Growing up too fast!

The last few days as I lay with the girls before bed, or have a conversation with them during the day I've found myself welling with tears and trying to hold them back. My girls are growing up so fast!!

Madison, my very first little baby is asking me math questions and learning to add. She's writing words and learning to read. She offers to help more often then not. She absolutely loves to be a big sister. She loves to be right by my side pretty much at all times, and as annoying as that can be, it makes me feel so good that she loves me that much to just want to be with me all the time. It's made me realize I need to soak it up for what it's worth and just spend as much time as I can with her. When Maddie was a baby I made up this beach song and Glen and I were singing it last night and I told her that I remember the night I made it up like it was yesterday. I was sitting in our old rocking chair, in our old house. It was dark and I was putting her to bed. She was little and I was rocking her in my arms and rubbing her legs. She didn't have long hair, she didn't weigh 35 lbs, she was just little and she was my only one. Just her and I. I made up this song: "We're going to the beach gonna have lots of fun. Swim in the water play in the sun, We're gonna build a sand castle have a picnic too, We're gonna shout "Hurray, wooohooo!!!" We're gonna have so much fun at the beach!" When we sang it the other night, the memory flooded back to me and made me get teary. I wish I could go back and just hold that little baby Maddie in my arms again. Where did the time go??

Riley... Riley, Riley, Riley. I just love that girl! She is the funnest little thing in the world, just a ray of sunshine in my heart! They all are, but Riley has this way about her that is just so humorous. She's a little stinker, but in the cutest way imaginable. She's talking in very complete sentences these days which is so cute to hear. When you ask her a question and it's a "Yes" answer she answers with a very confident "Yeth" and when I call for her she says, "Yeth mommy" or "Yeth mother!" It's SO cute! I think she got it from the movie Tangled, but, who cares, it sounds so polite! She still loves to push boundaries, which makes life challenging, but life obviously can't be perfect. We believe Riley was definitely sent to teach us MANY lessons in parenting! You can't do anything but love the girl. She LOVES her sisters so much. I've never seen her be mean to the baby even one time since Chloe was born. Whenever she is with her she's kissing or hugging her, and it's SO genuine. She looks up to Maddie so much and I'm so glad that she has Maddie to look up to as a good example.

Ahhh, and Chloe my little Angel! She's actually starting to get quit the personality. She is VERY happy, but if she gets upset she's not quiet about it! She HAS to be heard, of course, because she's 3 out of 3. It's hard for mom to get right to her all the time every time she has a need. I do my very best though. Chloe is army crawling all over. She started off rolling well over a month ago. She's been rocking on her hands and knees for awhile now, but still just feels more comfortable rolling or scooting. She's on her way to pushing herself up to sit and kind of does this tripod sit on her side. It's funny. She is EATING!! and eating, and eating!!! She LOVES real food, no jarred junk, the real deal veggies, fruits, breads, crackers, cereals, beans and rice, etc. Nothing mashed or pureed, just straight up whole cooked stuff! She's got two bottom teeth and her two top teeth are coming in and they look HUGE! Neither Maddie nor Riley had teeth that big! HAHA it will be funny to see when they come in all the way. She is SUCH a teething trooper! She is hardly fussy at all about it! Nighttime has been a little harder, but now that they are starting to poke through she's sleeping better. She talks so much! She makes this "kelk,kelk, kelk" sound that kinda reminds me of the Disney character "Goofy" and when we were in Hawaii she was making this sound that kinda sounded like she was saying "Chloe", it was "Coi, Coi" who knows maybe she was! Actually, every time I get her from a nap or come into a room that she is in I smile and say a very enthusiastic "Hi!" and a couple of times I think she's actually said "Hi" to me first! Haha, maybe, maybe not, but either way she's ALWAYS happy to see me!

I feel SO blessed. We're SO lucky to have these three beautiful girls with three VERY different personalities, yet they all love us so much. I'm so grateful that I get to be a mom and be home with them to teach them and LEARN from them. I can't wait to see what they do or say next!