Gymnastics Play

The trio had their first experience at a real gymnastics gym. Their cousin had a birthday party there. We had played lots of fun games, ate pizza and cake, opened presents.
A little group gathering on the trampoline.
Whitney enjoyed jumping!
Their big cousin M was so sweet to sit by her little cousins and explain the game to them and help them to stay involved with the game. :)

A balance beam experience...


They had a ball crawling through these foam blocks and I joined in for a family pic. And we even got cousin Z in with us. His Mama was way too pregnant to join in the fun!

Christmas 2010

There were so many Christmas pictures and celebrations, for the sake of time, I only posted a few from our immediate family Christmas at home.

We had a nice Christmas starting with hosting Craig's extended family Christmas at our house; the next celebration was Craig's family Christmas at my inlaw's house; next was my family Christmas again at our house and lastly was our immediate family Christmas at our house.

My mom stayed with us for a few days thru the holidays and we enjoyed having her. Craig's parents came by for a while on Christmas day and also my good friend Amy and her husband Chris came by on the 26th. It was a nice, low-key Christmas day and weekend and enjoyed visiting with our family and friends.

Taken a week or two before Christmas.

Christmas morning pictures...


LOVE the hair!
Watching a Christmas movie with grandma.
Tyler loves his new train set.


Who doesn't have bed head on Christmas morning???

Christmas 2009

Just when I think I am getting the hang of making sure my pictures are in order, I forget how to do it again so some of these are out of order.

Our Christmas was good - we had our first Christmas with Craig's extended family at his brother's house a few weeks before Christmas. Then we had Christmas with his immediate family a week later at our house. Then we had Christmas with my family the Sunday after Christmas at our house. It was busy as always but not too busy and we enjoyed having less busyness on Christmas day.

We put up the Christmas tree and the kids enjoyed helping. They were admiring all the ornaments and they did very well following instructions when told to stay out of the tree.

This was the family Christmas at our house with Craig's family. All the little cousins were sitting on the bottom step of our stairs but by the time we all grabbed our cameras, the moment was over and we couldn't get them to all sit back down together. I got four of the five sitting, which isn't bad but only one is looking.

Daddy helping the kids open the presents Christmas morning.

Some of you wanted to see pictures of the house after we moved and I never got around to it. Craig took a pic of it Christmas morning after all the snow fall we had.

The girls wouldn't wear hats or hoods and we didn't have any gloves for them so we didn't stay outside but a few minutes. Just enough for them to see and experience the snow. They weren't big fans of it.

Christmas evening Craig's parents stopped by to see us for a little while. They made the rounds Christmas day visiting their grandkids. Papaw reading to Whitney.

The Sunday after Christmas when we had Christmas with my family, we first all met up at our church then came home for lunch and gift exchanges. Here's Whitney taking control of her cousin's purse.

Hannah in Daddy's lap - her favorite seat in the house.

Tyler loves his pockets.

Mother's Day

We had a weekend full of Mother's Day fun. Saturday we celebrated mother's day and the May birthdays with Craig's family. We had a BBQ with hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad and beans. We had a very nice time visiting with family.

Sunday, we went to church and just had a fun day together as a family. We were going to check out the Taste of Addison, but when we drove over there, it really didn't seem like much was going on, so we decided to go over to Willowbend Mall and let the babies roam around some in the mall. It was hilarious watching Craig and I try to keep up with three babies. The kids play area was so busy, we skipped that.

Monday, I took my last final exam for school for the semester then Craig and I had our first date in FOREVER! He had planned for his mom to come over and stay with the kids while we went out by ourselves. It was a little mother's day celebration minus the kids. We went to eat at Nate's Seafood and had a great time!

April part 2 - 15 months

To finish off our month of April... Craig wasn't up to having our friends over last Friday due to his stomach bug thing. But, by the next day, he felt better so we had Craig's sister, Lisa over and her family. I don't think we've ever had them over as a family - hanging out and having dinner together as two couples. We cooked out and all 7 of the kids played and had a great time. Lisa's two older kids loved playing with Lacy (our dog) but the two younger kids warmed up to her eventually. Craig and Byron (Lisa's husband) took B & L's oldest son, Austin for a ride in Craig's hot rod and they had a great time. We had a delicious meal and really enjoyed ourselves.

The next day we were able to go to Craig's parent's church for baby day. This was the first time we've been to their church since we had the babies so that was fun to let all of their friends see the kiddos. We got their picture made and some of it was successful and some of it was not. The babies did fine in the nursery and I got a break! Yeah!! We finished off the service with a baby parade - the parents take all the kids across the stage and announce their kids names and ages. Then, all 18 of us went to Spring Creek Barbecue and had lunch - it was a lot of fun.

I had a couple of play dates scheduled this week but had to cancel them due to the rain and sick kids (not mine but my friends). Hopefully one of these days I can make it to my playgroup with my church.

This weekend we had one of my very good friends from high school over for dinner - Kelli, Jesse and their son Andy. I am so glad they moved back to Texas. We've gotten together a couple of times now since they moved back a year ago and I truly cherish her friendship. We didn't always keep in touch real often while she lived out of state for many years but we have kept in better touch now that they are back and living so close. Kelli and I have been friends since the 4th grade so we've been friends now for probably 23 years and I think that is just awesome! She is my oldest friend by far!

We are becoming quite the little entertainers these days - as we are having more friends over tonight. Some of Craig's friends this time. Well... they are my friends too but you know what I mean... We are looking forward to having them over and having another BBQ if it doesn't rain. Things have been so tough around here with Craig not being able to help much with the kids and it is hard to manage 3 babies out and about so we've been really living it up by having people over. We've never been big entertainers but we've enjoyed the entertaining we've recently been doing.

We already have several exciting things planned for May - play dates, adult socials, birthday parties, mother's day celebrations, church socials, school finals, book club outings, college graduation parties among other exciting things! Stay tuned... :)

Hannah is still our little "Riblet" - she is so tiny, it isn't even funny. She loves loves loves her fingers. This girl used to only suck her fingers when she slept or if she was upset but now she is beginning to suck her fingers a lot more frequently. Guess we'll have to cut those two fingers off! ;) She kind of slowed in the walking department but still walks some - I'd say probably 30% of the time. Hannah has 6 teeth now (4 on top and 2 on bottom) and her hair is growing like a weed. Yay! She took a break in the biting department and has recently picked the bad habit back up! Ugh! Hannah is loving stuffed animals now! Hannah's new best friend is her daddy - she loves to sit in his lap. With Craig being around so much more, any time he is in his chair, she wants to sit in his lap. She is melting her daddy's heart that's for sure. Hannah still wants to chew on everything - I figured she would be past this stage by now but not so much. Hannah is not really talking much - still just mostly baby babble.

These are pictures from the mall when we went a couple of weeks back. This girl will not sit up in her seat.

This was at home - having lasagna for dinner. Notice how the orange brings out the blue in her eyes??? Ha!We didn't even attempt to wash hands and face with a wash cloth this night - they all went straight to a bath.
This was a casual day around the house. Mommy was being silly dressing the girls.
Whitney is definitely filling out and getting a few little "baby fat roles" and "baby love handles". It is so cute! She has two new teeth - she now has 8 (4 on top and 4 on bottom). Whitney is learning how to use a regular sippy cup rather than the straw sippies. And I will be so glad when she gives them up all together - those things leak so bad (every kind I have). Whitney is developing a little stranger/separation anxiety again. Whitney's primary mode of transportation these days is walking on her knees. She still will not pull up or walk but at least she is moving past the crawling stage. She knows how to climb up on her push toy/riding car and is very close to being able to move herself while sitting on it. Isn't it strange that Whitney is the only one that can do this and she is also the only one that doesn't walk??? Oh and Tyler likes to push Whitney while she rides on the car. It is so cute. She is really starting to like dolls and stuffed animals. Whitney is not really talking much but she babbles in baby jargon a lot more than she used to.

Again at the mall...
The lasagna...


Being silly around the house...
Whitney is growing a mustache and beard. J/K - They had blueberries for breakfast.

Tyler is staying about the same weight-wise. He is still a nice little chunk! He has 8 teeth now too (4 on top and 4 on bottom). Tyler is going through stranger/separation anxiety the worst right now but he gets over it pretty quickly. Tyler slowed in the hitting department but has now picked up a new fun habit... whining, crying and squealing (at pitches so high only dogs can hear :)) almost all the time. It's making for some fun and loud times around our house! Ha! Tyler's primary mode of transportation is walking! That's right - he is walking probably 80% of the time or more. He is really good and rarely has bad falls. He can also walk really fast. He tries to put his shoes and socks on and it is so funny to watch! He is starting to associate shoes with going bye-bye. He brought me his shoes yesterday and wanted me to put him on him - I guess he wanted to go bye-bye! Tyler talks the most although, he doesn't say much either. He says mama and dada a lot more frequently than the girls and has occasionally said a few other words like buckle, yummy, tree, and dog.

The mall... getting ready to go.

He and Hannah wanted to see how messy they could get! Fun times!Casual days around the house...

Ready for bed with his paci and tiger!
All three are into the toddler tantrums - some more than others (Tyler & Hannah mostly). We tried switching to one nap a day a few weeks back but I could tell they just weren't ready. So, we'll try it again in another month probably and if they are closer to being ready, I'll push them to get them transitioned. I'm ready for the one nap so I can have more time to get out and do stuff in the morning (errands or play dates) and have a longer period to do chores etc. during a longer nap.

April...... Oh! April........

What an eventful month we've had! Where to begin....

We started the month off on a good note with our first Easter egg hunt/party as I previously mentioned in another post.

Just before Easter, we had a rather interesting "65th Birthday Party" for my mother. Not sure if it would actually be considered a birthday party without the birthday girl, but nonetheless, we had pizza and cake and celebrated..... my nephew's one month birthday instead!

As I also mentioned in the previous Easter post, we made it to church for Easter Sunday. The first we've been since Craig's surgery and the first time the babies have been in probably 6 months.

We had a couple of outings to the mall and are making an effort to get out more and be "normal". We were going to let the babies play in the kid's play area at the mall but it was closed for cleaning and didn't have time to wait for them to finish so we left. But we had a good time anyway getting out of the house and strolling around the mall.

Last weekend, we had our first official roadtrip with the babies. We went to East Texas to visit with some of Craig's family. It was a rather exhausting and short trip. The babies are still so small, it just isn't easy trying to travel especially without the help of Craig. We left the house early Saturday morning and headed to Longview. It rained pretty much the whole way there. I changed poopy diapers in the car while we stopped for a potty break because I didn't want to venture out in the rain. The babies cried and screamed almost the entire time and didn't nap a wink except the 15 minutes before we arrived. At some point on the road, I literally crawled all the way to the back of the car, climbing over the middle baby, to fetch the paci's. W & T don't ever use paci's unless they are sleeping in their beds so I didn't feel the need to have them up front with me. So, anyway, once we got there, I unloaded the babies and our stuff in the rain. Then, once I got their seats set up and got the babies fed, we sat down and had a nice lunch and I put the babies down to nap immediately after. They napped almost the entire time we were there which was a bummer since that was the sole reason we went was to allow Craig's relatives love on Jami's (Craig's mom) grandkids. They were just so tired and I knew they needed to nap but they got a little bit of time to hold them etc. before we had to leave. We left there about 4:30 and headed to Gladewater to go visit with Craig's uncle for a very short bit. Craig's uncle lives in a log cabin that Craig helped build and he has been wanting to show it to me for a long time as well as let Ben (Craig's uncle) see all the grandkids. We left there and the babies were fussy and hungry. We went to the local Dairy Queen and they didn't have enough high chairs to accomodate us so we drove on to the next town. That town didn't have any place to eat so we drove on... We passed several more towns before we found a Golden Chick with 2 high chairs so we unloaded the babies and brought in one of our own booster seats. We ate dinner and after that, we went to the car so I could change everybody's diaper and put pajamas on. By this time it was 8pm. We got on the road and Tyler fussed and screamed half the way home - they were awake the whole way home except for 30 minutes prior to arriving home at 10 or 10:30. It was good to meet his family and visit and see his uncle's cabin, I just think my kids were still too young for so much driving in one day.

This week, we took the babies to the gym for the first time and left them in the gym "kid's club". I've never been too comfortable with this but since the babies are getting older, I figured I would give it a shot - besides, I am getting desperate for some "me time". Craig's surgery was 4 weeks ago and my "me time" consists of me occasionally going into my bedroom to get away while Craig hangs out with the babies in the living room with nothing but one wall separating us. This is about the best we can do since he can't really watch them. This way, if something happens, he can just holler and I can come in and put out the fire. So, other than this "me time", I had one hour break Easter Sunday when we put the babies in the nursery and two nights a week when I go to school, which I don't really consider "me time". Anyway... back to the gym. The babies didn't do very well - they cried off and on the entire 30 minutes I exercised. There were probably 20 other kids in there too with only 3 adults so I am sure the babies were very overwhelmed. I wasn't a big fan of the "kid's club" because the baby section was tiny; the section for older kids was huge but the baby section was itty bitty. AND none of their toys worked because they don't keep up with the batteries! What the heck is that about? We probably won't be back until they are walking all the time and are able to play in the big area.

Then yesterday, we had a fun day of playdates at the mall and ER visits. Not the babies... it was Craig. I know.... you are really surprised right? Craig woke up yesterday early in the morning with diarrhea (I know... TMI) and it just progressively got worse. He started vomitting as well. It was getting close to time for me to go meet my friend at the mall and I asked Craig over and over if he wanted me to stay. He said no and told me to go. I think he wanted peace and quiet without 3 loud babies around more than he wanted me to take care of him. I called to check on him while I was gone and he said he was taking himself to the ER but he really wanted me to drive him but I couldn't get here quick enough for him and then what to do with the kids? I left the mall and began making phone calls trying to find somebody who could help me out with the kids. My SIL, Lisa came over and watched them for me so I could get up there and see what the heck was going on. THANK YOU SO MUCH, LISA! You were a life saver! When I got there, Craig told me his heart rate was well into the 200's, he had the chills and was dizzy. They started an IV and drew some blood and ran some tests. His white blood cell count was high so they said he probably had some type of infection but they wanted to do a cat scan just to make sure it wasn't something else. They checked abdomen, intestines and appendix. His intestines were inflamed but everything else looked good. They diagnosed him with a severe GI infection, gave him some meds and sent him home. He is feeling a little better but still not feeling very well at all.

We had a doctor's appointment this morning we had to cancel and we have some friends coming over tonight and we were going to BBQ on our new grill but we will probably have to cancel that too. We were also planning to go to church with his family for baby day this Sunday because whoever has the most visitors will be crowned baby king and baby queen and will get a pizza party afterwards. Plus, one of the church members is a photographer and is taking pictures of all the babies and we get a free group pic and one individual copy as a gift for mother's day. We were looking forward to all this but we may not be able to make it to that either.

I'll let you know how the rest of our weekend and month goes and I will do a post with more baby updates and pictures soon.

Happy April everybody!

Dallas Zoo and Tyler's scratched cornea

We've had a very eventful week around here. Monday Jill and I took the kiddies to the Dallas Zoo. It was my first trip to the zoo with the babies and it was a great day for it. It was a little cool in the morning, but after lunch, it warmed up nicely and it was a beautiful day. I haven't been to the zoo in ages so it was like I had never been before. The babies are still a little young for the zoo but I think they still enjoyed being out of the house and enjoying new surroundings. And WOW! What a workout it was for me pushing 3 babies for 4 hours up and down steep hills and in and out of crowds of people. We enjoyed seeing the animals and had a nice picnic lunch. We got to stay a little longer because 2 of my 3 fell asleep (very rare) in the stroller and Jill's youngest fell asleep too. Whitney stayed awake but wasn't fussy at all. I am really surprised and glad it went so well especially since they didn't nap in the car like I hoped they would on the way there.

We got home and had about a good hour of playtime before Hannah hit Tyler and knocked him to the floor. He cried so hard I knew he must have been hurt in some way, not just mad. He was doing this weird thing with his eyes (rolling them sorta) and he wouldn't hardly open them. I thought she hit him so hard, he hit his head and damaged something internally. I was finally able to get him to calm down and he stopped doing the weird thing with his eyes so he went down to nap. He woke up several times crying as if he was in pain and started up the weird eye thing again. I began inspecting his eye and saw something on his cornea - it looked like a little fuzz at first so I gently rubbed my finger over his eye lid in hopes of moving it off his cornea. It kept bothering him so I kept looking at it and then after looking at it more and more, I was sure it was a scratch. I called Craig and told him to come home so I could take Tyler to the doctor. When I took him in, it was in fact a scratched cornea, so we got some antibiotics to help prevent infection and headed home. The after hours pedi referred me to a pediatric opthamologist. So, Tuesday I took him to see the opthamologist and she said it was just a minor scratch and it was already almost healed. They heal fast!! Now, I just have to take him back in on Thursday to get one last check of his eye and make sure it has healed up properly.

We have officially entered into toddlerhood around here. We have been having some problems with the babies lately - mainly Hannah but they each play a role and I have been trying to get as much reading done as I can to nip this behavior in the bud as quickly as possible. Hannah is just a bully - just plain mean - she bites sometimes, but not as much as she used to, she steals toys, she pushes the other two around and she throws fits most of the time. The fit throwing is the biggest problem. Tyler is a sweet boy but is just that - all boy! He likes to hit everything and everybody. He isn't being mean and doesn't realize he is hurting the others but we are trying to teach him to be gentle. He also likes to tackle the girls. Whitney is so sensitive, anytime somebody steals her toy, she cries; anytime somebody hits her, she cries; anytime somebody so much as touches her, she cries. We've been reading up on ways to handle these behaviors but if anybody has any good books they suggest or methods that apply Christian, Biblical principles, please let me know.

Craig is also getting ready to have his shoulder surgery next week - the 25th. Please pray for him and a smooth and speedy recovery. Also, pray for me that I can take care of the babies, him and keep up with school for several weeks or months without losing my mind.

Stay tuned for a picture post of some of our recent outings.

First birthday party

We started the big day off with a special breakfast for the babies and just spending time with them and reminiscing. After we put them down for their nap, we began decorating and getting the house ready for the party.


All the family and friends arrived around 4pm and we had such a good time. The babies did so great with the large group of people that came and didn't have any problems being passed around. We had a time of visiting and snacking before we opened presents and ate birthday cake. Since we did a western theme, we had country western snacks including beef jerky, peanuts with the shells on, lil smokies, pretzels, chips and hot sauce and boot birthday cake.


I had this crazy desire to attempt to make their birthday cakes - to save money and just to see if I could do it I guess. I spent so much time making 3 boot birthday cakes for their one year pictures, so for their birthday party, I was all caked out. Instead of doing 3 more small boot cakes and 1 big boot cake, I decided to just make 1 big birthday cake, cupcakes and 3 small round cakes for the babies. I think next year I will just buy a cake!

This is a picture of one of the babies' cakes I made for their 1 year birthday pictures.

We had a house full of people - a total of 39 people here for the babies big day and I just wanted to take the time to acknowledge them and thank them for coming.

-Mamaw & Papaw
-Uncle Byron and Aunt Lisa and cousins Victoria, Austin, Leah and Samuel
-Uncle Kyle and Aunt Michaela and cousins Michael, Tucker and Maggie
-Grandma
-Uncle Les and Aunt Kim
-Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jill and cousins Maddie, Haidyn and Caleb
-Friends Todd, Jennifer and Samantha
-Friends Mike, Ame and Blake
-Volunteers turned friends Jan & Dan
-Volunteers turned friends Jim & Carol
-Volunteer turned friend Cindy

Thank you all for coming and celebrating such a special day with us!

Look at all these cousins!! We have Leah, Tucker, Austin, Michael, Victoria, Samuel, Maddie and Caleb. Also shown are Mamaw, Uncle Byron and Uncle Kevin.

Cindy is on the left holding Tyler and Jan is on the right holding Whitney - they were both volunteers from our church who helped us for several months in the beginning. Jan's husband Dan in the recliner and cousin Tucker.
Papaw, Hannah and cousin Leah
Me dressing the part... well... sort of.
Todd, Jennifer and Sam
The kids having fun playing with the balloons.
Aunt Kim, Aunt Jill and cousin Caleb
This is Carol, my other volunteer from church and her husband Jim. Jim is holding Hannah.
Mamaw and Aunt Michaela
Uncle Byron and Aunt Lisa holding cousin Samuel
Next we opened presents and boy was that an interesting event! For the sake of time, we decided to open the babies presents rather than letting them open them. There were so many presents multiplied times 3 it was complete craziness! Thanks for everyone who helped video, take pictures, keep track of the list of who gave what and pick up the mess afterwards.

This was the beginning of the presents.

Hannah enjoying her new video!
Whitney just soaking it all in.
Hannah stealing the spot light - Tyler is back there in my lap, you just can't hardly see him.
This was the end of our present opening and there were a ton of other presents not shown in the picture!
Lastly we had cake and it was rather entertaining to say the least. All three of them digged right in as usual. Tyler was grabbing the cake by the fistfulls; Whitney was mainly eating icing and slinging it everywhere because she didn't want it on her hands; Hannah was having a grand ole time going to town on the icing as well. We started to take their cake away from them and begin the cleanup but Hannah got so upset, we decided to give it back to them and let them have a little more time enjoying their sugar rush.

Tyler and Hannah were crying - so upset and wanting their cake!

Much better - we just got sang "Happy Birthday" to and are enjoying our sweets.Digging in!
So serious Whitney!

Concentrating on the cake!Mmmm....good!

Tyler is a mess!Whitney looks like a kid caught in the candy jar.

What's wrong, Hannah?
Then we had a clean up crew assembly line. Thanks Jan, Cindy, Mamaw and Ame for helping us get them bathed, dried and dressed!

Whitney getting hosed off then moving on to station 2 to be bathed. Tyler waiting his turn to be hosed off before getting bathed.
Hannah waiting her turn to be hosed off.
After all our friends and family left, we spent the rest of the day with the babies just playing with them, loving on them and thanking God for them. After we put them down for the night, we finished off a perfect day in the most perfect way - we watched some never before seen video from the time I was in the hospital on bedrest until the present. We watched the progression of their lives from being in the womb until now - it was a wonderful video and what a perfect way to end such a special day.