The Tew Family

Halloween

2012-01-17T15:00:00.000-06:00

This Halloween the kids had a lot of fun! It was super warm so we did all sorts of fun outdoor activities which included a couple of pumpkin patches and the Dallas Arboretum.

Here is a few pictures of the boys playing at the park. As you can see they all can now swing on the big swings!

The trip to the Arboretum was a lot of fun and I was able to get some good pictures of the boys.

It was foggy that morning so this picture of Emerson was really neat. I was hoping the fog would stick around for a while so I could get more pictures, but it burned off fast.

Everett throwing hay

Playing on the pumpkins is a whole lot of fun. Emmett is showing us how it's done

We then got dressed in our costumes so that mom could take some pictures.
Britton was a very handsome fireman

Emerson was an Elephant (That day. They switched costumes everytime they put them on)

Emmett a zebra

And Everett was a giraffe. He of course was too busy playing with the zipper

This was the best I could do at a group picture. Britton wouldn't sit with them and was running around

A few pictures from one of the pumpkin patches.

If you look close you can see the sign says "For Sale". They would not cooperate so that I could get the "perfect picture"!

Checking out the "horse" with our friends, the Flintstones and the Rubbles, otherwise known as the Cox Quads

Here all four boys got in a wrestling match. Can you find all four in the picture?

Everyone got to carve pumpkins. Here is Daddy cutting all the tops off

Britton has always loved carving pumpkins

Everyone degutting pumpkins

Everett

Emmett

Emerson

Their kids finished pumpkins

All lit up

Britton's pumpkin

Mycayla's pumpkin

Britton's costume couldn't get better than the real thing. I could barely take pictures it was so reflective

Heading out trick or treating. We took the wagon for between houses, but we let all four kids walk up to the doors to go trick or treating

Emerson

Emmett

Everett

The boys trick or treating

Here was the first house we went to. The boys were really excited

Mycayla hung out with her friends and went trick or treating with them

Halloween was really fun this year and the boys got a ton of candy. I can't wait until next year. I'm sure they will be running around the neighborhood. I better start jogging now so that I can keep up with them!

Omaha trip

2011-11-11T14:49:00.000-06:00

The beginning of October we took a trip to Omaha to see our Grandson Brady. We haven't seen him since he was out of the hospital and this was the first time that we got to hold him! We went at the beginning of October so we could get there at the beginning of RSV season and before it got cold. Unfortunatly, the little boys had runny noses so we didn't let them around Brady.

Even Britton got to hold him!

Brady and his mom Kaitlin

We met up with Katie. Britton loves his biggest sister!

Since we went to Omaha in the beginning of October we were able to go to Vala's pumpkin patch. This is not your ordinary pumpkin patch, this is a huge place with so many fun things to do.

Hanging with Mickey!

Any takers.....?

One day they will all be in school and I may be able to regain some sanity. I can always hope, right?

Running through the graveyard to see the scary "guy"!

Of course we had to see the goats

Oh no, Britton turned into a ghost!

Rocking with Daddy

Hanging out with Aunt 'Dre

The boys on the pirate ship

Britton joined the pirates

Jumping in the hay

Waiting to see the pumpkin eating dragon. They really liked the show and talked about it the whole time!

The pumpkin eating dragon

Waiting for the train.

The jumping "pillows". The boys had fun on these but were a little nervous. Dad had to help them up and jump with them.

They had fun with this picture

One of the boys' favorite things was riding the bike with Daddy. The little boys thought they were so big and Britton had a blast going really fast with Dad.

After our day at Vala's we spent the next day at the Omaha Zoo. I was realy excited to take the boys, since it is one of the best zoos in the country. I was VERY upset that the aquarium wasn't open, since I knew that would have been their favorite part.

We met up with my Omaha triplet moms friends at the zoo. Carissa, who has 3 year old triplets and Laura who triplets are 18 days older than mine. Amanda drove up from Lincoln with her almost 3 year old boys. Katie, Mathew and Krista also met us at the zoo, so it was a great day with family and friends.

In the rainforest checking out all the monkeys, birds and fish

Katie and Emerson

Krista and Everett

Lunch! It only took 3 tables to hold 3 moms of triplets.

Riding the carousel

Checking out the sleeping gorilla

The kingdoms of the night was very fun for the boys. They enjoyed running around in the dark and checking out all the animals. Here they are looking at the turtles

The boys thought that it was great fun to put the hay that the goats were eating on top of them. Of course they had to be bad influences and show the Harper boys their bad ways ;)

Hopefully we will be able to make another trip to Omaha in the next few months. Brady is getting so big and Chris and I hope to be able to visit him as much as possible.

Colorado trip

2011-11-11T13:38:00.000-06:00

Over Labor day we made the very long trip to Colorado for my sister's wedding. When searching for hotels for us to stay at, I found a nice condo in Winterpark that was much cheaper than a hotel. The best part was that it was a three bedroom, 3 bathroom townhome with a full kitchen. This made traveling so much easier since everyone could have their own room and we could eat there. It even had an indoor hot tub!!
The only bad thing about staying in the mountains was that it a an hour and a half drive down the mountain, which included a 45 minute drive through Berthoud pass which is full of switch backs and a very scary drive at night!! Here is a some pictures of the mountains.

A view of the road from the top of the mountain.

A few pictures of the townhome.

The living room

The kitchen

Dining area. This table was perfect for all the kids to eat around!

The peapods that the boys slept in. These are one of the best inventions ever! They are basically a little personal tent that folds down to nothing.

The view

The boys sitting on the "porch". It was indoor but had a nice view of the mountains

The first couple of days we were there we did wedding stuff. The boys had a blast at the rehearsal dinner and the reception!

The boys checking out the fish at the wedding location

Marshal and Britton

Jade with the boys

Wedding day!

Kimberly and Bryan

Mycayla was a beautiful bridesmaid

The next day we went to an amusement park in the foothills called Heritage Square. They have a lot of mountain stuff and most importantly they have fun kids rides!

Nana and Emerson

Papa and Britton

Dad with Everett and Emmett

Everett and I

Dad and Emmett

Nana and Britton

Papa and Emerson

Nana and Mycayla on the bumper boats

Britton and Dad at the top of the Alpine slide

Getting ready to go down the slide

The little boys got to ride the ponies. They LOVED that.

Britton

We spent one whole day in Winterpark. It was fun to hang out in the mountains.
The train playground

Looking at the fountain

One of the boys' favorite thing to do was ride the Cabriolet. It was a free ride between the parking lots. Here is picture of the kids riding

The creek

The Coca Cola Bear

This guy was really cool. He was a living statue and would only move if you gave him money. Britton really enjoyed this and this guy got a lot of money from us ;)

They thought this boy was fun!

The little boys were a little freaked out by this tall girl. She had on stilt type things, but they had rubber bottoms so she could jump really high. She was really sweet and they warmed up to her a little.

After our fun morning we stopped for lunch and ate outside in the clean mountain air.

After our fun days we had to make the long drive home. 2 days in a car with 5 children is just a bit stressful!

Andrea, Mathew and Krista

2011-11-01T16:16:00.000-05:00

Andrea, Mathew and Krista all came to visit us this summer. It was so nice to have so many visitors and the kids all loved it. Here are some pictures from our fun times.

Mathew reading a story to the little boys

Mathew

Krista

We had a lot of fun and can't wait until everyone can come back to visit!!

Boating

2011-11-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

This year was much easier taking the boys boating. They understood what we were doing and they had so much fun.

When Mathew and Krista came to visit we took them boating with us. We also took Andrea, but I knew she wouldn't want me posting pictures of her in a swimsuit on the blog ;)

Britton and Mathew

Krista and Emerson

Mathew and Emmett

Krista and Everett

Mathew and Krista

Britton being a rebel

Emerson and Daddy

Mycayla and Krista

After tubing we drove to a nice calm place and went swimming

Splash park playdate

2011-11-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

Since most of the summer was centered around water, we met up with some friends and had a playdate at the splash park.

Playing in the water

The boys trying to figure out where the water went

We took a break from playing to have a picnic lunch

Look at all the choo choo's

After lunch the boys found a mud puddle and spent the rest of the time playing in it.

Britton had so much fun runnning around

He did stop for one quick picture

Summer fun

2011-11-01T15:20:00.001-05:00

We had a lot of fun this summer. Most of our days were spent at the swimming pool since most days were 100 degrees. Here's some pictures of our pool time.

Britton learned how to swim without flotations this year so that was a really big deal. He still needs a little help, even though he doesn't think so...

One of my favorite pictures from naked pool time

We also introduced the little boys to crab this summer. They LOVED it!

Happy 2nd Birthday

2011-11-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

The boys celebrated their 2nd birthday at the Children's Aquarium.

They had their names on the sign

We had cake and cupcakes

We got to touch all the animals in the touch tank with our friends

Checking out the sharks

Then we all sat and listened as they told us about the animals

After that we got to feed the stingrays. This was a huge hit with all the kids!

Then we had cake

"It's my party I can cry if I want to"

Thanks for coming to our party and making it a great day!

Block Party

2011-08-07T18:39:00.000-05:00

We had a block party this June and it was a blast. It was so nice to spend the day outside hanging with the neighbors. We had a bunch of food, a water slide, bounce house and plenty of alcohol!

The firemen and policeman showed up to show of their vehicles

Florida trip

2011-08-07T17:50:00.000-05:00

This as soon as school got out we decided to visit Florida. We have friends who live in Niceville and Chris has family in Pensacola. The drive there wasn't too bad since we broke it into 2 days. Our first stop was Niceville to stay the night with Tim and Deb. They have a house on the bay and it was wonderful! That morning I was even able to see dolphins swimming out in the bay. I want to live somewhere like that someday.

We went to Destin and hung out on the beach. The boys made some friends next to us and proceeded to take their chairs! They hung out for a while and our new friends didn't mind at all

Britton, Mycayla and I swimming in the ocean.

The waves were big that day so the little boys stayed away from the water. They spent most of the time playing in the sand.

The next day we drove to Pensacola and the spent the first half of the day at the beach

Emerson's footprints in the sand

We had lunch at the beach. I'm glad that they had outdoor picnic tables since we were wet, sandy and sweaty. The boys really liked getting to be big boys for a meal.

After the beach we went and had dinner at Kim's house and met Aunt Becki and Kim and her family. It was really wonderful to meet them and hope to be able to visit with them again. It didn't take long for the boys to warm up to them, but they did have the secret weapon....FOOD!

The next day we went to the Naval Aviation Musuem. All the boys (including Chris) were in awe! They loved all the planes!

After the museum the boys posed for some photos

After the musuem we visited the lighthouse. It was almost closed and we were pretty tired, so we didn't go to the top and just ran around the bottom. I got the boys to sit still for two seconds so that I could take a couple pictures

And then that night we had dinner on the beach. Complete with playground and sand volleyball

On our last day we just went to the beach on base. It is on the bay so there were very little waves and the boys were much happier with that. We were also able to find a lot more sea creatures and spent our entire swim with a big school of fish. They loved seeing all the fish swimming around them.

We were very sad that we couldn't stay longer and hopefully we can go visit soon!

Dinosaur Valley State Park

2011-07-10T23:16:00.000-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend Chris and I decided to take the boys on a adventure and we headed to Dinosaur State Park. It's abouta hour drive so we hit the road early to get there before lunch time. We stopped at Dinosaur World which is right outside the park and is really pretty neat. They have a big trail with a bunch of huge dinosaurs along the way.

Ahhh!!! The T-Rex ate Britton...

Now he ate Everett too!

The boys ran from dinosaur to dinosaur. They really enjoyed every second of it

There was a couple live deer that we got to see taking a drink.

We then fed the fish in the little lake

After our dino walk we had a fossil dig and everyone got in on the action. Britton really enjoyed finding the fossils in the sand and the little boys really enjoyed throwing the sand.

They let each kid keep 3 fossils and Britton is very proud of his treasures.

We then headed to the Dinosaur Valley State Park to check it out. There was 3 or 4 places where there are dinosaur tracks and we stopped at one to check it out. We had to go down some really steep stairs and then cross the river on a bunch of rocks. It was really difficult with all the kids, but we made it without any issues. A park ranger lady came by on a big atv and really liked the boys so she let Britton sit on the atv and she let us under the ropes so we could get a really good look at the footprints. They were really cool and the boys enjoyed touching, looking and stepping in them.

After that adventure is was really late in the day, so we packed up and headed home. We will definitely be visiting the dinosaurs when it cools off.

Museum of Nature and Science

2011-07-01T15:16:00.000-05:00

Our favorite quad friends joined us for another adventure! This time we took all the kids to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. This place is super fun, but it is NOT multiple friendly. The Museum is on two levels and of course the children's museum is on the bottom level and the only way to get there is to ride the smallest elevator EVER!
First Heather and all the kids went down....

And then I piled two 4 seater choo choo wagons and a trailer in the elevator. There was barely room for me to fit, which is why the picture is horrible! It was quite the experince and we got to do it again on the way up!

All 7 toddlers milked the cow

Emerson riding the tractor tricycle

Everett riding the horse

Checking out some snakes

Making some lunch

Emmett driving the fire truck

Making some music

Checking out the big nose. Heathers kids loved it (Baxlyn is in the front)my three thought the huge nose was scary (see Everett and Emerson trying to run away)

Britton touching a tornado

The huge shark teeth that could have ate all the kids in one bite!

The kids checking out the dinosaurs

I then suggested that we take all the kids to the IMAX. I had free tickets for the adults and Britton and all 7 of the toddlers were free, so why not!
Waiting in line for the IMAX. This was by far the worst part. 2 year olds do not have the patience to wait in one area for more than 30 seconds!

Getting our seats

All the kids did really well with the movie considering it was well into nap time. Everett and Emmett both fell asleep while watching the movie and we only had to leave 2 mins before it was over. Another adventure under the belt ;)

Mycayla's first dance

2011-06-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Mycayla went to the 8th grade dance this year and it was her first dance. She got her nails and toes done and got a lovely dress from a friend. I got to experience the fun of having three teenage girls in my house getting ready for a dance, and there wasn't any boys involved this year! I think it's going to get a little more entertaining in the years to come. Mycayla didn't want my to take pictures, but I did get a good picture of her.

Silly boys

2011-06-21T21:40:00.000-05:00

I walked into the boys' room the other day and Emerson and Emmett had gotten their shirts off and Everett had been working on his! It won't be long until they are dressing themselves. Just this morning Everett but both his sandals on by himself!

Every weekend Chris goes to the store and gets doughnuts for the kids. The boys' favorite is the powdered sugar. They like to put the powdered sugar all over their lips and blow :) It's super cute and they get so excited when they see those doughnuts!

Another zoo trip

2011-06-20T15:22:00.000-05:00

We meet up with our favorite quad mom and her wonderful kiddos again at the zoo. This time we took all 8 kids on the carousel and let them out of the wagon more to explore. Are we nuts? YES!! But they love every second of it, which is why we do it :)
Riding the carousel. It was really hard trying to take a picture while making sure that 4 kids didn't fall off the horses

Checking out the elephants!

Fish!

They have this great little rodent house which has some big tunnels that the kids can crawl through. They crawled through over and over again.

We then let them all run around the reptile house!

Britton fishing

2011-06-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

Chris has taken Britton fishing a couple of times. He really likes going, but only has the patience to sit and fish for a couple of minutes. I think when he finally catches a fish he will really get into it more.

I can't wait until I can post a picture with him and his fish!

Easter, Easter, Easter!

2011-06-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

We did alot this Easter and this will be the last blog post about all the fun we did. After our Spring Fling we went to a Church Easter Egg hunt and then we dyed eggs at home and the Easter bunny came to the house. It was so fun to have so many activities for the kids and I hope that each holiday is so much fun!
Emerson

Everett

Emmett

They had a little petting zoo with baby animals and all the boys LOVED it. Britton loved holding the baby ducks

Of course the boys were all over the goats

The boys really liked looking at the chicks. They wanted to hold them, but we wanted to protect the poor little things

We dyed Easter eggs the with all the boys and that was mostly a disaster. They were grabbing all the eggs and cups and dropping and breaking the eggs. Egg dying didn't last long, but here is a few pictures from the experience. Hopefully next year will go better.

Spring Fling Party

2011-05-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

Our wonderful Multiples hosted a Spring Fling party with petting zoo, egg hunt, facepainting and of course the Easter Bunny. It was held at a big park so the kids were able to run around and also play on the playground.

The first stop was the petting zoo of course. All 4 boys absolutely LOVE animals!Here Emmett is checking out the "neigh, neighs".

Britton chasing the chickens!

We then rode the ponies. Everett wasn't too sure at first

Britton had to ride the Princess horse, which he LOVED!

Emmett rode like he had been on a horse a million times

Emerson was pretty unsure and a little scared

After the ponies Britton got his face painted. It was funny that after the Princess horse he decided to get his face painted like a skull!

Then it was time for the egg hunt. Of course the boys knew exactly what to do and picked up a bunch of eggs.

The boys got a lot of eggs and they were nice enough to share with their friends who didn't get very many.

Emmett eating a jelly bean for the first time

Everett collecting as many eggs as he can

I found some fruit snacks in the eggs and they were a big hit with all 7 kids!!

Everett spotted something really cool

It was the Easter Bunny!! Britton didn't have any problem getting his picture taken with the Easter Bunny!

But none of the other kids would come close. Emerson got the closest, but wouldn't get into touching distance.

After the Spring Fling we invited our friends the Cox Quads over to our house to play and have dinner.

It's amazing that 7 kids all around the same age can get along so well. They have so much fun playing together

We then had dinner. We sat all 8 kids at the small kids table and picnic table to eat. They did good for the first 5-10 minutes

But then they got full and decided that they would play with the rest of their food and ended up throwing it. The end result wasn't very pretty! Luckily we have dogs so we just let them inside and they cleaned up the huge mess!

It was a fun day and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Fun

2011-04-07T16:36:00.000-05:00

On Sunday's we usually make breakfast for everyone and sometimes Daddy goes to Target and gets doughnuts. The boys really like powdered doughnuts. They were getting the powder all over their mouths and then cracking up. It was super cute.

Everett

Emmett

Emerson

I went to a local consignment sale and picked up Britton a big boy bike for $8.00!! He LOVES it and he is so proud of himself.

Playdoh!!!

2011-04-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

One cold rainy day the kids were driving me insane (hard to believe, I know) so I decided to break out the playdoh for everyone. This was the first time that the little boys have got to play with playdoh and they really enjoyed it.
Britton showing off his cake that he made

I made the boys "waffles" and they thought that was pretty cool

We then made some snakes and got to use knifes to cut them

The boys played really good for awhile and made a mess. Thankfully playdoh is pretty easy to clean up!

Zoo playdate

2011-04-07T16:19:00.000-05:00

We had another playdate at the zoo with the Cox quads and the Ballew triplets. It's nice to get out of the house and the zoo is the perfect place to go with all these kids!

It's hard to get all these kids in one picture!
From front to back- Carter, Tyler, Madison, Emmett, Emerson, Everett, Brody, Korbin, Kylee and Baxlyn.

Emmett showing me the Rhino

We then let the 7 toddlers out to see the goats. It won't be much longer and then the Ballew triplets will be running around with them too!

And check out the fish

On the bridge checking out the ducks (or the quack quacks as we call them)

Britton was "hiding" on the turtle

Riding the "pony"

Zoo trips are so much fun and the kids really love to see all the animals.

Arboretum

2011-04-07T15:53:00.000-05:00

We went to the Arboretum with the Ballew triplets and the Key triplets to see the Princess castles and all the pretty tulips. It was spring break so it was a lot more croweded then it usually is and we didn't stay very long.

Britton wondering what happened to Rapunzel's hair

The boys looking at the flowers. Really they were trying to pull them all off!

The little mermaids castle

The Tew triplets and the Key Triplets

Britton was having fun posing for pictures

Everett inspecting the flowers

Emmett trying to get some flowers

Emerson admiring the flowers

I think this is Beauty and the Beast castle

Britton reading the story about the castle

We had a picnic lunch with the Ballew triplets and the Key triplets. Notice how their babies still stay put and my kids are all over the place?!

We then stopped for a couple photos. Notice the paparazzi in the background?

I was hoping to get back to the Arboretum this week to see the castles again when it wasn't so crowded, but we'll see.

San Antonio/Seaworld

2011-03-30T21:49:00.000-05:00

We took another trip done to San Antonio the beginning of March and took the kids to Seaworld. I was able to find a VERY nice hotel (resort) on a travel site for a very good price. When we got to the resort we couldn't believe how nice it was! It also had EVERYTHING that you could ask for. There was a very big pool with a lazy river, a sand beach next to the pool, with a fire pit for making s'mores, tennis courts, walking paths, activities for the kids including rental bikes for the family, and they even had a very nice playground. I really couldn't believe this resort and we will be going back there the next time we visit. The resort also had a restraurant, and really you would never really need to leave since everyone was right there.

When you walked into the lobby they had a big fish tank which the boys loved.

The lobby also had a nice little waterfall.

The boys of course LOVED running down the halls to our room. When your a kid I think the best part of staying at a hotel is running down the long halls :)

This is a picture of part of the pool

And the VERY nice playground. It was so nice to have somewhere we could take the boys to burn off some energy

Our room had a balcolny and the boys enjoyed going out and looking around

Everett sitting in on of the rocking chairs in the lobby

After we checked into our hotel we met up with our friends Renee and Josh and their kiddos. While at their house we found the perfect containment for the boys

And Britton got to dress up like a princess. He was even wearing the shoes! He sure does make a cute girl :)

On Sunday we met up with Josh and Renee and both our families went to Seaworld. Trying to get pictures with 3 21 month olds, a 3 year old, a 4 year old and then a 13 year old, is impossible!!

Britton and Kaydence meeting Shamu

The first thing we did was feed the dolphins. Britton had a blast and the babies seemed to enjoy it. They kept calling the dolphins puppies and they all threw them some fish. It was a lot harder this year to keep them all still on the wall.

Emmett and Everett checking out the fish

Everett, Emerson, Britton, Kaydence and Emmett looking at all the fish

They had added a couple of kid rides since last year and Emmett was just dying to go on. So Chris, Mycayla, Britton, Kaydence and Emmett all went on the ride. It went fairly fast and spun around and Emmett just sat there without too much expression on his face. I couldn't really tell if he was enjoying the ride or if he was scared, but when it stopped and they had to get off he was so upset. So apparently he really enjoyed it!

We also got to watch a show by Elmo, Abbie, Cookie Monster, Grover and Zoe. Britton enjoyed meeting them all and the babies were in awe. They didn't like getting too close to the characters, but they were brave enough to give a couple high fives. Here is Britton meeting cookie monster

There was huge playground with tunnels and Chris took Britton and Emmett up on it.

Daddy with Emmett and Everett watching the Shamu show. They were very excited. I was holding Emerson and he was scared the entire show. He had his hands over his eyes and was peeking through his fingers. I thought I had gotten a picture with my camera, but it seems like I only got one with my phone :( So check out facebook for that one!

Emerson was much happier watching the beluga/dolphin show. I think it had something to do with the music. Shamu had suspenseful music and the dolphins was very upbeat

Britton and Everett eating popcorn at the show

Seaworld sure does wear you out!

Britton rode one of those water rides that goes fast down the hill and splashes at the bottom. We bought the picture for it since the look of sheer terror on his face was priceless. Once we get it scanned into the computer I'll have to edit the blog and add it :)

We hope to go back to San Antonio at least once more this year, but hopefully we can make it more than that. It is a fun city and there is so much to do there with the kids. It's also nice to have good friends to visit while we're there as well!

Chuck E Cheese

2011-03-24T21:41:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I took the boys to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. I was really nervous before getting there, wondering how I was going to keep track of them all, but to my surprise the place was dead!! I guess it does help to go at 10:30 on a weekday, but it was so nice and I didn't have to worry about the boys running around.

To say the boys loved Chuck E Cheese is probably an understatement. I cannot put into words how excited they were and how much fun they had. Emmett was the only one of the triplets that would ride the rides. He was fearless and rode everything he could. He would get done with one ride and then run to the next one. I tried to get Everett and Emerson on a ride but they just screamed like I was torturing them.

Emmett's first ride of the day. You really can't beat that smile!

Everett and Emerson watching Emmett on the ride. They weren't too sure about all that.

Britton posing with Barney

Britton playing a game

The boys running around the place

Emmett on the race horse game

Emmett riding the roller coaster

The boys eating their pizza lunch

We will definitely be going back. I still have tokens that we didn't use which is really surprising with all the rides and games.

Angela

2011-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

I don't know how she does it but she manages to keep it all together after taking care of the boys every day. Some days I get home and she's ready to pull her hair out and needs to get out of the house and I can understand why. After just a few hours with them sometimes I'm ready to pull my hair out and I don't have much to pull. I love my wife very much and hope someday once things settle down I'll be able to get her away for a week of no kids so she can relax, hopefully I can go with her. She's done an amazing job so far and hasn't beaten any of the children, although she's come close a few times with Britton.

Love ya honey

Chris

Gala

2011-03-21T21:33:00.000-05:00

My multiples group had a fund raising Gala and it was a really good time. They had a good dinner, casino tables, an auction and drinks!

Chris and I finally had a reason to dress up nice and go out!

Heather and I played some games and did pretty well for the night

Heather, Laura and I had a great time hanging out!

Second snow

2011-03-21T21:21:00.000-05:00

Our second snow here was more than the first one, but it was still only a couple of inches that were gone by the next day. The boys weren't too sure about the first snow, but this time they were ready to get out and play.

When your 4 shoveling is fun

Everett was all about the snow and was all over the place

They were trying to figure out what I was doing

Britton

2011-03-21T21:10:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd do a little post on Britton. The poor guy has really had his life turned upside down since the triplets arrived but I thinking he's finally starting to adjust to having all these little brothers. I think it helps that they are now big enough that he can actually play with them now and they all really enjoy playing together. I still feel bad that I can't give him the attention he needs, because all of my focus is always on the little boys. I've been trying really hard to make sure that I spend some one on one time with him everyday and try to do fun stuff with him.

This year Britton started preschool and he has so much fun going on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They had a cute little program at the school with a couple of songs. It was really cute and made me tear up for sure.

For his birthday Britton got a really neat shaving kit and he shaves EVERY time that he gets a bath. He needs to make sure he does it "just like Dad"

Children's Aquarium

2011-03-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

We had a playdate with our friends at the Children's aquarium. It's pretty crazy to have 8 little kids running around and only 2 moms. Talk about being outnumbered!!

Eating lunch

Checking out some fish

The lobsters were pretty cool

Everett loves the Octopus arms :)

Britton is a great help pulling all 7 babies in their wagons. I'm amazed that he has the strength to do that.

Britton playing on the BIG Elephant!

Fooooooddddd!!

2011-03-21T20:26:00.000-05:00

We eat a lot of food around here! It's amazing how much food 4 little boys can eat. I'm really concerned how we are going to feed them when they are all teenagers. I guess I will really have to get creative on the pasta meals.

The boys are so big and now they eat whole apples!

Emmett showing me something on his hand

Emerson chowing down

Everett

We fill their plates three times a day and they still always act like they are starving ;)

Mmmmm delicious!

Since the weather is so nice most of the time we eat lunch outside almost every day. It sure saves mom some sanity not having to clean highchairs after lunch! I would prefer to eat every meal outside because then I wouldn't have to clean up at all :)

I have been contemplating taking donations for non-perishable food so that when they are teenagers I won't have to get a job just to feed them!

Britton's 4th Birthday

2011-03-18T21:54:00.000-05:00

Since we packed up and left for Omaha super quick Britton celebrated his birthday there. We made sure to get him a cake to celebrate and he had a party once he got home

My friend Mandy made Britton an awesome dinosaur cake

The Birthday boy himself

Britton's biggest request for his party was a pinata.

All the kids had a blast picking up all the prizes

And then their was presents!!

Britton really enjoyed his party this year and we thank everyone that could make it!

Baby Brady

2011-03-18T21:32:00.000-05:00

On January 14th, 2011 our Grandson Brady was born at 27 weeks and weighed 1lb 14oz. Thankfully, he is a strong little boy and has not had any major problems regarding his health.

Andrew unfortunately had mono at the time of delivery so he wasn't allowed in the NICU for a few days and then he couldn't touch Brady for a few after that.

But Kaitlin (Mom) was able to touch him

In this picture she was helping the nurse hold him up so the nurse could change his bedding. You can really see how small he is

Chris went back to visit this past weekend and Brady sure has grown!! He is now off the ventilator and C-PAP and is just on a nasal cannula. He is still being fed by the NG tube but hopefully they will start bottle feeding soon. He has also been out of the isolate and in a big boy crib for a couple weeks now. Hopefully, he will be able to wean off the oxygen and learn how to oral feed so he can go home!

Snow!

2011-03-18T15:36:00.000-05:00

Wintertime in Texas is great! There was only a three week spam that it was really cold and we were stuck inside. It only snowed here twice, but that was plenty for the kids to go out and play in. I much prefer the warm weather!

Britton making a snow angel

Children's Aquarium

2011-03-18T15:27:00.000-05:00

When Mathew, Katie and Krista came to visit we took everyone to the Children's Aquarium in Dallas. It was recently redone and everything is at the kids level, so it's a great place to go.

The little boys checking out the fish

They have a touch tank where you can touch some of the animals

Big sharks to look at

The boys really like being able to get up close. Everett checking out the sharks

Emerson checking out the sharks

Emmett checking out the sharks

You can even feed the stingrays, which was Brittons favorite part

Everett playing with the Octopus

Everett and Emmett

The little boys looking at the jellyfish

The boys really liked the albino alligator that lives there

Emmett

They also have a really cool turtle

The boys took turns giving the turtle kisses

All the kids at the stingray tank

Britton's hair cut

2011-03-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

Britton thought that it would be a good idea to give him self a haircut the day before pictures. I was a little mad to say the least, but honestly couldn't help laughing. What was I going to do? The damage was already done.

Luckily he is a boy and I was just able to shave his head down to almost nothing, but it was still noticeable.

Katie, Mathew and Krista's visit

2011-03-18T14:41:00.000-05:00

Katie, Mathew and Krista came to visit us for a week after Christmas and brought the kids some gifts.

The kids reading books

Opening some presents

Andrew and Kaitlin set some books for the boys and gave Britton a cool puzzle game. He really enjoyed playing it with Katie and Mathew

Unfortunatley, we were on our second round of the stomach flu when the big kids got there and Emmett was not feeling well at all.

One of the best things that everyone did was go ice skating. It was the first time Britton ice skated and he loved it. We have since signed him up for lessons!

Britton putting on his skates.

Getting ready to go out on the ice

We can't wait until they come to visit again!

Christmas

2011-01-04T14:00:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun this Christmas with the boys.
We put up the tree and all the stockings. We had to gate off the tree so it survived!

We started off with the Multiples group Christmas party.
Britton got his face printed to look like Batman

Then he got an Alien ballon from the clown

It's nice that Britton can pull the boys around sometimes

We took the boys to Bass Pro to see Santa. The little boys of course were scared of him so we all got our picture taken.

The boys got a big box delivered with presents from Nana, but I think the best part was the box and the peanuts (or snow as Britton called it) inside

Britton thought it was just as fun to clean up as it was to make the mess

One of the packages inside that big messy box was a recordable book from Nana. We all sat and listened while she read us the story

We also made and decorated some cookies.

The little boys got to help too

Britton was so excited on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. We didn't get many pictures of the boys and their Christmas presents since we mostly used the video camera. The little boys really didn't "get it" this year, so they weren't really into it. They got some pirate costumes for Christmas and of course had to try them out right away.

The other big hit was the shopping carts that they got. They love to push them around and put all sorts of things in them. These pictures were taken when they didn't know we were watching. It's nice when they play together. Most times it doesn't last long before they are fighting over something!

School Pictures

2011-01-04T13:59:00.001-06:00

This year Mycayla and Britton had school pictures taken and here they are!!

Hopefully next year I can have all 5 kids in "school" at some point

Gaylord Texan

2011-01-04T13:23:00.000-06:00

We took the boys to the Gaylord Texan to have a little Christmas fun! We spent the night and they all had a great time. It's a very nice hotel and was decorated wonderfully for Christmas. The boys really liked looking at the lights after it got dark.
There was a huge gingerbread house of the hotel. They had all the little details in there too!

There was some cute Elfs to take pictures by

Lots of fun decorations to look at

A big fountain to pose by

A huge gingerbread house

Trains to look at

The boys really liked this big Texan Santa

We had fun walking around looking at everything

[IMG]http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u131/tew654/IMG_2321.jpg[/IMG]

Britton enjoyed looking like Rudolph and finding the Reindeer

He also enjoyed pretending to be Santa in his sleigh

Then we got to see Santa. We had already gotten a family picture with Santa so we just went up and had a chat and we couldn't take any pictures. We saw Santa that night and then again the following morning. Santa even remembered the boys' names!
Waiting in line to see Santa

Here is a picture of Santa's chair

We even got a decent group photo

Since we stayed at the hotel we got ICE tickets for free.

Since it was so cold they gave everyone parkas. They were really big for the babies and you couldn't take strollers, so it was really interesting walking around with the boys tripping over their coats and not being able to hold our hands very well
The coats went way past their arms and down to their feet

We had to walk through pretty fast since it was cold and the babies were mad about the coats, but I was able to get a few good pictures

They had a slide made out of ice so Britton tried it out. It was hard to walk up the stairs in such a big coat

Then we let Britton go down the sledding hill. It was weird to see snow hills in the middle of a hotel convention room

I'm glad that we payed for the unlimited rides because I think he went down that hill 565 times!!!
I bought the boys little souvenir bells that they really enjoyed playing with. It also kept them busy while Britton was sledding

Friends and Fun!

2011-01-04T13:07:00.000-06:00

Thankfully this year we have not been on lockdown for RSV season and winter here in Dallas is great, so we've been out and about having fun with friends.

Britton and his friend Nola went to see Yo Gabba Gabba live! They both LOVED it!

Sesame Street live is coming in March and Chris and I plan on taking all 4 boys to see it!

We also went and played with our friends the Cox Quads at Going Bonkers (I didn't get any pictures there :( ) and then all 8 of us went out to eat. Can you imagine all the comments we got with 2 adults 1 three year old and 7 one year olds! The most common one was "Are you a daycare?"

I've have been giving the boys bowls occassionally so they can pratice. The really enjoy eating oatmeal and yogurt out of bowls with spoons.
Emerson

Everett

Emmett

I ordered the little boys fleece coats for a Christmas presents, but they were so cute that I didn't end up wrapping them and they started wearing them right away. Here they are modeling their coats

The boys all want to sit in my lap now and it's cute for about 2 seconds until they start pushing each other. We've already started the "MOM, he's touching me"!

Our puppy Bella is getting big so we've been trying to take some pictures of her to remember how small she once was. Here is a picture of her laying on the Elmo couch

Here is a picture of Bella and Codi. It won't be long until Bella is bigger than Codi!

So far it's been a busy winter and I'm so thankful for the great weather. You can't beat 50 degrees at 8am in January!!

A couple of randoms

2010-11-30T21:45:00.001-06:00

The boys are growing so fast these days. We have started to have snack at our big boy table in the kitchen as opposed to on the floor or in their high chairs. They really like sitting at the big boy table, because that makes them big boys.

It's a much bigger mess to clean up though so we will stick with snacks and a couple of lunches for now.

In other news Emerson has finally decided that walking is a good thing thing and I now have 3 full time walkers!! Next up potty training!

We also added a new member to our family. Her name is Bella and she is a Great Pyrenees, which means that she will be BIG! This is good though, since the boys need a dog that will be able to withstand boyhood. Great Pyrenees are farm dogs who usually protect the livestock, but they are also get family companion dogs and excellent with kids. The boys love her and chase her around all over the house. Apparently, I have not taken enough pictures of her so I will have to get on that. She's already about doubled in size since we got her a couple of weeks ago.
She thinks that she belongs on the couch and it was cute to see her curled up next to Britton while he was taking his nap

Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T21:41:00.000-06:00

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving here and didn't really do too much. We fried a turkey, made some stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and corn pudding and then had some pumpkin pie. I was nice enough to let Everett and Emmett each have their own slice of pumpkin pie.

Poor Emerson was sick with a fever and didn't eat any Thanksgiving dinner. He was asleep on me when I was taking pictures of his brothers.
Luckily we didn't have any plans to go anywhere, since with a sick baby we wouldn't have been able to make it anyway. It was a very relaxed, stress free Thanksgiving.

Dallas zoo

2010-11-30T21:27:00.000-06:00

I got a membership to the Dallas zoo and have been quite a few times. It's a fun place for the kids and gets us out of the house for awhile. We took Dad a couple of weeks ago and the babies got to ride the carousel for the first time.
They didn't know what was going on and cried most of the time, but I'm sure it won't be long until we can't get them off of it

Of course Britton had a blast

It was nice to go with Chris because then Britton got to do some things he wanted to do like sit on the elephant

Britton also wanted to ride the birds nest on the carousel so he could spin in a circle while going in a circle. Just like his mom when I was a kid

We also took them on the Monorail so we could see some of the other animals that we can't see when it's just me. I think their favorite part was getting to run up the ramp to the top

Everett just wanted to lick the bar....YUCK!!!

They did think it was pretty cool to sit up and see all the animals
Britton is our navigator at the zoo and he checks the map and tells us where we need to go

The first time that we went to the zoo with our friends Mandy and Nola we got to feed the giraffes which was really cool. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to feed them since
Britton and Nola

I held the babies so they could feed the giraffes too! Everett was the only one who didn't really enjoy it. He doesn't seem to like animals that are bigger than him

The Children's zoo has a river in it that the kids can play in. Of course Britton was right in there

We love the zoo and try to visit often. There will plenty more zoo pictures in the years to come!

Dallas Museum of Nature and Science

2010-11-30T21:15:00.000-06:00

We heard that the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science had some dinosaurs so of course we had to go check it out. It was a lot of fun and I thank Mandy for coming with me and helping keep my boys somewhat together. It is a really fun place, with lots of stuff for the kids to do, but it is all open so very easy for 4 boys to take off in 4 different directions and they did!
This guy was out in the middle and he was HUGE!! Britton wouldn't even go near him because he was so scary!

When you first walk into the dinosaurs they have this big scary T-Rex that starts moving when you walk in. Britton was scared of him and the babies were not happy at all. I felt a little bad for them, but it was kind of funny to see them so scared of the dinosaurs

They calmed down a bit when they weren't right next to any of the dinosaurs. I think the most scary part was that they were loud
This picture shows Everett pointing at the dinosaurs

This was the one he was "talking" about

After the dinosaurs we let them out of the wagon and let them run around. They were all over the place.
Here the boys are on the farm (their favorite place)

Climbing through the tunnels

Britton LOVED the fire truck and fire suits. He played with that for a long time and didn't want to take it off

The babies did one of the puzzle things for about 2 seconds (while I took a pic) before they were off to something else

I bought a membership and can't wait to go back. It was a lot of fun and the babies had a blast. I think next time we should bring Dad along!

Petting zoo

2010-11-30T20:59:00.000-06:00

We found a cute little petting zoo in Forney, TX not too far from our house. They have goats, pigs, chickens, horses, emu and all sorts of fun creatures for the kids to visit. The boys (all 4 of them) LOVE this place since they can run around with all the animals.
The babies absolutely LOVE goats and I have comtemplated getting them one. The goats doen't care if the boys climb on them, pull their hair or push them around. Please they would keep the grass cut ;)
They were checking to see if there was anything good to eat in the wagon

Everett wasn't too sure about the goat all up in his face

This goat thought Emerson's shirt would be a nice snack

Here is a picture of the horse. She was super sweet

The pigs. The babies liked the noises that they made

Britton had a blast chasing this Rooster all over

They had a HUGE sandbox. I told Chris that he's going to need to build one this big for the boys

Because our sandbox right now just doesn't cut it

They have this homemade spinning thing that they could not get enough of!

Halloween

2010-11-30T15:57:00.000-06:00

We had a great October and did a lot of things for Halloween. It's easy to do a lot of stuff when the weather is so nice. Most days in October where in the 70's and 80's. Much better than the cold 40's and 50's in Omaha!
The babies dressed up as the Three Little Bears and they were so cute!

Emerson Bear

Emmett Bear (He saw the moon for the first time

Everett Bear. Everett would not keep his hat on at all

Britton was a Police Officer!

Britton and Everett even dressed up as a witch

Halloween night was wonderfully nice (I think around 70 degrees) and we took everyone out Trick or Treating. Britton was the only one we let go up to the door this year, since we didn't need 4 times the candy. Once the babies got tired Dad took them home and Britton and I stayed out for another hour getting some good candy.

One of the fun things we did this year was visit the Pumpkin Houses at the Dallas Arboretum. Again it was beautiful when we went and we had a lot of fun.

Emerson

Emmett

Everett

One of the cool pumpkin designs

Britton with his buddy Conor

They are super cute together holding hands

The little boys checking out the pumpkin houses

Britton playing in one of the houses

I tried to get some cute fall pictures but I wasn't very successful

Britton was even able to Trick or Treat there

We then tried to get a family picture

The boys had fun running around in the grass

Why does Everett always look like we are torturing him?

Everyone got to carve pumpkins this year including the babies
Emerson

Everett with his pumpkin

Emmett

Britton craving his pumpkin with Dad

Mycayla with her pumpkin

Pretty scary giving a 3 year old a knife

We then had a costume parade with the Multiples club

And Britton got to ride the carousel for the first time by himself

Then we had a Halloween party with the Mom's group
Britton with his witch fingers

The babies thought they should have a turn at the pinata too!

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-14T16:57:00.001-05:00

The multiples group that I belong to had a social at a Pumpkin patch so we took the kids to check it out. It was in North Texas and took us a little over an hour to get there. Of course it did not even compare to Vala's, but Britton had fun running around and feeding the animals.

The babies love animals so they really liked seeing all the goats

We tried to get the babies to feed the goats, but they thought they should eat the animal food themselves. Emmett and Emerson tried to touch the goats

They got all the multiples together and got a group shot. Extremely hard with all the little kids

Then we let the babies out and have a picnic lumch with our friends the Cox Quads.

We blocked one side with the two sets of Choo Choo wagons so that the babies could not run off in that direction. It's hard to keep tabs on 7 little ones!

After lunch we went and picked out the kids' pumpkins in their little pumpkin patch.
We let Britton pick out the pumpkins for himself and the little boys, so he was all over the place

Everett checking out his pumpkin

Emmett with his pumpkin

Emerson with his pumpkin

As you can see Emerson was very excited about his pumpkin

I'm not sure if you can read the shirts, but they say "It's my brothers fault". I'm sure I'll be hearing that one all the time

And of course we had to get a picture of Britton with his pumpkin. He picked the smallest pumpkin because "It is so cute"

I told him to hold up his pumpkin so I could see how big it was and he put it over his head

Mycayla got a pumpkin too, but she wasn't as excited about it as the boys were

We didn't end up staying to terribly long since it was a small place and started to get really busy. Sure made me miss Vala's even more though. We're hoping to go to Vala's next year with all the kids.

Fire Station Tour

2010-10-14T16:47:00.000-05:00

Last week we went to the Rowlett Firestation for a tour with the Rowlett moms group. Britton loves fireman so he was all about this. It wasn't a very get thing for the babies, and hard for me, but he was super excited so it was worth it. The fire chief talked to the kids about fire safety and what they should do if there was a fire. Then one of the firemen got suited up and they had the kids go up and shake hands with him since kids can get scared of the fireman and not come to them if there is a fire.
Britton was right in front listening so well

And then he was the first one in to drive the truck. They let him turn on the lights too!

The babies were being so good the whole time and I pushed them right up to the fire truck so they could check it out. They thought all the holes were pretty neat.

It will be interesting when I have the 4 of them running around at one of these things.

Corpus Christi

2010-10-13T20:47:00.000-05:00

We took a not long enough vacation to Corpus Christi with some friends that we knew in Omaha who now live in San Antonio. On the way down we stayed at their house overnight so the drive wasn't as long and crazy for us. Since San Antonio is about 4-5 hours from us we took our time and stopped at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Safari. When we got there we let the babies out of our seats and I held Everett and Emmett while Chris held Emmett and drove. They LOVED it to say the least and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. They were trying to make animal sounds and talk to the animals. This safari was really good and all the animals were either on the road or really close and came right up to the cars.

Even the shy deer were right out in the open

It was hard to get pictures since I was holding 2 babies and Mycayla was trying to take them from the back. Here is a couple pictures of Everett having a blast and trying to climb out the window

The ostriches came right up the the car and started pecking the windows. I'm thankful that we were warned about them because they are HUGE

There were also signs that said that the zebras might bite, so we left the windows up just in case. They came right up to the windows and tried eating the car mirrors.
They are amazingly beautiful animals

After the driving part they had a little petting zoo place where you could pet the goats. There was a bunch of goats in there and some really cute babies. Britton was in love with the little baby goats. I took the bad of food in there and was attacked! It was funny to me but Emmett didn't appreciate very much, since I was holding him.

Britton with the babies

I highly recommend this place and we will definitely visit again the next time we go to San Antonio.

After spending the night in San Antonio we headed to Corpus Christi. Thankfully it's only 2 hours from San Antonio. Since there is so many of us in our family we had to get a suite with a kitchen and separate room and then an adjoining room onto that.
We had to rearrange some of the furniture, but we were able to get all three pack n plays into the room with us.

Britton showing off how cool he is

It was nice to have extra room for the babies to run around, and to also be able to have somewhere where they could go to sleep undistrubed (and I didn't have to hide in the bathroom)

Here is our little kitchen, but we had a good size fridge, microwave and big sink. Makes life soooo much easier when you have three babies

Mycayla was also happy that she had someplace that she could go to escape some of the craziness. She did have to share a bed with Britton, but that seemed to work pretty well.

I think the babies favorite part was the full length mirrors. They couldn't get enough of looking at themselves

The first night there we ate at a place called Snoopy's. It's right on the water.

After dinner we headed back to the base where they were having an end of summer bash. They had a bunch of inflatables and things for the bigger kids to do.
Britton jumping

Britton and Kaydence got some cool tattoos

Britton on the bull

Checking out the fire truck

The next day we got up and hit the beach. I was a little concerned at first about the babies running around with all that water right there.
It was fun to see the kids' reaction to the ocean. Everett was right in there without any hesitation.

At first he wasn't sure when the waves came up

Emerson wasn't really sure about the waves either

Everett and Emerson

Emmett preferred to stay right on the edge

Emmett and Emerson decided that they did not like the waves, so they stayed out of the water and played in the sand
Emmett

Emerson

Everett on the other had wasn't scared at all and was in the water most of the time

The babies loved all the seagulls and would chase after them. Here is Everett pointing at the birds

Chris caught the beginnings of an Emerson tantrum on camera and it's so cute this way I had to share. It's so much better when you don't have to hear it.

Britton saw the ocean and couldn't wait to get in. He loved every second and it was so hard for us to get him out. Even when he was shivering and super cold he would fight us to stay in the water.

Britton and Kaydence LOVED chasing the seagulls as much as the babies did

They were all over the place

Britton got some lessons in boarding

Mycayla had a lot of fun in the ocean and spent a lot of time playing in the waves

Chris got a picture of a big flock of pelicans as they flew over Britton and I

We stopped by South Padre Island and there was a lot of big dark spots in the water. I got out to see what it was and it was thousands of little fish.
All the dark is fish

It was crazy to see all those little fish in one place

The kids had soooo much fun on the beach and Britton asks to go back all the time. The babies had so much to do and would just sit and dig in the sand. They hardly got crabby the whole day that we were there, which is pretty amazing.
That night we ate at a place called Blackbeard's. It wasn't as Pirate as I thought it would be, but it was good food.

The next day we went to the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington.
It's amazing how big that ship is. It is not stroller friendly so Chris and Josh took Britton and Kaydence while the rest of us checked out the shops.

Britton and Kaydence on the gun

The Texas State Aquarium was really cool and the kids really enjoyed it. The dolphin show was really good and you could get really close

They had a show where a diver went in a fed the fish and Britton got his picture with the diver

We got a nice picture at the Aquarium. Mycayla's eye was really swollen that day for some reason and she didn't want to be in the picture.

That evening we headed back to the beach and let the kids play for a little while and then we made a fire and had smores
Everett thought he would help with the fire pit

Unfortunately, as soon as the sun went down the mosquitoes came out and even with bug spray we were getting bit. Britton had 50 bites on his poor ankles. Plus fire and babies don't really mix well. The babies thought fire would be fun to play with and they kept trying to run into it. We had a couple smores and then we packed up and were out of there for the night.

Our trip was wonderful, the kids were really good, but it wasn't long enough. We only had about 2 days and there is a lot of other things that I would have liked to see. Hopefully we will be able to visit again sometime soon. Maybe in the spring before it gets too hot.

Snowball visit

2010-10-13T20:33:00.001-05:00

When I was 5 weeks pregnant with Britton I joined a internet birth board with a bunch of women who were all due in January. We have kept in touch via our message board and facebook for the past 4 years and I have made some really good friends, although I had never met them in real life. One of these wonderful women is a photographer and was able to come to Dallas to take pictures of 3 of our families. I had Diane take the triplets 1 year old pictures and some pictures of Britton. While here Diane stayed with Abbie who is another "Snowball" mom and we met up with Chanece (who also got pictures). Here is a picture of the 4 of us along with Chanece's son.

We met up at the Dallas World aquarium and I was able to get some cute pictures

Abbie with her "Snowball"

Diane and Britton checking out the sloth. The sloth was awake and eating....I've never seen one awake

The babies watching the otters. The otters love the bright colors of the wagon and always come out to play. The babies love seeing the otters swimming around in front of them

They had some dancers there performing. The babies were too close though and got scared

I got a picture of the 3 "Snowballs" together. It is really hard to get a good picture of 3 three year olds. In this picture we were trying to get them to make silly faces.

Then a picture with the siblings

Boys!

2010-10-13T20:23:00.000-05:00

The little boys had to get their haircut AGAIN a few weeks ago. I am just waiting for the day that they hold still enough that I can attempt to cut their hair myself. Today I noticed that Emmett's hair is getting long again and will be ready for a haircut soon. I can't believe how fast it is growing. Here is a couple of pictures from their last haircut.

Everett

Emmett

Emerson

You also may have noticed the owie under Everett's eye. These boys are definitely boys and have the bumps and bruises to show for it. Everett is the biggest daredevil and not much seems to phase him.

Everett decided that it's more fun to be IN the water table.

He kept standing up to get out

Of course his way of getting out was to fall out head first into the mud. That didn't phase him at all and he would just climb back in and fall back out. He did that about 5 or 6 times before I decided that it was time to go in before he hurt himself. He had mud all over him.

Plano Balloon Festival

2010-10-13T20:05:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to the Plano Balloon Festival. We thought they would enjoy seeing all the balloons up in the air. We were right they loved seeing the balloons. It was crazy busy and Emerson got a bad fever while we were there, so we ended up leaving early, but we did have a good time.

The balloons going up

Britton really liked the pirate balloon

We had to get there right around dinner time, so we had a picnic dinner.

When it got dark they did a balloon glow and lit up the balloons on the ground. It was really neat to see them this way

Unfortunately, by this time Emerson's fever had gotten really bad and we needed to leave so we didn't see too much of the balloon glow. Hopefully next year we'll have better luck.

That night Emerson had a 103 fever and the next day we were in the ER with Emerson and Emmett. Emmett was wheezing really bad and pulling his chest in with his breaths. After 3 long hours with 3 babies in the ER we came home with antiboitics for Emerson and Emmett and an inhaler for Emmett. Luckily they did the trick and they were back to themselves in a couple of days.

Busy, busy week

2010-09-16T22:01:00.000-05:00

This week we have been really busy. Monday I took the boys to an open gym and let them jump and climb. The babies thought mom needed a workout and made sure they were all going in different directions. The open gym is great for Britton to burn off some energy. He loved the trampoline and swinging on the rope. I was only able to snap a couple pictures since most of my time was spent herding children.

Here is Britton swinging on the rope like the monkey he is!

Everett is super strong and showed it here hanging from the bar. I had to really hurry to get the picture before he fell, so it isn't the best.

Tuesday after we dropped Britton off at school the babies and I headed over to a friends for a playdate. We even got to go swimming. We played for a long time and then it started to get late. We left at 12:45 and I had to pick up Britton at 2:30. The babies immediately fell asleep in the car, so I spent an hour and a half touring the back roads. This wasn't the first time that I drove around randomly to let the babies get a nap in, and I'm sure it won't be the last

Wednesday we went to the Fort Worth zoo with the multiples group. The drive there was a long hour, but the little boys were able to get a nap in. There was 1 set of quads, 1 set of triplets and 4 sets of twins, along with 2 siblings. All of these kiddos were 3 and under!!

We lined up the triplets and quads and got a picture of the massive Choo Choo

When we stopped for lunch we lined up the Choo Choo's the same so that it was easy for us to feed the babies. This of course caused a big stir and we became another zoo exhibit! It's amazing how much attention a couple sets of multiples cause.

Britton was quick to make friends with an adorable set of twin girls. They spent their time holding hands and looking at things together.

After 4 long hours at the zoo we decided to call it a day. I was very impressed at how well all the kids did being out in the heat so long. Surprisingly, there wasn't any tantrums and I don't think the babies cried once!

Tomorrow I think we're going to take it easy at home as I need to catch up on some cleaning that has gotten neglected this week. It has been a good week with lots of fun things to do, but all these outings have worn me out. I don't remember the last time I have been this tired!

Dallas Attractions

2010-09-10T16:43:00.000-05:00

We've been checking out a couple Dallas area attractions recently.

We met up with another triplet family at the Dallas world Aquarium. Their triplets (Claire, Matt and Drew) are 9 days younger than our trio. It's so nice to have others to connect with.
Here is a couple pictures of the 6 babies (one with Britton). It was almost impossible to get a shot of the all looking at the camera. Especially with everything going on!

Waiting to go inside

Mycayla super happy that we made her come along

After we were done at the aquarium we walked over and had lunch. The place we went to only had 4 high chairs and one was in use. Luckily the Messerle's had strollers with trays on the front, so that worked for 2 of their little ones :)
I really should have had the waitress take a picture of all of us sitting there. I'm sure we were a sight to see!

We have also visited the Dallas Arboretum. We went when it was $1.00 to get in, so that we could check it out and not feel like we had to stay forever.

Britton wanted his picture by this tree. Unfortunately, we did not know that there was a fire ant mound underneath and he came running back with ants all over his feet. Poor kid. Those ants are soooo mean and those bites look like they hurt. Don't worry he was over it in about 2 minutes and running off to see other things
The babies love riding in their Choo Choo wagon and I bought umbrellas so they have some shade

It sure is easy when Dad's along

Here is a couple pictures that Britton took. He might end up being a photographer some day

They had a cool exhibit with little houses and a covered wagon so you could see how America was settled.

We will be heading back there in a couple of weeks. They make houses out of pumpkins and my moms group is going to go check it out. I'll be sure to take more pictures

Walking!!

2010-09-10T15:49:00.000-05:00

I bought the babies walking toys at the beginning of August and they LOVE walking behind them. Here's a couple videos of them walking...

I can't wait until they are all walking steady all the time. It will make life much easier making one trip to the car and one trip in, instead of three trips to the car and three trips in. It will also make things like dropping Britton off at school SOOOOOO much easier.

Teeth news

2010-09-10T13:58:00.001-05:00

Emerson has finally decided that he better catch up with Everett and Emmett on teeth. Everett and Emmett both have had 8 teeth now for awhile and Emerson has been just rocking his 2 bottom teeth. Finally about 3 weeks ago he decided to get his two tops fangs and join the vampire club. For some funny reason all three babies got their fangs before their top front teeth. Weird! Then about a week ago another tooth popped through. So now Emerson has a grand total of 5! He's still got a ways to before he catches up with the other two. Especially because I think Everett and Emmett are starting to work on their molars now!

Gymnastics

2010-09-09T13:45:00.000-05:00

We went to the Multiples club get together at a gymnastics place and the boys had a great time. It was nice that they could crawl all over things and I didn't have to worry about them falling and getting hurt! I was able to meet a few really nice moms there too.

Britton "hanging out". Everett actually did this too, I just wasn't fast enough with my camera to get a picture

I'm having a playdate at this gym next week, so hopefully I can get a few more cute pictures. This time I'll be on my own chasing after 4 boys, so on second thought I might not get that many pics :)

First haircuts!

2010-09-09T13:39:00.001-05:00

I finally had to break down and get the boys' their first haircuts! I'm so behind on blogging that Emmett already needs another hair cut now!!

Emmett got to go first

He wasn't too sure about what the lady was doing to him

She was going to try the clippers, which scared him and made him cry, so we decided he was done

It was then Emerson's turn

He kept moving his head trying to look at what she was doing. I felt sorry for her, he would NOT sit still

Thankfully his wonderful curls did not go away

Then it was Everett's turn. I was kind of worried about him, but he thought it was the best thing in the world. He was laughing and smiling the whole time

They were such big boys and did such a great job. Thankfully I have been practicing my hair cutting skills on Britton and Chris, so when the boys get a little older I'll be able to cut all their hair and save us some big money

Britton

2010-09-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to keep Britton busy as much as possible this summer

Here is a couple pictures of him going to "camp". He went Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 weeks and of course LOVED it. These pictures are of him on his first day with his lunch. He didn't even want us to walk him in. He's so independent.

Britton with his lunch and water bottle

Walking to "camp"

This is a random picture of Britton riding the camel at the zoo. We didn't stay very long because it was PACKED

Lake fun

2010-09-09T13:26:00.000-05:00

We took the babies to Lake Lavon (which has a swimming beach) and introduced them to sand! They weren't exactly sure about it though..

Emerson and Emmett playing in the sand

It was nice just letting the babies crawl around and not really have to worry too much

Britton of course loved every second of it! He is a total water kid. I really love this picture and I had actually posted it on facebook. The best comment I got on it was...Britton thinking "hey where did this hand come from?" LOL

We've been trying to get outside as much as possible this summer and that usually requires water to play in!

San Antonio

2010-09-09T12:59:00.001-05:00

It's been a long time and I'm sorry for that. I kinda "have my hands full" LOL...

The week before the 4th of July my mom came to visit and we took a trip to San Antonio and went to the Riverwalk and Seaworld.

When we got to San Antonio it was early afternoon, so we checked into our hotel and then headed to the Riverwalk for dinner
Emmett

Everett

Emerson

Nana and Mycayla

Britton checking out all the birds by the river

Mycayla posing

Pretty waterfall

We saw a really cool fire and water fountain outside the restrauant

The Riverwalk is awesome and I love it. However, it is not stroller friendly at all and definitely NOT double stroller friendly. We didn't spend much time down there because of that :(

The next day we headed to Seaworld it had been raining and so it was pretty deserted which worked out perfectly!

Here is Chris walking in with one of the 2 double strollers

Britton loved every second of being at Seaworld and asks all the time when can we go back

Mycayla of course didn't want to pose for pictures but I made her anyway

The first thing we did was feed the dolphins. It was so nice to only have a few other people there. We were able to get right up close

The babies wanted to know what all the commonition was about, so I let them see the dolphins too! It was quite a challange getting them all to stay laying on their bellies. They LOVED the dolphins

We then walked around got some lunch and headed to see Shamu. Britton and Chris went and sat up in the "splash zone" and I stayed at the top with the babies

One of the Orca's had a baby that they let follow her around during the show

We then hit up some kiddie rides. Britton is such a daredevil that he wants to do the rides by himself

It was a long, wet day, but we all had a really good time. The babies did really well for being stuck in a stroller all day.

Summer fun

2010-07-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

We've been doing a lot of things around here to beat the heat. We've been to the pool multiple times and thankfully there are quite a few "spray grounds" around here.
The boys beating up daddy. He's going to be in big trouble in a couple of years

Everett thinks it's fun to play with the toys when he's IN the toy box.

Britton and Mycayla fishing

This is one of the spray grounds at the Harbor

Dad took the boys through so they could get wet too

Britton LOVES playing in the water

The babes hanging out in the Choo Choo while Britton rides the train

Moving....

2010-07-11T22:04:00.000-05:00

Moving to another state with 5 children and 2 dogs is not a good time. The packers came on May 24th and loaded all our stuff on May 26th. Chris could not leave Omaha until June 1st, so we spent the week at Andrea's house. Thankfully she is wonderful and let us take over her house. I don't know what I would have done without her. There was no way that we would have been able to live in a hotel that long.
We left the night of May 31st. We thought if we left at the kids' bedtime we would be able to make some good time. Boy were we wrong. We left Omaha at 9pm with the intention of driving to Oklahoma City and spending the night. Well at 5:30am we were still about an hour away from Oklahoma City and Chris was falling asleep at the wheel, so we stopped and got a hotel room. We got about 3 hours of sleep and then we were back on the road. We left the hotel about 9:30am and didn't get into Rowlett until about 3:30pm. We then got to our house and found out the electricity had not been turned on, even though Chris had called and asked for it to be turned on that day. So since it was 90 degrees in the house we packed up what we needed and headed to the Hilton.
Since the kids had been in the car for two days we needed to get them out to do something fun, so we decided to take them on the sailboat ride. Britton and Mycayla had so much fun. I think the babies had fun too.
Emmett one his first boat ride

Emerson

Everett

Britton was so excited when Captain Scott said that he could drive the boat. He was up there forever

Then Mycayla got a turn. She was nervous at first, but heck a 3 year old drove it forever and we didn't crash so it can't be that hard

They babies were funny when the wind was blowing in their face

Enjoying the boat ride. I think at this time Britton was driving and Chris was with him

Britton was very insistant that I wear a life jacket too, just like him so I was safe

Everett, Emmett and Emerson's first Birthday Party!!!

2010-07-11T21:38:00.000-05:00

Before we left Texas we also had Everett, Emmett and Emerson's first birthday party. We wanted to make sure that we could celebrate with friends and family and figured that they would like to celebrate with them too. Our theme for the party was "Three little monkies swinging from a tree, teasing Mr. Alligator "Can't catch me"". It turned out really cute if I do say so myself.
The boys' cake. I had them do the coloring and added the figures myself

Some of the decorations

The party animals themselves. We had to contain them for awhile

Britton was sporting his monkey and alligator shirt

Party guests

Mycayla

Mathew and Krista

Here's baby cousin Max who is 20 days older than the boys

Our triplet friends who are 12 days older than the boys. We're really glad that they were able to make it and miss our playdates with them so much. It was so much fun having the 6 babies and the big brothers get together. Parks, Nora and Eva have a big brother Will who is the same age as Britton. Will and Britton had so much fun when we would get together and finally someone was there to play with them. For some reason I didn't get a picture of the two of them, probably because they were so busy running around playing

Parks

Nora

Eva

It was then time for cake. Here's a picture of the boys clean before the cake

Emerson

Everett

Emmett

When we put the smash cakes in front of them, Everett was the first one to dig in

Emmett wasn't too sure at the beginning but it didn't take him long to figure it out

Emerson on the other hand was like "what is this thing?"

And then it was like he was asking "what am I supposed to do with it"

In the meantime, Everett and Emmett were stuffing their faces full of cake

and finally Emerson figured out that cake is DELICIOUS!

They were a disaster, but that's the whole point of a first birthday party

And then I had to figure out how to clean up three messy babies at a park. Luckily I was smart enough to bring a washcloth with me and there was plenty of water

The boys were exhausted after all the festivities
Emerson cuddling his pink monkey

Everett looking so tired

Poor Emmett was about to pass out

After the party ended we headed home for some naps and then we opened our presents
Emerson could hardly contain himself and had to get to the presents

The boys got a lot of great gifts some of which included bouncy balls, cute hooded towels, some cute outfits, books and gift cards. They had fun opening their presents and so did Britton

La Vista Days

2010-07-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

Before we left Omaha we were lucky enough to get to go to La Vista Days. I was happy since there is always a lot of rides that little kids can do. Britton had a blast riding the rides and would have stayed the whole day if we would have let him. The best part is when we got there the parade was starting. We stayed to watch the parade for a little while, because Britton really enjoys the fire trucks. Emmett didn't appreciate the fire trucks as much as Britton did since they had their sirens on and were really loud, so we had to leave. Since we left before the parade was over we had to walk in the street along the parade route. Well as you might have guessed a set of triplets walking along the parade route, became part of the parade:) Everyone was talking about how cute the babies were. There were more comments about the triplets than there were for anything else in the parade. Heck even the mayor had to say something as he was walking by.
Britton getting a better view

Britton riding the ponies. I haven't quite figured out what we're going to do when there are 4 boys who want to ride the ponies

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One of the first rides that Britton rode was the train. He rode it at least 5 times

Then he had to do the obstacle course over and over again

Of course we had to get a snow cone, you can't go to the fair and not get a snow cone

And then Britton got his face painted like a jaguar. He was not happy when he had to get a bath that night a wash it off. The clown let him look in the mirror when she was done painting his face and he just kept admiring himself

Our first kid free get away

2010-07-11T21:03:00.000-05:00

I know it's been awhile since I've updated the blog, but things have been super busy with the babies getting more active and us moving to a new state. So since it's been awhile I'm just going to start from where we left off and the things that have been happening:

When Chris got and accepted the offer for the new job at L-3 Communications in Greenville, TX we had to come down to Texas to find a place for us to live. Thankfully, Amy offered to watch all the kids so we were able to make it a quick 3 day kid free get away and we had a little fun while we were here.

This is the pool at the hotel. We only made it there one time

Our hotel from the Harbor

The huge fountain

We took a sailboat ride while we were visiting and it was really relaxing

Chris doing his not so good Captain Morgan pose

Chris and I at the wheel

When the sun was setting Captain Scott took a picture of us holding the sun. Awww so sweet

At sunset they blow the conch so that nobody will miss the beatiful sunset. Here is Captian Scott blowing on the conch shell

The funniest thing I've seen in Texas so far is their "Beef Sushi". I never would of imagined beef tenderloin in sushi

There was a mommy duck with her 16 babies. Boy am I glad I only had 3. Although she can kick them out of the nest much faster than I can.