JuMp . . . jUmP . . . JUMP!

Look at us Jump! Ethan has an obsession with JUMPING! He loves the couch, the love seat, chair, his grandparents' bounce (a BIG fav), his bed (he broken a spring in his mattress already) and even the hard old floor. Actually it isn't probably all in fun. Our speech therapist is telling us that Ethan is showing signs of Sensory Integration Disorder (SI Dysfunction) and I had been reading up on the subject and Aaron and I agree that is is showing some symptoms of it. One sign being that he likes jumping, swinging, spinning, more than average and that these sort of activities acutally help soothe and calm him (I know that I am not describing this correctly). If you know Ethan he does these things more than most children his age and it has moved his physical development way ahead because of it in the large motor skills area. So Aaron's parents hooked us up with one of those mini exercise trampolines. It is really good cause we can do it inside or outside and it's small enough to put away when we have other children visiting. It will also help save us even more wear and tear on our furniture (WE HOPE!) . We are going to try to get Ethan tested soon for this issue so we can find outfor sure if he has it and how to deal with it. In the meantime, we will keep on jumping!

We are going to SCHOOL!!!!

Well sort of . . . it's not really considered a preschool but we will be going on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9-11. I have to stay there with them and they will be doing structured activities. They will take all 3 of them because they are "at risk" because of the preemie/multiple issue. This program continues through the summer and they may be "kicked out" when they turn 3 because EI is probably going to offer us preschool so then we would have to take that. We dont' start until April 9th! It's a totally free program only thing is we will have to be ready to leave the house at 8:30 on those 3 days! Most days we are up and dressed by then but I don't have to have myself all ready and the diaperbag packed, and the van gassed etc. Guess I'll have to get in gear!
Kids went to their grandparents' house yesterday for a playday and boy! did they have a ball. Here they are feeding the horse down the road from them. I had a relaxing day at home alone and was recovering from being sick -- we were ALL sick over the weekend and Aaron even stayed home on Monday. I didn't get it as bad as Aaron and Ethan but I still felt yucky. Glad it was a short lived thing!

sCRAP!

I need to reintroduce myself -- Hi, I'm Mindy and I'm addicted to buying scrapbooking anything! I seriously need help and even though it's 12:30 AM and I'm very tired. I am taking the time to blog this right now so I don't have time to change my mind. I AM NOT BUYING ANY MORE SCRAPBOOK STUFF FOR ONE MONTH! Shew! That was hard to say! Lately I have been doing quite of bit of scrapbooking but I keep buying more. My main problem is I just LOVE all the new stuff that comes out which is fine but then I buy it with nothing in particular in mind to do with it. I have soooooooo much stuff that is unopened which I like but I just don't know what I will use it on. This photo shows SOME of my scrapbook stash. I have things in other places too. All those containers are full of stickers, rub-ons, chipboard, paint, glitter, and other miscellaneous things. Oh yeah, and don't forget the top where you will find buttons and yards of ribbon. Now, none of my paper, flowers, fibers, stamps, paper scraps are here and neither are any of my tools that I use! Don't forget I just sold a huge box full of stuff I wasn't using/didn't like about a month ago too.

While getting ready to go to my sis's house to help get some things ready for the up-coming baby; I am digging through stuff so we can scrap together and I keep finding more and more that I haven't used and seriously I feel panicky about it. I even went to my scrapbook club/class at Scrapaganza today and got more. My next class isn't until April 21 so I will not buy anymore until then and in the meantime I must scrap and "use up" some of this stuff. If you have the same problem as me you will not want to go to http://www.scrapgal.com/ unless you want to increase your addiction. So I will try to quit looking there everyday to see what new stuff has come in . . . Boy, I will have a lot of time on my hands, won't I, not to mention I will have lots of layouts to fill up some albums -- LOL!

Off to Keely's : kids and I will be back Tuesday.

It's a BAAAADDDDD sign . . .

when I go upstairs during naptime and can smell POOP outside of a closed door. The kids had been in bed about 1-1/2 hours and they had not slept yet . . . this is not uncommon if they sleep for even 2 minutes in the car earlier in the day and we had gone to open gym before lunch and they all fell asleep on the way home. At times it sounded as though they were moving the furniture around and come to find out step stool by Addison's crib had been turned up-side-down somehow. I step into the horrible smelling room and Caden looks at me and says "OH NO" and his hands are covered in poop and so is a lot of his white crib rails. His diaper and onsie were still on. He had been "finger painting" for a while cause it didn't come off easily at all! He had even succeeded at grouting the poop into the screw holes in the crib. He needed new diaper, new sheet, new clothes. Ethan is all the while making this throaty noise of disgust that he does when anyone poops and Addison is screaming alternately "Get out?" and "I poop" She didn't poop and I was no where near ready for them to get out! Caden was trying to be so sweet while I'm cleaning him up and softly saying "Mama? Mama?" The funniest thing was the radio was playing the song "Take this Job and Shove It". It really was too funny! I almost got the camera out to take photos but then I thought ~ TMI!

Thank God for baby wipes!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, it's not really my birthday -- that was a few weeks ago. I received some money as gifts and decided we needed a new digital camera. It came today. Aaron bought my old one about a year before the kids came, digital cameras were still somewhat on the up and coming and it was SUPER expensive but it was 4 mp and lately I have to wait forever after I push the button for the photo to take and of course with 2 year olds the moment is missed. My new one is 8 mp and has a lot of options including video. I've been missing a lot of cute things so now I hopt to capture those moments. And hopefully the quality of my photos will improve too. So thanks to Dad, Mom, my in-laws: Ronn & Patti, and Aaron's Aunt Diana & Uncle Ray for getting this for my birthday -- it's exactly what I wanted!!!!

Could it be Spring???

The weather here yesterday was fabulous -- in the 70's I think! We spent a lot of time outside about 4 hours (not in a row). We went to the park twice, went for 2 walks, and played in the yard. The kids took a super good 3 hour nap and slept well last night except for Caden getting in our bed again! I think it's just as nice out today so we are headed out again and I want to finish raking the yard; I got a little bit started but the kids didn't let me get too far. Loving this great weather!

Oh the dreaded time change!

My kids have never been without sooooooooooo much sleep in their lives! I am a stickler about naps and bedtime and believe that all kids need lots of sleep so they do not turn into the devil! They all have been waking up earlier and earlier sometimes like 6am. Now I know with triplets I'm not going to get to "sleep in" until 10 am or anything but I like to get up get a shower and get dressed ALONE without 3 monkeys jumping on my bed and pointing at my body parts asking "what that, what that?". Friday night Caden, who most nights wakes up and cries until we put him in our bed (I know -- what are we thinking), decided to stay awake from 1:30 am until morning! That's right I don't think he ever went back to sleep although I finally crashed at 4:30 and by the way there is NOTHING on TV that a 2 year old likes at 2 am! Caden also likes to get up go downstairs by himself get his Animal crackers and come upstairs and wake the other 2 up which makes me and them super mad. We were planning on shopping Saturday morning and went but they were kind of grouchy. They did well at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant though. They fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept about 1-1/2 hours but our naps are usually at least 3. We tried to get them to lie down when we got home with no success. Then we had friends over and we let them stay up 1-1/2 hours passed their regualar bedtime. I was thinking with the time change they would be super tired and sleep well -- WRONG! They all woke up twice in the middle of the night and got up even earlier than normal. We had to go to a family dinner on Sunday during their regular naptime and they were tired before we left. Caden was asleep about 2 seconds after being in the car. We didn't stay long and got home at 4 and they were all fast asleep in the car. We tried to lay them back down. It took them about an hour to go back to sleep. At 6pm I thought we better get them up. They wouldn't wake up -- this has NEVER happened even after carrying them downstairs It took them like 45 minutes to wake up and then we were sorry we did! What grouches!!!!!!! Everything and anything made them mad and upset. We put them back to bed at 7:30 and never heard a peep. They sleep about 12-1/2 hours and never woke up once. I love it when I don't have to be kicked 500 times at night by a 2 year old Aaron said last night "We are not missing naps anymore for anything!" and I agree. Hopefully we are back on track this week!

A Productive Sunday for Me!

What a productive day I had on Sunday! I finished putting the second coat of trim, cabinet, and door paint on that I started last October in the kitchen! Today I have to touch up the green wall paint since I am a messy painter. Then I can hang things on the wall. I have a couple "projects" that I didn't want to start on until they could be hung so now I can work on that.

Kids and I are headed to Lowe's today to pick up some stuff and I think I will get some kitchen floor samples to see what I like cause that's next. I know you are thinking, "you finished the bathroom already (started 9 months ago) and didn't even mention it?" Oh no, the bathroom isn't done, we like to have several projects going on at the same time -- keeps it interesting that way!
I jumped on the scale this morning and I have lost 7 pounds! Really I am not really even trying that hard but definitely am eating more often every 2-3 hours just less in the amount. Before I snacked a lot but also ate a lot at each meal. Also I think I am just keeping more busy at home too. I can't wait until it warms up and we can get out and walk that should help a lot too.

5 Layouts in 3 days -- Unheard of!

I have really been a scrapbook fool this week -- counting the one I made over the weekend I have 6 layouts done this week! My sis Keely has done like 30-some since January -- she is running a scrapbook factory at her house and I swear little 2-year-old Jackson is forced to "scrap" with Mommy (hee hee). I finally figured out that her secret is she made a list -- imagine that being organized can help you accomplish things???! I have made lists of the layouts I have wanted to make before but I usually lose/misplace the lists. I finally committed to create one on the computer. My list is not just the layouts I want to make but also whether I have printed the photos, what paper I want to use, what ideas I have for the layout. Turns out most of the overwhelming of scrapbooking for me comes from the fact I don't know where my photos are, how am I going to arrange the page, and what paper should I use. Once these things are decided then I can go to town on actually scrappin'! My list is crazy silly. I have 74 layouts on it currently. It seems to keep going up as I think of more ideas and find more photos I would like to use. Still if I can keep going at this rate, 74 won't take more than 12.5 weeks --- well maybe I won't do all 74

We (me and kids) were sick all week. The kids all had fevers of 101-102 most of the week and I had a bad cold. We didn't go anywhere and that was fine by me. The kids used up almost one whole giant bottle of Motrin in 4 days -- better start buying that by the carton. We are feeling better now.

Hope you have a great weekend!