C-Mile 4.0

We're having another baby and we couldn't be more excited about it!!

Baby C-Mile 4.0 is due to arrive early February.

I've always wanted a February baby.

It's after the hustle and bustle of the holidays and before super nice weather, where you feel guilty if you're too tired to get outside and enjoy the 4 nice days we get the whole year.  I'm kidding, kind of.  I'll get to enjoy hibernating and figuring life out with 4 kiddos and then hopefully come spring/summer I'll be getting a little more sleep, we'll be on a little more of a schedule and have a little bit of a handle on how to manage 4 kiddos.

I've had 3 babies, so I've had plenty of time to think this through and perfect our likely last planned pregnancy :)

I know some are thinking of it, so I'll just lay it all out there for you.  No, we are not trying for a boy.  We just want to add another member to our crew, boy or girl, whatever God finds fit.  We're just praying for it to be healthy.  I know it's meant well when it's asked or said, but if you really think about what it means, it means as if our 3 girls are disappointments to us because they're not a boy, and that couldn't be farther from the truth and I'm pretty sure 99% of the people that ask or think it, don't intend it that way.  Here's a little article that helps shed a little light on that topic Click HERE

As with the other three, we will not be finding out ahead of time.  We LOVE the surprise!!

I've been feeling pretty similar as I did with the other 3 pregnancies.  Reid has stepped it up, as have the girls.  It has helped that it's summer and it's easier to be active and distracted.  As well as it being summer, no school and all 3 sisters being home...I can't just lay around, I've got to power through....at least until Reid gets home :)

There isn't a moment during this pregnancy or my other three that I don't think of how blessed we are to have the gift of fertility.  I pray so many times a day for anyone who would give anything to have morning sickness or to have a colicky baby.  I keep those people in mind and keep my complaining to a minimum and instead turn it over to the Lord.  My heart hurts for those of you so incredibly much, you are not forgotten or overlooked.

We waited to tell the girls until after our first appointment when we were able to hear the strong healthy heart rate.  I was SO excited to let them in on the little secret and they didn't disappoint.  They are so so excited and proud and obsessed.  Sally loves on and talks to Munchkin (her nickname for the baby)every second of every day.  Libby isn't too far behind and chimes in quite often as well.  Yesterday in the car they were divvying up who will have baby duties when.

Sally discovered her bus comes an hour later than it did when Emma was a newborn so she has an extra long time to snuggle with the baby in the morning before she goes to school.  But knows she'll have to fight daddy for the rights until he leaves for work.

Libby will get lunchtime duty with the baby so Mommy can get lunch ready for everyone.

Then Sally will get dinnertime duty once she's home from school so Mommy can get dinner ready for everyone and once Daddy gets home from work he'll get the baby unless Mommy needs to feed it.

But in all reality no one is going to get a chance to touch the baby because Emma is a baby HOG and she will hit and slap and shout at you if you dare try and lay a finger on HER baby!

Take a look at the video Reid took when Emma handed Sally a note that said Emma was going to be a Big Sister.  Don't mind my awesome hair...Emma also has a problem if mom decides to wear a ponytail and pulls it out all.day.long

I had a little foreshadowing in what's to come with 4 kids...pure chaos maybe?  This morning we took the picture that I was going to post on social media to announce it.  I wanted to keep Emma inside while I set the Bigs up, otherwise by the time I was ready to take the picture she'd want nothing to do with it.  This way if I wouldn't let her right away she'd want everything to do with it.

I had to close the glass patio door because she can open the screen door and get out.  Girlfriend LOCKED US OUT!!! I was in my pjs and no bra.  Luckily we do have a spare key hidden and I had JUST unlocked the garage deadbolt minutes before we headed out the patio.  It gave me a good chuckle.

At any rate. Thank you.  Thank you for the over flowing comments and messages and calls of excitement for our newest addition.  Whether it's the 1st baby or the 10th each one should be celebrated!!

Thank you Kari, for helping with the shirts.  When we laid them out it made it a little more real, as to what 4 kids really will look like!

God is good and we are forever grateful for his generosity and trust in giving us these beautiful and perfect children to raise!

{Video}

Happy 30th Birthday to Emma's awesome Godfather, Thomas!!! We can't wait to see you next week!!

Happy Weekend Ya'll

♥,
Craigmile Crew Party of SIX!!!

Beatin' the Heat

Hi there! Are you surviving the heat and humidity?  We've had a good mix of inside activities and getting out to play in it too.

Reid's in the middle of a week long work trip to California.  It's been going pretty well back here on the home front.  Makes me appreciate he rarely has to travel for work and makes me wonder how I ever survived two nights a week for 3 1/2 years of him being gone at class.

We've been able to video chat for a few minutes before he starts his day.  Emma thinks it's the greatest thing.  After we hang up she shouts, "DAD!! HIIIIIIIIIII!!"

We got the pool and hose out a few times last week and weekend

 Little Miss hates touching the rug by the front door...

Welcoming Daddy home Saturday morning as he returned from his Patriarch group at church

 Daddy's girls

Cheeeeeeese

Goofball

Soooooo I've been mentioning to Reid that I want to cut Emma's hair. I didn't want to take her to the kid's place to pay for something that I could probably just do myself.  While Reid took himself and the Bigs to go get their haircut, I chopped off Emma's.  I may have taken a little more than I meant to (hair, especially curls are ALWAYS longer when it's when and brushed out...), but it turned out so cute!

Here's how much I chopped!  All 3 girls got 3-4 inches off, each.  All have declared, I want my hair short all the time!!

 Checking out the damage

 I wike it!

 Before heading out for Sunday Mass Sally said, "Mom, take a picture of the C-Mile Sisters and our matching hair cuts!"

While Daddy is in California he had a few hours where he had to travel to Mexico to tour a facility...I'm happy to report he made it there and back safely and with no mosquito bites ;)

Sally and Libby have been doing a great job of playing and playing and playing, with minor arguments and fighting.  I found this downstairs from when they played school.  Sally's schedule for the day.

I sucked it up and brought the girls to the sand bottom pool yesterday.  Everyone had a great time and we came home with minimal sand ;)

Thankful for our awesome Sitter who was over last night so I could go to my church book club and she'll be back again tonight so I can see Jenny's new house! Also thankful for her mom who is so willing to drop her off and pick her up since Reid's gone!

Here's to hoping my remaining solo days go as smoothly as the first half have gone.

Happy Hump Day!

Hi!

Gah, how is it already July 22nd?

We're still here, enjoying our summer.  We were up in Walker last week.  I was scolded by Delores this morning that I haven't updated the blog in a long time :)

Here I am, updating.  Sometimes it just seems so overwhelming to collect, organize and post all the pictures.  Especially coming back from vacation and there's triple the amount.

Alas, I powered through and I did it.  Although, I decided not to post any Walker pictures until I have them all...ahem Jenny, Mom, George, Joey ;)

Soooooooo here's what we've been up to since my last post.

I'm not quite sure where I was during this time, but the girls were having fun playing dinosaurs with Daddy

Hatching out of her egg

Heading home from a great time at the beach

The girls enjoyed watching the Woman's Gymnastic Olympic Trials! Looking forward to many more viewings and events when the Olympics are on!

They love to bike up to Holy Family and then play in the tennis courts

 This is what happens when you arrive to Costco before it opens...they all get let out of their "cages".  Emma thought it was so silly.  Why do they have to open so late? The day already seems half over by 10am.

 Being silly with top buns!

 Ooooooh miss naughty pants.  Found a way to stack the pillows and climb on the table

 and then pretended she was going to sleep...how can you not just laugh and take pictures?

The girls love it when the local police ride their horses through our neighborhood

 Kodak moment the other afternoon when we were all out playing.  The Emma, Brecken and Theo headed to the chairs in shade and read some books.

 So adorable!

 Alisha is so good to our girls.  She is always on top of what they've been up to, talks to them about clothes and girl things.  Let's them come and help teach her boys how to make their bed, and then she lets Sally snuggle sweet Emersyn!  We love our time with the Johnsons!

 Libby is really picking up on T-Ball.  She was an outstanding fielder last Monday. She's so proud!

 The cutest little T-ball Fan.  She screams so loud for LJ when she spots her and when she's up to bat.

 Reid took Monday off...we've learned how important it is to take the day after vacation off, to ease back in to reality.  I took advantage of him being home to have some special time with Sally and I and take her to the American Girl Doll Store at MOA.  Uncle Marc had given her some money for her birthday to spend toward clothes for Maryellen.

 She picked out her birthday dress!

 How crazy/creepy/cool is this shadow from the sun?  It looks like an angel looking over Libby's bed.

 Enjoyed a super peaceful girls night with Kari and Lyndsay, earlier this week.  Thanks for the great food and drinks, Kari!

 I'm always interested in Kari's oils that she uses.  She surprised me with a diffuser and a few oils of my own.  We're big fans around here.  Thank you!!

ps can you see my window boxes in the background of this picture?  They have EXPLODED, and without the help of any miracle grow or anything.  I'm super proud, I don't typically have a green thumb!

 This little punkin has been doing a great job of learning how to let her mama clean the house or clean up breakfast or lunch and just play with her sisters, or on her own.

 My baby is turning in to a big girl!

 Yesterday we were suppose to take the Bigs to the horse races.  Reid's work was sponsoring a little picnic there.  However, due to the heat, the races were cancelled.  Since we already had a sitter lined up for Emma, we improvised and took the Bigs to see Finding Dory.  They thought it was the greatest thing that we let them eat Icees and Popcorn for dinner.  An added bonus that Sally's 1st grade teacher and her family had decided to do the same thing.

SUPER CUTE movie!  I would HIGHLY recommend it.  I think I might have liked it even better than Finding Nemo.

Since when does every seat in the Theatre recline and have a footrest?!! I was way impressed. Clearly I need to make it to the movies a little more often!

 This morning we headed back to SLP to visit one of our favorites, Delores!! Was so fun to see her and to catch up!!

aaaaaaaaaand that's a wrap for now.  Can't promise I'll be back anytime soon ;) We've got more summer to soak up, before it slips away! 38 days until school starts, but who's counting?

July 4th 2016

A day late and a dollar short, but here's what we did to celebrate our 4th of July weekend.

We started out with attending a closing ceremony for Sally's camp.  She had a great week!

That evening Mommy had the bright idea of biking to Excelsior.  We may have bit off a bit more than we could chew.  We biked 15 miles round-trip.  Reid pulled Emma and Libby and I encouraged Sally along the way.  When we were at mile 4 (halfway to Excelsior) we stopped to ask Sally if she wanted to keep on going or turn around and just get ice cream in Victoria.  She opted to keep on going.

It really was a beautiful trail!  It's flat and no hills.  Lots of wildlife.

We made it to Lick's!

Someone enjoyed their ice cream!

 The hard part was getting motivated to get back on the bikes, even though some tushies were sore, and to finish it out.  It did cross my mind to call one of our neighbors to come pick us up with their truck

 Enjoying her freedom from the Burley

 Proud of our crew for sticking it out and completing our mission.  There were minor tears and meltdowns.  Sally definitely finished with her head held high. "Mom, look, the sunset it beautiful, this is why God wanted us to keep going.  This was hard, but it was a lot of fun having special time with you."  We played the "I'm going to Walker and I'm going to Bring..." and then you have to remember.  It was a great distraction for her.

When she woke up in the morning she wasn't sore.  Daddy and I jokingly asked if anyone wanted to go for a bike ride and everyone said Yes, so I guess we didn't scare them too badly!

How perfect was the weather over the entire weekend? No humidity, and not too hot!

We had breakfast outside one morning

 and then we met the Lindberg Family at Minnetonka Regional Park! So fun to catch up with them, as best we could with 6 girlies running around :)

 They've been friends since they were 3 months old

 a whole lotta cuteness and a whole lotta pink

Brad has a way with Littles.  We continued the fun with lunch at Noodles

We're excited to come visit in September!

After naps we decided to check out the Chanhassen Festival!

 Having fun in the Ferris Wheel

 Daddy and Emma waving

 Emma's first time on the Carousel

 Emma's first time on the slide. Weeeeeeeeee

 and then we ran in to some of our favorites and we turned it in to an evening.  We headed to Victoria to get hot dogs, ice cream and Vic's takeout!  It was the most peaceful 45 minutes with 6 kiddos ever!

 Taking turns on Stage

The next morning we had church, went to the Sandquist for donuts and then just hung out for the remainder of the weekend.

 Thank you Nana and Grandpa for the delicious Ribs!

Parkaholics

 Our Red, White & Blue!

 Daddy with his favorite shirt...

 The 4th was the 22nd anniversary to my dad's death.  Always a bittersweet day for me.  At one point Emma and I were hanging out on the couch and we were practicing saying names.  Out of the blue she said Joe, looked up to the ceiling, pointed, and started waving and blowing kisses.  Throughout the day I would ask were Grandpa Joe was.  She'd look around, find him, point, wave and blow kisses.  Pretty cool stuff!

 A little T-Ball in the front yard

 Somewhere she learned how to walk like a Zombie and she thinks it's the funniest thing ever

 Blessing herself with the water table water

 Ice Cream you Scream!

 C-Mile Sisters

 The grand finale for the weekend was sparklers.  They have yet to know how much cooler they are when it's dark out...

 Emma couldn't believe it

 and then she got to try and she thought it was the BEST. THING. EVER!

Hope you had a wonderful 4th as well!