Sunday, January 18, 2015

December




I'm learning that everything is a bit harder with three kids.... including keeping up on this blog! I love having a blog as a family record, though, so I'm going to try to keep up on it somehow. Here are lots of quick pictures from the month of December. It was a great month with our little family of five. Josh traveled a bit and I felt quite triumphant about surviving a few days and nights on my own with the girls and a new baby! Life with three kids is both wonderful and exhausting, but we are getting into a new routine and gradually figuring out how to manage it and give all three kids enough love and attention. The days are sometimes long, but what a blessing to have three sweet children in our home. It melts my heart to see the girls' constantly doting over Tate, or when I'm snuggling Tate on the couch while Bryn and Mya pretend they are princesses, or fairies, or whatever characters they are for the moment. Motherhood is the best. 
Anyway, December pictures...
I love Sundays in December! Wearing Christmas outfits, singing Christmas hymns, and hearing all the lessons and talks in church about Jesus Christ. It's the best time of year!
 I love these pictures of Tate. As the younger brother of two sisters, I don't think this will be the last time he is dressed up in something like this!
This was on Tate's one-month birthday
 What is it about cardboard boxes!? We got lots of packages from online purchases in December and my girls went nuts over all the boxes. We've still got about 15 boxes floating around the house. We need to get rid of them, but the girls are so attached to their cardboard "cars", "houses", etc. 
 We went to the fire station, had treats, climbed in the fire trucks, and talked to Santa.
We hadn't gone on many outings since Tate arrived, so this was so fun for the girls to get out and do something fun and different.
Bryn had an awesome week in December where she decided - on her own - to do a secret service each morning. It was so great! One morning she woke up and cleaned the basement playroom, another morning she wrote nice notes to everyone in our family, things like that. The picture above is when she decided to "make breakfast" for me and Mya. (Josh leaves before 6 am, so he missed this gourmet meal). Bryn toasted some bread, unwrapped a cube of butter and smooshed it into a little bowl, got out the jam, and laid out an assortment of fruit. Then she ran upstairs and woke us up to eat. It was so cute!! I love Bryn!
Bryn loves mismatching her jammies and Mya loves this pajama set that often comes unbuttoned, showing her belly. It cracks me up! 
The picture on the right is what Mya does when you ask her to smile for a picture. Her elbow goes up in the air and she does this little closed-mouth smile. 
Bryn draws all day and Mya loves to watch her. I love it.
We are going a bit stir crazy with these freezing temperatures, so Josh and I bought a Little Tikes play gym on craigslist for really cheap and we set it up in our unfinished basement. The girls have loved it and it helps them get a little energy out. (If only our basement wasn't so chilly! Oh well. We'll take what we can get!)
 Mr. Tate
More Tate
 And more Tate. 
He's smiling and coo-ing now and we sure love it!
 Tummy time with monkey. Thank you, Mya.
 My Aunt Carolyn came to town and it was so fun to see her a few times. She was so nice to bring us a delicious meal one night, and babysit Tate and Bryn for a couple hours one day so that I could have some solo time with Mya at the library. Sweet, little Mya needed some attention and we had such a nice morning with just the two of us. Thank you, Carolyn! 
 The girls loooooove holding their little brother
Bryn inherited the Clarke genes for allergies and asthma, so we spent a lot of time at the doctor's office trying to get her breathing under control. She is still doing three nebulizer treatments of albuterol every day, but she's doing better than in November and December. The treatments last 30 minutes each time and it's kind of a pain for Bryn, but she has been such a good sport about it! 
 These girls love Tate so much! 
The picture on the right is when Bryn picked out matching outfits for everyone with grey pants and striped shirts :)
 I didn't get much done in December. It was too cold to take Tate outside or to any stores, so we spent a lot of time just cuddled up at home.
 More Tate
And a few more Tate pictures just for good measure.

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