Friday, July 31, 2009

A Long Week of Events!

Well if you follow this blog you know that it has been a while since I have posted. I am sorry for the lack of communication this week. It has been a long week. Noel was in Kansas this week and then I have five children.

I did get some things done this week and some things happened so here is the scoop on this past week:

I finally finished the chalkboard that is in the playroom. Here are a picture. Look Noel and I have TWO dates in August. Yeah for us.



My mother came with my newphew, Aiden, for a couple of days. We played outside in the morning when it was not so hot. One morning we were playing and Elijah wanted to climb one of our trees and got bit by ants. Or if you ask him he will say "bugs bite." We had to wrap his legs in cold wraps and put on ice. We gave him Motrin and an anti-inflammatory. Here is a picture of his legs, I felt so bad.



Also this week we have been praying for rain and on Thursday we got our prayer answered.



I let the "safari" play in the rain and they really enjoyed it. If you want to see more pictures then you can see them on the side in the July 2009 pictures. Hannah even played in the rain. They had a blast and it was nice to have the temperature go down and there be no humidity. I felt bad for Colton who did not get to play in the rain because he cannot walk.

Noel got home yesterday and we are glad that his travel season is done and that he will be home for the next couple of months. We are grateful for a wonderful week and an eventful week. I hope that each of you had a good week. I am working on the "safari's" quiet books and will start to post the pages that I finish. It is taking a long time because I have to make 5 pages for each activity. I am hoping to be done by Christmas, which means that I have to do 15 pages a month. yeah!





Sunday, July 26, 2009

Guitar Hero Here We Come!

Okay so we might be a little young to start getting our "safari" hooked on video games, but when I took this picture that is all I could think about: Guitar Hero!




Now you see why I thought that and why you are thinking it right now. I love Lego's and have since I was a kid because you can build anything with Lego's and it teaches our "safari" to have imaginations. So Elijah asked me to build something and usually I build something small and he tears it apart before he can stand up. When I built him the guitar he carried that thing around for over an hour and would not let anyone touch it. Yeah he eventually tore it apart and built something else but for the rest of the day the "safari" tried to play every creation they made like the guitar that I made Elijah. Am I a cool mom or what? No, I just want to be a toddler again.

Yeah for imagination and dreams. Someday maybe I can build a Lego creation like this one with my "safari."



Just kidding! I was paying attention in church about making sure that my time is spent on eternal things!


Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Newlyweds

Today Noel and I are being featured on a blog called the Newlyweds. Each week she has a married couple featured where the wife explains how they met, what is special about her husband and some information about herself. Please go and read her blog today. Make a comment and then contact her if you want to be featured. It is nice to learn about how people meet and how they make their relationship work and stay fresh. Have a nice day.


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Thinking Outside the BOX!

The "safari" got some really cool books, puzzles, and Lego's. My "safari" love to do puzzles and so they went to town. Nana and Papa got them a few puzzles that make noises when you put them together.

The "safari" was playing on the floor, Noel and I noticed that Esther was putting the puzzles together differently then the other kids. She did not want to put the right puzzle pieces in the right holes, so she used the Lego's to help her finish her puzzle. I thought it was great that she used her imagination to finish her puzzle and she was very excited that she put hers together.

Here are a few pictures that we got of her "finished" puzzle.





Tuesday, July 21, 2009

You Know that you have TRIPLETS when....

Okay, I usually don’t post stuff like this, but I found this on a message board and thought it was funny. This isn’t the whole thing, only the parts that are (or were or will be) somewhat relevant to me…

You know you have triplets when……

Your stroller has its own zip code.

Dinnertime is officially declared an Olympic Event

You are the only parents who can utter, “Stop playing with that, it’s not YOUR penis” with a perfectly straight face.

You arrive at your doctor’s appointments early just to read the magazines in peace.

Root canals are a great chance to catch up on your sleep.

You laugh at singleton moms that are struggling to get their stroller out of the car.

You wonder how come singleton moms need a diaper bag the size of a suitcase, while you travel with enough for your babies in a bag half the size.

You can unload two, or three babies (or more) from car seats and put them in your stroller WHILE you are laughing at the singleton mom getting her stroller out of her car.

Your husband has seriously tried to motorize your stroller.

There is no room in your refrigerator for food, all available space is occupied by pre-prepared bottles of formula.

You look at a closet full of diapers and think “I’m running low”

A regular sized pack of diapers lasts only 3 days.

Every morning you mentally prepare yourself for the worst before your enter “that” bedroom, (naked toddlers, wet bed sheets, diapers on the floor and three little voice saying “poop, poop”)

Your biggest dilemma is how to keep those dang diapers on.

You are obsessed with diapers.

You can throw French-fries to the rear set of seats without looking and none end up on the floor.

You feel like a sheepherder instead of a parent

You have people asking if you run a daycare because that’s what your yard looks like.

You can carry 3 plates of food and 3 cups (or 4) to the table without spilling anything and you’ve never been a waitress.

You can hold at least three conversations at the same time.

You no longer have a proper name you are either “The Lady With Triplets” or Moooooooooommmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyy

You find yourself singing songs from Yo Gabba Gabba while at Walmart

You have diapers in your purse, in the glove compartment, your desk drawer and in every room of the house – just in case.

Every square inch of seating in your vehicle is taken by car seats.

You know you are a MoM when you can sweep, talk on the phone, AND read to your children all at the same time.

Your monthly grocery budget is greater than the annual budget for the State of Rhode Island.

Four hours of sleep is “fully rested” and falling asleep over the kitchen sink is a “fulfilling nap”

The first thing you ask upon arriving home is for the poop and pee report.

2 minute tasks take 30 minutes because you have to keep returning to the play room to break up fights, peel the kids from the wall, change a diaper you can actually smell from the next room, break up more fights, remove a child from the top of the couch, perform surgery on the VCR because there is an UFO inside of it, fill sippy cups back up with water because whatever was in them disappeared mysteriously (only later when you sit down on the couch you will find where it went) remind them not to jump on each other, break up a few more fights and change more poopy diapers.

You not only are familiar with what a 300 count box of Kleenex looks like when they are all removed from the box one at a time, but you know for a fact you can’t put them back because you’ve tried.

You curse stores for only having two of something in a package, or for only having two of something on their shelf.

You buy Baby Motrin, Cough Syrup, etc, 3 at a time, and the clerk looks at you funny, while the whole time you are wishing they sold it in gallon containers.

You’ve fallen asleep in any of these places: The shower, washing dishes, sitting on the floor reading them a book, with your fork on the way to your mouth..

You agonize over what it will be like when they get to school and you have three teachers to visit on parent night, three different sets of homework.

Instead of a wallet full of photos you carry around a CD because it holds 700 megabytes of them.

700 megabytes is 1 night worth of photos.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows who you are, even though you’ve never met them before.

The grocery store clerk has commented on the 6-9 gallons of milk you buy each week, telling you it would be cheaper to buy a cow.

You’ve ever truly considered strangling someone who said, “you’ve got your hands full” or “I’d shoot myself”.

You’ve ever been so sleepy that you can fall asleep with the baby lying on your chest and fail to wake up despite the fact that the baby is screaming directly into your left ear.

You are both shocked by the rudeness, and amazed by the kindness of strangers in the same 60 seconds upon entering Walmart.

If you’ve never charted poops pees and food intake.

You know at one time you did have a spouse, but now you can’t remember

You have to wash the dinner dishes by hand because the dishwasher is full of bottles.

The singleton mom in front of you at Walmart buying one can of formula and one bag of diapers complains about the price and you have to restrain yourself from hitting a complete stranger.

The clerks at the grocery store have to regularly restrain you from pummeling any singleton mom that takes the last multi seat-shopping cart.

You are both revered and hated by the staff at your pediatrician’s office.

You don’t see anything unusual with the fact that you know not one, but several, quad moms.

You no longer have to wonder what a “poop painting” would look like.

A complete stranger walks up to you in the mall and says “my niece has triplets, her name is _________ do you know her?” and you can answer “yes I do”

The awareness of silence strikes terror into your soul.

You know the black market value of a Runabout stroller.

You consider cereal dumped on the middle of the floor, not to be bad parenting, but rather a unique picnic breakfast!

All kids are aware that any sippy cup left unattended is fair game.

Whining is heard not just in stereo, but in surround sound!

You go to an amusement park with your triplet stroller only to realize YOU’VE become the source of amusement, or you go to the Zoo and find the other visitors watching your kids more than the animals!

Your peri says you look like a beached whale at 24 weeks.

You know what the word Peri stands for.

You use the word singleton.

You refer to your babies as A B and C

$15.00 baby outfits seem too expensive.

You buy a single weeks worth of formula, and the clerk asks you if you are stocking up.

You laugh at singleton moms for sterilizing pacifiers. You can’t stop yours from sucking on each others fingers, nose, ears, toes etc, so you just shake your head because you know those germs are building up their immune system.

You pick up a dropped paci, and just blow the dust off rather than rinsing it because after all, 5 minutes ago they shared it with the dog, and you didn’t get to it in time before they put it back in their mouths. What’s a little dust?

You intentionally feed all 3 kids from the same spoon and bowel even though one is sick, because you can’t bear the thought of 3 consecutive 2 week cold sessions, you’d rather have them sick at the same time.

When discussing child proofing and singleton moms say “you just have to tell them no, you can’t child proof everything” and you laugh and say “Wanna Bet?”

After 20 minutes in the car you realize you are not only listening to the kids tape, but you are singing along with it, and there are no kids in the car.

The $250 travel system stroller that singleton moms complain about being too big, look like toy strollers to you.

You’re not sure if what you squeezed on your toothbrush was toothpaste or diaper ointment, but you’re too tired to care, and too tired to check, so you keep brushing anyway.

You say to your husband “if you wake up these babies I’ll kill you” and you mean it.

You say to your mother “if you wake up these babies I’ll kill you” and you mean it.

You say to your cat “if you wake up these babies I’ll kill you” and you mean it.

All of a sudden everyone you know, knows someone with triplets.

You know what a crib tent is!

You consider leashes a viable safety option

You burst into laughter at the site of a diaper Genie… AS IF….!!

You celebrate the birthdays of the people who invented the spill proof sippy cup and the auto repeat replay function on DVD players.

You bought a dog (or have thought about it) to cut down on post meal cleanup time.

On the way to rescue a paper towel roll on the verge of destruction you suddenly realize that it might buy you 5 minutes to check your e-mail.

The next day, the kids wake up too early, you open their door long enough to throw in a couple of rolls of paper towels and you go back to bed.

You discover Nirvana when you finally convert to that all one color/all one size/all one style of socks, system.

Your home has become a complex maze of gates, locks and barricades.

You are not horrified at the idea of “waking a sleeping baby” to eat. After all, it is time to EAT so sayeth the master schedule!

You seriously wish someone would sell Orajel in a toothpaste-sized tube. Is this little tiny tube supposed to be a joke? And that’s with the one day supply of infant Tylenol… don’t they know I need a 10oz bottle?

You delivered 16 lbs of baby, and didn’t set any records.

Your nickname for a period of time was Bessie.

You don’t think the Suburban is a large vehicle.

When hearing of a new pregnancy, you first question is “just one?”

You call one baby a singleton (before your triplets arrived, it was just “a baby”)

All your friends have multiples.

You send 7 invitations to a birthday party, and you have 15 kids show up, and you were expecting more.

You don’t want to potty train because the thought of trying to take all 3 to a public bathroom yourself sends shivers up and down your spine.

You make formula by the gallon and it lasts only 24 hours.

Your pediatrician’s office recognizes your voice.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thank you!

I wanted to thank Donna and John for sending the "safari" some NASA shirts. Here is a picture that we took in their shirts; we hope that you like them.



When I met Noel he told me all about Aunt Donna and John. Since we have been married they have gotten more high profile jobs. Donna works for the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and is trying to figure a solution to the priating that has been going on. She was in London last week. Then John is now in charge of the IT department for NASA. Who knew?

Thank you again for the shirts, the "safari" loved them and did not want to take them off this morning to put their clothes on. Hope to see you soon.


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

ONE YEAR!

It is official I have gone one year without being pregnant! Oh and Hannah turned a year today.

This year has been amazing. When Noel and I found that we were pregnant again we were not that thrilled to be honest. We were still in the thick of getting use to having triplets and now we were pregnant again. Noel and I were worried that we were going to have multiples again, but when we found out that we were only having a singleton it was a little better.

My pregnancy was great and my OB/GYN was retiring from delivering babies but decided that he would stay on until I delivered Hannah. So Hannah was the last baby that he delivered and I also was the only triplet delivery for him as well.

Looking back at this year it has been amazing. We were blessed with a wonderful baby, with a lot of personality. Hannah started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks and has been a true delight this year and we hope in the years to come. I thought that I would put together some pictures that we have taken of her.

Happy Birthday Hannah, mommy and daddy love you and are looking forward to raising you to be a Godly woman.


Sunday, July 12, 2009

Water! The Good, the Bad and the Dirty!

Wednesday was a good day for me. Noel called me and told me that he was going to be home an entire day early. I was excited and looking forward to spending time with him in the middle of the week.

On Thursday morning Noel and I walked downstairs to find that our kitchen and pantry was flooded. We moved into action, Noel grabbed his Shop Vac and I grabbed my steam vac to start sucking up the water. I had to remove all the items that were on the floor in my pantry. I was just glad that our "safari" was not up. I called to say that I could not watch Colton and then I called my mother to ask her to come and help me with cleaning. Noel went to Lowe's and rented a "snake" for the pipes that was 50ft long. He "snaked" the line a couple times and then had to go to work because this is the busy part of the season and needed to be in the office.

So I blocked up the kitchen so that my "safari" could not get into the kitchen. We had breakfast in the play room and then I took them to McDonald's for lunch. When the "safari" went to lunch my mother and I went into high gear so that we could clean the floor. We went through the items that were on the floor, pulled the washing machine, dryer out to clean the floor and then sanitized the floor. Cleaned up the kitchen and then got the "safari" up from nap time.

When Noel got home we put some liquid plumber down the drain and "snaked" it a few more times. We also called our insurance agency and was told to get in contact with a "drying" team. They came by the house and told us that it would cost us $1700 to dry our house/walls. Noel and I do not have $1700 so Noel asked us what we needed to do. Noel had to take all the base boards off, toe kicks off and drill holes in the walls where the base boards were. Also we had to pull the carpet back and cut the pad that was wet. The next morning the dishwasher was ran and it did well. I then tried the washing machine and found out that our plumbing problem was not fixed.

Noel called his mother to see if she remembered the plumber that she used. Noel called the guy but the guy never called us. On Saturday I was at my parent's to cook for the month. On Sunday we went to church and then Noel went to rent the "snake" again but the rental place was closed at Lowe's so he went the other place. The "snake" that he rented was 75 ft long. We found the clog and cleared it. yeah.

I started our washing machine to clean the inside, well the washing machine was not cleared of the soap from the load that I had to stop so that the water would quit flowing onto my floor. So the machine filled with soap suds. I had to suck the soap suds out of the washing machine. Noel and I have come to the conclusion that we hate WATER.

In the last couple of months we have had some interesting things happen with water. The first thing was that the line from our old shower was capped and the cap did not work and started to pour water into our wall. We fixed that and replaced the cap. Then there were a few seams in our shower that were not sealed and had water dripping out and we had to find that our by trial and error. We cut a hole in our ceiling and in our bedroom to find the leak. And hopefully the final water that we will experience for a while was my flooded kitchen.

Now we are looking at our options for replacement for our floors. With living on one income we have to be wise with our money and decisions. It would be easy to got out and spend money instead of looking at our options and praying to see what God wants us to do. Please pray that we are wise with our decisions. Thank you for all your concern and for all the calls. Our house is not back to "normal" status but we will live with the status that we have right now and make decisions after Noel is done with travel season.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

When there is room for ONE!

The "safari" all have their birthdays in the summer. The triplets in June, Hannah in July and Elijah in August. So Noel and I decided that we are going to have one birthday party.

Noel's brother gave him a present for the "safari" early. It is a little red car that fits ONE person. Noel puts in the backyard and the next day Elijah goes outside with Noel to water trees and sees it. The next day we have the entire "safari" outside and everyone wants to be in the red car. So what does my "safari" do? Do they each take a turn and share the car? NO! They figure out a way to fit all of them in this car designed for ONE!



I had to take a picture because they were determined to ride the car at the same time. Of course Jacob is the one on top of the car, because he has NO FEAR! This is not a one time thing. If there is something to climb into they all try to fit in that space. This weekend my parents came down for the 4th of July. My mother packed her things in this plastic box with wheels. So of course the "safari" wanted to play with it.



There are not a lot of things that are made for 5 toddlers, but if you can climb into then the "safari" will try to and they are teaching Hannah to do the same. So they may share the toy, bucket, laundry basket, bathtub just not in the same way that other people share things.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Family, Food and Fireworks! Oh My!

For the fourth Noel and I had my parents and my sister over for the day. For family functions it is easier to come to our house for logistical reasons and because I have more room in my house for our big family.

The menu for the day was grilled chicken, baked beans, cream corn, pasta salad, homemade sourdough bread, watermelon, and dessert. We decided that we would have all that food for dinner and just make sure the kids were fed during the day. I was in charge of dessert and drinks and so I decided that I would make a version of Banana Pudding. Here is a picture of the dessert that I made and it was fabulous.

In the morning we played with the kids and then they ate lunch and took a nap. After nap time we headed to the pool since we had enough adults for the kids that we had, 5 adults and 8 kids. Of course the pool was packed, but the good thing was that the pool had soft life jackets for the kids and that made it easier. We bought Hannah a floating contraption because she is a water bug and wanted to jump into the water with no protection. Now Elijah was not too happy at first and the triplets followed his lead until they figured out that they could touch the bottom of the pool. Jacob has no fear and that was translated into the pool. They have a kids water slide and Jacob went head first every time. Elijah just wanted to go and Esther became brave towards the end. Joshua just wanted to float in Hannah's contraption and was happy after that happened; he is my land kid but he did have a good time. When we were leaving there was a guy from one of the Cedar Park, Leander papers that took a picture of us leaving the pool with the kids holding onto their animals, so he is putting us in the paper.

When we got home from the pool we gave the kids a bath and then finished up dinner so the kids could eat. That is exactly what they did, they were hungry from the pool and ate very well. Here is a picture of Hannah after eating dinner, do you think that she liked dinner?

The kids did not last for fireworks and I knew they would not after the long and eventful day that we had. So my "safari" went to bed and Pam's kids went home before the fireworks started.

When we bought our house we did not know that we were going to live so close to fireworks. Each year our street and the main street into our sub-division is lined with the cars of people going to the park for fireworks. For the past three years Noel and I have sat in our backyard and enjoyed the fireworks without the hassle of parking, crowds, and traffic.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their celebration of Independence and that you remembered the families that are sacrificing out there for that freedom.



Friday, July 3, 2009

Trees with Fruit

When we moved into our house this is what our backyard looked like:
Do you see the mounds of rocks? I thought that the family before us had either buried their pets there or had human remains in the backyard. Also there was a cement ring where a Coy pond use to be. Our backyard was horrible. Then there was this bush by the air conditioning unit.

A lot of hard work and some moving of rocks, Noel did all of that because I was pregnant the entire time, made our backyard better. Noel must have loaded the truck bed at least 5 times with all the rocks that were in our backyard and til this day we still find rocks in weird places. Then there is the cement that we find in the backyard. The family before us decided that it would be better to fill the holes in the backyard with cement instead of top soil.

Noel decided to pull the bush that was beside our A/C unit up and found that we had a fig tree there, but it was dying because the bush was killing it. Noel decided to water it and see what would happen. Well this year our Fig Tree is huge and has lots of fruit on it. The "safari" eat the figs as soon as Noel picks them and this morning they ate at least 20 figs between them. On the other side of the yard we found that we have a pomegranate tree that is producing a lot of fruit as well. Noel and Elijah make sure that our trees get enough water in this summer heat. Our pecan tree is starting to produce fruit and we will have to see what happens.

It is nice to see what some love and water can do to a tree and what that tree can produce for you. The "safari" love to go outside and see if daddy can find them a fig to eat off the tree. We can only imagine how wonderful it was for Adam and Eve to just walk in the garden and pick whatever fruit they wanted off the trees and enjoy it. So if you are thinking about planting a fruit tree they will survive in Texas with some love and lots of water.

These are some pictures that I took of our trees that are bearing fruit in our backyard.


Thursday, July 2, 2009

Hats!


My "safari" love hats. By the pictures above you can join in our laughter of all the different hats that they have worn and have made into hats.

This week Elijah has enjoyed playing with his underwear and decided that it would be funny to make it into a hat. Well as soon as he did that then everyone wanted a "hat". They all looked great in their hats except Joshua; his head was too big and it hurt his head. That just proves that his head is huge, and confirms why it is so hard to get a shirt over his head.

I just wanted to share the "safari's" love for hats and hope that you have a wonderful July 4th weekend.