audrey, and lawson, and penelope, oh my!

Happy Spring Break from beautiful central Texas! 

And hello, after a year long, unintentional, blogging hiatus.

I'm currently inspired and ready to dust off the ol' blog, and start writing (typing?) down some of my thoughts again. :)

First off, a little catch up -- last July we expanded our family, and excitedly welcomed a baby girl named Penelope into our lives. My pregnancy with her was full of ups and downs, including severe morning sickness, early placenta previa, gestational diabetes, and high blood pressure. But she has been a dream of a baby. She's now 8 months old, and currently in a needy stage, but overall, she's an absolute delight. Penny has been my youngest baby to get teeth, having her first two pop up just shy of turning 8 months (her brother and sister were both over 9 months old). While she sits up and rolls all around, like her big brother, she's not in a hurry to crawl or pull up. This is perfectly fine by me, as life is crazy enough as it is without adding a super mobile baby into the mix. ;) She's also my youngest baby to sleep through the night regularly. Audrey woke up a few times a night until she turned one, and don't get me started on Lawson. We finally had to sleep train him at 18 months because he STILL wanted to nurse every 2 hours. Penny generally sleeps from 8 or 9pm (with one 5 minute dream feeding before I go to bed), and wakes up to eat again around 5am. We've all been enjoying her immensely, and I'm happy to report that, so far, there hasn't been any real sibling jealousy.

Lawson -- being the middle child, and only boy could potentially be hard for a kid, but we dote on that little boy like crazy, so no middle child syndrome yet! At 4.5 years old, he is generally one of the happiest and silliest kids that I know. Definite class clown material there. He is obsessed with Thomas the Train and Disney's Cars, and has been for a couple of years now. We probably have close to 200 cars and trains, and he still constantly wants more. Lawson is also hugely into Minecraft. He loves to play the game and watch the endless videos on YouTube that feature others playing. And given that the main guy whose videos he watches is British, he's also picked up some interesting vocabulary. His current favorite word is peckish, as in, "Can you pack an apple in my backpack in case I get peckish in the car?" Correct context and all. 

Audrey -- our oldest kiddo is getting ready to hit a birthday milestone in a few weeks. In less than a month my first baby is going to be TEN YEARS OLD!!! How did that happen?! Audrey is such a sweet and kind-hearted girl. She's always thinking about others. In the past 6 months she's also really picked up a love for drawing, and she's really getting good. Her current favorite things to draw are Pokemon characters. The girl is obsessed! As always, she's doing awesome in school. She's a natural speller, most likely due in huge part to her love for reading, but she tends to enjoy doing more math related schoolwork better. As far as reading goes, she's currently reading any Babysitters Club book she can get her hands on, which makes me oh so happy! I was a giant BSC fan when I was a kid, so seeing her enjoy them too is wonderful. Last week alone she read five books, thanks to a mini spree at Half Price Books. I love watching this girl grow up, and look forward to seeing the young lady that she'll turn into.

These three kiddos bring so much light and joy to our lives!