New Routines

This morning started our new routine.  We've been having lots of trouble with M and C going to bed easily for quite some time now.  We have tried everything we can think of...and then we sought wisdom elsewhere, but it's all been to no avail.  They just don't go to sleep.

Last night I decided to start waking them up every morning at the same time and not letting them take a long nap ever.  I woke them up...and they dragged themselves out of bed.  Naptime was pretty easy because they were tired.  Bedtime tonight was the easiest its been in months.  Here's hoping I'm onto something and it continues to work well.  C zonked out almost instantly...

I also realized today that I don't really have many pictures of Liam where he is interacting.  He has become so very animated lately and I needed to capture that.

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Again, it has been too long since I have posted.  So much has happened in the past few months, and I get overwhelmed just thinking about trying to play catch up in my blog posts.  My mom challenged me tonight to just start from today and not worry about playing catch up.  So, here I am.

We moved the girls into bunk beds on Saturday and bed time has been quite interesting since.  Calli enjoys the freedom to just get up and roam the house whenever her eyes open from sleep, and Mikayla likes to climb her ladder to the top and then swing down over the side.  We are working through this newness of things, and hoping we can lay down some rules that will be followed.

Liam has really settled into a routine of naps and eating and I am loving it!  Life is getting easier with 3 littles running around.  He still sleeps in the pack n play in our room, but he does a great job sleeping now!

Tonight we had a birthday party for Julia and I forgot to take pictures!  It was just a small family get together, but it was nice.  Ben has moved from living with my mom to living with my dad.  That has been hard for all of us here on the farm still, but Ben is loving his new freedom.  It was nice to see him tonight though.

We ate dinner and then sat around and played games.  It's been a long time since I have just sat around and played games.  We played TV Scene It, with questions from TV shows from the 60's to the 90's.  It was fun to see who knew what.  We knew more than we expected and had a great time!

Matt is away for a few days with work, so I am holding down the fort.  It's tough to not have him here, but it just makes me appreciate him even more!  Well, here's hoping I can stay caught up and actually add some pictures to this wordy blog soon.

Pajama Day

Today we had a low key day and stayed home.  I planned to get lots of neglected housework completed, but a fussy baby kept that from happening.  Liam has been unusually fussy today.

I decided to let the girls watch a movie and eat lunch at the same time.  We had a little indoor picnic while watching Peter Pan.  I put a table cloth on the floor and gave them several finger foods to eat.  They had strawberries, cheese, popcorn, rice crisps and raisins.  They ate everything I gave them!  They had a blast.

The weather was so nice today, but we got so much rain last night it was too muddy to play outside much.  I'm ready for a steady Springtime to come.  We have had such a mild winter, I can't complain.  I'm just ready for it to be steadily getting warmer.  I'm ready to get outside on a regular basis.

It was a nice low key day for us.  We don't have many of these anymore, so a break in the craziness was nice.

Leap Day

This morning I decided we all needed a little extra sleep so we stayed home from Bible Study.  We slept in until 8 am!  It was much needed and great!

After we were all up, we got dressed up to go visit daddy at work!  I had a coupon for my birthday to our favorite Milford restaurant.  Mikayla was so excited to go to "Georgia's House" as she calls it.

We finally got out the door around 11 and headed on the 50 minute trip.  When we arrived, it was pouring so Matt helped us run in to visit the office friends.  I sat and fed Liam in Pop Pop Krupka's office while the girls visited all of their Burris friends.

We got to the restaurant and it was empty!  Major plus for us.  The girls did a great job of sitting at the table and eating all of their food!  Usually they are so distracted, they don't end up eating much.  My coupon was for a dessert, so we all shared it.  It was a huge brownie and ice cream.  It's a good thing there were people to share with me, because it was 26 WW points!!

It was a great last day to my birthday month!

How Quickly Time Passes

Phew!  It's amazing how quickly time gets away from me.  I look back at all that has happened and get overwhelmed at where to start.  Again, the reason I need to blog more often.

Anyway, last week we took Liam to the chiropractor because he seems to favor looking to the left.  He did great, and there was a spot in his neck that was "caught" that needed to be adjusted so he could turn to the right more.  He also had "tight" hips that needed a little work.

We had a follow up visit today, and Dr. E said things look so much better!  He readjusted Liam's neck and hips, but with much more ease than last time.  We go back for one final visit next week!  Liam did great and didn't scream at all!

Mikayla has her good days and not so good days.  She seems to be growing out of taking a nap every day.  I let her stay up a few days a week, but she barely makes it to bedtime without a meltdown (sometimes, she doesn't make it without a meltdown).  It makes for a nice bedtime routine, because she doesn't get up for a drink or any other excuse she can think of...50 times.  But, it does make for a stressful dinner time and family time after dinner.  We are still working on it.

Calli has really started to turn into a little talking machine.  She is holding entire conversations with me now.  I understand most of what she says too.  She has recently gone through a growth spurt and is "thinning" out while growing taller.  She just got two of her 2 year molars, and I am glad that is over!

I realize how much the children are changing and how quickly they are doing it!  We are finally starting to settle into a routine, and life with 3 kiddos is getting easier!

Date Night

Matt took me on a date tonight.  It was a much needed time away.  We took Liam with us, but Matt's mom kept the girls.  Because we have been to the restaurants in Dover and there is nothing very exciting, Matt took me to a place in Wilmington.  We waited about 40 min., but I fed Liam while we waited, so that made the time go quickly.

We then were seated and ate and paid and left in 40 min.  It was great!  I wanted to take advantage of being in Wilmington, so we moved quickly.

We went to Babies R Us to buy some much needed gates to help me corral the girls during the day.  Calli can now open doors and gets into all sorts of mischief when I am busy feeding Liam.  Now I have gates to keep her out of the places I don't want her to "reek havoc".  Ha!

I am also able to keep the girls toys in the toy room with gates.  They both can play in the toy room together, and I can walk away without being concerned they will drag all the toys into the family room or the kitchen.  I'm hoping things will work out the way I envision them in my head though. 

I love staying home with my children, but some days I just need a break.  Love that my husband treats me so well and knows just what I need!

Party!

Today we got to have a big celebration as a family.  My mom won a sweepstakes and we got to have a big party.  It started at her bank with them presenting her the award.  There was popcorn and cookies to munch on and Mikayla and Calli made themselves at home eating the goodies.

My mom's parents came to town to help celebrate, so we decided to all go out for lunch.  There were 20 of us!  The restaurant was so great in taking care of all of us.  It was a great time of fellowship and celebrating!

God has been taking care of my mom over the past few years, and He is still watching over her.  I can't think of someone who needed and deserved this award more than my mom.  Praise the Lord!

The girls didn't have naps and ate lunch late, but they were amazing!  They behaved better than they do on days when they have a "normal" schedule.  Again, Praise the Lord for that!

The holidays

  My New Year's resolution this year is to do a better job at keeping up with this blog.  I really enjoy being able to go back and read what we have done throughout the year, and I am disappointed when I miss something. 

So...a quick recap of our holidays.  We celebrated on Thanksgiving day with Matt's family along with friends.  I was only a few days from my due date, and very uncomfortable, but we made the best of it.  We ate a delicious meal, and I was relieved of having to prepare any of it because of my very pregnant condition.  After dinner, we all packed into the vehicles and headed to Ronnie's Christmas Market.  It's become a tradition, and the kids love to see all the lights and decorations.  It's the official start of the Christmas season!

The next night, we went back to Ronnie's and bought our Christmas tree.  We knew we had to get this finished early this year, because we would soon have a new baby.  Mikayla found the "perfect" tree and we decided to get her tree.  We came home and Matt put it right up.  It took us several more days to get it decorated, but it was beautiful!

On November, 30th, Kristi took the girls to Bible Study and Matt decided to work from home since I was 1 day past my due date.  Around 10 am, contractions started and picked up as time passed.  Liam Edward Krupka made his appearance at 4:57 that evening!  We were so thrilled to have a boy!  I even cried a little knowing that Matt so desperately wanted a little boy and now he finally had one!  Liam has been a great addition to our little family.

We celebrated Christmas with Matt's family on Christmas Eve.  The girls got so many amazing things from Mom Mom and Pop Pop, and loved every minute spent with family.  The next day, we got up and opened our stockings, and then got all dressed up to attend church.  It was a great service filled with wonderful music and great preaching.  A great reminder of the real reason we celebrate!

We came home and finished preparing dinner, while the girls napped.  When they woke up, we started opening gifts.  It was a blessed Christmas time with my mom and siblings.  The Lord has truly blessed us this year!

We are looking forward to all the wonderful things that God will do in our family this year.  We are still adjusting to being a family of 5, but loving every minute of it.