Midnight Madness

Yesterday, Hannah went to bed last night early because she was off her schedule. Noel and I checked on her before we went to bed. We found that she had thrown up. So we gave her a bath, changed her clothes, gave her a bottle and changed her bedding. While Noel was finishing her bedding she decided to vomit all over me and her. So we changed her again and she did it two more times in the next two hours. After changing her, finally getting her to sleep and getting her to stop vomiting we thought we were going to go to bed.

Not even 20 minutes later we heard that wonderful sound, someone throwing up. It was now Esther's turn. So Noel and I went in to clean her up. Esther got a bath, new clothes and we changed her bedding. Well because Esther shares a room with her brothers everyone was up. We ended up changing her bed three different times and woke her brothers up three different times.

Noel and I finally got to bed around 2 am. This morning we were playing and everyone looked and acted like they were feeling better. Hannah ate and was playing with everyone and they she vomited again. At that moment we decided that I needed to get her seen by a doctor. The good thing is that my pediatrician has office hours on Saturday morning. Our pediatrician was on call this weekend as well. Hannah was seen and was told that she had a virus and an ear infection.

Today we had to feed Hannah Pedialyte every hour. Hannah thought is was great at first because she got to use a sippy cup but after a while she was hungry and wanted something else, like real food. She inhaled 2 oz and wanted more but we had to wait to make sure that she could keep that down. The picture above is Hannah laying watching everyone while trying to reserve the energy that she had. She got to have 2 more ounces before she was just so tired that we let her go to sleep.

Hopefully tonight Noel and I can sleep and not have to look at sick kids who just want everything to be better and want us to fix everything. That is one of the hardest things as a parent is to look at their pain and know that you cannot do anything but kiss boo boos and just hold them. Prayer helps both as well.

Hat Day!

Our zoo has recently found the joy of hats. Noel and I decided to let the zoo wear some of the hats that we have in the house; some of them their size and one hat that we found in the closet when we cleaned it out. Noel and I have become more aware when there is a moment when we need to capture something on video or on the camera. We enjoy sharing our lives with our family and friends. Noel and I looked at the pictures and just had to laugh, because our zoo is hilarious. Hannah did not like the hat on her head and so she took it off and then gave us some looks that we had to smile at. Also look at the pictures of Esther. One picture it looks like she has been blown up with air.

Enjoy our day with the hats. On a side note Noel received a call today to let him know that they arrested the woman that stole his camera and they recovered his camera. God is good, all the time. Also I wanted to say Happy Anniversary to my loving husband. I have enjoyed our three years and I am looking forward to the years to come. Noel is my best friend and I love him very much.

Tuesday!

So this morning Noel and I were playing with the kids in the playroom. If you have never been to my house the playroom is where all the toys are so that my house does not look like a daycare center more than it needs to be.

Hannah is all over the place and is now starting to pull herself up on things, people, Colton. She is growing up so fast. Hannah is crawling, sitting up by herself, can go from crawling to sitting, pulling herself up, drinking out of a sippy cup and tomorrow she will be ready for college. LOL

If you remember from an earlier blog Esther did her raspberries for the camera and today Hannah decided that she was going to do hers. Now the camera moves a lot because I am trying to capture Hannah and entertain the other animals in the "zoo" as well.



Noel asked Elijah to say "hello" to a couple of people and Elijah decided that he was going to multi-task. Elijah is talking and digging in his nose. Don't you just love how toddlers will do anything and everything you do not want them to do in public?



Please enjoy our Tuesday together and with our wonderful "zoo."

Daddy Home!

Noel is home for this week so that he can help me with the zoo while I am still recovering. So this week I get to be the mommy instead of both. I enjoyed it today. We still have the same rules no matter if we are together or if it is just one of us, but the word "no" that comes out of Noel's mouth is so much stronger than when I say "no."

I got to be the pillow today. I was the comforter and the "safe" base for the chasing. I was very excited to only have to be one parent. Today I found myself praising God for my husband and the time that I get to spend with him this week. The zoo is in heaven with all the chasing, wrestling, rides, and flying that goes on with daddy.

We will make sure that we post more pictures through out the week of our time together.

On a side note, I am feeling better every day; I am tired at the end of the day. But lets face it who is not tired at the end of the day?

My Girls

These last couple of weeks, my mother and I have been purging my home. We have gone to almost every room and cleaned and given boxes upon boxes to Goodwill. Well in one of those rooms I found some pictures of me when I was a toddler and could not believe how close my girls are to me.
When we go out in public most of the time we get comments on how much our children look like Noel. I like those comments and All of my children have a birthmark on the back of their necks like their father as well.
I just hope and pray that my girls are like me and enjoy the non-frilly part of being a girl.

The Safari

At the zoo you normally walk and look at all the exhibits, but at my zoo we are like a safari. We roam and do our thing and let people look at us and point. Now when we found out that we were having triplets and that Elijah was not going to be one when we had them, we knew that we would be looked at and pointed at and probably talked about. That has all come to pass. Wherever we go with our zoo we are asked lots of questions some good and some rude, but we take it in stride. Really we are pretty amazing and all our children are close in age.

About three months ago Noel and I started talking about how we were going to walk with our zoo because the stroller thing is not needed for short distances and it is good for the zoo to stretch their legs. So we decided that we would make a string and put animals on it for each of the kids. While looking through a catalog we found the perfect animals, barnyard animals. So we asked for it from our parents for Christmas.

In today's society "leashes" are not the politically correct thing to do and if we did that for each child we would look like a dog walking business. So Noel made our PC "leash." Now each person in the zoo gets to hold onto an animal be it a pig, cow, horse, duck or a sheep. Then Noel and I get each end being a farmhouse or a tractor. The zoo does really well and we made sure that we practiced at home before trying it out in public with more distractions.

The first time we tried it out the zoo did fantastic it was everyone else. We decided to walk to the mailbox and get the mail. Well we were walking and you would have thought there had been an accident and everyone was driving slow to see what had happened. No they were watching us, we were glad that there was not an accident because of us. We even had a car stop so that they could roll down their window and ask a question.

Finally today we got some pictures of what it looks like for those of you that have not seen it yet. The zoo really likes the idea and they are very good about not letting go of their animal until they are told they can. Enjoy our pictures.

Snack Time

The zoo was playing in the backyard today. So we decided to have snack time in the backyard since it was nice outside.

Yesterday we bought some Italian ice snacks and decided that the zoo would like them. Everyone had their own experience. Elijah was the pro and wanted to eat his from the get go. Esther enjoyed hers and made sure that she tried to taste all the other flavors. Joshua tried his ice and did not think about the fact that it was cold. So he took a huge piece and then spit it out. Fro.m that moment on he was very cautious about his bites. Jacob wanted his to be easier to eat but he was trying everything to eat his and eventually he just drank his.

This week has been challenging for me. As a mother it is really hard to be told that you cannot pick up your own children for 3-4 weeks. One week down and three to go. I feel that if I had to give myself a grade I would give myself a C+. I did not pick up my toddlers but I did pick up Hannah. Also I did more activity then I should have. Next week will be better.

Cleaning Company

This last week has been a roller coaster. On Sunday I went to the emergency room to find out that the medication that I was taking did not solve my Gallbladder problem. Instead it was removed Sunday afternoon.

So I cannot lift anything more than 10 lbs and Noel is out of town for work. My mother came up on Sunday and has been with me all week and will be here next week. My family has been blessed to have the support system that I wish everyone had. Everything this week has been hard on me, because I am sore, I cannot pick up my children, I cannot cook, clean or do anything else that a "Martha" personality likes to do.

This week was baseboards in my list of things that need to get done in this first quarter of the year. So my mother and the zoo decided that they would do the baseboards for me. I think that I have a money-maker with my zoo. LOL I wanted to share my good moments this week. Enjoy.

Thank you mother for being there no matter what and always having such a giving heart. There are not words to describe how thankful Noel and I are for you and for dad and the sacrifices that you have gone through to help my family. We thank God everyday that you are my parents and that we are blessed to have you so close. Thank you dad for going without mother during this season of traveling and sickness in my family. I know that you sacrifice as well with having mom here instead of there with you. Thank you.

The Park

Last Saturday after the kids had gotten up and eaten, we decided to go to the park. Our zoo loves the park. Noel and I really enjoy the park because we go in the early part of the morning; we are usually the only people there. The kids get to play on the small park and the big park.

We used our new camera to take these pictures. As a zoo keeper I do not think that I take enough pictures because I do not want to miss out on anything but I also want to make sure that the people that cannot be here everyday still feel that they are part of our zoo life.

Please enjoy our family and the time that we spend together. They are growing up so fast.

Wrestling

Lately, Hannah has been trying to pull herself up and is basically using everything that she can to help her stand up. Today she decided that she was going to use Colton to achieve her goal, because he has some body mass and is not going anywhere. Colton is perfectly content being on his back and so Hannah decided to use that to her advantage.

When I saw it, I could not resist taking some pictures with our new camera that we ordered to replace the stolen one. What it actually looks like is that Hannah is wrestling Colton and that she has taken him down and pinned him to the mat.

The good thing is that Hannah does not know that Colton could crush her and Colton does not know that if he just moves one way or the other Hannah is done. They enjoy each other and are starting to become really cool to watch interact. Also the zoo really like Hannah and Coloton. I enjoy hearing them say "Hannah and Colton." Joshua is the best with them, because he is a gentle giant and just wants to love on them. Also he is patient and can get each of them to laugh.

This week has been okay with Noel gone because Kerri has stayed every night to help with bathes, playing with the zoo, and putting the zoo to bed. I think Kerri really enjoyed bath time because it is "no none sense" time. So, Kerri thank you for getting off work early and helping me keep my sanity this week. Also make sure you thank your husband for letting me borrow you this week.

Mine!Mine!Mine!

Please watch this video before reading my post.




I find it funny that there are some words that we do not teach our children but that they learn quickly. For instance the word "no" and "mine". Or as Elijah puts it "mine this." Now at my zoo it is more prevalent because I have 4 toddlers that are learning from each other. If you want to know what my day is like play the video about 400 more times.

Noel and I do not want to raise children that are selfish and this is when it starts. I mean my zoo has a whole room full of toys and they want to fight and argue over the one Lego. I have tried time-out, explaining that Jesus wants us to share, and plain referring. Today was the final moment.

I was standing in the kitchen getting juice for everyone and I heard Esther scream the word "MINE" and then push Joshua down. In my head I could see them in school being mean to kids and bullying them. I got the blue bucket that holds the toys for the room and had them help me pick up the toys. I had the zoo help me put the toys in the pantry. Then I sat them down and told them there were no more toys for the day that they needed to learn to play with each other and not against each other.

The crying started and lasted for about 5-7 minutes. Then after that they played with each other and got along for the most part. Tomorrow we will each pick a toy and see if we can make it the day with only 4 toys in the room and then we will gradually add more toys.

I want my children to think of other people before themselves and not to be mean to each other but love each other. I think that you should start early especially since my sanity depends on it with 4 toddlers.

Sick Sunday

It seems like last week was sick week at my house. Joshua got sick first and then Jacob and Esther got a milder version of what Joshua had. Then Friday Elijah got sick and we had to take him to the doctor. On Saturday I had to take Hannah. Fun, Joy, Joy!!

Noel and I decided to not get every child in the nursery sick, so we decided to stay at home and make sure that everyone was feeling better and that we contained the germs to our house and not the state of Texas.

For Christmas we received a Bounce House from Noel's father, Michael. The zoo just love it and so we decided that since they had not been outside almost all week that we would let them play in the Bounce House inside our house. Yes that is right we had the Bounce House in our playroom. The zoo loves the slide and the balls. Well everyone except Joshua. A couple of weeks ago, we put the Bounce House up. Noel was trying to figure why our outside lights were not working and so he went to shut the breaker off, well he shut the breaker that was connected to the Bounce House. The Bounce House collapsed and I had to reset the switch. Joshua was in the ball pit and when it deflated he was stuck and then when the air returned he was pushed up against the mess wall. He was NOT happy, so he is very timid with the Bounce House now and only gets in for about a minute at a time.

We took some video of them playing in the Bounce House. Enjoy. On a side note I have not been posting pictures on the blog because someone stole our camera from the car when Noel was traveling in Houston. So we had to order another camera. Later this week I hope to get some new pictures on the blog.



Hannah wanted to be in the Bounce House so bad but she got to look form her bouncing chair. She was so excited. Later we gave her a bottle in her jumper and she fell asleep so we got some video on that. If you do not know Hannah does not drink her bottle in a reclined position but in a sitting position. She is so independent and growing faster than we want her to, but she is just so adorable.



Please enjoy our Sunday at home with the kids. If you think about our family this month, please say a prayer; Noel is traveling this month again. Thank you.