Beautiful Days!!

The weather the last few days has been absolutely beautiful!! I am LOVING it! We have been spending LOTS of time outside, AND I seem to be getting a lot done in the house too! :)

On Wednesday, I took the little kids to the zoo! We were there bright and early, so it wasn't too crowded, and the weather was beautiful!!

On Thursday morning, we went to an indoor playground type of place, called Urban Treehouse. I am not a big fan of it, because it is geared more towards 4-5 year olds, so there isn't much for 2 year olds to do! But we got a LOT of passes for Christmas, so I need to use them up! Again we were there early, and we (and my cousin with her 2 kids) were the ONLY ones there for the first hour, then a couple came in with 1 year old twins for the second hour! So we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nice!

On Friday, I wanted to get a bunch of house work done. BUT the kids started off the morning pretty cranky. So I decided we would go to the park, and let the kids run off some of their cranky energy! When we got home, I baked a cake for Jade's birthday party, and cleaned the house! After school, Jade's friend Jordyn came home with us, and Jade had her "birthday party". We rented a movie for the girls, and ordered pizza for supper! They had a great time, and Jade was happy to finally host a sleepover!

Here are a few pictures from the past week!

Cole enjoying some corn on the cob!

Hayden likes corn on the cob too!

Kadance with her corn on the cob!

Hayden sitting on Daddy's shoulder watching a little bit of Saturday morning TV!

Jade and Jordyn with a castle they made together!

New Schedule.....

So lately I feel like I am not getting a whole bunch of ANYTHING done each day, so I have decided to make a more structured schedule for my day!

We usually just kind of sit around with the TV on almost all day (WAY too much!), and I TRY to get a few chores done, but some days nothing gets done, the kids are bored, and I don't feel like a good mom or homemaker.

So I have broken down the day into half hour increments, and I am scheduling in things like playing outside, and doing coloring/playdough, as well as 3 half hour TV times. I am hoping to keep the kids happier, as well as get more done around here, while still getting my "breaks".

So I am going to try out my new schedule, starting Monday, for the next 4 weeks, while Jade finishes school. Then I will adapt/change it a bit for the summer, since I won't have to do things like drop off/pick up Jade from school, and she will be home all day.

So here it is:


Daily Schedule (Spring)
6:30am – Get up & shower (me)
7:00am – Jade in bath & Triplets up and changed
7:30am – Breakfast
8:00am – Triplets dressed & Jade morning chores
8:30am – Take Jade to school
9:00am – Work on chores (me) & Triplets play (**Except Tuesdays – Grocery shop**)
9:30am – Triplets color/Playdough & me chores (if possible)
10:00am – Play outside/walk
10:30am
11:00am
11:30am – Home/inside & Play (triplets) & Make lunch (me)
12:00pm – Lunch
12:30pm – TV (triplets)
1:00pm – Nap (triplets) & Finish chores (me)
1:30pm
2:00pm – Computer, Scrapbook, TV (me)
2:30pm
3:00pm – Pick up Jade from school
3:30pm – Snack & TV
4:00pm – Play (kids) & Start dinner (me)
4:30pm
5:00pm - Dinner
5:30pm
6:00pm – Bath/PJ's (Triplets) & Homework (Jade)
6:30pm – TV (kids)
7:00pm – Bedtime (triplets) & TV (Jade) & Evening Chores (me)
7:30pm – Clean room and ready for bed (Jade)
8:00pm – Bedtime (Jade) & Me time (computer, scrapbook, TV)

Feeling Great :)

Today the triplets and I went to the zoo, with a friend and her twins! We were there for 9:30am, so it was NOT crowded, and the weather was beautiful!! We walked the whole zoo, ate lunch, and then went home.

Later in the afternoon, the triplets and I left early to pick up Jade from school (since they slept for a little bit on the way home from the zoo, they didn't have a "real" nap this afternoon). We took the wagon and walked, and we played at the school park for 20 minutes before Jade was out.

I am happy to say that I am feeling great!! We did LOTS of walking today, and my sciatica isn't bothering me AT ALL!!

Naps/Bedtime!

We seem to be having MAJOR issues with naps and bedtime lately, and I feel like I am at my breaking point!!

Almost everyday, nap time is a fight. I spend WAY too much time trying to get the kids to lay down, stop playing, and go to sleep! It is seriously starting to stress me out, and I am starting to wonder if it is even worth it! Last night and this afternoon, I was almost in tears trying to get them to go to sleep!

The thing is, they will go for a few days napping really well, and then they will have another few days of napping crappy, if at all, so I never know what to expect!!

I KNOW they still need their sleep, since the days that they don't nap well, they are very cranky by dinner time, but I don't know how to MAKE them sleep!!

I even tried pushing their nap back an hour, so now I am putting them down at 1pm, instead of 12pm, because when I was putting them down at 12, they were playing around for an hour or more!

So putting them down at 1 worked great for a few days, and now they are back to pissing around for over an hour. So if I put them down at 1pm, and they play around until 2pm, they then only have an hour to sleep, because I have to go get Jade from school at 3pm. That is one of the biggest problems. They only have limited time to sleep, so when I put them down, they need to go to sleep right away.

I have cleared out their room, so they really don't have anything to play with, but we DO have issues with them playing with their blinds. They have a big window in their room, and I have a room darkening blind on it. But they can reach it by standing on their beds, and constantly pull it up. I duct tape it to the wall EVERY day, but they just rip the tape off, and play with the blinds.

Tonight Gairod got a bunch of cardboard, and put it BETWEEN the two panes of glass on their window, so we can leave the blinds up, and their room is still dark. Hopefully this will help, now that they can't play with their blinds!

Too Funny!

I just HAD to post a conversation I just had with Kadance, right before bed time :)

Me: "Come on Kadance, it's bed time"

Kadance: "Baby?"

Me: "Yes you can bring your baby, go get it!"

Kadance: Runs over to her baby, then scowls and says "Don't like um!" Then runs to bed (without her baby)!

I seriously LOVE this age, they are so hilarious to watch and listen to!! For all the temper tantrums and cranky times, there are at least as many cute and funny times!

Exhausted!!

I think I over did it a bit yesterday, with Jade's birthday party! I woke up this morning exhausted and sore all over!! Too much standing, bending, and just being busy with hostess duties!! I felt like I could barely function as I got out of bed and into the shower!

So my plan was to spend the day sitting on the couch, relaxing. Well of course Gairod called me at 8am and asked if I could bring some business cards into south Calgary, where he is working on a two day job, because he forgot them. It's a 1 hour drive there, and 1 hour back. Being the wonderful wife that I am, I said "fine, but you owe me BIG TIME!"

So after taking Jade to school, I went all the way into south Calgary and back, pretty much wasting most of my morning. The good part was that I stopped at Tim Hortons on my way back, and got an XL coffee, which helped me to stay awake for the rest of the morning!!

Then with Jade getting out early on Fridays, there wasn't enough time for the little ones to have a nap. So now it is 3:30, and they are all sitting on the couch with pillows, watching TV. I am quite sure Hayden is going to fall asleep, but the other 2 probably won't, so they will just be extra cranky this evening.

So I am planning on going to bed early tonight, to hopefully catch up on my sleep! Especially since tomorrow night Gairod and I are bartending a wedding for some friends, so I KNOW it will be a very late night, and I will pay for it the next day!

Happy Birthday Jade :)

I can't believe my "little" girl turned 7 years old today!! I can still remember the day she was born, and it DOES NOT seem like 7 years ago!!

As funny as this might sound, Jade was quite thrilled that her birthday fell on a week day this year. This meant that she got to wear a special birthday hat at school, and also got a special goody bag from her teacher! Jade's old kindergarten teacher, who is also the mother of her best friend, took Jade and Jordyn (best friend) out for lunch!

Then in the evening, we had our families over for dinner and cake! The little kids were a bit cranky since they didn't have a good nap today, but other then that, everything went well :)

Instead of a birthday party with a bunch of friends, which we don't have the space for and really can't afford right now, Jade has decided to have her best friend Jordyn come for a sleepover! So next Friday, Jordyn will come home from school with us, and we'll order pizza, let the girls pick out a movie and get some treats, and I am sure they will have a GREAT time!

For her birthday present from us, I am going to take Jade to the mall, let her pick out a few summer outfits from Children's Place (her favorite store!), and then we will have lunch at the food court, just the two of us!!

4th Prenatal Appointment!

Today I had my 4th prenatal appointment, and my last one with my regular family doctor. My appointment next month will be with my OB!!

I am 22 weeks. Weight and BP are both looking good, and the heart rate was a healthy 148 bpm!

My uterus is measuring a bit large for my dates and the size of my baby (confirmed by ultrasound). I am measuring 26 weeks, when I should only be 22! That is 4 WEEKS AHEAD!! At my second appointment (at 14 weeks) my uterus was also measuring large, at 2 weeks ahead. My doctor said if we didn't know any better, his first thought would be multiples! But since I have had 3 ultrasounds, and all have shown ONE baby, measuring perfectly for my dates, and my fluid levels have been fine, he has no idea WHY my uterus would be measuring large. So he said if I am still measuring big when I see my OB next month, he will probably send me for another ultrasound, just to be sure the baby and fluid levels are all still measuring properly.

Weight Gain

I will be 22 weeks tomorrow (I don't know why my pregnancy ticker is one day ahead, but I don't feel like going in and trying to change it!), and I am still on track with my weight gain. I have gained a total of 13 lbs, which is totally within the normal range. I am getting a little bit worried though, because in the last 3 weeks, I have had 2 weeks of 3 lb weight gain, and one of 1 lb. So basically I have gained 7 lbs in the last 3 weeks!I would really like to try and keep it to only 1lb a week, so I think I need to cut back on my eating! I KNOW I have been snacking too much in the afternoon's and evening's, and usually on junk. So I am going to try hard to stop it! I would really like to keep my total weight gain to 35 lbs or less, so that I am within normal range, and it will hopefully be easier to lose!

May Long Weekend!

We really didn't have big plans for this weekend, just hanging out around home, getting a few things done!

Saturday was nice out - finally nice enough that the kids could actually wear shorts, so we took advantage of the weather and played outside :)

Sunday was supposed to be even nicer, so we decided to go to Pine Lake (about an hour and a half away) and try to go fishing for the day. It was the first time the kids have been in the boat since last summer, so we were anxious to see how they would do. We packed plenty of snacks, and the portable DVD player, and the kids did GREAT!!! We spent just over 3 hours on the water, and they were all very well behaved! We were very impressed, especially since we didn't catch any fish, so they didn't even have that bit of extra entertainment!

Cole helping Jade fish :)
Hayden trying to find something to get into!
The kids all lined up eating a snack :)


And then this is what we woke up to this morning!! SNOW! It never fails, we almost ALWAYS end up getting snow on the May long weekend. Kind of a disappointing end to an otherwise nice weekend!

Pics of the kids!

I didn't get a picture of Jade, since she was still in her pj's when I took these pictures, but here is the rest of the crew :)

Kadance

Cole

Hayden

Lori :)

I just had to do a post about my friend Lori. Lori and I were introduced through our local multiples club, shortly after both of our triplets were born. Our due dates were only 5 days apart, but her babies came VERY early, at 26 weeks. They had lots of ups and downs during those first few months, but they all persevered, and are now perfectly healthy toddlers :)

I think part of the reason Lori and I hit it off right away, is because our families are very similar. She has a now almost 4 year old daughter, and I have an almost 7 year old daughter. She has girl/boy/boy triplets, and so do I! After emailing back and forth for a few months, Lori and I eventually got together.

It is SOOO nice to have someone to talk to, get ideas from, and vent your frustrations to, who is in a very similar situation as you are! Neither of us have a house that is big enough for our families, and neither of us have TONS of money.

Lori and I now try to get together a couple times a month, just the two of us, to scrapbook and usually a couple of times with the kids for a playdate! Every time I see Lori I am inspired, and come home with new ideas or motivation about how to tackle a current problem.

So I guess the point of this post, is that it doesn't matter how MANY friends you have (cause I really don't have a lot!), but it's the quality of the friendship that matters most.

Grey's Anatomy!!

Did anyone see the Grey's Anatomy season finale last night??!! I can't believe it!! I am STILL upset about it! George and Izzy are 2 of my favorite characters!! I don't know for sure if they are going to be killed off, but I sure hope not!

I have come to the realization that season finales and pregnancy hormones DO NOT mix well! LOL!

Bedroom Cleaning and Basement Progress!

I'll start with the basement progress. Since moving everything out last weekend, Gairod has been working hard on tearing down the walls! He is doing great, and is almost done! Next he will have to rip out the old wiring. That will be another not so fun task, but hopefully he will get it done quickly!

I have completely had it with Jade's bedroom. It is a HUGE disaster, and I have gone in several times to try and start organizing and cleaning it out, but I just end up overwhelmed, and don't know what to do with anything! SO, I have decided, that I am going to put EVERYTHING into green garbage bags, except her furniture and clothes. Then I am going to go through each bag individually, and get rid of as much stuff as I can, and organize and put back the rest. I am hoping to get at least some of this done this weekend, since we have no plans for the long weekend.

So that is my update! We've just been busy with regular stuff, and still waiting for some nice Spring/Summer weather so we can start doing some more stuff outside!

I can feel it on the outside!!

Baby must be growing bigger and stronger, because I can feel it (and see it!) moving on the outside of my belly now!! I LOVE being able to feel the baby moving on the outside, because now I can share it with Gairod and the kids!

I still can't believe that in just over 4 short months, I will have a brand new baby in my arms!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day. This morning we got up, got the kids dressed, and went out for breakfast with Gairod's family, just like we do every Mother's Day. Before that, Jade gave me her handmade gift from school, a card she made at home, and 3 cards that she helped the triplets make for me!

For me, Mother's Day is not about expensive gifts, or fancy meals, or expecting to relax and be pampered for the day. With 4 young kids, that is just not practical, and I would only be let down.

As I sit and reflect on this Mother's Day, I can not believe that I have been a mother for almost 7 years. To me, that is a long time. Sometimes I feel as though I have always been a mother, and other times I feel like I am just starting.

I truly believe that being a mother is one of the hardest, yet most rewarding jobs there is. The moment you become a mother, you are entrusted with a human life. It is YOUR job to nurture and grow a tiny infant, into a productive, responsible and respected adult. There is no right way, and there is no wrong way. There is no instruction manual, and no one can tell you how to do it. You need to figure it out on your own, or with the help of your partner. You WILL make mistakes, you WILL NOT be perfect. All you can do is your best, and everyday, you will question whether or not you have done that.

For me, everyday feels like Mother's Day. Each morning when I am greeted by 3 smiling toddlers, every hug, every kiss, every cry for "Mommy!", I am reminded how much I am loved and depended on. I don't need a day to tell me I am special - my kids do that for me everyday :)

I've come to the conclusion....

So after clearing out the basement today, I have come to three conclusions.

1. We have TOO MUCH STUFF! I know I have said this before, but we DO!! I can't believe how much stuff we moved out of the basement today, and about 90% of it, we use rarely, if ever! All I can say is that all of that stuff WILL NOT be going back into the basement, I am going to go through it all, and get rid of as much as I can!

2. We need a bigger house. Even if we go through and pare down as much as we can, we will still have 6 (soon to be 7) people living in a 900 sqf house! Unfortunately, until we can afford to build and move onto our property, we are stuck here!

3. We need to re-organize, and make better use of the space we DO have. As I said in #2, moving is not an option right now, so we have to make the best of what we have. I KNOW there are areas of the house that could be put to better use, so I need to get on it, and re-organize!

Making Progress!

I am so happy! We are finally starting to make some progress on the basement! Today my mother-in-law came over and watched the kids upstairs, so that Gairod and I could finish clearing out the basement.

We have pretty much everything out, at least everything that will be going out (obviously we need to keep the washer/dryer, and freezers down here!). Tonight we are going to move the computer upstairs, and then the basement is ready to start getting ripped apart! I am NOT looking forward to that part, and I won't even be the one doing it! I just KNOW that dust and dirtiness will make it's way upstairs, so I am really hoping Gairod can get it all torn out quickly, and move onto the building part!

I am still really nervous that it is NOT going to get done before the baby gets here, but I am TRYING not to stress about it, and just take it one step at a time. We are one step closer!!

Things are looking up?!

I am not sure if I have posted this or not, but Gairod has been out of work for over 3 months now. He is a journeyman welder, running his own business, with a portable welder. Today he got his B Pressure Ticket (you have to pass a test), so HOPEFULLY, this will open up some more doors for him, and he will find some more work soon!!

20 Weeks Pregnant!

I can't believe I am 20 weeks pregnant already!! That means I am half way there! That makes me excited and scared and sad, all at the same time! We haven't even started on the basement yet, which is really starting to freak me out! If we don't get it done, our baby won't have a bedroom!! Physically, I am still feeling really good, so that is nice!

Peeing on the Potty!!!

A few weeks ago, I bought potties for the triplets. I had no intention of potty training them right away, but figured it would be good to at least introduce them to potties, and let them sit on them once in a while. So for the past few weeks, they have been sitting on the potty before bath time, so only once every 2 days!

Well last night, Cole peed on the potty!! We praised him, gave him an M&M, and let him call Grandma to tell her! I honestly couldn't believe it, especially since I have always thought that he would be the last one to potty train, since he just seems the least ready. Then today, we just got back from breakfast, and he wanted to sit on the potty again. So of course then everyone wanted to! So I stripped them all down and let them sit on the potties. They all sat there and did nothing, so I started taking them to go get their diapers on. After I got the first 2 done, I came back to get Cole, and he had peed in the potty again!!!

I am still in shock! lol! Twice in two days!! So now I am debating whether or not I should start potty training more seriously?! I would really prefer to wait a few more months, but if Cole is at least making progress, maybe I should give it a try??!

We're Home!

We got back from our fishing trip on Wednesday! All in all, it was a great trip!

The Saturday night before we left, I cried myself to sleep, because I was so upset about leaving the kids! I wanted to take them with us, but I knew that wasn't possible, and that they would be FINE here with Grandma! Don't go on a vacation away from your kids when you are pregnant, the hormones make it so much harder! lol!

We left here at 8:00am Sunday morning. We stopped twice for gas, bathroom and food, and made it to Mission BC by 6:30pm our time (5:30pm BC time). I LOVE the west coast! Everything here is still cold and brown, and everything there is warm and green!! They even have pretty flower gardens already! I am so jealous!!

Anyways, we got to the owners house (he has a basement suite that he rents out to customers for the same price as a hotel), his wife showed us around, and then Gairod and I went out to Boston Pizza for dinner. We were both very tired, so we went back to the house, watched a bit of TV, and went to bed!

We had to be at the harbour by 8:00am Monday morning. There we met our guide, Ryan. He was great! He is young like us, and an easy guy to talk to! We got along with him really well, and it made the days so much more enjoyable!

We started catching fish pretty much right away! Gairod got the first fish of the day, and I got the second, which ended up being my biggest fish of the trip! It was 5 feet, 8 inches long! Sturgeon are such a fun fish to catch, because they are so strong, and put up a really good fight, even the smaller ones!

So after 8 hours of fishing, we ended up with 13 fish total for the day! We went back to the house, called the kids, then ordered pizza and watched the Flames hockey game. I was so tired and sore after a long, fun day of fishing, that we went to bed early!

The next day started at the same time as the first. It was quite a bit more windy the second day, which made fishing a little harder. It took a couple hours before we started to catch anything, but once we did, they were almost all decent sized fish! Gairod got his biggest fish, which was 5 feet, 10.5 inches long!

I also got my second biggest fish, which was 5 feet long!In total we caught 9 fish the second day. We went back to the house, called the kids, then went out for dinner. After dinner we got packed up and went to bed early, since we were planning on getting up early the next morning to leave for home!

We got up at 5:30am the next morning and left by 6:00am! Again we only stopped twice, and we made it home by 5:30pm our time (we lost an hour coming home, due to the time change). The kids were happy to see us, and we were so happy to see them!! It was nice to get away and have a new experience, but it was also nice to get back home to regular life!