Story Hour and the Park

Okay, so my car thermometer said it was only 38 degrees out today... after story hour at the library we went for a picnic at a nearby park anyway! Here are some pictures.

Maggie rides the dog

Ella and Kelli enjoying their burgers

Kelli, Sarah, Mimi, Maggie, Ella, and Kate... someone had to take the photo (mom of course!)

Kate really wanted to swing on this one instead

The little ones all calling for a dog that had come by and then wandered away... Ella was as high on the play structure as she could get at that moment because she is "afraid of dogs".

Happy Sundy Everyone

We've had a wonderfully busy day. This morning all the girls and I went to Sunday school and church. We had lunch at Nanny and Pop C.'s house, napped, and then went back to church this evening for a special dinner for parents and playtime for the kiddos. As I was tucking Ella in bed tonight she smiled up at me and said, "Happy Sunday, Mom!" She sure is a sweetie!!

Here are some pictures from the last few days as we've tried hard to entertain ourselves inside...

A tub full of multi-taskers... like their mother?

Mixing up some biscuits in her kitchen... sorry you can't see the pink apron.

Above: The accomplice... also sorry you can't see the purple apron. Below: TROUBLE!

Little Streakers

Tonight as I was browsing through my emails and preparing to call it a night, I heard Maggie begin to cry. After 5 minutes she was still crying, so I went in to see what the problem was.... I reached in to pick her up and felt cold, bare skin. She had managed to remove her pajamas and diaper and slept that way for some time before wetting her bed. I carried her little, cold, wet self to Scott, and he diapered and clothed her while I changed the bed.

I've been battling with Kate over clothes all week. It is still cold here, and for the most part she has run around with a shirt and diaper only because that is all I can keep on her. Within minutes of dressing them in the mornings, she takes her pants off. She loves to try on different shirts and dress up clothes, but apparently she hates pants. She is also capable of taking off her pj's, or at least unzipping them. This morning when Scott went to change her diaper he discovered that she had unzipped, loosened the diaper (it fell down around one leg inside the pj's), and then zipped herself back up. He was not thrilled about the fact that the diaper was only wet, but the child inside the pajamas was also covered in poop! Yuck!!


I've read horror stories of people having to duct tape diapers on toddlers and putting kids in footie pajamas backwards to keep them in their clothes... Guess it is about that time for us as well. We're hoping this is one of those very short- lived phases!!

Questions 2008 for the girls

... Well just questions for Ella this year, but by next year we'll check in with the other three for answers as well. Thanks for the idea from JMom at Lots of Scotts ! I found a couple of boredom buster ideas there for these winter time blahs we've got, too. Check out her blog if you have toddlers and are in need of new ideas.

Ella's Questions and Answers for January 2008
Answers are in italics and exactly what came out of her mouth... hence, they don't all make sense. (I've been hanging out with Ella so much I make rhymes all the time, ha, ha)

What are you good at doing? I'm good at taking care of babies, warming them up. Are you?
If you had $10, how would you spend it? I'd buy lots, lots, lots, lots of baby dolls. If you had $10 what would you buy?
What are you afraid of? What? Oh, I'm afraid of all the mean guys... they might bite me.
Who are your friends? Kelli, Kari, Lucy, you- mommy, Mimi, and my sisters
What's important to you? God is
What is your favorite book? This (a little purple notebook she has in her hands)
What is your favorite food? cake
What do you think you'll like best about school? I don't want to go there anytime
What is your favorite thing to do? Make a mess and clean it up
How do you show your family you love them? This way (she's hugging my neck as I type)
What do you want to be when you grow up? A mom
Why? Cause I'd just like to...
What are you thankful for? Daddy
Tell me something about God. Does he wear a sweater?

Happy Birthday Mimi!!

Then...

and Now (the girls, that is... Mimi looks wonderfully the same- maybe even better).

I searched and searched for a picture or two of Mimi and her "Little Me" Ella, but I could not find a single one. So now my new mission will be to get a decent picture of the two of them together!

Anyway, Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday Mimi!!! We love you.

Just Another Day

I just want to say that I am in complete awe of those of you who live with children in a climate with inclement weather lots of the time. Fortunately, here in the south we only have short spells of being incarcerated house bound, but when we are in the midst of them it sure feels like forever! We're already looking forward to playing outside, walks around the circle, the park... but in the mean time, we'll keep blowing up our jump-n-slide, playing dress up, painting, playing play dough, and generally just trying to keep the small ones entertained. I'm hoping for the relief that spring days bring real soon!!

New Personality Traits & Teeth... Both Arriving Daily

Night before last we had our first snow of the year. It was beautiful and must have fallen on and off all night because when we woke up there were probably 2 or so inches (warning: I'm not much good at estimation) on the ground. Because all the girls have still got quite a battle going with a bad chest cold, we didn't go out and play in it at all. They just looked out from the windows. Ella remembered playing in the one good snow that we had last year and wanted to know when we'd be going outside to sled. The babies all learned to say some version of snow... they were pretty cute pointing out the window and trying to say it anyway.

We are in the midst of a personality explosion around here daily. Each one of the girls is changing and becoming her own little self to such a degree that even I (someone who is with them nearly 24/7) can see the change. Maggie is a true instigator. Lately she has been caught offering her paci to Ella, who no longer takes one but still misses them terribly, and then immediately crying out that Ella has stolen her paci. She didn't know I was watching as she did it, and boy was she disappointed to not get the usual reaction out of me! Maggie has also become very intentionally loving lately... I watched her try to hug and kiss all three of her sisters today- whether they liked it or not. Oh, yeah, Maggie also moves her head around a lot lately like Stevie Wonder?!? Kate is sometimes a little puzzle. She is most often the only child in this house who will play by herself. She can entertain herself in Ella's walk in closet for 30 minutes at a time. She is also pretty defiant. She likes to stand up on their slide and in the rocking chair... even when I tell her NO. She grins and takes her sweet time sitting down when requested, but if she is too slow and I have to sit her down myself it just breaks her heart. She seems to be the most easygoing and the most sensitive at the same time. Is that possible??? Sarah is our little communicator. She is sure of what she wants these days and doesn't have much trouble telling us exactly what "it" is. She's also a bully. I've heard "mine" and "my turn" from her more times in the last week than I care to count. However, she is fairly patient when actually waiting her turn.... except when it's a turn in mom's or Mimi's lap she's waiting for! She has a new love for oranges, but she is our little fruitarian, after all. Ella, the sweetest big sister in the whole world, has been a complete pleasure these last few days. Of course, she's not been feeling her best, but she has been helpful, pleasant, not whining, just generally a complete joy to be around. I think all our hard work with "Please and thank you never go on vacation" is paying off, because she seems to have a very grateful heart. I've noticed in the last couple of days that she always remembers to say Sank You for any and everything that people do to help her, give her, etc. While I was getting the girls down for their afternoon nap a couple of days ago, she was busily working away in their little kitchen. When I came out of the nursery she took a nice looking plate of "food" over, handed it to Kelli and said, "Here's some Lord's Supper for you Kelli. Enjoy!" I honestly don't know where she comes up with the things she thinks about.

We are still in a world of hurt sleep wise due in part to the chest colds and in part, I think, to teeth. Sarah was up from 3 to 5 am last night literally telling me that she couldn't sleep because her teeth hurt. After she asked for some medicine and I delivered, she still couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. I just didn't have the heart to put her in her crib to suffer it out alone. Thanks to a wonderful husband, I got to sleep in this morning until almost 10am! However, I know we've got at least three little mouths full of teeth just waiting to burst forth any day now, so I best get on to bed!!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday- Dressing Lessons

Ella- The Instructor a.k.a. Punky Brewster

Kate- Apparently the theme for the day at Ella's School of Fashion was layering and big girl shoes

Maggie- Layering like a pro, attempting to get a painting smock on top too, and wearing Ella's converse tennis shoes

Sarah- Taking it easy after layering like big sis taught her... still working on that second shoe

We Interrupt These Messages...

I first want to apologize to all you guys who have been reading this blog over the last few weeks. Looking back this morning I realized that even the good stories have some sort of negative voice attached to them. I'm sorry. Guess I've been using the blog to vent mostly and that's not my intent.... I started this blog so that our family and friends who live both near and far would be able to keep up with the girls and all that is going on in our lives, as well as intending it to be a baby book of sorts. In that light, I'll try to continue on in a much more positive manner... I certainly don't want the girls to read one day and think that all I ever did was complain about them to the world!!

On to my next reason for this post... I am really curious who is reading here. I can view my stats and know how many, where from, how many times you are visiting each day, etc, but what I don't know is WHO ARE YOU? I'm fairly new to the blogging world, but apparently once a year there is what they call a de-lurking day where in bloggers ask all the people who are "lurking" on their sites to leave them a comment. I missed the official "de-lurking day"... it was the 10th I think, but I figure this is my blog and I can do it now instead, right? I personally know of only a hand full of people and then that many more whom I've met virtually who read the blog daily, and yet we have about 80 different people checking in on us daily... sometimes multiple times a day. Who are the rest of you?? How did you find our little blog? What brings you back here, because it's certainly not been my attitude in the last few weeks? Just curious... so if you don't mind terribly, please leave me a comment and let me know who you are, how you found us, and why you keep coming back. It really isn't hard to do! Please?!?

Girl's Night Out and No Sleep Woes

Dawn & Dotti

Amanda & LeAnne

Emileigh, Brittney, & Jaime

Holly & Erin

Here we all are...

Okay, this time Girl's Night Out was with my "old" college buddies and not my new triplet mom friends, so we only average 1.8 children each, ha, ha, ha!! On the way home Amanda and I realized that we have been out of college for almost 10 years now! Wow, just realizing that made me feel old, but I don't think that any of us looks much older or worse for the wear. It was so much fun to catch up with everyone and boy did we laugh!

It's a good thing that we had awesome fun while away, because the amount of fun I had there was directly proportional to the trouble that I've had from the girls since the very moment that I got home. I walked in at 11pm and, no kidding, by 11:30pm Kate had started to cry. I was up all night with her off and on.... sleeping (or trying to) on the couch with her and rocking in the chair. She seemed peaceful as long as I was holding her, but the moment I tried to lay her down the screeching began. I even attempted that several times for short stints, but I never got any indication that she was going to get herself back to sleep that way so I always just gave up and tried to enjoy the little sleeping beauty. I'm hoping it is teething still.

This morning Ella was in rare form.... bouncing from one place to another wreaking havoc everywhere she went. Any time she wasn't making her presence known to the babies and I, she was getting into TROUBLE. She painted her fingernails red and tried to wash it off in the sink in one bathroom, after making these really neat "stacks".

She's got a real talent, don't you think??

In the time it took me to grab the camera and take these pictures while constantly removing crying babies from my legs she moved on to the other bathroom and proceeded to find, use, and spill the Nail Polish Remover all over the bathroom rug.

I then made a poor, sleep deprived choice and decided we should all go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch so the girls could run off some steam. The place was packed... 2 rec ball teams and a birthday party. So they didn't end up being able to play much at all and then two of the four fell asleep on the way home- instead of waiting until we were here so that they would take decent, much needed, afternoon naps.

It continued on from there... no napping, early to bed, etc. and here I sit presently listening to at least one, if not two, of them crying. Hopefully I won't have that much fun again for a long time, if my having all that fun is, in fact, what is to blame for the day we've had!!

But for the record for those of you who were there last night, even if I have to pay for my fun in this manner, it was still worth it!

Why?

We have officially entered the era of the ever popular question, why. In fact, every other sentence that Ella forms these days ends in at least a question mark, if not specifically why. Fortunately, she has also been listening, paying attention, and answering some pretty good ones, too.

During the children's sermon in church Sunday, Kim was asking the children how to find a place they had never been before... asking for directions, reading maps, using the computer or other tools, etc. Then after they had discussed all the options for reaching unfamiliar destinations, she asked, "How did the wise men find the baby Jesus?" Ella immediately raised her hand, and before any of the older children could answer she said, "God put a star up for them to follow." Kay-Kay, her Sunday school teacher, was shocked... she didn't think any of her little 2-4 year olds were listening to the lesson that morning, but apparently at least one of them was!

We've been discussing the fact that daddy goes to work to earn money lately. Just a few days ago Ella came into the kitchen as I was mopping the floor and said, "May I watch you?". I said, "Sure, honey. But why do you want to watch me work?" She replied, "I just want to see how you earn your money."

"How come I've never seen Jesus?" she asked me one afternoon recently. I did the best I could to explain that though I've never seen him with my eyes either, I certainly believe in him and he's always in my heart. She then said, "I feel him in my heart too, and since he's in there I want to give him that heart." I stood there with my mind absolutely reeling... wow, but she interrupted my amazement with, "You know the pink one I made yesterday with the plate. Maybe I should cut it into two pieces so he can share it with God."

"How old is God?" I haven't figured out how to explain that to a two, almost three year old yet either.

Daily I pray that the Lord will give me the wisdom I need to answer all these thousands of questions, and I never cease to thank Him for these four precious children He's entrusted to my care.

Two Peas in Two Pods

Sarah and Ella "baking pies" in the sandbox

Kate and Maggie swinging

Scott and I have been joking lots lately about the fact that Ella and Sarah are really twins separated by 17.5 months... while Maggie and Kate are our other set of twins. They all play pretty well together, but more often than not, if Ella is going to include someone in her pretend play, it is Sarah. However, because Sarah and Ella are just alike where stubbornness is concerned, often Sarah refuses her just on principle.

Even though Maggie and Kate look a lot alike, they are really very different in their behaviors. Maggie is our instigator... if she sees an opportunity to get someone's goat she is right on it. Kate is much more laid back and likes to do her own thing. She doesn't care the least little bit about bothering her sisters... thank goodness.

P.S. The brand new camera that was purchased in the fall was pulled off the table onto it's lens right after the holidays by a child who shall remain nameless. So for now, I'm back to the old Kodak Easyshare. The only positive to this is that the Kodak also serves as a video camera, and now perhaps I'll post more videos.

Happy Birthday Kari

Sorry Kari, the card will not arrive in time because I haven't selected or mailed it yet!! We hope that you enjoyed Ella's rendition of Happy Birthday to You on your messages this morning. Sorry that you are not feeling well! Get well soon.
Love,
MaryBeth and the girls

Quirky, Funny, Smart

Just describing my girls in the title there...

This morning Ella was playing with one of her old baby dolls that never got a name. She was taking very good care of her along with Allison Anne, a new baby she got for Christmas. I asked what the other baby's name was and out of the blue she said, " Mom, her name is Charlie- you know, after Charlie Wilson's War." Now, I should have prefaced this with the fact that in this house we very rarely watch any television other than Noggin while the girls are awake so she's never heard of the movie. Scott has just finished reading that book though, and Ella is a very observant listener. She must have heard the two of us discussing the book at some point over the holidays! By this afternoon she has decided to change Charlie's name.... she is now going to be a treat for Daddy when he gets home this evening- Charlie Wilson's Mom is what she's going by these days.

Also, this morning while we were all lounging around playing Kate came over to me and wanted to be picked up. I scooped her up, and sat down with her. She started to squirm and pull on her long shirt sleeves. Then she began saying, "Tica, tica, tica, tica" which I'm pretty sure means Tickle me please, mom. I thought that was so funny. Kate loves to be tickled, and now she knows exactly how to get it!

Sanity Must Be Relative

The past two days in a row have started off with a bang... and by bang I mean at least 2 children crying, consecutively, from the moment they all wake up in the morning until the moment I put them to bed for naps around noon. I hope and pray that they are teething and this is not our new "normal".

I made the comment to Ms. Faye yesterday that it is nothing short of a miracle that God has spared my sanity while I have been both the source of their comfort and apparent cause for most of their incessant crying! Actually, as I mentioned before I believe teeth are the main cause, but wanting me to hold them and finding my lap already filled to capacity with one or two other sisters has been like a cruel joke. It's not that I've not had help... Kelli, Faye, Debbie, Kay, Donna, Nick, John, Bee, Sherry and as always Mimi (my mom) have all been here off and on, but for the most part they want their mommy (or in Sarah's case, Mimi), and nothing else will do.

I still am able, through the grace of God, to look back on this same time last year and think... wow, life is so much better now! The best part is I don't remember this time last year being all that bad either.

I'm not writing this to elicit pity; somehow it is just my reality right now and I don't even mind, assuming, of course, the constant crying comes to a stop soon?!? I do think it is important to document it so I'll remember when they are 2 and 3 and tearing the place apart (and I'm blogging away my complaints) what was so hard about 1 and 2.

So, my conclusion is that sanity must be relative, and while I'm absolutely thankful for every one of my beautiful little daughters, I'm also incredibly grateful for 6:30pm these days... and the memory (or lack thereof) that God has given me!


January 2007




January 2007

Happy New Year 2008

I should actually have titled this one "Some Christmas Pictures, Finally". Here's a slide show of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We've had massive amounts of fun, and our fair share of sickness since Christmas Day, but I don't want another day to go by before I get these pics up, and for those of you who care I will be adding pictures to Shutterfly very soon.

* Parental Disclaimer: In the photo slide show there aren't many pictures of Kate, and that is because on Christmas day she was the one who was sickest. When the girls read this one day I don't want her to think I left her out on purpose... she just wasn't into as much as the other three were.

Since Christmas we've been wading through all the 10,000 parts and trying to figure out why in the world we did this to ourselves.... all the toys with parts, I mean?!? Note to self: No Toys With a Million Parts Next Year!

The girls are all enjoying their new kitchen and Ella's new "booty pawyer" -for those who don't know E that is beauty parlor. There are thousands of new hair bows, curlers, pieces of food, dishes- you name it, and if it goes in a pretend kitchen or beauty parlor, we've got it- lying around here. Oh, and they also got several cute Little People sets... can you say pieces and parts??? I must get organized or I'll go crazy. My strategy before for keeping the toys manageable was that all the toys with parts stay in a huge red bin that only came out on special days (i.e. when I'm home alone with them) and then at the end of the day we put them all back in the bin. That way they stay new and exciting and aren't underfoot, spreading from room to room all the time. Now it seems that just about everything they got for Christmas came with parts, so I'll have to devise a new plan I suppose.

On Christmas night Scott and I had a fun time out at Richard and Beth's house for their annual Christmas cranium party... except very few of the same old people were there, and we played Apples to Apples instead. I was absolutely drained by the time we were heading out the door to go, and must admit that no part of me wanted to leave the comfort of my own home, but I am so glad that we went. Scott never ceases to amaze me with how funny he is in situations like that! It was fun to just sit back and be a couple who didn't have four kids with them for the evening. The girls were all in bed asleep dreaming about scattering their new toys from one end of the house to the other by that point anyway.

The day after Christmas was when all the excitement of baby Noel (our friend's new son) occurred. Not much else to report for the 26th except that Scott wasn't well and stayed home from what was supposed to be the only other trip he had to fly for 2007.

All the rest of the days between Christmas and now are a blur... somewhere in there Scott and I both caught the cold/virus that the girls had been passing around for a while. We woke up one morning, both of us feeling awful. Scott ran to the store to get us some cold medicine. He came home and gave me a big dose before taking one himself at 10am. Only minutes later, when I went to the kitchen to get something for one of the girls, did I notice that he had just given us both a huge helping of NIGHTTIME cold meds... at 10am... with 4 grumpy girls in the house. We struggled through that day and made it to the next, which, if I remember correctly was cold and rainy and neither of us was feeling all that well still.

Scott finally escaped back to work last night, and thankfully I can report that I am on the mend too after having a couple full nights of sleep without any of the girls waking. Now it looks like Ella and possibly Maggie may have some sort of stomach bug, but perhaps it'll go away tomorrow? Here's hoping!!

Wishing you all health and happiness for 2008!

Same Age Group Triplets and Quads Blogs I Read...

Once again this list is way behind the blogs I actually read, but I'll try to get it updated with the rest of them soon! 08-17-08

I'm finally getting around to making this list reflect the blogs I actually read... there are a lot of them thanks to Bloglines, but I've put the newly listed, but not exactly new to me ones at the top.

Campbell Soup

Loving My Triplets

Thorstadt Triplets

Triple Blessings + 1



Tripled Pink

Bouncin' Baby

Burke Triplets

Giglio Triplets

Guinn Triplets

It takes more than an egg...

Jorgensen Triplets

McGovern Trio

Nelson Triplets and Big Kids

Stephens Triplets and Collin

Team Freas

The Ratliff Boys

The Urech Quads

Wheeler Trio

Wilke Quads

Blogs I Read...

This list is long overdue for an update... I actually read almost 100 blogs regularly through Bloglines and I will try to get this updated very soon. 08-17-08




Cash Clan Chronicles

2 Fun Sons

Amazing Trips

Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries

Boo Mama

Family Oliver

Five Little Monkeys

Four Times the Fun

Lots of Scotts

4 Little Things

One Big Brother, One Little
Sister

Our Little Emma Grace

Rocks In My Dryer

The Farmhouse Kids

Turner Triplets

Unterwagner Triplets


Long, long list of multiple's blogs