Holiday Memories

Our family spent a lovely 8 days in Minnesota and Wisconsin this past Christmas visiting family on both sides. We have finally crawled out from all the luggage and laundry and are able to reflect on some wonderful memories.

December 24 was spent with Rob's family in Coon Rapids, MN.After some wonderful food and fellowship, we ended the day with great-grandma and grandpa singing carols and reading the Christmas story.

December 25 began with a morning swim with the cousins in the hotel pool and a few more attempts at family pictures. Then, we loaded up the luggage and headed off to be with my side of the family in the greater Minneapolis area. While packing, Griffen said to me, "Mom, we have 29 bags. As long as you count 29, we have everything." My, how life has changed!

Do you see how hard I try??? Along with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins, we had a special visitor on Christmas Day. Eli the Elf came to deliver bags of goodies for all. 

Christmas evening, we all went to visit my grandma in the hospital. We sang carols and prayed with her. Though her memory has faded tremendously due to Alzheimer's, she asked several times to see the triplets. So glad she finally got to meet them!

Next, we headed east to Eau Claire, WI where we spent several days with my sister and her family. Besides just hanging out with family, a children's museum and nightly rounds of Monopoly Deal, Rook, and Scrabble proved to be the highlights of this leg of our journey. 

December 29 we left Wisconsin and headed west to New Ulm, MN to be with Rob's parents and sister. On the way, we took a day to do a little shopping as a family at the Mall of America. 

New Ulm greeted us with more presents, more snow, and more family! 

On January 2, we once again packed up our 29 bags and said our good-bye's. One stop to fill up on gas reminded us that we were not in Kansas anymore when the washer fluid bucket was frozen solid. 

With every yearly Christmas card I write, I am reminded of how quickly life passes by. James 4:14 rings so true this time of year - "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." From the tiny baby to the great-grandparents - we are reminded that our days are numbered. This serves as great motivation to serve God more fully this 2015! 

In closing, here's a little New Years greeting from Taerik,

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!