Pack me up!

I bought new Samsonite luggage today for our trip to Italy. We decided to get top of the line stuff so it would last us forever. Chris wanted me to take pics of the luggage with the kids next to it so he could compare how big the luggage is. The kids couldn't keep themselves out of it. They are ready to be packed up and sneak away with us. It will be a sad day for the kids when we fly away for 3 weeks. I hope they survive it. Me...Sure, I will miss them terribly but will be thoroughly enjoying every moment of our ultimate vacation!

Boys will be boys

DONT FALL IN!!!!! Tristan is such a silly boy.

The babies are already at it...biting eachother. Yesterday Soren bit Barrett on the arm and left a nasty bruise. Today Barrett bit Soren on the face and left red marks. Thankfully no skin has been broken, yet! I forsee many battle wounds in the future.


It must be nice to take a snooze after church on Sunday. I wish I knew what that was like.

Bath time fun

These boys are really starting to play together a lot. They laugh at each other, cry at each other and beat each other up. They take turns trying to eat the other.

I'm BACK!

I know ALL of you have missed me terribly...right? I just got out of the blogging groove. I didn't realize how hard it would be to start up again. So for all of you who haven't given up hope...here I am!

There have been moments I want to jump on the computer to tell all the cute and wonderful things my kids are up to. Then the tables turn and I want to sit them in separate corners all day long. It is hard to recall all the happenings of the past month at 6am so I wont do a recap.

Christmas Eve the kids opened there presents from Grandma Elaine. She made the cutest jammies ever! We chowed down on our traditional Pizza and spent quality time goofing off. The highlight of the night was going Christmas caroling to our good friends and neighbors. Eliana could have kept singing all night but Tristan got burned out fairly fast. I was SO impressed with how well they both sang and remembered all the words. I think we will make caroling a new Christmas tradition. We were showered with lots of treats and goodies from our friends this year. I felt totally guilty about not getting out any cards or baked goods to our friends. I vow to do better next year!
Christmas was GREAT! We (I) went a little overboard as I do every year. It must have taken an hour and a half to open all the kids presents. Tristan's favs are his new batman trike, leapster and outdoor adventure kit. Eliana loves her Butterfly decorating kit, leapster and new dolls. The babies got ride-on toys and fun toys with balls. Soren LOVES to play with any kind of ball. Chris totally spoiled me this year! He got me a new 18-200mm lens for my Canon rebel XSi with a filter and lens hood. My parents got me a nice battery grip that goes on the bottom of the camera. Elaine got me a new battery for it and an awesome set of air-bakeware. My parents drove into town for the holiday. It has been wonderful having them here to play and help out. My mom puts me to shame...:)she manages to clean constantly throughout the day and still take care of the little ones. I told her if she keeps up this pace she will either go to the nutty bin or one day pass out from exhaustion. I think she can do it because she gets to sleep in while I get up at 5am with babies. I really should get my butt to bed before 11 or midnight then I might not be so exhausted.


Back to Christmas. The kids spent most of the day playing with their new toys. We had my friends the Wilcox's over for dinner. They have 15 month old twins b/g. We ate a delicious dinner with all the fixings and then played a game of taboo. I haven't played a game with grown ups in a long time. It was a blast. So to all you friends who live close by...come over for some gaming fun when Chris gets back! After a long day the kids were grumpy and overly tired so getting them to bed was a challenge.

I was able to go shooting on Wednesday. It was so much fun. It was long overdue and I was rusty at first. I was shooting low on the target but after warming up and reminding myself how it's done I did awesome! We are going again today.

I did my annual year-in-review photo book. I think it turned out really awesome. Check it out and tell me what you think. Well, I don't want to make this post too long or no one will read it. Love and miss you all. Hope your holidays were filled with the love of Christ, those you love and plenty of laughter.

Brownies

Sunday was a great day at church. I hadn't been in several weeks due to illness. The speakers were awesome and the lessons were inspiring. I was walking Tristan down the hall to get Eliana from Primary and he spotted BROWNIES in the kitchen. I told him those were refreshments for after the baptism. As we walked farther down and he saw all the people gathering for the baptism he says "mommy, I want to stay for the baptism. I think well, why not! IT is good to let the kids watch and see how wonderful they are. So just after the guy comes out of the water and they close the doors Tristan stands up and shouts "Let's have brownies now!" I was SO embarrassed. We made it through till it was over and he pulled me into the kitchen for us to enjoy his all time favorite treat...brownies. He is a boy after my own heart. I could eat a whole batch of brownies in a day.

Bedtime Stories

I am still in shock! After bathing the kids and getting ready for story time Eliana had a little story for me. The dialog goes as follows: "Mommy, the other day a boy kissed me on the bus." "WHAT?" "He kissed me 2 times." "REALLY" "On the lips." "Seriously?" I tried not to sound so traumatized and keep my cool so she would tell me more. I asked how old he is. "He's in pre-K too. He sits next to me everyday." " Is there anyone else that sits with you? "Yes, an older boy." I asked if he was nice and she said yes he was nice. After she finished her story I told her that he shouldn't have kissed her. The only boys she is allowed to kiss are her baby brothers and her Daddy. I showed her how to cover her mouth and shake her head and say NO if any boy tries to kiss her again. I told her that kissing is only for grown ups. AHHHHH...she is too young to have boys kissing on her. I for sure thought this wouldn't happen until 1st grade or something. She has told me stories before of this boy pinching her and messing around but she didn't sound bothered or bullied so I didn't read too much into it. Most 5 year olds that sit next to each other for 30 mins are bound to poke and tease a little. If she comes home with any more stories about this boy I will have to talk to the bus driver to have them separated. This is what terrifies me about the BUS. I guess I can't be with her every waking moment or always have her supervised so now I have to start teaching her right from wrong on many topics. Things I thought could wait a year or two.

Any advice? I worry about what type of things are being said or told to her. What she is learning when grown ups aren't around. I am NOT looking forward to this stuff in teenage years. I hope I don't screw up as a mom. This is my full time job and I HAVE to do it right. 5...I can't believe it!!!!!

Whirlwind

Since sickness continues to invade our home I decided I needed to divert my attentions to other things so I don't dwell on how cursed we are.

Thus, I am coordinating a Children's Book Drive in support of the USO's program United Through Reading. Our Kids have really enjoyed getting big packages in the mail each week with books and a DVD of Dad reading to them. The USO provides books and records our soldiers reading to their children. The package gets sent home and the caregiver is encouraged to take pictures and video to send back to the soldier establishing a feeling of connectedness. The USO was out of donated books and has been buying all there books off of Amazon. With Chris' encouragement I am doing this book drive.

I got the Christmas lights up!!! Thanks to my neighbor Ernesto for helping me with the high points. I just LOVE Christmas lights. Especially inside the house so I can enjoy them more. The colorful lights always bring a warm feeling to my heart. Just looking at them makes me happy. That's me...easy to please.:) I wish I would have gotten the lights to go on the bushes. I guess I will have to stock up on those during the after Christmas sales.

I was supposed to go out with the girls from the multiples club tonight to see Twilight but I opted not to go since I had to take Barrett to the ER today due to an ear infection. I figured I would be a terrible mom to leave my sick babies with a babysitter. Plus I would worry the whole time. So, Twilight will have to wait.

Amidst ear infections and nasty runny noses, the babies still manage to be as cute as ever! Barrett has the best smile. I am truly blessed to have such happy babies.

No Luck

Most of you know that this blog is also a journal for me that I will make into a book each year. So what may seem as incessant whining is just me documenting my life. It's not to gain sympathy votes on my part. It is "for the books!" That being said...

Eliana is sick with a 102 fever, cough and congestion. I am feeling less than up to par myself. I took the babies into the Dr yesterday since they have had diarrhea for a week. We are changing there formula to lactose free and adding more pedialyte. Tristan has an appointment today to get checked on whether he needs speech therapy or not but I am going to have to cancel that. I really hope Eliana didn't get all her classmates sick. I feel guilty enough that 3 families have gotten the stomach bug because of exposure to us. I truly feel that we are cursed. Just check us into the hospital and quarantine us for a month.

Cochroaches and Fleas!!

I have got to get the house sprayed for bugs. I kill at least 2 cockroaches a day. Tis' the season! Eliana and Tristan are well trained in bug squishing. I would have thought Eli to be freaked out by the bugs but when she spots one she is the first to go running for the shoes. I would rather kill spiders or most other bugs before squishing a cockroach. They can live through anything so when you squish them you have to do it right. Its a messy job!

I LOVE our dogs but they end up costing us so much money. One of the benefits of living out in the middle of no where is all the wild life. My dogs are in Heaven chasing squirrels all day long. There must be a million of them in our neighborhood. Tonight I was playing on the floor with Diesel and Bella and noticed that both of them have FLEAS!!! I know it is from those squirrels that have infested our yard. My poor neighbor just went through a terrible ordeal trying to get the flea infestation out of there house. Baths don't work...drops don't work...nothing seemed to work. Finally a couple months ago a miracle pill came out on the market. You give it to your pet once a month and it kills ALL the pests on your pet. So learning from my friends ordeal I am going to get this pill and I might have to bomb the bedrooms with carpet.

Just another thing to put on my checklist right next to fix the broken toilet and poopy scoop the yard! The joys of having to do it ALL. Chris...hurry back home so you can hold up your end of the work.

My little school girl

Eliana is growing right before my eyes. She just looks so big to me. I feel like I have to cherish this time because she is my only girl and I will get to experience these moments once. Off she goes...

Blessings

It is a great feeling to know that my family is being watched after. Times have been hard lately. I am still holding things together but I can feel my burdens bringing me down a bit...emotionally and physically. Yesterday my visiting teacher brought me baked ziti and garlic bread for dinner. She is wonderful and is always helping me out by showing how much she cares. I called my friend Marilyn to see if she could watch the babies so I could take the kids to see Madagascar 2. She was happy to help and surprisingly called me back to say she was coming in the morning to help clean my house then she would stay here with the babies while we went to the movies. I can't express how blessed I feel to have such caring friends that offer me so much service. The kids and I had a blast goofing off, being silly and watching a funny movie. Tonight we went to a neighbors house for a BBQ. I am always a little nervous about taking my 4 little ones to someone elses home. Thankfully we were warmly welcomed by their friends and there were plenty of women who confiscated my babies.

Thank you to all my friends and family who show support and love. I truly feel blessed. My burdens feel lighter. Every kind word and thoughtful prayer is appreciated. Loves to all!!!

We love our Veterans!!!

Tristan made this sign at school today. I told him what Veterans day was and why we celebrate it. Then I explained that his daddy is a veteran and we should be very proud of him. I wish I had the video camera when he said " Yea, my daddy's a veteran! and I'm proud of him."

Happy Veterans Day to all those brave men and women who have proudly served our country. Who have given so much of themselves and to their families who have supported them through it all. I especially pay tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice...thank you!

I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God Bless the U.S.A.


The kids stayed up late tonight watching Charlie and the chocolate factory. I knew Tristan was very tired and he probably should have gone to bed early tonight. When the movie was over he was extremely grumpy. It didn't help that I wouldn't give in to his pleadings for Chocolate milk since he didn't eat his dinner. He was mad at me and hid under the bed. After I helped Eliana get ready for bed I went looking for Tristan. I lifted up the bed skirt and he was fast asleep under the bed. So of course I took pictures! He was NOT happy when I dragged him out. After a short fight he fell right back asleep in his bed.

Seriously...will it ever end???

I could be referring to my constant whining or the never ending sickness that has plagued our house for the past 3 months. I thought surely after this last bout of sinus infections and pink eye that we would be done for a while, but NO! Tuesday Tristan got the stomach bug. Threw up 3 times. Once in the truck, kitchen and all over me. Thankfully the throwing up only lasted 1 day but he has been sick in the other end for 4 days. Barrett was next to get it then the rest of us followed. Last night was the icing on the cake. I sent Eli to bed with a bowl and I got myself into bed by 9am bracing myself for the night. Soren woke up around 12am and I could smell the stink when I walked into the room. I picked him up and it was all over...everywhere! This was by far the worst blow out I have ever experienced. It came out the top of his sleeper in his ear, hair and face. After I cleaned him up I had to tackle the crib. IT took 30 mins to get him back into bed. thankfully timing was on my side. Just after he got to sleep Eliana woke up and I ran in just in time to sit her up and hold the bowl. She did a great job aiming and the little spots on her bed could wait till morning. While I was cleaning out her bowl in the sink it was my turn. Thankfully my hair was in a ponytail and I was already at the sink. I was miserable the rest of the night. Soren woke up again at 4am with another nasty one but all I had to do was change his sleeper. Without boring you with my morning I will say that I am literally pooped out! Tired, exhausted, worn thin, and still going like the energizer bunny. I have no choice. If I could stop being a mom for a day I would in a second.

I am really hoping this will be my last post on sickness. I have high hopes for our future! I am off to wash sheets and clean toilets.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Tonight we went to a local performance of Pirates of the Caribbean. A man named David Gramazio who lives 3 streets away puts on a massive show and invites all of the community to come out and make donations to SMA (spinal muscular dystrophy). Last year they raised $2,705. While waiting in the line they have a huge projector showing the movie on a sheet tied between two trees while pirates, wenches, zombies and prisoners stalk the line to make sure all the little ones are having fun...or its walking the plank they go. They had a fireworks display and lead us to the first of three houses. The props, stage, costumes and decorations were amazing. Eliana and Tristn loved the excitement and had a great time watching all the dancing and acting. Thankfully the babies cooperated and we all had a great time. I am taking them again tomorrow night without the babies. I will take my camera this time. Tristan sacked out on the couch as soon as we walked in the door. I am headed that way myself.

Trampoline kids

Halloween screams

The kids looked great in their costumes and were eager to trick-or-treat and get that candy! It took extra effort to get the kids ready to go and babies dressed up. They were the cutest ducks ever! We went to our neighbor Christy's house and met up with her kids Reid and Stephen. Another friend Barbara came down with her daughter Alexa and off we went. Eliana was overly enthusiastic and ran as fast as she could from door to door leaving all of us in the dust. Tristan was already grumpy because he wanted to ride in the wagon with Stephen but Alexa had climbed in first. By the end of our court Tristan had an all out tantrum...or should I say melt down?! When he gets this way I can't baby him. I gave him his options and he still chose to make a fuss so we started home and he quickly decided to shape up. He got his turn in the wagon and his mood swing was a 180 degree flip. He gets that from his daddy! I was getting very irritable after dealing with Tristan, feeling my head pound and trying to console a very unhappy Barrett. I left Eliana and Tristan with the others and took the babies home to bed. They had a great time with stories to tell. Eli asked me if next year she could go out earlier so she could come home and hand out candy. That was her favorite part. I think Tristan loved it just as much. I was a little embarrassed since they rushed to the door while they were halfway undressed and naked. They just couldn't contain themselves.

After combining all the candy from school festivals, parties, trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treating I came up with a plan. I dumped all the candy on the table and they alternated choosing one candy till they each had 20 pieces. I told them that was there candy to eat whenever they wanted except for before b-fast and after bedtime. I kept giving them warnings that if they eat too many today than they wont have any tomorrow. The best part was watching them barter and trade there candy. Now I have to salvage the good chocolate to freeze for me and dump the rest. This is VERY hard for me because I love candy. I HAVE to do it because last year I went crazy with kids expecting a treat every day for things that didn't deserve rewarding. I just need it out of the house!

SO, on to the screams...Today at church I am sitting with my very irreverent kids and extremely tired babies. I was getting a bottle out of my backpack and look down to find a COCKROACH in my backpack!!! It was hiding in the diaper sack. Ahhh...so gross! I hand off the babies and take my bag into the bathroom, remove all the contents then take out my diaper sack to unzip it and dump out the cockroach. It lands on the floor and tried to scurry away but I got it!!! squished it dead. Now I feel like I need to wash my purse.

Spiralling Downward

Last week got worse each passing day. I was running on 3-4 hours of interrupted sleep each night taking care of all 4 kids waking up in the night. Which didn't help me fight off the cold that I was plagued with. It turned into a major sinus infection. I felt like my face was going to explode! On Thursday I made apts for me and the babies to be seen. Soren did get sick and acted like he was SO miserable. He gets a cold and acts like he is being tortured. It turns out that Soren wasn't in bad shape like Barrett's ear infection and major head cold. He just had a cough and cold. Barrett is my happy go lucky kid who always puts on a happy face. I have a bad sinus infection with fluid in my ears. I couldn't breathe and I was disgusted at the nastiness that was coming out of my nose! I kept blowing out more and more and it grossed me out to think I had all that in my head. No wonder I felt like crap! To make matters worse, Elaine, Chris' mom, got sick too and ended up being in worse shape than me. Poor thing had to fly home Sat feeling miserable.

Thankfully Eli and Tristan's colds didn't last long or get too severe. Barrett and I have been getting a little better each day. The hardest part about this past week was keeping order and continuity in the house. If it weren't for Elaine my house would have been a disaster. It would have been impossible to get babysitters while I went to the Doctor and it would have been more than just the dogs feeling neglected. I am still trying to transition Eliana away from this attitude she is holding on to. She has been rude, disrespectful and a trouble maker with Tristan. I am trying to get her out of this funk!

Here is a short list of things that are driving me crazy!!

~Stalling at bedtime
~Trying to communicate to zombies in their own world
~repeating myself 15 times
~screaming
~whining
~tattling
~Eliana's defiance and Attitude
~Tristan's mood swings
~the dogs bringing in dirt all over the house
~Diesel constantly whining to go outside
~washing bottles
~changing 4 poopy diapers a day (minimum)
~getting up several times in the night
~kids not eating there FOOD!

There are so many more things I could list but I don't have the energy.

You've got to be kidding me!

The moment I think we are finally healthy and free from sickness the bomb is dropped! Sunday morning I took Eli into the clinic to treat Pink Eye. Within one day Barrett, Eliana and me all came down with a nasty cold. Runny nose, cough, sneezing. Barrett and I are the only ones with fevers. Today Tristan comes down with the cold and he is a PILL when he gets sick. I put them to bed around 8pm and Tristan started crying at 9:30. I checked on him and he couldn't breathe from congestion. He refused to take his medicine. After two days of dealing with grouchy defiant kids my patience level is very low. I pulled him out of bed and brought him into my room only to discover he has pink eye too. Thankfully, Eliana does very well when I put the ointment in her eyes. Tristan is another story completely. I told him I was getting it into his eyes whether he liked it or not. He had the choice of the easy way or the hard way. After several minutes of arguing I jumped on top of him and told him I was doing it the hard way. He screamed and said "easy way, easy way." In the middle of his tantrum Barrett wakes up for the third time since I laid him down. I had to hurry and wash my hands but by the time I got to him Grandma Elaine had already gotten up to tend him. Finally after 20 mins of battling Tristan I get some (little) into his eyes. I REALLY hope it is not that hard 4 times a day to get this stuff in his eyes.

I took a 2 hour nap today and I feel like I couldn't even enjoy it. If I were feeling normal a nap would have been energizing. But I woke up feeling awful with a 101 fever, same as when I laid down. Now Elaine is getting sick too. The only one left is Soren and since the babies share everything from food to toys to mom, he is bound to get sick too.

Our household has been plagued with sickness for 3 months. I have had brief moments of feeling better. I wish a miracle would happen and everyone would be 100% in the morning so I can send them off to school. Well, I am sure someone out there in the world is having a harder time than me. I can only do my best to keep my cool, take care of everyone and pray we will all recover fast.

Goodnight

Eliana's 5th Birthday

Preparing for Eliana's birthday was fun and exhausting. Her costume Grandma made this year was awesome. She wants to wear it all the time. There wasn't a set theme this time. She was a Renaissance princess and Tristan a Knight in shinning armor. Her cake was a flower garden. One of my good friends Lynnea Weller came over and did a 30 minute balloon twisting show. Her balloon flower basket was the best! She made all the kids wands and swords and told fun stories. Afterwards we had the kids ride on stick ponies and jousted there wands and swords into balloon hoops around the room. I made crackers, cheese and ham (homemade lunchables), a fruit tray and hot dogs for refreshments. I had a little fiasco with lighting the candles on the cake. I had locked the door to the office so little ones wouldn't get into things. When I couldn't find my lighter or matches to light the candles we tried to get one out of the office but then realized that the key to unlock the door was in the office along with the micro screw drivers. I couldn't find anything to unlock the door or light the candles. My friend Jill ran next door to get a lighter as the kids were getting impatient. It was well worth the effort to light the candles. It took her 5 blows to get all 5 candles out. Opening the presents is always interesting with a room full of kids. I would have preferred to not open them at the party but the other kids would have been disappointed.





All in all it was a great party. The cake was the cutest and easiest I have made so far. Thankfully there is a whole year before I have to do another party for her!

No sleep for mom

So the ONE night the babies decide to sleep through the night I get up with Eliana. She was fussing around 2am then at 4am she started to cry. She had an ear ache and said she heard a noise in her ear and she had a runny nose. My kids are not prone to ear infections. I have her some Motrin and milk. She said it got better but she still heard the noise. She couldn't get back to sleep and came in my bed around 5am. I refused to let her turn on the TV but I gave in about 6am after the 50th time she woke me up to ask. My alarm was set for 6:15 to get her ready for school anyway.

Tristan...what to do about Tristan? I checked on him at 2am to get him up to pee and he had already had an accident. I have had friends tell me that their son was doing great then started wetting the bed. I have to seriously look into my options because I can not keep washing his bedding everyday and give him another bath every morning. Plus it is hurting his self confidence. A while back I paid for a 3-day potty training program. I am going to dig up my account info on that and get in touch with that lady to see if she has any helpful info. I am open to ANY advice that may be out there. Thanks!