It's about time...

...we post some heart-warming pictures.

 Mount Royal, Montreal, QC

  Mount Royal, Montreal, QC

Montreal Temple

Montreal Botanical Gardens

Even more from our trip to Montreal...

Bedtime for Elsie

It hasn't always been like this, but for the past several months, Elsie has (most of the time) been an absolute joy to put to sleep, both for naps and at night time. But don't take my word for it, see it for yourself:

Some of you may be jealous, but I'm sure there are plenty of things your kids do that would make us green with envy...

She walks!

At 6 months, Elsie started crawling. She got faster and faster to try to keep up with her brother and sister, and used the proven technique of putting her head down for aerodynamics. At around 9-10 months, she started pulling herself up and walking around furniture. She loves looking at herself in the bathroom mirror, watching Alena & Reasor play in the bathtub, and, of course, pulling things down from high places. She seemed content in this ability and didn't show much interest in moving around hands-free. But today, she finally ventured out and couldn't be happier in her new-found ability. Good job, Elsie!

A Baby Sister

The probability of it happening wasn't very high and neither Talyn nor I particularly wanted a baby on leap day - but it still happened. Barely. It was 11:00pm in the hospital when Talyn mentioned that she hadn't even had the urge to push. She had pushed for 30 minutes for both Alena & Reasor, so there was a good chance that Elsie was going to be born after midnight. Not 5 minutes later and after a full minute of pushing, our third child came into the world. Don't worry, I'm not going to give any more details about the birth. That's Talyn's story.

Now we're officially outnumbered. I don't have a very good idea what it's like yet, since Talyn's parents are here for a week to help out, but I'm optimistic. Alena & Reasor love having a baby sister. They're excited when she opens her eyes, show concern when she's crying, and give her lots of hugs and kisses.

Visiting Mommy & Elsie at the hospital

This first video is a little soft, but if you listen carefully, you'll hear Alena talking to Elsie and Reasor repeating every word.

Reasor started calling himself "Baby Reasor" a couple months ago, and we were afraid that he would be jealous of a new baby in the house. Of course, it's only been a few days, but it seems like he loves having a baby sister. Here, he's showing us that he can be a good big brother by reading her a story and giving her a "good night, sleep tight" hug.

When Reasor was born, Alena took the change in stride, like she does with most things. But for the past few months, Alena has been very excited and always said that she wanted a baby sister. "A baby girl was my choice," she told me after I broke the news that it was a girl.

Alena showing Elsie all of the new baby toys

Though having a baby at anytime is no small undertaking, I've found that this time has affected me the least. I found myself less anxious about the pregnancy and less changed by the birth. Maybe it's because so much of my time and energy is spent with Alena & Reasor, or maybe it's because we're getting more and more used to having a family.