These Days...

 Several things to catch up on whats going on these days in with the Askew crew:

Penny you are almost 3 months! These days you are smiling and cooing and we are all in love with your sweet dimples and blue eyes. You have slept thru the night 3 nights in a row from around 10:30 to 6 or so, which I am trying not to get my hopes up about but has been pretty wonderful. I was joking when I came up with your first Christmas wish for the church program and said that you wished you would sleep thru the night but our wishes might just be coming true. I am trying to soak up all these last baby days because I know they go so fast and I want to cherish the beautiful parts of the perfect weight of you rested in my arms, the slow, heavy blinks just before you drift off to sleep, the simplest things that make you smile - a familiar face, twinkly lights and the wonder that is ceiling fans. We have special time together on Tuesdays and Thursdays when the big kids are at school and these days I love getting to share that time just me and you, sometimes we run errands, we attend ladies bible class or do chores at home. My spirit has always been one that craves a certain amount of quiet space to think, process and center and I am finding these days of quiet are so recharging to me and I enjoy having my little side kick along too. 

*A Daicia Pic - love her eyes captured here. and
I am a little smitten by this hand me down winter hat I've been loving on her.

Oh Rhett, how fun life is with you these days at two and halfish. You bring so much laughter to all of us. Your favorite foods are milk, avocados, pizza and pretzels. These days you are loving the books The Giving Tree, Mama Llama Red Pajama and Goodnight Gorilla. Last night when were reading The Giving Tree you asked me how do you get in the book? You wanted to climb in and put the trunk back on the tree that the boy took away. Your imagination truly has no limits, you keep expanding your Christmas list to include crazy things like "a Giant orange Dragon, a plane to fly you over your house to Benny's house ( while we are wishing for things I wouldn't mind a direct flight either to Benny's house) a live bird and a hang glider to fly me in the sky". You often tell me of crazy things you see out the car window, "look mom a hippo!". Your favorite show is Jake and the Neverland Pirates and you are on quite a pirate kick, you often have a foam sword in hand and like to yell out "yo ho ho". You are a little bit dragon obsessed lately too,  you "draw" pictures that you tell me are dragons, you use a raspy, growly voice at times that you say is a dragon voice. You love lately to wear your hair spikey for special days and call it your dinosaur hair. You still take a good long afternoon nap and I still have you in your crib, despite all your climbing everywhere else you haven't even really tried to get out of it yet so I think we will roll with it as long as we can. You kind of have a propensity with all your exploring of getting stuck places, you got your head stuck in a chair at the zoo this fall, you got your nose and head stuck between a pew and the wall at church the other day and more than once you lodged your foot places you needed me to help you get undone. I often call Ava, Avie-baby or Ava-boo, lately when you are calling her from another room you yell Avie-baby or Ava-boo in the same cadence as I often do and it makes me smile every time. I also love everyday when we pick up Ava you say to her in that thick and deepish voice that is so you "How was your day Ava, did you you miss us?" I love the way you love your sisters and you call them "My Penny" and "My Ava".

After the ice storm we had a lot of tree clean up to do, Grandpa brought you this chain saw to help out on clean up day.
You were all business. 

Ava these days you are thriving at Kindergarten being 5 and halfish. I loved going to a few school events of yours this past week and seeing you in this setting that has kind of been a mystery to me. You have two really close friends that you have bonded with but I also noticed your whole class seems to belong to each other, I wish all your schooling would be like kindergarten in that way, where you love each other and look after each other in the way I noticed you all do right now. You are starting to read, while I have mixed feelings about the academic pace of Kindergarten these days, you are so very proud of your reading. You love art and are often working on "projects" around the house. You have made a few books that you put in Rhett's book basket and you like to read them to him. You and your dad just finished your first real novel that you have been reading together at night, Poppy and now you are on to The Mouse and the Motorcycle.You are a great big sister, you are a natural nurturer and you've mastered how to rock Penny's car seat or bouncer just the way she likes it and can gently wiggle her paci in at the same time to soothe her if I am trying to cook dinner or attend to something else. You learned about deep breathing at school and you like to coach Rhett through using his "belly breaths" when he is having a melt down. He will listen to you and often this can calm him quickly. (It's kind of funny I tried the other day to see if you wanted to try it when you were really worked up but no such luck for the same success) You and Rhett play often together these days, most of the time you have great fun together playing school, putting on shows, playing in your "hideout" but you can also have some pretty epic fights too. You are still petite and sweet. At the doctor the other day, 2 year old Rhett weighed in at only 3 less pounds than you. I asked your teacher some questions at the fall parent teacher conference about your assertiveness abilities as you are naturally inclined similar to me towards keeping the peace and introversion and she complimented  you saying"that girl can hold her own!" and I really loved that. Your Friday behavior folder pretty much has all positive marks except for some weeks you got marked for "Talking at inappropriate times" and I have to say it makes me smile that my girl that is often quiet feels so comfortable she gets marked for this and that my rule follower can can also break out of that mold too as we all need too at times. You want to loose your teeth and are so excited to be 6 these days but I am happy for you to not move on too quick. 

One of our best moments these days, we were playing in the leaves at grandma's when dad returned from deer camp.

These days I've been navigating the world of 3 little and there's moments its beautiful and wonderful and truly a dream come true and moments I've been overwhelmed, frustrated and not always the mom I wanted to be. You 3 continue to be some of my greatest teachers during these season of life. Motherhood brings out many of my best parts and so many of my weakest parts, I am trying to embrace more the value of repair and the power of grace, you all teach me about forgiveness too for I find no one is quicker than littles to forgive and move on in the way you do.

Fall Fun 2015: Lahmeyer visit

While Ryan went on his annual trip to deer camp before Thanksgiving we got to enjoy a visit from Daicia and the kids. Aunt Amy stayed over too and it was so great to catch up as well as a life saver to have extra help with the kids - so it was a win win! 

We weren't sure how it would go with all the littles by ourselves but it turned out to be one of our best visits! 

Saturday we hit up Martin Nature Park after lunch at Hideaway (tried to hit some of the local great eating hot spots): 

Our College roomie weekends aren't quite as carefree with 5 littles in tow but something extra golden about watching the next generation friendships grow! 

Ava and Quinn are reaching a milestone where they are old enough to share a room. They played so hard they would crash fairly easily for bedtime, we would check in and hear sweet late night talking and story telling before they drifted off to sleep. 

This trip was also special because Daicia got to meet Penny!
 After we got the older kids to bed Penny would stay up with us for our usual late night chats, movie watching and snacking. Each night we would swear we wouldn't stay up so late but then 2:00 or 2:30 would roll around and we would find ourselves still up, some things still don't change with visits, unfortunately our wake up time must but still worth it to get in all our good chatting on all the topics we had been saving up. 

Daicia took some sweet pictures of the kids. 

In true Daicia style she planned a fun seasonal food art activity for the kids. 

Art is Ava's love language, she always enjoys a good "project". 

We also hit up Zorbas, did a make your own Pizza night and meet up for brunch with our other college buddies before they left town.

My dad and his college room mate always stayed in touch and some of my favorite childhood memories are some of our family times together, his daughter still one of my most cherished friendships even though we don't get to see each other as often as we would like these days. I love that Ava will have so many sweet memories of a similar type and with each visit we add more to her collection that I know she will treasure as much as I do.

Daicia thanks so much for braving the road and Dallas traffic to come see us, it was one of our fall highlights for sure! 

Till our next memory making adventure -

Fall Fun 2015: Trunk or Treat

I would say Trunk or Treat at our church is the real highlight of our Halloween month even more so than Halloween itself. We have so much fun getting ready and spending that time with our church family and neighborhood community. 

Ava decided this year she wanted to be a mermaid and I found this cute shark idea online to make for Rhett so we went with an under the sea theme
(Penny was  rainbow fish for about five minutes of the night). 

Here's our award wining trunk: Ava and I had fun crafting our under the sea trunk in the weeks before, we found most of the ideas online and Ava was big help painting all the coral for me and helping me put the fish together.  It's fun she's at an age now when she can actually be helpful in the process. (We planned most of our crafting while Rhett was napping, he's not so much at the age to be helpful but he did help us with a few fish)
We won the most boo-tiful trunk award for our efforts which Ava has proudly displayed on her door. 

Ava and Izzy, these sweet friends have attended this event since their very first Halloween.
How are they so big int his picture!

(Katie, I stole this one from your blog, being behind the camera I am often not in our pictures
so I love to snag ones where I can of  me in the action. Thanks for taking this one! )

 There was some trash talking competitive fun amongest several of the trunkers (is that word? I think I just made it one) prior to the festivities. I wish I had taken more pictures of the other trunks, so many great ones this year!

Trunk or Treat 2015 is in the books!