Family of Four

We finally got around to taking our first official family of four photos a few weeks ago.  I had debated doing them in conjunction with Rory's newborn photos but decided I'd rather have some pictures when I was a bit further out from delivery.  We've been so blessed in that we found an amazing photographer here in Massachusetts who not only did Rory's newborn pictures, but our family photos last year and this year too!  Emily is amazing and I'd recommend her to anyone looking for quality pictures, a great turn around time, and she's super sweet and easy to work with too!

Now, in regards to family pictures with two kids.....

You will undoubtedly have at least one child melting down at all moments.

If one of those children is around the age of 2, she will not care whether you bribe her with candy, ice-cream, kisses, or magical unicorns that sparkle, posing for pictures is absolutely not happening.

The day you schedule to take pictures will end up being the coldest day of the year so far.

You will spend at least 75% of the session chasing after said 2 year old trying to get her to take one group picture.

Your husband will complain that he's over it and you will wonder when it was that you became a Mom to THREE children.

You will question why you decided to put your two month old in white and will be praying the entire time that she doesn't "blow out" her outfit.

You have no idea what YOU looked like in pictures because the whole time you were worrying about what your kids looked like.

You wonder how it's possible that this photo session is only 45 minutes long because it feels like 4 days!

You seriously consider saying to hell with it all and just having a Christmas card picture where everyone is crying #therealmomlife.

But somehow, in the midst of all the chaos, you get a few GREAT shots and it makes it completely and totally worth it. :)

Sibling Visit

We've had lots of visitors during the last few weeks which we always welcome with open arms.  When you have more than one child, an extra adult (or four) goes a long way in improving one's sanity!

All three of my younger siblings and my sister-in-law made the trip out to Massachusetts for a week in late October.  Bert, Rachel, Anna, and Adrienne all got to meet Rory for the first time and be endlessly entertained by Ryan's antics.  All four of them stayed at our house and at first I was a bit worried that it would seem crowded and uncomfortable and while it was definitely a full house, we had a great time.  Ryan would wake up in the morning and come downstairs to a living room full of bodies and say "Hi guys!"  Which I'm sure they totally appreciated at 6:30 AM.  She called her Uncle Bert, "Duncle Bob" and by the end of the week "Duncle Burp."  Anna was referred to as "Amy" the entire week, eventually she said Rachel the day before they left and Adrienne never did get an exact name!  But I tell you, Ryan certainly misses bossing around her adult playmates!

They watched the girls while I went to a dentist appointment, helped me take them both to the pediatrician for shots, played endlessly with Ryan, and helped console Rory during every evenings "witching hour."  They were all such a huge help to me and I tell you what, there is nothing better than watching your siblings love to love on your children.  Ryan and Rory are so blessed to have so many amazing Uncles and Aunties.

We did take a trip into Boston and got to enjoy some brisk but sunny weather.  I stayed with the girls for the day and the rest of them stayed a night in Boston and got to go out on the town as well as travel to Salem the next day.  At least they got to have some fun kid free moments while here in Massachusetts!

They also threw me a little 30th birthday party which was so sweet and thoughtful of them.  They may have thought it was somewhat silly but I appreciated it none the less.  I truly am so blessed.

Hopefully we didn't scare them away with our handful of kids!  Because I certainly would love to have them come visit us again, you know, cause I love free babysitting. :)

Rory Louise: 2 Months

Miss Rory Lou became a big two month old the other day.  It seems crazy to me that she is already two months old.  I swear time moves even faster the second time around and yet it's now getting hard to remember what life was like before she was here.  She had her two month doctor appointment where she weighed in at 11 lbs 5 oz (67%ile) and was 23.5 inches long (98%ile!).  Apparently we are going to have a long and lean little thing.  When you look at her, she seems to be all limbs...and HAIR!  It's so strange to have a baby with hair when Ryan was so bald for so long, but we aren't complaining!  Her hair seriously has a mind of it's own.

So far, it seems to be true what they say, babies are SO different.  Rory is the polar opposite of Ryan in a lot of ways. She is a great sleeper both at night, waking only twice a night since birth and lately going 8 hours before a feeding and during the day.  I can put her in the carseat and have her sleep for 3-4 hours while out running errands without so much as a peep from her the entire time.  She really dislikes the pacifier which Ryan was a huge fan of from day 1.  And lately, she's been refusing the bottle as well.  This does give me anxiety as there will be times when I have to be away from her for more than a few hours, but we are working on it.

She has a "witching hour(s)" from 6pm to bedtime (8pm) which slowly seems to be getting more manageable.  Most days Josh only sees her during this time of day and he swore she had to be the unhappiest baby alive.  The fussiness and screaming has lead me to a nightly glass of wine in order to deal with it!  Thankfully, it doesn't seem to bother Ryan one bit!  However, she is a pretty content baby at all other times of the day, giving me beautiful smiles and a few coos here and there.  Overall, she's happy to sit in the bouncy chair or lay on the floor and watch big sis Ry try to shove play food into her mouth.

She sucks on her hands a lot and is a HUGE fan of bath time which I've done nightly during her screaming sessions in order to calm her down.  She loves to be held, especially facing out to the world so she can see what's going on.  Ryan hated to be swaddled while Rory sleeps best swaddled with one arm out. She's still in our room in a pack-n-play but we'll be looking to transfer her into her own room and crib in the next few months.

This month has been full of visitors as she got to meet her Aunties Rachel, Anna, and Adrienne this month as well as her Uncle Bert and Grandma Lala.  She is a sweet sweet girl and in my opinion, a very pretty baby.  We just can't imagine life without Little Sis.  We love you Rory Lou!

Halloween 2015

Another Halloween come and gone.  Can anyone really believe it's November already?!?!

Halloween  has always been one of my favorite holidays.  Perhaps it's because it falls so close to my birthday but also because I have so many childhood memories of my Mom hand-making costumes for each of us kids.  There was always so much anticipation in regards to our costumes and she never did disappoint.  If you think I'm a decent seamstress then you haven't met my Mom.  She puts me to shame.  It should come as no surprise that she's now made two of Ryan's three Halloween costumes over the years.

As usual, I'm not exactly sure when I decided that I wanted Ryan to be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween, but once I got it in my head, I went full force and asked Grammy to make her a costume. Sure, there are plenty of Little Red costumes out there for girls, but I envisioned a beautiful red cape with lace and a matching dress and I just had to have a handmade one.  We picked out materials while she was here in September for Rory's arrival and she took the stuff back to California to make it. Mom did a FANTASTIC job of making my vision come to life.  I was a tad concerned that Ryan wouldn't want to wear the cape and hood but she actually loved it and every time the hood fell off she said "My hood come off!"

Of course, I wanted Rory to match Ryan and so Rory was the Little Bad Wolf.  Poor girl had to be a wolf for her first Halloween, but she was the cutest little wolf you ever did see!

The girls had a couple of opportunities to wear their costumes in the last few weeks including a costume 2nd birthday party for our friend Bella, a trunk-or-treat through our Mom's Club, and of course, Halloween.

On Halloween, we carved pumpkins, which Ryan was surprisingly uninterested in.  She must take after her Dad in that respect, I'll have to work on her for next year.  I had lofty goals of getting a great shot of Rory sitting in a pumpkin like I did on Ryan's first Halloween, however, she was NOT a fan of the pumpkin.  Though it's possible the pictures are just as priceless.

Josh had to work Halloween night, so I took Ryan trick-or-treating around our little neighborhood.  She took to it very quickly and was so cute going door to door collecting treats.  Thankfully, she hasn't completely realized that what she was getting from every house was candy and so I got to pick through it myself.  I'm sure this won't be the case next year.

We had such a great Halloween and it is getting so fun to have children who are at the age to actually understand holidays and really enjoy them.  Now on to Thanksgiving!