Happy Easter!

Okay, we have survived Easter. Does anyone else feel this way? It's a big holiday. You love it but you know it's a lot of work. Fortunately, some of the burden was lifted when we were invited to another family's for lunch. Since we have no family in the area it was just going to be the 7 of us. Instead we had lunch with at least ten other people, the kids got to play with other kids in a bigger yard and we were able to have a more enjoyable Easter egg hunt.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Kaitlyn's "loot" - small toys, new pajamas, toothbrushes, candy:



Caleb's "loot" - same as Kaitlyn's basically just for a boy :)



Julianna enjoying her eggs from her Easter basket. This is me trying to get actual pictures of the girl's in their dresses. We had no time since we were at church all morning - this is at our friend's house and the girl's weren't really cooperating (tired and hungry):





We couldn't get a decent picture any other way and so much for the dresses you can't even see them! It's a good thing we took them for a professional job :)



Easter egg hunting outside:



Caleb does actually have some eggs under that grass :)



Julianna:



Rachel (I had to chase her to get a shot):



Alyssa's got the idea...



Tuckered out - they refused to nap while we were out! (I think it was because they were sharing a room) - caught up to them in the van.



Rachel's out.



Alyssa's not so much.

I Love It! I Love It!!

We have been in our house for almost five years and we are just now getting to the last old appliance: the cooktop in the island. We've been in desperate need of one for a while so with a little tax money we are grateful to have a new one! Those of you who have been here and those of you who have graciously attempted to clean this thing will be as appreciative of this new appliance as I am :)

Before (and this is after cleaning):





And after (so cool!):





I know it's not the exciting stuff you visit my blog for but I'm really excited about it. I think this will make my counterop look cleaner, give me more space (since it's flatter) and hopefully increase the appeal of our home as we continue to think about selling and moving! Someday :)

My Life In Two Minutes

Yesterday I took a few video snapshots of minutes in my day and thought I'd share them since it's been a while since I've added some videos. They are so cute :)

If I were the cat I would have run much sooner!



I have been trying to capture this for a while now - watching them going up the stairs is such a funny, surreal and just cool - it's like a swarm. But I think this time I capture more their hate of the gate and their magnetism to the stairs...



And the Praying Mantis'. Okay, they hatched over the weekend while at school. They got fed one day this week and came home with us for Spring break which started today. We probably had like 20 live little nymphs. They were kind of cool actually. And we tried to feed them yesterday - the fruit flies are alive and well. The praying mantis nymphs on the other hand, not so much. I think we have utterly failed. We can't find a single live one today! What could have happened?? So, in this video they are alive and well and we are about to feed them some fruit flies but this morning we were disappointed to find them basically dead. I think the fruit flies have taken over... (If you don't like bugs - don't watch this video)

16 Months On The 16th!

Today is a somewhat special day. The girls are 16 months on the 16th. I think it's more special when they are actually that many years but right now age 16 is a number of years away (thankfully I think). For now I will take my special days when I get them.

New things this month: they can understand a lot more - like "bath" - they all head for the stairs and go up - in fact half the time they head up the stairs they go straight to the bath tub. Yesterday when we looked at some model homes the girls climbed the stairs and went straight to the bathroom - Rachel climbed right into the tub! So funny. Julianna is saying "nana" for bannana. Alyssa says "go" and "no" (and she's hitting a lot which is frustrating - just her sisters though).

As for teeth Julianna has a ton - 4 top, 4 bottom and at least 3 molars. Alyssa still just has her 8 and Rachel still just 6. Go figure. No sign of those two more bottom teeth anywhere :(

A friend of mine did take some fun pictures of the girls today but I don't have them yet so I'll share some silly pictures that I haven't shared before.

Julianna, a.k.a. Chipmunk (she hords food for hours - I don't know what to do - it's awful), Lianna (she has her name above her crib and she has mutilated the first 2 letters - we don't actually call her that). She's crazy and silly and FULL of life and she still loves that tiger...



Rachel: a.k.a. Rach (she tore off the last two letters), a.k.a pen thief (she's a pen addict! she's almost never walking around without a pen or a comb or a spoon or all of these at once)



Alyssa a.k.a. Lyssa (this we actually do call her and her name is fully intact on her wall), a.k.a. drama queen and princess (enough said)



And these are pictures of the back of her head - I'm trying to get her curls. When her hair is wet or she wakes up a bit sweaty her hair is sooo curly. I love it!! And she still has the most hair...





As for mommy, I got my hair chopped this weekend. What do you think? And be honest!! I was just copying my friend Cherie :) I like the color but I'm not sure about the length...

What I'm Tired Of And The Flip Side

As the girls approach 16 months (in 3 days can you believe it?) I've been thinking about what I'm really tired of experiencing.

So here's my not-so-comprehensive list of the things that I'm ready to be done with:

- my pants doubling as a snot rag or tissue
- babies crying at my leg and being unable to move without stepping on one of them
- feeling like I should be done with all the tears and yet I hear screaming all the time.
- my lap never being big enough to hold all three girls at once
- the girls fighting over me and other things - pushing, shoving, screaming - it's awful
- the temper tantrums when someone doesn't get her way - I know these won't go away for a LONG time if ever but I'm already tired of it
- knowing that I can't make them all happy at once - if I hold one the other one is happy, if I put one down for another that one screams too - I can't win
- always carrying a toddler - my arms are killing me - these girls are HEAVY!! (except Rachel who's still a peanut)
- trying to do anything at all while the girls are awake - it's basically impossible - computer, dishes, vacuuming, etc.
- cleaning high chair trays - right now we don't have any other options so I have to suffer through but yikes, it's getting old!
- feeling like my house has just survived a tornado every day
- my new and bigger food bills - and sadly, the fact that right now I have only scratched the surface of the cost of feeding five kids
- the constant questions (okay this is a big kid thing), "what's a tornado?", "does it hurt people?", "is this a penny?", "can I waste it at Old Navy?", "can I have that?", "can I have that?", "and that?", "what did you get me?", "can I have a snack?"

And the flip side - the things that I love and am not tired of:

- the girl's smiles and laughs - makes all of the above worth it
- listening to them giggle and talk to each other every night after we shut the door and turn the lights off - Kaitlyn is jealous of their constant "sleepovers"
- taking pictures and video of them
- dressing them in cute outfits
- giving them sippy cups - I don't miss the bottles at all!
- giving the girls milk - I will NEVER complain about the price of milk - after the cost of formula the cost of milk is nothing
- listening to the girls talk and watching them learn - it's quite adorable
- hearing their tiny footsteps in the house
- cuddling with any and all of my kids
- the unique experience of raising multiples - I feel truly blessed to have the chance to enjoy three kids at one time
- the older two kids playing together - making up games together and reading to each other - I love happy sibling interaction
- the knowledge that all the things I'm tired of will soon be a thing of the past and they will be grown in no time at all
- the sheer love and joy I feel for all of my kids

That's my list 16 months in the making. I wonder what it will look like in another 16 months. Those of you with older triplets are smiling because you know what I still have to look forward to. So with that in mind please pray that every day I remember what I'm not tired of rather then getting bogged down with the things I wish would go away!

Picture Slide Show

As promised here are some of the other pictures as well as some of the outtakes - these are NOT all of them. Like I said we took 188 - too many to share so I've picked a few of the best and funniest. Enjoy!

Easter/Spring Portraits

After three hours and 188 pictures we finally have some wonderful portraits of the kids to share. We took them to Portrait Innovations this time (thanks Janette for the recommendation) and they did a FABULOUS job!! Take a look for yourself (don't worry - all the printed versions are centered and have none of the stuff behind the background):

These are the formal pictures.

















Background #2; Outfit #2 all 5 kids...









Profiles (we didn't order this one of Rachel but now I wish we did):











Final background - and probably our favorite pics :)





Everyone's favorite photo of the girls:



Kaitlyn was a born model. She did all the poses herself and smiled perfectly in every picture - so adorable!



Caleb did great too - I was so glad that they actually captured his real smile.



And there are sooo many more - I'll try to put up a slide show of the other good ones tomorrow. It was really hard to choose but thankfully they gave us a CD with the whole session. Be sure to click on each picture to see them up close - they are really good!

1st Place!

I'm sure you have all committed to memory my ramblings especially my recent thoughts on Kaitlyn's science project. Well, all my "hard work" has paid off and she won 1st place in her school science fair! I think Elementary School division or something. There was another first place in another division. I don't know how it works but since other kids got 3rd place or honorable mention I feel a little better about her "win" - it wasn't an everyone got one kind of thing :) She was even asked to take her project to regional science fair. Yea for Kaitlyn!



The project!! Those vials contain the egg case for the praying mantis and the other three are the wingless fruit flies (that are very much alive in there) - the big green thing is where the praying mantis will someday live and how the whole thing started. It looked so fun in the catalog - buy this big green thing and have a praying mantis. They just fail to tell you the rest...



First place! Mommy's proud :)

Dorinda and Cherie Plus Eight

You're right - it's not as catchy as John and Kate plus Eight but today I had sextuplets plus two :) Except the two were in school so I guess they don't count either. But, I did have triplet girls and triplet boys playing together and since they are just three days apart in age (both born at 36 weeks) they are as close to sextuplets as I'm ever going to get!!!!

My friend Cherie stopped by today to pick up some things and came in to hang out for a bit so we got to enjoy 6 kids instead of 3 each :) Her boys were so good I'm thinking I could handle sextuplets. Ha ha!!

And here's the best I could get of all 6 kids together (the turtle is a new consignment sale find - just $4 new in the box!! - can't beat that):



Closer in of the boys at least - all of them and Alyssa's foot :)



Now Alyssa's in but Rachel is crying and moving. Of course.



Rachel took a liking to Jack - I think he's her favorite and yes, she can tell him apart from Tommy! (Jack is thinking "who is this crazy chick? At least she's kinda cute!"



Julianna and Tommy:



And Christian - sorry about the box that was our old ball holder :)



Finally, the last time these six kids were together - we've both come a LONG way since!

It's March

Wow! I'm just barely catching my breath and it's just March 3rd. I've been hard at work at my Criminal Behavior class midterm. I'm 3 pages in. I'm not sure how many I have to go and to be perfectly honest I don't want to think about it. I have three days :)

Tonight I got the joy of volunteering at a local consignment sale. As a lot of you know I LOVE clothes. Mostly kids clothes since they are way more fun to dress then I am!! Maybe when I'm skinny and beautiful again. Ha ha! So, since I love clothes I obviously buy clothes for my girls and lots of them. Then there's the task about what to do with them?

Lately I have become very passionate aobut not keeping things. I have discovered that I kept too much of Kaitlyn and Caleb's clothes hoping to pass them down. Instead I have ended up with lots of clothes and nothing to use them for. I have also become very involved with consignment sales and am now convinced that there's nothing you can't buy cheaper and second hand and there's NO reason at all to keep stuff lying around. If the Lord willed and for some reason we had another child I can get everything I would need for cheap so why hang on to it?

Seriously! Items sell so much better the newer they are. The better the brand the better the re-sale. That's my other money tip (after the grocery game). Buy the best clothes you can afford - if you can't buy full price from a brand name store then buy at a consignment sale - just brand name unless it's seriously all out play clothes! When it's not brand name it's almost like throwing money away because no one else will want them and they don't wear that well.

On my kids clothes I have already made about $500!! And that's just selling a fraction of what they have. I'm using this money to buy their summer clothes (the only usual exception is Easter/Christmas clothes though I think by next year when I'm able to sell this year's clothes that will be covered too). Next year I will sell these clothes, etc. and I really pay very little for their clothes and I think they're always dress quite cutely. (Pajamas are the exception - I couldn't care less what they wear to bed).

These are my exhausted ramblings - I swear I could write a book on the subject. In the coming months I'm even considering setting up my own business and consigning brand name clothes for others on E-bay so this is a serious passion of mine :)

Ice Skating

What did you do for Leap Year? I got to go on a field trip :) I haven't been ice skating in a LONG time but today I got a chance to put some skates on and get on the ice. It was great. Kaitlyn did well but she has the personality that if something is hard and frustrating and she doesn't get it really well right away then she doesn't like it. So, she struggled but I think she did great even if she thinks she hated it.

Here's a few pictures:

Getting on the ice...



Some friendly help.



Moved on to a "walker" so that she could stop hugging the wall.



So proud that she's getting out there!



Yes, I was there and on the ice but it's hard to get a picture of yourself :)




And tonight Kirk and I actually get to go on a date!! He's been working sooo hard and I'm so glad that my good friend, JoRonda (mom to 13-year-old triplets plus an 8-year old) volunteered for the job of watching my 5 kids for the night. God bless her!! I am looking forward to dinner and a movie. I think I really like Leap Year.