Life at home with A, B, and C :-)

We have been doing well these past 2 weeks since Chase has arrived.  He has been a really good baby so far. It is still early though, so I'm not settling in to this idea quite yet! He sleeps well - getting up about 1-2 times a night and is really relaxed. He hasn't cried much at all yet. If I remember correctly, both Addy and Blake got a little fussier around 4-6 weeks. We'll see if that stands true for this little guy also!



 

 

Chase had his 2 week check-up on Tuesday and he is at 9 lbs, 4 oz.  He had dropped to 9 lbs, 1 oz when we left the hospital so he's back up just a little!

 

Addy and Blake have been doing way better than I expected they would. They have not been jealous of Chase at all...they just REALLY REALLY REALLY love him! Too much sometimes, I have to constantly tell them to step away :) 

 

They are both great helpers - and they constantly want to hold him, feed him, and help out in every way they can.  Anytime Addy goes anywhere like school or dance, she always says she is going to miss him :)  Too cute! 



 

My 3 favorite kiddos!





 



The biggest adjustment for me is just figuring out how to manage everything - get the timing down when we need to leave the house.  Figuring out when I need to start things like supper and such.  I need to anticipate more interruptions than I already had with the 2 of them.  All things I can figure out as we go along...and all part of the growing pains!

 I just love this little guy and can't imagine life without him joining Team Anderson.  He is such a sweetie! 

So far Chase sleeps a ton - as of course all newborns do.  I forget how much they sleep!  I will just enjoy the peace and the snuggles for now, because before I know it Chase will be a rambunctious 3 year old that doesn't know how to talk in his "quiet voice"...if he is anything like his big bro Blake!

Sorry for all of the sleepy baby pics to follow - I can't get enough of taking pics of him looking all cozy!  Looking at them now...he apparently likes to sleep with his head tilted to the right :)

Silly sleep positions...I remember Addy sleeping all silly like this also!

 

We have done a bit of tummy time...he actually doesn't get too mad with that yet, and he has been doing pretty good.  I've noticed his head strength getting better this week.

Just supporting their little bro during tummy time!

 Although he is still sleeping a lot, his eyes are opening much wider when he is awake!  I just love his sweet little face...he probably gets sick of the kisses he gets from his mama.  Oh well though, he'll be getting much more for years to come! 

 I couldn't have asked for the first few weeks to go much better...here's to hoping it continues to go as well! 



Halloween!

This year for Halloween Addy was Strawberry Shortcake and Blake was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (if you asked him, he was an "Inja Turtle")!

 

Addy was SOOOOO excited for the day - she did not want to put regular clothes on at all that day.  She went straight from jammies to her costume.  She also had school where they got to wear their costumes so she was to be in it by about 11:30 anyway...but it made for a long day!

 

 I had purchased a pink wig rather than coloring Addy's hair, but she said it itched within about 5 minutes of trying it on a few weeks prior, so I had bought the pink spray as a back-up.  It was a bit of the mess...but pretty fun!

During school she got to trick-or-treat to classrooms which she thought was pretty cool.

After school, my sisters' came to our house and we went around our neighborhood, then drove to another area of Pine Island...and ended up at my mom and dad's house. 

My turtle!

 Chase had a few 'costume changes' for the day...he spent the day with me of course so he wore his "Mommy's little Pumpkin" shirt...

 

 At night though, he hung out with daddy and helped hand out candy while I went out with Addy & Blake so I changed him into his "Batty for Daddy" shirt :)

The cousins heading to the first house!



Blake had the royal treatment, riding around in the stroller.  I don't typically bring one with for him anymore, but I'm glad I had one on Halloween night!

This next picture isn't clear at all, but I had to include it because I was very thankful for my sister Shannon and bro-in-law Chad...at one point they had both of my kids while their's ran ahead!

Shannon pushing Blake and Chad holding my tired Addy

Addy is always tired on preschool nights --- and this was definitely no exception!  I could tell when she got home from school that she was getting tired, but by the end of teh night, she was D-O-N-E!

She went from this at the beginning of trick-or-treating....

To this!!!!

That is when we decided it was time to be done making the house rounds.  She was cold and wanted to be done walking, so my sister dropped me and the kids off at my parents while the others continued to go around the town! 

Warm and inside at grandma's...MUCH better (and the fact that grandma had special treat bags definitely helped out!)

 We obviously had to do a bath before we could go to bed with that pink hair...turned the entire water and suds pink as you could imagine!  We had to drain it and refill it!!!

Pink Water!

Checking out their loot the next day....

CHEERS TO A SUCCESSFUL NIGHT OF TRICK-OR-TREATING!

....another successful Halloween in the books...!  Cheers to that :)

Pumpkin Carving 2013

The day of Blake's party, we also did pumpkin carving with the family.  We did this last year also - my parents started to plant pumpkins in their garden and they got over 30 pumpkins from one packet of seeds this year!  So, we had plenty to go around.  My sisters and their families were still at our house, my parents, as well as Aaron's mom and step-dad :)

 

We went down in our basement to carve the pumpkins - in the room that will some day be my craft room.  The set-up worked out really well!

The group getting started!

Grandma Bonnie helping cleean out Blake's pumpkin

Addy chose the same design as she did last year...Minnie Mouse.  I'm SURE that Aaron was THRILLED to help out with carving this again!  (note the sarcasm, ha ha)

After grandmpa Bonnie helped clean out Blake's pumpkin, grandpa Paul helped carve!

Aaron hard at work on his own pumpkin!

Chase worked really hard at his pumpkin also :)



The finished product!

Everyone's pumpkins turned out good.  Here's a group shot of the majority of them.

 ANDERSON FAMILY PUMKINS, 2013:

Left to Right: Mine (my dad actually carved mine for me!), Chase's (I did this one), Blake's, Addy's, and Aaron's.  Aaron was originally supposed to be the Superman Symbol, however, there is a flaw in the pattern so there isn't much support for the design...and it was a failure.  Soooo, he improvied and made this random face :)  It cracks me up!

I think that pumpkin carving on the day of Blake's birthday party (and now Chase's) is officially a tradition for us!  Such fun!!!!

Blake at 3 Years Old!



Oh man, where to begin with our Blaker Boy at 3?!!!  I'm not even sure!  He is such a mixture of things --- acting big yet still being my baby, loving to do things his sister wants to do - yet SUCH a boy, etc.

 

Blake absolutely loves to be outside and his favorite park thing to do is swing.  I REALLY hope he learns to pump early next year so I don't have to stand and push him over and over :)  He he!  That's my goal I guess!

Outside he also loves to help Aaron on the tractor, play with rocks, and ride bike. 

Blake often just follows Addy's lead.  If Addy wants to play house, dance, whatever --- Blake is right there to be her side kick.  He actually often wants to play these things on his own and asks Addy to join.  He really doesn't have much boy influence in his life -- his daycare was all girls and he has his big sis.  His cousins Drew and Hunter that are near us are just at that age where he can't quite keep up yet - but give him a year and he'll be right there with them.  Those 2 are all boy - tractors, dirt, and hunting, so he'll have some boy influence before we know it!

That being said - I love that he is all about playing dolls, house, and "dance class".  I think it is good for him to be his own person, whatever that ends up being!  Plus, this kid can shake his booty like no other... (and says "Shake your booty" while he does his little dance) -- I'm glad he is a goof like that! 

Yeah, he's wearing Addy's old dance shoes in this pic :)

Blake isn't potty trained yet - but we are a few weeks away from going cold turkey.  We had actually started to do some training in August and he was doing fairly well.  However, we ended up leaving daycare sort've last minute so the kids were not at a consistent place each day of the week...so the consistency in training wasn't there.  So I had decided we would give it a rest until I was home with him on my leave.

We've been talking about it, and he says that he is ready to give all of his diapers to Chase.  We've also told him that he can do swimming lessons when he goes in the toilet all of the time...so we will see how it goes! 

I was actually really luck with Addy, so I really don't know what I'm doing with potty training!  Addy decided about a month before I was planning on training her that she was done with the diaper thing, so she just sort've taught herself. 

Any tips --- feel free to send them my way.  Especially boy training tips!



Messy Faced Kid!

 Blake is really a sweet, fun kid almost all of the time.  That being said - when he gets mad --- he gets mad.  He definitely has a temper.  I try to ignore him when he does this, it is hard at times.  Aaron is willing to admit - it's a bit of an Anderson temper (he might be a bit proud of that, actually!). 

I think this kid is going to keep me on my toes through the years, that is for sure!

Mad about something at the pumpkin patch...pictures of my kids mad make me smile...does that make me a weird mom?!!!

Group Hug!

 He may have some spice, but like I have always said since day one --- he is MY CUDDLER!  And, I will hold on to this for as long as I can.  He still uses the phrase "I want to hold you" when he wants me to hold him.  I should correct him to say "hold me"...but I just can't!  I will hold on to him wanting to hold me for as long as I can! 


Cuddling with my babe

Speaking of words and speech -- he is really talking up a storm.  Definitely increasing his vocabulary and the lenght of his sentences by leaps and bounds within the last few months/year.  We have full conversations and for the most part, you can tell what he is saying.  He does mix some letters up, like sometimes for the 'd' and 't' sounds when they are at the beginning of a word, he actually says 'g'.  For example - Hot Dog is "Hot Gog".

I have also recently noticed that sometimes his 'm' is a 'b'.  Like the other day when him and Addy were playing house, he was referring to Addy as "Barissa" when she was playing me (Marissa!). 

I am debating starting him in the night time preschool class that they have here in town starting in January - just once/month for 3 and 4 year olds.  We'll see - it might be hectic with me starting back at work then, but he would love it!

I can't wait to see what this next year brings for Blake --- being a big brother, school, new daycare, etc...so much change and all good!

I love him!

A Bug Birthday Bash!









We had Blake's birthday party the Sunday after his birthday, just a few days after Chase and I got home from the hospital.  Given the fact that I knew we would be cutting it close before Chase was even born, we decided to go simple: pizzas, apple and caramel, etc so I didn't stress out too much.  I had everything purchased in advance so I didn't have to do much to prep. 

 

I had even made the cakes and frozen them a few weeks earlier so all I had to do was decorate...but then when I ended up being so far over and just returning home on Friday afternoon with the party Sunday, I ended up ordering a cake instead of decorating it.

 

It worked out fine because on Blake's actual birthday - I frosted the bottom tier of the cake to enjoy on his actual day!

 

Singing Happy Birthday to Blake on his actual birthday (love all the expressions, you can tell Addy and Grandpa Tim are singing their hearts out!)

  

Blake decided he wanted bugs and rocks for his birthday!  This kid is such a mixture of boy and sweetness, I can't even explain it!  Along with the foods mentioned above I got some gummy worms and gummy bugs and made a "dirt dessert (Oreos, pudding and cool whip) to go with the theme :)

Dirt Dessert with a side of bugs and worms!

Blake had a great time at his party and was really excited about opening his presents. 

This kid's smile....ugh!  Always with his entire face :)  I love it!

Present time!

He got some wonderful gifts from family and friends -- books, games, a work bench, a movie, Octonaut toys, and more.  We got him a bike, which we actually gave him a few weeks early.  He was always riding Addy's bike so we figured it was time to upgrade from his trike :) 

After presents it was cake time!!!!

How amazing is this cake?  I could never top it...but was happy that it turned out so good since I didn't decorate it this year.  I wanted it to be special since there was so much going on around his birthday...it turned out awesome and DELICIOUS!

Trying to put up 3 fingers :)

Singing time!

 Blake's birthday party was a success -- we also did pumpkin carving in the afternoon with everyone that was here...pics in another post to come!  I was really wanting Blake to feel special this year, since the baby was coming so close to his birthday.  I think that he felt special.  He seemed to have a wonderful time.  He absolutely loves playing with his cousins and was excited to have everyone at his house.

He may not be my youngest baby anymore...but he sure is still MY baby.  Look at that face...seriously how do you not just melt at this kid?!