Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

Way back before we had kids, we would take little adventures to see friends from college and attend weddings in cities we had never been to before. We figured we better have fun traveling while we could, as having a family would tie us down. Well, it turns out that life is much more of an adventure now than we ever thought it would be. At times it is tough, but overall we are living life in a way that we never imagined. We usually have no idea what each day will bring with our motley crew. Even beyond that, so many of you continue to bless us all the time with things like inviting us over to your pool to hang out, or offering to watch the kids so that we can go on a date. Thank you so much! You make our lives fuller and richer than we ever thought possible.

One huge gift that our parents gave us this summer was to take care of everything (with the help of friends) so that we could take a trip out to NYC, just the two of us. We had a great time , and it was fun to be part of the adult world again. We enjoyed seeing the many historical sites, eating good food, and catching a show. We also took the whole family out to Virginia (are we crazy or what?) this summer. The kids surprised us with how well they did on the 13-hour trip. We were so glad we could be there to see Cousin Erin graduate, and to have a reunion with all the family that attended the fun event.

As for the kids, we'll start with Jack, the youngest. He keeps us on his toes like none other. Finding ways to outsmart him is challenging sometimes. He enjoys figuring out how things work, like doorknobs and cell phones. He is also very friendly and often says hi to strangers at the grocery store. Drew continues to be our little athlete in the making. Balls are his favorite thing in the world and he loves to dribble, throw and hit them with a bat. He also has become quite attached to his shark hat lately and wears it almost continuously, except for when he eats and sleeps. Lauren is still our spunky, little fearless 3rd mommy of the family. She loves to socialize, and it's so adorable to watch her follow her big sister around everywhere. Alyssa is in the middle of her last year of preschool. It's fun to watch her start to figure out how to put together letters and sounds and learn how to write and spell words. She continues to be as girly as can be and loves princesses and dancing.

Dave is enjoying teaching a great group of kids this year. He also coached tennis again for the first time in 3 years (yep, it's been a little hectic around here). He has been working out a lot and doing some 5K races and his 2nd mini marathon this year. Amanda has found it very therapeutic to write about the antics of our family on our new blog. She has also gotten to know some of the ladies in her triplets group better this year. Now that life has at least stabilized, she is trying to catch up on some of the chores around the house that have been neglected the last few years. We are hoping to make our house look like a home instead of a daycare center someday.

We have to admit we are hoping that 2009 brings nothing but good health to our family. Jack has been to the ER four times in the last 4 months, including an overnight stay. He has a lot of trouble breathing when he gets bad colds. We took him to a specialist this week, and we are undergoing more testing to make sure there isn't a more serious cause. We thank God that Amanda's follow up scan for thyroid cancer came back clean this spring! Amanda also had another surgery this summer (surgery #4 in just over 2 years) to repair an incision from a previous surgery. (Dave should get Father of the Year award for all he did during her 6-week recovery.) Lastly, she needs to finish up physical therapy for some back problems, then Humpty Dumpty should be back together again.

But despite it all, including billions of loads of laundry, wiping runny noses and breaking up constant fights, we still have to say that we are enjoying ourselves. For every frustrating thing, there are three more to laugh or smile at. Seeing our kids look out for each other, learn to share and give each other hugs and kisses all the time brings us so much joy. If you are ever bored, we invite you to come over and visit the zoo and see the dandelion bouquets, knock knock jokes, and kids falling over hugging each other for yourselves!

We wish you all the best this holiday season, and hope to see you very soon!

Love,  

Dave, Amanda, Alyssa, Lauren, Drew and Jack

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.    Eph 3:20

I've Got Chills - They're Multiplying......

We did a little, er, ah, family bonding last night. It was one of those nights you shudder to think about as a parent to 4, but it appears the storm has passed. Some kids will do anything to watch Finding Nemo at 2am! Alyssa and I are the lone ones standing, although I think we have both had a touch of the bug. She served her time with something similar 2 weeks ago, though.

It's never a good day when you start it by doing two loads of laundry at 12:30am. But despite all the people up and down the stairs, pulling cribs apart and wiping them down, and the laundry room churning at full throttle right across from Alyssa's bedroom, she slept through the whole thing!

We'd appreciate your prayers for us during this rough time. In particular, we have had some concerns about Jack lately, and him not gaining weight. I took him last week to see a specialist (pediatric pulmonologist) about his breathing troubles, and she did give us some good tools to use to try to keep us out of the ER (4 times in 4 months is too much).

However, she also ordered some further testing to rule out other problems. We are awaiting the blood test results to see if he has celiac disease or if his immune system responded well to some shots he was given in the past. Most concerning, is that he will be taking a "sweat test" next Monday. This is to rule out Cystic Fibrosis. The doctor thinks that, most likely, his problems are due to childhood asthma, but we have to make sure these other issues aren't a problem. Please pray with us that all test results will come out well. We may not get the results for another month, so the waiting is tough, too.

Jack was also tested by an allergist. He took those 16 pricks in the back like a champ. We did confirm that he is officially allergic to peanuts, cashews, milk and eggs. There is a 20% chance he could outgrow the nut allergy and a 70% chance he will outgrow the milk and egg allergy. (Alyssa was allergic to milk and eggs and did outgrown them at age 3.) We also found out that he is allergic to a mold that is common in the fall. That was a very helpful piece of the puzzle. The last two autumns, we have had a lot of sickness. So next year, we will start Jack on an allergy medicine and hopefully avoid some of the past misery! Lauren has to go in next for allergy testing, as she has shown some problems with milk. There have been some serious reactions to milk in England recently, so we need to get on top of that, too.

The good news is that both of the boys seem to be over their last cold. I think that Jack enjoyed having the company during the breathing treatments, though. He's back to being the lone ranger (get it? He's wearing a mask.) with preventative breathing treatments twice a day now.

I'd also appreciate your prayers for me as I am still going through physical therapy for some back problems. I need prayers for good health in general! It's time to get on with life!

More fun stuff later!

God bless,

Amanda

Happy Birthday, Alyssa!

To my precious little Sweet Pea-

I can't believe that you were born 5 years ago today. How did my sweet little baby grow up into a young lady so quickly? We've had so many good times - just the two of us. I remember thinking how fun it was to take you to work with me when I was pregnant with you. I would sit in meetings and play a little game with you where you would try to find my hand and hit it. You have enjoyed having fun and playing games ever since.

These last few years, we have thrown a lot of changes at you, but you have handled it all like a champ. I can't think of anyone who could be a better big sister to your babies. Even today, I was touched by how you gave Lauren a gift on your special day.

I love how God made you with such a tender, caring heart. When we told you that we were going to buy some Christmas gifts for people that couldn't afford them, you immediately volunteered the money from your piggy bank. And even today when we asked what dessert you would like to have to celebrate, you chose fruit snacks, so your siblings wouldn't feel left out with all of their food allergies.

But along with being sweet, you are lots of fun, too. You have a great sense of humor, and I laugh every time we play our "I love you more than...." game. I love to watch you make up your new dances and I never know when you are going to lay a new phrase on me, like "Oh no he di 'ent."

But most of all, I am so happy to see how much you love God. I love that you make presents for God and Jesus and how you can't wait to see them in heaven and give them a big hug. As hard as I try, I have to admit that I will fail you sometimes. But God will always be there for you, no matter what.

I thank God for the privilege of getting to be your mom. I wish I could fully explain to you how badly I wanted you in my life. You have been such a joy and blessing, and so worth the wait we went through to get to be your parents. You are more precious than I ever could have imagined. Thanks for being such a wonderful daughter. I'm so proud of you.

Love always,

Mama

 

Fall Fun

Technically it's still fall, so I'm not too late on this one, am I? The last few years we haven't gotten the chance to do much fall-ish, so we more than made up for it this year. The weather was absolutely beautiful most of October, too!

We started the month off with going to a birthday party at a gymnastics center. We are always excited when someone is brave enough to invite all of us over. To burn off a lot of energy at the same time is especially a bonus. The kids had fun climbing, bouncing, and playing with balls and parachutes. We almost lost a kid in the parking lot while loading up, and we left their jackets there, but it was a great time. It was one of those drives home where we had to make sure no one fell asleep, so we could get some good naps out them.Alyssa has been talking about HER birthday party ever since.

Then the hospital where Jack likes to go to the ER also held a great fall festival. The best part was it was all free (although donations were accepted for a local children's hospital). The kids got to pet all kinds of animals (Dave's favorites were the "afro chickens"), climb on firetrucks, see a helicopter land, and pick out a pumpkin (turns out, those were the only pumpkins we got the whole month). Alyssa also got to take her picture with a real princess! While standing in line for lunch, we had a little mishap where Lauren got lost. Someone was carrying her off to the microphone stand to announce they had a lost child when I caught up to her. Well, it wouldn't be an event for us if something didn't happen, right?

Next, we went to a local farm for Alyssa's preschool field trip. The fun thing was the I went there way back when I was in preschool. They are known for their apple cider, so they got to tour the orchard and take a wagon ride out to pick the class pumpkin. Then, we ended the day with a walk through the corn maze. Unfortunately, my mom, Lauren, Drew, Jack and I got separated from Alyssa and her class. Then we got lost in the corn maze. Then I started to panic as I wanted to get to my oldest baby NOW. So then we started to cut through the maze to get to the outside of it. My mom and Lauren fell in the process, and they got cuts all over, including one on my mom's eye. By the time we made it out of the maze, we could see the preschool teacher walking around looking for us at the other end of the field (they had called the preschool looking for us, too). My mom went ahead (bleeding and all) with one of the kids to explain what happened. Meanwhile, I was trying to drag the other two tired and whining two year olds through the field. I was so worried that Alyssa would be crying on a bench somewhere wondering where her mommy was. But, I was glad to see that she was playing happily on the playground instead. That was my first time to ever go into a corn maze. It just may be my last. I'm scarred!

The following week, we headed to another farm that is becoming a tradition for our family to visit every fall (except for the years that we happen to give birth to triplets). It was a beautiful day and it was fun to have an excursion of just the 6 of us. So far we haven't attempted anything like that without help. We took a fun hayride out to the pumpkin patch/pine tree field. The boys didn't think it was so fun, though, as they were crying the whole way out. Then the kids had fun picking out pumpkins and playing with them. I also enjoyed showing them the sap on the pine trees and what it smelled like. It was funny to watch them keep smelling their hands the rest of the morning. Then we ate some lunch, and afterwards, we decided to splurge and split an elephant ear. Dave went to buy it, and Alyssa asked where Daddy went. When I told her he was buying an elephant ear, she said, "An elephant ear? Why would he want to buy the ear of an elephant??" When I explained it was to eat, she seemed even more confused. Then I told it really wasn't from an elephant, but was made from dough and sugar and cinnamon and lots of butter. She still thought we were nuts for eating it, but once she tried it, she couldn't get enough of it. After that, we hit the haystack, the petting zoo, and last but not least, the Cinderella pumpkin carriage. Alyssa assigned Drew as her prince and Jack as Lauren's. If only she knew! Then it was naptime by then so we headed on home.

We finished off our fall festivities with a ride on the pumpkin train. My mom had talked about wanting to go months before, so we had our tickets and a deadline to get there on time so the train literally didn't leave without us. Meanwhile, we had ordered some food from Angel Food Ministries that had to be picked up as we were getting ready. We thought Dave should go, since I would probably stand around and talk and make us all late. After he left, Jack decided to start throwing up. Like it wasn't enough to be running around trying to get the 5 of us ready to go! After his first time, I was hoping maybe it was a fluke. But just as I got the first mess cleaned up, he threw up a second time. So we decided taking Jack wasn't such a good idea. Dave offered to stay home with him (the fact that college football games were on didn't have anything do with that, did it?). Meanwhile, the weather had turned incredibly cold, and I hadn't gotten the kids mittens and winter coats out of the basement yet. So I was running around trying to get everything ready, and found out that Jack got into a bottle of cleaner that had bleach in it (It was laying out from when the toilet overflowed the night before). Dave was home by then, so he called Poison Control. It appeared that he hadn't consumed much, so we just had to watch him. Meanwhile, I dug through the box in the basement, got out coats, dumped a bag of mittens and hats on the floor and asked Dave to find something as I ran off to finish getting ready. We made it to the train with about 5 minutes to spare, but I felt badly about the 2 wasted tickets that couldn't be resold.

Alyssa was so sweet as the train started up, she said, "I wish Jack could have come; he would have loved this." We missed him, but we all had a pretty good time, except for the cold making the kids a bit fussy. The train took us to a field in the middle of nowhere. (I was so thankful that Jack started throwing up when he did. If he would have waited even an hour later, we would be trying to deal with it out in the cold, with nothing but a port-a-potty to clean up in.) The kids got balloons and we headed over to a little scarecrow. Drew's face was priceless as he tried to figure out if it was real or not, especially when Grandpa went behind it and started making it talk. It's a good thing we didn't need pumpkins, because the patch was pretty muddy and we skipped that part. So we headed over to the petting zoo, tractors and face painting. The girls loved it, and Lauren got her face painted for the first time. (It later made a perfect sunshine imprint on her crib sheet.) They also had a hay maze for the kids, but I am happy to report it wasn't traumatic for us at all. After that, we headed back into the train and back on home. Luckily, it was almost Halloween by then, because we were getting all pumpkined out!

Here's a slideshow of pictures for you to enjoy from our fall.

 

Click here if you can't see the slideshow.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving Festivities

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Ours was fun, relaxing and almost went too smoothly. The food was great, the kids were really well behaved and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The grandparents were very gracious and split up most of the cooking and came to our house, so we probably did less work than usual that day! Our only incident was having to borrow some raw potatoes from next door (thanks Linda!) to soak up some extra salt from the gravy. (That trick works pretty well, by the way.) In our house, that doesn't even qualify for a crisis.

We actually started our celebrating the week before with a Thanksgiving Feast at Alyssa's preschool. You know you are getting older when an event like that starts seeming like a high school reunion. They did this cute little song about Mr. Turkey. The main words are: Hello, Mr. Turkey, how are you? (repeat) With a gobble, gobble, gobble and a wobble, wobble, wobble. Hello Mr. Turkey how are you? Here's a clip for you (with an abrupt ending, as we can take 30 second videos on our camera).  Alyssa hasn't put her turkey hat on since the making of this video. I hope it wasn't a scarring experience for her.

 

 

Here are some pictures for posterity's sake of our nice relaxing day.

 

Remember how I said things almost went too smoothly? Well, then came Friday. We decided to get a jump on our Christmas to do list, and get all the Christmas decorations out of the attic and put all the clothes that I mentioned before back up in the attic. Well, when I went to move the van (so that we could get to the attic) it wouldn't start. I came inside and asked Dave if he was in a good mood or not. He asked me if he was in trouble. When I told him the van wouldn't start, he thought I was kidding at first. Remember the last time that he had to jump a car? It wasn't that long ago. This time the kids left on the lights. It's always the lights!

So after a few hours, we finally got the attic all loaded and unloaded, and Alyssa was excited to play with the nativity set FINALLY! Then, we tried to put the van back in the garage, and it wouldn't start again. Dave jumped it again, and we let it run a LONG time this time. By this point, we realized we shouldn't have promised to put up Christmas lights today (never promise anything to a child until the minute before when you can follow through!). But, life went on with it's usual screaming and tantrums (did I mention the triplets are cutting their last set of molars on top of having colds?).

Jack also had a rough night sleeping Thanksgiving night. I heard him crying at 11pm, but then he went back to sleep. Then he woke up at 3am, and Dave got up and gave him a breathing treatment (what a man)! He was wheezing again in the morning, so we gave him another breathing treatment. After his nap, we gave him yet another one. About an hour later, Jack himself asked for another breathing treatment. He was getting really breathless while he was talking, so we fed him some dinner and off to the ER we went. It's pretty bad when you see the doctor and they recognize you and remember which parent came last time. This was Jack's 4th ER visit in 4 months. But, they gave him some meds and a breathing treatment (that we can't do at home), and he seemed to be doing much better.

On Monday, we went back to our pediatrician for a follow up. By that time, Drew was worse and he needed a breathing treatment for wheezing, so he got an appointment, too. The only problem was that I had a physical therapy appointment at the same time. Dave bravely and chivalrously offered to take all 4 kids by himself after I offered to cancel my appointment or round up some more help. I thought it would be a long wait, as it was the day after a holiday weekend. It actually went pretty well and he beat me home. So Jack now has an appointment with a pediatric pulmunologist, and he and Drew are breathing treatment buddies. We had a second nebulizer delivered yesterday, and it's great to do both treatments simultaneously.

Never a dull moment at our house, I tell you! Some days I wish for one.

I hope that you all had a blessed time this holiday weekend.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Barely Keeping My Head Above Water

This time of year (and also in the spring), when it comes to laundry, I feel like I am barely keeping my head above the water. Back during those long days when I was on bedrest while pregnant with the triplets, I tried to imagine what life was going to be like when they had arrived. I thought through the work, chaos, and sleepless nights. One thing I didn't think about, however, was how much work the change of seasons would be. Check out all the work I have been doing at least 3 times over for the last two months (and I'm still not done yet!) Luckily, Jack is the size behind Drew, so in some ways it's like I only have to do all this for 3 kids instead of 4.

• Go through old winter clothes
• Go through summer clothes
• Store summer clothes that are too big
• Try on jackets
• Get out winter coats and snowpants
• Sort out socks
• Try on shoes
• Make sure boots still fit
• Sort and store summer hats
• Try on winter hats and gloves
• Find new homes for all the above that are too small
• Sort and store clothes people have given us
• Get out bigger winter clothes
• Wash all the new stuff!

And don't even get me started on how you have to figure out what new hats, mittens, boots, mitten straps and snow pants you need for your kids in October. If you wait much longer than that, the stores are all sold out! It was 85 degrees the first week of November. How am I supposed to get a bunch of squirmy 2 year olds to try on a winter coat in that weather? I missed the deadline last year to get mitten straps (you know those straps you use to keep the mittens attached to the sleeves of the coat so you don't lose them). So this year I bought a bunch the second I saw them in the stores. Guess who figured out how to take off not only mittens but also the straps in 60 seconds flat? Yep, you guessed it. Jackson Robert Schleper. Now he is taking them off his siblings' coats, too. (However, Alyssa is guarding hers with her life, as I found Princess mitten straps for her!)

Another thing I never imagined back in the bedrest days was that I would be here almost 2 1/2 years later having hardly purchased a single item for my kids to wear! Can you imagine? People have been so incredibly generous to us, I cannot believe it. God promises to provide, and He sure has, even right down to the swim trunks and snow pants! It's so fun for Alyssa now to go through her "new" clothes when we get them out of the attic. It's fun for me to watch her excitement, too, as she "ooohs" and "ahhs" and says, "Oh Mommy, look how cute!" It is such a blessing to enjoy these moments with her and not to have to worry about how we would pay for all of it. This has been one of the many fun surprises in this crazy journey that we have been on since the day we found out about our miraculous pregnancy. Despite the hours that I spent contemplating this time in life, there is no way that I could have imagined all that has happened to us.

So on those days when I am feeling completely overwhelmed with the laundry, or frustrated at trying to fit 6 people's things in our small coat closet, I try to remember how truly blessed we are. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to meet up with my college roommates who works with orphanages in Mexico (for more about her ministry, check out Back 2 Back Ministries). After hearing her tell a story about a man running an orphanage who fed the kids with the last of the money he had, and literally had no idea where their next meal would come from, how can I complain about a little laundry?

So as we look to tomorrow and giving thanks for all that we have, try to give thanks for things in your life that you don't appreciate the most. Get tired of cleaning out the kitchen sink? Try being thankful for the food and dishes that dirty it up instead. Annoyed that you have to put contacts in every morning when you would rather have LASIK surgery but can't afford it? Be thankful that you can see and are able to go to a doctor who can correct your vision. Hate cleaning the toilet? Be thankful that you have indoor facilities. You don't have to go back many generations to find a relative who didn't!

I also want to say how thankful I am to all of you! So many of our dear friends have helped us in big ways in small in ways that we can never repay. I hope that you feel a part of this adventure we are on, because we certainly wouldn't have gotten this far without you!Thanks for the honor of sharing our journey with you and taking precious time out of your day to keep up with our family and encourage us.

God bless you all!

With much love,

Amanda on behalf of our family

AAA #2

I know it's been a while, so if you would like to see Amateur Acting Attempt #1, click here and here for the answer.

For today's quiz, you are to try to guess the 80's song that our actor is attempting to imitate. Here's a hint for you: she took lots of artistic liberties with the song, especially with the lyrics.

Good luck!

 

God bless,

Amanda

Before I Had Kids I Never.....

• knew how hard it would be to take a picture with 4 kids.
• thought I would dress my kids alike.
• put dandelions in water as a floral arrangement.
• knew that Barbie now has a full ball-and-socket joint in her shoulder.
• had to apologize to the library for returning books with ripped pages.
• knew how fun it would be to overhear 2 year olds conversing.
• wanted a fence in my back yard.
• knew what a pain it was to sew up a hole in a teddy bear
• paid any attention to when the trash man came.
• thought I would feel more tired than I did after finals week at college.
• knew that boys started killing outdoor critters like worms and caterpillars as early as 2 years old.
• thought I would drive a minivan!
• knew how judgmental I was of other parents, especially with things like how their high chairs needing a good scrubbing.
• found a juice box in the clothes hamper.
• realized how much fun it would be to relive parts of my childhood with my kids.
• knew that crayons could be opened (unwrapped).
• thought I would miss having job performance reviews.
• recalled having trouble figuring out which shoe goes on which foot.
• realized how difficult it was to hold up just 3 fingers.
• thought of being potty trained as a life skill.
• pondered how many ways one can try to pronounce to word "instructions".
• spent hours shopping at several different stores to find one item that met a specific need. 
• knew how easy it was to lose one of your kids when you go out in public.
• thought about what a luxury having sick days from your job was!
• forgot to get the mail the day it came.
• knew how addictive it was to see your baby smile for the first time.
• walked looking down so I wouldn't trip over something.
• thought about the extensions for the vacuum accessories as being good swords.
• knew how tough it would be to teach three 2 year olds "Duck Duck Goose" or "London Bridges."
• remembered how hard it is to hold up just 3 fingers.
• found foam darts when I was watering the plants.
• knew there were homework assignments in preschool.
• realized how controversial circumcision, Santa Claus and carseats are.
• knew that Aurora is the real name of Sleeping Beauty.
• looked for stickers on clothes before I put them in the washer.
• had a child kiss my boo boo to make it feel better.
• saw someone drink applesauce.
• had someone shut my hand in the dishwasher or microwave door.
• knew what being behind on laundry really was.
• heard of Pinky Dinky Doo, Angelina Ballerina, the Doodlebops or Max & Ruby, among other new friends.
• paid attention to which plate or spoon I pulled out for mealtimes.
• built a tower (out of block or legos) taller than me.
• knew how much my kids would make me laugh.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Picnic Anyone?

Way back in August (I know, talk about a blogging backlog!), we were able to attend the end-of-the summer NICU picnic for the hospital where Lauren, Drew and Jack were born. This is an annual event that our family looks forward to attending - they go all out with lots to do! My mom came with us, and we didn't have far to travel to the car, so we braved it without the stroller or the diaper bag. That was such a huge milestone for us to travel so lightly! Once again, the kids amazed us and did just fine.

It was especially fun this year, as we met up with many of our new friends that also have multiples. (We travel in different circles these days!) We were able to meet up with our good friends, Jen and Brad, and take a picture of all 8 of our kids. They have absolutely adorable quadruplet boys. We took a similar picture last year as well.

One other highlight of this year's picnic was that we got to meet up with Megan, the main day nurse for our babies while they were in the NICU. We've already introduced you to Laura, one of the two main night nurses we had. Now meet Megan, the other godsend that gave us peace while we had to leave our babies at the hospital. Megan did such a great job of taking care of them when we couldn't be there. She was such a joy for us to be around and so fun and compassionate with our kids. It put my mind at ease to know she was there caring for them in our place.  What a blessing to have someone so special look after your kids who truly cares for them, too! I can't believe it had been over 2 years since we last saw her. It was so great to hang out with her, meet her new husband, and catch up. Needless to say, the kids had changed a lot since she had seen them last.

After that, we headed off to the different attractions at the picnic. Fearless little Lauren really got into the petting zoo.

Then we headed off to the miniature train. Don't they look cute as they were waiting for the train to take off? By the time they got back, however,  the boys were crying and screaming their lungs out. Oh well, it was still cute and the girls seemed to enjoy themselves.

After that, we enjoyed all the bounce houses, slides, swings, teeter totters and the food! It was a hot day, but we had such a great time. It's always good to stop and celebrate how far you have come. Anything could have happened with our pregnancy. Having our kids only born 6 weeks early with as few problems as they have had is an absolute miracle!

At the picnic, there is also an Angel Tree, where they hang ornaments with the names of children that have passed away. This was a touching way for us to honor our two babies that we lost through miscarriage. So we picked up our ornaments for Baby Sam and Baby Riley. Sam was conceived before we had Alyssa, and Riley was one of our quadruplets. We will save their ornaments to put on our Christmas tree. It's a nice way to honor their memory and feel like we have them as a part of our holiday memories.

What a fun and emotional experience the picnic was, but one we look forward to every year. Thank you for letting us share it with you (albeit quite a bit after the fact).

I'll leave you with a few more pictures from the playground, and I think (as far as my creaky old brain can remember) our kids' first time on the teeter totter.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Trick or Treat

This may come as a shock to most of you, but we took the kids trick or treating on Friday. I know, I know. You didn't see that one coming, huh? We went out last year, but we had the little guys in the stroller and didn't go too far. So in a lot of ways, this felt like the first year we took the whole family out.

Grammy manned the front door for us, and Grandma and Papo were in town to help us with man-to-man coverage of the kids. That allowed us to go out without a single stroller. Yeah!

For the costumes this year we had:

Belle from Beauty and the Beast......

A Chicken..........

A Dalmatian (which some people thought was a cow).......

And a Flower (also known as Belle's flower helper).

We started out by going next door. The kids go over there often and started to walk right into their house when they opened the door. They got a little confused that they weren't there to play, so a little instruction was in order. Soon after that, they got the hang of saying "Trick or Treat," putting the candy into their bucket and saying thank you. We were pretty proud of how well they did. Next year, we will have to work on not picking through the bowl and putting things back, though. We only walked through about half the neighborhood, but the kids made it most of the way carrying their stash of loot. They didn't seem too scared by the scary costumes, and they loved looking at the decorations people had on their porches.

Alyssa was the leader of the pack and always wanted to be the first one to a house to ring their doorbell. Lauren was funny a couple of times and corrected someone who said "Hey guys." She responded with "I'm a girl." Another person said, "What a pretty flower." She said, "No, I'm Lauren." Another time she held up her 2 newest pieces of candy and said, "Actually, I got two." Jack enjoyed pointing out all the doggies that were out. He also really liked saying "Bye" and "See you later" to people. Drew was kind of shy and always hung back as the last one to get his candy. When we got home, though, he wouldn't take his costume off and wanted to sit out on the porch like he didn't want the night to end.

It was fun to be out and about as the neighborhood came alive. Some people go all out with their decorations and lights. One guy had his DJ stand set up and was playing music, complete with a light show on his garage door. Another neighbor was out on his front porch playing the electric guitar! We were also treated to a visit by the firetruck that flashed it's lights, honked, and the firemen passed out candy in our neighborhood.

We only had one minor mishap. Jack ended up with a Reese's cup in his hand, which melted and he ate some of it. Since we are worried about a potential peanut allergy, this is a big deal! But he didn't seem to react, so all was well. The funny thing is that Alyssa wore the same costume Jack did 3 years ago, and ended up with chocolate all over it before we got home that night, too.

Here are some pictures of the action and the kids trying on different costumes beforehand. The weather was so warm that the kids were almost too hot in their costumes.

 

 

Well, we had a great time, the candy is halfway eaten, and it's time to put the costumes away or pass them along to the next kids. Here's to hoping I do a better job with washing the costumes this year than I did last year after Halloween. When they say to line dry a costume, they mean it!

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

The Pranksters

Way back in July, we told you about a prank that Dave did on one of co-workers involving a stapler and some jello. (I want to state that no school property was harmed in the making of that prank.) It's a friend of his, Jessica, whom he has known since childhood and helped him to get his current teaching job.  Well, to repay Jessica for his new job (8 years later), he left her the above-mentioned present for the first day of her new job as an assistant principal at another school. Here is a picture of Jessica last summer, helping us with the kiddos when the little guys were just a year old. See how comfortable she looks with triplets? That's because her sister had twins and triplets! You can't get more experienced help than that!

Jessica decided to make Dave's first day of school just as wonderful and fun-filled as hers was (I know I am a little late posting this, but you wouldn't believe what I went through to get this web friendly!)

As I said above, Dave and Jessica have known each other from childhood. So one weekend, Jessica went back home and met up with Dave's mom. From what I hear, she was only too happy to help Jessica out. So, Jessica found (with some help from his mom) some pictures of Dave as a youngster, made a flier, photocopied it, and put one in each of the teacher's mailboxes on the first day of school. That day, people kept coming up to Dave and saying things like "Thanks for the mail" or "I like your stuffed animal collection" or "You look cute laying on that couch." Dave just looked at each person like they had the wrong person, because he had no idea what they were talking about. During a break he went down to the mailboxes and this is what he found.  Nice job, Jessica!

 

 

Dave and my Mom have also had some little jokes that they play on each other, especially when it comes to politics. My mom takes the Democratic side, and Dave the Republican side. Over the years, this little battle has shown up through everything from birthday cards to bumper stickers mysteriously appearing on a certain beloved Chevy Caprice - Lord rest her soul. (They also do things like leaving the radio in each other's car tuned to an undesirable station on a very loud volume.) So, I think about 10 years ago, we made a contribution to the Republican National Party, and we have been on their mailing list ever since. We got a picture from the McCains, and I put it on the fridge to see what would happen. Sure enough, after the next time that Grammy babysat for us, this is what we found:

When Alyssa saw this the next morning, she said, "Mommy, who put those funny ears on that man?"

But all joking aside, I hope that everyone gets out there and votes, no matter what you believe about the candidates. It's going to be a historical year, no matter who wins.  I hope you will be a part of it.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Drew's First Haircut

I took Drew to get his first haircut today. We are having the trio dedicated (similar to an infant baptism) in a couple of weeks, so we wanted to get him all spiffed up. If it weren't for that, we probably would have waited a little longer (because I love his curls), but his hair was getting a bit unmanageable. I enjoyed getting to spend some time with just him and me. It was fun to have a little date together.

He wasn't too sure about the "Superman cape" and someone he didn't know touching him, but Pamela (my hairdresser) was great with him and the tears soon dried up. After that, he did a great job and sat still the whole time. Here's the before pictures, where you can tell he wasn't too sure about this whole operation. (He wouldn't even take his jacket off.)

Here he is with wet hair all ready to go.

The first cut......

Pamela saving his first curls in an envelope.

Still not real excited about this, but tolerating it.....

I thought the razor would freak him out, but he just wanted to know where that noise was coming from.

Drew and Pamela checking out his new 'do in the mirror.

I think he looks so cute, but I hate that he doesn't look like a baby at all anymore. He's definitely a little boy now. This was much harder on me than it was on him. It's a rite of passage that I am so glad I don't have to go through again for a while! I will be a wreck when I have to go through the last first haircut. It's sad to see their baby hair go and tough to accept that I won't have any babies anymore. But then again, when you don't have babies, you do get to sleep at night (for the most part).

When we got home, Jack and Lauren were already in their cribs for their nap. Alyssa met us on the stairs and told Drew how she liked his new haircut. Dave just laughed at what a little boy he looked like. I think he enjoyed his little adventures today. But I think it also wore him out, as he fell asleep before Lauren and Jack did.

Thanks, Pamela, for doing such a great job! He looks adorable.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Snippets

Here are a few snippets from our life that don't particularly have anything to do with each other, but I have to record them somewhere so I can look back someday and laugh. You, on the other hand, can laugh about them today.

 

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We've known for a while that Lauren doesn't need as much sleep as the boys. Occasionally on the monitor, we will hear her wake up first and say, "Dack, wake up!" or "Dewww, wake up." We figure she gets bored and wants someone to play with. But Dave and I were cracking up when last weekend we heard her yelling "STAY AWAKE! STAY AWAKE!" at the top of her lungs. She may be little, but she sure can yell. The boys must have been out cold, because we didn't hear a response.

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I've told you already about the problems we had finding childproof knobs that Jack couldn't open. (Click here for Part I and here for Part II.) Now he has figured out how to climb over the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, how to turn on a lamp (that bugged him for a whole day) and how to open the big sliding door on the van. Eye yi YI! This picture is of him working on the gate over a year ago.

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Drew, the big goofball, has now decided that it is fun to run around with his pants around his ankles. So out of the blue, he will just pull his pants down and start running around our yard until he trips and falls. I'm sure our neighbors probably wonder why we say "Drew, pull your pants up!" all the time.

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Alyssa had just taken some medicine when she realized she needed to use the facilities. She came to me to double check that this was ok. She was afraid she would wash the medicine out. I guess she thought there was a direct line from from her stomach to her bladder.

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This week, we were going through Alyssa's candy stash, trying to get rid of some things before Halloween. I was chewing a couple of pieces of bubble gum at the table while the kids finished up their dinner. Without even thinking about, I started blowing some bubbles. The kids were ooo-ing and aaaahh-ing at them and saying more and do it again. It never even crossed my mind that this would be something new and fascinating to them. So after about a dozen tries, I was able to get a really good bubble going. It was about the size of my head. Then all of a sudden it popped, as bubbles do. A ton of it stuck to my glasses (which I still haven't gotten off all the way - will peanut butter work on that?) and all over my cheek. As soon as the kids saw their Mommy with bubble gum all over her face, they broke into immediate hysterical tears. I guess I was a frightening sight. All Dave and I could do was laugh, and Dave is still walking around saying "That was awesome."

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One of the cutest things I get to watch is how Lauren just idolizes her big sister. She follows her around everywhere and tries to be just like her by putting her spoon in the sink like she does, putting her sippy cup of milk in the fridge like big sis and they even like to dress alike. One day in the back yard I noticed that Lauren was acting as Alyssa's little lackey by bringing sand back and forth between the sandbox and the treehouse on the top of their playset. That at least explained where all the sand was coming from. I love watching them play with their dolls together, though. It is too cute.

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Jack is by far my favorite to kid to clean up at the table. First of all, he is almost always the cleanest. He doesn't like to be dirty, and I can even tell when I am doing laundry which clothes were his. But I also love it when I wipe his face. He makes this "buh ba buh ba" sound as I wipe his mouth. I'll have to get a video of it sometime. It cracks me up!

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Drew is our ball fanatic. He sees balls everywhere he looks, be it a rock, cantaloupe or bald guy on the newspaper. One day in the backyard I was kind of bored and hit one of our balls with a bat. Drew looked at me as if to say "Mom, you've been holding out on me? I never knew you do that with a bat!" So I taught him how to hold the bat and swung a few times. Then I threw a ball straight up and we hit it. He got the sweetest smile on his face, like that was one of the neatest things he has ever done. So now every time we are in the backyard, he always brings me a bat and a ball. If I pitch him a beach ball, he can hit it back to me. See Mom and Dad, all those years of playing softball did help me later in life.

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Here's a conversation that Alyssa and I had recently:

A: Mommy, are you going to have any more new kids?

Me: No honey, I think I am done.

A: [Looks very disappointed and gets very upset.]

Me: Where would we put another baby?

A: Put it in the room with the rest of them.

Me: Where would we put its things?

A: In the room with the rest of their stuff.

Me: Well, how many more kids did you want me to have?

A: Five! I really like babies.

Me: I guess so! 

Once I got over the shock of this conversation, it made me feel better that she wasn't too scarred from having triplets join the family or she wouldn't be asking for another baby!

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Lately at our house, it seems like we have been having themes to our meals. One lunch became Knock Knock Joke Day. Of course, the jokes were only funny to the under 5 crowd, but the little kids at least got the jist of when to say "Who's there?" Another meal became Walrus Dinner Night. Just feed your kids sausage links and French fries, and you, too, can have Walrus Night at your house!

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Alyssa is now asking deep questions before she goes to bed at night. One night she asked me "Is Santa Claus real?" I started explaining about a man named Kris Kringle, and then she asked more questions. To one of them I answered, "Well, let's see what Daddy thinks." Then I ran downstairs, grabbed Dave by the hand, and said, "Help, she is asking questions about Santa Claus!" Tonight she was asking me all kinds of questions about how the sun comes up and down. The nerd in me couldn't resist talking about the rotation of the earth. She said she claims she understood it. We'll see. But who says you can't use a Biology degree when you are a full-time mom!

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Mondays are always tough days for me, as I am missing the help of my amazing husband as well as facing the prospect of me and the kids for the week. This Monday was particularly awful, though. The kids all had colds, and two of them were throwing up the day before, so a playdate was out. I'm not brave enough to take them many places by myself, so that meant another day at home. I happened to look outside as I was getting the kids breakfast, and my eye was drawn to a fluffy white tail. As I looked closer, it turned out to be a dead rabbit in our backyard. We do have a rabbit that visits us occasionally, and I wondered if it was him (that's him a while ago under the swingset like he owns it).

But I thought we were on good terms! How could he up and die on me with no husband around to rescue me, especially on a day when I needed the kids to run around in the back yard for all of our sanity? So after two hours, I decided I couldn't let it stop us from going out. So I approached it with a shovel. It took me two tries (with coming back in the house in between) before I could get within two feet of it. Then I got the idea to try to shove it into a box so I wouldn't have to look at it. The flaps got in the way, though. I tore those off and tried again, but ended up shoving the thing halfway under the fence. I screamed like a girl, I jumped up and down, and I ran away several times, but finally went at it with a shovel. I got it back from beneath the fence, but flipped it over. At least the eye on that side wasn't staring at me. Then I got it almost in the box (after more girl screaming, parading and the kids asking what I was doing), and then when I went to lift the box upright, it fell out again. It was one of those moments that I am sure would have cracked everyone up if I really was on a reality show. I was so girly it was unreal! Finally, I got it into the box and dragged it just outside the fence and ran inside and scoured my hands (even though I didn't touch the thing). Yes, I have a biology degree and did research for 9 years, but I never dissected anything  and I never killed anything that had eyes that could look at me (that was my rule). But I conquered my fear and it seemed like everywhere I looked the rest of the day were toys or books with bunnies on them. What a terrible Monday. That's not all that happened, but it was the worst of it. Am I imagining it, or did stuff like this start happening to me when I had triplets?

 

Hope your Monday was better than mine!

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/