Thursday, October 29, 2015

Football and Breastfest

Last Saturday was really, really fun. The boys got to wear their NEW Clemson jerseys - sporting #3 (for WR Artavis Scott AND for Triplets...duh)! They were really excited to support the Tigers on game day. They looked so cute. I have a jersey as well and decided that I wanted to match them. So we were effectively quadruplets. HA!

Hey there, little tigers

Sweet boys

Starting to move....

Quads :)

Love my boys
Thomas and I got to watch an incredible Clemson game against Miami while the boys napped (58-0 whoop whoop!) and then I changed them into their pink attire and loaded them in the van, destined for BreastFest. The event was great! We had a blast! It was held at a local brewery, Quest Brewing, and had BBQ, beer and bands. What's not to love? A friend of ours planned and put it on and we were glad to be able to be a part of it.

The weather was a little chilly, but we had so much fun. The boys loved running around, playing games and watching the other kids (and trying to keep up and play with them). We had the choo choo wagon out there, but didn't make them stay in it very long. Those boys wanted their freedom!

Can you tell they were all wearing pink in support of BreastFest? ;)


Ryan in the wagon

Playing the bean bag toss game


Corn hole on the Quest boards

William rocking out to the band

This boy was in heaven! We saw this forklift, covered
in Quest Brewing stickers, and he really wanted to sit on it.

I obliged.

Yes! He loves this stuff!

Stokes listening to the band

Ryan hanging out with his new friend, Brandi

Stokes and William in the wagon

Brandi and Ryan

Thomas with Stokes

He's so tall!!!

Stokes and Mama

Pumpkin time!

I'll admit it. We were a little bit late putting out pumpkins this year. It was like, all of a sudden, I looked around and every porch had pumpkins on it! Oops! I had that realization and promptly planned a trip to a local pumpkin stand. Andddd of course turned it into a photo opp. That's what I do. Happy fall, y'all!

Last Friday, 10/23.

As per usual, no one is ever looking in the same direction and smiling at the same time. I {almost} give up. Haha!

William, Stokes and Ryan









They had this little set up for pictures. It was really cute...and so are my three little pumpkins.


Cutie boys!


I wish I had known that my hair was covering Ryan's face!
Oopsies! :(

A nice employee came by and offered to take our picture
all together. 

We love being surrounded by orange :)
We haven't carved the pumpkins yet....but it will be done ASAP. Stay tuned for the finished product picture!

Friday, October 23, 2015

Nap update

Our nap schedule changed a while back and it occurred to me that I don't think I ever updated my blog about it! Trying to keep with the theme of consistency, I feel obliged to post about the fact that the boys no longer take a morning nap.

We tested it out over the summer, and decided they weren't ready. So probably about 2 months ago, we tried it again and it seemed to go okay. When we went to the beach in early September, we totally took out the nap. There is no time for napping when there is beach, sand and waves with which to play! After the beach, we never really looked back.

As an adjustment to doing away with the morning nap, the boys now have their morning snack a little earlier (around 10 am) and then have lunch at noon and go down for their afternoon nap around 1:00.

William loves taking a book to nap with him

Quiet time!

He's almost ALWAYS happy!

Blankie

Wild man with his stuff dog and "Little Blue Truck"

Saying "cheese!"


Sleeping kids = good times. That being said, I was glad to do away with the morning nap so that we have more time to actually do things outside the house! In the past, between naps, snacks and meals, we really only had time blocks of 30 minutes or so to do anything. It would stress me out. Feeding/snacking on the run or without high chairs used to be a bit burdensome. Now we can do snacks and meals out a lot more easily and we have the whole morning to do fun stuff! This occurred to me the other day when I was taking the boys for a walk around the neighborhood. As we passed the pool area, William started saying "pool!" and pointing. I told him that yes, it is the pool and told him that we would spend a lot more time at the pool next summer. (Side note: we only went to the pool a handful of times this summer. Bummer.) So I was realizing that next summer, we can get them ready in the morning, pack up some snacks and lunch and we wouldn't have to be back home until later in the afternoon to take an afternoon nap at some point. We could spend several hours there playing and swimming. It's like a whole new glimpse at freedom. I'm already excited! 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Beautiful fall afternoon

I heard about a little pumpkin stand photo opportunity downtown Monday afternoon and I really just couldn't resist. I had Layla help me get the boys ready, load them up and we all went to the Rock Quarry at Cleveland Park. I really, really hope that the pictures are great! I am such a picture hoarder. I can never get enough! I really wanted a cute fall picture of my little guys!

So, the Rock Quarry is beautiful, but a little bit of a logistic nightmare for a triplet mama. For one thing, you have to walk down the stairs to get there (i.e. this makes using strollers, wagons, etc very difficult). Also, there were no parking spots near the stairs. Also, there is a rock lined little creek that runs through the park. Also, I have 3 kids that want to run around. Also, there is a fairly busy road right near it. Also, I didn't really want my boys to run away from Layla/me, fall into the creek, run into traffic, just get into dangerous situations or mayhem in general. Also, OK, OK, you get the point. My thought was that I would get our triplet choo choo wagon out so that I could keep them in the wagon and bring them out for the pictures and put them back in to help prevent any unnecessary danger/stress.

The 3rd section of the wagon comes off, and we have to take it apart to fit it into the trunk of my car, so I had to make two trips (one trip for the first 2 sections, and one trip for the 3rd section) from the car to get the wagon from the car to the stairs, down the stairs, then to the park, while Layla waited in the car with the boys. Then Layla held Ryan and I got Stokes and William to each hold a hand of mine and we got everyone down to the park and into the wagon...and buckled. It was kind of an ordeal. I was already sweating. This probably sounds whiny, and I am not trying to whine, but just keep it real for the logistical challenges I have on mundane tasks every now and then. Anyway, we got down there, didn't have to wait long and got some pictures taken. I can't wait to see them!

Finally in the wagon!

Everybody say cheese!

Wassup, boys?!?!
William says, "peace out!"

LaLa (Layla) and the boys

YAY!

The set up was so super cute. The only bad thing was that Stokes and William kept picking up the pumpkins and throwing them. I was getting really nervous that they were going to smash the photographer's pumpkins and her super cute set-up and props would be ruined! I kept trying to stop the pumpkin throwing to no avail. No pumpkins were harmed in the making of the pictures, but we came close. The pictures only lasted about 5-10 minutes (perfect for our short attention spans!) and then we loaded up the little guys and walked around this tiny little park for a quick minute.

I'm so glad that we didn't rush out of there, because look who we ran into! This made my day!!!!

Caroline and Heather
I saw my dear friend, Heather, and her beautiful daughter, Caroline, heading towards us. Heather and I had been texting earlier in the day and I was thinking about how long it had been since we'd seen each other and how I needed to see Caroline and get hugs from both of them and then they showed up! I was so excited!

Heather, me and the kiddos

Another take
Of course, I can't ever get a picture of everyone looking and smiling, but hey, we do our best. Caroline is a perfect little model and will start grinning, laughing and looking directly at you as soon as you pull out the camera or phone. She is very well-trained and I love it! I will need to get some tips from her smart mama!!!

It actually was great timing for Heather to be there because she stayed down in the park with Ryan while Layla and I each grabbed Stokes and William and took them up to the car to get them loaded. Then Layla stayed with those two in the car so I could go back down and get Ryan and load him up. Then I was able to load the wagon, while she waited with all 3.

While I was gone on the first loading up trip to the car, Heather put Caroline in Ryan's "car" and they were flirting! Ryan was also holding Caroline's hand while we were all talking a few minutes before this. It was the sweetest thing. My heart melted on the spot. Luckily, Layla took a few pictures of this sweet moment for us.

Ryan holding Caroline's hand

Young love...

They are so sweet!

Anyway, Heather got this gem and can you even get over how cute and sweet it is?!?!? This is not the first encounter between these two. Check out this post from the summer when they started their flirtation. ;)

Love these two angels
It was a spectacularly gorgeous afternoon, I got to see one of my best friends and Ryan had a little mini-date. But the fun didn't end there. After Da-da got home, we finished supper and then had some family fun time instead of rushing upstairs to do our bedtime routine. We danced to Jack Johnson (that Stokes somehow turned on), read, tickled, and laughed and laughed and laughed. We don't have time to do this every night, and the boys's moods aren't always agreeable (hello, meltdowns!), but having this fun time made me want to do it more often. It's the little things, ya know?!?!?

Da-da swinging William

William hugging on Da-da

Ryan, post-dinner

Stokes with music remote
(this is how he turned on music!)

2 of his faves - shades and remotes

He cracks me up!

Tickle time for all 3

They were cracking up and making my heart want to burst!

How cute are they?!?!?! Gah, I almost can't take it!

My cuties!

Love my boys!

Wild Man

Loving life

Starting to sit up

Still working on it...

He's up!
This is a relatively new skill and we're super proud!

Bro snuggles - William and Ryan



Da-da reading to William

two on one

Da-da playing with Ryan

Big love between these 2

William and me

Snuggle sesh

snuggling/wrestling?!?! Mama with Stokes and William
I've felt a little slack on the blog lately, but Monday was just one of those days that I wanted to bottle up and put in my pocket. I'm grateful for sunshine, friends, happy and healthy boys and a solid family. Our lives aren't perfect, but today it felt pretty close.