Arboretum Fall 2010

I bravely agreed to join my MOPS playgroup in taking the trio to the Dallas Arboretum last week. I knew it would be a challenge, but I am really trying to step out of my comfort zone and be more brave when it comes taking the kids out by myself to places that specifically do not have a shopping cart involved.

Just about anytime we have somewhere to be in the morning, whether I have help from Craig or not, it is difficult. We don't rise super early at our house, so when we have to be somewhere by 10a.m., it always proves to be a challenge. The Arboretum is a good 50 minute drive from my house, so getting out the door that morning was hectic to say the least. But probably not quite as hectic as getting the kids and I out the door and to MDO in Allen by 9:15.

Craig laughs at me when I talk about how hard it is to get out the door this early and my response is... "I can get myself out the door this early, no problem but when you have 4 people to get fed and ready and having to stop to potty every few minutes, it creates a bit more difficulty."

After we (Craig was off work that day with appointments all day) got them ready and loaded up, I was not half way there and Whitney said she had to potty. I just ignored it because I was certain she did not need to. Then, somehow I got stuck on the 635W HOV lane so I took a slight detour before getting back on track to the Arboretum.

Once we got there, only 5 minutes late, I might add, I unloaded all the kids in a VERY busy parking lot, which had Mommy so frazzled it wasn't even funny. I got out my walking rope for all the kids to grab a loop and walk in. They all got a little twisted around the wrong way which is pretty common. Then Whitney fell and skinned up her knee pretty good. She cried as I hugged her while trying to keep the other two from getting in the street where everybody and their dog was coming in to the park.

We get to the gate, meet up with our friends go inside and take our first potty break. Fail - nobody went. I tried the public restroom and my portable potty in hopes they would feel comfortable enough to go there but no such luck.

Off we went to see the pumpkins. My crew is very shy in new places and are all slow to warm up. We had a pretty good size group with us that day so this is why I think nobody noticed when me and the trio got left behind. Meanwhile, I was dealing with one very fussy little boy. Stopped at a bench to have a little talk with him and then my friend realized I was not with them so she came back to give me a hand.... literally!

Once we get to the pumpkins, they were all still very fussy, clingy and not wanting anything to do with any kind of pumpkin, but it didn't take long before they warmed up and started having a good time. I gave them a little tiny pumpkin to hold and all the bad attitudes were gone...for two kids at least. :)

It was virtually impossible to get the three of them looking through this window at the same time.
We played on hay bales and held pumpkins while getting our pictures taken; we ran through pumpkin houses; we went through hay mazes and watched as our friends got their faces painted. Then we stopped for another potty break and a friend helped watch two kids for me while I went in with just one. No luck with any of them after trying the regular potty and the portable potty. Starting to get nervous about the pottying or lack thereof.

We then headed over to feed the fish and just as I gave my kids their bread to give to the fish, they started eating it. Turns out there were no fish at that location so we headed to another and thankfully our friends shared some bread with us to feed to the fish since we had already eaten our fish food. Ha! The kids really enjoyed throwing bread in and watching the dozens and dozens of fish swim over and eat it all up, while the moms kept a close eye on the many toddlers inching closer and closer to the edge.

After that, we stopped for a picnic lunch and boy were our kids hungry... or at least mine were. :) After a nice lunch and a short play time, we headed toward the exit but this time, I gave Tyler Mrs. Jennifer's hand. So much easier for my girls to keep up if they are holding an adult's hand. I think I spent the majority of the time walking through the park with my head turned around, while telling the kids "come on; keep up; we're getting behind" etc.
We stopping by the petting zoo just before we left. The kids got to pet the goats, sheep, rabbits, donkey and chickens. Then we were off to the car and on our merry way back to Oklahoma! We made it home with zero accidents which makes Mommy very happy! : )

I do think I have been making small strides to get my kids out more. Just taking them to the regular places I go like Target and Kroger, except now adding potty training to the mix, is a much bigger and more complicated task. So, I go from that to driving almost two hours round trip, on foot - w/o strollers and potty training??????? Made for a pretty exhausting day for me but I do think the kids enjoyed themselves and I did too for the most part.

I have another playdate at an open gym on Tuesday and I am hoping this will be much easier on Mommy. Crossing my fingers the kids won't clam up like they did at the Arboretum or have a potty accident.

June! What a month!

We've had multiple doctors appointments for Hannah because of recurring ear infections. Thankfully, her ears are all better now. We have also had ECI out twice to get things set up to have them help Whitney with her walking and help all of them with their speech. By the way, Whitney is walking so much better while holding our hand. She is much more stable. I personally think she could walk on her own now but really just lacks the confidence. She is very cautious!

We worked our little booties off, over a one week period, getting this house ready to sell and boy, did we do something right! We had a contract on the house literally 3 or 4 hours later!

Craig has been wanting to get lasik for quite some time and finally decided to bite the bullet and get it done before heading back to work. He is now on cloud nine! Also, Craig will be returning back to work Friday of this week.

For a couple of weeks after the surgery, Craig has to wear these plastic eye pieces that are attached with this sticky tape. He didn't want to use those, so he went to try and find a more comfortable alternative. This is the alternative...

We had a family Father's Day/June birthday celebration, celebrating Craig, Kyle (Craig's brother), Byron (Craig's BIL), and Steve (Craig's dad) for being the wonderful fathers they are. We also celebrated Kyle, Steve and Victoria's (the oldest cousin) birthdays. It was great fun visiting, having lunch, opening presents and cards and watching Michaela (SIL) practice her cosmetology skills on Lisa (SIL) all while sipping on iced coffee with the girls. :) :)

I had a fun play day with one of my oldest friends, Christi and her little girl, Elizabeth. The kids had fun having lunch together, playing with toys together and playing outside in the pool and on the slide. Elizabeth said she liked Tyler! Maybe a crush??? :) :) It was a great day and Christi and I had a great time visiting and catching up.

Whitney, Hannah, Elizabeth and Tyler

Whitney and Hannah were getting tired and whiny so they went inside with Craig and went down for a nap. Tyler and Elizabeth sitting together at the table. Isn't that cute? Tyler is going for older women!
Craig and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary - an extended version. We spent time together just the two of us in Fort Worth and ate at Texas de Brazil for dinner! We caught a movie, strolled through Sundance Square and went to a museum as well. Fort Worth is such a nice city - they have so much going on downtown. Lots of great places to eat, tons of museums, and I was quite surprised by how "alive" the city was even on a week night.

Since we had so much stuff going on with trying to find a house, we didn't have much of a Father's day for Craig. We did get up that morning and the kids painted their first picture for their Daddy. They also colored their first picture for him too. The finger paints was a rather messy project and they weren't quite ready for it but it was still fun (for me).


Then I let him open his cards and they all wore their "my daddy is my hero" stickers as well as Craig got to wear his "best dad ever" sticker. I registered for school and will be taking another 2 classes in the Fall. After that, only 2 left!

A few miscellaneous pictures from the month of June....

Whitney was so tired, she fell asleep on her back, which is so rare.

Daddy with his girls. Isn't Whitney hilarious? I guess she is imitating her Mommy - wearing the sunglasses, with my phone and the remote to the ceiling fan in her hand. Sixteen months going on sixteen!
Daddy and Tyler being silly putting on pajamas before bedtime.
Hannah just hangin' out on the towel right after a bath.


And she's off...
I love these two of Whitney and Craig. So silly...
So serious...

May Misc. Activities

I've pretty much blogged about our major activities for the month of May. But, I wanted to document a few other things.

We started the beginning of the month celebrating Craig's Mom's 60th birthday! We took Mamaw and Papaw to lunch one Sunday and had a great time. We tried to embarrass her by getting the wait staff to sing to her but apparently they don't do that at Uncle Julios.

I had a play date with my SIL, Michaela at the mall. My trio was of course very nervous and scared which made it pretty tiring but then I had another play date at the mall with my friend Jennifer and they did SOOOO much better. Then, I had another play group with the cousins on Craig's side. We went to a park in Rowlett and I will have to remember this park for the future. It is all fenced in which is great! A couple of schools came and unloaded about 3 buses of kids so they ran us off but we still had fun playing in the grass under the trees.

We had a social function with our ABF and we had so much fun. I think this was the first time we've been to an ABF function - the entire family - since we had the babies!! We ate at Spring Creek BBQ and had the entire back room reserved just for us. This is a great place to have large gatherings for future reference.

We took the babies to a splash park in Allen and you guessed it, they were pretty nervous and scared. Hannah warmed up the most but even she was a little standoffish. They enjoyed the park as well. And they are really starting to enjoy climbing up the steps on the playground which makes for two very busy parents trying to keep the three of them from falling off!

I was invited to be in a book club. I figured I could probably handle it during the summer but I am not sure if I can keep up when school starts back up in the Fall. I read my first in a long time, non-children's book. It was great being able to "escape" in a good book and then get together at the end of the month to discuss the book and socialize with friends.

In other news... Whitney began pulling up on everything. This started about 2 weeks ago and we are so excited! She is also cruising a lot and we are helping her walk around while holding on to our hand.

We all got sick with some sinus infection cold thing. We are pretty well now... just the lingering runny noses including me! Craig has gotten over his but mine and the kids just won't end. Hannah is on her second round of back-to-back ear infections. If this medicine doesn't work, we will try one more then we will have to see an ENT. She had an ear infection before they got sick then when I took her back to follow up, she was at the tail end of her cold thing so we aren't sure if it is another infection or the same one and the medicine didn't work.

We are also working on teaching the babies how to use a spoon to eat. I was really surprised by how well they are doing. They are really interested and Tyler especially doesn't want me to feed him with a spoon, he wants to do it. It will be so nice and less messy once they get this down. Then, it's on to plates and bowls.

ECI came out this week and evaluated the babies. They were very pleased with them all around for being triplets. They were only behind in their speech (with the exception of Whitney's not walking) so they will be working with us on these two things.

As you can see I am not the best picture taker. I need to get better but I think I need an extra set of hands for that! Ha! Enjoy a few random pics below.


Whitney pulling up and standing at my feet.
Yeah Whitney... Standing at the play kitchen!
My best climber got in the car all by herself.

Isn't she cute?

Hannah and Mommy playing during pool time outside.
Tyler and Mommy one-on-one time.

Tyler checking out the fence.
Tyler exploring - checking out the fire wood.

Brotherly - sisterly love!
Is Hannah under there?
I think this was the day we went to the Arboretum.

*** Be sure and scroll down to see another new post below.

Seeing triple?

We decided it had been a while since we had a playdate of multiples, so Jessica, Candice and I got all got together with our three sets of three. We went over to Jessica's for a little whip cream and pool party. My three weren't into the whole whip cream idea... not sure why - they love sweets. I think they were just extra clingy and nervous because we were in a different environment. Gotta get those kids out with other kids more! They may have also been a little over-stimulated... after all, there were 9 kids there!
How many kids can we fit into the pool????????



I am trying to get Whitney to sit at the table with the other kids and play with the redi whip.

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.

BFF's: Two new SIL's and a husband!

Jennifer came over this week and brought Samantha over for a play date and let her meet her husband to be and her sisters in law to be.

They weren't too happy squeezing all four of them in the chair.

They are getting more acquainted.

Hannah and Sam cheek to cheek!

The happy couple!
Tyler and Sam sittin'
in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g...
:) :) :) :) :)

Jenn and the girls.
We should've seen if she could
hold Tyler too!

(L to R)
Whitney, Sam, Hannah & Tyler

Triplets Galore!!

My friend Jessica came over Monday for our first play day together with our triplets. Jessica and I were hospital rooming-in buddies back in December. It was fun getting the babies together and hanging out for the day. A little crazy at times, but FUN! Thanks for coming out, Jess; next time I will head your way.