our christmas

Merry Christmas!

another train post

We live in a town with one of the few remaining steam powered trains. Needless to say the train is a big deal here! The children love watching it going by, and riding it even more. Right after a snowstorm last week we went on the train for the Polar Express.

Gabrielle was just a little excited to go.

We don't do Santa but that doesn't stop the girls from getting excited to see a Santa!

Waiting for Santa to get on the train.

I was quite surprised when Gabrielle crawled out of her seat to go dance with the chefs.

lessons

Madeline has her first day of snowboard lessons tomorrow. She spent tonight practicing getting her bindings off and on.

She is just a little excited!

I decided to start with snowboarding with Madeline. She is quite physical, I didn't see the need to go with skiing and then switch since she wants to snowboard instead of ski. My entire family snowboards including my father who averages 3 days a week in the winter and is quite the extreme boarder. Somehow I think Madeline will be a natural.

changes

Yes, I know I've been neglecting this blog lately, just when I think life can't get any busier then it does! So what have I been doing? Being a mom of 3 means that someone always needs something, someone is almost always still awake at night. Madeline needs 2 dozen muffins for school tomorrow or I get "conned" into baking gingerbread cookies for the entire school. The cat ate the ribbons on the tap shoes. There is always a dishwasher to load, laundry to fold, it really is amazing how much laundry we go through now as a family of 5.

All is going well, Julian is still a chunky, happy boy. Gabrielle has become our recent comedian, the things that come out of her mouth are amazing! She has developed a bit of a cursing problem, both Ryan and I are to blame for that one.... Her favorite word right now is "fuct", oops. Madeline is developing an attitude that would rival a teenagers, is almost 7 the new 12?

I got a job offer! And am going back to school, oh boy. I am short one measly class and then I will qualify to sit for the IBCLC exam. I have my thousands of clinical hours in that they require, and all other classes except one, so starting Jan 4th, I'll be working on that. My goal is to sit for the exam in 2010. About that job offer, I can't stop thinking about it so I'm taking that as a sign that I'll be accepting. WIC wants to start a breastfeeding program in their local clinic, I've been asked to run it. It will be difficult to get off the ground, I'll be in charge of hiring, training, and supervising the counselors, but once the program is up and running then I will be able to work mostly from home. Funding isn't arriving until March so until then, my time will be minimal. I'm hoping to be wrapping up with my class by the time the job is really switching into full gear.

I wasn't looking for a paid job, this one just fell into my lap. It really is too good to pass up, there are few jobs in the lactation profession in my area, almost none that would allow me to work mostly from home. This one is a perfect fit for me. Extra money is always nice but I'm doing this for me. I've been at home for 7 years now, LLL work for 5, I have been itching to do something professionally, hence the whole reason I decided to try to sit for the IBCLC exam in 2010. This job is something that I could very happily do for years and still mostly be with my children, while keeping my skills and work experience current.

Dec

Long story but we ended up with another kitty. She was another rescue, I have a soft heart for homeless animals. Jasmine and Cinnamon have become best buds. I think we are going to need a bigger chair soon!

Must keep playing, so tired! This little guy has this annoying habit of going to bed and then waking up shortly after to play again despite being exhausted. Last night he was falling asleep standing up but kept on.

turkeys and tinkerbell

We have some random illness passing its way through the house right now. Put of sheer desperation yesterday, I finally got creative. I hate art projects with a passion, but I put aside that loathing and we created turkeys!

Here is our resident Tinkerbell. This is what happens when a 2 year and a 3 year decide to cut each others hair and then the 3 year later decides to finish the job.

Goodbye Dobbie

Our dog is gone. Dobbie was like our first child, we've had him since before we had children. He turned aggressive and starting biting Gabrielle, he went after her a couple weeks ago and bit her in the face, not breaking the skin, but it was enough that I knew he could not be around children anymore.

He had been a large part of our family, always there. I miss him very much

the kitchen

Turned out awesome. It was a long, painful project with several large bumps in the road. I will never take for granted having a working stove again! Next time we go to do a remodel though, I'll be highly tempted to move out for the duration....

Gabrielle is 3!

She is so thrilled. She keeps saying, " I am big!". We ran into a problem with her little party. Gabrielle doesn't have many friends, just siblings of Madeline's friends and considering that half of Durango seemed to have H1N1 (already it so we were good there!), we were lucky to have two sisters show up for her party.

Gabrielle saw this cake in a book and had to have it.

She is getting quite shy. After this pic was taken she almost burst into tears because we were singing to her, poor thing.

Julian turned 6 months old the day after. I just realized that this is the only pic I have of him for the last month. Oops. Such is the sad tale of a third child I suppose.

Gabrielle is taking a little dance class. She loves it. She begged to take a tap class like Madeline, but settled for any class!

Madeline is still taking her gymnastics but decided she wanted she take dance again. I signed her up for a ballet class, the first day she went, she insisted she was staying for the tap class right afterwards as well. She takes an hour and half straight of dance classes once a week. Her instructor suggested that she audition for the Nutcracker this weekend and she wants to! We'll give it a shot, I'm proud that she want to try but part of me doesn't want to commit to the schedule that they demand.

Julian will be 6 months old soon. He WANTS food. He is such an easy going baby, never crying but if you try to eat in front of him then he gets peeved. The girls never wanted food this bad, he will literally rip food out of my mouth. This morning he started sobbing because I was carrying food for the girls he wanted it. I gave him a little banana chunk in a mesh bag. He was utterly thrilled,. He sat in his saucer, shoving the banana in his mouth, and smacking his lips.

Julian isn't quite the little chunk like he used to be. He had a major growth spurt and lengthened out. I do miss the triple chin.

checking in

Wow. I can't believe it is fall already. Life with three children is quite busy, I feel like I have no free time anymore. What little time I do manage to have I have been busy doing LLL work. I have had more calls in the last few weeks then I have had in months, I spent hours and hours last week alone on the phone. Every time I walked in the door I had a message or two waiting for me. I love doing breastfeeding support but do wish it wasn't quite so time consuming.

Madeline is still thriving at her school. She is becoming quite the little social butterfly. Ryan went to eat lunch with her the other day. She gets her lunch (it was hot lunch day), and goes and sits with the 3rd and 4th graders. Ryan asks her why she isn't eating with her classmates, "but Daddy, these are my friends.". LOL.

we are in love

All of us, with Madeline's school. She loves it there! She actually got upset over the weekend because there was no school, never saw that one coming. Madeline did very well last week, she did vomit all in my car moments after picking her up the first day, from anxiety of that day I guess.

There are 12 students in her class, that is all the 1st and 2nd graders in the school. She is doing fine with the fact that only 2 of the 12 are girls, and the rest are boys. Ryan drops her off at 8:30am everyday, and I pick her up at 3pm. I have time today to blog because Ryan has two computers ready to install in her classroom so he was going to pick her up and do that.

Today was Pizza day, the 7th and 8th grade class order pizzas and serve the younger children. Every grade has their own day they spend outside, the older kids, spend days out instead of one day. So they might not go out for a couple weeks and then they take a 2-3 day backpack trip (how cool is that!), they fund those trips from Pizza day. Thursdays is hot lunch day where the parents take turns cooking for all the kids. The rest of the days, I'm having to get used to getting up really early and packing a lunch, yuck.

I can see Madeline staying at this school for a number of years, they go from preschool until 8th grade. It is such a warm, creative environment. We might pay extra for the next few years to have her go her and then to have her therapist come and work with her instead of going to the dyslexia school where everything is there but the focus is certainly more educational.

The Christian aspect of the school is very minimal. They have a weekly chapel time, where the Pastor comes in and tells a Bible story, which I'm fine with and that is it. I ended up knowing a number of parents and very few of them are religious, everyone just comes for all the wonderful programs/events the school does.

how to keep a house clean

You want to know how? Really?

Wait for it.....

If you cage your children all day then there are no messes to clean up!

With the house covered in sawdust, plaster, etc... from the kitchen project, I broke out a never used playpen for Julian to roll around in. Gabrielle loves climbing in there and playing with all his toys.

Madeline started school yesterday. She had a good first day, she enjoyed it and was excited to go back today. We are bribing the school to keep her as a student. Nope, but it feels like it. The school relies heavily on parent volunteers. Parents even vacuum classrooms, answer the phones in the mornings, etc... Ryan looked at the computers in the classrooms (ancient) and decided he needed to do something about it. He often gets given used but almost new computers when a company upgrades. He had 6 computers and a laptop to give the school so he has been busy wiping those out and loading programs on them. Two will go in Madeline's classroom and the laptop will be used on Wilderness Days. Once a week, the grades take turns spending half a day outside doing something.

These pictures got stuck together somehow, no idea about that. This picture actually doesn't show it well, but Julian looks so much like Ryan.

4 months old

Someone has been rolling all over the place. I caught him this weekend trying to very hard to scoot. Amazing what 4 months can do!

Gabrielle has been "showing" Julian things, like her laptop. A play one of course!

no time

There needs to be more hours in the day, I just can't get everything done anymore. Just one more child really makes it so that there just isn't any extra time. Or maybe it is just my non-sleeping children? Who knows but here once again is a long random post. The only reason I am finally able to do it is because I'm too tired to move off the couch right now! Julian has had roseola and has been a cranky little guy this week.

This was Madeline off to gymnastics camp one day. She went for two weeks 9-4pm so all day and did really well! It was her first all day thing she has ever done, great prep for school which starts next week. She is nervous but we have spent months preparing for this so I'm hoping that will pay off. We got to go into her classroom yesterday, she picked out her desk and her first job, she is caring for the class pets for a month.

Gabrielle is having to get used to be the "big sister" that is around most of the day without Madeline. You can tell how she feels about that....

For those that know Hannas, this is a size 100! Madeline wore this one when she was 4 years old! All of her 90's are too small, the dress in the previous picture is a 90 and barely fits as you can see.

This is our new house. Nah, but we did outgrow our garage. It was built in the 80's for tiny economy cars, there is simply no room for kids toys, bikes, and being able to park a car in there as well. We had this shed at a previous house of our's, a renter left it behind one year. We paid $180.00 to get it moved 20 miles, that was money very well spent! If you want to know how we moved it, on a tow truck of all things!

I was walking out to the trampoline last night with the kids and noticed the leaves are already changing. Sigh. Winter is coming.

This has been dinner lately, because of below.

Yep. That is my kitchen. What the picture doesn't show is that when they ripped out the ceiling, someone stood on the stove. It is a glass topped stove, and therefore cracked all 4 burners. I can't even brown meat to stick in the crockpot now. Hopefully the kitchen will be finished late next week. And apparently now we will be getting a new stove as well!

the big baby girl

I just had to buy Gabrielle all new shoes because I couldn't squeeze her feet into her old ones anymore, even in her sandals her toes were hanging over the edge. Her new size, size 9. She is 2.5 years old! Some of her 3T clothing just barely fits, the rest is too small, I know she will will solidly be in 4T when the weather starts to change here very soon. She is signed up for a Mommy and Me dance class next month, her leotard is the one that I bought Madeline last fall for her dance class then!

Sometimes I forget that she is just really 2. She has been having a difficult time recently I think that she has realized that this thing called a baby brother is here to stay. She is back in my bed sleeping and will only let me put her to sleep once again. She had happily been going to bed with Ryan for months.

Yesterday since Madeline was gone all day, I left Julian with our new babysitter and Gabrielle and I went off for the day. She had an entire day of her choosing, swimming, pizza, ice cream, a trip to the toy store, and a walk downtown. And yes, we have a babysitter now! I'm thrilled to pieces with her, while I haven't been able to leave Gabrielle with her yet (back to the Mama thing she has going on right now), she watches Julian and Madeline. If I have to leave all 3 then I've been arranging it for times where Ryan is here as well until Gabrielle gets more used to her. She is a college student and starts back 2-3 days a week soon but I've already booked her for 2 days a week, one day of watching someone for a various appointment or picking Madeline up for school and taking her to her activities and then another day of helping around the house. I should of done this years ago, after all now days we don't have that village around to help with children.

Gabrielle rolling around pretending to be like "brother Julian".

10 minutes

Given ample computer time, all of these pictures would of been their own blog entry and story. Now days my time is very limited and I'm making do with with what I can do before someone needs me, I give it 10 minutes.

This is what happens when you let a 2 year old pick out paint colors for her room. The picture doesn't quite give it justice, this a very bright blue. Ryan was still planning on sleeping in there with her only for the past week, Gabrielle will not let me out of her sight so she has been upstairs in my room with me.

Madeline made this the other night on the back deck.

Julian is quite the squishy baby, I love his little fat rolls! He is rolling over now, which seemed to happen much too quickly.

This is the reason Ryan and I didn't go out last night for our 8 year anniversary. He didn't want to be seen with me! And no this isn't from another ER trip. Although did you know you can get port wine stains lightened for less money then 5 stitches cost? Something is wrong with that. I wasn't born with a birthmark but I had one large area appear when I was a teen, over the last few years, more have appeared and they are getting darker. I'm getting tired of covering them with makeup and they bother me without so I am getting them lightened. They use a laser to do it, it doesn't hurt, feels like a shock rather, but because I bruise quite easily, I look like this. I go back in 6 weeks to see how many more sessions I will need.

We have finally been able to go to our local creek hangout. Once the big snow melt is over, the creek in town is a perfect place for the children to splash around in. It isn't a beach, but it will have to do living in landlocked Colorado.