Caelyn Marcia Moss

She's here! I thought she'd never come.  She was still early by two days, but the doctor had been telling me that she was low and ready to come for the past few weeks and it turned really hot here in South Carolina so I was more than ready for baby girl to make her arrival.  Caelyn was born at 1:40 am on Tuesday June 18, 2013 weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz.  I can't believe she was a whole pound smaller than my other two.  It was a very quick delivery and everything went smoothly and just as I would have hoped, except for the fact that I delivered in the middle of the night.  That was the one thing that I didn't want to happen, but we got to the hospital at 11:00 and she was born at 1:40.  So at least I wasn't in labor all night.  My mom had been with us for about a week, so she stayed with Alden and Leigh and they were having a great time and were completed exhausted each day.  I'm glad I didn't have to worry about them and I was able to focus on Caelyn and getting sleep for the first couple days here at home.  She left on Monday and we've been on our own since then, and somehow we are all surviving and getting use to our new life of three children.

We went back to the doctor's office a few days after leaving the hospital for Caelyn to have a weight check and she had already gained back and slightly surpassed her birth weight.  They were all impressed with her weight gain that we haven't had to go back at all this week, where I guess usually they do a weight check every few days until the baby gains back up to the birth weight.  I was very proud of my little eater, and I hope she gets chubby soon!

Caelyn is an amazing baby and sleeps and eats like a champ.  I keep telling myself that it won't last because I don't want to get my hopes up.  She goes to sleep around 10 or 10:30 each night and wakes up to eat around 2ish and then again at 5:30ish.  It's pretty amazing compared to what Alden and Leigh did as newborns.  Alden and Leigh are both sick right now with coughs and runny noses, so if they were just better we'd all be a little happier.  They are good with Caelyn and always want to make her happy.  As soon as she starts fussing, they both run for the pacifier or burp cloth, just anything to calm her down and keep her happy.  I'm actually very impressed with how this week has gone, especially since we have to move a little slower with having to feed Caelyn every few hours.

Well I'm lazy and behind and haven't updated any pictures yet, so here are the few that Patrick took at the hospital on his phone.  We have more and hopefully I'll get around to posting those soon.

 

Picture Update

So I know it's been forever since I've posted, but I've decided to let it not reach a year.  So I'm going to start slowly updating on what I can remember over the past year, but for now here's just some pictures of a few things we've been up to and how much the kids have grown.

A few big items:
 - We bought a house!  It has needed a lot of work and cleaning, but we are learning how to do several things and Patrick is becoming a regular handy man.  We completely redid the kitchen when we moved in and he learned how to tile among other things.  And we've slowly been repainting, only a few more rooms to go.  We are taking a break for the summer on house projects and trying to focus on the yard (because it needs a lot of work too).  The yard looks pretty bad compared to the rest of the neighborhood.  But overall we love it.  It fits us perfectly and met all my requirements.  It's a four bedroom, all brick, all one level, on a little over a 1/2 acre lot.

-Baby Girl is due June 20th!  We are getting anxious to meet the new addition to our family.  Alden and Leigh are very excited and seem to understand what is happening especially as I get bigger and bigger.  Still trying to pull things together for her arrival, but counting down the days.  I'm ready to have a lap back and hopefully get a little energy back. 

-Patrick has recently changed job titles and is now an environmental engineer for the same company.  He stays busy, but I think he is enjoying it as he tries to get an understanding of the new roles.  He has been traveling more for training, but it home for the next few months for baby and then will have a few more conferences.  He was also made Young Men's president about 6 months ago and has stayed extra busy with the youth in the ward.  He loves working with them and has a good time.  We just miss seeing him several times a week when he's busy with meetings or other things.  This summer especially is already starting to fill up with camps and other activities, but I think he enjoys it almost as much the boys.

-Alden and Leigh seem to have a limitless amount of energy.  They are good friends and they run and play all day long.  I have no idea how to keep up with them, but they keep me going and laughing all day.  Alden is learning to express his independence as a three year old, which is causing Leigh to reveal her own independence and attitude as a 20 month old.  The only difference is Alden can actually do things for himself and Leigh can't always do what she wants to do.  She's just starting to talk which is a little more helpful, but we are all learning a lot of patience.

 

Watermelon picking

One morning Granddaddy took us out to his watermelon patch and was teaching all of us how to pick a ripe watermelon.  The watermelons were so good and we spent a lot of time eating them over the course of the week.  I don't remember ever eating a watermelon with yellow meat, but it was so good and I think it is now my personal favorite. 

Lucy and Alden

 Bama joined us in our search for ripe watermelons

 Granddaddy was showing them how to tell when it's ripe

 My Granddaddy

 Alden had to take a break to get a cold drink

 Snacking on the walk back home

Blueberry picking

Well it has been a crazy last couple of weeks.  Alden, Leigh, and I headed down to Alabama for our summer trip to Gram and Granddaddy's.  We were there for a little over a week and enjoyed every minute of it.  We went with Mom and had a wonderful time.  We played with Bama (the dog), and Zoe (the cat) and saw lots of other animals, feed the goats, and swam and swam some more.  This year we were joined by Mercedes, Lucy, and Cole.  It was so fun to have constant playmates and we loved showing them one of our favorite places.  Alden and Lucy loved to run together, but they also fought pretty good too.  Surprisingly Cole and Leigh got along great and always wanted to play together and tried to keep up with the others.  I enjoyed hanging out Mercedes and have missed having them so close.  We might have to make getting together with them a more regular thing.  After Alabama, we brought them back to Anderson for about five days and showed them some of our favorite things to do around here.  The next several posts will be from our outings in June.

Before Mercedes and the kids flew in, we went to pick blueberries.  We know a great place near Gram and Granddaddy's house that have amazing blueberries for a really good deal.  I was able to make a few batches of blueberry jam, and freeze a ton as well to use throughout the year.  Stocking up on blueberries is always a must every summer.  We sure enjoy those blueberry cobblers in January!

Leigh

 Alden

 My failed attempts to take a picture with both of my children

First beach trip of the season

Last weekend we were able to go down to Charleston and visit family and go to the beach for the first time this year.  We had so much fun and are thankful that we got to see family and friends.  We went to the beach two days in a row and Alden thought it was great.  We had been reading a book from the library a week before about a little boy who builds a sandcastle and then a dragon comes and lives in it.  All week he had been telling me and everyone else that he talked to that he was going to build a sandcastle for his dragon.  I love watching his imagination grow.  Leigh loved the water.  This was her first time ever, and she is definitely a beach baby.  We mostly just played in the tide pools but they are perfect for young kids.  As the afternoon went on, Alden got more and more confident in his abilities in the water.  We will definitely be going back a few more times this summer.