the last five months

I'm going to skip the excuses for not blogging one single photo or blip of text for the last five months. I'm a ball juggler and a bad one at that so while I am trying to keep most of my balls in the air (kids, business, home and husband) other balls (blogging, free time, hobbies etc.) hit the floor and stay there for a while. What's done is done though so now for the fun part... the return to blogging :0

I'd love to recap the whole last five moths right here, right now but I wouldn't even know where to begin so I shall start with the bright spot in our house.  Little miss sunshine just turned 5 months old on Friday, GASP!

This is her on her first day home from the hospital. From day one she has been an easy happy baby despite all the breathing complications and extra long stay in the hospital. She is for sure 100% girl in every way except that she spits up around the clock. Kingston and Lo never did spit up as much as she does so it's been a new challenge for me.

 

This is her at 2 months old. We had a little ice cream outing with our besties at Swirl It in Gilbert. She is my first blue eyed baby and it's looking as though she has golden red hair.

This is her at 3 months. She learned how to roll over at 3 months so she adapted to play mats and baby toys really quickly because she is a girl on a mission. I pretty sure the camera loves her!

Here she is at 4 months in her room again. At 4 months she transitioned to formula because I wasn't able to feed her anymore. I thought formula was supposed to be more filling for babies but she upped her feedings from 4 oz every 4 hours to 6 oz every 2 hours. Hungry much? I'm sure her spit up problem doesn't help keep her satisfied when she yacks up half of what she drinks. That's why I just started introducing her to solids. The girl is a natural born eater. I thought her first bowl of food would be a yucky sticky fail but she downed the whole bowl in less than 5. So the spit up problem seems to be much better and all is well again. She loves to sputter and smack her lips together,  roll around in circles and get tangled in her blankets. She likes vanilla scented soothies, fresh bananas and her favorite song is Smile by Nat King Cole. She is the sun spot in my every day I'm devoutly attached to her.

Kingston is equally happy to have his new sister in our family. He asks about her first thing when he wakes up and his number one concern every day is her. He kisses her, sings to her and does silly things to make her laugh and smile. It's absolutely the most fulfilling thing as a mom to see one sibling love and protect another sibling the way Kingston does.

London. Oh my darling random Lo. Who knows what she thinks about Dempsey or anything else for that matter. She truly lives in her own world with her own rules. Surely no one in our house is as entertaining as Lo. One thing I admire about her is that she is 100% confident in who she is and what she likes. I try to learn from her and be as sure of myself as she is.  

 I have 3 reasons to feel so blessed and happy today on Mother's Day. I don't really look forward to Mother's Day bc I know I'm not as good of a mom as I could be. It's hard not to dwell on all of my weaknesses as their mom knowing that they deserve so much better. However, I do appreciate the reminder that I need to do better and try harder to be everything I can for them. I realize that it's the greatest blessing in the world to have children of my own and I know I take that for granted daily. *Sigh! I think I will go play with them right now actually. By for now!

we had a kid

Let's see, the last time I blogged was in July? That sounds about right considering I was probably still puking up my organs around then. I spent the next 4 months trying to catch up from lost time during my morning sickness phase... I'm actually still trying to catch up. Just when I start thinking about how lame I am for falling so behind in life I say to myself "Chill self, you just made a kid." If that doesn't buy me some understanding what will?

 [9 months pregnant and ready for GO time]

So anyway, seeing that our offspring is now a month old I thought I better introduce her to the few (if any) stragglers that stuck around to see if we would ever revisit our so called virtual diary. I ought to condemn this blog and shut it down permanently due to abandonment but seeing that it's the new year and all (or so they tell me, I refuse to consent to a new year until I'm good and ready!) I figured I should give the blog the old 1, 2 routine... you know blog once and then quit because I'm "2" busy. You're right, maybe I shouldn't try to write jokes when it's 3:30 in the morning. Shall I show off the goods instead?

This is Dempsey Bradley Crosby. She was born  December 11th 2011 at 3:57am via c-section. She was 7lbs - 4oz and 19 inches long w/ BLUE eyes (one point for me, finally). There's a birth story to tell but who wants to re-live being hacked open like a scene out of SAW IV or something? There's also a story about how Dempsey came to be her name instead of Golden but it's painfully long and HELLO it's now 4am.  I'll just save that one for Bret to tell. Her middle name is Bradley after my twin (miss your face twin!). I also call her Cookie because she was nameless throughout our entire 5 day stay at the hospital and you would be shockingly surprised at how much it bothers people when you don't name a baby right away. I nicknamed her Cookie until we could... agree on a more permanent name, by then Cookie had already stuck because she's so sweet and yummy.

 

[rocking the c-pap like a super model]

[taking our machine free and newly named baby home]

She had some health complications after she was born (another long story I will save for the dad to explain since he was actually coherent for it all) but she recovered quickly and remains to be the perfect baby. There's a lot of life adjustments being made around our house and I'm still getting used to having this perfect little thing to look at and care for each day. I'm dreading the day she follows in the footsteps of her notorious disastrous sister. For now she is still a tiny baby doll and a wee bit of a distraction. It's no wonder I'm more than two months behind in work. Ouch! Actually, I think I shall go snuggle her some more now... neener neener!

 

[ok now I'm just rubbing it in... can you blame me? I LOVE Cookies!]

Super Hero Hug

It's easy to feel safe with heroes like these around...

#3 is a baby

and that baby happens to be a girl  :) I haven't had any time to officially celebrate the good news by making a bundle of frilly accessories and clothes yet but it's certain that I will eventually! Kingston and Bret were a little distraught for a minute because we all were positive the baby was going to be a boy. They've recovered since then and now we just argue over names. Oh joy.

Pregnant

I think we pretty much told everyone that I'm pregnant with #3 but I guess we've still surprised a few people so here's the official post. My hysteroscopy surgery in March was a success and we got pregnant pretty much instantly after the procedure. 2 weeks after the positive test I got slammed with just about every pregnancy symptom there is including severe morning sickness and TOMORROW we find out the gender. (she's a girl for one more day until proven otherwise.) She most definitely is sticking out and makes my stomach look mutant in the mornings. I'm 4 months along and we are of course over the moon excited. Kingston talks about meeting the baby every day, he's probably the most excited of us all. Kingston and Bret say it's a boy and London and I say girl. You can guess the gender on the sidebar if ya want...

Batter Up

This one time... before I got sick, we went on a double date! We went out for Thai food and then went to the batting cages (my idea). Turns out I suck at the batting cages but it was all good fun and I'm used to embarrassing myself anyways. Our next outing is going to be BOWLING if I can get the boss to agree to it...

In a Tight Spot

Literally...

A Hunting We Will Go

We had Easter at our house... a while ago. The kids LOVE hunting for eggs. It's right up there with trick or treating and Christmas. Every time they spot their Easter baskets in the garage they get worked up. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the big mess from coloring the eggs but it's part of all the fun I suppose. Maybe by next Easter London will have hair and you will be able to tell the two apart.

Easter Pageant

I've sorta been in a cave for a while and therefor have not posted anything for several months. Now I get to play catch up. Way back in April (that was the last time I posted...) we took the kids to the Easter pageant. We had a bit of a stressful time getting there and it was a bit of a challenge to get Kb and Lo to sit still for that long but we lived through it and by the end of the night we both agreed it was well worth it.

All they do is play

My kids only want to play and eat treats. I can't get either of them to get a job or pull their weight around the house like load the dishwasher or change the oil in my car. Am I the only one with slacker toddlers or what???

Cheep Cheep Chirp

The eggs in the nest on our front door hatched and now we have 3 little birds chirping away in their nest. Sometimes if we leave the door open too long they will fall/fly into our house and Bret has to escort them back to their nest. They are adorable but I'm not to fond of the wall of poo they dispersed around the nest. Sick.

Responsible Parenting

You won't find it here.

Colorful Prophets

I thought it was kind of touching that Bret planned some activities for the kids to do during conference. It was adorable to hear them try and pronounce all of their names and perk up during each speaker at the sound of topics they are familiar with like FHE. He can be such a tender dad and our kids will be blessed because of it.

Look how cute these paper figures turned out that the kids made. So adorable!

What color is my thumb, you ask?

So, I've been spending some time in the backyard lately. It's been fun to watch our little garden grow. We've got lettuce, romaine lettuce, green onions, spinach, cilantro, and basil. I just planted tomatoes and squash for the summer. Kingston helped me count out 5 squash seeds for each mound. We've been eating a lot of salads with some grilled chicken, strawberries, pears, feta cheese, of course mixed in with all the stuff from the garden. Yesterday I planted the 3 rose trees. Yes, rose trees not rose bushes. Apparently there is a difference. I must say I'm pretty proud of it, especially since the whole backyard was dirt when we moved in. With the cool weather we've been having it's nice to play with the kids in the yard.

This rose tree above has 20 (yes I counted them all) rose buds either in bloom or on the way. Both Becki and I have stopped to smell the roses a few times. ;)

I wish the grass would stay this lush green all year round. Soon the heat will kill it and bring on the rough bermuda stuff.