Two Year Pictures

On the babies birthday Angie Jungling  of Jungling Photography came over and took the kids 2 year pictures for me. She does a good job and has a ton of patience. So much easier to have her come here then to try to have them taken somewhere else. These are some of the raw pretouched-up photos that were taken.

Hannah, Olivia, Hayden, and Jonathan

Jonathan "Big Boy" Austin

Hayden Sophia

Hannah Alexis and her blankie.
It's an automatic fingers in the mouth if you have the little silky in your hand. I don't know how we are going to get that to stop. But that is for another day.

Sad about something.

Squashing Gold Fish.

The kids got a new kitchen for their birthday from Nana. They needed some groceries for it so I gave them a couple of boxes of vanilla pudding mix. Apparently Hannah opened the box and poked a hole into the bag of mix while we were trying to get pictures of someone else, because all the sudden she just slowly walked over like she thought she might be in trouble. It was so cute and funny though we just had to laugh.

I think she like it.

Giving it another try.

Hayden comes over to see what is going on and has to try some it herself.

She has to smell it first to make sure it's ok.

Jonathan brought over a pan from the kitchen and wanted to show us a trick.

Here it comes. Get ready for it!

"Tahdah!" That's it folks, taking the lid off the pan is the trick. He thought he was so clever.

Over all the kids did pretty good. It was really hard to get them all together and I forgot to have her get one of just the three of them, but it probably wouldn't have happened anyway. My babies are TWO!

"YOU GIRLS GET BACK HERE!"

I'm back home! Yeah!!! But it's back to reality folks! Things have been going good, and I haven't been doing TOO much lifting so far. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning and I am hoping to get an all clear to resume normal daily activities.

Now about my title. Today after the kids got up from their nap I had Cassie (our new helper) take the kids out in the screened in porch to play since the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold out. While they played I ran to Toys-R-Us and Hy-Vee. Once I get back home and inside the garage door I hear Olivia screaming about Hannah pulling her hair, but she is quickly distracted when she sees a can of pringles in my grocery bag. Cassie is trying to get supper ready, and I assume that the kids are in Big Boys room playing since they didn't come mob me at the door. After I get the grocery bags set on the counter I go back out to the Suburban to get the rest of the stuff. When I am reaching into the back I hear this voice. "Big Boy???" "Hi there mommy!" he says in his muffly deep voice. "WHAT!!!!???? What are you DOING?!!!!" There he is in his coat, NO shoes, standing in the cold, wet, grass at the edge of the sidewalk leading to our front door, smiling from ear to ear. Mom mode has instantly kicked in as I run and pick him up looking towards the front door knowing that Hannah and Hayden would, or should, be coming down the front steps, but they weren't. Then I hear something... Giggles from far away. I look down to the road and there they are NO coats, NO shoes, past our neighbors house, ON.THE.ROAD!!! "YOU GIRLS GET BACK HERE!" I yell down the street running toward them still carrying Jonathan. And as they turn and start running away laughing and giggling, I knew I was no match for them since I was already starting to feel the strain from holding Jonathan. And that's when I yelled for Cassie, "CASSIE, GET OUTSIDE NOW!" Poor thing probably thought I was going to murder her, but I needed her to get out there now, and she had no idea what was going on, so my tone was very urgent and demanding. Cassie comes running out in her bare feet through the melting snow and sandy road as I shout out directions to her and she snags the girls. I couldn't believe it.

Once we were all inside, and the front door locked things calmed down. I know what had happened. I had unlocked the front door earlier in the day and had forgotten to lock it back up, it was my fault. So here's the thing...They were all inside when I arrived home, remember Olivia was screaming at Hannah, and I was only inside for maybe 2 minutes at the most, so ALL this happened within a couple of minutes. Hannah and Hayden were halfway down to the end of the cul-de-sac in 120 seconds! Thank God that we live on cul-de-sac that has very little traffic and Thank God that no one was hurt. This could have had a very unhappy ending. Life Lesson #104: Always keep your doors locked when you have young children, things can happen in seconds. Oh and this also affirms Life Lesson #76: Never assume anything when it comes to husbands or children.
Funny or not so funny thing is, is that I can distinctly hear that same phrase, "You girls get back here" coming from my Grandma Eekhoff's mouth many, many, years ago while getting into trouble when I my cousins and I would stay at their place. And I can remember giggling and screaming while running away from her too. (We had so much fun out there.) God Bless you Grandma for putting up with us!

What do you want to bet this won't be the last time I say those words?

Yep, it's back to reality folks...back to reality.

Adventures in Birthday Cake Baking or Making..

For some reason I have decided to try making the kids' birthday cake this year. When I told my mom this, she reminded me of Olivia's first birthday cake that I insisted on making and then me declaring that I would never try that again. Well, just like the pain from child birth, time heals all, and you start getting crazy ideas again. Anyways, I am going with a monkey theme this year and when I was buying the decorations they had a cake pan, and all the reviews said it was so great and it even came with step-by-step instructions! Naturally I thought I can figure out how to do that so I bought it. HAhahah! Below are some pictures of my trail runs so far. There are 4 different kinds of things you can try in the pan. You can use a brownie mix, cake mix, rice crispies, or something called the monkey primate (I haven't figured out if it is suppose to be a big cookie or what).

My First Attempt.

Behold the Monkey Brownie.



 Even with using a ton of non-stick spray and dusting it with flour it still stuck to the pan in places. The brownies themselves didn't taste too bad but there were some weird rubbery spots throughout it. Hmmm...looks like I'm going to need to practice this one again. I couldn't even practice frosting it!

Next Try.

The Crispy Monkey.



 This actually turned out pretty good. Cocoa Crispies on the top, regular crispies on the bottom and frosting for the face, ears, hands, and feet. I used ivory and brown food coloring to make the frosting the right color, but it took forever and I had to use a TON of the brown food coloring. When my mom saw this she said, "Why didn't you just get some chocolate frosting?" Mom's are so smart sometimes. So on my next trip to Target I got vanilla frosting AND chocolate frosting. Along with that I bought two cake mixes, a vanilla and a chocolate, thinking marble cake monkey. Which leads me to my last attempt as of now.

The Marble Cake Monkey

So my detailed instructions say to use a mix for making two cakes. I wanted to try a marble cake. Note: I've never made a marble cake before. First I poured in my chocolate mix, and then thinking to myself I said, "I wonder if I can just pour my vanilla mix right on top and instead of a marble cake it would be like a layered cake. That would be cool!" Well guess what. It doesn't work that way. As I poured in the vanilla mix it was like the chocolate was eating the vanilla alive. After seeing this I then thought, "Well, I will just go with that." The pan was filled to the very top and I had a little bit of extra mix left over so I decided to make a few little heart shaped cupcakes. As I was filling the little heart shaped tins I thought to myself, "I can't fill these completely full or it will spill over as it starts to cook." Then I looked over at my very filled monkey tin. Nievely, I thought, "Surely they would have said something in the directions if I was only suppose to fill it to a certain height. Right?" So I stuck my monkey pan in the oven and under that my pan with my heart shaped cupcakes. Thank you Jesus for the pan under my monkey tin. It didn't catch all the droppings that flowed from my little monkey muffin but it did catch most of it. Therefore, my house only smelled like burnt cake for one day instead what could have been one week.

My Marble Monkey Cake Muffin



This is the cake after I pull it from the oven. It's huge! Luckily I had bought a cake cutter thing that is suppose to help you level your cake. And guess what, after I had chiseled away the burnt pieces that were wrapped around the sides of the pan it worked! And look....


It didn't stick to the pan either!!! I have yet to frost this cake because that night is when I ended up going to the ER for my appendix, but my mother-in-law kindly wrapped it up tight for me and put it in the freezer, so that when I do get back up and running again it will be there ready for me to try to frost it. But look at it! It looks like a monkey! And the top part that I cut off actually tasted really good! So maybe there is hope yet!

Getting Tired of Taking it Easy

My soreness from surgery is so much better then it was a few days ago, but now I have developed a wonderful new cold, and this cold is wanting to make my head explode! So here I am writing this while I am still at my sisters. I did go home Tuesday night for a little while after the kids had finished supper to test the waters. I got to tuck them in and give them kisses goodnight, which is something I think every parent loves to do. It was so good to see everyone finally. But I was hoping that my test night would lead to me coming home Wednesday and here I sit. When I woke up Wednesday my cough that I have had since surgery, had turned into a full blown sinus, head throbbing, stuffy nose, want to sleep, can't sleep, sneezing, sore throat, cold. Are you kidding me?! Ughhhh, I don't know, maybe this is God's way of telling me that I wasn't quite ready yet to get back into the swing of things. Some of you might be thinking, "Why are getting yourself all worked up, you have help, the kids are still alive, enjoy the rest." But it's hard to enjoy rest when you have been going nonstop for the last two years. People ask, "How are you so thin after having triplets?" Come to my house for 24 hours and you will find out people. Things never slow down with a 3 1/2 year old and 3 almost 2 year olds. To keep my house running smoothly, I have to be running smoothly from about 8am to 8pm. With that being said, its hard for me to lay low for so long. When I was expressing this to my sister today, she said, "Ya know, there is a reason you had to get your appendix out, that's not something that happens to everyone." I think she is probably right, but sometimes when God has different plans for you then you do it is hard to except it right away. I suppose one could compare it to trying for one more and ending up with three! Now, my new prayer is to get home Friday or Saturday at the latest!

Appendectomy = Vacation

Close your eyes and think vacation. What do you see and feel? When I do this I see blue sky's, clear water, and sandy beaches. I can feel the warm sun light on my face and I can feel the warm breeze blow through my hair. It's peaceful and quiet. Ahh...now that is what I call a vacation. Now let me tell you about the unexpected vacation that I am on now. There is no sand, no beach, and the only breeze I am getting is when Rocky, my sister's dog, walks by me after one of his nasty farts! SICK!

It all started after I tried to go to bed late Tuesday night. I went down at about 12:30 and started to have some severe abdominal pains. After a couple of hours I woke Adam up and told him that I was in a lot of pain and that I thought I should go to the hospital. He thought I just needed to poop so he told me to take two tums and wait it out. To me this wasn't a poop pain, so I decided to go to the ER. Adam stayed home with the kids and somehow I drove to St. Lukes. Once I got there they did a pelvic exam and took some blood. Then they gave me some morphine for the pain, and things started to look a little better. A couple of hours later they took me up for a CT Scan and that is how they found out that I had and appendicitis. Once this was confirmed and there was a surgeon available I was off to surgery. Adam was able to get there right before I went in, which I was grateful for. My appendix hadn't ruptured either so that was a blessing as well. The surgery went well, and I was actually released that night. However, I am suppose to take it easy, and I'm not to lift anything over 10 to 15 pounds for the next 2 weeks. NOT lift anything for 2 WEEKS! These people must not know where I live. So my sister Theresa said that I could come stay out at her house for as long as I needed to. She only has two kids, Rachel,14, and Matt, who is 3. And let me tell you, even with having a three year old here it is soooooo quiet! I can't get over it! It's like not having any kids at all! I was only planning on staying here for a day or two, but when I called into the doctor's office he said that I should stay away for 5 to 7 days! So instead of a week in the Caymans I'm staying a week at Hotel Blong. It's not all bad though, well, except for the farting dog. That I could do without!

Kids Being Kids

Here are just some pictures from the month of the kids just being kids. I thought they were pretty cute. But of course I would think that, I'm the mom!



Hannah's ready to get out of the house. Too bad we weren't going anywhere.

Hayden ~ It's OK, I'm a doctor and I practice better in my jammies with a princess bucket on my head.

Let me see the picture the mom!

I love this window ledge. No doubt it is taking a beating, and we will have to have it refinished if we ever decide to put the house on the market, but the kids just love to play on it. It's just the right height!



Aunt Aubrey came over one night and all the sudden Liv comes around the corner wearing her boots. She had no problems walking in them either! 

 

Hayden wearing underpants over her diaper, sitting on a pan, reading a book about Santa. We read celebrate Christmas all year round here. Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas is still a favorite cartoon we have to watch.

Hannah, Jonathan and the rest of her sisters love to wear this hat. Too Cute!

Olivia, mid-air!

Liv having a little quite play time after her siblings have gone down for the night. It's hard to see but her mermaid is hugging the white bear. What a sweetie!

When Nana Takes the Kids

At the end of December Nana started to take two kids every few weeks to come on adventures with her. Sometimes they just go to her house and play. Sometimes they go to store and run errands with her. Sometimes they go hangout at the mall. No matter what they do they always have fun and come home ready for nigh-night. Do I even have to tell you how much I love this!!!

I can't tell you how quiet it is in this house when you take away not one, but two kids! This is as close as I get to being alone in my own house. This "quiet" time is so special for me because not only does it cut down the noise and fighting, but it also lets me spend more quality time with whoever is home. Dividing your attention between two kids is so much easier then having to divide it between four.

This is the first time Olivia got to pick someone to go with her to Nana's. She picked Hannah, and they were both so excited!

Saying goodbye to Big Boy.

This time Jonathan got to go with Liv and so it was just me and my two little girls.
Hayden is on the left an Hannah on the right.

Hayden saying "Cheese!"
 It looks like we had noodles, chicken, and peppers for lunch. The girls LOVE red, yellow, and orange peppers. Jonathan and Olivia won't even touch them.

Hannah chowin' down on the peppers!

Thanks Nana for the extra special "quiet" time! I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am!

The Last Post of 2010

This will be the last post from year 2010. It has been a wild year, and I can only imagine them getting wilder. As the kids get older, I feel older, but somehow Adam doesn't seem to be aging much. How that's possible, I'm not sure. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the beginning of the year and the end of the year just to put things in perspective on how far we have come.

OLIVIA

(This is her favorite color.)

Liv sitting in her converted Crib reading Monsters Inc when her bedroom was upstairs.
Feb. 2010

Moved her downstairs and into a toddler bed into what used to be the Poker Room downstairs.
Sept. 2010

Liv excited about her new full sized bed in her room downstairs.
Oct. 2010

"The Babies"

(Not really sure how much longer I can continue to call them that. "The Toddlers" just doesn't sound the same though.)

Army Crawling towards the living room.
Jan. 2010

Getting ready to go for a stroll around the neighborhood.
June 2010

Sitting on their pillows having snacks.
December 2010

 The Kids

Christmas Pictures
December 2009

Christmas Pictures

December 2010

They are growing faster then ever and the days are going faster then ever. That is why I keep this Blog.