Preschool Finale

 

Remember this little girl. She might look familiar but she is almost a year older now.  This picture was taken on her first day of her second year of preschool.  Here she is, September 6th, heading out the door:

A full school year later and she has matured so much.  She talks better, is more social, her play is like a kindergartner vs. preschooler, and she expresses herself in a lot of different ways.  Here she is May 24th, walking out the door on the last day.

I am so thankful that we sent her to 5C's as  evident by the verses she says, the encouragement she gives others and by her simple faith.  This morning she was singing, "Jesus is your Savior everyday..."   Awesome!!!

Here she is the night before, with the gifts we made for her teacher.  The flash took out the words but it says: "thank you for quenching my thirst for knowledge."  I got the idea from Pinterest from this blog.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!! We were thrilled with "Santa's" final arrival and to spend a quiet day doing what I call "just being." The night before we let the kid's open their Christmas "nammies" and a few gifts from family and friends. Since we were in quarantine, this is our family picture via timer. This will be one of a few times you will get to see me without makeup, since we had all just been thoroughly sanitized ourselves.















































This is proof that "Santa" did indeed arrive. "He" fills the our stockings, which were to full to remain safely hung by the chimney with care.

One of the best parts of the morning is Evie angrily charging out of her bedroom, yelling at the babies for waking her and coming face-to-face with this sight. She stopped dead in her tracks and was like a deer caught in the headlights, swiveling from the stockings to me and back again. Her only word was, "huh?" Then when I mentioned Santa she had a light bulb moment.

She loved opening her stocking, the babies were...well not unhappy to pull things out. Her favorite part of "Santa's" gifts were the Squinkies she'd asked for which were at the very bottom. The babies favorite are the play necklaces and microphones (which, of course only cost $4 for 3 microphones and 1 pkg of beads...).



"Santa's" note to the kids, and evidence that he enjoyed the treats Evie picked out for "him." One of the disappointments from the illness was not having the energy to make Christmas cookies with Evie this year. She and I will be making peanut butter blossoms this week, while I am home on "break."


































































































Highlights of the day:

*This really started a day earlier: Mr. Grant started using his mouth to open presents. Once again earning his reputation for silliness. He did this for most of his early presents until he realized that this was not an efficient way to open them.
*Evie played with her new squinkie toys all day and the next and the next. She even prefers them over her mommy-daddy-Evie time. I could be mad about this but it is nice to see her appreciate the gifts. This year was the first year she really told us what she REALLY wanted.
*Ella's new cheesy smile. It's photographed in several of these photos...we loVe it.
*In Henry fashion, it took awhile to get him to let go of his sippy to open presents. Even then he still clutched his snack trap...the hungry monkey!is
*Finishing watching "The Nativity Story" during the kids naptime. I am moving this film to the #1 spot and am overwhelmed at how well the film is done. Despite a few inaccuracies,
it still leaves me feeling breathless and in awe. Thanks be to God!!
*Hooking up the Wii for the first time since getting it from Shawn's parents. It was a nice thing to do and "Santa" had gifted us with 2 new games, including a country dance one that I am excited to get back to. If my arms hadn't tired out, I would've danced for hours. Shawn and I also ended the night with this (not the dance game...could you even imagine??) and it's nice to have something new to do during our couple time besides tv/movie/reading.
*Nobody threw up!! Woot-woot!!!!
*The kids all really seemed to enjoy their new gifts.
*Shawn and I received nightstands from my parents, which my dad made and my mom helped with. Shawn's exact statement as we climbed into bed with them in their new spots was "our room looks so grown up!" Very true, considering they replaced cheap Target storage bins. They are really pretty and we loVe them! Soon we'll have to replace our college dressers, get a nice television and grown up bedding. We will actually have a bedroom for 3o somethings that have 4 kids. A nice sanctuary of our own!
*I (finally) recieved the charm bracelet from Shawn that I had asked (begged, nagged, coerced) Shawn into getting for me. It came with 4 special charms: "super" mom (one of the many comments I get with having triplets), i love my daughters, i love my sons, and a "diamond" cross. I loVe it!!!

Our goal for Christmas as mentioned in this post, is to spend the day worshiping the greatest gift of all, Jesus. We do this by making the day as relaxing as possible. No stressful meals or cleanup. No hurried showers and rushing from relatives to relatives. Just fun, family and Jesus. After presents and a light lunch (not all of our appetites had returned) I set the kids up for some art time. The babies enjoyed eating coloring with their new crayons and Evie drew and finger painted. The word on her sheet is her recent interpretation of her name. She was doing it preciously, but as new letters are added to her repertoire they are also added to her name, for Evelyn (Evie) is now spelt with a P and D.

Christmas

I love Christmas. It is my FAVORITE day of the year. Even though it's in the middle of my LEaST favorite season, winter, I think that if it was in June it just wouldn't feel the same. It's the one time of year I really love living in MN during the winter. Our new house lends to my adoration of this special time of year because it was meant to be decorated for Christmas. Here's what I mean:





Here's the kids decorating the tree for the first time:







The kids really enjoyed themselves. The "babies" have "re-decorated" the tree for us several times, but that is slowing down...mostly because most ornaments are out of reach. However, they've left the stocking pretty much alone. You can see by their outrageous expressions the joy they had exploring our new "toy."


For the second year in a row, we will be sitting tight for Christmas. Shawn and I, BK (before kids), decided that despite how much we enjoy Christmas with our families, we wanted the kids to be able to awake Christmas morning in their own beds, and unwrap presents under their own tree, just as we did as children. I've never liked how anxious and stressed everyone gets about a day meant for celebration of a baby born to be our Savior. Therefore we do NOT make a big deal of cooking all day and cleaning. No rushing from house to house. No hours of travel. Instead, we will be making two different soups (one of which is chili) in the crock pots, bake some garlic bread, open gifts, blow out candles on a cake, watch Christmas movies in front of our "roaring" fire (aka corn stove), read the Christmas story and stay in our new Christmas pajamas all day. Our goal: to keep Christ the center of our celebration and celebrate our love for Him and each other.

The Big Guy

Dear Santa,

I am so beyond excited for your arrival!!!! Last year I had a great time meeting you and I'm glad you enjoyed the cookies we left out for you, remember dat? I'm not perfect and sometimes I get in trouble for loving to much on my brothers and sister. Or not listening. Or whining. Okay, and sometimes I have a complete and total meltdown. BUT I am becoming a sweet little girl, learning lots and I love to give gifts to others like my special drawings of monsters and portraits. I have already been hard at work on an ornament for you and several drawings. I know that we've already chatted about what I REALLY want this year but just in case you forget I would love some Squinkies, especially the Little Mermaid ones!! Otherwise, take care and give the reindeer hugs. We'll leave the lights on but the fireplace off, cookies are on the table. Merry Christmas!!

Love, Evie



Dear Santa,

Despite how it looks we really enjoyed meeting you this year. Truthfully, it was like a first for us since we were really only 4.5 months old last year. It seems like you got smaller but we think that it must be that we are getting so big (we can show you if you don't believe us!) We don't really have any toy requests this year, our toys just can't compete with cupboards, bathrooms, diaper champs and Evie's toys. So surprise us!!! We promise not to eat to many of your cookies if you promise to forget any of our "alleged" naughtiness. Okay?? See you next year!

Love,
Ella, Henry & Grant

The Last First Day of Preschool

Evie started her 2nd year of preschool last Tuesday. I love getting back to a more "scheduled" life and Evie really does well. She is in the red class this year and her teacher is Miss Cheryl. I know that she will blossom and continue to grow faster then us parents are ready for. She looked adorable on the first day, decked out in new birthday clothes (except shirt, which we a pre-birthday gift from her A grandparents) and hair accessory. She had a lot of fun! Shawn and I accompany her on the first day so we can get a few details during the parent meeting. Old hat for us now. Picking her up is my job and with triplets you can imagine there are some challenges. I get special parking privileges, which I really appreciate. In their car seats I couldn't manage them all at once and now as toddlers and mobile it is impossible without the stroller or a cart. The new session of MOPS starts next week and that should be interesting, getting them all inside.

This was taken on the same morning...isn't she a looker. Boys, she's not dating until age 25 so don't get any ideas!!!!! I love the color of her eyes. They are this hazel color that is almost a light brown. They are gorgeous. I love that they are not my eye color and they are not Shawn's eye color...they are unique to her. I love that God is so creative. His word says that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." So true!!!!

Evelyn @ 4 Years

4 years ago at this exact time (2:44pm) Shawn and I reached a pivotal moment in our lives: parenthood!! And the little person introducing us to the most precious of moments is the girl of the hour: Miss Evelyn Grace! We are shocked by how quickly the weeks, months and now years have flown by. What an honor God has bestowed on us when he gave us these 4 precious gifts. I gave Evie this quiz 2 days ago. So without further ado:

Favorite color: PINK (which she points out all day everyday, if it's pink it's hers)

Favorite animal: Hippo

Favorite food: Canadian Bacon Pizza

Favorite lunch food: PB w/ strawberry jam

Favorite tv Show: Dora

Favorite movie: Toy Story (all 3)

Favorite fruit: apple

Favorite snack food: goldfish crackers

Favorite Veggie: Peas

Favorite drink: chocolate milk

Favorite toy: Rapunzel

Favorite Bible Story: "Jesus"

Favorite song: "Jesus is Lord" (which she sings often, I asked her where she learned it she said "jesus")

Favorite outside activity: ride my bike and run too

BFF: Abi

What she is excited about most about restarting preschool: playing with my friends

Favorite thing about being a big sister: playing "duckies" (??) with them, playing with them in general

Favorite thing to do with daddy: color with daddy and go on runs with him too

Favorite thing to do with mommy: color

Favorite game: "Princess game" (she got one for her birthday and we've yet to play it together but apparently she's made up her own)

For Halloween I want to be: a bride (and marry daddy)

Other things:
She requests "etmeal" every morning for breakfast and only likes brown sugar. She gets in trouble everyday for not listening or obeying. Especially in regards to her treatment of her siblings. If anything she loves/helps too much. She is learning to crack eggs, her first landed on the floor because she slammed it into the counter. She can write E-V-I-E and at first did them spread out on the page And in random order. Now she loves to write illegible things and draw monsters. Her writing looks just like this IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII and it's almost that small too. She says something so wise on minute and so silly the next. I wish I could record better those moments. She collects rocks. She loves mommy-daddy-Evie time. She says the best prayers. She loves to tease, just like Auntie Candii. When daddy and Evie argue over who's silly they both agree mommy. She packs every bag she owns. She loves the "Go Fish" group and especially "Superstar". She LOVES to be outside. When she stayed with her amma and ampa V she followed ampa all over and wanted to go outside ALL the time. She loves to ride bike, draw with chalk, run, jump, swing, play in the sandbox. She will be one of those kids who is outside from sun up to sundown. I will watch her from the window...as I am not the "outdoorsy" type. She is all about performing for us and her most used sentence (besides WHY??) is "Mom/Dad, WATCH ME!!" She loves to make her siblings laugh and even 6 days later still gets super excited when Ella walks. I don't think she fully realizes that that is how we felt about ALL of her milestones too. Big discipline theme: disobedience. Typical punishment: timeout and/or a loss of a "ticket." When she loses all 5 tickets she loses mommy-daddy-Evie time and goes to bed early. Last week was a bad week as she went to bed early 3 days in a row. Her prayer on the third night was: "Dear God, help me not to be naughty..." Dang it if she isn't adorable even in her naughtiness. Sometimes that's the hardest part of parenting, the discipline. One thing that is hard about her being 4 is all the things she doesn't need or want us to do for her anymore. Even last night she told me I didn't need to wash her since she did it "all by myself." She is growing up too fast!!

Evelyn you bring us so much joy. We are so proud to be you mommy and daddy. We love watching you experience the world and process life. We adore you! Happy 4th Birthday, baby girl!!!!