Update on life. Part 1. Of like 10 million.

Okay, so I just definitely drove to Starbucks just so my Polina girl would fall asleep and I could transfer her to the bed, drink my Carmel Macchiato, and write a very QUICK update on our family. Because I'm like 2 weeks too late, even though I promised I would do this "more." ***Can I also add in here how shitty of a parent I am third time around? My kid definitely doesn't have a "Sleep" schedule. Aside from the one where she goes to sleep and she wakes up. Does that count?

And since I'm in a confessing type of mood...I also just gave my 4 year old the i-pod and set the "Alexa" timer for 15 minutes.

Who has an Alexa?

She's *almost* better than Siri.

I'm slightly obsessed.

And now that I sound like an over-privileged white girl... let's get on with the update.

1. Our family. Our family is great. There are still *5* family members, although we get asked on the daily when we plan on expanding. I get that baby fever. I do. I kiss Polina SO stinking much {all three of them actually}, and I just look at how fast she is growing and ask myself... is this it? Is this the last child I will birth? I know it won't be the last child in our lives. I know that for certain. As my dreams to adopt are there, and growing year after year. But I still can't help but wonder if I will ever have a baby belly. Will I ever go through labor again. Will I ever breastfeed? We just ended our breastfeeding journey 1 month ago, and she still asks me daily "milk, puuueesss?"

Talk about mommy guilt.

That's a post for another day thought.

• Our oldest. Our oldest will be a first grader next year and I can hardly believe it. I'm not sure if I ever wrote on this blog about how we are no longer homeschooling {I'm too lazy to go back and check}, but needless to say, Elliana begged to go to school, to ride the bus {although it stays in our neighborhood since our school is in the neighborhood}, and to just be out with friends. And guys, she is THRIVING so much. Her teacher praised her so much I think I couldn't have been more proud as a parent. She has a total of "51" golden tickets from school. And she comes home teaching me something new almost every day. I could gush about her all day long but I will spare you the boredom.

But seriously, she's still my sass ball of fire. She always has been since the minute she learned how to talk. And I have a feeling she always will be.

She's special that one. My first child, and oh so darn special to me.

• Graham. My boy. My middle boy has the biggest heart. He's so much like his dad, and so much like me. He's a wonderful mix, but has his own personality that far exceeds any qualities I have or his father has. Sometimes I look at him and I want to cry. Oh no, here it comes... tears. I love him so much it pains me. He's my only boy, so there's something special about him. Elliana has my heart because of who she is and being first in the family. Graham has my heart because of how different he is from the girls, and being the only one. He's so smart. His best friend is an 8 year old {aside from his sister}. He learned to ride a 2 wheeler when he was 3 years old. He is so mature for his age. And GOD is he loving. He smothers all the women in his life with kisses and hugs, and LOVES to cuddle.

That kid. He's going to make a wonderful husband one day.

• Polina. What's there to say about her besides she's the baby and the ruler of the house. She stomps her feet. She points her finger and says "no no no" at everyone, and she gets what she wants when she wants it. The kids bow down to her feet. Carry her around the house. And spoil her rotten. I'm pretty certain that she couldn't be more loved. It's fun to see her personality unwind, and to have conversations with her, and to grow our relationship. That does happen. I know people don't admit it. But you love your children more and more as you get to know "them." Who they are. What they like. What they don't like. How they act. Their interests. Their hobbies. It's all about discovering something new every day, and I think that's what I love most about being a mom. There's never a dull moment, and our children give us so many blessings to look forward to.

OH MAN.

I didn't realize I was going to go off on tangents here with each of my children. But so be it.

The Alexa timer just went off so I have about 5 more minutes before Graham comes barging in here to play Pokemon with him...

That's the thing that is "in" right now in our house. POKEMON. The obsession is real guys.

2. Charleston. Andrew and I went on our first every TRIP ALONE without the kiddos by ourselves. ALONE. By ourselves. Can we talk about this for a second. A-L-O-N-E. I know the thought is like so shocking it's hard for me to even type it out. Yet alone say that we actually did it. And we survived. Even though we managed to harass the babysitter {my mother-in-law} about 10 times a day with FaceTime calls. And the kids survived. And we had an absolute blast. We ate A LOT of food. Delicious food guys. If you want to go somewhere to just eat and drink, GO TO CHARLESTON. We stayed at the cutest Air-bnb {First time ever}, and we will definitely do it again.

Our goal is to do 3 vacations a year. Our yearly summer vacation to hilton head island as a family {that we have done already every year}, a little mini vacation around January {we went to Disney this year with the kiddos for 4 days!}, and a little getaway for just Andrew and I {charleston this year}. That's our goal. This year we are good to go, next year the planning has begun.

Any suggestions for fun cities to visit, shoot them my way! 

3. We almost moved. Last summer we went to go visit a house that we fell in love with. We put an offer on that house before we had even listed our house {or even talked about listing it}. We then immediately listed our house. Went through 20 showings. Got an offer on day 3. Accepted the offer. Went through inspections on both houses. And then discovered how CRAZY {I mean CRAAAZZZZYY} our buyers were. That deal went through. As a result, we closed the deal on the house we were going to buy. And then we stayed where we have been for 7 years, and instead did even MORE remodeling.

Guys. BEST.DECISION.EVER. I need to write an entire post on this. For now, I'll show you my dream bathroom that we finally accomplished!!

Okay okay 15 minute blog post of updates done.

Part two is coming.

Probably part three and four if I'm being completely honest......