Julia at Two Months

More photos of the two girls side by side just to confuse my husband. ;) Here they are both at two months.

The real question is whether or not I'm going to try to get duplicate shots of Julia every month. We'll just see.

Pete and Repeat

Everybody comments on how much Julia looks like Tali. What do you think?

Julia is a couple weeks older than Tali was in these photos.

I think people say that just because my last two looked SO different. ;)

Art Show #3

Since Tyler's a senior this year(sniff, sniff), he got his own table at
the art show this year. Amanda, Julia and I went to go see him and his work. It's nice see him using color and different mediums. The subject matter? Well, there are no ponies or rainbows for this boy. ;)

We've had a crazy week. We got the house ready for pictures Sunday afternoon and kept working to get the house ready for our first showing on Monday at 6 pm. It was with a guy is moving from the town that we are moving to. He is working with our realtor, which is how the showing got scheduled so quickly. We had our neighbor come to do some paint touch ups and our babysitter come to take care of the girls. After they woke up from naps, she loaded them into our van and fed them snacks while I finished cleaning up the inside. Tony was here to help too. You know, between texting his friends. Then we brought our dinner to our neighbor's. My other neighbor kept me posted about what was happening at my house.

Tuesday morning, about 9 am, I remembered that we were having a office walk through at 10 am. It was supposed to be fine if we were still there, but there were a few things I wanted to get at Target, so I decided to pack all the girls up and go to town. That was a little nuts.

Wednesday we had another showing and my mom came to help with the girls. Everyday, I get more and more organizing projects done that make getting it show-ready faster and easier. The weather was also beautiful so after naps, my mom took the girls outside and fed them a snack and when I finished inside, we headed to the park. We were there for a long time and planned to have our dinner there but the park bathrooms weren't open yet and there was no way I could use the little potty we keep in the van. ;) So, we headed to another neighbor's to eat our dinner. Thankfully we have such great neighbors so we have quite a few options of places to go during showings.

The feedback has been positive. The realtors were impressed by how clean it was. Really? You mean some people don't clean it like this? I guess all those hours watch HGTV while nursing Tali paid off. Monday's buyer was going to show the MLS listing to his wife and Wednesday's buyer is going to come back on Saturday with her son. Yesterday was a long day because Mike was gone until late. Thankfully he took today off. I spent today cooking in order to have leftovers we can grab quick on showdays. It was nice to have a relaxing day after the craziness that began at about 8:50 am on Saturday. That's when Mike woke me up to remind me the realtor would be there at 9 am to sign the listing agreement.

The house looks amazing and the boys have done a super job keeping their rooms picked up. But still, I hope we get a purchase agreement soon so we can go back to living in our house.

Outdoor Fun

The house will be listed on Monday. The realtor said to expect lots of showings the first week. Mike's relocation company asked for it to be priced very aggressively. The realtor was here yesterday and pointed out all the things that would help get the house in top condition to make the best first impression. There was a lot that we still needed to do. There is a lot we still need to do.

I had been trying to get stuff done but it was so stressful and nearly impossible to complete anything while caring for the little girls. Instead, we spent lots of time playing outside last week.

Hopefully, we get lots of stuff done tomorrow and we get an offer next week. Once we get an purchase agreement, Mike's relocation company takes over and we can relax. Well, sort of. Then we'll need to really get serious about finding a new place to live.

I can't wait the see the big things that God is going to accomplish to make this move possible. It's certainly not going to happen because of what I can do. I'm already thankful to hear we're supposed to have warm weather. That will make life a little easier.

That Face!

Don't you hate it when some one posts more than a half dozen nearly identical photos?

Sorry, I just can't get enough of this face!

Hair Cuts

I've had this idea in my head that my success regarding Amanda's hair care is measured by the length of her hair. Amanda's was almost down to her waist. When she would lean her head back to have me rinse, it was past her waist. Very pretty, but very time consuming. And she doesn't even like to have her hair down in any way shape or form. It's been over a year since she's worn her hair free for anything more than pictures. During hat season, she wants her hair all up in a bun or something so she can't feel the braids under her hat.

To make things simple and cut back on hair time, I gave her a hair cut. I didn't even detangle it completely before cutting. I just took her braids out and starting cutting off the ends. Then I added some hair butter, combed it out, and finished cutting the hair that was missed. I cut off about six inches. I am finally sending in my pony tail for donation that I got cut off when I was pregnant with Tali and I briefly pondered cutting Amanda's for donation. I wasn't ready to go that short with her hair.

Detangling, washing and styling went so much faster today! I use pony o's on smaller sections to keep it looking neater and to minimize breakage. The braids keep the hair from tangling and from losing too much moisture and then the final pony on the top of her head keeps the braids off her neck. This will last about three days before I need to freshen up the braids. Sometimes longer if she takes care of her hair and doesn't roll on the floor, put blankets on her head or play with it at night.

I decided to cut Tali's gnarly mullet off too. It was always a tangled mess even though I tried to keep it in a pony tail. On more than one occasion, she had gotten the end of her bib strap caught in the mess too.

She's still got plenty of cute curls!

This should save some time and tears on Sunday mornings and maybe they won't look like total ragamuffins the rest of the week.

Have you been missing Tony?

Tyler went through a phase from about 13 to 16 when he didn't want his picture taken and would avoid it at all costs. He wouldn't smile and would cover his eye with his long hair. It was very frustrating to me because it was right about the time we were trying to do adoption profiles and sending out family pictures because everyone wanted to see all the kids together. However, when Tony hit the same stage, I was mentally prepared and let go of the expectations for the perfect family picture.

He's just now starting to get out of that phase and allowed some picture taking the other day.

Okay, well maybe he's still hiding his face but at least he was smiling. He was heading out to play with his airsoft gun with the neighbor. It was what he purchased with his Christmas money from Mike's parents.

The first time the girls and I saw him dressed up like this, we were coming back from a walk and he was coming back to the house from the other direction. Amanda said, "Mom, what is that?" I said, "I thinks it's a Tony."

My Oldest

Have I ever told the story of Tyler's Jeep? We never planned to buy our boys a vehicle. We live close to several businesses: restaurant, golf course, resort. I fully expected they would get a job and bike to work until they earned enough money for a vehicle. And then Tyler got a job washing dishes at a restaurant 7 miles away and he worked until 10 or 11 pm. And he worked on the days Mike was out of town and couldn't drive him to work. And there was no way I was letting him take the van full of carseats with him. So, we bought another vehicle. Mike's brother was selling it and even though it was a bit more vehicle than we thought Tyler would have for his first. He's pretty lucky and Tony's pretty happy that it will be passed to him when Tyler leaves. (He had just washed it and asked if some one would take a photo of him and his Jeep.)

And my oldest holding my youngest.

Our friend Dee stopped by to see the baby. She was here with the girls while I was in the hospital but she hadn't seen Julia. When Tyler walked in she said, "Have you held the baby yet? Here! Take her. Katie, get the camera." And there I was getting a picture of my oldest holding my youngest. We haven't really pushed the babies onto the boys and they haven't really wanted much to do with them. But he so easily obligied and even told me to tag him on Facebook in the photo. I felt bad. Maybe we should have asked him to hold her sooner. Oh, well. Dee also tried to teach Tyler how to swaddle a baby when the boys stayed with her while we were in Texas picking up Amanda. She has such a special relationship with the boys. I think they would do anything for her.

Six Weeks

Yep, she's well-fed.

And she likes to be held a lot.

Too Much Temptation

It's just too tempting to have three (oops!), FOUR little girls who love to be all matching. Hopefully I can just stick to clearanced out jammies.

I've been waiting all winter for this!

At 10:44 am last night, I posted this status on Facebook after finally getting Julia to sleep:

"There is a definite link between a sleepless baby and chocolate eating. I'm not sure if the chocolate eating is causing the sleepless baby but the sleepless baby is definitely causing the chocolate eating."

Since I haven't had much time with Mike, I invited him to come tuck me in, i.e. give me a back rub. :) At some point, during those few minutes, Tali woke up and needed to be reminded to be quiet and go back to bed. After a while, Mike went downstairs to sleep so his coughing and snoring wouldn't wake everybody up.

At 12:30 am, Julia was up again. About the time I had gotten her fed, changed and rocked back to sleep, I heard a thump from Tali's room and some crying. She had fallen out of bed. With Julia still in my arms, I went in to comfort her. I heard Mike come up the stairs, so I sent Tali out to snuggle with him while I put Julia to bed.

Tali put up quite a fuss about going back in her bed which woke up Amanda who started coughing and gagging. During all the commotion with Amanda, Tali was quiet, but once we got Amanda settled, she started crying on and off again. For the next two hours, I had to go in there about every ten or twenty minutes because she was crying again. 2:30 am was the last time I had to go in there.

At 4 am, Amanda woke up coughing and gagging again. I gave her some pain reliever and honey to soothe her throat. By 4:30 am, Julia was up again. I put her back to bed around 5 am and then listened to her snuffle and gasp because her nose is stuffy. I kept thinking I should get up and try to use a little breast milk to help loosen things up but I just couldn't drag myself out of bed.

At 7 am, Ana, who had been wonderfully quiet all night despite all the commotion going on I very close proximity to where she was sleeping, woke up and started chattering cheerfully. Julia woke a crying again too. I did what I could to relieve her breathing troubles before nursing her again.

At that was it. The end of my night. The beginning of my day. We started getting ready for church.

I often have people say to me, "I don't know how you do it." I don't know how I do it either. After I night like last night, I often wonder how I will ever survive the tomorrow, but I do. It's a bit like the miracle of the fishes and the loaves. The doutful, faithless disciples didn't think they had enough to feed the large crowd but Jesus made it enough.

Like the simple meal of bread and fish, I also have simple expectations for myself: full tummies, clean, dry bottoms, and quiet, gentle words in their ears. Anything else that I manage to accomplish is a bonus. :)

Happy Second Birthday, Talitha!

Yep, these fruit and veggie cakes are definitely going to be the new tradition around here. The girls really think they are a lot of fun and want to try a little bit of everything. We'll work on improving the presentation and it will be fun to have different fruits and veggies in different seasons.

It took all morning but we finally convinced Tali that she was two. She kept saying, "No!" but that her response to everything these days. ;) She didn't want to blow out the candles because she just wanted to dig into the cherry tomatoes. Those were the favorites and the first to disappear. Tali also ate the apples and sampled the cucumbers. Ana ate tomatoes, oranges, apples, cucumbers, and celery. She sampled the peppers. Amanda ate everything after arranging it all neatly on her plate. We didn't get to the pineapple so we'll try that at snack time.

Tali has definitely hit the "trying twos." "No" has been her favorite word and she's been very spunky and argumentative. She is very verbal and I am amazed by the number of songs she knows and can sing. She is doing some potty training. I'd like to just put away the diapers and get her trained but I'm not prepared to deal with poopy accidents in underwear. No fun! She goes potty on the toilet quite a bit and has gone #2 once or twice. She had been in disposables since Julia was born and when I finally started doing cloth with her again she complained that they were too big. Ha, ha! That's a good reason to get potty trained, Honey!

We switched her into a toddler bed this week too. It's gone okay. She was being a stinker about bedtime anyways so I decided to go for it. For the most part, she stays in bed but she fusses when it's time for bed and she's been waking up in the middle of the night fussing since she was sick around the time Julia was born. Usually about an 1 hour after Julia falls back asleep, Amanda comes into our room complaining that Tali is crying. Why can't she wake up when I'm already up? I hope she gets back to a normal sleep pattern soon.

We've been spending a lot of time at Reading Bear this week. We all sit in the big chair while I'm nursing Julia and go through the presentations. It was intended as a reading program for Amanda but I can see how it will improve the little girls' vocabulary. Plus it keeps everyone safe and engaged while my hands are full. ;) Thanks to Deborah at My Little Homeschool for sharing Reading Bear with us!

I hear the birthday girl waking up from her nap. It great because I can send Ana or Amanda to tell her she can wake up instead of having to lift her out of bed. Nice!

Sister Love

Daddy Love