Day 304

I love making costumes for the kids. This year I had zero motivation. I was planning to buy them costumes, til I went and looked and absolutely could NOT bring myself to spend $20 each on crappy costumes. After idea, after idea, after idea, I finally settled on Batman, Cat Woman and Robin. I did the easy thing and did half and half. Bought AJ a Batman mask, cape and shirt. Made him a belt out of yellow felt and threw on some sweats. I bought Rian a cat kit, with ears and a tail, added black leggings and a shirt and made her a mask out of black felt. Their costumes remind me of costumes from back in the day, you made them out of what was lying around the house! Asher's was all homemade, so cheap, easy and totally CUTE. I dyed a white onesie red, cut a green shirt for his cape and made his belt and "R" with felt. Ahhh I love his costume!

Today Michael and his family got here. He got orders to North Caroline when Adrian was 14 months old, they came here the August AJ turned two (Adrian was also two) and next month Adrian will be six. I've only seen him once in almost five years! My brother's getting out of the Marines and they'll only be living three hours away! So exciting. :) I also finally got to meet my niece, Gabriella. She's so smiley and happy!

Ready to go trick-or-treating

 

Aiden's first Halloween, we stayed home and passed out candy. Every Halloween since then, we've gone trick-or-treating in Steven's parents' neighborhood, then hung out with them. This was our first year doing it in our neighborhood and it was totally dead. Sad. We ended up cutting through an alley and went to a different area and there was much more going on.

 

The highlight of our day was seeing our family!

Day 303

How has it been eight weeks already?!

He's so cute, my perfect little blessing. His hair made me laugh this morning, it doesn't always stick up like that. Rian's did! I'm glad its stopped falling out and where it did and was bald, has started growing back. Baby hair is so funny.

This week breastfeeding has officially become 100% easy and comfortable. Before now, it's been touch-and-go, such a learning process for both of us. I'm so proud of how far we've come.

This morning while I was getting AJ ready for school, he told me his teacher said today was going to be mixed up, I thought he meant the schedule. Then he said, "She said we can wear two different socks or shoes or something." I thought about how the last two days, I'd seen people on my newsfeeds posting pictures of their kids (at other schools,) "crazy hair day" "twin day" etc. and realized it must be spirit week. I was bummed we missed it!

Steven came back after dropping him off and said tomorrow was Halloween shirt day and the next was sport's team shirts. I always buy the kids Halloween shirts, every since Aiden's first one. Of course this year, I didn't. So I went to a couple of stores on a mission and thankfully found one! His first spirit week! I don't know if it's this normal to be so excited about it. :)

* Baby's awake. Now I'm only a week behind, hopefully I get motivated to catch up soon!

Day 302

I usually give Asher his bath in the bathroom sink, but the kids were taking forever to finish their dinner, so I did it in the kitchen sink while they finished. I was so excited! I love kitchen sink baths.

 

:)

 

Day 301

Pumpkin carving fun!

Day 300

After nursing cuddles.

My favorite.

Aiden got to go to a real pumpkin patch!

How fun. I was jealous!

Asher will be two months old and soon and we haven't taken one single family pictures. Who am I?! I used to make us take them alllll the time. So we squeezed all five of our heads together. Steven took a ton of pictures and they all came out so funny.

 

Love my crazy family!

Day 299

It's still warm during the day, mid-high 80s, but mornings and evenings are perfect.

Sidewalk chalk and coffee.

Steven took the day off from both jobs. That pretty much NEVER happens. He did this off-road poker run and all the proceeds went to a scholarship after a guy who went to our high school that passed away a few years ago. It was nice having him home for most of the day on a Saturday.

Since he was off, I thought it'd be perfect to have a glass of wine. And it'd go perfectly with Tori Spelling's new book! She's so weird, but I love her.

Red moscato is my favorite and I've been craving it like crazy since before I had Asher.

 

 

PS- That wine wasn't opened that day. It wasn't opened til recently!

 

Day 298

This afternoon AJ headed to Tucson with Grandpa and Grandma. Steven's Aunt and her family are there from Georgia and Grandpa wanted them to meet his buddy! Plus Auntie Beck has a lot of fun Halloween stuff planned. Our Pumpkin Patch is the same every year, and the only Halloween thing around here, this will be our second year skipping it, so I'm glad he's getting to do some festive stuff with them.

:)

Asher is so easy to put so sleep at night, he either falls asleep nursing or he'll stay awake for a few minutes after while I rock him, then I lay him down still awake and off to sleep he goes. He's not a huge fan of his paci at night, but he does like it during daytime naps.

 

I checked on him a little after putting him down and he looked so squishy:

 

Love this picture!

Day 297

Asher's napping and my house is semi clean, so I'm going to try to catch up on this thing!

Yesterday when Grandpa picked up AJ, his teacher said he told he wasn't feeling well. He had a pretty bad cough when he got home so he had his first absence today, boo.

We took this picture just for Auntie Beck,

today's her birthday!

Day 296

Steven was working for somebody this morning, so he went straight from one job to the other. And I was responsible for getting all the kids up, fed, dressed and out the door get AJ to school on time. Eek!

I did it. :)

And felt like Super Mom after.

Baby steps!

Day 295

Brothers<3

Day 294

Could he get any cuter?!

This was the start of a rough week, every other day I had a plugged milk duct. Ow. The first one was so painful, that I was starting to get scared I'd wake up to mastisis. Thank God I didn't! Asher sleeps anywhere from 5.5-8 hours before waking up to eat for the first time, so I'm now waking up every few hours to pump. It stinks not being able to sleep like he does, but I hate getting plugged up. My boobs will never get used to him sleeping for longer periods, but I'll have a good stash of expressed milk in the fridge!

Day 293

(I'm so, sooo behind! Good thing the year is almost over. :\)

Today Asher and I went went to visit Titi and Oliver. Oliver is such a little ham, love him. I'm pretty sure he loves me too. :)

He has the same onesie as Asher, so J changed him and we had a mini photo shoot of the bffs.

Oliver kept going in for kisses and Asher would open his mouth, it was the cutest!

Day 292

Today I was stopping by Crystal's to drop off some of Rian's old clothes for her daughter and Aiden to play, Rian ended up wanting to stay too. I was so surprised! I'm pretty sure I've gotten rid of one, sometimes both, of my kids every Saturday since Asher was born. At least for a few hours any way, and it's so helpful!

I didn't take any pictures today, but I have another one from earlier this week, when I put Asher in one of Aiden's old onesies.

Aiden

Asher

Day 291

 

"He's the cutest baby in the universe" -Aiden

Day 290

 

Early morning cuddles with my snuggle bug.

 

Asher has started sleeping longer periods during the night, 5-6.5 hours at a time. The extra sleep was soo awesome the first night! But now I'm having to set my alarm to wake up to pump, otherwise I wake up feeling like I'm about to explode. Ouch.

 

I've been so blessed with him, he's such an easy going baby and sooo sweet. It's amazing that God is letting me experience things I never did with my other two. Soaking up every single second.

 

Day 289

I mean, seriously...

 

 

Could I be any more blessed?!

Day 288

Because of the conferences this week, AJ has early out, that means I have to do the pick-up all week since Steven's dad will still be at work. It was way easier than I expected!

 

We all survived. ;)

Day 287

This morning was AJ's parent/teacher conference. She's very happy with his performance in school, but she said he's gotten comfortable and has become a little too chatty. I think I had that problem too! She said everybody in her class gets along so well, that its a problem with pretty much all of them. He got his first report card, five A's and two B's. :) He's learning to read and it's so cute, I love it! When we look at books, he scans the words to find words he knows.

 

I weighed myself yesterday and I've officially lost all of my pregnancy weight! Probably the fastest of the three times, thanks to breastfeeding and not gaining as much this time! I'm still waiting for the energy and motivation to start working out, but I'm in no big hurry. I want to enjoy every free second with my baby!

Day 286

This is a 3 month onesie. What?!

How is this possible?

 

We put the big kids in bed early tonight, Asher was already sleeping, and had some cuddle time on the couch, catching up with our favorite tv shows.

Loved it.

Day 285

I headed to the grocery store with Rian and Asher this morning, feeling pretty Super Mom-ish! ;)

 

Rian wanted to go play with AJ at Grandma and Grandpa's so I took her over after we unloaded the food. I spent the day cleaning and cuddling Asher. I'm so thankful for our parents offering to take the kids, if not, I'd never get anything done lately.

 

Grandparents, crockpot meals and the Baby K'Tan are life savers!

Day 284

Rian spent the day telling me she was going to ask Grandpa if she could go play at his house when he dropped Aiden off. As soon as I opened the door, she asked, he said yes and she changed her mind. What?! She's so strange. Aiden wanted to go and ended up spending the night.

About 15 minutes after they left, she wanted me to drive her down there. Tough luck, little lady!

Waiting for Daddy to get off and bring home supper!

(Fridays are almost always pizza nights.)

Day 283

Rian's first time doing dishes.

 

I had her do them because she's had a horrible attitude with me lately. She was playing outside and she brought in dirty cups, that she'd been playing with in the dirt. I told her to take them back outside because I didn't want them in here and she, so very rudely, told me I better wash them then. Not. So I made her little butt wash them instead.

 

It turned out to be more fun for her than anything. Maybe next time I'll have her scrub toilets. ;) At least I tried. And I'll never stop trying. I'm bound and determined to raise polite, respectful, hard working children.

Day 282

Most handsome little dude.

 

As if Kindergarten would be any different than preschool, AJ has to make sure he "looks cool" every morning before school. Always dressed to impress. :) 

Day 281

I'll love you forever.

I'll like you for always.

As long as I'm living,

my baby you'll be.

 

Asher's getting so big already. I love his tiny fingers and toes. And the itty bitty dimples on the back of his hands. I love how he wiggles nonstop in his crib after I put him back in after a feeding, and the second I pick him back up, he falls fast asleep. I love being his place of peace and comfort.

 

The newborn stage is so blurry and exhausting. We're still learning each other, but we're doing pretty amazing.

Day 280

Giving me a little smile this morning, calming my nerves.

 

Today was Asher's eye appointment. He hardly slept all day, I was so nervous he'd be a huge grump and scream through it, instead he slept through it.

 

The doctor pried his eyes opened and measured them, them with a different tool, did another measurement through his lids. He said the measurements were even in both eyes and said since I'm able to see at least part of his pupil, he's pretty sure he'll be okay. He said 70% of the time, these things self-correct. He wants to see him back in 3 months to double check. Good news! :)

Day 279

Baby footie jammies and pumpkin spice coffees make my mornings!

Day 278

The kids were supposed to spend the night at Steven's parent's house last night. Rian was so, sooo excited all day! All I heard from her was, "What's taking Grandpa so long?" but he showed up at our house around 8pm with her. She wanted to come home. One of these days she'll stay again!

We slept until 7:45, it was so nice. Rian wanted to go out for a donut, but I convinced her to get a muffin instead. I'd eat at the muffin shop every single day if I could, they're soo good.

My breakfast dates.

 

 

All snuggled up with Mommy.

 

Day 277

Today Asher's one month old! It's been a crazy, but amazing, and super fast month. Filled with so much love! Things are falling into place, even though sometimes I still feel like I need more hours in the day. My messy house can wait though, I'll never get this time back... or have another newborn to love on. :(

One month!

 

-9lbs 8oz, 21 3/4in

(Just a tiny bit bigger than AJ was at birth!)

-Newborn onesies are getting tight

-size 1 diapers

-starting to smile and coo

(my heart melts!)

 

We've been going to the same office for over five years, since AJ was born, and I saw one of the doctor's for the first time today. She did both of the boys' circumcisions, but we've never seen her for a well-check. I loved her! I'm going to request her from now on.

 

She asked how things were going and if I had any concerns and I brought up his eyelid, she said she noticed it when she first walked in, but maybe he was just made that way. She did a test and said the light was reflecting unevenly in his eyes, so she was going to have us see a pediatric eye specialist. He comes from out of town, she had somebody call and he wasn't going to be here til November 18- ugh. She asked if they wanted us to go there instead and as it turned out, he was coming Monday to do a surgery and could squeeze us in afterwards. Phew! I'm not too worried about it, because from the sounds of it, if there's anything wrong, it's nothing too serious. We'll see. The biggest thing that worries me is the possibility of him having to have surgery.

He has been smiling sooo much today!

I haven't fully captured it though, at least a good picture.

I got one, but it's blurry!

My boys at one month!

Day 276

These two!

Back in the basket, close to Momma...

(but mostly because Aiden has a cold.)

He looks so big in it now!

Day 275

My baby's four weeks old today!

Day 274

Rian slept through the night without getting sick and woke up good as new today! Nobody has gotten sick either. Thank God!

How are we already down to the last three months of the year?! That's insane.

Every October 1st, we break out the Halloween jammies.

Such an exciting tradition for the kids!

 

I have no idea what to do for costumes this year! I have no energy or time to make them, but in no way do I want to spend $20 (per costume) on the lame store bought kind, which was what I was tempted to do til I went and looked at them. I've had ideas, but I end up feeling so blah about them. I'm usually so excited to make them. Guess that's life with a newborn! Maybe I'll get motivated in the next few days.