I selected 3 books from the online library catalog today:

1. Scream-free Parenting
2. How to Keep Your Kids From Driving you Crazy: A proven program in improving your childs behavior and regaining control of your family
3. The Loving Parent's Guide to Discipline

Is is obvious what kind of week I've had? Praise God that Jon is on VACATION all next week!! For 10 whole days!! Woo-Hoo!

Jon and I took Megan, Ryan and Dylan to go pick-up Jacob from school today and then we took all the kids out to lunch! We've only eaten out 2 times since the triplets were born and both times were when the babies were very small and slept the entire time. This time, we all walked in to the pizza place together and actually sat at the table like a normal family! It was great! We pre-ordered the pizza, which was a life-saver. We rounded up 3 high chairs and got pizza cut up for the kids. Jon and I both managed to go through the salad bar and eat hot pizza! It seems silly ... just a simple lunch out, but this is a big deal for us. When the babies were born, I thought this day would never come. It's hard to take 4 kids out, let alone 4 kids ages 3 1/2 and under! The kids did great. They all ate off of a regular ceramic plate with a fork and there was no major catastrophes. I looked around at one point and thought "wow, this is going pretty good!" We all finished our pizza and got cleaned up. The funniest part of the lunch was when all the kids got down from their high chairs, Dylan spotted a little piece of pizza on the floor. He dropped to the ground and crawled under the table to get it. Before I could put Megan down and get down to Dylan, the pizza was already in his mouth! I told Jon, "I hope that was our pizza and not someone else's"! Oh well!

I'm still here!

It's been a little while since I've posted anything... Heather introduced me to Facebook and I'm hooked! It's great! I've connected with a lot of old and new friends. It's been fun to find friends from high school and chat with them again.

The kids are all finally feeling better. All the kids came down with hand-foot-mouth disease (which sounds worse than it actually is), but Dylan got it the worst. He got some soars in his mouth which made it very hard for him to eat, sleep and he didn't even want his binky! And for him, that is shocking! That's how I knew he really was in pain. I kept him on Motrin for about 4 days and that seemed to help. I think we are finally on the road to recovery!

We spent Monday morning at the park with the kids. We have had beautiful weather here lately, so being outside felt awesome. The kids had a blast at the park and playing with other kids. We packed a lunch and enjoyed a picnic together. Ryan feel asleep on the car ride home and the little ones went straight to naptime as soon as we got back. It was the best nap they've taken in a month! Even though taking 4 kids to the park is a little stressful and crazy, it truly is fun to see them growing and experiencing new things. We have always said that if we'd do it with 2 kids, we will at least try to do it with 4 kids! Overall, it was a fabulous day! I have a few photos that I'll post later tonight. :o)

Sick again...

4 out of the 5 of us are sick ... again! Jacob so graciously started this cold epidemic right around Christmas. Then he passed it to me, then I passed it to the babies, now Jacob and I have it again! We are sharing the love around here! I just got my voice back and I woke up yesterday with a scratchy throat and voice. When I picked up Jacob from preschool on Tuesday, I think every kid there was either coughing or had a runny nose. Between church and school, we are doomed to be sick! I've never been a big fan of the flu shot, but I'm going to seriously consider it for next flu season. Overall, the kids handle being sick pretty good. Megan takes after her mommy and is not a good sick person. She gets the worst snotty nose and has a lot of trouble sleeping. When I'm sick, I want to curl up in bed and blow my nose a thousand times while watching garbage daytime TV. However, those days are over. I think that's been one of the toughest things about being a mom - having sick kids and you being sick too. I don't know how Jon does it... he seems to skip getting sick and even if he does get it, it's gone in a day or two. Lucky guy! Anyway, I'm off to wipe more runny noses!!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my Dad's 60th birthday. He'll probably kill me for saying "60th" in that sentence, but I think it's something to be proud of. He has accomplished a lot in those 60 years and we are all so thankful to have him in each of our lives. What an awesome day to have a birthday! I think no matter who you voted for in this presidential election, today was a historical, powerful and memorable day for our Nation.

I was looking back through some old photos and I couldn't resist posting this one of Dad, me, Heather and Mom... Don't we look so cool!?! :o) (Look at Dad -is he not the coolest 80's Dad you've ever seen!?)

Family ski weekends are one of my favorite memories as a kid. There was one trip that Dad and I rode the chair lift together all day and we sang the Oscar Meyer hot dog song over and over and over. We laughed our heads off because whenever we hit a certain part of the chair lift, our voices would rattle during "B-O-L-O-G-N-A"! It probably sounds dumb, but for some reason it cracked us up all day!

Here is a photo of Dad and Megan this past Christmas Eve. Megan loves her Papa Tommy, as do all the kids!

Happy Birthday, Dad!! We love you!!

New Year's resolutions

I'm not a big New Year's resolution kind of person, probably because (like most people) I can't seem to stick with 'em. My number one resolution this year was about yelling. Now, I've never considered myself to be a yeller. In fact, I consider myself to be a rather calm and quiet person... that is, until I had 4 kids ages 3 1/2 and under! My resolution wasn't to not yell at all, because that would be setting myself up for complete failure. So, instead I resolved to yell less. Well, today I've successfully accomplished this resolution! I guess I should include that today I've completely lost my voice and every time I try to yell, nothing comes out! I've been battling a soar throat for the last few days and it finally took over my voice. It's so hard to control 4 little kids all day with no voice! I took the kids out for a walk this afternoon and Jacob took off running down the sidewalk and I tried to yell at him, but again, nothing came out. Thankfully, he stopped anyway. Hopefully I'll have some sort of voice tomorrow!!

Megan pooped in the potty!

Today, Megan came up to me and she was tapping her bottom and saying "poop, poop". I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty and she said "yeah" so we went into the bathroom, she sat on the little potty chair and she pooped in the potty! I was so shocked! I yelled "Megan's pooping on the potty!!!" and it was so loud she started crying! I think I scared it right out of her! Jon grabbed the camera and we caught her first potty experience, however I won't share it here because it's a bit graphic! (If anyone wants to see the photos, I can email them to you!) I swear, if she starts pooping on the potty all the time now, I am going to be SO excited! One less poopy diaper to change! Woo-hoo!!! :o)