March of Dimes 2012!

Today we Walked!  We walked for Healthy Babies!  We walked for preemies.  We walked for sick full term babies.  And we walked for those to beautiful for this earth.  We raised money & we walked, so more families can be as blessed as us!

It was a COLD & rainy day.  We were soaked by the time we got done walking.  But we continued the path of being brave... and walked on.  (and because we were a long way from the tent & had no option but to walk on once the rain started!)

Afterwards we enjoyed some Arbys, chips & bananas.  Despite the weather, I'm glad we went. 

Hard to believe we were once only 3 pounds 1 ounce, 2 pounds 14 ounces & 2 pounds 13 ounces! 

They were all cooperative & cheerful.  Despite the fact that we all felt a little bit like this!

Me & my babes!

 This is the only picture I really got of our shirts.  I made us some family shirts this year!

 Thank you March of Dimes for all that you do!

And just because I had fun making them.... this is how I did our shirts.

Cut out some stencils with my Cricut.

 Hobby Lobby T-shirts & fabric paint....

 Ta-Da!!

Accidentally...

So today, I accidentally....... started Potty Training the boys.  Oops!

Accidentally you ask?

We have little potties.  They sit on them on occasion.  Hayden goes on occasion.  Once this week he even pushed so hard to try to pee he pooped.  They watch Livi all the time.  Bla, bla, bla.  Today Logan wanted to go pee in the potty.  After sitting there for 5 minutes & straining so hard I though he would give himself a hernia.... he peed in the potty for the first time!!  After naps, he wanted to go again.  So him & Hayden both did.  And I rewarded them with fruit snacks.  5 minutes later... they went again & wanted MORE fruit snacks.  I instead grabbed a few jelly beans & went about my business.  5 minutes later.... you get the drift.  More potties full of 3 forced drops of pee & more requests for jelly beans.

And so folks, today I ran with it.  Not sure they'll sleep tonight with those bellies full of sugar.  They peed about every 10 minutes from 3pm until bed.  Hayden had one accident on the kitchen floor before supper at 6:30.  And then wanted a diaper.  Logan had one accident on the kitchen chair & was DEVASTATED!  Oh he cried.  He was heartbroken.  And he had one "caught it mid way & ran to the potty accident."  Logan who I thought was my absolutely clueless-would be in diapers until he was 5- kid.  Was a potty rock star today!  He appears to really have it figured out more so than Hayden after just today. 

I knew they were close to ready.  And it honestly is/was our July agenda.  When Jeff is done with school, we hopefully have our house sold & are moved, & our summer vacation is done.  But hell.... we'll run with this & see where she goes.  Not pushing it, just letting them do their thang a little bit.  We even have a tupperware container in the bathroom full of jelly beans to prove it!

I think if I was home all weekend, we could have a good handle on it by Monday.  But I work tomorrow & we have a house showing.  Then March of Dimes walk Sunday morning & an open house at our house in the afternoon.  So I think we'll be starting from scratch on Monday.  See if they remember?  Then I'm off until Thursday I guess.... so we'll see if this goes anywhere??

They like to watch each other go.  "See pee in there!"  "Pee has bubbles in the potty!"  Livi even told Jeff this week "Hayden & Logan have a pee-pee like a Teacher.  Livi has a pee-pee like a Nurse."  Apparently Teacher= boy & Nurse= girl.  Oh Liv, Liv, wise beyond your years. 

It was JUST getting SO easy with her.  {Besides her not poop in the potty issues}  She's got the pee thing mastered, even at night.  She always uses the big potty.  But this, this is gonna be a WHOLE other bag of worms.....

One last dime

The March of Dimes Walk is just a few days away.  My kiddos are already talking about "go to the park & go for a walk in a couple days."  There isn't a thing you tell them that they forget, just warning ya.

You can donate to the March of Dimes anytime throughout the year, but if you want to donate now, you can do so online using the link at the top of my page.  Just a few days left!  Please spread the word about March of Dimes & supporting a great cause.... Healthy Babies!

And THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to those of you who donated.  Your generosity to the cause is always amazing!

And one last time, click HERE to glance back at why the March of Dimes is important to me.

A glimpse...

A glimpse into a moment of what is my life.

YIKES!!!

After first meeting with our real estate agent, our goal was to get our house on the market in 4 weeks.  Well, we did it in 5.  Not too bad considering all the work we did.  Between a high risk pregnancy & having triplets, our house was pretty neglected the past 3 years.  It needed a little TLC & a few long-put-off projects completed to show off whats really there.  In the main bathroom we tiled the shower & re-painted.  We refinished the kitchen counter tops, re-painted the cabinets, re-painted the walls & put in a new sink.  Stained the deck.  Textured & re-painted the basement bath & put in new floor.  Touched up paint or re-painted nearly every wall in the house.  And did a lot of touch up painting on our woodwork (thank you 3 toddlers who slam toys into them constantly!)  Put down 55 bags of mulch around our landscaping.  Planted flowers.  De-cluttered & packed stuff away in storage.  Steam cleaned our carpets.  And {seemingly} managed to maintain our sanity!  As excited as I am for the new prospects & the idea of some much needed extra space, I'm a little sad thinking about it all.  We put a lot of blood, sweat & tears into this place we call home.  And I hope the next owners can make as many amazing memories here as we have. 

SO I GUESS IT'S A BIG DAY TOMORROW!  OUR 1ST HOME WILL OFFICIALLY BE ON THE MARKET!!!

My poor sick baby!

Tuesday night Hayden had a fever of 101.  Daycare called at the end of the day & luckily Jeff was already on the way to pick them up.  Gave him some Tylenol, he cooled down some & we put him to bed.  Wednesday morning literally, as I was ready to walk out the door for work, he woke up crying with a fever of 103.6 & his eyes were literally stuck shut with eye goop!  They have all had runny noses... colds, allergies, whatever... for weeks.  So I've just been waiting for this.  So since I was over an hour too late to technically call in sick, I went in to work briefly since Jeff is home in the mornings & bless my co-workers hearts for adjusting assignments so I could be staff adjusted & getting me out of there to go take my baby to the doctor!

Sure enough, ear infection.  Knew it before we walked in the door.  So 10 days of antibiotics (Omnicef which hopefully he isn't allergic too since it worked for Logan last time) & eye drops.  

Then this afternoon he took 4.5 HOUR NAP.  Poor sick baby.  He must really feel awful.  He was relatively cheerful tonight & has eaten & drank well.  But his one really did a number on him.  He even says "Maas looks hot!"  Guess I told him that a few too many times today?  These pictures are after his nap, & much better looking than he looked this morning!

Dr. Harrison {or Dr. Fran.  My kids now all call him by his first name!} mentioned again how his tonsils are big.  Maybe we can get those suckers out this year since that insurance deductible is already met?  I think if we get another plugged up crud nose-throat-ears-sinus virus I'll start asking about that?

They did so well at the Dr. today.  They are so grown up these days.  They all walked in with me (first time going without a stroller).  Olivia peed in the potty before we went back.  Hayden jumped right up on the scale (then Livi & Logan said "my turn!" & jumped up too)  He sat on the chair in the room (not on my lap) & let the doctor look in his ears, listen to him & only shed a few tears when he looked at this throat (but who doesn't hate that!?)  Told the nurses & doctor that he had "eyes owies."  Amazing difference from November.  He listened to Liv & Logan too since they have snot too, considering our recent RSV history & said they sounded great!  Yay!  And said if they get a fever or eyes like this just to call & he'd send them in some prescriptions too.

Dressed, diapered & with crocks on, Hayden weighed 31.8 pounds!  Olivia weighed 27.2.  And while Logan stood on the scale he was holding on to part of it so we didn't get a weight on him (though I'd guess it to be the same as Liv.  He's finally back to looking like his chubby face-no neck self after our RSV run.)

Granted I never want my kids to be sick... with all the house work we have been doing the past 4.5 weeks... it was nice to have a veg out day with them today!  And they were excited that we had some time to kill at Walmart waiting for prescriptions.  They LOVE LOVE going there these days, because they always, always ask to "go look at fish in the water."  {Yeah we need to get to the zoo badly!!}

Hope he's feeling (& looking) a little better tomorrow.  Poor boy!

Weekend Party!

Over the weekend we headed back to visit Jeff's parents & got to a wedding shower for one of his cousins.  The kiddos got Easter baskets from "Mama Maas & Papa Maas" while we were there.  Had a GREAT time playing with relatives at the shower & fun playing with Addie & Ava all weekend!!

After all this Easter hub-bub, the kids have started asking for candy daily.  I don't think they really even knew what candy was before 2 weeks ago.  

Playing outside

 Addie is all about catching bugs/worms right now.  They found a worm outside Saturday afternoon.  Olivia wasn't so sure...

 She did eventually get closer.  I LOVE that the 4 of them are getting old enough to interact & play with each other more & more.

 These 2 are 2 of a kind.  Lots & lots of attitude in these 2 little bodies!  Love them both!

 Over & over she said "DON'T TOUCH ME WORM!!!"  Such a girl!  Love it!

 They had fun playing with Ava too.  Who is getting SOO big by the way!

 GREAT turnout at the shower.  I think there are 15 kids under 4 years old, not sure how many were there.  The kids were excited all day to go to the "party" & they ran around all night & had a blast!

 First ones at the kids table!

 We were up late Saturday night!  But the four 2.5 year olds decided to have a slumber party.  Addie lasted until about 4am, then went back with Tisha & Aaron.  So thankful the days of 3 pack & plays are over!

A whole week!

Olivia has woken up dry in the mornings for a WHOLE WEEK! 

One night she even woke up & asked to "go pee a potty."  We won't be jumping into panties at bedtime for a little while.  1)  Because the $0.17 a diaper to use one at night is worth it right now.  2) Worrying about keeping a house in showing condition is stress enough without wet sheets to deal with.  3)  I'm lazy.  Don't judge!  But I think she is on her way to getting herself night-time PT (potty trained.)

She is working through some poop in the potty issues.  Its pretty common, so I hear, to have some holding-it-too-long, constipation issues with PT.  We are doing some Miralax with her to soften those suckers up & try to get her more regular.  She did go in the potty 2 days in a row this weekend!  Followed up by a Monday nap time poop accident.  She has something she wants....and she knows darn well we'll buy it when she "learns to poop a potty."  So when she gets this conquered, you'll be the first to know what she got!

PS.... picture taking of our house scheduled for Thursday... then its getting listed!

Please donate!

March of Dimes walk is just around the corner.  April 29!!

Please take a minute to browse through the March of Dimes website if you have not.

And please consider donating.  {There is an easy link on the top of my blog!  I'm not doing as hot raising money this year as I did last year.}

Click HERE to see what March of Dimes has done for me!  {or just to glance back at pictures of my now huge toddlers when they were just little 3 pound peanuts!}

OH NO!

Logan has figured out how to UNLOCK the front door.  I can't count how many times the kids have tried to run away this week!

Its always something!

Easter Sunday

Jeff thinks the kids are going to get Easter & Christmas confused.  They made out like bandits!!!  I think Easter is a great "excuse" to get our winter birthday kids some things for spring & summer!  {Or just an "excuse" to get our kids things!  Like I need one ;) }  Plus I'd rather get them some gifts & things that will last longer than the Easter Egg of Jelly Beans they each devoured for "breakfast!"

Easter Baskets at home Easter morning

Jelly Beans for Breakfast!

She thought it was a vacuum!

Golfing with Jelly Beans!!

Ready to head to Great Grandma & Grandpa's!

Easter Lunch picnic in the pasture!

ATTEMPT to get a picture of the great-grandkids.  *FAIL*

Daddy & Livi playing in the pasture.

Ready to hunt eggs!

There were 400 candy filled eggs up there!

They had a blast climbing the hills & we all made all the way to the top! (thought there was a lot of carrying involved!)

Chowing down on our loot!  They have never eaten so much sugar in their lives as they have the past week!

Analeigh soaking up some sun.

Livi got to ride a horse, er, I mean a dog!

And a 4 wheeler!!

And a golf cart!  Hayden road the golf cart too.  Logan was anti-riding things.

She got her first Barbies from the Easter Bunny. 

Doll & clothes from Grandma GG.

And the boys got some awesome car storage/tracks.  Thanks Pinterest inspiration!

We also attempted some cousin pictures before heading out to the pasture!  Hayden was not a fan of the idea.  Good thing we had smarties on hand to bribe him!

Lee Lee wanted smarties too!

After all that fun I did find a tick on Logan Tuesday night.  I was snuggling with him after work & thought "man your ear hole looks dark."  I looked a little closer & screamed!  A tick latched on IN his ear!  I hate, hate, hate ticks.  I know, there are worse things, but they give me the shivers!  I held him, daddy plucked it out.  Found another one in our kitchen Wednesday... guess we brought a few extra "gifts" home from the pasture.  Doing daily tick checks for a while I guess...

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter!!