We Are Close!!

What's In Your Backseat?

This summer I asked the question, 'How does your garden grow?'

This winter I'm asking the question, 'What's in your back seat?'

Here is our backseat, filled to brim with wee-ones.

In this picture we are on our way back from the doctors. As you can see by Edie's eyes she is still puffy and fighting a nasty cold. She and Aubrey both have ear infections and we brought Ray along to see if that gift kept on givin'. She came back clean, she just has the nasty cough.

The first picture I took all three were screaming with discontent, I thought I would save you all the heart ache of witnessing that sorrowful photo

Reagans TV Face

She loves TV. She'll sneak it on. She knows how to turn the volume way down. If we are projecting or playing upstairs and she is no where to be found, check in front of the TV. She has almost figured out how to get to the On Demand shows. Once the prompt comes up she 'll bring me the remote and say 'now, what do I push mama?'

Bed Head

Sorry New Camera Date Stamp is Incorrect

Pucker Up

Sorry New Camera Date Stamp is incorrect

Edie loves chap stick, she usually puckers up and puts a little on, then bites the end off,

Good Morning Monkeys

Time Line

Let's Review

December 19th
The girls patiently waiting for Santa to come to their school on the Friday before Christmas.






December 23rd
Ethan, Aubrey and Reagan anxiously awaiting the first of their Holiday presents from family. Thank You All very much for so many thoughtful goodies for the girls!









Sofia sneaking a peak at some presents. Doesn't she look like Cindy Loo Hoo from the Grinch. She was so sweet, she and Edie would walk around holding hands and hugging. They are the same age but I think Edie thinks she is a baby because she is smaller. Not by much!




December 24th
Christmas Eve at MeMe and Grampys this was the first of many special presents Thank You Everyone!!!

Santa Came!!!

December 25th, Christmas Morning


Santa came to our house and he left the girls some great presents. He brought them a computer, and a digital camera.








Edie sat with Daddy she wasn't so sure about all this commotion so early in the morning. Did I mention it was 7:45am and we had to wake Aubrey up. Reagan and Edie were in our room waiting it out.






Aubrey, so excited to have a camera of her own. She takes some pretty good pictures. She is going to be my photo scout. She took a picture of Edie playing in the toilet and Reagan sneaking some Christmas candy at an early hour.

Sorry New Camera Date Stamp is incorrect!!

Christmas Aftermath

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow....

For those of you in warmer weather climates,

Current weather conditions here: SNOW

I snapped this picture right after the first one of our house. Could this be something supernatural? What ever it is I found it amazing!

Guess Who Is Potty Training?

The time has come for my baby to start being a bigger ...baby. (I'm not ready for her to be a big girl :(
Like I've said many, many times before she wants to do what they are doing.
This now includes using the potty.
She gets it, she knows how to get there. But, her coordination of getting her clothing off in a timely manner, and her ability to tell me in words she needs to go has to be fine tuned.
During our daily routine she has times she is sat on the throne and she performs each time.
GO EDIE!
But for her to play in big girls undies as seen here and for her to get in there and get on the pot is still a long process. We have also gotten into the habit of always closing the door behind us when we leave the bathroom,because she has been known to play in the potty a couple of times, and flush a couple of things, and put our toothbrushes in....(don't worry they were thrown out!) They are now kept in a top cubbord, well out of reach.
The point I was getting to about the door is that she can't open a knob door by herself yet.
What to do?
Well I know for a fact I won't spend 'double time' in there day after day like with training twins! She gets it and once we are a good inch or two taller,her she'll be able to do it herself.
We've used A LOT of diapers over the last three years.

Do you have any idea how often we (I) have to make trips to the ladies room when we go out. That is the only thing that will be tripled with three little ones so close in age!!

Dinner time in a restaurant: We sit, We order as soon as possible usually with our drink order. I take the twins to the restroom, (takes us 10-15 min (depending on the reason.) AND YOU CAN'T TAKE JUST ONE OR YOU'LL BE IN THERE TWICE AS MUCH!!
Believe me, we've (I've) tried to take just one, it never fails as soon as I sit down and raise my fork to my lips the other one says 'I have to go potty!'

OK, so we go to the restroom at the beginning, middle and at the end of our dining out. The girls drink a kid cup of sprite or juice so of course they'll have to go, OH, and don't forget the novelty of visiting a potty that is not ours. (I've also learned not to ignore the request or we'll have to leave because of an accident) Add another bummy to that, and the KNOWN fact we can't stay more than an hour at a restaurant. I get to sit and relax and eat for 10 to 15 min out of an hour. FUN.

Christmas Cactus

Not a very good picture, but I wanted to show you ALL the buds on this Christmas Cactus. We've had this plant a long time. It's one of two survivors that have made it over the last three years. It helps that we lock it in our room too!

Little Santas

Ho, Ho, Ho
Don't worry it's, non-toxic, tear free kids bath foam.
Edie does not like it at all!!! She literally jumped out of the tub to get away from the floating globs.

Christmas 2007

Here are some of our Christmas Decorations for 2007.


This years addition to the tree, a sweet garland made by the twins and I as Edie took a nap. Simply made of paper, they helped me with the staples clicking the stapler as I rolled each piece.







A handmade snow flake from Auntie Amy, a beautiful touch to our tree. Reagan goes up to them and says. 'Oh mommy aren't these so stinkin' pretty!' I've always used stinkin' as an endearing term in our home. Like, Ray, your so stinkin' cute. Edie, your so stinkin' happy. Aubrey your so stinkin' smart. All meant in the nicest of ways. But when I hear it come out her mouth I'm no so sure how sweet it sounds...








The Tree. Heavily decorated around the bottom thanks to a little help from the decorating trio. Edie constantly rearranges ornaments, and the twins 'try' to put them back.

Our reindeer from last year, many of you received them as little gifts. Enjoy.

Isn't this so pretty! I found most of our lights did not work when I took out the decorations. I found these at one of those discount stores, and I just them! They bring so much light and life to the mantel, beautiful little ball of light to add a little zing to the mantel.









Some very special ornaments from friends and family that date back to 1977 decorate our tree. The twins helped me make a garland so we'll have a new handmade homemade ornament for this year.





This trio came from MeMe too, we just love them on top of the TV amoire, these little LED light are cool to the touch when lit and save 90% in electrical costs over time!! Cool!


















Our stockings are hung and we talk about them daily! So sweet to see them all hanging together. Handmade by MeMe!

Santa is here too. He is from our first Christmas together when we lived in our little apartment in Manchester. He always brings back special memories when we take him out of box of decorations.

Last but not least the mantel with all my friends, reindeer, Santa's pretty lights, and stars. I have a favorite piece of stacking Santa's but a picture did not do the justice I'll try to get up as soon as I can.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Don't Touch It!!!

'Aubrey Do Not Touch the Tree!!!'



























'I wasn't!'















It's going to be a long month!!

Girls, Who Are You Looking For?

'Grammy B!', was the reply.

I thought you would like this picture mom, I've taken one every winter. This is the third. They are all on the blog go back and look at how much they've grown, the first one they could barely see out the bottom panel. Time goes by so fast.

Sledding

Sorry no action photos available. I didn't have any free hands. Here is the recap, Edie does NOT like snow. The girls however had a blast. We went sledding and they are definitely little daredevils!! It took us a good hour to get the four of us ready, and then I had to keep repeating to myself 'this is supposed to be fun, this is supposed to be fun...'. It was actually really fun, once I got Edie to leave her mittens on. We were outside for 20 minutes. WOW 20 whole minutes! We'll try to stay out a little longer next time. I dried our hats and mittens and we warmed ourselves by the fire, Edie was delighted to be in the house and I think she was doing a happy dance once we got in.

A warm bath and some trail mix settles them in after sledding, the three of them cuddle up in daddy's chair to watch Frosty (for the umpteenth time!) and I had a chance to make dinner.

Clutz!!

+ = A Big Problem!!!!



The house became eerily quiet. That usually means trouble. I felt like the Bionic woman for a a split second. I tuned into every room of the house and evaluated where the troops were. Instantly I could hear the twins upstairs playing in their room listening to some kid music, and Todd was working downstairs listening to his music. That left only one person, who was rustling some sort of paper in the kitchen. I leaped from my desk chair, and it spun around knocking my coffee over and spilling into the keyboard. ALL the cupboards are locked and the fridge and the freezer have locks now too. What could she possibly be getting into. I grabbed a kitchen towel (for the spilled coffee) I scooped up Edie and removed the stick of butter from her tiny grasp before she took a (gag) bite! We ran back into the other room and I dumped a cup of coffee out of the keyboard. UGH.... I can clean it, no problem....it's not the first time.

Here is the thing, our computer has a lock on it, when it's not being used, it goes into a sleep mode and when we sit back down to our work we have to wake it up and sign back on with a password (protection from the children who like to push all the keys as soon as we walk away. Believe me it's made a huge difference when I have to step away from emails, blogs, or web sites.

So the whole time I was cleaning the keyboard with wipes, and Q tips and warm cloths it 'thought it was awake'.
After cleaning the dang thing I thought I might as well check my email while I was sitting here. Ha, that's strange, every time I hit a key THAT letter does not come up on the screen. The space bar was the letter t and the letter d was a ?.

FUDGE!!!

I made sure all the kids were not getting into trouble and checked on Todd and the basement, and told about my coffee mishap. He said he would be right up. I checked in on all the kids and time passed. He came up and gave me an early Christmas gift. It was a blue tooth keyboard and mouse.

Sweeeeet!!!

I came in to hook it up, but....oh wait, how do we sign in when the keys we punch (the correct ones), are NOT really those letters the fried keyboard is posting (which are little black dots anyway!)

FUDGE!!!

We had a family gathering and Jim saved us once again, letting us borrow a keyboard so we could sign in to simply install the dongle (yes that's what the thing in the direction manual called the plug for the USB port.)

Sweeeeeet!!

Hi!

I know it's been a while, things are pretty hectic this time of year, with the holidays and crafting shows, sick kids, and oh yeah,trying to find a little time for me...

Our basement is coming along nicely. The guys have been working hard to get it ready for Christmas, thank you for all your hard work!! It's going to be a great place for all of us to enjoy.

Todd and I have been rotating week night chores, such as, bathing the kids, cleaning up, putting them to bed and doing the nighttime routine, so it's been freeing up an 'every other night' for each of us to do our own thing. My free nights usually consist of sewing and falling asleep on the couch.