Easter

I have found that it helps to have a few craft or painting projects to do for me to keep my sanity. Here are a few of the things I've made recently during the girls naps and when they go to bed at night. Kyle thinks I have a disease since I can't leave well enough alone and have to keep on redecorating everything. Maybe I am sick....

I'm a little out of control with yarn wreaths. After my Valentine's ones I just thought they would make fun easter ones as well. And unless I find something else I really love before then, I will probably have a fourth of July yarn wreath as well. Here's a little mini one...

Made some stacking boxes with vintage easter pictures...

Another vintage picture framed with chicken wire...

And yes, my new spring front door yarn wreath!
Oh and a spring topiary (that took forever and I am not making these rosette things again!)

Also decided that my bedroom was a little too black and white boring so I made some pillows to go with my inexpensive green quilt I found for summertime (duvet in the winter)

What do you think?

Catch Up...

So who is ready for Spring cause I am DYING for warmer weather! The girls are so stir crazy right now (and so am I!) and it would be nice to be able to take them outdoors on dry grass and just let them run for miles! We are finally over all our sicknesses (for now at least) After the big Influenza bout then we went straight into RSV and just when we got through that, they repeated it and had another round of RSV with lovely ear infections through the whole thing. How miserable are sick kids? Don't answer, I think I already know pretty well at this point. Except for Mckenna, she is pretty amazing when she is sick and so sometimes it's hard to tell how sick she really is. It must seem like a walk in the park (a little cold here and there) compared to all the stuff she had to deal with as a baby.

And the girls are growing like crazy. I haven't kept track of height measurements like I am supposed to but I swear they have all grown many multiple inches in the last few months. They are looking more and more like toddlers and less like little chubby babies (or tootsie rolls as I like to call little babies).

They are well into their pre-terrible twos. I used to think they were showing their emotions before but talk about the drama now! Eeesh! I feel like I say to them "Calm down and relax!" all day long! Oh, and "It's okay.." but most days it's more like screaming "It's okay!" They definitely don't bring out the calm in me most of the time. This is definitely a frustrating stage with all these emotions they are displaying and stubborness and inability to say what they mean. But at the same time, it is fun to see them attempting to start communicating. And they string some of the silliest words together. The other day I said to Carly, "Oh Carly, you are so cute!" and she looked at me and said, "That's right." Don't think she had any idea what she was saying but still so funny. Also, the other day she was saying dada over and over (she does most days) and I finally said jokingly, "you know there are other people in this house besides dada" she was quite for a second and then started saying mama over and over. Okay one more. She will also take ribbon or a bow, scrunch it all up (I guess she thinks she tying it like mom does) and then throws her arms out and says, "there!" I guess I've learned that I have say "there" after I have tied shoes, bows, etc...

They still love to climb up on everything. They love the table and think they are really doing something naughty when they all get up there. I need to quash that habit soon but I am picking my battles right now.

Look at Carly and Maddy right here... they think they are hillarious!

After much trepidation and dragging my feet, I finally am trying to work on utensils. It's just such a mess to clean up for three. I think everyday, I wonder if my house will ever be clean again? They are doing quite well, just your typical rub the yogurt all through the hair experience...and then fling it all over the floor. But it has to be done because I am not going to spoon feed them forever.

Carly also has glasses now along with Mckenna. She is also farsighted like Mckenna but her vision is actually worse than Mckenna. Mckenna was put in hers first because her eyes were starting to cross. Carly's haven't even attempted to cross but the doctor said it was time and she will like it better because she will be able to see better. But.... she is the worst at wearing her glasses. Mckenna will keep hers on most of the day, but I'm lucky if Carly will go an hour with hers. So that's a constant battle. I think she can see a lot better but she just can't help from touching them and pulling them off. Perfect example in picture below...

The girls are starting to get into the dress up deal. They love hats... (Mckenna)

(Carly)

(Madison)

Shoes (especially Carly and Maddy)

(Carly)

Headbands (Maddy-nice hairdo huh?)

And just clothes in general... They are growing up so fast! (L to R: Carly, Mckenna, Madison)

We haven't taken them to church all winter because of sickness and I think their first Sunday back will be Easter. It will also be their first nursery experience. I will try and post sometime between now and then! I always think, that's a whole month away, but it just flies by too fast and next thing I know it's three months later.

Oh, and one other thing. Mckenna is still crawling and not walking so we were able to get her in foot braces/orthotics and they have helped so much so far with her stability. She is so skinny so it takes so long for her to build up her muscles and probably still dealing with brain trauma from when she was born. But she is doing amazing! The doctors and therapists call her a miracle baby for all the amazing improvement she has made. They always say, you would never guess this girl went through a grade 3 brain bleed and hydrocephalus. It's actually nice to only have two walking. How stressful when all three are running!

Who Will Help Me Bake the Bread?

So I was making a batch of bread the other day... I had finished them and had them laying out on the countertop cooling. I don't know what I was distracted with but when I went back to look at them (maybe 10 minutes) this is what I saw!...

And Maddy had a big fistful in her hand so I knew who the culprit was. She had shimmied up onto the counter and helped herself to the tempting stuff. Pretty funny... And if you look, it's not just a small hole, she went all the way in!

Also, I don't know if I have shown this picture yet. Oh, the joys of siblings! Mckenna is a big time biter, I guess it's pretty much her only defense since she is so scrawny. All I could think of when I saw Maddy's arm here is... she was in a vampire scuffle! Obviously read Twilight too much...

More pictures to come later... We have pretty much been sick at our house since Christmas so I am ready for Spring!!

Happy 2011!

Yes, I am alive, it's just been a wild January. I am finally getting pictures up of some of our events in the last month. We had a rocky beginning of the New Year: Carly ended up getting Influenza B in Wyoming while we were there for the holiday, was admitted to the hospital in Wyoming and they couldn't stabilize her oxygen there so she was life flighted to Boise. Don't worry, sounds worse than it really was.... except for the gigantic bill and that's always worse than you ever want to imagine. Kyle flew with her home and I drove the other two back with my mom who came and helped me for a week. It was not the way I wanted to end the holidays but what can ya do right? All the girls were treated for ear infections and flu and I think just this week we are FINALLY pretty healthy again. So, the doctor has put the girls in lock down (at home) again for most of the rest of the winter so we aren't taking them anywhere but doctors appointments... I feel like I have done this before.... Anyways, but we had a great Christmas up until that point.

We stayed at my parents house and the girls spent about 98% of the time... up and down the stairs... they loved them! They don't have them at home so it was a new experience and they were pretty good at maneuvering them by the end of the trip. Maddy below...
Looking down from the top of the stairs...

They loved the presents this year...not what was inside, just the shiny boxes, bows and the boxes themselves.

I always forget how much colder home is than Boise... quite frigid, but beautiful with the snow on the branches on Christmas morning... (and that dot is the moon which I thought was cool)

Christmas morning before opening presents....

and after.... there were 17 of us all together so it was a little chaotic...

My parents with all of their granddaughters (no grandsons... and another granddaughter on the way with my brother and sil)... Gma and Gpa gave them matching pajamas for Christmas...

We decided to take a picture as well...

And speaking of pictures... we got both family pictures taken with Kyle's family....

...and then with my family....the girls were really good for all... especially feeling under the weather...

The girls are growing so fast and are looking like toddlers more and more each day and less like little chubby babies....

Mckenna....

Maddy....

and Carly...

Also, I made half of the gifts we gave for Christmas this year... very fun but very stressful... It was kind of fun to know that I had actually made something for others. It made me feel old-fashioned and I loved it! But I did forget to take pictures of them all for some reason but I have been crafting a lot lately (some done while we were in Wyoming and some here in Boise). I find that when my life is most chaotic (right now) I tend to do more crafts than at less stressful times. Not sure why I am psycho like that, maybe it just gives me a release for the stress of life or something.

But somethings I made are...

Camera strap....

While we were in Wyoming all the girls made a craft together... yarn wreaths! They did take quite a long time but we all worked at a team and aren't they cute? We sure thought so, everytime we finished one we would compliment on how amazing we were at creating it (quite silly)... but I guess if no one else will compliment us, we have to compliment ourselves right? Notice that I am holding my mothers wreath and she mine because I was being a brat and thought mine was looking awful. How stupid it sounds now.... we worked a little more on mine and now I love it but thanks to my mom for not being so vain that she had to hold a finished wreath and not her own... good grief....

Here it is on my door.... the flowers are made out of felt and I might have found my new favorite fabric with felt... it's lovely stuff....

It's a Valentine's Wreath but I think it could work for other times of the year...

I also had leftover supplies so I made another one...

and another one! Oh, and I am making two more; one for me and one for my mom for Easter... I'm a little out of control with the yarn wreaths right now....

And then lastly, I found this amazing bed and nightstands for sale at a consignment store in town a few weeks ago and I wanted it bad! Kyle is so good to me and agreed that it would be nice to upgrade to a king bed (in a queen now) so we got it and a new mattress and I tell ya, I feel like a dang queen in that bed. We love it but I do admit it feels like acres of space compared to a queen. I think Kyle likes it that way but it's still an adjustment for me to have so much space. But it does go nicely with my bedroom and gives us a great oasis from the girls when we need it! Hopefully next time I post it will be sooner and less hectic than this.

Oh, almost forgot... I also still like to paint furniture and decided to paint my coffee table blue (was green) to make it stand out a little more....

Family Christmas Card 2010

So I don't have everyone's email that I thought I did so I decided to post our Christmas Card on here. Merry Christmas to everyone and hope you have a wonderful holiday!

December Happenings

Okay, I've been hounded to get more pictures up so here they are in no particular order. The girls have been busy. I have 2 walkers now and a cruiser so I'm definitely wornout at the end of the day! They have had some exciting things happen in the past month: had their first Thanksgiving together at the dinner table, got haircuts (even Carly's few measly pieces), and got to meet Santa for the first time. Kenners also is starting to wear a patch to help correct her eye from any lazy eye business (if you were wondering why she looked like a pirate in one of her pictures) and I am getting better and keeping her glasses on all day and she is getting better at keeping them on! Anyways, just some pictures!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Carly in a turkey comatose after...

The girls love getting in any basket, box, etc together and then they fight about who gets to stay in the box. I need to find a bigger box I guess...

We put Maddy on Santa's lap first before the others, but had to get a picture cause she was so skeptical of Santa!

Here's another picture of it...

Telling Santa what they want for Christmas!

Picture of Grandma with the girls when they visited earlier in the month...

Carly

Mckenna (with bangs now)

Maddy Moo always looking like she is getting in trouble (which she usually is)

The girls in the Tartan attire for church...L to R: Maddy, Mckenna, Carly