Lunch with Santa

On Sunday we decided to take the kids to have lunch with Santa. It was the first time we attempted to take all four out for a meal. Things went very well. Boonsboro Country Club did a great job of people management. They also put our table in the corner, so we were out of the way of most people.

Joseph asked Santa for a bike and a tea set. Madeline was frozen on his lap. The other two wouldn't sit on his lap, but eagerly took a piece of chocolate from him.

Four of the six of us have colds right now, so the week is off to a long start. Hopefully some vitamin C and good sleep will make us better!

Good bye, water and pie

Today we said good bye to our dear friend Jessie. We will miss him terribly. Our hearts go out to his wife and our friend Lee and their children. He had a beautiful send off filed with friends and fond memories. A rainy day embraced us at the graveside as we listened to his gun salute and the words from the American Legion. Hearing taps with that backdrop was just emotional, I am sure it moved everyone there.


On a lighter note, Joseph went upstairs to wash his face today...somehow broke a water pipe on the sink. I could hear running water...and found a bathroom floor soaked and of course...it came downstairs. So we decided to make Pumpkin Pies! Here are the kids with their spoons and aprons on. I didn't have all the ingredients so I had to make some substitutions --yikes! I think they will eat anything with whip cream on top, so I'm not to worried.

trick or treat

my favorite cowboy and his cows

Crisp Air

We have been enjoying as much out side time as possible the last few weeks. The kids love to look at leaves and we talk about their colors and sizes. This past weekend we painted pumpkins with our good friend Russ (pictured here with the kids). We had planned to go to a pumpkin patch, but the rain changed our plans.

Joseph's new thing is to play magician. Here he is dressed up as a magician. The triplets play along and do whatever he says. It is very amusing to watch. He plans to be a cowboy for Halloween and the triplets will be cows.

Happy Halloween!

Birthday Bash

The triplets turned two last Sunday. We celebrated with family on Saturday. They enjoyed having "happy birthday" sung individually and blowing out the candles. Aunt Karen had been practicing with each of them!

Yesterday, Mary took a tumble down about six steps. I ended up taking her to the ER and she had a CAT scan. Luckily that was negative and she was diagnosed with a concussion. Her balance and coordination have returned, but one of her eyes is still a bit droopy.

Tonight mom and dad are coming over to celebrate my birthday - Shrimp and Grits. YUM!

Family Fun

John and I took the children to "Day in the Park" which was full of fun FREE activities on Saturday. We started off with a train ride, then went to the petting zoo, saw some Knights fighting, climbed in an ambulance and firetruck...the kids were doing so great we decided to have lunch. We were there for 3 hours and no one ever complained. When we were leaving Joseph wanted to know if we could come back tomorrow. :)

We had a first today - we took all the kids to church. Thankfully some of our friends were on nursery duty so I didn't feel as awful leaving three screaming toddlers. Hats off to you - Anne and Bunny! It was really nice to go as a family.

Full Tub

This morning, Joseph and I went to school to meet his teachers for this year. He was pouting when we left the house because he didn't want to go - but when it was time to leave the classroom - he didn't want to! We were the last one's to leave.

We had lunch outside on the driveway today. The weather is just beautiful. It resulted in some very dirty children so we went ahead and got bath time out of the way. It may be the last time I bath all four at the same time. Besides the fact that they fill the tub up - they just play too rough. Reed was trying to "hug" the girls but was really tackling them.

Happy Labor Day to all!

16 hours...

until I'll be in Hot-lanta!

My lovely aunt just interupted my lunch of chocolate ice cream (with pnut butter ribbons, right out of the container...yum)to let me know she needs to see some baby pics...this blog is for you Auntie Sandra!

My flight leaves at 6:10 in the morning. Some good friends of ours are picking me up at the airport. I'm excited to see their new house and catch up for a bit. Later in the morning Buffey will pick me up and we are headed for massages - oh the luxury! The weekend is really planned around the Women of Faith of Conference. Buffey and I will be attending the conference on Friday and Saturday.

The kids will be sprinkled throughout the city with good friends and family. Thank you all! My aunt Karen is coming down from Richmond to help out, too. I can't wait!!

Weightlifting

Here is how John gets his exercise...

Playground fun

We walked up a neighborhood playground today. The girls had fun when they realized they could hang from the bar above the slide. Joseph always does this, but they had never noticed before. Bodie made the walk with us today and was very well behaved at the park.

Meet Rosie and Lulu. They are my new foster kittens. They are living on our screened porch with their beautiful momma, Queenie. Queenie takes very good care of them - keeping them spotless. She is nursing them, I guess they are about 4 weeks old.

Here is a picture I snapped this week of the kids playing with their match box cars while I was fixing dinner. They were using baking sheets for ramps.

Yard work

Today my parents and aunt Karen surprised John, Joseph and I by taking all the babies! John and Joseph did yard work while I slipped out to do some shopping.

We are getting ready to hit the pool. It has been a great day!

Ants! Ants!

The kids love to stop by these two big trees when we go walking. They have huge black ants all around them. They point and say ant! ant! ant!

For dinner we had tacos and mexican rice. Joseph told me he knew how I made rice, "you catch some of the red ants and cut off their heads and legs and feet off. Then you have rice!"

Sounds yummy, doesn't it?

Minature Drumsticks are yummy!

For dessert tonight we had a special treat. I tried to upload a video but it won't work, so you'll have to settle for still shots- needless to say we headed straight for the bathtub afterwards :)


Mary

Madeline

Reed

Joseph

getting back to normal

We survived the beach trip - two very long car rides - a house with 16 people; 7 of who had the stomach bug during the week. We made some fun family memories and enjoyed spending time with the family. Madeline and Joseph were born for the beach. Look for pictures soon.

This week my dear friend from Atlanta came up for a visit with two of her three kids. We enjoyed some fun times with them. This picture was one morning at the park. We had taken some playdough along.

The littles ones language is really blossoming. Mary will put 4 words together. It stops me in my tracks sometimes. This picture is them enjoying a yummy apple snack on Tuesday.

Climbing Mount Changing Table

This morning Mary discovered she could climb the various changing tables sprinkled throughout our house. She taught Reed this trick rather quickly. At nap time I took Madeline down to the basement (where she has a pack -n -play) and when I got back upstairs all of one minute later...I found Mary and Reed having a little party on top. You can also see where Mary pulled all of the wipes out of the wipe container.

John has already called the emergency room to let them know we will be coming in any day now.

Back by Demand!

Okay...so I continue to get requests on having a family website. This one is free so here it is! We had over 5,000 hits on our freebie site from when the triplets where born.

We had a great July 4th weekend. Although we missed Joseph greatly - he is at the beach with my parents. We had some yummy watermelon and played on playgrounds.

We are starting to get ready for our upcoming family vacation with John's parents and sisters. It will be a house full (16!) actually a beach full since there will be five houses of Stone's.