Time for my quarterly update, I suppose.
I can't believe how quickly time is going by these days. I felt like I updated this blog maybe week before last? Actually, it was January. And before that October.
So, three kids has sent our little world into warp speed. I say goodnight (for the fifth time) to the girls on Sunday night and it seems almost immediately we're waking up to Saturday.
We are not doing too much outside of daily home life and many days are nearly identical. Still, post kid-bedtime, I have about two ounces of creative thought power, enough for two complete sentences or the Times crossword with a cup of tea. And that has been a nice way to wind down, but it means this blog stagnates and come December, I will have no idea what we did all year and you will receive a Christmas letter filled with random trivia I picked up from Will Shortz.
So, moving forward. Here is an update on the bitty baby.
Rachel had her 6mos appointment and is shaping up like her dad. 25% in weight, 75% in height. My little string bean.

She is the easiest thing I do all day. I think that is a built-in on all third child installments? She's starting to sit up on her own but predictably falls over if I dash for the camera.

She rolls about in her crib, but stays put on the floor. Sonja is not allowed on the playmat so I think Rachel views it as a safe zone and wanders not.

She makes us smile, a lot.

I think she is the best baby in the world and I tell her so fifty times a day. =)

Sonja bear. She is the kid in the center attempting to touch the crocodile. Need I say anything more? =)

Sometimes I do not know what to do with this little girl. But most of the time all she really needs is for me to sit down and read "Good Dog, Carl." (Those books make me wonder if Carl really could exist. "Now Carl, I'm going out *by myself*. You take care of these children and sic Social Services should they knock on the door.")
Anyway, Sonja has two loves. Rachel and her pink baby. Her pink baby doll smells like cupcakes and Sonja can no longer fall sleep without her pink baby directly under her nose. Her pink baby also attends all meal times and the child cannot eat if the pink baby is not sitted up and facing her. Her pink baby needs to be sitted up against the wall for all bathroom events. I do not permit Sonja to take her pink baby outside our house, other than in the car, because I don't quite know what would happen if we lost her. It is very sweet how consistently attentive an almost three year old is with her dolly. (Except the time she stuck play-doh in her eyes. A spa treatment?)

Taken at 11PM when our little insomniac called down the stairs, "Come see me!"
The Sonja we know and love...

And now, Anna.

Anna has matured in the past six months, faster than I can stand.

She is eager to learn, everything, and has six hundred questions about jet planes, marshmallows and punctuation. We are honestly planning on giving her an encyclopedia for her birthday, as a gift to ourselves. She spends hours a day reading to herself, and another hour reading "Good Dog, Carl" to her little sister.

She loves the idea of school so we began a penmanship workbook several weeks ago.

I know she would be interested in doing more schoolwork, but she can never go back to these "goof off all day as you like" days so I'm not going to start anything else until fall. Even then, I think we'll just continue penmanship and start a little math workbook. I need to blog about this whole homeschool gig...another time.
For now, I'm just enjoying these three girls, and Sonja's pink baby.

Sonja bear. =)

To acquire a tree.
The past two years, we have found our fir up by the PA state line. The farm is lovely, but the owners failed to realize that Christmas trees continue to grow after December and that new ones take years to grow.
So:


Also, this tree was very sappy. Sap in the girls' hair, on the rug, all over the tree skirt. I don't want to make any rash decisions, but an artificial is gaining appeal...

Winter break of my sophomore in college, my mom picked out a Thomas Kinkade cross stitch pattern and asked me to make it for her. I made excellent progress during the break, but stalled out during the school year. My mom only asked that I finish it before I got married. In 2005, she asked that I finish it before we have our first child. Or second. Or third.
Here is the photo of the completed project SHE made me...and my slacking progress.

Mom, before I'm a grandma, I promise.

Port Discovery in Bmore.
Anna is in the bubble.

Geometry with Grandpa.

Plumbing with their Pa.

I Love Lucy: the chocolate factory.

Super fun place. If you want to go, I have extra tickets...

Check check? One, two?
Boy, it has been awhile. My Grandpa visited, then my parents came up, then we went to PA for Thanksgiving, then the holidays swamped me. Oh, and our computer died. And I would rather get an arm chair than another computer so...
Anyway.
This is most of the gang in Georgia for Christmas:

Cousins and two aunts.

An epic Christmas morning.

Sonja finally warmed up to Uncle Rob...who secreted her cookies at any time of day.

We had a Christmas celebration here the week before Christmas. It was very, very exciting:

On New Year's Day, we had another celebration with the Schwartzes.

I plan on posting more pics...
I'll be back.

Our bitty baby is two months old, already.


She started rolling over from tummy to back this week.

She's got the cutest little dimple I ever did see.

We get pretty excited about these smiles. Way too excited to focus the camera...

She is settling into a predictable routine, but has yet to sleep through the night- she wakes up to nurse sometime between 2-4AM. If I went to sleep when she does, I'd be getting two 4-5 hour stretches on either side. If. I. went. to. bed.

Her sisters are very into her.

Speaking of, these two are nuts. Here they are going to sleep in the playhouse.

I think Anna gave up and crawled into her bed pretty quickly. Sonja has spent a couple nights in there. We've become pretty lax about their sleeping arrangements. Maybe a month ago, they agreed to switch bunks so Sonja sleeps on top now, when she sleeps in her bed, that is. (One evening, we went upstairs and found her on the bedroom floor, another time in the hall...) Never a dull moment.
Okay, MY bedtime. Night, folks!

Welp, it is Monday and for the first time in many moons we are hitting the pavement at a dead sprint. I mean it. Except about the running part, which is metaphorical.
Our dinner for tonight is already made. I made a beef stew last night and put in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to develop. A completely unrelated fact- we had cereal for dinner last night because the beef stew wasn't ready. Anyway, Chris was home most of this morning to meet the electrician, which meant I could take a shower in the AM and also that our house is less Twilight Zone-y. The electrician coming meant that I tidied up everywhere yesterday because you never know where an electrician might go. Additionally, having an electrician around, I didn't feel I could chat with my mother in my usual Monday fashion, so bathed the children and worked on projects until he left and I could return to standard operations.
So, my clean home, self and children, dinner already made, projects worked on Monday is probably an isolated event. Unless we always have cereal on Sundays and electricians on Mondays.
Anyway, the real reason I came on here was to put up pics for the relations. These are from a visit to a local farm last Saturday.
Anna had been asking for weeks about milking a cow. This was the best they had, but she seemed satisfied with the experience and hasn't asked since.

The girls rode horses and Sonja uncharacteristically participated and asked to be on the big horse instead of the little pony.


They had a very fun bouncy obstacle course.

The final wall was a little much for Sonja and most of the little kids, so Chris went in and tossed kids up for awhile.



The Saturday before the farm festival, in which we went to the farm on the wrong day so played at the park.




Alright then, I'm down to one kid still asleep, so things are getting crazy here.

What we've been up to the last couple weeks...
Playing with Rachel. =)

My Anne Geddes moment.

Napping.

I turned 28 and don't know how I managed the candles before children.

Anna and Sonja started taking ballet.

Anna adores her teacher and endeavors to please her.

Sonja sidles away from her teacher and strives to avoid any physical contact. She does like the bears used in class.

Rachel made it to one month...

...despite persistent loving from a certain sibling.

The girls are still very enamored with their baby sister.

And we're generally learning to live life with three chilidren. Currently, that means I type one handed, which is slow going and means this post is done. I plan to be back soon. Although, knowing how well my "plans" go these days, that means nothing. Cheers for now.