2010 in Review (as written by Karen)

Jim: Well, 2010 was marked by too much work and not enough travel. I guess that is the way life is with young children. I have enjoyed good health this year and continue to enjoy working out and running Mini-Marathons. I have reached my personal best (under 8 minute miles) and now have told Karen I will run for pleasure. I did enjoy a wonderful trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. The hike was nice and quiet! Since having Jacob our house is quite loud now. I play with the kids as though I am one and continue to feel very blessed to have such a beautiful wife ;) and three healthy children.

Karen: This year has been a full one for me and I feel very blessed in deed! The beginning of the year I felt like a tic being pregnant with Jacob. I felt worse and worse as his due date approached but that didn't stop me from staying active with the kids. In fact, in March I took a girl's trip to Orlando and got some much needed relaxation. Jacob was born in June and the labor was fast (4 hours from start to finish) and luckily the whole process was painless! Jim teases me because I was shopping on the Internet while the OB doctor waited for me to finish so I could start pushing. Pajamas were on sale and James needed a pair...what can I say? Since Jacob's birth, the house has gotten loud and I have had to check my patience at the door. I always tell myself, God doesn't give you anything you can't handle, right?! While having three children under three is a lot of busy work and my house isn't as clean as I would like for it to be (and there is always laundry to do!), I do feel very blessed to have three beautiful, healthy children. God Bless!

Sophia: I turned 3 years old this year with a fun party at Monkey Joe's. It was so much fun and Mom made me a Princess Tiana Castle cake. I got lots of Barbie stuff, which I love! School has been fun. I am learning a lot. At the beginning of the year I was at one school but now I am at another. I have lots of friends but I have trouble remembering all of their names. I love to help Mommy, especially when taking care of Jacob. I feed him his bottles now at the table and I am good at feeding him his food too. I can't wait for Mommy to have more babies. I want a sister names Cecilia and maybe some more brothers but Jamesie yells a lot so maybe just two more brothers and two more sisters. I have decided that I want to be an ER doctor just like Dad. I think being a doctor is cool and I practice looking in Jacob's ears with the otoscope. I have lots of growing pains but that is just part of getting big.

James: I continue to try to rule the house! I am the big brother now but I want to still be Mommy's baby but just as a big boy, not a baby. I have decided to stop going pee in the potty so I can still be a baby like Jacob, only a big boy. I don't like to be told what to do but all I want is to have fun and play. I really like it when I get to go somewhere with Mommy or Daddy by myself. I also like to try to do things by myself but Mom says I can't do all the things I want by myself. I love going to school and I know all of my friends names. I have lots of friends, except one of the girls keeps biting me. I have learned lots about God this year at school and now I know that God is my friend and He is with me always. I don't want to learn to ride my tricycle yet but maybe next year. I moved to my big boy bed this year (a toddler bed) and can count now. I am also good at singing songs now and I like to play the piano. I like playing with my cars and trucks and love playing dress up. Today I rescued the princess and slayed the dragon while being a knight. Playing is fun!

Jacob: Sleep, eat, play. That is what I like to do. My Mom is awesome and I love smiling at her. She tickles me on my ribs and it makes me laugh. I also like it when she plays pat-a-cake with me. She gives me lots of kisses. I love looking at Sophia too. She makes me smile. She tries to talk like Mom and I like that. James makes me want to be a big boy. I want his cars, except I tasted one one day and it didn't taste good. I can sit now and stand while holding onto the ottoman. I really like it when Daddy puts me to bed at night. He tells me stories and sings songs to me while I have my bedtime bottle. Yummy bottle! I get excited when I see my friend Bottle and I am not going to like it when Mommy is going to take it away!

Jacob is 6 Months Old!

Well, my little baby is 6 Months old. I don't know where the time has gone. I do have to say...I LOVE this age! I always do. Around 5-6 months old, in my opinion, is when the babies become fun and enjoyable. They usually start to sleep through the night by now, they can sit but can't crawl. They can entertain themselves and don't have seperation anxiety yet. They laugh and are so darn cute! I love it! If babies could be born at this age, I would have a million of them! :)

So at Jacob's 6 month check-up, he weighed 19 lbs. 15 oz. and is 28.5 in. long. Big Boy! Here are his latest pictures:

Our pictures of the kids have always been taken by Celebrity Kids Portrait Studies. In fact, all of the kids have been in their advertisements! Anyway, we got a call last night that they are closing their doors. I am very sad. Hopefully we can continue with one of the photographers there and keep have adorable pictures and great Christmas cards.

Broken Tailbone

Wow, it has been a while! Sorry! I will have more updates tomorrow because Jacob is now 6 months old (where does the time go!) and he has a doctor's appointment. I can't wait to see how much he has grown. I think it is always so much fun to find out.

Anyway, I am writing with a surprise on me. When I had Jacob, my tailbone was extremely sore for about 2-3 weeks after his birth. My OB thought I had just bruised it. Well, it still hurts. I had Jim take a little peak and surprise...it is broken. Apparently Jacob broke my tailbone when he came out. Now, every time I sit for too long or if I sit in a booth or on a seat that is really soft, I rebreak the tailbone because I am not giving it enough time to heal. Let me tell you...sometimes it really hurts! Aaaaah, motherhood is always surprising!

Halloween Pictures

We had a great Halloween except Sophia got a fever. We still let her go Trick-or-Treating though (she didn't act like she was sick). I have also found that she is a bit of a hypochondriac. If we told her she had a fever she would have told everyone and then complained the whole time. Instead she had a great time and slept well that night. James got sick then and is still sick. In fact I had to get him from school on Thursday (he had a fever of 102.7) and now has a stomach bug. Yuck! The stomach bug has been pasted onto me now. Hopefully Jim won't get it or Jacob. So, other than the sickness that has been running throughout our house, we had a fun Halloween. Here are some pictures:

Jacob is sitting now. He can't get there by himself but if you put him up he will stay there.

Morning after Halloween

Sarah Bielski (dressed as This And That), Sophia, and James

Buzz Lightyear and Jessie

Jacob (My Little Peacock)

First Cereal

Jacob had his first cereal today. I will post a picture later or at least have it on Snapfish. He really liked it. It didn't take long at all before he was opening up his mouth to take more when he saw the spoon coming. I think he is going to be a pro! Hopefully he will be a clean eater like Sophia was. She always has eaten well. James is more of an expressive eater and a picky eater and sometimes a non-eater. :)

The Beeson Castle

Well, last week we got our playset put in. We choice a Rainbow Playsystem from Recreation Unlimited. The specific one that we selected was the Super Rainbow. It is Super too!! The kids love it and so does Jim and I. It is actually big enough that Jim and I have fun on it. Jim works out on it. I love swinging on the buoy ball, climbing the Jacob's rope ladder, and sliding down the slide. The playset is cool. There is a racing car tire that is actually from a real Nascar race car. It is the left front tire of the number 6 car. You can tell it has been driven on too. Very cool! Here are some pics:

Here is the set being installed. Two men did it in 4 hours.

The kids and I watched all morning.

Here is the finished product from our sitting room window.

Here is a view of the back of our house and the playset.

Jacob is 4 Months!

My little Jacob is now 4 months old! It is hard to believe but thank goodness we made it through the first 3 months. Wow, those are hard! Jacob is now 16 pounds 9 ounces and is 26.5 inches long. So big! He is wearing 6-12 month clothing perfectly now. I love his little laughs and smiles. He is full of them. He also loves to talk but his talking has decreased some lately becuase he has an ear infection. Jacob is handling it pretty well though. He is rolling over both ways now and gets his body all contorted. He is so much fun to watch. He loves his Gymboree class too. What a joy he is!

When I compared Jacob's size with Sophia and James at this age, it stacked up like this:

Sophia 15 lbs 10 oz, 25.5 in.

James 15 lbs 15 oz, 26.25 in.

Jacob: 16 lbs 9 oz, 26.5 in.

Looks like in our family, the more kids we have, the bigger they get!

The pictures above are from his 3 month photo appointment. So Cute!!

Field Trip

Today was Sophia's very first Field Trip. I went as a chaperone. Since the kids go to a private school, there are no school buses. If there is a field trip, the parents are expected to drive the kids. This trip each child had a parent go with them so we did some carpooling. We had Sam and his mom Susan ride with us. Sophia and Sam play quite a bit with each other so they were excited to ride together. It was very cute to see them in the back together. Apparently Sam taught Sophia how to sword fight last week. It is very cute to see them interact. Anyway, back to the field trip, we went to a pumpkin patch. Everyone got to pick out a pumpkin. We also rode in a wagon, went through a hay maze (which the kids didn't really follow, they just climbed over the haybails), jumped in a bounce zone, and played on a playset. The kids had lots of fun. On the way back to school Sam and Sophia were very tired. I enjoyed going on my first field trip with Sophia and meeting some of her classmates and talking to some of the parents.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post. Jacob has his 4 month doctor's appointment tomorrow and I can't wait to see how big he is!

New Blog

This blog is going to continue because it is a good way for family to keep in touch with the children and Jim and I . Have just started a new blog www.mythreelittleducklings.blogspot.com

It will be an honest view of motherhood to three children, all of which are currently under 3. It is more of a venting avenue and will probably be very amusing to some of you. Anyway, just wanted to share.

Some Summer Pictures

So I need to finally start putting photos on the blog. Since I have my new computer (yippee!) and it is so much easier to use, I should be able to post more. Not to mention it is much faster than my 10 year old old laptop. This first photo is of Sophia, James and Kara standing in front of our tomato plant. The plant is still giving us sweet juicy tomatoes and is now more than twice the size that it is in the picture. I think it is going to take over the whole deck! For those of you who do not know Kara, let me introduce her. Kara has watched the kids since we had kids. She was Sophia's first babysitter, James' first babysitter, and now Jacob's first babysitter. She came twice a week this past summer and we love her. Hopefully next summer she can some three days a week. The kids have a great time with her and she helped us a LOT this summer.
This is a picture of Jacob around 2 months old. James loves to kiss on him and here he is kissing on his feet. James has become very affectionate with Jacob.
Okay so Jacob looks really goofy here but this is a photo of all three playing together.
Can you feel the love?

Since these pictures, Jacob has grown a lot. He is getting close to 15 pounds and is definitely the baby in the family. He smiles all the time (started smiling around 4 weeks) and blows raspberries too. He will even imitate raspberries. He is starting to poop more than once a week but still doesn't sleep super great during the day. He did nap for three hours in the bouncer today but forget about it in the bed. 45 minutes is the most he will do in his bed during the day. At night he will sleep for 11-12 hours and wake up once for a business feeding. He is holding his head up well and meets his hands at midline. He is starting to try to reach for items and LOVEs this (kind of ugly) red bird Carol got him. For the past 2-3 weeks he has been drooling up a storm. Way earlier drooling than the other kids. He has crazy hair (must be a male trait in our household) and his eyes are still blue.