I Guess It's Time...

So Ryan has totally been harassing me to update "the blog" and I keep trying to tell him "It takes time! Not to mention I have to think about something to write about!" You may think, as he did, life with three kids (two of my own, plus the one I keep all week) should give you plenty to write about, but that's not always the case! While life here is almost always busy and often a little crazy, that does not always mean it is interesting! It's pretty much a repetative daily grind of wiping (noses, faces, hands, and rear ends), feeding(bottles, Cheerios, and grilled cheese for Hannah Grace), singing (every preschool cartoon song imaginable), playing (with anything that squeeks, lights up, and sings more songs!), and cleaning (the never ending cleaning of any and all messes imaginable). At night we go to bed and wake up the next morning to repeat the process again! So, like I said, busy but not always overly interesting =).

But every once in a while, something noteworthy comes along that is more exciting than just trying not to drown in three babies worth of diapers! And over the past week or so, we've had a few minor "milestones" I guess we could call them.

Let's start with Bennett! I was all excited this past week because he started rocking on his bottom (this is after all the first phase in getting ready to crawl). Well, little did I know the little guy would advance so quickly- now before I get you jumping the gun, no he did not all of the sudden crawl, BUT, today he did start scooting!!! This may not seem like a big deal, but after having Hannah, who did not budge an inch (seriousley) until she finally crawled at nine months, this was so exciting for me to see! He is already so much more active than Hannah Grace ever was (which I am beginning to think is either a boy thing or a second child thing) and he sees what he wants and will scoot on his tummy up to it! Blake, the nine month old a keep here, just started crawling yesterday, and I don't think Bennett will be too far behind!!! It is so fun to watch them learn and get to learn along with them and see how they are all so different!

My active little man! He played with this one red block for literally 45 minutes!

As for what's new with Hannah... well, I don't know where I got the notion to do this in my head, but last week, I decided to take apart Hannah's crib and set it up as a toddler bed. Yes, that means she can get in and out (or more accurately, just out) all by herself! I thought we were ready for this and it just seemed like it was the next step in the "big girl" process! Well, needless to say it has been tough! I was naive the first couple naps thinking "Wow! She doesn't even try to get out!" Well it didn't take but about a day and a half for her to figure it out. On Saturday Ryan had put her down for a nap. When all had been quiet for about 30 minutes, I was sure she was sleeping. Then I heard the knocking at her door. I opened it to a wonderful surprise... She had pulled every book out of her book basket and they were all piled on her bed and were all opened up. She had pulled every item out of the bottom drawer of her dresser, and had about 6 bows that she had pulled off of her bow ribbon that hangs on her door and had them tucked in her little hand. Needless to say, I don't think she did much napping! Well it has been a LONG napless week!! But, I guess there is no going back now! Hopefully she will learn that if she doesn't want to be so tired (and make us all miserable=) She will have to stay in her bed and actually sleep! It has definitely been challenging, but we know it is only the first in a long line of challenging events and changes we will go through with our kids! She just has so much attitude to begin with, when she is cranky, it will make any even sane person want to pull their hair out! But we love her, all 22 pounds of pure sass!

Just one visual of what she looks like when she's cranky!

And as for us, our new exciting thing this week is that we got a new camera! It hasn't been intentional but it seems to work out that since we've been married, once a year we will make a big purchase (well big for us) that will make up our entire year's worth of presents for eachother (yes, every holiday- Christmas, birthdays, Mothers/Fathers Day, anniversary, you get the picture), and this year it was a new camera, since I am so picture crazy with the kids! It is so fun and such a treat! So I guess I will close this out with some of my favorite pics we have been taking on our new camera! Hope you all enjoy them half as much as I do!

Sweet Bennett

Daddy tickling Hannah under the chin in the tub, she can hardly stand it!

Hannah Grace and Mommy before church.

Like father like son, both so sweet!

This picture makes me laugh! Her new favorite phrase is "there he is!" and when you ask her "Where's your belly button?" this is what you get along wiht the "there he is!"

I just can't put into words!

Playing together, it is so fun to watch them, they are going to be best friends!