Little smiles

Brooke is now one month old. Boy, did that fly by fast! She is such a good baby. So content, as others have mentioned. I’m finding life to be much easier than I expected with three kids. Well, probably right now at least, since she sleeps all the time. The last part of the day leading up to dinner is still chaos. I think that’s the universal hard time for moms and kids, 4-7pm for us. Yet, I’m surviving, yea!

Wonderful thing: Brooke started smiling back at me this week. I was holding her, and talking to her all sweet, and she gave me the biggest smile. My heart just melted, and I was hit with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for this little angel sent to our home.

Small window of awake time I forgot about how important it is to not miss the ‘window’, the chance to put babies to sleep before they get overtired. One night this week, we missed it, and kept her up too long. It took us 2 hours to get her to fall asleep. The next night, I got her up at 6pm to feed her, put her down at 6:30, and she went to sleep without a peep. SO much easier. Last night, fed her at 9pm, 12:30 am, and then she slept till 5. Thank you, Brooke!! I’ll take 4 hours of sleep, bliss for a newborn night.

We didn’t quite make it for Halloween this year. We took the boys to the church Trunk or Treat, but dinner was served first, and that took a bit of time. We waited for the trunk or treating to begin, but Ethan fell asleep in Shaun’s lap. They both were too pooped. So, there’s always next year:)

My little darlings:)

I practiced a lot before my mini sessions started last week. I love these pictures. I mainly opened my aperture way huge, 1. 4, which makes the background super blurry. I love it!! I wanted to nail it before I did that with my clients. Last weekend, Shaun stayed home with the boys, and I did some families up in the lovely meadows of Calico Basin. Oh, after taking a little camera break, it was so wonderful to take pictures again. I had so much fun. I always get a little nervous before a shoot, and say a prayer that I can take the best pictures possible. I think He helped me last weekend. Round 2 starts this weekend. I try really hard to schedule certain time for computer/picture work. Basically 6am, and 2pm. Family definitely comes first.

I just love these shots of my men.

I’m just glad I can take care of these guys, read books to them, take them to the park to play in this blessed cooler weather. We’re waiting for some really cool bikes coming in the mail for the boys. It’s a Strider bike. No pedals, just balancing, and pedaling along with their feet. They push along, lift their legs and glide, learning how to balance first before pedaling. I saw these on a homeschool blog, and then saw a kid on one at the park. I was sold. As soon as they get here, we’ll be outside a  lot more!