November Madness!

When I am not potty training or trying to get the girls to keep their clothes on I try to spend as much quality time with the boy considering next year it is off to Kindergarten..I can not believe how fast my little guy is growing up. Recently he has really been interested in playing board games and of course his first love puzzles. But today when he came home from school we made Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies... Ran out of eggs so we have to postpone the frosting for them but we will frost tomorrow ( just call this one a two part lesson).


Also this past weekend we went up to my parents lake house. Just for the night poor planning on my part... should have just stayed the weekend. Next time right:) I was absolutely beautiful up their with all the leaves changing. Can't wait for it to get a little colder and possibly snow up there so I can take the kids and they can play in the snow. My dad just finished the new deck and wow it adds so much character to the house.


It has been a wild ride here the past couple of weeks. The girls are 22 weeks this month and as I have said before are having a hard time keeping their clothes on. The potty training is going ok.. we have good days and then their are more challenging days. For the most part the girls are with out diapers during the day... and are only wearing diapers at nap time and to go to sleep at night. ( that is if they fall asleep before they strip..arghhh) I am not sure if I should just bite the bullet and put them in big girl beds... so that when they have to go..they go.. Any suggestions out there?

Happy Halloween!

Lots been going on in the T house... or should I say off... the twins have hit the I hate clothes and diapers phase! Funny, but not so much when you are constantly running around trying to get them to keep their clothes on. They are refusing to wear their diapers so I bit the bullet and became the potty training Nazi. Things are going remarkably well at 22 months this week. Hoping that by the holidays we will be fully trained. Yea no more diapers!

The boy is great. He talks a mile a minute just about every second of the day. We have yet to find the off button! He was very excited for Halloween this year. He decided that he wanted to be an astronaut, and that his girls would be princesses:) Too Cute!

Here are some pictures... can you guess what we had for dinner?

School Pictures...

A couple weeks ago I took the kids to get their picture taken. Which is alot of work let me tell you. First you have to get them all dress, make sure the bed head has been tamed and finally you have to make sure that no one gets anything on each other. So here is the final result...Then when you get their you have to assure them that it is ok for a stranger to take your photo... hence K's puffy red eyes... The boy by the way had no problem hamming it up for the lady. So here is the final result...my how big they are all getting:)

A quick update

Hello sorry for the infrequent posts. The family has been really busy. The BOY just turned 5 and is already talking about how he is going to be 6 next year. This weekend he is having 2 of his best friends over for Dinner and a Movie. We are going with the space theme. I will take lots of pictures.
The girls are doing great, they have actually been going to The Boy's school a couple days a week while I work in the office. It is so cute to see them walking the halls with their class. I have also been busy creating scrapbooks for DTorres. Which is taking up lots of time. I will have another post shortly, just wanted to let you know that all is great.

Summer Lovin'

Wow! Here is the list!
1. New mini-van, 3 kids, and a 12 hour drive Priceless!
2. Drove 6 hours to my sisters house in Virginia, spent the night and then off to Pennsiltucky to visit my best friend JoJo, and the love of the boy's Life- GEM. Yes all of her guns were locked up and yes there are two dead deer heads on he wall in her dinning room but we had a great time. In 5 days we took the kids to the zoo, the Children's museum, and the natural history museum ( or as the boy calls it the bone museum).
3. Drove 2 1/2 more hours to Cleveland. J and J got married, it was lovely. The Boy wore his tux and did an excellent job holding the pillow and walking down the isle.
4. Got up early the next morning and Drove 12 hours with all three kids back home. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Had some more family visitors ( JT and SQIDNEY) that I barely saw because of my summer job. Which by the way seems to be dragging on this year!
5. And then it hit "The Great Sickness" K got it first.. after 3 nights of 103-105 fever I took her to the pediatrician only to find out it was a virus and we would have to wait it out. (this was after the torture of taking blood, a catheter to check for UTI, Strep test and looking in her ears. About 5 days in "The boy" got it along with PINK EYE. K picked up the pink eye as well. And then MOM went down. In total it took about 12 days for the entire virus to leave the house. But not before I got pink eye as well. Boy did it wipe us out.
6. GOOD NEWS- JOJO and GEM hopped on a plane to come visit for 5 sleepovers. And again the kids had a great time. But the drama continues... we took the kids to the park and K split her chin open on a brick bench. Called the Dr. told me to bring her in only to wait an hour to be seen and then have them send me down to the children's hospital. 3 stitches later and lots of Steri-strips we headed home. Do you know how hard it is to keep a one year old from climbing with her chin and pulling the tape off? I gave up about 12 hours in!
7. Jojo and GEM left yesterday and the boy was so sad. He told me that we could not go home because there were no friends at his house and that I need to go get some.
0. by the way I almost forgot to tell you.... I need to go back to the beginning of the summer to tell you that we moved. Only a mile down the road... but in a great big house with a yard for the kids. And a man cave!
At that in a nut shell is our summer so far. Enjoy the pictures!

The Boy in his TUX! He did such a great job. The best was when he leaned over to me at asked, Mom is this the Wedding? Too Cute!


Before the Wedding!


The Kids at JOJO's house


Natural History Museum


OK at the children's Museum! They love Water!

Reading Books in the new house!

OK in a cabinet!

Yum Watermelon! They ate a whole watermelon!

"MY GIRLS"

I took the girls for their 15 month check-up last week. Although I think the two weeks before we visited the doctor 3 or 4 times. O and K both had double ear infections started a round of amoxicillan and about 5 days in K broke out in hives. I freaked out because so much had just changed...Started the move into the new house, switched laundry soap because I was trying to make less to move to the new house, added some new food to their diet and well the list could go on and on. But the doctor calmed me down by saying he felt it was the amoxicillan and that she should not take it any more. After some research on drug allergies I found that they usually show up after having taken it already ( this was her second ear infection). The doctor told me it would get worse before it gets better... and YES IT DID, but after about 7 days the hives and swelling finally cleared. Between that and the move and my part time job... I felt like I was underwater for about 3 weeks. But I am back up and running.

Girls check up went great. Ears are back to normal, and the doctor said we are doing a great job with them. Here is their stats.
O- weight 24.6 lbs( 75%), Length 32 1/8 inches ( 90%), Head 18 1/8cm (50%)
K- weight 24.2 lbs (75%), Length 32 1/2 inches (95%), Head 18 cm (50%)

So I guess they have caught up!

A story by JTT

The boys teacher asked him to bring in a picture of his family. When I went to pick him up last week the teacher told me that the kids glued the photo on some construction paper and then were asked to tell a story about the picture. In is own words this is what he told the teacher
" These are my girls,dad and mommy. And Jack. Auntie Katie and Grandma are taking the picture. Then mommy turned on the fire place." Enough said!

Three Amigo's

We have been very blessed to have three beautiful children who love to play with each other. It is so great to just sit back and watch them interact with each other and see what new game they can come up with. This is the most recent game... ( Frogs on a Log) all three kids get on the roller and well bounce up and down. They laugh and laugh until some one falls of or gets bored with it.
Ribbit!

Picture Day!

Hello All,
It has been a while since my last post. Busy, Busy at the home. Last week was picture day at the boy's school. So I got up early, got all the kids dressed up and with the help of my mother in law loaded all the kids in the car... and off we went. Jack went first by himself. I must say he is such a handsome boy, that is growing like a weed. Can't wait to see those pictures. Then the fun began. They call me the kid wrangler. My oh my what a mess trying to get all three of them to sit for the picture. Once we got one seated the other either ran away or started crying. After a few tries and no luck... I gave up. Loaded the girls in the car and came home. Still in their beautiful dresses these are the pictures I took at home.

It's Official

I am now officially a "SOCCER MOM"... Ahhhh!
Took the boy to his first practice this week. We had a rough start but as soon as he understood what he was there for and who was in charge he did a great job. He's team name is Little Dragons.. and he has his first game this coming sat. He is actually a really fast runner and does a pretty good job keeping the ball in front of him.. however if he does get off course he picks the ball up, centers himself, and then continues on his way to the goal. Here are some pictures from practice. And yes he is about a foot taller then the other kids.

Family Update

Sorry it has been awhile... we have been very busy! So here is a short update...

Mommy: Well I am officially signed up for the ING 1/2 marathon... taking place a week from Sunday. Am I ready? that is to be determined! But hey it will be fun. right? and it's daddy day care in the morning:)

The Boy: It is official... we have signed him up for soccer this spring. His first practice is this Thursday which will be a hoot. But he is going to be playing with some friends from school and he is very excited. We actually had to take out a calendar so that he could count down the days till practice. I think he is just excited to wear the shoes and take the new soccer ball. Oh yea and I can't forget his friends Jackson and Elise who are also on the team. " Little Dragons"
I took the kids to the library last week and normally I go to the picture book section and pick but this week I checked out the early reader books. I let him pick out the books he wanted and we have been reading them all week... and he is starting to recognize some of the words... I also got a chapter book this week that my mom sent...The Mercy Watson series ( so cute) ( thanks Becky for the idea!) He loved it and at first I thought he was just interested in the pictures but after some questioning he was actually comprehending what I was reading to him. So we are going to check out some other series at the library this week... Magic Tree house, Geronimo Stilton.
As you can see we have been busy!

OK- They are busy trying to do all the things their brother does... including some of those things I don't want any of them doing. Last week I stepped out of the dinning room to empty the dishwasher, which I can not do while they are roaming around because they climb in. When I returned to the dinning room O was standing on the table swinging the chandelier. Can't wait to see what she is like in her college years!
K although we think she is the calm one... she seems to come out of her shell when O is not around...This week K has been getting up after O is sound asleep and it is her time to shine and get as much attention as she wants... bad habit for us but it is nice to be able to spend some special time with just her.

Well that is what is going on more later in the week.

What's in your closet?

The boy is such a great big brother to his sisters( he calls them MY GIRLS) whether it be comforting them when they fall down or teaching them how to color or play with his toys. He is simply amazing...however when he is not around to play with they must find ways to entertain themselves. Their new entertainment is closing each other in the kitchen pantry... the best is when they actually close the door and stand in front of it as if nothing is going on.

Southern Bells

Last weekend Auntie K.. stopped by with gifts for the kids...They just happened to be from the dollar bin at Target...Auntie K said " I saw these and thought DRESS UP" that and "O loves to put every thing on her head!" So here are a few great pictures of my southern bells. Enjoy!!

The next BIG project!

A couple years ago I created a quilt for one of my good friends...( jody if you are reading this please send me a picture of the quilt!) I liked it so much that I doubled the fabric I bought so that I could make one for myself. It has been two years since I made that quilt.. so I decided to pull it out and start the quilt for practice. Why this madness, well my plan is to create 2 ( yes 2) twin size quilts. One for each of my daughters when they move into their big girl beds. I wanted to give them something from me that they could keep and pass on to their own daughters. SO... I need to start somewhere and I already had the supplies. Here is a picture of what I have done so far..by the way I do not have a pattern and I am not quite sure how I did the blue with white stars....so it is off to the drawing board. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Lincoln Logs

The boy has a new favorite activity- Lincoln Logs. Yesterday he decided to build some houses which can be challenging considering there are 4 little hands just looking for the perfect thing to knock down. I asked him to build me a pool in my house he said... "no mommy you can't build pools out of logs" ...I guess he makes a good point.

From The Red Carpet!

So tonight after dinner while I was in the kitchen cleaning up, The Boy pulled the blanket from the couch and spread it out on the floor. He proceeded to get a toy each for OK and Himself. You will notice the Dora bus, fire engine, and toy giraffe that was swapped out for a bag of pretzels. When I came out to see what was going on.... this is what I found. One word...PRICELESS.

By the way this picture was taken close to bed time hence the lay down play!

Homemade Goodness!

So this week I came across a recipe for homemade bagels.. thank you Sisters' Cafe. They were amazing and so easy. Most of the time spent is waiting for the dough to rise. I chose to put Asiago cheese on top.. and the whole family loved them. Actually my husband said " this may be the best thing you have ever made" The recipe makes twelve bagels and not even 24 hours later we are down to the last two. I think I will be making these again.

This next recipe is a keeper for the kids breakfast or snack... Pumpkin Ginger pancakes from myrecipe.com... I found this one while looking for a new pumpkin bread recipe and just happened to see this.. I decided to give it a try... the kids devoured the entire batch in one sitting. Since then I have made them a couple times and prepped all the dry ingrediants so that I can just add the wet ingrediants when we need some more. ( I have also started to make them with 1/2c. white and 1/2 c. wheat flour. Nobody can tell the difference.)

Run Mommy Run!

So about 6 months ago my lovely sister-in-law came to me and asked me to run a marathon with her. Mind you that at this time the twins were only 7 months old. Me thinking I have time to do it said ok lets do it... seeing that I had not exercised since I found out I was pregnant with twins. Which was odd because I ran up til about 6 months pregnant with the boy.. and then trained for my second marathon in San Diego marathon with my BFF ..(KMM) and the boy loved the jogging stroller... So months went by and I kept saying I will start tomorrow and of course I did not. So I reapproached my SIL and said I just can not find the time to get out there and run so let just do 1/2 marathon. Couple more months went by and I was able to get some runs in here and there but nothing consistant... and If you are a mom you know "stuff happens"... So we are now 5 weeks away from the race and I am actually really proud of myself for buckling down and doing the work... Last week I ran about 8 miles total... this week 14 miles... so I am well on my way...

Goggles and Kate Spade

So if you have had the pleasure of meeting the twins OK... you will know that O is the wild and crazy one.. and K just is along for the ride. O has come to enjoy putting anything and everything on her head...I caught her in the corner yesterday with the swimming goggles around her neck along with my kate spade purse ( which has been collecting dust since the arrival of the twins)... all while K took it upon herself to climb in the tupperware cabinet ( not the NO NO Drawer as we call the others) and empty it. This allowed her space to sit and see the floor from a different view. Got to love it. Luckily " the boy" was feeling better and was able to go back to school so that I was able to photograph all the happenings here.

The COmmon COld! I think NOT!

So after spending 8 days 2 weeks ago waiting for this virus to pass with all three kids and the husband, IT HAS RETURNED! The poor boy just wants to go to school! And now one of the twins was also blessed with its presence. I am crossing my fingers that number two.. (AKA: baby A, the wild crazy one!) does not get it as well. So tonight for dinner... hmmm! we stick with the BRAT diet!

A Simple way to communicate!

So after many weeks of spending so many hours looking at other blogs I have decided to create my own. Hopefully it will be a great way to both document and share the happenings in the Turcotte household. Because I am so far behind on all the kids scrapbooks...Next big step.. check into the digital scrapbook software. I hope you all enjoy!