No shit November

Hiya friends,
Just finishing up Hell Week here aka nine straight days of fall "break." I don't ever remember getting that much time off as a child but the memory is a funny thing. Like I'm choosing to forget that Christmas break is twice as long as fall break. LALALALALALALALA We will cross that bridge when we come to it!!

We had a decent Thanksgiving. We had some plans with visiting friends fall through so we found ourselves on Thanksgiving with nothing to do. No turkey and no expectations. I'll admit, I was really bummed our friends couldn't make it. I was also really excited to not have the pressure of cooking and cleaning and wrangling kids. We were invited to a few friends' houses for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but we opted out. My kids are heathens that might not even try a roll and I didn't want to deal with the headache of them being picky and obnoxious at someone else's house. So we didn't go anywhere. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on tv that morning, facetimed with Steve, had lunch and put the small ones to bed, then played outside til dark.

Gahhhhh I miss this man!

Quite possibly my favorite onesie ever

It was then that I fired up the ol' electric oven and boiled some turkey dogs and cooked some oven fries. I dumped sweet potato chips in a casserole dish and sprinkled with marshmallows that were dangerously close to expiring. Rounded out the meal with some strawberry jello (that I poured into a can to give the look of cranberry sauce), snap pea crisps, and some rice krispy turkey legs/wings, and the kids thought it was fabulous. Some did not appreciate the jello so much (Will, my carpet) but everyone went nuts over the hot dogs so mission accomplished. I also had Thanksgiving paper plates! So clean up for Thanksgiving was at an all time low.

Meanwhile, both of my next door neighbors brought me plates (and plates and bowls and plates) of traditional Thanksgiving food, and another friend dropped off more turkey, and spaghetti with meatballs. To say I was taken care of on Thanksgiving would be an understatement. We watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving before heading up to bed and all in all it was an easy day. I enjoy doing our own thing every now and again for holidays. It's so much fun to not be tied down to any certain tradition or expectation. I won't lie though- I'm looking forward to celebrating the old fashioned way with Steve next year. And my corn casserole. I really love corn casserole. (Paula Deen is my spirit animal, yo!)

The day after Thanksgiving I lugged all four of our fall decorations out to the tub I keep them in in the garage, and started unloading Christmas decorations. I put up our sad little Korea tree and Will thinks it's the greatest thing he's ever seen. Luckily it's the only tree he's ever really seen so his expectations are set depressingly low. Ha! He loves it though and is enamored with the lights. Sam is concerned that it's a touch too little to fit presents under. Between the Little People nativity set and the tote full of Christmas books (omg yes an ENTIRE TOTE), the kids are mildly entertained when we're inside. I try to keep us outside though, because it's the most wonderful time of the year in Louisiana- we can sit outside, not sweat, and also not get carried away by mosquitoes and flies. I love it. Doesn't put me completely in the Christmas spirit but whatever. I'll take less Christmas spirit if it means more of this weather.

Not pictured: more kids, more toys

I asked the kids what they'd like for Christmas this year. Since we don't have cable, and we don't wander toy aisles at the store, they have no clue what is out there and thus, no clue what to ask for. Sam finally gave up and said, "surprise me." Molly agreed that she would like to be surprised too. I've tried paying extra close attention to the things they are gravitating towards and settled on getting Sam and Molly scooters. Will is getting a Radio Flyer metal wagon. Hank is getting some bibs and whatever other random baby stuff he might need that isn't being passed down to him due to his older siblings destroying it. I'm still trying to find some random gifts for Will to open on his birthday (December 26), so if you know of anything fun for a 2yo (preferably a toy that can be played with outside), send me your suggestions! Santa will bring them all new chalk and bubbles in their stockings. What am I missing?

Oh my birthday happened! I was expecting it to be a regular day, truly. But man my friends and family really went above and beyond in making me feel extremely special that day! Cards and gifts and flowers and boxes of goodies- I was spoiled! And felt so loved. It was a really good one, and I didn't think I would get to say that.

31: need eye bag filter

I took the kids to the zoo over fall "break". Prior to this I had only ever taken them to Petsmart and told them it was the zoo, so this was huge for me. The zoo closest to us is small and everyone says nice things about it, so I thought, what the heck, and we went. I might have also been motivated by a CFA lunch. I won't lie. The zoo was actually very nice. It was cool the day we went and the kids wore their jackets most of the time we were there. It was hilarious to see some native Louisianians decked out with hats and gloves and puffer jackets though. Fifty degrees is no joke, y'all. Bone-chillin' cold. Sam was enamored with the amount of bamboo in the zoo, Molly wanted to ride the train when are we going to ride the train is it time to ride the train yet when can we walk back to the train I am so tired is it train time yet, Will loved pretending he saw everything that Sam saw. In reality I don't even know that he saw the giant lion that walked up to the glass when he was next to it, but he really acted like he had a ball there. Stroller freedom is his jam. Hank was peeved that I made him sit in the stroller instead of being toted around like the royal prince that he is. We made it onto a train ride and then headed for Chick fil A along with 400,000 other people from the tri-county area. We had to circle the building twice before we were allowed in the official drive thru line. The guy directing traffic deserves a raise! We finally made it through and the hangry people were satisfied. 3/4 of them slept a bit on the way home and once we got there we just kept the party going and stayed outside to play. Kids slept good that night!

Last weekend was my unofficial (but pretty official) last weekend of church. Getting all the kids ready to go, then getting there on time just spend the entire mass chasing Will and pacify Hank only makes me irate. And I don't think that's what Jesus wants. So I'm keeping the kids in Sunday School and AWANA on Wednesday nights and calling it good. I can't handle church with no childcare for Will. This past weekend we spent a lot of time pacing the foyer in the back of the church. He finally acted ready to go sit back down so we rejoined Sam and Molly in the pew. Will scooted to the other end of the pew and then looked at me like he was ready to run. Since he always runs to the back foyer I told Sam not to grab him (and risk having him scream), I would just meet him back there and we'd keep walking. But instead of going to the back foyer, Will bolted to the front of the church. So he's running on the perimeter of the pews and I'm running up the center aisle with 20lb Hank in my arms trying to cut him off but he's so flippin fast that he made a mad dash across the alter and then darted into the hallway that leads towards the classrooms and parish hall. At that point I was completely over it. OVER IT. Everyone at church knows us so I wasn't embarrassed at all, I was just mad. Mad! Cancelling childcare during a deployment??! Who does that?! Saying you don't mind hearing children in church??? Ok??? And??? What about the parents who don't have to worry about the noise so much as the movement? I don't have enough arms to hold Hank and chase Will and I guess I'll just leave my eyeballs on the pew to watch Sam and Molly and while I'm at it I'll leave my ears too because then I'd have a slight chance of hearing some part of mass. BLUGH. Anyway. I know that's whiny. I'm sorry. I'm just irritated. I want to take my children to church. But not so much at the sake of my thin tiny shred of sanity.

Doesn't Will look extra naughty here?? He knows he's bad but he also knows he's cute.

I thought about creating an Advent calendar for us to complete circa Christmas 2012 but then I realized that I can barely handle macaroni and cheese night without losing my shit so maybe it would be best to just focus on surviving. We can Pinterest it up some other year. I do have Christmas pj's washed and ready to go for St Nick Day, and all Christmas presents ordered. Thank you Lord for Amazon Prime. My life is better because of it. If only I could live-stream mass from it or order a babysitter off of it, I'd be set. Amen.

That one day streak was really impressive huh

So.... I quickly realized that since I'm no longer pumping, I no longer have any reason to sit at the end of the day. Which means I don't have a ton of time to blog anymore. But I refuse to let this thing die! Even if it's painfully obvious that it needs to.

This past week went by fairly quickly. We have been so busy. And by we I mean me of course. The kids are busy making messes and dirtying laundry and asking me what else they can eat (THE OPTIONS LITERALLY NEVER CHANGE OMG) and I am mostly refereeing and trying to keep everyone alive, fed, and clean (and in that order). I hardly make it til 9:30 most nights before I am konked out asleep.

The rhythm is good though. I think we need it and it will help the time pass by a bit quicker and easier, even if it does all but kill me. I swear Hank is the best baby I've ever had (sorry you other three). He is fairly low maintenance, sleeps amazingly well, and even naps fairly consistently. But I'm not sure what it is- I never stop feeling like I've been hit by a train. No matter how much coffee I drink, I am always ready to jump right back in bed. Will has taken an interest in waking up at 5am these days though, so I don't see any sleeping in in my near future.

In my "on this day" feature in my photos, I am seeing photos pop up of toddler Sam and baby Molly right before Steve deployed. So crazy that it's been five years since that happened. And here we are again- same season, babies the same ages (almost), and even in a house with the same layout! Bizarre.

The kids started AWANA this past week and love it. Sam had his first soccer game last Saturday (they lost, but it opened up a nice discussion on being a graceful loser). Molly is still doing dance and really well at school, and in her spare time, she finds six billion questions to lob my way. Will is in this terrible phase where he doesn't talk yet, but desperately needs/wants to, so instead he just slaps anyone that doesn't respond to him the way he wants them to. This has made playdates exponentially harder, as I have to up my referee/lifeguard game and frequently yell mid-sentence for him to quit doing something he's not supposed to be doing. I know it's a phase, but man, it's an ugly one. Not to be Negative Nancy on Will- he counters these frustrated outbursts with THE sweetest, most heart-melting moments; he will walk up to me and squeeze my legs in a big hug, or come kiss Hank on the head, belly flop onto Molly and give her a kiss, giggle as he chases Sam, and hold my hand and snuggle with me. He is my sweet boy and even when he's bad, I can't help but love him to death. Hank officially started formula. I gave him some breastmilk after having given him a bottle of formula and he kinda acted like it tasted awful. So the few bags left in the freezer will be used for random diaper rashes and anything else that needs breastmilk thrown at it. The kids are still doing Sunday school after mass and even though they took away childcare during mass (you can probably hear me sobbing from here), we are still going to attempt to go and practice sitting still and being quiet. Will isn't terrible. He does fairly well during the first half. But the last half really requires a lot of work to keep him still, and I'm hoping that sitting near friends will help the situation. Maybe I can pass Hank off to them if I need to chase Will down. I have started going to PWOC again and love it. My friend Rachel is leading a Bible study at her church each week, so I am going to start going to that as well to support her! Toss in a few playdates, grocery shopping, remembering to put gas in the car (this is very hard for me), meal prep, reviewing spelling words and schoolwork, cleaning the house, laundry, refilling the mother $@*!~ baby wipes containers, and I am freaking SPENT. I fall face first into bed most nights and don't so much as move a muscle until Hank wakes me up in the morning (or the middle of the night- whatever).

And with that, Will is awake from his nap. Oh, and Hank too! Lovely. Who needs alone time. Not me. #blessed

But seriously, I feel super blessed lately.

I am going to mentally will this baby to stay in for at least two more weeks

Let me just start off this post by saying, I am not ok with this.

I know plenty of people dread the end of pregnancy, and you'd think I'd be "over it" being so pregnant in this humid hell of Louisiana, but y'all- babies are just so EASY when they live IN YOUR BELLY. And I am still getting the house all situated and have not put forth any (ANY!) mental energy thinking about this baby! Besides steering clear of wine and evil donuts, I feel like pregnancy is a flippin' breeze compared to taking care of another child. I have been getting plenty of "Almost there!" "Hang in there! You're so close!" "It will be over soon!" and my first instinct is to be like, AHHHHHHHH SHADDAP THAT CAN'T BE TRUE I'M NOT READY! Instead I'm like, "well yes, that is true, I'll be fine to wait as long as he wants though! Haha!" But in all seriousness, I'm hoping to go to at least 41 weeks with this kid so I can maybe buy some diapers.
Things we have done for Baby #4:

• washed infant carseat and reassembled (have not installed it in the suburban yet because it is gonna throw off the whole carseat configuration and we won't be needing it the moment I deliver and we live 5 minutes from the hospital so NOT A PRIORITY)
• assembled new baby crib (which he won't even use for months so that now seems kinda useless)
• washed swaddle blankets and swaddlemes
• procured brand new breast pump and sterilized the nine bottles that I found on Amazon (just going on a wish and a prayer that those don't contain that poison plastic that all moms avoid because society tells us to)

And.... yeah I think that's about all I've done. I did hit up a few yard sales with Molly this past Saturday in an attempt to find some baby clothes for this kid because he is being born in the opposite season of his male predecessors and I don't really have much for him by way of clothes, but I figure I do lots of laundry, so as long as he's got about 10 onesies, he's good. Plus, it's hot, so he won't need to wear much, right?

Things I need to do for Baby #4:

• buy wine (he needs me to be sane like I need me to be sane)
• buy diapers
• pack a hospital bag or something
• come up with a name

 Nothing major obviously, just some minor details.

We have been hitting up our neighborhood pool so much since we moved in. It's super nice and always feels clean (key for a germaphobe like myself) and Sam and Molly have gotten so comfortable swimming in the short time we've been here, so that has been really nice to see. If I can ever get all of this #*&^!@#) CYS paperwork completed, I can register them for swim lessons in July and we can eliminate hauling puddle jumpers to the pool, but for now, it's nice going and knowing that they're afloat.

Molly has been a bit of a handful lately. I'm really glad my mom is coming in this weekend because I need HELP. I have no clue as to how to effectively discipline her. All I know is that I look forward to bedtime like a marathon runner looks forward to the finish line and I am not only exhausted but just upset with myself for not knowing what to do with her. She needs something and I have no clue what it is. I'm sure adding a baby is not the something she's looking for, but I'm hoping she can bond with him and be a big help and maybe just fine tune that big sister role.

Anything that can be delivered to my front door these days, will be delivered to my front door. I know the neighbors are whispering but OMG I am not lugging this circus out in this heat to peruse the Walmart and see IF we can find what we're looking for. No thanks. Online shopping 4EVA. I got this water table for Will but the big two seemed to take to it more than Will did. It's so funny to listen to the games they come up with.

Sam and Molly share a room here and the closet is pretty bare! So it's kinda been turned into an area where they're allowed to dump the six frillion Legos and not have to pick them up every night. Just close that door! I wouldn't go so far as to say that Willie sleeps better having his own room, but eh, at this point, whatever. I'm so far gone from sleeping through the night anyway, what does it really matter?

Sam is so torn between needing goggles and needing sunglasses at the pool. Cracks me up. He also does a perfect cannonball and an impressive pencil jump. (Molly perfected her cannonball yesterday after only three attempts. She does not approach the belly flop with the same enthusiasm that Sam does though.)

Sam is desperate to get his training wheels off like the other kids on the circle. Steve and I are like, please, it's so hot. Can we put this off until winter.

Speaking of Steve, I gotta brag on the man for a minute. He not only moved us completely down here, doing all of the sweaty, dirty work of hauling boxes and lugging furniture, but he has made time to take Sam fishing multiple times, play catch in the evenings, grilling us dinner literally every night (because if it can't be grilled outside then we are basically ordering pizza), and just whittling down his honey-do list that never shrinks. He assembles it all and does it all and bathes all those kids every night. We both dream about a vacation that we know won't happen for at least another year or two, but he really deserves one. Nothing has come easy, but he's still trying to make the best of things and line things up at work to set himself up for better opportunities in the future. Super proud of my baby daddy, ok?

Sunday best! Will is cracking me up lookin' like a little country club stud in his boat shoes and curly hair and collared shirt. Church on post is at 9, and we tried a church off post this past weekend that felt more "churchy" so I think we might end up there. Plus it starts later, so the morning felt much less hectic.

I am loving these Southern rain storms. It's been so long since I've listened to thunder and heavy rain and tornado sirens. Ahhhh..... sounds like home. We are supposedly getting a tropical storm tomorrow and Thursday, so you know if I ever feel inclined to have a baby early (has never happened before), it will happen then. Stay tuned.

AHEM MOLLY

I saw this on facebook and everyone who commented chose B and can I just say if you choose anything other than A, I am really not sure we can consider each other friends because all of that stuff is so easy to do AFTER YOU'VE SLEPT 8 FULL HOURS AMEN?!

Will just observing the big two playing with the water table. Not exactly full of interest. Also, my ripped cushions on my craigslist chairs have been replaced and we can feel less disgusting sitting outside on them, amen hallelujah.

Sometimes they play so nicely together. Sometimes.

Another Will toy that the bigger two love- BUBBLE MACHINE

Awwwwww shee-ut, you know it's serious when the UPS man has to back the truck up into your yard to make a delivery. (Literally ordered a guest bed online. Oh yes I did. And it came rolled up like a burrito in a box and we'll find out later today if it rolls out and inflates like Amazon says it will. STAY TUNED.)

So many cliffhangers in this post! Can you even stand it?!

You can find us in the pool almost as often as you can find me running to the bathroom or fetching kid snacks or telling someone no. (aka ALL THE TIME)

My squinty-eyed crew at church on Father's Day. Will really needs a haircut, I know. I just haven't found anyone I trust yet to do it. His curls. THOSE CURLS. I can't just let any regular ol' barber take a whack at them. Let's be honest, I'm definitely going to cry when it happens because he's still six months old to me (what else could possibly explain all the shitty sleeping he does?) and the curls are just a baby part of him that I'm not ready to give up. (I'll gladly give up the horrible sleeping though.) It would probably be smart to take care of that before Baby #4 arrives because I doubt extra postpartum hormones are really gonna help the process at all and he will truly end up with a mullet of curls if we go off my mama feelings alone. *sigh* I'll look into it, OKAY.

I have to haul this entire circus with me to my OB appointment tomorrow because I still can't find a sitter so that should be fun. It will likely be tropical storming as well, so I think I'll call that my workout and maybe bribe everyone with Sonic ice cream cones if they're good. I'm hoping to make it to the big city this week sometime to return some stuff at Old Navy and maybe eat at Chick fil A and hit up the Target to buy diapers, but the kids have physicals on Thursday (another step in this endless CYS registration process JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL), so maybe Friday? I seriously cannot believe I will be having a baby soon. Steve and I thought we had a name picked out but then I started expressing doubt over the middle name and that turned into a fight about the first name and one week out and this kid is officially nameless. We are not so brilliant as to come up with something great at the hospital either so, HALP. If you have any good boy names that go with Sam, Molly, and Will, are simple to spell, cannot be confused gender-wise, and are generally plain and normal, shoot them my way.

Off to fine tune the commissary list. I have absolutely no doubts that I will buy a lot of cereal my kids have no business eating but will talk me into anyway. Happy Tuesday, folks.

COME ON, SPRING

I am normally one to really relish winter. Growing up in southern Alabama, there was really no such thing, save for a week or two where it dipped into the 40s (ooh, brrr!), so moving around to different places that experienced seasons, I could not have enjoyed it more. It always seemed the cool weather left too quickly though, and Minnesota is the first place I have definitely gotten my fill of the cooler temps. Most of the country seemed to experience some sort of (admittedly, concerning) heat wave in February and pictures of people running around outside or having picnics or playing in tshirts floated all over my instagram. Minnesota did not get the global warming memo and continued on with temps in the 20s. But! One day it was sunny and about 33*, so we lugged out the bikes and stroller and tried to make the "warm" weather count!

Blurry, but look at the joy on her face!

Seuss week at school continued and one day was Wacky Day, so I let the kids pick out their own clothes for school. This is usually a sufficient amount of whack, so I thought their ensembles would be golden. Instead, they came out like this.

Uhhhh.....? This is fairly normal. Most days if they beat me to the dresser, they will have shirts on backwards, mismatched socks, skirts on under a dress, short sleeves in -2* weather, and definitely a rainbow of color all over their little bodies. So this seemed pretty tame. I asked if they wanted to wear something a little wackier and tried explaining the point of the wacky day to them but they were pretty set on their outfits. Whatever!

Sammy from 5 years ago!!! (sobs)

Fun fact- if you have Amazon Prime, you have access to the greatest photo storage ever. FOR FREE. There is an app (you can also open it on your computer from the website), you download it, open the app, grant it access to your photos, let it upload, and then it organizes everything by date for you!! It also has this nifty "On This Day" feature that makes me want to cry my eyes out because I see Baby Sammy With All The Hair and wonder where the last five years went. Anyways, I can't keep that sort of thing to myself any longer. The downside is that there is limited video storage, but if you pay $60/year, you get unlimited.

This is an affiliate link and clicking on it might earn me enough pennies to one day justify a tiny fraction of my Amazon purchases.

Molly and I had some clearance rack success and managed to pull off a twin moment- hard to do when one of you is shopping mostly the maternity section.

Will has recently adopted a real crap sleep schedule (as has been his "thing" since birth, basically) and he refused a nap until I came up and laid down in Sam's bed with him. I seriously almost passed out myself, but remembered what a cranky beeyotch I'd be if I slept an entire 20 minutes at 3:30 in the afternoon. If the nap ain't eight hours, I have no business taking it.

He's pretty cute though, huh?

The weekend arrived and the forecast claimed it would be mid-40's with sunshine so we hightailed it out to Rick and Monica's house to get their kids outside with ours to run around and burn all their energy.

Turns out it was 41* but with the biting wind, it felt like 5*. Didn't seem to bother the kids one bit though.

We lasted about two hours before Will and I were about frozen solid. Sam and Molly came home and went straight back outside to play basketball across the street and stomp all over our mud yard. Will woke up from his nap and wished he could run around with them too.

We had pizza for dinner and then the kids got early showers and watched a movie with some popcorn.

Like how I try to distract you from the crummy photography with some sparkly nonsense? Is it working?

First Sunday of Lent and Molly took note that the priests are now wearing PURPLE (HALLELUJAH FOR THE WARDROBE CHANGE, AMIRIGHT SISTER?!) instead of green.

I mentioned it on IG, but I am really ready for spring church clothes. We have been trying to mix it up with the few winter church clothes they have for months now. Every combination just seems bleh. Molly's sundresses are staring at me and I want to see Will's chubby little legs again!! I need to do a blog post on how our entire family basically has a capsule wardrobe now (mostly out of necessity not because we choose to) because kids tend to have an insane amount of clothes.

The weather yesterday was beeyoooooooootiful and I was itching to get out there the entire time I was making this birthday cake. Steve took the kids for multiple walks and bike rides and I tried to bake as fast as I could and get the house cleaned up so we could go party that afternoon.

I tried a new buttercream recipe (as I've said before, I'll try almost anything labeled "the best") and it did NOT disappoint. It was simple, quick, easy, and best of all, tasty. I highly recommend.

The cake did not disappoint either. It's a good thing we left the few leftover slices at Monica's house because I know for a fact that would have been breakfast.

After cake though, it felt like my birthday when I noticed a sunset through the trees.

We live "in town" and the way our house sits, we do not get to see sunrises and sunsets. Sad, right? I didn't see any sunsets in NY either due to the way our apartment and the others around us were situated. I am very much a natural light person, so this bothers me. This one filled up my sunset tank nicely though.

It was so much more vibrant than these pictures even show. I kept tapping my phone screen in different places hoping it would focus on just the right spot to correct the colors to what I was seeing with my eyes, but it never did. Oh well. Still gorgeous.

Today is supposed to be super warm again (in the 50's!!!) but very cloudy/muddy. I think a thrift store might be calling my name... Molly has decided she wants to have a deer themed birthday party (oh mylanta....) and I've finally nailed down details. Just a matter of finding deer-related things that are not covered in camo. (Jesus take the wheel.) A week or two ago, we were all ready to plan a horsey birthday party. We had the space and the friends who were willing to bring horses TO the party! It was going to be so CUTE. Now I am trying to find a pinata that does not look like we are fixin to drain the blood and guts out of a deer strung up by its feet. Again, JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL.