The Pledge of Allegiance

So the other day I overheard Maja saying part of the Pledge of Allegiance. I was pretty surprised since we've never talked about it and she couldn't have seen it on tv and how many 3 year olds just randomly know how to say "indivisible"? Well turns out that they say it at school every day. It's adorable... one of the kids holds the flag and they all say it together with their right hand on their heart.
ONe day I decided to stay for a bit after class started to see them to it and took some pictures.. it just happened to be PJ day at school so that's why they are all wearing their PJ's. I love that the school has an open door policy and parents and come and go as they wish. I'd love to spend more time there but I hardly ever get a chance to drop Maja off without the other girls and I have to be alone to stay

Visiting Santa

Christmas time this year is pretty awesome. The girls are really into it, especially Maja. She has told everyone she knows that she wants Santa to bring her a "pink teddy bear that she can snuggle". I don't know where this fixation is coming from but she is pretty set on it and doesn't care about getting anything else. Isla has asked for a purple airplane but it's mostly because of Maja telling her that's what she wants. We have settled on just a plain air plane because apparently there is no purple ones!!

We went to see Santa of course and Maja did tell him what she wanted and even held his hand for the picture. Isla on the other hand wanted nothing to do with him but hey, what's a Santa picture without someone crying right???

I love the local "take your own picture" Santa because he also has reindeers right outside

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas is almost here and of course I subjected the girls to some photo torture. I have to say it's getting much easier. They really do enjoy having their picture taken with baby sister

The oldest meets the youngest

Great GrandDad Raymond and Ula came to visit on their way back home to Idaho so they could meet Zoey. I'm so glad I took these pictures of them. He was so happy to be around the girls and holding the baby. Maja and Isla both loved having them around

Real men wear their babies 2.0

It's no secret that I enjoy wearing my babies (until they get too heavy that is, haha) and I love that Jeff gets into it as well. When maja was an infant I could never understand the Moby wrap. It seemed like such a hassle so I never gave it a try but when I had Isla a friend practically forced me into trying it and wrapped it around me herself. It was then when I finally realized what an amazing contraption it was!!
Jeff has tried our other carriers (the Ergo with Maja and the Met Tai with Isla) but I never got him to test out the Moby until now and boy does he love it too! I'm honestly surprised because it is still quite a hassle to tie around compared to any other carried but I love that he is so into it :)

He totes her around while making dinner or watching tv and she is happy as clam snoozing away in there

A week of firsts

First bath, first smile, first shoes and first time in the ring sling.

The smile was such a fluke really. I was taking some Christmas photos and Isla came over and started pulling on her feet and Zoey simled right into the camera. So adorable isn't it?

I missed breastfeeding

As much as those first few weeks hurt (even after baby #3) I love the nursing bond and it's just so precious when they start holding on to your shirt. I can't wait until she starts giving me those sweet smiles with a mouth full of milk :)

3 weeks old

Long gone is that first week when I wondered if she would be the opposite of her sisters... a big pooper and a poor sleeper. I'm happy to report that she is neither :). Looks like we got ourselves another once-a-week poop baby and sleeping is going great too. Now that my milk is fully in, as long she gets to eat when she needs it she goes right back to sleep at night. During the day she tends to be awake more often and doesn't sleep nearly as deep and long but I'll take it as long as nights keep getting better and better

2 weeks old

Some newborn pictures

Of course being a photographer I didn't waste time in taking her pictures. I started when she was two days old and have been taking a few every couple of days. Here are some of the favorites:

First road trip

Just barely a week old and we are already geting her used to travelling. Zoey and I travelled to Portland to meet with Erin (our birth photographer) for some newborn photos and later on headed Grandma's house since Grandpa still hasn't had a chance to meet Zoey.

She slept all the way through to Portland and only woke up/made me pull over a couple of times on the way back. During one of those stops I noticed her eyes are turning bluer

and when I got back, the big girls were so happy to see me I was actually able to get them all in one shot together :)

I don't blame her

Zoey hates diaper changes... and can I blame her?? I wouldn't want to be wiped with a wet cloth while I'm naked. It's really the only time she ever cries and Maja is such a sweet big sister because when Zoey cries she goes "ohhh, it's all right little buggy"
And everytime Zoey does get upset, both big sisters rush to tell me "mommy she is crying", "she needs her mommy, let's help her" and they fight over who gets to give her the paci

I love my girls!

This is Zoey's diaper changing face

Baby Zoey is here!

Zoey Evangeline joined our family on 11/12/11 at 6:12 am

She was 8lbs 15oz and 21" 3/4'

Birth story to follow but I did have a birth photographer present at her birth and you can see those photos here: http://erintolephotography.com/2011/11/28/the-birth-of-zoey-birth-photographers-portland-or/ (don't worry, nothing graphic is showing)

Some cell phone photos:

Happy 2nd birthday Isla-Bear!!

Happy birthday to my smart, loving, energetic, cuddly and stubborn as all heck little big girl.

Seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital eagerly awaiting her arrival and finding out if she was a boy or girl.

Today she is quite the chatterbox and much of a daredevil. Some of her favorite pass times are sliding down the stairs on the baby changing pad or climbing up and jumping off just about anything she can get away with. "By myself" is her motto and while I tend to get frustrated more often then not, I have to agree that it's pretty adorable seeing her with her shoes on the wrong feet and her hat on backwards.

She loves to sing and "Ba Ba Black Sheep" seems to be her favorite song right now
She loves being a princess like her sister and dancing around
Mickey Mouse and Curious George are her favorite shows
She lives for bacon which is funny considering she made me quit eating it for weeks when she was a newborn and breastfeeding
Just like Maja used to, her counting starts at 5 and goes all the way through 10 before it starts back up at 1. It's super cute!
She is very polite. She will always say "Bless you" and "thank you", she doesn't even need a reminder
She is great at sharing and always thinks about her big sister. If she gets something, she'll make sure you give her something for Maja too

Just like old times

Maja used to do this all the time... fall asleep on her bedroom floor once she moved to a toddler bed.

She hasn't for a while until I recently found her like this:

How can she possibly find this comfortable? I have to give it to her though.. she stays in her room with the door open cause she knows she isn't supposed to get out.
She also leaves it open and crawls under her bed and waits until someone comes and get her. Since she is so quiet she has fallen asleep under there a few times as well :)

Isla's birthday pictures

It's not quite her birthday yet but given baby Z could show up any minute now I had to jump on the opportunity this somewhat decent weather presented

She was a bit cold and not in the right mood but I still got plenty adorable ones

Maja the goofball humored me too :)

Waiting on Zoey

At this point it seems to be some sort of a tradition around her to reach and pass a due date with nothing exciting to report. Miss Zoey is in no rush.

Here's the last of my bathroom-cellphone-self portraits at 40 weeks. I like that I'm wearing the same shirt in all of them. Some day I'll get to making a fun collage of them all :)

This was my attempt at a cute picture but they had a completely different understanding of "cute". Oh well... adorable non the less

Big milestone for Isla

My thoughts on potty training has always been that there shouldn't be any "training". It's too time consuming and stressful for both parent and child, not to mention the gross factor that comes with public restrooms so I am perfectly ok with my children being in diapers longer than the average kid. It should be a simple experience... as in "you're old enough now, you get it, here's the toilet"
So I never bothered with either of the girls until preschool came into the picture. Maja had to be potty trained so we had no choice. I knew she had been ready for a while but again, without an actual "push" I never bothered. Then one day, I realized we were just 3 short weeks away from the first day of school and I went for it. I put her in undies, explained what was going to happen and made sure I took her to the bathroom often enough. The first day was a bit of a challenge only because she seemed to be just a few seconds behind. She'd tell me she needed to go but by the time we got to the toilet, she'd go in her pants. No biggie. The next way she was perfect and with the exception for a minor regression after school started she has been day potty trained since (she still uses a diaper to sleep)

Well, when Isla saw all this she decided she wanted to use the potty too. I resisted at first but one day I gave in just because she was really excited. As I expected, she wasn't quite there yet so back to diapers we went.
Recently she started asking to go on the potty again (she sees Maja do it all the time and she knows there is candy to be had afterwords!) and tonight I let her sit on it and she peed!! and it was definitely a deliberate action on her part so who knows... maybe she is ready now? we will see

Random goofiness

The girls are such fun little things to be around lately. Here's a little recap of their silliness

Dress up is their favorite activity so I just stocked up on post-Halloween sales and the girls will be getting that as their "big" Christmas present this year complete with Daddy-made storage trunk. They will love it so much I bet! Here're some examples:

Maja came into the kitchen dressed like this and said "trick or treat" :)

Isla caught the princess bug from her sister and loves her crown too

Stickers are still pretty darn entertaining around here:

I'm going through some major coffee cravings so everytime we stop by the drive through, the girls there give Maja and Isla whippy sticks so they get very excited every time we pull up, I don't blame them :)

Their nightly ritual

This is a daily scene in Maja's room at bedtime, and actually it includes the same books too. Maja has a slight obsession with Skippy Jonjones and maker her Daddy read her those books every day. He doesn't look like he minds though, doesn't he?