Play Date

We had a great time visiting with Lawson, Jessica, James, Luke, and Mr. & Mrs. B over the holidays. Ella and James were fast friends. Maggie, Kate, Sarah, and Luke tolerated each other the way 2 and 3 year olds tend to do when no one is on familiar ground. We adults were able to have entire conversations without much interruption.... which was a stark contrast to the last time we were able to all get together.

We had holiday play dates with several other buddies planned that never took place because the girls were all sick, but hopefully the cold germs are on their way out and we'll be able to reschedule soon!

Fun on the Farm

It has almost been a week already since we spent the morning over at the barn introducing our until then "virtual friends" the Unterwagner triplets to farm life. Actually, like Whitney said, we started our day at Babyland General Hospital. The girls and I have been there, on average, twice a month for the last year, so the most exciting thing about it that day was finally meeting in real life someone who helped me tremendously when the babies were little. Whitney was the person whose advice I sought regarding getting the girls on a good sleeping schedule.... well, hers and Dr. Weissbluth, author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. At the time, he was attempting to include a Parents of Multiples section in a revised version of his book. I emailed back and forth with him some, but it was especially nice to be able to chat with someone who was a few months ahead of where I was going with triplets of her own.

Sorry, I digress....

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce Whitney and Brian's trio to life in the country. Addie, Beckett, and Finn all took right to the idea and jumped straight into the trough with Sarah, Kate, and Maggie to check out the calves and stray chicken.

I have to admit that the little calves were pretty accommodating and stayed fairly close while all the kiddos stood in the feed trough and studied them through the rails.

After they satisfied their curiosity about calves, we took them up to the tractor shed and everyone, including Brian, got to sit on one of Joe's tractors.

We rode over there in our usual vehicle... the mule. However, it was somewhat difficult to wrangle six 2 year olds, one 3 year old, and four adults on that thing.... now THAT would have been a picture! The ride back to Mimi and Pop's house on the mule was when we experienced our only crying of the day. I think at least once child (namely Ella) was crying the whole way back, and she was joined off and on by one or two others.

After checking out the cows, tractors, and chickens, and the return trip on the mule drama, we spent a few minutes playing with the cars and in the sand before it was time for all the 2 year old crowd to have a nap. The girls were absolutely worn out, but I think they had a good time. Most importantly, we hope that our friends enjoyed their visit to the country and that they'll come back again real soon!

Busy Little Chicks

Yesterday morning we took some friends of ours over to the farm to see the new baby chickens that arrived on Monday. I think they were pretty impressed... little Miss L just took right up with them and straight away wanted me to find her one to hold. I obliged, and then a few minutes later looked over, and she was holding two. She just reached down and picked up a second one on her own. It was my turn to be impressed because none of my girls will even consider holding one of the baby chicks even though they have been around them for quite some time now. Sarah, Maggie, and Kate like to 'pet' them, but Ella really doesn't like to be close to them at all. In fact, every time L put one down on the threshold of the door which Ella was standing outside of, Ella started shrieking and screaming for her to put them back in the house.

After we finished checking out the chickens, we spent the rest of the morning at the pool and then picnicking at Mimi and Pop's.... never mind that it was somewhere near 100 degrees outside yesterday! We were all hot, sweaty, and grouchy by nap time so we said our goodbyes to our friends and headed home. Thankfully everyone, including Ella who rarely naps, crashed, and I was able to get a little bit of work done.

When the girls all finally woke up, they somehow got a bee in their bonnets about getting dressed up. So I let them dirty yet another outfit for the day and put on some cute little sundresses.

We went out for pizza with Mimi, Donna, and Mike for dinner, and then once we arrived back home they wanted me to "take lots of cute pictures for Daddy sine we're wearin' our cute dresses". So I did...

Ella

Sarah

Kate

Maggie
Tellin' Secrets

Kate hanging in the trees

Maggie hanging in the tree
Smelling the flowers
We took tons of pictures in our mini photo shoot for Daddy because he's been gone for 3 weeks now, and not a single one of the girls is the same since he left. Every time I tell the little gals that I love them they respond with "and Daddy lub me and miss me".

He sure does, sweetheart!

Triple Playdate X4

... otherwise known as one insane afternoon. Almost a week ago on Friday afternoon we had the pleasure of hosting this little event that included 4 sets of triplets (minus one triplet who was in the hospital being looked after by her mom), a set of triplet parents, 3 parents who were alone with their trios for the day, 2 big sisters, one uncle, one Mimi, and a handful of other wonderful helpers. Of the 14 children representing our 4 families, only two are boys. They stuck out like little sore thumbs among all the girly girls there. The trios ranged in age from my girls who were the oldest at almost 2 to the Turner triplets who will be one in August. We swam, played in the yard, and basically just had a grand old time! Thanks everyone for coming; we'll have to do it again sometime.....

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.

EXHAUSTED... and lovin' it!

We are completely exhausted after our week ending and weekend fun! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Kari and James, which was all too short, as usual. I can hardly even remember everything we've done since I posted last, but thankfully I have pictures of some of the good stuff!

On Thursday morning we had an awesome play date with some dear friends who live in Chattanooga. They were here for the latter part of the week and weekend to visit with their family, and we were fortunate to be able to spend some time playing. During the play date I watched as Sarah morphed into a lover not a fighter, as I so lovingly called her before. She chased little Luke (3 months her junior) around all morning long saying, "Kiss Uke, Kiss Uke". It was the sweetest thing ever! When he actually turned to face her and puckered up, however, she suddenly became very bashful and turned her head.... it was too cute!! She landed a couple of good ones on his back and arms though. Meanwhile, Ella and Campbell were in Ella's room practicing their songs for a performance on our "stage". I don't think the girls ever actually sang a song together, but I had the privilege of hearing Campbell sing several selections from The Sound of Music. Kate sang a little bit of the ABC's. Maggie did her favorite number "Where o, where o, where is Cody", and Sarah sang "C is for Cookie". They were all precious, and I was glad aunt Kari got to hear their little snippets of song. Now she realizes exactly how difficult it is to capture these things on video!

Friday morning Scott and I took the girls up to Duke's Creek Falls for the first time.

From the top to the falls it is a 1.1 mile hike down hill the entire way. Needless to say, we didn't go all the way to the falls... only about half a mile down, I guess, to a great spot where they were able to throw rocks and get very close to the creek. So close, in fact, that Kate was wet all the way up to her knees before I knew it. Scott crossed the creek on a fallen tree to get some cute shots of the girls and I.

It was great fun and the girls loved every minute of it... until the hike back up. Torturous is the best description for it. Everyone was crying and wanting to be held/carried. For at least the last half of the trip back up, we were constantly dragging convincing children to walk. I even reached a point where I said to myself that I was NEVER doing that again. But by the time we got back to the car and started handing out lunch everything was peaceful once again. Then I realized that perhaps they were just HUNGRY and TIRED.... we're not winning any parent's of the year contest around here, but at least the crying eventually stopped!!




Saturday was a big day. We played at Mimi and Pop's pool in the morning with several friends from 10am until we took a picnic lunch break at noon. Then we headed home for naps. Before the girls woke up from naps some of our friends from our newlywed days at Ft. Campbell arrived with their kiddos to go with us to the party at Mimi and Pop's. We hadn't seen Hank and Lori in over 5 years, so it was great fun catching up with them and meeting Olivia and William for the first time. As soon as our girls woke up, we headed over to the pool and swam again with numerous friends and family members for about an hour before the party began. We played, enjoyed spending time with friends, both old and new, and ate tons of BBQ. After most of the crowd (about 150 people) left, we let the girls get back into the pool with Daddy, Kelli, and Kari. This was the only time that I thought to take out my camera... which had been sitting by the pool waiting for me to take pictures all. day. long. I got a cute picture of little Noel at the end of the day in there as well... he's growing up, and oh yeah, his adoption is official now too! Congrats Amanda, Chris, and Chase!!

Daddy and Sarah pose for the crazy camera lady

Anyone remember Super E from Memorial Day last year? Here's Sarah's version this year.

Ella and Daddy playing rough

Kate enjoying a cookie and Kari's attention.

Maggie ready to call it a day!!

By the time the girls' heads hit their pillows at 9pm they were completely and totally exhausted, as were their parents and many other people who had helped us keep track of them during the day. For the first time ever they all four slept in until 8:30am this morning. Scott and I kept looking at the clock and each other and shaking our heads. It was awesome. They are still in recovery mode, and I expect we will be for several days. It was most definitely worth it though.

The Easter Bunny

HoneyBun

Ms. Kit came over this afternoon to introduce the girls to her 10 year old, retired, class room bunny named HoneyBun. Kelli was here, and our cousins Anna and little RyleeAnn also stopped by to see her. The weather was absolutely perfect. We ended up spending the entire day outside... I am really loving these nice temperate spring days!

Trying to take a "group" shot was almost laughable

Be glad I didn't post all 37 of the attempts!

Ella insisted on using her own camera to get a few pictures of HoneyBun when she first arrived. I think she'll be quite the little photographer one of these days.

Sorry Ms. Kit, somehow I cut your head out of this cute one with RyleeAnn.... oops!

Kate feeding HoneyBun some goldfish... yum!

Maggie petting her

Ella and Maggie feeding her

Maggie and Sarah with HoneyBun

No More 3rd Nap, and Visitors

The last couple of days we've been having schedule issues. The girls are outgrowing their third nap of the day, I think. So one or two or all three of them haven't napped during the late afternoon as they had been doing. Today I decided to just skip it and see what happened. Not a great idea.... and then we had a visit from Scott's North Carolina cousins. I hope that they don't think it is really this awful around here all the time! E skipped her nap today as well, and that made her a real "joy" to be around. At any rate, we certainly enjoyed their company and having them meet all the girls and hope they'll come back again. With any luck the babies will be back to normal again once they make this big transition down to two naps.... and hopefully I'll figure out how to keep E taking at least one nap for a little while longer. She's only two- I'm not ready to give that nap up!!!