The 'Griswold Family' trek to PA 2009

Who pooped through her outfit only 2 hours in to the 10 hour trip to PA and had to be naked until the next pit-stop since Mommy forgot to pack an extra outfit in the car bag? I'll give you two guesses.

Who me?

Huizinga extended family party 12/19

13 great grand kids and 20+ adults in tight quarters always makes for mild chaos at our Huizinga gathering. It's always fun though and never a dull moment! Molly had a rough time at this party too so these are the only shots I got that day. I'm starting to think our youngest isn't much of a 'partier'. Guess I'll be happy about that come the teen years. =)

Rottschafer party 12/18

For the party with my family we usually all sleep over at my parents' house and wake up to opening presents and brunch the next morning. This year Brad and I opted to skip the overnight, for obvious reasons, but drove in first thing to start the all day party. It was a great time with my family as usual~ Lots of eating, laughing, and playing.
Not the most flattering of pics but I was very excited to receive the starter set of the Willow Tree Nativity this year.

Speaking of unflattering pics...sorry sis! But your new hat is so darn cute! (and you are too of course~ Just caught ya off guard)

Awww, Uncle Andy has such a way with the youngins.

The dollar store plastic hair in their stockings was a huge hit which always makes me wonder why we even bother with big toys when kids really just like the little weird things...

Although one of the highlights for Raegan was receiving a Leapster from Nana & Papa

Syd doing a little 'work' on her new Super Why computer...naked of course

And our big gift this year was a Wii from my parents. This provided hours of fun for the afternoon (and may just be the demise of my marriage since I never see Brad anymore now that it's installed in our basement)

Rottschafer extended family party 12/13

I didn't take many pictures at this gathering because a little person was being extra fussy and in need of attention for most of the day. It's hard to be so cute and passed around all day...

Grandma Marje passed away this past October so it was a little strange celebrating Christmas without her there this year. Especially since we all opened a gift "from" her with money we had recieved before she died. Luckily the sense of humor in this group was able to make light of the situation depite her absence. We still had an enjoyable time all together~ And of course the kids were spoiled waay too much by the aunts and uncles.

Put on your party dress

Someone got her first taste of the holidays a couple weeks ago~ Being stuffed into cute but uncomfortable clothing, forced to have your hair 'just so', and then being propted up in front of the Christmas tree surrounded by the flash of four camera bulbs while your relatives make silly faces and yell at you to try to get your attention for the camera. Needless to say she wasn't too thrilled~

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Parties 2009-Round 1

We're packing up to head to PA tomorrow and we've already had four Christmas parties. This morning we celebrated our own little family Christmas and it was great. Raegan's eyes were shining when she came into our room to announce that Santa had come and Sydney came out of her room exclaiming; "I'm excited! Yippee!" We decided last year to only do three presents for each child in keeping with the theme of the three Wisemen bringing three gifts for Jesus. Our girls seemed to accept and respond well to this and it really helped to minimize the overwhelming-ness of so many gifts and of course to help keep our focus on the real reason we celebrate this season. I was especially happy when Raegan came up to me this afternoon asking what my favorite part of today was and I told her I liked celebrating Christmas as a family and she responded and said her favorite part was remembering Jesus' birthday. Aww! Guess we're doing something right!

The Best Christmas Present Ever

A couple weeks ago Raegan participated in her first church Christmas program; "The Best Christmas Present Ever" and I'll admit that I was a bit amazed at how great she did. I was pretty uncertain of how she'd do since she is normally so shy and does not like to have attention drawn to herself under 'normal' situations. Well apparently she has an alter ego who shines like a star when up in front of several hundred people and doesn't act the least bit nervous. Who knew!?

We were so proud of her as she stood boldly in the front row and sang and signed her little heart out with much expression and even smiles! Looks like Syd may not be the only performer in our family after all~Yay Raegan!

A p.s. when looking at these pictures I realized how disheveled RG looks compared to the other girls in their outfits. Lest you think otherwise I did send her with her (slightly too big) shirt tucked in and a cute matching cardigan sweater overtop. When she walked up on stage she was sans sweater w/ the shirt untucked. Not sure at what point that happened but I'm guessing a bathroom break right before stage-time may have been the culprit...

Tree-hunt Tradition 2009

A little belated on the posting and I want to get my pics updated before the year is through. And of course don't want to miss out on posting about our annual tree hunt that takes place Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was GORGEOUS this year which was very enjoyable and gave us a little more motivation to spend time wandering for the 'perfect' tree since we weren't freezing our keesters off. Miss Molly thoroughly enjoyed her first 'hunt' from the snuggly warmth of her carseat in the wagon. She slept through the whole thing. =)

The girls had fun wandering but of course had short attention spans and were more excited about the prospect of going out for dinner afterwards then they were about finding our tree. RG's requirement was simply that it be "big". I think she was slightly disappointed that we didn't choose one as tall as last year but her disappointment wore off by the time we got home and hauled out the ornament box.

All in all it was another fun year of tree-hunting and spending time all together with my family.

And thanks again dad for dinner out at the Main Street Pub. That might be our new favorite 'annual' spot!

It wasn't just gas...

Miss Molly gave me three separate big open-mouthed smiles this morning; with eye contact!! When she's content she always loves to sit facing me and hear me softly talk to her and sure enough just as I was getting ready to feed her this morning I laid her on my lap and was telling her good morning and she looked right at my face and gave me big smiles. Oh I could just cry right now thinking about it! It was such a light amidst the 'darkness' of the last 4 1/2 long weeks and was a much needed reminder of the hope that is to come.

Praise the Lord for little moments like that!

First Snow

On Molly's one month 'birthday' we got our first real snow of the season. I'm more of a summer person but there really is something about the first snow that even I enjoy. It was so pretty and the girls were SO excited to gear up and play outside and they even lasted more then 15 minutes. Of course the best incentive to stay out for awhile was the promise of warming up with hot chocolate and marshmellows afterwards!

One Month

This has been one of the longest and shortest months of my life since I've had kids. It's really hard to believe how time can both fly and drag all at once. And it's really given me cause to reflect (when I have a quiet moment that is) on how that kind of sums up life in general when you have kids~
Suffice it to say that we have good days and bad days over here right now. That may sound typical of having a newborn but in this case I feel it's been a bit more dramatic. The bad are really bad which make the good seem a welcoming breath of fresh air for me.
Molly is as cute as ever but her crying/screaming times are still more frequent then her quiet ones and so we are still looking forward to the days when those will lessen.
We refer to her often as the 'Sleeping Giant'. I find myself cringing when the older girls come running in and want to exclaim -loudly- over her and are constantly wanting to touch her. Raegan would be 2 millimeters from Molly's face at all times if we let her. As a mom of 3 girls it warms my heart with the hopes that their love & devotion to their sister will continue through the years to come. But as a mom of a very fussy newborn it also raises my blood pressure as it seems the times the girls want to be by her and in her face are when I've finally gotten her quiet. (sigh)

Here is what we have learned about Molly in the month thus far:
She seems to get very easily agitated and overstimulated. She does like to be swaddled when she's getting tired. Like her sisters' before her we've also found that it is better to set her down when she's tired and let her scream it out a bit then to try to rock or hold her too long; which just seems to agitate her more. She seems to be soothed by the sounds of both my voice and Brads. She also likes to be "shushed" when she is tired and trying to fall asleep. She has very little to almost no interest in a binky but I have a feeling that she may someday be a finger-sucker like Raegan since she will often try to find her hands when she is really upset. I am still exclusively nursing (while trying to maintain a dairy-free and bland food diet- ugh!) but she has taken a bottle from Brad and I hope that that will continue!
The last time I talked to the nurse at the Ped's office (we are best friends now) she encouraged me by saying that hopefully some of Molly's 'issues' will work themselves out by the 3 month mark. So, only 2 more months to go which is a light at the end of the tunne, right? ...and I'm holding on to any lights I can right now. Here's to month #2 getting better!

"new" parents

Gassy or not gassy?
Reflux or no reflux?
Zantac or Mylicon drops?
Swaddle or don't swaddle?
Eat dairy or dairy-free diet? (Me)
Snuggle to sleep or set-down to sleep?
Angry screams or uncomfortable screams?
Hold or don't hold?
Over-stimulated or over-tired?

You'd think we were first-time parents over here trying to figure out Miss Molly. She is a tough one that's for sure...not quite the 'laid-back' third kid that we had ordered. ;)
"This too shall pass" is the semi-annoying mantra that goes through my head on a daily (if not hourly) basis. Sadly I find myself wishing the time away and pining for the 3 month mark when we'll start getting a 'return' for our work~ i.e. smiles, coos, etc.
I just read back on older blog posts about Sydney and found some comfort in them knowing that although she too had a 'personality' from the start she has become an amazingly fun kid. I will hold onto that for dear life for the continued weeks of daily screaming fits and frusterating middle-of-the-night episodes that are the norm over here right now.
I love you Miss Molly but I'm really ready to enjoy my time with you too!

Adjusting.

I haven't really come up for air quite yet but since I have a tiny minute to upload some pics to print I thought I'd quickly blog.
We're still in the 'adjusting' phase over here. Brad and I are trying to survive on very little sleep and the girls are trying to figure out where they still fit in with Mommy since I'm holding Molly most of the time.
Little peanut is adjusting in her own way too. We are still learning what she does and doesn't seem to like and many things are very different from the other girls! We've already noticed that she likes to be held, ALOT, and prefers to fall asleep in our arms as opposed to being put down to fall asleep on her own. Different. She's not crazy about being swaddled tightly with her arms pinned. Different. She doesn't seem to want the pacifier, likes to nurse often and sometimes just for comfort. Different! She gets over-stimulated if passed around too much or if she's tired and will let you know it! She is definitely not the 'laid-back' third child that we had expected or joked about; although I know it's still early to tell for sure. We can still hope for a little less drama right?
We are all just loving her though and proclaim often how cute she is. In fact, a cute quote by Sydney the other day as she was standing next to Molly was; "Mommy, she is a Honey-Beaner". Love it.

Even though these first few weeks of adjustment are rough ~I'm pretty sure we'll keep her. =)

Adding to the Hen House

We are overjoyed to announce the arrival of Molly Violet Kreider~

She finally entered the world after 12 hours of labor on 11/06/09 @ 12:40 p.m. and is perfect and beautiful at 8# 1 oz, 19 inches, & 2# of black hair just like Daddy...

...who is already calculating the costs of the clothing, proms, and weddings to come. =)