It is very cold and gloomy today. One fourth of my children are napping, but unfortunately it’s the only one who doesn’t really NEED to nap. But I got a bunch of cleaning done this morning, there’s chili in the crockpot for dinner, and I have secret chocolate to eat when they eventually do go to bed. So it’s not the worst Sunday.

Sunday:

He loves his lovies SO MUCH

Pokemon hunting

Local architecture

Monday:

So stylish

When Linc crashes, he crashes HARD

WHAT IS THIS BATH THING I NEVER HAVE THEM???

Tuesday:

We are both a total mess in this photo

Diapers, cat food, giant bag of jelly beans

Sitting down while someone else vacuums is my favorite

Wednesday:

Ridiculous baby outfit

The cat is SO DESPERATE she sat with the toddler

Sure, why not bring a giant stick inside?

Thursday:

Weirdo

But a happy weirdo

I can deal with happy (ps in the stroller, not the car, don’t send me car seat hate mail)

Friday:

Baby friends playing nicely. It was very confusing.

I shut him in his room for being a monster, obviously he was a tired monster

Finn likes Zootopia too

Saturday:

Zoo fun

Gorgeous weather

Target life

My throat sort of hurts but I absolutely refuse to acknowledge it could be ANYTHING except for very dry air in my house. We have important Thanksgiving plans, there’s no way I am letting germs ruin them. Fingers crossed I can get enough sleep in the next couple days to be back to 100% by Wednesday. It’s a tough time of year to stay well, especially when you’re only getting an average of 4 hours a night.

One of these days, I will completely forget what having a newborn is like and I’ll have to come up with something else to whine about. I can’t wait.

This was The Bad Week. I’m going to do the most recent week’s post tomorrow so I bump it down the page quickly. I still don’t want to talk about it.

Sunday:

Mini sessions day 2

Photographer life means ALL the throw blankets

I have the best clients. This had Boston cream in it.

Monday:

He was so excited about the fake oranges he needed real oranges

These are not outside shoes

Hates everything

Tuesday:

Nope, don’t want to talk about it

They’re having fun, I promise

Wednesday:

He’s OBSESSED

I “found” Everest, if by “found” you mean spent a crazy amount to replace the lost one

His hair makes me happy

Thursday:

D0N’T JUDGE ME I CAN BUY CHRISTMAS STUFF

More appropriate bus stop shoes

Her response to “Can I take a picture?”

Friday:

Kid Chess has very different rules than real chess

Always so judgy

A bin of baby clothes I haven’t seen in 6 years

Saturday:

Another gorgeous day at the seaport

Outdoor nursing in November

Very focused on stacking

I need at least 3 more weeks of outdoors weather before I’m fully ready to commit to my winter hibernation. Or at a minimum, it needs to not be frigid until after we get the Christmas tree and the lights up. IT’S SOON. SOOOOOOOON.

I’m going to write a real post. Soon. Maybe even 2 posts. I have thoughts and things to say about going from 3 children to 4, about how our routine is working, and about how my big kids are becoming more responsible. And Finn will be 2 months old in just a couple days so I’ll have that one up too. Blogging is hard.

Sunday:

Perfect outdoor weather

These are not my chickens but I really like chickens

Two parties in one day = sugar overload

Monday:

Cupcakes are a poor choice in a bounce house

Camel wearing

Finn’s face looks like this about 87% of the time

Tuesday:

The only thing I did all day was clean this up

Bus stop face

A+ sibling interaction

Wednesday:

Playgroup art is high quality art

Playgroup is also exhausting

Seat stealer

Thursday:

Helping change the sheets

My favorite tree

After school shenanigans

Friday:

The only place he’s sleeping right now

IPAD OBSESSED

The huge bear was an excellent purchase

Saturday:

Rounded head ever

Corn-mazing

This was not as good as I had imagined

I had a photo shoot yesterday and needed someone to watch the kids, so I bribed my friend Steph into doing it by promising her a photo of her kids for their Christmas card. That meant she watched seven children under the age of seven. So when I’m feeling overwhelmed by my four, I just keep reminding myself at least there aren’t three more of them all the time.

Thank you Ellio’s Pizza for sponsoring this post. Visit your local retailer to pick up your own Ellio’s Pizza for a pizza night in!

Once a month – or more often, if we can manage – we share a game night with one of E’s coworkers and his family. We taught them a card game called Hand and Foot, which I was forced to learn before I was allowed to marry into the Davis family and which we now force other people to learn as a requirement for friendship. I mean, we don’t make ALL our friends learn, but if you hang out in our general vicinity for more than 6 hours at some point E will volunteer to teach you because he probably has the card box waiting right over here just in case there is a card-playing emergency. He’s prepared! He made a special box to keep the cards in! Don’t worry if you have never played, there is a cheat sheet right in the box to help you!

I’m teasing a little bit, but I absolutely love our game nights. In fact, there are even nights when we play online casino games on W88 together with our friends. With 5 (now 6!) children between us, babysitters are expensive and hard to come by so hanging out as a family is much easier. Plus Amanda is an amaaaazing cook and baker and always feeds us super well when she hosts.

Since I was 84.5 months pregnant at our last game night, my desire to spend two days in front of the oven making a gourmet dessert for game night was missing. My desire to eat lots of delicious food was still more than available though, so I was thrilled with this chance partner with Ellio’s Pizza for a fun family dinner option.

The husbands – who are not from New England – were puzzled why Amanda and I were super excited about frozen pizza. Amanda, who is from here, said “This tastes just like my childhood!” And it’s totally true. Ellio’s Pizza is a Northeast tradition, founded on Long Island in 1963 and one of the things parents have been feeding their kids as a quick dinner or after-school snack for the last 5 decades. Available in six different flavors and made with 100% real cheese and zero artificial flavoring, it’s super fast, super delicious, and super kid- (and parent) approved.

Along with a plate of veggies, it was a balanced meal everyone enjoyed and I didn’t waste any precious card-playing energy to make. That’s probably why Amanda and I TROUNCED the guys in the first round (we won’t talk about the second round). I’m stocking my freezer with more Ellio’s Pepperoni Pizza (our favorite) for the back-to-school craziness combined with the end-of-summer laziness and the having-a-fourth-baby insanity that is all about to hit us at once. Frozen pizza is exactly what those situations call for. Get in on the goodness yourself and check out the store locator at the top of the Ellio’s homepage to see where Ellio’s Pizza is sold near you.

You can follow Ellio’s on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Dr. Oetker USA LLC. I received compensation for this post, however all opinions stated are my own.

300 is a lot of weeks. When I started doing this, mostly as a joke, I was pregnant with Caroline. Now I’m only a couple weeks away from having a FOURTH child, which means I have documented every day of our lives through almost 6 years. Sometimes I wish I focused more on taking beautiful iPhone photos that made our lives look happier, cleaner, more photogenic than they really are. But then I look back at previous weeks and all I can think about is how nice it is to have these dumb, blurry, boring phone photos that would otherwise be deleted saved somewhere for me (and the kids) to look at. I mean, Week 3 was nothing special but looking at tiny Baby Evan is not a thing I will get tired of. I would regret it forever if I let this weekly post die now, even though doing it in a timely manner seems to be beyond me. We’ll give Baby 4 a chance to be overly photographed and documented for at least a few weeks before I think about giving it up again.

Sunday:

It’s too hot for pajamas OR covers, but Big Kids sleep in Big Kids beds

Brotherly tv watching

Or maybe he’s not a big kid, just a sweet lap nap baby

Monday:

We meet some really interesting people while hunting Pokemon

Important research

Too hot for real life so we hang out in the only room with a/c

Tuesday:

3 kids, 3 check ups, 0 cavities!

More hiding in the a/c

This only lasted 5 minutes

Wednesday:

Chair stealer

Lake life

AMAZING light for my photo session

Thursday:

Which Pokemon is that?

More air conditioned fun

There’s a rat on my daughter!

Friday:

Safety first when eating bread

Card night

Helping organize the cards

Saturday:

Good old-fashioned slip and slide fun

Watermelon stealer

SO DELICIOUS

It’s raining today, which means it’s cool enough in the house to actually BE in the house. I have big plans to Get Stuff Done – so far, some laundry, some dishes and this post are all checked off, let’s see if toy organization, finishing three photo sessions and napping happen. I feel like napping has a pretty good shot.