Around here.

Now that I have the Christmas post behind me, I can finally post pictures that are a little more recent...well, from about 2 weeks ago, but for me and my schedule these days, that's recent enough. 

I am so, so, so thankful that we are able to have someone come here everyday to help me out. We found her through care.com (I recommend it if anyone is looking for a nanny or even an occasional sitter - I purchased a one month membership and we got plenty of great applicants during that time) and she's been such a huge help. She absolutely adores all 3 kids and I feel 100% comfortable leaving her alone with the babies when I take Benjamin out. What a huge answer to prayer as that was something I was a little nervous about as we started the hiring process. Having her here allows me to get everyday things done like shower, eat breakfast and even blog occasionally! More importantly, I can get Benjamin out to playgroups, swim class and other activities we're signed up for without having to get the babies ready too. During this time that we're still not sleeping through the night, it's wonderful to not have to get up even earlier to get all 3 kids ready at the same time. 

We are planning to have her come until the babies are 6 months old. Hopefully by then we'll have the babies on more of a routine (and sleeping through the night!) and then I'll be able to get up earlier than everyone else to shower/eat before the craziness starts up! 

I have help from 7:30-12:30 p.m. and then I'm on my own until Matt gets home from work (usually around 4:30-5). Though I'm capable of taking all 3 kids out on my own, I've only done it once. It's a lot of work and quite honestly, there's really nowhere worth going with all 3 at this point. At least not without Matt to lend an extra hand! So we spend all of our afternoons at home just hanging out. If I'm lucky, the babies will be asleep for a portion of Benjamin's nap and I get 30-45 minutes of time to myself. I love my kids...but I also love when they're sleeping ;) 

On to pictures!

Remember how I said in the last post that it's hard to get a good picture of the babies looking cute together at the same time? Well, case and point:

This is how a lot of my shots turn out. Oliver spitting up his whole bottle, Zoe putting her hands in her face. Super awesome. 

Anyway...

Oliver is definitely turning into such a smiley boy... as long as his tummy is full and he's not too tired, you can pretty easily get smiles out of him. Look how cute his little grin is!

Of course, we get a few other faces out of him too ;)

...but he quickly goes back to a smile!

Now that the babies are nearly 3 months old (what?!?), they are starting to be more and more alert during the day...and that means wanting to be entertained...which also means wanting to sit up. Since they can't sit up and I can't hold them both while a rather demanding toddler tries to steal all of my attention, I had to resort to getting the Bumbo seats out a tad early (they still lean over a lot). Both seem to like them a lot! 

Oliver tried it out first (this was before we fished our old blue one out of the attic so he had to try out the purple one...sorry O!)

Benjamin got SUCH a kick out of seeing them sitting up. He kept giggling and then going over to give them kisses on the head. It was stinkin' adorable!

Next was Zoe's turn!

She had a lot of fun watching Benjamin play all around her.

Speaking of Benjamin, he's still loving his chair!

He likes to drag it out when he's watching TV...

Look at this handsome face!

Well, now that the bumbos are out, we use them nearly everyday. After they eat, we normally put them on their activity mat until they start to whine, then we move them to the bumbo seats until they start to whine, then we hold them for a few minutes until they start to yawn and then it's off to dreamland again!

Look how much Zoe is catching up! She still weighs about 2 lbs less than Oliver, but she sure is a round, little butterball! She has more rolls on her arms than Oliver does and I think her physique sort of resembles Benjamin's as a baby...uh-oh! I might have a very chunky girl on my hands in a month or two :)

I took several shots of them laying on this blanket and it's crazy how they're in the EXACT same position in at least half of them. Coincidence or twin thing? ;)

We've decided to try and sell Matt's car. We don't really have a need for 3 vehicles and it can be a bit of a pain moving cars around since we only have a 2 car garage. Matt washed the car and cleaned the interior so that I could photograph it for an ad. Of course, once Benjamin saw what was going on, he wanted to play in it. He LOVES sitting in the drivers seat and trying to honk the horn. Sweet boy.

Last time Benjamin got a haircut, the top was cut a little too short. So now he has this big poof and crazy bed head every time he wakes up. We're trying to let the top grow out, but he still needs trims around his ears and in the back (he has a pesky rat tail that loves to try to grow long). No need to pay to have his  hair simply trimmed when Matt can do it!