Sage and the twins get along so well (for the most part) and love to play and have fun. They are always asking to go outside and swing or ride their tricycles. I love that our yard has a new fence and I can just let them out without them finding a way to escape. Sage has learned to pump when swinging so she doesn’t need to be pushed anymore which save me from trying to push her and the twins as high as I can. They also love to jump on the trampoline. I have Heather come babysit for about 30 minutes the other day and right when she arrived they wanted her to push them on the swings and jump on the trampoline. Heather is so good with my kids and they love her.

Sage and Jayden are the best of buddies. They play well together and love being with each other. They both try to stay awake at naptime so they can get up early. They love to dress the same and have their hair done the same. They also love having the same toys. I think the only thing they really are different about is their favorite color. Jayden loves blue and Sage loves pink.

Jayden now weighs in at almost 26 pounds which is great for her. She had to go to the hospital again yesterday for another stool sample. We will get the results back on Monday and we are hoping her c-dif is gone. She has tested positive for it since January. Don’t worry, this is contagious, but doesn’t make you sick if you have a normal immune system. We are careful about hand washing and keeping bathrooms very clean. We don’t know why she can’t get rid of it, but she has seemed better this last week. She has started eating food again and swallowing it. YEAH!!!!

Braxton has been himself this last week. He got into the hair spray and sprayed is eyes. He got kicked by Jayden on the swing. He was twirling around and got so dizzy he smacked is head into the corner of the wall. His new thing is to tell me he has a tummy ache every time I ask him to do something. Don’t worry, the excuse doesn’t work with me.

Sage has been going to preschool and loving it. She talks about her friends and all the fun they have together.

Caleb is just being him, a baby who eats, poops, sleeps, and cries. He has started playing with toys and talking to them. He has also started to try the army crawling. He can get about a foot.

Well, that was our week and what the kids have been up to in a nutshell.

The kids started Gymnastics about 3 weeks ago. They go to All American Gymnastics and love it. Braxton and Jayden are in the three year old class together which has worked out well. Braxton is rather shy and needs Jayden around for comfort. They hold hands sometimes and are always moving their mats by each other. Braxton is great a doing somersaults and Jayden is great at the balance beam. Both kids love the bars and try their tricks on our swing set. Sage is in the four year old class which is right after the three year old class and she has the same teacher as the twins. Her class is a little different and the kids don’t seem to mind as much. I know, four year olds should be better than three year olds, but there is one boy and one girl who just seem to do what they want and ignore the teacher. Sage is great at doing what she is suppose to and loves the attention she gets from her teacher. Well, the past Thursday at gymnastics I was sitting with the twins and Caleb while Sage was in class and this lady turns and asks me “Are all those kids yours?” I said “Yep, and I have another one over there.” She then tells me why she asked.

She has just as many kids as I do and they are spaced just like mine. Her kids are all two years older than mine and we just laughed about all the comments people make when they see how many young kids we have. We do get funny looks, stares, laughs, and smiles from strangers when we are pushing the triple stroller and a cart or single stroller around. Sometimes I feel like I should wear a shirt that says “Yes, they are all mine and I do have my hands full and I am crazy.” Most of the time I love having this many kids and most of the time I am crazy, but we have so much fun! The twins are at the say funny comments stage and Sage is my big helper and little mother to Caleb. Caleb loves the attentions and his smiles are priceless. Kids are such a joy!

Watch out!!! There is a moose on the loose at our house. Sage came home from preschool the other day and was so excited to show us the moose she made. She chased us around the house and outside. She would make these crazy faces and come charging. Sage enjoys preschool and loves to show off her projects. It is fun to hear about what she is learning and all about her friends even though she can’t remember anyones names.

For the twins birthday, they each had a gift card from Grandpa and Grandma Lawrence. I took Braxton by himself to the store so he could pick out anything he wanted. He really wanted a bicycle, but that was not in the price range. He ended up getting a ball for himself, one for Jayden, and one for Sage. He also wanted a doughnut. I know, what a funny kid. It was so cute when we got home and he started passing out the gifts he bought for everyone else. He was very happy giving out balls. He can be such a sweet kid. and still is. Kip took Jayden to spend her money and she ended up getting a Tinkerbell stationary kit, Dora crayons and coloring book, and some lip gloss. She made sure to get everyone a lip gloss. Now, any kind of lip balm is a huge hit in our house and the kids were so excited. Braxton was even more excited since it was purple. Can you tell from the picture what he used the whole thing in one application. He thought it was great and I just laughed since I often find him looking like this from lip balm, food, paint, playdoh, or anything else that can be spread around on the face to make a mess.

Caleb is now 4 months and two days old. I took him to his 4 month check up today and all I can say is WOW!!! I have one large child. He weighed in at 15.8 pounds and his height is 26 inches. He is still in the 75% for everything. This is crazy. I remember when Sage was 15 pounds and that was when she was 9 months old. Jayden weighed 13 pounds when she was one. Braxton was about the same as Sage. I have one large child and three very small children. While we were at the doctors he manage to spit up on me making it look like I had an accident. He also threw up all over while they were giving him the rotavirus vaccine which soaked his clothes, the table and the floor. The nurse had to get me some pjs to take him home is since I didn’t take a change of clothes with me. Yep, that is right, I wasn’t prepared. Caleb actually used his change of clothes the other day when he spit up all over himself and the car seat. O’well, I will be better prepared next time. Caleb is so much fun though. He has baby fat and cubby checks which I totally love. He can wear anything in a bigger size and fit into it just fine. Caleb loves to smile, laugh, squeal, play with toys, and swing outside. He seems to poop a lot, eat sometimes, and is happy most of the time. He is sleeping about 6 hours in a row at night. I wish it was through the night which all of my kids where doing by his age, but I have no idea why he doesn’t. I am going to start working on it because I am dragging in the mornings lately which makes working out too much work. We are very glad Caleb is in our family and he loves being around all of us in this crazy household.

The Twins turned 3 on the 14th of August. We were on vacation so we had their party after we got back. I chose a fun in the sun party for them since it could be gender neutral and outside. We barrowed swimming pools from our friend Kale and Grandma. We had three pools, tons of water balloons, lots of friends, cupcakes, ice cream, presents and just a ton of fun. During the party, all Jayden could think about was opening her presents. She wanted to do this more than anything. She was so excited when it was finally time. The twin couldn’t decided on a cake and I kind of wanted two different ones for them. They each wanted a different color so we went with cupcakes. Braxton loves purple and Jayden loves blue. The cup cakes turned out perfect and the twins loved them. I still can’t believe we have made it over 3 years with twins!!

This year I decided to put Sage in a preschool. After many months of trying to decide which one and what to do I chose something close to home. Sage started on August 18th. She goes to Brenda Chabot’s preschool. She lives close to us and teaches preschool at her house. The cost was good and we don’t have to drive too far. Sage loves going to school. She asks everyday if today is preschool. She has so much fun showing us what she is learning. I am glad to chose this preschool for her and she is very happy there. After the second day of preschool Sage came out kind of sad and said, “Mom, I really need a back pack. Every one else has a back pack for their papers, so I really need a back pack. Can we please get me a back pack?” I made sure to have one before the next time she had preschool.

We went to San Diego for family vacation this year. It was almost a month ago that we went. It was so much fun. We started out by leaving at 4 in the morning. Crazy with four kids and a baby sitter but we did it. We had everything packed the night before and made a list of things that had to go in the car in the morning. Sage and the twins we so excited to go to the beach that they couldn’t go back to sleep once we put them in the car. We were glad to have a DVD player in the van. Heather came with us so we could have extra helping hands. It is crazy with three kids potty trained. We are constantly running to the bathroom. I had the twins in diapers during the drive to San Diego. We had to stop in St. George for breakfast and a bathroom break. This was when I realized Braxton’s diaper had leaked all over him and his car seat and blanket. I could only clean up so much so he had to ride in his wet car seat. Although we do put little blankets under them in case anything happens like this. I didn’t have Braxton’s under him on the first part of the trip but we did the rest of the time. When we stopped in St. George I had Kip open the trailer so I could get clean clothes for Braxton and we discovered a wasp nest inside. The wasps were none to happy to have been bouncing down the rode for the last 4 hours. While in St. George the kids played at McDonald’s. This was the best play place I had seen yet. We rarely go to restaurants with toys to play on because they are too hard for my kids to climb and I end up having to climb them to get them down. All the kids could do with play place with ease and had so much fun. Then we stopped in Bakers about three hours later for lunch at Burger King. We noticed that Jayden was coughing more than normal so we asked the Manager if we would use a plug and do a breathing treatments on her. WOW!! People we very curious about what we were doing. For those of you who don’t know, Jayden has a vest which hooks to a machine that vibrates and pound against her rib cage to loosen all the junk in her lungs and helps keep her lung clean. She thought it was the greatest thing to do at Burger King. We also had to feed her through her G-Tube at every stop.

We made it to San Diego with only those two stops. Amazing considering the twins kept their diapers dry and Caleb is nursing. He did cry for about the last 45 minutes, but I didn’t want to stop since we wasn’t really diggin’ the nursing thing while traveling. While in San Diego we stayed at the Residence Inn Marriott. It was really nice although a little small for us. We had Heather and Sage sleep in the small room which had two twin beds in it. The twins slept on their blow up beds in the front room and Kip and I slept in the King Bed in the second bedroom. Well, since there wasn’t much room, Caleb slept on the floor in between the wall and the night stand, which he didn’t seem to mind. It was just enough room for him. I had brought his pack and play bed, but there wasn’t room to set it up. We also had a little kitchen and of course a bathroom. The kids loved running around and playing in the hotel although it was small.

Once in San Diego and after we got everything unpacked and set up we were off to the Beach. We didn’t know where to go so we looked up parks with out GPS system (I recommend one for traveling) and found a park near a bay and figured it would work. We went to Mission Bay where the kids were so excited to see sea shells and get wet. It was in the evening which was a little chilly for the kids although they had a great time.

On Sunday, the 10th of August we went to the Wild Animal Kingdom Park. We stayed for a few hours. We went on a bus tour and saw the animals. The kids were not that entertained and kept asking when we were going to the beach. We took the kids back for naps and then headed out the Mission Bay Beach this time. The kids loved digging in the sand and walking in the water.

On Monday, August 11th, we went to Lego Land. WOW!! What a great place for kids. They loved looking at all the Legos and riding the rides. We did have some hurt feelings since Braxton and Jayden weren’t quite three yet they couldn’t drive the little cars and Jayden wasn’t tall enough to go on some of the rides that Braxton could go on. We did however manage to keep everyone happy and having fun most of the time. We let the kids pick out a lego set or other toy from the gift shop. The girls picked out princess legos and horse legos while Braxton chose a sword. We spent the entire day there and we were exhausted!

On Tuesday, August 12th, we went to Sea World.

We saw the Shamu show, which the kids loved and we walked around for a little bit looking at things. The kids were still a little exhausted from the day before so we only spent 4 hours here. I don’t know if we would have stayed more since we were constantly having to get the kids in and out of the strollers. We did however see the sharks which was one of the kids favorite things. We then took the kids back for lunch and naps. Once we were rested we took the kids back to the beach. This was their favorite part of the whole trip.

On Wednesday, August 13th, we went to the San Diego Zoo. We took the guided bus tour first and then walked to see a few things. The kids loved the Elephants the most. I am sure some of you with kids know when a animals uses the bathroom while you are looking at them it is the greatest thing. Yep, you guessed it, one elephant was doing taking care of business while we were there. The kids just laughed and talked about it the entire day. We also saw the Monkeys, orangutans, Gorillas, which were not on the bus tour. After the zoo, we went to Balboa park for a little bit. We ate lunch and had a few potty breaks.

The kids also rode the train right by the zoo. We then drove to La Jolla Cove to see the Sea Lions. Parking was crazy here. We finally found one spot in an underground packing place for $5, and it was the only spot in the entire parking garage.

The kids loved looking at the sea lion sun bathing on the rock. They didn’t want to leave, but they needed dinner. The hotel we stayed at had free buffet breakfast and dinner. It was great! Heather and I went to the store that night to find a birthday cake, ice cream and balloons for the twins.

On Thursday, August 14th, the twin turned 3. They wanted to go to the beach for their birthday so we went to La Jolla Beach. It was awesome. The kids found sea shells, dug holes, played in the water and had fun! Kip found a small crab and some other creature. We spent the morning at the beach just enjoying ourselves. That night we gave the twins their birthday presents, and had cake and ice cream. They had so much fun.

On Friday, August 15th, we left to come home. We packed the car and trailer the night before and left at 4 in the morning. This time the kids slept for a few hours and we stopped at the same Burger King in Bakers for breakfast and for Jayden to do a breathing treatment. She had a clod the entire vacation and we had to get a prescription filled while in San Diego. We did have to make two extra stops for potty breaks for Jayden and one small detour because some cardboard got stuck on our car in Vegas rush hour traffic. No damage to the car and it fell off once we were able to slow down enough. We made it home around 6 or so and then kids were so excited. So was Kip and I since we had to snack on food the whole way to stay awake. We had a great vacation and plan to go back in a few years.