Mornings

It is a goal of mine to capture our family as we are. Real, everyday, no staging or making sure we all look pretty. Just us. I want to shoot more pictures regardless of available light or if the bed is made. I am going to grab whatever camera is handy, the point and shoot or my Nikon.

These were shot with the point and shoot, no flash, hence the camera shake and grain. Technically imperfect but I love them. The morning light is flooding through, bed head is abundant and we all have sleepy eyes. This is what I want to remember. What I want my kids to be able to look back on.

Max and Kate love to climb up onto our bed and join whatever action is taking place there; lazy morning snuggles with dad, diaper changes for Rhett or just plain messing around.

Blankets and bears are never far from reach and here the bears needed diapers. I love Max's concentration, he always sticks his tongue out just a bit.

My heart is full.

Thanksgiving 2011

We celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with the Gunnell family on Friday in Mesa at Wendy's church building. The food was wonderful and traditional. I made pecan pie, my favorite, and the raspberry jello salad. Easy-peasy for this girl this year especially with three littles and the hour long car trip. 

We seemingly packed the house to spend the day in Mesa, it is a lot of work to get us somewhere! We finally made it out the door after 9am and once we arrived in town we spent the morning with our dear friends the Maldonado's. They are always generous and open to us hanging out with them. Phil and Brent went to our Mesa house to get Christmas decorations and the we took the kids to their park and talked.

We went to the church building at the designated time and set up the pack'n'plays for Max and Kate to nap. Poor kids put up quite the protest and in the end never slept. Thankfully a 30 minute catnap that morning in teh truck helped and they did beautifully during our time there. 

We ate, visited, the kids ran around like crazies, there was an impromptu kid talent show and frisbee football with the older "boys". I always feel like there is never enough time to properly visit when you have young children to tend and especially when you are nursing. I also wish I took more pictures. 

I want to remember Kate running to Grandma Standage and snuggling right into her. Which made Grandma beam! She loves our girl so very much and I am kicking myself for not capturing it. Grandma is 87 years young and is such a beautiful woman, inside and out. Max ran to Gordon, Phil's dad. I am so glad that my kids remember their grandparents and great grandparents. 

Stephanie did such a cute craft for the kids and they played Turkey Bingo. She had yummy treats for everyone that played. Max and Kate loved it! Cousin Kyle, the oldest and lonely teenage boy, was sweet and helped them glue on their feathers. 

Rhett spent most of his time either sleeping in someone's arms or nursing. It's a rough life.

By the time we left that evening around 6pm it was too dark to stop at the cemetery to visit Camden and the kids all crashed as soon as we hit the freeway. It was a whirlwind trip but I am glad we made it. We had a lovely day with family and friends and have so much to be thankful for. 

Rhett: 2 Months Old

It is such a different experience having a child who gains 3 pounds a month. Three whole pounds! I know you shouldn't compare your children but Max and Kate are my only reference point. When they were two months old Kate was 8 pounds, Max 9 1/2 pounds and he had gained 2 pounds in one month. It is just fun to look back at the numbers and I am grateful to have a "normal" and healthy growing boy.

2 Month Stats:

Weight: 11 pounds 8 ounces-27%

Length: 22.5" long-15%

Head: 15.25" -11%

Diapers: Size 1 but once we finish the supply we are moving to a roomier size 2 diaper.

Clothes: It varies wildly with the brand but he is in 0-3 months generally and today I put him in a Carter's 3 month. I think it is safe to say we don't have a newborn anymore.

Rhett smiles and coos, he loves attention and is a very content baby. Sleeping has regulated and he goes just a bit longer between feeds at night, roughly 3 hours and still about 2 hours during the day.

I love this sweet boy so much. He fits into our family perfectly. The kids still shower him with kisses, talk to him in high-pitched baby voices and love to hold him. He is a trooper and tolerates us all man-handling him. I kiss his cheeks endlessly and nibble his soft ears.

We love you little brother!

An Update...finally.

6 weeks old in the above photo and don't you just want to kiss those sweet lips? I just love this face.

This face is the reason 17 days have passed without me updating this blog. The boy still likes to hang out between the hours of 7pm to 10pm. And by "hang out" I mean stay awake and only be happy if he is held, bounced and so forth. We oblige. Editing photos and writing blog posts are rather difficult one-handed. (It has taken me almost two hours to get this far...)

And now the babe is 8 weeks old tomorrow! Wah! He has changed so, so much. 

These two faces are equally responsible for the silence. Even though I don't feel like we "do" anything, we "do" plenty! Every day tasks of mothering and housekeeping keep me quiet busy and by the end of the night I am exhausted. The older turkeys are full-fledged two-year-olds and take their job quite seriously.

I'll post more later, the little man in charge is calling me.

I'll leave you with these yummy photos. 

My view as I nursed him in the truck while we were playing at the park.

With a face like this he usually gets what he wants.