have a few 0-3 outfits that still fit but not many!
• Started 3 months weighing about 12.2 lbs and now weighs about 13.4 lbs! (Addie weighed that at six months!)
• Is grabbing anything and everything. She flipped my dinner plate off the table last night, grabs wads of my hair constantly, and is always pulling something.
• Everything that is grabbed goes into Livy's mouth.
• is drooling nonstop. I'm thinking she'll be an early teether like Addie. Her bottom gums are already looking like we might have those two middle ones on the move up!
• Loves to be talked to. She is such a sweet little girl!
• Gets very verbal when she's tired. Instead of screaming immediately, now she talks for about 10 minutes before the talking turns to a whine. The whining lasts about 3 or 4 minutes and then comes the crying.
• Is gaining a lot of strength in her upper body. She is pulling her body forward if you have her laying back in a chair and has now managed to totally flip out of her swing twice when she was laying back in it. She raises so far forward that the thing dumps her. Now we have to strap her in it including the shoulder harnesses to keep her put. Her swing is a little mini boppy laying down one that sits only a few inches off the floor so don't worry, she wasn't hurt in the dumping process, just startled!
• looks a lot like her Daddy! Everyone says it!
• Isn't as cooperative as Addie was when it comes to pictures. We really had to work to get some good 3 month pictures the other day!
• is much friendlier than Addie. She smiles at everyone where Addie would just stare at people and give them stank looks, haha!
• is not a fan of tummy time, but has rolled over from tummy to back twice.
• Loves her sissy. Sometimes when they first wake up Addie will sit in there and talk with Livy for 10 minutes or so and Livy just coos and smiles at her sis. Other times Livy gets tired of Addie's constant affection! :)
  

When I get big

Addie is constantly telling me that she "growed bigger". Every morning she tells me, every time she eats all her food she tells me, etc. I happened to be sitting at the computer when Addie came in telling me her latest list of what she'll do when she's big so I had to take it down!

Here's Addie being big like Daddy and chomping on an icicle they pulled off the house... gross.

Momma, when I get big I help you cook, I go to store, I get my yogurt, I get pink yogurt, I get ev-e-thing, and I going to smile, and then I climb on your stool and reach some sprinkles! I going to make caaaake, I get some eggs, and I can wash my hands by myself, and I can cook, and I can do ev-e-thing I want to do. And I help you with pizza when I big, I help you cut when I big, I gonna cut like you do I big too!!! And I can do ev-e-thing I wanna do, and that's IT!!!

The rest of Lulu's mischief

Lulu peeled and ate some clementines and then peeled two for Addie and left them in a ziploc for her for a snack at church.Lulu brought her own stocking to hang on the mantel, but got stuck in it. She hung it with Addie's stocking.Lulu was missing the snow in the North Pole and made a snow angel out of flour!Lulu got into the sugar cookies we had made for our friends and poured herself some milk.Lulu thought the candy ornament on the tree was real and was trying to eat it.Lulu brought Addie a little bag of Christmas goodies. She got a Christmas pencil, ball and paddle, a Santa eraser, and a few other things. :)We found Lulu playing some of Daddy's old video games.Lulu was roasting marshmellows over the fire. Lulu made herself some chocolate milk but rigged up a giant straw so she could drink it while sitting down. Then she wrote her name in chocolate syrup on the counter! Lulu made paper snowflakes and hung them around in the kitchen. She also left a big mess on the table. The snowflake ornament that Addie left on the dining table must've inspired Lulu!Addie took pictures the day before and was so good once we told her Lulu was watching. So Lulu left her a note telling her thank you for smiling pretty and left Addie a little present! It was a reindeer bow for her hair!Lulu made an igloo out of marshmellows, tried to start a fire with toothpicks, and tried to make some hot chocolate over the fire!Lulu pulled out ALL the ingredients for snickerdoodles, including the recipe, so that Addie would make Santa some cookies since he was coming to visit that night! The note in front of the recipe is one that Lulu left saying that it was time to make Santa cookies! Lulu tried to start making the cookies but made a pretty big mess. She spilled ingredients all over the place!Lulu even got flour on her face while she was trying to start the cookies.This is Addie saying goodbye to Lulu for the year before we went to bed on Christmas Eve. Lulu left Addie a little present with the gifts Santa left her. It is the gift in the front on the right that has silver writing on it. It was PINK sparkly ornaments for the tree since Addie's favorite color is pink!

Lulu was definitely a hit! Addie continued to ask about Lulu for about 2 weeks and Lulu still keeps up with Addie's behavior. Sometimes when Addie is REALLY good, Lulu will leave gifts at the house for Addie. One Saturday night about two weeks ago, Lulu dropped off a few Christmas chocolates for Addie shaped like Santa, a Christmas tree, and a candy cane! We can't wait to see what Lulu does this year!