Dishwasher Time!

In our house we try to keep the "safari" out of the kitchen except when they are eating. Each of them are drawn to the dishwasher for some reason. With each child they like to climb onto the dishwasher or just play with the dishwasher. There seems to be a fasination with playing with the soap dispenser or the drawers because they glide in and out. Then you have the dishes themselves, especially the untensils.

Hannah is no different then the rest of them. She likes the dishwasher and the other day she proved that she liked the dishwasher and that she can help us with the dishes and still be able to play with the dishwasher. Hannah decided to climb onto the dishwasher and load her sippy cup into the dishwasher. She was so proud that it was hard for me to tell her "no." Also she has so many facial expressions that I had to capture them on camera.

Here are some pictures of my "safari" playing with the dishwasher.

Our safari is famous!

Hey everyone our "safari" is famous! We are being featured on the Multiples and More blog today. Please stop by and see what they are saying about us. I love this blog because when I am having a bad day I can go and read how I am not the only one and I can laugh at other people who are having one of those days.

This blog is a community of MoMs who need support, laughter, tears and free things. Check out our fame and leave a comment. Also if you know someone that is a MoM send them the link and have them join our community.

There is a Stranger at the Door!

Saturday started as a typical day. We got the "safari" up and went downstairs, had breakfast and then started to play in the playroom. Around 9:30-10:00 am Noel walked into the dining room and our day changed!

Noel stated that there was a person at the door. I thought that was strange because we were not expecting anyone and no one had rang the doorbell. Noel proceeded to go to the door, turned the alarm off and unlock the door. As he is holding onto the door handle the female at the door tried to get into our house. Noel asked the girl if we could help her and she stated that she was looking for someone and that this was his/her house. Noel then told her that she had the wrong house and she then started to apologize. Noel closed the door.

Being a mother I observed the conversation and then after Noel closed the door I went outside to see what was wrong and if I could do anything. The female was no more than 16 years old, she had NO shoes on and her clothes looked liked she had been rolling around in mud. I asked her if everything was okay and if we could help her in some way. She stated that she did not know where she was and that she was really sorry for imposing on us. I asked her if she knew someone that she could call. I went back inside and let Noel go outside for her to use one of our phones.

Noel came back inside and let me know that she got a hold of someone and that she was crossing the street to find the right house. About 20 minutes later my phone rings and I pick it up. It is a male teenager and he states, "hey what are you doing?" I begin to tell him that his friend had used my phone and that she was lost. He stated "is she still walking down the street?"

Hindsight is 20/20. Noel and I should have called the police department to make sure that she was okay, because she was definitely had something in her system. This morning Noel went out to the car to find out that the female had been sitting in our car because the mud that was on her is now in our car.

I know that this was the last weekend before school started and there must have been a party on Friday night. I am shocked at the parenting and lack of parenting that is going on with this current generation. Now I know that there are responsible parents out there but the sad thing is that it is a minority and not a majority anymore. I have to pray and trust that God is going to guide Noel and I as we raise our children to give them guidance and responsibility and hope that our children do not make decisions that will change their lives for the bad. May God protect my children and guide me as a parent to love and discipline our children the right way. That my children see that Noel and I love God and that we love our children but that we are not going to let our children be disobedient to us or to God. Give us the right balance.


I know that I have not been blogging lately. I am trying to help my sister start her company and so I am designing her webpage. Also I am getting ready to do marathon cooking again. I have some things that I want to post so hopefully I will be caught up and ready to go either this week or next. I am still here and we are doing well.

Dancing Hannah

It has been a while since we have shown you video of our lives. Well Hannah loves to hang out with the rest of the "safari." When they are playing chase she tries to run with them and when they pass her she laughs and thinks they are playing with her. Music comes on and she will dance with them just to be a part of the "safari."

Well today we finally got some video of our last child and all the personality that she has. There are two videos because she and Jacob run into each other and that causes a crash and some tears, but she gets right back up and continues on her energy driven dance moves. Enjoy.

Page 1 & 2

Over the last several months I have been looking for a wonderful craft for our "safari" that they would keep for their childhood and pass to their children. Some of my friend's mothers made them quiet books. Quiet books are books that you make or buy that give your toddlers activities to do so that they remain quiet in church, meetings or in the car on a trip. I looked at several quiet books and even looked them up on the internet. There were several choices, felt, easy, hard, expensive and all of the above.

I decided to take what I liked from all the designs that I saw and make my own. I thought that this would be a great Christmas gift for the "safari." So I started this month and figured that I would have to do 13-15 pages a month. I am done with the first two pages and I have to say that I have enjoyed this project so far because I have to be creative.



The first page is for a pen/pencil, and bunch of scratch paper and some crayons. The second page is for teaching the "safari" how to use a zipper. I enjoyed picking the fabric out and making all the decisions. Also I made the pattern on my computer for the entire project. Most of the pages came from a dear friend that let me take pictures of her daughter's quiet book. I am working on the third page and will continue to post the pages until the entire book is done and I have all five under the Christmas tree. If at the end you like the quiet book then I can give you my pattern so that you have make your decisions and make your own.

Rebellion, but not Technically

With everything that has been going on I thought that I would write what the state of mind of my "safari" has been lately.

As parents when you tell your children that they cannot do something you want to make it simple and easy to understand. Noel and I found that we need to give as much information as possible to make sure that our "safari" does not find the loop holes. Let me give you two examples that we have proof of.

The sleeping situation is that Jacob and Joshua sleep in the same room. Well they like to take the mattress off their beds and so Noel and I have told them that is no. They have even gotten in some trouble over disobeying that. Well we went in on Saturday to wake them up from nap time and this is what we saw.



Now they did move their mattress and that is something that we want them not to do, but technically they did not disobey because the mattress was not on the floor. I know it cannot be comfortable to sleep on the metal frame without the mattress. Joshua and Jacob put their pillows down and slept on them.

The other example was Elijah. Now with him trying to potty train we are telling him that it is okay for him to go to the bathroom and leave his room. We told him that he could not play in the hallway. Well he did not play in the hallway he fell asleep in the hallway.



We feel that they did not break the letter of the law just the spirit of the law. Our "safari" is hilarious and sometimes Noel and I can only laugh at what our "safari" thinks about and how they sometimes go around what we tell them without technically breaking any rules. If this is any indication of what it will be like when they get older, Noel and I are going to have to be very specific with our communication with our "safari."

Evaluations!

Well Noel and I made it through one week of potty training the triplets and now it is evaluation time. Who passed and who is waiting some more before we go through this again.

Potty training is a stressful time for everyone involved whether you are the parent or the toddler. The "safari" did okay and I feel that they adapted well to the environment that Noel and I had for them this week. You see there is only one toilet downstairs and so there was shifting and portable potties this week for the other two that were not the lucky one that got the toilet. Then Elijah had to find his time on the toilet in between the "safari" going potty.

Esther is the champion of the potty training week. So we are going to continue to potty train her and then when she is almost fully potty trained then we will pick another one of the triplets to focus our time on.

Joshua used the toilet this week but then also used his pull-up as well. So we will let Joshua go potty when we change his diaper to get him in the habit of going potty, but we do not feel that he is completely ready for full potty training. Joshua does not like to be "dirty" but he is still okay with being wet.

Jacob could care less that we are suppose to potty in the toilet. So he will probably be more ready when he is closer to 3 but we will still encourage him.

Hannah will enjoy that she will not be left out any longer this week. She took it pretty hard that the triplets were getting all the attention this past week.

Noel and I are still in love with each other and we still love our children. We are glad that we tested the triplets with potty training and all and all it was not all bad. Thank you for your kind words and your encouragement, it was good to read. So next week there will not be posts on potty training unless something wonderful happens. I am planning on taking photos of the first two pages of my quiet book that I am done with and sharing those things.

Day Three, The End!

Day Three of potty training was HORRIBLE!!!! It started off bad and just ended bad.

Noel had to finish some things for work and so we working all morning. So my "security" blanket was gone and as a mom I failed. With the feel of that security blanket and then not having it as a help just made my emotions more intensified. So each time that the triplets did not go potty it just made me more frustrated so that by lunch I did not like my children and just wanted to run away and return after potty training was over.

They took a nap and Noel could help in the afternoon. It came to be a non-productive day. Joshua is doing very well and can pee on demand. Jacob and Esther are a hit and miss. At the end of the third day we were discussing how we were going to stop potty training after Sunday if it did not get any better.

Please pray for us as parents that we would have the patience to love our "safari" through this stressful time for us. It is not a stressful time for the "safari" but for us as parents. We just feel that we are successful or failures depending on if our children can pee on demand. Now that sounds stupid but I bet if you ask any parent that has tried to potty train they will say that they feel the same emotions. Ours is just multiplied because we have to try to get all three on a schedule so they can potty and fell accomplished. Noel and I want to feel that as well.

The third day was a battle of emotions, character and love. We did not do so well. I am just glad that our "safari" will not remember that we failed them on the third day of potty training, but that they are potty trained and we love them.

Thank you for the letting us confess our short-comings and the emotions that we had on day three. We hope that day four is more about love, patience and understanding then defeatist attitudes.

Also there are NO pictures of our horrible day; that might be the best thing because those pictures would not be good. See you tomorrow when we tell you about day four.

Day Two!

We survived day two. Joshua did so well that we started to put him in pull-ups. He went to the potty every time that the timer went off and he even told us that he needed to go potty. The big event for the day was that he pooped in the big toilet. Now to someone that does not have children/toddlers that is not a big deal. If you have toddlers or have potty trained your children then you know that is a huge deal and is almost as big as any event in their life so far.

Jacob was a hit and miss. He does not like being confined to a space and did not want to potty. When he did potty though he was so excited. Esther was stubborn but what else is new.

Elijah was good as always but he wanted to potty in the Ikea toilets instead of the big potty. Also he wanted to potty upstairs instead of the downstairs bathroom because that made him special.

The most difficult person was Hannah. She wanted to be by my side all day and with me trying to get THREE toddlers to go potty she was left out. She had several meltdowns. She will get over it but she was not happy with the change.

Here are a few photos of the "safari" on their mission to potty.

Day One Potty Training

The very words "potty training" usually bring fear and anxiety about the whole thing. For us it is no different just on a different scale. Since the end of May Elijah has been doing really well with the whole potty training thing. He is dry throughout the day and is now dry throughout the night, most of the time.

So since Noel is done with traveling for a while we decided to do the potty training thing for real with the triplets. So yesterday we started. At first it was hard because all they wanted to do was sit on the potty and read their books. After Joshua went potty and got some candy the rest of them decided it was not too hard to get some candy.

Of course it was an off and on thing through out the day. Esther did really well in the morning and then in the afternoon forgot that she was suppose to potty. Jacob just wanted the candy and did not want to potty. Joshua was the champion because there was food involved; I think that if you asked him to say his ABC's he would find a way if it involved food as the reward.

Elijah regressed though. He can hold his potty for about 2-3 hours at a time but yesterday he wanted to potty every time the timer went off. He thought that he was going to get candy. Noel told him that he had to poop to get some candy, so what that meant for Elijah was that he needed to poop every 10-15 minutes. Elijah became an expert at pooping just enough to get candy. Also he did not want to use the big boy toilet but the little Ikea ones.

I felt sorry for Hannah, because she was not allowed in the kitchen with the rest of the "safari" when it was potty time, and she did not understand why she was alone during parts of the day. So she was a little more clingy yesterday than normal.

We will let you know how day 2 ended tomorrow. We are having an okay time.

A weekend with Pops!

On Friday we traveled to San Antonio to see POPS! It has been a while since we had seen him at his house and the "safari" was excited. This would be the first time that we would sleep at Pops house and so this was our "trial" run.

We arrived at Pop's house and got the "safari" inside. They ate dinner, Chic-fil-a, and then we had bath time. Our "safari" love their grandparents and so Pops wore them out. The sleeping arrangements were pretty creative. Hannah and Esther slept in playpens in the guest bathroom. The boys slept on a queen size bed against the wall in one of the guest bedrooms. We had to move furniture, raise blinds, put plug protectors in and had to think of everything they would get into. I also put a monitor in their room so that I could hear them. After putting them to bed we were watching TV and that is when I heard the sound of a door being opened and closed. I sent Noel upstairs to get the boys the firm talking about the doors. He came downstairs and told me that it was not the boys but was Hannah opening and closing the bathroom door. All in all the "safari" did fantastic with their sleeping arrangements and there were no fatalities.

On Saturday we played in the backyard with Pops. Now a couple of years ago you would not have been able to say that. Pops had a rock garden in his backyard. Now his backyard is great and soon it will have a swimming pool, Yeah Pops. I think he just wants to make sure that we visit on a regular basis. Here are a few photos of the backyard before and after. He now has a deck, patio, fire pit and grass.

I thought that I would put some photos of the "safari" playing in his backyard as well. They really enjoyed the hill and we enjoyed seeing them run/fall/slip/walk down the hill. I have to say that Joshua was the funniest because he runs funny as it is and adding angles just made it funnier.

Thank you Pops for letting us come and see you, everyone had a great time and we look forward to spending more nights with you. Thank you for taking Noel for sushi he states that he will be set for a while. We love you very much and will see you in a couple of weeks in Dallas, YEAH!