Merry Christmas

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas and a 

richly blessed 2015!!! 

So, I had all these cute ideas of pictures I wanted to take of the triplets this year. You know, the ones you see all over Pinterest. Pictures that make you forget that last Thursday those little cuties wore 13 OUTFITS, required 5 BATHS and filled 2 LOADS OF LAUNDRY!!! Ahem. Breathe, Heidi. This is one reason I love scrapbooking and blogging. I love remembering all the moments that make you forget the long hours and focus on the wonderful gifts that God has given. So, as I was saying, I had many ideas floating around in my head of cute photo opportunities. Well, aside from the fact that Keira woke up with a rash all over her face, things started off OK....

But, they quickly went downhill as we carefully got everyone else in position. Here you have the curious, but contented pose.

Then, "Mom, really? We're doing this AGAIN?"

"Hey, why does she get the 'O'?"

And, after a brief three minutes, we had COMPLETELY lost the battle!

Maybe adding the big brothers will help?????

If these pictures don't quite give you the full experience, here's a little video clip of the action - 

And people, the excitement didn't end there. A mere 10 minutes later and Keira had thrown up all over herself on the car ride to church. Rhys also threw up and ended up sleeping with a bucket on the floor of Rob's office all morning. And by 1:00, Griffen had joined in the vomit-fest. After cleaning up 3 carpet stains, some furniture, and 2 MORE loads of laundry, a dear family from church graciously arrived at my house to sit with three sick chicks while I headed back to church for our Christmas cantata! 

Rhys (who is watching me write this post) just said, "Mom, wouldn't it be cool if we had some more kids? Then we could spell out JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD HAS COME." 

In other news....and on a much brighter note....Drake started sitting this week!!! How cute are my little boys?!?!?! I just want to eat them! 

Keira got her first TWO teeth this week and is almost crawling! She has also discovered the art of pulling herself up onto things. 

Griffen and Rhys take good care of their babies. One day, Griffen even decided to begin potty training. Yup, that's Keira in big boy underwear (we don't have big girl underwear yet). He included a single wipe, just in case of accidents. 

We have discovered that Keira is generally happy, as long as she can clearly see mommy or daddy. 

 This was their first bath together - "sitting" up like big kids! They are growing up too fast!

And just because the babies really are very JOYful, I must also include this.

These were some of the babies' first Christmas presents from another dear church family! Keira took the liberty to open ALL of them. Many more to come this week!

You see what I mean? I was a little stressed at the beginning of this post. Besides all the sickness, I am packing and doing laundry for seven suitcases that need to be filled by tonight, finishing Christmas cards and thank-you's, and wrapping last minute gifts. But, a smile is on my face, because as I take the time to reflect on these pictures I realize that I AM BLESSED!!! God has been VERY good to our family this year. We are excited to see His working in 2015!

Holidays

This was the scene at our house on Thanksgiving Day, as we hosted dinner for 18! We enjoyed good food and sweet Christian fellowship with -

Chet, Jenni, MacKenzie, Madison, and Lilly Goetz

Brian, Abby, and Prentiss Jay

Beth and Duke Klonch

No sooner had we cleaned up from Thanksgiving, than the Christmas decorating began. Yup, within 24 hours our house was transformed! We have FOUR trees this year, including one in my big boys' bedroom. 

These three little amigo's might not understand Christmas yet, but the rest of us sure do enjoy this season! There is nothing quite like a month long birthday party!!!

These pics just went downhill from here.... First, Drake got her bow. Pulled it right off her head.

Only moments later, he began attacking her pacifier. She did NOT like that either.

And lastly, these two pictures just made me smile today. Several people have now commented to me how much they think that Taerik looks like Griffen. While I definitely see similarities, this morning I actually got out some of Griffen's baby pictures. This was one of Griffen's first birthday pics. Below is Taerik at 7 months.

Isn't God good? I have always affirmed that it wouldn't matter if my kids had pink hair and purple skin, I would love them just the same. However, it is kind of cute how God has brought this family of seven together and most would never know that, aside from the triplets, we do not share genetics.