Christmas Eve

The night before Christmas... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring... not even a... wait... yep, Abby is still awake. She has had a harder day today with several significant meltdowns. I hope that she isn't coming down with something. It sure made the Christmas Eve service interesting... Tom sang in a quartet during the service and it was wonderful... I loved the bell choir too.

And one strange thing I discovered today, Kara is incredibly good at the matching game on our phones. In a last ditch effort to preserve our family-ness at the service we pulled out our phones to let Kiley and Kara play. Kiley doesn't really get it yet and just taps the phone. Kara however actually plays! She went through round after round after round of matching. She was quite upset when my phone died and she lost her game. She didn't want Tom's phone because it wasn't her game.

I managed to get the house back in a little order again, well a few rooms. It's a work in progress. I think it will take awhile. But it's a start. We also opened a few presents and made Christmas cookies for "Santa".

All I want for Christmas ... is for my husband to have a job he loves... and for me to cut back the time I'm working.

I miss being M.O.M.        it just isn't the same when you work full time. Sleep well everyone!

Through the Years...

Merry Christmas everyone! Hard to believe how much they have grown... 

Ponds & Puddles? "Ribbet!"

Tonight after work I picked up a little something at Target.... it went over so well that I am almost regretting the purchase and at the same time wondering if I should have another. Can you guess what that is?

I bet your first guess wasn't a froggy potty chair.... who knew?

 No work for me tomorrow. I can't wait to have a few days home with the girls. My house is so due for a massive cleaning!

Dancing Lights

My girls love the beautiful Christmas lights. They get a kick out of the racing colors and combine that with a little music and you get three very excited girls. Kara I have to say was the most thrilled with the display of lights we went to tonight. I think hormones got the best of me... I was nearly tearing up with Kiley snuggling on my lap, Abby snuggling up close at my side and Kara dancing around to the music. It was pretty special.

Abby had her therapy appointment, we went out for a little pizza and then Christmas lights... Tom had a church choir practice so I took the three home and bribed them to pick up the living room. (fruit snacks are wonderful things)... actually, I think they were more excited about playing play dough (which I let them do if they picked up)

Needless to say it isn't perfect and there is still plenty of crayon all over my walls, boxes and dvd cases strewn all over my living room. But it was nice to have a few small hands put away their toys. (goodness I need to sort through their toys before Christmas!)

I just realized tonight that I have taken 0...Zero... photos of myself pregnant with baby boy. I think things have just been too stressful and wild and crazy that I haven't had a chance. Perhaps over Christmas weekend I can get a few in if it is semi-nice. I was hoping to have some snow to do a few pictures in! So far no luck. It will probably be a brown Christmas this year.

I cannot wait to have 4 days home with the girls! I think they are as ready as I am. My sister is coming to stay with us awhile this weekend to help me out a little (yay sister!!). I just didn't know where to start on my home... so many projects and I'm just so tired
after working all day!

Abby is still up... hopefully she decides to go to bed soon... for my sake!

We must eat! (But do we have to go to the grocery store?)

I think I need to bring my camera with me everywhere.. seriously. I mean... how can it get better than driving three kids through HyVee in a giant.bright.pink (and yellow) shopping cart shaped like a race car. Did I forget to mention that my children are in no means shy.

Kara's favorite thing to do is say hello, and get people to say hello back. So if you are a secret spy trying to blend in, stay far far away. This girl loves to get people's attention. Cranky old man? Busy business man? Fancy pants woman on her cell phone? You can't resist the power of "Hi!" from Kara.

Kiley also enjoys shopping. Her list consists of whatever she can grab faster than I can move away from. Powdered sugar, glass jars of pickles, taco seasoning mix.... watch your things when you are checking out. You never know what you might make it home with! It doesn't help that Kara opens the doors of all the freezers as you walk by thereby distracting me enough for Kiley to grab things.

Abby has become my little shopping buddy, I love going with her most of the time. She likes to look at things, really look at things now and finds the time alone with Mommy wonderful. It's fun to have a 'buddy' to shop with once in awhile. She is learning how things aren't free, that we need to pay for things, and that money takes work to get. I really want her to appreciate what she has and what it takes to get things. I would love to try and avoid my girls thinking they will get everything they see. So far so good!

And if you think of a way to get Kiley to stop throwing trash and other things down my stairs... I would appreciate it. Eventually no one will be able to get in the front door!

Back to Planet Earth...

Ok... I admit it. I miss blogging.

So... first things first. Why the updated name change. Well... as fantastic as Irish Triplets are... we are on to baby number 4 and I doubt he will be as thrilled to be left out of the equation. Yes that's right, baby boy coming this way (really). ((Just in case you didn't already know)

And let's face it... 4 kids under well... 4... can make for a lot, of sleepless nights. Speaking of which, I've been up since 4am this morning, worked all day, had 2 doctor's appointments and then cleaned our basement. I'm tired. This is just an intro post anyways... who actually reads those?

So if you have been missing the blog updates, silly stories, craziness around our increasingly smaller home (and larger family) I will be back. After all, who doesn't get a little enjoyment out of people's faces when they ask if this is your first baby... and you reply, "Nope, Fourth!"