The Tew Family

Happy New Year!!

2012-02-03T15:05:00.000-06:00

The weather this winter in Texas has been absolutely wonderful! There have only been a couple days when the temp was in the 40's, but most days it has been in the 50's, 60's and even 70's. This is the exact reason we decided to move here!

After Christmas Mathew and Krista came to visit. The boys love when they come because then they have cool new playmates.
Mathew makes a great ride

It was so nice that Chris, Mathew and Britton even went fishing. Fishing has become one of Britton's favorite past times.....well for the first 10 minutes until he gets bored.

Mathew and Krista took the Green Machine out for a spin. It's hilarious that they can still ride it!

For New Years Eve we went over to our neighbors and had a great dinner. After dinner we took the kids out and let them do a couple little fireworks. This was the first time that the triplets had ever seen these types of fireworks and Chris and I decided that we would let them do a couple sparklers. Once they saw how cool those were they were hooked!!

Those boys got to stay up until 9 that night and Chris and I went to bed before midnight. Sometimes it sucks being old!

The next day we played outside and took a few New Years pictures

And that concluded our crazy, fun filled 2011. I'm just waiting to see what 2012 has in store for us!

Big Boy beds!!

2012-02-03T14:41:00.000-06:00

So after Christmas we decided to put the boys in big beds. Well really they decided since all three of them destroyed their crib tents and they kept climbing out of their cribs anyways.

One morning I walked in their room to see this after they got out of their cribs

So I had Chris take down the cribs. I also moved the small dresser into the closet and took the knobs off the big dresser. We put their crib mattresses on the floor to start. The first day when they went down for nap they threw a huge party. When I went in there to get them back in their beds this is what I found...

That night they went right to sleep since they partied through nap time. They are so sweet and peaceful when they are sleeping.

We had already planned to get them twin mattresses and we already had an extra, so we went and bought 2 more. Then we moved Everett into Britton's room since they have the same sleeping pattern. We got them new bedding from the gift cards and money they received for Christmas and moved everything around. We did this one day when they were at preschool and when they got home they were surprised with new beds. We left the triplets mattresses on the floor for now, since they fall out of their beds multiples times still. Once they stop doing that we will get the frames out and put them up.

Emmett and Emerson's new beds

Everett and Britton's new beds.

I also went and got thermal curtains for both rooms which makes it really dark even during the day. To my HUGE surprise they don't have much problem laying down and going to sleep. I was so scared that when they got big beds they would have a party every day. But most days they go right to sleep and I am so thankful for that.

Seaworld December 2011

2012-02-03T11:35:00.000-06:00

We took the boys to Seaworld a week before Christmas. We had season passes and were able to stay on base so this was a great inexpensive trip. They really enjoyed everything, but the favorite was all the Sesame Street stuff that they had.

When we first got there they were able to get their picture with Shamu Claus. Not one of the boys were shy and they all ran right up.

Then we went straight to the Sesame Street show so that we didn't miss it. This is the first time that the little boys went to a show like this and they were completely in awe. As soon as all the characters came out on stage all three of them could barely contain their excitement!

There was not very many people so we let all four kids go stand in front of the stage. Britton, Everett and Emmett didn't even look back and spent the entire time up there. Emerson on the other hand was a little more cautious and would run up there real quick and then run back to me. He did that the entire rest of the show!

We then took Dad and Britton over to the Atlantis ride. Britton rode it last year and was scared, but he wanted to ride it again (I think he forgot that he was scared last time)

He had the exact same look of terror on his face coming down as he had last year.....priceless! I wonder if he'll ride it next time?

We then took the boys to a ride that they could all ride. The only one that enjoyed it was Britton. The other three cried the entire time!

We went and saw the Shamu show. It was nice that for Christmas they had a different show.

We took them to feed the dolphins. Britton did great holding the fish and even got to touch them. The other three just threw the fish at the dolphins, but they loved it!

And the best part of all....all the Sesame Street characters
The first person they got to meet was Rosita. She really broke them in!

And then Grover

They screamed "Cookie" when they saw him!

When they saw Telly they ran up to him and gave him a big hug

And then we found Big Bird. When they turned for a picture with Big Bird they spotted The Count at the top of the play stucture and ran up there.

Big hugs for The Count

We were lucky enough to be able to get our picture with everyone. Britton didn't want to, and I was dissappointed in that.

They played on the giant climbing nets forever

And then we let Britton ride some more rides.

We spent 8 hours at Seaworld the first day and they did great using the potty and they didn't even take a nap! The next day we went back for 5 more hours! I wish it was a little closer, but so happy that it's not to far!

Chirstmas Photos

2012-02-03T11:06:00.000-06:00

Since our first photo shoot didn't go too well I asked my good friend Heather Cox if she would mind taking pictures of the kids. This worked out great since my kids have been around Heather a lot and are used to her taking pictures of them. They also listen to her and do what she says ;) Even Mycayla was very willing to let Heather take pictures of her.

These are the best pictures that we have gotten of the kids and there are so many good ones!! Thanks Heather for doing this and making my life so much less stressful!

Christmas Morning

2012-02-03T10:42:00.000-06:00

On Christmas morning I was surprised the Britton slept in until almost 7. I was sure that he was going to be up at the crack of dawn.

The boys checking out what Santa brought them

Eating their special Christmas doughnuts.

After they ate we proceeded to open presents. This took forever and we weren't done until lunch time. Once someone opened a present they wanted to open up the toy that was inside. It took a lot of convicing to get them to open up another one. I hope that it will be like that next year because I've decided that they are only going to get 2 presents a piece!

Britton got a couple transformer helmets that were a huge hit! This is Britton in one

And Everett likes to wear them too. Emmett and Emerson don't really care for them that much

Britton specifically asked Santa for a scooter this year, because he broke his other one doing tricks. Yes, that's right, my then 4 year old is already learning how to do tricks on the scooter!!

He asked to go out and ride his scooter first thing

It was a really fun Christmas this year and I can't wait to see what next year brings us!

Christmas time

2012-02-03T09:58:00.000-06:00

This Christmas the boys got to enjoy a few Christmas parties and a bunch of fun. My Mothers of Multiples group had a Christmas party for the kids and they got to jump in bounce houses, get some tattoos and watch a puppett show.

This was the first puppett show that the little boys had seen.

They were not sure about those weird puppetts and sat on top of me the entire time! Usually they are pretty outgoing, but there was something about those puppetts.

After the show we had lunch with our friends the Cox Quads. It's so amazing how big all of them are getting and how they can now sit in big chairs and eat their lunch. It wasn't that long ago that they HAD to be in highchairs or strapped into their wagon.

I was on my own for this event since Dad works on the weekends and didn't get very many pictures. It was very time consuming making sure that the four of them didn't get too far!

Our neighborhood had a small little Christmas party and Britton got his face painted like the grinch. He really enjoyed running around trying to scare people.

The little boys got "sparkles" on their hands for their face painting and reindeer balloons. Not surprisingly the balloons didn't last very long and I didn't get a picture of them.
Getting their "sparkles"

Riding the little train

Emmett was the only one of the triplets brave enough to go sit on Santa's lap all by himself. I was so proud of him and he was so proud of himself!

We took the kids to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. We went during the week, the beginning of December and early in the day. All that worked out well because there was nobody else there and Santa was great! The boys didn't want to have anything to do with Santa at first, but since no one was there we were able to hang around Santa and warm up. Santa was also great and extremely patient and he even got out of his chair and sat on the ground! It didn't take too long and the boys got brave enough to stand by him and take a picture. They weren't going to sit on his lap, or even smile, but they stood there and didn't scream so I'll take it!

And Britton of course just ran up to Santa, jumped on his lap and told him exactly what he wanted for Christmas. This boy has never been scared of Santa and has always just gone right up!

I was even able to talk Mycayla into getting her picture taken with Santa!! I'm glad that they have free pictures ;)

I thought it would be fun to have all four boys help put up the tree this year. They started out having fun and actually helping......

...but then it turned into a huge wrestling match and I had to boot the little ones out.

So Britton was the only one that got to finish helping, and he even got to put the top on!

This year we took the kids to Santa's Village in Richardson. It's a cute set up of the North Pole with a bunch of little houses you can visit all decorated differently with something fun to do for the kids. Most of the houses were great for Britton, but the little boys were still too small. They did have fun getting to walk through some and do a few simple crafts. They also got to go on a reindeer ride, meet Mrs. Claus, and get a picture with Frosty the Snowman.

Hanging out in front of one of the houses

Britton insisted on getting his picture taken by the poinsetta Christmas tree

All four boys attend preschool now, Britton goes Tuesday and Thursday and the triplets just go on Thursdays. For Christmas the preschool put on a little program and it was too cute! Each class sang a song by themselves and then all the classes sang a few together. This picture was taken during one of the all together songs. The triplets stood up there looking around trying to figure out what the heck was going on, but they stayed up on and stage and didn't freak out and cry

Britton helped me make cookies for Santa. He had a blast decorating them with all sorts of sprinkles.

We saved the best ones for Santa!

On Christmas Eve we took the boys out so they could sprinkle their reindeer food in the grass. They loved throwing it all over and feeding it to the light up reindeer

Everett feeding one of the reindeer

After sprinkling our food we went inside, tracked Santa and found that he was almost to our house! The boys quickly got ready for bed and went to sleep.

Soccer

2012-02-03T08:56:00.000-06:00

We signed Britton up to play soccer this fall. He had so much fun playing. This was his first time so it took him a little while to figure out the game and how to play. Once he figured it out there was no stopping him. He even scored a few goals (after Mom had put the camera away)

We signed him up for Spring and the other boys will play in the fall. It will be so fun and hectic to take them to all their practices and games.

Bowling

2012-02-03T08:51:00.000-06:00

One chilly day we wanted to do something fun with the boys so we decided to take them bowling. It was the first time for Everett, Emmett and Emerson and Britton had only bowled a few times before.

We took them to Shenigan's in Rockwall and they even had bowling shoes in the little boys size! They were so cute walking around in those little shoes. This is a picture of the shoes in Britton and the boys' size.

The boys sitting waiting for their turn while Daddy bowled. It was not easy for them to have to wait for their turn and it was really hard for me to keep them all in one place. Next time we'll get two lanes, so there is less waiting.

Of course Britton did great and had so much fun. He didn't want to use the ramp that the little boys used and threw the ball.

Everett

Emmett

Emerson

They would roll the ball down the ramp and stay there jumping up and down until the ball reached the end and knocked down the pins. They LOVED it and were so excited.

This is definitely something that we will do again with the boys since they really enjoyed it. Even though it is A LOT of work for Mom and Dad :)

Photo shoot gone wrong

2012-02-03T08:33:00.000-06:00

In November we booked a photo shoot through my mother's of multiples group. It was a fundraiser they were doing and it was a great opportunity for us to get pictures.

Unfortunately a few days before the photo shoot my kids came down with a stomach bug and didn't feel good. Since it was a fundraiser we were unable to reschedule the photo shoot and took the kids anyways. Thankfully they were not throwing up, but we did have some yucky bowels.

We got there a little early and let the boys run around for a little bit. We were scheduled for a 20 mintue block of time which is almost impossible for a photo shoot with 4 boys. Luckily there was no one after us so we got a little extra time ;)

This would have been a great picture if everyone cooperated!

Britton would only sit still and take a picture if he could pose how he wanted

We tried to get the boys to stand by the wall and hold hands. As you can see Britton is no where, and the three boys were not having it

We also tried a bench. Again Britton is not around and these three would NOT sit still

Emerson found a branch and would not let go of it

This was the best picture and only picture of all four boys looking at the camera. And we managed to get the branch under water. I think that may be the last time we schedule a photo shoot with someone we don't know!

Halloween

2012-01-17T15:00:00.000-06:00

This Halloween the kids had a lot of fun! It was super warm so we did all sorts of fun outdoor activities which included a couple of pumpkin patches and the Dallas Arboretum.

Here is a few pictures of the boys playing at the park. As you can see they all can now swing on the big swings!

The trip to the Arboretum was a lot of fun and I was able to get some good pictures of the boys.

It was foggy that morning so this picture of Emerson was really neat. I was hoping the fog would stick around for a while so I could get more pictures, but it burned off fast.

Everett throwing hay

Playing on the pumpkins is a whole lot of fun. Emmett is showing us how it's done

We then got dressed in our costumes so that mom could take some pictures.
Britton was a very handsome fireman

Emerson was an Elephant (That day. They switched costumes everytime they put them on)

Emmett a zebra

And Everett was a giraffe. He of course was too busy playing with the zipper

This was the best I could do at a group picture. Britton wouldn't sit with them and was running around

A few pictures from one of the pumpkin patches.

If you look close you can see the sign says "For Sale". They would not cooperate so that I could get the "perfect picture"!

Checking out the "horse" with our friends, the Flintstones and the Rubbles, otherwise known as the Cox Quads

Here all four boys got in a wrestling match. Can you find all four in the picture?

Everyone got to carve pumpkins. Here is Daddy cutting all the tops off

Britton has always loved carving pumpkins

Everyone degutting pumpkins

Everett

Emmett

Emerson

Their kids finished pumpkins

All lit up

Britton's pumpkin

Mycayla's pumpkin

Britton's costume couldn't get better than the real thing. I could barely take pictures it was so reflective

Heading out trick or treating. We took the wagon for between houses, but we let all four kids walk up to the doors to go trick or treating

Emerson

Emmett

Everett

The boys trick or treating

Here was the first house we went to. The boys were really excited

Mycayla hung out with her friends and went trick or treating with them

Halloween was really fun this year and the boys got a ton of candy. I can't wait until next year. I'm sure they will be running around the neighborhood. I better start jogging now so that I can keep up with them!

Omaha trip

2011-11-11T14:49:00.000-06:00

The beginning of October we took a trip to Omaha to see our Grandson Brady. We haven't seen him since he was out of the hospital and this was the first time that we got to hold him! We went at the beginning of October so we could get there at the beginning of RSV season and before it got cold. Unfortunatly, the little boys had runny noses so we didn't let them around Brady.

Even Britton got to hold him!

Brady and his mom Kaitlin

We met up with Katie. Britton loves his biggest sister!

Since we went to Omaha in the beginning of October we were able to go to Vala's pumpkin patch. This is not your ordinary pumpkin patch, this is a huge place with so many fun things to do.

Hanging with Mickey!

Any takers.....?

One day they will all be in school and I may be able to regain some sanity. I can always hope, right?

Running through the graveyard to see the scary "guy"!

Of course we had to see the goats

Oh no, Britton turned into a ghost!

Rocking with Daddy

Hanging out with Aunt 'Dre

The boys on the pirate ship

Britton joined the pirates

Jumping in the hay

Waiting to see the pumpkin eating dragon. They really liked the show and talked about it the whole time!

The pumpkin eating dragon

Waiting for the train.

The jumping "pillows". The boys had fun on these but were a little nervous. Dad had to help them up and jump with them.

They had fun with this picture

One of the boys' favorite things was riding the bike with Daddy. The little boys thought they were so big and Britton had a blast going really fast with Dad.

After our day at Vala's we spent the next day at the Omaha Zoo. I was realy excited to take the boys, since it is one of the best zoos in the country. I was VERY upset that the aquarium wasn't open, since I knew that would have been their favorite part.

We met up with my Omaha triplet moms friends at the zoo. Carissa, who has 3 year old triplets and Laura who triplets are 18 days older than mine. Amanda drove up from Lincoln with her almost 3 year old boys. Katie, Mathew and Krista also met us at the zoo, so it was a great day with family and friends.

In the rainforest checking out all the monkeys, birds and fish

Katie and Emerson

Krista and Everett

Lunch! It only took 3 tables to hold 3 moms of triplets.

Riding the carousel

Checking out the sleeping gorilla

The kingdoms of the night was very fun for the boys. They enjoyed running around in the dark and checking out all the animals. Here they are looking at the turtles

The boys thought that it was great fun to put the hay that the goats were eating on top of them. Of course they had to be bad influences and show the Harper boys their bad ways ;)

Hopefully we will be able to make another trip to Omaha in the next few months. Brady is getting so big and Chris and I hope to be able to visit him as much as possible.

Colorado trip

2011-11-11T13:38:00.000-06:00

Over Labor day we made the very long trip to Colorado for my sister's wedding. When searching for hotels for us to stay at, I found a nice condo in Winterpark that was much cheaper than a hotel. The best part was that it was a three bedroom, 3 bathroom townhome with a full kitchen. This made traveling so much easier since everyone could have their own room and we could eat there. It even had an indoor hot tub!!
The only bad thing about staying in the mountains was that it a an hour and a half drive down the mountain, which included a 45 minute drive through Berthoud pass which is full of switch backs and a very scary drive at night!! Here is a some pictures of the mountains.

A view of the road from the top of the mountain.

A few pictures of the townhome.

The living room

The kitchen

Dining area. This table was perfect for all the kids to eat around!

The peapods that the boys slept in. These are one of the best inventions ever! They are basically a little personal tent that folds down to nothing.

The view

The boys sitting on the "porch". It was indoor but had a nice view of the mountains

The first couple of days we were there we did wedding stuff. The boys had a blast at the rehearsal dinner and the reception!

The boys checking out the fish at the wedding location

Marshal and Britton

Jade with the boys

Wedding day!

Kimberly and Bryan

Mycayla was a beautiful bridesmaid

The next day we went to an amusement park in the foothills called Heritage Square. They have a lot of mountain stuff and most importantly they have fun kids rides!

Nana and Emerson

Papa and Britton

Dad with Everett and Emmett

Everett and I

Dad and Emmett

Nana and Britton

Papa and Emerson

Nana and Mycayla on the bumper boats

Britton and Dad at the top of the Alpine slide

Getting ready to go down the slide

The little boys got to ride the ponies. They LOVED that.

Britton

We spent one whole day in Winterpark. It was fun to hang out in the mountains.
The train playground

Looking at the fountain

One of the boys' favorite thing to do was ride the Cabriolet. It was a free ride between the parking lots. Here is picture of the kids riding

The creek

The Coca Cola Bear

This guy was really cool. He was a living statue and would only move if you gave him money. Britton really enjoyed this and this guy got a lot of money from us ;)

They thought this boy was fun!

The little boys were a little freaked out by this tall girl. She had on stilt type things, but they had rubber bottoms so she could jump really high. She was really sweet and they warmed up to her a little.

After our fun morning we stopped for lunch and ate outside in the clean mountain air.

After our fun days we had to make the long drive home. 2 days in a car with 5 children is just a bit stressful!

Andrea, Mathew and Krista

2011-11-01T16:16:00.000-05:00

Andrea, Mathew and Krista all came to visit us this summer. It was so nice to have so many visitors and the kids all loved it. Here are some pictures from our fun times.

Mathew reading a story to the little boys

Mathew

Krista

We had a lot of fun and can't wait until everyone can come back to visit!!

Boating

2011-11-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

This year was much easier taking the boys boating. They understood what we were doing and they had so much fun.

When Mathew and Krista came to visit we took them boating with us. We also took Andrea, but I knew she wouldn't want me posting pictures of her in a swimsuit on the blog ;)

Britton and Mathew

Krista and Emerson

Mathew and Emmett

Krista and Everett

Mathew and Krista

Britton being a rebel

Emerson and Daddy

Mycayla and Krista

After tubing we drove to a nice calm place and went swimming

Splash park playdate

2011-11-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

Since most of the summer was centered around water, we met up with some friends and had a playdate at the splash park.

Playing in the water

The boys trying to figure out where the water went

We took a break from playing to have a picnic lunch

Look at all the choo choo's

After lunch the boys found a mud puddle and spent the rest of the time playing in it.

Britton had so much fun runnning around

He did stop for one quick picture

Summer fun

2011-11-01T15:20:00.001-05:00

We had a lot of fun this summer. Most of our days were spent at the swimming pool since most days were 100 degrees. Here's some pictures of our pool time.

Britton learned how to swim without flotations this year so that was a really big deal. He still needs a little help, even though he doesn't think so...

One of my favorite pictures from naked pool time

We also introduced the little boys to crab this summer. They LOVED it!

Happy 2nd Birthday

2011-11-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

The boys celebrated their 2nd birthday at the Children's Aquarium.

They had their names on the sign

We had cake and cupcakes

We got to touch all the animals in the touch tank with our friends

Checking out the sharks

Then we all sat and listened as they told us about the animals

After that we got to feed the stingrays. This was a huge hit with all the kids!

Then we had cake

"It's my party I can cry if I want to"

Thanks for coming to our party and making it a great day!

Block Party

2011-08-07T18:39:00.000-05:00

We had a block party this June and it was a blast. It was so nice to spend the day outside hanging with the neighbors. We had a bunch of food, a water slide, bounce house and plenty of alcohol!

The firemen and policeman showed up to show of their vehicles

Florida trip

2011-08-07T17:50:00.000-05:00

This as soon as school got out we decided to visit Florida. We have friends who live in Niceville and Chris has family in Pensacola. The drive there wasn't too bad since we broke it into 2 days. Our first stop was Niceville to stay the night with Tim and Deb. They have a house on the bay and it was wonderful! That morning I was even able to see dolphins swimming out in the bay. I want to live somewhere like that someday.

We went to Destin and hung out on the beach. The boys made some friends next to us and proceeded to take their chairs! They hung out for a while and our new friends didn't mind at all

Britton, Mycayla and I swimming in the ocean.

The waves were big that day so the little boys stayed away from the water. They spent most of the time playing in the sand.

The next day we drove to Pensacola and the spent the first half of the day at the beach

Emerson's footprints in the sand

We had lunch at the beach. I'm glad that they had outdoor picnic tables since we were wet, sandy and sweaty. The boys really liked getting to be big boys for a meal.

After the beach we went and had dinner at Kim's house and met Aunt Becki and Kim and her family. It was really wonderful to meet them and hope to be able to visit with them again. It didn't take long for the boys to warm up to them, but they did have the secret weapon....FOOD!

The next day we went to the Naval Aviation Musuem. All the boys (including Chris) were in awe! They loved all the planes!

After the museum the boys posed for some photos

After the musuem we visited the lighthouse. It was almost closed and we were pretty tired, so we didn't go to the top and just ran around the bottom. I got the boys to sit still for two seconds so that I could take a couple pictures

And then that night we had dinner on the beach. Complete with playground and sand volleyball

On our last day we just went to the beach on base. It is on the bay so there were very little waves and the boys were much happier with that. We were also able to find a lot more sea creatures and spent our entire swim with a big school of fish. They loved seeing all the fish swimming around them.

We were very sad that we couldn't stay longer and hopefully we can go visit soon!

Dinosaur Valley State Park

2011-07-10T23:16:00.000-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend Chris and I decided to take the boys on a adventure and we headed to Dinosaur State Park. It's abouta hour drive so we hit the road early to get there before lunch time. We stopped at Dinosaur World which is right outside the park and is really pretty neat. They have a big trail with a bunch of huge dinosaurs along the way.

Ahhh!!! The T-Rex ate Britton...

Now he ate Everett too!

The boys ran from dinosaur to dinosaur. They really enjoyed every second of it

There was a couple live deer that we got to see taking a drink.

We then fed the fish in the little lake

After our dino walk we had a fossil dig and everyone got in on the action. Britton really enjoyed finding the fossils in the sand and the little boys really enjoyed throwing the sand.

They let each kid keep 3 fossils and Britton is very proud of his treasures.

We then headed to the Dinosaur Valley State Park to check it out. There was 3 or 4 places where there are dinosaur tracks and we stopped at one to check it out. We had to go down some really steep stairs and then cross the river on a bunch of rocks. It was really difficult with all the kids, but we made it without any issues. A park ranger lady came by on a big atv and really liked the boys so she let Britton sit on the atv and she let us under the ropes so we could get a really good look at the footprints. They were really cool and the boys enjoyed touching, looking and stepping in them.

After that adventure is was really late in the day, so we packed up and headed home. We will definitely be visiting the dinosaurs when it cools off.

Museum of Nature and Science

2011-07-01T15:16:00.000-05:00

Our favorite quad friends joined us for another adventure! This time we took all the kids to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. This place is super fun, but it is NOT multiple friendly. The Museum is on two levels and of course the children's museum is on the bottom level and the only way to get there is to ride the smallest elevator EVER!
First Heather and all the kids went down....

And then I piled two 4 seater choo choo wagons and a trailer in the elevator. There was barely room for me to fit, which is why the picture is horrible! It was quite the experince and we got to do it again on the way up!

All 7 toddlers milked the cow

Emerson riding the tractor tricycle

Everett riding the horse

Checking out some snakes

Making some lunch

Emmett driving the fire truck

Making some music

Checking out the big nose. Heathers kids loved it (Baxlyn is in the front)my three thought the huge nose was scary (see Everett and Emerson trying to run away)

Britton touching a tornado

The huge shark teeth that could have ate all the kids in one bite!

The kids checking out the dinosaurs

I then suggested that we take all the kids to the IMAX. I had free tickets for the adults and Britton and all 7 of the toddlers were free, so why not!
Waiting in line for the IMAX. This was by far the worst part. 2 year olds do not have the patience to wait in one area for more than 30 seconds!

Getting our seats

All the kids did really well with the movie considering it was well into nap time. Everett and Emmett both fell asleep while watching the movie and we only had to leave 2 mins before it was over. Another adventure under the belt ;)

Mycayla's first dance

2011-06-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Mycayla went to the 8th grade dance this year and it was her first dance. She got her nails and toes done and got a lovely dress from a friend. I got to experience the fun of having three teenage girls in my house getting ready for a dance, and there wasn't any boys involved this year! I think it's going to get a little more entertaining in the years to come. Mycayla didn't want my to take pictures, but I did get a good picture of her.

Silly boys

2011-06-21T21:40:00.000-05:00

I walked into the boys' room the other day and Emerson and Emmett had gotten their shirts off and Everett had been working on his! It won't be long until they are dressing themselves. Just this morning Everett but both his sandals on by himself!

Every weekend Chris goes to the store and gets doughnuts for the kids. The boys' favorite is the powdered sugar. They like to put the powdered sugar all over their lips and blow :) It's super cute and they get so excited when they see those doughnuts!

Another zoo trip

2011-06-20T15:22:00.000-05:00

We meet up with our favorite quad mom and her wonderful kiddos again at the zoo. This time we took all 8 kids on the carousel and let them out of the wagon more to explore. Are we nuts? YES!! But they love every second of it, which is why we do it :)
Riding the carousel. It was really hard trying to take a picture while making sure that 4 kids didn't fall off the horses

Checking out the elephants!

Fish!

They have this great little rodent house which has some big tunnels that the kids can crawl through. They crawled through over and over again.

We then let them all run around the reptile house!

Britton fishing

2011-06-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

Chris has taken Britton fishing a couple of times. He really likes going, but only has the patience to sit and fish for a couple of minutes. I think when he finally catches a fish he will really get into it more.

I can't wait until I can post a picture with him and his fish!

Easter, Easter, Easter!

2011-06-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

We did alot this Easter and this will be the last blog post about all the fun we did. After our Spring Fling we went to a Church Easter Egg hunt and then we dyed eggs at home and the Easter bunny came to the house. It was so fun to have so many activities for the kids and I hope that each holiday is so much fun!
Emerson

Everett

Emmett

They had a little petting zoo with baby animals and all the boys LOVED it. Britton loved holding the baby ducks

Of course the boys were all over the goats

The boys really liked looking at the chicks. They wanted to hold them, but we wanted to protect the poor little things

We dyed Easter eggs the with all the boys and that was mostly a disaster. They were grabbing all the eggs and cups and dropping and breaking the eggs. Egg dying didn't last long, but here is a few pictures from the experience. Hopefully next year will go better.

Spring Fling Party

2011-05-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

Our wonderful Multiples hosted a Spring Fling party with petting zoo, egg hunt, facepainting and of course the Easter Bunny. It was held at a big park so the kids were able to run around and also play on the playground.

The first stop was the petting zoo of course. All 4 boys absolutely LOVE animals!Here Emmett is checking out the "neigh, neighs".

Britton chasing the chickens!

We then rode the ponies. Everett wasn't too sure at first

Britton had to ride the Princess horse, which he LOVED!

Emmett rode like he had been on a horse a million times

Emerson was pretty unsure and a little scared

After the ponies Britton got his face painted. It was funny that after the Princess horse he decided to get his face painted like a skull!

Then it was time for the egg hunt. Of course the boys knew exactly what to do and picked up a bunch of eggs.

The boys got a lot of eggs and they were nice enough to share with their friends who didn't get very many.

Emmett eating a jelly bean for the first time

Everett collecting as many eggs as he can

I found some fruit snacks in the eggs and they were a big hit with all 7 kids!!

Everett spotted something really cool

It was the Easter Bunny!! Britton didn't have any problem getting his picture taken with the Easter Bunny!

But none of the other kids would come close. Emerson got the closest, but wouldn't get into touching distance.

After the Spring Fling we invited our friends the Cox Quads over to our house to play and have dinner.

It's amazing that 7 kids all around the same age can get along so well. They have so much fun playing together

We then had dinner. We sat all 8 kids at the small kids table and picnic table to eat. They did good for the first 5-10 minutes

But then they got full and decided that they would play with the rest of their food and ended up throwing it. The end result wasn't very pretty! Luckily we have dogs so we just let them inside and they cleaned up the huge mess!

It was a fun day and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Fun

2011-04-07T16:36:00.000-05:00

On Sunday's we usually make breakfast for everyone and sometimes Daddy goes to Target and gets doughnuts. The boys really like powdered doughnuts. They were getting the powder all over their mouths and then cracking up. It was super cute.

Everett

Emmett

Emerson

I went to a local consignment sale and picked up Britton a big boy bike for $8.00!! He LOVES it and he is so proud of himself.

Playdoh!!!

2011-04-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

One cold rainy day the kids were driving me insane (hard to believe, I know) so I decided to break out the playdoh for everyone. This was the first time that the little boys have got to play with playdoh and they really enjoyed it.
Britton showing off his cake that he made

I made the boys "waffles" and they thought that was pretty cool

We then made some snakes and got to use knifes to cut them

The boys played really good for awhile and made a mess. Thankfully playdoh is pretty easy to clean up!

Zoo playdate

2011-04-07T16:19:00.000-05:00

We had another playdate at the zoo with the Cox quads and the Ballew triplets. It's nice to get out of the house and the zoo is the perfect place to go with all these kids!

It's hard to get all these kids in one picture!
From front to back- Carter, Tyler, Madison, Emmett, Emerson, Everett, Brody, Korbin, Kylee and Baxlyn.

Emmett showing me the Rhino

We then let the 7 toddlers out to see the goats. It won't be much longer and then the Ballew triplets will be running around with them too!

And check out the fish

On the bridge checking out the ducks (or the quack quacks as we call them)

Britton was "hiding" on the turtle

Riding the "pony"

Zoo trips are so much fun and the kids really love to see all the animals.

Arboretum

2011-04-07T15:53:00.000-05:00

We went to the Arboretum with the Ballew triplets and the Key triplets to see the Princess castles and all the pretty tulips. It was spring break so it was a lot more croweded then it usually is and we didn't stay very long.

Britton wondering what happened to Rapunzel's hair

The boys looking at the flowers. Really they were trying to pull them all off!

The little mermaids castle

The Tew triplets and the Key Triplets

Britton was having fun posing for pictures

Everett inspecting the flowers

Emmett trying to get some flowers

Emerson admiring the flowers

I think this is Beauty and the Beast castle

Britton reading the story about the castle

We had a picnic lunch with the Ballew triplets and the Key triplets. Notice how their babies still stay put and my kids are all over the place?!

We then stopped for a couple photos. Notice the paparazzi in the background?

I was hoping to get back to the Arboretum this week to see the castles again when it wasn't so crowded, but we'll see.

San Antonio/Seaworld

2011-03-30T21:49:00.000-05:00

We took another trip done to San Antonio the beginning of March and took the kids to Seaworld. I was able to find a VERY nice hotel (resort) on a travel site for a very good price. When we got to the resort we couldn't believe how nice it was! It also had EVERYTHING that you could ask for. There was a very big pool with a lazy river, a sand beach next to the pool, with a fire pit for making s'mores, tennis courts, walking paths, activities for the kids including rental bikes for the family, and they even had a very nice playground. I really couldn't believe this resort and we will be going back there the next time we visit. The resort also had a restraurant, and really you would never really need to leave since everyone was right there.

When you walked into the lobby they had a big fish tank which the boys loved.

The lobby also had a nice little waterfall.

The boys of course LOVED running down the halls to our room. When your a kid I think the best part of staying at a hotel is running down the long halls :)

This is a picture of part of the pool

And the VERY nice playground. It was so nice to have somewhere we could take the boys to burn off some energy

Our room had a balcolny and the boys enjoyed going out and looking around

Everett sitting in on of the rocking chairs in the lobby

After we checked into our hotel we met up with our friends Renee and Josh and their kiddos. While at their house we found the perfect containment for the boys

And Britton got to dress up like a princess. He was even wearing the shoes! He sure does make a cute girl :)

On Sunday we met up with Josh and Renee and both our families went to Seaworld. Trying to get pictures with 3 21 month olds, a 3 year old, a 4 year old and then a 13 year old, is impossible!!

Britton and Kaydence meeting Shamu

The first thing we did was feed the dolphins. Britton had a blast and the babies seemed to enjoy it. They kept calling the dolphins puppies and they all threw them some fish. It was a lot harder this year to keep them all still on the wall.

Emmett and Everett checking out the fish

Everett, Emerson, Britton, Kaydence and Emmett looking at all the fish

They had added a couple of kid rides since last year and Emmett was just dying to go on. So Chris, Mycayla, Britton, Kaydence and Emmett all went on the ride. It went fairly fast and spun around and Emmett just sat there without too much expression on his face. I couldn't really tell if he was enjoying the ride or if he was scared, but when it stopped and they had to get off he was so upset. So apparently he really enjoyed it!

We also got to watch a show by Elmo, Abbie, Cookie Monster, Grover and Zoe. Britton enjoyed meeting them all and the babies were in awe. They didn't like getting too close to the characters, but they were brave enough to give a couple high fives. Here is Britton meeting cookie monster

There was huge playground with tunnels and Chris took Britton and Emmett up on it.

Daddy with Emmett and Everett watching the Shamu show. They were very excited. I was holding Emerson and he was scared the entire show. He had his hands over his eyes and was peeking through his fingers. I thought I had gotten a picture with my camera, but it seems like I only got one with my phone :( So check out facebook for that one!

Emerson was much happier watching the beluga/dolphin show. I think it had something to do with the music. Shamu had suspenseful music and the dolphins was very upbeat

Britton and Everett eating popcorn at the show

Seaworld sure does wear you out!

Britton rode one of those water rides that goes fast down the hill and splashes at the bottom. We bought the picture for it since the look of sheer terror on his face was priceless. Once we get it scanned into the computer I'll have to edit the blog and add it :)

We hope to go back to San Antonio at least once more this year, but hopefully we can make it more than that. It is a fun city and there is so much to do there with the kids. It's also nice to have good friends to visit while we're there as well!

Chuck E Cheese

2011-03-24T21:41:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I took the boys to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. I was really nervous before getting there, wondering how I was going to keep track of them all, but to my surprise the place was dead!! I guess it does help to go at 10:30 on a weekday, but it was so nice and I didn't have to worry about the boys running around.

To say the boys loved Chuck E Cheese is probably an understatement. I cannot put into words how excited they were and how much fun they had. Emmett was the only one of the triplets that would ride the rides. He was fearless and rode everything he could. He would get done with one ride and then run to the next one. I tried to get Everett and Emerson on a ride but they just screamed like I was torturing them.

Emmett's first ride of the day. You really can't beat that smile!

Everett and Emerson watching Emmett on the ride. They weren't too sure about all that.

Britton posing with Barney

Britton playing a game

The boys running around the place

Emmett on the race horse game

Emmett riding the roller coaster

The boys eating their pizza lunch

We will definitely be going back. I still have tokens that we didn't use which is really surprising with all the rides and games.

Angela

2011-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

I don't know how she does it but she manages to keep it all together after taking care of the boys every day. Some days I get home and she's ready to pull her hair out and needs to get out of the house and I can understand why. After just a few hours with them sometimes I'm ready to pull my hair out and I don't have much to pull. I love my wife very much and hope someday once things settle down I'll be able to get her away for a week of no kids so she can relax, hopefully I can go with her. She's done an amazing job so far and hasn't beaten any of the children, although she's come close a few times with Britton.

Love ya honey

Chris

Gala

2011-03-21T21:33:00.000-05:00

My multiples group had a fund raising Gala and it was a really good time. They had a good dinner, casino tables, an auction and drinks!

Chris and I finally had a reason to dress up nice and go out!

Heather and I played some games and did pretty well for the night

Heather, Laura and I had a great time hanging out!

Second snow

2011-03-21T21:21:00.000-05:00

Our second snow here was more than the first one, but it was still only a couple of inches that were gone by the next day. The boys weren't too sure about the first snow, but this time they were ready to get out and play.

When your 4 shoveling is fun

Everett was all about the snow and was all over the place

They were trying to figure out what I was doing

Britton

2011-03-21T21:10:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd do a little post on Britton. The poor guy has really had his life turned upside down since the triplets arrived but I thinking he's finally starting to adjust to having all these little brothers. I think it helps that they are now big enough that he can actually play with them now and they all really enjoy playing together. I still feel bad that I can't give him the attention he needs, because all of my focus is always on the little boys. I've been trying really hard to make sure that I spend some one on one time with him everyday and try to do fun stuff with him.

This year Britton started preschool and he has so much fun going on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They had a cute little program at the school with a couple of songs. It was really cute and made me tear up for sure.

For his birthday Britton got a really neat shaving kit and he shaves EVERY time that he gets a bath. He needs to make sure he does it "just like Dad"

Children's Aquarium

2011-03-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

We had a playdate with our friends at the Children's aquarium. It's pretty crazy to have 8 little kids running around and only 2 moms. Talk about being outnumbered!!

Eating lunch

Checking out some fish

The lobsters were pretty cool

Everett loves the Octopus arms :)

Britton is a great help pulling all 7 babies in their wagons. I'm amazed that he has the strength to do that.

Britton playing on the BIG Elephant!

Fooooooddddd!!

2011-03-21T20:26:00.000-05:00

We eat a lot of food around here! It's amazing how much food 4 little boys can eat. I'm really concerned how we are going to feed them when they are all teenagers. I guess I will really have to get creative on the pasta meals.

The boys are so big and now they eat whole apples!

Emmett showing me something on his hand

Emerson chowing down

Everett

We fill their plates three times a day and they still always act like they are starving ;)

Mmmmm delicious!

Since the weather is so nice most of the time we eat lunch outside almost every day. It sure saves mom some sanity not having to clean highchairs after lunch! I would prefer to eat every meal outside because then I wouldn't have to clean up at all :)

I have been contemplating taking donations for non-perishable food so that when they are teenagers I won't have to get a job just to feed them!

Britton's 4th Birthday

2011-03-18T21:54:00.000-05:00

Since we packed up and left for Omaha super quick Britton celebrated his birthday there. We made sure to get him a cake to celebrate and he had a party once he got home

My friend Mandy made Britton an awesome dinosaur cake

The Birthday boy himself

Britton's biggest request for his party was a pinata.

All the kids had a blast picking up all the prizes

And then their was presents!!

Britton really enjoyed his party this year and we thank everyone that could make it!

Baby Brady

2011-03-18T21:32:00.000-05:00

On January 14th, 2011 our Grandson Brady was born at 27 weeks and weighed 1lb 14oz. Thankfully, he is a strong little boy and has not had any major problems regarding his health.

Andrew unfortunately had mono at the time of delivery so he wasn't allowed in the NICU for a few days and then he couldn't touch Brady for a few after that.

But Kaitlin (Mom) was able to touch him

In this picture she was helping the nurse hold him up so the nurse could change his bedding. You can really see how small he is

Chris went back to visit this past weekend and Brady sure has grown!! He is now off the ventilator and C-PAP and is just on a nasal cannula. He is still being fed by the NG tube but hopefully they will start bottle feeding soon. He has also been out of the isolate and in a big boy crib for a couple weeks now. Hopefully, he will be able to wean off the oxygen and learn how to oral feed so he can go home!

Snow!

2011-03-18T15:36:00.000-05:00

Wintertime in Texas is great! There was only a three week spam that it was really cold and we were stuck inside. It only snowed here twice, but that was plenty for the kids to go out and play in. I much prefer the warm weather!

Britton making a snow angel

Children's Aquarium

2011-03-18T15:27:00.000-05:00

When Mathew, Katie and Krista came to visit we took everyone to the Children's Aquarium in Dallas. It was recently redone and everything is at the kids level, so it's a great place to go.

The little boys checking out the fish

They have a touch tank where you can touch some of the animals

Big sharks to look at

The boys really like being able to get up close. Everett checking out the sharks

Emerson checking out the sharks

Emmett checking out the sharks

You can even feed the stingrays, which was Brittons favorite part

Everett playing with the Octopus

Everett and Emmett

The little boys looking at the jellyfish

The boys really liked the albino alligator that lives there

Emmett

They also have a really cool turtle

The boys took turns giving the turtle kisses

All the kids at the stingray tank

Britton's hair cut

2011-03-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

Britton thought that it would be a good idea to give him self a haircut the day before pictures. I was a little mad to say the least, but honestly couldn't help laughing. What was I going to do? The damage was already done.

Luckily he is a boy and I was just able to shave his head down to almost nothing, but it was still noticeable.

Katie, Mathew and Krista's visit

2011-03-18T14:41:00.000-05:00

Katie, Mathew and Krista came to visit us for a week after Christmas and brought the kids some gifts.

The kids reading books

Opening some presents

Andrew and Kaitlin set some books for the boys and gave Britton a cool puzzle game. He really enjoyed playing it with Katie and Mathew

Unfortunatley, we were on our second round of the stomach flu when the big kids got there and Emmett was not feeling well at all.

One of the best things that everyone did was go ice skating. It was the first time Britton ice skated and he loved it. We have since signed him up for lessons!

Britton putting on his skates.

Getting ready to go out on the ice

We can't wait until they come to visit again!

Christmas

2011-01-04T14:00:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun this Christmas with the boys.
We put up the tree and all the stockings. We had to gate off the tree so it survived!

We started off with the Multiples group Christmas party.
Britton got his face printed to look like Batman

Then he got an Alien ballon from the clown

It's nice that Britton can pull the boys around sometimes

We took the boys to Bass Pro to see Santa. The little boys of course were scared of him so we all got our picture taken.

The boys got a big box delivered with presents from Nana, but I think the best part was the box and the peanuts (or snow as Britton called it) inside

Britton thought it was just as fun to clean up as it was to make the mess

One of the packages inside that big messy box was a recordable book from Nana. We all sat and listened while she read us the story

We also made and decorated some cookies.

The little boys got to help too

Britton was so excited on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. We didn't get many pictures of the boys and their Christmas presents since we mostly used the video camera. The little boys really didn't "get it" this year, so they weren't really into it. They got some pirate costumes for Christmas and of course had to try them out right away.

The other big hit was the shopping carts that they got. They love to push them around and put all sorts of things in them. These pictures were taken when they didn't know we were watching. It's nice when they play together. Most times it doesn't last long before they are fighting over something!

School Pictures

2011-01-04T13:59:00.001-06:00

This year Mycayla and Britton had school pictures taken and here they are!!

Hopefully next year I can have all 5 kids in "school" at some point

Gaylord Texan

2011-01-04T13:23:00.000-06:00

We took the boys to the Gaylord Texan to have a little Christmas fun! We spent the night and they all had a great time. It's a very nice hotel and was decorated wonderfully for Christmas. The boys really liked looking at the lights after it got dark.
There was a huge gingerbread house of the hotel. They had all the little details in there too!

There was some cute Elfs to take pictures by

Lots of fun decorations to look at

A big fountain to pose by

A huge gingerbread house

Trains to look at

The boys really liked this big Texan Santa

We had fun walking around looking at everything

[IMG]http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u131/tew654/IMG_2321.jpg[/IMG]

Britton enjoyed looking like Rudolph and finding the Reindeer

He also enjoyed pretending to be Santa in his sleigh

Then we got to see Santa. We had already gotten a family picture with Santa so we just went up and had a chat and we couldn't take any pictures. We saw Santa that night and then again the following morning. Santa even remembered the boys' names!
Waiting in line to see Santa

Here is a picture of Santa's chair

We even got a decent group photo

Since we stayed at the hotel we got ICE tickets for free.

Since it was so cold they gave everyone parkas. They were really big for the babies and you couldn't take strollers, so it was really interesting walking around with the boys tripping over their coats and not being able to hold our hands very well
The coats went way past their arms and down to their feet

We had to walk through pretty fast since it was cold and the babies were mad about the coats, but I was able to get a few good pictures

They had a slide made out of ice so Britton tried it out. It was hard to walk up the stairs in such a big coat

Then we let Britton go down the sledding hill. It was weird to see snow hills in the middle of a hotel convention room

I'm glad that we payed for the unlimited rides because I think he went down that hill 565 times!!!
I bought the boys little souvenir bells that they really enjoyed playing with. It also kept them busy while Britton was sledding

Friends and Fun!

2011-01-04T13:07:00.000-06:00

Thankfully this year we have not been on lockdown for RSV season and winter here in Dallas is great, so we've been out and about having fun with friends.

Britton and his friend Nola went to see Yo Gabba Gabba live! They both LOVED it!

Sesame Street live is coming in March and Chris and I plan on taking all 4 boys to see it!

We also went and played with our friends the Cox Quads at Going Bonkers (I didn't get any pictures there :( ) and then all 8 of us went out to eat. Can you imagine all the comments we got with 2 adults 1 three year old and 7 one year olds! The most common one was "Are you a daycare?"

I've have been giving the boys bowls occassionally so they can pratice. The really enjoy eating oatmeal and yogurt out of bowls with spoons.
Emerson

Everett

Emmett

I ordered the little boys fleece coats for a Christmas presents, but they were so cute that I didn't end up wrapping them and they started wearing them right away. Here they are modeling their coats

The boys all want to sit in my lap now and it's cute for about 2 seconds until they start pushing each other. We've already started the "MOM, he's touching me"!

Our puppy Bella is getting big so we've been trying to take some pictures of her to remember how small she once was. Here is a picture of her laying on the Elmo couch

Here is a picture of Bella and Codi. It won't be long until Bella is bigger than Codi!

So far it's been a busy winter and I'm so thankful for the great weather. You can't beat 50 degrees at 8am in January!!

A couple of randoms

2010-11-30T21:45:00.001-06:00

The boys are growing so fast these days. We have started to have snack at our big boy table in the kitchen as opposed to on the floor or in their high chairs. They really like sitting at the big boy table, because that makes them big boys.

It's a much bigger mess to clean up though so we will stick with snacks and a couple of lunches for now.

In other news Emerson has finally decided that walking is a good thing thing and I now have 3 full time walkers!! Next up potty training!

We also added a new member to our family. Her name is Bella and she is a Great Pyrenees, which means that she will be BIG! This is good though, since the boys need a dog that will be able to withstand boyhood. Great Pyrenees are farm dogs who usually protect the livestock, but they are also get family companion dogs and excellent with kids. The boys love her and chase her around all over the house. Apparently, I have not taken enough pictures of her so I will have to get on that. She's already about doubled in size since we got her a couple of weeks ago.
She thinks that she belongs on the couch and it was cute to see her curled up next to Britton while he was taking his nap

Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T21:41:00.000-06:00

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving here and didn't really do too much. We fried a turkey, made some stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and corn pudding and then had some pumpkin pie. I was nice enough to let Everett and Emmett each have their own slice of pumpkin pie.

Poor Emerson was sick with a fever and didn't eat any Thanksgiving dinner. He was asleep on me when I was taking pictures of his brothers.
Luckily we didn't have any plans to go anywhere, since with a sick baby we wouldn't have been able to make it anyway. It was a very relaxed, stress free Thanksgiving.

Dallas zoo

2010-11-30T21:27:00.000-06:00

I got a membership to the Dallas zoo and have been quite a few times. It's a fun place for the kids and gets us out of the house for awhile. We took Dad a couple of weeks ago and the babies got to ride the carousel for the first time.
They didn't know what was going on and cried most of the time, but I'm sure it won't be long until we can't get them off of it

Of course Britton had a blast

It was nice to go with Chris because then Britton got to do some things he wanted to do like sit on the elephant

Britton also wanted to ride the birds nest on the carousel so he could spin in a circle while going in a circle. Just like his mom when I was a kid

We also took them on the Monorail so we could see some of the other animals that we can't see when it's just me. I think their favorite part was getting to run up the ramp to the top

Everett just wanted to lick the bar....YUCK!!!

They did think it was pretty cool to sit up and see all the animals
Britton is our navigator at the zoo and he checks the map and tells us where we need to go

The first time that we went to the zoo with our friends Mandy and Nola we got to feed the giraffes which was really cool. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to feed them since
Britton and Nola

I held the babies so they could feed the giraffes too! Everett was the only one who didn't really enjoy it. He doesn't seem to like animals that are bigger than him

The Children's zoo has a river in it that the kids can play in. Of course Britton was right in there

We love the zoo and try to visit often. There will plenty more zoo pictures in the years to come!

Dallas Museum of Nature and Science

2010-11-30T21:15:00.000-06:00

We heard that the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science had some dinosaurs so of course we had to go check it out. It was a lot of fun and I thank Mandy for coming with me and helping keep my boys somewhat together. It is a really fun place, with lots of stuff for the kids to do, but it is all open so very easy for 4 boys to take off in 4 different directions and they did!
This guy was out in the middle and he was HUGE!! Britton wouldn't even go near him because he was so scary!

When you first walk into the dinosaurs they have this big scary T-Rex that starts moving when you walk in. Britton was scared of him and the babies were not happy at all. I felt a little bad for them, but it was kind of funny to see them so scared of the dinosaurs

They calmed down a bit when they weren't right next to any of the dinosaurs. I think the most scary part was that they were loud
This picture shows Everett pointing at the dinosaurs

This was the one he was "talking" about

After the dinosaurs we let them out of the wagon and let them run around. They were all over the place.
Here the boys are on the farm (their favorite place)

Climbing through the tunnels

Britton LOVED the fire truck and fire suits. He played with that for a long time and didn't want to take it off

The babies did one of the puzzle things for about 2 seconds (while I took a pic) before they were off to something else

I bought a membership and can't wait to go back. It was a lot of fun and the babies had a blast. I think next time we should bring Dad along!

Petting zoo

2010-11-30T20:59:00.000-06:00

We found a cute little petting zoo in Forney, TX not too far from our house. They have goats, pigs, chickens, horses, emu and all sorts of fun creatures for the kids to visit. The boys (all 4 of them) LOVE this place since they can run around with all the animals.
The babies absolutely LOVE goats and I have comtemplated getting them one. The goats doen't care if the boys climb on them, pull their hair or push them around. Please they would keep the grass cut ;)
They were checking to see if there was anything good to eat in the wagon

Everett wasn't too sure about the goat all up in his face

This goat thought Emerson's shirt would be a nice snack

Here is a picture of the horse. She was super sweet

The pigs. The babies liked the noises that they made

Britton had a blast chasing this Rooster all over

They had a HUGE sandbox. I told Chris that he's going to need to build one this big for the boys

Because our sandbox right now just doesn't cut it

They have this homemade spinning thing that they could not get enough of!

Halloween

2010-11-30T15:57:00.000-06:00

We had a great October and did a lot of things for Halloween. It's easy to do a lot of stuff when the weather is so nice. Most days in October where in the 70's and 80's. Much better than the cold 40's and 50's in Omaha!
The babies dressed up as the Three Little Bears and they were so cute!

Emerson Bear

Emmett Bear (He saw the moon for the first time

Everett Bear. Everett would not keep his hat on at all

Britton was a Police Officer!

Britton and Everett even dressed up as a witch

Halloween night was wonderfully nice (I think around 70 degrees) and we took everyone out Trick or Treating. Britton was the only one we let go up to the door this year, since we didn't need 4 times the candy. Once the babies got tired Dad took them home and Britton and I stayed out for another hour getting some good candy.

One of the fun things we did this year was visit the Pumpkin Houses at the Dallas Arboretum. Again it was beautiful when we went and we had a lot of fun.

Emerson

Emmett

Everett

One of the cool pumpkin designs

Britton with his buddy Conor

They are super cute together holding hands

The little boys checking out the pumpkin houses

Britton playing in one of the houses

I tried to get some cute fall pictures but I wasn't very successful

Britton was even able to Trick or Treat there

We then tried to get a family picture

The boys had fun running around in the grass

Why does Everett always look like we are torturing him?

Everyone got to carve pumpkins this year including the babies
Emerson

Everett with his pumpkin

Emmett

Britton craving his pumpkin with Dad

Mycayla with her pumpkin

Pretty scary giving a 3 year old a knife

We then had a costume parade with the Multiples club

And Britton got to ride the carousel for the first time by himself

Then we had a Halloween party with the Mom's group
Britton with his witch fingers

The babies thought they should have a turn at the pinata too!

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-14T16:57:00.001-05:00

The multiples group that I belong to had a social at a Pumpkin patch so we took the kids to check it out. It was in North Texas and took us a little over an hour to get there. Of course it did not even compare to Vala's, but Britton had fun running around and feeding the animals.

The babies love animals so they really liked seeing all the goats

We tried to get the babies to feed the goats, but they thought they should eat the animal food themselves. Emmett and Emerson tried to touch the goats

They got all the multiples together and got a group shot. Extremely hard with all the little kids

Then we let the babies out and have a picnic lumch with our friends the Cox Quads.

We blocked one side with the two sets of Choo Choo wagons so that the babies could not run off in that direction. It's hard to keep tabs on 7 little ones!

After lunch we went and picked out the kids' pumpkins in their little pumpkin patch.
We let Britton pick out the pumpkins for himself and the little boys, so he was all over the place

Everett checking out his pumpkin

Emmett with his pumpkin

Emerson with his pumpkin

As you can see Emerson was very excited about his pumpkin

I'm not sure if you can read the shirts, but they say "It's my brothers fault". I'm sure I'll be hearing that one all the time

And of course we had to get a picture of Britton with his pumpkin. He picked the smallest pumpkin because "It is so cute"

I told him to hold up his pumpkin so I could see how big it was and he put it over his head

Mycayla got a pumpkin too, but she wasn't as excited about it as the boys were

We didn't end up staying to terribly long since it was a small place and started to get really busy. Sure made me miss Vala's even more though. We're hoping to go to Vala's next year with all the kids.

Fire Station Tour

2010-10-14T16:47:00.000-05:00

Last week we went to the Rowlett Firestation for a tour with the Rowlett moms group. Britton loves fireman so he was all about this. It wasn't a very get thing for the babies, and hard for me, but he was super excited so it was worth it. The fire chief talked to the kids about fire safety and what they should do if there was a fire. Then one of the firemen got suited up and they had the kids go up and shake hands with him since kids can get scared of the fireman and not come to them if there is a fire.
Britton was right in front listening so well

And then he was the first one in to drive the truck. They let him turn on the lights too!

The babies were being so good the whole time and I pushed them right up to the fire truck so they could check it out. They thought all the holes were pretty neat.

It will be interesting when I have the 4 of them running around at one of these things.

Corpus Christi

2010-10-13T20:47:00.000-05:00

We took a not long enough vacation to Corpus Christi with some friends that we knew in Omaha who now live in San Antonio. On the way down we stayed at their house overnight so the drive wasn't as long and crazy for us. Since San Antonio is about 4-5 hours from us we took our time and stopped at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Safari. When we got there we let the babies out of our seats and I held Everett and Emmett while Chris held Emmett and drove. They LOVED it to say the least and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. They were trying to make animal sounds and talk to the animals. This safari was really good and all the animals were either on the road or really close and came right up to the cars.

Even the shy deer were right out in the open

It was hard to get pictures since I was holding 2 babies and Mycayla was trying to take them from the back. Here is a couple pictures of Everett having a blast and trying to climb out the window

The ostriches came right up the the car and started pecking the windows. I'm thankful that we were warned about them because they are HUGE

There were also signs that said that the zebras might bite, so we left the windows up just in case. They came right up to the windows and tried eating the car mirrors.
They are amazingly beautiful animals

After the driving part they had a little petting zoo place where you could pet the goats. There was a bunch of goats in there and some really cute babies. Britton was in love with the little baby goats. I took the bad of food in there and was attacked! It was funny to me but Emmett didn't appreciate very much, since I was holding him.

Britton with the babies

I highly recommend this place and we will definitely visit again the next time we go to San Antonio.

After spending the night in San Antonio we headed to Corpus Christi. Thankfully it's only 2 hours from San Antonio. Since there is so many of us in our family we had to get a suite with a kitchen and separate room and then an adjoining room onto that.
We had to rearrange some of the furniture, but we were able to get all three pack n plays into the room with us.

Britton showing off how cool he is

It was nice to have extra room for the babies to run around, and to also be able to have somewhere where they could go to sleep undistrubed (and I didn't have to hide in the bathroom)

Here is our little kitchen, but we had a good size fridge, microwave and big sink. Makes life soooo much easier when you have three babies

Mycayla was also happy that she had someplace that she could go to escape some of the craziness. She did have to share a bed with Britton, but that seemed to work pretty well.

I think the babies favorite part was the full length mirrors. They couldn't get enough of looking at themselves

The first night there we ate at a place called Snoopy's. It's right on the water.

After dinner we headed back to the base where they were having an end of summer bash. They had a bunch of inflatables and things for the bigger kids to do.
Britton jumping

Britton and Kaydence got some cool tattoos

Britton on the bull

Checking out the fire truck

The next day we got up and hit the beach. I was a little concerned at first about the babies running around with all that water right there.
It was fun to see the kids' reaction to the ocean. Everett was right in there without any hesitation.

At first he wasn't sure when the waves came up

Emerson wasn't really sure about the waves either

Everett and Emerson

Emmett preferred to stay right on the edge

Emmett and Emerson decided that they did not like the waves, so they stayed out of the water and played in the sand
Emmett

Emerson

Everett on the other had wasn't scared at all and was in the water most of the time

The babies loved all the seagulls and would chase after them. Here is Everett pointing at the birds

Chris caught the beginnings of an Emerson tantrum on camera and it's so cute this way I had to share. It's so much better when you don't have to hear it.

Britton saw the ocean and couldn't wait to get in. He loved every second and it was so hard for us to get him out. Even when he was shivering and super cold he would fight us to stay in the water.

Britton and Kaydence LOVED chasing the seagulls as much as the babies did

They were all over the place

Britton got some lessons in boarding

Mycayla had a lot of fun in the ocean and spent a lot of time playing in the waves

Chris got a picture of a big flock of pelicans as they flew over Britton and I

We stopped by South Padre Island and there was a lot of big dark spots in the water. I got out to see what it was and it was thousands of little fish.
All the dark is fish

It was crazy to see all those little fish in one place

The kids had soooo much fun on the beach and Britton asks to go back all the time. The babies had so much to do and would just sit and dig in the sand. They hardly got crabby the whole day that we were there, which is pretty amazing.
That night we ate at a place called Blackbeard's. It wasn't as Pirate as I thought it would be, but it was good food.

The next day we went to the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington.
It's amazing how big that ship is. It is not stroller friendly so Chris and Josh took Britton and Kaydence while the rest of us checked out the shops.

Britton and Kaydence on the gun

The Texas State Aquarium was really cool and the kids really enjoyed it. The dolphin show was really good and you could get really close

They had a show where a diver went in a fed the fish and Britton got his picture with the diver

We got a nice picture at the Aquarium. Mycayla's eye was really swollen that day for some reason and she didn't want to be in the picture.

That evening we headed back to the beach and let the kids play for a little while and then we made a fire and had smores
Everett thought he would help with the fire pit

Unfortunately, as soon as the sun went down the mosquitoes came out and even with bug spray we were getting bit. Britton had 50 bites on his poor ankles. Plus fire and babies don't really mix well. The babies thought fire would be fun to play with and they kept trying to run into it. We had a couple smores and then we packed up and were out of there for the night.

Our trip was wonderful, the kids were really good, but it wasn't long enough. We only had about 2 days and there is a lot of other things that I would have liked to see. Hopefully we will be able to visit again sometime soon. Maybe in the spring before it gets too hot.

Snowball visit

2010-10-13T20:33:00.001-05:00

When I was 5 weeks pregnant with Britton I joined a internet birth board with a bunch of women who were all due in January. We have kept in touch via our message board and facebook for the past 4 years and I have made some really good friends, although I had never met them in real life. One of these wonderful women is a photographer and was able to come to Dallas to take pictures of 3 of our families. I had Diane take the triplets 1 year old pictures and some pictures of Britton. While here Diane stayed with Abbie who is another "Snowball" mom and we met up with Chanece (who also got pictures). Here is a picture of the 4 of us along with Chanece's son.

We met up at the Dallas World aquarium and I was able to get some cute pictures

Abbie with her "Snowball"

Diane and Britton checking out the sloth. The sloth was awake and eating....I've never seen one awake

The babies watching the otters. The otters love the bright colors of the wagon and always come out to play. The babies love seeing the otters swimming around in front of them

They had some dancers there performing. The babies were too close though and got scared

I got a picture of the 3 "Snowballs" together. It is really hard to get a good picture of 3 three year olds. In this picture we were trying to get them to make silly faces.

Then a picture with the siblings