Daddy's Favorite Days!

Written by Daddy -

Some of my absolute favorite days are the ones I get to hang out with my beautiful babies (although they are hardly babies anymore)! I think the girls love it as much as I do. They both really seem to thrive when they get alone time with Daddy and they especially love getting to go ride bikes and play at the park. I have been working on the girls wearing their helmets on their bikes... with the coats, helmets, and sunglasses I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of my sweet girls!


Oh my sweet Adalyn! She has such a tender sweet heart and she is undeniably a Daddy's girl. Where ever we are or go she pretty much always wants to be by me or she will stop what she is doing and come give me hugs over and over. She is shy and sensitive like her mommy. The other day she sneezed at the dinner table and rice flew everywhere. Kristy and I cracked up laughing which embarrassed her and made her cry. Last weekend while at lunch with some friends she said something funny that made all of us laugh, which caused another instance of buried face and tears. She also loves to be silly and make us laugh. Two of my favorites is when she makes her "tough girl" and "big eye" faces. She is a blessing beyond words and melts my heart on a daily basis!





Aubrey Claire, my 3 1/2 year old teenager! She is full of personality and is such a little negotiator. "How about just a couple more minutes?" is a regular question I get from her. Or "Maybe next time Daddy?" Or "If I eat my lunch all gone I can have dessert?". She is also so very stubborn, like her Daddy, and when she makes her mind up, that's it. When we went to the park to ride bikes, she wouldn't take her helmet off the whole time even during lunch! It was so funny to watch her running around the play ground with her helmet on. Aubrey is also such the little mommy. She is a wonderful big sister to Adalyn and especially to Avery. She constantly wants to hold her, hug her, kiss her or whatever she can do to make Avery happy. When I come home from work Aubrey always runs straight for the door to try and get the first hug and kiss. She brings more joy to my life than I could have ever imagined.




I absolutely LOVE my Daddy Daughter Days and always look forward to these special days. Thank you Kristy for making sure that I always get these days with my girls and that nothing in our lives goes undocumented! :)

I can't wait until Avery can start going with us on our special days!

Our Little Dancer

Aubrey has really been in need of having something of her own. Something to improve her social skills and something that she doesn't have to share with her sister. When we moved here I immediately noticed the Little Gym, just a couple minutes from our house. So we finally got Aubrey enrolled in her own dance/gymnastics class. I was a little nervous for her at first because I wasn't sure if she would actually go in and participate, but she totally surpassed my expectations. She went right in the first time, participated right away, and listened so well to her teachers. And since the first class, almost every day she asks me "do I go to my dance class today?". She loves it! At her next class I was able to snap a few pictures, they aren't the best pictures but they catch my cute girl doing her new hobby. I am so proud of her for overcoming a fear and being such an obedient girl in her class!

Practicing her plie. How cute is that?




I was trying to take a picture of her in her new leotard and she kept asking if Baby Rhea could be in the picture. Oh that girl.

One Month Old

I know I will probably say this every month, but... I can't believe Avery is already one month already. She is such a sweet baby, and super laid back and easy going. I guess you have to be when you're the third child. She is sleeping pretty good at night as of right now. Most nights she'll sleep for 4-5 hours, but I am definitely ready for that to extend by a few hours. I just have to remind myself she is only four weeks old. She is nursing really well, especially since we got the tongue tied issue fixed. She is still a tiny little thing, and still swimming in her 0-3 month clothes. I'm anxious for her next dr. appointment to see how her weight gain is. I've been doing it alone for just over a week now, and I am amazed with how well it's going. I was so nervous, but it has so far been a pretty easy transition. I even made it to visit a new MOPS group this morning, on time! But like I said, she is only 4 weeks...

Now about this super cute picture. God has really blessed us with moving us onto an amazing street. There are three other young families across the street. Between us all we have 10 kids, 6 and under. It's always party out on the street after nap time! So anyways, one of the neighbors is trying to start her own photography business. She asked us if she could come take pictures of the girls as a "welcome to the street" gift. So sweet of her. This is one of the very sweet pictures she got of our baby girl. Thanks Amanda!

My Cuties

Last Sunday, before church, Adalyn asked for "two hair tails" (they call pony tails hair tails for some reason, and two obviously means pig tails). So of course I had to pull through for my girl. Aubrey likes to follow in her sisters footsteps fairly often so she wanted some too. They just looked so cute to Jeff and I that morning that we had to snap a pic before church!

Nana's Visit

I was so blessed to have my mom come and spend 10 days with us to help me out after Avery was born and Jeff went back to work. We didn't do all too much and stayed pretty close to home, but the girls got lots of time to play with Nana, Nane got tons of cuddle time with Avery, and my kitchen seriously stayed spick and span for 10days. It was glorious. And then it was heartbreaking as I dropped her off at the airport. We aren't used to living so far apart again, and she is sure not used to seeing her grandkids every week anymore. Hopefully it won't be too terribly long before we get to see her and hopefully my dad too. Here are a few cute pictures or our fun visit with Nana.




Aubrey's favorite thing to do while Nana was here was play games, and this one in particular "Cootie". She loves this game!


Nana with her girls.

Our "perfect" day

A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I were talking about how when reading other mommy friends blogs we tend to get down on our own selves as mom's and wives. I often think how other mom's have it all together, and do such fun things with their kids, they never loose it, they are perfect wives and their husbands are perfect as well as their kids, after reading their super cute blog posts. But obviously this isn't the case, we just tend to blog the good things in our lives, not necessarily the chaotic day to day life as mommies.

So yesterday, as it was one of those crazy chaotic days, I was laying in bed trying to nap over the screaming of a certain three year old and thought "this would be a perfect day to blog my unperfect life"! Yesterday there was A LOT of crying going on in this house, maybe even "a little" crying from this mommy, and just maybe all of the crying was going on at the same time (Nana had to fly back to CA yesterday). Yesterday we had two potty accidents from our two year old. Yesterday there was quite a bit of testing going on from that same three year old I mentioned earlier. And because of that testing, there were some spankings, and lots of other ways of disciplining. During that testing, that sweet little girl just maybe yelled "no maam" at me over and over (fun times). Yesterday there might have been about 20 minutes where our sweet new baby girl screamed and screamed because she was so hungry but I just couldn't get to her yet as I was dealing with the two big girls. Yesterday one of our sweet children might have dug out all of the chapstick of her tube with her finger nail and spread it all over her face and hands while driving to the airport just because! And back to that nap time...yesterday that same little three year old screamed and screamed in her bed during naptime for no apparent reason. And just maybe after this mommy had it with the screaming, I may have lost my temper just a teeny tiny bit on that said three year old. Yesterday there was no napping for me which I was so desperately counting on all day. Which may have been the reason that daddy got a call from a rather emotional mommy! So you see, we sure aren't perfect over here, and these day are so crazy and so chaotic. I know we will find our new normal soon and be trucking along once again. Sometimes in the midst of the chaos I just have to stop and laugh and realize it won't be like this forever, and then there will be all sort of new hurdles to jump!

Life with three

I have yet to do a full day by myself, but come Wednesday and all mommy duties will be back in full swing. I have been so blessed to have 3 1/2 weeks of help from Jeff, and then my mom. I know I can do it, and will figure out my new normal soon, but right now it's still a bit intimidating. My mom has been tons of help with the girls and especially with keeping my kitchen clean, which ALWAYS stresses me out! Avery is such a sweet baby, and pretty content the majority of the time. She has been sleeping about 4 hours at night, so I'm still pretty exhausted. I've been napping pretty much every day since she was born, but once I'm back on full time, the naps are going to have to stop and I'm going to have to figure how to function on little sleep once again. I mean somebody has to do the cooking, the laundry, and keep a clean house right? Aubrey and Adalyn are still doing so good with her. We have a few behavior struggles with the biggest sister lately, and whole lot of testing, but hopefully she will settle down soon. Adalyn still seems a little bit more needy from me lately, so I'm really trying hard to give her as much attention as I can. Here are few new pictures of all three of my sweet girls. God is so good and I couldn't be more in love with our beautiful baby girl.

Avery is not a fan of the rainforest mat, but Aubrey really tries hard to comfort her.


Awww...I love these three.

Getting Ready for Valentines Day.

I love holidays, mostly because it's gives us a fun excuse to do crafts and make desserts! Aubrey and Adalyn had a blast making valentines cards for Nana and super cute hearth wreaths. Aubrey was so excited to leave their cards and wreaths on Nana's bed before she got here. Then a few days after my mom got here we decided to let the girls decorate some sugar heart cookies, after being cooped up in the house for way too many days! Here's a glimpse into our valentines fun!



Cutting out the cookies.




These girls love putting the sprinkles on! Notice Baby Rhea joining in on the fun once again.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Last week I turned 31. Wow! 31... I don't know how or when I became an adult, married with three kids, but here we are. Since I had a two week old on my birthday it was a pretty uneventful day, but I got to spend it with my family which is the best way to celebrate. The morning and afternoon we just hung around the house, but that night we went to eat at Texas Roadhouse. Avery slept through the whole thing which was lovely! All in all, it was a great day. I am so very blessed and thankful that my mom was here to celebrate too!

Dinner at Roadhouse.



Here we all are at home. We decided we better snap a few pictures right before the girlies all went to bed.

Avery's First Photo Shoot

I am so very lucky to have a friend who has an amazing talent in photography. For the past three years I have been following her blog and always so envious of the gorgeous pictures she takes of her beautiful kids. When we found out we were moving back to Houston, one of my first thoughts was "Oh yay, maybe Michelle can come take the baby's pictures for birth announcements". So earlier this week Michelle came and blessed our family with her time and gave us some gorgeous pictures of our three girls. I'm only sharing a few of Avery, because you have to wait to see the birth announcements! But she also got some great ones of Aubrey and Adalyn. Thanks so much Michelle! We love them all!

Her First Bath

Oh the joy's of sponge bathing an infant. Just like her big sisters, Avery wasn't really a fan of the sponge bath, but as Daddy finished up she seemed to relax a bit. Here are some pictures of Avery's first bath at home.







See, she learned to like it!



All warm and dry.



Aubrey checking on her sister.