4.25, 2.5, and 10 Months

My blogging totally stopped once my doula journey began - I hate that!  So I have to do a recap because Anna is almost a year old.  Life is crazy with these three little ones and time flies.  This is a picture I took this evening.  We went walking in the trails near our house to the playground.  James got tired and didn't want to walk home, so thankfully Super Dad can carry all 85 pounds of our children!  Poor Luke... So typical for him to be in the back and for James to be sitting on him!

 These boys love their daddy so much!

Yesterday, we went as a family to Tweetsie Railroad.  This is the boys' favorite place on earth.  The love the trains and all the rides.  Ray and I love the drive there because it gives us some good time to talk without distraction.  Yesterday was so much fun.  James was showing us how the train moves in the photo below...

This was Luke's favorite ride...

 Like always, Anna just enjoys coming along for the ride.  She's still so chill and fits in perfect.

Today is Easter!  We had family over for lunch and did an egg hunt.  We made resurrection rolls together too.  And last week James and Luke were covering Anna with pillows.  I asked them what they were doing and James said "Anna's going to raise from the dead!"  So we certainly have the "Easter Spirit" over here.

So how are the kiddos individually?  James is a handful!  He always has to have something to do.  As long as he has a job, he's awesome.  He works hard and wants to please.  He likes to do crafts, practice letters, or read one on one.  But when he has free time, he can get in trouble fast.  His two goals we have at school for him each day are to "listen to your teachers and don't be destructive."  I think we are finally having more good days than bad days.  It's hard to be consistent with him when I have two other kids but I'm trying my best, praying for him, and hoping that God uses him in amazing ways one day.  James loves all people.  He doesn't know a stronger.  Here's James helping Ray plant some new bushes.  And of course he's wearing his 12-18 month size pumpkin shirt because it's his favorite.

Luke... sweet Luke... He puts up with a lot from James.  But he loves James.  He weighs more than James now but he's shorter than him.  Luke is acting like a 2 year old these days.  He is starting to test limits  and see if we will hold him to what we say.  He's very kind though.  He tries to be helpful.  If he does something wrong, he's quick to apologize and tries to make it right.  He's still very clumsy... he takes hard falls often.  He tries to spell words alongside James and he and James sing to one another at night.  Luke loves his daddy.  He prefers Ray over me most of the time.  He's shy and is slow to warm up to new people.

Anna... she's my sweet sweet baby.  She obviously can do no wrong since she's a baby.  She is the sweetest thing.  She has been sleeping all night (7am-7pm) for about a month now.  She takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap.  She's nursing 6 times durning the day and she loves food too.  If all babies were this easy, I'd want a dozen!  But I know she will grow up into a challenging toddler at some point too.  She can army crawl across a room.  I just love how sweet she is.  Ray and I kiss her so much and her giggle is perfection.

Life with Ray and me is good.  It's busy which can be hard, but it's good.  We've been able to go on a couple of dates over the last two months because Ray's parents have watched the kiddos and it has been SO REFRESHING.  We didn't go on our first date without Anna until she was 6 months old.. Just because childcare for 3 kids is complicated.  But she's getting older and easier and I'm so thankful when we can get out as just the two of us.

Well that's it for now!  Hopefully I'll get back to blogging more because my Uncle Ben and Aunt Marcia gave us a Mac for Christmas and it's pretty incredible!  So much faster.  Thanks, guys!