Twas the night before Christmas

Christmas Eve in South Bend, IN!

After a wonderful afternoon sledding in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard, we ate dinner and opened presents by the fire. Colin got a rocking horse, a baby brother doll (yes, I toyed with the idea of getting him three- but in the end just got one). He was interested in both these things, that is until he started opening tools. He even got the cutest little tool belt to keep them close.

Just as we were about to open presents, I realized my camera was out of battery. Then, I thought that we forgot the battery charger- what a sad moment. Only as it turns out we didn't forget it. The next morning I found it in the camera case. Story of my life.....

I'm a boy mom!

Well, it's official. I have FOUR SONS! Did I ever imagine typing that? No! But then again, I never thought I'd have triplets either.

I must admit that growing up I always pictured having a daughter. I've even had a girl name picked out forever! When I learned that our triplets were all boys, I was more shocked than anything (btw I read that the chances of having 4 fraternal boys in a row are around 12 percent). I always pictured having at least one daughter, playing barbies, store, house, shopping for cute clothes, and then having a close adult relationship like the one I share with my own mother.

Being a mom to four boys was just not something I ever imagined. However, when I picture four brothers so close in age all running around together doing their boy thing (maybe Saturdays spent watching Notre Dame football, rough housing in the family room, star wars, Harry Potter, soccer), it makes me smile. It's a dream come true but one I never even knew I had.

I'm reminded again of what a returned peace corps volunteer told me when I was 22 years old, on the day before I flew to Madagascar to live in a remote village for two years. He said:

"Whatever you're imagining your peace core experience to be, I can promise you one thing. It will be different. My best advice is to just go with flow and enjoy the journey. If you go against the current, you're just going to have problems and frustration. Instead, be like a cork in water and go with flow. It will take you to a destination far different than what you ever imagined. But guess what? It will be even better".

My little handyman

Oh Colin..... you are such the little helper. You really are always looking to help mommy and daddy. Especially if it involves using tools. It is probably the cutest thing ever but also can sometimes cause more work for mommy and daddy :)

(helping daddy with the tree, offering to hold the tree clippers (ahhh no!), helping pop-pop seal the windows, helping daddy shovel the back walk)

Just today, you had your toy wooden hammer, toy screw driver, tape measures and other household tools you find useful (think wine stopper, random spring coil, electric baby mucus extractor, electric nose hair clippers. Side note: I often have NO IDEA where he finds these things around the house but good luck trying to take them back). He carries them all around in his special bucket.

Anyway, I thought, "Oh how cute that he's pretending- key word pretending- to hammer where the stockings are hung". And then I turned my head FOR A SECOND and when I turned back you had hammered down every nail and the stockings were in a pile on the floor! You were already trying to pry the bent nails out of the wall with the wine stopper!

I ran over and half laughing, said "What are you doing?!"

You were SOOOO proud of your work. Just look at this smile.

File this under: This kid is NOT PRETENDING when using his tools.

A good night's sleep- so close I can almost imagine it!

Our new KING BED was delivered today! Wohoo! I'm so excited!

Why upgrade from a queen size to a king, you ask?

This picture (not at all staged) pretty much sums it up:

Although Colin always starts in his own bed, he often ends up in ours, which actually, we totally love and support. That said.... he tends to end up spread across the middle of the bed while Chris and I each have about an inch or so on the very edges. As depicted in the above picture, it's not uncommon to have a foot spread across your face while you sleep. It's amazing how as parents, you just somehow adjust, isn't?

Between Chris, myself, Colin, Olive (our dog), and my ever growing belly, our queen size bed just wasn't cutting it anymore!

Oh, how good it will feel to be able to stretch out and drift off to sleep.....

I can't help but laugh and wonder though, what will happen if the triplets also somehow end up in bed with us? Maybe we'll need two king size mattresses pushed together??

Kidding! (I hope)

Four years!

Tonight was date night in celebration of our 4 year anniversary!

Let's get CRAZY. Let's get married, travel for a year, then buy a run-down chicago bungalow and have four kids in less than 3 years.

Oh wait, never mind. That's our life.

Before our date, this was the scene in the living room:

and then a pic with my love:

We left colin with pop-pop and uncle G and headed out to Hot Chocolate. YUM! I started out by ordering a salad, and the waitress said, "Will that be it for you"?

I almost laughed out loud.

"Are you kidding woman? I've got 3 babies in here! I'm just getting warmed up."

I'm pretty sure we ate almost everything on the menu and I walked out so full and happy, even though I felt as though I was 12 months pregnant.

Over dinner we talked baby names, how fun it is to watch colin grow, and basically how much life has changed since these pictures were taken:

(taken on our honeymoon in the Turks and Caicos)

Life is sweet, that's for sure.