no time for stories!

okay, so the title says it all. i have had no time to update this blog of mine because things in our household have been crazy. i didn't think that things would be so hectic with 3 kids, but they have been. on top of having a newborn in our household, allan re-injured his knee playing volleyball so we've had one man down for the last month or so. he recently had reconstructive surgery done and is still recovering from it. it went successfully, but he's still in a lot of pain. the first 3 or 4 days after surgery were incredibly hard because i had to care for the kids 24/7 and care for allan all at the same time, all by myself. thank goodness some good friends brought us some meals because they saved my sanity on those nights. thank you, thank you! i have to share a quote from one of those friends who brought us a tasty baked spaghetti meal. his words of advice to allan were, "keep the crutches, good things will happen." i had to laugh when i read that. it's true though. we've received a lot of sympathetic "oh let me help you!" gestures from all kinds of people when they see me and my hands full with lucas, emma, and elise and allan hobbling around in crutches. can you imagine us?

the kids are all doing great! lucas is sweet, sweet, sweet. he is incredibly helpful and thoughtful, and he is enjoying pre-school. he still doesn't share a whole lot about his days in school, but i get told from his teachers that he's doing great. he is still super inquisitive and will ask you a question until you give him an answer. and, not any answer will satisfy him. it has to be the "right" answer. he knows the difference. he loves music and singing. anytime i hum a new tune or sing a song he hasn't heard before, he'll ask me what song it is and to teach it to him. he picks up tunes really quickly. he's also started memorizing scripture. it has been so neat to see him learn God's word. so far, he has psalm 23, john 3:16, and philippians 4:13 down. the next verse i'm going to teach him is ephesians 6:1-3!

emma is a kick in the pants. she's got the cutest personality. my favorite is when you ask her for a kiss. she'll come right up to you and give her cheek to you. it's the cutest thing. we're like, "hey, we asked YOU for a kiss!" she loves to copy whatever lucas is doing whether it be putting a puzzle together, drawing, hiding from allan when he gets home, or waving a sword around pretending it's a light saber. it is so heart-warming to see the two of them together. emma is also starting to talk a lot. no one but allan, lucas, and i can understand what she's saying, but we can definitely tell that she's learning her words. she is waaaay more adventurous than lucas ever was, which can cause her to get into more trouble sometimes. but, i still love her to pieces!

and, of course, we have our little elise who is just easy, easy going. she has slept through the night on a few occasions. (for you parents of newborns out there, you know that this is the most important skill to brag about!) but, generally, she is still waking up once at night to nurse. the last few nights have been an anomaly because she has been the fussiest she's ever been, which was horrible for us since these were the nights just after allan's surgery. i think it was my fault, though, because for three days in a row i drank a hazelnut iced coffee from mcdonald's (yum!). i think the caffeine was the culprit. so, i've backed off of the iced coffees and things seem to be getting back to the norm. elise is really alert when she's awake and loves to stare into our eyes and smile and coo at us. (i'll post her stats another time since i can't remember what they were.) we think she looks most like my sister so, between me and allan, elise has got to look more like me because allan and vicky look nothing alike. i always say that her hair makes her look like a cockatiel...a cute one, though! i get sad thinking that she is our last baby and that she is going to grow up way too quickly for us. so, we're just enjoying the moments as they come.

here are some pictures to catch you up on how much the kids have grown...enjoy!