Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year!

The past few months have been kind of rough, but I am happy to report we had a fun end to our year...Aunt Tia came to visit! She stayed with us for over a week and then Grammie came for a couple of days to visit before whisking Tia off to Oregon for another little visit. Wonderful times - dancing around the living room, playing with new Christmas toys, watching The Land Before Time (over and again - it was her gift to the kids) swimming, ice-skating, the beach, Thai food, a rainy day at the Zoo, whew! Lots of fun! She even babysat one night so Jacob and I could have a date night out! (thanks, Tia! the kids just adore you!)

This is the first time the kids were old enough that they didn't confuse us (okay, Aspen confused us once, but that was it). They sure loved having Tia around - as did we. 

She took Sawyer ice-skating for the first time at the Seattle Center Winterfest. Aspen and I cheered them on from the sidelines since ice-skating with lots of crazy kids flying in every direction isn't the best idea for a preggo lady...and Aspen's feet are still too small for the skates. 

Sawyer was excited and a bit nervous, but he did great! They skated together for about half an hour before it was time to go fill our bellies with lunch in the Centerhouse.

Speaking of bellies, here is my quickly growing belly on the last day of the year (Discovery Park Beach, 16 weeks) If I look kind of awful, it's because I wasn't exactly feeling great - but I am feeling a little better so hooray for that!

We spent the morning at the beach - it seemed like the perfect way to enjoy the last day of the year. We've had wonderful "winter" weather this year, and we've been enjoying it. 

That evening, we drove down to Tacoma to ring in the New Year with our other sister, Kaitlin, and her family. We stuffed ourselves with pizza (they even had gluten free pizza for Tia at the place we went to!) and then we went to their home for some fondue and games. I was in charge of the fondue and, unfortunately, it flopped (ie accidentally scorched the cream) but luckily no one cared too much. Especially Aspen, who found their bowl of chocolates and went to town. The girl definitely has a sweet tooth! We played Apples to Apples and toasted our martinelli's- and rang in the New Year, New York time. It was perfect. It always makes me smile to see the kids running around with their cousins and so throughly enjoying each others company.

I guess the pics are rather sparse and random, but I didn't really take many the past few weeks. I did, however, catch Aspen one day with her new baby that Santa brought (after all my research and asking around, I turned in my recommendation and Santa left her a Bitty Baby). She just adores her baby. And the cradle that Grammie and Grandpa Kemp gave her. I asked her if she wanted to name her baby and threw out a few suggestions (ie. Betsy, Jane, etc.) but she said no to naming and was pretty clear she just wants to call her "baby"...for now :)  It's so sweet how much she loves this little doll. She adores how her eyes open and close and she loves putting her down "night night" and then "she wakes up!" It cracks me up when she peels off her clothes and retrieves the baby wipes from the closet - and "changes" her baby's diaper. Wow, she is sure good at caring for her baby! I have a feeling she will be a most excellent little helper with our new baby this summer.

She's ready to be a big sister! So cute!

I'm really excited for this New Year! I had anticipated that the latter part of this past year would likely be rough because of being pregnant (and it was) but we are just so thrilled getting ready to welcome our third little one! I feel like sometimes people either outright say I'm crazy or look at me like I'm crazy having 3 little ones so...little...or try to scare me by telling me it's just going to be chaos and craziness (which I'm sure there will be plenty) but I feel ready. Our first two are a year and a half apart - which honestly, we loved (but couldn't do three that close because I wanted to enjoy the first two without feeling like my mothering was merely triage!) but this one will be just under two and a half years from Aspen, which has given us lots of time, or so it feels like to me. The past few months I have taken measures to simplify our life and that has brought a certain calm. I hope to carry on with the simplicity and continue to enjoy each moment - both the crazy and the calm - with my wonderful hubs and three precious kiddos squished all together in my arms! Wish us luck!