Happy Thanksgiving! I’m a little late and fully into Christmas mode now, which is my favorite part of the year. I’d like to just live in the 4 weeks before Christmas forever. We had friends here for the holiday and it was so, so great. They did so much work/child entertaining that it felt like a vacation instead of hosting.

Sunday:

Super excited to give this to Evan for Christmas

The extent of my Thanksgiving decorating

Sibling cuddles

Monday:

First snow!

Linc likes “helping”

Hello cutie

Tuesday:

Making his Christmas list

The most beautiful wrap in the world

Sunset = same time as bus pick up

Wednesday:

Shop til you drop

Don’t even care what they watch as long as they’re quite for 20 minutes

Thursday:

Men doing manly turkey frying

Potato masher

Caroline is the quality control department

Friday:

Black Friday Hanna shopping

Linc was SO into decorating, it was adorable

More gingerbread building

Saturday:

Christmas tree hunter

Small town adorable parade

Tree is up!

For the record, I am still sick. It’s now been 4 weeks with the cough, that has now become a sinus infection, most likely an ear infection and a weird painful bump on the roof of my mouth the internet tells me is probably related. I’m almost desperate enough to go to the doctor, although I’m still 90% sure they’ll say “it’s a virus, nothing we can do”. Maybe just MAKING an appointment will scare the virus into going away. I’m pretty sure that’s how viruses work.

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.

This was two weeks ago. I keep failing at this “post more, in a more timely manner” way. But I finished my photography work this weekend – at least the shooting part, now I just have to edit – so hopefully I can catch up and finish the four posts I have in drafts. Although they’re all about how having 4 kids is hard, so maybe I’ll make it one post.

Sunday:

One of my favorite fall spots

Beautiful evening for a photo shoot

I came home to video games and no pants

Monday:

This is why I hardly blog

They’re obsessed with our Halloween decorations

I’m not crying, you’re crying

Tuesday:

Smirk captured by Lincoln

CHUBS

His hood has fox ears

Wednesday:

Portrait mode – cool, but lousy in low light

He fell asleep on me…

…but didn’t budge when I got up to make dinner

Thursday:

Shenanigans

Lap naps

Edit edit edit edit

Friday:

These are my favorite jammies

Hand me downs are her favorite

Movies in the car during piano lessons = game changer

Saturday:

SNACKS ARE HIS FAVORITE

End of soccer season reward

Pumpkin shopping

Oh look, I’m almost finished and now the baby is awake again. One day I will get a full hour of free time.

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.