Three Months

Loves her hands

And her feet

Virginia Ann's first three months have flown by! She is still a great baby- calm and chill all the time. She loves to sit in her seat or swing and just watch all the madness around her. She has "woken up" in the last few weeks and smiles and coos alot. She is sleeping in her crib and wakes once to eat which is so wonderful after our first 10 weeks of waking every 2.5 hours. If all babies were like Virginia Ann, people would have 10! She is so easy and such a joy with her chubby cheeks and big smiles she gives us. I cherish the few moments I have alone with her- she is growing way too fast!

Madeline and Jack wanted in on the photo shoot. Crazy that they were all looking at the same time! Crazy that I have THREE children!! We are so blessed!

Valentine's Day

Holidays are so fun when you have little people who are excited about them! We had a great time making Valentine's this year. I saw this idea on a blog and hoped my kids would pose for the pics and couldn't believe it when they actually did!

Madeline was excited to have a party at school and loved coming home to dump her Valentines on the couch and take stock. I love how hard she is concentrating here. This girl is serious about her candy!

My littlest Valentine!

Virginia Ann tried out the Bumbo for the first time. She is starting to like it and is very happy when she can lean over and get her hands in her mouth!

The kids woke up Vday morning to lots of goodies sent by Mimi and Goose and Grandma and Papa. They are so loved!

Virginia Ann's Blessing

We blessed Virginia Ann on Sunday and had a whole lot of Councills come to celebrate with us! We missed Ann, Ryan , Owen and Jenn!Our family

The Councill Men- Will, Jay, Clay, Jordan and Jim

Sweet Virginia Ann

With my grandmother Madeline's cross

Beautiful gown!

My mom bought the gown and has had every grandchild's initials put in it. VAC is next and then QMS! Our family is so blessed!

The boys also ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge on Saturday morning in the cold rain-it is a 5K where you run half way , eat a dozen donuts and then run back. Jordan was the only one who ate all 12 but Clay is glad to check it off his list. I am just glad no one got sick- at my house :)

Blessing Day

Jack

January 2007

Madeline

May 2009

Virginia Ann

February 2011

Three cuties- all from the same mold!!

The truth

First, I am going to show you the kids cute Valentine's bathroom. I could tell you that every room in our house is decorated this cute. I could also tell you I did all of this in a few hours.

But I would be lying and this post is all about honesty. It took me days to print that file out, send it to Staples, get a frame and then actually get it on the wall. It took even more time to paint the wood pieces, then cut the names from vinyl on my Cricut and then actually get those on the wall. Seriously, people, like weeks. See, I, like many of you, read those blogs where the moms are all crafty and cook great things and always look super cute. I read them and want to be like them. But then I stop and KNOW they are only showing us one side of their lives. I know that alot of you think I am crafty or bake fun things and I do that- some of the time. But here is what I do MOST of the time:

I come into Jack's room to find he has taken everything he owns and put it on the top bunk

I come out of my room after feeding the baby and find that Jack and Madeline have taken everything they both own plus all the cushions in the house and piled them up outside my door

My bookcase looks like this at the end of the day

And most mornings I wake up (at 6am) to Jack having piled more stuff in Madeline's crib to help her climb out.

This is what I do MOST of the time. I clean up, pick up, vacuum up, empty dishwashers full of stuff, load laundry, unload laundry, fold laundry, put it away and start all over. I hold the baby so the toddler doesn't harm her. I build tents and forts and make more messes out of sheets, blankets and pillows. I go up and down the stairs a bazillion times and still can't fit into any of my clothes. I try to feign some sort of normalcy that reminds me of the days when I had control and cute shoes and necklaces without teethmarks and at least 15 minutes in the day to do something I wanted to do but those days are long gone. Everyone keeps telling me to "enjoy this time- it goes so fast." While I realize that, I think it would go faster if I got to sleep any longer than 4 hours at a time in the last three months. I love my kids. They are amazing. I laugh alot but I cry sometimes too because this motherhood thing is hard. Damn hard. And that friends, is the truth.

Chocolate lovers unite!

Take a bunch of these...

Add a cute baking assistant...
And you get this yummy chocolate peanut butter cake I made for Supper Club!
(recipe courtesy of Bakerella)

Two cuties on the way to church! I might have found that red skirt at Old Navy for way cheap and I might have bought it in pink, red and grey for Madeline and I might have done the same for Virginia Ann :) Just maybe...

Mimi comes to visit!

My mom is here for a couple of days and we are loving it! Madeline is attached to her and has probably said "Mimi" 800 times in 24 hours!

Mimi and her granddaughters

We took the kids to the Museum of Natural Science downtown. We had never been but Jack is OBSESSED with dinosaurs so I thought while my mom is here and can help me, we would give it a try. It is a fabulous museum and one that the kids will enjoy for many years to come.

Jack and Mad and the T-Rex head

Jack and his favorite dinosaur

Downtown is definitely lacking on places to eat lunch with kids and we are always searching for new ones after our Marbles visit. Today we tried the Cherry Bomb Grill and it was great! A good place for kids and good food!

Weekend fun

We had a wonderful weekend and felt very accomplished doing all we did with three kids! It was our first attempt at doing "normal" weekend things with all three kids like shopping, parties and visiting friends. Clay and I were excited to get out as a family and loved it!

My goddaughter Sarah turned ONE and we celebrated with her on Saturday. She was not afraid to dig right into the cupcake! (Banner courtesy of yours truly!)

Fistful of cupcake!
The Edgars- Will, Sarah and Cary- Love these friends!!

Last week we received our first issue of Garden and Gun, a subscription from my mom for Christmas and we love this magazine. It is like Southern Living with an edge. Check it out! Anyway, they profiled a restaurant in Durham called Scratch. We decided to go over and check it out after the party.

Clay and his girl, Mad

Scratch is known for their pies- this is the lemon one and it was delish!

Jack thoroughly enjoyed his donut muffin. Who wouldn't enjoy a donut muffin?

Playing outside

We also did a little shopping and found these beauties for $3! Every girl needs a pair of gold hitops!

We had a great weekend and felt reassured that our little tribe might actually be manageable in public :) We'll keep you updated!

Baby doll obsession

I spend my days trying to divert Madeline's attention from Virginia Ann. She has a newfound obsessions with her baby dolls and that helps me alot!

Pushing her doll and bear in the stroller

Feeding baby doll in her new highchair from Jay and Jen
Sitting on the bottom bunk (wishing I would let her sleep there!)

My mom, Shannon and Maeve went to NYC last weekend and visited the American Girl Doll store. Mimi got Madeline her first AGD- a Bitty Baby and it came in the mail today. Madeline is so excited to have a new baby. We fed and swaddled her immediately. When I asked her what we should name the baby she said "Ginia" which is what she calls Virginia Ann. We are going to work on the name...

Two months!

WARNING: There is alot of cuteness in this post!!

Our sweet Virginia Ann is two months today and the time is flying! I have not been good about taking pictures or blogging but really people, I don't have much free time or free hands. VA rarely gets put down b/c of of her well-intentioned but overzealous sister who would like no more than to carry her around like her own baby doll. Needless to say, I play defense all day long :) Virginia Ann continues to be a sweet, sweet baby. She is so chill, loves to sleep about 4 hours at a time, eats and then sleeps some more. When she is awake she is very happy and just watches all the craziness around her. We are getting lots of smiles lately and it melts me. Her cheeks are filling out and she is very long. She is such a snuggly baby!

An example of how chill she is-while waiting to be put down for her nap- I got a phone call, then Madeline needed a drink and Jack needed a snack- I look down and she has fallen asleep sitting in the crook of my elbow. Chaos all around and she decides to check out. I love this girl!!!