Double Triples And Best Friends

This weekend we got a chance to visit with some friends of ours who also have triplet girls. Since they no longer live in the same state we don't get to see them very often so this was the first time in a while that our girls have gotten to play together. It was quite cute to see them interact. Julianna was still the mom giving her friends detailed instructions as to how to play her video game. Gotta love it! She's always in charge and in control.



While I certainly find this age challenging I also enjoy it. The girls really are best friends. They can play so well together - of course they fight occasionally - but for the most part they get along.

Reading my Nook together. Oh yes, they love it! I love that I can get them books that will read to them.



Playing together. This morning they even spent a few hours playing in Caleb's room with all this cars, legos and army men and then they cleaned it up!! That was the real miracle :) I think preschool is teaching them something after all. No, I'm kidding - they're learning plenty and they love their teacher. Of course she bribes them a bit with the treasure box but hey, whatever works.



Silly little goofs, sisters and best friends. What a privilege it is to raise them and a privilege for them to have each other even when they don't think so!



Of course I had to post today - after all it's 1/11/11 - so cool :)

Christmas Is Finally, Officially Over

As we take down all the Christmas decorations I am convinced that Christmas is finally over. Of course it couldn't end until after the kids Christmas program at school which, because of snow last month, got postponed till last night. All the kids were in their holiday colors and some were in their holiday best and we sang Christmas carols - a weird thing so long after Christmas!

The girls waiting in line to go on stage:



The girls "performing" - it was a riot really. They were either not participating or overly participating - mostly Alyssa who found stomping on the stage and swinging her arms in circles and singing really loudly quite amusing! So did the audience.





After the girls Caleb's class was up to sing a few songs.





And then Kaitlyn's class:





The "show" was simple but the kids seemed to enjoy it and they did a great job. However, I was quickly reminded that life is MUCH easier when the triplets are on stage and NOT in my lap! Our picture snapping certainly decreased as we juggled the girls. I thought 4-years-old would be much easier.

Maybe that could be a resolution - life is easier with triplets. Hmm, okay, more like a prayer...

Rewind: Christmas Eve

I didn't get a chance to put up pictures of the kids Christmas Eve performance at church and even though it's after New Years I still wanted to share:

My little wiseman (literally most days!!)



My angels:



And my sheep:



Yes, she was a sheep and she enjoyed her role :)



The cast kneeling before the King.





All the kids did a good job :) Of course none of the girls really sang the song they were supposed to even though prior to getting on stage Julianna was singing the song at the top of her lungs. Maybe next year...

Happy New Year 2011!

I know everyone says this but it's true: how did the last year go by so fast? How can it already be New Year's Day again?

Our year has flown by and the kids have grown up so much. For the first time ever I have a 4-year-old and no baby so that has been an adjustment for me. Of course having three 4-year-olds has certainly kept me as much on my toes as any newborn!

As much as I sometimes hate to see everyone get older I do enjoy all the moments we have with them. Christmas was especially great with the girls understanding what was going on for the first time. Unlike last year where they stopped in the middle of opening presents this year they spent the whole time asking for more :)

Like every other year we don't put any presents under the tree before Christmas morning so when the kids go to bed the tree is decorated but bare underneath. Last Saturday morning it looked like this:





The girls went to their new bikes from Grandma and Grandpa first till I made them sit down and wait for gifts to unwrap.



Because I LOVE opening presents (really I love watching the kids open theirs) I wrap just about everything. A few things were unwrapped but for the most part even the floss and toothpaste in the stockings gets wrapped. And call me a mean mom but I don't let the kids tear into their gifts - we try and do things orderly so we can take pictures and enjoy the moment for as long as possible!

The kids enduring a photo while waiting for some gifts...





Julianna got some loot:



Rachel's pretty excited about her new gifts:



Alyssa prefers to sit on her bike and examine some of her new stuff - including her Toy Story bodywash!



Opening their gifts from Granddad (Kirk's dad):

Alyssa got her Aerial make-over or at least pretty close - she's been putting lip gloss on a hundred times a day every since...



Julianna is hiding behind her Baby Alive doll - one of her very favorite gifts - she can feed the doll and change it's diaper - she's already a mom in training! As for Rachel she got some more drawing tools and she loves them!



Kaitlyn and Caleb opening their big gifts from Uncle Michael:



Aunt Kim and Uncle Daniel bought the kids a Wii Draw tablet which is really cool! We bought Pictionary to go with it and have had a great time playing it (okay, it's not just for the kids...)



Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa got the kids their own computer which will be so helpful



The girls big gift from Mom and Dad (us) were the Fisher Price iXL game systems. They LOVE them and play them often. My only negative is that they run out of batteries quickly - thankfully I coupon and get them cheap but still little girls can go through batteries FAST!!



Kaitlyn got a digital camera and Caleb got his spy remote-controlled camera car that he had asked for. They were too excited to smile for a picture - at least I think that's why they won't look at me :)



Not to be left out we got a few things of our own. I'm rocking these new boots with my sweatpants right?! I promise NEVER to go in public like this :)



Kirk's looking handsome in his new jacket:



And my most favorite gift (well, somewhat tied with the dishwasher my parents gave us which is awesome too!) was my new nook!! I love it - it's awesome.



After everything the family room looked a little well, destroyed. Notice Caleb's already playing his new Wii game from Grandma and Grandpa. We didn't waste anytime digging in to our goodies.



The girls took their first rides on their bikes - so cute with their dolls strapped into the seats behind them. They had to ride in the garage because it's a bit cold outside go around the block but by next summer the world better look out - we'll have 3 crazy girls riding around!



We were certainly very blessed this Christmas and grateful for all of the new things we were given. We are praying for a prosperous new year and hope that you have a good one too.

God bless you all in 2011 and a very Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas To All!!

Hope you all had a very blessed Christmas. Our family had a wonderful celebration and we are grateful to God for His goodness to us!



Lots to share soon but for now I'm going to spend a little while recovering from Christmas and getting ready for the new year :)

Christmas Is A'Coming

For the past two weeks I have been working on a HUGE project: Christmas Cards!

You know what that's like don't you?

Have to get the right picture for the cards but before that you have to have the right clothes. At least we do given my ummm, small obsession with Gymboree :) Once we had the right outfit then we had to take the picture. Due to time and money constraints it was easiest to have a friend come over and take some quick shots.

My idea: quick, simple: pick a shot and put it in the card (last year I bought cards that you insert a photo in which seemed easier than ordering photo cards online) - my husband had some other ideas :) Being a graphics artist (and a VERY darn good one) that is his right but just know I asked for simple!

So that took a whole night of Kirk putting together and awesome photo which we had printed out at the store. Okay, I could have just gone with the photo and mailed that but what fun is that?

I did NOT want to handwrite every card (sorry!) so I printed out the note to include in the card which required gluing. The kids helped with that so some of them are a tad interesting :)

And if getting ready for Christmas wasn't enough the girls had their 4 year check-ups. I'm sure you all are dying to know how much my girls weigh, right? Probably not so I won't bore you with their individual "stats". I will just share what I found most interesting in that Alyssa and Julianna are the exact same height to the 1/4 of an inch!! And they are within half a pound of each other. I'm amazed at how similar they are.

Rachel will forever be our peanut - she is a full 5 pounds less in weight than Julianna but in height there's only about an inch difference between her and her sisters. Fortunately she likes being the small one and doesn't seem to notice the difference! For them the biggest difference is their hair and they are always quick to point out that Rachel's "yellow" hair makes her different.

Pictures and more fun coming but for now I have to get to wrapping! Christmas is just days away?! How is that possible??

What My Kids Want For Christmas

When I ask my kids what they want for Christmas I absolutely love their answers. They crack me every time.

Here are a few of things my kids "want" for Christmas - I'm not completely sure that all of these things exsist though!!

Alyssa:

- a Diego costume
- a Diego spy scope
- Ariel princess make-over
- Lights
- not a ball, not a bunk bed and not a sock
- a dragon in the night for Caleb

Julianna

- a king
- then a princess who gets married
- then a knight fights the dragon
- then the dragon gets killed
- in the castle
- that's all I want

Rachel

- Boz the bear stuff
- a house and a Boz the bear castle
- Julianna has suggested she get 2 Boz the bears so that one can be the king and one can be the princess - Rachel has rejected this idea

Caleb (his list makes more sense)

- anything remote control (just about)
- marble stuff
- spy gear including this really cool remote control toy that shows you the what you looking at as it drives - "I saw it on a commercial"
- legos
- Wii stuff

Kaitlyn is much more direct in her approach and gave me a list:



You'll have to click on it to zoom in. Do notice the check boxes and the little notations on the side that tell me what is most important. She claims those are doodles in the middle of the page but I think she is also asking for 15 people for Christmas :)

I didn't intend to MIA for so many weeks but without a flash for the camera taking pictures was about impossible. That and being swamped as we get closer to Christmas! I hope your Christmas preperations are going as well as mine :)

Were You Thankful?

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We were blessed to spend the day with church friends at 2 seperate houses :) One for dinner and one for dessert. We had a good day and ate lots of good food!

We certainly have that to be thankful for! Great friends made through a church we are grateful to attend.

But the real challenge is to be thankful for the hard things. A week ago we had a women's night and we were challenged to be thankful for our hardships. In MOPS we were challenged to think beyond the "normal" thankful items and really think about what God has done for you in the past year. Of course we are thankful for our family and our friends and the things we have but beyond that what else can you be thankful for? Both were good challenges and got me thinking.

I can't say I'm thankful when money is tight, however, I am thankful that amidst the struggle God has always provided for our needs. I always wish I would "provide" a little more abundantly so we didn't have to struggle but I know that in the difficult times He is teaching me to trust Him rather than the money that is in the bank account and for that reason I am thankful for my money struggles.

What about you? I think it's a great idea to think deeper about what God has really done for you and in you!

In other things related to Thanksgiving I haven't yet posted pictures of my little Pilgrims and Indians :)

Last Friday at school we had a school-wide Thanksgiving dinner - the triplets were pilgrims (Rachel was unhappy most of the day - she does NOT like the spotlight and was dealing with some stage fright):



The preschool class crossing the stage in the Mayflower (at least I think it's the Mayflower):



The preschoolers were supposed to be doing hand motions while the bigger kids read and walked around the stage but none of them appeared to be paying attention :) It was a good attempt anyway.



Caleb, being a "big kid" was doing a lot of the reading for the program and he did very well. His class was reading the letters of the alphabet and what they stood for for Thanksgiving:



He made an adorable Indian (or Native American) :)



We had a great Thanksgiving meal with the school:



Yet another meal to be thankful for. It may not be as hard to be thankful for family and friends or food and shelter but I am by no means less thankful for them!

I pray your Thanksgiving holiday was just as wonderful and that you have a blessed holiday season.

Yea, it's Christmas time!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing Everybody a Happy, Safe, and Warm Thanksgiving!

The Bugs Have Been Exterminated By Princesses

My dining room is pink :)

And full of princesses!

Julianna, my model and most in love with being a princess:



Rachel, my creative one and apparantly a chocolate lover:



Alyssa, my crazy one:



But sometimes the sweetest things happen when you least expect them - Alyssa spent some time "reading" to her smallest friend, Ben. My girls LOVE books :)



Cake Time! Gone are the bugs and in their place pink purses, cupcakes and ring pops. Special thanks to Miss Kristy (Ben's mom) for the purse cake - she offered to bring it and I gladly accepted!



Anxiously awaiting their cake:



Daddy gets to carry the cake again this week :) I think he's getting good at it!



They blew their candles out pretty quickly - I was proud of them! They really are big girls.



Triplet present openers:



I think they've got the hang of it!



They certainly enjoyed their 4th birthday party. I'm still wrapping my brain around the fact that it's been 4 years!!

How did I get from here?



To here?



To here? One years old...



To here? Two years old...



To here? Three years old...



And now here? Four years old...



I have to note I wrote that when they turned 2 years old that they were acting like big girls and no longer my babies. To say that they are 4 just seems impossible. Today they are my sweet helpers (when they want to be), my little babies (when they fall down) and my gift from God (always).

When Julianna, Rachel and Alyssa were born I had no idea how they would fit in our family or how we would manage. But each and every day God has given us the strength we've needed to make it one more day, one more hour. Now they are so much a part of our family I can't imagine life without them. They love their big sister, Kaitlyn and their big brother, Caleb just as much as I hoped they would when they were born.

Nothing could replace having such a big family or being able to be the mom of triplets. I wish everyone had as much of a blessing as we do. So, please don't feel sorry for me when you see me out and about with my whole crew. Praise God for His goodness to our family. His grace in answering a million of my prayers.

My babies are 4 but thank God they still have a long way to go before they are ready to leave the nest and praise God for each and every day I have to enjoy them until then :)