Kate at Four Months

Dear Kate, Kateorade, Katters, chub-chubs, baby,

Oh how we love you sweetheart and what an awesome baby you are. I don't know if I can tell you enough just how good of a baby you are. So mellow and happy 90% of the day. I am grateful for it everyday and how much you just roll with whats around you. You definitely handle being the third child well.

At four months you are wearing size three diapers, wearing 3-6 month clothes. Some three month are too small on you and we are slowly transitioning to wearing all six month clothes. You are eating eating and eating. You still are relying on me and nursing like a champ. 

You are sleeping pretty great, though you have been sick this past week and have been having trouble breathing when we lay you flat on your back, so we have been keeping in your bouncer. BUT when you aren't feeling super crumby, you take naps in your crib and at night you are still sleeping in our room. Its funny because we have tried putting you into your crib at night, but neither your dad nor I could stand you being in there, so we snuck in, picked you up and put you back in your bed in our room. You are officially the baby who has slept in our room the longest. But you are most likely our last baby, so I'm sucking in as much as possible. When you sleep you love your pacifier but you love rubbing your blanket in your face and usually end up sucking on it. Just like your sister and your brother. You're a true Lancaster. 

Kate you have become so much fun. You love laughing and playing with toys, you love when we sing Itsy Bitsy spider to you and when daddy holds you up in the air. It really gets you laughing! With me, you LOVE to cuddle. I'm your comfort and oh how I love it. I could snuggle you for hours. 

You get very impatient at times when I'm helping your siblings or trying to get something finished. You like things done on your time. You also aren't a fan of getting dressed. Honestly there is just very little things that upset you. Thanks baby girl. 

June loves you. She just loves taking care of you as if you were her own little baby. Owen ADORES you! He is always making sure you are ok and sings you the ABCs when you start crying. He always wants to be around you, play with you and cuddle you. We sometimes have to remind him to have soft hands, but he just loves you! 

You are old enough now to finally enjoy the bumbo! 

Kate we just love you. Everything about you. I mean I just couldn't ask for a better baby. The days just get better with you! 

Love you so so much baby girl! 

Happy four months!! 

Love, mom 

The Third Child

Note: This post is random. I just feel this is a topic of conversation so much for us lately, that I'm putting it on the blog.


The third child. Kate Alma Lancaster. I have three kids. Three. It sometimes is hard to believe that I'm grownup enough to have three children. The question "How is handling three kids?" gets asked quite a lot. And just today at a birthday party, I was asked "How has juggling three kids been? Do you feel so crazy about it all?" I laughed and answered. We continued the topic for quite a while about three children.

The third child always makes for a fun conversation with people. Friends who have more than three feel its a breeze, strangers who have no kids feel its a lot and ask how I can handle it all, and those who are in the same position as me with three children completely understand. Some feel three is a lot, some feel three isn't enough. And most of the time, people tell me that three is the magic number that just sends you spiraling into crazy land. When I was pregnant with Kate, SO MANY people told me that three was the hardest. Three will feel like your drowning and three will feel like you are in pure chaos all the time. You are out numbered.  It scared me. I mean two was a transition enough, but now three?! I was a bit worried. And by a "bit" I mean I was frantic. Then little Kate was born. I now have three children and this is how I feel about it.


   This is totally my perspective, my opinion and what has taken place in MY HOME! This has nothing to do with others views or how others feel. So please don't get angry with me.

I will flat out say that three has been totally doable. I panicked at first with learning to juggle everything and keep everyone happy. Once I found my footing, things fell into place and we haven't looked back since. Don't get me wrong, I am still learning, I'm still failing but I am also having a lot of wins too. In general terms we are happy. Our little Lancaster clan is happy and I am so glad Kate, the third child, is apart of that.

The third child's transition into our family has been smooth and pretty easy. Kate is such an angel and I think that plays a huge role into why we haven't gone completely bonkers. So here is where I say, I think it depends on the child. To us, the second child (Owen) was a WAY harder transition than any. (Sorry son, if you are reading this years from now, but buddy, you are a HARD child. I love you though!! SO SO MUCH) I struggled more for that first year with two children than I have ever struggled before. Things are easier now but some things are harder.

Also, the third child is just another add on. I mean we kind of already were in chaos, so what is adding one more to the mix really going to change?

I'm just going to say it. One child is easy. It just is. You don't see it when you only have one child, obviously, but it really is just so much easier. I love when I get to just take one child with me somewhere. I think Holy cow how did I ever complain about having one child?! Hahaha. But at the time it was hard. It's hard making that transition from being this free person, to raising a human being. Then when we had our second, it just threw us for a complete loop. I mean we were set in our ways, we only had to lug around one kid and then all of the sudden we have this little boy, who doesn't sleep, who cries all the time and is just throwing us off. THAT WAS HARD. To me that still is hard.

I think thats why the third just hasn't been that big of a deal to me or to Dan. I think we both, as parents have learned to take a step back every once in while. With our third we now know how quickly that baby is going to turn into a toddler and just how quickly life goes for these little ones. We already know how to adjust our schedule or not feel too disappointed when plans change because of a kid. We know that it can't last forever. So with Kate, we now are able to embrace so much more and really focus on the important stuff. Not feel so rushed with everything. That has been such a huge part in our transition to three kids. We know that it just keeps getting better.

Three is awesome. Three has it's challenges. It completely consumes me. Good and bad.

So there you have a little taste of the Lancaster third child life.

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a wonderful and crazy Mother's Day weekend. So much was going on that we never really stopped!

Kate just keeps getting better. I mean I seriously could not ask for a better baby. Maybe she is being so good, because she knows whats to come? I don't know, but for now I will take the sweetness! 

The kids were both pretty worn out one afternoon and fell asleep in the car. It was so quiet that I just stayed in the car and let them sleep. 

Just little Kate and I after nursing her one afternoon.

June had a special Mother's Day celebration at her school. I was able to drop Owen and Kate at a friends house and got to be there for June. They put on a little program for us. 

They made each mom a placemat with questions about their mom, a picture with their mom and their little handprint. These were June's answers to the questions. 

Then we ate. It was so awesome just being there with her and not worrying about Kate or Owen. It made just a little bit more special. 

June had come down with a pretty nasty cold a few days back, but she said she was feeling good to go to school so I let her. She was acting a bit tired at the Mother's Day Celebration but she said she was ok. When I picked up Owen and Kate June was out. 

She slept the afternoon away

Friday we took it easy. I went to the gym and then we got ready for daddy to come home from work. 

That night we went to a Cinco De Mayo party. We rocked some karaoke. 

Saturday morning we woke up and played for a bit. I went for a run, then Dan went out running too. After he got home we headed to a birthday party and spent our morning at the park. 

After the park I went to yoga, and then got cleaned up for our Wards BBQ. The Relief Society was in charge of it, so we had to go early to bring the food and get set up. The kids were so tired and I felt bad for dragging them out, but I had to be there and needed Dan's help with the grills. 

While we were getting everything ready, Owen was just sitting on a bench and I went to go find June. I thought she was at the playground, but she had laid down in the shade and had completely fallen asleep. 

At that moment I knew we needed to get these kids home. Dan and I took them home and then I headed back to the BBQ to help clean up. 

Kate discovered her hands this weekend. It has been so funny to watch her. She just stares at them. She gets really excited when they grab a blanket or toy or when they clasp together. It's the greatest. 

Saturday night, Kate decided to give me an awesome Mother's day gift and sleep through the night! But turns out when she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night to eat, things get pretty sore. So I had to pump at like 4am. Happy Mother's Day to me! Haha 

We have church at 9am. We always have to wake up pretty early to get everything ready and get there on time. I wanted a picture with my kids on Mother's Day. You get what you get. 

I am so grateful to be a mother to these three beautiful children! THREE! I still tend hold my breath sometimes and think this isn't real! I can't have three kids! But I do and I am so incredibly in love with each of them. Their quirks, their laughter, their moodiness, and neediness right down to each hug and kiss. I am the luckiest. 

The primary sang in Sacrament, which I absolutely LOVE! June just is awesome at singing! 

Then we got a Mother's Day treat at the end of church, which I shared with Dan. Because I love him lots and we share everything. 

June wanted a picture of just her and I. 

We attempted to take naps and watch baseball. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon. Once everyone was up and ready to move a bit, we opened some Mother's Day gifts. June made me a little necklace and I truly love it. This little girl has more heart than I know of any four year old. The things she says and does sometimes blows me away. I was very spoiled this year. Dan treats the mother of his children very well! Thanks Hubby! 

After gifts we went for a walk down to our park. June rode her bike and I long boarded along side her while Dan pushed the stroller. 

While the kids played. 

So I tried to go down the slide on my belly. It did not go well. My arm got stuck, I couldn't move and I was laughing so hard! 

 We played hard at the park and then headed home for dinner. Dan took care of everything! So I got to sit in the living room and be with the little ones that make me a mom. I face-timed my mom and chatted with her for a while and then went in the kitchen to hang out with Dan. 

He made my favorite meal including a caesar salad. It was delicious and I ate way more than I should of. 

 That night we got kids to bed, and just related from such a crazy weekend! It was fun and enjoyable but it wore us all out.

The Week Dan Was Gone

Dan was in Houston this past week, and boy was it a week! I mean good things happened but bad things just continued to roll right in too. It was so bizarre. I felt it deserved a blog post of its own.

Sunday-Tuesday

1. Owen randomly spiked a fever at church, and was basically passed out on the floor in nursery when we went to go get him. I figured the bug that June had earlier that week was bound to hit him, but it just came out of nowhere. When Owen gets these kinds of sicknesses, I worry a lot more about him. He has a pretty weak immune system to begin with, so when he get's sick he gets it hard! Explains the two trips to the hospital with this kid. 

2. Dan left for Houston Sunday afternoon for work. I really did not want him to go this week. Usually I'm ok with his business trips. Time to catch up on "me" things but this go around just seemed different. Maybe it was because I knew Owen was getting sick and plus I now have three kiddos! 

3. When Owen gets sick he doesn't sleep. He tries really hard to sleep, but just can't. I find him in the most random places, out cold. This was at like 2am. With the light on. 

5. I woke up from an awesome night of no sleep and went to go get ready. I went to the bathroom and our toilet was clogged. June must of gotten up in the middle of the night, and clogged the toilet. It's the only explanation. After working on that for a half hour, unsuccessfully, I moved on with getting ready and figured I would deal with that problem later. 

6. After getting everyone ready and heading out the door for errands, I opened the back door and realized I left the garage door open! I also had left a bag of garbage by our back door that I was going to take to the garbage bin the next morning. Well, an animal got into it, tearing the garbage open. Great. Really it wasn't too bad, but still gross and something more for me to clean up. 

7. I had to go to the post office to mail a package internationally. You have to fill out a form that describes what is in the package, price, weight, so on... While I was starting to fill out this form, Owen decided to poop, oh wait not just poop, Diarrhea all over. Poor kid just lost it. It then was all a blur. I was trying to get him cleaned up, mail this package and get out of there. Thank goodness the postman was really understanding and helpful. I got all flustered and filled out the form wrong, people in line waiting, just watching me fall apart. The postman hurried and help me fill out the form and got me on my way. Owen just looking so sick, and I am covered in poop. Not my most shining moment. I got the package mailed and got out of there as quick as I could. 

8. Dan texted me and told me that our house we have booked for Lake Tahoe got CANCELLED! The owners were selling the house and it was no longer for rent. So we had to start our search all over again to find a new house. I was already so frustrated with the day, that I texted him back and told him that I don't know if I'm going to make it through this week. 

9. We did have a good rest of the day, spent out by the pool. 

9.  June discovered how awesome it is wearing daddy's t-shirts. I like throwing them on her after we get out of the pool. She told me "Send this picture to daddy of me wearing his shirt. He is going to think it's so funny!"

10. The weather was being pretty crazy this past week. We had some pretty scary storms. Tuesday night was supposed to be a heavy duty storm. I got our "safe room" ready incase our sirens went off, and prepared for what we would need. I hate going through things like that without Dan. Thankfully it didn't escalate into anything serious, but I had to stay up extra late to make sure we were in the clear. 

Wednesday-Friday

11. Owen just seemed to get more sick. His fever spiked to  102.8. It was miserable for me, but even more for him. It was so quiet one afternoon, that I couldn't find him. I went and checked in his room and he had curled up into his bed. I just laid by him and held him close. I felt so bad. 

11. Thursday night, Owen decided that he didn't want to sleep. At all. Literally would not sleep. So finally, I decided to stop fighting him, and turned a lamp on in his room and let him watch the iPad for a while. I figured he would fall asleep eventually. I fed Kate around 3am and went to check on Owen. He was still watching his iPad! I instantly felt like a horrible mom for even giving him his iPad in bed. That usually isn't allowed. To be honest though, I was tired and just wanted to get some stuff done. It was awful and I feel like I won the awful mother award this week. I stayed awake with him while he tossed and turned until about 5:30ish. He fell asleep. I tried too. Kate woke up around 6:30 and then June was up by 7am. Owen was up by 8am. He didn't function that well during the day. 

He fell asleep at 11am and slept until 5pm. Thankfully, he then went back to bed at 8pm. 

12. That night, everyone was asleep and happy. I was able to get projects done and enjoy some of my night. Then a miracle happened and all three kiddos slept through the night. EVEN KATE! It was so weird to wake up on my own and not by a child. It was desperately needed! It was funny though, because it was the one morning where I had to set an alarm to get ready and everyone else ready for June's school pancake breakfast party. I had to wake everyone up. Of all days! I really can't complain too much though, because I got to sleep through the night!! 

13. Dan in Houston- They have been having crazy weather there and the power got knocked out where they were. So they were just sitting ducks! It was about to get worse for them. 

14. Snuggles with Kate and sending this picture to daddy to let him know all was well and that we were surviving. 

15. Owen was feeling better, and we were able to make it to June's school spring performance. This little lady knows how to sing! 

16. Singing "Do Your Ears Hang Low". As you can tell she really got into it. Which really made my day!

17. Poolside pretty much everyday. 

18. Dan literally could not get out of Houston. The DFW airports completely shut down due to storms. So they finally decided to rent a car and drive home. It usually is a 3.5 hour drive from Houston. It took SEVEN hours! There was a huge rain storm that hit them and then they got stuck behind a huge accident that completely shut the freeway down. They literally had their cars in park and were out walking around and talking with other people. I couldn't believe it. I just really wanted to have him home. Just so so badly. He finally made it home on Friday or I guess technically Saturday since it was past midnight. 

19. I decided to paint Kate's room. I went all girl on this one. Light pink rose and cream. I figured I needed something to do while Dan was out of town and I was so sick of the dark grey and yellow. So I sampled some colors and then ran with it. The night Owen wouldn't go to sleep, I painted. I was painting walls at 3am. I mean what else was I to do?! Ok, I most likely could have gone and laid down with Owen, he probably would have fallen asleep, but he was content and I needed the therapy of just being alone and painting. 

The finished room. 

Randoms

20. I had the biggest mosquito bite on the back of my toe. I told Dan that out of all the annoying things that happened this week, the mosquito bite was by far the worst. 

21. I went to my first fitness class since college this past week. It was way more rejuvenating than I thought it would be. I rather enjoyed myself and can't wait to go back. 

22. I have a deathly fear of cockroaches. Literally my biggest fear. Don't judge. But I cannot kill them, I run away screaming from them like a little school girl. If I see one, I try and catch it under a container and then wait until Dan gets home to kill it. I HATE THEM. They are so big and so fast!! 

Well, of course one got into the house. The big ones live outside in the bushes and trees, but they make their way into the house time to time. It seriously took me a half hour to catch it. Then I called Dan all freaked out. He literally talked to me for 45 minutes about how to get rid of this cockroach. It took all my might, to slide a book under the container and slowly take it outside, like five houses down and let it go. He would of had it killed in seconds. It took me an hour and a half to get rid of it. I kicked the container over and RAN! Guys, I know. I sound crazy. I am a bit crazy. I got rid of it though, and I feel super proud of myself.... 

So like I said, good and bad happened. It was a bizarre week, not my finest week and not my most productive week, but we survived and I can't tell you how incredibly happy I am to finally have Dan home. 

April Randoms

People, it is May tomorrow! This year is flying by in the blink of an eye! It's so crazy that we are fast approaching the summer months. 

Here is just another post of randoms from the month. 

It was National Sibling Day sometime during this month. I really can't remember exactly the day... but my sister posted this on Instagram so I had to snag it and save it for the blog. 

The Mendenhall siblings. And it is now proof that my children look nothing like me. They clearly are all Dan. But let's be honest, I am rocking that bowl cut. I love these people! 

Playing at the park. 

Dan was at a friends wedding in Ohio, so we had the weekend to really do whatever. I cleaned our carpets and made the kids stay out of my way all morning. I felt kind of bad about it, so I let them stay in their pajamas all day and we played at the park. Just so you know, I really really do not like my children staying in their pajamas all day. It's just grungy to me. So it was a special treat to stay in the pajamas. Mom win, though it killed me a little inside. Hahaha Oh, and side note. Owen is OBSESSED with his Christmas jimmies. He pretty much wears them every night. I love him so much for it. 

Hey little Kate

I love him so much. Like so so much. More than words can say. He's a special hearted kid and sometimes it takes all of my energy to not throw in the towel as his mother. He's a tough nugget, but I love him so. 

Little Lottie and her lamb. She loves her lamb and can't sleep without it. I love when she has fallen asleep and is still holding that lamb so tight. 

She is just so happy!

Kate was introduced to the play mat this month and LOVES it. No really, it keeps her happy for so long! She is getting better and better at playing with the rings and grabbing them. 

Just playing 

They could push each other in that stroller all day. Just back and forth. 

I told Owen I couldn't play with him right that second because Kate was hungry and I needed to feed her. He took matters into his own hands and decided to feed her. 

We have had random rain storms this month and this particular day, I thought the clouds over the hill were so pretty!

Playing in the puddles

Yeah, he doesn't wear pants.

They kept finding worms and playing with them. They like picking them up and at first the mom in me, was like "don't touch that!" but then again the mom in me thought "No, let them explore, touch, feel and play!" 

June was looking for her shoes in our little closet thing by the back door. I told when she was finished to please clean up after she had thrown basic every shoe out. I go get Kate and head to the car and came back to all these shoes lined up so nicely. It just made me smile. She did indeed clean up!

Riding through puddles over and over and over again. 

I was out one night and Dan was putting the kids to bed. I left and didn't say goodbye to June. Once she realized I was gone she got really sad and so Her and daddy sent me a text message with this picture. It was a heartbreaker. 

Kate sleeping in her crib like such a big lady. She still isn't sleeping in there with a solid schedule, but every chance I get, I try to put her in there. First, to get her used it and second, for the quietness of it!

Owen is so awesome with free play. He keeps himself entertained forever. He was in the play room quietly playing with the trains. 

Peek-a-boo 

Happy end of April!