Christmas stories Part 4-Christmas Day

After all of my Christmas Eve stories, I guess I better write about Christmas Day.

When the kids first got up, Daddy moved them into our bed (a rare occurrence in our house), then he decide to take a picture....

Yes, that is Mommy TRYING to sleep still :)

They stayed in bed for a little while, then we went downstairs. Anyways, when we went downstairs we let them open their gifts in their stockings. Everyone got a little chocolate Santa (which surprisingly they didn't gobble it up-probably because they were so interested in the other gifts). The kids each had a coloring book and an ornament. The boys had some Hot Wheels and Elizabeth had two mini My Little Ponies--or would you say Ponys-since "Pony" is the name of the item---anyways, I digress...
It was cool because they were so happy and so excited just to have those couple simple presents. They had no idea what was coming up...and they probably would have been ok without any of the extra things. But of course, we still gave it to them all. They love the train table and all their other presents. In the afternoon Grandma, Grandma Grandma (my Grandma), Uncle Sean, and Aunt Ingrid came over. We exchanged gifts and had dinner. Overall it was a great Christmas.

Here are some more pictures:

Here's Elizabeth opening one of her gifts:

Here's James with Grandma Grandma:

No, I didn't put a Halloween picture in by mistake, one of their gifts were some dress up clothes.

Christmas stories Part 3-Christmas Eve II

On Christmas Eve, when asked what they want Santa to bring them, the boys both said a train. Mommy: "What about Elizabeth? Does she want a train?"
Kids with smiles: "Noooo...."
I thought this was cute, but the next day I found out it was kinda true because the kids got a new train table with lots of different trains. Elizabeth does like the trains and playing with the trains, but not as much as the boys do. So Daddy and I got Elizabeth a new baby doll. She really likes it, and Daddy and I think we made a good choice.

Also on Christmas Eve, when we put he kids to bed we told them that Santa and/or Frosty would be bringing them presents in the morning (because I think by this time James was not as worried about Santa coming). I left the boys room to go into Elizabeth's room. When I left Elizabeth's room, I could here James talking so I was going to go in to tell him to quiet down because it's bed time. But I heard him saying this: "Santa, come....Santa, cooome" It was so cute it made me smile :)

Here's a picture of them in their new Christmas pajamas from Grandma:

Christmas Stories Part 2:Christmas Eve

So I thought I would document Daddy's first (of many) Christmas Eve's

assembling Christmas presents!!!! :)

This year Daddy got to put together a train table and then he put together a box of train tracks so the kids could use the trains right away.

Twelve hours later....

Just kidding- Daddy said it only took about an hour.

Flash forward to Christmas morning---
the cool train track that Daddy put together took about 1 minute to be knocked down by 3 eager toddlers! :(
It has now been turned into a nice big flat loop with no supports to knock over.

Christmas Stories

Hello all! I know, it's been a while since I have posted anything. Sorry! I do have some stories that are floating around in my head and I hope during the next couple days I am able to post them... I thought I would start with some Christmas stories....

I really think that I've written this story already, but I couldn't find it...
so I'm writing it down and if it is a repeat, sorry...

A few weeks ago we were telling the kids about how Santa brings you presents if you are a good boy or a good girl. James was not really excited about Santa bringing presents to him. (I'm not really sure why) but he started to say "no Santa, no Santa". I asked him if he wanted Frosty (as in Frosty the snowman) to bring him presents. That would be o.k., but not Santa. Weird, I know. But then throughout the Christmas season, the kids had two separate occasions to sit on Santa's lap and James did sit with Santa.

Happy Holidays!!

We hope that everyone has a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or other holiday that you celebrate.

A better birthday

First, I want to start by saying that I started this post DAYS ago, and I'm just finally getting around to finishing it and posting it.

I'm telling you this so you don't think that my husband and I planned on both writing super sappy posts about each other and we are not trying to make you gag :)


Now, back to my original post titled "A Better Birthday":

Well, my husband didn't tell me that he had plans for me over the weekend!!! (When I was bitchin' about my poor sad birthday)

Anyways, my great and creative husband came up with an Amazing Race themed day for me. (We love that show!)

Here is an example of a clue that was left for me:

So he planned this day of fun for me AND watched the kids by himself (which is nothing new-he's a super dad!) but he also took them to the zoo by himself. He's a little crazy I think :)

Anyways, just wanted to share and say thanks to my wonderful husband!!!

My Wife

Have I told you all lately how amazing my Wife is!!

Well if not let me.....

She gets the kids up in the morning (well they ususally are talking in the crib or calling for her, at about 6:00am) but she is the one to take them down stairs. Takes care of all potty breaks and toys troubles, fixes them breakfast and still manages to get herself ready for work and out the door.

Then after dealing with 17 8-9 yr olds. Comes home with a huge smile for everyone.

I won't get into all the work she does throughout the night with the kids, but let me tell you it is a ton.

Just thought I would put in writting what I think and feel everyday.

Thank you for all that you do!!

Your Husband and Kids.

Look out! Daddy's driving!

The other day we were all going to the library and Daddy was driving. Daddy almost passed an empty parking spot so he kinda pulled into it all quick-like. Joshua said, "whoa Daddy" and Elizabeth said "be careful".

And the last few times we've all been driving together Elizabeth will say "be careful Daddy, slow down."

At least I'm not the only one critiquing Daddy's driving anymore! :) hehehehe

PVMOM play date

Today we had a play date with about 60 other families of multiples. We can not always make it to these events. They usually plan them is during the kids naps. Lucky us, this one was at a good time. 10 - 1 The kids nap is at 11:30 but we thought we could push it back since we knew they would have so much fun, they would not be tired, or want to leave. As you can see by the pictures, it was at an oversized Mc Donalds playground. There was this huge jungle gym apparatus, a slide area, and a gymnastics room (which included a trampoline).





Let me say the kids loved it!! We ended up staying till 12:30. Of course the kids slept in the car on the ride home. Well, I think James was asleep before we left the parking lot. Elizabeth and Joshua we up a little longer, but finally crashed about 15 minutes from home.


Mom and I took them up stairs to sleep by 1:00 and they all slept till about 3:45, even Mommy got a little nap in. It was a blast, even I want to go back.

Daddy started a blog.

Here is the link.

http://gillisfamilyinaz.blogspot.com/

I made it mainly for my family that lives in other states.

New pictures on the slide show

By the way- have y'all seen the new pictures on the slide show?!

Correction to "Happy Birthday?!"

Ok, I want to set the record straight. There were a couple high points to my birthday yesterday.

1.) My husband brought home a couple YUMMY YUMMY cupcakes!

2.) My kids each made me paper birthday cakes (which are really cute!).

So it wasn't *terrible*

:)

Happy Birthday?!

Happy Birthday to me. Let's just pretend that I had a nice birthday so I can move on to the next one.....Ok, pity party is over.

I'm tired. Too much birthday fun today....wahwah...ok, Debbie Downer....

More cookie stories

Here's a video Daddy took of the kids when they were done with their cookies (see cookie story below)

Last day of November

Today's the last day of the blog-a-day challenge and well, we did pretty good. Missed a few days at the end of the month, but overall, pretty good....

I liked having this challenge, it made me post when I might not have, and most of the things I posted I'm sure I will be glad that I did. I hope you all enjoyed reading our ramblings this past month, and I hope those of you that were also doing this blog-a-day challenge will continue to post a lot as well.

Making cookies...

Today we made some cookies with the kids. Here are some pictures:

Here they are rolling and cutting out the cookies:


And here they are "decorating" the cookies:

They all had a good time and loved the cookies :)

Paging Nicky Boyd, Nicky Boyd...

Ok, random post time. Ever since I've moved back to Arizona I keep thinking about a friend I had in elementary school here. Her name is Nicky Boyd. She was from Wales; then she moved here and we went to Najavo Elementary School. After I moved to San Diego, at some point she moved back to Wales. We kept in contact through letters for a while...then stopped.
When I was in high school I went to Europe and somehow I ended up connecting with her and got to visit with her and her mom in London. Then we lost contact again. One time when I was in college I came here to visit the fam and I took a chance and went to her old house and knocked on the door. Her parents still lived there; and I was able to re-connect with her again. That was the last time I talked to her. Skip to present time. Here I am in Arizona and I have not randomly run into her. James and I did try to drive by her parents' house--my memory is not as good as it used to be...I wasn't exactly sure where her house was...I've tried doing some internet searching and looking on facebook...so I thought I would put her name out into the universe. Who knows, maybe she'll google her name and this blog will come up...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry, it's been a few days since I've written. Hope everyone had a great turkey day :)
We had dinner at our house with Grandma (my mom), Grandma-Grandma (my Grandma), and Leo (our au pair). Everything was YUMMY! James favorite part of the meal was the cranberries (that crazy kid! Of course he is the one that likes to eat lemons...)

Here are some pictures: (and yes, I know--they look sooo big!, especially James, he looks like such a big boy)

Elizabeth with Grandma-Grandma (her Great Grnadma)

Sorry, no post tonight. Trying to upload pictures to Costco's website.
New post with pictures tomorrow....

More pictures from the zoo

Here are a couple more pictures from the zoo:

I didn't notice until now that the monkey Joshua is sitting on has a pretty scary face for being on a children's ride. Luckily, the kids never saw the front. Only the back in which this monkey is wearing pants. I think the monkey was the only animal wearing clothes...not sure what that is about. But it's cool because the kids all talk about what animals they were riding and Joshua's is always "monkey pants" pretty fitting for Joshua-monkey pants-hehehehehehe. Ok, I'm totally rambling now, time for bed :)

I really took a lot of pictures that day--I might have enough to make it through the rest of November, one-picture-at-a-time :) heheehehe

Remember in a previous post how I said we went to the Wildlife World Zoo and the animals were sooo close-even the tigers?! Well, we went again today and I have the pictures to prove it:

Here kitty, kitty...

Ok, that one might be a little deceiving :)
Here's one of the boys:

Now, that's up close and personal!

Oh-No.......

We missed our post yesterday. :(

Sorry to our faithful reads out there. You would think between the 2 of us, one of us would of remembered. Well, what is done is done. Maybe we will post twice today. I know it does not make up for it, but it is something.

I think between our meeting with our Local Care Coordinator(Au Pair thing) and Stephanie working on the kids free photo books, posting to the blog slipped through the cracks.

Look for some more infor or new story tonight.

Where'd it go?

So I really should be going to bed right now, but I got this damm post a day shit to do....so here goes.
First, some background: the kids often hide things and then say "where's the book? where's book? There it is!" or "where'd book go? There it is!"
So the other morning I was having all the kids go pee-pee in the potty (that's good times, I'll tell you...) and their new favorite game is to go potty and then run off before they put on their underwear. Well James did that and I was waiting with Elizabeth for her to finish and I look up to see James (naked from the waist down) standing up against the wall and he says "where'd penis go? where'd penis go?" and Elizabeth starts chiming in as well "where'd penis go?" Then James jumps out from the wall and the two of them say, "there it is!"

James' favorite new phrase

"Something else"
I think it started with something like, "Do you want an apple for snack or something else?"

Now he picked up on that phrase and uses it a lot. When he doesn't like what is on the t.v., or what type of food he has, or many other times throughout the day, he says, "something else".

But of course since he is two and a half it sounds more like this, "Something else. Something else. Something else! Something else please. Something else please. Something else!"

It was cute at first.....

Ah yes, good times, good times....

One of those days.......

Where the only cure is cuddling on the couch with some kids.

By myself

So, the kids have started to use a new phrase. “Myself”, which means they would like to try and do whatever the current task is by themselves. It could be as simple as getting down out of their highchairs or something kind of complicated as buckling themselves into their car seats. This is just another step in their pursuit to being independent. Stephanie and I enjoy these little moments but when it takes an extra 10-15 minutes to sit there and let them try, it gets a little hard not to just take over and do it for them. Once they have completed said task, they smile and exclaim, “By myself!”

Mommy, Elizabeth and a rice cake.

I know, not the greatest quality, it was taking with our old digital camera.

Just something to blog.

Enjoy!!

do I have to?

blogity blog blog blog
there, I blogged :)

Sorry, I'll do more tomorrow!

A tearjerker-don't say I didn't warn you!

So yesterday we took the kids to the library and one of the DVDs they wanted to check out was "The Muppet's: A Christmas Carol ". I thought it would be good because it was the Muppet's the the kid are all into Christmas (this year will be sooo fun!!!!). I didn't really pay attention to the fact that it was A Christmas Carol.
It was a little weird because some of the characters were rel people and some were Muppet's. Anyways, the kids and I were sitting all snuggly on the couch (Daddy and Leo, our au pair, were on a run) watching the movie. I was doing a lot of fast forwarding because I quickly realized it wasn' t really a movie for 2 1/2 year olds...I stopped at a part that had Kermit and Miss Piggy ("Froggy and Piggy" as they are now called) and they were the family that his Tiny Tim in it (Tiny Tim being a little Kermit)
ANYWAYS, they are all having a nice dinner, laughing and joking...then we fast forward to Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Not Yet.. and they visit the same house and we find Miss Piggy and the two little piggies crying, and Scrooge realizes that Tiny Time has died. HERE'S THE PART YOU ARE WAITING FOR: I look over at baby James and he has tears in his eyes. I ask him, "are you crying?" and I notice a line of tears running down his sweet little face.
"Yea," he says.
Oh, talk about breaking my little heart!

We watch more and the end has Scrooge going to Tiny Tim's House and bringing a big feast, everyone's happy and jolly. Tiny Tim delivers his famous last line, oh, happy ending! There's Baby James with tears in his eyes again. As soon as the movie ends, he's asking to see it again!

That boy, I tell you, he can be so sweet! And he obviously understands a lot.

Anybody there?

Just thought I would remind all you readers that there is an option to add a comment after reading my blogs :) Thank you to my two faithful commenters!

Just needing some love.....

Oh the cute things kids say...

One night in the tub someone kept tooting. I said "who has gas tonight?" James replied, "car". Yes, James, the car does have gas :)

Here's a phase Elizabeth uses a lot, "o.k. thank you". Sometimes she says it while she is talking to herself. Sometimes she says it in response to a questions she asks someone. As in, "Mommy go outside? O.k., thank you"
She's also started what my mom calls Martian Talk. It's like she wants to say a whole sentence or a couple sentences but she only knows a few of the words. Like, "Ababish doub doub go outside", or "Immish graishh drink water grandma". Has anyone else heard kids talking like this?

We were all watching t.v. and some music came on. Joshua was sitting next to me on the couch and he started dancing in his seat. I starting moving too and Joshua said "No mommy. No mommy dancing". Geegsh! Everybody's a critic these days!

Good times, good times...

233rd Birthday of the Marine Corps.

OOH-RAH

From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From the dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job
The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And have never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

Semper Fi!!

You're cute

So let me preface this story by telling you that when my kids talk they don't understand pronouns and they just copy what other people say. For example, when Joshua wants me to carry him down the stairs after nap time he says "carry you" because i used to ask him if he wanted me to carry him , and I would say "do you want me to carry you?" And he would reply, "carry you".
Well, today we took the kids to the park and Elizabeth and I were playing together. A car drove by and she said "car, Grandma"
I said, "no, not Grandma".
She thought for a second and said "people".
"Right, people"
"No Grandma, people" and she laughed.
A minute later Daddy walked up and I was telling him the story. Elizabeth was close enough to overhear us talking about her and she was listening in. Daddy and I laughed at the cute story and looked over at her. Elizabeth said "you're cute". And of course she is talking about herself because it's something she's heard a thousand times before...
So cute :)

So I decided I better do the blogging tonight before my husband takes over :) Just kidding honey! (But then again, I just remembered one of my original posts was his reaction to me telling him that I started a blog, which was "what do you have to blog about?"....)
Anyways, I'm home alone tonight! Well, except for three sleeping children...I'm home alone. I almost don't know what to do with myself.... And what have I done with Daddy, you ask?! Well, he took our new au pair out! Yes, that 's right, our new au pair arrived last night. Things are going well so far. The kids seem to like him. He just has to get used to this whole U.S. thing (the food here is different...) and this whole Arizona thing (it's hot here...) Oops, good thing he got here this week and not two weeks ago. It's like cool here to us. I was wearing jeans the other day (and as my friend Eden said "90s is jeans weather in Arizona"). But the two of them went out to but some electronics and go to Dave and Busters to play some video games (total boy stuff, ya know? and if I had any idea how to spell the sound that Tim the Tool Man Taylor used to make on Home Improvement then I would add that here)
So I'm home alone. I watched some t.v. and ate some snacks (some Halloween candy....) and now I'm blogging before I watch some more t.v. (but this time I will do some school work).
That's it-my exciting Saturday night.

Sham Wow (Dad)

So there was a request for me to report on my newest as seen on TV product.

Let me first say I am a sucker for those infomercials. I can watch them all day and I would buy every one of them if I could. Except that, I know better and Stephanie would kill me. (But baby I don't know who sent us $2,000 dollars worth of as seen on tv products, I would say with a sly grin.)

I have owned a couple already and they don't always work as reported. Egg Wave - trashed, Pasta Pronto - trashed, Hurcules Hooks - still have and do work, Magic Bullet - Love'm, Snap Hooks - work good on windows(but thats about it) and I am sure I have had couple others that I can not recall at this moment.



Here is my report. The note that comes with the Sham Wow says that there is a break in time and that they will get better the more you use them. As of right now I am happy with them, they do pull up spills out of carpet rather well and wet counter tops are a breeze. Mirrors and glass currently still leaves streaks. I am hoping the more I use them the better they will become.

I will follow up this post with one later, after I have used them a little more

From the mouths of our kids...(Dad again)

I think this will be the first of many quick little posts that will help get Stephanie and I through the month of November. Also, since Mom is a little under the weather Dad is taking back the reins and doing a little blogging.

We were playing at the Children Museum and it was getting close to going and Mom told James that is was almost time to go, James' reply was, "In a minute". He did not yell no like some kids, instead he replied with that. Which would make sense because we have started to give all the kids choices when they want to do something, right now or in a minute. Most of the time they choose in a minute, but that is okay, because we are alright with waiting another minute. They are usually okay with leaving after a short wait since that was their choice.

Such great tactics we learn as parents. More to come soon.

Hi. It's me-posting again. I love how everyone is posting everyday, it's fun to know that I'll have something to read every night. It's also interesting how many people are commenting about election day and the election results. It's even more interesting to see the differences in people's thoughts on the election...but, I'm not one to talk much about politics....so, here is my topic tonight: it's actually a question-when someone posts a comment on your blog and you feel like you should answer it, do you answer it as a comment? But what if that person doesn't look at the rest of your comments to see that you replied to their comment. (I just wanted to see how many times I could say comment) Or do you reply in a post? I suppose you could email the person directly? Or, stranger then all of those ideas is to talk to the person?! No, that can't be the answer :)

Well, since I am talking about it, I'm going to reply to some comments here:

Andrea's comment to Daddy: What type of potty did you bring? A fold-up kind?
That would be a no to the fold up kind. Daddy was caring the big plastic potty that converts to the step stool. Time for us to invest in a fold up kind :)

Eden's comment:
Cute idea for the costumes! So, I want to know, did you really give them more candy the next day or did it get tossed???:)
I really thought that the next day I would give them some candy (and I thought that we did) but Daddy said no we did not. There were some crackers and mini oreos that we kept to give them. The rest was put out for our trick or treaters or kept for Mommy and Daddy :)

Kay said...
I hope it is ok that I sneak a peek at your cute family occasionaly. It is so fun for me to see you and Eden as Moms, then remember the silly kids you were.
Yes, feel free to check my blog whenever you want :)

Eden said...
I'll give it a shot...the whole "a post a day thing", does 5 posts in one day cover me for the 1st thru the 5th (because that is my typical m.o.) or do I have to post every single day?

Here's Andrea's response to your comment:
Andrea said...
To answer Eden's Q: NO! Five posts in one day does NOT count for five days-worth. You can post multiple times a day, but you must post every single day! Even if it's just a pic.

And I wanted to tell you (Eden) that you can write posts and schedule them to post on a different day. That way if you have a couple things to write about you can spread them out over a couple days. I"m not sure if that is "cheating" but I won't tell if you don't :)

Time to go-see you all soon (at the Blogs!)

A trip to the park. (Posted by Dad)

So, Stephanie was working late on Nov 3rd, which left me home alone with the kids from 2:00pm til 6:00pm. What was a Dad to do? My first thought, have the kids dig some holes in the back yard, then I thought, what would the kids like to do and the park sounds like a good idea. I changed out out of my work clothes, got the kids some shoes and socks. Packed up some snacks, a potty (in case some one needs to go while we are out), sand toys, food for the ducks, and oh yeah the kids.

They all did very good walking together, listening to Dad and even holding hands while we crossed the street. Joshua was either holding my hand or helping me pull the wagon. (he is the cutest) It was a little warm so we did not walk to fast, wanted them to have some energy when we got to the park.

We decided to stop and feed the ducks prior to walking over to the park. Even though the ducks did not want to have anything to do with us. The ducks must of been fed plenty earlier that day. Either way the kids still loved throwing food at the ducks in the water. Next off to the park.

We did some slides, a little chasing, and some swings. Then it was about snack time. I wrangled them up and we all sat on the bench to have a little something to eat. Right about the time we were done, this little girl (about the age of 5) came over and sat next to us and exclaimed "Hi, I'm just going to sit here". Then she proceeded to let me know she was going to play with Elizabeth once she was done with her snack.

The boys and I played while Elizabeth sat and finished her snack, along with her new friend waiting in toe. When finished, Elizabeth and the girl we walking hand and hand around the play area. The little girl was asking her questions like, "You want to swing?, You want to slide?" In turn Elizabeth would just smile. Eventually Elizabeth did want to swing, so I lifted her in and the little girl was going to push her. They did that for about 5-10 mins, while I was playing with the boys. It was kind of nice, but I was a little put off by how friendly the little girl was (I know I am crazy, but something about people in mine or my kids personal space makes me a little weird), unless we know you, then your cool. =)

After about an hour of playing it was time to go. I love how they seem to be okay with leaving, as long as you give them a 2 minute warning then they are fine. But, here was the one problem with leaving. Since we brought so much stuff and now the kids wanted to ride home in the wagon someone would have to carry all the other stuff. Let see who the winner was. Right, Elizabeth, I loaded her up like a little pack mule and pulled her behind the wagon. I am just kidding. In one hand Dad had the wagon full of three tired kids, over his sholder he had the diaper bag, and in the other hand, a potty, sand toys, and food for the ducks.

The walk home seemed a little longer then the walk there, maybe because I was sweating like crazy and seeing black spots.

We made it home safe and sound. I only had to drink a gallon of water to get hydrated :)

Spanish! Spanish!

One time the DVD "Frosty the Snowman" started to play in Spanish for some reason during the day while no one that was technology-savvy was here, so the kids watched it in Spanish.
That night Daddy got it back to English. The next day when I was putting "Snowman! Snowman!" on the t.v. I got this plea from James, "Spanish! Spanish!" Yes, he wanted to watch "Frosty the Snowman" in Spanish. Okayyyy--sometimes my kids are weird. However, it's pretty funny to see the 3 kids watching the movie in Spanish. Who knows, they probably understand more of it then I do!

Happy Halloween!

Here are our cuties on Halloween! Our knights in shining armour and the little princess!

Here's James with the helmet on:
Elizabeth with her best pose for the camera: And Joshua with his helmet on:

We took them trick or treating to a couple houses around the neighborhood. Before we took them, Daddy was explaining to them what they were going to do.

"You knock on the door and say trick-or-treat. Then they will give you candy and you say thank you." Then Daddy had them practice.

"When they open the door, what do you say?"

James replies, "CANDY!!" Um, no. That would be rude.

Of course, we had nothing to worry about because 90% of the time the kids became shy and said nothing at all. What?! My kids shy with nothing to say?!

But luckily, also about 90% of the time they did say thank you. Well, at least at every house at least one child said thank you.

We had to keep telling them to put their candy in their buckets and when we get home they could have some candy. Joshua kept trying to eat the candy with the wrapper on.

After we got home we gave them a couple of pieces of candy and then Daddy took their buckets away with promises to have more candy the next day. The boys were fine with that, but Elizabeth started crying. She did not want to give up her candy!

But eating candy has given me my new favorite word of the week courtesy of Joshua: "lickypop" (that would be lollipop). It makes sense, it's a lollipop and you lick it: lickypop!

Good times, good times :)

November 1st

Really, its November?!
It's hard to believe that for two reasons:
1. The year 2008 is almost over, and

b. It still freakin hot here in Arizona!! Well, not really, it's not HOT, it's only in the mid 90s! :)

**********************************************************
So my friend and fellow blogger Andrea posted this comment on the blog the other day:
"Are you doing the NaBloPoMo challenge? A post a day everyday during the month of November? C'mon, DO IT! Even just a picture counts. : )"

So I have no idea what NaBloPoMo means (and since I don't have any contact with my friends except through my blog I'm sure Andrea will tell me in another comment), but I think I am up to the challenge of a post a day :) Daddy says that he will help as well!

And maybe my other bloggin' friends will be up to the challenge as well! :)
.....was that one too many smiley faces?! :)

Cleaning up my blog...

Hi! I just wanted to clean up some things from my blog--this is also called "Mommy is still up because she raided the kids' Halloween candy!!!

These are the things the kids loved when I first posted on July 1st:
Singing and dancing
Wresting with Daddy
Doing Puzzles
Reading
The Wiggles
Spaghetti
Sesame Street and all of the characters

And here are the things the kids loved that Mommy and Daddy wish they didn't:
Using their food as a facial cleanser.
Doing things that we just told their brother or sister *not* to do.
This pull-the-flap-for-a-sound book called "Don't Wake the Baby!" (it's magically disappeared.....)

Check back soon for new likes and dis-likes!

Daddy fixed it!

As you can see from above, Daddy fixed the slideshow. It is now where it should be.
More kid stories coming soon....

Houston, we have lift-off!!!

So after trying for the 50th time and getting just a little frustrated (o.k., o.k., stop laughing--a lot frustrated) and with Daddy looking over my shoulder I was able to post the slide show on the blog. The only problem I think is that it is a post so after I blog more, the slide show post will get moved---I'll figure a way to not move it!!!! (or die trying...or throw the computer out the window trying!)

Arizona state fair-here we come!

This weekend we took the kids to the fair. We parked in the lot and took the shuttle over. The shuttle was a charter bus. Riding the bus was like the highlight of the trip! The kids were so excited to ride the bus. We got to sit in the front seats and the bus left pretty quickly.
Then we went to the fair. Walked around, got warm, sat and had a snack, walked some more....Daddy bought a SHAMWOW that he has been DYING for! (Merry Christmas Daddy! j/k! heheehhe)
One of the first things we saw was an Indian dancer with two other Indians playing the drums. James loved it! Well, all the kids loved it, but James loved it the most! So much so that the rest of the time we were at the fair he kept saying "Drumming! Dancing!" We were looking at some pigs, "Drumming! Dancing!". We were looking at the cows, "Drumming! Dancing!", etc. etc. We debated going on the rides but most of them were for older kids, and the ones for younger kids our kids would not want to ride by themselves. Plus there was the whole "Drumming! Dancing!" thing going on. So we walked back to the stage where the drumming and dancing was and there was a 70's band playing. Well, that was close enough. James was so happy and had a lot of fun dancing. We got some food and everyone danced and listened to the music. Then it was back to the bus! So we got on the bus (front row again!) and had to wait for a few minutes. The kids took turns wanting to sit with Mommy, then Daddy, standing in their seats, sitting down, etc. and then I realized something-this is what it would be like if we took them on a plane (only a plane would be worse). We had only been sitting for less then 5 minutes!! I shared this piece of knowledge with Daddy and we both agreed--no way! Not like we have any plane trips planned in the near future!

Slideshow

I can't get the slideshow link to work directly on my blog, so if you'd like to see a quick slideshow of the kids click here:
http://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq32/mrsgillis333/?action=view&current=af760ad4.pbw

(and yes, I know they look silly, cute, and crazy--they're kids!)

The Enforcer

Joshua is our mini rule-keeper. I first remember it happening one day when he was sitting on the potty and Elizabeth came into the bathroom. He told her "Elizabeth! Go Away! Elizabeth! Go playroom!" It was cute the first couple of times, but then it started to border on rude. So I told him he should tell her "please go play".
Since then every now and then Joshua will let he other two know if they are not doing what they should. Like tonight as we were driving home from swimming with Grandma. Everyone wanted to look at the same Wiggles book. James had it and Joshua was told that he would get it next. Elizabeth was sitting in the far back and started crying/whining/screaming for the Wiggles book. I told her she would have to wait until we got home. After telling her that a few times I had to be more blunt "no Wiggles Elizabeth". A minute later when she yelled our "Wiggles!" Joshua said, "Elizabeth, no Wiggles!!"
But besides being our mini rule-keeper he is also the first one to offer up something he has to his brother or sister that has none, or to share something he has. He is a very sweet boy. I guess we'll keep him :) Good times, good times!

Thirsty James

Here's something cute James did the other day. I was filling his sippy cup with water and it was the end of the day so I only filled it about half way. As I was filling it he said something that I didn't understand. So I tried to hand him his cup but he didn't take it and he repeated the phrase again. Then I realized what he said. "Fill it up!"
"You want Mommy to fill your cup up?!"
"Yeahhhh!"
Once I filled it up then he took the cup :)

Yes, we are alive, despite the lack of blogging... I looked at my last blog entry and realized it was almost a month ago! Sorry. I know there are some of you that come every day looking, hoping, praying for some more stories from our house. Sorry to disappoint you. But alas, here is a new blog. Don't worry, I have a story coming, this whole blog won't just be about me not blogging until now :) heheeheheh

Well, where to begin? My job...yep, I still got it. The state is visiting our district this week so we've been making sure that all the EL paperwork is in place--like having all my lesson plans done with the correct amount of time for each category to fulfill the state's requirement. First part would just be to have lesson plans written out-oops! Of course doing that between trying to set up parent conferences that we have next week and finishing up grades that were due on Friday...it's been busy. I keep thinking that it will slow down, but there is always something new coming up. AND I'm supposed to TEACH the kids! When do I have anytime for that?! (seriously people, talk to a teacher, they'll know what I'm talking about)

Anyways, enough about my job, you are really here to hear about the kids!!!! They are still amazing!

Here's something new the kids have learned to say: "I missed you" It is so sweet when I get home from work and they say that. A little sad, but mostly sweet.

It's cute when they try to lie when it is SO obvious that they are lying. Here's an example. We were outside the other day and Joshua was eating dirt or something healthy like that. He had dirt all around his mouth. So I asked him, "Joshua, are you eating dirt?" To which he replies, "nooooo!" as even he is trying not to laugh because he knows darn well that he was eating dirt.

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to the Wildlife World Zoo. It was our first time going there. Everyone had a great time. It's different than the Phoenix Zoo (which for lack of a better way to describe it is more commercialized then the Wildlife World Zoo). The animals at the WWZ are much closer and easier to see. Which is usually a good thing-except the first animal we saw was a tiger that seriously only had two chain link fences between us. My first thought was "umm, is this safe?" ...kids, back up from the huge tiger pacing back and forth licking his lips please :) The kids LOVED the reptiles. Mommy tried not to shutter too much or make too many yucky faces at the snakes and lizards since the kids were way into them. The WWZ also has a petting zoo with very hungry goats that the kids wanted nothing to do with. The WWZ has a good sized playground that the kids also really liked (that was almost worth the drive just to play there) Then we took a train ride, kids under 3 are free and Daddy decided we better take advantage of anything free while the kids are still under 3! How long can they actually pass for being under 3?! At what point do the cashiers starting asking us "really? They are still 2?" I know once facial hair starts coming in on the boys, it's a little too late, but we might try to ride the under 3 train (literally) as long as we can. I think our tiny Elizabeth could probably pass longer than the boys...but we'll see...

Daddy turned 30 on the 15th of October! What an old man! His birthday surprise was that I flew his brother out for a long weekend. It was great to see him again and the kids loved hanging out with Uncle Patrick. And Daddy and Uncle Patrick had a good time catching up.

How's the au pair doing? Well, I will try to make this short (which most of you know is hard for me). After 1 week of being here she decided she missed her boyfriend too much and wanted to leave. Once it was official that she was leaving she had 2 more weeks with us and then was gone. We found a male au pair from Austria who should be coming on Nov. 7th. More details to follow....

That's all for now, I think. Not too many kids stories, but I will make up for that with some pictures!!!! :)

Peek-a-la-boo

Joshua says the cutest thing: when he is saying peek-a-boo it comes out "peek-a-la-boo"
heheehhee :)

Elizabeth

So, I told you potty training was the next step. We've been just introducing it. The potties are out and the kids know if they go pee-pee they get 1 treat and if they go poo-poo they will get 2 treats. The "treats" are mini marshmallows. And since they have never had them since now, it is a big treat for them.

Anyways, everybody went once on the potty and got a treat. Ok, fine. But we have a potty star! Elizabeth is just like training herself! She just started more and more to say"poo poo on the potty" and start to run down the hallway. (She says poo-poo even when she has to go pee-pee). But now during the day, she goes on the potty all the time. I think on Sunday she wore a dry diaper all day. It is pretty damm cool! Of course, I wasn't expecting it, so I'm like "ah, what do I do next?! Am I supposed to get you some pull-ups or panties? What am I supposed to do?!" I haven't read 5 different books and 20 different internet articles yet!!!!

So the other day she was sitting on the potty and I was talking to her. We were talking about how she was a big girl now and she said "Elizabeth baby all gone" (which of course translates to Elizabeth is no longer a baby). I agreed with her. It was so true and so sad and the same time. It made me want to cry :(

What did he say?!

Daddy and I decided that we would tell the kids the "proper" name for their private parts (ya know, vjayjay and weiner...j/k vagina and penis). Well, at bedtime lately we've been putting cream on Elizabeth down there. So the boys will be walking around saying "cream on vagina" while we do it (ahh, the joys of toddlers heheeheh).

Well, the other night, we were driving home from somewhere and we were telling everyone what we were going to do when we got home "we'll go inside, change our diapers, get on our pajamas", etc...... We were just about home and we passed a McDonald's. James says something. I pause. Daddy and I look at each other and think the same thing: Did he say vagina or McDonald's?! Which would be the lesser of two evils for me to repeat back to him?! I understand saying McDonald's because that boy always wants to eat and we are driving by it, but why is he talking about vaginas? I'm not sure what exactly happened next, but I decided vagina would be the lesser of two evils.
"Vagina?"
He replies with a "yeah" or a "yeah, cream on vagina"
"Oh, o.k., yes, we will put cream on Elizabeth's vagina"

Heheehehhe...good times, good times :)

Joshua

Two quick stories about Joshua:

He seriously can tell the difference between his left and his right. Here's an example: I was putting his shoes on today and I had the left shoe in my hand and I said "this is for the left foot" and he picked up his left foot. (And it wasn't just a lucky guess, he has picked his left/right out before). It amazes me that he knows this, probably because I usually have to stop and think about it if someone tells me "it's on your left" And as an adult I still have to put my hands up, palms away, to see which hand makes a L to know that is my left. I guess I can thank Daddy for Joshua knowing this because he is always telling the kids directions with left and right and I used to just laugh and tell him that they don't understand that. Ok, I was wrong....

We have these big blue bins that we store their toys in and today I was down the hallway with Elizabeth and I heard a noise and Joshua starts fussing. I go into the living room and here is Joshua in the bin but it has fallen over. I said to Joshua "oh, where you trying to go *in* the bin?" He says "nooooo....." (as he is sitting inside of it). Sure Joshua, I believe you :)

Emotions

Sometimes James has a hard time when he gets frustrated (baby James that is). We have been trying to get him to use his words when he gets frustrated instead of throwing things or screaming-you know normal 2 year-old behavior :)

Well, today the kids were saying different emotions and making faces that went along with the emotion. Like they would say "happy" and make a happy face, or "sad" and make a sad face. I tried to think of some different emotions, so I said frustrated. I asked James, "What does frustrated look like?" Without hesitation James said "Time-out".

So true, so true :)

Binkie-free five days and counting....

Yes, it's true-we have become a binkie-free house!!! Thank you, thank you, please hold your applause :) We were down to only having the binkies at nap and bed time, but now we don't use them at all.
We've been telling the kids the last few weeks how they are big boys and a big girl now, and that binkies are almost all gone. Then I started telling them about how our friend Eden had a baby and that her baby would need the binkies. And since they are a big boy/big girl they won't need them anymore.

"How about we give our binkies to Eden's new baby?"
"yeah"
"Wouldn't that me nice?"
"yeah"

Of course they say "yeah" to lots of things.....

So we have not seen the baby yet, but last Sunday after they spent the afternoon swimming, we told them we gave the binkies to the baby and when they go night night they won't have their binkies anymore. They were ok with that until it was actually time to go to bed:) Well, the boys fussed a little, but then they calmed down and they just were talking to each other before they finally fell asleep. Now Elizabeth on the other hand.....she was not very happy. The upshot is that Daddy has to rub her back a little to calm her down and then she will go to sleep. Most nights he can just do it as she lays down, but some nights he has to go back in. But all in all, she is doing really well, since she was the one that had became the most attached to it.

Next stop-potty training!!!

Rollercoaster of emotions

So here's the big news- I went back to work full time. Yeah, I know, I know...I don't want to hear any grief about it. It wasn't my choice of things to do. It kinda sucks. So now that we have that out of the way, let me tell you about my new job.
I'm teaching a 3rd and 4th grade SEI class. (SEI is the new way to say ELL or English Language Learners). I've been told a few times that "at least I have a small class"- I have 17 kids. Which by Arizona standards is a small class since the other classes have 28 or so kids in them. But to me, coming from 2nd grade in California, where the max number of kids is 20, this is a normal sized class.
The teacher that was supposed to teach this class retired or moved to a new school (I've heard both stories) right before the start of school, so they have had a substitute in there for 1 1/2 weeks until I came. School started on the 11th of August, I was hired on the 15th (Friday) and they wanted me to start on the 18th (Monday). Umm, I need to find someone to watch the kids!!!! (More on that later...) I told them I would try my best to start on the 21st (Thursday), which I did.
Here's more about how my class was formed:
Arizona passed a law that all the ELL students had to be grouped in the same class. I am supposed to teach them English (grammar, reading, writing) for 4 hours a day and math for 1 hour. That's it. So, that's kinda cool because I don't have to worry about Science or Social Studies, but since this is a new thing, no one really knows what to do. Then, I have both 3rd and 4th graders (the only combo class at the school) and then I'm starting late. And of course, I missed new teacher training which is the week before the returning teachers come to school, but don't worry, I was told I can go next summer before the next school year starts. WHAT?!?!?! How is new teacher training going to help me in a year from now?! Who's going to help me now? And yes, luckily I've been a teacher before so I know something about what I am supposed to be doing, but I'm teaching in a new state (so new state standards), a new district and new school (that both have different rules and expectations then my previous school and district), I'm teaching a grade level I've never taught before to a whole class of ELL students, without much guidance, not knowing what textbooks to use (3rd or 4th? Do I teach the grades separate? I can't use 3rd grade text because the 4th graders have already done it and I can't use 4th grade text because then what will the 3rd graders do next year?) and different people I talk to giving me different answers or not know the answer..... AARRRRHHHHHHGGGG!!!!
But the teachers and staff have been very nice and as helpful as they can be (I'm referring again to then fact that this is all new, so some things they don't know the answer to!) The principal is very nice and has told me that she doesn't expect things to be up and running already, to not worry so much, just get to know the kids and build a sense of community, and that they are just happy that I'm there! So that is all very good to hear.
But to top it all off, I am now having to say good bye to my kids every morning to go to work, leaving them with a temporary nanny until I can find a permanent one. It's just been a lot of fun over here :)
And speaking of nannies, what we really decided to do was to get an au pair (which for those of you that don't know is a live in nanny from another country). So we have been trying to figure out that process, find someone quick--but not too quick since they will be watching our kids, living with us, and staying for a whole year--find someone we like who likes us and will be a good match for our family. And geez, I guess I didn't think about the fact that some people might be turned off by the idea of being responsible for watching 2 1/2 year old triplets. What?! You don't want to watch 3 toddlers? :)
But the good news--I know you are ready for some good news by now-WE FOUND SOMEONE!!! She is a 18 year old girl from Sweden. She seems really nice and the idea of toddler triplets did not make her run the other way and scream. She's hired! :) She is set to come on September 19th. And will be with us for a year. We are excited, it seems like a good fit for our situation. Having an au pair instead of a nanny gives us flexibility with the hours we use her, plus we are hoping to have her become a part of our family and build a close bond with our kids.

Overall, I think I will like teaching this class, I just wish I had like 2 weeks to go through materials and set up my classroom...but we are just chug-chugging along....we'll get there...

Baby Tiger Book

"Baby tiger book, baby tiger book" that is a phrase we often hear around our house. Joshua has become obsessed with this book (and it's from the library-great! how many times can I renew it?) It is a book about animals but on the cover it has a picture of a baby tiger hence "baby tiger book". It is just one of his many things that he likes to carry around during the day. Oh, yea, he's not obsessed with READING it, he just like to carry it around. He wants to take it in the car, and up to bed. He does read it throughout the day, but he mostly just likes carrying it around. He also has blue teddy bear blanket and little doggie, some days he also has monkey blanket and big doggie (in addition to the previously mentioned items). I won't bother to tell you what each of these items looks like, I bet you can tell by their names :)

When he wakes up from nap and I go in to get him he has his arms full of all of these items, ready to take them downstairs. And heaven forbid if I try to help him down the stairs by carrying one item like blue teddy bear blanket. Then he starts to fuss "blue teddy bear blanket, blue teddy bear blanket." "Yes, Joshua, blue teddy bear blanket, Mommy is going to carry it for you so you can walk down the stairs"

It really is cute (most of the time). It makes me smile :)

Closing down the place

The other day I took Baby James for some one-on-one time to the library. It was on a Sunday and the library closed at 6 pm, so I decided to stay until it closed. That made me think "Cool, I'm *closing down* the library!" What a far way I am from the good 'ol days of closing down bars!!!!!

This happened again last Saturday night when Daddy James and I closed down the Paradise Bakery at 9pm before we went grocery shopping. WoooHoo!!! Closing down Paradise Bakery!! And yes, I said SATURDAY NIGHT and yes, we went grocery shopping after!! And we PAID a babysitter for this!!!! heehehheehehheheh

Good times, good times :)

Our Trip to California: Day 4-Last Day :(

Today was our last day in California. We were sad, but Daddy and I were looking forward to being back to our normal schedule. We went with Jennifer and her family to the beach to walk on the sand and in the water. The kids had a great time! James was not too sure about the water, but he loved the sand, just like his brother and sister! After the beach we went to this fancy cupcake place and ordered some cupcakes to go. We went home, had lunch, and ate our cupcakes. They were yummy! Jennifer and her family left to go to a baseball game and we tried to get most of your stuff ready to go. After the kids got up we hung around for a little bit, until I realized that we were just hanging around in order to drive home when it was their bed time. I thought that was dumb, so we packed up the kids and hit the road! After driving for a little bit we stopped at McDonald's to have dinner. We let the kids play in the play area for a little, to hopefully burn off some steam before the long car ride.

Then we drove home. Nothing exciting-which is a good thing!

Nothing exciting..until we were almost home.....

We were still on the 10, but nearing the 101 (about 30 minutes from home) there was some road construction, it's night time now and dark out. We were all merging into one lane, so we were slowing down a bit. Then I heard this awful noise...and looked back to see a semi truck screeching from the right side of the road to the middle of the road, running into the construction concrete wall and clipping a couple cars. I'm not very religious, but the first thing I said was "Oh Lord" and not in an exclamatory way, but in a real, I'm talking to you God-oh Lord, please let everyone be ok. It was weird, it was eirry, there were no cars behind us anymore, there were no headlights from other cars. We saw a Highway Patrol Car sitting in the middle of the road, so James pulled over to tell him about the accident.

James and I were speechless. I finally said "We are SO lucky" James nodded in agreement. I continued, "We are lucky because not only did we not get into that accident, but we didn't get stuck behind it. Can you imagine how long it is going to take to clear the road of that?" There was already only one lane, now that lane is blocked by the accident. It was eirry, there were no cars behind us anymore, there were no headlights from other cars, and not because you are on the road late and everyone else is home in bed, but because you made it through...you might have been the last car to make it through... I told James, "Like I keep thinking, everything happens for a reason....if I hadn't taken as long as I did when we stopped for gas and I went to the bathroom..." etc., etc.....

But we had made it through, and we were happy for that. We made it home and were happy that everyone transferred into their beds still sleeping, with Mommy and Daddy following not too far behind....

Our Trip to California: Day 3

BBQ at Andrea's house!

Our morning was filled with normal toddler things at Jennifer's house and then we went to the park with Kathleen. While the kids napped Kathleen took me to get my haircut by the girl I used to have cut my hair when I lived there. I loved my haircut! After that, Kathleen took me back to Jennifer's house to get ready for the BBQ at Andrea's.
We gathered at Andrea's house (well, I should say Andrea and her family's house) for a BBQ. Andrea's husband grilled up some hamburgers and hot dogs. They had a bouncy house set up in the front of the house that the kids loved! (and the Daddys too!) It was fun to chat with everyone, and we all had a great time!

Dancing Fools

Yesterday the kids and I were home and I turned the radio on. I picked up James and started dancing with him (the song was "Call Me Al"; a good dancing song!) and he was laughing and laughing so hard and smiling and just having a great 'ol time. It made me laugh and smile too and I thought, this is what it's all about...this makes up for the hard moments/hard days.

Ahhh--good times, good times :)

Our Trip to California: Day 2-Disneyland

So we decided to take the kids to Disneyland. At first I thought it was a crazy idea, but after hours of research online, by telephone, and having a few friends come with us (thanks to Kathleen, Jenny, and the Gonzalez family!!!) I thought it might not be so bad.

We arrived at Disneyland at 7:30 a.m. and got in line to get in (the park opens at 8:00). Once it opened we went inside and rented strollers, then we headed straight to Fantasyland. Our first ride was Peter Pan. There were other people in line ahead of us, but we pretty much just walked right up to get on. I was so excited! It was so cool to be at Disneyland with my kids! I think James and I were more excited than the kids were! (mainly because they didn't know how much fun they were going to have!)

As we were waiting we told Joshua that we were going to ride on a boat. He started saying "no boat, no boat" and I was worried. I thought, ok great, here's our first ride and he is going to freak out. Well, Jenny, Joshua, and I got on the boat. Daddy and Elizabeth got on the second one, and Kathleen took James on the next one. As my boat is pulling away I can hear James starting to cry. There's two unhappy kids, I think. Well, as we go into the ride, I now remember from my hours of Internet research, that Peter Pan is an inside "dark" ride and that I really should have taken them on either an outside ride or a ride that is not so dark first...oops...well, too late now. So we make it through the ride an the first thing Joshua says to me is "more boat, more boat" :) Then Daddy and Elizabeth come out, looking happy and last is Kathleen and James, also looking happy. YEA! We all survived! Daddy and I decided that James probably started crying because he saw Mommy leave and then Daddy leave. But then once on the ride, he was ok.

On to the next rides: Dumbo, the carousel, the circus train, and the storybook canal boats. Fun, fun, fun, fun. After that we put the kids into the strollers and headed towards Tomorrowland. We went on Buzz Lightyear. We got a fast pass for Autotopia, had a snack, went to Toon Town, went back to Autotopia and rode it (had to wait a little for that one, even with the fastpass). I think I'm forgetting something here-I might have to edit this later if someone remembers what I forgot!

Then we had lunch. Elizabeth took a little nap in her stroller during lunch. After lunch we went on Winnie the Pooh; then to Mark Twain's Riverboat to try to have the boys take a cat nap. James fell asleep with Daddy--well, Daddy fell asleep too. Next we went on the Jungle Cruise.

After the cruise we had a YUMMY treat called Pineapple Whip. We sat and ate those and just as we were finishing them, some characters came up. So we took some pictures with the characters. Then we went on the train that goes around the park. Nap time for anyone? No, just Daddy :)Then we listened to the Main Street Band with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.

We went into "The First 50 Years" exhibit which was nice and cool and we were waiting to see a movie that lasts 15 minutes. Nap time again, anyone? But as we were waiting for the movie, James started to have meltdown. We decided that we had all had enough for the day, and we should go home.

I think we got to see and do a lot, and the kids' behavior that day was AMAZING! Especially considering we had been out of the house since 7 a.m., it was now 3:00, and besides a short cat nap that Elizabeth and James had had, it was 3 and 1/2 hours past their nap time.

We had a great time and were very happy we decided to go. The kids had an early bedtime again and then Jennifer stayed home with them while they slept so that we could have some adult time at Disneyland. (Thanks Jennifer!!!) James and I went back with our friends Kathleen, Jenny, and her husband Corey. We got to go on Space Mountain (which I had not been on since they re-did it) It was so fast! I loved it!!! We went on the Matterhorn and after that ride I thought, damm, I'm too old for this! That ride seemed really bumpy! :( We also went on Pirates (which seemed really slow to me) and we got to see the fireworks. We were done by then-it had been a very busy day!

Looking forward to tomorrow-BBQ at Andrea's house!

Our Trip to California: Day 1

So we just got back from a road trip to L.A. Yea! Overall, it was a great trip. It started with us leaving the house at 1:30 in the morning (yes, that was done on purpose). Here's the back story to that: When we moved to AZ from CA we packed the kids up at 7:00 p.m. --their bedtime-- and drove over. It was great, the kids slept the whole time--until we got to our new house at 1 or 2 in the morning...well, now they had just had a great nap and they were ready to play!!! They were wide awake, much to our dismay since we were sooooo tired from all the packing, moving, and driving. But they wanted to explore the new house!

So James and I decided that we didn't want that to happen again. We decided to let them sleep, then we would move them very carefully as to not wake them....they would be sleepy still since it's 1:30 in the morning, and they would fall right back asleep with the nice motion of the car.....James and I would drive in the the still of the dark, quiet night and arrive to California just in time for the kids to wake up at their normal morning wake up time, all fresh and rested none-the-wiser that their nighttime sleep was actually in the car.

that was the plan.....
you see where I'm going with this?! :)

Well, they woke up when we moved them into the van, and they stayed awake until 3:30!!! But, it wasn't that bad because they didn't fuss. They just sat in their chairs, looking around, not saying a word. It wasn't bad except for later in the day when the lack of sleep caught up to them.... They fell asleep around 3:30/4:00 but woke back up again around 5 a.m., again just sitting, looking around.

When we got to CA our first stop was at our friend Andrea's house to pick up a pack 'n play we were borrowing from her. Then our friend Kathleen came to meet us at Denny's for breakfast. After breakfast, we drove to James' former work to visit his work friends. Then we went to a nearby park to play for a little before finally arriving at our friend Jennifer's house where we were going to be staying. The kids were getting tired by then (I couldn't blame them...) so they had an early lunch and went to bed early. After nap, Jennifer had invited some people over to visit (my former work friends--former work of course, not former friends). It was a lot of fun to see all of them again! The kids had an early bed time again--they needed their sleep for the next day-DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

to be continued.....

triplets are interesting?

******WARNING! LONG POST AHEAD!!!******

Hello again....it's been a while....which brings me to the subject for today. The other day I was talking to my friend Jennifer (not Jenn or Jenny, but Jennifer) and she was giving me a hard time about not having posted anything in a while. I told her that nothing interesting was going on. And I feel like I should wait until something interesting happens before I bore you with lame stories on my blog. She said "but you have *triplets*!! Everything is interesting".

I told her how we took the kids to swimming lessons but had to skip a few days because we didn't have an extra person to go with us since we have to have one adult per child. She said, now that is interesting, going swimming with triplets (I don't know if it is interesting or she just doesn't get out much....heeheheh). I guess the things we do seem normal to us because we are used to living with triplets. And there are things that we deal with everyday that other people never had to think of--like having to have 3 adults to go to swimming lessons.

But I do want to tell you about how good the kids did these last couple of days of swimming "lessons" (I say "lessons" because these "lessons" done through the city are really just to get the kids more comfortable in the water and have them practice kicking and blowing bubbles. The first couple days I was kinda upset because I thought it was a waste of time, but when I really thought about what the purpose of this class for little ones aged 6 months-36 months was, then I was ok with it) Anyways, the kids really are more comfortable now. They were all getting---what's a nice way of saying dunked?---I don't know----they were all getting dunked under water...the teacher called it "underwater exploration" I called it getting dunked---they were all getting dunked under water but they were coming up with big smiles on their faces, everyone was holding their breaths, it was great! On the last day, Elizabeth was jumping in from the side to Jenn (our third adult that day--thanks Jenn!!!). And James was with Daddy. He was doing a lot of "underwater exploration" and was picking up toys from underwater. I was swimming with Joshua and he was laying on his stomach and kicking and I said can you kick *and* blow bubbles?! And he did. It was awesome. He was kicking so far (to retrieve a toy that I threw pretty far) that he blew so many bubbles and he ran out of air. So then he took a breath and kept blowing more bubbles!! It was pretty darn cool! I think one reason I am so excited about this is because this is coming from someone who still plugs her nose as she jumps in the water! :)

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I was interviewing for a part time job a few weeks ago and the interviewer asked me to tell about a time I had to multi-task. Hummm...let me think about that for a minute---Uh, how about everyday?!! Like today for example, I was reading Good Night Moon with Elizabeth, James was grunting next to me, and Joshua was climbing on the couch. So I looked over to help James with whatever he was fussing about at that time, while I kept "reading" Good Night Moon which I was really just reciting from memory after having read it a million times, and while I turned the page I told Joshua to be careful climbing. While I was doing that I was thinking "how's that for multi-tasking?!" I'm sure there is a million more times a day that I am multi tasking and I don't even realize it. And I'm sure every mom, one kid or three, multi-tasks throughout the day.

So I will try to post every few days, and I will post things that I might not think is interesting, but in hindsight it might be nice to have written down. And if the posts are not that interesting after all, then feel free to skim or skip as much as you want! :)