Back to "Normal"

All dressed up for church, wearing their scarves from Aunt Pauline. :) (EAH)

Hailey in Ryan's sweatshirt. :)

Well I think we're back to "normal" around here. Ryan ended up getting sick the night of my birthday....and then somehow Hailey never got sick! I don't know HOW she managed that one but it's GREAT! All I know is it is SOOO much better dealing with the stomach flu when we all get it on different days. Last year was the WORST when we all got it the same time on the same day!!!

We are still hanging out in the bathroom a LOT as far as potty training goes. Emily and Addison both pooped on the potty the other day so we get SOO excited when that happens that we have to call Daddy at work to tell him. :) Em was hilarious. She tells you that she went "poops on the potty" and then you say "yay!" and then she says "My push it ouuuutt." So funny. :) Emily and Addy are doing awesome with it but Hailey is off and on with it. Sometimes, she tells me and goes on the potty and sometimes she just has an accident. Oh well - she'll get it right?! I know she knows how to hold it...it's just a matter of her wanting to stop playing to go to the bathroom. We're getting there! It's just hard remembering who went when because half the time they ALLL come in the bathroom but that doesn't mean they all go...so then it's tricky remembering who went when and who I have to take back to the bathroom 10 minutes later! You know I've been living in the bathroom too much when I asked someone at a store where the "potty" was and I was all by myself. So embarrassing! :)

And then there's bedtime. The girls have been doing great at night in their big beds..but naptime has been a struggle and I am NOT ready to give that up! They've been climbing in each other's beds and taking things off the walls and having WAY too much fun in there. So then I started putting them back in their cribs for naps...but then they jump around and get hyper in there too so that doesn't work. It takes forever getting them to fall asleep. This is the usual process.

Potty for all of them. All 3 go in cribs. Wait a little bit. Go back upstairs and tell them to stop jumping and lay down. Wait a little while. Go back upstairs and take one of them out of the crib and put her in her big bed. She falls asleep. The other two still goof around. Go back and put the 2nd one in the big bed too now that the 1st one has fallen asleep. Sometimes this works okay and the 2nd one falls asleep in her big bed and the 3rd falls asleep in her crib. But SOMETIMES, the 2nd one crawls into bed w/ the sleeping 1st one and wakes her up. NOOOTTT a happy mom at this point. I forgot to add in the random "I have to go potty AGAINNN" comments. It's so hard when they are potty training because you never know if they REALLY have to go or if they are just working the system and trying to get out of bed! Ahh! It'd probably be the best if they could each have their own room for naptime...but that's not possible so we'll see what we can do. :)

Anyways - enough rambling today...better get some stuff done!

My Birthday Weekend

Hi! Well I'm the big 29 today. I better make this year a good one since it's the last one in my twenties! Ahh! Can't believe how fast life goes by. I'm so thankful though...and feel so so blessed, mostly with an incredible family and amazing friends!

This past weekend, my mother in law gave Jody and I our birthday presents. We got to go to a Spa getaway weekend with the 3 of us up in Kohler, WI! It was an AMAZING spa and we had a great time. SUCH a treat! I have the best in-laws ever! But, I must not have been able to handle all of the relaxation because Saturday morning, I woke up with the stomach flu!!! BLEH!!! NOOOTTTT fun at all! We had to leave earlier than we planned then so that was NOT fun. But, I just came home and slept all day and all night. Then Sunday I felt fine! This all started because Emily woke up in throw up on Thursday morning...and then was pretty much fine the rest of the day. So I guess I got what she had. No...it wasn't morning sickness. Ha. :)

But THEN, yesterday ADDY woke up from her nap saying her "tummy hurt." She was laying on Ryan...and then threw up ALLLLL over him. Not pretty. But it makes me laugh now when I think about how it all went. Oh man. So she threw up like 5 times last night. Then, my bday started off today w/ Ry bringing me a Starbucks which I LOVEEEE...and then Addy having diarrhea in her underwear and then throwing up. Ohhh man....i HOPE Hailey doesn't get it! Especially today!!!!

Thanks for all the bday wishes already! It's helping! :)

Potty Training Update

Hi there! Sorry I've been slacking at taking pictures lately. Maybe it's cuz we've seriously been living in the bathroom! :) Here's the latest on the girls' potty training progress. :)

Emily - She's doing so great! I feel like she was born for this! (Ha - well maybe we all are..but still...she's a natural!) :) She caught on quickly and tells me every time she has to go. I don't even have to ask her if she has to go. The only time she has an accident is when she poops. How do I poop train now????

Addison - It took Addy a little longer to catch on...but I think it was this past Friday that it clicked for her! So great! Now she is also staying very dry and tells me every time she has to go - even when we're out shopping! This is great - but it also makes things a bit more complicated when I try to wheel my honkin' triple stroller into the tiny bathroom stall by myself only to have her go a tiny bit. Oh the joys. :) The girls also LOVE going potty RIGHT when we get them all strapped in and ready to eat dinner. And it never fails that they all have to go like 3 times before bed which makes for a VERY long and kind of stressful bedtime routine. It is just wild everyday in the bathroom. I wish I could film the chaos for all of you. I have to be on my toes to make sure the entire roll of TP doesn't go in the one toilet....while also making sure that while I'm wiping one girl, I'm making sure the other one doesn't dump her pot of pee onto the floor or on to her sister. It's just crazy!

Hailey - Hailey has me so confused! So...she caught on very quickly, was pee trained for like 5 days straight with hardly any accidents...and then all of the sudden, the day that Addison got it, Hailey decided to regress. I don't get it! It's like all of the sudden she's not interested! Accidents around the clock and she doesn't even act like she cares if she's soaking wet! So weird!!! So...the past 4 days, Hailey has been living in pull ups because I got sick of cleaning up messes. But ...I"m hopeful...because today was the first day in a few days that she started going on the potty again..so here's hoping!!!!

I'll try to get some pics of something other than our bathroom up soon. :) Oh - and thanks to my sister Kara for "remodeling" the blog for me! Love it Sis!!! :)

Yay Hailey!

Hooray!!!! Hailey is getting the hang of it today! She is doing SO much better so I'm so excited cuz I SO wanted to give up the other day with all the accidents! She has only had an accident when I haven't been paying attention to her. She's doing MUCH better! Addy is still having loads of accidents so we'll see if it catches on later this week.... At least she's still clapping and cheering for her sisters when they go! :)

So funny how their little personalities come out even with potty training.

Emily just gets right down to business. She knows when it's coming, runs there, and goes right away. Give out a HUGE smile. Then straight back to playing.

Hailey runs to the potty. Sits on one little potty. Decides she doesn't like the feel of that one. Moves on to the big potty. Nope, she likes the look of the OTHER little potty. So then she gets down and goes to the little potty...then plays with the toilet paper....and THEN she goes. And then as SOON as she starts going she says "M&M mommy?" Hailey is also good at trying to out-smart me. She goes a tiny bit..then gets an M&M...then says "potty 'gain Mommy." Then she goes a tiny bit more...and then gets ANOTHER M&M. That little stinker. :)

And then Addison wants her privacy. She does the best when it's just her and I in the bathroom and she can shut the door. When her sisters are around and everyone is in there, (which is like all the time) throwing toilet paper and switching potties and everything, then she doesn't go. I don't blame her! :)

Oh and P.S., the best part about potty training triplets and all of this running around...I've lost 4 lbs since we started! HA! :)

1 Down, 2 to go!

I think Emily is trained! She didn't wet her underwear the ENTIRE day! The only time she did was when she had to go #2! I think this is AMAZING!!!! She is SUCH a big girl! I love how she runs up to me saying "Potty Mommy!" And then I drop WHATEVER I'm doing - (I burnt more food) and sprint with her to the bathroom. Then she gets this HUGE smile on her face as soon as she starts going. Addison and Hailey are getting there....we just have to hang in there....so exciting!

Our New Home - the BATHROOM.

Just a heads up - you may not want to read any further is you don't feel like hearing a lot about the wet and dirty pants of my girls.

Okay, wow. I'm exhausted and it's only 2 in the afternoon! What a day! It all started yesterday afternoon. I caught Hailey like one SECOND after she was done pooping in her diaper. They always tell me right AFTER they go in their diapers so I knew they were getting close to being able to be potty trained. Well, I went on a little 'schpeel' about how she should tell me BEFORE she goes and then she'd be a BIG girl and all of that. I thought, maybe if I let them see their big girl underwear, then maybe that would be an incentive to going on the potty. Well, my "showing them" their underwear led to them crying "wear it! wear it!" So...then I thought, "oh I'll just let them try a pair on." Well of course, once it was on, they were NOT going to let me take off their pretty princess underwear only to put on an uncomfortable and ugly diaper! And then I thought "uh - oh. I think I'm going to be potty training my triplets this weekend. AHH!"

So...let me just give you a recap of my morning. I feel like I just ran a marathon. At one point, I really was sweating. :) Okay - so this morning, they wake up and immediately want their "Uh-wah-dare" ('underwear' - for some reason, they all are not capable of saying this word correctly no matter how hard we try to teach them). :) Anyway, so they get in their underwear and start to play. I start giving them loads of juice so that they will have to go more often so that they can feel what it feels like more frequently so that they will train faster - right? Hopefully anyway. :) So, after only a couple minutes of playing, bam - accident. I run dripping Hailey to the potty so she can finish there. While I'm wiping her down and cleaning her up, Emily has an accident and Addy has now stepped in Hailey's accident because I hadn't had a sec to clean that up yet. So...I run Emily to the potty so she can finish. Then try to put Hailey in some new underwear but now the girls have gotten picky. I guess white underwear with pink trim and a princess in the middle is NOT as cool as solid pink underwear with princesses all OVER the underwear. So it takes a while getting her dressed again. Then Emily starts screaming for me to take her off the big potty so I run back to her. By this time, Addison has now had an accident and so I rush her to the potty. By this point I don't even REMEMBER where Hailey AND Emily had an accident! Then I start cleaning Addison up....get clothes on Emily....put all the clothes in the laundry...clean up the mess "piles" and then back to playing for a couple more minutes. I timed it for a while - we were in the bathroom every FOUR minutes with either one, two, or all three of the girls. Oh man. Okay so then, we start playing in the playroom again, Emily sitting on my lap...you know where this is going. All of the sudden, I'm soaking wet. So now I have to change Emily and MY pants too! I had to do 2 loads of laundry before 10 o'clock. Crazy! So after I finish cleaning Emily and myself up in the bathroom, I come back to the playroom and smell poop. Ohhhhh no.....Hailey went poop in her underwear! I knew it was bound to happen and that's all part of the training process but GROSS! :) I looked at the clock - and it was only 8:30!!!!! So...Addy and Emily were VERY curious about all of this and I think they got motivated NOT to ruin their pretty underwear because later on in the morning, Addison actually did a full out poop on the potty!!! I was seriously jumping up and down you should have seen me. They get one M&M if they pee on the potty and two if they poop. So....needless to say, this whole process continued ALLLL morning long. I feel like today is FLYING by because I have hardly sat down for a second! I have to seriously be on my toes like every minute watching to see if they have to go or not. It is SO busy! I even tried to make Grilled Cheese for lunch which was a horrible idea because as soon as I had the sandwiches on the stove, 2 of the 3 girls had to go potty....so then the whole process takes a while...and then next thing you know, my grilled cheese sandy's were about on fire. Oh well - no time to make new ones so we all ate burnt sandwiches - the girls didn't complain so I went for it!

It's amazing how fast the girls are already learning though. It's been one crazy morning but seriously - they've already come so far. Emily seems like she totally gets it already. She hasn't had an accident for a while. It's so cute - she comes running over to me - full speed - says "Potty Mommy Potty!!" So then I sprint with her to the bathroom and then she goes! SOOO proud of them! So I think Emily really gets it - I feel like it won't be long for her. And the fact that Addison understood pooping on the potty was amazing! She has NEVER done that before! Or maybe I was just VERY lucky - either way, she's starting to get it too. Hailey had the slowest start. I was about to give up with her but I know I can't. She was wetting herself every 5 minutes for a while I bet. But, for the past 2 hours, she's been very good so we'll see!

I definitely didn't plan on potty training this weekend...but I guess that's good. Because if I got to choose WHEN to do it, I would never do it! Who wants to deal with messes and literally LIVE in the bathroom for a few days?!!! The girls are definitely excited about it though....and so excited for each other too. It's so cute - whenever one of them starts going....the other two start clapping and cheering "Yay!!!" They even clap and cheer when I go on the potty too. I love it. :)

So...hopefully my boot-camp potty training weekend will continue to get easier. We could use some prayers over here if you think of it. I especially need lots of patience, perseverance and sanitizer! :) :) I just keep telling myself "This will be worth it." Right? Now, they are sound asleep in their big girl beds with a diaper on OVER their underwear in hopes that if they go, they'll still feel their wet underwear..and hopefully learn faster. I can't BELIEVE I am POTTY TRAINING TRIPLETS!!!! THIS IS SOOO NUTS!!!

Now - on to mopping the floors and another load of laundry!!! :)

Here's a pic of Hailey, Emily, and Addy today - all in their 8th pair of pants? They are soo happy and so proud of themselves though!

Oh! And I forgot to tell you about my road trip last weekend to Sioux Falls, SD! All by myself! It was great! 7 hours of peace and quiet! So refreshing! Grandma Kathy watched the girls on Friday and then Ryan had them all weekend. I went to SD to see my best friend Heather who just had the sweetest baby boy Tyler in December. It was SOOO great to see her and Evan as parents and to be able to love on their little boy. I really do feel like he's my nephew! Basically, all we did was sit and chat and hold him but I loved every minute!!! My mom said that I was going to come home and want another baby. And she was right!!! I do!!! However, after this potty training experience, I might have to re-think that idea!! :) Love and miss you Baby Ty!!!

"Auntie Shelly" and Baby Tyler
Heather and I
And this is very random - but this is a pic looking out our front window yesterday. Yes - there are ELEVEN deer in our front yard. There were actually 12 but I couldn't get them all on one shot. Unfortunately, this is not a rare occurence in our yard. We usually see about 3 deer a day....and then about once a week we see 12 to 14 deer. It's nuts! The girls love it though ..as it provides a lot of entertainment. The girls say over and over and over again "Go home deer!!"