Busy, Busy, Busy!

I'm sure you can imagine how busy we've been all summer! Phew, I can't believe fall is right around the corner and Labor Day Weekend is here! We've had a fun summer and I am slowly adding some photos of all the things we've been up to!

We are starting our Home Preschool program next week again and the girls are so excited.

Natalee starts back to speech tomorrow (08.28.14) and she is excited. She also will get a bus to pick her up and bring her home after the first few weeks, so that makes me so happy that I don't have to drag everyone out of the house each week during the winter! :)

Maddy and Claire are completely potty-trained. Can I get a AMEN?!?! All night, all day, they do great, with no accidents! :) Three in diapers is SO much more manageable and we can't believe how long a box of diapers lasts! Natalee is right behind them and is working hard every day to be fully potty-trained!

The triplets went to camp for two weeks this summer and having only two kids for 3 hours was a breeze. Really, like why would anyone complain? Ha, try five, all day, then tell me your life is hard. ;) They did an adventure camp and then a sports camp. Both were really fun and wore them out like nothing else. And the best part, I didn't cry (and neither did they) the first day I dropped them off! More in a separate post!

We are currently OB-SESSED with Frozen. All day, all night. They know all the words, songs, hand movements, ect.... It's ridiculous. Even Daddy is a little obsessed...did I just say that on here? Yup, sure did!

Speaking of Daddy...he is busy working a lot these days. Every weekend, some nights and when he isn't working he's begging me to let him go hunting or play golf. It's true. He leaves for Maine in a few days for his first hunting trip of the season and despite my hatred of these long hunting trips, it makes it that much easier when I ask to go see Luke Bryan or go to Cancun! ;) So, go ahead dear...fill our freezers with some meat and fish, but hurry up and get back home because I might ready to jump off a bridge by the time you return. Ugh, there isn't enough wine in the world. 

And speaking of me, I am still kickin'. Surprisingly, I make through each day and pass out each night from pure exhaustion. These girls drive me crazy!!!!! I still am learning to sew, slowly but surely. Trying to find more time to myself, but I hate spending time away from the girls, so it's extremely bittersweet and a constant battle. And then another day goes by, and before I know it, it's a new month and so on. Oh well. Gosh time goes so fast.

Here's a little update on each of the girls:

Madelynn: Full of sass, is this girl. Good gracious. Man, she gives a run for my money. Determined and always thinks she is in charge or everyone and everything, despite me telling her that Momma is in charge every.single.day! Wants to play "catch" with Daddy all hours and is so good! 

Claire: My little Momma. She follows me around all day. Talks all day too. Never stops. LOVES to sing and dance. Knows every word to Frozen, no joke. Asks to be "snuggled" all day and always asks "rub my belly momma". Lord, she is so cute. Loves sports but also loves everything girly. Still loves to color and do anything artistic.

Natalee: Talking more and more. Almost potty-trained. Didn't care for sports camp, but LOVES to dance. Still loves to be my helper in anything I do. Head-strong and stubborn at times and still spoiled rotten. Cute as a button, I tell ya. Oh, and she is finally over 25lbs! Ekk, that is something celebrate!

Emily: Talks all day. So advanced. She really isn't a toddler anymore and more a little girl now. She loves snuggling too and will ask to "nuggle" with you all the time. I love it! Still loves her Pooh bear. Loves to sing and dance and her smile lights up my heart. Very determined and loves the word "no". She can be so sweet and then the next minute, you ask her something and she point blank will say, "no, I not" and walk away. Umm, yeah, Maddy has taught her well. ;) I often describe her as more challenging than all four of the others put together, but she is just finding her own.

Anna: This child is proving to be head-strong and going to always be "the baby" for sure. She is still working hard at her PT twice a month to learn how to properly stand, kneel and walk. Everyone comments about how much she looks like her Daddy. No complaints, he was a cutie pie even when he was little, but I gave birth to her, so I know she looks like me too. Loves to clap and scream at her sisters when they take something away from her. Man, can this girl throw a fit at 15 months!!!!!! Oh and, she LOVED the beach!! 

And here is a photo of them all that was taken on Sunday at the zoo! :)

Update

I have been meaning to update for awhile now and with no success. Life is just so busy. The girls are crazy and I NEVER have a minute to breath, let alone sit down for a child-free minute to myself. Ha. 

So, I'll just start with a few things:

1. The girls are all good. They drive me crazy and honestly some days I think they are going to be the death of me! The are talking non-stop and I can barely keep up! They are getting bored with things and then fight with each other, which in turns makes everything much worse. I can't come up with enough stuff to keep them busy and still get things done and make the household run. It just never ends and it's such a struggle to balance it all and trust me, I try. I think I have a pretty good handle on things because I am so OCD, but when it all catches up with me...I sink quickly!

We have gone to the county fair, the cabin last weekend, the farm/pumpkin patch and I haven't blogged or uploaded photos of anything. Yesterday, I finally took the photos off of my camera and there were 365! Phew...so I am slowly going through them, editing and uploading to them to post. Stay tuned, I promise they will all be posted before my surgery.

2. My surgery is one week away (more on that in a min). Tim and I have been preparing in so many ways. We've been doing major clean outs and it's so nice! I love getting rid of junk that just piles up...and then it becomes such a pain, so you just shut the door, ect...(please tell me I'm not alone...)! We loaded up a truck full of junk that went straight to the dump on Saturday and boy was it needed. Tim steam cleaned and mowed the grass, got all the leaves up (the girls loved helping rake leaves!) and we have started getting all of our fall stuff up. I still have some meals to prepare and freeze, more cleaning to do, grocery shopping to do, meal plans for the kids, schedule updating/printing for our "helpers" to read....ugh, it never ends. I need to keep going...

3. Not to mention, if things weren't crazy enough, I am doing all of my tot-swap stuff so that my friend can pick up all my stuff next week. It starts the day of my surgery and to be honest, I can't afford to miss it. I need the money, and I need all this stuff gone and out of my house. I collect stuff for 6 months and I can't miss it or I will have twice as much next time and that just isn't okay! With five girls and all the clothes and toys, it's like a job to keep up with it all, I swear! Sometimes I feel like I am drowning in clothes, toys, stuffed animals...I am so thankful for my friend who is helping me out and taking all of my stuff for me!

4. And the surgery of course has been on my mind. It's getting closer and on Wednesday I go for my pre-op. I have to go all the way to that hospital that I am having the surgery at for it, which kinda sucks but I'll take the 1.5 hour quiet time in the car, alone! :) My surgery nurse called me last week and we started talking for awhile. (I was going on and on, contemplating having the surgery, telling her my fears...I have five little kids...blah, blah, blah...and she basically put it all in perspective for me.) She said I cannot wait any longer for the cancer will get worse. Of course I know that, but it still scary. She gave me my actual diagnosis of Stage 0 Cervical Cancer. So of course, that was a little shocking and it's been hard for that to set in. The doctor did give me the "technical" term but he didn't put it bluntly like that, other than saying something needed to be done "right away". She explained to me that I have a chance of having a higher stage after biopsies are done after the surgery, and then we go from there, then. As always, it's a waiting game. But to say I am not a little scared is an understatement. I have so much to prepare and get done and really I have no clue how my household is going to manage without me. Seriously...I know it may not sound like it's a big deal, but IT IS! I've learned that I can only depend on me and what I do...so being out of commission...I'm not good at it and it freaks me out! It's all becoming a bit much and today I was ready to melt down. UGH! One day at a time...one day at a time....I just have to keep telling myself that it will all work out, but really, how?! UGHHH! 

Sorry for the rant...it's been one of THOSE days. I'm eating a bunch of chocolate chip cookies, watching the news and hopefully will be able to fall asleep!

Update!

I know...I've been a bad blogger over the past few weeks. Sorry! We have been so busy and I have, simply, been completely exhausted. 

The girls are good. They all had stomach viruses that lasted about a week. Luckily it was just diarrhea and Maddie was the only one who threw up once, in the car, five seconds before arriving to Tim's softball game. It was lovely. I had a moment when I was like, where is my mom?!?! But after about 10 days it was all gone from our house, or so we thought.

Tim is good. He then came down with a fever on last Thursday night and he thought he was feeling much better on Friday but when he came home he started getting sick. It lasted all weekend. He didn't move. He was so sick. He basically lived in the bathroom Friday night and all day Saturday. Even on Sunday, I had to pry him out of bed in the afternoon. But, on the good side, he lost 12 pounds, and since then as lost another 3 pounds. He is super excited and so am I! We also celebrated his birthday at the end of April.

Annddd....I'm as good as I can be for 36 weeks pregnant. While Tim was dying in the bathroom last Saturday, I decided I needed a trip to Labor and Delivery, per doctors orders, of course. I will write a post on it with details. Plus I need to share some photos of this big ol' belly and update on weeks 33-36. We're in the countdown now...only 3 weeks until Anna is here, (or sooner...please be sooner!). This pregnancy has taken a toll on my body for sure. I am so glad this is the last and final baby because I am telling you I could not do this again. I am so tried. I am so weak. I am SO out of energy. Some days I am not exaggerating when I say I just want to sit in a corner and cry. But that's life. I get up, shake myself off and on we go. 

Oh and I have been loving my new hobby of sewing. I have taken some sewing classes and just love what I have made so far. I can't wait to learn more and share with everyone what I have made!

So, thank you for those that emailed wondering where we've gone off to...it's been a long and exhausting few weeks. I promise I have updates on all the girls and my pregnancy coming through the rest of the week.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

Did you miss me?

I sure missed all of you! But I didn't miss starring at the computer screen!

Boy, I cannot believe know it's almost been a month since my last post. Geeze!

We have been SO busy around here this summer and I love it!

I wanted to update you all on everything that has been going on in the past month and then I will catch up on all my important posts!

It took the girls awhile to get over that hand, foot and mouth disease and you wouldn't believe it but Tim's feet are STILL peeling! I know - CRAZY! What a horrible virus that was!

Then Tim left for Maine with his Uncle Russ for a 6 days. He had a blast but it was really busy for me. The first few nights I barely slept because I was just nervous being by myself with all the girls overnight, alone. I know, I'm weird, but I don't like being by myself at night, especially when I have to be "the grown up". Don't even get me started if a big thunderstorm comes! Anyway, Tim's wonderful Nana and Aunt Bonnie came down to help me out and it was a lot of fun! Of course my awesome MIL helped a lot too! We had a lot of fun at her house and playing with the girls - photos to come!

Then almost as soon as Tim came home (that day, actually) Madelynn came down with a stomach virus and let's just say it ran it's course through our house and we went through more diapers in that 1.5 weeks than we do in a whole month. Between diapers, wipes, Clorox wipes, Tylenol and laundry detergent...it was a crazy week!

We made a trip to the doctor's office on a Friday afternoon and the weather prediction was for really bad storms and sure enough, after almost two hours at the doctors office with four very sick and upset children we had to bunker down in the halls because of the tornado warnings. There were a bunch of confirmed tornadoes but luckily we were fine. The girls all got weighed though and we officially have two little ladies in the 2o0bs! I cannot believe it! Madelynn was 20lb 10oz, Claire was 20lbs 2oz, Natalee was 17lbs 10oz and Emily was 14lbs!

We have been going to the park, going on walks, playing in our pool (at our house and at Nana's) and enjoying the company of good friends!

Oh and our internet has been out for two weeks and that is why I haven't been blogging or commenting. I apologize! It's going to take me awhile to catch up but I promise I will!

Now just for some randoms:

1. I cannot sleep anymore! I have insomnia so bad. All night! Err!

2. I have about 10 friends that are pregnant. I am so happy for them all. Even though I felt like I was pregnant for two years straight, I still miss it. There is nothing in the world better than growing your child in your belly. Maybe, just maybe there will be a fifth baby one day. I go back and forth. I would love it so many levels but I also feel complete just the way we are. Only time will tell.

3. Even though I haven't been blogging, doesn't mean I haven't been taking photos! :)

4. So looking forward to our mini-trips and vacation coming up. CAN.NOT.WAIT!

5. My sister finally moved out of my parent's house. Can I get an AMEN?! Like, AMEN! She has a cute little apartment in a neighboring town that is just perfect! Me and the girls visited last weekend while Tim was working and had a blast. She even let me escape to Target for a little while and that was awesome!

6. Bad Mom Here - Still haven't taken Emily's 4 Month photos, opps! She will be 5 Months in 11 days. Oh golly!

7. Because every post isn't complete without at least one photo...