Hello out there!

Ok so do you want to know what you've been praying about?

This is not our final answer, however we believe that it is.

On Sunday, we were told about a situation where we could adopt a baby in 6 weeks. Yes, kind of quick. It's a little girl. Greg and I had talked about adopting possibly in a year or two. So we decided to pray about this particular situation. This type of private adoption doesn't come around too often. We really want some more information. We are waiting for the doctor to call us back. However, it has been 3 days and we have heard nothing.

So during this week of prayer, even though I believe I could physically take care of another child and love her like my own, I believe our answer is not right now. I'm at peace with this decision.
Thank you for your prayers!

Mason's wording

Today when we were going out the door this morning, I put light jackets on the kids. Mason said, "I want my roof on" I couldn't help but laugh. He wanted his hood on. I thought that was pretty cute and clever. But since I laughed, now he's been saying it over and over.


Yesterday, Ashley said, "Come on Mason let's go." And Mason's reply, "You are wearing me out, Ashley!"

naps

The kids are taking a nap right now. Look how Ashley fell asleep. That's her "boat" by the way.

Prayers Please

Please pray for us this week. We need to make a decision. One that I will not share yet.

potty training woes

All the kids (even Mason) have been peeing in the potty at school. The boys have stayed dry all day with Mrs. Rachel. She says that they even pull down their pants by themselves when they go to the bathroom.

Ok- so I know they can do it.

BUT THEY DON'T DO IT FOR ME!!!! ARGH!

Every single time I put underwear on Austin- he pees and poops in them. I remind him and take him to the potty and nope he doesn't have to go. Mason just will NOT sit on the potty for me. I even took him to the bathroom at school. And he panics and says, "No after later". Mrs. Rachel and I both think that they are going because of peer pressure. But good grief!
And Ashley...she is just so stubborn...she will only go when she wants to and sometimes you have to be in the room and sometimes she needs her 'privacies'.

Is it ok to spank them if they go in their underwear? I have not done that yet. But I'm getting desparate. Advice welcome.

Breakfast Prayer

I love how Mason always reminds us to pray at every meal. We usually say a short prayer thanking God for our food. This morning Mason said, "We need to pray together....Dear God in Heaven....Thank you for Mommy and Daddy's money."

Then he looks up at me with this sheepish grin.

Miss PattyCake

We listen to Miss PattyCake EVERY time we get into the car. I don't mind it so much, but when Greg is with me it just about drives him insane. Anyway, Mason has been insisting that we start at the beginning of the tape, everytime we start to listen. So I have to rewind the tape to get it at the beginning.

Ok so in the tape...Miss PattyCake says several questions in a row. Like Are you ready to have fun? Do you know what today is? Do you want to help Miss PattyCake find the treasure key? etc. And the children on the tape answer, "YES!" after each question. Well, my little Mason has been answering, "NO" and smiling from ear to ear. What in the world? Rebellion already? Where did he get this from?

helping

As I was pulling out of the MDO parking lot this morning, I noticed a lady looking around like she was worried or concerned. It was a look I had made thousands of times before when my kids were smaller. I opened the window. And she said, "I have my twin grandaughters and I need help..." I said, "I have triplets...I completely understand" So I got out of the car and helped her get her grandaughters into the building.

You know it is really scary not knowing if one will run in one direction, while you get the other(s) out of the car.

It was nice being able to help...and being able to completely relate to her situation.

Wiped Out

This is actually a layout I did at home. The first in I don't know how long. I can't work at home because of kids or needing to do other stuff usually. But this one was just in my mind and I just had to get it done.
I am getting real close to being finished with my Disney Trip.

Ashley really wanted to paint today. So she found a paint brush and began to paint. I told her that was ok as long as she only painted on paper. Then comes in Austin (whom I don't trust to be alone with a paintbrush). Then Mason has to join in too. So I helped and watched them paint.

Then little stinker Austin paints his face. Well then Ashley joins in and says, "I'm going to paint a heart on my face"
And of course Mason joins in with paint all over his hands. (Or mustard as he called it.)














So what do I do with these children? I said, "come on kids lets go take a bath. If you don't come right now I'll paint your nose." (really forceful I know...LOL) They all said, "NOOOOOOOO!" And then it happened. What happened you say? Well just take a look... Ashley went first and the other two gladly jumped right in. Yep- She painted my nose. Yes we have a lot of fun in this household. And I'm usually right in the middle of it all!
This last picture is of them getting ready to get into the tub. They wouldn't let me take their picture unless I was at the bottom of the steps. Thank goodness for zoom lens.

Walking in a straight line

Today the kids went to Mother's Day Out. I had tons of things planned for today. It wasn't a bad day, but it was a day of mishaps. But this blog isn't about me it's about my darling children. When I went to pick up the kids today, Mrs. Rachel asked me if one cries if the others cry too. I thought a minute and said, "No, I don't think so." So she told me today, she was teaching the kids to stand in a straight line. So Ashley was a little off and so Mrs. Rachel picked her up and moved her over into the line. Well apparantly, Ashley was either startled or offended or something and she started to cry. Well then the other 2 started to cry too. They didn't like hearing their sister be upset. In away it's kind of sweet--that they look out for each other.

Ashley's book

Ashley was so cute today.

As we were going to church today she was reading a new book she got. I can't remember the name but it is Duckling something. She calls it her Mother Goose book, since on the back it has a mother duck and her ducklings following her. But what was so cute is the story she was making up as she read this book outloud. She got different parts from different books. It went something like this.

Time for bed, baby duck. And mother duck went to his bed and rocked and rocked him. And she sang, I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be.
Now you have to stay in bed baby duck, but I'll crawl back in and sing...I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be.

My Doris Scraplift

I got to scrapbook all day today. It was so WONDERFUL! I actually got 9 pages done today. I am absolutely in love with this layout... It is a scraplift from my friend Doris. She is SO talented. Actually, my 2 favorite layouts in this Disney book are scraplifted from Doris. Here is the other one...

Hello Friends. We are at it again. Today I made Color Me Bath Paints.











Ashley and Austin really got into the painting. Mason didn't want to sit in the mess. So he stood outside the bathtub and painted the top. It was too hard to get a picture without getting his privates. So therefore, there are no pictures of him. Ashley drew me some trees and Austin drew "a mess". As you can see it is pretty messy, but it was all contained to the bathtub which was really great! It washed off very easy. Only thing is I noticed it caused Ashley to have a rash on her chest and bottom. The rash went away quickly, but before I do it again, I'll talk to the doctor about it. The only ingredients are soft soap, cornstarch and food coloring. So it's either the soap or the food coloring.

Yep- he KNOWs how to get what he wants.

Austin was looking at a little pamphlet/catalog of toys today. He came up to me and said, "I need to learn about this."

ROFLOL!!!!! (For those of you who don't know....ROFLOL is rolling on floor laughing out loud)

Dragons and Aussie's City

Greg asked me to put in a couple of stories that he witnessed about the kids...and I said, "GET YOUR OWN BLOG" LOL...No I didn't! But I did tell him he needed to write them, because I couldn't do them justice.

So here they are:

Last week, Austin and Mason were building a castle with their colorful cardboard blocks. They had built an elaborate castle with a tall orange cylinder for a tower. They were throwing little coins or objects down into the cylinder, like a chimney. When I asked what they were putting down there, Austin told me they put a dragon and a bad dream down under the castle. I guess they were locking them in the dungeon so they couldn’t get out and scare them. I thought that was pretty unusual, being able to take their fears and give them personas, then put their fears under their control by locking them away. The next day, Austin took two big cushiony shape blocks that he called a dragon and a bad dream, and dropped a bigger block on top of them and then he sat down on the whole pile, keeping that dragon and the bad dream locked down.
The day after that, Mason and Austin built another tower with their blocks and they threw a monster down to the bottom of the tower and locked him up. I asked them what the monster looked like, and Mason said it had blue eyes, and Ashley said it had purple skin and it’s very, very angry. Then the kids pretended to throw a lot of balls down into the tower so the monster could play, and they said he was happy now. I think they also threw down some popcorn.

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Aussie’s City

Aussie woke up the other day. He had spent his first waking moments building a city block out of his colored cardboard blocks. He had several skyscrapers and the orange cylinder. He pointed at one tower and told me that’s were a baseball player lives. Then he pointed at some other blocks and said that’s where friends live. He told me the cylinder was a bank and pointed to some blocks and said, “Here are some girls’ rooms, and here are some boys’ rooms, and here are some more girls’ rooms.” He informed me that there were no basketball players living there. I asked him if the friends who lived there were church friends or school friends or other friends. He said church friends lived there, and just some other friends.

canned goods

Today the kids took canned goods to school for the people affected by Katrina. They got to pick out any can they wanted to out of the pantry. These were their choices:

Ashley picked Spaghetti Sauce, since spaghetti is her favorite. She had to take 2 cans with her today. One for the people and one for herself.

Mason picked canned tomatoes, because he likes "Mr. Mato" (Bob the tomato on Veggie Tales) He took his can and sang the veggie tale song.

Austin thought they needed trees....So he took a can of asparagus.

And this is how it ended

If Greg would have taken this picture 20 minutes before, you would have seen Austin's feet on my face.

Hello? Any adults out there?

Hello....hello...hello...any adults out there?

The kids have been so demanding today! I told Greg I couldn't get a thing done today. But that was a mistake. I actually unloaded the dishwasher this morning.

Anyway, I started a new "so called" curriculum with the kids this morning. It is called Sound of the Week. http://www.letteroftheweek.com/

I'm not sure how it will affect them until I actually hear or see them using it in some way.

Anyway, I made a learning poster for them with the sound "ck"written on it. It has several words on it that end in ck. How do I make this exciting? I have no idea. Well so far I have just read the words to them. Today, we have started making a clock out of a paper plates. But we haven't finished. I haven't made the hands for them yet. The theme is clocks. So I will pick up several books at the library about clocks tomorrow. Still, I'm not sure how to teach or make "ck" exciting. Anyone have any ideas?
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Austin Austin Austin- Oh Son you are wearing me out today!

First of all He and Ashley wrote all over themselves today. I really didn't mind, because we can just wash it off. They called them stamps.
He had a fit in the bathtub when I washed them off.

Then the child got markers and wrote on ALL over the Livingroom couch. He knew he did bad. He flinched up like I was going to spank him. I couldn't spank him. But I told him I was very angry and I made him scrub the cushions with me. I'm going to see if I can wash them in the washer in cold water.

Next he wanted music notes. I made him several music notes out of construction paper. But it was not enough. I don't think that I could have made enough if I worked on them all day. But he may learn what a quarter note, an eighth and sixteenth notes are. (ok so I know you shouldn't end a sentence in a preposition....but for the life of me I can't figure out how to write it correctly.)

Then for dinner he wanted me to make sandwhiches in the shapes of states. Yes, I am creative. But come on Austin. Maybe I could make Wyoming or Colorado (since they are close to a square). But I know him that wouldn't last long.

Wish me luck...only a couple more hours 'til they go to bed.

Mason

I said, "Mason, come here I need to change your diaper."
Mason said, "Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin"
And he ran in the opposite direction.

Baby girl Driver

Today we went to a wedding. The children behaved so well. I was very proud of them.
We saw our good friend, Michelle D. there. We pray for them every night. Yesterday she found out she was having a girl. So we were telling the kids that baby girl Driver was in Michelle's tummy. So guess what my Austin did? He bent over and looked up Michelle's dress. We've got a lot of explaining to do. LOL

Words

Austin was in his bed tonight trying to spell words again. He would put different letters together and then ask me what it said. And I would always say, "honey that's not a word". Finally, after several minutes of this, I said, "Austin why don't you think up some words you know and try to spell them". He said, "OH ok". (like he had never thought of this before). So I would say a few 3 letter words and he would pick up the letters and spell the words. Cup, Dog, fun, etc.

I can't brag anywhere else...so I'm glad I have this blog to brag. My Mom always thinks that she can't brag either, because no one would believe her. The other day I was telling a homeschooling mom, that we really respect, about Austin spelling words and knowing the states . They already call our kids the Mensa Club. But I got the feeling that she was annoyed. So now I feel I can not talk to anyone. Sometimes, I feel like I need to kind of offset it with something 'bad'. like "oh yes they can read only 3 LETTER words and know some states, but they are 3 years old and not potty trained." So if you read my blog then...just expect me to brag here.

I'm a little Teapot

for my Mom

Hello this especially for my Mom...

This is the dress you bought Ashley. Isn't it cute? It comes with a jean jacket.

back to school

First day back to school! WAHOOOOOOO! Ok, so I'm a little excited. Miss Rachel is their teacher this year. They went in with no troubles today. Austin even kept his shoes on in the car. So far so good. We will see when I go pick them up how their day went.

At church today

Today there were no classes at church, so we took the kids into "big" church. They did so well! I think all of them were taken out once, but it was still good.

Austin was taken out, because he was yelling, "stop singing"to the people on stage. And then he said to me, "I need to tell those friends to stop singing." He was a bit loud, so I took him out.

I do love how he calls everyone friends! I think that is sweet.

exercising

Just one more thing for tonight.

This is my big strong man!

Bench pressing 60 pounds.

Mason counted as he lifted them. He said okay now do 16.

Greg said, "No more no more!" But this was after bench pressing each of the kids seperately several times.

BIG BIG BUBBLES

We played with BIG bubbles today. You know, it's hard to take pictures and blow bubbles at the same time. The bubbles are filled with so much liquid, it drenched the kids when they would pop them.

glue stick or microphone

Ashley had a glue stick in her hand tonight and was singing. It wasn't until I started singing the echo and she put it up to my mouth, that i realized that she was using it as a microphone. That's so cute. I don't know where she has seen this. But I sure do remember doing this myself when I was little.

Oh so smart.

I'm amazed yet again with Austin. Tonight we were playing with the ball. And as I was playing I remembered the game 4 squares, that I played when I was younger. So I said Austin lets play states. And I would say a state and he would say a state. What is so amazing is that I really didn't expect him to catch on that he had to say a different state than the one I said. The typical child would repeat the same state that you said. But Austin really picked up on it and we went back and forth naming different states. My guess is that he now knows 45 of the states.

And all three kids know that Otters mainly live in Alaska and Canada.

I think I will homeschool for sure. I just don't think they will get what they need in a public school.

However, I am concerned about Ashley. I thought she knew her numbers but she does not. Everytime I try to ask her what something is, one of the boys jumps in and says it. It's so hard to not go with the one who is jumping ahead and go back to some of the basics for her. It's frustrating. You know, Dr. Mary continues to say they are all very smart. (Even Ashley) I had to ask, because I just can't see it. But then again I don't know what is typical for a regular 3 year old. Dr. Mary gave me the number for the Encore program. I need to call them.

Oh by the way the boys know how to tell time on the hour.

Wisdom from a 3 year old girl

God does not bite, cuz he is nice.
Jesus does not bite, cuz he is nice.
Jesus is nice.

Puff Paint

Today has been really fun. I don't really know why I've been so crafty this week with my kids. I guess it is because I've felt good and it had been raining and I found these recipes. But I'm down to the last preschool recipe, so I'm done for awhile.

Today we made puff paint. It looks messy, but it is really not that bad to clean up. I was really surprised. So I'm definitely posting the recipe for it. It is much easier to clean up than poster paint by far.

They look so intense while they are painting.


I didn't know how they were going to be able to handle the baggies, but they figured it out pretty quickly.

(Karley, Shaina and Kaitlin would love this Nana)



So here is the recipe: (happy painting)

PUFF PAINTS

• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of water
• food coloring

Step 1: Mix together the salt, flour, and water. The mixture should be about the consistency of pudding.

Step 2: Add food coloring until the desired shade is reached, then use a funnel to transfer the paint to a squeeze bottle. You can also transfer the paints to a ziplock bag, then snip off one tiny corner of the bag for a make-it-yourself applicator.

Tips: Use on finger-paint paper or other heavy paper and allow your paintings to air-dry overnight. Store leftover paints in the refrigerator in airtight containers for un to three days; stir or shake before using.

Edible Bracelets

Today we made bracelets out of licorice and fruit loops. They are typically pretty good at lacing, but they had a hard time with this. I think the licorice is a little bit bigger than the string they normally use. So I had to help out quite a bit. But they thought this was pretty cool! And they really liked that they could eat them. And of course I had to join in the fun too.