Another Visit from the Toothfairy + Life Lately

Shelby lost her second tooth this week, and thankfully the toothfairy was able to find us at our new house in Las Vegas!

The "before" shot :)

 

 

And a few other peeks at what our life has looked like lately...

We let Brady tag along for his first library storytime this week :)  Here are the girls reading their new books before storytime began.

Isn't he the cutest?!

Enjoying her new library books :)

 

Shelby reading to Brady

Celebrating National Cheesecake Day at The Cheesecake Factory last night. The girls enjoyed their first ever piece of cheesecake!

This is what our house looked like this morning :)
Derek let me sleep last night while he was on baby duty (he always take at least one chunk of the night for me, but last night he did WAY more), so I let him sleep in late while we had a lazy morning of tablet time & cinnamon rolls for the girls.

Hadley's turn to read with Brady :)

Brady LOVES to lounge poolside while his big sisters swim :)

I had just changed Brady's diaper & left him on his little changing pad on the floor while I went to throw the diaper away & wash my hands. I came back to find Shelby talking to Brady :)

And this is my current view as I'm typing :)  The girls are sound asleep upstairs, and Brady is napping on Derek in the living room.

Happy Saturday, Everyone!! :)

Three Weeks + Real Life Update

Today our Brady-boy is three weeks old!!

 

It's hard to believe it's been three weeks since he joined our family!!!

And here's a real life/unfiltered update for you....

If it isn't one thing with this house, it's another. Derek & I are both nearing the end of our patience with the never-ending list of things that keep popping up for us to deal with. We've had ants, a power outage, our sliding glass door is broken, the fridge is leaking, and then today our gas went out--of course I didn't realize this until we were trying to make dinner on the stove & there was a wet load of laundry in the dryer & washer...still trying to figure out what to do with all the wet laundry, ugh. And of course all of these issues are in addition to the problems we already dealt with in the first few weeks we were in this house. It's seriously always something every time we turn around.

Obviously, none of those problems are a huge deal on their own...but add them all up and throw in a newborn & getting adjusted to a new house/community, and it's just a bit much. I really should have been figuring out a way to get my clothes dried right now, but all I wanted to do was sit down & cry. I decided to sit down & write instead since writing is usually pretty cathartic for me...and it doesn't leave me with puffy eyes & a headache, ha! And as I looked through my phone for a few pictures to add to this post, I was reminded that even though it feels like EVERYTHING is going wrong right now, we still have a lot to be thankful for.

Brady lounging poolside while his big sisters swim :)

So thankful for these four!

The girls came in from the pool for their bath but first had to go love on Little Brother ;)

This is what bathtime looks like these days :)

Shelby wanted to cover Brady up in her Frozen blanket this morning

Shelby loves to sit & read by herself. We have spent a lot of time at home this summer between unpacking/getting settled in the new house & now having a newborn, so this girl has gotten LOTS of reading time in!

These two have made my life so much easier lately by playing so nicely together...most of the time ;)

First time in the baby carrier!

I was reading to the girls one afternoon before naps & Derek took this picture without us realizing it. I'm so thankful he captured this candid moment! In twenty years when I'm looking back on this season of life, this is what I'll picture. This is what motherhood looks like to me.

And one more picture Derek took without me realizing it....this is what mothering a newborn looks like. ;)

I'm ready to eat a big bowl of ice cream & go to bed. Things always look better in the morning!

Firsts with Brady

We've had lots of "firsts" with Brady recently, here are a few pics of them...enjoy!

First visit to the pediatrician, both of the girls love to "help" with Brady in any way they can. Shelby is "helping" Daddy carry his carseat in this pic. ;)

Not the best picture, but here's evidence of Brady's first outing to somewhere other than the doctor--none other than Cold Stone ;)

First trip to Target as a family of five!

Brady slept through the entirety of our Target run...clearly he wasn't impressed, but I know he'll learn to love it as much as the rest of us, ha! :)

First trip to the library!

Brady's First Trip to the Splash Pad..we just discovered this awesome new park & splash pad about 8 minutes from our house, it was wonderful! The girls had the best time!

Hadley stayed closed to Brady while Shelby played in the splash pad b/c she wasn't into the water squirting on her ;)

The awesome covered playground :)

And last but certainly not least, Brady's first bath!!! Baths are one thing that have totally fallen to the wayside since our move. We typically give the girls a bath every.single.night. But our last week in SA with the movers, Derek's graduation, a visit from his mom, etc was really hectic so baths just didn't happen. I planned to bathe the girls in the hotel on our road trip to Vegas b/c I thought that would be fun for them, but we were so exhausted from the driving that baths didn't really happen then either. And then when we got to Las Vegas, we didn't have our routines in place yet so baths took forever. I started succumbing to Derek's philosophy on pool baths. ;)  Then, we threw another kid in the mix...and let's just say the girls are lucky to be getting 3 baths a week at this point, and that is just sooooo not us. Both girls got sponge baths when their umbilical cords were still attached, and then got a real bath as soon as their cord fell off. Poor third kid--no sponge baths AT ALL & no real bath until about 3 days after the cord fell off. Despite our poor hygiene habits, I promise we love you, Brady!!!!

 

Can you tell that Brady's biggest sister was excited to be helping with his bath?!

 

 

 

Brady absolutely loved his first bath! He was just so happy & content in the warm water & enjoyed checking himself out in the mirror while we bathed him. And of course, Shelby loved his bathtime, too! You would have thought she was the parenting expert & we were first-time parents, she kept reminding us to be gentle with him & was giving us tips on how to better bathe him. ;)  We knew she would love having a new sibling, but she has blown us away with how devoted & protective she is of him!

And one more first not pictured--Brady's first trip to the movie theater to see The Secret Life of Pets! Have you seen this movie yet?! I was not a fan AT ALL. The preview made it look so cute & light-hearted, and the first ten minutes or so were exactly that. But then the plot got way too dark for my liking & way too much "killing" talk for a children's movie in my opinion! But the girls had fun, so we'll count it as a win! ;)

And so it begins...

After being home with us for the better part of the last 6 weeks, Derek finally reported in to Nellis & started his in-processing on Thursday morning. So the past 2 days have been my first attempt at flying solo with 3 kiddos! Thankfully, Derek was able to come home around 2-3pm both afternoons, so it was a nice way to ease into this whole mother of three gig!

I didn't want to attempt any big outings on our first days on our own, but I also knew we'd go crazy if we just sat at home all day. So both mornings, we loaded Brady up in the stroller and walked to one of our community playgrounds to play for a bit. The girls were pretty whiny on the walk home (can't say that I blame them when it's well over 100 degrees here!), but the playground is shaded so it wasn't too bad.

 

I took this pic to send to Derek while he was at his first day of work, I was feeling super proud they were both already dressed & eating breakfast before 8 on my first day alone with 3 kids! ;)

I think they kind of like him ;)

 

Girls entertaining themselves while I nursed Brady



Back at the playground on Day #2
Sorry this picture & the next one are so small, they kept getting blurry when I tried to post them larger.



I think this is a good sign for what's to come for Brady...life with two big sisters ;)

The night before Derek went back to work, we were in the kitchen cleaning up when Derek said: "Let's talk about expectations." He told me he didn't expect me to have dinner ready when he came home from work for the foreseeable future, he didn't expect the house to be clean, and best of all...he didn't expect me to be in a good mood when he got home. He said he just expected all four of us to still be alive. ;) I'm so thankful for a husband who is a true teammate in parenting and gets how hard it can be sometimes. He's given me so much grace lately, and I'm so thankful he's mine! But truthfully, our first two days without him went great! Sure we missed him, but we did it! And I even managed to get two loads of laundry done on our first day...I felt like Super Woman, ha!

We're looking forward to a fun weekend with our Daddy-boy back home with us! We've got big plans to head to the movies to see The Secret Life of Pets & hopefully check out a new splash pad & church on Sunday.

Happy Friday to you!!