Cleaning the Grill....HA!

It started out harmless enough, Chris was just going to clean the grill for my Mother's Day steak dinner. Well, you can see he is NOT spraying the grill, haha!

 Loving the water slide!

 Yes, my children drink from the water hose. :)

 This is how her pants stayed once she got wet! Every time we told her to pull them up, she would, but couldn't get them over her booty!!

 Time to spray Daddy! They didn't have as much success in getting him wet as he did in getting them!

One LONG Day

I know the past several posts have been lacking pictures, well this one will make up for it :)

This past Saturday, the company Chris works for had a family picnic. They do this every year for the employees and their families. They serve lunch, have bounce houses for the kids, different competitions through out the day, and door prizes. Like serious door prizes. This year, they gave away a flat screen TV, a grill, iPad, kindle, ummm...a digital camera I think. We have gone the past two years and are 0-2. Oh, well.

Anyway, Helen and Aubree stayed at Chris's parents Friday night and we heard there was a community yard sale at one of the nicer neighborhoods in town so we decided to get up early and go. We had to be back by 10:30 to get the girls from Chris's parents, so we only had a couple of hours. We got there and it was CRAZY!!! I think everyone in Valdosta was there! The traffic was awful in the nieghborhood! We spent a good amount of our time in traffic inside the neighborhood. But we found some good stuff for pretty cheap. Every time we would stop and start to get out, Allisyn would say "Me? Me get out?" Every. Time. Haha!

Here is our little diva!

 The place they rent out to have the picnic is beautiful. They have two of these swings, which, of course the girls loved!

 Still rockin the sunglasses!

 She is so funny! She has been standing like this a lot lately. She even had her hand on her hip while she was eating breakfast this morning!

 She turned around just at the right moment. See how pretty the pond is?

 Chris and his partner won the water balloon throwing contest (like the egg throwing contest). And Helen waited patiently for her turn to play.

 Finally getting to play...

 Guess who got wet! She's holding her dress out to dry :)

 Helen wanted to fish so bad last year, but we don't fish. One of the guys was nice enough to let them use his rod for a few minutes.

 She looks mad. This is after lunch and no nap. She slept for about 30 minutes in the car after we left the yard sale and that was it for the day.

 This is the best of the three I got all day.

 Allisyn was hogging the other swing so they shared :)

 Yes, they touched that nasty thing! They were so intrigued by it. Then I brought them straight in to wash their hands, haha.

 Not too sure about the side.

We left the picnic about 3:30 I think. It was too late for the girls to take a nap so Chris had the great idea to go swimming. Had we gone home, we would have fought to keep them wake until a decent bedtime and there would have been lots of fussing and whining. Aubree and Allisyn slept the 10 minutes it took to get home. It worked out perfectly. We went to the pool for awhile, then went home, gave them showers, ate supper, and by that time, it was 6:30 and it didn't take them long to knock out!

When Aubree saw this picture, she asked why Allisyn was making that face. Haha! I told her that was not Allisyn and she thought that was the funniest thing!

 You can see how tired she is!

What REALLY Goes On At Helen's Ball Games!

First off, these pictures are horrible. I need a new camera!! Secondly, you have to remember these are 5, 6, & 7 year olds. They get distracted very easily! Having said that, Helen has improved so much during this seaon! The last two games, she has not had to use the tee at all! (It's non-competitive so they get 6 pitches, then they can hit off the tee for #7.) All the other games, she has had to hit off the tee at least once.

Here she is getting a hit.

Standing on first base.

 On the way to second.

 This is where the distractions begin for all of them - fielding - espically the outfield, haha.

 Caught her talking to the third baseman.

 This is where you can start laughing. She saw I had the camera pointed at her so she started posing...only my child!

 She was striking many different poses...

 ...really putting on a show, haha!! She had us all laughing!

 My crazy Helen!!

Nap vs. Rest

A couple years ago Helen started the "I don't want to take a nap!" thing. So aggrivatiing. I mean, she would stay in her bed (this is the girl that when she moved out of her bed at 18 months would ask us is she could get out of bed in the mornings - if we said no, she would stay in there until we told her she could get out), but it was starting to be a battle to get her to be quiet and actually go to sleep! Eventually it got to where she wouldn't sleep at all, then be cranky later. Finally I got smart - I explained to her the difference between a nap and a rest and gave her the choice. A nap, you have to go to sleep. A rest, you don't sleep, you just lay there, but you have to be quiet and still. Well, you tell a child they don't have to take a nap and they will do anything! And what happens when a three year old lays in her bed and stays quiet and still? She falls asleep, of course!! Worked like a charm. Still does, haha!
I introduced this to Aubree today. She was so excited she didn't have to go to sleep! As I am typing this, she is sound asleep, haha! So if you are experiencing this with your child, try this!

Life With Kids

Life with kids is definetly an adventure. And with three of them, there is never a dull moment. These girls of ours bring so much joy into Chris and my life, sometimes I just sit back in awe and think to myself "Thank you God!" They are truly a blessing. Of course there are times when I just have to go outside for a minute to get a break from the whining and tattling (something we are working on but to no avail, it seems!), but everybody has those. For the most part, we have very happy, loving, silly girls whom we adore. And they are definetly crazy! If you have been to my house, then you know what I am talking about. And if they are in a mood - your sides will definetly be hurting! They feed off each other and I love the way they make each other laugh. Helen makes Aubree laugh SO hard, like nobody else can. Last night, we had to run to the grocery store for some milk after girl scouts and they all three squeezed into one of those buggies that has the steering wheels on it - do you know what I'm talking about? It's big enough for two, but they manage to make it big enough for three. It had already been a rough night, the girls didn't get supper before scouts, then I had to search for the keys for 30 minutes so we were late, as soon as we were getting ready to leave scouts, it started pouring down rain....you know, one of those nights. I was not looking forward to going into the grocery store hungry and with three hungry little girls, cold from the rain. But they never cease to amaze me. They did very well, a little loud, but at least it was from laughing and not crying! They really didn't ask for too much and they know if I say no, then that is the end of it. And Helen knows if it isn't on sale, we aren't getting it. Teaching her young, haha! Anyways, we got a few looks, but they were smiles instead of those why-can't-you-control-your-kids looks. (which thankfully, we haven't had too many of, but they are inevitable every now and then) We did end up wth a little more than milk though ;) We are very blessed in that they love each other so much and I love that. They squabble every now and then of course, but for the most part, they don't fight. Haha, they know better! They are so close now and I hope they grow up and are still very close. These girls never run out of energy and are always wanting to go somewhere! God has blessed us incredibly with these girls and I can't wait for August to add one more. Aubree always wants to see the baby and when I lift my shirt up, she says "Wow! She's getting big!" Umm...thanks Aubree, haha. And then Allisyn will run up and kiss my belly. I love it! When Aubree prays, she always remembers to thank God for our baby and that our baby is a girl! I love these little girls so much and can't imagine my life without them and I pray I never have to!

Helen's First Ball Game!!

Today is the day Chris has been waiting for since we first found out I was pregnant with Helen - her first ball game. He always played sports growing up and of course, he wants our kids to do the same. We tried to get Helen to play last year but she really didn't want to, so of course we didn't make her. This year, she was very excited to play. Chris's aunt and uncle are the coaches and Chris is helping so he can take over next year. She is playing coach pitched softball.

Haha, "warming up". No, Uncle Mike was telling them something :)Warming up with ChrisThe team in the dugout.Standing on first base. She went 3 for 4.Excited to be playing!They are allowed to have two coaches in the outfield during the game to help the players. Chris just happened to be standing by Helen. Here she is asking him if she can have some M&M's! Way to stay focused Helen :)Up to bat!The team!Chris and HelenLove this picture!The league we are in is noncompetitive. You can only score 5 runs in an inning and the fifth run counts as the final out. We scored 5 runs every inning and eight the last! One little boy hit a grand slam to end it!! All the kids did great - they all played great and more importantly, they all had good attitudes and good sportsmanship!

21 Weeks

Here is the blog I promised for yesterday, only a day late :) As of yesterday (Friday), I am 21 weeks pregnant. I am finally feeling much better. It was a rough start to my pregnancy. I had pretty bad nausea - never actually threw up, but there were plenty of times I wanted to! Also had extreme exhaustion - could that be because I was chasing around 3 kids all day? Haha! And I had some pretty bad headaches. This pregnancy has been the worst by far of the four. I think this one has been worse than all the other three together! There were some days I went to bed as soon as Chris got home from work. But I have a super awesome husband and he would handle supper, 3 girls, and kept up the house! God has definetly blessed me with an amazing man for a husband for me and daddy for my kids!!
The nausea finally lingered off around 16 weeks, but the headaches kept up until about 19 weeks. Finally felt good enough to do some walking and the eleptical. For about a week. Then my mouth started hurting. Ugghhh!!! I had a wisdom tooth coming in causing LOTS of pain! So I got that taken out this past Monday and my mouth is still a little tender. But hopefully it will be back to normal in the next few days and the rest of this pregnancy will be uneventful!
Weight gain is a weird thing in pregnancy. For women to know they have to gain weight is a pretty tough thing. We know we have to for the health of our baby, but we still don't like that. With Helen I gained right at 20 lbs I think, Aubree was 14, and Allisyn was 33 (!). So we shall see with this one. So far, I haven't gotten back to my starting weight yet. I made my midwife feel better at my last appointment by gaining 3 lbs in 4 weeks, but I'm still half a pound under. I'm sure I will make up for it though! I'm still not sure how this is possible - I know I'm not any smaller than I was before I got pregnant, but I know at least my belly is alot bigger! Like I said, weight gain in pregnancy is crazy!
I have to say that, so far, Allisyn has been my favorite pregnancy. Just because she moved all.the.time! I mean, she was constantly moving! I think if you ask any woman that has ever been pregnant, feeling your baby move inside you is the best part of it! This one moves around a little, not as much as Allie yet, though. I feel her most at night when I lay down. Maybe I move so much during the day? Chris felt her moving around for the first time the other night. There's nothing like it!
No picture this week, I will try and have one for next week!