Peek!!

I FINALLY got around to getting our living room painted.  It is the room we probably spend the most time in, yet it was so, so neglected.  It still needs a lot before it is done.  Pictures hung. Curtains.  Some new throw pillows.  A new ceiling fan.  This one looks nice but we spent a year trying to get it to turn on & now its on & we are scared to pull the chain ever to turn it off.  New outlets & switches are still waiting to be wired.  I have a little project or 2 that I want to do by the fireplace.  Our furniture has been moved a time or 2 & we still really are not set on what will stay where long term.  But its so much fresher & cleaner & prettier than it was on Friday.  I love how a couple gallons of paint can just make you feel like you are walking into a different house!

Before

 After

Feeling Accomplished

My original goal was to paint every wall in this new house by the end of 2013. Over the summer I changed this goal to say I wanted to paint every wall in this house EXCEPT the kitchen, master & currently unused spare room by the end of 2013 as those are going to be bigger projects for us & I want to invest in a few new pieces of furniture for the master before making any decisions.

Well I spent the weekend tackling the living room & finishing up the entry way & I can now say, outside of a coat closet, a linen closet, & a few touch ups, I have officially MET my goal before October! (And I'm still hoping to get those closets freshened up with paint before the year ends.) We have some projects planned to finish up some of these newly painted walls (meaning I have some honey do projects for Jeff to do) & we have to decide what to hang where as these walls have been bare for over a year!!  But I'm feeling pretty accomplished!!

Dear child,

Dear child with seasonal allergies & a very strong gag reflex, 

Thank you for the "inspiration" to steam clean my entire living room carpet today. While I had a blast at the pumpkin patch, I'm hoping to not have to deep clean my carpet after each trip due to your post nasal drip. However, the living room does now smell quite nice & I am reminded how thankful I am that we invested in a carpet cleaner.

Sincerely, 
A mom who had better things to do during nap time today.

Its Pumpkin Patch Season!!

Fall is here & the pumpkin patch is open!  Olivia has been asking since July when we could go to the pumpkin patch & today she finally got her wish.

After she came home from school yesterday with a "naughty note" about not wanting to participate to the extent that she flopped to the floor & threw a tantrum, we almost didn't go.  But then I remembered how excited 'I' was to go, so we went.  And yes, she really threw a tantrum, she admitted to it & said she did it just because she doesn't know how to write the "letter" 2 & didn't want to try.  Yikes!  Going to have to follow up with Mrs. Starr on that one.  That's a far cry from a kid who wouldn't pee at school.  We had to have a big talk about it last night & she promises it won't happen again.

But back to the pumpkin patch, oh how we love that place.  And love it even more early in the season when there are only like 10 other families in the whole place.  I felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!  The weather was absolutely perfect.  The kids behaved well.  Going places with them gets easier, we went with no stroller or wagon, no change of clothes & all I had was a little backpack that held nothing more than 3 water cups, keys, phone, wallet, hand sani wipes & chapstick.

The place is a bit spendy, but we of course bought a pass.  We love it there & figure if we go 2-3 times, the pass will pay for itself.  There is so much to do & is a great place to get out of the house to so hopefully we get there at least weekly for the next 5 weeks until Halloween.

Goats walking across the bridge.

 Feeding the goats of course.

 Checking out the bunnies

 Duck races!  This is the first year we have done this & they would have stayed there all day!

 See... literally had the place to ourselves!  It was awesome!

 They played HARD!!

 My little animals.

 Our classic Vala's picture ;)

 3 little spiders

 Why not buy a pass a come a ton?  Why would you go to the park instead of come here?  

 They figured out how to drive these little race car things this year.

 But it took some serious concentration!!  Their faces are hillarious!!

Hayden obviously took it pretty serious. 

 Logan puffs out his cheeks in concentration I guess.

 And Olivia had to use her tongue to help her drive :)

 Caught her mid-tip-over!

 We stayed about 4 hours, snacked on Kettle Corn & headed out before we had to invest in an expensive lunch.  What a fun, fun morning!!

 Clearly.... they played hard!

Ode to MiraLAX

Dear MiraLAX,

Thank you for saving my sanity.

I think you alone are to credit for finally getting my last child poop potty trained.  More than a year after his potty training adventure began, I think its fair to say we have it mastered.  After months & months of fights & tears, and bribes & threats, I think we did it.  We discovered quickly that a whole cap of MiraLAX daily was too much.  But it showed my poop-holding-in-all-day-long child that sometimes you can't hold poop in all day long!  After a few dirty undies & a pile or two on the floor, we have settled on a half cap about 4-5 times a week & seem to have found a good balance.  Our nightly fights of making said child poop before bed have ended.  And the last week has brought about his first ever events of potty pooping on his own accord.

And, as if by magic, poop-less morning & nap time diapers are starting to become DRY morning & nap time diapers as well.  MiraLAX has also begun the cascade for him of working towards night potty training.

I never knew I could love a bottle of white powder this much.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
A very thankful mother of three.

Sleeping Babies

Posting THIS picture made me think of back in the day, when they were first home & I let them nap together once a day when I could watch them.

Remember those days?? 

 They've sure grown. 

Life

What have we been up to?
Not a lot.  Getting out to the park a couple of times as the 100 degree August heat has finally gone & we've gotten some cooler fall weather.

Sunday school day 2 is in the books.
I worked, Jeff took the kids by himself & managed to duck out & make them stay on their own, which made it go better for them I think.  They came up after Church & brought me lunch at work & I asked them what learned at Sunday School & they said:

"Snakes are turds.  They tricked those grown ups into eating that candy."

Um.... close enough??!!
At least they listened.

Grocery shopping at Hyvee for Cotton Candy Grapes.  I never knew they existed!  SO yummy.  The kids & I ate an ENTIRE bag for snack that afternoon!!

P.S.  3 almost 4 year olds with their own carts at the grocery store is not the most awesome idea.

"Mom, can we have a slumber party for nap?"  Sometimes being a triplet is awesome!  I LOVE their special little bond.  

Don't get me wrong... they definitely have their fights, but sometimes I feel like they appreciate each other a little more as of late. I was hoping a daycare split up would have that effect.  Maybe its all in my head or just a lucky moment?

That's about it for us right now.