Catch up on pictures

The rest of my week

Yes, this was a hard week but there were some good things in it too! Jason left on Wednesday and so we spent the day just hanging out. Sheila came over for the evening because Brian had school so we had dinner and played and some baby holding! Friday we spend the morning getting ready for our weekend in Boise. On our way we stopped at Katie's house and spent some time playing with her and the boys. We had a lot of fun although Katie and I didn't get a whole lot of visitng in. There are a lot of kids between the two of us! :)

After that we headed off to Melba for Uncle Jacobs bball game. He played a GREAT game! It was fun to watch and the kids did great! Or course it took a bunch of us to control the busy busy babies! :)

Saturday was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. We went to IHOP for breakfast. Grandpa Jones, Mom and Dad, Me, Jacob and the babies! It was so fun! Again, the kids were really well behaved and seemed to enjoy being out and the yummy food we ordered!

Sunday we went to church. That was an adventure! The kids are were good, they are just getting loud and hard to make them sit still. We are working on it though...After church my parents had some company over so the kids napped and we visited (I slipped a 2 hour nap in there but other than that I visited!) After they left my Grandma, Granpda and Aunt Jean came over to see the babies for a while. Then Kristen and Sage came over and we all watched football for a while.

Monday we headed home and spent the evening with Aunt Boo, who so graciously stays over night with me as often as I need it!

That's most of our week. We always have such a good time staying in Boise with my Mom and Dad! Love them!!

My Knight In Shining Armor

My man came home! I was in desparate need of that!! It's been a rough day to say the least! And this mommy was at her wits end. Is it normal to put yourself in time-out 5 times a day???? You gotta do what you gotta do I guess! However, Jason is home!!! And he came with flowers in hand to cheer me up! What I guy he is! He now has me tucked in to bed, made me a yummy dinner to eat while there. I have a good movie on and the rest of the night off!
He's a guy I could never replace!

My Knight in Shining Armor - how I love and appriciate him!

Contentment

Don't you just cringe at that words sometimes??? :) I know I do - it usually means there is usually something in my life that I have to work HARD on! :) I have been reading the book Calm My Anxious Heart for my Bible reading. It's SO good and SO convicting! It reaches so many areas of my life that need to be worked on. One of the big things that has stuck out to me lately is when she talks about a list that has helped her in being content. A couple of the points are never wish your life (or anything)was different than it is right now, and don't complain about anything - not even the weather. Yea, ouch! :) How many of us complain on a daily basis that it's too hot or too cold or too windy or too cloudy etc.... That frame of mind boggles me but it's so true!! The point of not just talking about the weather but all the little things in life I complain about with makes it even easier to complain about the bigger things.

I have really had to work on this in our present situation. I miss my husband LIKE CRAZY! All I want is for him to leave in the morning AND (this is the kicker) come home at night! It so hard to have him away. I tend to sink into a little depression mode. I get WAY overwhelmed with the kids and just get unhappy about life. But, as I know and have been learning about, that's NO way to live this life the Lord has blessed me with. I need to be joyful because of HIM not because of my circumstances. I need to see the blessing in the Lord providing Jason with a great job and taking care of us. I have been learning not to compare my lot with others, "well so and so's husband doesn't have to leave them all the time!" That may be true - but God has a different life laid out for me and my family. I also need to remember how CRAZY hard this is on Jason! He has to work in AWFUL weather conditions 10-12 hours a day. Be away from the kids and miss out on all the things they do! (It KILLS him to be away from the babies! He is an amazing Dad!) He has to be away from me which I know he hates. He lives with four other guys in yucky motel rooms and eats awful food the whole time he's gone. My point is it's really rough on him, probably worse than what I am doing! But you know, he doesn't complain! He just does is thing, works so hard and is so faithful to encourage me. Such an example and something for me to strive for!

I have been working on it, praying about and it's amazing how your perspective changes and things are somewhat easier when you have the right attitude! I am FAR from being where I need to FAR! Especially on hard days like today has been so far! But the Lord is so faithful and patient, He just holds my hand and walks me through! This is what's on my heart.....

A Valentines Giveaway

Amber at Simply You photography is having a fun Valentines Giveaway. She is a gifted photographer and has some fun things going on this month. Check it out here: http://www.amberfischer.com

Once Upon a Time...

once upon a time...

...there was this boy and there was this girl. they were very much in love.

they wanted to share that love with a baby. after years of waiting and praying,

they were blessed with not one . . . not two . . .

but three little miracles.

and they lived happily ever after!

This was a post from Amber Fischer (Simply You Photography). She did some family pictures for my whole side of the family in August. She is AWESOME by the way! She is so much fun to work, such a sweet person and so patient with all of us!

It blessed my heart so much to see this post on her site, it meant a lot to me! Ours was a long hard road leading to these miracles we call ours now! We are so blessed! It's was a nice reminder to remember the journey we took to get here! And I thought some of my family might be blessed to read this as well.

Fun Facts

I just did some math (not on my own with the help of a website!:)) and here are our diaper stats for our triplets IF they are all potty trained at age 2:

In 2 years I will have:

Changed: 12,000 diapers
Spent: 24,000 minutes/400 hours changing diapers
Total Cost: $2400 on diapers

And that's not counting the days that they don't follow the schedule and I change 3 wet diapers only to find 10 min later they all need a dirty diaper changed!

We LOVE new babies!

Brisco(e) Wyatt McKinney is now 2 weeks old and I am just getting around to posting about him! He is such a cutie and a fun new addition to the family! I have been having fun getting to go visit with Sheila and cuddle that little guy! It makes me miss those days with mine and wonder where in the world the time goes???? He was on Tuesday December 29th 2009. He weighed in at 7lbs 2oz and I think 19inces long but I can't remember for sure.

Just a random update on some cute things the babies have been doing! I have got to be better at recording this stuff! Life is flying by SO fast and I forget so easily even what last week was like let alone anything else! :)

• Cam continues to be my little comedian! He was born to laugh an dmake others laugh! He cracks me up all day!
  
• He has started running up to me, grabbing my legs and saying in the sweetes little voice "HI! HI! HI!" SO cute!


• He has learned to play peek-a-boo! He finds a wall and gets on one side and leans back and forth just laughing the whole time!
  
• He is QUITE the chatter box! He talks ALL DAY! Words you can actually understand are Apple, Aunt Boo, Baby (his favorite!) Uh-Oh, Momma, Daddy, Dog.
  
• He has mastered car and truck noises complete with a little spit! He also likes to bark like the VEEERRRY annoying dog that lives next door who barks ALL day long. That's where he learned it! :)
  
• He is learning to spit, I mean blow, on his hot food! :)
  


• Blake is my quiet little handful! For as shy and reserved as this little guy is he packs an atittude in him! :)
  
• He has started walking around the house, in a very high pitched voice saying , "ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh over and over again! So sweet!


• He will find the tiniest little spec of something on the floor and walk all over the house to find me and give it to me!


• He also very obediently brings me anything he thinks he should or that I ask for. He will even take trash or something from the other kids and bring it to me.


• Blake is VERY shy and does not like people he doesn't know AT ALL! He looses it if I leave him in the nursery or even at home with someone he is not very comfortable with.
  
• He LOVES his blanket! Sometimes, his blanket fixes things I can't! Not sure how I feel about that...

• This girl eats circles around the boys! She loves her food and she can put it away. I am not sure where it goes but she does it!
  
• When she gets excited it is SO cute! She just laughs and laughs, and screeches and shakes her arms like crazy! She is so funny!
  
• She is getting very good with directios. She is learning to go and do what we ask her too.


• She loves her brothers, loves to give them loves!! (They are all pretty good at loving on each other!)
  
• She HATES socks! She gets them off her feet the second she can get to them. She also hates her clothes. She follows me around tugging on her clothes begging me to take them off. And once those are off, she goes after her diaper. I don't know about this kid. I am a little worried! :)


• She has such a fiesty personality - I don't know where she got but it's going to keep us laughing and crying for the rest of our lives!
  

They are all three very attached to me right now. I love and get very frustrated with it all at the same time. It can get pretty complicated when you have 3 little babies desiring mommys attention all at once. Especially now that they are getting too big to hold all at once. It can get pretty hectic when they all want me. It makes me feel pretty special though - to see how much they love me! :) When I sit on the floor though, wow it get's to be a rodeo! I get climbed on, jumped on, pulled this way and that way. But I wouldn't trade it for the world!

They are all teething again right now too. Madison has four coming in, 2 bottom and 2 top. Cam has three coming in 2 top and 1 bottom. Blake has one coming in on the bottom. 1 very crooked teeny tiny little tooth! It's pretty funny!

(How could I ever be upset with these cuties????)
Well time did tell last night! We were up with one baby or the other (Cam joined in shortly after I posted) until 3:30am. Finally they went to sleep only to wake up at 5:30am. I finally gave up a 7 and we alll got up for the day. It was the longest night of my life. I don't know what was wrong but it was something. Thank the Lord that my parents were around to help, I don't know what I would have done! It's hard when there are 3 babies to 1 parent ratio!! :) It seems like such a little thing - sleep - to allow doubt to creep in over. But I did, around 2:00 with all 3 babies crying and nothing I was doing helped. I wondered where God was and why He didn't care and why in the WORLD He wasn't helping. But there was a small voice in my head telling me HE knew what was wrong, and in this life I may never understand WHY things happen or don't happen but He see's it all. If only I could learn to trust more completely and not falter so easily. My Mom also reminded me this morning (she was thinking the same things last night) as we listened to the babies CD for bedtime and the song "Jesus Paid it All" came on. HE paid the ultimate price, and showed me just how MUCH He cared for me by dying on the cross for me! How easily I feel christians (and definately ME!) forget this!! How it turns into a good story we tell but forget how REAL and meaningful it is! What a wonderful reminder that was! So thankful for my Mom, for her love of our Savior and how faithful she is to speak into my life! I just pray now that IF another night happens again - I will have learned my lesson this time! That in the midst of the storm I would remember these promises not only in the calm! So thankful for a faithful God who won't give up on me! Even though I have to come crawling back for fogivness MULTIPLE times a day! I am also thankful for me dear Dad who loves and worries about me so much and loves these babies so much too! He was the strong point, the calm point for me last night! He helped just as much as us "moms"! He helps discipline (though it BREAKS his heart!) and loves and figures right along with us! AND I am thankful for my husband who although he is far away (which that breaks his heart!) is ok with me calling at 2:30 in the morning cause I just need him to walk through it with me, and he does happily! Even though he has to get up and go to a HARD job, in the awful weather, day in and day out! He is always putting us first and more than happy to do anything he can!



Well, I have been asleep since 7:15. Had a short break from sleeping and I think I better get back to it! Have a lot of sleep to catch up on! Especially since I have been lacking for a year and a half now! :)

I just realized why I made goals NOT resolutions for this year. Cause goals are something to work towards, if I made a resolution to be more patient with my kids I would have blown it already! Tonight is not going so well. I am BEYOND exhausted! My whole body hurts I am so tired. It's hard work being a single mom to triplets when they DO sleep but when they don't....... I am sitting here typing listening to my second kid (Madison has already had her turn and is hopefully done for the night) cry and cry and wondering what I should do, as I join in the crying, and if I am going to get any sleep tonight and how in the world am I going to handle tomorrow. Thank goodness for my parents - they are right here with me helping me through when Jason can't be here! I just feel so helpless as the mom not knowing what they need or what I should do or if it requires discipline. This may sound like a comlpaining post - it's not, it's just how it is.

Well, only time will tell! It's finally quiet, for now......

It's a New Year

I can't believe another year has come and gone. I have been thinking about this year and what it will hold. I have been thinking and praying about what I want this year to hold for me and for my family. I am not really all about resloutions but I have been thinking of goals for this year.

• Being a better mommy and wife. And I don't mean in a flippant I want to be a better person kind of way. I truly desire to learn more patience with the kids. To not be so emotional and caught up in everything going just so and getting so upset when the kids act up. To be consistant with them but to just love them, and enjoy this time and being their mommy!! I want to serve my husband more - to focus on loving him and just being what he needs. To not be too tired for him, or take out my bad days on him. I am so thankful for him and want to show it.
  
• To continue to grow in my walk with the Lord - to be dedicated to not getting complacent.
• To be more creative, to scrapbook, decorate and blog.
• To serve others more and put others first.
• Learn to be more creative with my kids, in their meals and play times ect.

I don't want to get to crazy with a huge long list of things. Just a few things, that are possible. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for our family!

Happy New Year

Me and My Girl

Merry Christmas - Part 4

And last but not least....The Martindale Clan get together

This was the hard part of Christmas. The annual Martindale gathering - I looked forward to it every year. This year was hard- but filled with new traditions too! We had it at Pat and Cheryls house, had some yummy apetizers and a good dinner. We all talked and made all sorts of noise! :) We played a very fun game called Right, Left and Center. It was a loud crowded crazy game! But lots of fun!

Mindy and Madison - Mindy was dared to wear her pjs to dinner so she did!

Kristen, Bianca and Cam

Jas and Cam

Our crew hard at work and the yummy food

The pictures got to be less and less as we got further into our crazy Christmas week! I will have to work on the next year! :)

Merry Christmas - Part 3

And on to our 3rd Christmas! It was a busy year! We went over to Boise on Christmas afternoon to spend some time with my Mom and Dad and my Jones Grandparents. It was nice a low key. Some yummy snacks, visiting and present opening.

Bianca just chilling
My Mom found this tea set for Madison and she LOVES it! She walks around all day with the little singing tea pot! The boys really like it too..... :)

Not really sure what he's doing...

Our Christmas chaos! :)

Uncle Jacob - he's a GREAT uncle! Couldn't ask for better than him!

Grandpa Jones - a VERY special guy!!

Grammy and Blake opening presents

THe kids love playing Grammys piano

Grandpa and Madison have a special bond!

Mom making us some yummy treats!

It was a nice time! So glad that we have such WONDERFUL close loving family to spend the holidays with! Doesn't get any better!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday (a day late) to my WONDERFUL husband! I am married to an amazing man! I truly blesses me and our kids every day is so many ways. He is such a good Dad! It has been so hard on him the 3 months to be away from the and missing out on things! But - he is such a faithful provider that he keeps it up!

Jason is one of the hardest working guys I know! He doesn't love his job right now, there are some things that need changed on his crew but until they do it's pretty miserable for him! But he never complains - he just goes - usually out of town and works hard for his family. He is always working in some kind of extreme weather. It's either 100+ in the summer, and keep in mind he has to wear heavy boots, jeans and shirts that are all fire proof. VERY hot in the summer! And this winter he has spent a lot of time in the wind, ice, snow and -20 temps where they have been working. He also is usually working 10-12 hour days. I don't know how he does it, I would crumple up and die! But he does that too 8 days in a row, without complaint. Then he comes home and immediatly starts working on projects and helping me with the kids. He is always sending me to Boise or something so I can have a break. That's his top priority he says is for me to be refreshed.

He is a constand encourager! He is always helping me when I am down and discouraged. Gently reminding me of the right additudes and encouraging me when I need it. He is always quick to say sorry, even if he isn't the one in the wrong.

Jason is a "tough" guy through and through. Most people don't see his softer side - and even that side is pretty tough! :) Haha....but he is amazing! He loves the Lord, he loves me and he loves his kids! I can't imagine a better life than the one that I have with him by my side!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE! I love you!!!!