Thanksgiving

Jesse and I hosted our first Thanksgiving at our house with his side of the family and I'd say it was a success: plenty of food, lots of family time, the girls all had a great time playing with two of their cousins, plenty of laughs, and even an attempted photo shoot with 5 little girls.  I had a wonderful time, and Jesse and I probably would agree that the thing we were most thankful for was that everyone was willing to come to us and we didn't have to travel.  Not that we were unwilling by any means...but with three little girls that are in various stages of traveling well, we were very appreciative that everyone came here this year.  

Matt and his family arrived Wednesday evening to get the party started.  Lily and Emma were so excited to see their cousin Kole that they alternated between looking out the window and calling each other Kole in their games of make believe.  What a fun age.  

Thanksgiving morning, Erin and I went to jog a Turkey Trot, which was super fun and we both want to make it a regular part of our Thanksgivings when we are able to celebrate together.  We left Jesse and Matt with 5 girls, 4 years old and under, and went for a lovely run.  Since I'm pathetically out of shape and Erin doesn't have hills in northern Michigan, we almost died but decided that it was a success since we didn't throw up at the end.  The small, silver linings.  We walked in the door and all 3 of mine had an immediate meltdown which took awhile to get under control, but Mom and Dad Hildebrand arrived somewhere in the middle of Emma's tantrum and everyone else settled down.  

playing in the snow in pjs and boots

I had made the turkey ahead of time, and I'm so glad I did and that we are a "reheat on Thanksgiving" type of family.  At least this year.  My general idea was that we would eat when the food was hot, so that took a lot of pressure off of me to feel like I had to have a dinner ready at a certain time, and there was enough craziness with a small herd of girls running around that I probably wouldn't have noticed anyone getting feisty and hungry anyway!  As it turned out, we were all seated and eating by 130, so it worked out fine.  Jesse gave my turkey a pass, which was an improvement over the turkey I made for Christmas last year, and we just all relaxed, visited, played with girls and napped the rest of the afternoon.  Well, the girls napped some, I don't think there were any adults naps that took place. 

the always flattering meal picture

Jesse's folks left Friday evening and Matt and Erin left Sunday.  I love having family here and had a great time getting to visit with everyone.  The highlight was watching all the little girls interact together, and even Kaylee was really interested in Anna and would lovingly smack her on the head or steal her pacifier.

Mom H made sugar cookies for Lily, Emma and Koleen to decorate.  Lily liked to pile the sprinkles on.

we exchanged Christmas presents over the weekend also.  Matt is modeling the hat I made him and the backpack we got Kole.

Since then, I have been trying to get the house put back the way it was and move into the Christmas season.  We finally finished ordering presents for my family's gift exchange that is coming up, and then maybe we will finish buying gifts for our girls.  Knowing us, we will be ordering things off Amazon and having them shipped here the week before or the week of Christmas, thank you Amazon Prime.

Back to the fact we had a mini photo shoot:

I realized I had enough dresses in the appropriate sizes that I could outfit everyone in semi-matching clothes for pictures.  With a 4 year old, two 2 year olds, an almost 10 month old and a 3ish month old all in a picture together with no crying, I'd say this was a smashing success.

I unashamedly bribed Emma with a cookie to get her to stay in the picture.  her facial expressions were incredible as a result. 

everyone notice how absolutely adorable little Anna looks in this one.

poor Kaylee was a trooper and just wanted a nap.  I was so focused on Grumpy Pants Emma that I didn't notice how uncomfortable Kaylee looked.  oh well.

That's about it from here for now.  The tree will hopefully be decorated tomorrow, since it's been up for 2 days now with no ornaments...

More coming soon!

because I think my girls are cute.

Not like I really feel like I need a reason to post pictures of my girls.  Because this is my blog and I do what I want.  So there. 

And since Lily takes after me, half her expressions are silly and half are kind of looking like a grimace...she does what she wants, also.  

pretty girl...half a second before she took off and Lily had to tackle her.

*sigh* I guess I just need Kaylee to learn how to do this face and move on.

"ok, you don't have to smile...what is that face?!"

"cheeeeeeeeeese!"

Lily isms 27

Emma had an accident in the night, and when I tucked her back into her bed in new jams:
"oh this is so comfy."

Lily: Daddy, where are you going?
Jesse: I have to go to work.
Lily: are you going to bring us pizza for dinner?
Jesse: ....do you want me to bring pizza?
Lily: oh yes, we have been wanting you to.

We have been working on memorizing the presidents of the United States with Lily and Emma and when I introduced James Polk this morning,
Lily: oh, James Hook!  Just like Captain Hook!
Me: ...what?  No, no, Polk!  Not Hook.
Lily: why?  Can we say Captain Hook?
Me: you want to add Captain Hook to our presidents?
Lily: yes!  And Mr. Smee!
-- so now, our presidents go in order until Polk and then we add Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.

Emma brought me a stuffed Curious George:
"look!  George Washington!"

Lily and Emma were playing, and Lily was dragging Emma everywhere while Emma giggled, completely ignoring everything Lily wanted her to do:
Lily: I'm sorry, she's just a little stinker!

Lily: Emma is really bothering me; she keeps talking to me about hawks and birds!

We stuck Lily in the basket of a shopping cart against her will:
"Can you please let me out of the cart?  Please?  I'll give you a dollar!"

Lily was running around with a sheet over her shoulders, like a cape, and it got twisted:
"can you put my cape back on the right course?"

Me: Emma, don't give Zeke your waffle.
Emma: I'm sharing! Zekey wanted part of my pancake.
*note* it was really a waffle.

thank you, kind stranger.

I would really like to know where time goes.  As a kid and all growing up, time seemed to drag on forever, and now that I'm an adult...well, chances are you understand.  It just goes so quickly and I don't know how or where it's going so fast!

Somehow, we are on the doorstep of Thanksgiving, and we all know what a whirlwind the rest of the year is and quickly it will be 2015.  Sheesh.

A few weekends ago, Team Hildebrand made a weekend trip to Zanesville so Jesse and I could go to our college's homecoming events.  The girls had a blast staying with Grandma and Grandpa so Jesse and I actually had an entire day to ourselves!  It was fantastic.  I love my kids and am so happy I get the chance to be a stay at home mom, but it's always nice to occasionally get a few minutes to myself, let alone a whole day!  Jesse and I enjoyed ourselves seeing friends, revisiting our old stomping grounds and going to the basketball game in the evening.  The girls did great with Jesse's folks and Lily and Emma were excited to tell us all about it.

Kaylee has hit a rough patch...which I'm antsy to get through.  She is working on a few more teeth, so her sleeping has been off as she's been fighting congestion and the soreness of her gums.  Additionally, I apparently am either feeding her something that upsets her stomach or I'm eating something that I'm passing on to her that is upsetting her, but either way, she's been fussy from that while I try and figure out what is bugging her system.  Of course, I could be completely mistaken and whatever it is could be part of teething, also.  I tend to blame everything on teeth either moving around or coming in.  I'm so highly scientific and probably accurate.

Lily and Emma are doing great.  They have both been extra clingy, which is weird and can be frustrating since I always have little people underfoot, but I'm trying to make sure I hold both of them and love on them as much as I can.  Lily has especially been clingy and moody, bursting into tears if I make her sad or don't return to her quickly enough.  Which is of course precious and I love that I'm so important, but it literally means I can't go anywhere without her trying to follow me or panicking when I'm not right there.  We will power through with lots of hugs and explaining that I will always come back.

The past few weeks have been a real test of patience for me, I think.  I am not the most patient person typically and it is something I have been working on over the years.  The girls just have been crying, whining and bickering an extra amount.  I'm sure it's a bunch of stuff all crammed together that makes it seem that way: daylights savings, teeth, growth spurt...I'm staying up too late so I'm tired and my tolerance level is lower...that kind of thing.  Anyway, with how the past few weeks have been, I am trying to put forth an extra effort to be patient with the girls, hug and cuddle them more and make sure I take the time to drop what I'm doing and play with them.  We are hopefully on the upswing of this frustrating period, but it made what happened yesterday just seem a bit sweeter, when the girls and I were blessed yesterday by a kind lady outside the grocery store.  We had run to town to do some Thanksgiving shopping, trying to beat the probable craziness of next week, and gotten through our list pretty quickly.  As I was loading the girls and groceries into the car, a lady stopped me and handed me a $20.  She told me she had so enjoyed watching how the girls interacted with each other, how well behaved they were and how I handled them in the store that she wanted me to take them to lunch and buy them a Happy Meal sometime.  I was absolutely blown away and didn't know what to say.  Not only was incredibly sweet of her to buy us lunch like that, but it also was such an ego boost for me that hey, I'm not a complete failure!  Not that I really think I am, but it was an effective pat on the back for me that my children are well behaved enough for a stranger to notice in a grocery store.

Anyway, that totally made my day.  She could have just left it at telling me she enjoyed watching how well behaved my girls were and I'd have been over the moon.

That's about it from here for now...

playing with Grandma in Zanesville

cheeeeeeeeese

terrible picture, but this is where I  found everyone one morning: playing in our room in front of a mirror with an umbrella and a pile of play food.

good doggy.

Emma Joann

A few weeks ago now, because I'm so terrible at actually updating, Emma and I had a wonderful moment.  She had woken up to go to the bathroom, and as I was tucking her back in, she started crying, mostly because she was tired and confused about what was going on.  I calmed her down, but she asked me to stay and hold her hand for awhile.  Sitting on the floor and watching her doze off was so peaceful, and reminded me what a special little girl she is.  It's amazing how easy it is to see how you should have handled a situation after the fact, and I do look back and wish I had just accepted my fate with her first year of life: with a colicky baby up every hour of the night, for just about the first entire year of her life, I should have just realized I wouldn't be sleeping much and enjoyed the cuddles when they came.  Instead, I was obsessed with trying to get my poor little girl to sleep when I wanted her to, or at all, and would put her down almost as soon as she dozed off, hoping she'd stay down long enough for me to get a few minutes of sleep.  I do wish I had held her more and watched her sleep, but we are making up for that now.  She loves to cuddle and I make sure I always have time to hold her.

While Jesse and I joke that we kept Emma that first year because she was cute-- it was that challenging of a year for us, we were so clueless-- she is such a wonderful little girl now.  She is such a joy.

These past 6 months especially, while Emma has started talking a lot more and being more independent, she is always making us laugh.  She has become more cuddly and loving, trying to interact with Kaylee and following Lily's every move.  Those two butt heads as they both are forming strong opinions about how life should be and who gets which toys, but such is life and growing up close in age with your sister: they are already best friends and just assume that they always go together.  One Sunday morning, I was dispersing the girls to their separate class/nursery rooms before church and we dropped Lily off first.  Emma had been all excited about Sunday school until we dropped Lily off and she realized that she would be in a different room than Lily and had an absolute meltdown.  Another night, as I was holding her hand, she heard Kaylee crying.  Emma looked at me and said, "Kaylee is crying, Momma.  Go hold her."  Such a tender little heart.

Emma has boundless energy, even when she's exhausted.  Her favorite mode of transportation is apparently bouncing and hopping from A to B, and we may need to invest in a good pogo stick or trampoline.  My vote is for a trampoline (and are pogo sticks still a thing?).  She seems to have a low threshold for pain and emotions, definitely a much more sensitive child than Lily was at this age.  While she is sensitive, she is also so adventurous.  Lily is more timid the first few times before she will dive in to do something alone and typically, Emma needs to be shown just once before she's off.  It's so fun to watch how different these two are, and I know it will be interesting to see how Kaylee fits in as she grows older.

She is at such a fun age.  I feel I don't talk about how awesome she is often enough because she is so strong willed and can be such a handful.  I've been wanting to reiterate how fun she is for awhile, but time to blog doesn't always work out with having a desire to post anything.  I always joke that I have "middle child syndrome," and while I don't feel I was ever overlooked as a child, I want to make sure I don't overlook my Emma, either.  Lily had the time to be an only child and Kaylee has gotten a lot of solo parent time, but Emma got tossed in and hauled all over the place with Lily from day one.  I probably am extra paranoid about making sure I give Emma individual attention since she tends to just get shuffled along with Lily.  Jesse had the other day off work, and he was planning on going to the store for a few things while I took Zeke to the vet.  He had originally planned on taking Lily with him, and I would take Emma and Kaylee with me, but when Lily announced she wanted to go with me instead, Emma and Daddy had some special time together.  

Figuring out how to parent is certainly an adventure, and while I wish I had been more understanding and forgiving of Emma her first year, I'm glad Jesse and I have been able to see how special she is and are quickly (ish) learning how different she is from Lily.

And, to emphasize my point about Emma being shuffled along in with her sisters, I went to find some pictures of her to share, and my entire memory card is filled with pictures of Kaylee.  

Once the weather/sun/children cooperate, I will hopefully have some new pictures to share!

Lily isms 26

After a particularly long and drawn out bedtime, with the girls getting up for a variety of excuses, Jesse stood outside their door and heard Lily standing with her hand on the door and Emma in bed:
Emma: no, Yay-yay, Momma's gonna spank you!
Lily: be quiet, Emma!

Me: Lily, I like how you colored in the lines, good job.
Lily: aw shucks, it was nothing.

Emma: my tummy hurts. I need donuts.

Emma was crying while I was brushing her hair:
Lily: I know a song that will make her feel better! It's called a lullaby.

Lily: when I get big like you, Momma, I'm going to have a baby in my tummy like you did! And I'm going to have to go to the hospital. But you can come see me. I'm going to name my baby Emma. Well, maybe not. Maybe I will name my baby Kaylee.

Lily: where are we going?
Me: the mall.
Emma: the mole?!
Lily: no Emma, you're saying it wrong! MALL, not MOLE. In English we say mall. In Spanish we say...
Emma: ni hao!
(note: for those of you not up on your Chinese, Emma said hi. thank you Kai Lan [kids show])

Lily: what day is it?
Me: it's Saturday.
Lily: Saturday! What does Saturday mean?
Me: well, today it means Daddy is going on a business trip.
Emma: oh yeah. Daddy go to Walmart and the bank and then home??

Emma was counting:
..six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ready or not, here I come!

Emma: Momma! I hungry! I downstairs! I call you with my mouth!

Lily trying to sweep the floor: just doing my job!

decluttering my house and brain

For as often as I think about blogging, it's remarkable how little I actually do it.  Because after every little event, I think, "oh, hey, I should write that down,"  And clearly, I don't.

But life moves on, whether I write it down or not, and my girls are growing like crazy, being awesome and we are trying to keep up with the boring and exciting times that we have.

Example, since I last blogged, Lily turned 4; Emma is potty trained (through the day); Kaylee is on the move at lightning fast speeds; we went to Nashville; had visitors; had the house just about turned inside out and a heap of other things.

First, our trip to Nashville.

Jesse and I joke that "all" our friends from college live in Nashville, TN.  While that's not entirely true...we do have a bunch of friends down there, so we figured it was time to be social and go see everyone.  It was a long over due trip and went entirely too fast, but we all had a good time.  Before we left, I told Jesse that I didn't care how many times we had to stop, I wasn't taking the risk of Emma regressing and having her travel in diapers.  Impressively, she made the entire trip both ways without a single accident.  I was shocked, as she hadn't even gone one day here without an accident.    And while it took us a bit (a lot) longer to get there, I think it was worth it, because she's been a rockstar.

Our time there just went too fast, that's all there is to it, and true to my typical form, I barely took a single picture.  Which is really too bad, mostly because Lily and Emma made two new best friends with Addiston and Isabella Miller and they were all precious.  Because that was already a month ago and I'm just now sitting down to write about it, we'll just skip to the hightlights:

• Lily, Emma, Addiston and Bella all playing together.  Even the arguments over whose turn it was with what toy.  Learning to share is hard, especially when there are so many new and exciting toys!
• talking to my friends in person instead of just over the phone!
• a cookout on Saturday and the genius "s'moreo"- yes, brilliance in the shape of two Oreo's and a marshmallow.  
• Sunday was jam packed (for a family of 5) but great: brunch in the morning (thanks for meeting up with us Heather, TJ, Nathan, Whitney, Derek and Tiffany!), a trip out to see Derek and Tiffany's land and future home site, and getting to go on an double date with Jared and Lindsey without kids (what?!).

I feel I do need to expound on the whole "without kids" part.  Lindsey had scheduled with her usual babysitters to come watch a herd of girls so we could go out, and while I was a nervous wreck, it was great.  I never leave Kaylee, and even though she was probably grumpy the entire time, she survived and the babysitters were smiling and alive when we got home, so success.  Apparently, Kaylee did scream for quite awhile at the beginning, and then it was discovered that her hair had gotten wrapped around the button on the back of her shirt!  So badly that they had to actually cut her hair a bit to get it untangled!

 Hilarious!  My baby's first hair cut.  And even though it's one of my favorite shirts of hers, it's going as it is into her baby box...so all of you folks with bald babies jealous of her flowing mane of hair...just go ahead and laugh even harder.

And then we came home and Lily turned 4.  I have a 4 year old.  Unacceptable.

I also decided it was a good thing I am not an overly emotional mom that melts down every year on her child's birthday...because that's just not practical.  Besides, Lily did it plenty for me anyway, so I'm set.  For reasons unknown to me, she decided she didn't want to grow up and wanted to stay 3 forever.  I remember panicking at various points of growing up about turning the next year and not wanting to because I'd never be the same age again.  What a difficult concept for a little child to wrap up in his or her brain, so I tried to explain why this was exciting and tried to get her excited.

We celebrated quietly: Jesse brought her flowers and balloons before we had dinner, cake and gave her presents.

we unburied my wedding dress last weekend and Lily asked to try it on.

At 4, Lily is funny, sweet, caring, but also exploring her independence and what Jesse and I will let her do.  For example, we tell her to do something (go put your books away), she will get this little attitude and say, "no, I'm not going to."  And then we get to have a nice little chat about being respectful and obedient immediately.  We are definitely having fun with this age, and love trying new things with her.  Her imagination is so enjoyable to watch, and how she interacts with her sisters and other kids.  Without a doubt, her favorite imagination game is to play doctor, and will do check ups for anyone who will let her.  Heads up if you ever get a check up from Doctor Lily, everything "looks good," and your blood pressure will always be 20-30.

Emma is chugging along.  She is doing great without diapers, and I can proudly say that because we got ahead on diapers for Kaylee, this month was the first in 4 years that I haven't had a shipment of diapers coming from Amazon.  I had to sit down for awhile when I realized that.

She intentionally makes us laugh, which I love, and she is incredibly sweet and affectionate.  She is very adventurous and independent.  Example, I helped her go down a fireman pole one time at the park and then got distracted with the other two and looked back and she was zipping down by herself like a pro.  I do need an extra set of eyes I can devote to her.  All of the wonderful sides help balance out her meltdown point and temper, because when she's mad, the entire world knows.  Or at least our neighbors.  Emma has decided to be done with naps, and she's handling that like a champ, but some days naps are required.  Her vocabulary is growing and some of the things she says crack me up.  Don't worry, she is getting entries in the "Lily isms" posts.  Her current favorite phrase is, "that's weird?" asked like a question, meant like a statement.

Kaylee is 8.5 months old and is just a joy.  Such a sweet little thing that makes everyone smile who holds her because she doesn't typically care who is holding her.  Lily and Emma always put up a fuss when I would pass them off to my friends and family until they really got to know the other people, but Kaylee just gives them a good hard stare, looks to see where I am and goes on with life.  She's a mover, no surprise there, and loves to babble and sing.  She's been doing the army crawl thing for a few months now and this weekend started giving the hands and knees variety a shot.  She will tentatively cruise around, holding onto furniture and has attempted standing by herself on occasion recently, but not too interested in that.  Yesterday morning, her first tooth popped through, which I'm happy about since she's been grumpy enough I'd expect an entire mouthful.  Ok, she really hasn't been that bad, but I really dislike it when babies are teething and no teeth show up.  That's just not fair.

Kaylee is still a pretty good sleeper, though she doesn't sleep through the night yet.  I'm positive she's old enough, and I'm certain she has enough nutrients through the day to last her all night, but I'm not too worried about it.  Obviously I would prefer that she sleep through the night, but it's kind of handy because after I settle her down, I just go check in on Lily and Emma and do bathroom runs at that point, so it's been a disguised blessing that she's still waking up through the night.  She's not a big fan of pureed fruit, but she loves green beans, peas, squash and sweet potato.  She's tried a variety of other things and I'll let her gnaw on apple slices or grapes in a pouch.  And because she has older sisters, she also loves Cheetos and cocoa peanut butter crunch cereal.  Don't judge our food choices, we will admit that we let our girls have terrible snacks on occasion.

Jesse and I are doing great.  This month has been a focus on decluttering, organizing and deep cleaning our house.  You know, because who doesn't spring clean in the fall?  All three girls needed bigger clothes, and having to up entire dressers full of clothes for girls so close in age was definitely the most miserable thing I've had to do with three children to date.  Lily had outgrown everything in 3t, but some of the smaller cut stuff could be washed and put directly into Emma's drawer.  Emma was bursting out of everything 18-24 month and has to be in solid 2-3t clothes.  Kaylee...our little chunk...is in 12-18 month clothes, so a handful of the 18 month things could go straight from Emma's drawer to Kaylee's.  This took me all week to accomplish and only got it done because I made Jesse help on the weekend, but it was a huge ordeal for me: find the appropriate size clothes in the attic and send them to the wash.  Empty 3 dressers of clothes, and as clothes came out of the wash, box up/hand me down to the next kid or for the next kid and figure out which dresser the new clothes go into.  Nightmare.  Overall though, our house is looking a bunch better!

And since I've now been working on this post for a week and keep adding/changing everything about it, I should probably call it good enough for this round.