Chrismas Blizzard

We headed back to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's House late Christmas afternoon (after naps) for our Christmas Dinner. It was snowing and blowing, but it does that in good ol' ND. As we leave our neighbor hood (we had two cars: 1 is 4-wheel drive, the other is my awesome minivan.), we see a car stuck in the snow. I am following Scott since he has the 4WD, but I'm starting to panic in may car. We had packed some extra clothes for everyone JUST IN CASE we needed to spend the night. Well, sure enough we had to spend the night.

December 26th was spent with the guys (Grandpa, Scott and my brother-in-law) with some help from my sister, digging the cars out of snow drifts. We got the cars out, but they didn't help much because the streets were filled with snow.

We convinced the kids that they needed to spend some time out in the snow. It was pretty nice out considering the fact that we just had a blizzard (it wasn't 30 below 0 and it easily could have been making it much more miserable)

We know how to dress warm here!

Cayden in the snow.

Cayden with Grandma.

Nice jump Cayden!

All 3 "big" grandchildren (babies were napping inside) on the sled together. I think Cayden is the front, but I can't remember now.


Playing in the snow is exhausting! (Keno, our dog, is normally contained in our kitchen at home, but we brought him to Grandma and Grandpa's with us-in case we got snowed in. I think he really liked the free-roam he had at her house)

So, how does this story end... Well, there is so much more to it! Scott's parents were supposed to fly into Minot on the 26th, but all planes were cancelled into Minot. They couldn't get a guaranteed seat to Minot until Dec 29th. So they flew into Bismarck on the 27th, and some friends who were visiting their daughter and family brought my in-laws to Minot. Somehow they lucked out and their luggage got to Minot later on the 27th. My mom, dad and I ventured out to try to get to my house (for the 4th or 5th time) on Sunday. We made it to the end of my street, and my mom and I hiked through the snow to get to my house. It was too funny! We worked on getting my drive way cleared. As we were cleaning it, a payloader came through and got one lane of traffic cleared of snow (our neighbors came out cheering-they had been snowed in since Christmas Day also). So finally, we made it back to our house in the evening of hte 27th.

It really was a Christmas to remember!

Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's House. Here are some shots of the present openings.

Aleah (in sweater with red on it) and Cayley (white sweater) opening presents together. These two worked together on a lot of their presents.

Bryce opening a present. He kind of did his own thing during present opening.
Here is Bryce getting into the Holiday Spirit.
Cayley and Aleah working on another present together.
Cayden and his Batman Cave.

Cayden's Christmas Preformance

Cayden's "School" (aka: daycare) put on a Christmas show for their parents. It was so cute! Luckily, Scott arrived the day of the performance, and he was able to attend as well!

(Cayden has the red polo shirt on, in case you can't find him)
Apparently the teachers at school tell the kids to do their "bubbles" when they are supposed to be quiet. Well, Cayden listened very well. In between each song they would leave the room, get the next prop, and then come back out. Everytime Cayden came back out, he had his cheeks puffed out (we later heard about the teachers and the bubbles).




A class picture.


Wait! What do we hear?


SANTA of course! What's a Christmas performance without an appearance from Santa!

Daddy Came Home!

Daddy was able to take his 2 week R & R (aka: "vacation") from his deployment. Luckily I didn't tell Cayden when exactly his dad was supposed to be home because he was delayed on the trip home. Dad made it in time for Christmas though!

The babies were sitting down for lunch when Daddy came home. They weren't quite sure what to think, but they didn't get upset. Then after lunch, they took to him very quickly. I had to go back to work, but apparently the girls were stuck to him like glue after lunch. Here's Daddy with Aleah.

The first time Cayden had seen his dad in 5.5 months.

Mommmmmm

"Mom, I was here first!"
"Mom, she's touching me!"

Now, it is your pick who is saying what line. Silly girls! (Cayley is in the green shirt, Aleah is in the pink shirt)

Random photos

I was feeling like I needed to do an update on the blog, however there just isn't enough time. I haven't really taken pictures of the kids for awhile other than the occasional cell phone picture. Here are some:

Cayley playing on Grandma's toys.
Bryce playing with a toy at Grandma's.
Cayden helping me shovel. A teacher from school was kind enough to come sit with babies so I could clear out the snow.
Bryce loves to climb into these storage containers. He just sits and plays in them.
Cayley also enjoys sitting in the storage container. However she is one unhappy camper when Bryce (who is a good 6 pounds heavier than her) sits ON her in the container.

Aleah put this "pretty necklace" on herself the other day.

I brought up Cayden's couch from the basement. The babies have truly loved playing on it. Here is Aleah relaxing on the couch.

Cayley on Cayden's couch.

Aleah watching Dora while relaxing on Cayden's couch.
Cayden with Bryce and Cayley

What happened to November?

Wow!!! It's been a month since I've posted anything. Life sure has been crazy!

We went out of town beginning of the month for my Grandmother's funeral. Spent the weekend in a hotel that was not child-proofed, especially for three munchkins. Why can't hotels child-proof 1 or 2 rooms and reserve those for families with small children. The expense to childproof can't be the great and the rooms would definitely get used. Plus it would help make the parents stay a bit more relaxing. I can think big, can't I?

Actually, prior to going out of town, Cayden had a doctor appointment with an Ear-Nose-Throat Doctor. It was the day I had been waiting for, finally answers to why Cayden's tonsils were so ginormous. (so I know that's not a word, but his tonsils were beyond huge!) We had been to the doctor for Cayden's throat 5 times within a 6 week period. If you know me, I'm not one to rush my kids to the doctor over anything. It has to be pretty serious before I take them in. Well, the first time he had tonsilitis, gave him medicine, no change to his tonsils. Take him back a week later: Doctor says, yep that's normal, toddlers have enlarged tonsils. I think Ok. I'm good with that. Then three weeks after that Cayden is complaining that his throat hurts (Cayden never complains of any pain, EVER) so I take him back in. Now he has strep throat. More meds (different kind this time), cures the strep, still huge tonsils (HUGE). Take him back 2 weeks later, another doctor says yep, their still big, but since he just got off his medicine, he should be getting better. This doctor also said he has allergies so she prescribed him Singulair. Now, let's think about this... It's almost November, I realize our fall has been really mild, but allergies now??? to a kid who hasn't really ever shown signs of allergies before? I'm not buying into this anymore. I decided I'm not happy with these doctors because something is going on that his tonsils are HUGE (did I mention that they were really, really big?? almost touching!) I finally talk to someone on base (first time we actually get an appointment on base), and the doctor there says, "Why don't we refer him to and ENT" (ear, nose, throat doc). Whew, finally some real help. We finally get this appointment with the ENT, and he says "yep, his tonsils are huge" (no? really?) "and his adenoids are also large. We can either wait" (for what I'm not sure) or we can remove them all." I said, "let's remove them and be done with this" (ok, so the decision wasn't really a snap decision, I had been thinking about this for a long time - September and now it's November - and keep in mind, Cayden is showing lots of other issues at home regarding the swollen tonsils and now to my knowledge his adenoids. He had sleeping issues, breathing issues, to name a few.) I should also mention, the ENT doctor said that "other" doctors often say allergies are the issue when they really aren't.

So, one fine Monday morning, just 10 days ago, Cayden underwent surgery. I was terrified even though I know that this is a routine, same day surgery. Here is Cayden prior to surgery.

He did well in the surgery and then continued to do well at home. He had chicken nuggets for supper that night.

The day following the surgery is a whole 'nother story. I get called to the office at school to hear from our secretary "your dad called and he can't wake Cayden to take his [pain] medicine" What?!? He's not waking. So I leave my students with the secretary to deal with and run home. It's now 11:45, and my dad started trying to wake Cayden at 11. My mom was there by this time trying to wake him as well. He didn't respond (he is breathing). Nothing, just a deep, deep sleep. So I pick him up, wrap him in a blanket and off we rush to the Emergency Room. (he doesn't wake up in the cool fall air either). Finally, while we are waiting to go into the ER he wakes up, around 12:15 or so. He wakes on his own. We go back so they can monitor him. Turns out the medicine he was on for pain was just way too strong for his little body. We have since only give him medicine if he asks for it, and we only give him half of what was recommended. Scary, scary stuff. He is doing much better now.

Let's see, what else has been happening... Babies went in for the 15 month check up and shots. That was a blast! HA!!! Lucky Dad gets to miss all of these fun shot appointments. Babies were all healthy at the time of the appointment. But a couple days later, life was not fun with babies. Brycey got sick, coughing lots, just unhappy. Then Cayley caught it, and then Aleah is just plain ol' miserable. A week later, I'm sick and checking myself into the clinic (got meds, doing much better now). I decide to get babies in as well a couple of days later. Cayley was the only one to come home with medicine for two ear infection, poor thing. The other two, I am told, just have viruses.

I always claimed I was not going to the THAT family that is ALWAYS sick. I never should have said anything. We are THAT family now.

Whew, lots of information for one post, with only one picture. Hopefully life will calm down soon (but probably not with a 4 year old and 3 - 15 months old), but I don't think I will get my hopes up for that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Skating Party

Today was the annual Halloween Skating party, so I thought we would venture out (with Grandpa's help). It was great! Here's a sneak peak of our Superhero Family...

Batman (AKA: Cayden) out skating. He is currently enrolled in skating lessons and doing quite well. Thankfully, one of our babysitters was there (three of our babysitters are also skating coaches) and she took Cayden out on the ice for me.

The Superhero Triplets!

Superman (AKA: Superboy, AKA: Brycey-I think I might officially change his name from Bryce to Brycey-HA-I don't think anyone ever calls him Bryce anymore)
Superwoman (AKA: Supergirl, AKA: Aleah)
Batwoman (AKA: Batgirl, AKA: Cayley)

And even I got to dress up! I really am WONDERWOMAN!


And the triplets happy to be home and out of the stollers! Can't wait for Halloween!

Pig Tails???

The babies had a big outing today so I had to get them ready. I thought I should try to do something special with the girls' hair. So pig tails it was! (The pictures are a bit blurry because I used my cell phone to take the pictures).

The only way I know who is who in these pictures is because I dressed them. Everytime I think I can tell them apart, I realize that I really can't. The girls do have certain facial features that are a bit different. But if they aren't together, it's hard to figure out who is who. Man, we're in for a long journey with these two.





Aleah is in the first picture and Cayley is in the second picture.

Pumpkin Patch

We had hoped to go to a pumpkin patch back in September when we went to Minnesota for my nieces birthday. We had gone to it the previous year and Cayden was looking forward to another trip to the pumpkin patch. But with all of the activities and needing to schedule nap time, we just didn't have enough time. (Cayden actually never even asked about it, but I knew he wanted to go-he had mentioned so before the trip).

I planned a trip to Papa's Pumpkin Patch in Bismarck. Grandpa was going to go with us, but I decided I wouldn't need his help (he had other work he could do if he didn't go) as I was going to meet a friend and her family there. Well, Grandpa went off to work, and I talked to my friend and she was not feeling well, so she wasn't up to going and exposing other kids to whatever she had.

So, being the "supermom" that I am (ok, I'm getting on my high-horse), I decided to load up the four kids and venture off by myself. Trip there, excellent! Triplets napped, Cayden watched a movie, all was good. Get the triple stroller out and gets all kids loaded ready to go, things are still going smoothly. Cayden gets to play when we get there. The babies and I watch (and the babies have lunch). Here are some of the pictures of Cayden's fun times:

There were hay-bale mountains with slides attached to them.





Pony rides, which Cayden had a blast on. (Watch out cousin Levi, he knows that you and your family have horses and he wants to ride!!!)


One pumpkin home:

The soup-can train: Okay, I don't know what it is really called, but that's what the cars look like to me. He really like this too.
Cayden is in the third white car from the right.
Cayden is in the second car from the left (who knew so many kids would be wearing orange! I would have dressed Cayden differently, but he picked out his own clothes)


And a second pumpkin home:

This was just one of the many wood items in the little wood town for the kids to play on.

And yes, the babies were really there. More so they were along for the ride. They did have fun (at least I think that they did) watching Cayden play.
(Left to Right: Aleah, Bryce and Cayley)


So after all of the fun, we pick out pumpkins. Lesson learned: Find a wagon for hauling pumpkins as soon as you get there. Here I am with the triple stroller, trying to figure out how I am going to "carry" my four pumpkins back to the car, which is on the other side of the parking lot. Well, the babies three small pumpkins fit on top of the stoller and Cayden was able to carry his bigger than the babies yet small pumpkin to the car. Now remember, I am supermom, so I manuever the triple stoller with one hand and carry the big pumpkin (that we are going to carve) to the car with the other hand. Next time, we are definitely finding a wagon early! Trip home was okay. Babies slept again, Cayden watched his movies. Of course, we can't have a car trip without Aleah having a 10 minute scream. And since she didn't have her 10 minute scream on the way to Bismarck, She had a 15 minute scream on the way home.

Next year will be much more interesting. I do plan on going back, but with reinforcements. Daddy will be home by then, so he can experience the "fun" with us! It really was a fun time. And we all survived and were happy (aside from the 15 minute scream).