Hiding

I don't like stating the obvious here, but I think Jenna needs to find a better hiding spot....

She got into my wallet and ran to hide. I couldn't help but laugh as you see her little feet sticking out and her standing super still as to not be noticed. Hey, if she can't see me, then she must be invisible! LOL

Oh, my Jenna-girl....you make us laugh so much. Thank you for being you.

Growing Again

We are moving Josh's "big boy bed" from the downstairs (my informal school work room) to his room this weekend and moving the toddler bed that he currently sleeps in to Jenna's room so she can sleep in it and the baby can move out of the pack n' play and into the crib. Whew! That sounds complicated! And it is....that's what happens I guess when you have Irish triplets. Works out perfect though as Julianna's more mobile and is growing out of the pack n' play. Josh is also getting a little big (finally) for the toddler bed.

It's his birthday bed. That's my present to him. I really wanted to be able to paint his room and set it up like a "big boy" room since he's going to be three and not a toddler anymore, but that's going to wait a little longer until we are able to do that. I think he'll like the transition though. As you can see from the pictures, he's getting a little big for the litttle bed.

It's funny because he looks so small when compared to other three year-olds. Jenna's catching up to him and I get asked quite frequently if they are twins. He is just getting into 24 month or 2T clothes and wears a size 7 shoe. That's what most 2 year-olds wear. But.....he's special. He can count to ten, knows his shapes and colors and has an astounding vocabulary and understanding of the world around him. On this he is light years ahead of most three year olds, and that's how God has made him special. Small, yet mighty.

I love my little tyke. He's my munchkin. And I love it when I tuck him in and he yells back "I love you my mommy."

Question of the Month....

August is almost over..... It seems that this month, more than months past, I have been asked that question over and over again....What question, you might ask... THE question:

"How do you do it, having three kids so young?"

Usually that question is asked with the hint of, "oh my gosh, I can't believe they're not twins" undertone, or the "are you crazy?!" body language. My favorite was when I was in WalMart and a little old lady stopped me while I was in the baby section with the girls. Jason had Joshie over in the pets department. She started out with saying how adorable my kids were. I thanked her and told her that I have a little boy somewhere around here with my husband and that he was two and a half. She then lost all "cuteness" in her voice and stated matter-of-factly - "Do you want me to tell you about birth control?" What?!?!

I didn't say anything, but I wanted to tell her that I was having twins, just to spite her. Then I thought to myself, I'd better not - you'd better be careful for what you ask for. Instead I told her the truth - "I love having my little ones so close together. They are so close relationally and the best of friends."

I started thinking though - why haven't I gone crazy? I have been married just over four years and have three kids. I live 1700 miles away from home and family and my oldest child is not three yet. I teach and tutor so that I can stay home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I cook, clean, do laundry, give baths, and change poopy diapers. But that's nothing.

I can't do it on my own. My job is only 1/3 of the job description. Less actually. I do my share, yes; but I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who is always on the same page and is also set on raising our kid's God's way. That means that we have a short leash and high expectations. We discipline our children when they do misbehave and explain to them why they were in trouble. We read bible stories and sing VeggieTales together. We praise and encourage them to always seek the Truth. We haven't read a parenting book - traditionally speaking. We read THE parenting book. God's word has all our instructions in it. That's why we're so blessed to have three kids under three. To us, its not hard work. Sure it has its moments, but the rewards FAR ourweigh the tough spots.

We expect our kids to behave in public AND in private. We teach manners and respect. We also have lots of fun times together. There haven't been the "terrible two's".... just the "terrific two's" and I am looking forward to the "tremendous three's" next month. By on a practical note - God has equipped me with the ability to take care of three under three. I lay out their clothes and have backpacks packed the night before. The last thing we do is get the kids ready and then we're off!! It's team-work and you can't do it without the three of us - me, Jason and Christ in the middle holding it all together.

Caught Red Handed!

The kids have been interested in chips now. They want chips every meal and snack time. We don't let them have chips unless its a special occasion because that's all they want to eat! Anyways, one of those special occasions is dinner time. If they eat ALL their dinner, we allow them to have 5 chips. Well, I caught Jenna....red-handed!

Fo-Hawk

Yes - you read right....this blog is titled "Fo-Hawk". In case you aren't "caught up" with what this word is, or it isn't "in" where you are - it stands for "fake mohawk". Basically, you don't shave the sides of your head, but you still have the mohawk look to it by putting gel in your hair. All the teenage and tween boys are sporting this new do this summer.

But do you think I ever styled my kids' hair this way? Heck no!! He likes to have gel in his hair and always asks to have it spikey with "jelly" in it, so that's usually how I do it, if I even get around to styling it at all. Most of the time it goes wherever it dries. But today is the last day of summer. We start back at school tomorrow, so I thought it would be fun to do a fo-hawk and see what it would look like.....

As you can see from the pictures, Joshie is into making faces for the camera. LOL. Not too bad though.....He looks like he's a little brusier though....not sure if I like that. But it was our last hurrah for the summer....getting the hair trimmed tonight...

School Time

This is our last weekend of summer...granted I have been working up at school on Mondays and this past week was full of inservices and trainings, but Wednesday is the official first day of classes. This means the kids will be going back to school too. I know that Joshie isn't quite in "Pre-K" yet, but he does go to school with me and the kids do learn a lot during the year. He knows all his colors, most of his shapes (including a trapezoid!) and can count to 10 in order. He and Jenna have good friends at school and have been waiting all summer to see them.

Joshie's good friend at school are David May and Chase Carrico. Chase is 3 (May) and David just turned 4. David is our head administrator's little boy and is such a crack up - love him!! It's because of him that Joshie is so into Toy Story now. He's such a cutie. Jenna's little buddy is Sage Hauser. He turned 2 earlier this month. They are INSEPERABLE! But that is mainly because they've known each other since Jenna was 3 weeks old. Its funny because his mom and I work together and joke about them in the future. When we get to school that's the first person she is asking about! Here's a picture of them at today's back to school carnival:

Our backpacks are all ready to go and lunches made!

Strollers

The greatest invention ever: strollers. We have the Graco Travel system with the infant car seat and the stroller that comes with it. We also have a double stroller from when Jenna was born. Most of the time when we go places, we just take the double and let Joshie walk with one of us. We also have two of the umbrella strollers, but since we bought cheapie ones, they are kinda wearing out. Very hard to stear and push - that's what you get when you pay only$10 for them I guess. Oh well....

Its amazing though when you "get in a pinch" and need some extra space how you can create that with a stroller. We have three small kids....one would think (and I actually get asked this all the time as to why we don't have one) that we would have a triple stroller. Don't get me wrong, I bet it would be great, but I don't want to be pushing a bus....and where am I supposed to store this thing? Strap it to the hood of the car?? I think not.

Here's some ways we have used our strollers:

New Again

Today was our first day of Teacher In-Service. I've been at school on Monday's all summer, so it didn't seem all that different, but I have to admit - I wasn't feeling the beginning of school fire that I normally do. I taught at Co-Teacher training Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I was really focusing on the weekend.

It is so awesome though to work for someone like Audra and the vision she has for Legacy. She always knows just what to say to ignite that fire again. She showed us this clip and it really made me remember that whatever happens, it will be okay. Whatever life brings my way, and whatever hardships happen, we can overcome. There was not a dry eye in the room as we all have little children and for the first time I saw this through the eyes of a mother....

Three's a Crowd

This is what happens when you take one stroller and three kids to a birthday party. We were walking the quarter mile back to the car and the big kids were exhausted. It was hot. They were thirsty. They were beyond cranky....

Its amazing what you can do with a stroller and three kids! I pushed them like this all the way along the dirt path from the party to the car. Jenna was happy holding onto me and sipping the water; Joshie enjoyed standing on the front and looking after Julianna. Next time I'll pack the double stroller...

LIttle Froggy

I love to watch Joshie and Jenna play together. Lately their imaginative play has really "come to life". In this video they're pretending to be froggies....

Girls

So as Joshie gets ready to turn three next month, we are going to be transitioning him from the toddler bed to a twin bed. Jenna will be going from the crib to the toddler bed and Julianna will be moving from the pack n'play to the crib.

To get ready for this move though and to get Jenna used to sharing a room with Julianna, I was thinking and decided I would get her used to having a baby in there and having to go to sleep while she's still in the crib. This way she's not overwhelmed with two new things: a roommate and a new bed.....

So what I did was I moved the changing table into our room momentarily (that's the only place it would fit) and moved Julianna's pack n'play to Jenna's room. Of course she was SO excited to have Julianna in her room now!! I am glad I moved it in the morning so that when it was time for bed it was kinda like "old news". Well, we're going to try it tonight and see how it goes. So far so good!! Check out the little video to see for yourself :)

I'll update in a week and let you know if its still going good!

ew...

Isn't this face a cute little face?! You wouldn't know it from looking at it what had just occured....

I was just saying good-bye to the kids to leave for work and I saw some yellow peeking through Julianna's clothes....she was sitting on Sherrie's lap....

Yep - you guessed it....she had gone poop!
It was WAY worse than we initially thought....Isn't that the way things happen? You're on your way somewhere when "life" happens. LOL.... Needless to say she got a bath in the sink.
No wonder why she was all smiles right before we discovered that! She definately felt better!

Thought for Today Tuesday...

Personal Trainer:
When you have multiple kids, especially when they are close together, they do tend to help each other out a lot. Joshua has been a huge halp, and his newest role (of which he doned on himself) is that of a personal crawling instructor for Julianna. I guess he feels she's been slacking off in the crawling department. So this is his remedy for her:

So Josh is upstairs sleeping and I hear him all of a sudden crying. Usually this is a cry that happens when he's hurt. But I didn't hear anything....So I go upstairs anyways, and he's next to the door crying. Here's the converesation/events that took place:

Josh: That ladybug scared me.

Me: What ladybug? Show mommy the ladybug that scared you

Josh: goes over to the dresser and crouches down next to it. He's in there mommy. That ladybug scare Joshie and make him cry.

Me: now trying to look in the small space behind the dresser. I don't see a ladybug Josh. I think he went to sleep, which is what you should be doing.I have to admit that at this point I am thinking my son has an imagination and so he sometimes likes to use it. This is probably one of those times.

Josh: No he's not mommy. He scare me. That big ladybug scare me. He's not sleeping. now he goes to look in the small space and says...There he is mommy!! I see him. There's that big ladybug!!

Me: pulled out the dresser a little more so I can see this big ladybug that my son "thinks" he sees... THAT'S NOT A LADYBUG JOSH, THAT'S A HUGE COCKROACH!! Get on your bed and stay there while mommy gets some tissue and a show to smash him! Goes and grabs one of Josh's flip flops from the closet. Looks at the shoe....looks at the bug...this thing is as big as my son's shoe!! I need a bigger shoe!!!

The "ladybug" had now died and I flushed him down the toilet....my son's response: "Mommy, you smash him! Now he can't go sleep anymore. LOL...... Comedy!!