Thanksgiving 08

We had such a busy day today! Don worked so we just hung out at the house this morning until he got off. I prepped the food for the sweet potatoes and stuffing (seriously- you have got to try these recipes, they both were delicious and fairly easy!). Once all the prep work was done and Don got home, we were out the door and on our way to celebrate.

It was pretty idyllic at Nana's house. Leigha helped the boys make a Ginger bread house while the rest of us watched and got some of the food ready. Having my fill of the ginger bread last year, I really didn't want much to do with it -the trying to get the boys to not eat the candy and hoping they don't crumble the house while they help, is a bit much for me with all the other things going on. Leigha had tons of patience and the boys love her so much. The house turned out really well!

After that, Aunt Judy and Uncle Ray showed up and we had a delicious dinner with way too much food. The noise level was through the roof as all the men with full bellies started to radiate testosterone and take on the tremendous trio. Apparently when you are a full grown man, having an opponent only three years old does not deter the rush you get thinking you can take on three people at one time. Both Uncle Ray and my Dad tried to wear the boys down. Each took their turn, but the boys came out as the obvious winners.

Jaxon-isms

Nana says you guys are at an age where you are learning one word per hour and boy, do I get that with you. You are a bit more advanced than your brothers with your vocabulary. You know all the jingles on the radio, you love to sing songs and you seem to retain so much information. Which can be both a good and bad thing...


Driving to Nana's house the other day I was trying to keep you and your brothers awake in the back car. I started by saying "I love..." and filling the blank with people we know, letting you all pitch in with who you chose to add. Once I said I love Daddy and you stopped me and told me, "No Mommy you love Pwusee". Obviously it sounded like a vulgar word and your Dad and I looked at each other with our eyes all huge, not having a clue of what you were saying. Asking you to repeat what you were saying was impossible without laughing at the way you were pronouncing whatever it was you were trying to say.

Finally one of you said the name Thomas and it all made sense. You have been watching Thomas the Train movies at Nana's house the past few days and even though you have only seen them a handful of times, one train in particular made and impact on you enough that you thought your Mommy should love him. Percy.

***

Every night I help you guys in to your pajamas while Daddy helps brush your teeth. You come running out of the bathroom to show me your teeth and I ALWAYS tell you they look beautiful. Well, there is a song by James Blunt called Beautiful. Me telling you your teeth look beautiful has morphed into the tune in the song. In your little voice you sing "you're b-eaut-i-ful" so proudly.

The other day when Daddy was hanging the Christmas lights outside, he had gotten a particularly difficult line hung. When he finished, he yelled out "beautiful!". You responded, "Yeah, I AM!".

Yes little buddy, you certainly are.

***

But not all things you say or repeat are as much of an "awww moment" as the above. First remember that Mommy is human. I say things when my cool is out the door, which is apparently more than I realized.

You ran into my room yesterday morning looking for your Lightning car. You look for him every morning, so it wasn't such a big deal. But the way you said you were looking for him is what caught my attention.

you: "Where's my Lightning car? My FREAKIN Lightning?"
me: "What did you say? What are you looking for?"
you: "freaking freaking Lighting, where is he?"

Then I gave you a little talk about how that was really was not a nice thing to say.

A couple hours later, we had just gotten done eating lunch. After you eat, you love to cuddle. Today you crawled out of your seat, lazily walked towards me with your fully belly eyes and said, "Mommy, let's freakin' cuddle."

****

Only you, Jaxon. You certainly make me smile.

One day...

I can honestly say that 95% of the time Don and I are attentive and at least have a handle on what is going on. The other 5% of the time are when there are projects of sorts going on or whatever it may be distracting our attention for short periods of time. Today was one of those days.

One day when the boys are in their 20's looking back on their childhood, today is the type of day they will pick to talk about.

"Do you remember how Mom and Dad would have us fend for ourselves while they put up Christmas lights? We would get away with everything!"

"Oh yeah, I remember when they let Jax crawl under the travel trailer and got stuck. Dad had to raise it up to let Jaxon out!".

"Remember how much fun we had spending most of the afternoon on the skateboard and creepy crawler, flying down the driveway and into the street? Good thing they blocked the road with the cars and lawnmower. We would have made across the street and it into our neighbors driveway if we didn't have to stop."

"Or when they let us climb up the ladder with Dad under the pretense of getting them used to ladder in case we ever had to use our window escape ladder. I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Wyatt would come back every two minutes to whine about wanting to do it, too."

"I'll never forget how they sent inside once it got dark and Wyatt kept gong in the kitchen and grabbing different foods. First the bananas, marshmellows, then the apples. Mom was going nuts every time she came in and he had something else in hand."

"Man, I can't believe we were only three. They totally had no control over us. We ruled the roost, even at age three. At least for the day anyhow".

Where does the time go?

I can't believe we are past the midpoint of the month and I have yet to download any pictures from this month! In fact, my camera battery died last weekend during our camping trip (that I haven't even blogged about!) and I haven't even gotten around to peeking at those pictures yet.

We are just about over the sickness that has held us hostage since before Halloween. We are left with a lingering cough (Lucas), a nasty sore throat that is affecting the way everything tastes (me), and lots of boogies (from Wyatt and Jax). I am trying to load them up on orange juice, but I am just thankful we are at the tail end of it in time for Thanksgiving.

The boys are really enjoying all the Christmas happenings they see. Don is loving hearing the Christmas music on the radio and amazingly, Jaxon seems to remember some of the carols from last year! Luke and Wyatt are learning them quickly though.

Hard to believe Thanksgiving is in less than a week!

Wyatt

This morning we noticed you were not playing with the rest of us and had to do a little searching to find you. Daddy found you in your bathroom with the door closed. Upon opening it, you were so proud you had brushed your teeth all by yourself. At least that is what he assumed since you had the toothbrush out with toothpaste all over your mouth.

Then later this afternoon we got sidetracked outside talking to a neighbor. Soon after I came in to make lunch and was trying to see if you were in the cubby or what and I called your name. I heard you and finally saw you under the kitchen table eating a lollipop with at least 4 empty lollipop sticks around you. Needless to say, you were not hungry at lunch time.

And just now your Dad and I were talking about our neighbor when we heard you close the bathroom door. When your Dad opened the door, he saw you covered with the baby lotion.

You sure are great at keeping yourself busy.

Feeling better

After beating us up for the past two weeks, I think we are finally on the tail end of our sick phase. The boys have been visiting us just about every night in bed -which usually we don't mind, but every night is a bit of an over kill- and they are beginning to sleep through most of the night. No crying three or four times before 11pm is a great start. Poor babies were just sick.

One midnight run to the clinic diagnosed Luke with an ear infection. A couple days later Jax seemed to be getting one, but when Don took him and Wyatt in to our regular Dr, she said their ears looked fine, but they had a virus that had been going around. I am sure we got it from school, but hopefully since I kept them out on Wed, maybe it will help lessen the spread for the rest of the kids.

Mom and I have been sewing like mad. We got a few more patterns up of our full aprons and about 10 more cut out of our half aprons. It is a slow start up for each new batch, but it seems like we finish 15 all at the same time, so it is nice once we get past the hump.

The boys have been talking like crazy. They are picking up so many new words. Jaxon told me the other day, "I am drama drama". Yes Jax, if you only knew the half of it. Wyatt is still stuttering, but it seems like it is getting better. He is full of trouble, but grinning the whole time. I really think he is just trying to make everyone laugh when he does the things he does. Lucas is still trying to be the leader of the pack. His favorite phrase is, "I have idea!" when he is playing with his brothers. They are doing really well together, not much sibling rivalry besides the occasional fight over a car or something. Luckily the timer still is helpful when that happens, so the fights are usually short lived.

A couple weeks ago the boys were fighting over a big orange race car. For the first time I can think of, it was all three boys fighting about it. There was lots of screaming and yelling, even when we decided to set the timer. Finally I made my voice really loud and excited and said, "Wait a minute guys, I have an idea!" I took the car and put it in the trash can. "Isn't that neat? Now no one gets it and we can each go and pick out another toy to play with". And they did. No arguing, and absolutely no crying over the trashed toy. They just all got another toy and played nicely together.

I wish everything was that easy.

Happy Halloween!

This is what we looked like this morning at about 9:30am. The boys were all laying on the bed whimpering like little puppies. Somehow in my obvious surprise that it was months after preschool started and not a cootie in sight, one snuck in.

It started Monday and has slowly and quietly made it way through the family. Nothing horrible and it was barely anything above inconvenient. But this morning all three boys wondered into my room at different times, complaining that "my tummy felt bad", "I don't feel well" and ""my tummy feels sick". They understand that if they have to "spit", it goes in a nearby bowl, not on the couch or bed or floor. Yay.

The good news is at least Lucas is feeling better, he is looking through pictures by my side as I type this out. The bad news is Don is out for the count. Sleeping on the opposite couch as Jaxon is right now, with little Wyatt by his side. Hopefully they can all pull it together for a half hour this evening so we can at least hit our street. The boys (all four of them) have been looking forward to Halloween and I know they will be disappointed to see they slept through it all.

Trunk Or Treat

This past weekend my mom's church had a chili cook off followed by Trunk or Treating. The boys were really excited by the whole concept of getting candy without having to go potty first.



This year Don and I took it easy on ourselves for Halloween. Instead of sewing all night to make the Oompa Loompa costume or the M&M's that last year brought, we remembered the cool skeleton shirts we had gotten the boys and decided to go with that instead. Adding a couple masks to it that Nana had at her house, we had ourselves three little skeleton boys.


Lucas would look deep into his bag every time someone dropped in new piece of candy, trying to find which little morsel was the new one. Wyatt and Jaxon loved the whole experience as well and all three were thrilled to be able to sit down and go through their candy stash. They thought they hit the best jackpot ever.

Multiples DO run in our family!

Ever since we were pregnant and people would learn we were expecting triplets they would ask if multiples run in our family. What they were really asking is if we used fertility medicine or methods to get pregnant, but this is the kinder way of inquiring. Don would love to answer and tell people he was an identical twin. It would throw people off, but Don would just go on and on about him and Jeremy, not caring that the person really wanted to chat about the babies instead.

Don and Jeremy are the real deal. They are closer to each other in most ways than they are even to Heather and myself. They talk on the phone several times a day and even claim to have the twin to twin telepathy sometimes. "Oh, my arm is killing me, I have to call and see if Jeremy hit his today". Yes, an exaggeration, but not much of one. There were many times that we would rent movies and find out Heather and Jeremy had just rented the same ones earlier in the evening.

So when Jeremy came in to town this past week, it was much to be excited about. The boys loved having "One daddy, two daddy" (as Wyatt would say) around -twice as much fun! It was a visit for a somber reason -Don's Grandma LaVerne passed away- and they took a quick trip to California for the funeral. I am glad they got a chance to be alone for their road trip, although hopefully next time Jeremy comes out, his entire family can join him.

Pumpkin Patch

The other day we took a trip to the local pumpkin patch. Out here in Vegas there is only one place that you can actually pick your pumpkins straight from the earths soil, and that is too far for us to drive. For everyone else, there are "pumpkin patches" on just about every major intersection in town. They have big tents with thousands of pumpkins, inflatable jumpers and even small carnival rides.

When we pulled into the parking lot, the kids were really excited. Lucas -who is usually the quiet reserved child- let out an uncharacteristic "yee haw!" like a cowboy whoop. Jax exclaimed, "we love this place!". I had no idea that they would even remember it.

After sliding down the giant bounce slide and going in circles on the little car ride, we took the boys over to the petting zoo. They had a goats, sheep, chickens (which Wyatt loved to chase) and even a pony. The boys were not too impressed for the most part and Jax and Luke got out of the little pen after no more than 3 minutes. Wyatt on the other hand was quite the animal lover. He ever got right up to the chicken and pet them really gently. I was really impressed that he would be so gentle to the same creatures he was terrorizing just a few minutes before.

Grandma and Poppa said they would treat each the boys to a pumpkin and so the boys went to go pick out their pumpkins. Unfortunately by then, the high 80's weather had gotten the best of them and they took about 5 seconds to lean down and pick one up their half pound choices before they declared they wanted to go home.

Hopefully we can try again later this week in the evening. The weather forecast says it should hit the 70's once the sun goes down. :)

Artist

We are in trouble. The other day I spotted fluorescent ORANGE marker on my carpet. Smack dab in the middle of my hall way.

"Oh no. OH NO. WHY is there MARKER. ON. MY. FLOOR?"
"WHO put marker on my floor?"

Luke: "Jak-in did it"
Jaxon: "Lukey did it"
Luke: "Jak-in did it"
Jaxon: "Lukey did it"

At this point I am thinking oh crap, how will I ever know again who did what? I was way less concerned about the carpet when contemplating how I was going to handle the next 15 years having no accountability for actions done. They would run rings around Don and I if we would have no way to know who did what. Do we punish all three? I would hate to do that, but what are my choices? I can't let this go unpunished.

Me: "Guys, I need to know who wrote on the floor. You will not get in trouble, Momma just needs to know. Now, which of you are fibbing?"

Jax: (While touching my face) "I am sorry Momma."

Me: "Jax, you did this?"

Jax: "Wy-ditt did it"

Me: "Wyatt did you do this?"

Wyatt: "Yes, I did it".

After all that I couldn't even yell at him for writing on the floor. We did talk about where we are supposed to color on ("On paper!" Wyatt answers like he can't believe I asked him such a question). But if I would have been angry about the floor, I think they would feel like they would have to hide the truth in the future.

Oy.

Who's yo Daddy?

*I wish I would have had the camera right away, but this picture was taken just after the boys figured it out.

Today Jeremy flew in to Vegas and Don was able to pick him up on the way home from work. This was pretty exciting to us since the boys haven't seen Jeremy in almost a full year and wouldn't remember that he and Don are identical twins.

Well, both Jer and Don came to the door (both in Don's work shirts)and I am pretty sure all three of the boys went to Jeremy instead of Don. It was a bit confusing, but they got a kick out of the look alikes.

Our Open House

Fresh Squeezed Tarts finally went public with our open house! We are now in business and ready to be shared with the world. About 30 people show up and we had almost that many sales, including a few preorders for Christmas aprons. Getting some product pictures up has been an issue, but here are a few pictures of the open house.



Don made the clothing racks and didn't they turn out great? We have been working so hard making two different style aprons, one half and one full. Lots of fresh looking high quality fabrics and fun lace embellishments with little surprises on each one. We also make yoga mat bags that were pretty popular.



It all was really exciting to have people looking and loving our creations! I am making it high priority this weekend to do the product pictures, then maybe we can sell them on our website as well.

Car Jams

The boys have a few music cd's that they love listening to in the car. Lately they have taken to singing along and -on their favorite songs- it can get quite loud. They are almost as funny to watch as they are to hear.

Sunday

We had big plans for Sunday. Starting out with Einstein Bagels and going to Nana's house. Followed by the pumpkin patch after lunch. Then coming home to a dinner our neighbors prepared and dropped off for us.

Instead plans were changed first thing in the morning. Don brought Einstein bagels home to us and then we hung out here while he worked on the clothing racks for my mom and I. The boys played in our camping trailer and with "found" toys in the garage while I tried to help Don. Eventually things started to get complicated and the project started taking a lot longer than we thought it would.

Once it got to lunch time, we decided to just hang out at our house and have a family day. I set up our bounce house in the living room and the boys went to town on that while I cranked up the movie Cars on the surround sound. A nice way to buy us a half hour of getting things done.

Soon it was time for Don to start staining the racks, but it was the same time the kids wanted to come back out and play. Luckily Don had brought home a skateboard a few days before hand and the boys took turns riding that or the creepy crawler down the driveway like stunt men.

After Don was done with the racks, he got an idea of what to do with some of the wood scraps he had. He got some paint and nails together and helped the boys make their own wood cars. The boys loved it and were sad that they had to wait for their cars to dry before playing with them.

It was nice to have such a quiet Sunday. It was much needed by all of us!

Me and a Sneak Peek

Usually this blog is a way to keep my family and friends updated about the boys. For some reason I really don't use it as a place to write about me and the general going ons outside of our house. Today I will make a concession to that.

For the past six weeks my mom and I have been so incredibly busy getting our business started. Our main priority at this time is inventory. At least twice a week I have been over there past midnight with the two of us sewing up a storm. I have also been taking a stained glass class that keeps me out of the house once a week as well. Life has been very busy. Fun, but busy.

The boys have bonded with Don with all this time they have had to get reacquainted after all his overtime he had this summer. They have begun to go to him when they get "boo boos" just as much as they come to me, which really says it all.

This Wednesday will be the open house of our new business. We will show our family and friends what we have been up to and hopefully get some great feedback as well. I am really nervous about everything being ready in time. The hangers are to be here on Monday -but with that being a holiday probably Tuesday instead. Don's making the racks that we will be using to show most items on (and he is doing wonderfully, but I am nervous about it being finished in time). Last, I know there are many little details to be finished and I am hoping it will all come together tomorrow, the least of being getting some pictures taken so I can share with the online world what it is that we are making.

Bottom line is that I am really excited. Between sewing and stained glass class, the past six weeks have me feeling like I am again part of the world outside these four walls. I miss the kids (and Don), but know life will return to a slower pace once the open house is past. But for now, I am really enjoying myself and being able to be creative with my hands again.

Nana's Birthday!

Tonight we went to Nana's house for her birthday dinner. It all went by in a blur, but I remember lots of laughing, pasta and the boys running around in little groucho glasses with mustaches.

The boys helped Nana blow out her candles after an enthusiastic version of happy birthday and then Nana opened her gifts. She got a GPS for her car, a CD that she had been asking for and a cute laptop bag. Then it was cake time and more fun. Don and Leigha had a bit of a war over if Leigha could paint Wyatt's toenails (it was only a whitish color) and both Luke and Wyatt ended up angry at Don for denying them the fun of it all. Aunt Leigha compromised and let them file their nails with her cool filers instead while Jax played like a wild man with Pops in the rocking chair.

It was a great family night, one that I think we have all been waiting for since the boys were born. They are finally at an age where the entire family can have fun with them because of the interaction that their speaking skills now lend.

Happy Birthday Nana!

Sticker issues

While the boys were having a snack, Luke had noticed his sticker was gone.

Lucas: "Mo-om, Jaxin take my sticker!"
Jaxon: "I not take it"
Lucas: "You didn't?"
Jaxon: "No"
Lucas: "Mo-om, Wy-ditt take my sticker!"

Camping

Don and I have a camper parked on the side of our house. It has not moved since August of 2004 when we took a trip around southern California for a full week.

For the past few months we have been talking about going camping with the boys. Nothing too far, and not more than an hour or two away, but just something to get them used to the idea.

Friday afternoon we took a trip to Mt Charleston (about 45 mins away) with a plan to stay a night or two and see how the boys reacted. About 2 hours later than we were shooting for, we left the house (twice) and started our drive. The boys fell asleep in the car on the way up and woke up just as the man at the campground told us all his campground was already full for the night, and had been since the day before.

With a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, we drove off to other campgrounds in the area. The next one we came across was also full, so up over the mountain we started driving. At the very top of the mountain there was another campground. There was no "full" sign out front, but as we drove through the 35 spot area -seeing every single one had a reserved spot sign on it, our stomachs sunk a little lower. Once we hit number 35 and saw no reserved sign on it, we pulled right in and Don took the quick walk up to the campground host to reserve our spot. Luckily, it was open and now ours!

With lots of renewed energy, we had the camper open and ready in no time! The boys got to explore around our little mountain side area and find every nook and cranny they could use to try to climb higher and higher up.




On our first night out we had a traditional camping meal of hot dogs, hamburgers and baked beans. The boys got a kick out of eating inside the camper, but couldn't wait to get back outside to play with their new flashlights. Soon dinner was followed by roasting marshmallows by the fire.


Surprisingly, we had no issues with the boys around the fire. They understood that the fire was hot and not to play around it. They were even trying to roast their marshmallows with the only problem being not to let their marshmallows touch the logs or the dirt underneath. Wyatt couldn't eat his fast enough, not even caring if his were toasted, just eating the straight off the stick before asking for more.

As we laid down for bed that night, I was face to face with Jaxon as he excitedly recounted the day to me. It was so beautiful how his eyes were literally so bright with excitement as he told me about the marshmallows and the blue and orange fire they cooked in.



After an extremely cold night sleep with lots of wind and rain, we woke up at the first sign of daylight. Don thinks it was 7ish, but I swear it felt about 5am. Either way, the campground was quiet except three little boys in space number 35 yelling for more Apple Jacks (a new kind of breakfast for them). It was freezing still and the area was too wet to even walk around much, so we took a drive around the mountains to peek at the other campgrounds.

Once we got back we really enjoyed our day. There was not a thing that I think we didn't do. Exploring, popping popcorn, snack of grapes, lunch of egg salad and chips and dip, lots of trips to the potty about 100 feet up the mountain side. Soon Don had to go buy more wood from the camp host and he was told there was a slight chance of snow that night.

We started to rethink staying for another night. We brought warm clothes, but not snow worthy temperature clothing. The night before was cold ad we both woke up so much during the night to make sure the kids were completely covered, even though they had footie pjs on, topped off with hoodie sweatshirts with the hoods up. Not to mention folding up the camper was a bit of a beast when the camper is wet. So in about a half hour, we were on our way back down the mountain and heading home.


We had such a great time and there is really nothing that we would change. The space we got to stay in was perfect for the boys and we had such a beautiful view when we sat down at the kitchen table. The boys didn't seem to mind the coldness at all. They had a really good time as well and although they didn't give us a hard time about leaving, they were ready to stay another night if that is what we would have decided. I think they really soaked up the full attention they got from Don and I with no phone, television or computer distractions. It was a great "first" experience for us.

Can't wait to do it again!

Things we hear

The boys are talking so much now a days, but there are a few things that are repeated more often than others.

"I rock!"
"I no do it" (denial of any wrong doing)
"I love you!"
"Jack-in did it" (always the response to who did this?)
"I need licorice" (their favorite treat)
"We go to playground?"
"I want a special treat"
"Going to Nana's house?"
"Daddy coming home soon?" (Always asked by Wyatt)
"I do it by myself!"
"Jack-in said that" (If Jax called someone a bad boy.)
"Baby so cute!"