Substance of Faith: What Day Is It?

I'm going to be straightforward- I have more or less lost track of time. Dave was home for a few weeks to help get everyone adjusted and to be home for the holidays. He went back to work this past week so it was my first real test of being with the boys all day long by myself. I figured I could handle it, but my one big worry was that the boys would wake up that first morning of Dave going back to work and just freak out that Daddy wasn't around. I made sure that Dave gave them ample warning to help everyone adjust to his return to work. Anyway, we survived. The hardest thing to deal with is that the boys run wild when I am nursing Zeke- they know I am in a compromised position and they take full advantage of that. Little stinkers. The other hard thing to deal with is that Ethan has had a cold the past few days. I've been trying to limit Ethan's contact with Zeke, but that has been almost impossible- Ethan just loves holding and kissing and hugging Zeke. So at this point I'm just trying to get Ethan to not cough or sneeze directly on Zeke. Yikes. One bummer about having a winter baby. Oh well.

Look at my boys! I'm so proud of my family....

Zeke

Christmas Zeke

Evil Genius Zeke

Zeke is now 3 weeks old. We're starting to get to know him. Zeke is the noisiest baby we've had. Emery was positively quiet- he never cried. And I thought Ethan was a noisy little man, but Zeke has got Ethan beat. He squeaks and squawks at everything. We've started calling him Zeke the Squeak. (By the way there are way too many nicknames that go with the name Zeke- it kinda cracks me up). Ezekiel looks a lot like Ethan did when he was a baby, but it looks like Zeke may have light eyes instead. The first week with Zeke we were up until 2 am just trying to get him to go to sleep (he'd wake up as we were getting ready for bed). Now he's settled into a much more decent routine. Starting next week we're going to try to get back on our old routine of getting the boys into bed early and we'll try to get Zeke into bed at the same time. (Right now I'm still in the mode where I like him in whatever room I am in at the moment). Ethan and Emery are doing great with Zeke as well. We were wondering how Em would do with a new little brother and Em is great with him. Em just likes to sit and watch Zeke sleep and he's really good about being soft and giving Zeke little kisses. It's quite cute. And Ethan just loves crawling all over Zeke.
Anyway- December just passed so quickly. My sister, McKenzie, flew down from Portland for the weekend before Christmas. The original plan was that she was going to come down for the delivery (it was kind of fun to be holding Zeke on the day we had been planning on him arriving). We had so much fun hanging out and she got to spend a lot more time with the boys. She was also there for my fancy Christmas dinner. We like to have a fancy dinner on Christmas eve (this year we did it on the 23rd so McKenzie could be there). It's kind of my thank you to our family members for all of the love and support over the year. Plus it's just kind of fun to set the table with the nice dishes and make a big deal out dinner. I also grew up doing the fancy dinner on Christmas Eve so it's my way of continuing that tradition. Our newest addition to that tradition is sitting down and watching Muppets Christmas Carol with everyone in front of the fire.
Christmas was amazing. It was so much fun to have the boys looking forward to Christmas morning. Getting the boys into bed the night before was pretty much a nightmare, but the following morning was great. It's also probably the last year we'll be able to sleep in (the boys were up at 7:30 am). We started Christmas at our house and then went to Grandma's for brunch. Christmas dinner was up at Dave's sister's house for Spanish Dinner- my favorite dinner of the year. We have Paella, Croquettas, great bread, etc. I'm drooling right now just remembering it. It was a quieter dinner this year- all of the cousins are getting so much older so they run upstairs to spend time together leaving the adults to talk.
And that pretty much brings us up to the present. We're probably not going to do anything for New Year's Eve (the other night I was passed out on the couch by 9.30) so it will be a quiet weekend (at least Dave will have another 4 day weekend- I am seriously spoiled by the holidays).
I think I am adjusting well to having three kiddos now. Well 2 kiddos and a new born. I'm not much of a morning person on a good day and the idea of being up with a baby throughout the night and then waking up at 6.30 AM with the big boys sounded a little daunting, but we've been making it work (big thanks to Curious George on Netflix and my ipad). I've been enjoying my maternity leave as well- I know it will go too quickly, but oh well. I've been doing all the random projects that I think about throughout the year but never have time for. If I knew how to finish a basement I'd probably be down there framing it if I could. :) It's been fun being able to play with the boys as well and not have to worry about fitting in a few hours of work amongst the housework and regular life activities. The being said, I'll still enjoy going back to work. Have I mentioned how awesome the people I work with are? Since I've been with VOA I've gotten married and have had three kids. My coworkers have thrown me a wedding shower (even though I'd only been there for a month at the time) and a baby shower for each of the boys. One of my coworkers mentioned throwing me a baby shower for Zeke and I told her if I go to another baby shower for me it will be handing out the baby stuff, not the other way around. So for this baby shower instead of getting baby stuff my coworkers got me a gift certificate for a 2 hour massage- so awesome! I'm seriously blessed to have such a wonderful place to work and to be able to go work with such wonderful people.
Oh and today I took all three boys to Walmart- by myself. :) It went pretty well- and I didn't cry this time. The first time I went to Costco, Dave went with me and it took 2 carts and 2 adults and by the end I still felt overwhelmed. As we sat down for lunch afterwards I burst out crying in my pizza (so embarrassing!) but it was kind of my wake up call that my much loved routines were going to have to change. Anyway, I think I'll survive 3 boys. :)
Well- now it's on to January and 2013. Crazy. I remember the craziness of celebrating the New Year for 2000 (as a senior in high school- so young!) and now it's 13 years later and it doesn't feel like it's been that long.
Enjoy the pix of the boys!

Em watching a movie (I just thought it was so cute the way he was cuddling with the pillow).

The boys playing a game together.

We found Em curled up next to Ethan one night. I just thought this was so darling.

Ethan and Zeke checking each other out. Ethan was just laying next to Zeke, but Zeke rolled up on his side to get a better look at Ethan. Ethan switched sides and Zeke rolled onto his other side as well. Super cute.