slow moments

tonight i stood in my kitchen with my bitty girl high on one shoulder right where she likes to be alternating between stirring the dinner i was making for my sweet tiny family and sipping a delicious glass of red wine

i swayed and sang along to the frank sinatra christmas pandora playing in the background and peered into the mirrored backsplash behind my stove to see RT and the littlest laughing and dancing to the music and LG happily watching and eating puffs from her seat

this was one of those picture perfect moments

one of those moments that literally slows time and forces you to realize just how wonderful the life you are living truly is

these moments are a treasure amongst the crazy busyness that is the reality of having three tiny babes

mostly we are running around here attending to this and that and just hoping for a full nights sleep  an extra cup of coffee a chance to brush our teeth and maybe even take a shower

our girls are wonderful happy healthy babies but three kids two and under requires an incredible amount of teamwork an unattainable number of hands and more hours than there are in the day

so when you get a chance to stop take a deep breath and admire your world .. it's pretty freaking great!!

happy wednesday!!

and baby makes three

babies that is .. baby makes three babies

as i sit this morning .. feeding my youngest peeking in on my middle girl while she sleeps and enjoying the sounds of my oldest as she runs around in all her glory .. i can.t help but wonder what our newest girl will be like

we welcomed our bitty girl exactly one week ago and i am curious because her older sisters are so very different ..

the littlest is my preshy little sour patch girl .. she is mostly sweet and everyone loves her but she can have a sour side too .. she is busy busy busy and talk talk talks to everyone about everything .. she is tons of fun and has no fear .. she wants to know our limits and often pushes them just to see .. she loves her routine and to have everything in its proper place .. she is fiercely independent but loves her people so much .. i adore her with every bit of my heart and soul!!

LG is my soft and sweet girl .. she is almost always happy and hands out her full face smiles to anyone anytime .. she is calm cool and collected and is content to go with the flow .. she loves to watch her sister run around and play .. she loves to be snuggled in close and loved on .. she is starting to babble and coo and even gives the occasional giggle .. she is a serene presence in our home .. my heart explodes with so much love for her that it often brings me to tears!!

so who will you be baby girl number three??
we are so excited that you are here and that we will soon find out!!

happy wednesday from this house full of girls!!

real

*getting a picture of them both looking happy at the camera at the same time is basically impossible*

with the olympics in full swing and the US women's gymnastics team doing so well .. i have been surprised by how much focus has been put on the fact that simone biles' parents are biologically her grandparents

i dont at all see why this matters or what it could possibly have to do with her gymnastics ability but none the less people seem stunted by the fact that her mom and dad are not her birth parents

as a mom of an adopted daughter i know we will face similar comments and questions for the rest of our lives and that makes me sad

it has already started in full force due to the fact that i am so pregnant 

people want an explanation .. how can all of these children possibly be yours?!?

while i am so thankful for adoption and how it is building my family .. i do not want it to separate LG from the rest of us in any way 

yes she was adopted but i am her real mom

RT is her real dad

the littlest is her real sister

she has been in our arms .. in our family .. in our home since the second she took her first breath

she has been in our hearts since we first learned of her last december 

she is just as much a part of our family as any of the rest of us

she is just lucky enough to also have a tummy mommy who loves her so desperately that she made the impossible choice to place her daughter with us

i never want LG to feel ashamed of the fact that she was adopted
as a family .. we will always celebrate the way she came to be one of us
and we will celebrate her tummy mommy every single day

but i also dont want to have to qualify the make up of my family by explaining that LG was adopted
so i pray for the ability to do both
and for the ability to raise her to be confident in where she comes from .. who she is .. and who she becomes

happy friday!!

sisters sisters there were never such devoted sisters

as we neared the birth of LG .. RT and i worried some about how the littlest would react and adjust to having a baby sister .. to not being the only baby in our house

luckily .. she has truly loved it
that is not to say that she is alway as kind and gentle as we would like for her to be
sometimes she jerks LGs paci out of her mouth just and she is falling asleep
or "pats" her a little too aggressively
but mostly she is all about her baby sister

when i go up to her room to get her out of bed in the mornings or after her nap .. LG is the first person she asks about
she loves to kiss her on the head and she is constantly showing LG off to anyone around

as the due date for the next baby sister in our house quickly approaches .. i am incredibly thankful for and excited about the bond that these girls will have
they are coming fast and furious but i am hoping that means they will be the best of friends

so far so good as just the other morning the littlest and LG were having their milk and watching cartoons and the littlest wanted to "hole hans" with her baby sister

i love them so much!!
happy tuesday!!

bees .. the magic word

the littlest is starting to learn lots of words

she talks all the time about everything

and because we are around her all day everyday we really understand a lot of it

as her language is erupting we are trying to teach her to say certain things

expression of feelings and manners being our main objectives

the word please has been high on our priority list

she was whining when she was wanting something so we have been encouraging her to say please instead of whining

thats a good thing right??

of course it is!!

except now she feels like please is the magic word to get her whatever she wants whenever she wants it

last week it was just the littlest and i for dinner so i made us a yummy bean cheese and egg sandwich to share

normally this is a dinner she would love which is the whole reason i made it 

but on this particular night she was absolutely not having it

she kept throwing her bites on the floor and swatting them out of my hand

so i put her down out of her high chair at which point she went straight to the pantry doors and starting banging on them say bees! bees!

she wanted cheerios for dinner .. not what i made

but i didn’t want her to have snack food for dinner so i said no

naturally she didnt like my answer so she started throwing a fit

she was crying and slumping her shoulders and banging on the pantry doors

bees! bees! bees! 

i let her have her fit .. finished our my dinner and then got up and left the table

she is too little to really understand you have to eat what i make if you want to have dinner so i was not willing to just let her go hungry until her bed time bottle but i also didn’t want her she get rewarded for throwing a fit

once she calmed down and moved on i made her a pb&j and she ate it and the rest of the night continued without issue

i gained an awesome video that i have shared with anyone who will watch because even though she was upset she is adorable and so funny!!

and i think technically we both won .. she didn’t eat the cheerios for dinner but she also didnt have to have the original sandwich that i made

and as a little side note .. i do make things other than sandwiches

happy tuesday!!

the big o.n.e

yesterday the littlest turned one and my heart is overwhelmed
i spent most of the day trying not to cry but it wasn't necessarily sad .. it's just that this was the fastest year of my life
how is it possible that my brand newborn baby girl is already one year old?!?

she brings RT and i so much joy
she is growing and changing every second of everyday
she is a tiny little thing with a huge personality
and she is walking and talking like the toddler she is now officially

we had a little party at our house and it was so much fun
the littlest absolutely demolished her cake which was hilarious to watch
thank you to everyone who came over to celebrate our precious girl

happy birthday preshy!!
we love you so!!

a birthday baby flat lay because she is too busy to get an outfit picture :)

happy monday!!

watermelon

labor day is for hanging out on the dock and swimming in the lake

labor day is for an extra day off work to spend with family and friends

labor day is the final celebration of summer and the threshold of fall

but most importantly .. labor day is for chomping as much watermelon off the rind as your little tummy can hold :)

happy wednesday!!

the horse

we started the paperwork to update our home study to be able to get back on the proverbial adoption horse back in february

the first time we filled out all of that paperwork it took me about ten days

this time we finished it in mid may 

there were several reasons for the extremely drawn out process most of which is that with a little one to play with there just isn't a lot of time to sit and fill out paperwork

and working all the different appointments needed for finger prints and health checks and yada yada around her schedule was super hard

but we did finally finish it all .. had our visit with our super awesome social worker .. and had our equally super awesome consultant update our profile

so now we are firmly back on said horse

it is different this time

with the littlest at home we don't have the insane sense of urgency that we had before

we feel ready for whatever God has planned for us but are not in a hurry necessarily

but what is the same that .. i didn't expect .. is the consummation of the process

it instantly fills your head on a very constant basis

i check my email no less that five million times a day just in case there is something from susan regarding a birth mom
while we don't feel in a hurry i do feel impatient .. if that makes any sense at all
i don't just want to say we are ready .. i want to be back in the thick of it

our hearts and our home is open to whatever happens
like always .. the best news of all is that i am not in control

bring it on us God .. we want what you want

happy monday!!

then and now

two years ago going to the pool would have looked something like this ..
getting together with friends
laying out by the pool
cocktails and food on the grill
with loud music in the background

now going to the pool looks like this

i have been wanting to get a baby pool for the littlest for weeks now but have just never actually gone and gotten one
yesterday headed to the third grocery store of the morning {ARGH!!} the littlest was adamantly telling us that she was finished with grocery stores and was ready to go home
so RT .. being the awesome guy that he is .. took one for the team and dropped us off before he went out for the remaining two items
when he came back he had stopped by yet another store to pick up a baby pool
so when the littlest woke up from her afternoon nap we all donned our swim suits and enjoyed some pool time :)

happy monday!!

a real love affair

as soon as the littlest was born we started swaddling her

she absolutely loved being swaddled up as tight as possible

once she started trying to roll over i began to get nervous about how hard it would be to transition her out of the swaddle but several people assured me it would be no big deal

my sister said that with all four of her kids she just stopped swaddling them at some point and none of them seemed to care

one night i woke up in the middle of the night because i could hear the littlest grunting and groaning 

i must have been in a super deep sleep because i looked over at the monitor but couldn't figure out what i was seeing 

i went into her room and she had rolled over in her swaddle .. terrifying!!

i told RT the swaddle had to go 

sadly..at our house losing the swaddle was an absolute tragedy

the littlest cried every time we put her down to bed for two days straight

we were tempted many times to just swaddle her back up but it was obviously more important that she be safe so we didn't

during those sad days my mom told me about this wearable blanket she had seen on shark tank called the Zipadeezip 

she said it was supposed to help babies transition out of their swaddle easier

i got online and ordered one immediately

absolute live saver!!

the littlest is obsessed with her Zipadeezip!!

when she sees it she gets so excited and as soon as i put her arms in she puts her hand in her mouth and gets really calm

her first one started to get pretty dingy in the hands where she puts it in her mouth and did finally get holes 

so i have gotten her a couple of new ones that she of course loves equally as much

if your little one is ready to transition out of the swaddle i highly recommend the Zipadeezip!!

it is littlest approved :)

happy wednesday!!

for every month

in honor of RT and the precious daddy that he is to the littlest .. a picture for every month that he has been her daddy ..

i hope you all had a fabulous weekend and enjoyed celebrating all of the father's in your life :)

happy monday!!

kick kick kick your feet

we have had so much rain here in tx {praise God} that it hasn't really been great lake weather yet
even on the days when it hasn't been raining, the water is still pretty cold and the lake is murky and has lots of debris
so this past weekend was the first time i have actually gotten the littlest down to kick her little feet in the water

i didn't do it exactly right
she had already been down playing on the dock for several hours and was tired and ready to take a nap and i realized she hadn't even touched the water yet
so i took her down and let her kick her feet for a couple of minutes
she really liked it at first but quickly remembered her grumbling tummy and tired eyes so it didn't last very long
but I know she will love the lake just as much as all of her cousins some day very very soon

happy thursday!!

busy busy

top: soft joie
shorts: mcginn
shoes: jeffrey campbell

true confession .. i don't wear shoes like this much anymore
you see .. my daughter is not one to sit back and take things in

she is a mover

always has been

i mean when she was a newborn she would snuggle and what not but as soon as she realized she could move she has never stopped

she crawls EVERYWHERE at lightning speed now a day

i mean seriously if i look away from her for half of a second she is off in another room most likely getting into something dangerous or disgusting

we have to keep doors closed now because if i get up to go make coffee or something she will crawl into the bathroom and pull up on the toilet to chew on the seat

sorry if that made you gag

this whole parenting thing isn't always extra glamorous {ha!} but it is always pretty dang fun

i spend my days running around after her and laughing at all that she can get into

she even moves in her sleep

between her bed time and mine i have to move the camera of her monitor continuously because one second she will be all balled up with her little legs tucked up under her in the corner of the bed and the next she will be down at the other end sprawled out on her tummy

and she never wakes up

she just rolls around all over the place 

she is a fun one the littlest 

and she has just woken up from a nap so i am off to swoop her out of her crib for some more play time :)

happy weekend!!