Charlotte's 2nd birthday and random pics

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Birthday Girl on her new bike

Playing with her balloons

Reading with Emmy

Getting ready for the party!

Chowing down

Cooper eating his favorite...blueberries!

Looking for Easter Eggs...a little practice round.

Found one!

Down the slide

Birthday girl with rosy cheeks.

The cake...tres leches! Yummy.

Happy Birthday to Charlotte!

Enjoying her cake

Mom is always taking pictures

Jackson recreated the cake so he could blow out candles. :)

presents

Charlotte and Mommy...cannot believe she is 2!


Random pictures I just found...

he falls asleep everywhere

pumpkin patch from the fall

hilarious face from Jacks

reading with grandmommie


Well, we celebrated Charlotte's 2nd birthday a week early so we wouldn't be trying to party while I am having her baby sister! It was so fun to have family here and she enjoyed all the company. This will be the last year that she has a party all to herself most likely! :) We sure love our little lady with all of her independence and yet sweet demeanor. Cannot imagine our family without her...our little angel. Happy Birthday Char Char!!

Waiting.

I am 39 weeks as of yesterday, and now we are just waiting for our baby girl to arrive. It is always difficult at this point in pregnancy to imagine how much our life will change as soon as she comes. I have once again found a rhythm in our little life with Jackson and Charlotte, and I know we will find a new one with baby #3, but who knows what that will look like. I do feel peaceful this week, knowing that so many things have changed since I had Charlotte. We get to bring a baby home to a house for the first time (that is reason to celebrate)! And Jackson and Charlotte are best friends, so they entertain each other and are very helpful to me. So hopefully this will be a pleasant transition for me.

We had Charlotte's birthday party last weekend (one week early) and she will be 2 on Monday. It has been a quick two years, but I have enjoyed every minute of Chars as a baby. She just seems to have turned into a little girl overnight, talking up a storm and having definite opinions about things. :) We moved her into a toddler bed on Sunday, so for the first time in 3 years, our little travel bed is not being used...at least for 5 months that is. I think once she potty trains, I will not be able to deny how much my little ones are growing up.

So we are soaking up that last few days as a family of four and getting as much sleep as possible! She will be here any day now!!

Solo-parenting

Well as of 7am this morning, B is on reserve duty and I am taking on the kiddos alone. Jackson assured me several times that he will take care of me while daddy is gone. And I am starting to think that simply means he wants to sleep on Brandon's side of the bed at night. Little stinker is always ahead of the game. Honestly, it is not a big change for me to be with the kids all day and take care of the household tasks, but I am telling you that from 5pm on it gets pretty rough. Baths, bedtime, and simply keeping two munchkins with crazy energy under control at the end of the day is INTENSE...especially when I am quite prego and limited in things I can do (like bending down or picking them up). Oh well, they will have to hold out until B comes home to play chase and just deal with what I can offer for now. I think we can manage. It did help that we went to a birthday party at inflatable wonderland today. Talk about wearing everyone out so we can go to bed early. Speaking of which...I am heading that way now. Monday morning here we come!

Gearing up.

Can you believe I am 34 weeks prego? I thought my pregnancy with Charlotte was short because I thought I was 13 weeks and was really 20 weeks at my first appointment, but this one seems to have gone by just as fast. I guess with two little ones running around and life happening, the weeks just move by and all the details of pregnancy become a blur. Alas, here we are with 6 weeks (or less) to go, and once again I am feeling a bit nervous. I was sad just before Charlotte was born because I was so used to my little world where Jackson took regular naps and we spent all our time together. It seemed like a tornado was bearing down on our peaceful existence. And now (as usual) Charlotte is a precious part of that peaceful little world and given her personality, she really never caused much disturbance. But of course I feel some of the same anxiety with number 3 entering the scene so soon because once again we have reached a somewhat (very relative) peaceful routine where both kids sleep, eat what we eat, and play together well. I don't think I will ever rid myself of the desire to have my life be predictable and manageable, but God sure likes to shake things up for our little family to remind me that He is faithful and will provide what I need (energy, patience, sanity...you name it). This brings me to another topic that has been on my mind lately: planning.

If I am honest with myself, I have to admit that I am a planner at heart. But ever since my dad died, I just don't have the same desire to plan things out that I once did. That feeling of the rug being pulled out from under your world does something to you...changes you really. Suddenly it is exhausting to try to think through and plan everything which in my case has been a good thing because I would be a very frustrated individual if I depended too much on my plans for my life, family, etc. When people ask me what our plan is for kids, vacations, or really anything, I find myself sincerely saying that I don't have one because I don't. I am sure with the way our first 4 years of marriage have gone, you would never guess that this is the case. :)

Ok, now onto the rest of this crazy crew. Brandon has a two week reserve duty coming up and although it will be hard to take on the munchkins by myself, I am grateful that he can go before I have the baby rather than after. At least I can still contain the kids with my two hands instead of being completely outnumbered. The kids will miss him though, of that I can be sure. Their favorite game at the moment is tag with Daddy (where he is perpetually "it" of course). I just like to watch from the couch because quite frankly nothing makes me laugh more than Charlotte running at full speed...adorable. She is no longer the quiet little lady that she once was. She plays by herself really well, but she lets her opinion be known and can defend herself from Jackson as if she was his age. He of course is 100% in older brother mode...very protective, trying to teach her about everything, and teasing her when he can. But it warms my heart to see how much they love each other...I will soak that up while it lasts because it is oh so sweet.

I may start blogging what Jackson says to me more regularly as well because a) he is a talker and b) he has the most hilarious take on life and things around him. Sometimes I think I am talking to a teenager in a 3 year old body. Our latest discussion was about where the baby will sleep when she is born. Jackson goes to sleep in his room every night but Brandon has a little pallet set up in our room "just in case J gets scared" and he ends up there every morning around 5 or 6am. Now I told him that he will have to stay in his room when the baby arrives because I will be up and down with her and cannot be having the whole family sleeping in our room. His suggestion? Well, he thinks the baby should sleep on the pallet with him and that I can simply take her into the other room to feed her during the night and promptly return her to his pallet when I am done. Right, Jackson...that is going to happen. His next option was for her to sleep in the closet. Nice. Anything to ensure he doesn't lose his pallet privileges. When I have these discussions with him, all I can think about is how much he is like Brandon. Charlotte just wants to cuddle and read books...much more like me. Wonder what #3 will be like??