Things I've already learned about baby #3

Things I've already learned about baby #3
-He (I think it's a boy)  is pretty angry right now and is making me sick as a dog.
-He must be funny.  I usually prefer drama to comedy, but lately I think every joke is extra hilarious (Even my dad's jokes). Watching "Revenge" makes me physically sick. . . Watching "The Office" re-runs sounds like a great idea even at 3 in the morning when I get up to pee for the 100th time.
-He must also find it funny to hear me say stupid things all of the time, because wow the things that keep spilling out of my mouth.  I keep blaming it on exhaustion, but really I think he's just messing with me.  Seriously the things I said at my Dr.'s appointment the other day. . . wow.  I kept prefacing with, "I promise I'm not one of those crazy pregnant ladies, but. . . "  Pretty sure my Dr. booked a trip on my due date after I left the office.
-He must be a salt addict like his mama.  I keep making yummy sweets and then not touching them, but you stick a hot pocket in the microwave and I salivate.   If I get put on a low sodium diet again, I am screwed.
-This little guy is going to get the best of me.  I have so many emotions about this baby.  I am anxious, nervous, excited all of time.  It feels more and more real every day (as my stomach starts popping out ALREADY).  I hope he's getting out all of his angrys right now and is going to be a sweet baby.  Already counting down the days until we get to meet him. 

P.S. little baby if you end up being a girl, I am super sorry I called you a he for nine months.

Hillbilly Delux

 Until I married Chris, I never recognized that we live in the stix.  Guess we do--and I love it.

 Papa and the little tractor man, discovered a way to make the best of the Massey during the winter. 

 Milo was so excited to drive the tractor with papa.  I kept telling him that he could ride in the sled too, but he just wanted to be a tractor man like papa. 

 See those mountains in the background, that's were normal people go to sled, but not us, we got creative. 

 Grandpa is trying to convince Grandma that we need a four wheeler for next years sledding, but look at all those happy faces.  The tractor worked just fine.

 My sister's cute family.  Her girls are fearless. 

 Unlike Taya, who really just wanted to eat snow pancakes and have grandma hold her.

Milo finally jumped in the sled near the end.  He loved it too.  He is the luckiest little boy.  He kind of has grandma and grandpa wrapped around his little finger.  They put on this whole production because they knew that he would love it.  And at the end of the day he is just so darn happy and cute you'd do anything to repeat it.  .   .   . 

Christmas 2013

Favorite things about Christmas:

Watching Milo get all jazzed up about seeing Santa.

We went to a Christmas breakfast and all of the kids were standing together, waiting for "the big man" to make an appearance.  When Santa walked in, Milo jumped up and down yelling, "Santa.  It's Santa".  All of the other kids just stood there, but Milo definitely put on a show.

 Taya poking Santa in the eye.  Tay hated the mall Santa.  She realized that he was handing out coloring books, and wanted nothing to do with him.  However, Santa at breakfast, gave out candy canes. . . Taya was all about that.  She would snuggle him and then point to the basket of treats--she's a smart one.  And yes, that is a fork that she is holding in the picture.  For a couple of days we couldn't get her to part with it.

 Getting to put Taya in her Christmas dress.  The little stinker wouldn't take a good picture, but she looked like a princess.  She was absolutely adorable. (Thanks Grandma Vicky).

 Christmas morning with the kids.  It was so fun to see Taya and Milo freak out over their new toys. 

 Taya was a little confused, and kind of scared when she first got up and came into the room.  Milo was an awesome big brother and showed her that new toys are nothing to be scared of. 

 Check out that great big brother promptly running little sister into a wall.

 The snoopy dogs were kind of a joke.  I was short purchase money at Kohl's, so I threw them in, with every intention of returning them.  Good thing that I didn't.  The kids loved them.

The kids were such a fun age this year.  We carted them around from party to party.  They were on extreme overload for days. Kids make Christmas a million times more fun.  They loved spending time with grandparents and cousins- the gifts didn't hurt either:)

Tis the Season

I love the whole month of December.  So many fun things to get the kids all hyped up for Christmas.  Last Sunday we got to experience gingerbread houses... well gingerbread tractors, thanks to Grandma Bird.

Taya just stuffed her face with handfuls of candy.  She never actually touched her house, but she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Milo obviously enjoyed it too. 

Look at that smile!  Priceless.  Aunt Ellie was singing the gummy bear dance and cracking him up.

Milo is so big this year.  He gets to experience all of these fun festivities for the first time and it makes me so happy to get to watch him!

Vegas Baby

We took our first vacation without our kids. 
We went to a couple of shows

Walked the strip (in the pouring rain).














Played in the arcade.




We gambled. . . Not like boring slots gambled, we fell in love with roulette.  Chris was awesome at winning... and I was awesome at losing all of his winnings:).

It was amazingly fun to have some time together.  I couldn't believe how relaxed I was from the moment we took off.  I have never been away from the kids like that, and I was worried that my anxiety would outweigh our vacation fun-but it didn't.  Probably because the kids were having the time of their lives with grandma.  A couple days after we were home Milo looked at me with those killer brown eyes and asked, "are you going to leave me at grandma's?"  I felt this twinge of guilt, "No, buddy Mommy is staying with you.  I'm not going anywhere."  In the middle of the smothering hug (given by me), he says, "Ah man, Grandma's fun.  You go to the airport and Grandma can sleep over".  .   .   .  .  .  .  He obviously missed us lots.

They Don't Know What They Are Missing

I love food.  Breakfast-yep. . . Asian-of course. . . late night snacking-favorite!
My kids, hate food.
I don't know how it happened.
Milo is getting better.  Compared to a year ago, he is working miracles. Did you know that there is such a thing as "food therapy"?  We've seriously considered it.  I can't complain, he eats a ton more than he used to, but any time he sees something the tiniest bit different on his plate, or even if I cut things differently, he'll crinkle his eyebrows at me and say, "I really don't like that mom.  Just like when I was a baby I loved tomatoes, but now I don't love them".  Hindsight I never should have told him that in the first place, because I hear it a lot now.  The other issue is that Milo won't feed himself.  I don't know if it's because he doesn't want to get dirty, or if it's just pleasant to have someone place food on your tongue.  I guess I'm just so happy that he is showing interest in food that I don't mind making rice balls and cutting noodles into tiny pieces and perfectly placing them in his mouth-at least he's eating.
. . . then you've got the little sister. . . .

When she was 6 months old she would drink her baby food, because I couldn't shovel it in fast enough.  Now, I'm lucky if she eats ten crackers all day, and that's with me making Fat Tony dance, and reading her books, and letting her honk my nose.  I seriously don't know what happened?!  I keep telling myself that it's just a phase, but WOW the hours on hours I have spent trying to trick my kids into eating.   This is where people say, "oh, it's easy, just don't force them and they will eat when they are hungry". . . Ya, tried that.  Taya would starve to death before chomping down on some chicken by her own free will.  The problem is, both my kids are small.  They can't be skipping too many meals!
Then you've got me.  I caught myself eating a Cheeto out of the diaper bag the other day.  When it was stale, it dawned on me that I haven't bought Cheetos for months.  I swallowed it all the same. . . and enjoyed it:)

Pickin' Pumpkins 2013

I've decided why traditions are so much fun.  Doing the same thing every year gives you the chance to see how much your family has grown.  Last year Taya was still in a car seat. Milo was still a clingger.  This year they seem so grown up.

Milo was all chatty with anyone that would listen. He was especially talkative with the little girl sitting next to him, but she wasn't feeling it.  Guess she isn't into "tractor men".

He even liked it when a witch jumped

 out of the corn and tried to scare us.  He just yelled back, "boo, I scare you"

 Taya chugged along with the tractor and prattled around the pumpkins. 

She loved to sit on the hay like the big kids, and to jump off of the trailer (and scare mom).

I love the fall.  I used to hate it, but now that I have kids to dress up for Halloween, fun traditions, and most importantly NO TREES to rake up after, I have officially decided that the fall is awesome.