Cousin Time . . . Finally :)

After 8 LONG months we finally got to have some quality cousin time. Dan, Jess and Ella came to our house Wednesday through Sunday. We have not gotten to see them since we brought little Tori home from the hospital. So this was a long time coming. Wylie, Kasey and Ella did so well together and for the first time really "played" together. Ella just loves Kasey even though Kasey had some rough days . . . a lot of tears and a lot of pretend boo boo's. All in all it was a good visit. I had a nice night out with Jess, got to hang out with Dan, and even got our whole family here one night (mom, dad, dan, dave, jess, jocelyn and all the kids). It was really nice. Here are some pictures of our fun!

March for Babies ( March for Tori)

Just a quick update- We did walk this morning in the March of Dimes, March for Babies walk. It was rather cold and a bit windy but we bundled everyone up and made it. It was a good way to finish our fundraising run. We truly THANK all of you who donated to this wonderful charity. They do great things! We ended up raising nearly $1500- THANK YOU!!

Family Time

I don't have much to report on here. Nothing too new is going on here besides the normal. We are still waiting to have nice weather around here. My parents came over tonight to visit with our family and it was so nice. It has been a LONG LONG time since we had a nice dinner and evening together. My mom is now 2 months post surgery and doing pretty well, ofcourse it is driving her crazy not doing much but she is doing well. My brother Dan, his wife Jess and their 2 year old girl Ella are coming up Wednesday-Sunday and staying at our house. We are all excited to see them. We haven't seen Ella since we brought Tori home from the hospital. We just love family time, and hopefully we will get a lot of it.

We did get out to enjoy a few nice days this past weekend. Went on lots of walks around the neighborhood, played ball, played on the playground, it was just great! I was not ready for another ten day forcast to be so crummy.

Tori took her first bath by herself tonight. I usually take a bath with all three kids in the big whirlpool tub. But now that she can sit up I put her in the kid's bath by herself, she sat there and started getting mad, making her yelling sound. Wylie and Kasey were standing watching because they just can't get enough of Tori. I told them "this is your time to go play with dad, just you guys" but nope they wanted to watch Tori take her first bath. Anyway, after Tori kept getting more irritated, which was odd, because she LOVES bath time, I put Wylie and Kasey in next to her and she was fine and happy. What a little stinker . . . she just wanted them too.

Kasey, well she is into her mouse. That could be her favorite pet shop character, named Mouse, or it could be her blankie which has a mouse on it whom she calls mousy, or now the newest addtion to her mouse family is her imaginary friend, Mouse. I am not sure where she gets her imagination but it is so darn cute and funny. Yesterday, she cried because I stepped on Mousy in the kitchen, this morning she realized she forgot him in her crib and was sad because "mousy is going to be so sad." Wish I could have videoed this afternoon Kasey running around the living room. When I asked her what she was doing she chuckled, " I can't catch Mousy!" So I play along and told her, "oh, I see him, he is under the foot rest now" and she sighed in relief "oh, there he is, mousy is so silly." I had to tell Wylie about how this is her imaginary friend and not to laugh at her, but I still see him chuckling at her once and a while but he hasn't said anything more. What a nice brother . . . most of the time.

This winter may have proven to be good for something, these three kids just LOVE each other and they don't want to be apart, but mostly there is not one sign of jealousy towards Tori. They adore her!

Tori reminded me . . .

For the first time today, I realized how fast time has really gone. Watching Tori do all her "firsts" makes me happy on one thought and very sad at another. I get happy because the past 4 years I have done A LOT of baby things. I mean I did have three babies in 3 1/2 years. Yikes! Since Tori's very early arrival (11 weeks) I have felt stuck in the baby stage for extra long. There have been many days where I just wish it away because it is so hard, mentally and physically exhausting. She has been the light of my life and I feel so bonded with her, sometimes just the sight of her brings tears to my eyes. I even cried one night during her middle of the night feeding, the time I am usually most tired and crabby, I just sat and cried and didn't want to put her in her crib. I sat and thought about how we could have easily lost her, how she is our last baby and how they do just grow up so fast and they aren't always going to want their "mom" the way they do now, or give me endless hugs and kisses.

Which brings me to today. It is such a little thing, but she has learned to sit up by herself for long periods of time. So she can self entertain and you can just see how happy that makes her. For whatever reason it just made me think about the day differently and not count the hours til nap time or bed time but sit and enjoy this time while I have it . . . and you know what . . . it made for a pretty good day! It is something I have told myself many, many days. Each day and each little moment, milestone, funny phrase, even a bad thing here and there are precious and to remember them because they go so fast.

I am happily married to a selfless, handsome, hardworking, wonderful man and father and have been blessed with three awesome, healthy kids. Probably something I have reminded myself of numerous times but now that the end of having a baby is drawing near I am trying to enjoy each day! These are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs right now, You're Gonna Miss This, by Trace Atkins that sums it all up.

" You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this "