Patience

Usually by the end of the night I am very ready for my kids to go to bed so I can have a little quiet, alone time. Or sometimes I like to pick up the house and appreciate that it stays clean for a whole 10 hours while they sleep. Because I'm anxious for this time and exhausted from the day, I am much more likely to lose my patience at night.

Tonight I had put the girls to bed and then let them back out to go potty 2 times. Carson and I were playing a game and I could hear the girls yelling for me from their room. I ignored them for quite awhile. Once Carson was in bed, I decided to humor the girls and tuck them in one more time.

Chloe asked me to snuggle with her so I laid down next to her. Camille came and joined us on the bed. The three of us lay cuddling. The girls kept giggling and talking about how it was like a "girls' night." They took turns saying how much they love each person in our family.  They told me nonsense knock knock jokes.

I just felt so grateful that I dug deep for some more patience and went in to their room tonight. The love they have for each other and me was so uplifting. Some nights a little snuggle time is just what I need.  I hope they remember nights like tonight.

Adam

We watched a movie last night that showed a scene with quick season changes (summer to autumn to winter). Chloe has been learning all about the Fall in Kindergarten. She got real excited when the movie showed leaves changing colors and falling. She said "It's Fall...or I could say Adam."

She is so clever and cute. I love when they mispronounce or get things mixed up.

Tomorrow

Tonight we were driving home late. It was dark.

Camille was tired and started to cry. When I asked what was wrong, she said "I miss the sun." Lol, funny child.

I couldn't stop myself. I started dramatically singing her The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow (aka Tomorrow from Annie.) It didn't really help the situation.

I'm going to try to post more short thoughts. Rather than long life summarizing posts. Something is better than nothing, right?

March

I'm only 3 months behind now.  Maybe I'll catch up soon!  Here's a pic of my cute family.  I'm having fun doing Chloe's hair now that it is getting long.

Here is our little finger sucker.  She still does the same exact position.  Left hand two fingers in mouth, right arm wrapped around.  The right arm is usually a little bit higher than this, but she was in the swing so I'm guessing it lowered a little bit.

Camille also started to roll over.  This is as good as my video capturing gets with child #3.  I think with Carson, I was staked out with the camera for hours to catch it.  This video is a half roll and I call that good enough video.

Carson made a mini fort and was spending some cute time with Camille.

Carson started flag football.  It took a few weeks for him to get into it, but then he really started to enjoy it.

Little Miss always pushing the limits.  She would step over that white line as much as she could.

Camille chilling at the game.

Chloe borrowing my sunglasses.  While this isn't a great pic of me, it makes me laugh because you can tell I needed those sunglasses.

Here are two random videos of the kids, but it says a lot about their personalities.  They usually get along and enjoy playing together.  Chloe copies almost everything Carson says/does, but he never seems to mind. I'm not sure where he heard about the Cold War, but I like that he calls it the Cold War War.  The Cold War comes back after Carson gets tired of dancing.  I apologize that I flip the camera though.  I edited the video to rotate it but then it wouldn't upload to blogger.  I miss my old camera because Picasa recognized the videos and they were sooo easy to edit in Picasa.  Our new camera makes a different type of video file and Picasa doesn't recognize it.  I've done a lot of google-ing.

February

Who knows what happened in February.  This is why you don't procrastinate your blogging.  I do know, that I started back to work at the beginning of February.  I dreaded the day I had to leave my baby, but I was surprisingly happy to be at work and see all my work friends again.  It sure was fun on maternity leave.  Karl was taking some classes/studying for the MCAT so most of the time he and I were both home with the girls...while Carson went to school.  The adjustment to three kids wasn't too bad since we were both around to help.

Here are some pics of Camille.

She is a major finger sucker.  She does it every night/nap.

January

In January, Camille was blessed.  It was very difficult to get a picture where all the kids are looking at the camera and smiling. 

I got Carson some new real dress slacks since there was so much attention on Camille and Chloe had a new Christmas dress.  I think he looks pretty darn handsome.





We went to the zoo with our cousins.  The kids had fun.  Camille pretty much slept the whole time.

This was so close to being a cute picture...then she closed her eyes.  Oh well.

Chloe started her regular night escapades.  She has ALWAYS been a bad sleeper.  But she started getting up in the night and roaming the house, doing whatever she pleased, and then eventually going back to bed.  Karl and I never even knew till the next morning.  One night she ate a whole pack of gum.  In February, she ate a whole bowl full of chocolates while playing iPad and then poured salt and pepper all over the table.

We got some smiles.

And this entered our home.

And this is too sweet.

December

Half of my December was spent up in Spokane, WA.  Unfortunately it was cold but with no snow.  I am of the opinion that if you are going to have to suffer through cold, you might as well have the fun of snow.  Carson was so looking forward to snow too.

After the funeral, we spent a little more time in Spokane.  We went to Mobius (the kid's museum).  The kids had a lot of fun playing with all the fun activities.
 

 

We visited Manito Park - the pond was frozen over.

 

Once we were back in Phoenix, it was back to regular life.  Carson had a ton of school work to make up.  I had made a big Christmas to do list just a few days before we left for Spokane so that was basically pointless.  Our Christmas became much less of a to do.  The advent calendar didn't get filled till the 20th...so 5 days of countdown.

My mom and sisters came to Phoenix for Christmas.  It was a lot of fun to be together.  Carson and Chloe loved Christmas.  Camille got 2 presents - a new toy and a new book.  Not that she was able to notice.  Karl and I got in an argument first thing Christmas morning.  I wanted to wait to open presents till some of the family was awake, he didn't.  So that will be a fun Christmas family home movie we'll have forever.  I guess we should have discussed it beforehand.

 

Karl's family makes pastries in the shape of canes on Christmas morning, my family makes eggs benedict...so we made both.  It was yummy!  The eggs benedict tradition started in my father's family.  His little brother (my uncle) used to call it "eggs yuckadict."  On Christmas morning the boys (Carson and Cordell, both age 6) were calling it "eggs benefart."  Sigh.  But then we combined the two and started calling it "eggs yuckafart."  I don't know why this still makes me laugh.  But eggs yuckafart was delicious.

Chloe got a Minnie Mouse play dress and some pretend make up.  She was loving it.  I was hoping this make up gift would stop her from playing in my make up, but apparently the real thing is still way more fun.
 

Carson got a set of golf clubs for Christmas.  The boys all went golfing the day after.  Carson has fun trying it out.
 

A little after Christmas, Chloe started saying "I love you."  That is always a sweet moment, when your child starts saying I love you back.  She usually says "I wuv you, too."  Whether she says it first or second.

We met Karl's whole fam at our favorite sushi place on New Year's Eve.  They had free hats and noise makers so the kids were very happy, although they stuck to pot stickers and teriyaki chicken.

Here are some random pics of the baby.  Carson was very happy she fell asleep while he was holding her.