New hours

In the past few weeks, my work hours changed from starting at 9:30 or 10am to starting at 8am.  It may not seem like much of a shift, but it involved quite a change.  I've been good for the most part - I got up pretty late this morning but still made it on time.  So the earlier start comes with an earlier bedtime so I haven't had as much time to blog.  It may seem like I have more time - but I spend that extra time with the kids.  The other day I got home and the kids had been wanting to make muffins.  So we pushed up our sleeves and washed our hands and mixed up some muffins for dinner.

On that note, I need to get to bed so I can get up on time. 

I have not forgotten...

The past month and a half have gone by with me vowing to blog, but it just hasn't happened.  I'll catch up eventually!
February came and went with alot of snow ice and very cold temperatures.  We attended Andrew's birthday party on Valentine's day.  The location was at iPlay America - which is this huge indoor amusement park.  We were actually late for the party because I had put the wrong time in the calendar on my phone.  We left the house in time, went to get breakfast and onto the party and ended up getting a phone call from Tony's mom wondering where we were.  Oops!  We got there and everyone else that was there for the party were ready to leave, but they ended up staying a little longer.  The kids rode a few rides and then climbed around a jungle gym for about an hour. 

It was Valentine's day and I made the heart/ribbon streamers that I hung in their door way of their room.  I like doing crafty things - I just don't usually have alot of time for it. 

...and one more 'so I don't forget' moment...
We were in the car and I looked back and noticed that Amelia had a coin in her mouth.  So I told her to take it out - she shouldn't put them in her mouth and little Tony says "yeah, you're mouth is not a bank"  It was so funny/cute I didn't want to forget!

just because I don't want to forget...

This afternoon I asked the kids what they wanted for lunch... everyone agreed on cereal.
When asked what cereal they each wanted Amelia replied with "sticky O's" - which I learned was what she calls Honey Nut Cheerios.  Olivia wants "pretty O's" which are Fruit Loops and Tony wanted strawberry cereal - which is Frankenberry.

The other day I was trying to teach Olivia how to NOT pee on the floor when she sits on her potty... and little Tony says "mommy, tell her to tuck her pee-pee in"

A few days ago, we had some snow so we got the kids ready to go out and 'help' me shovel.   They loved it - everyone had their own shovel.  When we were getting ready to go out the girls were describing their shovels as being pink or red or purple - of which none of them were those colors.  They were all yellow!  While we were shoveling I took a few pictures and when I was trying to take Tony's picture, he said "not too many pictures, mom I have to keep shoveling!"

Here are a few other pictures from the past week... modeling off their new bathrobes from Grandma

And finally Olivia and Tony trying on mommy's work headset.  I had to work from home the other day due to the weather so I was in the basement taking phone calls and they were running around upstairs!

Little Drummer Boy/Girl

Yeah!!! a drum set for Christmas.  They like it :)

It really is different.

A few weeks ago Tony needed to go out and run a few errands.  He offered to take one of the kids with him to lighten the load.  We haven't typically just taken one out anywhere - we usually travel as a pack! In the past when we've tried to, it results in a bunch of crying - from the other ones because they don't get to go.  Olivia got to go with daddy and little Tony - right on cue - started whining.  I asked him if he wanted to make cookies with me and Amelia and he happily agreed and calmed down. 

So once Amelia was up from her nap, we headed into the kitchen, washed our hands and opened the pantry to see what we could bake.  I had a mix for snickerdoodle cookies and planned to make Jello too.  Both Amelia and Tony got to measure, pour and stir/mix.  They LOVED it.  I had done some other baking/cooking with them, but it was alot more difficult with all three.  Tony was really good with rolling the cookies into little balls and he and Amelia got along really well.

In the past, when talking to other twin moms and 'how I do it', I've always just said something about being nearly the same as twins - but with just one more and made it seem like it was no big deal.  Well, I was wrong.  It's a lot more difficult with three than with two.  It could be related to personality differences between my three, but two was so much more manageable!  I'll have to test out different combinations with my own to see which is the best.  So far I've had Amelia and Tony - they got along great!  I've had Amelia and Olivia - they were pretty good, but got into a few arguments.  I need to get Tony and Olivia for my final test, but my overall conclusion will be the same - Two are easier than one and I'll never again minimalize that fact.

I don't have any pictures of our cookies, but here are some sleepy baby pictures.

Christmas (part II)

The afternoon of Christmas was spent at Tony's mom's house with his family.  They all got a ton of stuff - most of which consisted of a million tiny pieces which will drive me nuts trying to keep together!  They had a ton of fun opening all of the presents and then we had a grand time packing it all up in the car to cart it all home. 

Tony trying on his new bathrobe.

Amelia opening a gift from Aunt Lori and Uncle Steve

Olivia opening a gift from Aunt Natalie and Uncle Kevin

Tony posing with his new Play-Doh set saying "CHEESE"

Olivia eyeing up her new cup.

 

 

 

 This picture needs to be explained... toward the end of the evening, Olivia, Tony and their cousin Thomas decided to play 'secret agents' and their hide out was under the dining room table where they proceeded to take every piece of fabric from the living room and put it under the table.  I'm talking about every throw pillow, blanket, arm chair covers, stockings, etc.  There was alot of stuff under there.  One time I looked down there I saw Olivia and Thomas holding hands and it appeared that she was giving him a kiss!  I snapped this picture of them under the table.  (Later on I asked Olivia if she gave Thomas a kiss - she said yes but was just one on the cheek!) 

All of the cousins (minus 1 and a half)

Merry Christmas!

The months have flown by and here we are at the end of the year and Christmas.  I have to admit that having three three year olds has been a challenge, but Santa found his way to our house.  We started reading The Elf on the Shelf a few weeks ago thinking it would curb some of the 'naughty' behavior, but it feels like they may have gotten worse.  We named our elf 'Herbie' and he found a new home every day but they're still at the age where we had to remind them to look around for him. 

The big gift to all the kids was the train table - which they all loved.  It was the first thing they all went to and kept going back to.  I have to admit it was an ordeal to get it.  It started with Black Friday online shopping where I bought a small train table from Toys R Us.  After about 2 weeks of waiting for it to arrive, I received an email that they cancelled my order and thanked me for being understanding.  Well, I wasn't very understanding and they ended up sending me another email that was for $40 off my next shopping trip.  In the next week or so they had a different train table on sale which was double the amount of the original one, but with the $40 off, I figured why not?  I thought it would be an easy order - I'd order it online and then pick it up in the store.  It took a little time and patience to find a store that had it in stock - or so I thought.  I thought that I'd be able to go to the store within a few days and pick it up and I ended up getting an email in a few days that said that the train table shipped from the warehouse to the store that I chose.  Wait, what?  shipped from the warehouse? Why would I have chosen a store 35 minutes from my house when there are at least 3 other ones closer if it was shipping from the warehouse???  I was annoyed and worried that I wouldn't get it in time and no one at Toys R Us seemed to care or have any explanation.  In the end, it arrived at the store on Tuesday afternoon and Tony was able to go and pick it up.  He had to wait because it was still on the truck when he got there, but we got it.  It took a few hours to set up on Christmas Eve, but seeing them play with it, made it all worth it. 

Here are some other pictures of Santa's loot piles for the kids...

It's funny to think about what they've told us they want from Santa... everytime we asked them  - Amelia would say she wants a purple present, Olivia wanted a pink present and Tony wanted a blue present.  I'll have to remind them of this when they're older and asking for iphones and and $300 game systems, and other things yet to be invented!

We spend Christmas morning at our house and then later on went to Tony's mom's house.   That can be in a Christmas part 2 post (after I get those pictures loaded).

Instead I'll share some pictures from our session at JC Penney.  I thought the pictures came out pretty well.  We decided to do the girls hair up (braided) since that's what they always want thanks to Frozen's Anna and Elsa.