Could this be too many Toys????

This is how Addison sleeps! She has to have about 4 blankets or "boos" as she calls them, several books, and all those stuffed toys. I clean out her bed about once a week to downsize all that stuff but it's no use; she slowly sneaks things back in. I don't know know how she can be comfortable at all but she is. Both she and Ethan hardly ever wake up and they each sleep in their beds all night which is more than I can say for their brother, Caden. Caden sleeps with us about 4-5 times a week. I can't stand it! We only have a queen size bed and with Aaron and I in there and the annoying cat too, there just isn't much room for another person even if he really isn't that big. Plus he brings a blanket or two and his monkey and his dog. He can't stand to be covered up so he sleeps between us on top of the covers which is so convenient for us. Then he never holds still and is kicking me in the face, stomach, and back. Sometimes he sleeps horizontally to us and that is even worse. I hate to be touched when I'm sleeping and I need room to get comfortable, heck I wouldn't even mind it if Aaron and I did the "I Love Lucy" separate beds thing. He hasn't always slept with us. It started when he turned one and had a bad ear infection and we let him come to our bed and that's where it all started. He takes naps by himself and goes to sleep in his own bed but wakes up around 1-3 am. A couple times we tried to make him "cry it out" and he cried for about 4 straight hours and Aaron was more than mad and I was exhausted. Soon he is going to stay in his own bed. We're working on a plan because Mommy needs uninterrupted sleep!

Our newest family member!

Here's part of the reason why I have been MIA for a while. My sister, Keely, had her baby a little more than 3 weeks early and surprise! he was a boy! Jeffrey Teagan Dines weighing in at 5.12 on April 17. He's a doll. The kids and I went to their house last Tuesday and stayed until Friday to watch Jackson. Taking care of 4 two-year olds wore me out although I don't think the 4th two-year-old made one bit of difference cause he's so good. I think he cried twice in 4 days. My kids cry that much in one minute. They are the ones to wear me out! Anyway they all came home on Thursday and all are doing well. My kids all had different reactions to him. Addison didn't really have much interest in him at all but tried to say his name which comes out in some strange jibberish. Caden liked to look at him with his arms folded across his chest and say "beebee" and Ethan who is my baby lover gets this shy/love-struck look on his face and can stare at him for hours. Check out Keely's blog to see more cute photos of their newly expanded family! Welcome to the world, Jeffrey!

Welcome to the WWT . . . Wild Wrestling Triplets

These kids are crazy . . . here's proof. They spent about 15 minutes wrestling on the love seat today. Why don't I stop them? Well, mainly cause they act as if they are having the BEST time of their life and they just won't stop. I can get one or two off but by the time I go to get the third one then one or two of the first ones are back up at it again. It's very frustrating and really a waste of my time. So I sat and watched and took some photos. Addison can mix it up just as well as any boy and she was even holding her "sticky papey" or sticker paper that she had just made the whole time. No one really got hurt and yes, they do fall off or get pushed off the couch a lot but mainly it's on the pillows and cushions they threw on the floor. Caden thinks it's great to kick people in the head and face. He was warned several times to stop and even told that time out was close . . . of course, he doesn't stop and that pushes Ethan over the edge and notice this is how he reacts when Ethan retaliates and pulls Caden's hair:

How in the world can Ethan pull Caden's non-existent hair? I don't know but the tears didn't last long but Caden is just dramatic; he had to make sure that I knew his hair got pulled and he showed me my pulling his own hair and when I acknowledged it and said it must of hurt, he got right back up again and continued in the fun. Wrestling wears them out too . . . so why stop it? . . . After all the more they sleep they more sleep I get! This will make a great scrapbook page if I EVER get back to doing it again. Haven't been very motivated lately and been really busy with the kids -- maybe this week . . .

New Do's

On Monday we went to get our hair cut again. We go to the local community beauty college, Carl Sandburg Cosmetology. We go there because the first time I took them to my regular hair-stylist, Stephanie, at JcPenney it cost almost $50 for all 3 kids to get trims. I love Stephanie but we can't afford that every couple of months. CSC only charges $4.50 per kid and all 3 kids can get their hair cut at the same time instead of waiting. Caden and Ethan normally sit all by themselves in chairs and have no problems. Addison, on the other hand, doesn't like it and I have to hold her and the "teacher" had to go buy her cookies from the snack machine to get her to hold still long enough to cut her bangs. Caden has a TON of hair and it is always a mess. He hates combs and cries when we try to do anything with it so I thought since spring/summer are hopefully around the corner we should do "BUZZ CUTS". Caden did wonderfully and I think it looks great. Ethan was a little more nervous than normal and wanted to cling to his Grandma too much so he didn't get as much off as I would have liked but his hair grows slowly so next time we'll go shorter. Addison managed to let her bangs be cut and a little trim off the back. She looks so much better now that we can see her eyes again. I love Caden's hair ~ it really makes his big blue eyes pop and now his hair looks just like Daddy's.

Our FIRST day of "SCHOOL"

So yesterday was the BIG day -- our first day at All Aboard Preschool Program! As you can tell by the photos that getting up and around ready to leave the house by 8:30 isn't something we normally do. But we made it on time even a little bit early! The kids were not excited as every time I asked if they wanted to go to school Addison and Caden gave the favorite 2-year-old word of "NO!". I'm sure Ethan would have told me the same thing if he said "no" yet. The first hour was free play time. They have everything set up in stations like kitchen area with a washer and dryer, computer, ball pit, chalkboard, play-dough, fish tank, etc. The only rule is you have to "pick up" before you leave one area to go to another. This is not something my kids even have the slightest inclination about. They just throw toys on the floor and run to the next thing. So most of my time was spent dragging a child back to the forgotten toys to pick it up. Then it was circle time -- the time I was most concerned about. The kids did so awesome though. Addison didn't even sit by me and Ethan sat beside me and Caden on my lap. All of circle time was music/singing which my kids love! Last week our developmental therapist, Krista, had brought 2 songs to our house with props to go along with it and we did the same exact songs at school too. We hit sticks on wooden blocks for one and shook bean bags for another. We played with a teddy bear and parachute. And finally we did "Ring Around the Rosey" and that is our all time favorite here. One of the teachers commented more than once on how well they did. We'll see if that happens again -- might have been beginner's luck I don't know. Snack time was last and didn't go so well for Ethan. He threw his sippie cup twice and flung his crackers across the table. He either was tired or didn't care for the dinosaur crackers. I held him on my lap. It was hard for them to understand that they couldn't play again. They read a book to them at snack time and it seemed that Addison and Caden paid attention. I was really pleased with their effort I noticed that art time was listed on the schedule too but we didn't do any organized kind of art so maybe that's just occasionally. .
The teachers said we will need to make goals for each of the kids too and we'll sit down next week to discuss these. I'm looking forward to it tomorrow. There are 6 other kids in the class but yesterday only 3 others were there so maybe we'll meet some new friends tomorrow!

Easter Fun!

We had a great Easter. We stayed home and relaxed instead of going anywhere this time. It was so nice. The kids woke up early as usual and wanted to go down stairs right way and discovered the Easter Bunny has visited them! They loved their baskets of cars, stretchy spiders which Addison calls "crabbies", bubble guns, and other goodies. Then the bunny had hidden LOTS of eggs all over our house and we had a BLAST trying to find them all but we did it! Mommy fixed a small ham dinner and then WE all took a nap! One of the highlights was our nice neighbors, Charles and Marliyn, brought over Easter baskets for us at the end of the day and the paper grass was absolutely a HIT as you can tell!!!

Ethan finding some eggs!

I think Addison found the most!

A Party???

Last night I was telling the kids we were invited to an Easter party by Ethan's Development Therapist, Krista or "Kissa" as Addison calls her. They were excited to go -- only thing we had to be there at 9 am! This was held in the exact same place as our new "school" that we start next week so it was nice to see the room and meet the teachers. The kids had a blast. It was so cool. They could free play for a while and decorate bags for the egg hunt. Then there was an egg hunt only too bad Ethan was having a melt-down about having to put away the play-dough so he didn't look for any eggs until it was over. There were cookies and drinks. Then the Easter Bunny came to visit. Addison loved him and Ethan didn't mind either but Caden didn't want anything to do with him at all. Caden did yell "BYE" when he left maybe because he was glad to see him go! We had so much fun and I can't wait to start "school". Addison told me today that she loves chocolate!

Not just cookies for Cookie Monster

Too Cute! Addison was eating some grapes today and came to show me how much Cookie Monster likes them too.
They are still sick and we are headed to the doctor again today. They said they would "fit us in" so that doesn't sound good to me. Last time a couple weeks ago when they did that we waited 2 hours. Today it's me with all 3 could be disastrous! They are all coughing really bad especially at bedtimes and Caden woke up twice last night before 10 pm just crying so I wonder if we don't have ear infections too.

UPDATE: We went to doctor and kids were so good and we got right in. I love my doctor -- she's the best! Anyway Addison was wheezing at first and she was telling me we may all have to do breathing treatments every 4 hours but then after Addison coughed she sounded much better. Caden had an ear infection and Ethan's from last weekend looked better. She said give them some cold/cough medicine and call if they get worse.