As part of our move, we are cleaning out and much to my husbands dismay... he is getting rid of old Halloween costumes. This may put a little smile on the faces of those who attended his "famous" or "infamous" annual Halloween parties.... The Pimps and Ho's Party, the Pajama Party, the Rocky Horror party among the many themes.... While Jerry is mourning the loss of his costumes... the kids are having a great time playing with them (although Jadon's pout may lead one to think otherwise.)
Needless to say, these crazy parties came to an end in 2006 when late night parties were replaced with late night feeds and diaper changes... gave new meaning to "Party at My Crib 2:00 am, Bring Your Own Bottle." We are soooo blessed to have our children and our wonderful friends!!!
If you attended these parties, please take a moment for Scott and say a little prayer for one of our most beloved friends.
We are moved in as well as we can be until the old house sells (we still have furniture to show the house over there). We put in on the market yesterday and now we sit and wait. The kids have handled the move without too much difficulty. The 1st few days the girls didn't sleep at naptime although naps are mandatory, so they sat in their rooms and read books. I hadn't darkened their rooms which may have been part of the problem. But now, I have their old dark out shades pinned up until we get our shutters. A couple times they've said they want to go to their old house, but for the most part they are fine. While our new house is "fancier", it's hard leaving the old house. It functioned well and it holds a lot of memories. The kids rooms were close together and shared a Jack&Jane bathroom in the old house, but the girls got a much bigger room in the new house which they needed. The kitchen in the new house is huge and functions great, so I'm trying to cook more... ugh!! It will take some time to break in the new house and make it feel like home, but we are in!!!! Our Old House (winter photo, brown grass) Our New House (summer photo, pretty green grass)
On Saturday morning (the day after Christmas) everyone went to one of my cousin's houses for an after Christmas family gathering and we had a lovely time. It has been a CRAZY BUSY month with the kids, Christmas, and a move. I feel like Cody in the attached video which is a RIOT!!!! Poor guy was just worn out after opening all those gifts and crashed in Lane's swing....
This went on a LONG TIME before I grabbed the camera so we were in hysterics at this point. I did lay him back once he fell asleep and I stopped laughing...
Well, we are officially in our new house... hence my delay in posting... so to catch up on Christmas. After Church Christmas Eve we put out milk and cookies for Santa and put the babies to bed. The next morning, we woke at our regular time and brought the kids down. If you watched the 6 minute video in our last post, you got to see waking to stockings. We then loaded up and headed over to Mawmaw and Pawpaws house where we joined up with David, Kerri, Lane, and GG. Had a little breakfast and opened a lot of presents. PERFECT!!! As usual, my Mom did it up right. When it comes to making events special, she wins the prize. I think Martha Stewart herself would have trouble keeping up with my Mom. The house was beautiful and each gift wrapped with a special touch of decor. The kids finished up their gifts with big wheels or as they call them motorcycles and a little car, both gifts are requiring a lot of practice and parental supervision/assistance. Cody hung in great with just a brief nap and spent most of the day playing in Lane's baby swing where he finally gave in and fell asleep. We ended with a Christmas feast... I read How the Grinch Stole Christmas a lot this year and I just kept thinking "And they'll feast, and they'll feast, and they'll feast feast feast feast.... along with the noise, the noise, the noise noise noise noise...."
Our holiday started with David, Kerri, and baby Lane's arrival on Wednesday. When Jerry got home from work, we went over to mawmaw and pawpaw's house for dinner and visiting with the family (including GG or Great Grandma). They were all enjoying a quiet evening, until our arrival of course. We tend to bring a lot of noise and activity with us everywhere we go. On Thursday, I spent the day at home with the kids and after their naps Jerry and I dressed them all for Christmas Eve Mass... My Mom cried with joy having all her kids and grandkids together for church services and Christmas celebrations. During Mass we told Kaylee she could go see baby Jesus in the manger after church if she was good, so at the end of services we walked her over to see Baby Jesus, but the manger was empty. Apparently, they weren't going to put him in the manger until Christmas morning. She was in tears.... but we got lucky. On the way out of the Church we saw baby Jesus tucked away for safe keeping and sneeked in a peek. After Mass, we loaded up and headed to Mi Rancho for some Mexican food. Addison insisted she sit by Aunt Kerri and Jadon by Uncle David. Upon leaving, I overheard another table comment that we had a lot of kids, then a few minutes later asked if we had triplets.... "yes, they are triplets. Yes, then we had another one. Yes, They are all mine, except the new baby which is my brothers." The standard spiel.
Addison and Pawpaw
Kerri and Baby Lane
Addison & Kaylee
Cody, our little drummer boy
Baby Lane
Addison sings Jingle Bells
Jadon sings Santa Claus is coming to "THE" town
If you have 6 1/2 minutes to spare, here is our Christmas morning..... from waking to stockings.
Loved one's have gone home, the gifts are all unwrapped, and we are once again settling back into a routine (as much as possible with the upcoming move on Saturday). But, I have to say it was a perfect Christmas!!! David & Kerri have a beautiful baby boy and this was his 1st Christmas and the triplets are at an age that Christmas is magical. It's that short time when they truly believe in Santa Claus, flying reindeer, and a naughty and nice list. An our little one Cody hung in with it all, never missing a beat. Magical!!!! Rather than one long post, I'll post our Christmas with pictures over the next few days.
All dressed up for Christmas Eve Mass... Jadon was soooo proud of his outfit.... "Look at me...I got a tie...."
Today, I cried.... Addison got a hold of some scissors on my bathroom sink and cut her hair along with her Ariel doll's hair. I first notice a small piece of hair on the floor and when I picked it up, I knew it was Addisons. I then began examining her hair and pulling out more and more pieces of hair entangled in the uncut hair..... Fear took hold as I tried to ascertain the extent of the damage. My fear turned to anger and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach which has yet to go away. Yes, she cut her hair.... but, fortunately it's not terrible.... well, not as bad as it could be. She will be wearing a lot of pony tails and barrette on one side until her hair grows out. I am trying to tell myself I should be happy this is the worse thing I'm having to deal with.... if this is our greatest problem then I give thanks to the Lord. And the damage is not noticeable to the average person, but I will notice everyday when I cannot put her hair in pigtails.... ARGGGG!!!!
Once again I pray.... "Dear Heavenly Father, Please give me the strength to cope with my blessings."
In the photo, I brushed the cut hair forward... you can see it doesn't fit into the ponytail, but brushed back with a barrette it will be ok. It could have been worse. I have to say Ariel didn't fare so well.
Well, Christmas is purchased except for the stocking stuffers and I continue to work on the move little by little each day. The biggest struggle is keeping the house somewhat under control during the move. Our official move date is January 2nd, but we aren't moving a lot of our furniture. We are leaving a lot of our furniture in the old house for "staging" until it's sold, so we will be camping out in the new house a while. Cody decided to help pack and cleaned out the bookshelf. What a little helper....
Jerry's company had a Christmas party on December 4th (the earliest snow in Houston history that night) at the Westin Galleria with a pre-party at Del Frisco's restaurant. We had my parents babysit all night, so after the party we were able to walk back to our hotel room rather than drive 45 minutes to get home. It was a great party and a great time.
We learned early in our house the importance of sippy cup control. I make four sippy cups of milk every morning, when the milk is gone, I clean the four cups and refill them with water for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, I wash out the cups and put them in the dishwasher. When we 1st started using sippy cups, I would make the cups, then my Mom and/or Dad would come over and make a cup, then Jerry would make a cup. Now, imagine one of those cups finding it's way into a drawer or under a bed and what it might look like a couple weeks later when found..... We now make four cups and ONLY FOUR CUPS so that at the end of the day we know when a cup is missing and right now, one is missing. It was lost yesterday. We looked and looked and will continue looking for that rogue cup until it's found TONIGHT!!!!
UPDATE... The missing cup has been found under a box in our bedroom.... we are moving so lots of boxes....
Thought I'd share a picture of our tree and some of our memorable ornaments.... I'd like to say I have Christmas under control, but honestly I am still buying gifts and haven't wrapped one of them yet. It will all come together before the big day I am sure....
