Happy 3rd Birthday!

Today Amelia is 3 years old. We are so thankful for her and that she was placed in our family.

We love you Amelia!

We love your sweet heart, your peaceful spirit, how much you love your sister and brother, and how much you love your friends. You are learning so much every day, it's beautiful to see. You are beginning to understand more about Jesus and that he sacrificed for you. You are beginning to recognize letters and words and you love to look at books. You love to dance to music and sing songs. You love to be silly with Caley and with your friends, especially Mina and Max. You are no longer a baby!

We love you, we love seeing you learn and grow, and can't wait to watch you turn into the woman God will have you become.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Pot (or, our backyard project update)

July 6th we celebrated out 8th wedding anniversary! I am so thankful to have married Bill, he is such a blessing to my life. I didn't know that the guy I asked to dance at swing dancing class would turn out to be such an awesome husband, but he is!

Pottery is the gift for 8th wedding anniversaries and that's what we've been working on lately, specifically the backyard patio and firepit (pictures in another blog post). The entire project has taken over a year, which I guess is appropriate since it took our entire 8th year of marriage to complete. Of course we did other things this year too, like have a baby, but whatever. The attention to detail and planning on Bill's part is truly amazing. For the patio we hired a landscaping company but Bill helped with some labor and we worked out a deal with the company. Bill made the back stone porch all by himself though! That thing is a rock. In 100 years when our house is falling apart or if there's an earthquake, that thing will still be standing strong! He had to dig really deep and pour cement to make a solid foundation. The same can be said for the firepit. When Adam was living here over the winter we didn't ask him to pay rent, but we did ask him to dig a huge hole in our backyard for the firepit foundation. It looked a little odd for quite a while.

I haven't even mentioned that Bill also built the back slider porch last summer. Or that he also repaired the playhouse floor (with the help of my dad), walls, and carpet. And now he's tackling painting the outside of the playhouse. Or that he also is redoing the third garage. And building lawn furniture from the old deck wood. This guy never stops! But through all of it he continued to be a wonderful dad and husband, playing with the kids and spending time with us. All these are good reasons I'm thankful I married him eight years ago.

The original deck!
We took it out all by hand.
A pastor from our church helped us build new posts to support the upstairs deck and re-side the area that was below the original deck.
Hauling in tons (literally) of gravel after digging out more dirt where the deck was.
Screeting sand for the back stone porch.
Look what Bill did! That's a lot of cinder block!
Almost done!
Ta-da!

I'm not sure how many total hours this project took, but it's been a labor of love that we will get to enjoy for many years to come.

Month 6

We've made it halfway to a year, hooray! Today Wesley is 6 months old. It's an odd feeling because it seems like he's always been in our family. I wouldn't say our family is "complete" however, the question of "will we have more kids" has not yet been answered. But I definitely feel like Wesley rounds out our family quite perfectly for the moment. For once I'm not anxious to move onto the next stage, but fairly content with where we are in this parenting adventure. I really am enjoying each stage the three kids are in right now.

Caley is becoming so "grown up," reading independently, making authentic friendships and being a greatly nurturing big sister. Amelia is hot on Caley's heels and sometimes it's hard for me to tell the two apart from a distance. Out of the corner of my eye I'll see Amelia in an outfit Caley used to wear and have to double-take to make sure which girl it is. She has a temperament unique from Caley, which is neither good nor bad. She's so close to being potty trained, yet I will have to break down and buy another box of diapers tomorrow because we only have one more in her size. Poor kid had to wear a size 2 (Wesley's) today in a pinch. She's initiating about 50% of the time, and "holding it" adequately, especially when I'm distracted and forget to remind her to use the potty.

Wesley is blossoming into an inquisitive, grabby, drooly sitter. He started maintaining sitting a few days ago, in a disposable diaper, and has gotten quite proficient at it so I may see how he does while in a cloth diaper soon. (The big butt of cloth diapers has always interfered with my babies sitting skills.)He's using the bath seat too which makes bathtime much more fun. He's also becoming a pesky sleeper, with the hot weather I feel bad bundling him up like an eskimo but it's the only way to get him to sleep. I've been swaddling him really tight with at least two blankets and safety pinning the swaddle shut, yet he still seems to wiggle out. He also frequently rolls over (while swaddled) during nap/bedtime. He also grabs at anything and everything, including phones, keys, his sister's hair, anything. Wesley has also expanded his palate to include yogurt and sweet potatoes since last month. Soon we will try mangoes, peas, nectarines, and oatmeal.

It's hard to believe that 6 months ago today Wesley came into the world. We are so thankful God brought him into our family. Time really does move too fast.

We love you Wesley! In another 6 months you'll be stuffing your face with cake! :)

Torti-la-la-la-las!!

I'm attempting another step into the land of frugal and healthy living...making bread! My hope is to eventually be able to not buy any bread at the store. So far I've made regular bread in slices, buns, and tortillas. I didn't really think the tortillas would work out, but decided to not buy tortillas at the store this week and force myself to make them for some dinner guests. And they turned out great! I used this allrecipes recipe: Tortillas I but omitted baking powder.

Check it:

Adios!

Marriage and Dancing

My friend Misha just posted this on her blog and I wanted to share. It's especially meaningful since Bill and I met at a dance class. I love this man!

Check it out here.

Poor Wesley with two older sisters frequently gets dressed in pink cloth diapers or girly diaper covers. He's ALL BOY however, make no mistake! Only a real man could confidently wear girly colored underwears.

Today it was so hot he just wore his diaper all day and tonight he went with me to take Caley to the slumber party so we ran some errands. Wesley was in a diaper with a girly cover and a pink binky, in his gender neutral car seat. But surprisingly when we saw some people who oohed and aahed at Wesley's cuteness, they could tell he was a boy! They said he had a very boy look to his face. And they loved his leg chunks.

What a handsome man!

Little girl growing up

Tonight I took Caley to a slumber party. She went to one a few months ago and I was super nervous that she would freak out at bedtime. This time though, she seemed much better. On the drive there she said, "Mommy...I think boys are cute." My heart dropped. What did she just say? I asked, "What do you mean sweetie?" And she replied, "Like Wesley, and Magnus and that other baby, they're cute." My heart went back to where it belonged and I had a sense of relief. Just to make sure I asked, "What do you think of boys your age?" To which she replied, "I don't know" which means she doesn't think what I think she might think about boys.

I don't care if it makes me an overprotective parent, but I really hope Caley doesn't think boys are cute in the way I thought boys were cute for many many many many many more years.

But still, it's only a matter of time. Which scares the bejeezus outta me right now. :)

Holy Rite Aid Steal of a Deal!

Several weeks ago I scored the BEST Rite Aid deal. Guess how much I paid for this?Nothing! Actually I MADE $4!!

Yes, I made money shopping at Rite Aid. I had no idea this sort of thing was possible before I started couponing. But given the right matchups and stacking of coupons and store deals, it can happen!

The funny thing about this shopping trip is I was planning on going grocery shopping right afterward, but made a trip home to help Bill and in the process LOST my grocery coupons and a rebate form. So I missed out on another moneymaking deal through the rebate and that day's grocery coupons. I was so bummed out I practically cried. Seriously. I was wandering around Cost Cutter without any clue as to how I should go about the trip. I've asked around and haven't found my bag with coupons and it's been over a month. I think someone thought it was a wallet and swiped it from my cart. It was a humbling day, to say the least. Coupons and an excellent shopping trip are not more important than many other things. Losing the coupons and rebate was a reminder to me that I shouldn't raise them higher than other, more important things!

But it's still fun to get a good deal! Everything in moderation...everything in moderation...

Month 5

It's been a busy month at the Gerlach house and Wesley is becoming so much fun! He's started on solids a little, which is earlier than we started with both the girls. So far he's tried rice cereal, bananas and avocado. I forgot how eating solids changes the diaper arena for babies! Wesley also has started rolling, as noted a few weeks ago, and is getting better at sitting up. We got a Bumbo seat to help him sit up and see the world from a new angle. He's still sleeping okay, but waking up every few hours during the night. I don't really mind it. He's just so darn cute!

Wesley is about 15lbs but he seems so much heavier! I love his little chunky legs. We've also been working on potty training with Amelia and she gets tattoos for going potty. So far it's going okay, but it's also been about the 900th time we've tried to train her.

We also took a trip to the Ballard Locks with old playgroup buddies Acacia, Fiona, Avery, and new little Micah who now live in Chicago. We sure miss them! Caley was really excited to see the salmon and afterward we went to coffee in the UDistrict. On the way home Caley said, "That was so fun Mommy."

The girls were having fun playing with playdough and usually I'm really anal about separating the colors, but they were having so much fun mixing the colors I couldn't interrupt their play. And the "marbles" they made were so beautiful!

The kids are playing together really well and Caley and Amelia love to make Wesley laugh. What a blessing these children are! Five months has gone too quickly!