Finally!

It's a banner day here for my Disney aficionados (and, of course that includes myself!). 

We are proud new owners of the quintessential "Snow White" finally. One of the only Disney's that has escaped me on DVD (even when I was younger, I collected them all on VHS and there they rest at Nene's house still to this day) is "Snow White," and, ironically, one of the ones that Maddie and Faith wanted so desperately. 'White' is Faith's dearest princess, and she has always been obsessed with the dwarfs. 

Even Abrie sat in her walker giggling at the screen (well, most likely giggling about the fact that her first taste of prunes this morning led to a blow-out of a poop, and those always make her smile)  while I made lunch this afternoon. Maddie and Faith had all of their dwarfs lined up next to them on the couch, and brought down every single one of their princesses to watch the afternoon matinee. 

They are now dead set on owning "The Black Cauldron" which makes me laugh.

Enjoy the fall, worry about winter later

Had to take advantage of Dan's break, despite the sickness that was our family for the past few days. 

October rolls around, and I always start feeling an impending sense of doom. Winter and the dread of cabin fever will be here before I know it, and I constantly want to jump on any nice day that is handed to us from September-November to enjoy the outdoors before the trees become bare until the end of April. Of course, I've always loved the changing colors of the leaves and everything related to Fall and Halloween.

So, we decided to jump on the opportunity to go to Weaver's yesterday. We love their Harvest Days, and have been going ever since Faith was 10 months old. This year they lowered their prices for the wristbands, and so both Maddie and Faith were able to do every thing they wanted, and more than once or twice. We let them try caramel apples this year, and they just loved them. 

And, today we found a new park that is beautiful. It is in downtown Reading and reminds me of a park from downtown Lancaster that we used to go to and eat soft pretzels. Dan loved the memorials to all of the war veterans, and the girlies loved the awesome playground that they built there. Abrie loved watching her big sissy's play (man, this girl is a total lover! She loves her big sisters and they just love, love, love her!) and doing what she loves to practice these days-- sitting! She loves to sit in the grass and pick clumps of it and whatever else she can grab with her little hands!

So, for now, we will enjoy every last minute of Fall and worry about winter later!

In our new house

Finally here. 

Well, we've technically been in our new home now for 2 weeks. It's funny because Faith calls this "new home" and our apartment she (lovingly) refers to as "ewwww home." Hahaha.

I am a mixed bag concerning our new home.

I love it. And, yet I miss our apartment. As much as I couldn't stand it towards the end of our time there, it was the place where we brought two of our baby girls home to: Faith and Abrielle. I'll never forget that, just as I'll never forget our apartment in Shreveport where Maddie grew up for her first 18 months of life. This apartment was home for our three little girls, specifically Maddie and Faith, for nearly three years. And, we have many, many awesome memories there.

I know that with time this house will also become our home. Maddie always says, "ahh, home sweet home." I'm waiting for that feeling to hit me. But, I know that it will just take some more unpacking and some great memories here, and sooner than later we'll lovingly refer to this as our home also.

*******

In the meantime, I've got three sick little ladies. Lord knows how Nene took care of the FIVE of us when we were all sick, because it's hard to do it with three. My poor little girls. They were more than just a little upset that they had to miss their beloved Guy's soccer/basketball practice, so Maddie and Faith instead decided they wanted to go to Weaver's to pick a pumpkin to carve and place in the front for decoration. They loved picking out their little Indian corns and a baby pumpkin for their Breeze/Beeba Show. 

And, we've been having so much fun exploring all around here lately. It takes literally minutes to walk to Redner's which is awesome because it gives us something to do when Dan is working late, or just for fresh air and last-minute groceries. They have the alley ways memorized already, and know of all the cool spots to go check out different things. 

Getting closer to getting out of here

Hating this moving process. But, if I don't get out of here soon or if I have to listen to the Heckles' downstairs for one more day, I might lose my mind even worse than what it already is.

In yet another "Friends" type moment tonight, Dan and I reverted to screaming 'PIVOT!' to each other as we tried moving the big couch down our narrow apartment stairway and out to the U-Haul truck. Yep, we were stuck in our doorway for approximately 30-40 minutes trying everything to pivot out of there. It took Dan's strength and my brains (ha!) to devise a plan that didn't include calling 9-1-1 to help us saw the doorway to then be able to squeeze the darn thing out of there. I have no earthly idea how the TMO guys did it those 2+ years ago when they moved our furniture for us. 

We went to Lowe's this afternoon to let the big girls pick out a color for their bedroom. Maddie wanted pink, and Faith wanted blue. They decided on a color called "strawberry patch." I hate running errands with them because I always feel guilty that they're having to be stuck doing something not as fun as being outdoors and playing, especially since today was beautiful- contrary to the ugly weather report that they had been forecasting. Yesterday was overcast, but still doable for being outside, and so I took my three little girls for a walk and we ended up exploring parts of the apartment complex that we had never seen. It was so windy outside yesterday, and they took their $.99 "Whirlybirds" (no idea what they're really called) with them and pretended to be the Musketeers. Their imaginations are just awesome, and I swear Abrie's favorite pastime is watching her big sisters play.

Dog days of summer

Thoughts while packing

The joys of packing. 

I HATE it. I hate moving. Period.

If I could live in one place my entire life, I would.

I packed most of our apartment when we moved from Shreveport back up to Pennsylvania those 3 years ago. Well, I packed and then TMO packed what I had packed AGAIN. Now, Dan has been doing most of the packing, while I help here and there when I can. But, with three young ladies to tend to, I don't have nearly as much time to help in this area as I did those three years ago when there was only young Maddie to tend to! 

As I was dusting and moving furniture just a second ago, I realized and remembered things that I had totally forgotten to jot down from when Abrie was born-- ahh, the things that pop into your mind when you're all alone and trying to keep from being bored while doing something you hate!

I remember being in that 'surviving, and not quite thriving' (what I like to call it!) point when Abrie was not even a week old, and I remember having my one bad day when I decided to drop off Gordo at AZ Pets and Pondz. I felt overwhelmed with taking care of three little girls, let alone a stinkin' guinea pig that needed his cage cleaned. I remembered this because I was dusting off Maddie and Faith's stereo shelf when I found an old bag of used pine chips for Gordon's cage. Good ol' Gordo! We had that darn guinea pig for 2 whole years. I remember Faith taking him for rides in her Fisher Price bus when she was a mere 8 and 9 months old! Maddie used to get him out every night to pet him, and they used to put him in the laundry basket to tote him around and feed him apples. He was a sweetheart, until the day he was scared senseless when two little girls came to play last August. On that day he became a skittish guinea pig, and no fun. Of course, if you asked Madison and Faith: "He's our pet, and we love him!"

I also remembered Faith's face when she first saw me at the hospital when they came to visit me. She was so scared, and I could barely see her. Literally speaking, I could barely see. I sent Dan a text message from the hospital that he showed me the other night. I thought it made perfect sense, and in reality it said : pluhse c78cmos vit me (which meant, 'please come visit me!' my vision was horrible because of the darn medications) and I sent it at some odd hour in the middle of the night when he had gone back to be with our precious big girls. That darn magnesium-- I hated it. Poor Faith though; Maddie was wanting to be right next to me and her baby sister, and Faith just clung to Dan, waving to me and blowing me kisses but too scared to get to close. Faith still to this day remembers everything about visiting Momma in the hospital. When we drive to the museum grounds, she points out her window and tells us all about it.

Another thing that I remembered and failed to jot down was Maddie's security blanket for those first 3 weeks of transition from being a big sister to one, to a big sister to two. She developed a strong attachment to this Christmas scrapbook. Yes, a Christmas scrapbook. She would wake up in the middle of the night, and if I was out feeding Abrie in the living room, she would come out to make sure I was still here and grab her scrapbook and head back to our room. It was so much of a security blanket for her that I still remember feeding Abrie in the darkness and hearing Maddie rustling around for her Cars flashlight so that she could see the pictures of her scrapbook while waiting for me to get back to our room. Then, she would fall asleep, content in knowing I was there with them. She and Faith also developed a need to have the computer light on if I wasn't there with them and was feeding Abrie. 

My three girls are never far from my mind. Not even while packing!

The things sisters imagine

Abrielle has been in on this divine sisterhood from the get-go.

She had already been bestowed the nickname of 'Breezer' (and its abbreviations) by miss Maddie at just a week old. She has been lovingly referred to as 'Beeba Show' for months now by her Faith-y sister. She was also affectionately deemed "the librarian" by both of her sisters at just 2 weeks of age and have always loved when I give Abrie a voice (a shrill one at that!) to talk to them and tell them stories. 

She is always included in their games that they come up with when they're outside. They were cracking me up this morning at the playground. They are just in love with Strawberry Shortcake and her gang, and they decided that Maddie was 'Rainbow Sherbet', Faith was 'Blueberry Muffin' (for hours afterwards, she did NOT want to be called Faith: "No, Momma.. I no Fafe, I Blue"), they decided that I was 'Strawberry Shortcake,' and Abrie was 'Apple Dumplin'." It is hilarious. They had me running around with Abrie running after them because they were supposed to get the bad guys: Pie Man and Sour Grapes. Beebster even found a large stick that they decided was a gun, and Faith was sent to get ammunition (grass and twigs was the best she could find-- they come up with the funniest things). It's just so funny though that they were constantly asking 'Apple Dumplin' what they should do, etc. I can already imagine little Abrie running as fast as she can to keep up with her two big sisters.

Maddie and Faith were beside themselves today with laughter at something Abrie kept doing. She was holding this little monkey in her right hand and when I would sing this Veggie Tales song while holding her upright, she would swing the monkey in their faces and swat them with it. They LOVED this! They've been asking now constantly: "Can Abrie do that monkey thing again?!"