Life with three kids

I never realized before having kids that three kids is kind of a LOT OF KIDS. Especially when they are all under five and home with you full time. It's a demanding group when you are taking care of three small people all the time. There is significantly less downtime for me now--like there always is when you're on a newborn schedule. Somebody is always needing something.

But the funny thing is, I think this has been the easiest transition yet. Every time I have a baby, I worry the whole pregnancy how hard it is going to be after having the baby, but it's never as bad as I imagine it. So far, I think I had the hardest time with Dane as a baby, since it was a huge shock that I all of a sudden went from all of my time being my own to having all of that freedom taken away from me. And with Graham and Lucy, it wasn't a surprise at all. I knew what to expect and just had to have my abilities stretched slightly.

I have been really happy ever since Lucy was born. It's the weirdest thing--I've been just on cloud 9 this whole time. Obviously, I have had lots, LOTS of moments when I've lost my temper or been stressed beyond belief. But I have not had a single day when I have been super unhappy and impatient all day, where I felt like I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE and I need to escape the second Tommy gets home. I have had many, many of those days as a mom, but not since adding a third kid. I think 95% of it is that Lucy doesn't scream and cry--hardly at all. The screaming is what generally pushes me over the edge--and there hasn't been hardly of it since she was born. (Maybe we should take that as a sign we should be done with having kids with the world's nicest baby, but I think we are suckers for punishment. Maybe the rest of ours will be as nice as Lucy too??)

I feel EXTREMELY lucky this time around and I feel like this has been a great stage. I know this will shift, that sometime someone will go into a more difficult stage that involves more tantrums and screaming (Graham? Terrible twos?) but these last few months have been so wonderful for me.

And can you blame me? Just look at these three:

COULD THEY BE ANY CUTER? I don't think so. I sure love them. And I'm so glad my job is to be home and take care of them.

A Visit from Cole

One of the best unexpected benefits of my parents moving to Ecuador is that we've had a ton more visits from my siblings this year. ALL five of my siblings have been to our house in the last seven months, some of them twice. (Camille, Austin, Bethany and Cole in December, Bethany and Dallin in June, Cole in July.) We are the unofficial, far-away home base for my siblings while my parents are out of the country, which works great for us, because we love visitors AND this way we get to see people without having to travel ourselves. Win-win. So we may not see Mom and Dad as much, but we have gotten to see everyone else more than usual! Sadly, I think that train is ending. We don't have any plans for any visitors any time coming up. From either side of the family. As Donald Trump would say--Sad!

Cole flew back with us from Utah and spent a week and a half here before he flew back to Ecuador. We weren't all that exciting, but we loved having him here, and he loved getting to eat American food for an extra week--and being the extra set of arms to hold Lucy any time I had to do anything else. 

We had kind of an adventure getting home. Our plane, which was supposed to land at midnight (already a yikes) was redirected to San Antonio and we didn't end up landing until 3:00 in the morning (extra yikes). We didn't end up getting home until 4:30 am--but shockingly, we were okay. The kids were REALLY good and we all survived. Dane and Lucy slept the whole time, and Graham hardly slept at all (per usual for him) but he spent the whole time watching shows on the Kindle. The only time anyone was crying was when we finally landed in Dallas and Tommy unbuckled Graham's seatbelt--he started screaming because he didn't want to get off the plane. Ha!

Nice Dane sleeping.

Cole helping on the plane!

Graham stealing some extra Kindle time at 2 am on the plane. 

Some Snow Cone Lady with Cole!

We discovered early in the week that Cole had NEVER SEEN STAR WARS. So we decided to give him a full Star Wars education and watched the original trilogy and the second trilogy with him. We were going to do Rogue One too but we ran out of nights. He really liked it.

BETHANY--we were listening to 1D and singing along JUST FOR YOU.

Cole came with us to a kids science museum near us. Graham inside a bubble!

Getting frozen custard. Sooooo good.

Dane and Graham "hiding" in the trees before the custard.

We also went to an airplane museum down near the Love Field airport and the boys were super enthralled. They were way more excited than I anticipated.

It was apparently UNT alumni day and we were mistaken for UNT alumni and were asked if we wanted a picture with the eagle mascot. Graham ran up and gave the creepy-looking eagle a hug. Haha.

Torchy's Tacos with Cole!

Lucy thought Cole was DELICIOUS.

We got sidetracked with chores on Saturday, so instead of going swimming at the athletic center like we'd planned, we just filled up our baby pool in the backyard and played out there a while.

Love Graham's face with the straw.

Cole looks thrilled :)

Lucy actually really liked the water. So cute in her swimsuit.

Attack Cole on the trampoline!

Tommy loved lounging in the pool by himself.

Best thing--we went to a James Taylor concert with Cole! It was amazing! 

I should have busted out my guitar and played "Fire and Rain" along with him.

We also went to a Frisco RoughRiders game with Cole (minor league baseball team here in Frisco). I'd actually never been, so it was really fun. It rained and the game was delayed for 45 minutes, so we were about to leave, but I'm glad we stayed. We ended up getting SUPER close seats (since nobody was there with the rain) and had a great time!

The boys had fun wandering around the stadium in the drizzle with nobody around.

Go RoughRiders!

Super close seats.

Lucy was really interested in the game.

Taking Cole shoe shopping, and Graham was convinced they were for him. "I try shoes on. I tied them. I wear them. Need socks on. They fit me." He said all that while wearing these enormous shoes. So cute.

Two guys in their Ecuador jerseys.

Cole playing a private concert for Lucy loo.

Lucy woke up and watched some Star Wars with us. 

Everyone was sad to say good-bye to Cole. He's a great visitor to have.