The Mudhens

A few days ago, Alyssa ran up to me and said, "Mommy, you have to come see what the babies are doing. It's terrible." I looked in the backyard, and by then, the damage had been done. So what did we do? We grabbed our camera, of course. I'll let this video show you what happened that day. It's all fun and games until someone gets mud in the eye.

 

Here's a few pictures for those of you who can't see the video.

Jack looks kind of clean in these pictures, because he was doused with water to get some mud out of his eye. So we stripped them down, and carried them in the house for a bath. After Dave got them all scrubbed down, he proudly announced, "The mudhens are clean." I wish I could say the same for the laundry from that day.

To find out why we had a wagon full of mud, you'll have to wait for "Pick up the Poopy! (Part 2)"

God bless,

Amanda

The Graduation

Well, time sure has flown, and it's hard to believe, but we have attended the first graduation ceremony for our kids. That's right. Alyssa graduated from preschool yesterday! They made cute little felt hats for the kids and everything. Dave was able to sneak away from work for a bit, and I packed up the trio and off we went to celebrate.

They had a nice little party planned. First, all the classes gathered for a slideshow from the year. Ah yes, The Haircut came back to haunt me in those pictures. Someone even made a comment about how short Alyssa's hair was back then!

Next it was off to get cake and juice. The trio was very excited about this and couldn't believe they were actually eating cake during the day (well, except for Jack who had to  have fruit snacks, poor allergy-ridden guy). They were actually well behaved enough to deserve their treat, too!

Then the celebration finished with a certificate and Bible presentation. I'm not sure Alyssa completely understands what it means to graduate, but she liked getting her Bible and playing with her friends afterwards. She had a great year this year and really seemed to enjoy herself. She absolutely loved  her teachers to death, and she will miss her friends, too.

 

It's hard to believe in a few short months she will be going off to kindergarten! I'm sure I'll need the blog to vent some emotion about that day!

God bless,

Amanda

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

Aunt Jill & Uncle Mo Visit

Those of you who have been following me on Twitter, know that Aunt Jill and Uncle Mo came for a visit a few weeks ago. We haven't seen them since Christmas of 2007! We had a great visit, and I have been trying to figure out how I want to capture it on the blog. I thought to myself, would it be mean to post pictures of people who had just been flying for over half a day or had just run 13 miles? I hope not. I think they look great, anyway. Hopefully, everyone will be ok with the slideshow I put together, as this is pretty much the pictures I have. Most of the visit, I took some time to relax and enjoy myself instead of being the photographer.

We had a busy long weekend together, which started off with the kids making signs for greeting our guests at the airport. They really enjoyed it, and it was great to kill an hour or so, while we anxiously awaited their arrival. After our happy reunion, we had a great dinner at a family favorite Italian restaurant (thanks, Dad!). We had the sunroom on the side all to ourselves, which worked out perfectly. The kids seem to really enjoy their spaghetti (messy but kept them busy), and the adults got to catch up.

The next day was pretty relaxed. Lots of errands were run, and we stayed inside a lot as it was a drizzly day. Alyssa was excited to skip her nap and get to run errands with Aunt Jill, though. She loved her neon orange nail polish that she got as a treat for being so good during the outing, too.

That brought us to Saturday, when we all got up bright and early for the big races. Dave did the 5K and Jill and Mo completed the half marathon. Since I missed Dave finishing his last 5K by about 2 minutes, I was bound and determined not to miss this one. The kids and I were out the door by 7:30am - a new family record! The choo choo was invaluable to get the kids there and occupied while we waited to see Dave finish his race first. It was also a very odd feeling as several total strangers took pictures of the kids in the choo choo. We actually did get to see Dave as he finished, although the picture isn't so great (look for the guy in the red shirt on the right side of the street). Then met up with Dave and our friend Scott, who also finished the race. It was so nice to have help, too! We had a little bit of lag time to kill, but ended up seeing Aunt Jill finish, too. (We feel badly that we missed Uncle Mo in the crowd.) Here are my spectacular pictures of her finishing. (She is the one with the black shorts and the green shirt.)

Yep, that's what happens when you have a new camera and don't know how to take pictures with it. I think you can see about 1/5 of her body behind the guy in the brown shirt.

After some rest and relaxation, we went out to dinner that night for my Mom's birthday. I don't know how long it's been since she has gotten to celebrate with both of her kids. We had a nice time, especially with the added entertainment of the high school kids there for Prom. Alyssa picked out her favorite dress, and the boys thought one girl with most of her back exposed was "naked baby." (That's what we say when we strip the kids down for bath time.)

Sunday night, my mom hosted an awesome Open House for Jill and Mo. She went all out on the Hawaiian theme, and everyone had a great time. I thought I would take tons of pictures there, but instead I enjoyed getting caught up with old friends. After the party was over, though, we took some good family shots and some goofy ones as well. I think those pictures turned out to be the last ones of Huxley, too.

So here's the slideshow that I put together to commemorate the event. Even though the pictures are of more than just my sister, I just had to use this song. Jill sent it to me out of the blue one day, and it made me cry my eyes out. It's ironic that it is sung by Reba McEntire, too. One summer during college, my sister and I both worked at Bob Evans. Every Thursday, a group of guys would come in and say, "Hey Reba, how are you doing?" because they swore I looked just like her. I don't see it, though. One other thing before I stop babbling about the slideshow - keep your eyes open for the modern day American Gothic snapshots and enjoy the vintage ones of my and my sister at the end. Enjoy!

God bless,

Amanda

Tribute to Huxley

I know this is a little different than the regular posts we share on our blog, but I had to take a moment and remember a very special dog. His name is Huxley, and  he died on Mother's Day. He originally was my sister's dog, until she moved to Hawaii. She made the tough decision to leave him with my Mom, so that he wouldn't have to go through flying in the cargo hold of the plane, followed by a long quarantine. He also stayed with us for a year, while my Mom lived in Hawaii for a stint. He became our baby at a time when we really needed one. We were over a year into our struggles to have our own child, and there is nothing like a sweet dog who loves you unconditionally to help get you through rough times like that. It also didn't hurt that he was only 12 pounds or so - the perfect size for cuddling like a baby.

So as you would expect, we have been reminiscing a lot about him lately. I hope you don't mind if I share a few of the many fun memories we have of Huxley.

Huxley was such a cute little furball when my sister first got him. He had soft fuzzy fur, and he loved to lick and nibble like any puppy. These pictures were too cute to narrow down from when we first met him at our Father's Day celebration, back in 1996.

 

When it came time for his first "haircut," I don't think he was too crazy about the bows, though.

 

Overall, though, he was pretty patient about the times that we dressed him up, like at Christmas. (Nope, I wasn't dressing up. That was just my hair back then.)

And he would even let us give him a mohawk after baths.

He was always up for an adventure......

and there to help clean up any food that fell onto the floor (or boxes of cereal that exploded in this case).

But the best part about having Huxley around were the little every day things, like seeing him sunbathe through the blinds......

or play with a squeaky toy under the bed.....

or falling asleep together.

We're going to miss that little guy a lot. He lived 13 years and was a faithful dog to the end.  It's hard to say goodbye, but we wouldn't trade all the wonderful memories of knowing Huxley for anything - not even the sorrow we are feeling now.

I know that many of you out there are pet owners, too. Feel free to leave a comment telling us about your beloved furry friend. We would love to honor their memory, too.

God bless,

Amanda

Photo Shoot

Well, it's that time of year again. Our local photo place offered their spring special of about 1000 pictures for $9.99, so off we went. You can see the pictures from last year by clicking here.

As I was reflecting on what a difference a year makes, I thought you would be amused at the differences as I noticed as I compared and contrasted.

The Appointment

Last Year: I made the appointment weeks in advance. Because I called so early, I was able to nab a first appointment of the day (9am) on a Saturday. This was desirable to minimize the waiting time, and to get the pictures taken while the kids were still fresh - early in the day.

This Year: I called on a Tuesday and said, "What do you have available in the next week?" I was hoping for the next Monday (when Dave was off for Spring Break), but they were closed that Monday. I ended up with a 10:20am Friday appointment, which I didn't think was too bad but would probably involve some waiting. That was the first day Dave was off for Spring Break, so I figured it would be good to get it taken care of early.

The Outfits

Last Year: Grandma and Papo took us shopping and bought the kids Easter clothes weeks before Easter. Alyssa got her pick from 5 different dresses and her choice of shoes, too. Lauren's dress was narrowed down from the most popular of two. We got the boys matching polo dress shirts and filled in the holes for matching khaki pants, navy vests and brown shoes. The end result was that Alyssa had a light blue on her dress, and the boys had light blue shirts. Lauren had a navy blue dress and the boys had navy vests. All were color coordinated. Dave and I weren't going to be in the pictures, so it didn't matter what we were wearing.

This Year: I had been washing the summer clothes that I had gotten from the attic for the kids for about 2 months by now. I figured I would be able to pull something together. I decided that this year it didn't matter if they matched. I was going for the lazier "treat them all like individuals" look. I looked at a couple of dresses that I might wear, but figured what was the point, since I didn't know what the kids were wearing. Dave has ties and shirts in a plethora of colors, so I thought he could whip something together in a hurry.

The Night Before

Last Year: To make sure everything fit perfectly, that week I had carefully tried on each ensemble twice (once before cutting off the tags and again after washing the clothes). That meant the night before the appointment, all that I had left to do were to polish the 2 pairs of hand me down shoes, and steam all of their clothes so they would be wrinkle-free. This took me about 2 hours. Before the kids went to bed, I made sure all of their fingernails were trimmed. I carefully packed a bag of toys and activities for the kids to keep them busy while we waited. I also packed the kids' favorite stuffed animals to use for props and hid them in the van. I also had a diaper bag all stocked and ready to go.

This Year: I went to bed early, figuring I could surely pull something together by 10am. I blamed it on not feeling good, because my doctor had been messing with my thyroid medicine dose. I had done a decent job of keeping up with the laundry for the week, so I figured it would all work out. Fingernails, haircuts, toys and props were the farthest things from my mind.

The Day of the Appointment

Last Year: We had a our perfectly mapped out schedule and knew what the other one was doing. We kept the kids in their pajamas and fed them breakfast. We styled their hair (I made sure Alyssa's had been freshly cut), wiped their faces, and then loaded them all into the van. The clothes came along on hangers, so as not to get wrinkled. With our best efforts, we didn't get there early to get the kids dressed like we had hoped before our appointment, but we did get there on time. We were able to quickly get them dressed and ready while the studio set up. We actually ended up waiting about 15 minutes until they were all ready to take pictures. After all that effort on our part, it was a little frustrating to have delays at the studio mess up my plan!

This Year: I got up a little early and tried to get myself ready, while Dave got the kids up and got them breakfast. When I started looking for outfits, Alyssa was ok with the dress she had worn to the Florida wedding. Jack was also pretty easy, as he wore the shirt and pants that Drew wore last year (Drew is a size bigger) and the tie from the Child Dedication. I wanted Lauren to wear a dress, but nothing in her closet seemed dressy enough, and I couldn't find a shirt to go with Drew's tie that fit well.  So while I was eating my breakfast, I asked Dave if he wouldn't mind if I checked if there was anything in the attic? He looked at me like I was nuts, but conceded as he knew I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't serious about it.

So there I was, and hour before the appointment, digging through boxes. For Drew, I looked through the stuff for the next size up, and I found two white shirts that looked good. For Lauren, I only found one dress that I liked. I knew there wasn't time to wash them, but I figured no one would be able to smell the moth balls in a picture anyway, right? But as I took a closer look, they were stained! I checked their closets one last time and all the boxes again and decided I would rather go with the stained things. In an act of desperation, I got out my trusty Tide 2 Go pen. They were stained really badly on the front, you know the most noticeable part, but the stains on Lauren's dress collar came out immediately. I couldn't believe it! It was like magic. Most of the stains came out of Drew's shirt, but I figured his tie would cover some of it. I have to admit, I almost resorted to one of Dave's tricks that I have teased him about. I actually looked for white out to put on Drew's shirt to cover up the stains, but I couldn't find it it! And instead of steaming their clothes this year, they all got a nice dousing of Downy Wrinkle Releaser.

Then it was on to getting me dressed and completely ready. I went to my closet and prayed that I would find something. One dress stood out that didn't look like it would clash too terribly. For shoes, it was down to the ones that made me look like an old school teacher or some sandals. I chose the sandals. Since I didn't have time to shave, I threw on some pantyhose. It had a runner it. I just hoped my long dress would cover it. I didn't to work on my hair or makeup to make it look as good as I would have liked, but time was up and people look at the kiddos mostly anyway, right? What was I thinking to include us in the pictures, though?

Next, it was onto Schlep's attire. He started showing me red, blue and green shirts. "How about a white shirt?" I asked. "It's in the washer - all wet," he answered. So we went with the green shirt, because all 3 dresses had a little green in it (ok, I admit I don't remember why we picked green). Then he started showing me ties. All of them were from his goofy tie collection, which is quite large since he is a junior high teacher. I asked him if he had any adult ties, and he found one that matched the green shirt pretty well. Then we had to decide if he was going to wear light brown or dark brown pants. Ugh. I thought his clothes would be the easiest!

Then we started trying to get the kiddos dressed. Alyssa's polyester dress was holding onto its wrinkles for some strange reason. She was running around trying to find tights. After digging through the laundry basket and putting aside 4 pairs of winter tights, we finally found some. They were a little baggy around the ankles, but they worked. Lauren and Drew's attic clothes weren't dry yet, so we threw them in the dryer. I wasn't sure what effect heat would have with the Tide 2 Go and Downey Wrinkle Releaser, but I guess we were about to find out. We had the worst time getting Jack's tie opened. It wouldn't fit over his head, and there was no way that I was going to find him new clothes to wear! We eventually got it opened, but couldn't get it adjusted tightly enough on his neck. At this point, we were saying "good enough" a lot. Drew was running around without a shirt on and Lauren kept asking "Where's my dress?" Alyssa came in with white shoes that were totally scuffed up. I told her to go find a baby wipe and try to polish them up. To my surprise it worked! We finally threw on the semi wet clothes, and kept tucking in the  boys' shirts (which we continued to do all morning), and headed downstairs.

Lauren didn't have any spring shoes out yet, so she wore black ones. (Of course, I found a pair that would be perfect later.) Drew wore some scuffed up hand me downs and Jack at least had the shoes that were new for Drew last year. Next, we started spraying down hair to get rid of of all the bed head. I just happened to find a purple barrette that I had just bought to match Lauren's dress. Alyssa needed a haircut, but her hair turned out ok. We decided to go with the curly look for Drew, since it was rainy and humid out. And Jack was in good shape as he had just had his first haircut. It was about this time that I found out Dave thought our appointment was at 10:30am, but it was actually 10 minutes earlier.

We managed to load up in the car pretty quickly. I grabbed the prepacked diaper bag and bag of toys that I had meant to sort through from the basement. I also found a bag of water painting stuff still in the bag from last time we took the kiddos somewhere. Dave's driving would have done Mario Andretti proud, and with the help of hitting all the lights, we made it on time! We laughed the whole way there about how insane our life is. Such a simple thing as taking pictures always seems to turn into a big production.

The girls still had wet hair when we arrived. I thought it would dry in time, but we actually got right in with the photographer. As we got ready to start our photo shoot, I did something I swore I would never do. I wet my finger with spit and wiped something off Drew's face. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The kids did really well and cooperated much better this year than last. Alyssa even said at one point, "This is fun. I like getting my picture taken!" Our photographer didn't push the white background (they used it last year and it made the kids look all washed out). She didn't even insist on individual shots. She actually listened and focused on a good family shot, which is all we wanted to get for their $10 package. Well, guess what? We ended up liking a lot more of this year's pictures than last and bought more than we thought. But, we are really happy with how they turned out. I guess the moral of the story is not to sweat the small stuff and your pictures will turn out better!

Here's our favorite shot of all 4 kids:

This our favorite family shot(which you will recognize from the side of our web page):

We liked this family shot also:

This is our favorite of the girls:

We loved this one of the boys, too:

Just to give you a taste of what it took to get this shots, I thought that I would show you some of the not-so-good pictures. Keep your eyes open for Alyssa's solution to Drew being shy and not smiling at first.

Enjoy and God bless,

Amanda

 

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

Pick up the Poopy! (Part I)

Hi everyone, Dave here.

I know what you're thinking. The man is writing about poop. Can't we have Amanda back as the main author of this blog? Too bad, I'm on this one. Actually, it's not too incredibly gross either.

Amanda and I are going through the trials and tribulations of potty training triplet 2 year olds, and some days are good and some... well, STINK!!! Literally and figuratively! Lauren had been doing really well with her potty training, and she was wearing her big girl panties the entire day with the exception of naptime and night time.  However, I guess she thought she was being too easy on us, so about 3 weeks ago she suddenly decided to have accidents all over the place. (At least we're keeping Resolve in business.) I kept telling her to quit having accidents (I still firmly believe that I can reason with a 2 year old), and she'd just look up, smile, and say "nooooooooo".

Drew has been doing pretty well also. He isn't at the Batman Underoos stage yet like Lauren is (uh...was), but he's been very willing to try the potty. He's gotten really good at going #1 and #2, but one thing this boy doesn't have is patience. When he's done, he's done! So, when he gets done pooping, he just gets off the potty and goes about his business. Amanda warned me about this and told me to stay with him. So, of course, the one day I leave him to attend another kid issue (I think Lauren was going potty in our bathroom, which is just down the hall from where Drew was), I suffer the consequences of leaving Drew. Now, both of these bathrooms are upstairs, and I was only stinkin' gone for like 20-30 seconds, too! I left our bathroom to go back to Drew, and as I walk out of our bedroom, Drew is WALKING UP THE STAIRS!!! Notice I said the word "UP"! How that kid got off the potty, went downstairs, and came back upstairs in such a small amount of time is beside me. All I could think of was ..."Oh, crap!" (Yes, another pun) "DREW, get upstairs and get on the potty!" I wiped him down, and wiped the kid potty that was smeared with his "stuff".

I can't remember what Amanda was doing at the time, but I'm glad she wasn't around to see what else happened. She specifically told me to stay with Drew, and I didn't. (This must have been how Maverick felt in Top Gun when his commanders told him, "You never, ever leave your wingman!") So, I get Lauren and Drew all cleaned up and we head for the stairs when I see it- a nice big doody stain on the stairs. Now, Drew usually goes "superfast" down the stairs on his tummy, or he'll just walk down the stairs. Apparently, this was the one stinkin' time (in supersonic speed of course!) that Drew decides to go down rump first!

So, of course, I get out the paper towels, warm water, and Resolve to clean up the mess, and later on in the day, Amanda asks what happened on the steps, and all I could say is... "Don't ask." As for Drew, I promise to try to never leave my little 2 year old wingman again. Who knows what else that little dude will leave behind.

Take care,

Dave

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