Monday, January 31, 2011

KC's Photography Class

KC is back at school!  He started at the semester with 4 classes.  Because of their A/B day's, he goes to one class each morning, is able to come home and rest, and then goes back in the afternoon for 1 class.  So far, so good!  His favorite class, besides Orchestra is his digital photography class.  I reallly like this kind of homework.  This afternoon I helped him for more than an hour as we found objects to photograph around the house.  He decided that the "Air Soft Gun" bee bee's were a great medium. 











And the Ping Pong balls......

And Sugar.....a moving target!

He had to photograph textures.......


And different lines.............



And just for fun, the mountain today was beautiful!  We were sad we couldn't see Timp, maybe tomorrow.  By the time we were done, the sun was setting, and it was beautiful too!  I think he really has some talent, don't you.



Friday, January 28, 2011

Sick X 3!!!


The girls don’t get sick very often, and that’s a VERY good thing! 
I worked three in a row last weekend and noticed on Saturday evening that Lexi wasn’t quite herself.  By Sunday night it was obvious that she was coming down with something.  By Monday morning, she had a high fever and I kept her home from school.  Sure enough, by Monday evening, Madilynn had a fever too, but she also had cough.  By Tuesday, Kiersten joined the club!  I wasn’t too worried until yesterday when we are on day 4 of fevers and they requested that I “turn off the TV” because it was bugging them and they wanted to sleep.  (Mom confession #1 – they are much easier to deal with when they get THAT sick!)
I made the dreaded call for an appointment at the Pediatrician.  Good news, they could see all three 11:10.  In that moment, whoosh went my day.  I bathed and dressed three cranky, whiny, feverish little girls and off we went to the doctor.  (Mom confession #2 – they were easier to take to the doctor when they were all in infant car seats!  I could carry them all in at once, they didn’t get out and move around a germ infested waiting room, they stopped crying with a binky, they didn’t know how to poke at each other yet, and they could have cared less if their sister got more attention than they did!)
I’m not sure if it made me feel better that doctor told me he wished everyone would wait to bring their children in until they were “really” sick…….hmmmm?
He was shocked that both the Influenza and Strep came back negative so we were officially diagnosed with a “viral” something.  Madilynn was the only one with nasty sounding lungs, so she was started on antibiotics and an inhaler.  He did have enough pity on me to prescribe some phenergan with codeine cough syrup so we could have a more restful night.
So, it looks like I’ll need to figure out a few more creative ways to get 8 year olds to take yucky medicine and tolerate the humidifier in their room.  In this moment there are still a few things to be grateful for: the sanitize cycle on the washer, Vicks, cough syrup with codeine and a home office across the hall from their bedroom where they are all fast asleep. 

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

After the party.......

Well, the girls birthday weekend has finally come to an end.  Days and weeks of preparation came together almost flawlessly.  It's hard to believe that they are actually 8 years old.  I used to think that we wouldn't make it past 2 or 3........  We have had so many good times, and so many tough times.   It's seems like we've had them forever on one hand, and on the other it was like yesterday that they came into our lives. 

The one thing I know for certain is that our girls have a very special mission here on earth.  I'm not sure why we were so honored to become their parents.  They have talents beyond my wildest dreams, and the ability to accomplish things one child alone could never do.  So far, they have used their unique abilities to bless the lives of nearly everyone around them, but most of all, ME!  

On monday evening, Dave said, "you've got to come and see this!"  I was so tired and didn't want to get up, but I did.  From our front porch, he took these pictures.  It was a blessing to end the weekend with such a beautiful gift from our Father in Heaven.


BFF Birthday

Deciding on the theme for the girls party was difficult this year.  They are all getting their own likes and dislikes and sometimes common ground is rare.  We eventually settled in on a BFF scrap booking theme, but only after I threatened to not have a party at all if they couldn't agree on something. 

I had each friend they were inviting send me some pictures and I designed a page just for them.  We set up tables in the living room and layed out all the pages with their pre-cut titles and borders.  When the girls arrived, they made page in their own book for each of their friends.  We bound them together at the end of the party.  I'll admit, it was a little ambitious for a group of 8 year olds, but they had a great time and you can safely say that each one of their books is unique. 







We sang Happy Birthday three times, one for each of them.  I only realized after we were done that KC had only taken pictures of the flames on the candles.  While they were really cool pictures, we sang ONE more time so I could get a shot of the girls "blowing" out the candles.  I was so excited to cut the cake and it stayed perfectly moist!  White cake with butter cream and raspberry filling.  The kids each wanted a "rose" and there were plenty to go around. 


 


Opening up presents is always fun, but a CRAZY segment of any friend party.  This year, they did a pretty good job of not letting it get out of hand.  They girls got lots of crafty things which will come in handy on a January snow day.   The other thing they just love is jewelry.  We will have to come up with a new place to keep all of the necklaces they have now. 

 
Aunt Kristin came that day to help out, as well as Grandma Barb.  We couldn't have done it without them.  Towards the end of the party, Matisyn decided to get some extra sunshine and Uncle David managed to snap this picture before she moved. 



Saturday, January 15, 2011

Our Baptism





The girl's were baptized and confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on January 15th 2011.  It was beautiful in every way. 

It was difficult to make a decision about who should participate directly in their program because so many people are special to them.  After an agonizing debate between the girls, they decided it had to be fair.  I'm not really sure what FAIR means, but they figured it out. 

Jordan and Nathan helped us with the piano music and McKenzie led the music.  Uncle Don gave the opening prayer.   KC played a musical number.  They had Grandma Mullen talk about baptism.  She explained how it bridges the gap between sin and repentance.   The girls listened to every word, even though one of them discovered a problem with a toe nail while she was talking. 

The girls were nervous, but precious as we walked down the hall to the font.  They waited patiently for the family to assemble and make sure the "order" they had previously worked out was still good.  Each one was baptized and it was beautiful.  The first two nearly froze to death because they waited and watched each other.   Thank heavens we had a hair dryer so we could "warm them up".  Each one was wrapped in a special baptism towel that we gave them the night before.  It had a darling poem with it......

Today you will be baptized
Your sins all washed away
And I will be there waiting
Excited in every way
For I'm a very special towel
With an important job to do
And I will be the one they take
To wrap around you
You can keep me as a reminder
Of this very special day
When you were baptized a member
And you sins were washed away
After changing into their beautiful white dresses we headed back down to the primary room.   CJ played a musical number.  In their own words Grandpa Curt is a "talker" and he did just that.  His talk on the Holy Ghost was longer than expected (almost 15 minutes), but every word was from his heart.  The girls actually listened very carefully and can still tell me what he said.  He talked about the Holy Ghost being our communicator with Heavenly Father.  Any time you mention "cell phone" the girls will pay attention.

The girls were then confirmed by their dad and were surrounded by a very large circle of loved ones.   After each blessing, it took a several minutes to go around the circle and give hugs and kisses.  Kiersten was last and managed to give hugs and kisses before and after her blessing. 

We are very grateful to Brother Rob Duncan from our bishopric who was there to conduct.  It is unanimous now that he really is "part of the family".

It was very special at the end because Great-Grandma Jo was able to give the closing prayer.  I was afraid for a moment that the guys (David, Mike and Rob) were going to dump the podium over while they were trying to situate the microphone so Grandma Jo could be heard. 



We gathered afterwards back at our home for a "light" brunch.  YES, I know that nothing I do is light, but that was a "light" menu for me.  We enjoyed spending time with family and friends and sharing this very special day with our loved ones. 

THE CAKE

Everyone who knows us, knows that THE CAKE has become a very important part of the Triplet's birthday celebrations.  I hope I will have time later this week to find pictures to post of all 8 birthdays.  It would be fun to see them all together.

I really struggled with this years cake.......the girls were not sure exactly what they wanted.  They knew it had to be white and they really wanted flowers.  In the end, we decided to do a stacked, white cake with flowers.  HMMMMMM, sounded kind of boring.  So I searched for photos and decided what I wanted.  Well, in production phase, it didn't quite work out, BUT I'm pretty happy with the finished product.

We started a few days ahead of time making flowers.  I didn't originally plan on help from the kids, but when Alexis said, "Am I old enough now to help with my cake?" I couldn't resist.  Making the roses took 3 days because I had so many helpers.  BUT, I think they turned out amazing.  KC spent a few hours painting them with pearl dust.  We color painted a bunch of them pink, but ended up only putting white ones on the cake. 






The night before the baptism (Friday), Grandma showed up at about 9:30pm, just in time to help mom assemble the cake.  It ended up taking much longer (it always does), and the plan changed several times as we ran into construction problems. 

The best story of the evening was when KC was helping to make the fondant.  I love marshmallow fondant because it's much easier to work with than the store bought stuff and it tastes great. (That may or may not be a good thing....)  KC started the recipe and called me to kitchen a while later, it just didn't look right.   As a matter of fact it looked down right WRONG?  We started a new batch and figured out that he added 1 and 1/2 cups Crisco instead of only 1/2.  The next batch turned out perfect and we were on our way.  Rolling, and icing, rolling and icing.  When we were finally done with the basic assembly and there were many flaws.  So Grandma had the idea to put a fondant ribbon around the base of each cake.  Then we started covering it up with roses and flowers that we had made.  In the end, you could hardly tell where any of the major flaws were.  I finished late into the night and after getting everything else ready to go it was almost 5 am before I got to bed.

The next morning (Saturday), when I woke up the cake was starting to tip, one side had given out on the middle layer.  Luckily, when I took the photos, you can't see it, because it's falling toward me.  Gotta love photography!

We cut the cake on Monday for the girls friend party and it was YUMMY!  Dad always bakes the cakes for mom and this one was perfect.  We filled it with butter cream and raspberry and it stayed perfectly  moist!  Everyone needed to eat a rose, and there were plenty to go around.  Mom ate WAY too many and the scale proved it. 

All in all, a beautiful white cake fit for three beautiful girls, dressed in white on their baptism day.