This was Ave’s 4th Halloween, having just missed her first by mere hours. The weather was terrible, again; we can’t seem to catch a break. Despite the rain Avelyn and I went Trick or Treating, with a bit of assistance from Oma. We only went to a few houses, but Ave thought it was fantastic! The trio stayed home with Daddy…maybe next year, we’ll all be able to go.
Everything has gone relatively smoothly. Matt’s doing ok, he’s still healthy, even if he is bone-weary exhausted. Me and the kids have been healthy. The weather has been relatively agreeable, except for here and there. A bit chilly for August {40s at night and highs of 60/low 70s during the day…c-a-r-a-z-y!}
We’ve been over to the fair every day, sometimes twice a day. It really isn’t too bad for us, because we can walk, plus we don’t pay for food, unless we want something special. It’s a pretty nice perk to own a concession stand and have grandma and grandpa own another.
Of course I have been very naught this week: Shrimp dinner and fries, chili cheese dogs, pretzels, sausage gravy…yea, not good. Hopefully pushing the 200lbs of stroller and kids back and forth, sometimes twice a day is doing something.
If you follow me on Instagram and Twitter…you can search the hashtag #FairWeekintheWhiteHouse for pictures of some of the fun we’ve been having.
Of course, being that it’s fair week, means we’ve seen next to nothing of Matt. I miss him, the kids miss him. More than once I’ve had one or another of the little ones crying when we’ve said bye to him at the fair or at bedtime that they miss him. That’s hard. I had what seems to be becoming my Thursday morning of Fair Week cry {much better after that}. 
But….it’s Friday. We’re almost through this! Tomorrow….we cook for Montgomery Gentry, Aaron Kelly, and Lindsey Erin!
Facebook Trivia Question Answer: a Jersey is my favorite breed of cow.
Last week I posted on Instagram about how I was attempting to make dried fruit. I’ve been wanting to try to do this for quite some time, but always felt a bit unprepared. I googled instructions again and found that most of them had you turn your oven down to 200* or so. There’s no time like the present!
The kids and I were heading out for that road trip and I knew I needed some relatively clean snacks for in the car, so dried fruit it was. I had both apples and strawberries on hand and decided to give it a while. Of course I didn’t have an apple corer to make those fancy round slices that you can find in stores, so I just cut the apples into wedges the way you normally would, just made them thinner. I did the same with the strawberries.
I laid all of the fruit out on cooling rocks over cookie sheets lined with foil, I had no idea how messy this would get and didn’t want to be scrubbing baked on dried fruit juice.
I sprinkled the apples with a touch of cinnamon and in the oven it all went. I kept checking the oven, opening the door and making sure the temperature wasn’t too high {we keep a thermometer IN the oven, because I do not trust the little dial on the stove}. After about 3 hours, everything looked dry and slightly leathery, the way dried fruit usually looks.
I let everything sit for a few minutes, then gingerly peeled all of them off the cooling racks and in a container.
They were so good. What I did learn though is that my fruit didn’t have to be sliced so thin, and would’ve been a bit better if it hadn’t. I think a good 1/3” thick slices for the apples and just halving the berries would have been sufficient.
As for the kids, they loved the strawberries, but weren’t so crazy about the apples. The strawberries were super sweet, but the apples were a little tough to chew, because they were so thin they got a bit over-done, and I hadn’t peeled them. I have since ordered an apple corer from amazon.com and hopefully I’ll be able to dry some of the abundance of apples we have on our trees.
Easy peasy! The kids were able to have fruit without making a huge mess in the car and I was a happy Mama!
I met Kim through a mutual friend, both of us were the newbies in a Mom to Mom group started at a friend’s church. Said friend sent me a message saying how we had to get in touch with each other since, we had so much in common {blogging, quilting, photography (she’s a professional, I am not), multiples (they have 2 sets of twins, and 2 singletons), books, and husbands that are homebrewers}. It was a match made in heaven, even if life is crazy and we don’t get together very often.
Then last weekend (6.8) we invited my Due-Date buddy and her family to come for a visit. Cristina and I met online soon after we found out we were having triplets, not only did we share a due date, but we were both pregnant with triplets, and both with 2 boys and a girl: Our trio was born 12.22 and Cristina’s were born 12.30. It was so much fun to see all these littles running around and interacting with each other, with the added bonus of getting to hug Cristina and meet her husband!
We also had other friends of our’s and their 3 kiddos. The big{er} kids got to go down to the river and have some fun there, before the littles kind of took over the day. I was so beyond grateful that the rain held off and we were able to be outside.
What have you been up to the past few weekends? This weekend we’re having a quiet weekend at home. We’re not going anywhere, just working on things around the house, and then spoiling Matt on Sunday. Spending sometime together recuperating before July is here.
It was a full day, since both Matt and I were in the bridal party and Avie was one of the flower girls, our niece, C, was the other flower girl.
Here are a few of the shots from the photographer:
It was a very busy weekend: Rehearsal and dinner on Friday, Wedding all day Saturday, then Brunch on Sunday. Fortunately my mom, sister, and our friends took turns with the trio, so that we didn’t have to drag them to everything, which was a huge help {THANK YOU GUYS!}
If you’re missing me here, I am pretty active on instagram if you want to follow me there :-) or on Facebook
*Yes, that is me wearing both Ellie and James at the same time. 
There wasn’t a fourth day…it’s been kind of blah again. But it was fun while it lasted!
I figured I’d share a few pictures from our day. More and more I’m realizing that a good family picture is not something that’s going to happen, particularly when I have no one to take the picture but me.
This was our very sad attempt at getting a picture of the kids :-)
Thirteen years ago today, this guy and I went on our first date, my first-ever date, to see Mission to Mars. We even held hands…after half the movie spent with our arms awkwardly on the arm rests, just in case the other was willing to go first. Once safely deposited back in my parents driveway, we made it official….and were boyfriend and girlfriend.
Thirteen years later, I’m still waiting for that.
Thirteen years ago, if you had told me all that the past thirteen years would have entailed I know I wouldn’t have believe you, but I’m not sure if I would have laughed, cried, denied it or went running, in the opposite direction.
As you can imagine 5 1/2 years of dating, while living 300 miles apart for 8 months out of the year, with 2 months out of the year being without communication with each other, isn’t for the faint of heart. Particularly after you throw in some good family/sibling dramas.
That said. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It has been an incredible ride and I honestly can’t wait to see what the next 13 years bring, because if nothing else God has shown up every single time, every single day.
What makes us work? {Besides God} We’re both stubborn and flat out REFUSE to quit. While other couples were constantly taking a break and getting back together, we both agreed if that was the case, we were done. If it wasn’t working, then it wasn’t ever going to work. But we do, work….it is a lot of work, our friendship, our marriage, our kids, our house, our life…it’s all work, but we work well together.
And, yea, I would NEVER have believed any of it, the crazy that is my-life-in-the-White-house, but it has been SO, SO worth it.
Last week (March 10th) we were outside for most of the afternoon, inspecting the “grounds” to see how things were coming along and what needed to be done, now that the nicer weather was coming.
The bees were out, the dilly-daffols were beginning to poke up their heads, the sun was shining and the weather was beautiful.
A couple days later it was gray and rainy, everything turning to icky-sticky mud.
If my Oma were still alive, she would be freaking out over this child not only playing, but sitting in the mud :-)
And this is what it looks like outside, right now….
Yea….more snow. We’re supposed to be getting another 5-9”.
If you want to see more of the pictures from the shower, be sure to click HERE.
1104. A note from a reader on a day in which I particularly needed to be uplifted.
1105. Outpourings from readers {friends} who are struggling with the lonelies too
1106. Being reminded of God's faithfulness through some of the toughest years of my life
1107. Bone crushing hugs from my babies, especially Jamesie's
1108. Avie's reply of "you're welcome", when I thank her for being my daughter
1109. Curling up in bed with Ave and reading story after story together
1110. Lying on the floor with my trio and having them crawl all over me
1111. The excitement on the kids face when daddy gets home
1112. Ellie's sloppy kisses
1113. The awe at God's goodness in giving us these children
1114. Like-minded moms
1115. The moments in which I feel God's hand and presence in my life so strongly
1116. Being "struck to the core in a moment of breathless delight..."
1117. Not just knowing, but feeling that my worth is not determined by those around me (those beyond my husband and kids, but other people) but by God
1118. Nighttime cuddles with my sniffly boy, Henry
1119. That tomorrow is Friday 
1120. Feeling and giving grace in a really hard situation regarding our finances
1121. Being blessed and inspired by two incredible sisters (online friends) at their faithfulness in doing God's will, and reaching out to others.
1122. Finding myself praying to The Lord to use me....as scary as that might be
1123. Leftovers for an easy dinner
1124. That I wasn't coming down with some nasty bug, but getting my period...blah
1125. The possibility of a friendship {of which I realized that I don’t even know how to begin a friendship…but there is always His Grace}
1126. That god has made me who I am, that he lays different people on my heart, that I desire to reach out to others, even if I'm not always able to or received by them. That even then there is His grace for my faults and failures in doing so.
1127. Reading a couple of fiction books for fun!
Over the past 13 years that we've been together and since my own grandparents have passed away; Matt's grandparents became my surrogate grandparents. 
We knew it would be crazy, we knew we would be running constantly between activities, we knew that it would be exhausting. What we didn’t know {or think about} was just HOW trashed our house was going to be.
We didn’t have the party in our house, because there was just too many family members visiting for Christmas to fit them all in. My mother-in-law was more than willing for us to have it at their house {which seems to be turning into party central….it’s really the perfect place for parties}.
The party went well. The kids were sick and miserable the entire time. Green frosting was probably not the best choice of color, given their snotty noses. And, of course, they got way too many presents. Way too many.
Then there was Christmas 3 days later. 3 days in which I did not have time to deal with the birthday presents and get them all washed and put away and sorted through. Again, the kids got way too many presents, plus Avie’s.
I sorted it all out as to what was for now, what needed to be exchanged and what could be returned for gift cards for later. I did, and I’m not exaggerating, 10 loads of laundry that was just new clothes for the kids.
Toys were another thing. We actually packed up all the toys we had, every single one, before pulling out the birthday/Christmas gifts….we still have double or more toys in our living room now.
We got 3 or 4 of some of the same toys. So we had a pile that we had to return and get gift cards for…I’ll use them in the summer to buy some outside toys.
All of this craziness led us to one thing: Half Birthdays!
We decided that we would be celebrating Henry, James, and Ellie’s birthdays on June 22, as opposed to December 22nd. Of course, we’ll still do cake and presents from Mommy and Daddy in December, but the party and festivities will be in June.
The kids got enough toys/clothes that we can hold off on even having another party until next year. So, here’s to a 2.5 year birthday party in 2014!
