Santa Clause is coming to town!

Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to share our Christmas card for 2010. Thanks Tracey for helping to create it!

Finishing Touches

We have finally put the finishing touches on the kids' bedroom. Their carpet was put down last week. Thanks Great Aunt Helen and Uncle Larry for the great (early) Christmas present! The trio loves it! :)Of course, it does look a lot different once got the beds and dresser moved back in. I guess taking apart the toddler beds were worth it! :)

A Multiples Christmas Party

Last Saturday night, we drove to Saline for the annual HOMMIES Christmas party. This is the Mothers of Higher Order Multiples group that I'm a member of. All of us have triplets or more! It's always a great time together...the kids get to see other families like us and no one asks a bunch of questions since we all have multiples. The boys were playing with their new trucks that Santa brought them that night.

The trio showing off their gifts from Santa. I had to include both pictures because Madelynn's looks are just priceless! :)

Santa was played by one of the fathers of triplets plus one! He did a fantastic job and the kids seemed to be more comfortable with the big guy this time around.

This picture is pretty good...I'm not sure we need to visit the mall Santa this year!

We had a puppet show performed by a set of quads.

We made Christmas crafts.

We decorated cookies which the kids loved!

We played games in the large gym area connected to the dining area we were in.

This was the first HOMMIES Christmas party we were able to attend and we had a great time! We had one minor mishap in the beginning when Malachi wandered away from us and got lost in the huge church we were in, but one of the other kids found him riding the elevator! I was in panic mode and broke down crying when we found him...what a relief to find him!

Winterfest 2010!

Last weekend we enjoyed Winterfest downtown. Basically, a bunch of the businesses have things scheduled for children and most of them are absolutely free! We tried to do as much as we could but it was REALLY cold outside so we stayed out as long as the kids would let us. Clifford the big red dog was at the local teacher store. We made foam Christmas ornaments while we were there.
We saw the Grinch while walking around, but the kids wanted NOTHING to do with him! I really wanted a picture of the kids with him, but it didn't happen.
We went on a horse drawn carriage ride. We didn't get any pictures of us on the ride, but here is an after picture.

We even got to see Santa, but the kids were not real excited about talking to him. I was hoping they'd be more open to talking with him this year since they've been talking about him a lot, but they weren't. We did actually get a decent picture though.

When we went home the kids crashed and took a 2.5 hour nap! I'm excited for next year's Winterfest!

Thanksgiving Highlights!

We had a small Thanksgiving this year...amount of people, not food! :) It was just our family and three of the four grandparents. We were really excited about not having to share the grandparents this year so we planned something special....Gingerbread Houses. I bought the preassembled ones. They were the same price as the non-assembled ones so I figured why do the work! The finished products. Madelynn, Aiden, Malachi.

The front view...Malachi, Aiden, Madelynn.

Madelynn and daddy worked together.

Aiden and Grandma Ketola worked together.

Malachi and Grandma Callahan were a team.

We had a great time doing. I think we may have started a new Thanksgiving tradition! :)

Carving Pumpkins (a little late)

We carved pumpkins this year for Halloween, but I forgot to post them...shame on me. Here is the group shot. Aiden drawing the face on his pumpkin.
Malachi drawing his face.
Madelynn and her jack-o-lantern.

Joshua working on carving.

Madelynn hard at work.

Unfortunately, the pumpkins didn't last long. We were lazy and put them on the little table in the kitchen. A couple days later I walked past them and noticed they were growing the fuzzy stuff on the inside. So....the pumpkins were thrown away! Mental note for next year...put them outside once they are carved! :)

Birthday Catch Up!

So, I realized today that I hadn't posted anything about the trio's birthday party so this is my unorganized attempt to catch up. We had a Mickey and Minnie Mouse themed party this year and the kids had a lot of fun. Here are some of my favorite photos from the day...in random order. Malachi crashed at the end of the night. He curled up on the couch with his new Cars snuggie!
Aiden eating his little Mickey cake. Just like every year, I made them each their own little cake that they didn't have to share. It's our tradition....I wonder if they'll still love it when they are teenagers?!?!

Malachi ate nearly all of his! I was ambitious this year with BLACK frosting!!!

Madelynn and her Minnie Mouse cake! She was so excited that hers had a bow!

The big cake. I ordered a plainly decorated cake with only the red borders on it. I made the rice crispy treat mouse ear hats and wrote their names on each of them. They were really neat looking...the kids loved them. Also, I found Mickey Mouse head shaped sprinkles so we neatly placed each one around the red border. It turned out great!

Malachi loved his new Cars underwear. He had to try on all 8 pairs on top of his blue jeans. It was hillarious. He only walked around in them for a few minutes....I think he didn't like the bunched feeling! ha ha ha

After Malachi opened up his Cars snuggie (which I think was his favorite gift...thanks Kristen and Andy) he went to bed. We had to convince him to get up and open the remainder of his gifts.

Their gift from mommy and daddy was a four piece wooden kitchen set. They have enjoyed playing with it!

We had a Mickey Mouse pinata!

Even Madelynn took her turn at it this year without melting down!

Over all, it was a great party. Thanks to everyone who came and shared in the festivities...and those who sent gifts.

Sickness....over...hopefully!

We've been dealing with sickness with the kids for a month now. They got a cold and we thought it had gone away. Then two weeks later Madelynn and Malachi started coughing. We let it go for a week before we finally decided it wasn't getting any better. Two hours in the walk in clinic and we walked away with tons of meds. Madelynn was diagnosed with bronchitis and sinusitis. Malachi was much worse off with bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and sinusitis. Little did we know that Malachi was struggling to breath so much that he was on the verge of going into the hospital. :( Malachi taking his breathing treatments...every 4 hours.

The combined medicine basket for both kids. a total of 7 meds!

The good news is that they are now done with their antibiotics. Madelynn still has a runny nose, but seems to be a lot better. Malachi still has a runny nose and we'll continue with breathing treatments a couple times a day until the coughing and wheezing stops.

Artwork

The kids' room hasn't been painted since we were preparing the nursery. Slowly things came down off the walls because the kids pulled or knocked them off while jumping in their cribs. For a few months the walls have been bare. I decided I was going to paint their room just before their forth birthday so it was more of a 'big kid' room rather than a nursery. We chose a bright blue color! Then we created 'big kid' artwork for the walls. I bought 6 8x10 canvases and the kids each painted one and did a hand print on the other. They are all hanging on the wall and look beautiful! From left to right starting at the top. Malachi's handprint, Madelynn's painting called "Rainbow Merry-Go-Round", Aiden's handprint. Bottom row...Malachi's painting called "Frog"...which ironically looks like a frog if you turn it on it's side, Madelynn's handprint, and Aiden's artwork called "Aiden's Window".

Leaves fall in Autumn!

Sometime around the first day of Autumn, the kids came home and told us about the change in the season. Aiden said, "the leaves fall in autumn". We decided that our Autumn fun had to include playing in the leaves...especially since the weather was so nice yesterday (mid-60's). Here are my favorites...