Bed Buddies

So, I start with this question. When you were a youngin, what did you like to take to bed with you at night? A cuddly stuffed animal? A soft blanket? Your favorite toy car, Carter?

Well, let me just tell you what my boys brought with them to bed one night.

I was putting the boys to bed one night while Justin was out of town. They had come into their room and Luke had crawled into bed with a little toy truck. Not too unusual. Isaac was quick to spot Luke with the toy and asked, "Can I get a toy?" I said, "Sure." And he headed to the playroom to pick out a toy. Alex was quick to follow suit. To speed up the toy-picking process, I decided I would count to 5 out loud and request that they return to the room with whatever toy they wanted. Isaac was first to return and he brought with him a baseball glove. Okay. Not what I would have expected but I could see a little boy who loves sports picking that. Next Alex runs into the room giggling holding his toy in his hand and jumping into bed. As soon as I saw what he picked out, I joined in the laughter. So what did he pick? Well, it was a piece of this plastic pirate ship toy. It is a platform that fits on the ship and pretty much serves no purpose on its own. I could not imagine it would be very comfortable to sleep with. I wanted to include a picture with this story so that you could get the full picture of why Alex's choice was so silly. I just haven't had a chance to get one taken. But keep your eye out. I hope to add one soon.

Moving

So, we are moving to Indonesia in less than 6 weeks. YIKES!! Writing that sure does make me realize that our time is drawing short to get ready to go. Justin and I have been busily trying to get everything in order to leave in the midst of our already busy lives with the four kids. We have made good progress, but somehow the list doesn't seem to be getting much shorter.

Anyways, the boys are excited about moving. You know that is true when they said that they WANTED to get shots so that they could go to Indonesia. I know that they really don't understand what this move is all about. But that just confirms to me that this is a great age to take them overseas. What an experience they will have.

Many of you have expressed interest in us keeping you up to date about our life and times in Jakarta, so Justin and I are going to start another blog dedicated to Indonesia and leave this one for funny stories about the kids. We'll let you know when it gets up and running.

Tales from the Beach

While Justin and I were in Jakarta, Nana and Papa took our boys to their beach house. Here are some of the things Nana observed while taking care of the boys:

Alex - did something he thought was really special and declared "Nana, I am HUGE".... and he repeated it several times.

Isaac said that Papa needed to get some new boots, a helmet and coat so he could be a fireman again. He said Papa needed to go shopping and until then could Papa share the firemans clothes with "our boys" at the station? (Bill called the firemen "our boys" when introducing them to the triplets.)

Lukey was the bell ringer when we took the wagon to the beach. (We found a bell and he would ring it the whole way down and back.) He was also the man in charge of locking the gate on the deck anytime we went in or out.

All the boys were very good at hitting the golf ball and were really driving them long.

Alex said "Papa this is a very nice course. I want to play here with my daddy." (He said this when we were at the country club and he saw the course.

Everybody thought they wanted to fish. No one did. They were curious of the crab holes, but scared if they saw a crab.

Isaac wanted to bring my flip flops to Indonesia because his mommy would really like them.

Jack just wants so badly to be 3 years old it almost hurts. He wanted to eat the play doh and the crayons and he danced to Barney's songs.

Ask the boys to sing "where is thumkin" they love that song. Isaac hums songs all the time. He can really carry a tune. And, Carter called it the Dumpy song. We all laughed real hard.

More than a little BUGGY - Part 3

As Justin and I began packing and gathering our things for our trip, we received a call from my mom saying that Alex seemed to be having some difficulty breathing. So, Justin rushed to the hotel where they were staying with the nebulizer.

How could this be happening!!!! It had been a long while since we had to give Alex a breathing treatment. I thought he was growing out of this. And right before Justin and I were supposed to be leaving on a trip. Last time Justin and I left the kids for a trip, Alex ended up in hospital with pneumonia. Hummmm.

So while Justin is at the hotel and I am putting things away at the house, distrot that this had to happen now and concerned for Alex, I have a little accident of my own. I learned that it is not a good idea to try to fix a hand chopper with the blade pointed at your face. Before I knew, the spring had uncoiled and sent the blade flying toward my chin. Thankfully, the blade was not too sharp and I just ended up with a 3 inch "paper cut" like gash in my chin.

So after getting the house back in shape, we headed to bed only to be awaken around 3am by a phone call from my mom saying that the doctor's office had advised her to take Alex to the ER. Oh boy. Unfortuneately the worst case senario popped into my mind - Alex would have to be admitted into the hospital for round the clock breathing treatments and Justin and I would need to rethink our move to Jakarta.

I am so thankful to have a God that I can call on day and NIGHT. While I waited for my mom to come pick me up with Alex, Justin and I prayed for the situation, for Alex and for wisdom..."peace that surpasses all understanding".

So, it turned out that Alex had croup and just needed a couple of treatments in the ER.

Justin came and relieved my mom and I in the ER so we could go help Bill back at the hotel with the other 3 boys (Luke, Isaac and Carter) who were beginning to chomp at the bit to have breakfast.

We arrived at the hotel, met the boys and went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. In this hotel there are several big ponds that have fish swimming in them. The boys liked to feed the fish at the hotel and this morning a couple of hotel staff dropped by our table with some fish food. Davey, Candace, Drake and Jack joined us for breakfast and once breakfast was through the big boys went to feed the fish. If you know Luke's history, it probably won't surprise you to hear that he went swimming with the fish that morning. I was actually surprised that him (or one of my boys) hadn't already fallen in but Luke of course saved it for this crazy morning. Thankfully he wasn't too traumatized.

After about 4-5 hours in the ER, Alex was ready to go home and well on his way to recovering.

Now, we could send the boys off to the beach with Nana and Papa and know that they would be okay. And we'd be off to Jakarta in less than 10 hours.

More than a little BUGGY - Part 2

Friday morning started bright and early. There was a lot to be done...food to make, a house to clean and decorate. And in the midst of all this, I had to take the 4 boys to the doctor for their well child visit and immunization SHOTS. What was I thinking planning their doctor visits all on the same day - 4 kids crying in a little bitty exam room. AHHHH!!!

Praise God that the doctor visit didn't turn out so bad. My mom and I teamed up to take the kids to the doctor while Granny, Candace and Debbie stayed at our house to work on the party preparations. The triplets did great with their shots and Jack didn't cry all that much. I, on the other hand, got a little faint watching but managed to stay conscience.

After being gone several hours with the kids, I returned home to find the house rearranged and most of the food made. Because of the rain we had been having over the past week or so and the chance of rain on the party day, we had to totally rearrange the house to be able to accomodate the number of guests we were expecting. This party had become quite a production.

Friday night we stayed up late getting the house ready. Because of everyones help and our organization, Saturday morning left little to be done before the 11am party.

The party went GREAT. Everyone seemed to have a good time and commented several times on what a great party it was. It definitely made all the work worth while.

The time at the party passed quickly and before I knew it, it was time to clean up. After cleaning up, Jack opened his gifts. That marked the end of the party and time for Justin and I to switch gears and get ready for our trip to Jakarta the next day.

More than a little BUGGY - Part 1

I was going to write this story as 1 post but determined it might be a long story so the following is PART 1.

So there is nothing like a 32 hour trip to Jakarta, Indonesia to revive you after a CRAZY week. No really. Justin and I found travelling in business class to the other side of the world is quite relaxing and we needed a good rest to recover after the busyness of last week. So what did we need to recover from? Well...

After the triplets 3rd birthday party and my 30th birthday, I began preparations for a big birthday blow out for Jack. To pull off this party, I had called in the services of Granny (who agreed to stay in Houston between June 30th and July 9th), Candace, Debbie and my mom. The last 3 would be available to help starting July 6th. And as the week went on, I was glad I had them lined up as the guest list kept growing and now we were looking at around 90 people attending the party at OUR house!!

(I should also note at this point that Justin and I were also trying to prepare for our 10 day trip overseas while all this was happening.)

The first unexpected event occurred on Sunday morning when we received a call that Papaw was on his way to the hospital. He ended up staying there until Thursday. Praise God that all the test came back showing that there were no serious problems.

The calvary (Candace, Debbie, Mom and Bill) arrived on Thursday to help me get ready for the party. And when they arrived I was already a couple days behind on my list of things to do.

Mom and Bill took the triplets and Carter to the hotel near our house. And Debbie and Candace got their marching orders on what to do around the house. With Papaw home from the hospital, Granny was able to pitch in completing a few projects of her own.

Thursday night Candace and I stayed up late working on party favors while sitting on the office floor. I should have known when I bumped my head three times on the table when I was standing up (UNBELIEVEABLE) that it was going to be a LONG next few days.

One party down...one to go

Friday we celebrated the triplets third birthday at Build-A-Bear. With 29 kids, their parents and about 10 additional family members, I guess you could call the party "organized choas". Really it turned out great. The kids had a super time. And thinking back, I can't remember anything crazy that happened. The only things that didn't go according to plan...the camera battery wore down and we had to use a disposable camera and Isaac's cookie cake got a little smashed in transport to the food court. All in all, the boys had a fun and memorable party.

Now I am spending the week preparing for party number 2. Jack's first birthday party is this Saturday. Lets just hope it goes as smoothly and the rain stays away.

Long Time, No See

So, I can't believe it has been over 2 months since my last post. Well, it has been a busy 2 months. There have been several times something has happened and I have thought, "I should add that to the blog." But I just haven't made (or had the time to make) it happen. Oh, well. So here is where we are at:

The boys are growing up fast. Their birthdays are just around the corner. We have 2 fun birthday parties planned. In the next couple of weeks. The triplets are having a Build-A-Bear birthday which they are very excited about. The thought of lots of friends and birthday cookie cakes have them pumped up. Jack is having a big bug party at our house. Let's just pray for no rain.

So, amongst the busyness of our normal lives and planning 2 birthday parties, we are also getting ready to move to Jakarta, Indonesia. Crazy, I know. But we are really looking forward to it.

Once we get to Indonesia, I know I will have more time for the blog since we will probably hire a nanny, housekeeper and driver. Okay, so now you know why I am excited to go. Just kidding.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I hope to start keeping up the blog more so check in again soon.