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.

Big Kids Update

I have been feeling lately that the big kids have gotten a little lost in the shuffle. I've updated about the babies and the family in general but not specifically about Kaitlyn and Caleb.

They are doing amazingly well and they make me laugh every day. Lately Kaitlyn has been obsessed with tornados. She had one bad dream and we have been discussing it ever since. Do they come here? Do they kill people? What do they look like? I thought the "why" stage was over but now it's just deeper questions.

We've also been working hard on her science project. It should have been on tornados but "I wasn't afraid of tornados before my science project" so it's on the praying mantis and of all things we are growing them. Okay, not me. I was too scared - I sent them in to school for the teacher to help her with. Her teacher loves science. The thing is they send these things in a vial and they are wrapped in their harden shell. I open the thing and it says that this hardened shell contains 200 eggs! What?? I thought I was getting one. On the plus side only about 50 to 100 will survive. I am NOT feeling better about this. And when they hatch I am supposed to provide them with food. They are carnivorous (of course!) so I have to give them wingless fruit flies. If I don't give them the fruit flies they will eat each other. Great. That wouldn't upset Kaitlyn. See why I sent them off to school? That and the fact that you have to mist the egg sac shell thing every week. Not that hard but if you see my list from yesterday I WILL forget and they'd all die and they'd never hatch. Who's dumb idea was this anyway? Hmmm, sort of mine. Never give kids the option for science proejcts. And this is just 2nd grade.

Here's Kaitlyn. Yep, staged picture but we haven't done anything exciting lately and it's rare that I get her out of her school uniform. She HATES to change. HATES to pull her hair back. HATES leaving the house, ever. For anything. LOVES animals.



Here's Caleb. I don't know what's with the pose. He was just doing it. Trying to balance. Cracks me up. He's sooo funny! He spends his days playing super heroes and wrestling with dad. He hates school in the morning and loves it in the afternoon. He has a new boy in class who he says "sins a lot". When asked how many times he got in trouble. Caleb said, "about 100" - in one day! Probably not :)



And not to exclude the triplets:

Alyssa's stylin' - LOVE this hat :)



Darn dishwasher is so attractive to them now. But ask them in a few years and they'll be no way!



"Give me that" - essentially her motto