Video Clips....

I posted these two videos to my FB page, and got an overwhelming response about how great my DOG is. Never mind the babies.... they're old news. Morrie's a rock star, what can I say? He is pretty cool. :) One of my favorite comments (which I received many times over) was that people mistook Morrie for a RUG. Hmmmm.... wonder if it's time to get him groomed?

Weekend Get-Away

A couple of weeks ago we made a last-minute decision to take a road trip to California. This was completely out of our norm, or norm as we know it. We had nothing better to do, and it's been so darn hot here in Vegas. Why not??? We set out after work on Friday and headed towards San Diego. We thought we would take the boys to the zoo and maybe hit the beach. We decided to wait on Sea World until the babies are a little older. I'm not sure they have the patience to sit through the shows, and I don't have the patience to corral them at the water park. This was our first road trip with the trio. Driving across the desert with 3 toddlers and 2 older-and-easily-bored boys is not all that fun. The last couple of hours on the road someone was crying. It took us about 2 hours longer than it should have, but we made it regardless.

I think it was around 11:00 when we finally made it to our hotel room. No less than two minutes after we got to our room, all you-know-what broke loose. Babies gone wild!!! They were climbing on the furniture, taking the glass off the tables, standing in the windows, and just running all over the place squealing the whole time. We quickly went into baby-proofer mode, as much as possible at least. It took awhile to wind them down, but we finally got them to go to sleep. That was also a little challenging. We had booked 2 adjoining rooms, and the hotel, which was completely sold out, messed up and gave us rooms on different floors. Oops. They somehow scrounged us up a mini-suite and brought us 3 port-a-cribs. We made it work. I wish I had taken a picture of Liam crammed in that little bed. He likes to sleep all stretched out and he just didn't fit, poor guy! Noah slept on the couch, and Eli had a roll-away bed. A big highlight of the trip was our ridiculously priced room-service breakfasts. Noah & Eli just love staying in a hotel, and immediately look for the room service menu. The babies thought it was pretty cool to sit around the coffee table and eat instead of being confined to high chairs. (Of course we were missing Morrie & Beckham when we had to clean up the floor.)

Saturday morning we set out for the San Diego Zoo. It was a beautiful day. We took the Runabout stroller since we could hitch it to the back of the car. It and the babies ended up being just as big of an attraction as the animals!

Would you believe that 5 minutes through the gate we ran into 2 other sets of triplets? Crazy! We heard there was anther set there too in the choo choo wagon, but we didn't run into them face to face. This is the first set we saw, more fraternal BBBs!

We never let the babies out of the stroller until we got to the petting zoo. Big mistake. We know better than to let them out!!! Of course they didn't want back in. Aside from that one melt-down, they were perfect angels the entire day. They seemed to enjoy taking in all the sights. However, the first animal they noticeably took interest in (by pointing) was a pigeon. Go figure. We have hundreds of those right in our own neighborhood!

Noah was a little worn out from all the walking by the time we got to the petting zoo. He probably would have taken a ride in the stroller if he could have, poor guy.
My tribal warrior and tiger....
The zoo was a full day activity and the babies were wiped out. Matt & I were pretty wiped out ourselves from pushing the stroller up all those hills! Whew, what a work-out! We drove the big boys by seal beach and let them walk on the sand a few minutes then we called it a day. We didn't dare try to go to a restaurant at that point so we opted for a room-service dinner too.

Sunday was our designated beach day, so after breakfast we packed up all of our things, checked out of the hotel, and set out on our way. We decided to drive a bit before settling on our destination beach. The babies are used to taking a long morning nap so we felt it was in our best interest to let them cat-nap in the car. We stopped at Newport Beach. I want to live in Newport Beach! It is beautiful... nothing but sand and water.... the cleanest beach I've ever seen. Everyone had a ball. Only one problem... whoever said that the RA strollers work well on the beach must have a friend in Hercules. 75+ pounds of babies makes the RA stroller SINK into the sand. We weren't going anywhere fast. If I wasn't reminded how out-of-shape I was at the zoo, I think it clicked here. Matt & the big boys went and found us a spot, dropped our gear and were headed back to get me and the trio. By the time they turned around I had a surfer dude offer to help pull them down, and I wasn't going to turn him away! Noah and Eli instantly went to the water and stayed there. We parked the little boys on some blankets and tried to feed them lunch before doing anything else. I'm sure they ate quite a bit of sand too. It took them a few minutes to get comfortable with the ocean, but once they did it was hard to get them out. We ran zone defense the rest of the afternoon. Luke loved the waves and wanted to stay in the water. Aidan kept running back to the beach (of course the opposite direction). Liam was the most cautious, and he ran both directions. Lots of exercise in this weekend!

Here are a few shots from the day. Noah & Eli were too busy to be photographed... better luck next time, I guess. I actually had good intentions to get a picture of all 5 boys, but once they hit the water I couldn't man the camera. Lesson learned.... take the picture first!

We didn't leave the beach until after 6:00. The ride home was much easier.... all the boys slept, which was good since Noah & Eli had school the next morning. :) Overall the trip was a success. It was a nice break if nothing else!

Better Late Than Never!

Hello Blog... long time, no post!!?! I can't believe it's almost been a MONTH! Scary how time flies around here. I don't have a major excuse to give, and I won't bother trying to list out the multitudes of little things. Lots of random distractions accompanied by occasional laziness. But - I'm back now... and I'll try to do better.

Matt and I 'recognized' our 11-year anniversary last weekend. He was out of town so we are putting our celebration off until life calms down again. He's gone again next weekend so I'm guessing it's still a few weeks out. Probably just long enough for us to forget to do it!

The babies are 18 months old now! We went to their checkup this week. All are healthy and happy, long and lean (Aidan... maybe not so lean). Only one shot each this time, and, other than the annual flu vaccines, we are done with immunizations until they are 4! Here are the official stats:

Luke

Height 32.5" (50-75%)

Weight 23.0lbs (10-25%)

Head Cir 50cm (90-95%!)

Aidan

Height 33.0" (50-75%)

Weight 26.0lbs! (50-75%)

Head Cir 48.5cm (50-75%)

Liam

Height 34.0" (75-90%)

Weight 24.0lbs (10-25%)

Head Cir 48cm (50-75%)

On a sad note, Matt's mom passed away unexpectedly last week. We buried her this past Monday. My mom was already here helping me out and playing with the babies, Noah, & Eli. I was able to sneak away to Dallas for a quick 36 hours to attend the funeral. (Grandma did great on her own with all 5 boys, even managing to cart the big boys to & from school.) It was a very sad situation for all, but it was nice to visit with some family members, some of which I hadn't seen since we buried Matt's father 3 years ago. It was my first trip back to Dallas since we moved here last October. I think I ate enough food to sustain me for the next month. We made up for lost time getting our fill of our favorite Tex-Mex! We even took a quick drive up to see our old house and got to briefly catch up with a couple of our old neighbors. It seems like so long ago. Eli was just 2 when we moved to Austin from there, and Noah hadn't even started kinder. It made us stop and wonder what life would be like had we never moved away. Different, I'm quite sure!

I guess when you go without posting for a month you tend to ramble... so I'd better leave it at that. More tomorrow (fingers crossed)! I'll leave you with a few more pics from the last month!

IT'S A BOY!!!

What is it about us 'MoMs' that causes us to forget about all of the sleepless nights that accompany a newborn? We seem to block that part out of our memory once they start sleeping through the night, only to focus on the sweet little chubby babies that we have brought into this world. All of those long nights I spent watching info-mercials, while trying to feed my three newborn babies, trying to get that what-seemed-to-take forever (and impossible) 'burp' out of a sleeping baby, all without passing out from my own sleep deprivation. We brought the babies home just 17 months ago, yet those memories have been tucked away in the back of my mind with the cobwebs. That is until now. No, I am not sitting up at night jotting down the phone number for Mighty Putty or Greenbags (although I have since purchased both...).

Our house has been lacking just a tad bit of chaos, so we decided to add a puppy to the mix. Meet BECKHAM, our two month old chocolate Labradoodle.


I have been rudely reminded that puppies are very similar to newborn babies. Don't get me wrong... this is MUCH easier than my experience with 3 newborn babies at the same time. However, at this point I have gotten used to getting a tad bit more sleep.... which I truly enjoy, by the way. What's different this time around, is that I still have 3 teething toddlers in addition to the puppy. He's awful cute though.... and oh-so-sweet!

And Morrie loves him already.... but Morrie is so big he scares Beckham to death.

We brought him home last Saturday, and his first few nights went great. He cried a little during the night, but I didn't let him out of his crate until he cried at 5:45am. I figured by then he definitely needed to go outside. I was so proud of him! The last few nights however have been a nightmare! Tuesday night started out ok and then out of the blue for some reason Eli woke up around 2:30am. Noah forgot to set the timer on the TV and instead of getting up to turn it off, Eli decided he needed to come tell me he couldn't sleep. I think he may have gone through the babies' room on his way out of his room, which managed to scare the bageebers out of Liam.... causing him to go into mass hysteria. I heard the gate on the stairs clang while I was trying to soothe Liam back to sleep (before Luke & Aidan joined in the fun). Once I got Liam quieted back down, Eli was on his way back up the stairs, still looking for me. While he was downstairs (combined with Liam's screaming) he managed to wake up the puppy... who then started howling. This set Liam off again. Right about the time I was re-tucking Eli back into his bed (with no tv) Matt came around the corner, got Liam, and took him back to our bed. Just as soon as I got myself comfortable in my bed.... Luke started. O-M-G... I thought the night would never end. He wasn't about to lay back down, so he too came to our bed. I know that this never works.... I think I was just hoping for some small miracle. No such luck. Of course Liam & Luke start fighting over blankets & pacis . Matt finally picked up one of them (I think it was Luke), grumbled a few choice words, and headed down to the guest room in hopes that he could catch a little sleep before getting up for work. I finally dozed off again, when Beckham started another round of his howling. For a small dog, he sure is loud. Liam was asleep so I picked him up and put him back in his crib. (Baby Aidan was sleeping like the angel he is, and had somehow managed to sleep through all the chaos.) I went back downstairs, pulled my pup out of the crate and took him outside. I brought him back in and attempted to put him back into the crate, which of course he wanted no part of. It was now play time. Rather than start the vicious cycle over again I just crashed on the couch, keeping one eye open to make sure he wasn't eating something he wasn't supposed to. The morning officially started at 5:45am when everyone decided to wake up for the day.

What a long night! Last night wasn't much better, but at least Eli stayed in his bed. What I find sad is that I know that we had two babies wake up last night, but for my life I don't remember who. I think last night was Aidan and Luke, while Liam slept, but like I said I can't be sure. Of course Beckham chimed in at some point, but I couldn't bring myself to get up anymore. I am TIRED! He lived. He's fine. He's still cute.

Our house is a crazy house, and I'm a crazy MoM. I wouldn't have it any other way though. Matt may argue that one with me. In a few weeks I'm sure I'll forget about all of this again!

Oh- one last 'funny'. You know how I am the only female in the house, right? We thought we would try for a girl and got 3 more boys. We have Morrie... again... male. We were supposed to get a female puppy this time. Her name was going to be Bella. I was so excited to get a little princess with a little pink collar with rhinestones on it. Funny how things work. The breeder decided to keep the female and hence we have Beckham.... I just can't win.

Patience....

I have always told people that our babies are very patient boys. This has typically been my response to the 'you've got your hands full' comments. I think they knew from the minute they were born that they had to be, in order to keep their parents sane through those first few months of life.

What I am realizing more and more these days is that paybacks are you-know-what!!! Where did my sweet little patient babies go? Don't get me wrong.... they are still really good boys. However, I am learning that the rest of us are WAY more patient than we were before.... relatively speaking, of course. Have we all just accepted the fact that our babies are in control around here? They really are, you know.

Even poor Morrie has learned to roll with the punches.... literally.

A Weekend Without Soccer!

This weekend marks the first weekend in a LONG time that we have had no 'obligations'. Of course we found SOMETHING to do to keep us busy, but it was nice to be able to do them on our own timeline.

Noah's soccer season officially ended last Saturday. We survived our first soccer season, as other than the broken clavicle... I consider it a success! Noah really loves the game and I'm sure we'll be signing on to anther season once the weather gets a little cooler again. This is our first summer here in Vegas, and this 'dry heat' as everyone calls it is pretty intense... yes, I know it's only May. I may melt by August!

The last game Noah got to play goalie. He LOVED it, and actually is really good at it. The coach had to laugh at the fact that they found out that Noah was the 'best goalie ever' during the last game of the season. They even let him keep the goalie jersey, which is now a treasure in our house. I think that means much more to him than the trophy. Matt actually caught him upstairs sitting on top of his dresser with the jersey and the stapler. Luckily Matt found him before it was 'installed'. We've promised to frame it for him.

Here's a shot of Noah in the infamous goalie jersey...
An action shot. He typically played defense most of the season.

After the game last weekend the coach hosted an end-of-season party at his house. The kids had a blast. If a bunch of 9-year-old boys together wasn't enough fun in itself, the coach's backyard competes pretty well with Disneyland!!!

Here's one final shot of the boys (and somebody's sister...) with the coach. Noah is to the coach's right in the green shirt.

I Think They are Trying to Kill Me...

I have no words......