sick and it's 100 outside

All the girls ended up with a cold last week. The cranky runny nose type. What fun. Cassidy first then the other two joined on Friday, right in time for daddy to be gone fishing overnight. We stayed home yesterday from church, the lots girls that is while daddy went. The nursery would definitely have said No Thank You to them. I hate missing church, even for legit reasons like sick kids. At least I had women's conference Saturday night. Wasn't it awesome!!! Hello segue way to the higher law of visiting teaching. I have had the best vter ever, merlieee, and some not so great ones. I have been good and not so good at being a vter. I will do better. I have had the best vter who was really the vtee, Anne. Many examples to help me know better how to be better.
So little miss Julia is talking up a storm these days. My bet... She will be a talker like Cassidy. Hut you never know till after right? Oh and there is molly awake. Speaking of awake miss Cassidy made a couple appearances last night, at 130 and 500 am, she wanted to play. Hmmm no. Its time to Sleep. Its getting old. She's been doing this for a number of days now. Awwwwwwww. Whatdo I do?

life

Cassidy turned three a couple of weeks ago. We had a party for her at our house. Lots of kids and their parents. It was so nice to see everyone.
Ever since it seems like we have been busy, but at home. Lots of people have dropped by to see the house and we have had a bunch of play dates. So nice after practically nothing at the little house.
Julia is sleeping much better. Ten to 12 hours a night, getting up only one time. Up from eight hours at the little house. She is learning to fall asleep in her own, yeah
She is six months now, crazy flying time. I started her on oatmeal cereal, she loves it. From the first bite she has been awesome. Oops I was going to buy some squash tonight, maybe I'll make her carrots tomorrow.
House is coming along. The two bathrooms are still in progress. Can't wait till they are done. The granite for one is in our garage. It would be good to get that in asap.
I was able to pull out my cute clothes today. All the pre kid clothes that I haven't been able to wear much in the last three and a half years. Because we don't plan on talking about baby #4 until next spring or summer it is nice to know i will be able to wear them for more than a month or two, like before with Molly and Julia.
Joe had his over night fishing trip with buddies last week. He's been sick ever since. Yucky.
I guess i should go to bed. Its 1120 and i always regret the next day when i stay up late, even if i am enjoying me time.

there's no place like home

We just signed our little house away. Thank goodness we never have to go back again. We are 100% moved out and maybe 50% moved in but that is wonderful. Right now I am sitting at the top of the stairs with Julia making sure that Cassidy stays in her room and out of molly's crib. At the ripe old age of three years minus one week she was finally learned how to climb out of a crib. Joy. So now we get to learn how to stay on your own bed. Item number one on tomorrow's list of to do is put her door knob on. Today was the door, tomorrow the knob. Sitting here looking down the upstairs hall , oops there's the crib escape artist now... Let the cries for potty and milk begin... Next the screaming... Oh the joys of parenthood. I can't believe we moved out on may 11 and moved back in August 11. Three months and 840 square feet later. My sanity is a little shaken, some days I barely survived, some nights I wanted to (and did) scream, but here we are with room for us now and to grow. Some nights I seriously, well not so seriously, questioned my desire to have more kids. The stress of not having enough room Nnd trying to not disturb the little boy that slept on the same wall as Julia, never being able to have a schedule... Hopefully its over now. We are home, at long last. I love our 'new' house.

Breaking out

It's set, we move out of this cage on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then go to the cabin for a few days then... WE MOVE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. Beyond words. Our house will be about 90% done when we move in. A few things will get done in the coming months that are mandatory for the final inspection and a few things will wait till next year. In truth we have hit the end of the money and so as to not finance more than the absolute minimum we are delaying stuff till we get more dinero. A nice benefit? Having to think of better, less expensive solutions for "issues" or options that come up. Like... curtains on the girls' closets instead of doors (have you seen how much fun it is for a 2 year to slam the bi-pass doors against the wall?). $25 curtains instead of $150 blinds, for each girl's window. It would be nice to have everything done before moving in, but hey that is homeowner-ship, it's never ALL done, ever.

Life

Here are a few recent pictures.
We are almost done with the house. Just two more weeks. Thank goodness. I am sick of trying to pick paint colors. I need to just decide and be done with it. But it is so hard when those tiny paint strips are so different from a room painted in the color.
The girls are as cute as ever. Sometimes I feel inadequate to be a mother. I get so impatient by the end of the day, and by the end of the week I am toast. I hate that I am not better than I am and that is sometimes a self fulfilling prophesy I bet. The girls are so much fun, especially one-on-one. They are different in many ways and I really enjoy seeing them be themselves fully when alone.
Julia is getting bigger, well, mostly longer. She's longer and lighter than the older girls were at 4 months. She's learning how to be a cat. The other day she started crying, vocalizing differently. It was funny watching her do it because I could see her trying to hit a high pitch than normal. I even got it on film. I'll post that later.
Joe had a fun day of fishing last week. He and a friend went kayaking in the delta from 530 am to 5 pm. He came home looking like a lobster in spots. Oops. They each caught 13 fish, but being the delta they didn't keep any to eat. Joe had a good experience with prayer. One of his poles feel in the water and sunk. But after praying and searching for about 15 minutes he was able to find it in about 7 feet of water. Sometimes we do find what we have lost.
Hopefully I'll find my brain soon...
A fun note. We were able to upgrade our camera this month. My old one fell out of the diaper bag. After that it was never the same, it couldn't focus half the time I tried to use it so we purchased a new one. Half the price and twice the megapixels. I love technology advances. :) The picture of Julia on the reddish couch is with the old camera, and the other ones are with the new one. Can you tell?