Saturday!

There is nothing better than having the girls all play together. Watching them laugh and smile is the best. I'm so glad we are finally getting past the ear infections. K&K have even been sleeping better, they are getting up 1-2 times a night instead of 4-5+

Yay!

I've been afraid to mention it because I figured that once I did the sleeping would end. They might be getting in some new teeth though because they are chewing hard on everything and a little miserable (Kiley especially)

We had a quiet Saturday at home and spent some time down at my parent's place. Abby had a lot of fun ringing the 'ding dong' (doorbell) and setting off the dog barking like a crazy thing. She thought it was hilarious.

I kept trying to go inside and she would say "No mom, hafta stay inside!"

K&K are starting to try more new foods. They really enjoyed 'chicken noodle soup' when I mashed up the noodles the other day and gave some to them. The three girls can down an entire can themselves! Soon I will have to make more than one! No wonder grocery bills keep going up! (Kiley below)

I started the project of staining our backyard fence. That is going to be some project! But it is a necessary one and will be very nice when I'm done with it. There is something very theraputic about painting something too... and I wanted to get it done before school started.

Yikes school.

Did I ever mention that Abby calls waffles "cockles" ... it makes me laugh but it is one of her favorite breakfast dishes. She seemed to be in a much better mood today than she has been lately! YAY! The light at the end of the tunnel!

(Kara got me... lol)

"Mommy it's for you"

Abby walked in through the screen door, hair disheveled and sticky from the Popsicle she had been eating out on the deck. I was on my way out the garage door to grab a roast to put in the crockpot for supper when I heard her calling "Mommmmy"

I turn around to see that in her hands is one of my clematis flowers... a beautiful light purple vine creeper that I had rescued from the distressed section last year. My first reaction, my first thought... was... "Oh no! Abby! You aren't supposed to pick mommy's flowers!"

She looks up at me with those dark, soul searching eyes and says "Mommy it's for you!" In a way only she could. 

My heart melts instantly and I'm still a little ashamed that my first instinct was to scold her for picking it. After all... what good are flowers if you cannot share them? So I gave her a hug and we put it in a vase on the table. She was so thrilled and I can't help but smile when I see it.... she was showing her love.

I love you too sweetheart... more than life itself

Picture Time!

I'm exhausted after another day at home with the girls. Hoping that tomorrow they will be feeling much better! Eek the creepy dog toy went off again. Note to self. Turn that off before bed!

Abby now pedals for short walks on her 'bike'. She is so happy about it that she tells everyone she passes that she can pedal!

I'm still feeling under the weather too. If the girls don't feel better it would be nice if at least I would! One of the babies is really coughing, I wonder if I need to check on her. Poor things feel so miserable still. What a nasty bug we picked up. again.

The heat index was 103 today with the humidity. I was going to do a family session but we rescheduled because the weather was so miserable. A storm came through about an hour ago but it is still lightening right now too.

It was fun (once the Tylenol kicked in) to watch K&K chase Feebee around the house. Silly babies were prowling the rooms for her! They would laugh and laugh when they found her finally.

(kara)

Well here are some pictures that I promised, I might rub some vix on the girls to see if that helps them sleep better. I can actually hear all three of them coughing really bad right now... might be another long night here...

Why don't friends with kids have time?

I posted this on my Facebook awhile back... but read through it again this morning and thought I would share it with those of you who might have missed it! It sums up things here pretty well!

Owies

I figured I was a little behind and should get back into the swing of things. My girls just finally went down to bed, Kiley was the stinker tonight!

What have we been up to? Last Thursday we went 'camping' with my family and oh was it fun but exhausting! It was wonderful because my mom got a lodge for a few nights and so we had a place for meals and babies to have a break if it got too crazy outside or hot. The place was beautiful and I told Tom I would trade our house for it. The house had a lot of character and 5 bedrooms. With a few of our touches it would have been perfect, beside the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere!

Abby did a lot of swimming and building sand castles at the lake. I'm glad I thought enough to stop at a walmart and pick up a little life vest suit for her. It made things much more relaxed that I didn't have to worry about her walking in too deep! The lake was very full, they have had a lot of rain. I did some engagement photos for my cousin so didn't have a chance to go out on the boat but maybe next time. It was still a lot of fun to spend time with my family. Abby was very good at getting popsicles from people... if one told her no she went on to get the next one. She was just exhausted by the time we left at 10pm and actually cried half of the way home. I felt so bad for her. She got a few blisters on her feet and hadnt told me the shoes were hurting :(

Sunday we went to a family reunion and my little fish Abby was back into the water. She loves to swim! This time it was in a baby pool and she played with one of my cousins who was 5. There was a little inflatable star that someone had brought and she floated around the pool singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...." SO CUTE! She also had a lot of fun playing with someone's squirt gun and pushing the button to make it 'rain.' Sadly she tripped while 'jogging' and skidded on her face. Looks so painful. I'm putting neosporin on it in the hopes it will heal up fast! She looks like a war hero at the moment...

And today... we were all sick. I had an awful time last night because all of my girls were waking up constantly. In fact I had to rock Abby to sleep three times! That is unusual for her, she is normally a hard sleeper. So I called the doctor and told them all three of my girls needed to be seen. I survived the next few hours somehow and my mom came to save me.  She helped me pack up the girls and get them to the doctor.

They all had ear infections and were bawling at some point during the visit. The doctor was like "wow you have your hands full." This doctor was actually fairly nice and I've come to realize that I appreciate her getting in at a good time, getting right to the point and examining my children. The doctor I have issues with is completely opposite. So all three are on antibiotics now. I'm on advil but at least that seems to help me function enough to take care of my girls. This means editing, laundry, dishes and cleaning have gone out the window and my house is a mess! Yuck!

Plus I have company coming this week.... fun but it means I need to get around to cleaning sometime!

Oh! Visit Stats.

Kiley is 15lbs 12 oz
Kara is 15lbs 2oz (I think... I wasn't 100% sure I heard it right)
Abby is 27 lbs

Kiley and Kara are both saying Mom mom mom mom now :o) I'm not sure if they are actually asking for me or if they are just babbling but it is cute! Kiley also has this little fake laugh that is really really cute. Kiley gets really excited when I get her out of the crib in the morning, it makes me so happy when I get early morning snuggles!

I want to get some photos up but ill have to do that tomorrow... can't find them at the moment!

Around we go

Well we are at it again, back to the doctor again tomorrow to get Abby checked out. Abby was running another temp of 101 when she got up from her nap this afternoon. When the nurse finally got around to calling me back she told me that Abby was supposed to be on the antibiotic for 10 days. Yes... yes I knew that. And no if it was going to be effective she shouldn't be complaining of ear pain and running a temp again.

So... I'm not a nurse yet but I do know a few things about these antibiotics they prescribe. If there was ever something that would make you want to know your meds it's having one of your babies on it.

I finally convinced her that Abby needed to be seen and of course the only time they had was with a different doctor tomorrow. The doctor that saw Abby last time she had an ear infection... and yelled at her. Awesome.

I need to switch clinics. I just didn't realize how complicated that could be.

On that same note. The other therapist lady that I love was completely shocked that Abby wasn't going to Occupational Therapy any more. Not that Abby hasn't improved or gotten a lot better. It's just that we aren't done yet. She thought the clinic we see might be new at it and just had run beyond their knowledge. She told me to give it a couple of weeks and if I thought Abby might benefit from more therapy we could take her to another more experienced place.

The ups and downs of it all. I'm not sure what I think about it yet.

K&K are finally asleep after fighting it for 2 hours. Kiley had me up for an hour last night but we are slowly adjusting to them being together in the nursery. I hope they keep getting better! Truth is I'm a little scared to go back to school. I was starting to feel content with my life as it was. 

But I guess that's life... you never get to stand still for very long. Something new is always around the corner.

Tidbits:

I got my TB test done today... as the nurse put the cottonball/tape over the wheel Abby put her arm out because she wanted a shot too. The nurse looked at her and said "now that's a first!"

Driving in the car today Abby was singing "The wheels on the bus go round and round..." She loves the "round and round' part. I asked her what the babies on the bus did "Waaaaah' She said :o)

Abby was driving me a little crazy saying "Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom..." After many "What Abby!'s" She came close and said "I love you too"

Talk about melt your heart....

I found Kiley & Kara standing in their cribs, looking across the room at each other and smiling/laughing at one another. It's moments like that I know only mother's of twins will get to experience. And it makes up for some of the harder things we go through :o)

I love them all so much

It's a summer thing

Another day of summer has come and gone and the weekend is over. I was busy doing two photo sessions on Friday and we went to visit Tom's friend's newest addition. What a cutey but wow does she have my girls beat! She is 2 months old and just a pound or two less than my girls. I can now say I know what a baby in the 100th percentile looks like but she is such a doll!

We finally moved the changing table out of the nursery and into our bedroom so that we could fit two cribs into the nursery. I must say I'm quite pleased with the result (as long as Tom remembers to take the diapers OUT of our bedroom!) No diapers in the bedroom! I have some more clothes sorting to do, laundry and just general picking up.... and it will take awhile to get things 'set' especially with two creepy crawlers and a speedy toddler in tow. So ignore the 'mess' for now lol

I just heard Abby counting in her sleep... 3...4...5... awww....

She was still complaining her ear hurt today... i really hope we don't have to go back into the doctor again! I also hope the other two don't have earaches. They sure haven't been sleeping the best lately.

Abby left two voicemails on my mom's phone this afternoon. I didn't realize she was actually talking to something!

Kara is starting to jabber now too! It is so cute and I love how excited she is about it. She can crawl on hands and knees too but still will go back to army style if she feels like it.


But their most favorite thing to do right now? Find any... any open skin on my leg, arm, cheek, foot, hand... and blow raspberries. We have taken more than one person by surprise when they crawl over and plant a wet one! It's pretty funny and they get a kick out of it.

All three of the girls are starting to interact more and more. It's like... hey! I have sisters! We can play together!

Hot days, Hot nights

My girls are exhausted. I ran them hard today.

This morning I could hardly wake Abby up she was sleeping so hard. I practically had to pry her from her crib. I wish I would have been able to let her sleep. Funny how they always sleep so nice when you have somewhere to go.

But she was excited once she learned we were going to play with her good friend from church at a park. And play we did for quite awhile. At 9:30am this morning it was 86 and HUMID. By the time we left it was 90. But Abby had a lot of fun and K&K did so good. Her church buddy is one of her best friends and she often asks me when we are going to go play with her. We went back to their house but it turned out they had swimming lessons to get to. They graciously offered their house to us while they were gone but Abby didn't feel good and that usually means getting into everything and I didn't want to wreck their house. So we left pretty quickly after they did.

It's a lot of work packing up three girls alone... several times.

So without much to do and the girls already tired of parks and strollers we drove to the children's clinic. Why? Abby was sobbing that her ears hurt so I told her we would go to the doctor to get medicine. That seemed to make her feel better. (I had already made an appointment for 1pm and it was noon so I was trying to make time go faster) She played in the fountains outside the clinic, I got her changed and we headed in. 

We sat... in that clinic... for an hour.

Me alone... with 2 babies and a toddler.

And the doctor spent 10 minuets with us.

It's my own fault. I keep forgetting to change doctors and keep thinking that it's going to change the next time we are in and it will be better. It wouldn't have been so bad except that I know we were the first ones there, for the first opening after lunch. They shouldn't have been running so late and if something came up they should have checked on me. Abby was tired, in pain and the babies were getting bored. I was so frustrated and still am a little. (If you couldn't tell) BUT enough of that. It's done with and the good thing is at least we got something that will HOPEFULLY help Abby feel better. I've been giving her a lot of Tylenol so that she is more comfortable. I had suspected something might be off with how much more difficult things had been lately. I was right! You would think I would learn faster...

By the time we got home we were hot, and exhausted. Kara and Abby went down without too much crying and Kiley eventually did too. So I took a nap too. It helped. 

Abby pointing at a car yesterday: "It's a white van, for people to drive" ... amazing what she says anymore. She has started creating her own sentences instead of mimicking ours as much. Her pretend play is awesome and I love to watch it. I can't wait until she can 'imagine' with me when we play. 

Kiley loves to talk talk talk talk. Kara is quieter but I doubt it will be long before she is jabbering away too. Hard to believe how quickly they are growing up!

My dad and brother fixed the AC in our van. THANK YOU! We were roasting in this heat....makes for good swimming weather though if we can avoid the bugs...

Humid!

Hot hot hot hot hot

My van has no air conditioning. It is incredibly miserable to be driving around with three kids in a minivan with no  AC and it's 86 and the humidity is in the 70's. I need to get that fixed soon!

We had a busy day... played outside on the swings for awhile again. Abby loved the game where I would dart out of her path just before her swing hit me. She was laughing and laughing....

Kiley and Kara woke up soon after and we all got into the van, put the checks in the bank (finally) and went looking for a park. We found one... near the zoo with big shade trees and an easy place to park (which is important to me!) turned out to be a good choice because I found one of my nurse friends there and I got to see her new baby :)

Abby loved all the kids but of course there were like 50 of them... and they were dressed in white t-shirts and blue jean shorts... and guess what Abby was dressed in... yep... white shirt and blue jeans. Come on... how often do I REALLY dress her in something like that? I love bright pinks, oranges and yellows. That was a nightmare trying to keep track of her. I almost panicked a few times and thankfully the kids didn't stick around too long. Keeping track of three little kids is hard alone.

(I ran over her duck with the van today... amazingly it didnt hurt it.. thankfully because Abby loves it)

We came home for Abby's nap and she was out fast... it was hot and humid out so she was tired. For some reason she thought that my mom would be here when she got back. She was really sad that Grandma wasn't here.

So we went swimming after her nap at the city pool (not our city pool... I wish we had one...) We swam for around an hour and a half with all of the kids. Abby sure loves the water! I have to admit it was a lot of fun to splash around even if it was pretty hot.

(Kiley Swimming)

(Kara slept for awhile before swimming... she was out)

Well Abby is crying and awake for the third time tonight already. I gave her some Tylenol but she is still crying. I think I need to go. Hopefully she isn't sick... maybe I need to take her in...

Summer Afternoons

Wow it's quiet... finally.

There are days I wonder how many times I put kids to sleep... and feed them. It seems my primary function in life right now is to make sure everyone is clean, fed and well rested. And that is harder than it may seem at first glance.


So how do I do it. I have no idea. I keep hearing that it gets easier as they get older but I'm not sure that is really true. Kiley and Kara almost need me more than ever now... and Abby too. Now they demand play time, snuggle time and they are getting into EVERYTHING. I feel like I heard children or try to contain a little of the madness. My house certainly doesn't look perfect. Believe me I've tried to get things under control but it is a simple miracle if I can get those loads of laundry done and dishes. Especially now that Kiley and Kara love to help me unload the dishwasher! I try to grab the steak knives out as soon as I open it... for safety purposes of course.

Tom and I went out on a date last night. Thank you to my incredible mom for allowing us to catch the late night movie and grab a bite to eat. Tom got called to help fix a tower just as we were going to go so that made it impossible to get to the earlier time.

It was great having a little alone time with my husband. Three years! Our years of marriage finally match the number of kids that we have :o) We went to Spezia and enjoyed a slightly European style of dining. (reminded me of Europe at least) then we hit up the Cheap Theater but played at the Rainbow Arcade until our movie started. Wow that was fun. Tom hit the jackpot and I won a "Let's make a Deal" game and we ended up with like 787 tickets. So Tom bought a coconut monkey... which might not have been that funny except that it had to come with us to the movie and everyone was asking us questions about it. Perhaps we should have told a more elaborate tale. The AC was out in our theater and it got quite hot but I really enjoyed watching Robin Hood. I'm into movies right now.

(Kara)

Kara is now crawling on all fours... when it suits her. She still likes to army crawl a lot. Kiley was soooo hard to get to take naps today. She really fought me and only took 2 very short cat naps. That was a little frustrating. We went on a walk to deliver the water bill, mail a few cds at the post office and then stopped to get some juice for Abby since she had been so good while we ran the errands. It was HOT by the time we got home and Abby was getting cranky but she loved her bug juice.

(Kiley looking down)

We played on the swings and the new baby swing (finally!) Abby loves to 'fly'. We made cookies too. yum.

Kiley is really giggly and loves to laugh. She also makes a beeline for the bathroom when she hears water. I think she is going to be my little fish. Today when I gave Abby a bath she was actually trying to lift her leg and get into the tub! I finally decided she could take a bath with Abby and she splashed and splashed.

I'm hoping that Abby isn't getting pink eye. Her eye was mattered shut when I got her up from her nap this afternoon. Wouldn't that just be nice. I'm sure we would all end up with it! We share things too much here. We went to Walmart the other day and wow did we get mobbed by people. They thought our girls were so beautiful... and that we were so busy. Yes... yes we are busy... very very busy. But I wouldn't have it any other way.