Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My baby is turning 4!!!

So, it's that time of year again. I absolutely love fall (which is new for me as summer was formerly my favorite season) but 2/3 of my children were born in October, so that's my new favorite time of year. It's filled with so many precious memories and just oozes blessings at our house!
So, Adelaide's birthday is tomorrow (that is the reason I'm frantically sitting in front of my embroidery machine finishing up her birthday outfit) and she's so excited! This is really the first year that she's totally stoked about her birthday and has been able to request with great expectations what she wants for her birthday!
It's so much fun!!! It cracks me up what kids this age ask for. It's all about quantity rather than quality to a kid... she doesn't care if what she gets is a total piece of junk, it's new and it's hers and she loves it!!!
Anyway, we had her birthday party Saturday and it was a hit! We went to Storyville Station for a Princess and Knight party. All of the kids got dressed up and danced around. I believe everyone enjoyed themselves. I took Adelaide before her party for a little bit of "Adelaide and Mommy time" and we ate lunch at her favorite place (Habaneros) and then went to Sweet and Sassy to have her hair done in a party updo. I know, I know, trashy, but she loved it!!!


So they played all kinds of games, danced and (Lucy's favorite part) ate cupcakes. The cupcakes might have been the only things I was dissappointed in. I figured, you know, princess party, the cupcakes would be pink. Nope... fall colors! Anyway, if that's the biggest thing that was unfavorable, then I think we did okay!
Here are a few pictures from the excitement!






Adelaide and Lucy both go for their 4 and 2 year old checkups the first week of November, so I'll post their statistics after their appointment.
Lucy, as I mentioned before was only into the birthday party because of the cupcakes... and boy did she tear into them! She's in a "stranger danger" sort of mindset these days and took one glace at those "princesses" and decided this was NOT for her! She pretty much clung to either Mommy or Daddy the whole time. That is, until the cupcakes came out. Then she was having the time of her life! Lucy is currently into Elmo and we're going to see Elmo Live on Saturday! I think she will have a blast, but we aren't telling her until Saturday! It's going to be a surprise!!! She loves puppies from afar and then changes her mind when she gets close enough to pet them. She's overall just a sweet sweet girl with some anger management issues. We often warn people of her "underbite" because when you see her make that face, you better brace yourself. She's going to hit, slap, scratch or push... so, consider yourself warned!
Julianne made it throught the whole thing with flying colors... and that wasn't the only thing flying! We recently switched from breastfeeding to bottle (due to some issues with her weight gain and basically being diagnosed as "failure to thrive"... so we have been trying out new bottles and the one we used saturday... we'll just say didn't agree with her. She seemed to puke the whole time we were there... but that has been fixed with a slower flow nipple and she's in business!
We went back to see Dr Hamm today and she had gained 12.5 ounces in one week! Whoa! She's doing great! She's more focused than before and looking around, smiling and cooing!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Soooo.... it's been a year

Ok, so it's been a year since my last post, and since there's absolutely NO WAY that I'm going to catch up on everything that has gone on since then, I will start fresh!
There are LOTS of goings on around the McKeown household these days and most of them are not worth writing home (or to the world wide web) about. You know, just the ins and outs of living with 3 gorgeous, rambunctios (sp?), brilliant, spoiled rotten, hilarious, and sometimes terribly demanding girls.... is what eats up the majority (or pretty much all of ) my day. Adelaide is turning 4 in a little more than 2 weeks and she reminds me of it hourly (or more frequently). I have don't absolutely nothing in preparing for her party of anything else which is making me feel just a bit under Kate Gosselin in terms of bad moms (sorry to all of you Kate fans... at my house we're haters... deal with it :). But I digress... I've booked a venue and sent out invitations... so I guess I'll try to buy presents and goodie bag junk (since, let's face it, that's what you get) in the next week. Then Lucy will be turning 2 on Oct 24 and we are having another party in Memphis for both of the girls. I know, it seems like Lucy gets left out, but Adelaide didn't have a 2nd birthday party either since Lucy was arriving and, come on, 2 year olds don't really have friends... just friends of their parents... so we are opting for a combined party for both of them. Now, Jason and I have differing opinions about the whole party situation. Growing up, we always had a friends party and a family party. He thinks this is ridiculous, but what can you do? I had a large, very, er, involved family (love all of you if you're reading, but admit it, everyone knows everyone's bizness..) so we always had some sort of party with the family and then something fun for our friends.
Well, Jason thinks we should just invite the family to the friends party and be done with it. HOWEVER we live 4 hours away from all of our family... so family at the friends party involves 13 people coming in from out of town and staying (you guessed it) at our house. I typically like for people to come and stay with us even though it tends to be complete chaos, but with an 8 week old baby at home the thought is bordering on nauseating! SO, we opted for a very obnoxious Chuck E Cheese party in Memphis. I was having a hard time deciding on where to hold this blow out (to quote my father in law) since it will only include my nieces and nephew and then the rest will be adults (or teens/preteens who will be mortified to find out that it's at chuck e cheese to begin with). Since both sides of the family are invited, we don't want to hold the party at one grandparent's house and have the other left out or whatever (blah blah blah) so we're having it somewhere neutral.... so Chuck E Cheese it is!
Anyway, the girls are all doing well. Adelaide and Lucy are both in mother's day out (thank goodness). Adelaide goes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Lucy is there Wednesday and Friday. So, my thought was to keep Lucy at home with me on Mondays and have some time where she gets a little more attention (depsite having a very inconvenient- in her eyes- little sister). And, as it turns out, she seems to resent me for this decision everytime we drop Adelaide off in carpool and head toward the house. She always says, "Lucy, school" Bless her heart, hopefully by next year she'll come to appreciate her days with me... if not, well, I guess I'll just tell myself that she did.
Julianne seems to be fitting into the mix quite well and is, thankfully, pretty laid back. She just eats (a lot) and sleeps (not so much) and poops (you don't want to know the frequency, right)... you know, what babies do. And despite the fact that she eats a lot, she's still shaped just like Jason! She is so long and skinny it's not even funny! Girls everywhere (especially Lucy, bless her plump heart) will hate her for her figure one day. When we were having her newborn pictures taken Lauren said, "I've never seen Jason naked, but I would imagine that's what it looks like" -from behind of course ;). Hehe... she's tiny!
Jason's job is going well, and is demanding a lot of hours this upcoming month that I'm trying to stay in denial about... so I may either spend more time updating this blog (in order to pretend to have adult interaction... even if it is with someone who isn't talking back) or I will have absolutely no time to update. Hopefully it will be the former and I'll be able to vent a little bit.
I'm keeping busy with the girls and the household while trying to maintain a few guilty pleasures of my own... namely embroidery and sewing. I have gone from pretty much full time business to just trying to keep my own kids outfitted. I'm hoping now that school has started back and Julianne is trying to cooperate a little more during the day, I can slowly pick some business back up. Especially after the holidays. I may be busy trying to keep up until then!
I have made the girls several things in the last couple of weeks, and I find that after a couple of hours behind the sewing machine, my day seems a lot better. That constant humm of the needle is relaxing and it doesn't talk back or cry or make *too many* messes.
Hopefully, in the days to come, I will be updating on what I've made recently for the kiddos, my progress in losing my baby weight(how is it I barely gained any weight while pregnant but can't seem to lose any now that I'm home with the baby), what we're eating this week (do people really care) and maybe even a home edition since some of you are really entertaining me with your rooms).
Starting off this week, since it's thursday and all... I'll try to just kick off those things and maybe next week will be the start of my routine...

Handmade this week:
Last week I made knot dresses for both of my "big" girls (pictures are on facebook and will be here soon) that turned out really cute, however, Lucy's is a bit too small and may only fit for a month or two... put that kid on a diet!!!
This week I've made 2 jumpers despite the plague that has hit our household with all of the vomit and diarrhea one can stomach ... hehe pun intended!!
I'll post pictures of those too when I get my battery charged (anyone know where that blasted charger is?)
And I managed to make 2 baby gifts as well!
Yay me!

Okay, that's it for today... I warned you this would be long! You read it anyway!
Until next time...

Weight loss:
I've hired a personal trainer to whip my fat hiney into gear!! Holy moly she's not kidding! Suzanna, a dear friend from church, has taken on the task (albeit nearly impossible) to get me up and into my size 4s again... heck, I'd take 6s!
I have, this week, done 2 workouts with her (and I'm thankful I'm moving today without uttering bad words under my breath) and then about 30 minutes on the elliptical on my off days... yay me! And I've lost 2 pounds! 2 down, 18 to go!
I will look good again! I must look good again!!

What's on the table this week:
WELL, it's crazy how quickly this changes when there are 3 little ones at home 2 of which start off the week with stomach viruses...
I'll give you the intended schedule and then the actual... very different this week, although I usually stick pretty close to it.
Monday: Deep Dish Pizza and Green Beans (the girls ate grilled cheese, since their extremely picky) and fruit
Tuesday: was supposed to be Chicken Stuff as we like to call it which is actually poppy seed chicken without the poppy seeds, since what are poppyseeds for anyway, they don't have any flavor but turned out to be sandwiches (the kids were still puny from their tummy bugs)
Wednesday: we usually eat out before church because the act of cooking, cleaning the kitchen and kids, and then getting to church on time is daunting... we were supposed to go to Purple Onion, but kept the kids home to recuperate and got Chic fil a...
Thursday: was goingn to be tacos, but I'm going back to the earlier plan of Chicken Stuff
Friday: we are gong to play by ear since Jason is on call and may or may not be home for dinner, or bedtime or anytime for that matter... I'll probably fix the kids a sandwich or pizza, or nuggets... you know something very lacking in necessary nutrients.
Saturday... I'm not cooking Saturday!