Love is in the air

Today we decorated for Valentine's Day.

While the boys worked, I asked Colin if he knew what Valentine's Day is about. I explained that it's a day about love and he immediately interrupted and said, "Oh like, so... no hitting or biting on that day?"

I'll go with that.

(biting by the way, comes up in conversation a lot in our house lately because one of the triplets- who shall remain nameless- will occasionally use biting as his go to weapon of choice if he wants a toy, is mad, or feels threatened in any way. It hurts!!!! So we're working on it and in turn, talk a lot about using our words and not biting, hitting or hurting each other). 

But back to our lovely Valentine's Day art projects....

Finn- did the most coloring of the trips. He was really into it!

Everett- did the least drawing of the trips. He was not into it.

Carter, at the head of the table, supervising.

Apples and painting

Working hard

Here's some of our finished decorations. I wrote the children's names on each of the hearts that they colored. I'm so proud of their work. It will be fun to get to look out this cheerful window each day when we eat our meals at the table.

Then it was back to playing,

and I even caught evidence of their brotherly love when they didn't know I was watching.

 It's always there. 

These boys teach me so much about forgiveness and moving on. They'll intensely fight over a toy or cry because someone hurt them in the heat of the moment (and possibly left a bite mark!). They may be furious and yell, scream or demand the person gets a time out or something.... but then it's over. And when the fight is over, it's really over. 

They never look back, never hold a grudge.

And the hugs, camaraderie and laughter always quickly return.

Stay that way with each other boys.

Miller Family Halloween Party 2012

On Sunday we got our house all ready for Halloween. 

We hung decorations.

We carved our biggest pumpkin.

Ohhhh, the innards!

We saved a few pumpkin seeds to plant in our garden for next year and toasted the rest (using this easy and yummy recipe, if you're interested).

We made cupcakes. Actually, Colin did this almost entirely on his own. He was so proud of himself!

And we are ready for tomorrow's festivities!! Colin will be a zookeeper and the trips are going to be animals. Should be fun!

Tonight while saying bedtime prayers with Colin, I asked if there was anything else he wanted to talk to God about. He paused and then said, "God, I love candy. And I'm so excited for tomorrow."

Amen!

It was THAT kind of day....

This is a picture of me that I took just after I finally put the triplets down to bed.

Just look at me. Wearing stretch pants and a tank top that has been stretched out by little arms (stronger than you'd think!). It's had noses and tears wiped on it. There are also bits of breakfast, lunch and dinner on that shirt. My hair = not even brushed today + pulled numerous times. Carter thinks that pulling my hair is the newest, most hilarious trick around. I feel like I've gone 12 rounds in a boxing ring.

Other things to note in that picture. The toilet paper in the sink. Quickly unraveled by someone before bath. So I just threw the unraveled roll into the sink! Also, notice the shower curtain folded up? Carter thought peek a boo in the bath was a brilliant idea. It was. But then Everett and Finn literally jumped on the idea and I was sure the whole curtain + rod was going to come down. Once I pried 30 little fingers off of the curtain (not so easy), I decided to get it out of the way.

This day could be summed up as kids- 4, mom- 0.

Here is a picture of Everett that I managed to take with my phone that also kind of sums up the day.

Caught red handed

I'd left the room for literally only a few seconds to put out another fire in the playroom. When I returned, Everett had climbed up onto the kitchen table and was pulling out flowers from the vase! These kids are fast, curious and seemingly unstoppable in their quests! I'm no match! I just can't keep up with all of them.

This morning I took the four boys outside, and in thinking ahead, I placed a bunch of really cool toys that we don't play with much onto the lawn. Novelty + interesting toys= fun outside. Right? Well maybe not. As it turns out, one boy wanted only to pluck the buds off flowers and eat them, another wanted to play in an empty flower pot that was filled with disgusting rain water and yet another thought putting wood chips in their mouth was the most interesting option out there.

Back inside we went.

Everyone, including myself, was in tears. (well, not Colin. He was just disappointed that he couldn't finish "mowing the lawn") Luckily, he got time for that later, with Chris.

I love being a mom. I love my boys more than anything in this world.

But man, motherhood is tough sometimes. Sometimes you end the day looking and feeling like you've gone 12 rounds in the ring.

Some days I feel under qualified and underpaid.

Lucky my employers are so stinkin' cute. They woo me back to the job every morning and always give me another shot to get it right.

First Family Bike Ride!

Ahhhh, what a great evening! 

So on Father's Day, I wrote in Chris's card that I thought we should buy second bike trailer as part of his gift (you know, in addition to the chocolate and popcorn) so that we could bring all of the boys on family bike rides. We have one bike trailer already, which was given to us by Chris's parents. It was a great gift but while living in the city we never used it. I'm sure we could have, we just felt too nervous with all the traffic. So it stayed in it's box until now. 

Chris and Colin went out on that very day and got it and today we hit the open road bike trails for a family ride. 

Started here:

Finn's fired up with his new helmet!

Ended here:

With a little stop in between to check out a deer along the path. 

Colin was mesmerized. We don't see deer in the city! 

Colin said, "Do you think that Santa lost one of his raindeer?" 

Love. 

Summer evenings, time with my guys, and new adventures in a town with oodles of bike paths to explore.

The start of something great?

I hope so!

We started a garden.

After days of watching the sun hit the yard to see which areas got the most sun and then factoring this in with where made most sense to plant a garden, we picked a spot. Back corner of the yard. Then I realized that you can see it from our dining room table where we eat all of our meals (so far, we've opted out of having a table in the kitchen simply because we need more kid space!). One area/ room for eating is enough for us right now. The window pretty much exactly frames the garden space.

I kind of love the fact that as we eat, we can look out onto the garden. And I hope eventually, a lot of our veggies can come from there.

The only possible thing that could thwart this plan is that I do not at all have a green thumb! But my mother in law is a fantastic gardener. I'm not sure that I'd have the courage to start up a garden if I didn't know that I'd have her to consult with and get some hands on tending from.

So here we go!

Breaking ground

Tilling it... or something like that

Everett and I supervised

 Colin and I picked up a whole bunch of veggies at the farmers market and voila!

Our own little garden.

Let's see if I can keep these veggies alive.

Building a backyard play set

So while I was taking a much needed break with my girlfriends last weekend, Chris and my in-laws held down the fort. They even found time to start our next little backyard project:

A play set for the boys!

I'm SO excited about this!! While there are playgrounds relatively close by, it's still not always easy (for us at least) to safely manage four kids at the playground, especially when three of them are 14 months! I find it especially difficult when a playground is crowded and each boy wants to go in different directions and/ or eat wood chips and sticks.

A swing set in our backyard just made sense.... plus, we may have kind of promised c one as an enticement on those days he was sad about moving. "We're going to get a swing set at our new house!" we'd say and hope it somehow softened the transition.

Turns out though, they can be quite expensive! Oops, didn't really know that before hand.

After a little perusing over on craigslist (with four boys we've learned to embrace second hand gems!), we found one being sold by someone who'd never even opened the box! Can you believe that? So we got it for less than half of the original cost. Chris had to drive about an hour to pick it up but we think it was well worth it!

Here are the guys- Chris, his dad Marv and Colin, hard at work on Sunday:

Colin, "cutting" the boards for Chris and Marv.

Carter likes it!

My Mother's Day Wish

Hanging with Finn and Carter today

Chris asked what I wanted to do on Mother's Day.

Maybe spend time with the littles and do stuff as a family? Well.... maybe... but what I really wanted more than anything?

A break!

To sleep in, to watch a t.v. show in bed (I can't remember the last time I've done that), to exercise and/ or to write. I love when I can somehow carve out a block of time where it's just me, a cup of coffee and my computer waiting for me to type in my thoughts. However, this rarely happens these days. 

So Chris got up with the boys this morning and I slept in, really late. It felt so weird to sleep in... but good I guess. Then Colin told me he had a surprise for me out on the deck. When I walked out I saw breakfast sandwiches from our favorite neighborhood coffee shop and a card on the table. 

"Ta- DAAAAA!" he said while throwing his arms in the air. I'm not sure where he heard/ saw that done but it cracked me up. 

We ate our sandwiches in the warm sun and I opened the Winnie the Pooh card that he picked out and decorated for me on behalf of his brothers, "All by myself!" He was so proud.

It was lovely.

Then the babies got up and they needed diaper changes, then they were hungry, the Colin was hungry, then we realized we were out of some staples for the kids, including milk, so I ran to Target. By the time I got back, the babies needed diaper changes again and then they were tired and ready for bed. Colin also seemed exhausted and even asked to go up to bed! 

Chris left to pick up food for a picnic that we're planning later with the boys and suddenly the house was QUIET. Just me and a home full of napping children. 

I moved fast. This was my opportunity!

I opened the living room windows all the way to let the warm breeze blow in, re-heated my cup of coffee sat down here:

Doesn't it look inviting??

I opened up a blank screen and started to write. 

Just two words... before I heard,

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump

and then,

"Mommy, Daddy! I'm UP! I can't sleep! Where are you MommyDaddy?? MommyDaddy?!?" (Sometimes Colin says both our names together almost like we are one person which makes me laugh)

He runs in to where I've literally JUST sat down to write and explains that he can't sleep and he's hungry and also "Will you wipe my butt?"


And 'Me time' is officially over.....

Happy Mother's Day! I hope that all you mother's out there were able to steal some time for yourselves, if only a few minutes!