Absolute sin.

Today I made tha absolute mistake of making the recent recipe from The Pioneer Woman... "knock you naked brownies" Oh dear Lord... I might have to ask for forgiveness when this pan is all said and done. Please, do yourself a favor and make some!

9 stinkin months

**Pardon the complete and utter MESS this post is. My MacBook charger has officailly bit the dust and as I'm waiting on my new one to come in, I'm using Nat's laptop... and i've tried and tried and tried to fix it and I just cant... so I give up!

I would be lying if I said I haven't counted, and recounted the months today. I just can't believe it. Three months till he's 1?!?! What the heck. I mean, it was just yesterday that he made his grand entry into this world, wasn't it? My little man is still pretty much the perfect baby. All 3 of my kids have been perfect babies. How does that happen?!?!

-He is kinda sorta trying to stand on his own! He just gets way way to excited when he gets up and just thrusts himself forward.

-The kid loves to eat. I'm here to attest to it... boys do eat better than girls! Forget cutting up his food, forget watching him and making sure he doesn't stuff to much in his mouth... and you can absolutely forget trying to "swipe" something out of his mouth when he is on the verge of choking. He will throw an ever lovin fit. Oh, and at 9 months he eats more than his sisters do.

Top: Has a WHOLE Gerber cookie in his mouth

Bottom: stuffing grilled cheese in his mouth

(pardon the complete lighting difference in the pictures. Still figuring things out)

-With all that eating, my little man weighs... 23 pounds! Which is exactly how much his 20 month old sister weighs.

-He loves life, he's always smiling. Brings so much joy and life into our house.

-Gives the best kisses in the whole wide world.

-Stops and completely freezes when he hears his daddy's voice.

-Now that he is getting faster at crawling, he follows the girls everywhere... and they are kinda noticing him more and letting him play with them. Just a small insight to how fun its gonna be when he can run around with them. I can't wait.

-His most favorite place to be is is the girls room. He can tear it up in a matter of minutes.

-I have officially dubbed him sippy cup master! He can drink out of anything you give him... and does it like there's no tomorrow. Ever since I gave him that first sippy cup and he got it down in a matter of minutes... I knew we would have no trouble with him learning to use a cup.

and yes, he does spend half of his life on the kitchen counter eating with me and his sisters.

Happy 9 months to my little guy.

Problem and a challenge!

It seems as though I have encountered a problem... one that I've never had to face before. I have, by the grace of God and my children... been able to sleep through the night.... Did you get that??? Like go to bed and 11... or 12.... or 1... and sleep till my kids wake me up the next morning. Its a new concept for me. I've slept through the night here and there.. but never consitantly slept all night long... not since I've had kids at least.

So my problem, you ask?? I can not for the life of me wake up in the morning. I'm like (before you go and spread rumors that I'm pregnant... IM NOT!) first trimester with child #3, and 2 toddlers running around DEAD to the world. That just seems to be the only thing I can compare it to... and if you've ever experienced the first trimester you know what I'm talkin about! What do I do?? My kids are like making themselves breakfast and watchin tv before I wake from the dead... and don't even ask me when my dear husband leaves for work... I can't even tell you how many times I've called him and asked him why he didn't even tell me bye. Its the strangest thing.... and once again, NO I'm not pregnant. Guess I need to start setting an alarm in the middle of the night to make my sleep habits go back to the "norm."

My chalenge today... and well, everyday. Or at least 5 days outta the week. I'm gonna post a picture. Just a simple one that I loved from that day. I've just had way to many -crap, I should have blogged about that- moments here lately.... PLUS, me working on my photography skills... (or lack there of)... its a good way to make myself DO IT. Some days I might sit down and write a whole long blog about life, and some days I might write 1 sentence.

So with that... I give you photo #1. My ever so lovely, sweet, charming, loving little Princess... and if you need to know how I feel about her right about now... just scroll down to the title "HELP"

Truth is...

All my life I've been a writer. If I have something deep, serious or hard to talk to someone about, I've always written letters. Ask Nat, ask my parents... they can attest to this. I feel like I express what I need to say better by writing it out. So anyways.... due to the nature of this blog.. and that being happy, cheery and all about my 3 kids... I'm here to warn you that this isn't gonna be happy, cheery or about my kids.

Its gonna be one of those things inside of me thats dying to be "written." Sometimes you just need to write stuff out, even if its not for someone. SO that being said....

Through this whole move/job transition I've been on the bandwagon... knowing that this is an answered prayer by many, and this is what we have to do for our children to have the best life we could give them. Its been hard at times, but for the most part, I've been pretty positive about it. This week has found me at a whole new level. One I've never been to. Wondering WHY were here. Other than this wonderful, perfect house we have, I pretty much highly dislike this place. I miss my family. I miss my in-laws. I look back now and just ask myself WHY I didn't spend more time with them when they were right there.. right in the same town as us! WHY? I miss the sleepovers the girls had with their nana and pawpaw every week. I miss my kids getting to spend time with their cousins. I miss the company of having people we love around. I miss the few friends we had. I miss the help I had from the 2 greatest moms/grandma's a girl could ask for. I miss going to my sisters sporting events. I miss Aunt Fiz loving on the kids with all the care in the world for them. I miss the "mom" talks with Kinsey. I miss Karl and Crystal and how they love our kids. I miss getting a break from my kids and that sweet, special moment of getting to see them again. I miss date nights with my honey that gave us that "couple time" that we all need. Kids take up all of you and don't leave much time for momma and daddy... not saying thats a bad thing... just the facts of life. I miss being able to call up one of our moms and having a babysitter on the spot. No matter the time.

There's nothing here. Nothing fun to do. Date night is non-existent... because babysitters are non existent. No where to go shopping "just for fun." No friends to go hang out with and have fun with. I hate the dirt, the dust everywhere ALL the time. I hate that our life is dictated by the stupid wind every single day. Moving to a small town, you don't exactly "Fit in" if you haven't lived here your whole life. I guess I'm realizing that things aren't like I thought they were gonna be. I foresaw us getting involved in a church. Making friends and loving this time of our life. Nope... If Nat isn't out working late on Saturday night, then he's too tired and exhausted from the work week to get up and go to church. Do I hate that? You bet! Do I wish I had the courage and guts to take my 3 kids and go to church alone when my husband can't?? Yep!

Bottom line... I dislike this place, I'm being a negative nellie, I'm sad, Nat's pretty much been working 2 days straight, leaving me home by myself to ponder life all on my own. I miss my old life.... can't i just pick up this house and move it to San Angelo?? Either that, or someone down there needs to move and save me!

Pray for me would ya??

GQ

Now if you know Nat, you know that he can be a pretty goofy guy! Over the years of our family pictures, Nat always throws in a good 'ol model pose. (Granted, it is his cousin taking the pictures... I would hope he wouldn't do that at The Sears portrait Studio.)

Yes... -Cowboy boot wearin', rough, dirty hands, hardest workin man I've ever met- Nat can strike a pose like no other!

Sooo I got my new camera yesterday and since the kids were absolutely fed-up with having a camera in their faces, I turned to my model of a husband and.... well....

ya... he's weird.

but he makes me laugh.

then he then got our 2 and a half year old daughter to get in on the ridiculousness.

Oh yes, he did do this.

Then they got all cute on me.

HELP!

My child is growing up right before my eyes and I can't stop it! Madelynn is just blooming into such a wonderful little girl.. and I have a love/hate relationship with it! Here lately every day she says and does stuff and I just think to myself... WHERE DID MY BABY GO?!?! She talks nonstop. She tells what she wants and doesn't want. What she likes and doesn't like. She tell me everything thats important to her. She has all sorts of emotions. Happy, sad, scared, confused. Its like she's becoming less innocent (for lack of a better word) and more "in the know" about life and how it works. That make sense? Just the other day we were at Lowes and she needed to go potty and she very kindly told me she was gonna go potty all by herself and asked me to leave the stall! (WAAAHHH!!!!!) Little things like that happening left and right here lately. Today, she walked outside and went to play on the swingset and she was just a swingin away all by herself. She doesn't need me so much anymore. I'm having a hard time coming to terms that she'll be 3 in two and a half months! Seriously... AGHH! I don't think I can handle her being 3.

My sweet little baby girl.

scrubba a dub dub

3 babes in the tub!

I love bath time!

but probably not as much as these 3 little musketeers.

can you tell who the center of attention is?? Little man is a camera HOG! He will come to you if you have a camera and just smile and laugh. I don't think the girls mind so much... they aren't so much into the camera thing.

and of course, bath time wouldn't be complete without the pups watching and wishing they could jump in with the babies.

Aussie loves the kids.

My bath babies.

Life is getting easier and easier by the second. Slowly but surely we are moving out of the baby stage and into the "big kid" stage. I realize "big kid" is kinda far fetched to describe a 9 month old, 2.5 year old and 1.5 year old... but we've had babies around this house for a loooong time so 9 months is BIG to us. I can't wait till little man starts to walk and they're all 3 runnin around together.

Remember when I gave you a tour of our new house??? and told you about the little house out front that we were gonna fix up for the kids?

Well, we've started to fix 'er up! In between Nat working and being home, were workin on it. I use the term "were" very loosely cuz as we all know, I'm tending to all these kids 'round here. After bedtime we are able to get a lot done together! I'm so excited so see our ideas come to life. ... and I'm also really excited that I married a man who can make these ideas come to life....

now I need YOUR help! I'm usually the one talkin, so how bout you talk back! I wanna come up with a really fun, catchy name for the clubhouse. Got any ideas?? I'd love your input. Soon I'll upload a few before pics but for now, my chair is way to comfy, and my kids are napping.