Letters I should send:

Dear Second Child,
Getting you down for a nap is ... exhausting.  Having you sneak out of your room into mine, climb INTO Millaker's pack-n-play, and waking her up is not my definition of "napping."  To add insult to injury you were rubbing Decitin on her head when I came in saying, "Look, Mommy! Lotion!"  Dear, dear, dear child.  Just. Nap.
Sincerely,
Your tired Mama.

Dear Power of Moms,
I love you.  I love your resources.  I love the new skills I'm learning as a podcast editor.  I love the articles, podcasts, deliberate mothering ideas etc.  I love the new ideas and inspiration you send my way.  Thank you, thank you, thank you...
Sincerely,
A grateful mom.

Dear Four-Year-Old Son,
You are brilliant.  If you get too much smarter, I'll swap you places and you can be the thinker and planner for the day.  Please stop out-thinking my disciplining and distraction ideas.  You should know, I love when your eyes sparkle when Dad gets home and how you don't consider anything but wrestling and the "tickle game" as playing.  EVERY night you cry that you haven't gotten to play with Dad very much even though he's spent the last hour with you.  You are a funny kid.
Love,
Your out-witted mother.

Dear, Dear Millaker,
How DO you smile so much?  I want to pick up this habit.  Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is drawn to your smile.  When you're not smiling you are sticking your tongue out.  I think I'll pass on that habit.  Thank you for brightening my day.
Sincerely,
Your smiler-in-training mother.

Dear Cardboard box,
Who knew you could provide SO MANY HOURS of entertainment (and arguing) for young children.  I would keep you around were you not bent, hashed, ripped, and teetering on the side of the source of too much arguing. 
Till the next Amazon shipment arrives,
A grateful mother of entertained children.

Prayers

This is Eddie's newest prayer.  It is repeated several times a day.

" Heavenly Father.  Thank you Mommy-Dad.  Thank you help me not minding Mommy-Dad.  Thank you food.  Thank you... (insert anything she can see: i.e. my feet are cold, the table, etc).  Name.  Jesus Christ.  Amen.

King's favorite part:  He and I are a single thing.  "Mommy-Dad."  A unit.  We are addressed this way frequently.

My favorite part: Thank you help me NOT minding Mommy-Dad.   Wait a minute....

6 million and 4

Eddie wants to hold Millaker 

Classic.  What 90% of our photos look like:

Getting better.

 There we go!

 My tongue-lovin' girl.

 And just one more.  I can't get over that face.  It cracks me up!

Too funny

 

For the record.  Guy asks to play Angry Birds every. single. day.  Poor chap only sees these birds once a week if he's lucky.  Mean mom.

Bubble Baths

King loves a good play on words..

When the four year old takes pictures...

 ... you get this:

 my knees.

half of Millaker.

Mill and I.

Yeah, we're working on that fantastic posture of mine...

His cute feet.

 

Eddie eating.

  

Nice.

Sleeping

A few weeks ago we put Eddie in bed and headed downstairs for some quiet adult time!! Now, when we first put her in a toddler bed a while back she stayed put!!  I should have knocked on wood.  Now it takes the promise of two stickers if she will STAY in bed.  Anyhow.  I digress.  Back to the story.  When King and I went upstairs to go to bed, King started laughing. 
"Did you see this?" he asked. 
"See what?"
He pointed to Eddie.  Fast asleep.  On the rocking ottoman. 

Cute little stinker.

A Week to Remember

I had a fabulous weekend.
Fabulous.
Make that a fabulous entire week.
Plans sure changed a lot, and it was crazy with a capital K, but I loved it.
To make a very long story short, I have started a new, fun opportunity for me.  I get to help edit podcasts for the Power of Mom's website.  Love it.  LOVE.  This is something I have been looking for!  Not only do I get to help (in a very tiny way) a cause that is bigger than me, it is a cause that I believe in!! Furthermore, it is something that I can do from home- something that really takes very little time, and I can do it while my children are sleeping!! I can contribute!
Accepting this opportunity meant a bit of a schedule shuffle last week to make all of our plans work.  Our camping trip with cousins got bumped to earlier in the week.  We spent the night at the sand dunes and think we all STILL have sand in our ears.  Cleaning out the dutch ovens this morning reminded me of how much I like "camping food."  Lets eat dutch oven every night, ey?  I think I might gain 30 pounds if we do...  Guy and Eddie sure loved the massive sand dunes.  I (of course) forgot the camera!!  I hope to steal pictures from our cousins camera- I'll post them when I get them!  They played and played and trecked up those dunes!  BOY HOWDY were they dirty!! Millaker stayed in my arms.  I'd prefer she not eat all the sand...
Thursday we packed up and headed off to my moms to clean up!  We had one last chance to visit with my sister and her family before they packed up VERY early in the morning and headed home.
Friday I took Millaker (leaving the hubby with the oldest two) and headed to a wonderful, inspiring two day Mom Retreat in Park city where we talked about how to take care of our needs- really focusing on different, often overlooked aspects of our lives, how to create better family systems including family laws (rules and consequences), the family economy and the family culture.  We also spent a whole morning learning how to better organize our minds and lives so we could spend more time being there for our family!!  Wow.  Amazing doesn't cover this!  Not only did I meet and rub shoulders with people (moms!) that inspire me, but I SAW in real-time so many small services.  A sweet mother helped hold Millaker so I could jot down notes and give my aching arm a rest.  Sweet moms didn't flinch when she babbled, wailed, or smelled.  It was bliss.  I came home on an emotional high and am excited to implement things I've learned!! I felt so inspired to work harder, to not quit when being a mom is tough, to really BE THERE and enjoy the moments that arise instead of overlook them in the business of life.
My head feels busy, busy, BUSY!  But I'm excited.  Its the good kind of busy.  It makes me love life even more.

Renamed!

I give up.  Royal titles are few in number.  We're going with nicknames they get on a regular basis.
The boy (previously known as Mason/ Big Brother etc) will henceforth be known as: Guy.
The middle child (aka Lady) is now Eddie.
Baby Girl: Millaker.

... Don't Ask.

King and I might stay the same...
    
            for now...

Editing software is nice...

Picture attempt 6 million and 3.

On Easter we tried to get a few pictures of the three kiddos together.  Wouldn't a picture of all three dressed, with hair combed, and all smiling be nice?  It would.  In theory.

It didn't happen.  But here's our attempts.

Brother gives a kiss.

 Hey you! Third child! Over here!

 No, over HERE!

This is as close as we got...

Ok.  You win.  Photo session over.

Before I quit.  Though they were taken the day before, these two pictures of Brother and Lady with King make me melt just a tiny bit.  Oh, I love them! 

And while the oldest two happily hunted, the littlest did her favorite thing:

Yes, we have TWO finger suckers.... lucky us.

Must...eat...something!

Lady, as you know, has a fettish for sucking her fingers.  Despite our best efforts we can't shake the habit.  Vinegar, Tabasco Sauce, Long shirts with the sleeves sewn up and early bedtimes have all failed.  This morning Aunt A suggested to her, "Why don't you suck your toes instead?"

She tried.

For Dad...

A recent conversation with my father went something like this:
Dad: How come you never update your blog?
Me: We see you all the time! You don't need updated pictures!! ... and I have three kids...
Dad: So you can do it with two, but no more blogs with three ey?
Me: ... uh...something like that...
Sorry.
In my defense!!!:  1)  We DO see dad lots.  2)  Three words: Weekly family email.  2.5) 90% of the people who read this blog GET the family email... 3) We're improving and the future looks bright!  Why?  We've hit a HUGE milestone around here!!!  BABY IS SIX MONTHS OLD!!  I don't know what about the first six months is so difficult for me.  Oh wait, yes I do... mom doesn't get enough sleep.  So my Dad won't panic that I don't like my children, I'll clarify.  Newborns are cute.  Extremely so.  This baby number three is the smily-est we've had yet!!!  And its a good thing too- because moms (me) are generally in a severely sleep-deprived, irrational state the first few months.  But then little miracles happen.  They learn to smile.  They follow you around the room with their eyes.  They coo.  They get so excited to see you that their whole body lurches in the cute out-of-control way that babies have.  Then they start reaching for you!  Somewhere in this process they start napping for real!!  And around five to six months we start to realize that we're sleeping more!  AND ITS A BEAUTIFUL THING!!!

So, dad, here is your update!!  We're doing good!!  Life is great!!  The oldest two are figuring out playing together. Still.  Some moments are great, some I wonder if they plan on being best friends or mortal enemies when they grow up. 

 The good news is they are full of incredibly funny things to say.  Its nice that Lady is finally a talker.  Our favorite words for her are: Spot! (Now upgraded to, "That's MY SPOT!!"  This is heard EVERY morning when the kids pile into our bed to wake us up!)  SELF! Upgraded to, "Do it my my self!"  This is also heard daily.  Multiple times I might add.  Brother is becoming a four year old comedian.  He loves to play with words, rhyme, and in general is laughing about something he's said or trying to make me smile.  He is a huge help with baby (who really needs a nickname here doesn't she...) and is always getting her a toy or playing with her.  Although she CAN roll over, I fear she might never do it on a regular basis because brother will get her anything she needs as often as she needs it.  We're raising queen number two around here!! Her big sister has already claimed the first title.

On a final note: we were sent THIS link the other day and it has become a FAVORITE of both the kids and myself.  Lady constantly asks to watch "movie" and sing.  This is what she's asking for.  I find myself singing it around the house too...

 Have a great day dad!  See you this afternoon!