Another dilemma...

Maybe it's the lack of sleep I'm getting these days, but I can't figure out what to do on yet another thing...

*We moved a month ago and people keep asking me for our address...why...? because we never sent out a "We've moved" card/letter to let people know our address here in VA. I always think those are cute little cards people send out with a nice picture of the family standing in front of the new house or by a random "Welcome to Virginia" sign at a Rest Stop or something...we don't have any of those pictures, either

*I had a baby 7 weeks ago, but we haven't gotten around to sending out a Baby Announcement picture/card... I took some adorable pictures of Mitchell this afternoon that would be worthy of sharing with all friends and family, so that's a step in the right direction at least. We sent out birth announcements for Elise and Ainsley, so I feel bad not doing it for Mitchell.

*Christmas is coming up...two months almost exactly. We always do a family Christmas card and pictures (that's where the "Moseley Memorandum" name began!).

*I'm very frugal (hahah...CHEAP is more accurate, 'frugal' sounds classier than I am about it!) and cannot bring myself to send out photo cards for Mitchell's birth AND then send Christmas cards in like 5 or 6 weeks....each mailing is about $150 with postage and everything...not to mention a lot of work on my part to address all the envelopes.

So, do we combine the two and send out a photo birth announcement for Mitchell around Thanksgiving WITH the Christmas letter? But then nobody sees recent pictures of the rest of the family? And will people put them up on their "Christmas card displays" when it's actually a birth announcement? I don't want him to get slighted just b/c his birth hit at an 'inconvenient' time...

I'd love opinions on this one, too! Thanks. Maybe I could be totally cheap and send an email with everything, then print up one 'fake' Birth announcement to put in his Baby book...that's assuming he'll GET a Baby book...

Moseley kids at 6 weeks...

After several discussions this month about "Mitchell looks like Ainsley at this age, but a little like Elise, too..." Not that it matters at all, but it's just a fun conversation. So I dug up pictures of Elise and Ainsley from when they were around 6 weeks old. It's amazing to see how small they were. WOW. Time does go by so fast...hard to believe that Elise will be 4 in just a couple months!!! So, here are a couple of each kid from around the 6 week mark...we see similarities and differences, but it's fun to just remember how special each of them are to us!

Once again, I have no idea why that text is blue and underlined...but I don't have time to figure it out! It's almost the end of naptime and I still need to mop the kitchen floor before the kiddos all wake up...so, we can all deal with it.

***Oh, yeah...The following pictures are (top to bottom): Elise, Ainsley, Ainsley, Mitchell, Mitchell, Elise.***

A few updates...

It's almost impossible to believe that Mitchell is already SIX WEEKS old...wow! Between moving to VA, chasing Elise and Ainsley all over the place, getting settled into new job/school/etc...here, time is FLYING by! All three kids are napping (well, Elise is 'resting'- close enough! She's in her room quietly reading and I get 2 hours of total peace.), I'll take a few quick minutes to update the blog:

*Mitchell has started really being alert and starting to interact with us...it's so cute and fun. You can really SEE it when he's close to a smile or little smirk. I haven't caught a full-out smile on film yet, but here are a few of his smirks...adorable!

*Several people have told us that Mitchell looks a lot like Ainsley, but I'm not totally sure. Ainsley looks SO MUCH like Adam (as Elise did as an infant, too), but I don't see much of that look in Mitchell. We'll see! Maybe we finally have a baby that'll look like me! (Several other friends have said that Mitchell looks like my side of the family, and I can see that, too...especially like my older brother...but maybe that's b/c Mitchell looks like he's trying to get away with something- that would be a trait of his uncle, for sure!). Hmmm...
*About a week and a half ago, Adam noticed that Mitchell has some webbed toes!! WHAT!?! Apparently, all the doctors, nurses, visiting friends, etc...ALONG WITH US, of course...failed to notice that his two toes on left foot are webbed about 1/2 way up to the nail...so crazy. We're really not concerned about it, but we do laugh that 1.You know it's kid #3 when you don't notice that for over a month. and 2.maybe he'll be an Olympic Swimmer one day with these webbies... The right foot also has the same two toes SLIGHTLY webbed, but not as obvious as the left foot.
We're doing well overall. We're settling well into the new house. Elise's favorite part is the nightly sunsets that we can see over the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains...she loves the colors and we talk about it every single night. The other night (it was a little chilly, you can see Elise shivering...) we ran out on the back deck to get a quick picture while the sky still looked like it was on fire...beautiful!

Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma...

Ok, I'll try to make this short, but I would LOVE the opinions of anyone on this topic!!! ESPECIALLY those of you who are/were school teachers!
Background: Elise is 3 1/2 and LOVED her school in South Carolina. It was a church-run preschool with WONDERFUL people, bright airy classrooms, and a great balance between "play" and "learn"...they're only 3 1/2 after all! She knows her ABC's by sight and phonics, can write many of them, can write her name, can count to 100 with help, or about 25 on her own, etc...I'm NOT SAYING this to "brag", but it's important to our dilemma. AND, most importantly, she LOVES SCHOOL. She likes the routine, the structure, she LOVES pleasing her teachers, following rules, and came home telling me 'what she learned' daily...
Now: The preschool she is enrolled in here is another church-run situation. The people seem very nice, BUT it's located in the basement of an old church, she is one of only 3 girls (and one may be leaving soon and moving back to the 2 y.o. class) and is one of the oldest kids in her class. It's really more of a glorified "daycare". They talk SOME about the alphabet, #'s, other school-type stuff, etc...but it's not as much of a school environment...the other two girls are barely 3, one still sucks her thumb, and they're definitely behind Elise developmentally, language, etc...it's a little frustrating for her, I think, to be there.
As we've gotten a little adjusted, we've discovered a WONDERFUL private school right up the street that has an opening in their Pre-K 3 program. I toured the school yesterday and was absolutely blown away by their professionalism, their curriculum, the overall school environment, but it's also considerably pricier and that would mean changing schools AGAIN for her.
So our question is, "Is it all that important for a 3 year old?" We KNOW that she'll thrive at the fancy-schmancy school, we know the "education" is better and there are more kids who are at the same level of development. I also realize that she's only 3. She has her whole life to be in school and to learn...do kids who attend a more aggressive preschool really 'achieve' more than other kids down the road? After teaching at a 'fancy-schmancy' school a few years ago, I am a HUGE fan of the smaller class sizes, more professional teaching staff, etc...but that was much older kids....for a 3 year old, it seems a little obnoxious to pay for Spanish and French lessons, science experiments daily, etc... but I also LOVE that they're exposed to that stuff!
Anyway, I hate to think of her having to 'transition' again, but I'm pretty sure it would be worth it. This would just be for 2 years and then it's on to public schools- those are great around here for K-12.
Any thoughts are welcome! THANK YOU!! leave them on here or email me! Thanks.

Yikes.

So much to share...but so little time/energy/brain waves to do it!!! Ha!
Ok, we arrived in VA exactly one week ago, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself about updating this thing... Here are some highlights and a few pictures, too...

*So hard to say goodbye to friends in South Carolina! Elise has talked MANY times about how much she misses her friends and neighbors. I don't really know how to be a parent through this...I guess I should talk to other NAVY moms who've done it dozens of times... for now, I've just been saying, "It's ok that you miss your friends. I miss my friends, too. But the good thing is that we can call them (or write/color pictures for them, etc...) and maybe visit sometime. We'll make new friends here that will be special, too". Just something tough we're trying to figure out as we go. Since we haven't really met any neighbors yet, this is a little trickier to explain. Maybe soon...

*All three kids were GREAT with the traveling/movers/etc...they loved the adventure, Mitchell just slept all the time (moving with a newborn is WAY EASIER than a toddler, btw), the 8 hour drive wasn't as bad as I thought. Adam got off easy on that one- we ended up packing his 4Runner all the way with boxes/stuff and I had the three kids and dog in the minivan...Whose idea what THAT!?! =) The kids did great, really.

*Our weather was in the 90's the day the movers were there and, just 6 days later, it was 38 Degrees here! I LOVE IT! I'm so much happier in cooler weather and love wearing jeans, tshirts, and a fleece vest. Adam, Elise, Ainsley, and I all had on our vests on the other day when we took a day away from unpacking and visited some nearby friends for a few hours. It was so crisp and refreshing to be outside!!

*Mitchell is doing so well. He's a month old today and already sleeping up to 7 hours overnight. That's CLEARLY a gift from GOD with a third baby!!! I'm so thankful! He's doing pretty well during the days and seems to have a pretty laid back personality. (Although we said that about Ainsley early on, too, and at 19 months, she's SUPER high-maintenance...so, what do we know!?).

*Adam started his new job yesterday and thinks he'll enjoy it over time...it'll be such a change from doing law for the NAVY, but we're so thankful to really feel like we'll be able to settle into a city, a church, and a part of the country we love!

*being a parent to three kids under four years old is quite a challenge. I agree with the statement from friends that "going from 1 kid to 2 is harder than 2 to 3". I have a sense of "I know I can do this all in the course of a day" that prevails when I get overwhelmed and I'm more willing to let a kid 'cry it out' than I ever was when it was just Elise and I. The hardest part is just feeling like I can't give each one of them 100% that I'd like to. If Ainsley and Mitchell were just a little further spread out, I think it'd be ok, but Ainsley is so 'needy' for attention, focus, etc...right now and I really feel like I'm neglecting her so often. I know that this will pass and that I am doing the best I possibly can, but it makes me sad to daily realize that I just don't have the ability to give her that attention. I know kids are resilient, so I just hope and pray that I can be the best mom to all three kids (and wife to Adam, of course) that I can be...exausting, but possible!

*Although we've unpacked 95% of all boxes, we're still missing a solid handful of things:
-TV Remote control and TV Power Cable
-The "emergency stop" pull-cord from our treadmill. It won't turn on w/o that cord...bummer
-Elise's finger-paints (ok, I don't miss that too much yet!)
-All the hardware for curtains in the house. We have all the curtains and curtain rods, but nothing else...
None of this is major (we've already replaced the 2 TV items), but kind of a bummer and just frustrating! I'm sick of unwrapping/unpacking and equally sick of having sheets and towels hanging over windows. I don't want to spend $$ on more hardware, but the neighbors are probably wondering what kind of people are living here...

*Elise's school situation is tricky. She's had three days of school here. I LOVED her school in SC and so did she. Some of our best friends were made through that and she still talks about her friends, teachers, playground, etc...at her "old school". A few comments I've heard this week from her: "There are two other girls in my new class. Abby pooped in her panties today and Sydney sucks her thumb. She wears a diaper, too." (what!?! This is a 3 y.o. class!) "We don't do numbers and letters at my new school. We just play". Hmmmm...so, we're scrambling to research other preschools in the area to maybe switch her over. Playing is important, but she really enjoys the LEARNING stuff, too. There needs to be a balance, in my opinion. We'll see.

*Ok, that's a lot. Here are a few more pictures. Phew. Pray for ENERGY and PATIENCE for me, for easy-adjusting for all of us, and that we'd enjoy time together as a family as we get settled. Thanks!

WELCOME, MITCHELL!

A week ago right now, I was sitting comfortably at the hospital waiting for "real" labor to kick in...Elise and Ainsley were home with friends Allyson and Jean (lifesavers to us!!!!!!!), I'd gotten a full night's sleep, and I weighed about 12 pounds more than I do now. WOW, a lot has changed in a week!
A few hours from now last week, I was in SERIOUS PAIN while waiting for a nurse to show up and help out a little...it was "one of those days" on the Labor and Delivery floor where 6 women were all in the end stages of labor at the same time. Several of the others were first-time moms, so I think they kept ignoring me, thinking I was the "veteran"....yikes!
Regardless of the pain or any other drama, our little guy was born at 4:09pm, weighing in at 7lbs, 13 oz (exactly the same as Elise) and 19.75 inches long. I was VERY THANKFUL for the delivery to be over, especially since the Epidural didn't exactly "take" like it did for the last two kids! At the moment of delivery, we still hadn't decided on a name, either! We polled the nurses and my doctor in the room, they all agreed on one name, but then we chose the other one anyway...so, about 20 minutes after delivery, Mitchell Calvin Moseley was named and we could start calling him something other than "Baby Boy" that we've used for the last 5 months or so.
He is a joy and a blessing. It's so precious to have a baby in the house again (not that Ainsley is too far off at 18 months!), but we love him tremendously already! I'll post more later about how the girls are adjusting, how plans are going for the upcoming (2 weeks away) move to VA., and much more...but this'll have to suffice for now! Enjoy. =)


Day 2 of his little life. Elise came to visit and FELL IN LOVE IMMEDIATELY!!!













Daddy was a little tired, but I just love to see how little Mitchell's head is next to Adam's!


















...just hilarious....












One Week Old. ...love the baby feet!

Playdates GALORE...

Craft-time last week!


For the past few months, we've had the chance to organize almost weekly play-dates with Elise's two best friends, Abby and Ben, and their siblings. It's amazing that the three of them get along so well and that the three of them AND the younger sisters are almost the exact ages...it's adorable to see them try and figure out 'how' to have friends as they play. For me, it's GREAT to have other moms to share 'info' with, be encouraged by, etc...play-dates with good like-minded people are such a win/win!!! So, we did a bunch of 'outings' in the spring and early summer, but lately it's just been at one of our homes- easier on the two pregnant moms and just simpler to keep an eye on 6 kids under the age of 4!!!
So, anyway, I'm super thankful for them this summer- it's really kept my sanity, but makes it harder to think we'll leave all this in the next month...GRRRRR!

The girls and I getting ready to go to Jessica's last week for playtime:

















The CHAOS that is the play-date! Elise, Abby, and Ben are all in here...look closely amidst the mess they've made of Ben's living room!














Not a great picture of the "little girls", but the only picture I caught of the three of them together. Of course, we used food to lure them together!