Victoria's 1.5 years old!

Victoria Mae has reached the 18 month milestone!  And even though she is only 18 months old, she is such a big kid that she appears much older.  In fact, she is almost as big as her big sister who is two years older!  We are just so thankful that she is a healthy and happy little girl who always has a smile on her face.  She is such a joy and we have been blessed by God to have her as a part of our family.

At her 18 month well-child check up, she:
- weighed 29lbs 6oz (97th %)
- was 34.75 inches long (100th%?!)
- had a head circumference of 49.1cm (97th%)

She is a mover and a shaker - always on the go!  The only thing she will sit still for is when you read her a book - she has recently really enjoyed being read to.  She loves her dolls and really anything that is baby related.  She has a little twinkle in her eye that just makes her face shine.  She is the trouble-maker in our family and has learned to not only hold her own with her big sister, but how to get the upper hand!  She has the most infectious laugh that comes right from her gut.  But her voice is the tiniest, highest, and sweetest pitch.  She repeats almost everything these days which has resulted in a vocabulary far beyond most 18 month olds.  She is our foodie - the girl loves her food!  She is incredibly smart and looks up to her big sister, trying to do everything she does.

Love you, Tors!

Malin is 3 months old!

My baby girl has already reached 3 months old.  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?  She certainly didn't stay in the newborn stage long - this girl has grown just as quickly as her sisters.  She didn't have a well-child checkup at 3 months, but here were her 2 month stats:
Length - 24.5inches (99th %)
Weight - 13lbs (91st %)
Head - 41.1cm (92nd%)

You can see she has been busy growing.  Now imagine another months worth of growth on top of that!  She is already moving into some 9 month clothes and I have to admit that I am a little sad as I put away all the small baby things that each of my girls wore for only a short time.  But one look at Malin, and that sadness goes away as I realize how healthy and happy a baby she is growing into!

Malin is a pretty good sleeper at night, though she does still wake up at least twice a night to eat (can you blame her for as fast as she grows?).  She really doesn't cry too often and seems pretty laid-back most of the time.  She likes to be held upright so she can see what's going on.  She is our paci-baby - the only one of my girls who really loves her pacifier.  She has found her hands in recent weeks and is constantly shoving them in her mouth.  In fact, she has formed little calluses on her fingers from sucking so hard!  When she smiles, her entire face lights up - she has the biggest open-mouthed smiles I've seen and they are so endearing!  She's not a very loud baby and really doesn't do a lot of cooing or baby babble yet.  But let's face it - her sisters make enough noise to fill TWO houses, so why add more?

Stay tuned for more updates on this precious little girl's growth!

September 2012: Part 2

So after I finished my last post, I realized that I had a bunch of photos still on my camera that hadn't been downloaded.  Some of them were pretty cute, so I had to get those to you as well!  Enjoy!

Malin and her baptismal cake from Nana.

Malin, Victoria, Kenzie, and Eliana - 4 gorgeous girls!  Aren't they adorable in their matching outfits?

One of many photos of Victoria holding her "little" sister.  :)

LOVE these girls!  I couldn't be a prouder mama!

Goofy girls, but this picture says a lot: Eliana our hoarder (always has to have a toy in hand); Victoria our goofball and baby lover (always holding Malin); And Malin - our laid back, go with the flow child.  Ha ha!

Our family of five.  Sadly, the kids weren't in the mood to participate.

Nana and Grandpa and their four little granddaughters: Malin, Victoria, Kenzie, and Eliana

Family picture after Malin's baptism!  Nick, Jonikka, Victoria, Malin, Nana, Grandpa, Heather, Eliana, John, Amanda, Kenzie, and Steve.

September of 2012

Here's the last of my recaps (not in any particular order)!  I hope to start my "snippets" in October.  Until then, I give you September of 2012:

Malin was baptized in the courtyard of our church during it's outdoor summer service and it was so beautiful.  Her baptismal sponsors are Amanda and Steve, and Heather and John.

Malin was baptized September 2nd (Labor Day Weekend) at Vinje Lutheran Church.  It was an incredible day and she was alert and full of smiles throughout the entire baptism!  I think she was as joyed as we were about welcoming her into the house of the Lord!

Still trying to figure out why these two can be the best of friends one minute, and sworn enemies the next.  Guess I'll just have to get used to it!

During Nick's big relay race weekend, I took Ellie and Malin with me to visit my best friend and her family in North Dakota.  Victoria stayed with my parents for a night and they took her to Amazin Farm where she had a blast with the rides, animals, and her grandparents!

My mom told me that the bunnies were Victoria's absolute favorite when they were at Amazin Farm.

Nick headed off to Utah for several days at the beginning of September to participate in the RedRock Relay - a 187 mile relay race through Zion National Park!  He was recruited by one of his Air Force Residency buddies and had a really great time while enjoying some beautiful scenery.

One of the views during Nick's race.  How gorgeous!

One of Eliana's favorite things is to dance with the "princesses" during the movie Anastasia.  Victoria has been taking lessons from Ellie and wants to be just like her big sister, so she, too, had to have her princess dress on to dance with the princesses!

Malin has become much more alert in recent weeks and really enjoys watching her older sisters at play!

While Nick was away in Utah at his race, Eliana, Malin, and I headed to North Dakota to visit my best friend, Brandy, and her family.  We were even able to help out on her campaigning for Cass County Commissioner by passing out candy and stickers at a neighboring town's parade.  Ellie enjoyed that part a lot!

Our God-daughter, Braiden, holding Malin on our visit!

Celebrating Grandma Marcus' 94th Birthday at Pizza Ranch!

Malin and I visited Grandma Marcus in the nursing home one afternoon.

Heather and John came home one weekend in September and joined my mom, Nick, Ellie, and I on a walk for Out of the Darkness - a suicide awareness and prevention walk.  It was a gorgeous walk around one of Willmar's lakes in the crisp fall air - all in the name of a great cause (We love you and miss you, Cameron!).

Nick and Ellie took on the project of growing a sunflower from a seed this past spring and it actually grew!  (Though I may or may not have forgotten to water it while Nick was in Utah and it may or may not have died...)

What a happy baby!  She has lost most of her hair at this point, though her little poof on the top remains!

August of 2012

Continuing my recap of this summer, I give you August of 2012:

We made it to the County Fair twice this year.  The first night, Nick and I took just the older two girls and did the rides and junk food with them.  The next morning, Nick had to work, but I met Bev and Daryl at the fairgrounds and they helped me maneuver all three girls around to see some of the animals exhibited.

Eliana and Victoria controlling the helicopter at the County Fair.

Ellie and Victoria enjoying a little music at the County Fair with Grammy.

Nick will probably never have me as a running partner, but I think he's okay with that now that Ellie has expressed some interest in running with her daddy!

Ellie and I made it to the State Fair with my parents, sisters, and brother-in-law this year.  The one thing she was most interested in was getting her face painted this year.  I let her pick whatever she wanted (REALLY hoping she'd choose the pretty butterfly), but she had to have Spiderman!  She was so patient and so thrilled with her choice!

My Spidey at the State Fair!  She was the envy of all the boys there (including a group of teenage boys who thought she was SO COOL!).

The girls "playing" together.  Poor Malin...

Victoria definitely is our baby-lover!  She LOVES holding Malin and gets so upset when it's time to take Malin from her!

Malin started smiling a lot this month.  She's got the gummiest, biggest, and most endearing smile!  We are in love!

Eliana at Water Day at daycare.  Just thought this picture was cute.  :)

We try hard to make sure that each of the girls receive special one-on-one time.  So one weekend, Heather and John took Victoria to the Cities with them and had a whole weekend with just her doing fun things!  I think everyone had fun, though I know Heather and John were pretty exhausted at the end!

Eliana's newest fad has been Spiderman.  I think it started with some of the boys playing Spiderman at daycare, but her fascination with him grew exponentially after finding the old 70's cartoon on Netflix!  Because she can be such a stubborn child at times (particularly when it came to pooping on the potty), we started offering her "Poopie Prizes" each time she would go on the potty.  Her prizes were usually small (a pair of Spiderman underwear, a jar of playdough, a coloring book), but one of her last prizes was this costume!  I'm proud to say that she is fully potty trained now and hasn't had an accident in several weeks!

Somehow, Nick managed to get both girls to fall asleep on top of him - AT THE SAME TIME!  Sometimes daddies perform the best miracles...

A family walk is quite an ordeal these days!  Thankfully, though, we were able to get out for quite a few of them during the month of August.

Victoria got some good cuddle time in with Nana one night.

One of the bigger pieces of news this month - Victoria managed to get stung by a bee while at daycare one day.  She was actually stung on the lip as you can see here, but the effects were never-ending and we now fear that she may be allergic to bee stings and have a worse reaction next time.  The poor child is now terrified of bees...

After the initial swelling on her lip had disappeared, she woke us up the next night screaming (not like her), and while trying to administer some Tylenol, we noticed that the inside of her mouth was completely swollen on one side and her breathing was odd.  I had to take her in to the ER (the first visit we've ever made for any of the kids).  It was interesting pulling an almost all-nighter in the ER and then heading to the state fair the next day!

Even this picture doesn't quite capture how bad it was, but the final effect of the bee sting was the swelling of each of her eyes - first one eye, and once the swelling went down, then it hit the other eye!  It was the oddest thing, and even the doctors (after two more visits) couldn't quite figure it out.  Thankfully, Victoria was a trooper and really didn't seem bothered by her symptoms.  In fact, she was a rather happy child!  The best part was that after the last of the swelling disappeared in her eyes, it didn't come back.

Unfortunately, Malin is the third child and just doesn't receive as many pictures because we are so busy.  And if I do happen to catch a photo of her, she's usually sleeping!

But, every once in awhile, I'll find a moment to grab my phone a take a photo or two of her.  Isn't this just the happiest kiddo?

Got to love those big open-mouthed smiles!

July of 2012

So I have learned that having three young children really doesn't leave you ANY free time!  Thus the reason why I am MONTHS behind in my blogging.  I am actually considering changing how I blog by doing what I call "snippets" instead of blogs, or quitting my blogging all together.  I know, I know... you don't want me to quit, right?  That's okay - I'm kind of leaning towards doing "snippets" anyway in which I can log into my blog from my new iPhone (yes, I got the iPhone 5!) and post pictures of the kids and activities with small statements about what we're up to.  Because I can do it right on my phone - which I always have with me - I'm hoping to be able to post more often, just with less content.  Any thoughts on this from my readers?

Anyway, because I don't want to completely leave you in the dark about what we've been up to this summer (okay - and fall.  Man, I really am behind!), I will try to do a quick summary of each month to get you caught up!  Here goes...

July 2012:

We brought Malin home - what a joy she has been!

Eliana has really enjoyed being a big sister again, although she only likes to sit still long enough to hold Malin for only a few minutes at a time.

Mud Day in the Preschool room at daycare!

Malin sure enjoys her snuggles!  I never co-slept with my girls (just not something that I find comfortable - I can never get good sleep when they are with me), but Malin always managed to sneak into the bed with me for a couple hours each morning during her first month home.  This is certainly not my finest moment caught on camera, but it's one of the very few pictures I have of Malin and I!

We had a large Marcus Family Reunion in July where everyone was able to fly in to Minnesota and meet together at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria for a few days.  SO MUCH FUN!  Here is part of the gang fishing.

Victoria enjoying her time on the beach - A HUGE thank you to Rick and Stacey for taking her!  It was nice for me to have the break and I saw how much she enjoyed the time away from her sisters, too!

Nick and Victoria at the waterpark at Arrowwood Resort.  This place had everything!

Eliana enjoying the waterslide.  Our waterbug has gotten so good in the water that she didn't even need a lifejacket on for this slide!

Some of the Marcus group were able to get out for a night on the pontoon.  Victoria enjoyed walking around the boat and checking everything out.

I thought this picture was absolutely precious.  We've got Sayer, Evan, Kendrick, Karis, and Eliana on the pontoon.

Papa taught Ellie and some of the younger kids how to fish.  Eliana was SO EXCITED to catch her first fish!

This is the first (and one of only a couple) photos that we have as a family of five.

The Marcus Family!  (Minus Ron Jr's family.  :(

Cousin Kenzie and Aunt Amanda came to visit one day - here are the little girls enjoying time "together".  :)

Great-Grandma Margaret came to visit from Chicago!  It was so great seeing her again and we enjoyed introducing her to Malin!