Reading to Keta

Marketa was waking up from her morning nap. I quickly put the clothes in the dryer, but as I was doing that Beckett runs into her 'room', turns on the light and shuts the door. When I went in a minute later I found that he had pulled up a stool and was sitting next to the pack 'n play 'reading' to Marketa. It was the cutest thing.

Lately, that has been Beckett's thing--"make Keta happy". If only I could get him to stop telling her "no, no, no, baby!" Oh well. This is a start and I kinda like it.

We survived

Today was Scott's first day back at work in just over a month. We survived and even had fun...lots of smiles even while stuck inside for the day.

I'm thinking someone is going to miss these cuddles throughout the day. I'll give you one guess--daddy or Marketa?

She seems pretty content with the little monkey, but was super excited to see daddy when he walked in the door tonight.

God is awesome--He provided a job for Scott very quickly and with out much stress. We will miss having him home all day, every day, but we are quickly getting back into our regular routine. We only had 2 time outs today...Beckett sometimes needs a little alone time. The other time out was me--I sometimes need a little alone time too. We'll see what tomorrow brings and hopefully we can get out for play group on Wednesday.

Beef, it's what's for dinner

The other night we had sloppy joes for dinner (a great recipe with pureed veggies hidden in it-love it!). The kids didn't want the buns, so they ate it plain. Marketa dug right in...

She loved every bite of it.

And when her picky brothers didn't eat much of theirs, she got a second helping.

"More meat please, daddy."

That's my little lady...she often out-eats her brothers at dinner time.

Snack time

Today, when Maddox and Beckett woke up from their 3 hour nap, this is what they found outside their window. This dozer was breaking up ice in the street and driveways. Then a plow came by to clear away the mess.

Thus, snack time happened here.

They were glued to these spots for a good 15 minutes, watching the action outside.

Birthday party

Yesterday we had a birthday party here...just a small family gathering to celebrate Marketa's 1st birthday and my dad's 60th. We had fun and enjoyed the festivities.

My friend Shaylyn made the cake and cupcakes. She did a great job!

I had fun buying all the pink stuff for the party.

Marketa took a longer nap than usual, which was good, but I had to wake her up for the party. It took her a while to warm up, especially with everyone watching her.

Daddy had to help her dig into the frosting...she wasn't sure what to think about it at first.

Once she started in, though, it didn't take her long to polish off her cupcake.

Then it was time for presents. I think that's what a few of her cousins were most excited about.

Here is the monkey I knit up for Marketa. It's about as tall as she is.

Some of the kids disappeared upstairs and were watching a truck across the street. Pretty cute to see the 4 of them, especially Bella, loving on Maddox.

One year ago...

Marketa Belle joined us at 11:30 pm. What a blessing she has been!

Here's the story:

My due date was at the beginning of February. Maddox and Beckett were born 5 weeks early, but because they were twins, I fully expected to go early. With a singleton pregnancy, I told myself I would at least make it to my due date and probably go past. I didn't want to get my hopes up of going early, plus, we weren't quite ready for number 3 to come home. At 37 weeks, I went in for a routine ultrasound (we had ultrasounds every 4 weeks during the 2nd half of the pregnancy to keep an eye on her kidney situation). Then I went over to the midwives' office and had a routine non-stress test and appointment. I was having contractions, but that was nothing new...I had been for a few weeks, but nothing that was really noticeable. Then the midwife checked me and said I was dilated to 3 or 4. She said with the contractions I was having and being dilated that far that I was probably going to have a baby that night. Scott and I looked at each other and laughed...was she serious?!? She said we could either head right over to the hospital or we could go home and wait it out a bit.

We decided to go home and get a few things ready. Mom was watching the boys, so she went home and got a bag together. Scott fed them dinner and got them ready for bed while I wrote out some notes for mom and sent a few emails. Meanwhile, the contractions were getting stronger. By 7:15 we were headed back downtown to the hospital (in blowing snow and close to 0 temps). We made it down there by 8 and I was hooked up to some monitors to check contractions and baby's heart rate. We walked the floor and I was checked every half hour by the midwife. Everything was progressing nicely, but my water still hadn't broke. Around 10:30 pm I decided to let the midwife move things along. I was dilated to 7 or 8. The contractions still weren't too bad--in fact, the nurse and midwife were laughing because I was chatting and laughing right through some of them. Then she broke my water (about 11 pm). That's when the pain really started. Those contractions came right on top of each other and I thought to myself, what am I doing!? why didn't I get any pain meds?! Pretty soon it was time to push and after just 10 minutes, there she was, our precious baby girl. A true gift from God! It was amazing.

I can't believe she is a year old now and is becoming a little lady. I also can't believe that we're about to do this again in just 6 months! God really has blessed our family--very quickly.

Silliness

Maddox and Beckett got silly putty in their Christmas stockings. Lately Beckett has been pulling it out and 'making quesadillas' for us to snack on. Sometimes he makes cookies too, but usually quesadillas...with sour cream (his favorite condiment). Sometimes I can convince him to put guacamole on it too, cause that would make mommy and daddy really happy.

The other day we noticed him walking around with the silly putty stuck to his forehead. He played like that for quite a while. It was pretty funny.

This is his tough guy face...pretty intimidating, right, with that big red blob on his forehead?

Marketa is usually just happy to be around the excitement. She hears those boys giggling and she starts looking for them if they're not in the room.

Maddox had to join in with the silliness. It didn't last long. I think he just liked the reaction Beckett was getting from us.

Cribs (toddler version)

Sometimes when the kids are playing in their room, I put Marketa in the crib to keep her contained if I'm busy doing something and can't keep an eye on her. We haven't let her attempt the stairs yet, so I don't trust her to stay away from them when I'm not around. Usually she stays in the room with Maddox and Beckett, but occasionally she'll come a lookin' for me.

On this particular day, the boys started tossing toys in for her to play with. She quickly got tired of that game and wanted out, but not before Beckett wanted in. I put him in and soon Maddox wanted in too. Marketa came out and I grabbed the camera.

Then the boys played happily...for about 5 minutes.

Taking pictures

Many of you know that taking pictures of kids can be difficult...especially when there are 3 of them under 3...especially when 2 of them are boys who usually don't like to cooperate at the same time...especially when one of them is an almost 1 year old girl who loves to explore her world, not sitting still for long. We tried. This is what we came up with.

All looking in the same general direction, but the boys weren't smiling.

A pretty cute one of Marketa and Maddox...too bad Beckett was being a stinker and pulled out of the picture.

This might be the best one. They were all happy at the same moment. What more could we ask?

Or maybe this one. Sure, Beckett isn't looking at the camera, but he is loving on his sister. That's pretty sweet.

Then things went down hill...Marketa was done sitting on the couch, ready to explore and play with trucks. I put the camera away and this is how Maddox reacted. He wanted to take more pictures. So I did. Of him. Crying.

He finally settled down.

Then decided he was happy again. All that happened within a matter of minutes. Oh, how I love the mood swings of toddlers.

And this little cutie...she was happy just to play.

Maybe we'll try taking pictures again another day. Sorry Ginny...this is what you get for now. Hope one of those is good enough for your picture frame.

Play time

This morning after breakfast we played downstairs for quite a while. Scott went into work today to get some stuff done so we needed some distractions.

Marketa loves riding on this truck lately. She just can't figure out how to go backwards or how to get off of it. She usually just pushes forward until she can't go anymore. Then just hangs out until someone pulls her back so she can go again.

Maddox and Beckett sat at the table (where Marketa can't get into 'their' stuff) for a good 20-30 minutes this morning playing with these tractors and trucks. It's so much fun watching them play and starting to use their imaginations.

It amazes me that they rarely fight over these too...one minute Maddox will be playing with one and Beckett another, then I look over and they've traded places. Most of the time it just happens without discussion, sometimes one will ask the other to share and they just do. I love it!