Holiday Prep...

Although these pictures are coming a couple weeks after the fact, we definitely did not slack on our Christmas tree setup this year. Just like always, the first week in November Christmas starts at our house. Because we were both terribly sick, however, it took about two days to just get the boxes out of the garage then another day to open them. So glad we are over that.

When we were first married we bought a six-foot, $20 tree at a Family Dollar store. That was our family tree for five Christmases until last year when we finally got a 'grown-up' tree. So this Christmas, we deeded our six-footer to the kids which will be home to all their ornaments over the years. They banked three ornaments each last year from us and a couple friends so the tree is definitely off to a good start.

You can see how engaged they were in the setup process... Let's hope they become more helpful in the future. :)


Wondering what Zachary is sitting in? We have a two-part papasan chair and the kids play in the top which is why it's not pictured but often times Zachary likes to hang out in the base of the chair. That day he looked like a hamster in a wheel...


For the kids' ornaments this year, we are just going to make them. Clark has some pretty cool homemade ornaments from when he was young so now we're just brainstorming to come up with a good ornament activity we all can do come Christmas Eve.

We let them choose their stockings before we put them up. That probably won't be the best activity in future years because of potential fighting so the stocking they chose is the one they will have forever. Caleb chose the reindeer, Leah the polar bear, and Zachary the Santa. I'm sure there is no significance to their choices but it was interesting nonetheless.


Ok, enough about Christmas and the fact that we've watched six Christmas movies so far and that I've practically memorized Justin Bieber's Christmas album. Enough about that.

We recently visited a local jump house for an activity one afternoon. A friend recommended it from a website and it looked so fun that we went the next day. The main appeal of the place was that it had a toddler ONLY area for kids three and under with toys and bounce houses that were suited to fit them. I've been struggling to find activities outside the home that are good for the kids' age. Since two of them still crawl and they still stick everything in their mouths, I can't seem to find things to do. Even going to the park is stressful because Zachary is running far and fast while the other two are eating the wood chips. So lately it's been either playing in the backyard or running errands. So this was the perfect activity to break up the monotony. It was $3 per baby, which is a steal in my opinion, for two hours of jump time. There was a kitchen, a log cabin, corr poppers, rocking dog, and of course two large bounce houses.


Who wants to play in bounce houses when there is one of these thingamajigs?


Caleb is our smarty pants and typically passes on all the fun stuff to do more challenging activities. I had to force him in the bounce house because he wouldn't tear himself away from this toy and the kitchen.

Zachary was all about the bounce house. He just loved running around and falling without getting hurt. The little entry slides were quite the hit as well...




At one point all three were in there with me and we were having a blast! I couldn't wait to get Clark there because this is right up his alley. We did all end up going a couple weeks later and like I anticipated, Clark loved it and went home to measure our living room to see if we could get one to fit. :) We were exhausted and the kids were totally zoning out on the way home. I think we all slept pretty well that night.

We are currently preparing for a Thanksgiving trip...in the car...26 hours...with three one year olds... This should get interesting. So I'm signing off until we get back in December! I'm sure I'll have lots of crazy stories to share.

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Sickness Blah...

Well a little sickness bug crept it's way into our home this past weekend. Fortunately for the kids, their symptoms aren't nearly as bad as mine or Clark's. We seem to have been hit the hardest. We were glad it was the weekend so we could tag-team with the kids. One person would play and entertain while the other would sprawl out and be lazy on the couch. Considering the kids have managed to avoid any sickness up until now, we can definitely handle a few head colds as opposed to everyone having the flu or something more serious. Too bad the babies didn't take advantage of an extra hour of sleep to help fight their colds! Clark and I managed to be in bed at 8pm and got a nice ten hours of sleep though.

As a result of all the snotty noses, we decided to cancel the multiples playdate we were hosting (sad) and lay low instead. So this weekend was uneventful, to say the least, but surprisingly enjoyable! I felt like we spent a lot of quality time with the kids making sure we focused on each one individually and doing an activity each enjoyed. Zachary really needs one on one attention and behaves so well when you give it to him. Mostly because the other two aren't crawling all over him.

Here he is with some serious bedhead after a nap. He's wearing Clark's baby pajamas! Fit him perfectly!



Although sick, I was thrilled to finally receive some books in the mail that I'd ordered! My new year's resolution for 2011 was to start, finish, and order a baby book for each baby from their birth to their first birthday. I knew if I didn't do it during their first year, I wouldn't remember things and would eventually be so overwhelmed by the project I'd get discouraged to even start. So after ten months of working diligently and having to totally rework each book at month nine because of a sizing issue, they are finally finished! Hallelujah! With over 215 pictures per book as well as 80 pages per book, they were certainly worth the time and effort and I hope the kids will treasure them once they get older. I won't do individual books for them beyond these (just being realistic with myself) but will continue to do family albums for all of us.




These next pictures are old news from the BYU/TCU football game last weekend but I wanted to share anyway. Our friends invited us to the game with some tickets they'd received from a family member and when we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised when the seats were on the front row! Best seats we've ever had for a football game! Unfortunately we lost but ESPN got a few good live video shots of our section (these pics were taken off of TV screens and texted to us from family and friends during the game). I guess if this is the way I get my 15 minutes of fame, I'll take it. :) This was Clark's fourth quarter angry face...



The next shot was the first quarter when BYU still had a chance so the crowd was full of energy. We're on the left side of the shot...


Lastly, I took this video for the Calhoun cousins to show that the kids are definitely learning their alphabet from the Fridge Phonics birthday gift they were given!



Clark thinks it's a fluke that they say the 'A' sound but I think it's legitimate. Now on to 'B'! We have a long way to go...

Our Not-So-Halloweeny 2011...

Don't judge us. We really aren't anti-Halloween, but this year we were totally anti-costumes for the kids. For months we talked about all the popular trios we could dress them up as but as Halloween approached we became less and less excited about collecting, purchasing, organizing, and putting together three costumes. See reasons below:

Reason #1: Two of the babies can't even walk so the costumed trio wouldn't look quite right

Reason #2: The babies would not be attending any Halloween festivals or trunk or treats

Reason #3: They have no teeth to chew candy which would mean Clark would eat it all

Reason #4: They go to bed very early so they miss all the door trick-or-treaters

Reason #5: They have NO idea what Halloween is

Reason #6: They are super-neurotic about ANYTHING on or around their heads/faces so that cuts down on a LOT of potential costume choices

Reason #7: They want Mom and Dad to save money so that Christmas can be bigger and better!

There you have it. Our reasons for not dressing our kids. Those who do dress their babies, I think it's great and 100% adorable/hilarious. That's why we talked for so long about how great we could make this Halloween. But then all I started to see was loading/unloading babies from the van to search for costumes at ten different stores, being disgusted with the price of three costumes, and sad that they only wore them during the day when no one really saw them. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So to simplify, I picked up some Halloween shirts at a local consignment sale and called it good this year. Next year will be a different story. We promise.

Soooo.....here they are....in their AWESOME Halloween shirts. You see the excitement? :)


Picture time is typically successful for about 45 seconds. Then these shenanigans start happening...


Shortly after the ear-pull, Leah went for Caleb's hair and Zachary took off in the opposite direction because I was coming after his grabby little fingers. Unfortunately that ended our photoshoot but I got a couple decent pics luckily.

In more exciting Halloween news, I did a craft. I don't ever craft...

But when my friend showed me a wreath she was working on I had to go to the craft store right away and get started myself. I LOVE wreaths. Ask Clark...he hates them. However, he was just complaining how we don't have many Halloween decorations so when I did the math (wreath + Halloween decor = happiness all around), I realized he'd be excited about this one.

Nine yards of black tulle cut into 6in x 24in pieces tied in single knots around a cross-stitch hoop. Took me less than two hours. Clark says crafting should take longer and I should enjoy the journey. I guess that's why I'm not a crafter...I want things done FAST!

Anyway, you can hang it with orange ribbon but since I had a wreath hanger already, I chose to tie in a little decor.



Happy Halloween everyone!!!

I Didn't Eat the Dirt, I Promise...

Sorry buster, but the truth is in the evidence!

We have several big areas of dirt in our backyard where the grass doesn't grow and Zachary has grown very fond of those dirt patches. Whenever we play outside he makes his 'dirt rounds,' as I like to call it. He visits each dirt patch, stomps around in it, pokes his finger in it, then sticks some dirt in his mouth. Then he moves on to the next patch. We've been wanting to put sod on some of the bigger areas so that our backyard doesn't look so sad and we figured this would solve Zachary's dirt eating as a result!

Clark was laying the last piece of sod so he thought he'd let Zachary poke his finger in the dirt one more time. Then while Clark reached for the sod, Zachary made his move and quickly ate a handful of dirt! So the pic below is Clark attempting to get the bigger chunks out of Zachary's mouth.


I guess he could be eating worse things but we'd like to keep non-food items far from his mouth. Who knows how many bugs he's ingested along with that dirt. Zachary still makes his 'dirt rounds' although there is no more. It's so funny because he'll just go stand on the sod and roam around for a bit then move on to the next sodded area. Like he doesn't know what to do and he's just devastated there is no dirt to eat. Sad, but funny.

He just thinks he's so sly sometimes but like I said, I just can't ignore the evidence.

Be Our Guest...

This past weekend we had some family visitors!!! We don't get those very often so we were excited. Clark's mom, sister Anie, and daughters Madi and Elle were driving coast to coast and made our home a stop on their road trip. Although their stay was short (only 1 1/2 days), it was nice to talk, relax, and have our trio meet their cousins for the first time! It was actually the first time I had met Elle as well.

They all arrived right before bedtime so the kids had a short time to get acquainted before being fed, bathed, and put to bed. Everyone was down by 6pm which gave us a good few hours to hang out.


The weekend they were here was really the first chilly weekend we've had. I've been waiting to bust out some warm outfits for the kids and I was finally able to! Really I'm just excited because soon I'll be able to wear warm pajama pants all day and not feel bad about it. :) What makes these warm baby clothes even better is that they are Clark's clothes from when he was a baby!

Caleb is sporting the pilot outfit. Fit him perfectly. You can't beat elastic around the ankles.


Zachary is sporting a 'Let's Play' outfit . I mean, they just don't make ensembles like this anymore! It fit him perfectly as well!


Both of the boys were so adorable in their outfits. Unfortunately we've had unusually warm weather since then so they haven't worn them again.

Although they were both looking handsome, their hair length was getting out of control. So the queen of haircuts, Gram, picked up some scissors and went to work! Caleb was first and he was a PERFECT ANGEL! So brave. We put on Elmo and fed him raisins all the while but he really didn't even notice all of Gram's snipping.


Zachary is not pictured because his hair cut didn't go as smooth. As soon as he heard the first snip, he lost it. He cried through the whole thing but actually managed to pull himself together near the end. It was pretty traumatic to say the least! Thanks Gram for the handsome haircuts!

Luckily the rain and chill wasn't terrible so we were still able to go on our morning walk. Anie and her girls joined us and they were pretty excited to try out the choo choo wagon. This was the 'girls only' train...


Ya, I know. Leah is eating a couple Hot Wheels. I can't quite explain to her that those belong to her brothers so for now, they are community Hot Wheels.

The nice thing about having triplets is that we have pretty much every stroller imaginable. At one point we had two singles, two doubles, a triple, and a choo choo wagon. Yikes! One side of our garage was parking for strollers only. We have since sold one of our doubles but obviously kept our double bike trailer since we use that for running and biking. Still, the amount of strollers is kind of out of control. However, we never know what type of stroller we'll need for different venues and situations so for that reason, we've ended up with way too many. Point is, we had plenty of options for Madi and Elle to ride in!


Even though it was quick, we were just happy to spend some time with family. We were glad they stopped even though I'm sure they were anxious to get back on the road! We can't wait to see them again next month when we make our long road trip out west for Thanksgiving!

Big Orange Pumpkin Farm...

The multiples organization I belong to had planned their annual pumpkin patch trip this past Saturday! Well...unfortunately we couldn't make it because we had family visitors (yay!) in town. Surprisingly there are a lot of patches around here so we just chose another day and went to another pumpkin patch that was closer.

It was a little breezy that morning but not nearly cold enough for sweaters. However, the sun was out which meant Leah is squinting in all the pictures. I started singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider to get them all to smile and Leah started doing it with me! No smiles from anyone obviously....maybe I need a new song.


After the hay bails, we moved on to the area with BIG pumpkins. I snapped this picture because Leah was rolling around on this particular pumpkin which was really funny. Then afterward I noticed Zachary....not sure what Clark was doing to him.




Caleb


Leah


Zachary


Next we moved on to feed the animals!! When we arrived, we received some treats to feed the goats. Clark had to do the honors since the goats were going nuts and I was afraid they were going to bite me!



Once the animals were full and happy, we headed to the small pumpkin patch where each baby could choose a pumpkin. Leah felt like there were a lot of good choices but was having a hard time narrowing it down. Caleb's in the background eating grass or something.


Holy cow is this the cutest picture ever with all his teeth? ha The wind was blowing right in his face so he was laughing. He would crawl around and knock on the pumpkins. Maybe he knows a pumpkin picking secret that we don't!


Zachary didn't really zero in on any pumpkins. He just cruised up and down the rows...you know, exercising his independence. He's all about that these days.


To finish off our visit, we hopped on the back of a tractor and went for a hay ride!! It was only about five minutes around the farm. Zachary was freaked about how bumpy it was so he sat in Dad's lap...


Caleb on the other hand was all about it. He was hanging on for dear life though!



We came home with a couple small pumpkins and three VERY tired babies. It was only a ten minute car ride but they were struggling to stay awake. That's when the crackers come in handy! It will be better when they can walk next year but we had a good time anyway! We are so loving this fall weather and all the festivities! The countdown to put up our Christmas tree is underway, btw. Get ready for it!

And Now We Begin...

It's funny. Almost every time I am out with the kids and I run into someone who also has multiples, just older, they inevitably say, "don't worry, it gets easier!" I believed that for a while but I'm starting to think it just isn't true. Things don't get easier....they just change. Sure, I'm not having to deal with formula, acid reflux, and night feedings (which I am THRILLED about) but now the new challenges are personality conflicts, food refusals, scraped knees, communication frustration, etc... So yes, certain aspects of parenting get easier. That's true. But new challenges inevitably show up on the doorstep more often than I'd like.

With the start of this the second year of life for the trio, we've already dove in head first to the beginning challenges of TODDLERHOOD. First up, another nap transition. Because I don't have video monitors and have a loud sound machine in the hall, I never knew when the babies were falling asleep for their naps. I'd leave them in their rooms for at least 1 1/2 hours before getting them out, if they were awake, or waking them up at that time to stay on a decent daily schedule. The past few weeks I've been having to wake the babies from both naps each day and when I did, everyone was just neurotic. I'd take a baby out to the living room and before I could take a couple steps to go get another one, the first would already be screaming. I'd leave anyway and bring the second baby and as I walked away for the third, the first two would be screaming a lovely chorus. Point is, post nap was just turning into craziness and lots of crying. They were not ready to get up which meant they were playing in their cribs longer than I realized.

So one day we just decided to eliminate their first nap. We kept them up as long as they would tolerate it and the day actually went great! They took to the transition well although we've had a couple bad days since. Of course they are super tired by bed time but in a month or so they'll be pros at this whole one-nap gigue. I'm not entirely sure they were 100% ready to give up the nap but I would rather just make the change rather than have a month or two of the awkward transition and back and forth stuff.

Second challenge: green beans. They don't like them. They spit them out and gag. They squish the beans in their hands then throw them off the table. Not happening. Now...I HATE HATE HATE green beans. I used to hide them in my napkin. There are foods that I really encourage the babies to eat but green beans are not one of them. I've offered the green beans three times with the same result so I think I'll try one more time in a couple weeks then call it good. No harm done. I hate buying them anyway. :)

Third challenge: personality conflicts. We are seeing more and more how aggressive and determined Caleb is. At the same time, though, he is a total introvert. He plays well alone and gets REALLY upset when someone interrupts him or takes his toys. However, he's the first to bulldoze over whatever to steal a toy from Zachary or Leah. He wants to be in control of everything around him which often results in the other babies getting upset.

Leah plays really great with her brothers. Her issue is she doesn't know when to draw the line. For example, the boys think it's funny when she lunges forward at them with toys in her hands. After a few lunges the boys are obviously over it but she is having a ball. So she keeps doing it. They usually start crying and she is laughing hysterically because she thinks they still like it. She's one we have to often pull on the reigns.

Zachary...he's just sensitive. WAY sensitive. Every fall, bump, bruise, stolen toy, loud noise, etc... results in crying and running for Mom. This doesn't always mesh well with Leah's game-playing and Caleb's toy-stealing. I try to be patient with the crying but I'm not entirely sure how to handle it. Ignore or soothe? Who knows.

So the one-year-old challenges have started and we're dealing with them as they come. This should get interesting! Just as the challenges come though.....so do other fun, exciting, NEW things.

Like baby bowties from my incredibly talented seamstress friend. So handsome!



And walking!!! We all knew Zachary would be first. He's cruising around now probably 75% of the time and loves it. He started taking steps before his birthday but really took off afterward. He looks smaller than ever when he's working those little legs around the house.





And playing in the backyard because the weather is beautiful! We got a waterwheel table that the kids gather round and throw toys into. We only fill it with water when the afternoons are warm but it could also hold sand. Not sure how excited I am about sand being tracked through the house.



Oh ya....and FIVE teeth! Unfortunately Zachary took the trophy for first tooth as well so Mr. Caleb came in second. However, there is no shame in this because he got all four top teeth and now one bottom tooth is coming through. Yikes! He's been working hard! (Leah has NO signs of any teeth still)


These kids are crazy...but so much fun. We'll see what new challenge/change arrives this week!