Let that Wonderful Time of Year Begin

I have sat down to type/write a blog post for almost a week now. Every time I do I get interrupted. 3 kids sure make things wonderful and crazy! I have also needed to take a break from the computer, editing, and just basically working on pictures. Fall was an amazing time for my business. It has also meant a lot of time spent working even at home. I needed a break to recharge and honestly not get burned out on something I love. If it was just Anthony and I it would be no problem. With the 3 kids it just adds a lot of extra so I am working very hard not to over do it and find balance. The good news is I have taken the entire month of December off and I am caught up on all sessions so I will be back to a "regular" schedule of posts. As much as 3 little kids will allow. Sickness has also struck our house several times so that has put us behind. All that to say I have a lot of pictures to catch up on and stories to tell. I plan to post about my parent's visit, and the everyday life as of late. The kids are growing and learning so many new things. I thought I would start tonight with the beginning to the Holiday season. I will catch up the rest of the weekend on "life."

I love the Holidays. My poor husband probably thinks I am a nut case about all the "little" things I get excited for. Every year the city of Lansing does Silver Bells in the City. I have wanted to since Anthony and I started dating. We have never gone because somebody is sick, it is too cold, or we are home visiting my family. Finally we got to go. It was last week Friday night.

Needless to say getting out the door with 3 kids is more complicated in the winter than summer. All the gloves, hats, blankets etc. We add to the fact they are 3 and under. It makes life so interesting. Eli was insistent that we were going to get our pictures taken by the photographer that took our photos after Ari was born. He was very disappointed we were just going to fireworks and not to see Meg. Then he was even more upset she was not going to be there. She made an impression on him. 

I knew we should have left early for silver bells so we could see the parade. Sadly, that did not happen. Needless to say I was not in the best of moods when we arrived. I was ticked at Anthony. There was no place to see the parade. Finally we had the idea along with many others to sit in the top of the parking garage. This was after walking several blocks through throngs and I do mean throngs of people. I also had to go to the bathroom and we lost one of Lilliana's gloves. Oh it was just going to be wonderful.

When we finally got a spot I felt much better. Somebody forgot to remind me 2 year olds get bored easily. They watched for a while though. In fairness to them it was rather hard to see the parade. This might give you an idea of our view. 

I used my telephoto lens to get the really close up photo of the fish float. The parade was still going after about an hour. Lilliana was bored. Ari was screaming. We didn't know when it would end but decided it was time to call it quits. Poor Eli wanted to see the fireworks. We began our walk down when it finished and they got ready to light the Christmas tree. So we decided to watch. Ari was a sleep at this point and Lilliana was happy we had moved onto something else. I am so glad we stopped to watch because then we got to see the fireworks. It was priceless to see the kids reactions. It made up for missing the Fourth of July this year. 

All and all even after all my complaining and griping it was so worth it. I even had to eat humble pie when we were walking back to the car that evening and had  to go a lot longer than what we originally planned due to streets being blocked off. I still had to go to the bathroom. I said, "this is stupid!" Eli promptly said, "Mom you said a word Jesus doesn't want you to say." At first I was clueless then he told me what I said. I had to eat my humble pie and say your right. I love my boy. We can learn some wonderful things from kids. 

Lots of things have happened this week that I will catch up on but today of course we celebrated Thanksgiving. We went to Aunt Tracey's house to spend it with Anthony's side of the family. It was a wonderful time as always. I was very worried I would have to give up some of my favorite things like stuffing and green bean casserole due to being on a dairy free diet. Thank goodness I found recipes to fill these and they were just as good. Anthony didn't even mind them. 

I took Ari's pictures for Thanksgiving. A friend made me some hats that I took pictures for so she has them for her business plus we get to keep the adorable hats. I am going to do the older kids this weekend. Here is Ari's though. My little Turkey. 

Eli usually has the tradition of sitting with Grandma Terri to eat. Today we ate a little different than we normally do. Usually we do buffet style with a kids table. There were several family members missing. Some with their other side, and 3 are now military so they were not able to be home. So  we all sat at the table and passed. It was nice. So Eli sat like a big boy. Ari got to sit with Grandma Terri.

The older kids had pie. Lilliana liked pumpkin pie last year but not this year. Eli loved it last year and again this year. He had two pieces. I figured he would not want it because of the name, but no he loved it. 

While Eli ate Lilliana played at the table and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of her playing peek-a-boo and being at the age she is and avoiding the camera.

Ari was passed around but enjoyed his first Thanksgiving. We were also surprised by Anthony's sister who is a Marine. We didn't think she was going to be able to be home for Thanksgiving. She did get to come home. It was such a nice surprise and we are excited to spend some time with her. We also found out she will be joining her brother in Japan. I am excited for them as they are so far from home but will be able to be close to each other. We miss them so much. It has been an exciting start to the Holiday season. I can't wait to begin our 25 days of Christmas and a couple other things I have planned for the kids. I also plan to get caught up in "blogworld." I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.

Crazy week with the new member of the family

Before each of my babies has been born I have grand visions of how the week will go after they are born. With Eli I was going to rest and relax with Anthony. Yes I did a lot of that but had an incredible amount of recovery and spent the first two weeks in a blur. I remember little due to everything that went on. With Lilliana I had grand plans for taking amazing newborn photos of her (even though I had even done them let alone knew much)............HA that went over not so well. It was a note to myself to learn more and spurred my passion for photography along. I did get to spend a lot of time relaxing after her though. I didn't want to as I felt great! This time I had grand hopes of going to our bedroom and sleeping for a week with Ari in bed.

Well it has been very eventful and I have not achieved that week of sleep! Being on stair restrictions and having two others needing me at times probably has made me do too much. Much has been out of my control due to weather and a Dr. appointment. His Dr. appt. went well. They did not do anything for his tongue but we are being referred to a pediatric urologist and more than likely he will have surgery in the future. We will know more after that appointment.

At the Birth Center we are sent home with an herbal bath to take mom and baby. It helps the baby's cord to fall off and mom heal. It is tradition for their first bath at home to be with mom. So Ari had his first bath at home Tuesday. Unlike his siblings who slept he was wide awake and looking everywhere.

We also got to see Uncle Steven for a few minutes that afternoon as he was home for a few days.

Unfortunately the fireworks we usually attend were canceled due to dryness on the Fourth. So we did not have plans to do anything. I did take the kids Fourth of July Photos.

Audra came out to do another home visit and make sure we were doing well. I love her! She just brightens my day. She also did his footprints and weighed him. My only child that has lost weight after birth. He weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz and was up two ounces from the day before.

She gave Eli a footprint on his arm as he was very curious what was going on.

Little Miss also decided that day her new favorite thing was to climb the table and sit on it. Now it is a battle everyday to keep her down.

That night we did some sparklers with the kids in the backyard. They loved it. Although Eli didn't listen and touched one so that ended our night.

Ari and I sat in the chair and watched. This is also my Embrace the Camera picture for the week.

It is fitting as July 4 was his due date. He is only but 4 days old! They are just too sweet at this age.

Then the fun began. We went to bed and I woke up around 3 something to go to the bathroom. When I woke I thought I saw lightening. I just went downstairs to the bathroom. As I was in the bathroom I heard a huge whoosh and the wind and rain began. Then I heard thunder. The lights were flickering It scared me and as fast as I could I ran upstairs and woke Anthony up. I know the storms had been bad and it seriously sounded like a tornado. We agreed to get everybody downstairs in case we had to go to the basement. When we got downstairs the power went out. Normally that is not a big deal. Except it has been high nineties and 100 degrees this week. Coupled with the fact we lose water when we have no power. We have a newborn and cloth diaper plus a one year old in diapers. Yeah it makes for an interesting time. We kept hoping it would come back on. Finally we realized it was not going to happen for a while. So instead of baking in the house. I went out to Meijer to get ice and water. We also got food as we did not want to open our fridge or freezer. They got to spend the afternoon in the pool. I unfortunately could not. Thankfully we were able to get a generator and keep a fan going to move the air and keep the food cold. I took some time and took some photos since Ari was sleeping so nice.

These are just some of the reasons we had no power. There are trees literally uprooted and down everywhere! Some are hanging on power lines and still have not been touched two days later as the power company is busy other places as many were without power.

What do you do with kids when it 90 degrees out, you can't move well and your husband is trying to get the generator going.........give them bowls of ice to play with. They loved every minute of it. Eli asked to do it again today.

It did not come on until about 8 or 9 last night. I was never so happy to have it on. Thankfully family's  came on sooner so we went over there to cool off and relax for a bit.

When we got home I took a nice long shower and then Ari and I took a bath as his cord is beyond disgusting due to the heat and smells just plain awful. Thankfully it is about to fall off!! I can't wait to get rid of it! He got to use his Blooming Bath for the first time. We are in love with it and he enjoyed it too.

Today we had newborn/family photos done with an AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHER! I can't wait to see them. She did such an amazing job with the kids and him.

Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing. The heat is wearing us all out. Anthony did take them outside to clean up the branches from the storm. It was so hot out they all were a sweaty mess. It is not just hot it is humid at it was at 7:00 at night. Eli put his tractor to good use.

Anthony goes back to work on Monday. I am so sad. I feel like this time we have not spent the time together like we usually do as the to other two have kept us busy. I worry how I will deal with all three but know I can do it. The kids are in love with their brother and so are we. Our family is so perfect now. So it may not have been the week I had anticipated but it has made me a better mom I think.