Beautiful Sunny Days

We have been super spoiled by some beautiful weather lately...I just keep thinking we'll probably get hit with a freak snow storm in May or something.  But for now, we have really been enjoying it!  The girls have been in heaven being outside so much.

It brings back so many memories of when I was growing up and hanging out around the garage with my dad and playing in the yard.  I love that my girls are getting a taste of that as well. 

Here are a bunch of pictures of a Saturday spent outside recently...it was the BEST!  

Hanging out in Grandpa's Jeep

(Addison got in a fight with the driveway the day before, so she had a nasty swollen lip)

Their patience paid off, and Grandpa took them for a little spin around the block.

Ben was there with his sweet Scrambler as well.

They're back, happy, and all in once piece.

Following the Jeep ride was a dance party on the back of Grandpa's flatbed truck

Addison sat most of the time (which was okay by me) but sure thought people were being funny. 

Yes, Claire had on her swimsuit...but if you look at the rest of her outfit, it really doesn't seem so strange. 

Getting as close to the edge as we'd let them, looking out at...nothing.

Following the dance party was the classic jumping off the porch and running back up the hill.

I'm looking forward to many more days like this one, it was WONDERFUL!

3 Months Old

Little Miss Molly turned 3 months old yesterday! 

I cannot believe how fast the time is going with her.  It seems each child goes faster and faster.  

On her 3 month birthday, I sat her down and had a heart to heart with her.  I told her that it would be in my best interest if she would stop growing up, because if she keeps growing up I'm going to be forced to want another baby, and I'm not sure daddy can handle that.  She just stared at me.  Apparently she will do whatever she wants and I just have to deal with it.

ANYWAY...here are a few more cute pictures I took of our darling Miss Molly.  We think she is looking more and more like a mix of all her sisters, which would be awesome.  And I know you can't see it in the pictures, but her hair has a slight reddish tint to it...will we get another red head?  It will not be as red as Claire's, but she may be auburn or strawberry blonde, which I'd love.

ENJOY!

The Grass On The Other Side

I was recently reading a blog post (blog shall remain un-named) that made this person's life out to be quite a tragedy.  Every single post I've ever seen was basically about how awful their life was and they wished it would change, I almost never saw anything positive. 

-Their husband has a great job...but it's not in the city they want it to be, and she hates it.

-They have a house...but it's a little smaller than she would want, and not where she wants to be living.

-They have beautiful children...but they're too busy being upset about where they live etc. to enjoy them.

And it got me thinking, why would you live your life wishing and hoping for things to change, in the meantime not living in the moment of what your life is today?  I mean, yes, we all can hope for things and wish for a great future, but why would you do that at the expense of your present?

The grass is NOT always greener on the other side, I am here to tell you that.  You may look out those windows, across the way and think the grass would be SO much better "over there".  

You may even dream of rolling in the green, lush beauty that you can see, just sure you would be much happier if you could just get to that other grass.

Then you finally get a chance to cross over to that other side, and guess what...you miss the old grass.  

Sure that old grass may have had a few dry blades that were scratchy, but it had its own beauty and comfort that you didn't realize you had grown to love until it was too late.

So, what I guess I'm trying to say is live in the moment!  Enjoy your life the way it is now, because you will never get this time back.  And why not try a littler fertilizer to make your grass the best it can be instead of always wishing for the grass on the other side.

Clarification

I feel as though I need to write a bit of clarification after something I said on here, because I realized I was starting to paint a very glamorized picture of a perfect life..which just isn't true.

I was bold enough to say that this time around (with the new baby) I do not feel overwhelmed like I did last time.

And while I don't feel overwhelmed with the baby herself (I am thankful every day for how sweet and easy she is), some situations are still overwhelming.  What mother doesn't feel overwhelmed at some point?

Some of my daily highlights include:

-Stop Addison from hitting Claire about 45 times. (Hitting, sitting on, jumping on, pulling her hair, etc.)

-Stop her from "loving" Molly a little too enthusiastically at least 100 times. (Her hugs closely resemble the heimlich maneuver or CPR)

-Try to convince Addison that screaming isn't the way to solve anything (Is it hypocritical to yell "STOP SCREAMING!"? Probably.)  

-Feed Molly and change her diaper every couple hours and try to not feel guilty about how much time she spends in the swing while I tackle other things.

-Be completely ignored by Claire when asked to do ANYTHING at all.

-Listen to Claire be overly dramatic at the drop of a hat, crying for things as little as not getting a turn with the bubbles right when she wanted. (we also hear a lot of "everybody is being mean to me today!"  I promise we aren't. My other favorite "I wish my preschool teacher was my mom, she's always nice to me."  That was when I told her to finish cleaning her room before I would let her play a game.  I'm just awful like that.)  

-Brielle trying to boss me around...well, bossing everyone around.

-Kids refusing to play nicely together.  Even with my "Your sisters are the only friends you can guarantee will be there for you forever, so be nice to them now or you'll regret it later" speeches.

And the list goes on and on.

I've decided what has finally occurred, is my will to have a life outside of the house has finally been worn down to nothing.  Logistics is a nightmare, and most of the time errands/outings aren't worth the headache.

There are times I mourn the "old days" when me and the two oldest girls would go do quite a bit.  We went to the library, on field trips, to the park, for walks, shopping and other things and it was not a big deal.  And now we do very little of those things.  We rarely even leave the house for anything other than taking people to school.  It's quite sad. 

I know that there are different seasons in our lives, and at some point we will go and do more.  But for now, I'm just going to embrace the boring, mundane days of sitting around the house and cleaning up constant messes/breaking up fights.  Because I'm not naive enough to believe things will get "easier" as they get older.  Then they will just be busier.

So, I guess it takes four kids to finally wear someone down.  Not in a bad "frazzled" way, but in an "accepting the way things are" kind of way.

At least I think I'm accepting it...that or I've officially lost my mind.

Satisfying Brielle

So...Brielle saw the last post here on my blog, and immediately wanted to know where all the pictures of HER are?!

I tried to explain that she was at school when I took those, but that wasn't good enough for her.  So, she asked me to take pictures of her as well to put on here.

Really, I swear she did.

So the girls were all beautified for Sunday, and I took that chance to take some pictures.  Yes, I got some of the other kids too, but Brielle got her time in the spotlight as well.

This picture she said is to look like she's getting ready to jump off the fire place.

Doing some "model poses".

And some more unusual poses

She desperately tried to get Addison to do some poses with her (like the pictures from the last post of Claire and Addison posing together) but this is the best we could manage.

Oh, and Addison...still not willing to just give up a smile for the camera.

She was more than happy to provide pictures like this however.

Claire claims this is her smile...

But thankfully I tricked her into giving me a REAL one.

Then Brielle wanted one of her looking pretty as well.

And I got as close to a smile as possible out of Addison

So there you have it, I hope that this has satisfied Brielle's desire to not be left out.

And in case you were wondering, Molly was asleep during all this, but I don't think she will mind having been left out of the photo shoot.

Busy Mornings

I've been working on transferring my blog into a book (I do a year at a time) and have been having such a fun time looking back at some good, and not so good, times we've had over the years.  And it got me thinking and realizing that I do not blog as much as I used to.  I also don't put NEARLY as many pictures as I used to on my blog.  I'm sure the main reason is that we have moved back home, and I feel like our family sees us enough and I don't have the strong desire to make sure I capture as many moments to share with them.  But then I realized that I LOVE looking through my blog books, and so I need to keep updating the blog in order to make the books fun...wow, is any of this making sense??

ANYWAY, this morning I busted out the camera to get some pictures, and to capture what a busy morning with my three little ones who aren't in school is like.  So, buckle your seat belts...there are a lot of pictures coming your way!

First up is little Miss Molly.  She is the SWEETEST baby ever.  I just can't get enough of her adorable smiles and big blue eyes.  (She's 11 weeks old today!)

Full body smiles...LOVE them.

Big blue eyes

 Then there's Addison...who is getting WAY too big.  Doing her hair is pointless, she just pulls out anything I put in, so she usually is rocking the ragamuffin look.

She is quite sassy as well.

I just ADORE those big dark eyes of hers.

This look is on her face at least 50% of the time, if not more.

And Claire, our spunky/sweet red head.

Always good for a laugh.

Even at herself

I LOVE the coloring and lighting in this picture...however she never smiles normal anymore.

Silly Faces

Addison giving it a try

Then they started a dance party/posing like princesses. 

Apparently Addison has been watching how Claire poses.  I love that they're doing the same thing.

More "posing"

This picture makes me SO happy!  Addison thinks Claire is pretty darn funny.

Seriously Claire...

It's amazing how when we had just had Addison, I felt overwhelmed with a preschooler, toddler and newborn.  This time around I have those three ages again, plus a 1st grader, but I am LOVING it.  They are all so much fun, and make life worth living.