Energy

These pictures where taken an hour or so after the whole baby powder incident. Apparently the boys had some energy from being cooped up while I was cleaning. Too bad the powder was not lavender scented. Maybe it would have settled them down a bit :)

Wyatt's BIG Mess

In a big celebration-like fashion for my 601st post, I am going to blog about a big ole mess Wyatt recently made. A mess so big, that it took me a over a week to find some humor in it.


The other morning the boys were downstairs while I finished some things upstairs. Showering, making the bed or whatever had occupied my mind while they were playing. My house is pretty small, so the layout allows me to see the boys easily from upstairs. Unfortunately, I was not peeking on them as much as I wish I would have been and took their playing nicely as a blessing.

But it was a trick. A BIG MEAN TRICK.

Just as the sweet smell of baby powder made it up to my nose, Lucas started yelling about something Wyatt was doing.

This is not good.

I ran down the stairs, taking 2 at a time to see what the damage was.

I was not happy.



There were powder footprints across the length of the room, leading over to where I could see foot prints surrounded by powder. Powder -at least a half inch thick- covered our trunk table and all the trains on it. It was in the sub woofer, on the floor, on the couch, the rug, the television. Everywhere. Immediately I figured out what -or rather- why this happened. Wyatt made snow for his trains.



Looking around the mess and getting angrier with every second ticking by -especially after realizing I couldn't have Wyatt help clean the mess he made since he was coughing from all the powder he had breathed in- I sent them all to their bedroom for their own protection.



Once the sub woofer had been completely vacuumed out and I could see past the powder on most of the surfaces that were covered, the boys were called downstairs -one by one. They were able to quietly help finish clean up. Each of the boys got busy with damp rags and dusted the powder off the walls, shelves and any other still white surface until the room sparkled.

I would think that taught them a lesson, but Jax and Luke took the (thought to be empty) same freaking bottle of powder and finished it off on a black cabinet up stairs.

AHHH!


On the bright side, at least the house should smell baby fresh for at least another couple weeks. Whenever it gets low, I can just have the kids jump on the couch and smell the powder that gets plumed into the air.

Worm stew

Look what Luke gifted me with. He loves his mommy! :)

Annie's Room

We have lived in our home for about 6 years. For the first 3 or 4 years of it, our guest room was pretty much a wasted space. When we found out we were expecting triplets, we had big plans of it being a "staging" room. Bottles would be fed on a rocking love seat with dim lights and a cute baby changing table in the corner. But reality set in, and we ended up basically camping in our downstairs the first month or so and our kitchen island became our changing table, and bottles were fed... every where. On the couch, the floor, in bouncie chairs, 1, 2 or 3 at a time. Time and money were short, so the room just stayed with white walls and a bed for any guests that wanted to brave our home.

Eventually my cousin Annie started being our most regular guest and our family started calling the guest room "Annie's room". Which I totally love, because "guest room" sounds so blah and unusable. Not to mention we love Annie :).

A couple years ago I asked Don to paint Annie's room for my birthday present. Nothing too crazy, just the same base color as the rest of our house, but at least a start to get some personality in the room. We also got rid of our guest bed, and bought an Aero mattress for when we did get the honor of having someone come stay with us. Without the guest bed, it opened up the rest of the room for useable space.

It is now 75% playing area for the boys and 25% sewing area for me. The boys have their drum set, punching bag, basketball game along with a few of their toys and a television set. It has made for a great room to let them make a mess and still have the ability to close the door on it when the drums get too loud or if they just want to be closed away for a bit. It gives us all a bit of extra space, it is nice to close the door on the boys when they are being a bit loud -or even better- for ME to go in to sew, close the door and lock the rest of the world out.

Do you see what I see?

I know this just looks like a busy picture, right? But it is a picture that so perfectly illustrates another reason I love Don.

It started as the decision was made to put the garden plants on a separate timer. The veggies need to be watered more often than the better established plants in our yard. This means we (Don) has to dig out a path and lay new PVC through the kids playground area.

Just as Don starts digging -you can see from the picture he had only dug out about 4 feet so far- both Wyatt and Jaxon are drawn like magnets to the newly turned up dirt. Joining their already overcrowded party comes Roxy, thinking this digging stuff looks like tons! of! fun! and digs all around the new dirt piles.


Before I even took this picture, Don had to stop digging at least twice to get Roxy out of the way of the shovel and had to tell the boys not to put the dirt back in the hole. BUT HE KEPT ON GOING. Unphased and crowded by little beings hell bent on making his job difficult, he just kept on going.

He didn't even complain that instead of helping him by clearing his path, I left to get the camera and then just stood there taking pictures.

He is so good to us.

To know them...

To know my boys is to SEE my boys. Here are some very short videos of our day to day life. Riding bikes, playing music and giving a little booty shake. A bit of sliding down the slide while riding a truck or just random parts of the day.

Enjoy the movies!

A New Stage (PTMAU)

**See that cute innocent face?**

The boys have reached a new stage in their childhood. It is the one I may refer to "Pray They Make Adulthood Unscathed".

This stage includes trying to ride on their little trucks where ever the fancy strikes them. This could be down our slanted driveway, or even better on their steepish slide. Sometimes they try other things, like climbing on the outside of their clubhouse like spider man, or deciding to go around the top of the clubhouse to pick seed pods off the tree next to it.


**See how he is ready to ride that little truck down the slide?**

When they were babies, I was ready for all this. I baby proofed every room, moved every cord, locked dangerous cabinets, and took every precaution we could think of.


** Here they are on the TOP shelf of the linen closet**

But this little boy stuff they are going through right now... seems the only way to prepare is to PRAY first that they don't get ANY wonky ideas. And I know that that prayer is futile, but what kind of mother would I be if I didn't pray for THAT? I will call it my preventative prayer. And second, I can just pray that that when they do "experiment" they can do it without any long lasting mental effects.


**This one speaks for itself**

I am both a worrier and a mother. I worry about everything from the wind ruining our garden to things like the wind blowing down our house. The mother in me knows they are boys, and this is what little boys do. More importantly, it is what makes little boys grow, feel confident and keeps their bodies busy and strong. But take that little BOY and turn him into a group of like minded BOYS and it always spells trouble around here. And I have a sinking feeling it will only get more worrisome as they get older.


I think they will make me gray by the time I hit 35.

CRASH!

My computer crashed! Luckily I had a backed up hard drive and really didn't lose any of my files, and my wonderful friend restored order back in my computer. Even with all that good news, the issue is that I lost my organizing system for my pictures. It has made blogging and scrapping so frustrating for me. It would be like someone unorganizing your phonebook or photo albums. While you are thankful you still have all the numbers, names and pictures, it is years worth of accumulation all in the air. YUCK.

So that is why I have been absent. But I am back because even though it is frustrating, it should get easier with each and every time I try again, right?

Boo Boo-less!

The boys are 4 years old, almost 5. In the past 4 years, Jaxon has had a boo boo on his forehead for at least 3 of those years. It has not always been the same boo boo, but it is always in the same general area and since he is a picker, the cuts have stayed on his head for more of his lifetime then they have been gone. We tried having him sleep with gloves on during the night, neosporin like crazy during the days (leaving grease spots that have ruined numerous shirts and our couch!), band aids, liquid band aids, but nothing would beat this nasty habit he had.

Except Chuck E Cheese. A couple months ago, we told him once the boo boo was gone, we would celebrate at Chuck E Cheese. But one week dragged to two, and that dragged out to a month. Finally we told him it had to be gone by that coming FRIDAY. No messing around this time. If he wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese, it was time to buckle down.

And thankfully, he did.



Way to go Jaxon, we are so happy to look at that beautiful unblemished little face you have.


Now to tackle Luke's night time thumb sucking....

ROXY

Today we picked up our new girl, Roxy. She is an 8 week old labradoodle and we are completely in love with her. She's the runt of her litter, so it will be interesting to see how big she gets, or if she stays on the smaller size.

The boys are completely smitten with Roxy, and ever so gentle, too. She seems to fit right in around here, following us around in the house and checking out her new home. It is really amazing how a puppy proofing is so similar to baby proofing. Letting the boys know that Roxy can choke if she gets a toy or something in her mouth seems to be a huge motivation for them to put away their toys. It is only the first day, I am well aware, but I am hoping it is a start of a clean house as well. *I know, but a girl could hope :)

Here is a video of Roxy's first few minutes in the house.


Another video, but this is when Roxy was taking a nap and Wyatt and Luke grabbed their guitars and sang twinkle twinkle to her!

Valentines Day Crafts

Somehow the Valentine crafts over ran our house this year. I am not sure if it was because Don and I went out of town and the school party snuck up on us, or if it was just trying to be budget conscious, or maybe partly because I have been in a sewing frenzy for a craft show this past weekend so I was trying to avoid an extra run to the store to buy more premade valentines. Yeah, I am pretty sure it was the last one now that I am thinking of it...


The boys school party was on Thursday and like a good prepared Mommy, I had already purchased one set of Valentines for the boys. Luke claimed them and he signed them all himself Monday afternoon.


Tuesday the boys seemed like they needed a bit of structure and something to pull them away from the dang trains, so I decided that we would make a new set of valentines for one of the other boys. Wyatt saw what the plan was online and claimed those right away. With a bunch of pink paper and three little eager boys armed with purple child scissors, we were able to cut out a million hearts in no time. Later I had to go sew and Don took up Valentine duty and made sure Wyatt signed his while they both finished assembling all the sucker flowers.


Luckily for Jaxon (amd my prepared mommy status), Wednesday morning before breakfast I happened to come across another cute Valentine idea that we had all the needed supplies for. I showed him the instructions and he was thrilled with what would become his valentines.


By this point, the boys were becoming master heart cutter-outers. Every single heart that had been cut in the past few days were all their handy work and they were so proud of themselves. Not only that, they were really getting into the whole Valentine spirit!


Again, it was time to sign the valentines and I sat with Jaxon as he wrote his name on all 20. Like his brothers, he tried to get creative a few times, trying new ways to write the letter "a", or a backward "J" (but I like it that way, mom). It seemed like an endless job, but eventually he finished and did a great job. Again, when Don came home, he helped Jaxon finish assembling the valentines for school the next day.


These are the Valentines I made this year. We intended to give some to my family as well, but forgot to bring them over and ended up sharing some with our neighbors instead. Jaxon and Wyatt had fun getting their candy out of the maze, but Lucas tore his open, not wanting to mess around.

It has been a busy week, seeming not to slow down at all, but it was a really fun productive week. I am in the midst of sewing some crayon wallets for the boys and a quilt for our niece, so it doesn't seem like much chance of crafts slowing down anytime soon.

LAM Night of Hope

Last weekend Don and I had the honor of playing photographers at a fundraiser. It was at a beautiful church in Buffalo for the LAM foundation.


From Thursday night to Sunday afternoon we visited my family while eating all the delicious food that Buffalo has to offer. According to the scale at work, Don swears he put on 10 lbs in those four days. He was eating like a 17 year old boy in those four days, so I really think it may be possible.


While there were many highlights from our trip out there including fabulous family dinners and walking around different districts of Buffalo, not to mention a beautiful fundraiser that knocked our socks off -nothing was as sweet as the welcome home of seeing our monkeys.

Engaged Parenting

Recently I read an article about engaged parenting. It really hit home for me, because although I am a stay at home mom and have my children with me all day and all night, some times I disassociate myself from the going ons around the house to feel like I can regroup and survive all the madness.

Since reading the article I have made a real effort to be more engaged and present with the boys play time. We wrestle, or as Jaxon says, "Let's freak out!" together more on the bed almost daily again, and things like dancing to the music cheek to cheek has once again become a favorite for the boys (and I). We are back to playing games in the car to keep happy chatter going instead of keeping the music on to drown out their arguing.

The level of the boys frustration and argumentativeness over trains has come down quite a bit. Partly because I am engaging them in other activities with me, and the fact that they are happier since I have been happier just from spending more time engaging with them, not just surviving with them. Like the article says, I am also working on my responses to their situations, not just reacting to the situations. I am trying to remember the cues of their behavior and trying to head off a situation before it gathers heat and anger, and usually it works.

Most of all, I am just thankful for that article. It reminded me that I had stepped a bit off the parenting path I wanted to be on and it has helped me appreciate the boys more every day. Appreciate their humor, kindness and abilities. With my level of being overwhelmed being in check, it has made a significant difference in their level of happiness.

In just the past few weeks that I have been making more of an engaged effort with the boys, I have noticed so much more about them, and just am amazed at the sweet and smart little people they are becoming. I am such a blessed Momma and am so thankful for the new eyes I have been given.

An Afternoon Sledding

Last week was full of winter like weather. Not only was it in the 40s, we had lots of rain. Lucas had asked me, "Why it was raining when it is supposed to be sunny?". I forget that the boys have been luckily enough to have about 90% of their life surrounded by sunny days.

After days of cold rain, us Las Vegasans run out to the nearby mountains to take advantage of Mount Charleston. It is only about 45 minutes away and for the price of gas to drive up there, we can have all the fun we want in their winter wonderland.



We were unsure of how the day was going to play out. On the ride to the mountains, Lucas kept telling us the snow was too cold. Jaxon and Wyatt were excited at the prospect of snow, even though we could tell they really didn't remember much about the last time they got to play in it. With reassurances that we would have plenty of warm clothes so the cold wouldn't get through, Lucas was on board with the rest of us.



Sledding with these guys was so much fun! They were like big kids, going down the sled with Don or I, and loving every minute of it. Soon they would sit on the sled and try going by themselves, and laughing the whole way down. It didn't matter if they were accidentally backwards, or falling off the sled only 5 feet into the hill ride down, or riding so far out that they almost went into the embankment, the kids enjoyed every minute of it.



The little sledding hill we found had some great bumps in it. I would go down and flinch when the bumps came up, worried about my old bones and back, but the boys would whoop with excitement when they caught air. When they were done going down the hill, the kids even carried their own sleds back up to try it again.



After an hour or so of all the ups and downs of sledding, we were all ready to just play in the snow. Jaxon loved laying down and trying to make snow angels and Wyatt and Lucas preferred to eat the snow. It grossed us out, but they are kids and this is what kids do, right? They all had so much fun, especially when it came time to throw snowballs at Don!



I just can't say enough how much fun our afternoon in the mountains was. The boys just blew us away with how much FUN and not WORK they were. They laughed the whole time, were super kind to each other about sharing the sleds, and only complained of walking back up the hill on their last trip up. We were so proud of them knowint they were only four years old and handling the cold and everything the snow entails better than most adults would.

Movie Night

Last weekend we finally rented the new Thomas movie, "Hero of the Rails". The boys have been asking about it forever and I think we forgot about getting it for a Christmas present. In celebration of having an hour or two of down time, we brought the aero bed downstairs, blew it up and let the boys lay there while watching their movie.

They loved having the bed downstairs and were quiet for almost the whole movie. Afterwards, it ended up being a tumbling area for them to do somersaults and the like on. It was a fun night for us all and maybe a start of a new tradition as well.

My Lovies

Little buddies, lovies, handsome boys, my sugars -and on occasion, I call them "Bob". I find myself loving these little guys more and more every day. Four has been such a fun age for all of us. Also the most trying with all their independent ideas, thoughts and opinions. But the good far outweighs the moments of trials.

I love listening to them giggle while playing games. Or while running around the house chasing each other while pretending to be "Pinchy Toes" ( a bad train guy). Even though I have to remind them not to run in the kitchen, the sound of them laughing while they chase each other is contagious.

They love the word diaper still. That and anything to do with the word poopy. Sometimes they just laugh at words that make no sense. Their knock knock jokes are horrible, but somehow make sense to the four year old brains and they just laugh as they think of them, causing the other boys to laugh just to see their brother laughing.

Costco was their first read word. Target gets screams of excitement if it is spotted as we drive by. Del Taco is Wyatt's favorite place to eat and Einstein Bagel is Luke's. Jaxon is easy, usually liking anything on his plate. Jaxon was the first to recognize the word "the" "T-H-E! T-H-E! That's the word 'the' guys!". His enthusiasm for it has rubbed off on the other two and now they all love to spot it. I painted the alphabet around their room and random site words as well and they are beginning to ask about the words and recognize some as well.

All three end up in our room at least once a week. We bypassed the whole sleeping with the kids stage until they turned 3. I think Wyatt's ear surgery started it, but I could be wrong. It is heaven and hell at the same time. I hate the sleep it causes us to miss, but I know these days wil not last forever. And generally if we tell them they MUST stay in their room for the night, they usually do. Until 5 am when they will come in and fall back asleep until 7/8 or so. Given the choice between 5 am wake up or 8? I will gladly share my bed!

Their personalities amaze me. Lucas is so much like me and it is so hard to see my struggles through my son. He is standoffish. Not for lack of interest, but for lack of confidence. We have to constantly pull him to us, to show him affection first. Sometimes we talk to him and he will not answer, I think just to see if we are paying attention- which little buddy, we always are! His laugh brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. I think because when he is laughing it is the only time he really sets himself free. He loves for us to breathe and sniff on the back of his neck like a dog. And more than anything, he loves his Daddy. They have a special bond. He hates to get in trouble. It happens rarely(!) but when he is in the hot seat he cries (just like me!) out of guilt. He is such a great rule follower and seems so wise beyond his age. He is such a lover and protector. He feels lots of empathy and I just wish he could feel how much we love him. I love that his brothers look up to him, he is definitely leader material.

Wyatt is a lover. He is like velcro on our backs, stomachs, in our arms, or in our face. He still studders a bit and will stop and say "hmm" while thinking of what comes next. It is an endearing habit and I will miss it once speech therapy helps him. Wyatt is having a really hard time following rules lately. He listens, and then chooses to do something else. It has gotten him in lots of trouble lately, and after he is in trouble he is so contrite and tells us he is sorry and will be a better listener. He says it himself! Wyatt is an eater, always hungry, even only 5 minutes after breakfast he will ask for a snack. He talks about growing and getting bigger all the time. Lots of times he gets in a mode where he just wants to do things for a laugh and he gets very possessive things. Whether it be a toy, person, train or game, Wyatt tries to claim everything as his own. Then he smiles and (tries to) charm his way out of any trouble. I think he may have many girls in his wake as he gets older.

Little Jax is a handful. Not in a bad way, but he keeps us on our toes. We always have to makes sure he is keeping his toys out of his mouth (still! at age 4!) and he has a horrible habit of picking his head, in spite of sleeping with mittens on and neosporin on his head around the clock. He has had this boo-boo on his head more of his life than he has not had it. For the record it has been about 4 different sores, but unfortunately always in the same area, so it seems like the same one all this time! Jaxon has a belly laugh that is the same as when he was a baby. Anyone who hears it laughs along with him, his personality is so contagious. He does not like to be crossed and has a real passion for things being fair. He is smart and knows when mom and dad are trying to pass one by him AND will call us out on it. Which also causes some authority challenges, but after going to head to head a few times, I think he is finally learning who the parents are.

They are all learning so much and becoming such beautiful boys inside and out. Don and I are so proud of them and are very excited about what our future with them brings. Camping, sports, school (we are not as excited about that), shoe tying, and snow playing. Every day with them is such a blessing and I hope we all live long healthy lives so we can be here with them and experience all the joy that the next 50+ years will lend us. If I said it a million times a day, it would not even come close to being enough -I love you all so much.

What's new here...

Uncle Carl is in town and as you can tell, the boys were THRILLED to see him. They no longer call him "Uncle Jeremy" anymore, which I know we all thought that day would never come. They think he is just awesome and funny. He knows knock knock jokes (and more importantly- listens to their endlessly) and tries to take on all three at a time. They love their Uncle Carl!



Little Reagan spent the night! After seeing her at Christmas we realized how much time always slips away between visits. So since we only live 15 minutes away from each other, we hope to make plans like this more often. We all loved having her here!


Wyatt has gotten into the habit of playing with my jewelry. Usually it is just my rings. He likes to find out which one is from when Don and I got "mayo-weed" and declares them all pretty. I didn't mind the ring playing as long as they all end up put away instead of in the back of his toy jeep which has happened before. But on this day, he took all of my necklaces out and put them on. I couldn't help but laugh. The laughing did not last long though once it took me over a half hour to untangle them. Jewelry is no longer considered a toy...



And last, Don got me this foot massager many years ago. The boys pull it out almost daily and sometimes use it on their feet, sometimes just turn it on and play with their match box cars on it. The other day when I decided to use it I was instantly mobbed. One way or another we all found a way to share it.

Extreme Biking (for a 4 yr old)

Apparently Lucas is such a pro that after two weeks, riding around on his bike has gotten a bit too boring. He is not ready to take off the training wheels, but he found he could challenge himself by sitting backwards while riding up the street.

Lizard Hunt

A couple days ago there was a lizard hanging out under the nativity scene. It was declared a "mys-er-ee" (mystery) and kept them occupied for a few minutes.

Wyatt

I know he is such a mess in this picture, but something about it just sticks to my heart.

Giga Ball

Aunt Leigha gave the boys a fantastic present called a Giga Ball for Christmas. It has been too chilly for us to use until this weekend when someone forgot to tell mother nature it is January and she cranked the heat up to 60 degrees and sunny all weekend long.

After watching a couple you tube videos of other kids trying it out, the boys were really excited to try this themselves. Jaxon and Lucas (literally) jumped right in, while Wyatt kind of held back a bit -stalling once he was inside- not really wanting to roll in it. When it was his turn we let him just hang out inside of it, no rolling necessary. All three had a great time and I think Don was really fighting to urge to climb in and give it a try himself.

Here is Jax rolling for the first time



This is Lucas after we moved to a bigger hill area. Even though only one gets in the ball at a time, you can see all three of them are having a blast!

Garage gone bad

A project that has been sitting on the back burner for years and we are finally ready to tackle NOW is our garage. The boys spent the night at my moms the other night while Don and I devoted a full day and a half to clearing out and organizing this mess. Our "after" picture is soon to follow.

Twenty Ten

This year I have chosen a Word Of The Year. It is something I have read about the past few years on another blog I read, but finally decided to partake in it myself.

My word for the year will be NOW.

I resolve to stop putting off what needs to be done until later. I will start making better decisions NOW. Making changes that need to be made NOW.

I have to stop waiting for changes to happen and start being the pilot of my own life. It is a big step for me, usually I just sit back and feel as though life will be what it is meant to be. But there are changes that need to be made (mostly health related) so I am jumping in 2010 with the intention of making new beginnings NOW.