Two down, One to go

Yep, you guessed it. Chicken Pox. Aspen got it first, and two weeks later, Journey sprouted the spots....and then a couple days later, so did Peyton :)

I'd have to say that it hasn't been that big of a deal. It didn't seem to affect Aspen at all. Journey was a little feverish for the first two days, but not bad. We still went to the park to play (just found one without too many people). Now we are waiting for Willow and Lilly to get the pox. :)

Cousins

Having cousins close in age is so much fun. Today we had Ava and Zoe over to play. The girls had fun and are learning to play nicely.

Zoe 7 mo. and Willow 9 mo.

Ava & Journey 3 years

I Love Them

I'm not going to lie. Three kids is A LOT of work. I am not a perfect mom. I get stressed out. I yell at them to be quiet, to stop fighting, to hurry up, to stop bugging each other. Sometimes their bickering makes me feel like I'm going to loose my mind.

BUT, I love them! They are each so different, yet sweet, loving and fun. I'm so thankful, and do my best to live in the moment, enjoy and know them.

My Garden!

This year, I'm really excited about having a garden. I've made enough mistakes in the past years that I'm hoping this year, it will turn out. Plus, I've got all sorts of plans for my organic veggies :)

We had a mild Winter/Spring, so in March, I bought some seeds and had Mark and Aspen make me a couple raised planter beds.

The planter beds. I'm hoping that the sprinkler system will water the garden well enough in the Summer so that I won't have to worry about it when we are gone.

We started by planting the seeds in egg cartons inside. Once our seedlings were up and growing, we transfered them to the garden area. I also planted more seeds directly in the garden so that hopefully I'll get a longer harvest period.

The garden is growing! These last two pics were taken a couple weeks ago when we actually had sun.

Lettuce, red and orange peppers, and chili peppers planted in the first bed. Sugar snap peas and yellow squash in the second one..........for now! I'll be adding more veggies soon.

I'm keeping five tomato plants on the deck, four in pots and one in a topsy turvy planter. I'm SO excited about having fresh tomatoes! I've also got my spinach and basil on the deck. Since it's been pouring down rain, and I'm lazy, I'll post pics of them later. We have been eating fresh lettuce and spinach from the garden for the past week, and I'm hoping I won't have to buy lettuce for the next couple months.

Journey is 3 now. Here's what she's into right now...

Journey's my little shadow in the kitchen. She loves to help me out with anything I am doing (and sample everything she can get her hands on!). She's a great little mommy to her dolls and animals. Today she informed me "I'm a good mommy, mom!" as she was changing her baby's diaper. The other day she sat next to me on the couch and fed her baby as I was feeding Willow. I had to laugh as she lifted her shirt, brought the baby to her chest for a second and then scolded her baby "DON'T bite!" haha! I guess she's heard me say that a few times lately!

I don't think there's anything she does quickly. Nothing! Everything is done at her slow little pace, including running (if you could call it that). She likes to play the helpless card. I still have to lift her into and out of the car everytime we go anywhere. She's just learning how to put underware and leggings on, but hasn't figured out how to dress herself beyond that. I don't want to jinx anything, but I think she just may be potty trained (except for at night). It has taken lots of candy and bribes, but we haven't had an accident in a couple weeks.

Journey's got a sneaky side. She gets out of bed and plays at night and sometimes during nap time. I'll admit I pretend I don't know most of the time. :) First of all, I remember doing the same thing as a child. Secondly, we do put the kids to bed early at night. As long as she isn't cranky during the day, I really don't care. She's become as much of a tease and antagonist as Aspen is. The bickering drives me crazy. I hope I survive the summer.

She's very affectionate and loving. When she's feeling needy, she'll say, "I neeeed you, mommy!" And many times, out of the blue, she'll say, "Mommy. I love you." Sometimes in the middle of fighting I'll hear Journey say, "Aspen, I love you." Without thinking, he will say, "I love you too, Journey" (and then they'll be back to the fighting).

She's our little sweety, and honestly, it's easy to let her get away with more than she should because she's not defiant when she is disobedient. I'm working on that!

And the rest of Aspen's birthday...

Happy 6th birthday, buddy!

So excited to eat our traditional birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls.

I brought in treats to Aspen's class for his birthday. Here they are singing one of two birthday songs for him. He LOVED being in the center of the circle, and having them sing to him :)

I brought in super hero popcicles and ice cream bars for the class.

His table.

Celebrating his birthday at Grammy and Papa's house.

And the birthday trip. Seriously, his birthday went forever this year!

Mark decided to take Aspen on a surprise birthday trip, just the two of them. He was SO excited (as you can tell!). The took off on a Friday afternoon. Drove to Salem and checked in at their hotel. Aspen called me from the hotel all excited to tell me about the room. "There's two beds! There's a TV in our room! We get to have breakfast for free in the morning!"

The spent the evening eating dinner at Pietro's Pizza, playing in the arcade, spending his money at Toys R'US on a Lego Star Wars X-Wing fighter, putting together the X-Wing and watching TV.


The next day was spent at Enchanted Forest.

Let's just say the roller coaster and haunted house were not his favorite parts of the day.

Favorite quote of the day, "I didn't know you were gonna spoil me like this, Dad!"

Our Willow-Baby

Journey at 10 months.



Willow 8 1/2 months

I'm not sure how it's possible, but Willow is now 8 1/2 months old. Aspen and Journey call her
"Willow-baby". They really love her. The older she gets, the more she looks like Aspen, except for the blue eyes. Anyone have a guess what color they will be?

She is pretty much Journey's opposite. Where Journey was laid back, content and pretty low maintenance, she's definitely more demanding and well......needy. I spend much of the day holding her while she's awake. She loves the camera and even if she's fussy, she immediately smiles when I bring it out. Journey, even to this day, is very hard to get a good picture of. She rarely looks at the camera or gives a real smile.

She's been teething on and off for the last month, and when it's bad, life with her is rough! She's been waking 4-6 times a night and not sleeping much for her naps. I'm so thankful for my mother-in-law who comes every other Tuesday to give me a break so that I can go help out in Aspen's class or do some shopping (I don't usually leave Willow at my mom's on Wednesday morning since she won't sleep at her house). I'm also beyond thankful for our neighbor girl who is also our babysitter. We are able to go out most weekends because of her, and that goes a long way to me keeping my sanity :)

Even with the last month being so rough, I love her so much. She has the brightest smile and loves to laugh. She squeals when Mark gets home and makes sure that he comes over to give her love. She's far more interested in him than Journey was at this age.

We always laugh because one or both of her legs are constantly kicking. Literally, not even joking. They are constantly moving. If there's music, like at church, she waves her arms and legs as fast and hard as she can. It's hilarious to watch and hard to hold on to her!

She loves to swing at the park. Is starting to not like the Bjorn and jumparoo so much. Four thirty to six thirty is the hardest time of day with her (and for me). She's sitting up really well and loves to take showers with Journey and I. She loves cats and dogs, doesn't mind sitting in the grass (Aspen & Journey hated sitting in grass at this age), likes long walks on the beach and cuddling. Oh wait, scratch the last two :)