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Today is my golden Birthday!

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Jaxon giving himself antlers.


Wyatt is trying to hide his hands


Luke wouldn't do anything cute, so we made him sign "please" for his crackers.


Jaxon does "hut, hut, hike!"

Jaxon Babbles

Jaxon deserves a little credit, too. Today while the bubble machine was spitting out thousands of bubbles at the boys, Jaxon kept trying to say bubbles.
buhb-bub, buhb-bub. Not quite a first word, but the effort is definitely there!

Here they are playing in the bubbles

Little Words

Lucas said his first word! Tonight while I was buckling him in his car seat, I had shifted him a bit to be sure he was straight and secure. I asked him "you okay, baby?" And he said "baby", he said it clear as a bell and about 6 times, so I am sure it is the real deal. When my mom got here he refused to say it anymore, but Don and I were both able to hear it.

Also my mom is here tonight so I can help her wrap her Christmas presents. I love to wrap Christmas presents -seriously! Don, my mom, and I were putting the kids in their cribs and Wyatt softly said "mama, dada, nana"! He was listing us out in his little mind, but it was so sweet!

It is amazing how their little words have such a big impact on my heart!

All banged up

My sweet babies are banged up.

Today they got their 18 month check ups done and shots galore. Afterwards we stopped at Sears to grab my dad's Christmas gift. Since the kids were stuck in their wagon all through their Dr appointment and while we were at Sears, I started going fast with the wagon to get them to giggle a bit. They were laughing and smiling, so I gave it one last run. I must've whipped them around too fast and the wagon FLIPPED OVER! The orange car came unhooked from the rest and little Luke was stuck upside down in it. His top lip is all sorts of swollen and he has a little scrape by his nose. Wyatt was in the middle car and his head has 2 big "road rashes" on his forehead. Both of them were bleeding for a bit and really shaken up for a good 10 minutes or so. Jaxon was in the front car, so he was sideways, but he has no outer bruises or anything.
I feel so incredibly awful and guilty, just wanted to cry when it happened, but I didn't want to traumatize them anymore than they already were. When we got home, they ate lunch and played a bit, I gave them tylonel and bandaged them up. All of them are napping now and when they get up, I am hoping the swelling has gone down. Poor babies. I feel absolutely ashamed that my children hurt because of my carelessness.

Gobble Gobble!

Monkey Around

My little boys have turned into monkeys. All our furniture has been taken out of the living room except for our couches, and a table we stuck in the corner between the couches. Apparently this is not enough. I have tried putting the couches face to face so they have no where step up to, since the arms are up too high. Unfortunately, this leaves nowhere to sit or lean against. Today I took out the Super yard to make it into a ridiculous fence to go around the couches, but I realized that is just silly. I think I may have to find a time out spot so I can start giving them consequences instead of always telling them (or bringing them )off the couch. I am thinking it became a game for them (a fun game non the less) to climb on the couch and hurry and climb down before I could get back into the living room to remove them. Little stinkers.
Ideas are welcomed...

Picture Update

Well, the kids are close to being 18 months so I thought it is a good time to post some pictures of 17 months old. I know their are lots of Jax this time, maybe it is my guilt over his hurt foot/leg.
Speaking of, Jaxon is back to normal. We never found out if it was his foot, or part of his leg, but the important thing is that seems to be healed and back at 100%.

Man Down, Man Down!

Little Jaxon has a big owie. Yesterday I was strolling through Carter's when the stroller suddenly stopped. I looked up and saw Jaxon had his leg up and out of the stroller, it had hit a counter side, stopping the entire stroller in it's tracks. Poor little Jaxon's eyes just filled with tears and he cried for a bit, so I took them home. Once we were home, I noticed he wasn't in any pain, but he couldn't walk on it. I called the Dr's office and left a message, made an appointment for after nap time, and put them to bed. As soon as the kids were up from nap, Don and I took Jaxon to the Doctors to have her check it out. Nothing is swollen or visible in any way, but he still was not walking on it more than one step before he would crawl. The Dr gave a me a referral slip for X-Rays if he still seemed to have issues with it today.

Today he is doing much better, probably at about 60%. I decided to bring him in just to be on the safe side, since he isn't taking more than 2 or 3 steps. Jaxon needed 6 X-Rays, 3 of his foot and 3 of his entire leg. He munched on cracker while the tech taped his foot/leg in place, and we were done within a half hour! Jaxon was a trooper, as long as he was eating his crackers he didn't care what was going on. If he ran out of crackers, he would just sign for more and lay back down with a pile of crackers on his belly.

For the past 24 hours we have been going out lots to try to minimize the amount of time he could be aggravating his foot or leg by standing on it. Either tonight or tomorrow morning we will get the results. I am extremely thankful he doesn't seem to be in any pain.

Drive down memory lane

You can listen to "our song" if you click here. A sappy love song Don played for me when we were dating for a couple months and we hadn't yet said the big three words.

My mom came over and watched the boys while I got my hair done. I took her car just in case she needed to go somewhere, she would have the carseats.
As I was getting ready to leave, the boys started getting really cranky. Just flat out, everyone is crying as loud as they can, tears are falling, cry. This happened last time, too and I just ran out the door all stressed and felt bad later that I didn't take the time to give them the extra hugs that they obviously needed. So today, even though time was crunched, I sat down on the living room floor and tried reading a book out loud to distract them. Slowly, one by one they got a bit interested until there were no longer tears or cries and my mom took them to sit them down for lunch as I walked out the door. It had been so bad that as I walked to the car, my shoulders and neck still held the tension from all their crying.

After my hair cut and back in the car, I turn on the radio. I realize what a novelty this is. To turn the radio on and decide what I want to listen to. In my car, there's a favorite CD that goes on when the kids music is not on. Since I didn't have that with me, on came the music from a country station. Almost immediately, our wedding song came on. It has probably been almost a year or more since I have heard this song. I almost started squealing like a teenage girl. While I was at a red light, I had literally closed my eyes and I could picture us at our dance lessons and later at our wedding dancing to it. I just really listened to the lyrics and sang along.

When You Say Nothing At All (Alison Krauss)

It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

All day long I can hear people talking out loud
But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd
Old Mr. Webster could never define
What's being said between your heart and mine

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

I have resolved to get back to showing how much I love him by not just saying it all the time, but to start showing all the actions again. It has been so easy to forget the hand holding (who has extra hands these days?) bed time toe touching (now we just get comfy in our dead tiredness and go to sleep) and the cuddling on the couch (Could be because for the past year we have been on the floor with the boys). All this aside, now that I am aware and gaga'd over our song again, I am excited to cuddle a bit when he gets home.

Highs and Lows

Wyatt getting in the wipes for the bazillionth time, Lucas teaching his brothers how to climb onto the couches and Jaxon leaving his mark (literally...bite marks) on his brothers in many places of their bodies. These are some of the skills the boys have practiced today.

But the camaraderie of these brothers amazes me each time they share a new skill. I can see each of them define themselves a bit more when one becomes the teacher or allows another take charge for a turn. Or as in something so simple as the silent pact they have when they are into something they shouldn't be and not one will make a peep. I don't have a doubt that they know theirs is a special relationship.

Their relationship is beautiful and each really does complete the others, even at such a young age. Without Jaxon, who would Wyatt laugh at and who could Luke take things from because he is so easily distracted. With out Luke, who would teach them cool things like where the light switches are or how to get on the couch. And if there was no Wyatt, Jaxon would never know what it would be like to have a brother constantly lay on him, hugging him, nor would Luke have anyone to play peek a boo with.



So even as we have hit the low of days as far as biting and fighting has gone, the other side of the coin has hit the high of the highs with all the games they play and the giggles and laughter we hear. The lows are definitely worth it. I wouldn't trade these days for anything.

The Plastic Bubble

I am turning into a tacky lady. Last week (or maybe just Thursday and Friday night) Don and I were up to all hours of the night in a cleaning frenzy to get ready for a long over due open house. Our eyes were finally opened to what a mess it was when on Halloween day someone called to see the house and we had to turn them down because it was in no shape to be shown. The kids are contained to one room during the day, but in the little time we let them wander, they really tear the house up. Windows are showcases of tiny finger and hand prints. The kitchen floor showed signs of almost every spill the sippy cups have made in weeks. Well, except what the dogs were kind enough to clean up for us.

Now the house is cleaned. Every closet, room, bed, and shelf has been remade or reorganized, windows and mirrors have been windexed and buffed to a shine and the counters are dust and grime free. After spending a good hour cleaning our "cozy" kitchen floor, I have gotten the bright idea to cover the tile with a tablecloth. I know we still had some cute plaid flannel backed tablecloths we never used, but they were blue and green and would drive me crazy by not matching. So I decided to get clear plastic from JoAnns, the same kind we have already covered out kitchen table with. And our kitchen chairs that the boys booster seats sit on. Our kitchen now looks like a 3 layer plastic sandwich. I love it so much I even bought an extra yard to go by the front door since we don't have a rug and Crocs tread really pushes dirt into the tile.
I feel like I live in Frank and Marie Barones house. Wonder if I could find a pattern to make a plastic slipcover for my couch...

Nice Santa

Most everyone that has a child -or two,or three- knows that the Santa pictures get a bit more stressful as the years go by. Working in a children's photography studio for many years gave me enough experience to know that having 3 babies in a portrait at one time could be crazy in itself. I also worked at Excalibur for a couple years at the Santa booth and learned enough to feel very sorry for all picture Santa's as early as the second week of December. These poor guys who are just trying to spread some cheer get kids who scream in their ears, kids who kick them, they get puked on, and then parents want to do it again because they have totally unrealistic expectations.
Last year we tried our Santa pictures out in late November. We went in with low expectations (just decided to do it at the last minute) and came out thrilled. All the kids were looking at the camera and no one freaked out!

This year the idea of Santa pictures has been teetering on the edge of my mind. I could tell that Luke was not too thrilled with the Easter bunny this past spring and am a bit concerned about all three of them for our Santa picture. I figured we will go slow and just not expect much again, with the hopes of all turning out okay.

Yesterday Don and I took the boys to a craft show out here at one of the convention centers. There was no parking close by, so he dropped me and the kids off so we wouldn't have to push the stroller down the steep hill of the top parking lot. I waited until he drove off to cross the street. As I took a step forward, I looked both ways and saw a snowy white bearded man in a pick up truck giving the boys a thumbs up. It caught me a bit off guard and I smiled and thanked him. He then mentioned that he would be at one of our malls (as Santa) beginning mid-November and that I should bring the trio in to see him. Whoa! I joked a bit with him to be sure he knew he was inviting three 18 month old boys to sit on his lap, at the same time. The Santa-man then told me definitely bring the boys by, the earlier the better, and that he would be looking forward to seeing us there.
What a relief I felt! I have been stressing out a tiny bit about the pictures this year. I've even wondered if we'd just have to do the boys separate, in order to spare a Santa-man the agony of three screaming babies trying like mad to get off this big hairy mans lap. And here this nice Santa-man is, inviting us to try him out.
So if anyone in Las Vegas wants to know which Santa-man to see this year, the Meadows Mall Santa is on our nice list this year.


As a disclaimer I just have to add that my favorite Santa picture EVER is one where there are 3 screaming babies on Santa's lap. You'll have to scroll a bit, but you can see it here.

Fertile Weekend

Our RE threw a big "Gifts of Life" party this past weekend. It was amazing to walk through there and see all the families that 2 amazing Doctors had brought together. Last year we had attended, but the kids were too little to check it all out. They just hung out in their strollers and drank their bottles while we talked to people.

We invited my mom to join us this time around and we were very glad she came! The boys were all about discovering the grounds! Don took them in the bounce house, but the older kids were a bit out of control and he took the boys out after only a few minutes. Jaxon loved the chaos though, he just was smiling so big...I think he wants a bounce house for Christmas (hint, hint) They did have a costume contest, but the costumes were ruined when they were washed. The brown dye ran all over the pants and bled in to the white and brown stripes on the cuffs and neck. Sad, but we had a good run out of them and I am glad we didn't ruin any regular clothes in the wash, too.

Last night Don went to get the mail. He gets it like once a week on a good week so there was tons of junk mail and bills to go through. In the pile of mail was a letter from my RE's office. Apparently our embryos storage is due. Last year it was a bit over $100. I think it is a bit steep for keeping them in a freezer, but you figure it is less then $10 a month and will buy us a year of undecided bliss. You can image our disdain to see this year the bill has gone up to $400! Wow! There is no way we can just throw $400 out there to stay in the undecided mode. I am quite positive that if we had gotten a mix of girls and boys instead of all three boys, this wouldn't be an issue. Except we would have to decide what to do with them. But we need to decide if we are going to regret not ever having more and not having a girl.

I have to be honest here, I love my boys. I never thought I would want one boy, let alone three. But now I am thrilled with what I have been blessed with and am glad they are all boys. And I am so glad we have all three at the same time. I am thinking it will make our life so much easier when they get older and are all in the same grade, same fieldtrips, same sport teams, etc. BUT.... being it took us 6 years to get to where we are, am I ready to say we are all done only after 2 years? But will we be able to continue to pay storage every year just to decide later that this is it? I think that it is time to do some serious praying and soul searching. As soon as I can stop procrastinating, I will get right on it.

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!
Last night our Halloween plan was to bring the boys to my moms neighborhood. Her neighbors are pretty tight and most everyone knows each other. So after they were fed and dressed, we headed out. My sister was with us, so we figured with three adults, we'll just let the boys walk with us. Makes sense...1 adult for each child. It only took us to get about 3 houses down to decide it is a bit too early for walking freedom and Don backtracked to get the wagon out of the car. Once the boys were contained, we walked them around the block and Don gave them a super sonic ride in the wagon. He runs with the wagon behind him, swerving from one side of the street to the other, I swear he is going to tip them all out of the wagon one day. They love when Don does this, they just keep looking over at me, their expressions are saying, "Hey Mom, you see this, look at us mom, look how fast!" All three of them laughing out loud with these huge smiles plastered on their faces. My heart about stopped as Wyatt's wagon went on two wheels. But it landed back down and I distracted Don with chatter so he wouldn't give Leigha and I a heart attack.
After my moms neighborhood, we decide to check out the Trick or Treat situation at the District. There were people lined up in front of the stores, bags held open for more candy. Luckily, the boys are not interested yet in the candy, more so in the costumed people, so we just pulled them through to the grass area. They ran for about 10 minutes and it was enough. So many kids all over, it was hard to keep track of where all 3 were, so it was time to head out. Don talked to a newscaster getting a Halloween story and he and the boys ended up on the late night news (11pm) Channel 3.
I didn't get all the pictures I wanted to, it just seemed like I didn't have enough hands. But the few I have are good for this year. I know there will be more Halloweens to come.

Saturday before Halloween

Busy busy day! First thing this morning we headed out to Summerlin Hospital where they were having a playdate for all the babies who have been in the NICU. Like most of the babies there, our boys had their costumes on and it was so fun to get a preview of many costumes out there. There were a set of ladybugs, a supergirl, bat girl, hulk, butterflies, a tigger and some monkeys too. All the kids were all over the place, playing with each others toys, walking up to all the different people (we were all sitting on the floor) I don't think there was a single issue of fighting over toys. The boys did great... they were in a new place, new people all over, kids everywhere, and they just blended right in. We didn't have to chase them, make them share, or pull them off any other children. It was really neat to watch the boys out of their regular surroundings, to see them out of the confinements of our house and not so much under our thumbs.

That afternoon when they got up from their naps, we headed out to Whole Foods to get some vitamins. After the store we decided to make a night of it and walk across the street to The District to window shop and eat dinner at Lucilles BBQ. The weather was so nice we were able to sit out on the patio in front. Once we were seated to our table, the boys kept flirting with women and girls at nearby tables and people were coming up to us telling us how good the babies were behaving (they really were being so good!)
After dinner we let the boys run in the grassy area. The trees had been covered with strands of white lights that Wyatt just couldn't stop looking at. He would run around, then go right back over to look at the lights. Luke was just a free little man, I don't think I have ever seen him run with just fun in mind. Usually he is a man on a mission, but he was just enjoying watching the bigger kids and running around with them. Jaxon was just giggling and keeping us on our toes. He would go from one side to the other, growling like he was chasing or being chased laughing and then lose his footing and fall. He didn't mind though, he just would smile bigger and get up again.
There were easily 70 or so dogs around, too. I think one of the pet boutiques in the District had a pet photographer. All these little (and some HUGE)dogs had on Halloween costumes. Witches, pumpkins, ballerinas, wizards...amazing the dog costumes that are out there. The boys loved it, they kept hitting their thighs saying "doh, doh" and Jaxon was squealing and laughing when he'd get to see them up close. After we saw the dogs,we contemplated walking around a bit more, but decided it was better to go while the boys were still happy and not yet sleepy. As we loaded them into the carseats and stuck the wagon in the back we just talked about how it all was such a great day. A totally ideal Saturday.

Lots of Family

One of the main reasons Don and I want to move out of Las Vegas is to be in a more family friendly atmosphere. I am not just talking about a place where pictures of nearly naked people aren't on top of taxi cabs or where a picture of very barely dressed women aren't on a billboard. I mean a place where our kids can grow up with great memories of hanging out with family, especially their own cousins. Both Don and I remember our younger life (as in before 11 or 12 years old) surrounded by tons of family. In my case, Carl and I lived with our Grandma and Grandpa, along with 2 of our aunts until I was in 4th grade. I remember lots of visits to my cousins house or them coming over to my grandma's house. Christmas time was filled with so much family that the kids would draw names of who they would be a secret santa for that year, only to spill the secret on Christmas day. From what I understand Don's family all lived on the same street, or close to it. He has told me that they would play together all day and night, eating at each others house, just plain old getting into trouble. We both love those times in our lives- and want nothing more than to give that type of family life to our boys.

As I mentioned before, my nephew Matthew is in town with my brother, Carl. Matthew's birthday was a few days before they came out to visit so my mom planned a family birthday party for him out here. Besides the boys first birthday, I can not think of one other relative child's birthday party I have been to in over TEN YEARS! We had pizza, presents, ice cream cake and a surprisingly lively version of Happy Birthday was sung for Matthew.
I really enjoyed it all, especially when Matthew just whipping through his presents looking for "Little Guys" He was so excited to know he was getting some, but he was being teased, and the best was saved for last. Before he had gotten to the little guys though, he had opened a present from his dad that was a Army Costume. It had a camouflage vest, hat, little canteen, binoculars, plastic knife and other army guy necessities. Once he finally got to his "little guys" he was all suited up and ready to join them on the field.
It was so neat to have most of our immediate family here for a birthday party. It brought back many happy times for Don and I and we can't wait until we can share these days with our boys.

Today's Picture

Yay Momma! It is so hard to get them all some what together and looking, let alone smiling at the same time. Forget the fact that when you click to enlarge you can tell Wyatt is a bit out of focus... I am patting myself on the back for this one! Look at those smiles!

Our Buddies

We have finally been catching up with Cathy and her brood. We all went to Sunset park last week, Walmart this past weekend, and tonight we had dinner over at our house.

Since someone always seems to be sniffling or coughing, it has been a couple months since we have actually let all the kids play together at one of our homes. There were some major differences this play date. We have 5 walkers now, last time we were at Cathy's, only Luke was walking (Robert started walking only a couple days after we were there). So much more laughter this time! Cathy's boys are obviously beautiful little guys, but I haven't had the joy of making them laugh. But tonight while Wyatt was trying to pass a toy to Cathy's mouth from his own, I was playing with Robert and just had him giggling away. Noah was also a little outgoing man, he sat on my lap and bounced away like a little bull rider. My boys kept walking right up to Cathy, trying to get her attention...it was amazing to see how much more comfortable they were with the other kids, not so clingy or attached to their parents this time around.

Dinner with 7 kids was interesting. I have to tell you, it really seems like any more than the three is just more kids. They all were perfectly behaved, barely any cup throwing, lots of food was eaten. LOTS I am talking almost an entire large pizza (9 out of 10 slices), one can of green beans, 2 cans of pears, and one can of peaches between 7 children, 6 of who average 18 months old. I felt like we were feeding a football team. The boys just kept on packing the food in like little bottomless pits. It makes me wonder if those 3 boys had innies before we fed them....

Picture Update

I know I have family out there that just wants to see some pictures of the boys, so this post is for you!

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