Handsome Nate

Swinging Andrew

And yes, I know they are dressed in non-matching clothes. We had spaghetti before going and had to do a quick change before hitting the park.

B&W??

Two posts ago this photo was in color. I think it's even more beautiful in Black & White. I have got to get this printed and framed. I did not tell them to do this. The boys took each others hands first and Madelyn rushed ahead of me and Andrew grabbed her hand.

Family Night at the Park

How Sweet is This

Back to Bed

It didn't work

I gave it an hour. They tore down all the little sticky Thomas and Friends off the wall. They also reached to one of the shelves and got ahold of the stick part of the blind I had taken down and was beating each other with it. Madelyn was soaked in sweat from jumping around all over. Nate is pissed he's back in the crib right now but I know he'll calm down and eventually go back to sleep. Madelyn is back in her room in her bed too. I'll try it again tonight when it's dark.

Thomas the Tank Engine Fans

Logan was obsessed with Thomas. He's finally admitted he's outgrown it now, BUT his twin brothers are taking over his collection. They LOVE "Choo-Choo Trains". Nate will carry as much as he can with his arms, hands and at least one in his mouth. Thanksfully we have a large collection from Logan. I haven't counted how many trains we have but there's enough for all three to play with. I need to get some more girl trains like Molly and a few others for Madelyn to play with. She plays too but not like the boys. When you ask the boys what they want to watch on TV, all they say now is "Choo-Choo Trains". We have two train tables but one was placed in the attic. The other Tony screwed down track b/c we couldn't keep creating new trails all the time with three sets of hands destroying the layout. The other table will come out later when they are ready to build their own track. We also still have Logan's Geo Trax but it's in the attic for now too. They are too fast to destroy track.

They love their Thomas PJ's. They fight over who gets what "Choo-Choo" shirt in the morning. One morning I had to fish a dirty shirt out of the laundry to stop Nate from screaming. He wasn't wearing anything but a "Choo-Choo" shirt. I had to do laundry right after that. I think now we have three hand-me down shirts of Logan's, two that are too big but they wear them anyway, one overall set for each with Thomas and another shirt and shorts set I recently bought. One of these last ones was ruined last week when they wore it for the first time. It's my fault. I left finger nail polish in their reach and the boys got ahold of it and spread it all over the foyer floor. Thankfully it wasn't swallowed (nor on the carpet). I never paint my nails but Tony was late one night and all the kids were down so I did it and placed it on the bar when he got home b/c I couldn't open the drawer to put it in with my wet nails. I forgot to put it back up. Good thing I'm not a high maintenance kind of woman b/c that's probably the last I'll paint my nails for a long time.

Will this work?

I have no idea. I'm trying it out right now as I type. They are giggling and moving around from what I can hear in the monitor.

I've had the two car beds for a while. I bought them from another mom with twin boys who had outgrown them, and then today I bought the pink Princess bed from another twin mom (she sold the other one to another singleton). The Princess beds had only been used a couple times because she said her girls slept with them (NO WAY I COULD DO THAT ALL THE TME). One bed was already in the room but I hauled the other two upstairs while they were eating lunch. I pushed the three beds together because I was afraid a gap between would cause more injuries with jumping than with them pushed together. They are going to jump because they are two year olds. Everything was taken out of the boys room to do this except their cribs which are up against the other wall. I had two extra mattresses so I only had to pull Andrew's mattress from the crib. I put a child lock on the closet door. Blinds are rolled up with the turning stick removed. I'm not sure if they'll nap because it's all new right now plus there is lots of sunlight coming in. I knew if I left the blinds down they would be destroyed leaving them alone in there. We have to keep our blinds downstairs up all the time because of these destroyers.

Before I left the room, Andrew crawled over to Madelyn's bed and she got mad. She patted Andrew's bed and looked at him with mean eyes and said "DREW, DREW bed" as if saying "GET OFF MY NEW BED".

Better go up and calm down the noise. I can hear them playing with the door stop now - the springy one.

A Little Cuteness

Bad Idea

I wanted some art work for the playroom walls. I didn't plan on it being such a nightmare. Nate was the best through it all. He knows his colors now and would ask for each color already swiped with the paintbrush. He drew circles and didn't make a mess. (His is the bottom left on the photo below.) Logan was probably the worst. He complained the entire time. "I can't do it." "What do I do next?" "But I wanted the red" (everytime one of the kids got a color he wanted). Logan's is the top left below. Andrew would throw the paintbrush in the floor when he was done (Top right). Madelyn colored on her body instead of the canvas (bottom right). I bought cheap frames and of course I broke the glass in one of them so I hung them all without glass.

Playroom Re-design in Progress

We finally decided on some furniture to go in this room. It's not what we originally intended but we weren't left with many choices when it came to getting something up the stairs and turning the corner and going through a 29 1/2 inch doorway. I spent the afternoon after church painting only three walls. I did not plan on BLUE but I saw a pamphlet of a blue room with brown furniture with all the paints and it looked good. It also allowed me to keep our striped wall and it not look tacky. My friend and I spent too much time painting these stripes to paint back over them.


This photo below is dark but you can get an idea of how large this room is and how stupid it would have looked with just a futon which many salespeople tried to talk us into. I already have paint peeled off the wall b/c I tried to put up a large piece of corkboard I bought at the Educational Express store yesterday. I asked the saleslady if the sticky stuff with it would tear off the paint and she said "No". She was wrong. Not only did it do that, it wouldn't stay on the wall two seconds. Now I have to find an alternative to hanging it back up. The windows are bare but I have decided what I'm going to do. With three toddlers, blinds are not an option. Even downstairs, our blinds stay up all the time to keep them from breaking them. I'm going to put up the shades that roll-up like a tape measure. They can't reach them to pull it down so when I'm in there with them, I'll pull them down. The sun shines very brightly through this window and the room stays hot plus makes it impossible to see the tv with all the glare. We definitely need some type of window treatment that the kids can't tear down.

The toddlers didn't see the furniture until this morning. We went to a park last night while Tony stayed home helping the delivery people get the furniture upstairs and when we got home they went straight to bed. Nate walked in, didn't notice it and went to the train table. Andrew saw it, said "uh oh" and climbed up it with his sippy and it leaked out milk on it. (The fabric is microfiber and is suppose to be easy to clean.) Madelyn first threw the pillow in the floor. She couldn't climb onto it at first. She struggled and grunted but eventually got up.

I'm still working on the walls. I don't like bare walls. I have an alphabet train I'm going to hang up when I get some adhesive. It's 18 feet long. The kids also made their own paintings which I will post after this. The walls will not be covered in nice paintings or expensive wall hangings but instead with whatever the kids want to put up. It's their room. It's the room we'll hang out in with them and spread toys everywhere. It's the room we can close off when company comes and they don't have to see a mess. It's where eventually the kids can go with their friends and play the Wii, watch movies, etc. I will not put TV's in their rooms. I don't like that idea. I want us to be a family, not everyone go their different ways. They'll still have their rooms they can go to for silence, play with their own toys, read books in peace, etc. (except Nate and Andrew have to share). This is the room that deserves the title "Family Room".

A Couch Dilemma

We have a large playroom. Our playroom was an optional Master Bedroom upstairs but we chose to make it a playroom before ever moving in. Tony and I use the Master downstairs. When we moved into this house, we put our old couch and chair in this room. It wasn't a pretty couch but it was taken care of. It was not horribly stained or ripps in cushions or any of damage besides wear and tear but it wasn't attractive. I bought it right out of college in 1997 - my first set of furniture I purchased and it was the cheapest I could get. I had went a few weeks, maybe months without anything in my apartment living room except boxes used for a table.

Anyway, this set stayed in this apartment and then went to our next apartment. (We got married not long after I had bought this set.) When we put a contract on our first house, I said we'd keep this furniture until our downstairs basement was finished and it would go down there. Well, we spent time on fertilty issues, drugs, etc, had my first miscarriage, went on again forking out money so we could have a child. Logan came along in 2002 and I became a stay-home mom. When he was a year old we began finishing our basement. It took a while because Tony and I did most of it ourselves. Eventually it was complete but the old furniture never moved downstairs b/c we began forking out the money again for fertilty drugs and surgery. I became pregnant with Reagan and still no new furniture. It wasn't long after we lost her, money started going into the adoption for Madelyn. Still no new furniture.

We sold that house and moved into an apartment temporarily moving the old furniture into it b/c we had to have something to sit on there. While pregnant with the twins I made sure we were going to have a new couch, loveseat and chair in our new house. It wasn't the cheapest, not my first choice out there but it was NEW. It was better, more comfortable. The old couch and chair still followed us to our house but went to the playroom.

We've been here over 2 years so the old couch was 11 years old. We had been noticing when Madelyn was in the playroom, she had more drainage from her nose than any other room in the house. The only thing we could figure out was it was from this couch. I tried cleaning it with our carpet steam cleaner since it has an upholstery attachment. It didn't seem to make a difference with that. We used to have two dogs in our other house and even though they were not indoor dogs, they did visit plus we had the cat too in the old house, the apartment and here. Madelyn tested highly allergic to dogs and cats right under that.

So, we made the decision to FINALLY get rid of this couch. I put pictures on Craig's List to sell and it sat there for months, reposting, no hits until finally we got someone interested in buying it for a friend of her's getting a divorce and having a hard time financially. I let it go so cheap but I was going to take to Goodwill or Salvation Army anyway so it didn't matter. Then a few weeks went by where they couldn't get a truck. We brought this set downstairs last week thinking they were coming and they never showed up so we had two couches in our living room. After two days it made it to the garage where then I made arrangements to deliver to this woman in our truck. It's finally gone!!! AND Madelyn seems to breathe easier in that room now so not sure it was moving this couch out or the new, expensive medicines she's on now or a combination of the two.

Now the next dilemma. We can't find a replacement. I had intentions of putting a sofa bed upstairs so we had a guest bed at the same time. Placing a bed in that room is a bad idea b/c the toddlers think beds are trampoline's but having one that hid was going to be okay, at least I thought. I never thought about not being able to get one up the stairs and turning the corner into our playroom. When our old couch was placed up there, movers took it up no problem. Tony and I got it downstairs. What we weren't thinking about was this couch has a much lower back than most made these days. The door is only 29 1/2 inches wide and you have to make an 180 degree turn once up the stairs.

I have been to numerous furniture stores measuring couches, sofa beds, sectionals, etc. Most are telling us to get futons but we don't want futons. It's a big room to just put a futon in. A futon also doesn't sit a family of six. Yesterday I was so close to purchasing one b/c a salesman had me convinced one in his store that reclines the back came off making it easier to haul up the stairs. One other salesman somewhere else had even said all that recline have removeable backs but what they didn't make clear was many don't just slide off. They have to be disassembled, not just slide out like our recliner we have in our living room. Tony fortunately went to look at the one I almost bought last night and checked it out himself to see how the back came off and it needed more work than what we were told.

Now we're back to possibly only two brands of furniture we can get up there. My original plans were a cheap sofa bed and now it's turned into name brand furniture that reclines. Tony and I even tried to get our furniture downstairs upstairs and we could not get it up the stairs b/c it was too wide. This means our playroom furniture will be nicer, better than our main living room furniture. Looks like we'll be turning this playroom into a nice den vs. a room that looks like Gymboree.

Looks like I have a summer project now. I'm going to repaint the playroom depending on whatever we pick out. Maybe I can get some good ideas off some of the re-design shows on HDTV. I'll probably devide up the room so one side is our tv, reading book area and the other side is toy storage and train tables. This room is bigger than our living room so I definitely have the space to make it a fun place for our entire family to hang out if we ever find a replacement.

Daddy's Girl

Madelyn LOVES her Daddy!!!

I found this dress yesterday on CLEARANCE at Marshall's yesterday and it had a matching doll dress. This is the first set I've bought like this. Madelyn was more excited for me to dress the doll than to put her dress on her.

Loving the water....and popsicle

These beautiful children played outside for almost two hours today. Madelyn hasn't been outside this long in a while. She stayed mostly snot free, just a little runny. I think the new medicines might be working.

Watching these three outside this morning made me so happy (and exhausted at the same time). I couldn't stop thinking about the Chapman family while we were playing. I don't know them, never met them, but one of my secret pals back when I was on the exchange in the adoption forums sent me his Christmas album. That was when I learned he had three daughters from China. The CD has pictures of his three Chinese daughters on it. I have the books his wife wrote also. I do know WHO they are and what wonderful family they have and it saddens me so much to hear of their loss. I keep looking for more information but I'm sure the family would rather take this time to mourn their loss than have reporters posting any more information.

I fear my kids running in front of vehicles everytime I walk out my door and everytime we get out of the car somewhere like the mall or restaurant. I have fear of being in a car accident and something happening to them. I dread the day Logan asks me to take him to get his license. Tragedy struck two children in the Chapman family - one no longer living and one to live with this accident the rest of his life. I can't imagine this pain. I pray for them all.

An Upgrade from our Last Pool

This pool wasn't much better. I thought it would be a quick setup but it wasn't...

and it was too easy to drain.

See how wet the patio is? Shortly after this photo the boys continued to drain the pool but pushing down the sides. This pool is not toddler proof. It was destroyed quickly.

Horrible News for the Chapman Family

This is terrible. I can't imagine what this family is going through right now.
http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/TUNEIN/80521174/1005/ENTERTAINMENT

The Baby Curls are Gone

Before...

After...

Tony took both Nate and Andrew for haircuts making two trips out Saturday. This was the first time Andrew has had a haircut in a salon. I've cut a little to trim it up on the sides but that's it. He was looking like a clown and sometimes all the curls made him look like a girl so it was time. Now he looks like a handsome two-year old boy (but he still acts like a clown).

Oh well....

this is about the best photo we can get with me and my kids. At least they all had their heads turned in the right directions and we were even facing the sun (hence why my eyes look almost closed).

Pretty Pink Princess

Latest Allergy Appointment

Yesterday Tony and I both took Madelyn to see her allergist and gave him her chest xray from her hospital stay. He said many doctors use the term pneumonia. She didn't really have this according to him (and the pediatrician said this too). He asked us if anyone in the house had had bronchitis or laryngitis before she was sick and I told him Logan did. The doctor said an allergy patient will sound so much worse and feel so much worse when they catch this virus than someone without allergies and this is what happened to her. He said allergy children end up in the ER whereas someone like us can just stay home in the bed and recuperate. He tried to tell us how this all worked but my brain isn't equipped to remember all of that (which is why I wanted Tony to go with me too).

The end result of the visit was to change her medicines. She was placed on two nasal sprays and Pulmicort. As for the food allergies, since she has had these foods before he didn't feel they were a safety issue. He also understood how hard it would be to do an elimination diet with the ages of our children in the house. He felt if we go ahead now and give one back at a time over about a period of three days she should be okay. Later on we would hope she could tell us what foods make her feel sicker, but right now we can't tell if it's an environmental allergy making her sick vs a food allergy. Last night I let her have chicken strips and fries so I'm sure that was soy and milk involved there and she did blow out her diaper but we don't know if that was a coincidence or not. He also said doing a blood test at her age could be inconclusive. We're going to work on the environmental allergies right now as long as she's not swelling when eating something and having difficulty breathing from foods. I agree right now this is better for all of us since I know she's had these foods in the past. This will be much easier to try to figure out later on when she learns she can't steal her brother's food. In the fall she is also going to be put on a preventative medicine to hopefully keep what just happened from happening again. I don't think he told us the name of it but we'll find out at our August visit unless we have to go back sooner.

Our Triplets on Triple Coupon Day

Good thing I could park close. I got first space closest to the front door. More stores need parking spaces like this.
If you can read the sign behind the parking sign, there's a store that says Precious Playtimes which is a business that watches children so the parents can go out for a few hours alone. I didn't notice this until I came out. The brightest idea would have been to pay for them to watch my kids while I shopped but I'm cheap, plus I don't trust people.

I don't need a tattoo on my forehead that says "Watch Out, I'm Insane" b/c people know it when I walk through the sliding doors with three two-year olds to go grocery shopping and to top it off, I was taking pictures with my digital camera in a Harris Teeter.

We saved almost $70 dollars, left with only one black eye, and Madelyn still had a small space to stand in the shopping cart when it was all over and done with.

Since you can only use 20 coupons a day with each Vic card on triple coupon days, I get to do this again tomorrow and Saturday. Yeah!!!

ps. Not really a black eye but Andrew did manage to get hurt and I have no idea how but his eye on the left was swollen with red marks and he was screaming very loud when it happened.

Redneck Swimming Pool

We are on water restrictions so just trying to help stay cool yet wet.

Lots of Dental Visits in our Future

Madelyn had her first dental appointment today with a pediatric dentist. Our pediatrician had recommended we go to have the structure of her mouth evaluated plus to get his input on her tongue issues.


The dentist confirmed she does have a large tongue for being a two year old. He said right now there's nothing we can do about it. It's going to hang out because she is a mouth breather due to her allergies. He did saw down on several teeth that had sharp points hoping to prevent the bleeding when she bites her tongue at night. She did not like this since she had to be held down for it but it was painless. He said she would probably continue to suck on it at night for now. He did say later on (years from now) if it does cause other problems like with her speech, there are surgeries that can be done to remove some of the sides of the tongue to make it smaller but this will be discussed much later on.


She does have a really bad underbite. I knew this going in but didn't see how bad it really was until he and his assistant pulled back on the sides of mouth and closed her jaw. Again, there's nothing that can be done at this age for this. He said whether the tongue caused the underbite or the underbite was always there, we'll probably never know, but her large tongue does contribute to pushing her bottom jaw out more along with being a mouth breather.


They couldn't clean her teeth but they did scrape some tarter off. She had some soft spots on a few teeth they will look at again in six months. For now he said just to avoid sugar and juices.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is a special day. It's special because I am a Mother. There was a time I wasn't sure I wanted to be a Mother and then when I wanted to be a Mother I couldn't seem to have children. It hurt when Mother's Day came around in 2001 and I had just miscarried my first pregnancy with twins. I was suppose to be a pregnant mom, not a mourning Mom. Fortunately the following year I was able to celebrate with Logan. Now I celebrate with four beautiful children.

Logan presented a new watch to me this morning. It's a watch that holds zoppini charms. I have enough charms to make two bracelets so now I can wear one bracelet and one watch with all my charms. Unfortunately the battery was dead so I've got to find a battery soon for it. The other three presented me some summer PJ's. It's a good thing b/c I was down to wearing rags. Now in the summer when we don't have anything going on in the morning, we can all veg-out in pj's and I'll actually not look like I'm not a homeless person.

Tony said he also ordered me some Crocs but they didn't arrive. I've never worn them, never thought I would, BUT while I was at the foot doctor one day I read out Rx Crocs were made for people with feet problems and how they supply an arch for flat feet. Now that I have the rupture tendon in my left foot, I only wear sneakers b/c that's about all my brace will fit in. I will wear sandals once in a while but I pay for it with horrible pain for a few days. The Crocs will not be an all day shoe but I wanted them for going to the pool. I needed a shoe with some support that it didn't matter if they got wet. I can't wait to try them out.

We didn't do anything that special today. Nate started running a fever so he didn't need to be in the nursery at church nor did the other two since they are still recovering. Even if they had been well, we probably would have skipped church. Sad to say this but when it rains like it was this morning, it's impossible to get three toddlers into church and we not all be soaked. You can't hold umbrella's with this many toddlers. Forget it! Rain shouldn't keep us from church but when it's pouring really hard, it's a good reason for us especially when we have one recovering from pneumonia and highly allergic to aspergillus which I've been told is the moldy smell after a rain.

Logan and I did hit the mall for a movie. We were going to see Nim's Island and see Speed Racer later this week BUT we ran into a friend of his who was going to see Speed Racer and Logan wanted to sit with him. It's definitely a colorful movie and definitely a boy movie. I'm not a racing fan but it was cute.

This evening though I did almost have the poop scared out of me. I went outside to take out the trash and several neighbors were outside yelling at each other that we were under Tornado warning and they could see the funnel clouds and it was by the Speedway. We are very close to Lowe's Motor Speedway (so close we can see the top of it through our playroom windows through the fields). I ran inside yelling at Tony and we turned on the TV's to different stations. I was terrified. Storms scare me. We were fortunate though. No tornado touched down that I know of but it may not be reported to news stations yet. There were reports of tennis ball size hail.

I didn't cook today unless you count microwave. Tony is even picking up supper for just the two of us. I didn't clean anything today, but I'll pay for it tomorrow.

Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's

Trying out her new swim suit

Madelyn and I had a mother/daughter trip to Target this afternoon where I strolled through the bathing suits and let her pick one out. She actually wanted two. The other one was a two-piece purple polka-dot. I went for the one piece though, and I love red on her. (Tony jokingly said "she still shows too much leg".) This is actually the 2nd suit I've bought for her this year. The other she has not tried on yet but it has Elmo on it and the twins got Elmo swim trunks. When she wears this red one, they'll wear their Thomas swim trunks.

BTW, those that I asked about bathing suit sizes, I went with 4T for Madelyn. You can see this one is not too big on her either. Glad I went up a size than what she's wearing.

Mother's Day Presentation at School

Mom's were invited to Kindergarten for snack and a short presentation by the students. They made muffins to share with their moms too. I was presented a book that Logan filled in the blanks. Here's his answers and the way he spells it too.

My mother has green eyes and brown hair. She weighs 5000 pounds (some days I feel like it but not close) and is 31 (close) years old. Her favorite color is green. Her favorite food is big peper. (This week a friend brought us stuffed peppers while Madelyn was in the hospital.) She laughs when I tikele her. If I could give my mother something special just from me it would be jelrey. (Is this a hint I have some coming Sunday??) My favorite thing about my mother is cellebning. (cuddling - I had to ask b/c I wasn't sure about this spelling) My mother loves me best when she heg's me. My mother looks prettiest when we are at church. (good thing we're making it back to Sunday services) I like being with my mother most when I am home.

Bathing Beauties

Madelyn was not this happy all day but she cheesed it up for a photo. She is having another really bad snot day and is miserable. I can't wait to see the allergist again next week.

Any guesses to what Andrew was diagnosed with?

Logan has had bronchitis in the past week. Madelyn had pneumonia. Andrew starts a fever today, wasn't eating and screaming with a blister on the back of his throat.

Any guesses? It's not what the first two had.

Ok, it's a really, really bad case of tonsillitis, so bad if he doesn't get better in a couple of days, we need to have him checked for Mono. His throat is definitely swollen and you can tell looking at his face plus he's running a fever.

So, we're not passing around the same sickness. I asked Tony to guess what he's getting and he said he was aiming high for the Plague - joking of course. Nate still has missed out and I hope it stays that way, but unfortunately I think my throat is starting to hurt. I really hope it's nothing; although, Andrew has been giving me lots of kisses lately and Mono is known as the kissing disease.

Too bad BJ's, Sam's or Cosco don't sell Amoxicillan in big containers. We could really save some money if they sold this drug in bulk.

We can't get a break

Andrew woke up with a fever, wouldn't eat breakfast, and began screaming earlier so I tackled him down to look in his mouth and sure enough is a nickel size white blister back of his throat. I couldn't get him to stop screaming. He threw up on my bed, down my arm and all over himself. Tony had to make the phone call for me to the doctor's office to work him in when Madelyn goes today b/c I couldn't talk on the phone for the screaming. I was searching all over the house for more tylenol or motrin and we had used it all up. I finally found some in my car for infants. I used to keep bottles everywhere but they've all been used up. I need to get my supply up again. He had woken up screaming during the night when I was at the hospital and again last night and I thought it was his teeth bothering him b/c he had his fingers in his mouth. Obviously that wasn't the case. I don't know if he has strep or something else but we probably need to get him on antibiotics.

"Now I can get comfy"

This girl needs to be a gymnist if she thinks this is a comfortable way to sleep.