Momma Weekend!

This weekend Andy had a much needed boys weekend back in Wisconsin and I had a much needed Mommy - Kiddo bonding weekend. I know people are always worried or feel bad for us when one of us is solo with the kids, but honestly I love it. I just love spending one on one time (or one on four) with them, love taking as many photos as I want, love that my house is always clean (at least during naps and bed time) and I love taking the kids on adventures (aka Target).  Yes there is some yelling and a many time outs, but there are way more hugs and kisses...

The weekend gave me the opportunity to take some photos, which I have been neglecting due to being too busy and it also gave me the opportunity to finish the play room and basement. As awesome as Andy is and an amazing daddy and husband, I (or frankly women in general) get way way way more things done when they have a vacation day and a little spare time during naps and bedtime :-) Not a dig babe, just a fact!

Here's a few highlights from the weekend...

• We met our mailman. His name is Dale. He decided that nap time was a good time to talk to us for about 20 minutes and tell us all about himself and that he knew Andy loved baseball based on the magazines he gets in the mail. It was a little creepy, but he seemed like he needed to talk it out with us. He left shortly after Declan threw a nut at him.
• While at target, a really smart lady noticed us and asked "are those all quads?" As my eyes began to roll, Declan said in his most condescending "duh" voice "no, they are triplets..." We continued on and at that moment I loved him more.
• Shortly after we got back from Target, Steve was whining (likely because her sister hit her - that's normal now, there is a lot of hitting and pushing), so I picked her up. I noticed that she didn't have a diaper on... Which I thought was strange so I put one on her quick and started looking for the one that she had been wearing. I looked everywhere... So much that I actually thought I forgot to put one on her, which would have been even funnier since we had gone to Target. But shortly before bedtime and 9 hours later, I found it! It was in the oven in the play kitchen that we have outside. Hilarious. But even more funny was that when she took it off AGAIN, she stripped nude and decided to lead a naked parade while her other 2 sisters decided to do the same. I'd post pictures of their nude posing and dancing if I didn't think I'd be turned into CPS.

Andy's back tomorrow and we will welcome him home with 5 sets of open arms and start to get ready for the little man to turn 6 in a few days!

Pictures from the last few days... Sweet Stevie about to start hysterically laughing... 

Bria being typically difficult during photo time (note the jacket that she insisted on wearing during nap time), Aven digging for gold, Declan being Declan and Stevie giggling...

Dec, Aven & Stevie

L to R: Bria, Aven & Stevie

Funny faces with Stevie and Declan...

Look at this crew... Gotta love them!

Playing in their new play room (Bria is happy!)

Aven just up from nap... Love her face.

Avie...

Sweet Stevie...

And our toothless wonder...

Belated Father's Day...

We celebrated Father's day this past weekend and had some good family time... We took the weekend off of unpacking and just hung out. Andy had some alone time on Saturday and then we took the whole family to our favorite breakfast place on Sunday. Taking all the kids out to eat is never an enjoyable experience, but we forced ourselves to do it and overall we got to eat most of our meals and had no major meltdowns... The rest of the weekend we just played, ate and hung out...

Here are a few pictures of the weekend and the rest of this week... Declan, Bria & Daddy at breakfast...

Steve, Avena and I

L to R: Aven, Stevie (saying cheeeeeese) and Bria...

All the girls on their computers enjoying the screened in porch (their favorite place to be - and ours!)

Declan, Bria & Daddy

Aven and Bria on the teeter totter...

Aven, Declan and Stevie trying it out...

We were a little bored on Saturday so what better way to spice up the afternoon than to put mustaches on the kids :-) I stole this idea from a friend of mine when I saw them at the store. It. was. hilarious.

This was Stevie when I got home from work yesterday...

Stevie...

L to R: Bria, Aven & Stevie (saying cheeeeeeese)

Aven feeding daddy on Father's day...

A lot of times people as if the girls talk to each other. It's rare that I can get it on camera, but I did tonight. They crack me up and I could listen to this all day long... The funny part about this is that Aven was actually on a timeout from pushing her sisters off the coach, but the other 2 had to join her...

The land of "bless your heart" and muffins...

It's been forever since I last blogged, but we have been crazy busy... Let me summarize the past few weeks... We drove the kids to Wisconsin and dropped them at my folks house, I went to Mexico for work while Andy flew back to Jersey to coordinate the movers, then we both flew back to WI and got in the car (again) and drove to Georgia (with a stop in Chicago with friends for a concert), the movers delivered our stuff on a Monday and Andy and I busted our butts to get as much of the house unpacked and put together, my folks drove the kids down and were here Friday morning and it's been crazy since (or the whole time - hard to tell now). We are so fortunate to have amazing family and the kids had a blast with all their grandparents these last few weeks!

We are so happy to be here and be somewhat settled... The kids love the house and Declan more then loves it, if that's possible... We've given up a lot of our strict parenting (if we every had any). We discovered that we should just let the girls roam around the house... The first few days we learned the hard way and left the whole house open, now we strategically shut some of the doors upstairs. And honestly after the first few days they got over going upstairs all the time. And it's good for them to be comfortable with stairs. So far no one has fallen down them so I consider this first week in the books a success :-) I think they just love to be free! They LOVE Declan's room and that's provided to be quite the little hang out spot for us all... They mostly love all the small legos and playing with his stuff that they have never gotten to play with.  They also LOVE the back screened in porch - one of the major reasons we bought the place and it's living up to it's expectation. Declan LOVES the pool that we have in the community and all the space as well. So all and all I think everyone loves it - and we do too, I just wish the rest of the boxes could unpack itself :-)

I haven't been as good with keeping up on pictures but have gotten a few recently... S, A & B the first morning in the new house! Don't worry I'll post more pictures of the house once everything is put together :-)

The kids out of control!

Dec, Bria and Stevie making sure the fireplace doesn't fall down...

Stevie!

In Declan's room we do a lot of cool things - one of which is burying the kids under all the stuffed animals! Here's Bria...

Daddy got in on the fun - do you see all 3 girls?

Say CHEEEEEEEEEESEEEEEE!

The girls ready for their swim!

Note Bria's goggles - ha!

Stevie... Love this little girl in her diaper and gold mods :)

Declan has a busy summer and has adapted well so far after one week... He has hockey every weekend, Karate on Tuesdays and is in pretty much a different camp each week. This week we started with Lego camp, which he LOVES!

Playing ring around the rosie - so cute!

Oh and about the title of this blog... Well, there's a whole lot of "bless your hearts" around here - and well, we all know what that means... And we've met most of our neighbors and they all bring muffins! Which means we have a lot. Very nice, but these people here are way different than Jersey :)

Goodbye New Jersey!

We wrapped up our final week in New Jersey as a family... While I travel for work, Andy will be back next week coordinating the movers and the grandparents will be watching all the kiddos. It was certainly bittersweet for us leaving as we've enjoyed our time there, met some really great people and of course leaving my sister is tough. We'll see how it all plays out but for now she's staying in New Jersey, so we'll make sure to send a lot of pictures and do a lot of FaceTime.

Some pictures of our final few days... All the kiddos with Auntie Em! (Stevie and Aven on her lap)

Back in the tennis court / triplet play land for fun in the puddles!

Yep, Aven and Bria are drinking from the dirty puddles... I thought Aven puked in the 15 hour car ride home because of being car sick, but perhaps it was from the parasites she was drinking from the tennis court puddles... hmmmm...

After this last trip back to WI, I'm thinking it might be a while before we take another. They were overall pretty good, but my head almost exploded after the 2, 657th time that Declan asked "are we there yet" and the fresh smell of vomit during 13 of the 15 hours was a little much. Luckily our drive from Kennesaw is a little bit closer than Princeton.

Last Weekend...

As we round out our last weekend in Jersey, my sister and I took the kids to my Aunt Conny and Uncle Jim's for the day. Andy unfortunately had to spend the weekend in Wisconsin because his Great Aunt passed away, but he said the day was beautiful and the service was nice, and I'm sure his family was happy to have him there for support.

The kids love my Aunt and Uncles place. I mean, they LOVE it. Declan cried all the way home because he wanted to stay the night or live there forever. He loved playing with his cousins, being outside and running running and running. And the girls loved being outside, running running and running, and the water fountain (again this year :-)) We sure will miss visiting them often, it's certainly been nice having family around for the holidays and just to get away! And of course it was nice when the hurricanes came and we didn't have any power for days!

Here are some pictures from the day... We started the day with Declan's baseball - which he loves, so we'll need to get him signed up asap in Georgia.

Our big boy!

Declan and our neighbor friends (twins!)

Likely not paying attention in the outfield...

Base running...

Good hit buddy!

And it was a gorgeous day to look at the gardens! Aunt Conny with Stevie and Aven...

Stevie going for a ride...

Auntie Em, Stevie (L) and Aven (R)

Sweet Stevie

If only my lap was a bit bigger and I had more arms! I could only get Aven and Bria on this ride.

Bria

Obsessed with this waterfall (again)

Declan loved the swing too!

Aven giving him a little push...

I just really liked this picture of Stevie in the background...

Stevie marching

Aven and Stevie off and running!

 Aven

Bria

It was a wonderful day and we will sure miss them!