3rd kid....

Yep, I am already telling poor Miss Hannah that she just needs to expect a delay as a result of being the third child. I must say she faired better than her Grandma (she really only had a handful of baby pics or pics when she was younger) and Hannah definitely has had a lot of pictures, but when it comes to things that were done for her siblings.....I am moving slow.

For example, the pics below are wall frames that I do for the kids.






(please note that I am not creative at all, but there are three things that each kids get and that is it).

The pics are when they are 8/9 months.

The next thing is a scrapbook for their first year (Hannah's has been completed until she is like 8 months or so (Halloween is still not in there, but I have printed the pics so that should count for something)).

They also have the "first year frames". I take their pics each month (the girls are in the chairs their Great Grandparents bought for me when I was little and T was a different chair). I haven't put Hannah's pic in from about 6 months.

I could say that the tree hitting out house after Easter last year that left us homeless for 6 months was to blame on some of the delays...but we all know that is not the case- I call it the case of the "3rd Child Syndrome".

Our own March Madness

Yep, basically or family was quarantined this week. Wed or Thurs ( it is all a blur so I can't remember), T came down with the stomach bug ( it was quick and lasted about twelve hrs) so i wasn't too worried about this round. On Monday, I dropped Hannah off to take the other two to swimming. Mom said she had a pretty good day, but I noticed she was a bit fussy on the way home. Rusty called me on the way and apparently the fireworks started ( way to take one for the team babe). Yep, nothing more pathetic then a baby with the stomach bug. It took her until about wed to feel better, but by then man down- yep me. It was bound to happen. With barfy laying on me, I had no chance. I am guessing this was a different bug then T got, because this was much worse. This wasn't like the usual bug ( you yack for a while....or other stuff happens :) and then you feel better), no you had about a day of feeling like you were dying (stomach hurting you kind of feel like you had the flu because you are achy so you can't get comfortable or begin to sleep- awesome). By middle of the day Thurs I at least knew I wasn't going to die so had to get moving. I forgot to mention our washer died during yack fest, but luckily I have a mom nearby and a sister in the neighborhood. Next man down, Frances. She started Thur night. She is usually a pretty good trouper ( luckily with great aim), but this bug hurt so she (we) were up another night. She finally was feeling a little better Fri and by sat was good. We decided to keep the family in quarantine until Sunday ( it makes me so made when folks bring their sick kids around to infect others- thanks for not caring at all about your kids that you don't want to cancel your plans). I definitely get angry after having a baby who had to go back to the hospital after getting rsv so public service announcement....if your kid is sick- stay home! You would think our little story would end ( I have no idea how rusty made it through all of this since he was frontline with Hannah), but now Frances is having some asthma issues. Poor kid. I guess that is why there are drinks with caffeine.

ADDICTED

My name is Caroline and I am addicted to Pinterest!!! It is slightly ridiculous. I am in no way crafty (that is such an understatement), but you can see so many cute ideas and they tell you exactly what you need to do (simple stupid is what I need). I guess for those of you that know Rusty that I am to Pinterest as Rusty is to Kentucky Sports Radio Blog (I know right). I mean it showed me an easy way to hang a bunch of frames up the stairs (using wax paper so I didn't have to attempt to balance myself on the stairs while I hammered away-Rusty was thankful for that), how to make canvases out of my pics, countless holiday projects as well as many cute photo ideas. I would say that I made many great meals, but that would be lying and I don't cook often.

A big week for blogging

I still can't get any pictures to upload from my computer, but here are a few from my phone. I should title the first two a day in the life of T. I mean the kid falls all the time.....

He no longer can sit on the bench at the kitchen table.


he was walking and tripped- I mean really (time for a helmet?)!


The next pictures are from the kids swim lessons. I clocked in a lot of hours at this pool and my name is on the plaque (I was there when they built the pool - lots of memories swimming in the bubble before the facility was built). The pool is now named after my coach (his plaque is on the wall too). It still is so sad that I am not going to walk in there and see Doug and it makes me sad thinking how really young he was when he died.




I spent a lot of time in this pool

Weekend in Review

I will post pics later, but our computer is so slow.....

James, Frances and Thomas were able to go play at the fire station on Sat (seriously how much fun). One of the administrators at their school's husband is a fireman. The fire station is huge! I dropped them off for an hour and basically they sat in the firetruck (she said they weren't too interested with the eating area or anything inside). They have free reign and loved it!

Miss Hannah just turned one. She is in the 50th percent for height and not even on the chart for weight (-5%). The doc said he wasn't worried (he believes me that we do feed our kids) because she is growing, but that she basically needed to eat all the time because she mush have a fast metabolism and be very active (true that). I mean she gets a lot of whole milk and whatever she wants to eat (must be nice). I mean between T telling his teacher that I didn't feed him (he eats like 2 breakfasts before he even eats at school, but was running late so i told him he could eat when he got to school) and Hannah not ever making the charts.....

Finally Home!!!!

Alright, it took almost 6 months, but we are home (Peanut will be here as soon as we put down the rugs- had to wait a month). It was funny when they were bringing our stuff back into the house that we still had a bunch of Easter stuff out (it happened the weekend after Easter). Anyway, we did make a few changes while we were out. The biggest was we refinished the downstairs hardwood floors, added hardwoods to upstairs and re-carpeted the basement (and the bathroom and a small portion in the other space we put vinyl). Here are some pics (it was hard to get the pictures to show the correct color of the kitchen, but you can kind of get the idea). We have a blueish-gray glass (if the lights are on under the cabinets it looks one color and when other lights hit it, it looks another), new Caeserstone counters and a new sink (Rusty did get a few things and this was his pick). We are still having a few issues with the moving/storage company. They basically are incompetent (luckily the check from insurance went to us and we will pay them if they ever correct what they need to). We already got a new fridge (ours came back with the inside completely covered in mold). It was a fairly new fridge and when I called the person we had been dealing with he told me to rent a fridge and we would work it out later.....that did not go over well (at this point the rational one (rusty) had already decided he was done and gave me permission to "chat with them"). Needless to say, I called him back and told him that wouldn't do (it was ridiculous and not cost effective for them because we ultimately would be getting a new fridge since mold is like death to a fridge) and told him I would be ordering a new one right away. I emailed him the receipt from our original fridge and told him I would be ordering the same fridge and would need to be reimbursed for that cost. (I got it in writing that they would because I let him know that they had lied about a few things already and I needed it in an email in case he had a problem remembering this conversation). They sent someone out to fix the golden tee machine. The person managed to not fix the machine and tear up part of our new floor. Are you kidding me!!They still have to send someone out to fix a table (can't wait to see how that goes).
Anyway, we are thrilled to be in the house. We did enjoy being in the apartment during the summer months (not paying electricity bills) and cranking the air to 68 (it might have been colder than that- Hannah was sleeping in pjs and a fleece sleep sack).

Here is a pic to see the new floor color


Hannah has the small room so I thought she should have a chandelier (thanks mom and dad for making the curtains!!!)




I had to put the tree up again


Here is the backsplash




and the one room in the house that rusty gets.......

Rusty's brother was in town this past week. We didn't get to see them much (it stinks because Frances and T love to play with Elizabeth and Cecilia) because Frances has school so we have trouble getting there during the week and they aren't always here on the weekend. We did make it down for Boo's b-day (I will have to post the pic later because it is on another camera, but it is so cute because Rusty's folks sat at the table with all the grandkids except the two little ones). We saw them when we headed back in town Monday night. Here is a cute pic of the bunch.





As a result of the ironman....Thomas likes to run around the house and say he is racing. He talks about swimming, biking, and running. He is a big fan of this sweatband I got for him.



Hannah is getting bigger and continuing to be a good baby (if she gets what she wants). She makes it pretty clear what she wants and you better do what she says or be ready to battle it out. I guess that is better than T who just didn't like Rusty for about a year or so.




Frances still loves school. They had a popsicle party today at the park. It looked like almost all the kids were there plus siblings and a parent or two for each (even the. There are a total of 8 kids in her class that live in our neighborhood.