Haircuts

Home haircuts. Gotta love 'em. Mostly cause my good buddy Jenn comes over to chit-chat and we get out the kitchen stools and her kids run around and my kids think it's neat and in less then an hour my kids are all trimmed up and I didn't have to suffer through a salon visit with three kids. WELL worth her outlandish prices ;) This kid LOVES getting her haircut. Hard to believe now, since back in the day-when I thought I actually had a 'hairy' baby (Ha!)- she would scream her ever-loving head off when we were at the salon getting a snip.

And yes, this would be MV's first official haircut. It was time for me to admit that she was starting to look a bit RubySue-ish and the mullet just wasn't working for her like I'd hoped.

She sat pretty still which amazed me, but Jenn was quick and before you knew it, she was done.

Just a few last bang snips and she was good to go! Look at that face. Is she a Kreider or what?

And never fear...I can still get it into a cute little twist after baths while she sits and plays in my 'pretty' jar. Naked babies are the best, aren't they??

Caught ya!

Chubby profile pics; also the best.

MV-13 month stats (behind a month)

Molly had her 1yr well child this morning. Peanut! My best eater and littlest kid. Go figure. Her doctor says I should be giving up the bottles "within the month". Hmmm...I might just be breaking that 'rule' for my last baby.



Here are my shorty's stats:

Weight: 18# 12oz (10th %)

Height: 27.5 in (5th %)

Head circum: 18.25in (75th %)



She is really becoming a little person lately too, which is so fun and funny at the same time. Of course we think she is exceptionally smart and she already knows how to push her big sister's (Syd's) buttons. ;)

Giving Thanks

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year~ something I am really starting to enjoy. Brad loves that he can dictate our traditional menu and I just love that I can hostess. Love having a house full of family and love the coziness of Thanksgiving! Nevermind that this post is way-late. We had a wonderfully thankful day. :) The girls coloring their Thanksgiving placemats

This kid LOVES to color

Our offical-Thanksgiving day-walker She wanted to do it when Mom was most distracted and the house was extremely crowded and chaotic.

Board games with Papa; Sydney's explaining her rules of the game.

Resident baby-twin-cousin-holder.

Group pic! Always a classic.

A few of my favorite things...

Molly eating Go-gurts. I don't know what it is, but seeing her little two-chomp mouth suck on these frozen treats makes me want to lick the residual off of her cheeks. And sometimes I do when she's done.

MV in the bath. She is a ham and a half. But I have to watch her like a hawk because of course she stands up any chance she gets and then drops down with a giant splash when I catch her. My bathroom floors are always soaked.

Who me?

MV on the swings this past summer/fall. She would swing and swing and never tire.

Syd's new favorite thing (if you can't guess from the photo): Dressing herself. Top faves are tights, skirts, and headbands. Pretty much in that order, that never match, and as a necessesity daily.

MV's favorite things: Mommy's cell phone & keys. Any chance she can get them.

Free Country

This is mostly for the record. Have to remember to document more of these sayings! With three sassy girls you can only imagine what I hear on a day to day basis:
Today I was eating lunch and the girls were waiting for me to finish so I could help bundle them up to go outside to play in the snow- Our first major snow of the season, might I add!-
Raegan was draping herself over the arm of our couch (something that drives me CRAZY) and whining about when I would be finished & when they could go outside, so I suggested she go find something to do until I was done. To which she replied, very matter-of-factly, "This is a free country Mom, that means we can do whatever we want".
All I could do was snort at that one. As my friend Brenda said, she had to have been saving that one up for just the right time.

We've got a walker.

Molly V started taking steps WAY before I was ready for it and honestly, being the 3rd kid and having a mother in denial made it seem like it just sort of 'happened' when we weren't watching. Thanksgiving day (these pics) was the official "take-off" day for her. I was so busy getting ready to hostess that it wasn't til about mid-morning that I noticed her wandering around with her toothbrush toddling away like she was 6 or something. Stinker is so big and yet such a SHORTY! She still looks too little to be walking. But it's true, and there's no turning back now.

O Christmas Tree 2010

Annual Family Christmas Tree Hunt 2010 over Thanksgiving Weekend. Snow or no snow, we headed to the 'woods' (a.k.a. Prince's Tree Farm in Standale). Pickings have become a little slim & overgrown over the years but we Rottschafer's like to stick to what we know and where else can you find a beautiful Fraiser Fur for $25 out the door? Two little cutie bundles wondering why they're sequestered to a wagon while everyone else is walking.

My girls~ ready to find the 'perfect' tree!

And here it was...at the top. ;)

Molly & her Papa

Syd's favorite part? Sipping hot cocoa in the warmth & comfort of our van. Can't say I really blame her; it was freezing!

And the day wouldn't be complete without lunch out at the Main Street Pub. Our new favorite spot, post-tree-hunting. Raegan & Caden liked their free sundaes.

Had to add this shot of pumpkin-pie Evelyn giving one of her first gummy smiles to big cousin Caden. So cute!!

You say it's your Birthday!...

Party for Molly V first. The girl who will probably overshadow her parents' birthdays from here on out: Group pic. Before presents. Both older girls anxious to dive into the tearing open of the gifts...had to hold them back a bit.

Cause this girl's got it figured out! MV was loving opening her own gifts. No help needed, thanks!

Awww, loving her pillow-pet from her sisters. We now have a collection of 5 in our family. I will be the first to admit that they are super soft and I might sort of like one myself.

This picture just cracks me up; no idea why she was making this face but it's kinda wierd & hilarious so I had to post it.

Pouring her 'tea' with her new set from Benjamin & Alissa. Each girl now has her own tea set but this one gets fought over daily. Go figure. :)

Trying out her new ride from G'pa & G'ma. This also gets fought over daily.

Cake #1 (followed by a REAL cake made by Nana at birthday party #2). Mommy only makes cupcakes for 1st birthdays because our track record for kids liking cake is 0 for 2.

Perhaps kid #3 will be different...trying a lick after watching her sisters' lick the candle

Oh yes, we have a winner! One cake-liker now in our family.

And lest he be forgotten...then there was Daddy's birthday (actually 2 days prior but who's counting?). The girls L-O-V-E to help make Daddy's cake with me. It's become a bit of a tradition. This year however, we stepped out of the 'norm' and branched out from Red Velvet. Ask Brad next time you see him what he thought of his "BTS" cake ;)

Brad's parents were in town and treated us to The Bonefish for dinner for his b-day sans kids.

Y-U-M-OLA. Love that place!

And...this is a picture of a vineyard in Traverse City where we had another glorious Marriage Retreat Weekend with our church. This was the first year it was in T.C. and our 4th year attending. We were gone over Molly's actual birthday but as you can see from the above photos we made up for it when we returned Sunday night. Oh was a great weekend away we had though!

A year of Molly

It has taken me a month to post this. Not because I was trying to make it perfect or special but because, quite simply, I couldn't get through it without crying. I originally wanted to post 12 pictures-one from each month of her life- but that of course brought on waterworks for days and I found myself wanting to upload all 500+ pictures I have of her and so I had to start and quit somewhere. And considering it is actually now Molly's 13th month 'birthday' today, and I actually started this post almost a month ago (as you can see by the date) I felt it was time to make it 'live' on my blog. I'm still teary as I post this. But I think I've realized-or rather come to terms with- the fact that I don't think I will ever NOT get teary when looking at pictures of my babies as babies. I teared up at the doctor's office today, for crying out loud, when the nurse updated Molly's digital picture in their system and I caught a glimpse of her newborn one on the computer 2.3 seconds before the nurse deleted it to replace it with a new one. "Can't you just keep it there?!" I wanted to shout at her, but I held it together and smiled at the newest one.
Suffice it to say that I will always want a baby. And maybe not the first 3 months, cry all the time, colicky, 3 hour stretches of sleep at night kind of baby, but certainly the baby that is soft and serene and coos and gurgles and gives big gummy cross-eyed smiles with lots of fat-folds to sniff...
But we have to stop somewhere because I know how much I can handle and I'm quite sure-with three girls :) -that I have my fill. Now it's time to move on to that 'next stage' in life that I keep hearing about.
But here's to a year of being blessed with another healthy, beautiful, miraculous gift. A baby that was all of the above in the 'horrible' department for her first three months of life, who then turned out to be, quite possibly, one of the happiest babies I know. Love you Molly Violet. You are a joy to me and your Dada. ( insert stream of tears...)