Changes

Yet again it's been way too long since I've posted.  A lot has been going on around here.  This summer was full of projects on the house (one is still going on and it's loud and dirty).  We've had another round of birthday week.  I am now the proud parent of two four year olds and one three year old (their birthdays are all 3 days apart).  I can't help but to think of Sweet and Sugar's birthmoms on their birthdays and wonder how they are doing.  I am sad when I think about all that they are missing, but so thankful that Sweet and Sugar are a part of our family.  They bring so much joy and laughter to our lives.  I can't believe it's been almost 4 years since I saw the first pictures and videos of them.  We've come along way, but each year brings new challenges and achievements.

Sweet and Sugar have begun their first year of preschool.  They go 4 days a week for a little over 3 hours a day.  They were so excited about school.  Sugar absolutely hands down loves it and everything about it.  I thought he would and am re-leaved to be right.  So far there haven't been any issues with fights or challenging authority, which were my only concerns. 
Sweet is not so sure.  She was very excited, but ran out of the classroom at pickup time the first day calling for me and saying that she was very worried about me during school.  She also had an extra drawing in her backpack for me.  Every night she tells me she doesn't want to go back to school.  She wants to stay home with me.  (This breaks my heart.)  I always remind her that she's a big girl now and that big kids go to school and learn all kinds of new things and make new friends, etc.  Thankfully she's always excited the next day when it's time to go to school.  I kind of figured that she was going to have more of an issue than Sugar.  She's more of a mommy's girl.  She's very independent in so many ways (she's always enjoyed doing things for herself) and yet clingy to me at times.  I think that she really needs this time away from me and that it will be good for her in the end. 
I was also scared that she would cling to Sugar since I was not there, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  I am thankful that they have different instructors assigned to them, even though they are in the same class their kindergarten prep time is with different people.  During the picnic the week prior to class starting the kids were read a story and then told to get into boy and girl groups to wash hands.  The kids did this, except Sweet who ran to me asking were Sugar was.  Thankfully I arrived early to pick them up on the first day just as they were heading on to the playground and witnessed them run to opposite sides of the playground to play.

Bam had another round of allergy testing this summer.  We got good and bad results.  He did get cleared for most nuts, but still no peanut or pistachios.  Peanuts cross-contaminate most popular commercial nuts (aka Planters).  It is nice that he's allowed to have coconut now since coconut oil is in virtually every product it seems.  But then there's the question of do we even introduce nuts when as it is he knows not to go near them.  I did break down the other day and let him have cereal with almonds in it (a scary moment for me).  It was purchased on accident and he found the box and asked for it so we had a trial run with one flake and no reaction after a few minutes so I let him have a piece of almond and again no reaction so I let him have it and he loves it.  I think it's still more scary for me than him.
We did lots of playing in the water this summer.  My parents filled in their pool last summer.  It was too much work, money and too many problems.  I have to be honest and say that I even though I totally understand why they did it, I was sad that my kids didn't have a chance to learn how to swim in it.  To replace the pool, my parents purchased a water slide, which proved to be a huge hit with the kids and parents (as it is much less nerve-racking to sit and watch them play on a water slide than run around and play in a pool which requires you to be in contact with them at every minute.  We also spent several days playing at our local splash park (free water park for small children is a wonderful invention).

We also made several trips to the zoos in the area, one has a wonderful jelly fish exhibit and the other has an amazing dinosaur exhibit every year (we're looking forward to the completing of the elephant renovation and return of the elephants next year).  We actually took the kids for a quick trip to the zoo after school today so that they could see the dinosaurs one last time this summer.

(I love this picture of the kids walking with my parents and Chuck.  Note: my mom has lost almost 60lbs since this photo and I couldn't be more proud of her!)

That along with lots of trips to the local parks hiking, biking, and playing on the playgrounds.  Plus a trip to a local museum that has a dinosaur exhibit.  I think that about sums up what we did this summer.

I never thought I'd say

I think I need to start a list of things that I never thought that I'd say since there are so many of these things that come out of my mouth now that I have three little ones.  I should have started a long time ago.  And no they were not said the same child.

1.  Don't chew on your toenails.
2.  Don't eat my hair.

Love PBS

I am a big fan of PBS.  My kids don't watch much tv, but what they do watch is PBS or the Discovery Channel's Life Series.  They used to watch Noggin, which is now Nick Jr.  Most of the shows are not very educational and often they are highly annoying.  PBS shows on the other hand do problem solving, spelling, reading, science, etc.  Sugar's favorite show at the moment is probably their least (practically speaking, although my kids can tell you just about anything about dinosaurs) educational Dinosaur Train.

Today Buddy from Dinosaur Train was at a local mall, along with the woman who introduces all of the shows.  They had a program with the woman (Rosa) reading stories, singing and dancing.  Plus they had a meet and greet set up (unfortunately for which the line was far too long for my kids) with Buddy.  They also had lots of other organizations with kids activities and info.  It was a really nice program and the kids had a blast.

One of the groups had animals for the kids to touch.  They all loved the tourtise.  Sweet and Sugar liked the snake.  Bam was not about to touch it.  Bam did love the frog, but I didn't let him touch it for fear of him hurting it.

80s child

You have to love her fashion sense.  The pants had to be pulled up along with the socks to complete the outfit.

 Socks had to be pulled up all the way to go to bed tonight, but she just HAD to wear shorts.  She should have been an 80s child.

LOTS of Pictures and Cathing Up

Let me start off saying sorry for the sideways pics, too lazy to fix them now, too long of a post and I just up loaded too many photos.
Wow it's been a long time since I posted.  Kinda sad that I didn't document any of it.  I've pretty much given up on scrap-booking, the idea of hauling everything out when the kids are sleeping to work on it and then clean it all up before the kids wake up again just isn't very appealing.

Sugar loves the paints that Santa left in his stocking.  Bam and Sweet like the play doh more.  Sugar would paint all day everyday.  The kids also love the swords that Grandma and Papa got them and I think Dad does too.  Sweet loves the guitar that Sugar got, then again she's rarely not singing.

We did have a lot of fun in the snow this year.  Snow men and sledding were big hits.  Bam's favorite part was eating the snow.  Sweet liked sledding until we went down a bumpy hill.

I started potty training Bam in February.  We're still working on it.  He doesn't initiate it on his own, but he does stay dry, that is until the last two days.  We're still working on the rest of it though.  I was not a pull-up fan with Sweet and Sugar.  I think they're too close to diapers and they're weren't effective so I just used underwear on them, but we've ditched the underwear for now with Bam and gone to pull-ups.  Sweet potty trained in a day, Sugar in about two weeks, and I'm on two months with Bam so pull-ups it is.  To be fair he had started doing better at it about two weeks into it and then we all came down with RSV, which kicked all of our booties and ended up causing a set back.

We finally got some nice weather, which I was so desperately wanting.  We were all tired of being cooped up in the house.  Our yard, which manages to stay wet forever has even dried out which has made it very nice to get out.  We spent almost everyday at the park until it dried out.

We are in the hunt for an affordable power wheels for Bam.  We have two, but it would be nice to have another and it would cut down on the fights.  Everyone seems to have mastered steering them this year, at least when they're paying attention.  Sweet ran right into the septic the other night so hard that her head bounced off of the steering wheel.  I hope it's not an indication of what her driving skills will be in the future.  She's very easily distracted.

Easter was fun this year.  We died eggs the day before Easter, which was an event, just like most new things are with three little ones, but they had fun.  Easter eve was not.  It appears that Bam did not like the idea of the Easter Bunny coming in the house while we were asleep.  He would not go to sleep.  I finally asked if he wanted me to tell the Easter Bunny not to come to which he replied yes, much to Sugar's dismay.  Everyone did enjoy looking for eggs at our house and again at Grandma and Papa A's house.  Sugar was definitely the king of egg finding at our house.  We had to step in and help the other two find some before he got them all.  They were very happy to find that the Easter Bunny also put change and stickers in the eggs at our house and change and candy at Grandma and Papa's house.
We're currently in the middle of growth spurts which means lots of eating, sleeping, and bad attitudes.  It amazes me how they can be such sweet smart caring children until they hit a growth spurt and then they become little monsters.  I told Chuck that I think their brain takes a little while to catch up after a growth spurt because they don't use it as often then.

Bam is totally into Sweet's every whim.  She loves to play mommy.  As soon as she tells him he's a baby, he's on all fours crawling around cooing.  It's kind of funny and kind of scary that he'll already do anything to make his sister happy.  They usually play so well together.  Sweet and Sugar usually play well together too, it's just the boys who usually don't play well together.  But at times it's like they're best friends, usually when they're getting into trouble.  They do do that very well together.  Recently Bam has returned to wanting to give Sugar and occasionally Sweet hugs and kisses at nap and bed time.  It is very cute.
We signed Sweet and Sugar up for preschool this fall.  They're not going to my favorite program, because it was thirty minutes away when the weather is good.  But I think they'll do well and really like the program we chose.  They are so excited to go.  The program places the children based on the school district age requirements.  Apparently our school district just changed theirs from 5 by Sept 30 to August 1, which means they wouldn't go to kindergarten until almost 6.  I talked the preschool into letting them into the pre-k class, but I'll probably have to open enroll them in a neighboring school district for kindergarten, which stinks and I'll have to do the same thing for Bam too.

I started my garden the other day.  The kids helped me plant some seeds, until they started fighting over them and dumping them.  I'm doubling the size of our garden this year.  I'm also going to compost again too.  I decided to plant the seeds in egg cartons since the egg cartons will break down in the soil and I won't have to disrupt the roots at much when I transplant them.

Last but not least, my beautiful tree is flowering.  It always flowers right before bad weather, which knocks off all of the pretty flowers so I have to show you how pretty it is before the wind and rain.

This is why we don't have a dog. Instead, we had a third child, who is probably worse than a dog is some ways. But we still love him.






I'm not sure if it's the fact that Santa is coming soon or if it's a result of kids suddenly deciding that sleeping in might actually be a good thing, but behavior has been pretty much on the up and up lately. Which makes mommy and Santa very happy. Look we even look like we like each other here.




Here's a few pictures I took in addition to taking our Christmas card picture. I absolutely love them.