10 months

With the craziness of our summer I missed Chase's 9 month post and here he is going on 11 months in a few days. Time is just going to fast with this little guy. While he STILL has not slept an entire night through (#whatamIdoingwrong)  I find myself getting very sad about the fact that he is growing up.   The baby stage just goes to fast for words.  So while he is technically still 10 months I thought I would sneak a 10 month post in. Our summer has been absolutely crazy between moving out of our old house, living with my parents for a month+ and then moving into our new house. All with 3 kids all 4 & under + a dog. Wowzers. We survived though and now we are getting settled into our new beautiful home. Which we have all worked so hard to get into starting back in April when we listed our old house for the 2nd time. Have I mentioned how brutal I thought those months of showing our house were? Ok...moving on. 

Chasey, you are such a joy to our family. You say da da da when you see your Dad walk in the door after work. You two have developed quite the little bond. Your brother & sister still love to come screaming into your room after each nap you wake up from and greet you with a hero's welcome each and every time. You squeal, laugh & sometimes half cry as normally you are still trying to wake up. Your sleepy face after you first wake up has to be one of my favorite things. You are crawling up a storm and love to escape when I am not looking and b-line it straight for the stairs and laugh away as you climb them as fast as you can. I need to come up with some baby gates here pronto but have not been able to come up with one long enough...currently I have a step ladder across the top of the stairs. Ya, not so safe.  You did your first overnight without your Momma  at Nanny & Papa's last weekend and you did great only waking up once (which is believe it or not a successful night around here).  I know I missed you more than you could have ever missed me.You love to eat and will eat everything/anything we are eating.  Your Dad thinks I am crazy because I cut your food into the smallest pieces...so small that you have a hard time picking them up. What can I say I am just a little neurotic about choking. 

You are still the most easy going baby. Along for the ride most of the time and 99% of the time pretty happy about it. You spent a good majority of your day in the car yesterday and you just happily talked to yourself or laughed at your brother in the back seat when he makes faces at you (by the way minivans are THE BEST....minivan-haters you have no idea what you missing :) ha!.  You have 4 teeth (top two and bottom two). You are not showing much interest in walking yet but that's ok because that just means you will be into more stuff. You weighed 22lbs at your 9 month appointment. Your sister weighed that much when she was 2! You are one healthy happy baby. You are such a blessing for our family and I love to see you grow & explore in this crazy little family of ours.  

But in all seriousness little dude why don't you sleep? Sleeping is cool and it would make your Momma sooooooo happy and a little less grumpy in the morning if you would just sleep an entire night through. Love you little guy, you have my heart in your hand baby boy. xo

4

Dearest Twinnies; 

How is it that you are 4 already? We are so proud of the smart, thoughtful, funny and sweet little people you have become. You make our hearts burst with joy. When we look back at the past 4 years and how much you have taught us we can't help but be thankful to be your parents. You have made us better people and continue to teach us new things everyday. Keep laughing and looking at the world through your wonderful  sweet little eyes. Your Mommy & Daddy are your biggest fans and love watching you grow up . Thank you for the ride little ones. 

P.s. we had our first themed bday party. Chloe chose princess & Carter Spiderman. It was the best party yet. 

Transition

We are offically homeless right now. Our house sold and we moved out on the 5th of July and are now waiting to close on the new house. The process of trying to show & sell our house, find a new one to buy, pack a house, move out of a house all  the while still trying to stay organized, take care of 3 kids all 4 & under while trying to maintain some kind of normalcy for them is.... well...enough to make you want to go a little bit crazy. Or a lot crazy. And I might have just done that a little bit at times?? All of our belongings were packed into two trucks by movers and is now all in storage.  We don't really even know what's in those trucks but one thing is for sure. We have A lOT of stuff. Our intention was to purge as we packed but it all got a little overwhelming. I did almost all the packing during the weeks leading up to the move during the baby's nap times & with him in the front pack a lot of the time. It will for sure be one of those times that we look back on in the years to come that we will say,  'wow remember that....that really sucked.... but now look at us, we made it through to the other side. We are hoping to close on the new house mid August and could not be more excited to finally get settled and not to be in this flex-mode anymore. This will hopefully be the house that the kids will grow up in. More on the new house later, we really love it.  My blogging, computer, picture uploading time is now not nearly as much as it once was. Chase is fully mobile...crawling, stair climbing & cruising furniture. Not to mention trying to eat everything off the floor. I feel like I can't take my eyes off of him for a minute because I never know what the twinnies leave around on the floor. I love this age/stage but it is a lot of work. Keep posted for some updates!

A few from my phone: 

We spent last week as a family in hood canal 

my not so helpful packing partner

but what a sweet little guy he is

Testing out of the wheel on their Great Uncle & Aunt's sail boat at the canal

candid

This picture is so them. I love candid shots, they capture kids so much better than the posed kind. I had the kiddos pictures taken a few weeks back to try to get some of Chase during the sitting-up-stage. Although he seemed to skip that stage all together and go for crazy crawling everywhere baby.

Summer

It's finally starting to feel a little bit like summer, well sort of. 

Chase sat in the grass for the first time yesterday. 

pleasantly surprised

I have been avoiding taking the twins to their 2nd dentist appointment for about a year now, I know bad Mother. The first time I took them it was such a tough experience for Carter & I that I have been avoiding doing it again even canceling their appointment a few times between then & now. For their 1st visit I was pregnant with Chase having to pin Carter down for the Dentist to be able to even just  look in his mouth. He wouldn't even let them come near him with their tools. It was one of those super discouraging parenting moments. By the time it was over I was sweating & I think I even cried to myself on the drive home.

So this time around I scheduled their appointment a long time ago and gave myself a lot of time to prepare them &  made sure that my Mom could go with me to help. All this because I was sure we would most likely be having a repeat experience. BUT,  to my surprise both kids did amazing. Carter was so grown up, polite and cooperative. It may not sound like that big of a deal but I felt like it was such a huge step toward growing up. Plus ever since we went they have both been so into brushing their teeth even asking to floss. We have come a long way from this post, seriously thank goodness.

8 Months

Happy 8 months today baby boy. I love you so.