What we are thankful for...

Since we will be missing our Daddy who will be traveling to Tokyo tomorrow, we celebrated Thanksgiving a day early this year. Before we ate we went around the table and shared what we are thankful for. Now I will share it with you.

Lex is thankful for Daddy, Mommy, Brody, Collin and Lex. :)

Brody is thankful for Mommy and Daddy and that's it! A few seconds later he was also thankful for Collin, Lex and himself. :)

Collin is thankful for rollercoasters that we can all ride together and big slides that we can slide on all together at SeaWorld.

Daddy is thankful for falling in love with Mommy and for the three most special presents ever...I know, it's tough one...Lex, Brody and Collin! :)

And now Mommy's turn.

Mommy is thankful for...

God, for His presence in our lives, for all of the blessings He has poured over us and all of the lessons He has/does teach us.

Dove. For all of his hard work to take care of us. For the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the home we live in. He works so hard to provide for us. He is an amazing Husband and Father. I am so thankful and blessed to still be in love with him over a decade later.

Lex, Brody and Collin, for all of the joy and laughter they have brought into our lives. For all of the hugs and kisses and I love you's and for all of the silly moments and for all of the tears. For every moment that you have existed, we love you so much! As I am saying this, Collin added, and for all the messes we make too. And yes for all of the messes you make too. I am thankful for every bit of it!

Indy, for being so patient when your spoiled world was thrown upside down with the addition of three curious little boys! And for accepting them and loving them as you do us!

For all of our family and friends. We are so, so blessed to be surrounded by so much love! We are so grateful for every person that has been a part of our lives somehow. We love you so much!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Gobble-Gobble and night-night!

The Ventacular Spider-Man!

Superheroes are a BIG deal in our house right now, and they have been for awhile. I guess technically they have always been a big deal in our house, considering one of the first presents I gave Dove was a real Batarang. There is also fact that he is not only a comic book artist, but a Professor of Sequential Art, aka a teacher of comics. :)

Now that Daddy has three little minds to warp, they are an even bigger deal. I mean, the man not only bought a bullwhip 2 months early for his Indiana Jones costume for Halloween, but he watched YouTube videos and taught himself how to crack the thing in as many ways as humanly possible.

And I am not hating on him or his bullwhip. I secretly love it. You see, he has such passion for everything he does. From music(if you haven't heard him play guitar, you are seriously missing out) to comics, to whip-cracking, to whatever he takes a fancy to, he throws himself into it 2000%. And it shows.

I already see that being instilled into my boys. They don't halfway do anything.

Including superheroes.

Collin has been trying desperately to get bitten by a spider for several months. Any little injury immediately becomes a possible spider bite to change him into Spiderman. He had a temporary tattoo on his hand that after a couple of days had a place worn off in the middle. He informed me that it was a spider bite and pretty soon webs would start coming out of it.

Any sticky hand in our house gives said owner of hand superpowers to climb walls, cars, curtains, basically anything that is vertical. Also thanks to Spiderman.

At least 20% of every day is spent in some type of superhero costume.

Yesterday we visited Target dressed as Superman, Batman and the Flash. They walked through with their heads held high, repeatedly telling us how everyone was so happy that the Justice League was there to protect them. They all posed together for a few photos and left the store knowing they had done their duty well. The citizens of Target were kept safe.

As we are heading home they break out in song. "The ventacular, ventacular, ventacular Spiderman!" It's so hard to hold the giggles inside, even though I have heard this same rendition a million times. It should be, Spectacular, spectacular, spectacular Spiderman!

But you know what?

I like ventacular better. And I will bite my cheeks raw if I have to, to hold the giggles at bay. This is such a special thing for all of my boys to share. To watch my Husband, their Daddy share his love and passion for this with his sons.

Watching The Justice League(ABC) take on Brainiac(Dove) 20 times a day is one of the coolest things ever.

I'm a lucky lady.

I have four superheroes watching out for me.

Night-night.

Halloween

There is so much excitement in our house!

I mean really, is there anything better to a four year old, than dressing up as your favorite thing in the world and running around with your friends while being given more candy than you knew existed? (I hope that made sense, it does in my head, but I'm also exhausted.)

But seriously, no not really. Especially when you add in weeks of festivals and cookie making, pumpkin painting and whatever else you can come up with!

Our house may spontaneously combust at any moment!

And I LOVE IT!

And I love that it actually DOES get better! Because this is just the kick-off to the Holiday Season!

This is just the preamble to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

We are a Holiday family. We put up our Halloween decorations the first week of September. Our Christmas decorations will most likely be put up the first week of November.

And why not?

Who cares what anyone else thinks? The only thing I care about is the pure joy that I see spread across my children's faces every morning and the feeling in my heart that that joy brings.

If you see a rainstorm of yellow, orange and red sprinkles, pumpkins, mountains of holiday crafts and ridiculous amounts of candy, you will know that our house actually did explode. :)

Nighty-night!

As the clock strikes...

closer and closer to the close of my 32nd Birthday, I can't quiet the urge to write this.

I am sitting on our bed listening to the slow and steady rhythms of you, my beloved Husband sleeping peacefully. And I am in awe.

I met you when I was a child. A little more grown up than most, but still a child. I was 16. You threw open a door and walked out and I knew in that moment my life would never be the same. I fell in love with you that night, a friendly love that was to grow into so much more. I knew after spending a few hours with you that I would marry you one day, even if our lives led in separate directions for awhile. And now 16 years later, I can truly say that I have never loved another person as much as I love you, Dove McHargue.

You have seen me at my lowest and you have seen me at my best and at both of those places you have loved me. You see me for me. When I am broken, you put me back together. When I am reaching for the stars, you lift me up so I can reach further. You are my best friend, my lover, my shoulder to cry on. You echo my joy and you are patient, kind, loving, really just plain amazing!

Our greatest achievement is that, together we have created a family. As a Husband, you are AWESOME and as a Father, you are even...I can't even put it into words. So many men would freak at the idea of triplets, but not you. You took care of me through a high-risk pregnancy with many ups and downs and jumped right in when our beautiful boys were born.

I wish I could put everything I'm feeling into words, but it's impossible. My love for you is beyond words, but I hope you know how deep it goes. I could not imagine a second of my life without you.

So let me close with this, barely making a dent in what I want to say.

Thank you.

Thank you for loving me and our children. Thank you for loving God. Thank you for loving life and living it with joy. Thank you for providing for us, for the food we eat, the house we live in and the clothes we wear. Thank you.

You always ask what I want for my birthday and it always has been and always will be you. You and our boys just having fun together. Making memories. That is all I want. I love each of you so very, very much.

God has blessed us so, so much, the greatest blessing I ever got was you...opening that door.

I love you Husband.

Thank you for giving me the best birthday ever!(again, you do every year!)

Nightie-Night

Meat, action and so much more!

For months, every toy we've seen has elicited the same response, "I want this for my Birthday"!

Now that said birthday is only a few days away, I gots nuthin.

There have been so many exciting things that they want so badly. And then they are out of sight, out of mind. Until now.

Today marked them actually telling us things, they REALLY want. They even told a friend something that they actually do want and have wanted for awhile.

This is the list I have compiled as of today:

Lex:
Toy Story 3 Lego Train
Lego Mack
Whoo Hoo and Opie(GeoTrax)
Cracked Bridge
Trampoline
(I just re-asked him and he replied, the cracked bridge, that's it.)

Brody:
Real Falcon that eats meat(been on the top of the list for awhile now)
Phineas and Ferb Guitar
Trampoline
Batman Castle

Collin:
Video Game
Kratt Brothers that can go in the pool and have a tent.
Guitar with great action(my personal fave from his list, Daddy beamed with pride and let out a holla upon hearing this...)
Lizard that can go in the pool

So wish me luck, this is a pretty interesting list. Hopefully they won't be disappointed with the lack of real animals they receive.

Nightie-night! :)

Broken

After two weeks of fever, coughing, Dr's visits and being stuck inside during July, Croup has left our house! :)

Last week we had something happen that I have been meaning to share, but alas, I could not find the time. So here it is now.

I have been awoken several times a night for the last couple of weeks, and most nights slept in ABC's room. One of the few nights I spent in my bed, I was awoken at 5am to Brody shouting, "Mommy, Mommy HELP!".

I rush in to their room, waking up as I go.

"Baby, Mommy's here, what's wrong?"

"Mommy, my legs don't work right anymore! They are in BIG trouble!!!"

Concerned, I say, "What happened, do they hurt?"

Brody, completely disgusted with his legs, "They keep taking their blanket OFF, they won't leave it ON! They don't LIKE THEIR BLANKET!!! UUUGGGHHH!!!"(He really made that noise.)

Trying not burst into hysterics, I reassured him that his legs were just fine, covered them back up and told "them" to stay under their blanket so Brody could sleep.

Not a bad way to start the day, with a smile that is! :)

Please feel free to leave a comment, I'd love to know who's out there! :)

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you Daddies out there!

In honor of Father's Day, I decided to make a list for my AMAZING Husband, listing the reasons why he is not only the best Daddy, but also the best Husband! Here goes!

1. He was puked on for the first time by our boys on his first Father's Day. He smiled at the "gift".

2. He has worn many spit up stained, booger stained, bloody-stained shirts, and worn them with pride.

3. On his wrist for the past week has been a hair tie, just in case I needed one.

4. Laying on the floor playing "Daddy playground" relaxes him.

5. Hanging in his closet are several shirts painted by ABC for him. To most people they might look like a bad abstract painting, to him they are masterpieces!

6. Every single night he tells each of his three boys how proud of them he is...and he means it.

7. He is never to busy to stop what he is doing to see something that anyone of us has done.

8. He has changed more diapers than the bottles of beer that are drank on Super Bowl Sunday, without complaining.

9. For his Father's Day Gift, he tried to make me go get a pedicure.(One might think I have some really funky toes, but that's not it, he's just an amazingly giving person.)

10. Every Sunday he plays in the Worship Band at Church. Collin told me that we are the best family in the world because we love God. Daddy is teaching them that.

I won the lottery when I married you Sweetheart, and again when we had our amazing Boys. Thank you for leading our family. I pray that our Boys grow up to be half the man you are. I love you with all of my heart and soul. Happy Father's Day!

The Roles of Mommy and Daddy

A few days ago I was doing a little cleaning when Lex came running into the kitchen followed closely behind by Brody and Collin.

"MOMMY! So and So(can't remember who, but they were a mommy on a show), let the Daddy COOK!"

Me, trying not to giggle, "Are Daddies supposed to cook?"

Lex, "NO!"

Me, "Sweetheart, it's okay for Daddies to cook, you're Daddy just doesn't know how. What are Daddies supposed to do?"

All three in unison, "WORK!"

"And what do Mommies do?"

"COOK!"

"What else do Mommies do?", I asked, very curious at where this is going.

Collin, "And Mommy LOVES ME!"

Ahhhhhh....I am fine with that...Have a wonderful day everyone!

Apparently I was unaware of powers that are transferred onto a little boy when they wear Super Hero underwear.

This morning I was loading the dishwasher while the Boys played in the living room. I look over to check on them and Collin is scaling the blinds wearing nothing but his Spiderman underwear. Luckily Spiderman and the blinds survived by the magic of the underwear.

To give myself a minute to finish up and give them a minute to settle down, I put on "Go, Diego, Go!" for them. For those of you who are not familiar with Diego, he is an animal rescuer that talks to animals and swings on vines through the rain forest.(Really cool job for a 5 year old!) Anyway, they are all sitting singing and playing along with the show. Just happen to glance over and Lex(Diego) is swinging from the curtain(vine) over the pass through(rain forest tree). Once again the magic saved Diego and his vine.

*sigh*

I must be the worst Mom ever, because I secretly love it. I love watching them play and being a part of their play. I love pretending that I'm Wonder Woman or the Mommy Orca in the Orca Show!

I do explain to them why it is NOT okay to climb random objects in our house. But I also make them a safe place to play their games. We went to Lowe's and built them vines to swing from(rope) and I'm in the process of building them a new playground complete with two Spiderman webs. I don't want to punish them for their creativity, but give them a safe place to explore it!

However, I am saying a lot of prayers that my superheroes and our house survive in one piece, I am positive we have many exploits to come. :)

I am a slacker, I know...(How many times have I written this?) But I have been "encouraged"(not to be confused with "ordered") by my good friend Andrea Goto to put my blogging fingers back on. Thanks Andrea! :) By the way, you should really check out her blog and her "Culinary Coward" articles on PaulaDeen.com, she is as funny in person as she is at the keyboard! ;)

Any who, back to me and my wonderful family! :)

Let's see....what has been happening lately???

I KNOW!

Lex, Brody and Collin are ALL OFFICIALLY POTTY-TRAINED!!!

WOO-HOOOOOOOO!!!

It was AMAZINGLY easy. I did get some flack off and on from various passersby about the boys still being in diapers, but the joke is on them. I waited until they were old enough and boom! They pretty much did it on their own!

I think Target is a little sad about this though, they have taken a huge hit in their diaper sales. I think we've made up for it though by increasing their toy sales. We have bought a LOT of "potty toys"(rewards). It is bizarre to not run up there two or three times a week for a case of diapers...*sigh*....good times! :)

This is kind of a random post, I am being asked about 384 questions while trying to type this, so I will leave you with a conversation the boys and I had the other day. We have completely entered the superhero phase(Daddy is soooo proud)! Here goes:

A, B or C: Mommy can Wonder Woman fly?

Mommy: Yes, she sure can.

A, B or C: But HOW can she fly? She doesn't have wings or a cape...

Mommy: Hmmmm...Gooooood point...I think that's a question for Daddy as soon as he gets home...

Nightie-night all!

March For Babies

It's almost here!!! Saturday is the big 6 mile walk and we are soooo excited!

If you can and would like to sponsor us for this great event, we would be sooo grateful! It's super easy!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/tripletboys

Thank you so, so much!

A quick clip of Target fun. I turned it off too fast, but right after the camera stops, B says, "I sooo sorry..." with big puppy dog eyes. You'll see why, enjoy!

What?

This is a quick quote that I have heard WAY too much this week.

A, B and/or C: "Mommy, MOMMY, Mom, MOMMA!"

Me: "What Baby?"

A, B and/or C: "Here, I got a booger."

Me: *sigh* "Thank you?"

If you couldn't guess, we've all been sick...everyone is much better now though, except the occasional booger hand-off.

Night-night...don't forget to wash your hands...

Bang!

I have decided to de-clutter our house.

We have so much stuff and the clutter is making me CRAZY! I want to do this. I need to do this. My problem is that I see the entire mess and get overwhelmed and frantically work on a million things instead of doing one small thing at a time. So that is how I will de-clutter. I have picked one small area a day and will do that. When I am feeling crazed, I look at my un-clutter area(s) and feel the calm, lol. Hey, whatever works!

Anyways, my project today was the top of the refrigerator. It was going great! I got so much stuff thrown away and put in it's right place. Under the piles of madness I found things I hadn't seen in years. Including a confetti gun.

I saw it and thought, "The Boys would LOVE this!".

I climbed off the chair I was standing on and called excitedly to them to join me in the living room. I remembered shooting it off and it just being a tangled mess of long streamers that shoot out and fall to the ground.

No big deal, right?

I told them it would be loud, pointed it in the air above the middle of the room and...

BANG!!!

Smiling and watching their excited grins, it took me a moment to notice the hundreds of teeny tiny pieces of shiny, glittery, metallicy goodness that were slowly fluttering towards my floor. And the ten million toys that were littering it already.

I barely had time to process this when the cheers erupted. "I want to do it Mommy!", THAT "WAS AWESOME MOMMY!", "Do it AGAIN Mommy!"...and on and on.

I looked around and my first thought was, "Daddy's going to be not so happy".(He's not a huge confetti guy, especially inside..)

I giggled and agreed that it was pretty stinking cool. I told them we couldn't right now, I didn't know it would make such a big mess. They sighed their disappointment and went back to playing.

5 minutes later I called out, "Who wants to shoot the confetti?"

Lucky for me, there were three shots left.

I needed to vacuum anyways, so no harm done.

It was fun, really fun.

So if you have a confetti gun, take a few minutes and make a mess. It will be worth it...especially if you have three little boys...night night.

Daddy Art!

Daddy has been so busy with freelance work, he hasn't done any Father of 3 work in awhile. I was showing these to a friend the other day and thought that I wanted to share them on here also! A lot of these are real events turned up a notch! Enjoy!

Just click on the strip and it should let you see it all!






*I never said it would make them smarter...just to clarify! :)

Grateful...

Today I am feeling so grateful.

I am grateful for my relationship with Jesus Christ. I never have to walk alone and that gives me strength and peace, even in the most difficult circumstances.

I am grateful for my Husband. He is so amazing. He works so hard to take care of us and I am so grateful for that. He has been busy working on another freelance book for awhile, so every evening he goes into his studio and works until late at night after working all day. He is so dedicated to what he does. I am so proud of him.

I am so grateful for Lex, Brody and Collin. They teach me new things everyday. I love seeing life through their eyes.

Lex is so strong, determined and protective, but he still needs special Mommy time and is so loving and sweet. He is so good at organizing his brothers into play, a natural leader!

Brody is just so laid back and happy go lucky. He is my little comedian and is always doing things to crack everyone up. He is going through a super clingy Mommy phase(which secretly I don't mind!), and freaks if I'm not near. He even sits through regular church services because he doesn't want to leave me. I know this won't last very long, so I'm trying to soak it all up, lol!

And Collin...Collin is incredibly curious, fearless and smart(they are all freakishly smart). He is also the most independent. I have to be careful, he is going to be the one that jumps off the roof because his brothers dared him too, ha ha! He is incredibly loving at the same time.

I am the luckiest, Wife and Mommy alive!

I am so grateful for my family and friends. We are surrounded by so much love...it leaves me speechless.

I am grateful for so many things, I could type all day. But we have cookies to bake and crafts to do, so I'm going to take this grateful heart and make more memories for which I can be grateful.

Happy 2010!