Sheepdogs in the creek

The 1st one is named Cowboy. We wanted to name him Rooster Cogburn but it just didn't feel right. The second one is just a pup, his name is Buckshot or Bucky for short. These used to be sheepdogs. Now they are mud dogs. Yuck! They have been in the creek behind our house.This would be a good time to take them to get their spring hair cuts, muhwahahah!

Dancing at Breakfast

This is one of my favorite clips of the girls so far. I know-Ava looks as if she is chewing her cud while she is dancing. It is a blueberry pancake, being chewed for the first time. 2nd on the clip is Piper who stops dancing and then starts again and the last little girl would be Chloe. Chloe was sick that morning, therefore no dancing or eating, just a sweet little smile and a shake of the finger. She was saying "hey don't film me when I don't feel well."

A Bit of Crafty Repurposing, Is That a Word?

Last Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave Logan a bag of blocks, that were foam with a wood look. Awesome because they looked like wood but the kids couldn't use them for weapons and they wouldn't cause injury from being thrown, not that any body here would throw toys-yea right. So anyway, the zipper broke on the plastic bag pretty quickly. Bummer.

Logan has a fleece half zip Spiderman sweatshirt that he really likes and it's too small for him. Wha-La make a block bag from it. EZ PZ! Chop off the sleeves and make a handle with the Spiderman from the sleeve placed on the top of the handle. Sew up the bottom and sleeve holes. The zipper is there to open up for piling in the blocks and then zip up so they don't fall out. I left the neck open so it's kinda like a "bag". He loves it and the blocks are not spilling out all over any more.

The Oatmeal Stand, The Turd and my PMS

First off when I say the "turd" I'm not talking about one of my kids-this time. There was actually a real piece of poop. I know the anticipation is killing you, where was it you are wondering?! Well, it was on the shelf by the changing table. I found it there this morning when I was laying out the baby outfits. It was all covered in baby powder and kinda looked like a Mexican Wedding cookie. But no it was poop, had it been a cookie I would have eaten it. I can only assume that somebody(not me) changed a diaper and lay the diaper on the shelf, this happens a lot and when it's a diaper changer of the male species they often leave the diaper there for me to come along and dispose of. So I probably picked up the diaper last night and the cookie-poop rolled out and lay on the shelf overnight. What a wonderful way to start to my morning.

I don't feel well today, I have PMS or PMDD or whatever. I just want to put a sign on my neck that says "leave the alone or else". I used to think it was really lame when the girls in gym class got a note to skip p.e. because of cramps. What? Just deal with it and take some Tylenol like I do. Well, 25 years later I want my note!!! I want excused for the day, and tomorrow too. I want to go to bed and eat ice cream and sleep! Tylenol doesn't work for what I have. I eat Midol like it's candy just to stay awake and keep from ripping somebody's head off. I can feel it on my face, it must look like I am pissed. I am smiling while I sing and play with the babies and pretend that things like poop don't bother me. I crave chocolate. I am bloated. I am exhausted. I asked my Dr. about it and he gave me Lexapro last year. I couldn't remember to take it so I quit. I need something that I can take on these few days before my period-no I won't drink while I am in charge of the littles, any other suggestions?

The picture you see might look like a smashed up empty diaper wipes container. Don't be fooled. It's clearly an oatmeal stand. Considering my previously mentioned mood and the fact that I am really not supposed to be lifting all the babies yet. I decided to make instant oatmeal and feed it to them from the living room chair. No messy hands/no lifting and no cleaning of the highchair trays! It worked out pretty good except for the brawl over the "oatmeal stand" apparently oatmeal tastes much better if you eat it while elevated on a stand and smoosh yourself in the armpit of the person spooning it out. Who knew?

I think I smell a batch of Mexican wedding cookies brewing so I better go for now.

Big and Little

Mama with Chloe

Chloe is in the middle for height.

Piper is the tallest and Ava is the shortest. This may all change as they get older of course. When they were born Piper was the teeny little one at 3lbs. 13 oz.

Just cute

Libby Lou and Buckshot

Piper

Ava and Chloe

Piper

Ava

Ava with a runny nose (oops)

Chloe

Boys are gross........

I had my first son 19 years ago. I have had a houseful of boys for the last 15 or so years including stepsons and some foster sons. See a theme here? All boys.We had a combination of 6 boys and 3 foster sons when we decided to try for a girl. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. We got 3 girls. Nothing scares me or shocks me anymore- when it comes to children anyway, and boys are gross. I actually figured that out in elementary school when a class mate who shall remain nameless ate paste in Kindergarten, another boy ate boogars, one swallowed a live fly and yet another smashed some guppies with his thumb. That last one still grosses me out to think about it. I have to add that the guppy killer is a very successful business man today and as far as I know has not became a serial killer. My little darling Austin gather some pigs tails and shoved them into his coat pocket when he was about 2yrs old. He was with my dad who was docking the tails of the baby pigs. This is a common practice, if the tails are left long-the other pigs will chew them and they will become infected or whatever. I have never again stuck my hand into the pockets of anybody elses clothing. I will wash your gum, wallet, ink pen or any other thing you may forget to take out because my rule is empty your own pockets. THE PICS ARE FROM TODAY, I COULD ADD COUNTLESS PICS OF FROGS AND OTHER BOYISH THINGS BUT THEY ARE ON THE OTHER COMPUTER, ANOTHER DAY I GUESS. AUSTIN WAS SHOWING OFF HIS FRESH SUNBURN AND DOESN'T KNOW MOM IS ADDING IT TO THE BLOG. :)

Child proofing for triplets is impossible!

If you leave them for a moment there is trouble. You have to though-how else will they get fed, how would I go to the bathroom or at least keep a path to walk through in the house? So the solution is to baby proof the entire house right? HOW? So far we have went through every style and brand of drawer latches and none of them are triplet proof, at least not for these 3! We have a dresser in the living room because of the lack of space in the too small house we live in-you do what ya gotta do, ya know? So anyway, we had to turn the dresser around to face the wall because they just would not stop dumping the drawers. Here are some pics of the dresser facing the wall and you can see the first set of dumb things that did not work. They were adhesive straps, they ripped them off within minutes and then proceeded to pick and pull until the sticky part was completely off.

I recall watching one of those multiples shows years ago on TLC or something, (I'm thinking it was the Dilley 6 but I'm not sure) the parents had put the baby gates on the door 2 high and then greased the bars so they couldn't climb them. I used to think that was a bit extreme but now I completely understand. I see the wreck that 3 can make I can't stand to think about 6 at one time. But then again I do this by myself with the 3 all day.

The chicken outhouse is coming down!

I like chickens. More than chickens, I love having and endless supply of fresh eggs, I know what the birds are eating and how they are treated, I like the darker color of the yolks from them getting to run around and eat grass. I love to watch them chase bugs and it's fun to throw out some popcorn or scraps to them. A couple of weeks ago we had a bad week with the coyotes. There happens to be a large pack of them that live in the timber that surrounds our home. They had been staying away because of our 2 sheepdogs, but this year the pack is bigger and braver. I lost my Easter egger a couple of months ago, she was one of my favorite hens, she laid blue-green eggs. They recently wiped out my male goose and all 11 hens in a matter of 8 nights. We gave away the female goose this weekend because she was lonely and really needed to go to a farm with other geese. So now we have no poultry at all. SO, the hillbilly chicken coop has got to go. It really served it's purpose well but it looked like an outhouse. Austin worked hard on it last summer and really utilized the scrap lumber we had along with whatever else was free. What can I say, we are on such a tight budget with so many kids and one income and besides I tend to lean toward the green side, I am the moderator of our county Freecycle group. The yard looks like a trash heap right now and needs a lot of work. Austin is taking care of a lot of that and Levi is jumping in when he can, it's his nature to be destructive so tearing down things is fun for him. 

My goal is to take the yard from Hillbillyville to a great fenced in play area for the littles. It will be done soon I hope. Here are a few pics of the progress. I plan on starting up with chickens and a huge garden when the girls are a little bit older and require less of my undivided attention, when will that be?

I will not let them win!

I woke up before the girls and loaded my system with caffeine before I heard the first chatters coming from the bedroom. I had the sippies full and set out I had some Fruit Loops sitting out for them and already took some Advil. I was pumped and ready to take them on.

As soon as the bus drove away with the 2 older boys on board, I heard the monkey talk beginning. As oldest ds lay in bed NOT helping me lift and chase I went to let them out of their cribs. I swiftly changed and dressed all 3 without a fuss. 5 min. later Chloe was completely naked. Great, I learned yesterday that after 2 weeks of containing her in turtle neck onesies that she had figured out how to slither out of them too. She does not unsnap them she goes out the neck hole. That's whey I had to go from regular onesies to the turtle necks. She is like the Houdini of clothing. So after chasing her down and taping her diaper up (we are still using disposables until I can safely carry the bucket up and down the stairs by myself to wash the cloth) and re-dressing her about 3 times I found a pair of bib overalls to put on her. I had them cinched up to the max so she couldn't easily slide her arms out. Don't get me wrong they were not uncomfortable but the strap wasn't about to slide down her arm. Boy was she pissed! She has stayed dressed the rest of the day so far but when she figures those out I am prepared to turn them around and let her wear them backwards. She and Piper already wear their zip up jammies turned around so the zipper is in the back, the feet had to be cut off to do that but that's better than finding out that they slept naked half the night because they woke up and took off all their jammies and diaper. Yea, that happened.

Easter Bunny purses and bean bag

I stayed up waaay too late on Sat before Easter sewing some bunny purses for the girls and a bean bag for Logan. They turned out sweet but Logan thought the bean bag was dumb because it didn't "do" anything. I said if the Easter bunny heard him say that he would leave bunny poops in his basket next year.

The evolution of the cake pop.

Last night after the little ones went to bed I stayed up to dip the cake pops. I will never make them again. Bakerella has an addiction to them but then again I don't recall her having 6 kids including almost 2 yr old triplets, she must have more time on her hands. I am all for creative activities but this one sucked for me. I baked the cakes the day before, rolled them into balls and put in the freezer for a short time just like I was supposed to and when I dipped them that's when bunny hell broke loose.

First I had to use "good n plenty" candies for the ears because there was no store withing a 20 mile radius that had any pastel candy corn. So right away they were "off" Levi tells me that they looked more like gerbils than rabbits. Gee thanks. So Levi my 13 yr old smart mouth son is helping. Anything to stay up past his bed time. He is holding them after I coat them and he starts freaking out saying "I think it's going to fall off in to the dip! What if it does?" I calmly say, "I will punch you in the head if you drop it into the almond bark." He replies "yea, but then I will drop the other one too." At that point he starts laughing like a hyena. As he laughs the rabbits on sticks he is holding over the dipping chocolate start shaking violently as his laughter is out of control. He is tired and when he gets tired he does like me, and gets really loopy. So I am begging my husband to come in and replace him because once he starts to laugh it's just over. Gary says no he has no interest in decorating Easter Gerbils on stick and wants to know why I just don't send some crackers to school or something. ! What! just send crackers on Logan's special snack day? That would be so lame. Not like I could pull some special magical crackers out of the pantry anyway but I'd rather die than send some saltines on my poor little boys snack day. He gets ripped off a lot because of the whole troop of little sisters thing happening. The poor kid-he was so great about it too. I really tried to include him as much as possible in every single thing I did when the girls were little. We have some pics of him asleep on my lap with all the babies too.

But anyway back to the cake pops, they were too heavy and about half of them were falling off the sticks, I guess I made them too big. So I ended up putting them all in cupcake papers and pulling the ones off the sticks that had survived. I wanted them to all be the same so that's how they went to school the next morning. Logan said all his friends at them so I guess they were OK. The left over ones were made into cake ball kabobs by Levi and snarfed up almost immediately. Next time I'm sticking to cupcakes or some wonderful store bought treat.