Our annual Christmas gift from Todd...

I don't have much time to share because we're getting ready to go to Grandpa's house right now. I just wanted to share pictures of our special gift from Todd, Stephenie's husband. Every year he builds a special gift for all of his friends and family. The gift is always made from the heart and comes with a special story that he includes in a letter with the gift. You can tell he always works very hard on the gift and the letter and our entire family looks forward to experiencing opening the present, reading the letter, and playing with the gift. This year he sent a wooden truck, painted with left over paint he found in the garage and built with scrap wood.

The kids' first question was "Can we play with it?" and it actually took John a few minutes of thinking about it before he grudgingly told them they could. Amanda immediately snatched that baby up and moved it into her bedroom right next to her bed because she was going to be the FIRST ONE to sleep with it. Hmmm, sleep with a truck? Whatever works. Tonight is Nate's turn to play with it and we'll see how long it takes Nicole to wrestle it away from him. Thanks for our incredible gift, Todd! We've enjoyed receiving all of your gifts over the years!

We are now proud owners of a Wii!

John and I finally broke down and bought a Wii. Geri and Grandma bought several games and controllers for the Wii and we were set! We waited to open the Wii for the very last present and the kids opened the games and controllers while I opened the Wii console. I made everyone look at me after I got the paper off and you wouldn't believe Nate's reaction. He looked at me in disbelief, then he looked at the Wii, then back to me and everyone else in the room as his face lit up with joy! He yelled "WE GOT A WII!" and immediately ran downstairs to set that guy up. He's been playing it for three days straight and there's never a dull moment. Even Daddy and Mommy have gotten into playing and we've enjoyed it immensely. All three kids agreed that this was his best present ever!

Merry Christmas!

It's snowing again! It seems a little more special since it's Christmas today. For the first time in years, we're having a white Christmas! The kids are incredibly excited. They've already gone through their stockings and are going to start opening presents right after breakfast. I'll post pictures later...

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Snow, snow, go away! Find someone who wants to play!

Like Sis! I think Louisiana could use some of this wonderful snow...

This is too much... It's snowing really hard again. Just when I thought it was going to clear up it started up again. It's filling in the one lane that has been plowed on our street and filling up the path we made to the front door. This has been an incredible week!

Would you believe more snow???

Guess what the forecast is? Yep, more snow. The good news is that the snow we have is slowly melting. It got up to a whopping 33 degrees today! The bad news is that more snow is moving through tonight, which should change to rain by tomorrow afternoon. Maybe after tomorrow we can get back to more normal weather.

Today we finished our beautiful puzzle, cleaned house, and frosted Christmas cookies with Grandma! She brought groceries with her so I can cook Christmas dinner. What a lifesaver!

The kids enjoyed a day inside today after spending much of the day playing in the snow yesterday. I think they've finally gotten over the excitement of the massive amounts of snow and they are really ready for Christmas! It still looks like we'll be having a white Christmas this year...

I'm starting to sound like a broken record...

We had more snow again last night. We are well and truly stuck up on this hill now unless we want to walk to town. John took the Blazer into work again and will pick up the groceries for Christmas dinner on his way home. The kids are loving every moment of this fabulous snowstorm. I can't remember when they've been in such a good mood. I've gotten tons of great pictures and I've enjoying having the kids home for an extra three days. John's enjoyed testing out his recently restored Blazer in this challenging weather!

Yesterday, we watched several Christmas and Disney movies, we put a puzzle together, and the kids played games throughout the day. John and Amanda even went Christmas shopping in this amazing snow!

As much fun as we've had for the past week, all I can think of is how I'm going to get ready for Christmas since I can't get off the hill. I guess the answer is that I'm not going to be able to do it on my own. I'm going to have to rely on other people (John, Mom, and Brenda) to bring things with them if / when they come. We may have to seriously reschedule Christmas if nobody can make it over.

Can I just say "Enough with the snow already"?

Last night brought yet another storm and, you guessed it, more snow!!! I think the kids sang "Let it snow!" a few too many times! We have another few inches of snow outside now. The road is completely covered and impassable now. This snow storm also brought high winds that created snow banks up to 4 ft high. It's going to take a while to get everything uncovered this time. The worst part is that the temperatures are not supposed to increase any time soon so it won't be melting off very quickly. I just hope it clears in time for Christmas so that our honored guests can make it over for the celebration...

Snow, snow, and more snow...

It snowed all night last night and all day today. We have a pretty good accumulation. School was cancelled so I sent the kids outside and they played in the snow for hours in the morning. After lunch we hiked down the hill to the green van (affectionately known as "Goofy"), cleaned it off, and headed into town. I bought a pair of snow boots for Nate (he was wearing a size 3 on his size 5 feet), a snowsuit and pair of gloves for each of the girls, and a few more Christmas presents for our friends and family. We also loaded up on groceries.

The forecast is calling for more snow starting Sunday and not really ending until Christmas Eve. It's also supposed to stay pretty cold so there won't be any big thaw coming any time soon. It really reminded me of Alaska! Tomorrow is another day out of school for the kids. So far this week they've started two hours late on Monday and Tuesday and been out of school for Wednesday, Thursday, and now Friday. They got a nice early start to their Christmas break!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We had over four inches of snow last night on top of one inch of ice leftover from Sunday night's snowfall. Nate, Nicole, and Amanda got to stay home again with me today. They are so ready for Christmas break that it's going to be difficult to get them motivated to finish the week out if the weather clears up. It continued to snow throughout the day with an additional few inches of accumulation. The kids really enjoyed playing outside in the softly falling snow. Unfortunately, I didn't get outside with them to take pictures. I'll make sure to get some tomorrow.

Who knew walking to the bus could be dangerous?

I woke up this morning and seriously thought that school would be cancelled. Any idiot could see that having a thick layer of ice on every stretch of concrete did not make transportation easy, right? No such luck. The school district made the decision to hold school two hours late, which normally makes sense, but not today. The ice has no hope of melting today because it has only gotten colder throughout the day and it's expected to get colder instead of warmer. I can't even get my van out of the driveway right now because there is too much ice. Even if I could, there's no way I could get it down the hill without having to use houses for brakes. Since the kids have perfect attendance so far you gotta do what you gotta do, so off we trudged down the hill to the bus. If you look closely you'll see Nate falling in the background (in the middle of the street!). We pretty much had to skate down the hill on a solid sheet of ice. Since cars were doing the same thing all around us, it was a scary experience!

When we got the bus stop, the kids played hockey with a nice sized snowball that Nicole created just for the occasion.


Of course, they spent more time laying on the ice than actually moving the snowball around, but I never said that my kids were awesome hockey players, did I?

Nate was his usual goofy self and spent more time laying on the ice than actually playing. He enjoyed trying to figure out how thick the ice was, how much it would take to break the ice, and how fast he could run before he fell down (not very fast right now!).

Amanda was content to just stand with me and wait for the bus, making sure to look cute for pictures. That's my princess!

They made it on the bus safe and sound and I'm assuming all the way to school since I haven't heard any different. I'm stuck at home trying to reclaim the house from the weekend of being stuck inside. I've got Christmas gifts to wrap, pictures to go through, a house to clean, several loads of laundry to finish, and toys to muddle through. I've definitely got enough to do to keep me busy for more than the week I'll be stuck here.

I'm not even going to think about having to trudge back down the hill in three hours to pick the girls up...

It's our turn for snow!

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland! We had a few inches of snow and lots of ice under the snow. The kids really enjoyed playing outside all day and building a snowman.

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy. I've been busy getting the last of the Christmas gifts taken care of, catching up with my friends, and getting the house ready for guests. John took last Friday off and spent the entire day with me. We had a great day!

We're ready for Christmas...

Grandpa brought our Christmas tree back from his house today so we could continue our tradition of decorating the tree on Thanksgiving weekend. We had a wonderful time pulling all of the lights out and putting them and the ornaments on the tree. We're not sure what happened to our handmade ornaments (we're missing a box), but the tree still looks wonderful. If you look closely (to the right of the tree on the floor), you can see the "Grandma Got Run Over by the Reindeer" singing stuffy. Grandpa got that for the kids a long time ago and has added more singing stuffies to their collection over the years. It can get really LOUD in this house during Christmas.
Now we've really gotten in the Christmas spirit. We're ready for all the joy and surprises the season brings. In fact, I think I'll go Christmas shopping today...

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a very busy week. Nicole and Amanda are feeling much better thankfully, but now Nate is under the weather. He's a tough kid so I don't think we really know how sick he is.

We had Mom, Geri, Brenda, Sassy and Teddy (the dogs), and Mocha and Peanut (the cats) over for dinner for Thanksgiving.

Nicole was in charge of the menu for the day (Nate has Christmas and Amanda has New Year's Day), so she got to help choose what we were having for Thanksgiving. John tried a new recipe for a turkey brine and it turned out so delicious! Here is a link to the recipe he used:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

We also had the classics: stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cranberry sauce, cranberry salad, deviled eggs, 24 hour salad, rolls, and apple and pumpkin pie. Whew! We didn't even make a dent in all that food...

After dinner, John, Brenda, and I watched a movie and ate popcorn. We had such a great day! I hope everyone enjoyed their special Thanksgiving day...

Thanksgiving at school...

Today John took the day off from work and we went to the kids' school to check out what they've been doing for the past few months. Nate gave a speech for a book report on Magyk. I'll post a picture of the boat that he created as a visual when I get it back from the teacher. Amanda had a party in her classroom with all of her friends. Nicole's class put on a play about the pilgrims and she had a solo speaking part in it!

After school, Grandma and Geri took the girls to see Bolt the movie in 3-D. They all had a wonderful day!

Popcorn sales - again...

We made the decision as a pack to buy extra popcorn to sell at a local grocery store. The only problem was that everyone was busy at this time of year. Nate volunteered to spend the whole day Saturday selling popcorn to help the pack out. Just to set the stage, it was FREEZING cold that day, the girls were throwing up all night so nobody slept well, and Nate had a HUGE homework assignment due on Monday. Still, someone had to sell that popcorn so the pack didn't end up losing money on popcorn sales, so off we trudged to the store.

Nate was such a good salesman, and a good sport. Whether the customers at the store ignored him, berated him, or praised him, he thanked them with dignity and told them that he hoped they had a wonderful day. He understood that some people couldn't afford and/or didn't choose to buy popcorn, and that we couldn't judge them just on whether or not they bought our popcorn. He served everyone with a smile and enjoyed every moment of it. What a great Cub Scout! The other boy in my picture is a younger brother of a Cub Scout in Nate's den (and his class) who was busily working on the previously mentioned HUGE homework assignment for Monday and couldn't help that day.


One final note: There was a Salvation Army collection person sitting right next to us that kept reminding people to support the Cub Scouts. He was a huge help to getting people to buy popcorn. They would stop in their tracks, turn right back around, and listen to Nate's pitch with a smile. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of him, but we owe him big time. We enjoyed chatting and working with him!

YUCK!!!

Last night I put the kids to bed like normal and started picking up the house before I went to bed. Just as I was getting ready to crawl into bed at 11pm, Amanda came running down the stairs and told me that she didn't feel well and there was something all over the floor. I think you can guess what was all over the floor and I could too. Especially after I caught the aroma drifting down the stairs. She had thrown up, all over her floor, bed, dresser, walls, and even the bedskirt. You name it, it was covered. I put her to bed with Daddy and worked on cleaning her room.

I finally crawled into bed at 1am and was sleeping soundly when Nicole came into the bedroom at 3am and told me that her forehead hurt. I gave her medicine and sent her back to her room after cuddling for a few minutes. She came tearing back into the room a few minutes later and told me that SHE had thrown up in her room. I was back at work again cleaning another room from top to bottom. By that time I was feeling sick and thought for sure I had gotten it. I think though that at that point it was just a combination of lack of sleep and wading through the cleanup that got me. So far I'm okay. I just know I'll be getting it soon though.

Nicole is much better now and just wants to be held. Amanda got a worse case of the bug and she is STILL throwing up as I write this. She says she feels better and has longer periods between getting sick, but she's still not well. She just wants someone to be with her but doesn't want to be touched. They are so different it surprises me! I just hope this bug goes away quickly:(

I didn't think you'd need to see pictures this time. You can easily imagine the mess...

The tooth fairy has been busy...

Two weeks ago, I thought Nate had really messed his mouth up. One of his canine teeth fell out and I panicked. I went on the Internet and found out that it is SUPPOSED to fall out between the ages of 10 and 12, which means he was right on schedule. This week it was AMANDA'S turn! She had both bottom canine teeth taken out yesterday. She was a real trooper! She came out of the dentist's chair asking for her ice cream, ate normally all day yesterday, and was just fine today. Here's what it looks like:

Kind of scary, but not painful at all. Now we get to work on straightening the rest of those bottom teeth.

Back from Grandpa's House...

We got back early today from Monitor and the kids immediately went to the playroom to catch up with their games and movies. We all had a wonderful time this weekend. I went shopping in Wenatchee with a friend, and looked at the beautiful fall colors, the kids picked all kinds of apples and pears, Amanda watched the horses frolic in the field, the guys fixed the van, Nicole worked on the driveway, Nathan trimmed a tree for Dad, and the dogs enjoyed roaming the yard all by themselves! I played Scrabble with the kids and we all read books together. It was such a relaxing weekend! We really needed it after a busy week of Brownies, Cub Scouts, Boy Scout meetings, and birthday parties.

Skating is fun!

I took the kids to a birthday party at the skating rink tonight. I can't believe how much they loved it! Nate was a natural and was amazing on his inline skates. Amanda tried her hardest and finally was able to go around 5 times without falling down (after many first attempts). Nicole never really got the hang of it, but she enjoyed spending time with all of her friends from the old school. They had pizza, cake, and got to play on the bouncy toys too. After we got home from skating, we immediately packed the van up and headed off to Grandpa's house in Monitor. We enjoyed seeing all the snow in the pass, watched a long movie, and arrived at Grandpa's house just in time to crawl into bed. We're looking forward to having a relaxing time and letting the dogs run free!

We have guests staying with us...

Linda and Geri left on vacation today and let us keep the dogs for the time they are gone. So far it's been interesting. Teddy follows me around constantly, making sure I'm not leaving him. Sassy is content just being with us and laying around, while Teddy insists that I sit down several times a day just to hold him. They love going for their morning and evening walks which is really forcing me to exercise. Teddy sleeps with Amanda and Sassy insists that Nicole's bed is perfect. They tolerate Nate and he tolerates them but they don't really interact all that much. We'll see how the rest of the week goes!

Halloween Fun...

We had three Halloween parties today at schoolthen went trick or treating. Nicole was a fairy (one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends)-Amanda was a pink flying unicorn-Nate was Davy Crockett-They all had a fabulous day and of course got lots of candy!

There won't be any weight loss going on in this house for a while!

We walked across Washington today...

Through a corn maze! We had to find 12 different locations in Washington while walking through paths marked with highway numbers in a corn maze. This was their version of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which we learned was nicknamed "Galloping Gertie" years ago just before it collapsed into the water. We went with the Brownies and each of us were in charge of four kids. Nate got to join us for this outing and he was thrilled! He was a little disappointed to find out that he was the only boy - even the siblings were all girls! He had a very difficult time letting the girls lead the way but he definitely tried to give up his control of the situation. They played games, went through the corn maze, and picked out pumpkins.

Ice Skating Fun...

It was another busy day today! Nate had a mystery dinner to go to for a friend's birthday party and I went to Skate America with Linda. I dropped Nate off at 5:30pm, and then headed off with Mom to watch the ice skating! It was a wonderful show and we really enjoyed it.

A Few of Our Favorite Activities...

Okay, so I know I already posted tonight. I was looking through my pictures tonight and discovered a few I hadn't had time to share. Nate loves playing the bass guitar and the teacher says he's really good at it already!: Amanda MUST wear this to bed every night to get a good night's sleep:

Did I say that she is my Princess? Both Nicole and Amanda are enjoying their Brownie meetings:

Nate had a wonderful birthday at Traxx Racing in Mukilteo: And he enjoyed the corn maze with this friends:

And in Cub Scouts, he picked apples and made applesauce, and baked cake inside of oranges:

And of course, sold almost $500 in popcorn! It's been a busy month! Now you see a little of what keeps us busy every day of the week. We have orchestra on Monday, Brownies on Tuesdays, Cub Scouts on Wednesdays and the occasional Sunday, and Thursdays are reserved for finishing homework and studying for Friday spelling tests! Now I'm off to bed to get rested for tomorrow's roller coaster:)

Favorite parts of me...

Today I worked with Amanda's class to illustrate a poem each child wrote about themselves and what "The Best Part of Me is...". We read through the poems together, then we talked about what they thought would be a good way to picture their favorite part. See if you can tell what Amanda's favorite part was:

The kids did such a wonderful job with their poems! I can't wait to see the book all put together and published. I'll finish up the pictures tomorrow so the teacher can start to compile everything.

And the verdict is...

Today was the kids first visit to the orthodontist. What an experience! The whole practice is geared towards kids with lots of yummy treats and wonderful activities for them to keep busy. They took lots of pictures and xrays of the kids' teeth and then the verdict came in: two of the three kids need work done already! Not surprisingly, Nicole doesn't need anything yet because she doesn't have her permanent teeth yet. She's still got all but two of her baby teeth and they don't look like they are going anywhere soon.

Amanda needs two baby teeth removed to make room for her permanent teeth, and then she'll need partial braces on both top and bottom front teeth. Nate needs an appliance installed that will be a precursor to braces. It's to help him remember to stop sucking his thumb, and pull the teeth back in to where they should be.

All in all, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, at least in the short term. I'm really glad that the visit is over and we can start working on making our kids teeth perfect!

Nate's first experience with popcorn sales...

Nate and I spent all weekend visiting our neighbors and calling friends to increase popcorn sales for our Cub Scout pack. It was an experience walking through our hilly neighborhood and climbing many many staircases. Nate was able to almost fill an entire sheet and he's so proud of himself! He made over $400 in sales in the last two days, including one Internet order from his cousin Stephenie! Thanks everyone for helping to make the popcorn sales a success for him! He's positively beaming tonight and should sleep very sound dreaming about popcorn!

What a great night!

We had a great time at the Celine Dion concert tonight in Tacoma. We had floor seats right next to where she walked through to get to the stage. I could have reached out and touched her if I wasn't so starstruck that I felt like I was frozen in place! She is incredibly tiny, both in stature and in body structure. She was wearing stilleto heels and you still couldn't see her over most of the people that were there. Her voice is so powerful that it's difficult to believe that it comes from such a tiny person. We were also about 10 feet away from the stage, so when she came over to our side it was like she was singing straight to us. Her opener (Gordie Brown) was awesome too! He made parodies out of various songs and was so funny!

This was definitely the best concert I've ever seen! We had a wonderful time...

Crazy, crazy week!

This week has just flown by! The kids have had a Cub Scout den meeting, orchestra, Brownies, a Cub Scout pack meeting, Art class, half a day out of school on Wednesday, and many other activities all week. I've been preparing for our fun night at the Celine Dion concert on Saturday. Dad and Mary are coming over to take care of the kids along with Taylor, Mary's granddaughter who also happens to be a friend of our kids. They are all so excited! I've had to get the house clean for company and run all the miscellaneous errands that come with the job of "Domestic Engineer" as Jeremy puts it:)

School Pictures, Finally!

We finally got our school pictures back. Although I still think I take better pictures of my own kids, these are okay. Just wanted to share them with everyone else...

The girls are gone this weekend on a surprise trip to the beach! They are having a wonderful time. Nate and I went to a book signing (the person who wrote "Because of Winn Dixie") yesterday with some of his friends from school,

and then had a playdate with two of his friends yesterday afternoon. We took him out to dinner with us and did a little shopping this evening, and tomorrow he has a Cub Scout meeting. It's an exciting weekend for him too! We love just being able to spend quality time with one of the kids and I think they enjoy it too!

A fun and busy weekend...

Where do I begin??? John and I packed up all three kids and sent them in various directions. Nate went to Grandma and Geri's house and the girls spent the night with a friend. I delivered all of the suitcases on Thursday night. After I drove them to school on Friday, John and I left for Bellingham for our romantic weekend at a really nice hotel on the water. We took the scenic route to Bellingham and went to John's Grandma's old house in Bow. Then we went for a mini-hike down to the beach and took a few pictures. We really enjoyed our little vacation away from the kids!

We came back on Saturday afternoon and picked all three kids up. On Sunday, we had Nate's birthday party at Traxx Racing. He and six of his closest friends drove go-karts around the track for two hours. They all had a blast! While Nate was enjoying his party, Grandma and Geri were treating the girls to a movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua". They really enjoyed it!

Last day of the Aspergers Conference...

Today was another informative day at the conference about Aspergers Syndrome and other Autism Spectrum Disorder problems. It was a little discouraging today because I learned more about the difficulties that Nate will face as he moves into middle school and high school. He is really ahead in his reading abilities, math skills, and science and other subjects. What he is lacking is complex language skills and his ability to make inferences on what is really going on in a book and in social situations. He also has issues with writing, but they made it clear that he isn't lacking in writing skills, but in his thinking about writing skills. They gave me all sorts of tools to use to help him become a more versatile writer and improve his social thinking skills. Now I just have to make the time to put those tools in place and start using them.

When I was pregnant with the triplets, I was terrified that I would have three special needs children and wouldn't be able to handle it. What has really hit me today is that the child that has special needs in our family wasn't even part of the triplet pregnancy. It makes me really understand how blessed we are that the girls are completely healthy and developing at a normal pace. All three of our children bring their own special qualities to our family, and I feel so lucky to be their mom!

My day with adults...

I attended a seminar about Social Thinking today. I was pleasantly surprised to find 13 members of the Mukilteo Elementary staff there, including Nate's teacher and principal! I think it's awesome that they are so interested in helping their kids become even more successful in school. I also met a dad there that I know from a mutual friend. We had a great time getting to know each other a little better and talking about our kids. We found out that we both lived in Alaska at the same time. How weird is that? Mom really saved me this morning because she put the kids on the bus for me. That's not an easy task! I really appreciate the help!

Nate and the rest of his Cub Scout den went to Cranium tonight for a playtest session. Have I ever talked about Cranium? We have been members of the Cranium playtest group for a couple of years now. The kids get to go down to Seattle, sit in a little room, and play new Cranium games for an hour and a half. All they have to do is discuss what they liked and didn't like about the new game and they get to pick a game out to take home. It's great for them because they are treated like their opinions are really valued. They have to sign a contract and everything with a promise not to talk about the game with their friends at school. John had to take them because I was at the conference. This is the first time I wasn't the one to take them so it will be interesting to see how John and the kids liked it.

Tomorrow is another conference day and then John and I are leaving for our romantic weekend. I've got lots to do to get ready for that so I'd better get to it!

Just Mom and Nate...

Nate and I had a wonderful day together today. We ate lunch at Subway (Nate's favorite restaurant), went shopping at the outlet mall for John's birthday presents, looked at amplifiers for Nate's bass guitar, found some books for Nate and the girls, bought scrapbooking supplies for Nate's weekend school project (an "All About Me" scrapbooking page), and went grocery shopping for our favorite dinner of salmon and rice.

The girls spent the day with Grandma and Geri decorating the house for birthdays and Halloween. We'll be going over for a birthday party for Nate and John tomorrow so they're getting everything ready.

I love it when I get to spend a day alone with just one of the kids. It really helps us talk and get to know each other better. It was a busy but very wonderful day!

Busy, busy, busy...

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Since my last post Amanda got her new glasses, we've had a Cub Scout campout (no pics because Daddy was on duty!), our first Brownie meeting, our first Brownie campout (a drive-in campout, more on that later) with two of the girls very best friends (AnnaMarie on the left, Paige next to Nicole) and 12 other Brownies, a field trip with Nate's class, shopping for accessories for Nate's bass guitar, attending a Cub Scout meeting with the Bubbleman, a playdate with a friend, and many more wild and crazy adventures!

Sophie continues to run fine, although I've been driving Goofy for the past few days because I've been doing dirty stuff -camping, field trips to the corn maze, and recycling cans for Cub Scouts.

This weekend we are having the famous family birthday party for Nate and John and going to a Cub Scout meeting. Next weekend John and I are going on a romantic getaway in Bellingham and Nate is having a friend birthday party at a car racing place in Mukilteo.

After that we might be able to rest easy for a few weekends. We can hope anyway:) I'll post pics later. I've got to go calm down three screaming children. The joys of motherhood continue to amaze me!

Sophie is fine...for now at least...

Well, Sophie's doctor said that she just needed a hit to the reset button. They rebooted her computer and she should be all fixed now. I guess only time will tell...

On a brighter note, Mom came home today. Geri and I were really excited to see her and so were the dogs! She's resting up and getting over a cold and jetlag now and glad to be in her own bed. She had an amazing time at her nephew's wedding in Ohio and told us all kinds of stories about her time there. The kids are really looking forward to seeing her!

A busy day...

Today I took Amanda and Nicole to the eye doctor. That doctor we saw is a specialist that checks every nook and cranny of the eye and makes the girls play lots of fun games to check out how their eyes work together and separate. They tested Amanda first, and found that her eyes don't work together very well at all. She has something called inefficient binocularity (eye teaming), inefficient tracking (the ability to follow a moving object smoothly and accurately with both eyes), and inefficient focusing range and flexibility (the ability to focus from near to far and to do it quickly and accurately). She will need special glasses for reading and desk work to get started on her therapy, and then continuing vision therapy for a few months at least. She's super excited about getting glasses! She's hounding me every day to go get it done but I'm waiting for the weekend.

Nicole on the other hand didn't really have much trouble at all. She got perfect scores on all but depth perception. That is pretty normal for kids her age though, according to the doctor. All in all, it was definitely worth the visit to the eye doctor.

On the way home, Sophie started lighting up indicators like it was Christmas. I panicked and stopped at a red light, turned off the ignition, and started it back up and everything appeared to be fine. Until the next hill, then all the indicators lit up and did not turn back off again this time. I scheduled a visit to her doctor (the dealership) for tomorrow. We'll see what they say I guess. She only has 400 miles on her. She can't get sick yet!

Ho Hum...

This week is just more of the same as last week. I've been doing lots of errands and helping John get ready for Cub Scout camp this weekend. I've got lots of meetings to go to at the school, and doctors appointments for the girls. Lots of stuff to do, but nothing to really show for it.

The one exciting thing I'm going to do this week is pick my MIL up from the airport with Geri. We're going out to lunch together and have some girl time together. John will pick the kids up from school and take care of them. It's wonderful to have such a great husband and father for my kids!

Sophie is still a wonderful addition to our family. While I'm doing my ho-hum errands I can marvel at how great it is to have a new car. Well, I'm off to the races now. I have to get kids ready for their day at school!

Open House Day at Daddy's Work

Today was the annual Safety Day at John's work. They bring in a rock wall, a bunch of bouncy houses, the Reptile Man, the Fire Department, the Police Department, Costco, and many other businesses in the area to throw a huge party for Kimberly-Clark employees and their families. They give away free product, conduct tours through the mill, and feed everyone a wonderful meal. They also had an antique car show and John got to bring Speedy (the Blazer) to show him off. The kids look forward to this day all year long and it was sunny and gorgeous outside!

I'll post pics later of our day. Right now I'm going to rest and catch up with my family. This is the first weekend we've had to relax since July:)

Back to school blues...

The kids started school yesterday. I put them on the bus, then raced them back to the school. I couldn't actually get into the parking lot though because of all those other crazy moms following their kids:) I parked two blocks away and sprinted over to the school just in time for the last bell to ring. I hugged and kissed both girls (Nicole was embarassed, but Amanda loved it!), then went over to see Nate and he wouldn't even look at me! He's growing up so fast!

They all LOVE their teachers and the school did a really good job of placing them in the best classes for them. Nate has a really nice 4th grade Summit teacher who really wants to help him be the best student he can possibly be. I had requested a different 4th grade teacher who now teaches a 4th/5th split. I'm glad he's not in that class. There are only 4 kids from the old class in that one and he would have felt very isolated.

Amanda has all of her old friends and even some of Nicole's in class with her. She has a really nice soft hearted teacher who will really give her the attention she craves. Nicole has the neighbor girl, her little bus friend, and several kids she's always wanted to get to know better. She has the two teacher team and they really push the kids hard. She's excited about her class and is open to the teachers' challenge.

You might ask what Mommy is doing? I'm enjoying driving Sophie all over town getting errands done that should have been done months ago! I even unpacked from the camping trip. I've worked my way down the piles in the house to the California mess and I'm working on that now. I went to breakfast with Geri yesterday, ate breakfast at the doughnut shop this morning (just this once I promise!), and I'm going to go to lunch with a friend next week. I'm really loving the complete and utter silence in the van. No kids, no radio, no TV, just me and Sophie. After months of constant mayhem, PEACE...

Meet the newest member of our family...

Sophie! The kids actually call her "Silver Sophie".

She is a brand new 2008 Honda Odyssey with dual power slider doors, 6 disc cd changer, triple zone electronic climate control, 8 passenger seating, stow and go seating, and lots of extras. We got the Silver Pearl color with stone interior. It's such a great van! We kept the old van for John to use and we've sold the Ford Crown Victoria. It's been a busy week!

I've been busy this week shopping for a new van, school supplies, school clothes, and getting unpacked from our wonderful trip. We leave tomorrow for a camping trip with Grandpa and my next task is to pack for it (and no, Sophie is NOT invited, she'll get too dirty!).

I've really enjoyed having the kids at home for the summer, but I'm looking forward to having a little break next week when they are back in school. I've still got lots to get done while they're there but I'll at least get lots of quiet time!

Ahhh, how great it is...

to sleep in our own beds! We're back home again after driving for 22 hours straight. The kids slept through the night while John and I took turns driving. We must have stopped 10 times before 8pm last night, and then only twice through the long night. The kids are ready to have fun and we're dog tired. If John and I can make it through a few more hours we can put them to bed and crash.

We had a great vacation, but it's wonderful to be home!

Another Two Theme Park Day...

We started out at Disneyland again today. We went on the Nemo ride, since the only time you can get on it is first thing in the morning. The kids loved it! We were at California Adventure when it opened too. This time we wanted to ride Toy Story Mania. The lines are over 2 hours long during the day. We were among the first in line and thought the ride was really worth a long wait! We rode California Screamin a couple of times, the Orange Stinger, the Jumping Jellyfish, and a few other rides we had skipped over on previous visits. We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant and headed back to Disney for the parade, the Fantasmic Celebration, and fireworks. We didn't get back to the hotel until after 10pm and the kids were already asleep. Our vacation ended in a blast of fireworks! What a great ending...

We're on the road tomorrow and won't be able to access the Internet until Sunday night. Wish us luck!

Another Wonderful Day...

Today we got the kids up and traveled to Universal Studios. It's an hour long drive from Anaheim in extremely heavy traffic, but we still made it right after they opened. We rode the Revenge of the Mummy ride, Jurassic Park, the Simpsons ride, Backdraft the Movie, Special Effects Tour, Universal Studios Tour, and watched the Animal Actors show. This picture was taken at the Backdraft exhibit and it shows the kids' reaction to a room that was ablaze. It looks kind of like hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil (Nicole was just removing her hands from over her eyes). This is pretty much how the kids looked after each of the rides too:) We're such mean parents to make them ride the scary rides!!We also let the kids play at the Curious George waterpark within Universal Studios. Nate was excited to learn so much about how his favorite shows are filmed and about special effects. The girls got to see Dora, Diego, Curious George, and Shrek and give them hugs so they were really excited. They all picked out pins (even Amanda settled on a pin!) and brought them home to add to their collection. We had yet another great day! Tomorrow it's back to Disneyland and California Adventure and then we leave for home on Saturday morning.