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.