a little truth about me.

my friend, emily, played a blog game of guess the one that is not true. her loyal blog readers were instructed to do the same. my options are not going to be nearly as exciting as hers...but here goes!

**while all of you give your guesses in the comment section of this blog, it would also be a grand time to quench a long time curiosity of mine by letting me know you read this blog. it is fun to see how many times this silly blog gets read, but it would be oh-so much more fun for you to sign your name!! c'mon people...for me?? for instance, alison- i know you read this. if you do not comment...it will be like a knife to your baby sister's heart.

you can do it!! you can do it!! roll call. sign the blog! sign the blog! sign the blog!

wooo-hooo!!


on to the game. guess the one that is not true.


1. most of the car accidents (minor, of course) i have been in, my parents did not know about. (with 89% of them being in my 16th year.)

2. anna was a twin.

3. i was engaged when i was 18.

4. i am addicted to nuts.

5. i am left handed.

6. i can change a diaper while hypnotized.

7. i was hit in the head with a tree.

happy birthday, miss anna.

six years ago today, at 6:18 pm, we met miss anna for the first time. she was 11 days over due and we were more than anxious to see her face. she was a big girl, 9 lbs. 12 oz.....and she had a mop of dark hair with blond streaks through it. she came into the world checking everyone out. besides her daddy, aunt ali was their in the delivery room. she was there because the probability of brian passing out seemed above average and she is, how shall i say it, more considerate, empathetic and compassionate...o yeah and more attentive than my darling husband whom i love deeply. ( we all have different strengths, brian..don't even worry about it.) becoming anna's mom was everything i had hoped it would be. we were/are crazy about that girl. i had a blast reading to her, shopping with her, snuggling her...all the great things you get to do with your first baby. she was a very early talker, walked a little before 1 and in her parent's eyes, was truly one of the most exceptional children ever created! :) she has grown up too fast. now she is all legs with some attitude. no part of her looks like the little girl i still expect her to be. a first grader in the fall, i know the years with her will not slow down. she loves to hear stories of when she was little. like how she used to call herself "nana-biggy hart" or how we called her biggy-smalls because after her almost 10 lb weigh in...she slimmed down into a petite thing, but she thought she was huge. she could wink at 9 months and answered every question with "ahhh....yeah!" her dark hair has turned strawberry blond and she has a whole nose full of freckles. she loves panda bears and wants to be a veterinarian (in china) when she grows up. she tells us she is never moving out (i am not sure how she will go to china?) and she is never marrying. she feels that being the big sister of triplets is "medium". i asked her what makes her so special and she told me it is the nice heart that God gave her.

happy birthday, sweet anna rae.

how is it possible you are already six......

a day for dad.

happy father's day, daddy.

you deserve more than a day. (but your weekend golf trip should probably cover it!)

we think you are great because:

*you come home every day. (i am not kidding, some days you want to keep on drivin')

* you are patient. (this will serve you well in the future, do not use it all up.)

*you always play with us when we ask.

*you work hard to take care of us. and with you as our dad, we know we are safe.

*you are "tough and sturdy".

*you ask us how our day was and listen to our stories.

* you show us who God is and how He loves us in the person you are and the way you love us.

we love you, dad.

children are a gift from God......

children are a gift from God....children are a gift from God....

please pardon my self-reminders. today has been, for lack of a better word- bumpy... at best. a couple of days ago i cleaned and sorted emma and claire's rooms, especially their closets. i headed into anna's room to start hers and it was a total disaster. not in the mood to tackle that, i thought. enter lauren's room and there really are no words. let's just say the child is a hoarder. i.e. a couple of weeks ago i went to change her sheets and found a bunch of stink weed under her covers. she said she put them there because she didn't want me to throw her "flowers" away. i had thoroughly cleaned the playroom on monday and the girls had succeeded in trashing it,so yesterday was 'everybody clean up' day.

you would not believe the moaning.
or the limbs that were now unable to function.

i tried to explain that 2 1/2 days ago it was clean, so with 4 of them working on it- it should not take long. that was 10 am. at 12:40 no one had started. there was a lot of thirst, sadness, rage, and tiredness. lauren actually asked to take a nap until i explained that when she woke up, her pick up duty would be waiting. i also pointed out that i had not made any of the mess and i was cleaning without complaint. point not taken. claire loudly whispered to lauren..'pretty quick she will just do it herself.' lesson on at that point. i gave the children specific jobs and headed into lauren's room. i threw away the plant tags, rocks, toilet paper rolls, used napkins etc. from her shelves and started on the floor. i am on my knees with the garbage bag ready to pick up the carpet debris at top speed. as i round her bed to the left, some of the things are not coming off the floor.

wait.

none of the things are coming off the floor.

upon closer inspection i see that the girl has glued things to her carpet. yes folks...GLUE.
so help me.
it is not just one thing....here are a few items that were displayed. coins, toilet paper, pebbles, stickers, leaves, candy, a chocolate easter egg, the hair of a barbie doll, wadded up napkin, tags from new clothing.
did i mention that it was blue glue?
f.y.i. it does not dry clear on carpet....it stays very blue. when i asked why in the world would she glue things to this lovely 5 month old carpet, she replies "you did not tell me not to". ladies and gentlemen, if this is her defense, i am in for a very long lifetime with her. "you didn't tell me which day i had to be home at 11p.m." (her father actually used this curfew excuse, so i guess we know where she gets it from). that's all i have to share, really. there is your update. i don't' find it funny yet. i have not gotten the glue off yet. it needs to be cut. i cannot yet bring myself to do that. needless to say, lauren has lost her glue privileges.

three 4 year olds...

happy, happy birthday to my beautiful, non- toddler girls. we have come so far in 4 years and at times i could not even imagine arriving at this point. three very different personalities, voices and looks all from the same, over sized belly.

emma rose (baby a) was the first to arrive at 3:17 pm. she weighed in at 5 lb. 4 oz. she had the least amount of hair of the 3 (emma, emma hair- dilemma). the whole birth ordeal made her a little sad and a little angry.

claire elisabeth (baby b) was the second one out. she followed behind emma by only 1 minute. as the sister squished between her 2 sisters, she was the smallest. she weighed in at 4 lb. 12 oz. and had a mop of dark black hair. her head was so tiny, it looked like a tennis ball.

lauren elise liked the room she gained when her sisters vacated the uterus, so she went hiding under my ribs. the dr. had to climb on the operating table to pull that little girl out. (which involved a frightening amount of reaming on my stomach and him commenting that i will definitely be sore now.) she finally came out at 3:21 pm. she had been sitting on top of the others and she weighed the most. lauren topped the scales at 5 lb. 9 oz. she had these enormous eyes...my sister called her a yard gnome.

since birth, claire has always been the smallest/shortest and lauren the biggest/tallest and emma right in the middle. we have had some long days and some long nights, but when i recall how i was feeling 4 years ago.....terrified about them being okay, overwhelmed about going from 1 child to 4, exhausted from a very hard pregnancy.....we are certainly blessed.

i hope the next 4 years don't go as fast as these last 4 have. i hope they continue to develop their unique personalities. i hope my stretch marks will magically disappear. i hope we can survive 4 teenage girls someday.....

here are some pics of our journey so far....

a happy mother's day.....

yesterday was a lovely day involving breakfast in bed and a birthday party for the girls in the evening. the girls had done fairly well delivering their gift of a day of no whining or crying or fighting (the best gift ever, really!). we were racing downstairs to surprise daddy by being all ready for bed when he got home...while i was helping lauren on the potty i was recapping the day and thinking how lucky i am and how this smooth day was a good indication of our days to come with the girls almost turning 4....i hear screaming. i run up the stairs. i hear gagging. i hear sobbing. i round the corner and see vomit (at least a half a dozen piles of it) all over the hallway. and running down the walls. i ask anna what happened and she said she was going potty and her pee smelled, so she threw up. seriously, who throws up over the smell of their own pee? and we should have the girl drink more water apparently.) i ask why she didnt throw up in the toilet instead of walking out into the hallway to do it. "MOM, the PEE was in there!!" oh. right. i now realize that claire is sobbing somewhere in the house. i head to the vomit hallway and notice that the piles have footprints in them. i find claire in a ball on the floor of the office. next to her....you guessed it!!! vomit. claire walked down the hall and through the throw-up and when she discovered what her bare feet had ventured into...you bet!! she ran right into the office to puke.

blah, blah get the kids cleaned up and into jammies (or a princess dress with high heels for emma) and into bed. brian arrives home and all appears serene. he comes and sits down by me and i recap the last 15 minutes. he chuckles and says "happy mother's day.". i am pretty sure he was not sad to have missed it!!

will power.

i do not even like plain m&m's.

but they were in my house. now they are in my stomach.

i ate the whole jar of them.




my self control is amazing.