Hello Again

Well hello there blog.... I've missed you!

I've taken an unplanned blogging break, and didn't even realize how long I'd been absent here until my dear mother informed me that she was going to get on Facebook just so she could see what I was up to. I've not been writing (or reading much) over there either. So sorry mom, that won't help a bit, but now that things are settling down I hope to write regularly here once again.

Instead of writing I've been busy trying to keep up with my hubbie who is bent on cleaning out our house and garage after he was gone for a year, and let's just say that a lot of stuff can accumulate in a year's time! yikes! Well, we've been cleaning out and enjoying life through the sparkly eyes of our four hilarious little gals.

I've got plenty to post about, but since it is late I'll just share a quick little funny from the girls today. I'm not sure how it became our tradition, but Maggie, Kate, and Sarah took their beloved pacis over to the baby calves at the barn this afternoon. On Monday I suggested we get rid of them, and they asked to wait until Friday. I wasn't really feeling up to it today, but Sarah and her excellent memory asked this afternoon, "Is today Friday... do we give up our pacis today?" So we took them to the barn, and they each willingly tossed them over without a care. Fast forward 5 hours later to bedtime and I caved in and gave them the spares I had hidden in the closet because the crying was awful. Maggie was lying in her bed moaning about her paci not being her "fabrit" when she said, "mommy this paci is awful... i mean yuck, yuck-y, yuck-tastic". I'm hoping the yuck-tastic pacis won't be quite as hard to part with as the "fabrits". Wish us luck!

Sorry to have taken off without warning.... I'll try not to let it happen again.

Sweet Little Ella

I've been tagged by my friend Ms. Kit who blogs over at Dog Daze to participate in a fun "Meme". The directions are as follows: Open a document or photo folder and choose the fifth folder and then the fifth photo in that folder. Next, post the photo with a description about it and then tag 5 friends to do the same.

Here's my 5/5 photo, and it's a real blast from the past... Ella at 7 months old with one of her beloved pacis. I remember being amazed that even though the paci was so huge you could still tell how happy she was just by her eyes! Ohhh, she was such a cute little baby!!

While I'm on the subject of Ella (who happens to be fighting bed time with all her super powers this evening), I have to tell about her keen sense of smell these days.

When I was putting her in her car seat the other day after I'd been at the gym working out she said, "Eeewww, mom you smell like a calf barn." Nice, I thanked her and promptly took a shower as soon as the littles were "resting" that afternoon.

Then tonight as I was trying to get her to sleep for the umpteenth time, I went in the sit with her only minutes after putting a piece of fruity smelling gum in my mouth. As we were lying there face to face with each other (she doesn't believe in My personal space... only hers), she said, "Mom you smell kinda strange." When I asked how so she said, "Almost like that turtle wax at the car wash, all fruity and clean." I really never know what she is going to say next....

~Back to the Meme~

I tag:

1. Angie at Dunbar Triplets

2. Denise at Lucy Goosey, Turkey Lurkey, and Chicken Little

3. Misty at Urech Quads

4. Christy at Liam and the Girls

5. LeAnne at One Big Brother, One Little Sister

Have fun discovering what's in your 5th photo folder. I know I had a great time looking back through old pictures!

Random Catch Up Post

Trying to keep up with everything I want to blog about these days has been keeping me from blogging about anything... well, that and just simply being incredibly busy. But here goes my attempt at catching back up so that I can continue on with the cute little things I'm hearing around here all the time from the girls.

Wednesday night my best friend Amanda and I went to dinner and to see the Gainesville Theatre Alliance's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie as an early birthday gift to me. The entire evening was absolutely fabulous! I could not have asked for anything better... company, food, or performance. Thank you Amanda, for a wonderful girls night on the town.




Usually when I take a night or weekend off I pay for it in some form or fashion when I return home.... either the girls are still awake and wired, they wake up lots during the night, or someone turns up sick.

This time I didn't have any negative consequences to face for my evening's break, except the fact that I had to wake the girls up at 6:45am on Thursday morning in order to make it to a very special breakfast award presentation. Pop C was inducted into the Agriculture Hall of Fame at the annual National Farm-City Week breakfast for a lifetime in farming and working in other agriculture-related enterprises here in our county. It was supposed to be a surprise for Pop, and Nanny C wanted the girls and I to be there, so we made it.

There was a great article on the front page of the paper about him, and they used this picture that I took of him last year painting the fence around the farm. Congratulations Pop! The girls and I were happy to celebrate with you; unfortunately I didn't really set any expectations on the way there regarding being quiet like in church, not that they would have followed my instructions even still, and we had to leave as soon as they were done with Pop's presentation because the girls were just too rowdy.




Afterward, we packed up our swim suits and headed to the YMCA. They have a great aquatic facility at our Y and the girls have been begging me to try out the pool, so Mimi and I decided it would be a good time to give it a shot. All I have to say about it is perhaps I'll take them one on one again as time allows, but I think we'll wait a good long while before taking the whole crew all at once.


On a completely unrelated note, (sorry that was the best segue I could come up with), I have started a new review blog because I've been inundated lately with toys, books, and games that we have been sent to try out. I enjoy doing these reviews, especially the kid products, but I don't really want to post them here on our family blog anymore. So, for a while I'll probably post a note here alerting you when we have a new review up, and then I will eventually stop doing that. I figure that way if you are interested in hearing about what products and books we've been reviewing lately you'll know where the site is, but otherwise you won't be subjected to our thoughts on everything under the sun! Deal? I'm also using it to teach myself a little more html and blog design... I did it myself (3 columns and all, made my own signature) with free help from the cutest blog on the block site. Check it out, if you like!

A Very Cool Gift

Aunt Kari always finds the coolest gifts... remember last year for the one year b-day x 3 she gave us the cool Little Tykes Jump-N-Slide . Well, this year's gift, along those same lines, was a Little Tykes Slam-N-Slide.... an inflatable water slide! Now we have one for summer and one for winter.... even mom is thrilled!

Along with our guests, we had a blast playing on it at the birthday party.
Sarah is a little bit afraid of heights. She enjoys climbing things, but once she is up she freezes. When it was just us girls playing the day before the party, she would climb to the top and then wait for someone to quickly help her back down.

She wanted to slide badly but just couldn't find her mojo. We're hoping that while Daddy is home for a few days we'll get some practice in, and she will beat her fear of the slide part.

Maggie, as usual, has absolutely no fear. She is gung ho, sliding normal, on her belly, head first, you name it, she's tried it...

Kate, Cousin Cayden, and Ella waiting for someone to clear out at the bottom

They were probably waiting for daredevil Maggie to move out of the way.

The big kids at the party, Ella, Connor, and Cayden, taking their turn.

Thank you Aunt Kari! We love the water slide!! Glad you got to see us enjoy it before you headed home....

love, Maggie, Kate, Sarah, and Ella

Boiling Point

As I mentioned in my previous post, things have not been going exactly smoothly around here of late. Between the new teeth, recovering from colds, and determining our next course of action with the sleeping arrangements, we're just finally getting back to somewhat normal sleep... finally.



Because I got a decent (good even for recent days) amount of sleep last night, I just couldn't figure out why this afternoon was going so horribly. I mean, the morning went fine, and then the littles got a good 2 hour nap. Ella p-tended to rest for about 30 minutes but stayed in her room for most of the full hour mandatory quite time.



I'll admit that a big part of the downhill swing in moods was the fact that I was working on our supper meal for the better part of the afternoon. It was one of those things where I had started before calculating how long it would take and then before I knew it ,I was too far into it to stop. As a result, the girls were all four up and whirling furiously in snotty circles around me while I was trying to cook- never a good situation.



At one point I noticed from the kitchen that Ella was dragging their little tykes slide from the living room into the office. Maggie was hot on her trail, and a more than willing accomplice. No big deal, I thought, grateful that they were out of the kitchen. They are just going to play with it in somewhere else, I told myself. I then heard Ella tell Maggie, "do not touch the timer when Mom is looking" while standing under our digital thermostat that is mounted about 5 feet up our office wall.



When I looked in to see exactly what was going on, Maggie was standing at the top of the slide reaching for the thermostat. I removed her from the top, pulled the slide back into the living room where it belongs, and instructed them both to refrain from doing anything further that could get them into trouble. Here's where I made my second big mistake of the afternoon: I failed to verify that they hadn't adjusted the thermostat.



Flash forward several hours: We've had several people over to help. Morgan and Hannah, our 9 and 12 year old neighbors had stopped by after school for a while. Kelli was here after a long day working at school; she was a sight for sore eyes. The girls all clung to her like they hadn't seen her in weeks, not the mere days it had actually been. She delivered a critical yet overlooked ingredient to the dinner I was making. She wasn't feeling too well, and sat down under the fan in the living room while the girls played around her. Nanny and Pop C stopped by to deliver some super cute little aprons that Nanny made for the girls while we were eating supper. They didn't stay very long, partly because it was so darn hot in here. I just thought the kitchen was hot because that was the only room I was in, and the stove had been on all afternoon. Donna was here afterwards, as usual, to help with the evening routine. She stayed her normal amount of time, but I noticed that shortly after she arrived she had to trade out her sweater set for a short sleeved top.



I bet you can already tell where this is going. After we got the girls ready for bed... they were sweating all the while, and read a few books, and I put them to bed, I realized that it was incredibly hot throughout the house, not just in the kitchen. I was about to loose my cool with Ella who was playing the part of Jack-in-the box after being put to bed, when on my third trip down the hall to see what she was yelling about, I happened to look at the thermostat. It was reading 81 degrees!! Good grief, no wonder everyone was pouring with sweat, the older folks thought they were having hot flashes, the girls were going nuts, and I was at my wits end.



It turns out that Maggie or Ella, I'm not sure which one, moved the controls from cool to heat much earlier in the afternoon while they were playing on the slide. Whew, all those hot flashes and my short fuse could have been avoided it I'd 1- planned better for meal preparations today, and 2- just looked at the thermostat after I removed Maggie and Ella from the slide. Simple!



I was so relieved when I realized what a simple fix it was that I said a little prayer. 'Thank you God that we're not having trouble with our air conditioning!" And as Maggie says at the end of every song, book, and statement: AMEN!

Visitors and Little Miss Manners'

Just days after Scott got word of his pending deployment, one of his buddies at his Reserve unit also received an Iraq assignment. I'd never met anyone from Scott's reserve unit. This other fellow is a newlywed, and he and his wife live near us, so Scott and I invited them over for burgers and a getting to know you type dinner one night last week. You could say we were getting together so us wives could commiserate and swap phone numbers since our guys are going to be gone to Iraq over the same period of time.... although to different places and with different units.

We had them meet us at Mimi and Pop's so that the girls could play and swim while Scott worked his grilling magic. And they did just that...

After dinner the girls had some cupcakes that our new friends brought to share with us. You can see their great love for the cupcakes plastered all over their faces, and had I taken pictures, you could also have seen icing all over their little bodies. They had to be hosed off and dunked in the pool before they were clean enough to take home. The cupcakes were delicious, but I was most grateful to Ms. A for the white icing... imagine the mess had she used purple or blue!!


While this,

and this,
and this,

may not look like the face of Little Miss Manners to you all, I can assure you that these little ladies are definitely becoming pros at using their kind words, at least. In fact, they nearly "please, sank you, sah wee, and es m'am" -ed me to pieces last Wednesday night when we were up all. night. long with them!

I have had this post in my head and the computer for days trying to come up with some great examples of how funny the girls are about their manners, but I just can't seem to do it. Perhaps the funniest thing about it is that they can be seriously driving me crazy and still politely remember to use their manners. What can I say, they take after their big sister. Remember, "Here KayKay, could you hold this booger for me, please?"

The biggest change of late around the house is the amount of talking that is going on. At any given time throughout the day there are at least 3 out of four little girls vying for attention by talking... to me, with me, at me.... they really don't seem to care which! I'm seriously considering designating a leader of the day just so that I can know whose little voice to listen to first all day long. As it is, they just try to be the loudest so that I'll respond to them first. It is both nerve wracking and heart warming all at the same time. Perhaps I'll catch some of the chatter on video soon.

Crazy Kiddos

Tonight Donna and Kari helped me with the girls' baths and bedtime routines. Nothing was out of the ordinary except for Kari being here, but bedtime was normal otherwise. We had dinner, they didn't nap all that great today, and nobody seems to be ill.... but for some unknown reason, when I put Maggie, Kate, and Sarah to bed at 7:30pm NOBODY went to sleep! Thankfully when Ella got to bed just after the little girls, she was out like a light almost minutes later. Sometime around 8:30pm the antics from M,K,& S's room had reached a new level. There was a noise that sounded like something was being beaten against the wall, but it sounded like it was moving. It turns out that they were each standing in their beds taking turns banging their heads into the wall. I had a little pep talk with them about getting to sleep and put them back down.


Closer to 9pm I no longer heard the banging noise, but they had begun yelling loudly, and I decided to find out what the fuss was about. Sitting in the office a few minutes before going in, I thought that it was certain this would be the night someone would fling themselves over the edge of the crib, therefore propelling me to fix up the toddler beds that I so dread moving them into.

However, this time when I walked in I found Maggie and Sarah both standing in corners of their beds so that they were as close to Kate's bed as possible. They are set up so that they don't connect or touch any other furniture because I don't want them climbing out onto each other, or anything else. The light was on. Apparently Maggie can reach the switch from her bed now. Kate was sound asleep on her back. Maggie and Sarah, on the other hand, were each yelling at the top of their lungs "KATE, KATE, KATE" over and over again. Oh, and they had taken their pants off and were working on their shirts.

When I got Sarah out of her crib to change her diaper, she was huffing and puffing like she'd been running a race. I guess she had- back and forth across her crib. They both insisted on having a pair or socks put on their feet when I put the pj's back on, and I obliged. I firmly insisted that Maggie not turn the light back on until morning, and she agreed. Tomorrow we'll see about moving her bed over, even just a couple of inches, so that she can't reach the switch.

Sarah was the next to bite the dust, and that left poor little Maggie all alone. She cried softly for Sarah for a couple of minutes, and then cried hard for her lovey after she dropped it over the edge of the crib, but once I realized what she was crying for I quickly replaced it. Now I'm happy to report that as of 9:30pm they are all asleep!

I guess this might be how people expect a house with toddler triplets to be at bedtime, but really this is not our norm.... thank goodness!!! I am so grateful that they love each other this much though. That part was actually heart warming!

Memorial Day 2008

Daddy's at work today, so the girls and I spent the morning at Donna's playing in her yard and pool. After looking at these pictures I realize I've got to suck it up and actually read the manual on my camera.... I could be doing so much better, if I only had a clue how the thing worked!?!










This evening we went over to Mimi and Pop's to swim, play on the swing set, ride the mule, chase the dogs, and have a grand old time. We enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill with Nanny and Pop C, Mimi and Pop, Kari and James, and Donna.... it took all of us adults to watch the four little gals while they were swimming tonight for some reason! I hardly took any pictures, but I had to include this silly one of Kate. Her new sense of style is cracking me up these days.... mismatched socks and high top Chuck Taylor Converse tennis shoes that are at least 2 sizes too big for her, color pink.... worn all night at her insistence.


Kari and James are home for the week and a big party is planned for this weekend. We're so excited to have them here, and we're looking forward to seeing some of our friends we haven't seen in a while this Saturday night as well. Hey, for that matter, we're just looking forward to having Scott home again soon!



Lastly, on this Memorial Day 2008 our family would like to remember all the soldiers who have died in service to our country. Our prayer is that their families know how grateful we are to them for all the freedoms that we enjoy. Thank you from our family to those who are serving, have served, and to the family members of the service men and women of our great nation! We love and appreciate you all.

Hope that everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day!

This Family Circus

After Ella's crummy afternoon Tuesday and subsequent 2 hour nap, she woke up without fever and claiming to be fine. She might have made said claims because we had already mentioned going to the circus that was coming into town that day. So, with proper coverage for an outing we'd never tried before (that is one adult per child for us these days), we set out almost an hour early for the circus.

Once we arrived I remembered why I had only been to the circus one other time in my life... it is just sad to me. All those animals, not to mention the people, who live out of vehicles and travel around performing for the world?!? Just not my cup of tea.

Anyhoo, we adults took turns standing in the line that had formed almost an hour early of ticket holders waiting to get in for a seat. It was first come, first served seating, with about a third of the "seating" being on rubber mats that they pulled out onto the gravel after the rickety bleachers were filled to capacity. That fact alone, if advertised anywhere, would have been enough to make me realize that we did not need to take one sick 3 year old and three 19 month olds to the circus!!

Meanwhile the girls and three adults wandered the grounds checking out all the animals. Sarah was pretty interested in the calf... she has been over to the barn right by our house zillions of times to see the 15- 20 calves that Uncle Joe keeps in a separate pasture from the other cows... but has apparently never seen any of our cows poop. That was, and still is, all that she will talk about when the circus is mentioned.

About 5 minutes before show time they started letting people enter the big top. The line went on for hundreds of yards, but fortunately we didn't wait long to get inside. Unfortunately, once we got in and found ourselves a seat on the bleachers, they just kept piling people into the already hot and crowded tent.... packed us in, I'm telling you, and finally started the show about 15 minutes late.

I am certain that if you ask the girls they would tell you their favorite part of the circus was the snow cones that they wore had. They were all miserable and hot and wiggly and completely uninterested in the "show" for about 80% of the acts. The ones we saw anyway. We left before the intermission, after the thong- clad, overweight, young lady's daring pole stands, her brother's amazing high in the air balancing act, and the fire breathing magician. I know, I know, what was I expecting anyway???

The best part for me personally was our exit back into the fresh air outside of the tent. We took advantage of the weather (and capitalized on my lack of a supper plan) and had a drive through then home, picnic dinner in the back yard.

Wednesday morning we took our little family circus act on the road with Ella's first trip to the dentist. She was still not feeling her best and occasionally claimed that her belly hurt, but I chalked that up to nerves over her first dental visit. I also, apparently, missed several other of her "truly not well" signals while battling it out through out the morning trying to get both she and I dressed and out the door while dragging at least two children from my legs everywhere I went trying to keep the peace with the other little clowns.

Once we were in the car on our way, she was not her normal self.... didn't want to talk (**gasp**), didn't want to listen to music, wouldn't put her shiny pink flip flops on once we arrived, etc. The signs, well, they were just all over the place, but again I assumed it was nerves!!

I carried her into the building, we checked in, and then I sat her on the couch beside me so that I could fill out the three pages of paper work required for new patients, all the while grateful that this was not one of those trips where I have to fill out said paperwork in triplicate.

About one page into it she looked up at me and burped... and you can just imagine how the rest of our trip went downhill! Fortunately we ran to the bathroom and made it before she got sick, but I wasn't nearly as lucky on the ride home. We'll from here on out refer to my car as the vomit comet because every one of the girls except Sarah has been sick in there. You'd think I'd be prepared for that by now, but other than carrying wipes and a towel for clean up, really, what can you do?!?

We've been home for the last two days trying to fully recover before going back out into the world. We did have some good times yesterday playing with Nanna Betty and Aunt Debbie. They both used to be regular weekly helpers here, but we realized yesterday that they had not seen the girls in about 3 months. I think they were pretty amazed by the changes here. The girls were thoroughly amused by Debbie's dog Rummi. She would fetch tennis balls and the girls would pat their legs and say "back here", "drop". It was so cute. They would wait until she was just at their faces about to get a good lick in to get squeamish and turn and run... all of them except Ella. She enjoyed Rummi's show from the comforts of some one's arms at all times, and if she got too close Ella's legs would go up as if on strings.

We've done lots of coloring, playing hide and seek, and I even broke out the Rubbermaid box full of toys with 10 million parts at one point yesterday.

Today Ms. Faye came by and gave me a much needed break so I could run out, have lunch, and grocery shop. I can't tell you how nice it is to go to the grocery store by myself! My batteries were re-charged, and I was much better able to appreciate my little clowns and their antics this afternoon.

I've played the part of audience for many shows lately as they have recently dubbed our fireplace their stage. They perform there several times daily. Ella is usually in charge of the music, and Maggie and Kate are always good to be her back up singers/ dancers.

Kate takes up her baby doll and any purse she can find lying around numerous times each day and declares she'll "be right back". Maggie's most commonly heard phrase these days is "old me"... meaning Hold me. She says it in the absolute sweetest voice I've ever heard!!

I've watched as they play tricks on each other and chase. It is fun to watch when Sarah steals Maggie or Kate's paci and then takes off running. She usually keeps on running, whereas when Maggie or Kate get their hands on someone else's paci they run and immediately hide behind a door or in a corner. They all take turns being the paci thief.... and repeat over and over again.

I also have really enjoyed them coming to each other's aid. If someone is in need of a hug or kiss because of a fall or the like, there is usually at least one sister to count on for a kiss. In the mornings when they first get up, they often like to greet each other with hugs. I adore watching them interact with these sweet gestures.

All in all, the traveling circus was a big, huge, bust for us, but our little family circus... well, I wouldn't change a thing!

A Party

As I was surfing through the blogs I read regularly last night, I was "invited" by several of my bloggy friends to The Ultimate Blog Party 2008 hosted by Five Minutes for Mom.

If/when my dear, sweet, husband Scott reads this, he is sure to cringe, because the last thing I need to be doing after the girls go to bed at night is reading MORE blogs! However, this blogging stuff is pretty addictive, and I just can't help myself. We're in party mode around here anyway, preparing for Ella's 3rd Birthday Party on Saturday... why not add the blog party in too?!?

So, for those of you who are regular readers, feel free to skip over all the rest of this post, but for those of you who've linked over here from Five Minutes for Mom, a little about us. My name is MaryBeth, and I am a Christian wife and mother who happens to be a relatively new blogger. I have been writing this one since May of 2007, and *gasp* had never even heard of a blog, again *gasp* until I found out I was expecting triplets. At that time I started reading many multiples' blogs... there are tons of those! Anyway, my blog, Four Silly Sisters is about my girls, Maggie, Kate, Sarah, and Ella; sometimes it's just mommy musings about milestones, sometimes rants, captures of the funny things they say and do, and often just about the joy and simple pleasures of raising these Four Silly Sisters. It's not terribly informative, I'm not a recipe nut, nor am I particularly creative, thought I do enjoy picking up new ideas and learning a thing or two from the blogs I read. I guess you'd say the thing we have in abundance around here is love, and I hope that shines through in my writing.

At the time of posting, my link was # 1164 or thereabouts, so I suspect this will give me plenty of blog "homework" as I search for a few new favorites to read.

In the mean time, enjoy yourselves at the Ultimate Blog Party (if you like that sort of thing... sorry Mimi and Gamma- I know you are just here for pictures and anecdotes about the girls), and thanks for stopping by our little blog!

Oh, and there are tons of cool prizes to be won over at the party. My favorites, I think, are INTL #11- A 2 Nights B&B Stay in Catanzaro, Italy (who wouldn't want to win this one?!?) by Cherrye, a very close second #50- 12 Boutique Bows given by Mommy Mandy, #91- Burt's Bees Ageless Skincare Line by Geggie, and #58- A Customized 6 Week Fitness Plan by Go Workout Mom. Some of the others I thought looked especially interesting were #62, #92, #137, and #152. Basically anything for preschool and toddler aged girls or a busy, busy mom. Now go mingle...