She's seven!

Well, gone are the days of the old Veronica. The throw-a-big-ole-party-for-every-single-kiddos'-birthday Momma.  It's just not do-able anymore now that I have three kids and a way smaller budget to work with.  It's taken me a long time to get used to the "new" me, in terms of birthday parties and how we celebrate but I'm coming to realize that the size of the party doesn't count so much as the memories made.  It doesn't have to be all about a fancy cake or matchy-matchy decorations (which I still happen to really LOVE) but just doing "something" to celebrate, even if it's small.  

This week Alyssa had two small celebrations to ring in her 7th year. One was a surprise party thrown for us on Sunday by my Dad and Step-Mom, and the other, one we celebrated on Monday--her actual birthday. Alyssa was spoiled with two birthday cakes when it was all said and done!

Alyssa and her cousin Tal

When asked what she wanted this year for her birthday she told everyone she wanted pens, markers, and notepads--"school type stuff"--and boy did she get what she asked for! I've been having a tough time this week trying to figure out where to put all the mini notepads, workbooks, markers and other little goodies! She was very blessed with lots of fun little things and I think it's safe to say we're set for a while in that department!

Since Lyss is all about school, I suggested that we go to the library on her actual birthday to get her her very own card. She was SO excited and couldn't wait! Our library is newer and I honestly hadn't really been there since probably when Audrey was a baby, so it was nice getting back there.

Alyssa is a such little bookworm, just like I used to be when I was a little girl and so getting her own library card was the greatest thing ever!

She picked out nine books to check out and proudly took them to the counter at check out time!

We didn't get to stay at the library too long due to a certain very curious and rambunctious two year old that shall be unnamed, lol, but we still had a fun memory making day. :)

That night, we had a few family members over for cake and ice cream, which was fun. Alyssa requested a carrot cake so that's what we had.  The cake will go down in the record books for being the plainest one I've EVER made, but that's okay.  The only person who honestly probably cared is me!

She had me put "Alyssa rocks!" on her cake!

It was a fun day, celebrating Alyssa turning seven and in all honestly, I'm in shock that I can now say my oldest is seven!  When I was a little girl, I always used to think it was silly when older people said how time would fly when you get older, but they were totally right!  You blink and you have yourself a seven year old. It truly goes by that fast!

My Alyssa, God's Grace

My oldest girl turned seven yesterday! Can you believe it? SEVEN?!?

I don't usually get too emotional anymore about my girls' birthdays (I'm notorious for crying at some point during the day on their birthdays) but Alyssa has a different kind of story.  Every year on her birthday I get a little extra sentimental when I think about the gift that she is and was to me on the day she was born.

See, Alyssa is my miracle girl and her story is one not a lot of people know about.

My pregnancy with Alyssa was super easy and uneventful.  I was a big girl to start with so, when I was totally dumb and "ate for two" like most all first pregnancy girls, it really showed! I was the biggest I've ever been in my life and I'm pretty sure with that pregnancy I gained close to 50 lbs!  I was HUGE! We still joke to this day that she was made up from a TON of strawberries and Taco Bell...my two obsessions when I was pregnant with her. :)

As I got closer to my due date, June 8, 2005, our family waited so anxiously for the arrival of our girl. I was very ready to see her little face already and each day that I went overdue felt like a year! I was so excited and had that obliviousness that comes with a first pregnancy and never having delivered a baby.  After nine days of being overdue and three days before my doctor finally scheduled to induce, I finally went into labor.

My labor was long. Like super duper, this will never end long and after 24+ hours of laboring, a threatened c-section, and two hours of pushing, Alyssa Grace was finally born at 1:38 a.m. on June 18, 2005.

It was discovered immediately when she was delivered that she'd aspirated her meconium as a result of all the stress from my long labor and delivery. (If you're not familiar with that, it's basically when baby makes their first bowel movement in eutero and then inhales/swallows it). The umbilical cord was also wrapped around her neck twice and when she came out, she didn't look too good. In a quick flurry, the doctor cut the cord and immediately rushed her to the warmer. In the haze of having pushed for two hours, I was exhausted and had no clue what all was happening. I just remember them taking her from me so quickly and working to get her crying.  

My sister told me later that she watched them work on Alyssa in the warmer and at one point they lifted up her little hand only to see it fall limply.  My sister even told me that she heard the two nurses whisper to each other, "Is it on?" referring to the machine they had on to give her air. Alyssa was in trouble and at that point, they told us that they would need to take her away to work on getting her some help to breathe. They said that due to the aspiration of meconium and them needing to monitor her, it could be anywhere from 12-24 hours before they could bring her back to me.

Looking back, I think the Lord was really protecting me, in the haze and exhaustion I was experiencing because I had no clue of the severity of what was happening. I just accepted what they said and was just so happy that she was finally here. I remember trying to get Fernando to snap out of the apparent shock he was in, telling him to go down to the waiting room to tell our family that Alyssa had been born. 

I remember them cleaning me up and laying there all alone in the hospital bed with empty arms. About an hour after they took her away, I got my first really good view of Alyssa through this poloroid that the nurse took of her and brought to me....

I had to scan this from her baby book, so the quality is kinda yucky. 

Again...like so many other God-moments in my life, the Lord just showed up and told hold of the situation.  
In no time, the nurses and doctors worked on Lyss and got her breathing on her own, cleared out all the junk she'd swallowed and she was doing well. They even allowed Fernando into the nursery so he could see Alyssa.

I still get choked up when I see this picture....

I often wonder what the rest of the words on that pink little sign in the bed say.  I can only make out "Away."

Within about two hours, instead of the 12-24 like they'd initially told me, they were finally able to bring her back to me. No tubes or wires and no more help with breathing.  It was the most awesome thing ever getting to really hold my baby for the first time.  I was in love. :)

Things continued from there like nothing traumatic had ever happened,  You would have never suspected that she's just gone through what she had and we enjoyed a great first day with lots of excited visitors anxious to meet our girl. Here was me and my Dad and one of the only photos where I don't like as tore up as some of the others I have from that first day.  Can you tell I labored for a day here? Um yeah, I think so. :)

I will never ever doubt that my Alyssa was totally our special gift from the Lord. In this fragile world, and in His grace, He saw it fit to let us keep her when it totally could have gone another way that day.

And so you can see why I get so emotional every year on her birthday and my "birth day" remembering how the Lord came through for us and blessed us with with our girl.  He is good!

Goodbye first grade, Hello summer!

I realize this post is all for me but it's so worth documenting!  Wednesday was Alyssa's.....

On our way to school, I did my crazy momma-razzi thing and had my iPhone in one hand and my good camera in the other.  I figured I'd get a good picture for sure that way in the two minutes or less I had to take some pics before rushing to school.  I've been making it a habit of taking first and last day pics of school and my goal is to continue that with all of the girls as they get into school!

While trying to get a good pic of Alyssa, Alivia decided she wanted in on the action too!  I cracked up at her posing for the camera (which is something she's all about these days) and her crazy morning hair.  I have no clue where she gets either of those qualities from, lol!

For fun, I did a side by side of Alyssa's first and last days of school this year and just looking and comparing makes me wanna cry.  Her baby face is gone and she's becoming my big girl.  Man, how does that happen? :)

I took this last pic, just before heading to school.  We were both so excited for it to be the last day but not in the way most people see it. We both love school and will miss her teacher but it was the kind of excitement for starting something and completing it! I'm so proud of my girl. :)

Summer is officially here at our house and in just three more days, Alyssa will turn seven!  Now the fun can really start!

The birthday continues & One proud Momma!

In my last post, I shared what a great day I had on Monday celebrating my birthday. Well, I was lucky enough to keep the birthday celebration going when my Dad and Step-Mom treated us to dinner at a local steakhouse on Tuesday night. My mom helped me by babysitting the girls so we could get out and enjoy some adult time!

I took this picture of myself right before we left so I could text my sister to show her I was wearing the Estee Lauder lip gloss she bought me!  I'm not a big lipstick wearer, so the glosses Dolly bought me were perfect.  I liked the first one I tried because it was really natural looking. :)

I had my Step-Mom take this picture of Fernando and I.  And Danielle, if you're reading this.... we ate at The Swiss Chalet, which is under new ownership and is just called "The Swiss" now. :)

This week has also been full of some special and proud Mommy moments for me!  Alyssa got her first ever Student-of-the-Month award and I was so excited to go down to the school to see her receive it!

She also got a few other awards for excelling in reading and math, which is so awesome to me!  We've worked so hard over the last year and to see her grow and learn to read makes my heart so happy.  She has such a strong will and we've had lots of battles, but she's become such a go-getter and I've loved seeing how much she's grown this year.  For the reading and math awards, they gave the kids some fun dog tags and Alyssa was so proud to show them to me when I picked her up at the bus!

My Audrey also made me proud this week when she sang in front of the entire church with the other pres-schoolers in her class!  This was HUGE for her because she is so shy and has been known to melt down more times than I can count.  I was a wreck waiting to see how she'd do, but she amazed me when she sang all three songs without any trouble! Totally a God thing!

Here's a super quick video I took of her with my phone.  She's the one in the middle wearing black pants...

Well, it's been a great "birthday week" as I like to call it and I can't believe we only have nine more days left til Christmas!  The time is going way too fast these days!

What a weekend!

The weekend started off in the most amazing way with the arrival of sweet Matthew!

I borrowed this from the hospital's website.  They took the sweetest pics and yes, he's wearing an Auntie Ver hat! :)

It's been so special getting to see pics of Kristin's new little boy!  Makes me almost want to have another but then reality strikes when I realize that a) we made the permanent choice not to have anymore babies (the thought of that sometimes still makes me sad)  and b) three kids is more than a mom like me can handle! Seriously, I will prove it to you!

Alivia has been keeping me on my toes and is by far our most mischievous child ever!  If I'm not trying to take her off the toilet, where she's standing to turn the sink on all by herself, she is opening the fridge door and helping herself to a fruit!  If it isn't that, she's ejecting a DVD midway through the big girls watching a movie! The list goes on!

Her latest adventure was this weekend, when she walked into my room (and yes the door was closed), sat down at my desk, opened my laptop and proceeded to rip several keys off for fun!

10 keys in all!

I'm sure she would have kept going had Audrey not discovered what she was doing and came and stop me as I was vacuuming the living room!  I tell ya, the only thing saving this little girl is her sweet smile and the fact that she just learned how to call me "Mommy" instead of only saying "Momma!"

The other highlight of my weekend was that Alyssa lost her third tooth! I know most people probably don't care but for me it's one of those moments that really make my heart smile so big!  Another thing that made it so neat was that this was Alyssa's first TOP tooth to fall out! That darn thing was jiggly for months until finally in the last couple of weeks it got really loose.  I asked Lyssa to let me check it right before bedtime and I realized that it really didn't have much more until it was gonna fall out.  I probably could have left it alone, but I told her we could try a little dental floss to help it come out!  I know this probably sounds weird, but something special like losing a tooth was something I really hoped would happen at home, instead of school or somewhere else where she could potentially lose it.  We played with her tooth for a few minutes and before we knew it, it came out!

I made sure to take this picture of her right before we left for school!  I've been so bad at manually recording things these days, so I for sure thought I'd better blog about this so we won't forget when it happened!

Her other front tooth is jiggly now so I'm thinking that by the time it falls out we can sing that song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" and it'll be for real! Haha! :)

Just Like Old Times (only now I'm married with three kids)!

I have so much to share about what we've been up to lately so I'm thinking today I'll start with something fun we got to do last Friday and then work my way through the past weekend in the next few posts!

On Friday I had the fun chance to get together with a sweet friend from high school.  We reconnected through Facebook last year and have been talking a lot on there but hadn't actually seen each other in person in 13 years!  The funniest thing about it...we live in the same town! She actually moved away and then came back and well me...I've been here the whole time.  I'm so boring! :)

Nightingale loves photography and asked me a while back if I'd be interested in letting her come over to photograph us to capture what a typical day looks like.  After several months of talking about scheduling a meet-up, we were able to finally able to make it happen! The girls and I had such great time visiting with "Miss Nightingale" and they felt completely comfortable with her, which was so great :)  Visiting Nightingale was like old times and we agreed at the end of our visit that we are pretty much both the same people we were back in high school...only this time around, we're both married and I have THREE kids! We laughed together when she said to me that she still couldn't believe that I have three!

What's so cool to me is that Nightingale, or "Nightie" as we always used to call her, is also a blogger!    After our day together, she wrote up a really neat post on her observations of the day and it was cool seeing what she captured and reading about what our life looks like from the "outside.  You can go HERE to read it! It would mean so much to me if you went over to her blog and checked it out! While you're there, please try to ignore my yucky hair!  There was no time to style it that day, and I am way over due for a haircut so I've pretty much gone into lazy mode with styling it!

Well, I'm really looking forward to more chances to hang out with Nightingale and maybe even get to meet with both her and her Hubby together!

P.S.  When you hop over to Nightingale's blog, you'll see the mommy shirt I'm wearing.  I've been meaning to blog about it for ages but just hadn't done that.  Jodi made it for me and I love it!

Back to the Barn

This week has continued to fly!  It's been full of tons of running around and staying busy!  I've been meaning for days to post about our little trip from over the weekend to the Avila Valley Barn, so I'm finally getting to that today!

Last year around this exact same time, I posted about my trip to the Avila Barn with my sister Yvonne and our girls.  We had a lot of fun there both last summer and during the fall for the pumpkin patch trip, so on Saturday when we had some free time, my Hubby and I loaded up the girls and took the twenty minute drive back to the Barn.

The last time we'd been there was in October for the pumpkin patch and I was excited to be able to take Livvie along with us, since the last time she'd been there was when she was still in my belly! 

When we first got there, the girls had fun feeding the animals they have there.  At first Alyssa was nervous about the animals biting her, but after a while, she got the hang of things and did a great job feeding them.  I think the expression on her face in this picture is so funny.  She was having a really good time.

After we got done feeding the animals, I made sure to get my Hubby to take a picture of me and the girls.  I hadn't really been able to get a good picture of all of us since Livvie's was born, but I think this one might be a new favorite of mine.  I love how Audrey's doing her own little thing with Alivia here.  So sweet...

I even laughed after going back to last years post about the Barn and noticed I wore the same exact gold hoop dangly earrings on our trip out there.  How funny, huh?

After we finished our little photo shoot, it was off to the girls' favorite part...the sweet shop, where they have homemade ice cream and sorbets.  They also sell a TON of salwater taffy!

They also have the best ever cobbler there and of course you know I had to do a redo of last year and get me some olalaberry cobbler a la mode.  It was soooooo good!

 My Hubby was rolling his eyes at me when I took the picture of my dessert.  I'm not sure why he thought I was being silly considering I take pictures of almost everything these days.  Even food! :)

When I'm there, I always love taking pictures of the flowers they sell.  I'll never forget the year I was pregnant and almost due with Alyssa, and my Hubby and I went there for the day to celebrate our anniversary.  He got me the prettiest bouquet of flowers there and we went home and cooked our own lobster tails we'd purchased from Port San Luis Pier, another neat place down the way from the Barn.

Being at the Barn always brings back good memories and I can't wait until October to go back for the pumpkin patch experience!  This time we'll have Livvie to take along with us to make even more new memories!

If you're even in my area of California, taking a trip the the Barn is a must.  It's so much fun and a great place to check out!

P.S.  On a totally different note, I just wanted to say thanks so much for all your help and suggestions about getting ready for school after my post on Monday.  There was so much great feedback and all of it helped out so much!  I was even able to go down to the school yesterday to turn in our paperwork and got many of my questions answered.  We have orientation on the 13th and then three days later, school starts!  Not much longer now!

School's almost here....I NEED YOUR HELP!

I have been falling desperately behind on blogging lately.  Now I totally realize that this is something that's supposed to be for fun but I truly do enjoy my "blog life," I guess you could call it, and miss getting the chance to get on here and share what's been going on in our life as well as check in on friends.  I'm now weeks behind and not sure I'll ever get caught up.  There are a ton of things I'm juggling and right at this very minute I'm sitting here wondering how it will all get done. 

I sat down last night with my agenda and made sure to go over what we have going on this month.  There are a ton of birthdays, doctor's appointments and just life stuff going on.  The biggest thing I'm focused on right now is getting Alyssa ready for school.  She starts exactly two weeks from today and can I just be so honest and say that I'm getting so nervous?

As I type this, I find myself struggling to find the words to explain just how I feel.  I'm excited at the prospect of Alyssa starting something new, but I'm just so emotional over this for some reason.  Aside from that, I think I'm just feeling like I have no clue what I need to do to feel ready.  I was talking to my Hubby about it the other day and he was saying, "well, it's common sense" to go out and buy the things that we know she'll need to start school.  I get that, but what I guess I just wish is that I had someone else to ask for help who's been there before.  I feel so lost for some reason. 

Here are the things on my list so far that I know I need to take care of in the next two weeks here...

1.)  Return the packet of paperwork sent to me last week with her emergency card, etc.

2.)  Get her a haircut.

3.)  Buy a few new outfits, shoes, etc.

4.)  Buy any new supplies she may need.  (What those are specifically, I don't know since the school never sent that information to me).

5.)  Buy a backpack.

I guess my other big worry is the logistics of it all.  I've mentioned before that I'm a planner and I really try to be organized.  At the same time, many things don't always go according to schedule when you have small children involved.  What I realized just last night is that this will be the first "real" schedule I'll have been on since I worked.  Might I just remind everyone that I stopped working FIVE years ago?  I am so used to being on my own schedule and I've been getting nervous at the thought of how I'm going to make it to school every morning with all three of us girls and ON TIME?  Yikes!

I know I sound like a crazy, but these are just some of the things I've been working through in my mind lately.  I've also been trying to figure out which is the most efficient way to get a child ready to be up so early in the morning.  School starts at 7:30 for Alyssa and she'll only be going half day since our school district doesn't offer full day Kinder.  What I'm wondering is, how does it work for any of you mom's out there that are in this same position.  Do you have your kid(s) take baths the night before and then just refresh in the morning?  I'm thinking about doing that with Alyssa, but look what happens to Alyssa's hair by the middle of the day on a day after we do the shower the night before thing...

 Do you see those crazy curls?  Even after wetting her hair down in the morning and rebrushing it, it still goes everywhere!  I'm not sure I want to sent her to school looking all crazy haired but I can't see me getting all of us showered and ready to be out of the house at 7:15 every morning!

Well, you can call me nuts, but I know it's pretty normal to be nervous about a new adventure.  Maybe some of you out there can help me to figure out how I can be more prepared.  I know it will be easy once we get settled into a routine, but it's just the getting there that has me wondering.  Any thoughts or ideas you have for me would be greatly appreciated! :)

P.S.  I also wanted to mention that this week is World Breastfeeding Week!  Yay for nursing!!!

Flip Flop Fun!

The last couple of days I've been trying to sort through pictures from Alyssa's birthday party on Saturday to share here on the blog.  It was tough sorting through close to 200 pictures and deciding which were my favorites.  Here's just a tidbit of our birthday party fun!

The weather ended up being really yucky the day of the party.  We had reserved one of the spots at the park across the street from our house to have the party at because of the amount of people invited and the fact that our house is pretty small.  It was super convenient to have the party literally steps away from our house but it was really tough to decorate and put stuff out on the tables when the wind was literally blowing things away. 

A couple of weeks before the party, Veronnica was super sweet and asked me if she could make some things for the party and here's one of the things she made for us...

An awesome personalized banner which we ended up hanging here in our kitchen archway.  I tried hanging it at the park but it was SO windy that it was getting all tangled up.  I was so bummed.  What was actually neat was that we were still able to enjoy it since we all kept coming and going from the party, and even after the party, we had family from out of town over to visit.  The banner was such a special touch and it's actually still hanging here in our kitchen where I'm planning on leaving it up for a while for us to enjoy and continue the birthday fun.  Thanks so much for doing that V! :)

For entertainment, we rented a bounce house.  It had a fun tropical theme to it with palm trees on all four corners!  It even had a flamingo on it, which Alyssa loved!

We wanted to just do a simple BBQ and that's what we did.  We served hot dogs and hamburgers, beans, pasta salad, and these yummy fruit skewers which have been a summer party tradition of ours for the past five years.

And here's how the flip flop cake turned out.  I think it ended up turning out pretty good and everyone else seemed to be excited about it too!

My sister Yvonne make these yummy cupcakes.  I think they turned out really cute!  My favorite part were the fun little sunglasses and flip flop picks that I found to match our theme!

I also made number five cookies as favors.  This has also been a tradition of ours since Alyssa and my niece Natalya had their first birthdays.  These do take some time to make, but I think they're totally worth it and add a special touch to the party!  If you look close, you can also see the super cute tags Veronnica also made for us.  They said "Alyssa's 5th Birthday" on them plus the date of the party!  I think they made the cookies look so awesome!!!

My mother in law also wanted to be sure we had a pinata for the party so she took Alyssa to go buy one on Thursday.  Only thing was, they couldn't find one that matched our flip flop theme, so she let Alyssa pick out one she liked, and wouldn't you guess, she chose a duck one.  At least it matched the colors of the party, right?

Although it was a cold and windy day, the birthday girl and everyone else had a great time!  I can't believe my girl is five years old now.  Alyssa got some awesome gifts and now has a full summer wardrobe to choose from!

It was an awesome birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday Alyssa...and a winner!

So I realize by the time this post is published it will technically be Saturday, June 19th, 2010, but just humor me and pretend that this posted sometime Friday evening, will you? :)  Thanks so much!!!

Today was a crazy, full, fun, busy day getting a prepped for Alyssa's birthday party tomorrow and it's safe to say we're pretty much set and ready to go!  There are still a few more to-do's left for tomorrow morning but mostly just little stuff.  I'm getting so excited for the party and I can't wait to share how it went!

I really need to get to bed, but wanted to quickly say a Happy Belated birthday to my big girl!  Alyssa turned FIVE years old today!  She had a great day with her cousin Breanna and Auntie Isabel.  They took her to Toys R Us and let her pick out her own birthday present!  After that, they had lunch at McDonald's and went and saw Toy Story 3!

You can see here that she's holding her new Zsu Zsu pets that Kristin sent her!  I also let her wear her "I'm five" birthday shirt that Kristin made her too.  It's already in the wash so that she can wear it again for her party tomorrow! :)

I can't wait to share more about the other special things that were made for Alyssa's party!  I am especially excited about some amazing things that Veronnica made for the party that I know you all are going to love!!!

----------------------------------------

Well, I also promised to announce the winner of my giveaway for the hair clippies from Trinity's Treasures.  So sorry for the delay in getting to this!  I got so caught up in baking and doing all things party related and totally lost track of the day! 

I ended up putting all the entries in a bowl and Miss Audrey helped me pick a winner!

And guess who she drew???

Congrats to Holly!!!  You are the winner!  I already have your address so I'll be mailing out your prize ASAP!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered and for the new gals who are now following along!!!  Hope you all have a great weekend and just a quick reminder that if you'd still like to purchase anything from Trinity's Treasures, you can receive 20% regular store items simply by using the code:

20-OffVerBlog06

Be sure to place your order soon, because this discount code is only good until the end of this month!

Thanks, Jill!

Thoughts at midnight

Now that I have a small baby, I find myself up at all hours of the night.  It's after midnight and it's not really a shock that I'm sitting here at the computer.  Seems like times like these are the only ones I can really use to catch a little break.  I really should be getting to bed soon considering that a certain little someone will be waking me up to be fed before I know it, but for some reason here I am, typing anyway. :)

I find myself wanting to sit and get caught up on what I've missed over the holiday weekend while I tried to put the computer down and spend time with the family.  I feel bad for being so behind with blogs and stuff but it was nice just being able to take a break from the computer and relax.  We had such a fun weekend of doing pretty much nothing but hanging out and enjoying the beautiful weather that finally decided to come our way! 

Alyssa had a fun time going to the movies with her Grandma S and her cousins to see Shrek 3 on Sunday.  You can totally tell from this picture who Alyssa looks like...! :)

Lately, I've been realizing just how much time I spend here on the computer.  I LOVE having a blog to be able to share what's on my mind and getting to make such sweet blog friends, but I guess I've just been having a tough time balancing everything out between handling regular life stuff and getting all caught up in blogland.  Can anyone else out there relate?

I find myself getting all wrapped up in things and before I know it, it seems I've spend a ton of time just sitting on the computer.  This is nothing new really, I guess, but just something that I've been struggling with again lately.  Over the weekend, I even had the thought of just stopping the blog so I could just get re-focused on other stuff, but I know I would be so sad if I did that.

Now that summer's here, I want to make it my goal to get out more with the girls and have some fun.  I think in the past, I've let the fact that I don't have a lot of close in real life friends to hang out with stop me from taking the girls out and just going on adventures.

I want that to change. 

I don't want to keep the girls all cooped up in the house because of my insecurities.  I want them to get out more and have some fun. 

These are just the thoughts that have been running through my head lately and I'm hoping that I can get things figured out so that I can continue doing what I love to do while being a good Mommy to my girls at the same time.

Well, guess I should probably get to bed for real now, but before I do that, I just had to share my new favorite picture.  I have the hardest time getting Audrey to sit still these days for pictures, so I was SO excited when we got this picture today.

Don't you just love her sweet smile?

P.S.  Sorry if this post sounds all jumbled.  I even got a nap in today but I guess staying up late will cause a person to get a little rambly! :)

What was your name again?

Well, it's offical, I've become one of them.  You know, one of those mother's who can't keep their kids' names straight, yup, that's me!  I used to laugh at my MIL all the time and wonder why she'd always call everyone by the wrong name.  Turns out going from two to three kiddos causes a person to have amnesia or something because all week long, I've been calling my kids all by the wrong names!

In just a couple of days, my Livvie girl will be turning three weeks old and I'm already wondering to myself where I've been all this time!  Things have continued to go mostly smoothe over here in the transition of life with a new baby in the house.  The girls love their baby sister and sometimes a little too much.  I am constantly having to tell them to give Alivia her space and to "please get off your sister's face."  They can't seem to get enough of her and I'm glad that they're doing well adjusting to having another sibling.

This week I decided to start something new and instead of putting Alyssa down for naps, (which she seems to be outgrowing lately) I let her stay up and put Audrey down for a nap by herself.  During naptime, Alyssa and I have been having fun doing "learning time" and playing games like "Memory."  It's been a while since we've done any alone time activities together and I really think she's been enjoying herself.  I'm thinking that next week, I'll continue on with this new schedule but try to throw in a day or two of naps for Alyssa so that I can get a little nap in myself too!

Some of you have asked me how I've been doing and if I've been getting enough help.  The truth is, this week was a little rough.  On Monday, I took Alivia to her two-week check-up and decided to take all three girls with me.  I'm not quite sure why I thought I wanted to do that, but I did and found it to be extremely difficult.  The baby did wonderful, but it was just my big girls that weren't behaving.  At one point, Audrey was rolling around on the bench while we were waiting to be called back, and in the process, dumped several of her pretzals on the floor.  If that wasn't bad enough, she then tried eating the ones that had fallen on the floor!  I was so embarassed and looked like one of those moms, if you know what I mean.  I pretended to not feel the stares from the other parents sitting in the waiting room and tried to remind myself to take it easy.  After all, I'm new to this mom of three stuff and there will be many more instances that test my patience.  I just have to keep having to remind myself that it's okay to ask for help, and not feel guilty when I can't do certain things alone with all three girls.

Well, there's lots more I could probably go on about, but I think I'll stop here.  I've had a lot on my mind this week and I think it's just the fact that I'm still trying to process the whole "I just had a baby" kinda stuff.  In addition to that, Alivia's been jaundiced since a couple of days after she was born and it's still not gone yet.  She's also been starting to fuss more and has been spitting up a lot.  Both Alyssa and Audrey had GER, a.k.a. "reflux" and I'm praying this won't be the case for Livvie!  Audrey had it so bad that we actually thought she had colic when she was first born and had to be on meds until the time she turned one!  I've been stressing out a lot about these two things but I'm just praying all will be well with my girl.  If you wouldn't mind praying for her too, I would really appreciate it so much!

P.S.  I know I must sound like a broken record, but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's been there for us these last few weeks.  If you've come to vist, sent us a card, or left us a message, please know that we appreciate you so much and we're so thankful to have you in our lives, whether we know you in person or not! :)

Home Sweet Home

So I've been meaning to get back on here and post about how we've been doing over the last few days since our sweet girl came into the world, but I just haven't had much computer time.  Hmmm, I wonder why? :)

Everyone knows I have the toughest time just keeping things short, but today I'm going to do my best!  My sister took the big girls out for a frozen yogurt, so I've got a little quiet break in before it's time to wake Alivia up to feed her!

Okay...so where do I start?  I gave birth to our girl on Monday evening at 8:30 after only having been in the hospital for about an hour before delivering.  I can't wait to share how that whole day went, but I'll have to work on that for another day!  Anyhow...we were allowed to go home on Tuesday evening at 8:30, since it had been an entire 24 hours since Alivia had been born.  It was a little strange getting to go home so late in the day, something I didn't do with the other girls.  It was just amazing to me that 25 hours after being admitted into the hospital, we were getting to go home with our girl!

Since coming home, everything has been pretty good.  Alivia has been such a good baby and the only issue we've really been having is that she seems to have her nights and days turned around.  I'm hoping that we can work through that soon so we can all get a little sleep at night!  When I look at her, I'm still trying to get used to having a dark haired baby again! :)  For the last two years, Audrey's been my little light complected baby, and now I've got another dark haired girl!

As for the big sisters, they're doing as well as can be expected.  I was thinking I would have more trouble with the way Audrey was going to respond to the baby, but the one who's really having a harder time is Alyssa.  Both girls love their baby sister, it's just the whole thing of trying to figure out how they all fit in.  I know it will take some time for all of us, but four days in, we're doing pretty well!

Don't you just love them in their Big Sister shirts that Kristin made for them?!?!

And here's my favorite picture of the week!  All THREE of my girls!

I seriously can't believe that only four days ago, I was still pregnant!  God is so good and I can't wait to share more of just how He's blessed us!!!  In the meantime, I hope you all are doing well and I hope to get caught up on everyone's blogs and hear about what you've all been up to!  Thank you all again, so, so much for all the love you sent our way this week!

Have a great weekend, everybody!  I'm off to feed my girl!!!