Beautiful Day

This view out of my kitchen window each spring never gets old! Although my neighbors complain about how messy their tree is after it blooms, I always tell them that I adore this tree!

I reminds me of cotton candy, or raspberry ice cream, just plain loveliness!

We called Grandma and asked her to meet us for lunch at Mc Donald's. We sat outside on this gorgeous day and had a great time! This is going to sound so weird, but God really spoke to my heart today at lunch and I’ll have to share more about that story another time. I’m still thinking about it and trying to make sense of it all:)

Here are the kids after we got home and I told them we could have an adventure (aka “a walk around the yard”)

I have really wanted to get a picture of the kids in front of the magnolia tree before its beautiful petals fall off.

Okay…this next picture is just precious!!! I told Cara to kiss Allie and Eli to kiss Brady and look what I got!

Isn’t it strange to see Cara without a big bow in her hair? She has a new obsession with “piggies” and wants to ponytails every morning. She looks like such a big girl!

I love the look at sweet Eli’s face, like he is trying to analyze this dandelion!

And then there is Goofball! Can’t you just see it all over his face?

Don’t be fooled by Allie’s innocent expression. This child is giving us a run for our money! She is WAY more work than the triplets have ever been…combined! But look at those chubby arms:)

Consignment Day

Another late night home for me. I've been away from my kids for some part of almost every day this week. I certainly have gotten a lot accomplished, but I really don't like leaving this often. I didn't like leaving Allie's sweet face today, pushed up against the window watching me leave with tears running down her face. Yuck...didn't like that at all.

Yesterday I volunteered at the consignment sale (Weepeats in Rochester) and today I was able to shop at their pre-sale before the general public. I consign twice a year as way to recycle our childrens' clothes and toys into money to buy, well...more clothes and toys! I don't consign everything, I give some away and I also had a garage sale last year and am planning one for this year. It is just amazing how much kid "stuff" you can amass with 4 small kids. I like to think of the time and energy I put into consigning as a way to contribute to our family's income since I'm not working outside of the home. I also love to be able to shop at great prices twice a year! Tonight I came home with a youth basketball hoop, a pirate ship, 3 snap/dress dolls, 6 books, 3 toddler games, a bag of barretts, a Cinderella costume, 2 bean bag toss games, 2 toddler hockey sticks, 3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, a dress, and a shirt/capri set all for $109! This girl loves a bargain. Most importantly, for this sale I will make much more than I spent! That is always my goal:)

While wandering the sale tonight I saw one of the boys' outfits that I was selling in the hands of another mom. It was the outfit Brady wore on the night of a benefit dinner held by the Angels of Mercy last spring. He wore those blue plaid party pants with his matching blue vest and white tshirt and he melted my heart! I remember the ladies at the benefit laying hands on him to pray and I can just picture him sitting there with is bald head, surrounded by all of them. It was all I could do not to run up to the woman at the sale and grab that outfit and run the other way!!! Once I resisted that urge, I felt like she needed to know the history behind that outfit...how special it was...how special HE is! I took a deep breath, decided that I didn't want to become the crazy lady at the consignment sale, and just let it go. Wow! Am I a mess or what?

I found the picture...


See what I mean! Is that precious or what?

A Confession

Hi my name is Megan and I am admitting that I have spread myself way too thin these past few weeks. In an effort to try and do everything I want to do and meet the needs of my family, I'm running from morning until night!!! Unfortunately that means things like computer time and blogging are at a bare minimum! After Sunday life should resume as normal, which is still crazy but a much more manageable level of insanity:)

Please stand by....
Meg
ps..and I apologize to two of the people who commented on the blog in the last few days and don't see their comments up. In the midst of being some what frantic lately, I accidentally hit "Delete" rather than "Publish" and think that I have lost your comments forever. I'm sorry!

My Little Girl

Cara is a total girly and frilly type of girl and I adore that about her!

Today Grandma brought over her birthday presents for the kids. I have known for months that she was going to get a Snow White costume from Grandma and I have been SO excited about it! She has a Sleeping Beauty costume that she has had since Christmas. Everyday she digs it out of the toy box, asks me to put it on, and marches around the house wearing it. She soon forgets that she is wearing it and sooner or later is on the ground playing with trucks or building with blocks all while wearing her princess dress.

It is stained, ripped, and we even cut the sheer sleeves off because they had become so frayed. But Cara loves it.

Imagine her excitement when she opened up her birthday gift today and saw a brand new princess dress. Well, imagine no more…Look at her face!!!

Princess Cara:)

And because I can’t resist, I have to share the picture of my little genius using her new binoculars!

I love my “big” little girl!

Ready for More?

Eli woke up from his nap yesterday and told Matt, "Dad, now we are going to have another party?" In the mind of a newly 3 year old, why wouldn't there be another birthday party waiting for them when they woke up!?!

The kids played with their new toys and enjoyed the Western town that still is hanging around the house. Allie really liked the big boxes! When Matt and I looked inside one of them yesterday we were surprised to see that she had been stockpiling garbage bags that she likes to take out of the drawer in the kitchen. Today I found a pile of trail mix that she had been chewing on in the corner of one of the boxes!

My week of many projects continues tomorrow night with MOPS and then the annual spring consignment sale in Rochester. I have 5 baskets of clothes and toys for consignment and another 6 bins of clothes for our garage sale in June! The process of sorting and purging never ends in this house:)

My Three are Three!

This post comes to you a little later than promised! The party was a huge success, a wonderful time of celebration, and a whole lot of work:)

Our morning started off with muffins complete with birthday candles and time to open presents with just mommy and daddy!

The kids spotted the pile of presents before they sat down to eat…I’ve never seen Brady devour breakfast faster!

Cara was thrilled with her Snow White set and necklace organizer (can you say girly girl?)

Eli loved his Super Why and his new Pat Pat Rocket (both are favorites from Eli’s cartoon line up. The kid LOVES cartoons!)

Brady loved Eli’s presents the best, but also liked his pretend gas pump and ABC floor puzzle (note to self---for next year, get the boys similarly themed presents to avoid present-envy!)

The rest of the day we prepared for the big bash. We had 30 people coming over at 4pm. Food had to be prepared, decorations finished, tables and chairs set up, and 4 children needed to be restrained  from completely trashing the house!

It was finally time for the party and kids couldn’t be more excited!

Let the party begin!!!

The tables were set with plaid, cow print, and bandanas. Each table had licorice lassos and cow tales for guests young and old to enjoy!

Grandma Kathy worked for hours to create a Western Town for our 9 tiny party guests to enjoy!

I had no idea what a livery was, but learned that is where horses and livestock were kept in the good old days:)

Instead of a Saloon, we had Cara’s Cafe complete with window boxes and curtains (obviously the love for party details was inherited from my momma!)

And finally we had Brady’s lockup complete with jail bars and a set of keys to keep any outlaws in order!

Our little house never ceases to amaze me. We crammed these three enormous boxes into the back hallway and the kids had a ball playing in this out of the way spot! Of course we couldn’t access the basement stairs until after the party:) Now how am I going to convince the kids that these boxes are not permanent fixture in our home?

Each of our tiny party guests received a Sheriff star with their name when they arrived.

Before the party we headed outside for some pictures. Once again April 24th proved to be a beautiful day!

I purchased the triplets’ shirts from a store on etsy. If you haven’t checked out etsy yet, what are you waiting for?  Heather at Sew Seamingly Sassy did a great job creating personalized Western birthday shirts. The 3’s on their shirts were a red bandana print and each child’s name was embroidered in a blue lasso font over top. I just LOVED them!

And who couldn’t feel a little bad for the only Williams child not getting presents yesterday? It’s got to be tough to be the non-triplet:)

And to think we started this family only 3 years ago!!!

It was wonderful to have Matt’s great grandma and her husband here to celebrate with us!

And the birthday crew…

Eli Matthew Williams who was born into our family first. Our sweet, sensitive, quirky, vegetable-loving, sleepyhead, skinny, handsome, TV-watching, Snuffy-snuggling, perfect little boy.

Cara Kathleen Williams was our tiny little middle triplet. Born just over 4 pounds, you would never know now that she was once the smallest in our group. She’s our sassy, loving, nurturing, independent, girly, musical, mommy following, sometimes fearful, always ready for fun, perfect little girl.

Brady Andrew Williams was our baby triplet, but was a leader from the start. He’s our charming, bossy, silly, ticklish, cookie-eating, often demanding, kiss-giving, cancer-beating, perfect little boy.

Remember the boy at last year’s birthday who had to hold onto things to steady himself just weeks after his 2nd surgery?

Matt said it best when he prayed before dinner, thanking God for the year of healing that we have had. Amen!

Of course there was yummy food! We ate out of pie plates and drank out of mason jars.

Then it was time for dessert! Baking is SO not my thing, but I think that TOPS did a great job:)

And of course we try and make Eli, Cara, and Brady feel that we are celebrating each of their individual birthdays that just all happen to be on the same day.

One of my happiest memories of the day was watching the kids as we sang Happy Birthday to each of them one at a time. As we sang to Eli, Cara and Brady smiled and sang right along, but you could see the anticipation as they waited for their turn. By the time we sang to Cara, Brady was just wiggling in his chair as we sang. He even tapped his fingers on the table as he sang. Then it was his turn and he just smiled as we sang one last time!

Finally the kids got to create their own trail mix in a bucket to take home. Yum!

Three great kids and one really fun party! Thank you to all who came and shared this special memory with us. Happy trails from this blessed, tired, already thinking about next year’s party, happy it’s over, but sad they’re getting SO big….mommy!