SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE POST

We took the girls to the fair on Monday.  Christian took the day off and we dropped Landen off at Christian's mom's house.  It was a bit chilly to start but then warmed up a lot and turned into a beautiful day.  Andrew and Lisa met us there and ate lots of deep fried junk food.  It was amazing. (This next part is for my brother Luke)  We ate deep fried snickers, a funnel cake, cotton candy, deep fried pickles, and a hot dog.  I believe that is all.  It was all wonderful.  I think next year I'll have a frozen chocolate banana, more deep fried pickles, and another deep fried snickers for sure!  Yes, I do plan in advanced what I plan on eating each year.  It's soooo good!  We actually only go to the fair for the food.  However, this year Christian got tickets for some kiddie rides.  The girls were able to ride 3 rides each.  We had to choose wisely though since Mia is too short for some rides.  One ride they went on was a mini roller coaster which we thought they would freak out on.  But they were cheesin from ear to ear the whole time.  They loved it!  We also went to the petting zoo area and are happy to say that we did not catch any life threatening diseases there.  Kalea really loved feeding the goats and petting them.  Mia... not so much.  Thus Andrew holding her almost the whole time.  

On a side note, can I just say how EXCITED I am that Lisa and Andrew are pregnant.  And since Lisa says everybody pretty much already knows that they're expecting I figure I can blog about it:)  Sorry Lisa!  Anyways, I love these guys so much and am so excited to see their little family grow!!  It's such an amazing experience for them.  They've been so wonderful with our girls.  The girls absolutely adore Lisa and Andrew!  It's funny to think back because when we first met them, every time Mia would look at Andrew she would start to cry hysterically.  And every time that would happen Andrew would just say, "One day you'll love me."  And she does!  We all do!  Ok, that's my the end of my sappy public display of affection for you guys :)

Okay, one more funny story.  When we were younger I remember going to petting zoos on occasion.  On this particular occasion I remember my little brother Lane getting rammed in the stomach by a goat that did not take kindly to him.  For some reason that gets me HYSTERICALLY LAUGHING!!!

Kalea standing with a black cow you can hardly see

Yes, this goat is standing on that cow (I think that's a cow)

Andrew and Mia with the camel

Cheese!

Mia on the Merry-G0-Round (you can see my face peeking in there too)

Some of my favorite people!

Kalea feeding a goat

THE Roller Coaster (Kalea's in pink and Mia's in white)

.... AND THERE'S MORE....

I've been neglecting my blog all month so now I'm paying for it.  I've got tons to blog about but sometimes life just gets away from you.  Actually, I'm being treated for postpartum depression so I haven't been feeling like myself.  However, the meds seem to be doing the trick and helping me to get onto the right track.  It's been a rough couple of  weeks trying to get out of my rut.  But I'm starting to feel MUCH better.  Anyways, now for the fun stuff...

You will notice BELOW that Rainbow Sparkles has a new BFF.  Her name is Pretty Panda and Mia made her at Build-A-Bear with her dear sweet Aunt Camillia.  Along with the bear came a whole new wardrobe and tons of hair bows for their bears.  

I realized that I've been SERIOUSLY slacking in the picture taking department.  So I've been trying to make up for it the past week or so.  The girls absolutely adore Landen and want to hold him any chance they can get.  Mia only lasts for about a minute but Kalea will hold him for quite awhile.  They are both great big sisters.  Landen really seems to adore them right back.  He stares at them and smiles now too!  It's fun to hear his little coo's and to see how much he's changed.  In case I haven't talked to you in awhile, Landen has become an ANGEL baby.  He changed so much and seems so content all the time now.  He rarely fusses unless he's hungry or sleepy.  It's so much easier.  What brought on the change, you wonder?  Well, after I would nurse him, he would CRY AND CRY AND CRY... sooo, we thought he was gassy.  Um... the baby just wanted MORE.  So afterwards, we give him a bottle if he wants more and mama just isn't doin the job.  Sorry for starving you the first month of your life, bud.   Anyways, here are some pictures of my kiddos.

We had a really fun weekend this past weekend.  Christian got free tickets to the Duke vs. Miami game on Saturday.  So we took Crystal (Christian's sister) and Brad along and had tons of fun with them.  Aunt Camillia and Uncle Cayler watched all of the kids for us... yes all 4.  It got really cold during the game and one of the absolute highlights for us was seeing this crazy guy walk around in spandex shorts and THAT'S IT.  We thought it would be funny to take a picture with this guy but after much deliberating decided that it was a little bit creepy.  So we passed.  But he seemed nice and waved to me at one point.  Weird.  

Here are some random pictures of my little man smiling... sort of.  It's hard to catch his quick little smiles since they come and go pretty quickly.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little boy.  He's such an awesome addition to our family.  A quick update on his 2 month check up he had.  He got his shots of course, which he did not like.  He was quite devastated by them.  Also, he's in the 75th percentile in his weight and in the 30th percentile in his height.  So, we've got a short fat one folks.  

This last picture is of Landen at like 1 week old.  This onsie was given to us by Brad and Brittney Nelson who I miss like crazy!  Brad plays baseball in the Minor Leagues for the Braves.  They live in Utah during the off season so I haven't seen them in a really long time, but it's so great to see them when Brad comes in town for a game or when they're just out here visiting family.  Love you guys!

THE INNER WORKINGS OF MY MIND

You ever get the feeling of being utterly exhausted but your mind is running a mile a minute so there's no point in laying down until you get it all out. So here I am at 11 pm typing away just to get things off of my mind...

First, I want to apologize to every single person who has tried to reach out to me with Landen and all I've done is shot them down or seemed ungrateful. It's not that I'm not grateful... I am, I swear but I hate feeling like I need help. I've always been very independent and don't like to lean on ANYONE. So when people offer me help with the girls or with the baby, I'm quick to shoot it down. So here I am... apologizing... "I'm sorry for appearing ungrateful or uninterested or mean or grumpy or cranky". I was EXTREMELY cranky at church today. I'm just exhausted with everything right now. And sometimes you just want to go to church and sit, and relax, and enjoy. That hasn't happened since... well... since before I had kids, basically. And sometimes I'm so frustrated that Landen can be so fussy at times (thus the crankiness at church) that I tend to take it out on everyone else. And then sometimes I think to myself, maybe he's not really THAT fussy. Maybe I'm the fussy one. Maybe I'm the one who needs a pacifier and a little rocking. It's true what they tell you, 3 kids is HARD. Much harder then I expected. I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park, but I didn't know that most days I wouldn't shower before noon. That my poor girls would basically have a free for all every day just as long as they didn't kill each other. That my arms would get so tired from holding my little boy. And that lunch would get later and later every day. Sorry, I'm just venting... and many of you have already heard this coming out of my mouth before.

STUPID... yep, that's Mia's new favorite word. At first I had no idea where this word was coming from. Because honestly, we don't say that word very often. Anyways, so once we heard it coming from our sweet little girl's mouth about 4 times a day, she got in big trouble. She would literally say, "Stupid!... not". Like she was trying to take it back the minute it flew out of her mouth. Now that Kalea and Mia know that this word is unacceptable in our home, when ever we hear the word on TV they look at me and say "That's a bad word." I know what you're thinking... what in the world are you letting your kids watch that says the word Stupid.
Ex: Ratatouille, Aladdin, and Meet the Robinson's.
Sad, huh. It's not like we're watching these crazy movies with swearing and violence. We're watching Disney!! It's very frustrating that the girls are so conscience of this word now. It makes me feel like they're losing a little bit of their innocence.

So we bought a Camcorder like 4 years ago that apparently stopped working. And by stopped working I mean needed to be cleaned. So 4 years later we clean it. We started watching some home videos from FOREVER ago. It was fun to see Kalea as the cutest little 2 year old. She was hilarious to watch. Also, Mia had TONS of hair when she was born and I forgot how beautiful she was as a newborn. But for the biggest shocker, I watched myself at 20 years old on our first (and only) Christmas together without kids. It was so fun to watch and see how cute and different we were. I think sometimes the fun can be sucked out of things when it seems like you're constantly raising children. I know that Christian and I sometimes feel like we aren't the way we used to be. But it definitely opened my eyes to how I was. Some good some bad. I was definitely still as HILARIOUS as I am now. But I was much more carefree. I do miss that about myself. I was definitely just a sassy as I am now. But not nearly as stressed about life. I wonder if I'll ever be able to be that person again. Maybe I'll try and be that person again... or maybe I'll try as soon as Landen starts sleeping through the night. One other thing I noticed was how much Christian adored me in the video. (haha not that he doesn't adore me now). But everything was so new and fresh for us... even just hearing him say "I love you"... You could tell that it was still something so new that came out of our mouths. We were so young and no idea what was ahead of us. When I had the camcorder in hand on Christmas morning Christian had to keep reminding me that these were family videos. Apparently the things I would say weren't exactly PG. What a crazy girl I was!

Ok so now I'm tired and ready to sleep. If I think of more things to write, I will. But until then...

MY FIRST OUTING WITH 3

Here I am trying to get a quick nap in between pushes

Mia and and her sweaty head

Landen is at one with nature

Erin, Lillie, and Alli

Lillie and Kalea

Here are some pictures of my very first venture out with all 3 kids. I had put it off for 4 1/2 weeks and finally had enough courage to try it. It wasn't terrible, but wasn't easy either. I think I've decided that I'll probably only go out with all 3 maybe once or twice a week. It's a HUGE change from just the girls. For those of you don't know, Landen is FUSSY. He seems to get a lot of gas pains which is very hard for him (and me). I've been using the Mylicon drops and Gripe Water. They seem to help him a little bit. So taking him out in public isn't exactly ideal... not to mention he doesn't like the car. What a handful, he is. Anyways, we met my friend Erin at the park after a trip to Target. The girls really liked getting out of the house, since we're always at home now. Landen did alright also... he seemed to enjoy being out doors and didn't fuss too much. I can't think of anything else to write cause simply, I'm really exhausted.

PICTURES OF THE KIDDOS

Kalea kissing on Landen

Mia kissing on Landen

Looking at Kalea

What a stud!

they call me crazy fingers

Why do babies make this face??

they ADORE him

LIVING DAY BY DAY

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. I feel like I literally get 10 minutes to myself here and there. And usually I use that 10 minutes to shower or get house work done. I'm not used to being so entirely devoted to such a small little person again. I guess having children who are older tends to spoil you a little bit.



Update on Landen:

• He's discovered that falling asleep on mommy is much better then trying to do it on his own.


• We've learned that giving him a passy makes him turn really mad and red... but he still takes it sometimes.


• He eats a TON! Sometimes I have to supplement a bottle sometimes to fill this kid up.


• He poops like 120 times a day. And I'm doing way more laundry way more often because of this little poop machine.


• Christian still doesn't like holding little babies... still.


• He never wants me to get any sleep.... ever.


• He's starting to fill out his little face. Definitely developing a double chin... but still has chicken legs.


• He seems to like his Sisters even though they get right in his face and use a severely high pitched voice (to the point where you think dogs might begin to howl) when talking to him. He stops to listen and stare at them... probably thinking "get your curly hair out of my face."

I've gotten some comments from friends that I haven't posted any pictures of Landen much. It's mostly because I'm so busy and distracted that it hasn't crossed my mind as much. I know I need to get on it and do better. To be honest, lately he's either been crying or sleeping so I haven't felt the uncontrollable desire to photograph either of those things. I do have to say that a good friend of the Alo family, Linda Connor, is going to take some pictures of Landen and I so I'm hoping I'll be able to post some of those.

Yesterday I realized it was already 1 o'clock and the girls hadn't had lunch yet. Of course Landen was crying his little head off, all though he had just eaten, burped, and had a clean diaper. So I decided to use the sling my mom made for me and shove the little guy in there. It didn't look very comfortable being all crammed in there, but he got really quiet and eventually fell asleep. So I started making grilled cheese sandwiches (while trying to stand 3 feet back so I wasn't too close with the baby) and Kalea and Mia decided that was a good time to ask for about 13 more things just to test my limits. So I turned to her and said, "I'm not Superman! You need to let me do one thing at a time." That quieted them pretty quickly. So I finished making their sandwiches, cut up an apple, got them something to drink. And about 10 minutes later Kalea comes up to me... confused... and says, "You're not Superman?" Apparently I should have used a symbol that she could actually relate to. Like Dora or Diego.

I'M 25!!

Here I am at 19

Here I am NOW

Do I look 25? Cause I feel 25. Probably because I've surpassed many milestones that I never thought I would have gotten to at this age. 3 kids by 25 was never a plan for me during my teenage years. I didn't even plan on being married til after 25. But it's definitely something that I love and would not trade in for the world. Since Landen was born, I had totally forgotten I even had a birthday coming up. I thought this would be a hard birthday for me since I would be considered in my "mid-20's" but I feel very satisfied at where I am in life so bring it on!