Sold!!!

We've sold our house! Everything will be finalized by Friday once the financing is in place. This past week was kind of a whirlwind. We met with 2 realtors at the beginning of the week, chose the one we wanted to go with and then did up the paperwork on Saturday with plans to put it on the market Monday morning (yesterday). Late Saturday afternoon I got a call from our realtor who asked if 2 people could see the house that evening. So after a mad dash to get the house cleaned up after a normal day in our house we went out for supper. The next morning we were presented with an offer which we declined, the same buyer came back with another offer which we accepted. In a round about way, through a reduction in commissions, we got the price we wanted. It is SOOO nice to not have to worry about keeping the house tidy enough to show at anytime and not packing the babies up and going out in the cold over and over. We know that we were really lucky with how things happened so quickly and are really happy about it.

Our new house is coming along pretty good. The upstairs will be painted this week, then we'll have to wait on flooring and cabinets. It should be done in about a month and a half. The downstairs is a bit behind and will probably be about 2 and a half months until it's done. The possession date for our buyers is April 30th so that should give us plenty of time.

Now onto the really important people. It has become a morning ritual that the babies "help" daddy put his socks on. As soon as he comes out of the bedroom first thing in the morning, if they aren't already having breakfast, they run over to the couch where he sits down to put his socks on. Soon after they caught onto this happening everyday they started to steal the socks and run around the house with them wanting us to chase them. So now Daniel usually brings out a pair for himself as well as 3 extra pairs. They strut around so proudly when they have their socks on.


The socks look like leg warmers on Maggie.


Casey's turn.


Mitchell playing with "his" farm.

Our Buddy Elmo

Elmo is a pretty popular guy in our house. Maggie jumps up and down and squeals whenever Elmo's World comes on Sesame Street and then the boys follow her and get excited too. The babies actually watch very little tv. To be honest I wouldn't mind if they would watch a little more when I am trying to get supper ready so I'm not tripping over them. They will watch the first part of Elmo's World and Maggie will also watch part of Sid the Science Kid (her other buddy that she gets so excited to see).

For their birthday they got Elmo harnesses which up until now have just been stuffed animal toys. A tip I got from another mom of multiples was to practice in the house to get the kids used to walking with them on so that when you do need to go out and use them they aren't getting all tangled up or having a meltdown. So the other day we put them on the babies and they were walking around with them on. Maggie of course was loving hers, Mitchell was pretty happy with it too and Casey wanted it off after about 45 seconds. I know some people think they are inappropriate to use on kids because it is basically like having them on a leash. My personal feelings....if using the harnesses are going to keep the kids from running away from me (or us) when we are in a public place and not in a stroller, I will definitely use them! If one of them take off on us we can't just leave the other two to run after the first escapee.

Here are some pictures from the other day. We were getting ready to start our walk but Casey had already had enough.

Maggie led me around the island over and over. When ever I would drop the "leash" she would pick it up, put it back in my hand, start walking again and look back to make sure I was following behind her.

Mitchell made quite a few trips around the island too. It was hard to get non-blurry pictures of them because they wouldn't stand still.

A few more pictures of Maggie and her bud.

Hi!

Everyone is starting to say a few more words now. They all say bum and will pat their bum when I ask them if they pooped. Maggie says hat, pup (puppy), bub (baby). Casey loves to say hi with the cutest grin on his face. He will go right up to Mitchell or Maggie about half an inch from their face and say hi. Or else he'll say hi, run away and then come back and peak around the corner and say hi again. The babies are all healthy right now thankfully, but there are always fake coughs and they will cover their mouths when they cough (sometimes). They know quite a few of their body parts, but for some reason hair is their favorite and they like to point out and consequently sometimes pull each other's hair. Maggie and Mitchell have discovered that their fingers fit perfectly into their nose.

Here is a video of Casey saying hi and gone.


And a short video of Mitchell and Maggie. Mitchell can do some funny things with his eyebrows, they're always going up or down. Maggie wasn't in a talking mood.


The other thing around here is that the boys have been at each other's throats lately. I guess this may just be a preview into the next 17 years.

Quiet Weekend

After a very quiet weekend in our house, everything is back to normal. I took the babies to my parents on Thursday and came back home myself the next day. Daniel was away for meetings so I took the opportunity to do some packing and get things ready to put our house on the market. It felt so strange to be here without the babies, it took me back to what seems like ages ago when I was pregnant and spent a lot of time home alone. But I did get a lot done, things that would have taken much longer if I were to do them during their nap/bedtimes.

These pictures are from last week. They really like playing in this little house. All 3 of them used to fit in there just fine without any fighting. Now, there isn't quite enough room to play comfortably when all 3 of them are in there. These pictures taken were before the problems started.



We got the babies a play tent and tunnel for Christmas. They have fun crawling through all of the little opening and playing peek a boo around the corners. The boys also like to push it over and walk on it, dive onto it or lift it up and throw it. Hmmm, imagine that?




Maggie was dolling out kisses through the windows. I just love watching them kiss each other, it's so cute!

Back To Normal

Things are finally back to normal in our house which means the vomiting has stopped, there is goofing around during nap time, the boys are fighting like cats and dogs and Maggie is flying under the radar. I swear some days you wouldn't even know she's here except when it's meal time, diaper changing time or when she brings something to comfort one of her upset brothers. She's amazing! The boys are wolfing down food faster than I can keep up at meal and snack time which is so good to see. They went for quite a while without eating much of anything. Mitchell was finally starting to creep his way up the growth charts before he got sick so he must be trying to catch up.


Over the past month few months the babies have slowly started to say a few words. We've heard mama and dada, no, ball, done, gone, hi, elmo ("melmo"), milk ("ma" with a milk sign), banana ("nanana"), baby ("bub"). Casey probably says the most, actual words and jibberish, which is no surprise to us.

Here are a few videos from last night. Daniel was giving Maggie a bath and the boys were chasing and tickling each other. There are some times that they play really well together and have fun but then the next minute they can be literally pulling each others hair out. It is almost always over something that was stolen or else one of them got pushed or pulled out of the way.

Casey loves to tickle! And Mitchell loves to giggle and be chased!

She's a Fake!

The flu is still hanging around our house. Mitchell had it for just over 24 hours. The next day he seemed pretty good, but the day after that he was vomiting again. He still is wanting to cuddle and just lay around most of the time, which if there is anything positive with them being sick it would be the extra cuddles we get. Casey got sick again today. They are starting to get a bit of their appetites back and want to eat, but then get sick sometimes after. I think they'll be eating a lot of toast over the next few days until it's gone. There are a few foods that I don't think I can stand to feed them for a while (too many memories of it come back up).

Our sick little men.


And Miss Maggie, she's still holding out on the flu and has more energy and spunk than ever! Her personality is really starting to emerge and she is so funny! Maybe with the boys under the weather she's taking the chance to shine. She gotten to be quite the little faker and has come up with stalling tactics. When we tell her it is time for her to go to bed she grabs her sippy cup and just holds the straw in her mouth "fooling" us that she is drinking. She will take the occasional sip but basically just sits there with the straw in her mouth. I am sure she is thinking, "If they think I am still drinking they won't put me to bed yet! Heehee"! When she's doing this she looks out of the corner of her eye to see if we're watching her and if she sees us looking at her she takes a drink. It's hiliarious! The only way I could get the video to work (because it's too big) was to put it on you tube, but I put it on a private setting so it can only be viewed here.

Here is our little faker.

A few pictures of her too.

She's trying really hard to sell it here.

And of course, smelling the flowers will buy a few extra minutes.

Hopefully the boys are feeling better soon so we can get outside and enjoy this great weather!

Sick AGAIN!!!

A few days ago the babies all started with coughs and runny noses again. Either they can't shake what they first had at the beginning of December or this is the third bug they've had. Yesterday I took them out for a sleigh ride before lunch. They had a great time and it was nice for all of us to get some fresh (not cold) air. Then when we were back inside Mitchell started getting sick with the flu. So after scrubbing the carpet many times, numerous loads of laundry and Daniel dry heaving from the smells, Mitchell seemed to be feeling a bit better later in the day today. He was able to keep a little bit of supper and some liquids down. This morning when he got sick Casey was sitting right in front of him when it happened and Casey either got scared or felt bad for Mitchell because he got really upset. He's such a sensitive boy.

As I was feeding them supper it was Casey's turn...the little that he ate all came back up...poor guy. I am really hoping that Maggie can fight it off, but it's probably inevitable that she'll get it too. The 4 of us shared a glass of water yesterday morning before all of this started.

These pictures were from a few days ago when everyone was feeling better. It's so cute, whenever I ask them if they want a snack they all go to this same spot, sit down and wait for it. They love the gerber lil' crunchies...I've been almost tackled for them!



Maggie was playing with Mitchell's hair while Casey was pretending to feed him. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Casey showing off his nice Becel hat. You can't really tell in this picture but his hair is getting so curly and quite long. I just can't cut it yet, it's too beautiful.

Mitchell's hair is getting curlier too but it can get pretty crazy at times. This was his Cosmo Kramer hair day.

Maggie's hair is starting to get a little bit of wave to it but nothing like the boys.

Well, off to do more laundry from the day. I really hope this passes quickly and that this is it for sicknesses for quite a while!!!

Fun In The Kitchen

The babies got a play kitchen for Christmas. We set it up last Sunday and they played great with it for the first few days. They love all of the play food and enjoy pretending to feed us. They walk all over the house with their bowls and spoons mixing something. They make the fake eating noises when they have a taste of their little mixture. Here are a few pictures from the first day with the kitchen.


Maggie was happy until Casey stole the lid from her, meanwhile Mitchell wass taking an important phone call.

Here are a few pictures after day 2 or 3. I won't name names, but a little boy (who may have an "M" in his name) decided that it was more fun to play with the kitchen when it was set up like this.




Never a dull moment around here!

Two months from today (March 8th) is the end of my 18 month leave. I shouldn't even think about complaining because I have been so lucky to have had this much time off. And factoring in the almost 3 months that I was off work before the babies were born, it will have been 21 months in total. I was really fortunate to have enough sick time to get me through from 20 weeks until the day the babies were born. Then after my regular 12 month mat leave was up, I had a number of holiday hours to use.

I really do enjoy my job and the people I work with, but I have to say that I love staying at home with the babies. So as far as me returning to work, we are going to see what we can find for childcare (looking for someone to come into our home part time) and then go from there.

Another Christmas Celebration

We were in Muenster this past weekend with Daniel's family. We had a nice visit, the babies were spoiled again and had fun playing with their cousins and everyone else. There are 6 kids all together within just less than 3 years of each other so it is a busy house when we're all together.

Grandpa is a real pushover when it comes to giving his grand kids treats. Casey suckered him into giving up a bite of his butter tart not long before bedtime. Well 1 bite turned into about 7 or 8, he was loving it!

Mitchell was next and loved it just as much. He could hardly close his mouth he had so much stuffed in there.

I must have just told him "No more", he looks pretty sad.

Maggie enjoyed the butter tart too, but was much more dainty just taking tiny bites. Thankfully everyone still slept good that night despite all of the sugar they had for their bedtime snack.

Sitting on the couch is a real treat for them. They haven't figured out how to climb up on ours yet so we keep them off of there when they are at home. I am sure once they discover how they will be jumping off in no time. Here they are with Daniel's sister's kids. This is the is the closest we came to everyone looking at the camera.


We had a good holiday season. It was really nice to have Daniel at home with us for almost 2 weeks. But today we are all back to our old routine which actually isn't such a bad thing after a busy few weeks.

So Long 2009

Another year has come and gone. Time has always seemed to go really quickly for me but raising 3 kids, wow does time ever fly. The days, weeks and then months are gone before I know it. It has been such a fun and amazing year to see our babies have so many firsts and learn so many new things.

We took the kids out for lunch today to Fuddrucker's. They had a great time watching everyone and chowing down on grilled cheese and potato wedges. They have always been so good anytime we are out in public with them. One man asked us how we got them to sit there so quietly. Daniel's response was "bribing them with treats." Hey, whatever works. Now if he were to stick his head inside of our door during the day he may not be asking us the same question.

Here are a few pictures from our lunch today. It is nice to go out and do these kind of things sometimes and feel like we can do what most families do without even thinking about it. It can be a lot of work, but worth it for us and them to get out of the house.

Casey looking a little zoned out.

Mitchell pounded back the wedges and chocolate chip cookie today like he was in an eating contest. Hmmm, eating out may be a way to put a little more meat on his bones (although unfortunately that would probably mean mine too).

Maggie looks like she's doing a ninja move.

That little belly is so stuffed!


This is their final picture of 2009.

Our rockin' New Year's Eve consists of Daniel watching the Canada vs. USA hockey game, me writing on the blog and the babies sleeping. To be honest, I am really hoping to be asleep when the clock strikes 12. It also happens to be our anniversary today. What a wild bunch!

2009 was so much fun and filled with so many memories, but I can only imagine 2010 will be even better. All the best to you!