2-9

Dallas and I usually keep our birthday's pretty low key... stay at home with the kids, eat dessert together, watch a movie. This year at the last minute we decided to invite some neighbors over to roast marshmallows and just hang out. It ended up being so much fun, I am so glad we did it! It might have to be a new tradition for Dallas' birthday. 

Dallas thought he was so tough being the only one not wearing a jacket... crazy. 

It was such a fun night! The weather was perfect for a fire, we got rained on at the end but it turned out great.  (Excuse the blurry photos... I was being a stubborn photographer and didn't want to use the flash.) 

Dallas now has one year left to enjoy his 20's. We are going to start it off by going to see Brian Regan at the end of the month. Dallas was pretty surprised to see that he got tickets and not just some boring socks that he needed (I am so sneaky!)...

First steps

I am having flash backs. Can Makiah really be 4? Because really, she should look like this....


Daphne Walking from Jessica Bateman on Vimeo.

Here and here are the videos of Makiah doing the same thing way back when. Now it's Daphne's turn. I LOVE it when babies learn to walk. They are such cute little people walking around, it's just adorable.

This morning Daphne took 7 steps at a time and then 10. She seems pretty proud of herself too. I am excited for her, this is so fun!

Candid.

The other night I took my kids to a field to get their photos taken. End result... a handful of good shots, massive mosquito bites on all of us (especially Makiah and Dallas), unhappy kids and everyone begging to go home. It was quick, not so fun and... well...  fine I guess.

Then tonight we were outside and the kids were having fun playing around. Surprisingly they weren't fighting and just enjoying themselves. The weather has been perfect lately, September is the best month :) I am so glad I thought to get my camera out. Lately I make excuses not to get my camera out and I haven't been taking the time to take snapshots of my kids. I have to say, even though this was unplanned it was soooo much more enjoyable than the other shoot with them the other night. And I love the photos so much.

Evan ran inside and got the toy doctor kit and band aids when Makiah scrapped her toe...

Look how tall Evan looks in this picture, he is growing up on me...

I can't get enough of this photo. Makiah's cute little pose just makes it so perfect. This one might just win a spot on my wall. I know I will especially love it in a few years when they are all grown up and things are different. They are so little. Oh I love this one...

Daphne isn't walking yet, but she can stand and push things around. She took 3 steps the other day, but hasn't since. She is so close! I really can't wait till she figures it out. Tonight she wanted to be right there beside the kids, but she couldn't keep up and it must hurt to crawl on the cement! She is a busy little baby, I really love it. 

Evan is getting used to his new schedule at school. He loves going and he is getting better at coming home happy. Some days are better than others. Makiah misses him so much while he is gone, but she is enjoying her time alone as well. It seem like she is getting along so well with Daphne, it really is cute. She talks to her with a sweet little voice (you know the voice girls use when they talk to babies? That voice) and she takes such good care of her.

Right now our battle is bed time. The kids all share a room and it's been hard. They are getting into a routine though, and they are learning to do what they need to... so they don't wake up the baby. Dallas and I find that they do so much better if we go in their room with them at bed time and just lay down with each of them for one minute. Then we can usually leave without them throwing a fit (and waking up the baby). It's a work in progress. One day we'll have a house... with more than two bedrooms :)

Life is good. I especially want this fall to just go slow... I love this time of year and I am not ready for a long cold winter. I am loving every minute I can get outside right now.

This is where it gets hard.

There is a reason why I haven't blogged. Or caught up with everything that has been happening this summer.

Taking care of 3 kids is hard.

They all have their own needs, they are all in very different stages in life.

Daphne eats, naps, crawls around and gets into everything. I can't take my eye off of her. She needs to be carried, rocked and cared for every second of the day.

Makiah needs entertainment. She needs to talk, play.... she needs interaction. She is still dependent on me, she needs help at meal time, doing her hair, matching her clothes, bathing, cleaning up, etc.

Evan is in school. He comes home tired. He doesn't know how to handle all these new things coming at him. He needs guidance and help so he doesn't fall to pieces (though he does, every single day).

So... even though 9-11 am and 2-4 pm is easy (Daphne naps and it's just me and Makiah), 4-8 pm is HARD. Those 4 hours of nap time are not spent catching up, they are spent staying sane. Preparing for the 4 hours of craziness that happen every single night.

After school, dinner time, and bed time need some work... or I will fall to pieces (Oh wait. I do. Every single night).

He's growin' up on me

I am quite proud of myself. I did very well today... I didn't even cry or think of crying... until I loaded these photos to the blog. Then I cried. Oh dear. My boy is in Kindergarten, and today was his first day. 

Last night we went to back to school night and met his teacher Mrs. Schmidt. We looked around his class room, Evan is pretty excited...

Then today he got ready to catch the school bus...

He didn't look back, he didn't hesitate... he didn't even give me a hug goodbye (tear). 

And he was gone :( I smiled then, but now I am crying. It's one of those bitter sweet kinda days. 

A little overwhelmed

I am feeling a little overwhelmed. Today is one of those days. You know, one of those days that you would rather just climb back into bed and throw the covers over your head. I would be perfectly happy there, but unfortunately... I have a life and three kids who have needs. I guess I should change that to say: Fortunately I have a life and 3 kids who keep me going. I really am thankful for them, they get me out of bed in the morning and keep me going all day. It's a good thing I have them.

So.... instead of climbing back into bed, I thought I would get going on this blog and all of my photos from my trip. I thought it would be nice and relaxing to come in my room and sit and relax and organize photos. Wrong. Now I am really overwhelmed. So, here is the deal: I will post my favorite photos on Facebook as I sort through them. Later (soon I hope), I will do one post with my very favorite photos and a quick run down on what we did, who we saw, etc.

Ahhh. I am starting to feel better. You can even head over to FB right now and check out some photos from our trip to the cabin :) Now I can blog some current things going on, without feeling guilty!

Do you ever worry that your child might not EVER learn something? That it will just be to hard for them and they will give up and never figure it out. Like being potty trained (worst nightmare), learning to tie shoes, or ride a bike? Well, eventually they learn and when they do it is so exciting! Last week Evan learned how to ride a two wheeler :)

Evan has had me take off those training wheels, and put them back on soooo many times this summer. When we got back to Indiana he begged me to take them off again, claiming that he knows how to ride without them. So, On Friday I took off the training wheels on Makiah's bike (it's a little smaller) and he took off riding! I helped him a couple times, but he really didn't want or need my help. He could ride down the length of our sidewalk and to our neighbor's house and by the next morning he was riding all the way around the pond in our neighborhood.

Today I took off the training wheels on his big bike and he took off riding with no trouble. I am am so proud of him!

It's cheaper to drive... right?

That's what we thought. But it wasn't.

That's okay though, we made it to Utah, Wyoming and back. We are all in one piece and we had a great time.

We drove. It's a lonnnng drive. We did it once before, and yet we were crazy enough to do it again. This time with 3 kids.

We decided to buy a van a little earlier than planned, so we could drive instead of fly. Then I got this brilliant idea... I could leave a couple weeks early with the kids and Dallas could fly out and meet us there when he can. That way we get plenty of time to do everything we want to. So, I found a friend to drive with me along with her husband and daughter and we headed out at the end of June.

Day one was going very quickly, the kids were doing great and the drive didn't seem half as bad as I thought it would be. Around 4 pm we hit Omaha, and it was a HOT day. Our AC died. We pulled into a gas station, got the kids out of the van, put coolant in the van, called my dad and he told me to take the van somewhere to get it looked at. We put the kids back into the car and headed to Walmart (I really don't know why we didn't think, but Walmart doesn't do repairs like this). Once in the parking lot the van died. We (and some helpful guys behind us) pushed the van out of the way and got the van running again. We pulled around to the service side of Walmart, got all of the kids out of the van only to find out that Walmart couldn't help. We put all the kids back into the (hot, humid) van just to find out that it wouldn't start. We got the kids out one last time, went inside and called a tow.

By this point, if I would've been alone, I think I would have been a mess. Crazy lady crying in Walmart. I am sooooo glad I didn't make the drive alone. I am so glad I had my friend's help.

We waited to hear from the mechanic. Hoping it was an easy fix and that it would be done that night and we would be off. We had two carts full of kids, carseats, suitcases and coolers. We hauled them up to the front of the store to get dinner at Mcdonalds (yeah, we looked a *little* ridiculous). And waited. Little did we know that this was just a start of all the waiting that we would be doing during the next 24 hours.

Yeah, I know. We rock and you wish you would've been there too....

The car needed a new water pump and thermostat. It also needed a coolant flush. It would take at least 4 hours the next day to get fixed. We took a cab to a hotel and got some much needed sleep after a 10 hour drive and almost 4 hours at Walmart. My cab driver was great, he turned off his loud music as soon as I started loading kids in his car, asked about my hard day since he could tell by our situation it wasn't good. And then he wouldn't let me pay him when we arrived at our hotel. It was only a few dollars, but what a great act of kindness. The world could use more people like him.

The next day the 4 hours we thought we would be waiting turned into 8 and we finally got back on the road by 4 pm. Waiting was the hardest part. We spent the day walking outside around the hotel and hanging out in the lobby. We were sure glad to get back on the road.

We stopped again that night. We had to drive a third day rather than the two we planned on and finally arrived in Utah the next day. Overall the ride was not bad. I was amazed at how well all 4 kids did. My friend's daughter didn't cry at all. Daphne sat in the back next to Evan and he took care of her the whole way. She was getting her first two teeth and hardly cried at all. When she did cry she was either hungry or tired and quickly calmed down. The kids kept busy doing puzzles, coloring, stringing fruit loops (best car activity, seriously), playing with glow sticks at night and sleeping. Evan liked to watch the mile markers, the clock and he had a chart of different cars that he had to watch for.

It's crazy, but even though it took an extra day with car repairs the trip wasn't all that bad. I wouldn't mind doing it again. I have a whole month of pictures and stories to tell you!

Here I go...

Time to play catch up. Time to upload 1000+ images to my computer. Time to try to remember everything we did and post it here. I also have things from June that never made it to the blog so I'll just have to do a *quick* summer in review. Wait for it...