Uncle Dale's visit

Back in the BEGINNING of January (see, I am super behind!)... Paul's brother Dale was doing a training for his job in Atlanta during the day but was able to come hang out with us at night. It was so nice to see him and have some time to talk and catch up. The boys were in love with their fun uncle Dale instantly. They have asked for him many times since he left too. Although they usually call him auntie Dale (through no fault of Dale's, these boys have way too many aunts and not as many uncles... :)

Here he is meeting his newest niece. Lullaby had just turned 4 months old in these pictures. Isn't she HUGE? :)

Paul and Dale on the day he left back to Houston. We miss you Dale. It was fun having you.

Piedmont Park

We visited Piedmont Park in Atlanta one Sunday afternoon. We stayed there until it got dark and loved every minute of it. It is a HUGE park. The boys just ran and explored and hardly stopped to take a breath. Sakina was excited to get out again.

Lullaby got in some good daddy time. She was cold and tired but so interested in looking around she wouldn't fall asleep.

There was a really fun drum circle there that we watched for a while too, although I don't have any pictures of them. One of the things I love about Sundays is all the time we get together as a family. We have been having such a good time all together.

sweet Matix

This day at the park was COLD. We only went as a reward for how good the boys were on a shopping trip that turned out to be a bit on the looooong side. But then when we got out of the car, we realized it was too cold. The boys still had fun and I got to snuggle with a cute baby.

We only stayed for a little while, but that was just long enough for Matix to say, "You're a so fun mommy." Which made it worth it. :)

on a walk

We are loving where we live here in Georgia. Our house is in a older and poorer area of town which means GREAT rent and it also means we live close to a few fun places, like the library. Hooray! The library is literally around the block from us. Here we are on a late walk to return a few books. Sakina is always happy when she gets to join us. Lullaby was up past her bedtime and looked surprised the whole time.

Typical Hawken, stopping to find the perfect stick. He tells us all the time that he is "fighting all the bad guys!" He is really into bad guys lately.

Matix and I had fun making faces while we waited for the others to catch up.

I am so in love with life right now. It is challenging, for sure, but oh so amazing. These kids learn and grow so much everyday, and I am loving every minute of it.

cute baby

Lullaby LOVES her bath, she loves getting her diaper changed, she loves getting dressed, she loves any time she gets ALONE with momma, which doesn't happen too often... :) After her bath, we make faces and give kisses in the mirror. She loves to see herself and will coo and giggle at that cute baby she sees every time. :)

long day

We miss you Paul.

Because when Paul DOES have a day off or an afternoon free, we soak up every ounce of him we can... That's why days without him, like today, go so slow. Paul is currently doing his peds rotation and we are all loving his relaxed schedule. Today he was gone all day though (no fun). I swear this day has lasted for at least 41 hours already... I am SO wiped out. These boys kept me on my toes all day long. They had a few wonderful moments when they were playing outside in the backyard together, and Lullaby and I were inside skyping with my mom... But things went downhill soon after naps. I had a million errands to run and quite a few places to stop. Thanks to google maps, one of the addresses was wrong, and took me 10 minutes out of my way, for a store that wasn't there. Great. 10 minutes without 3 kids in the back isn't a big deal, but with 3 kids, it's a colossal waste of time. In one of the stores, Hawken ran into the "employee only" areas (giggling the whole time), and I had to convince the worker to let me back there to get him. Lullaby wasn't all angel either... She decided that the check out line was the right place to demand to be fed (where I was currently waiting to talk to a manager - long story there too, ps, I hate Walgreens' customer service). Matix threw a fit when I told him he could only have 1 sample of the all natural ice cream at Whole Foods. What a terrible mom, right? "No Matix, it's almost dinner, and you already had some ice cream." To which he screamed, "I LOVE ICE CREAM! I NEED MOOOOOORE!" Cute. Anyway, we are home now, all 3 are sleeping, and I am seriously considering calling it a night (it's currently 7:21pm) I know... I'm THAT cool. Good night. :)

Updates

The latest and the greatest:

Paul: Currently doing his pediatric rotation with an AMAZING doctor. She is wonderful, the schedule she gives the students s wonderful, everything. Paul (and I) love her. Let me know if you want her information, if you are doing a rotation in Atlanta. Paul also finished building a HUGE play set for the kids in the backyard. It has 2 towers, 1 slide, 1 bridge, 3 swings, monkey bars, ladders, ropes, you name it. It is super fun and the kids are in love. He also helps a TON with the chores around the house because of all the extra time he has been given (and because he is a rockstar of a husband). Oh, and he is studying for STEP 2, which he has scheduled for next month.

Jessie: Trying to catch up on this blog, wash dry and fold the endless amounts of laundry, do all the grocery shopping, organize the playroom and all the other rooms in the house, clean the bathrooms, change dirty diapers, cook healthy meals for the family, teach 2 boys how to behave, listen, follow directions, numbers, colors, letters, writing, manners, etc. I am also trying to convince Lullaby to slow down on this whole growing up thing. She is going way too fast for me to keep up.

Matix: Has been testing his limits a lot lately. Saying no, talking back, and not responding when talked to. This drives me CRAZY, but he is learning and I am staying consistent, so I am sure he will outgrow it. On a good note, he can write his name without any prompts now, and is learning how to write Hawken name, so far "H" is the only letter in Hawken's name that he remembers and can do alone. He has also been into telling stories, about when Paul and I were little, or silly stories about everyone breaking their bones and getting casts, or about Jesus getting nails in his hands (he is very concerned about Jesus after we talk about this and always prays that night for "Jesus' hand ouchies to be all better" cute.)

Hawken: Is very into faking getting hurt, so he can ask for a blessing. At night he will say he can't sleep and really needs a special blessing because his head, or eyes, or armpits hurt. He has also been caught "giving blessings" to Sakina after he accidentally steps on her paw. He says "Be still Kina, I give you bwesswings now, and you feel all better!" He is such a sweetheart. He also likes to hear stories and will throw in his requests before you are allowed to start, "Tell about when I broke my eyes, and dis finger and dis finger and dis finger. Tell that story!" So then we have to be sure to incorporate that somehow into the story. After being asked to do something, he often responds like this, "Okay mommy, I will do it. I pomise!" Where he got the I promise thing from, I have no idea, but it's SO cute to hear.

Lullaby: Still spits up, but only occasionally, which is GREAT. That really is her only flaw. She is a dream baby. She takes three naps a day and sleeps at night from 6pm until 7 or 8am, only waking to nurse, then right back to sleep. She started wiggling around more when she is on her tummy, trying to get to a toy, but no real movement forward or backward. This was a nice surprise since at this age, Hawken was already on all fours and starting to crawl. Lullaby talks and coos when she wakes up from a nap. Such a pleasant, happy, smily little girl. I love her to pieces and really only have to give her a bath each night to wash off all the kisses she was covered in by all of us throughout the day.

busy Hawken

This child never slows down. Upon looking through some pictures of a day at the park, I realized EVERY picture of Hawken was of the back of him. He was running or climbing or skipping or hopping in every direction except mine. :) He is so busy.

I love his little tiny waist that can never seem to keep his pants up, and his underpants peeking out. Adorable, for now... And this is his standard outfit: His "Cars" shoes and his "Cars" coat. He will not leave the house in anything else.

money

Since we are trying to budget our family of 5 (plus 1 dog) on 1 student's loan money, it can get TIGHT. Money is always an issue. I have looked into several ways to make it work better with a little more wiggle room in case we would like to buy something frivolous, like, new shoes for Matix... I know, we live on the wild side! Well, it started with craigslist. There is a section on there for FREE things. Items people are just giving away. Because of that we got 2 backyard play sets (Paul has built a fortress, pictures to come), a little tykes slide, 2 plastic kid chairs, a little kid plastic picnic table, TONS of Thomas the train stuff, mega bloks, cars, a couch, a highchair, and more... crazy, I know. All the things we have received have been in good condition too. It has been wonderful.

My next biggest problem was our grocery bill. Although we hardly ever eat out, and I was shopping mostly sale items, our groceries were too high. So I looked into couponing, like real, is this lady serious with her 30 coupons?, couponing. I don't have all the lingo figured out yet, but I have been able to find a few great deals, not only on our groceries, which have been cut in almost half, but on other items too like toothpaste, dog food, dog treats, toys, and games. Who knew you could watch sales and match them with high dollar coupons for steals? This was my first FREE trip. Literally I paid NOTHING. I have done many trips since then, all with great results.

And now I am addicted. I watch the sales and match my coupons and I am in the process of making a binder with all the coupons. I love it. I really am addicted, but what better thing to be addicted to than saving money? Right? :)

experiment

The boys have been really excited about science-y stuff lately. I found this experiment on pintrest. By the way, I hate pintrest. Well, really I love it, but I hate the crazy amount of time that is sucked out of me whenever I go on there. There are way too many cool things to see and try out. So here it is, our experiment. We started with milk, dish soap, food coloring, bowls and spoons. All things we already had in our house.

Pour milk into bowl, add drops of food coloring. Matix was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He thought this was the whole experiment. :)

Then put a drop of soap on the end of the spoon. You can use toothpicks if you want, or your finger maybe...? Then touch that soapy spoon on the color drops and watch them spread away from the soap. It is a really cool reaction.

Eventually both boys ended up just stirring it all up into a solid color. Hawken wanted to paint with it, so then I let them "paint" their paper towels. Simple fun.

We did it a couple times before I decided that we wasted enough milk for one day. Here is the end result of one of Matix's. Cool, right?

baby doll

Lullaby got this baby doll for Christmas, and another baby doll just because, and she LOVES them. They are some of her favorite things to chew on. :) Lately, she chews on everything. These dollies though, she sometimes just snuggles. Adorable.

worms

It's when we are outside that I see the boys' creativity and curiosity come to life. One day we spent HOURS digging up worms. Tiny little worms were hiding under the leaves, and the boys, especially Matix, were fascinated. After finding one, pulling it up, and laying it on the slide for closer inspection, Matix would talk to the worm, telling him all kinds of secrets. Those lucky worms. He watched them wriggle and move so carefully, like he was taking notes. He would gently put them back on the ground and start the search for another. I loved watching him this day.

Lullaby's book

Lullaby's book is coming along nicely... Considering I only have to take 1 posed picture per month, it's the perfect project for me right now. I feel like I am so busy all day everyday, and have very little to show for it. :) I guess that's life with three wild kiddos. Here is the photo for 4 months (January 10th)... Even though it doesn't usually snow here, most places in January, it does, so I stuck to the norm. Which photo is better?

My new dilemma... my favorite editing site picnik.com is closing in another couple months, and I am super bummed. Supposedly they are linking up with google+, but not with all the features. Sigh.

river park

We call this park, "river park" because it has a river than runs along one side. You actually have to cross the river to get to the play area from the parking lot. The boys thought that was pretty much the best part of the whole day. :) Plus, there are trees here in Georgia that drop these crazy looking seed pods. They are hard to walk on, but super fun to toss over the rails of the bridge to the fish below.

The boys enjoyed yet another really well kept and EMPTY play ground. As soon as the schools started letting out, a few more kids came, but until then, it was just us.

Also, they have a baseball diamond, tennis courts, basketball courts and there is this new (?) game. It is called "the NEOS wall" and it says it's a "light catching game"... What? Has anyone ever seen this before? Is it fun? After I took a picture of Matix in front of it, he asked to take my picture in front of it too. This is what Lullaby and I look like these days. You never see one without the other. :)