Hide and Seek

Another one from the "unpublished" archives is Kate's very best Hide and Seek spot.  A spot like this and you'll win Hide and Seek every time.

Then again, maybe she just liked spending time with the bread machine.

Kate's New Shoes and New Smile

As I dusted off the old blog, I found a couple posts that I was going to write but never did. I had basically just uploaded some photos, never wrote anything, and they sat unpublished in cyberspace for many months.

Ah, Kate's fascination with high heels. I guess it has been going on for quite some time now.  My "favorite" memory was walking into the dining room and discovering Kate, who wasn't much older than a year, standing on the dining room table wearing dress up high heels. Talk about having your heart jump out of your chest...and wanting to laugh at the same time.



I'm so fancy!

And this "smile"... now a thing of the past, but hilarious nonetheless. Literally, you would tell Kate to smile and this is what you would get.

Example 2...

I do miss that cheesy top teeth only smile.

The poor abandoned blog

I have always loved having a family blog. I am terrible at completing baby books. I am not a scrapbooker. I do, however, love to have documentation of all the wonderful and crazy happenings of our lives. I always tried to do about a post a week or at least a few a month...

Then the reality of having three active young kids hit. Almost every day, I feel over my head. Taking care of three demanding kids all day and night is like sensory overload. My quiet evenings are no longer catching up on "me" things, it's often still catching up on "them" things like piles and piles of laundry. Some nights, I am not looking for a little personal, creative fulfillment, all I can muster is a vegetative state on the couch. I can't catch up on long overdo emails to friends or return phone calls. I can't even bear to retell the most adorable tales of adventures that the kiddos got into that day. I relish them but some nights, most nights, there is nothing left.

I couldn't admit this for a long time. Maybe I can now, only because I feel like things are starting to ease up a bit. I can see around the corner that it's not going to be this hard forever. Some days the mental exhaustion seems to ease enough that I can put more than two consecutive coherent sentences together and I feel like a normal adult momentarily.  These are the things that they don't tell you about motherhood. You will lose your brain capacity for a while because it can't deal with so much simultaneous stimulation.

I am here to say, I am back. The last 7 months did exist.  I am very sorry that I didn't document them here, but as sorry as I am that those memories aren't layed out for the world to see, I am more happy that I was present in those moments than sitting behind a computer screen ignoring my children. 

Maybe I'll go back and highlight a few things, like holidays and such, but I'm not overpromising here. We'll take each day as it comes.  










      

Pumpkin Farm and Pumpkin Carving

Okay, I'm posting after Halloween but I'll catch up on what we did to prepare.

 

Here's our pumpkin patch trip:



Top of the Hay Pile Mountain

My Cute Ghostie Family

Kate Climbing the Tunnel

 

Back home:

Pumpkin Carving

Proud Pumpkin Owners 

Visit with Great Granny

A few weeks back, Reed had a long weekend off school, so I decided to take the kids for a visit to Greenville. It's always a long drink with three kids, but the trip was definitely worthwhile. We got to see how well Grandma Maher is doing. Look at this awesome lady!

 

 

Granny and P-pa had a great weinie roast for us. We also got some time to visit with Nathan, Casey, Andrea, Willa, and Owen. We had some overdue Reed Family time. Can't wait for the holidays!

Kindergarten

Back in late August, we had a big transition in our family; Reed started school. It was full-time Kindergarten at a new school for him, St. Thomas More Catholic School. I think we were all a little unsure of how it was going to go, but overall I would say we've settled in quite nicely.

 

First Day Excitement

 

I'm not exactly sure who was the most excited!

We were so proud of Reed for being so brave

(and Cora for being a great photographer.)

Pick up time and still with smiles!!

Glad to be reunited though.

We love school.

Cora is not in preschool yet but insists on wearing her backpack to be like Reed.

 

Reed has loved school from the very start, but that isn't to say there haven't been any bumps in the road. The first days of school were half days. He'd go a few hours and still have hours at home to play with his sisters and super-fun Mom ;) after school. Then the full days started and he wasn't so sure about school anymore. We quickly realized he enjoyed school while he was there but he was convinced that Kate, Cora, and I were having the time of our lives at home without him. When we were able to convince him that wasn't happening and we were saving special fun activities for after school, he lightened up. He's made tons of friends and is even starting to read. It is awesome!

 

I'm looking forward to our first parent-teacher conference next week.

Heading up North

Our second trip of the summer was to the Upper Pennisula of Michigan. We rented a cabin in Copper Harbor for a long weekend and took in the beautiful scenery and enjoyed time with the whole Mihelich Family.

 

 

We loved Brian and Bekki's cabin, right on the water!

Cheese!

 

Why can't I go on the dock?!

 

Buggy rides!

 

And special time Daddy Time!

Fun at Fort Wilkins

This isn't a see-saw?

 

You're it!

 

Can't catch me!

 

Fun feeding ducks 

 

On top of the world with their Daddy

Reed refused to leave the car here

 

But we could barely get him back in the car here.

Reed loved the rocky beaches

And throwing rocks!

Bob and I loved the sunset

 

We had a great trip, lots of family time, ice cream runs, site seeing, etc. But what hit me most was the serenity standing there on the beach, with the cool breeze on my face, and the only sounds being the water lapping on the shore and the plunking noises of Reed's rocks. (The girls were sleeping in the car.) Life has been quite a blur with Bob's work overload and my summer with the 3 kids and no babysitting and a household to run. I think it's fair to say we've been stressed...we ARE stressed. It was nice to bask in a moment of stillness. And while we continue to feel somewhat overburdened with everything on our plates these days, we relish these moments. Our kids are amazing, funny, cute, and smart. Sometimes stepping away from the everyday craziness helps that become even clearer.