Christmas Card Outtakes

Where's Lily?

Momma and Memo sleepy eyes.

Holden spies a mouse. David is still doing a remarkable job of holding onto Evan so that he doesn't run off, yet looking nonchalant.

Ho Ho Ho

Getting ready for the Christmas holidays. Lily and Evan got fresh hair cuts today, well overdue. And we may just try to get a family holiday photo this weekend. If anything like our prior attempts we will just do individual photos this year. I'll post some Christmas photo outtakes in a bit.

Afterward the kids ran around and enjoyed the Christmas decorations.


And Holden enjoyed some peace and quiet while we were out. By the way, he adores his new big kid bedding. I wish I had videoed him when we showed him his new bed. He was ecstatic, squealing and jumping on the bed for over thirty minutes, pointing out the buses, motorcycles and cars. We couldn't get him to leave his room. He always was happy to go to bed, but now he is even more eager to jump in at naptime or bedtime. And the boys are more than green with envy. Evan wants a big bed too, but will have to wait a bit longer. I'm not quite ready to buy three more twin beds and bedding for our three big kids.

If you are wondering why Holden has a big bed and the kids are still in their toddler beds, it is because Holden never did take to his crib, he transitioned from our bed to a twin bed next to his toddler bed. He would never sleep in it. I've been planning on moving Lily into his room and him in with the boys, but I finally realized that it was going to be later than sooner and that I should probably finish the room as a little boy's room for now. And my efforts were greatly rewarded with smiles, kisses and big a 'Tank you mommy!'

Oh Christmas Tree

We followed our annual tradition and selected our Noble Fir Christmas tree today at the Optimist Club. Our escapade was caught on tape by the local news, full story here.

Giving Thanks

Turkey Trot for Caritas of Austin 2009

I am overflowing with gratitude...

for our health and the health of our loved ones
for our strength to run 5 hilly miles with our children and 14,500 Austinites
for the blessing of our children, family and close friends
for the gift of a gorgeous day for our Thanksgiving
for grammy's juicy turkey with delicious stuffing and some warm apple pie to fill our bellies


Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving.

Leopard Attack and a Visit with Grandma

Last week we took an impromptu visit to the San Antonio Zoo to meet up with GG who was in town for a few days to help her cousin who was having surgery. Sometimes spontaneous excursions end up being the most fun. In our case this was true. The weather was great, the zoo uncrowded, everyone was in a good mood and we had a terrific time.

We even had a bit of exciting drama. Will was attacked by a Black Leopard (Sam), twice. Thank goodness for Plexiglas. And fortunately Will was not traumatized by the attack, he asked GG if he would do it again, one more time please. He was pretty excited about the Leopard incident, 'he chased me and grabbed me.' My mom said his open jaws were larger than Will's head.

A leopard attack and a visit by Grandma, really what more could you ask for?




Holden saying 'All Aboard!'


The petting zoo complete with brushes to tend to the friendly goats.


Butterfly exhibit.



Frog pond viewing.

Soccer Practice

It has been like pulling teeth to get the kids to participate in their soccer classes. I thought they would love it but they would rather hide behind my legs. They have each played intermittently on different days. Today Will and Lily played for most of the practice. Maybe next week Evan will be more excited about it.

Friends

The triplets refer to each other as 'my friend' or 'my Lily' as in 'These are my friends Memo and Evan' and 'Where is my Lily?'.

Here Memo is comforting his friend and sister Lily who I had just put in time out for pushing him. He told me he that Lily was sad and he wanted to go talk to her. I took this photo of them talking with my zoom.

Festivities

I'm happy, and somewhat relieved, to report that the kids had a wonderful Halloween. I was a little worried about how the 'costuming' would all work out.


I have fond memories of my childhood costumes. My mom always made me the best costumes. I remember when in a preschool play I desperately wanted to be a cat but was selected as a witch. My mom appeased me by making my costume a 'friendly' witch complete with orange fringe and pockets which held a special place in my heart at the time, perfect as they are for unexpected treasures. And anyway, I ended up happy as a clam.


Well, I too wanted my children to adore their costumes.


The problem is that three year olds are not terribly decisive, or rather, they are extremely decisive yet fickle.

Evan had the broadest fluctuation in costume ideas, from fireman to cupcake, with red ballerina and captain hook somewhere in the mix.


Will wanted to be a pumpkin, then 'i want whiskers and a tail mommy', then 'a captain', then a 'witch'. The last couple days before Halloween he became insistent on the pumpkin costume with 'a green car vitamin' hmm, that one still has me stumped. But I resisted because my mom intuition told me that if I had a pumpkin for Will and then he saw Evan's fireman jacket that he would not be a happy camper.


Lily wanted to be a pumpkin, a ballerina, a princess, and Wendy from Peter Pan.

Lily had some good options in her dress up box and I was leaning towards fireman costumes for the boys. They love fire engines just like every other three year old boy. Luckily Clare found two jackets on sale at Target so we had that option ready for them.

Just before it was time to go trick or treating I laid out two choices for each child. It was touch and go for a moment. Lily selected a princess dress, then took it off and opted for the ballerina princess that GG had given her last year. We quickly coerced the boys into their fireman jackets and Holden handed me his bee costume from last year. I buttoned him in and shooed everyone out the door, not even bothering to change Will out of his pajama bottoms for fear that someone would have a change of heart. I was shocked how smoothly it went and that everyone was happy.


Once we were outside they were dazzled. They were amazed by all the other children's costumes and were having a blast saying 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN!' at each house.

They were delighted and sweet, proudly displaying their costumes and saying thank you for their treats. They quickly learned that if the light was on they would be giving out candy. And they wanted to go inside every house.

Will started saying 'Ah, man!' if the house was not open. I think he picked it up from one of the bigger kids trick or treating. I also thought it was pretty cute when Lily told one little girl, 'I like your costume'. It is so funny to see your babies turn into kids.



We did one lap around the block and returned home. The boys had even more fun giving out candy and were calling out to people to try and get them to stop by our house. 'WE HAVE SOME CANDY FOR YOU!' And of course if they chose to pass us by, Will would say, 'Ah Man!'.

I can't think of a time I have seen them more excited. It would be a close call between last night and Christmas morning. It wasn't really the candy, it was more the event itself.


David carved our pumpkins and they looked great, very festive. I prepped the seeds for toasting. The kids were intrigued by the candles in the pumpkins and kept looking inside seeing a few straggler seeds saying 'why did you put the seeds in there?'. I'm tried to explain, but not sure they absorbed that the pumpkin seeds were from the pumpkins.

We also had a bunch of family and friends over relaxing and watching the UT game and just having fun watching the children enjoy Halloween. It is always nice to have a full festive house on holidays.

We went to bed tired and happy that they kids enjoyed their night.