One of the crafts Maren made was priced at $80 then slashed to $78. After the girls tried to peddle their handmade good for a good 30 minutes without any luck they decided to take their sales door to door. They finally made their first and only sale to a little neighborhood girl a year younger than they who opted for the .05 price over the two dollar bill price..that is what the sign said either 5 cents or two bills. After a while I told them to come on in and they said that they needed to leave the goods outside just in case somebody came by and put a dollar into their basket. Now that I am thinking about it I should have snuck a dollar into their basket when they weren't looking. I guess I don't feel all that bad because later that afternoon they charged me to watch their performance on the front lawn. I sure hope that when they are 22 they still think their crafts are as pretty as they thought they were today. Yay for the pipe cleaners that kept us very busy today.

Well we finally made it home after 10 hours each way in a car to have Thanksgiving with family. Those long hours in the car lend for many a deep thought. I have always loved Thanksgiving for many reasons but this year I especially could not get the thought out of my mind about how much thoughts and acts of gratitude help to replace those thoughts of inadequacies and feelings of being insufficient. As we drove through Flagstaff, AZ I had flashbacks of the first Thanksgiving trip we took after the triplets were born. After a three hour stop in Flagstaff to get diapers changed and the kids fed I thought we were never going to make it to our final destination. In fact we almost turned round. My girls were hungry and still only two so they needed attention. We settled on The Little America exit where my husband would take the girls to eat at the cafe while I would get the boys fed in the car. Clearly it became a joke and I needed some assistance so I loaded two of them into the stroller while carrying the other and marched into the hotel and asked if I could rent a room for an hour. The person at the front desk said no but that I could rent one of the bathrooms that they had set aside for the truckers. I think I paid $10 for an hour then set off to see my accommodations all while I shook my head thinking, "really a truckers bathroom, has life come to this?". Luckily the bathroom wasn't too bad. I then thought to myself about the fact that I had no business taking such a trip before either the babies were fed with formula or they had hit the one year mark. The whole time I remember at least one of the kids crying. Anyway I was too busy at that time to think about what life would be four years later. As we sped past that same Little America exit on Wednesday I couldn't help but reminisce about that day four years ago. Was I really that girl because certainly in my mind it just seemed like I was peeking into somebody else story. I was feeling like that would not be something I could handle today..but somehow I did it. I then thought about reasons as to why I made it during that time and feelings of gratitude flooded my heart for those who have and continue to help me. I have been blessed to know that there is a purpose of life and a God above who knows each and every single one of us...really He does.

Besh-Ba-Gowah

This weekend we went on a little jaunt over to Besh-Ba-Gowah which is an archeological park located in Globe, AZ. Besh-Ba-Gowah has one of the largest single site archeological collections in the southwest and is one of the most significant finds of Southwest archeology. We had planned on going over to the Tonto ruins as well but found ourselves spending a little more time stuffing chips & salsa amongst other items into our mouths. Oh and we also found ourselves a little lost on lets say a primitive road. It was so great to be able to spend some time together as a whole family. I am pretty sure this will not be the last Indian ruin we will visit. For some strange reason both Waylon and I are very interested in the old Native American ways. Perhaps Waylon's love of the culture stems from his Grandma Brian. Grandma and her parents used to take their grandkids on arrow hunting trips. When I first went to visit Grandma at her home in Loa, UT I remember marveling at the perfectly intact white Indian pot that was displayed in their living room under glass. Great Grandpa Smith had found in along the banks of the Colorado river before they damned it up and made Lake Powell. Grandma donated the piece to BYU before she passed on.

P.S. - Maren & Maile added another rock to their collection. The rock came from the local copper mines.

‎"Motherhood is what God gave me time for." Elder Anderson

I know the above quote to be true for me. Motherhood will be my most noble calling in life and feel extremely blessed to feel this way.

In our home there is a half a room that you can only get to from my bedroom. It is small but is packed full of the sweetest spirit. For this was the space that we hauled in three cribs and the shortly after hauled in three baby boys. Miracles happened in that room. I was just recounting today to a friend about the fact that after two months of Kim and Jaime coming over to take over the 2am feedings during the work week that I finally told them to not come just to see if the babes would sleep longer through the night. I still scratch my head wondering how shortly after that all three of them starting sleeping through the night at the same time without even trying to coax them...it is like they just knew and did it on cue. I didn't even have to break out Baby Wise...which I was prepared to do after using it on the girls. It took one of the girls the full three nights to "learn" their new sleeping patterns. Those were some very long nights. Anyway this last weekend we finally decided to clean up the little room and make it a functioning space. It will be used as the work-out room..ok so I realize it will only be functioning room if we even get our hineys in there. Nonetheless I will always cherish this space and will always have some of the best memories when I am in there. I don't know why I just thought about this but I used to feed the boys in the middle of the night with bottles so that I could get get back to bed quickly. I always sat on the ground next to them right in from of the mirrored closet doors with our body pillows. Another triplet Momma taught me how to use body pillows to feed the babies and it worked like a charm. Now I am thinking about the below picture...I love how I look so dazed. Hiding behind the blanket was my lovely catheter.that thing was AWESOME. I took it with me wherever I went.

boys will be boys

When you have boys you have to figure out how to use the big guns or how to speak their language.

Christian rolled around for 30 minutes without his shirt on after I offered repeatedly to help him get dressed. Now we were in danger of being late for school. Then I remembered all of their infatuations with their Dad's big Jeep toy that sits outside and rots. What was a mother to do? That is when I said, "All right boys if you are all dressed then I will take you to Miss Violeta's in the big Jeep. I smiled all the way to the Jeep after I witnessed the results that were happening right before my eyes. This wasn't the first time I'd used this tactic and probably won't be the last I reckon. Two of my older man neighbors got a kick out of watching the sight of us loading up that they had to come and inquire of what the special occasion was to fire up Jeepy. I wonder if they saw me having a hard time getting out of first gear as we jerked back and forth. Sheesh the things we do as mothers.

P.S. - While driving to school, Christian corrected my usage of calling the Jeep a car by saying, "Mom it is not a car it is a truck Jeep". His Dad would be proud.

quiet moments

Everything was so quiet. I had just dropped the boys off the preschool after a rough 24 hour bout of mothering. I have completely not been playing my best Mom game these last few days. There usually isn't very much that can get me to slow down but this morning I had already given in to the fact the I just didn't want to do anything today...like nothing..like sit on the couch and watch movies all day kind of nothing. I was not in the mood to execute all of the busyness that I had already had outlined...just have plain lost my mojo. As I walked around observing the mess that I clearly needed to pick up but did not want to pick up, I wondered if life is extra hard because of having 3 four year old boys or was there something else I need to be doing that would help me snap out of this little slump? I mean I don't know any different and think I have pretty great stamina but I also think it may be a little hard right now with all of these little kids in the same age bracket...but not quite sure though. Then I looked over at the window in dining area and saw Maile's kitty cat and her polka dot blankets that she has had from birth and that helped to spark something in my mother heart that gave me a little extra push to just keep on trying. I am so thankful for those quiet moments that help me when I just want to give in to life.

California

My camera went a little whack - a - do and I lost the majority of my pictures from our recent trip to California. What I really do not want to loose is the memory of all of us in a small hotel room. Every single day after we came back from our activities, the kids were beat so they actually fell asleep very quickly. We made a nice little beds out of sleeping bags for the boys. They still seem tho sleep better close together so the sight of 3 little kids sleeping close together on that sleeping bag is my favorite. Maile and Christian were partial to the beach and Maren loved the ferris wheel at Knott's Berry Farm.

As much as I almost wanted to go a little crazy from the whining and little spats that the kids had I realized that I was very lucky to have all of these kids very close in age... should make vacations fun being that everyone should be on the same page as far as all of the activities they want to do.

This week I will be focusing on all of the positive things because life as a Mom has been a little trying. My nerves are extra sensitive these days I suppose.

Dont Leave Me...But Just Kidding..But Not...

Miss Violeta is having a hard time telling the boys apart.

That's funny.

I had the worst but best feeling in my heart when I left them for their first day of preschool. Can't wait to see what transpires this year. I am so glad that I still get them all to myself for "Field Trip Fridays". What I am really wondering is if this is it for me. When you have a grouping of kids in 2 years they just seem to leave really, really fast. Still wondering what it would be like to have just one baby..hmmmm.

They are so stinkin' cute.

wildflowers

It is very hard for me to sit still for too long. We had been at Grandma and Papa's house out in the middle of no where for a couple of weeks so it seemed that I had gotten to the point to where I could only go a couple of days of staying at the homestead before I had to just get in the car and go somewhere. The fact that I didn't want to wear out my welcome just fueled the footloose and fancy-free way that I already lean towards. Besides I like the freedom that a car provides and sometimes I feel my best when I am behind the wheel. I had long told the kids about Fish Lake so decided to pack a lunch and spend the day exploring. The first place we came upon was a grove of trees with the roots exposed. It looked like we were in some kind of enchanted forest. We then made our way over the bridge and that is when we came upon the most beautiful patches of wildflowers. I love wildflowers. In fact when I was married I wanted everything to be full of greenery and wildflowers. We picked a few to bring back to Grandma and hoped they would stay nice until the ride home. The flowers proved to be quite hearty indeed. I think hearty and beautiful make a great combination. Anyway we walked around and did plenty of exploring. I'm sure we were not hard to miss especially with those little flutes a tooting everywhere we went. Finally Maren and Maile gave the flutes a rest and they somehow made their way under my belt and when we went to the old store at Fish Lake again the old man selling the Smokey the Bear items inquired as to where the flutes went because he could not hear them this time around. We truly must have made our mark the first time around with all of our tootin' and hollerin'. I wouldn't classify ourselves as the quiet type anyway but sometimes I become a little numb to how noisy we really are. I am just glad that when we got home we had something to offer Grandma so that her senses would be diverted from her ears to her eyes and nose with the beautiful wildflowers.

Wellsie, Wellsie, Wellsie -

I woke up this morning hoping you did not pee pee in your bed because I did not put a Pull-Up on you in fear of disturbing your sweet slumber. You see I found you yesterday evening at 5 pm all ready for bed. I tried to get you up to eat dinner with no luck. Don't worry though I did take off your boots, blazer and hat...which by the way was such a great look with those shorts. I wouldn't recommend wearing that little get-up again until the weather cools down though.

Lots of loves, hugs and kisses.

Love,

Mom

1st grade and nonsense

Today was the day. First time for ALL day school. First day to eat lunch in the cafeteria. I felt I went easy on these two today...only a half sandwich, chocolate milk, applesauce, cashew bites, chocolate covered granola square, water and a fruit snack. They better not get used to that. I told them they get carrot sticks tomorrow.

I noticed the following few differences in my girls this morning:

One got right in the shower without a fight..opposite day for the other.

One insisted on her shirt tucked in..the other out.

One said no way to any sort of hair accessory..the other would have worn five at one time.

One would not wear socks while the other could not live without them.

One wanted a kitty and a puppy on her folder..the other wanted a picture of a bug eyed cartoon girl in her bathing suit by a dolphin..with brightly colored peace signs.

As I drove away from the school this morning I took great comfort in the fact that they both were sitting right next to each other in nestled in their little desks on the front row.

Back to the girls school folders..I am still smiling about the little scenario that transpired after the girls came home from buying their school supplies with their Dad. After Maren walked out Maile came up to me and made sure that I was aware that she likes "nature and stuff "and that is why she chose animals and flowers. Then after a moment of silence she said "I don't buy the same kind of nonsense that Maren buys" (referring to Bratz looking type dolls). I had I good laugh inside. Seriously she had just called her sisters choice of school supplies "nonsense".