Charlotte & Charlotte

Here is my daughter Charlotte, with her namesake - my mother - Charlotte. I assume this is the first of many "Charlotte" pictures to come. :)

My mom left on Thursday and surprisingly we are still alive. Charlotte still sleeps quite a bit and it has allowed for a nice transition period for the boys and for myself. Because of this transition period we are able to incorporate her into our lives easily, without much disruption of our normal routine. I hope the transition continues to go this smoothly....

My happy girl

Not to jinx myself, but Charlotte is such a good baby. Maybe it's the fact that it's my third so I feel un-fazed by the newborn stage, or maybe it's that she's only a week old, or maybe it's that my mom is still here helping me manage daily life, or maybe it's a combination of all three....I don't quite know what the reason may be, but I am sure enjoying her. I want to spend all day, every day, locked up in a room just staring at her sweet little face, cuddling and kissing her. I feel like I am going to explode with the amount of love that I feel for her every time I look at her or hear her little cry. She has the cutest little smiles that she does when she has fallen asleep after eating. Today I was finally able to somewhat capture that sweet little happy face, dried milk and all. I truly feel so blessed.

"Sprinkle" Fun

Last week before Charlotte was born the boys were begging me to to get the "sprinkle" (aka sprinkler) out for them to run around in. Thinking it was probably going to be one of the last times for a while that I was up for a production, I pulled out our little "sprinkle" and let the boys go wild. I think I had just as much fun watching and taking pictures as they did running through the sprinkle.

Meeting baby Charlotte

The boys were just as excited (if not more) to meet baby Charlotte as we thought they would be. Little do they know how their lives are going to change.... :)

It's a girl!!

If there was any doubt before, there is no doubt now...it's a girl! Our yet-to-be-named daughter was born today at 12:30pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and was 21 inches long. I was blessed to have my easiest delivery thus far, and am feeling great. I definitely think she is a little White, very reminiscent to me of Brayden as a newborn. It's amazing how quickly they change though, even from day to day at this stage, so I will be curious to see who she really ends up looking like. Brayden and Landon are coming to the hospital tomorrow to meet their new sister and I can't wait to see their faces. I think there is something magical about little kids meeting their new siblings. When I talked to Brayden on the phone this afternoon, she began crying and Brayden said, "Mommy, why is baby sister crying?" Already I can tell he is going to be a good big brother! :) We are so excited to have a healthy baby girl!

My little Picasos

Ah, the lure of painting. At our house, just talk of painting brings out the "happy" in my boys. Getting the painting supplies out is the ultimate reward (or bribe...whichever you prefer to call it. :) ) I love what painting says about each of the boys individually too. Brayden starts out with very deliberate brush strokes, carefully stepping back to examine periodically, making sure the final product is just how he planned it. If there is any color mixing, it is purposeful.

On the other hand, Landon throws his paint brush onto the paper, making large sweeping strokes and often getting most of the paint on the wall around the paper. Landon pools all of his colors together on the paper, making a kalidescope of colors.

I love both of their finished products. One more painting to hang on their bedrooms walls. But most of all, I love how with a little paint and a paintbrush, they give me a glimpse into their little souls as each of them so uniquely paints their personalities.

It's fun to be a kid

I came across these pictures today that have been sitting on my camera for a while now. They are especially significant because it captures one of my boys' favorite things to do: SWING! I'm not sure if it was all of the aerobics I did while they were in-utero that began the swinging fixation, but they would both sit on the swings for hours on end. Thanks to Ryan, Brayden has just learned to pump himself, which has been awesome, although my biceps miss the workout. :)

Is this thing on???

So, after reading (and loving) so many of our friends' blogs, we decided it was high time for us to join the blogging community! After all, we are so bad about keeping in touch with friends and family that live away (which is most of them!) that we thought this would be the perfect way to keep in touch. We'll try (hard!) to keep this updated regularly, but with a new baby on the way any day now, you never know how crazy things will get. Everyone has told us that #3 is "the hardest" and "the breaking point" etc etc., but I am really hoping for some semblance of normalcy once our new little friend joins the family. Here are the most recent pictures of Brayden (3 1/2) and Landon (2) just hanging out being the cute little men that they are...