Family Visit: Short But Sweet

Not sure if it was new baby Addelynne that made it so sweet or the fact that Kirk's family visited us for the first time since we lived here.

But look at this sweet little girl :) She's just too cute! Oh yes, I got my baby fix for a bit! Mommy looks tired. Her dad is Kirk's brother and they had just driven down from NY. Add that to a newborn baby and a newly deployed husband and well, you are exhausted. But she still looks cute and happy to have her little girl. That's my great-niece :)



Here's my great-nephew. Addelynne's older brother, Branson. Sweetest boy I swear. He was so good and he loved Kaitlyn. Can't wait to see him again when we visit Florida in June.



And even though Kirk's family got in after 10 my girls were still wide awake in their room so we let them come down and say hello. Alyssa would have nothing to do with the baby but Julianna was thrilled to hold the baby. At least briefly.



Should I be concerned that Rachel doesn't look phased while holding a screaming baby?



It was nice to see them even briefly and we would appreciate your prayers for Amber's husband Will who is now deployed. Pray for his safe-keeping and his return to his very young family. We are proud of him and his service to our country!

Swinging Good Time - No More Baby Swings

For some reason of all the pictures I take it's when the girls swing that I can actually see the biggest difference.

For the past three years I've taken pictures of the girls in their baby swings but last summer we got rid of the baby swing and now have three big kids swings.

Take a look at how my babies have grown - I so can't believe they are this big and yet, somehow still so little!!

Julianna Mabel - first-born; a second mommy to her sisters; a big talker - if I wake her up from nap then the van is silent on the way to pick up Kaitlyn and Caleb from school - if she's more awake then I don't get a second of peace :) She is a girly-girl through and through - loves dresses and tiaras and would love to be a princess; is pretty sure she already knows everything and will tell you ALL about it if given the chance.

April 2007



April 2008



April 2009



April 2010









Rachel Gabrielle - second born; always on her sister's heels but even though Julianna does it first Rachel learns quick and does it better. Rachel has taken to potty training and caught on much quicker than Julianna. She is the most emotional throwing more tantrums than anyone but has a beautiful smile and a sweet spirit if she lets you get close enough to show it.

April 2007



April 2008



April 2009



April 2010







Alyssa Elaine - last born and the baby of the family in every aspect; funny girl; swears that mommy is not her friend - only daddy and Caleb are; insists she's a big girl but has no desire to use the potty like one; enjoys wrestling with Caleb and talking in the cutest voice you've ever heard - still doesn't talk perfectly but she's certainly getting there; gets excited over little things.

April 2007



April 2008



April 2009



April 2010







I will add that when I took the pictures today I didn't realize that it was April in every other year - that just ended up being a coincidence :)

Easter And The Dress Fiasco

Every year I carefully plan the kids Easter clothes. I buy matching dresses for the girls and try to coordinate Caleb so they are all looking nice and spiffy for Easter Sunday. We take coordinated family pictures of all our kids.

This year was different.

This year Easter snuck on me. Don't laugh - it did. I just wasn't prepared. At the consignment sale I bought a lot of dresses - I have posts to prove it and the girls loved their dresses and looked beautiful in them.

So, great mom that I am I was going to go with the polka-dotted dresses - not matching but very cute coordinating dresses. I was set - even Kaitlyn had a non-matching but coordinating polka-dot dress. It was meant to be.

No, apparantly not.

For the past few weeks I had this inkling of a feeling that I was missing a dress. You know how it is - you don't see something but you swear you know where it is you just haven't seen it. That was me.

I knew without a doubt where two of them were but the third was alluding me.

And leave it up to me to search the house on Saturday before Easter to look for it. Oh yes I did.

And oh no, I didn't find it.

The house has eaten it - I swear.

I managed to pull 3 other matching dresses and get the kids very cutely dressed to church but no pictures.

You read right, none.

After church we went to our pastor's house for some really good food, some egg hunting and hours of Badminton - I have not played in maybe forever and yet on Sunday I played for hours. There are no pictures of that either.

All we managed to get was a picture of Alyssa with her Easter basket - notice the shoes - she was missing a sock. Didn't seem to bother her at all. We finally found it - want to know where? Underneath her plate. Umm, okay...



And of Kaitlyn who played Badminton for the first time and managed to do very well and enjoyed it greatly - maybe she's a natural :)



Lessons learned:

1. Don't wait till the last minute for things! I thought I was prepared but I wasn't - I should have double checked earlier.

2. Easter is not about the dresses or the eggs or the pictures - it is solely a celebration of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and because of that we had a very blessed Easter regardless of how we were dressed.

I hope that you too had a wonderful Easter celebrating our risen Lord for without His being raised there would be no point to life.

He is risen...

He is risen indeed.

2nd Biggest Attraction At The Cherry Blossom Festival In DC

Not sure if it was the triplets or the "so-cute, adorable, way-to-travel, look-at-that, I've-never-seen-that-before" triplet wagon but either way we got pointed at and looked at and talked about and photographed about EVERYWHERE we went and since we walked a good 5 miles yesterday we saw a LOT of people.

But not to worry - the girls were quite thrilled with their fame. Rachel and Julianna actually began waving to passer-byers :) At one point Julianna said "friend take pictures of us!"

Great.

Here we are in the middle of DC with monuments all around and cherry blossoms in peak season which only happens once-a-year and yet we were the center of attention. Go figure.

Fortunately, it didn't deter us from seeing the sites. Besides, I can't blame anyone - my girls are pretty darn cute and the triple wagon is an awesome, life-saver!

The girls had a number of firsts yesterday: first real trip to DC and their first ride on the Metro - they loved both.

Getting ready to get on the train:



They all had a great time - of course it didn't take long for them to be bored of the trip and want off. Confirms my desire NOT to take a plane ride with them :)









Like any good Metro rider the girls spent their time reading the paper :)



After a long Metro ride and a small walk we made it down the tidal basin and the first of the cherry blossom trees.









We had a picnic lunch and then walked around the tidal basin:









Caleb taking a break on the walk - he had the hardest time walking all over the city poor thing. I said "thanks for sitting to take the picture" - he said, "no, thank you mom, my legs were tired and you asked me to sit some more and that helped my legs feel better."



After the tidal basin we walked to the FDR Memorial where the girls got to play in the waterfall.



Further proof that taking a picture of all 3 girls together is pretty much impossible.



Best friends.



The blooms were beautiful but the irony was not lost on me that we drove to the Metro then took the Metro then fought thousands of people to see the same trees that we have in our front yard :) It was worth it - this is definitely NOT in our front yard!



After the blossoms we made a "quick" treck over to the Lincoln Memorial. Kirk took the big kids up the stairs - I hung out with the girls at the bottom - I'm not that crazy :)





And the view from the Lincoln Memorial - such a beautiful area.



We finished our day at Potbelly's and then had some ice cream. I guess this is what we have to do to get them all to sit still in a shot :)







Our day started in line at the Metro 10:30 and ended at the same Metro close to 8 last night. We tried to get on in DC at about 6:15 but our great wagon was not allowed on the Metro during rush hour. Great right?

The girls favorite part of the whole day? The elevators :) I have no idea why but they really enjoyed all of them - so funny! They also enjoyed the train - I'm not sure if they noticed the trees...