Love

She is going to break some hearts some day....

It's still cold outside

I love this look... 

That's my princess Abby for you ;)

I got my new calendar yesterday! Harolds had an awesome $11 calendar sale and so I picked up a dry erase one (Normally $20) I think it is awesome and am trying to think of a way to 'decorate it' I'm thinking of putting a decorative frame around it but Tom is also considering shelves since we lost our 'key holder." I was pleasantly surprised at how large it is. Perfect for what I need to keep track of my crazy schedule this Spring.

Kara and her climbing shenanigans are driving me a little crazy. I'm just sure one of these times she is going to get hurt. But it's so hard to keep her from climbing on top of everything ALL the time. And she is incredibly persistent. Lol ALL of my girls are incredibly stubborn! The other day I noticed that Kiley was bringing me a lot of crackers. When I went to investigate... Kara was sitting on top of the table handing the crackers down to Kiley who was then taking the crackers to me... oh my

My Kiley is doing two very interesting things lately.... devouring all cardboard books .... and is terrified of stairs. I have had to put all the books up because she is EATING THEM... half of Abby books have the corners all mashed into brown mush.

This is as close as she will get now... I love it!  Kara on the other hand takes off like a crazed rabbit towards the open gate. She hasn't had the opportunity of falling down them yet and tries to walk down them standing up... oh my But she does enjoy a good car ride... backwards... 

Dishwasher boxes

Christmas break is counting down! One week from today I will be plunged back into the rat race of nursing school. I both dread and look forward to it... I'm ready to finish! Ready to be done with struggling to finish school while being a mother of three... and somehow getting laundry done.

Laundry oh you are the bane of my existence. Seriously... a plague. At least lately I haven't forgotten a load in the washer...

Another interesting note of interest (at least to me) is the focussed study in the Word... I admit, the craziness took over my life and the one thing I probably needed to be doing most I let slip some. So I decided that if Abby was going to be getting me up 6:30-7:00am and watching cartoons for an hour before the twins or Tom got up... that it was the perfect time to snatch a bit of coffee and some time for me to indulge myself in quite time reading and studying.

I'm on my third day and so far it hasn't been as difficult as I thought- waking up isn't always as easy (I need to go to bed earlier!) Funny though that the last two mornings she has been getting up 7:30-8:00... a test? Or was someone trying to get my attention? :o)

Speaking of Abby, she is already stripped of pj's and trying on her 'princess' dresses. I picked her up three headband 'crowns' and she has been playing with them in her new 'tower.' (The dishwasher box) Up to this point she has only fallen off... two? three times? Hard to convince her not to when she thinks she is Rapunzel. lol

Kara and Kiley have been more cranky lately. I'm not sure if it is teeth or something else going on? I sure hope they wake up happy this morning at least! There is nothing like a bath of green snot and drool.

I don't think we have much planned today, it would be nice to get them out but I'm not sure where we would go? I was able to get out for a bit yesterday to run a few errands, order my new glasses and it was nice to get a few things done. My good friend helped me pick glasses out and it was a lot less painful with her around. My awesome Mom is so wonderful to take time out of her day to come help me get things done, there are really only three people I trust other than myself to be able to watch all of the girls... which makes it hard to get things done that you can only do when you are alone... I am thankful for my mom's willingness to watch them for me so much. But the girls haven't left the house and I'm sure they are getting restless....

When we went to pick up our dishwasher Abby exclaimed... "There is Abby's new house! We need to find a key so we can open Abby's new house!" Hahaha she has large boxes figured out. (That white dress she is wearing is the one I can hardly get off of her even though I think it is a 12-18 month size? She likes it I guess)

Back to life

The days slip so quickly don't they! But here I am again, jotting away at my keyboard spattered with bits of baby drool and sticky fingers. We finished our last Christmas on Saturday with my Dad's extended family. The girls received once again some wonderful presents and we had a good time. This year has been amazing, and we are so grateful for the generosity of our family and friends. 

Kara and Kiley are babbling more and more now. Babababa (Bottle) has been very popular along with (Mum mum mum) Food. And we mustn't forget their favorites "No no no" and "Hot, Hot" Kara loves to tell me all of the things she finds that are hot, including her breakfast cereal. (which isn't hot, she made me blow on it to convince her though)

(Kara and Tic Tac)

Kiley is now afraid of going down the stairs alone (yaaaay!) Took her three times falling down them to get that but at last I have at least ONE child that doesn't immediately bee-line towards the gate the second Abby opens it. 

Abby is still very much the princess and wears her dress up dresses and things most of the day. I've decided I'm just going to put one set of 'real clothes' in the living room to put on her when she finally decides to wear them. The heap of laundry in the other room sighs in relief. She also insisted that she wear her pink sparkley shoes to church the other day...even if they were a little too big. The church goers got a kick out of them and her twirling during the church music. 

(Abby loves to brush hair and make it beautiful)

Kiley & Kara still hate being restrained during church and have a devious plan of trying to distract us constantly. Kiley also loves chewing to death the little cardboard books we got for Christmas (I've had to hide them) I took one away and she just screeeeeamed at the top of her lungs and wouldn't stop. Of course it was during the prayer...  

Here in lies the dilema. To try and comfort the one screaming child? Or chance that the moment one of us leaves with her that the other two won't notice? There are very high odds that the one screaming child will turn into three screaming children.

Who knew having children was a constant tactical exercise... I've learned we are a lot of fun to watch during the service. 

And a bit of an update on myself. (gasp) If you want to skip you can...  Perhaps you remember back a few posts I mentioned my having had 'Lazy Eye' as a child. I decided it would be a good idea to get into an optometrist to have a check up (it's been 4 years) My eyes were feeling tired and I was having a lot of headaches. 

My eyes as far as prescription goes, are actually pretty decent with not a lot of issues. I could probably live without any correction and be just fine. The problem is I have some form of a strabismus. Basically as it was explained to me by brain is fighting very hard to use both of my eyes. My left eye isn't as strong/good and so my right eye is very dominant. Up until now I was compensating pretty well but I guess the added stress of kids, sleep deprivation, school etc etc I can't do it as well as I was. After we talked I discovered I can actually tell when I'm switching vision from one eye to the next, and can't tolerate looking through both in the eye doctor lens things. (it forces both of my eyes to work together)

I asked him what would have happened if I hadn't come in, basically my brain would have given up trying to use the left eye and it would have become useless (blind) Ugh! 

Good news, it can be prevented! I just have to wear special glasses with prism lenses to make my eyes work together and make it less difficult on my poor weary brain. But that means no contacts and I will have to wear glasses pretty much all the time to try and reprogram things. 

Something that didn't bother me a whole lot until I started looking at myself in glasses. Whether it was all that pent up emotion from when I was teased as a child or felt ugly as an adolescent I just couldn't handle it. I felt awful. So I got out of there before I started to cry.

Tom my sweetheart happened to know I was upset and bought me a bouquet of flowers(love them so much, such a wonderful surprise!) and my mom stayed a bit longer to help me readjust a bit. (Thanks mom) I'm feeling better about it now, I was just soo overwhelmed and shocked by everything it was too much. My friend and I will probably go later and she will help me pick out a cute pair of frames. 

But kiddos are up and at em better hit the ground running...