i miss you.

my lack of communication has not been on purpose.  i've wanted to share baby tess with all of you fine people!  really!  i dearly miss blogging.  maybe it comes as a surprise, but i blog (write) for me first.  it's nice to get these thoughts outta my head.  i re-read later, and it allows me to process it all clearly.  anyway, i just haven't had a free moment.

was i that ignorant to think i'd have time once baby 3 arrived?!  

baby tess likes to be held.  all.  the.  time.  she sleeps with me.  i'm sole feeder.  you can imagine (or maybe you really can't!) that blogging just has to fall by the wayside... along with dishes, cleaning, eating, laundry and anything else that isn't tess!  man!  my difficult (or rather, my high-needs) baby couldn't have been first?  had to have been last, when i already have 2 other demanding small humans?

all i keep thinking is thank goodness for grandmas.  ben and i have truly been blessed with willing mothers to hold baby 3 and watch older crazies siblings.  can't thank them enough.  i'm still so very thankful and humbled by their generosity and continual support.

i probably have 2 dozens blogs circulating in my head... will i ever get to them?  hmmm... right now?  not likely.  and, because she's like a ticking time bomb to when she'll start crying, i better not waste any seconds; that swing only pacifies for so long!  so, here are some pictures highlighting all that has been happening over at team miebs' quarter for the past 6 weeks.  6 weeks!

we are so in love with baby tess.  we had a rough few couple of weeks, and she's still trying to figure this life thing out, but i think we're making progress.  (less tears, all around!)  we've had a lot of firsts - first hikes, first time snuggling with family, first holiday, first photo shoot, first bath...

enjoy.

8 days old

first bath

 first hike

 first time meeting papa paul

 4 days old

 he's smitten.

 due date.

happy to have her in my arms and not in my belly

first easter!

(ok, so she skipped the egg hunt this year...)

 first photo shoot

 sisters!

we watch from afar, the wild sibs go 'round and 'round the backyard

 dylan's never far from baby tess

 more snowmachine fun

 ben and his ladies

 meeting papa frank

great-grandma loves her cuddle time

...so does auntie lory

...and nana does, too!

birthday girl

my "baby" is 3!  except, i can't even refer to her as that anymore.  as of two weeks ago, she's no longer the baby.  there's a new baby in town.  messing up everyone's placement in our family.  (that's for another post...)  i'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we are now a family of 5.  FIVE!

dylan june.  our skin-as-white-as-snow, red-headed beauty.  the spitfire.  personality plus.  duey.  pig.  there was a time in those postpartum weeks of bringing her into our home, where i thought, man, what have we done!  jack's world was flipped upside down by this new tiny human.  but, then again, it's hard to imagine that she just wasn't always here... always here tormenting her big brother, teasing her dada, reading stories to herself, hanging off the bulldog and loving on her baby sister.

her squinty-eyed smile is infectious; her cackle of a laugh makes you do your own giggle; and she's just so dang cute, you'll want to snatch her up and plaster her with smooches - i promise!

happiest of birthdays to my little lady!