Silliness and Grandparents

Here are some great videos of my girlies.

Charli can do flips. So cute.

I FINALLY got Mia to sing all of Twinkle Little Star. HOORAY!

So... Charlotte for some very strange unknown reason calls Abbi, Bahum. HA!? Where did it come from... NO IDEA. But she does. And she can say "Abbi" she just chooses to call her Bahum. Hilarious!

 Where's Abbi? HA! Mia decided Abbi would be funny looking under all these stuffed animals. HA! Silly girls.

 Messy girls. Mamaw made spaghetti and the girls ate some yummy noodles.

Love this beautiful girl (Mia).

 This picture is so funny because Mia was sitting and snuggling right up next to her papa skip and as soon as I grabbed the camera to take the picture she moved away like this. HA! Little Stink!

 The girls absolutely loved having their great grandparents here! So did I too! Poor mamaw worked her little bum off. Made dinner, cleaned up, entertained babies, ect. I know they were both exhausted by the end of their week here. I was able to go to the temple, go shopping ALONE, I had such a great week. I love these two so very much.

 Awe! They STILL ask "Where's Papa?"

 Katelyn, my cousin, was able to come with the grandparents and spend the week with us! We so enjoyed having her here and she was a great help with the girls who of course loved having the extra attention!

So sweet! Papa with Mia.

 I made play dough! I dont know why I was so excited about it, but I was. It was so easy to make and turned out awesome. The girls loved it!

We put a table cloth over the coffee table and got out the cookie cutters and rolling pin and had a good 45 minutes of fun!

 Katelyn brought her IPAD with some pretty neat Fisher Price Apps that kept the girls entertained. They loved it!

Mimi & Poppy's Visit

My parents were able to stay almost a week and we loved every second we got with them. I just love being with my family. I hate hate hate living this far away from them. Its been so long since they were here, I cant remember what all we did. I know we went to the splash pad a lot. And took walks around the block. Just things here and there. Mostly just played and enjoyed one another. Love these two people. And so do my girls!

 Poppy and Abbi, snuggling.

 So we knew the streamers would get pulled down eventually from the birthday party. But Mimi got creative and we had an Indian party (I'm convinced this is what cause the rain to stay for like 3 weeks, they were dancing around and hollering like Indians so it made a great rain dance.)

 Mimi getting Mia all dressed up.

 Even poppy joined in the fun. So did I but im never in the pictures since im always the one taking them.

 Dont forget Charli!

 My three little indians. (That sounds like a book....?)

 Charli's orange band.

 Abbi doing her best Indian yell. (Can you say "indian" these days? Is it still not very politically correct? I think its supposed to be Native American... I dont know. How about Lamanites?! HA!)

 Mia

 Charli

Mimi feeding her girls

 Poor Sophie waiting for a crumb to hit the floor. I bet this dog was ready to get home at the end of that week. My girls wore her smooth out. Charli especially just loves her so much.

 Here's our slide thats now an indoor toy! HA! Yeah Im running a nursery out of my living room.

 Coloring with Mimi

 Charli getting quality time with poppy!

Girls' 2nd Birthday!

Finally!! Yeah!! Here is the post of the girls' two year birthday party. We decided to celebrate on July 4th this year (their birthday is on the 6th) since it seemed to work out better for the family we had coming in. The weather was so great. Overcast, warm, windy, so great! We started our birthday off perfect by hitting the splash pad/pool! The girls loved it. We spent all morning there. Afterwards, was a much needed nap time. Then it was presents! That lasted for a good while. HA! They got so many awesome toys. Then we grilled up some super yummy food, had cake and ice cream, baths and bed. All in all a great birthday.

We had Mimi, Poppy, (& Sophie of course), Aunt Randa, Natalie and Nicholas here. It was hard. It was painfully obvious who was missing from our family and it was silently breaking all of our hearts. But we pushed on and put on a wonderful birthday for our little angels. I honestly did not want to do the decorations and the party and the "song and dance" as it were. No one did. But my mom insisted we do it, for the kids. Not just mine but Randa's too. Celebration is hard when your grieving, almost impossible. But we did it that day and Im so grateful that we did. The girls had probably the best day of their lives and I could see it all over their faces. From the beautiful balloons and decorations, to all the attention they were getting to ALL the amazing new toys. They were just beside themselves. And that made it worth it. But not one minute went by that I, and certainly all the grown ups, didn't swallow back that sob because our Nathan could not be there. Im afraid that is how it will be for a long time... 

Our "Balloon Rainbow!" Rainbow was the "theme" this year and Mimi and Natalie did a wonderful job with this idea I found on Pintrest (of course).

Rainbow colored streamers were a must. The girls were just in awe. HA! 

Cousin Nicholas teaching the girls how to use their new kitchen. Thanks Grandma &  Grandpa!

I think Nick had as much fun with the toys as the girls did.

Mia with the new shopping cart. This hasn't been as big a hit as I thought. It tips over a lot and scares the girls but I think they will get the hang of it eventually.

Above: All of our loot! My girls are so very blessed with family who love them so much.

Below: Grandma gave the girls these beautiful bracelets, which they just loved. Unfortunately, they are a little big and slip off, so Im saving them until I know we wont loose them!

Cousin Natalie was sweet enough to give the girls her old Minnie Mouse doll for their birthday because she knows how much they love Minnie Mouse! Thank you sweet girl! They love her!

Above (Mia) and Below(Abbi): getting into the new books!

This place quickly became a big mess! But thats half the fun as a kid. Its like the proof that you had a killer birthday when there's wrapping paper everywhere! HA!

After enjoying our inside presents we took it outside to see what Mimi and Poppy got for us! A new play house! They love, love this thing so much. Its pretty awesome!

It even has a mailbox! Tehehe

Also from Grandpa and Grandma was this totally awesome slide Abbi is climbing on. This is now inside our house. After their  birthday, it rained for like 2 weeks straight, so I brought it in so they could play with it and they just love it! HA! (We wanted to bring in the play house too, but there's just no room! HA!)

Below: Our yummy BBQ! Grill BBQ chicken, burgers and corn on the cob. So yummy!

Ok, so the story with the cakes..... It was my original idea to do the girls own little individual cake, instead of a slice of cake or a cupcake. I made 2 circle cakes (I used Funfetti since it is a rainbow theme after all) and then I got a biscuit cutter, cut out the circles, layered them, ect. THEN Mimi got the idea of making different colored icing for in between the layers.... Good thought, in theory. However, it just kinda ran together and it was a lot of extra work for nothing. It turned out looking tye dyed more than anything and I tried to salvage it with some sprinkles. Honestly, they were hideous. But they tasted good and I learned a lot about icing... HA! The girls didn't seem mind...

Ms. Abigail in the party hat. HA! Loved her cake!

Ms Charlotte enjoying her yummy cake too!

Ms Mia had no complaints about how ugly her cake was! HA!

I made an individual cake for Nicholas and Natalie as well. 

I also made the adults a layered funfetti cake to share. We were stuffed by the end and had major sugar rushes but what a day...!

Like I said, the girls enjoyed themselves more than I have ever seen and Im so glad my mom pushed me to make it special for them. They don't understand what we are feeling. They only know they had an amazing day with their family. And thats how it should be at this age. Im so grateful Maranda was brave enough to come and do this with us. She is by far the strongest person I've ever met. I adore her so much and have such a great respect for her after all of this.

As I mentioned before, it was painfully obvious who was missing the entire day. We cried after Maranda and her kiddos left and my girls were sound asleep because the hole in hearts is so huge, there was nothing else we could do. Above is the picture I took this year for the girls birthday. Below is the picture I took last year for the girls' birthday and I cry every time I see the difference... Its just not fair. Its just not fair.

Here are the videos:

Mac rules all... sorry Windows (you stink)!

I am so sorry it is taking me SOOO LONG to get the birthday postsup. AGH! What happened is Jared bought a new computer for his birthday, turns out... WE HATE IT! I think we've been much too spoiled with MAC and Windows just irks us to pieces. So we are taking it back. The problem is that the MAC has literally completely run out of storage so I cant upload any pictures or videos until we get the new computer... Im so sorry! Im hoping by next week we will know something. 

In the meantime, lets talk POTTYS! TEHEHE Yep, its about that time. I told myself when the girls hit two years old we would tackle this head on. Ive found the program that I like and bought most of my supplies. All I need is like fifty pairs of underwear (GEEZ!) and some small "surprises or treats" and we are set to go! I could not be more stressed out about this. But they are ready so Im holding on that knowledge as I go forward. I literally can find NOTHING online about training triplets. Zilch! So a huge concern is doing it one by one....? or all at once.....? any suggestions? 

My MAJOR, NUMBER ONE hang up or hold back is my greatest fear... that this is a gateway... Meaning, since Im potty training them does that mean they have to go to toddler beds... and if they go to toddler beds, do they have to be split up now.... and if they need their own room, I will have to buy a house as my town house only has 3 bedrooms TOTAL.... HOLY COW! You see my stress right...? yeah Im just feel like Im doing the Tangled scene where the Viking guy tells Ryder "Arms in, Head down, Knees Bent..." haha Not really knowing whats happening or what will happen, just doing it cause its going to save my tail. Anyway... I am planning on documenting exactly what I do and what I use, ect. I think I have several multiples moms who read my blog and I have had the hardest time finding info specific to triplet potty training I want you guys to learn from my experiences. Thats the main reason this is a public blog anyway.

I also wanted to post the stats for the girls' 2 year check up before I forget and who knows when I'll get the photos/videos up. There are a lot of them...

Charlotte- 35 inches, 31 pounds

Abigail- 35 1/2 inches 33 pounds

Mia- 35 inches, 32 pounds

They are just perfect in every way and I can not believe my babies are two. I can see them as little ladies already and my heart does loopy loops. Im just beyond honored and humbled to have these real life angels in my family. I adore them with my whole being. 

Bubba

I said I wouldn't write anything personal on here about my nephew. However, this article just came out today and I had to post it. Its about a 12 year old boy (Nathan was 8) who experienced the same final moments as Nathan did. He died of the same thing my bubba did.

 Article

Im posting this to cause awareness. Please don't let the doctors "bully" you. You know as a parent when something is wrong with your child. 

Had Nathan survived, he would have needed a liver transplant and would have had to have his leg amputated. He was transferred to 3 different hospitals within 24 hours and no one had answers until he ended up at Children's Medical in Dallas. By then, it was too late... NOT ACCEPTABLE!