A patriotic themed summer concert at West park. Jas took the kids on their bikes. Looks like Oliver enjoyed himself. He said Nabby whined most of the time. This was the 3rd.

Jas and the kids found free muffins just before the parade started downtown.

The Michigan stormtrooper. Brilliant combo.

Waterfight and sprinklers all afternoon.

Oliver counted 54 blueberries. So I was a little off.

After dinner we shared our flag cake at the neighborhood block party.

Lots of fun games. The grown ups played 2 truths and a lie while the teenagers took the kids on a scavenger hunt. Then Oliver and Nabby tried this potato game where you try to walk with it between your legs.

I watched 1776 while I fed Phoebe through the weekend. It cracks me up every time.

I haven’t uploaded our July 4th photos yet, but here are some pictures from around the house. We may resort to getting a trained photographer to take portraits of the kids. My own attempts aren’t turning out marvelously. They’re so cute still.

Oliver’s last day of school.

This white flowering bush out back makes Jason’s eyes sting like crazy, but it’s pretty.

Nabby ran into a tree playing outside.

Oliver had three times the cake and gifts this year.  We threw a party with each set of grandparents and one on the big day itself with a “Yoda’ cake. He opened legos, lazer pegs, transformers and a bike.

Here’s a little look at birthday’s past. You can see how much he’s grown up.

First b-day; licking frosting off the candle. We spent the morning at Clemyjontri park in VA.

Second one he found a piano I picked up in Georgetown at a church rummage sale and cookies from Sarah and Ryan.

Third we found him a swing set on craigslist. Everything (birthday and his life in general) was about disney’s “Cars”.

Nabby tast tested most of his gifts.

Fourth birthday he was into robots and Wall-e.

Five years old and a proud owner of a light saber (with lights and sounds).

That’s it. He’s healthy and kind and pretty hilarious to be honest- quoting movies and making up jokes all the time. According to his report card he reads on a second grade level. He loves math and wrote 1 to 1000 on a giant scroll in Ms. House’s class. She wrote that he was a delight to have in class; he worked well with others and always treated everyone with respect. He likes reaching goals (impressing adults), icecream sandwiches, Nausicca, The Secret of Kells, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, and writing/making books with construction paper.

Update on Phoebe. She cries now. She’s a sweetums, but has her rough moments. She was up a lot in the night last week too, but things are more normal now. She was really really mad that I left her on that couch. And with nothing but a diaper too.

Wow, so much has happened the last few weeks. Or maybe it just feels that way. It still boggles my mind that we have three kids now. Phoebe is two months old! She doesn’t cry when we put her to bed. She looks around and falls asleep or whines a little till we give her a pacifier and falls asleep when she spits it out. She naps well and at night sleeps from 9pm to 3am, eats a little, and falls right back to sleep till 6am. This is a VASTLY different from experiences I’ve had in the past. I will never figure out for sure if I’m just finally getting better at scheduling feedings and naps  (I would like to think it’s true) or if some kids are just born chill.

Sometimes people will ask if Phoebe looks more like Oliver or Nabby when they were babies. Beats me. I just changes depending on her expression and posture. Here are photos of all three when when they were exactly 6 and 1/2 weeks old. (Oliver, Abigail, Phoebe) Her hair makes her look a lot like some of Jason’s baby photos.

Here are their grumpy faces at 6 and 1/2 weeks.

Grumpy Oliver

Grumpy Abigail

Grumpy Phoebe

Seriously. I don’t think she gets worse than that. She really just gets cuddly when she’s cranky. And I hold her a lot too.

So we’re doing pretty well. I love and don’t love having a newborn around. Nursing hurts (the let down and being too tight/full in the mornings) but the infections haven’t come back so I’m feeling grateful. Oliver has allergies, not pertussis like I was worried about last week, so that’s a win for us too. Yes, he was vaccinated, but this year it’s hitting vaccinated kids in AA for some reason. Hope you’re all doing okay. We miss all of you. Especially Grandmas and Grandpas who visited in May.

She’s getting bigger.  7 lbs 14 oz at her last doctor visit. I love her so much.

I’m finally getting enough sleep to function- taking the kids to school, making food other than p.b. sandwiches and cereal (sometimes). Also, I now fit back into the pregnancy pants that stopped fitting me half way through March. (Sarcastic “yeah”) Luckily I really like my pregnancy pants. Shirts are tricky, but so far I’ve found six I’m comfortable with. Not bad.

Jason is AMAZING. He cleans, makes breakfast, gets the kids dressed, bathes the kids, reads stories, puts everyone to bed (yes even me at 8:30), does dishes, folds laundry, takes the car to get new tires, writes publish-worthy papers on finance, plans (and plans and plans) and prepares to MC graduation as the phd forum president, keeps the bishop on schedule, jumps on the trampoline with Oliver, finishes the book on missionary work the stake president assigned him to read, and still catches Person of Interest Thursday nights, and tells me I’m doing a great job all the time.

I’m still bothered about going to bed too early to see Person of Interest and Elementary, but sleep equals sanity for me at this point and Jas says I can catch Elementary online. Maybe someday we’ll get cable. Seeing as Comcast is the only option right now I’m not giving in. I’ll carry my trusty amplified antenna to the grave or go without tv all together before I’ll sign up with them again. Obviously I’m not totally adjusted to this three child life, but I’ll get there.

Thanks again for all the comments and emails. I just had to post these photos because they show her personality so nicely. A watcher and a thinker. Smart and very sweet too. Love you everyone.

Phoebe Alice Kotter was born Monday April 15th at 9:15 AM!

Jason and I went to bed Sunday night and were woken up two hours later at 1 AM by contractions ten minutes apart. At 4:30 AM they were 3 mins apart and really hurt. I called my friend Lisa to come watch the kids and we left for the hospital. It was a quick drive and there was lots of parking that early. I was admitted and they set me up with my I.V. and epidural before I settled for a nap. I was too excited to sleep much, but the rest was still nice. Around 9 AM the contractions came harder (and hurt really bad) and I met my third child face to face soon after. It was heaven to hold her. It was heaven to be done. She was 7 lbs 12 oz. and 21 inches. She eats well, sleeps well (gives us two three hour stretches a night), and rarely cries. My anxiety hasn’t been so bad (hasn’t lasted very long anyway) this time either. We’re just really blessed and happy to have her.

Jas picked up the kids around 3 that afternoon and they were really happy to see her.

Seriously, she’s an angel.

I didn’t feel as good as I looked. Everyone smiles for a camera. But it was all worth it.

I picked the first name and Jason picked Alice, after his great grandmother for the middle.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and calls and texts and emails. We love you!

So this was fun. Oliver, Nabby and I watched Nausicaa of the valley of the wind from the library and loved it. Oliver liked it enough to make a Ohmu mask (giant trilobite bug in the movie) and crawl around the house in it.

This is what Nausicca and the Ohmu look like.

I washed Nabby’s blankets and she watched them for 15 minutes in the machine. I know, there’s a lot to do in Michigan when it’s 40 and raining everyday. But it keeps us creative.

I copied (and tweeked) some paintings from petit collage and pop and lolli for the baby’s room. It’s looking nice with the walls repainted and her stuff in there.

Nabby’s hair “like Rapunzel”.

I promise it’s not a basketball in my shirt. I saw the doctor Wednesday. She said I was 80% effaced and dialated to a 3, but I don’t feel like she’s coming super soon. Maybe closer to the due date next Friday (19th)!

The pop and lolli.com one. Why not something all my own? I just really liked this when I saw it and I did make up the deer, zebra, rabbit, mouse, bird.. and changed some colors.

Oliver asked if he could teach FHE and told us about his flower from primary that needs sun and water, which are prayer, and dirt and plant food, which are good actions. He really enjoyed watching conference and having lunch with Karen and Kevin too. Cam is so cute!

I braved the wind (clouds and cold are one thing, but the wind….ooooo bah) and took the kids to the park after school. They need time outside.

Saturday we colored some eggs and hunted for eggs in the backyard. The squirrels only got to one this year before we found them all. I didn’t put in any candy with wrappers so I don’t feel too bad. Nabby announced that she knew Dad was the easter bunny at our house and Uncle Kevin was the easter bunny at his house. Hmmm. I think she peeked out the window before we were ready.

Sunday Jason accompanied the choir on the organ (it was fantastic) and the kids found a gift and chocolate bunny in their baskets. We loved having our friends the Paces over for dinner. Ham, potato salad, asparagus, strawberry shortcake and they brought rolls. I made some sugar cookies and bird nest treats.

I sort of welcome the gutter muck. The ice piles are finally melting. That’s something to celebrate. Snowplows scrap up a lot of grass clearing the lots and walks. I should just get over it. Four and a half years and it still bothers me.

I stopped on the way home from church to take the shot above. Then I took a couple of the kids just because they’re good kids. Our Sunday commute is so much easier than is was when they were really little.

Long ago in February Jason made a cake for my birthday. Banana with cream cheese frosting. He doesn’t improvise like me… or maybe he just has a better memory than me so he’s not left making up a new way to put something together every time he tries. Anyway, his baking turns out far better than mine and I love it.

Oliver likes cake.

Nabby likes cake.

Nabby likes building snowmen in March.

Oliver got really mad at his snowman and knocked it over. Somehow he managed to get past screaming and accept some help with the face (huge step for him) the second attempt.

On our way out the door to take Oliver to school.

With my birthday money I finally (finally, finally, finally) decided on a boba 3g carrier to use with the new baby. I have a happy wrap too. Nabby and Jas test drove it and it looks like it works great. Well, on four year olds. We’ll see about newborns next month.

We didn’t snap the foot straps on.

To get ready for the new baby I’ve rearranged bedrooms and cleared out a ton of stuff in closets. I found probably a billion sketches. It’s weird to see stuff I haven’t looked at in 5, 6, 7 years. I don’t remember drawing some of them (actually a lot of them) at all.

Is that a teepee village on top of her balloon? I just don’t know. Cute though.

So Nabby woke up the other day, yawned. And then before even visiting the bathroom told me she needed to make a “lemon lime”.

After telling me “it’s half a lemon and half a lime” twenty four times and saying please really nicely I let her have what she needed and she was very happy. They just wake up with brilliant ideas. I love it.