Multiples Christmas Party

Saturday morning, we went to our multiples playgroup Christmas party. We had the kids draw names for a secret santa gift exchange, we had brunch, mimosas, crafts for the kids, etc. It was a lot of fun and nice for the dads to see how playgroups usually go. There were 4 sets of parents and 11 kids. 9 of those kids were 2 year olds.

Here's the boys playing with their friends.

Evan working on his homemade ornament craft. One of the older girls helped him. There were two older sisters of the twin girls in our group and they were so helpful and good with all the kids.

Evan opening his secret santa gift. He was so excited to open it. Carter had marshmellows and to him, that was better than any present, so he let Evan open his too.

All the kids opening their gifts. (and Carter eating his marshmellows. ;)

When we got home (and came down from the sugar rush) Greg and the boys took a nap while I went to the grocery store. After loading up the groceries in the trunk and shutting it, I realized that my keys had fell out of my purse and were in the car and for some reason, the trunk locks automatically when you shut it. So, I had 3 bags of stuff I was going to put in the front seat and my purse and my keys, all the groceries and our only set of carseats were locked in the van. I called Greg and since he couldn't come get me because he had the boys, he got off the phone and started down the street to ask some neighbors for help. The first two he went to weren't home, but then he asked a guy that lives a couple houses down for help and he immediately got his wallet and keys and drove to Kroger to bring me my spare key. I'm so thankful that he helped us out, if I would have had to wait on a locksmith or take a cab to the house to get my keys it would have cost us a ton of money and our groceries would have probably been spoiled by then. We are very lucky to have such nice neighbors.

Just waiting at my car with a starbucks.

After I got home and all the groceries unloaded, we took the boys to the park. It was pretty cold, but it's calling for rain or snow all this week, so since they asked to go, we figured we should before we're stuck in the house due to bad weather. The boys love the seesaw, so Greg rode it with Evan. Evan thought it was so funny.

The boys climbing, one of their favorite things to do.

Afterwards we decided to attempt to eat dinner. We haven't gone to a sit down restaurant in a long, long time because it was just getting too hard with the boys. We went to mexican because it's always fast and we decided to skip the high chairs and just let them sit in a regular chair. It actually went really well. The boys loved the chips and getting to drink out of their cups.

Evan wanted to cut his chip into smaller pieces with his butter knife. He actually did this without making a mess and ate the pieces he cut off, so we let him do it.

Greg and Carter. It also helped that we sat next to a window and the boys could see the cars driving by.

The best, blurry picture we could get.

We had a great day (besides me getting locked out of my car) I love days like this where we stay busy and the boys have fun. After the boys went to bed, we watched Elf and wrapped some presents.

Preschool Christmas Program

Friday, the boys had their preschool Christmas Program. Greg was able to take off work and attend. The preschool put on a Thanksgiving program but we all had to miss that because we were in Georgia, so this was the boys first program. It was so cute, they came out and sang a few songs for everybody. They had hand motions that went along with the songs and a dance at the end. It was so precious. I thought the boys did really good. I took a lot of pictures. I'm hoping that somebody got it on video and posts it on Facebook, if they do, I'll share it on here.

Here's all the kids coming out. They combined the 3 and 4 year old class with the 2 year old class for the program.

The boys looked so shy at first, I wasn't sure if they were going to sing.

Carter switched spots several times. He would just move to another location that he thought was better. It was pretty funny. At first I thought he was trying to stand next to Evan and that may have been his original goal, but after standing next to Evan, he still moved around a little.

You can see Evan doing the hand motions.

So cute!

Carter and the kid next to him started playing, luckily it only lasted like, 5 seconds.

At the end, they all fell down and I love that Evan and his friend, Konner, just stood there like it was the most ridiculous thing they had ever seen. Carter did it though.

 

These were on my phone and they're blurry, but you can see that they're doing the motions and dancing.

At one point, Carter decided to stand in front of the boy in the vest. Right in front of him and that boy didn't like it, so he pushed Carter so Carter hit him, but it was immediately broke up by one of the teachers who got them back on track.

After the program, there was a brunch with tons of food. The boys sat patiently while we fixed a plate for them.

I found cookies at Walmart that said "Peanut and Nut Free' on the package, so I got them. I wanted the boys to be able to have some Christmas treats and not have to worry about them having peanuts in them. The boys had some grapes and then like, 3 cookies each. They were definitely hyped up.

The boys then played on the chalk board with their friends, while we got everything ready to leave. You can see Greg on his knees cleaning up. Our boys can be messy, but we always try and clean up after them.

I loved every minute of their Christmas program. It was so cute to watch. I can't wait to see more things like this.

Blood Work and Ice Cream

Wednesday morning, Evan had an appointment to get some blood work done. He has eczema on his armpits and in his elbow creases, not terrbile and not all the time, but it keeps coming back and his doctor suspects it may be an allergic reaction to something he's eating. Greg took him to the allergist to get some testing done, but after waiting an hour to see the doctor, there's no way that Evan would have sat there for the testing, he was ready to go. So, Greg asked for an order to just get some blood work done. Carter has had it done before and he just sat there and let them draw his blood, no crying, jerking, nothing. He takes after is mama. ;) However, we learned on Wednesday morning that when it comes to needles, Evan takes after his daddy.

I have to start with this picture, Evan eating croutons for breakfast. He ate a ton and they are so garlicky. The whole kitchen smelled like them. Ugh. And of course, Carter wanted some when he saw that Evan was eating them.

The boys were in such a good mood in the waiting room, playing and having fun. When the nurse came to the waiting room and called Evan's name, Carter said "Come On!" and yelled to the nurse as he was running towards her "I'm coming!" they were so happy to see her, she even said something about it. they stopped and said hi to her and followed her to the room.

And then they picked Evan up and put him on the exam table and that is when our morning went downhill. Evan fought and screamed the entire time. Carter came over and rubbed his head and said "it's ok" which was so sweet. He blew two veins, and when they got a good vein, he was tensing up SO bad that it was cutting off blow flow to the vein. They decided to quit trying and give him some time to calm down. They gave the boys a freezer pop, which calmed him down immediately. They tried again and it just wasn't happening. They ended up getting 3cc and they needed 10cc. :( So, they had to change what they were testing for since they had less blood to work with. We were there for an hour and it was heartbreaking seeing Evan get so upset.

Although, you wouldn't even know anything had happened when they gave him the second freezer pop. Those boys love them some freezer pops.

After such a rough and heartbreaking morning, and since I promised Evan the world while we were at the doctor's office, I decided to treat the boys to a little ice cream on the way home. They were so excited. I got them each their own cup and let them go at it.

They did SO much better than I expected. I don't think either one of them spilled any ice cream on them while we were there.

I tried to get the boys to smile for the camera and this was the face that Carter gave me. Haha.

Mmmm...ice cream!

Evan kept saying "cheese" but was not going to stop eating to smile for me.

I went to get some napkins and the one of the employees saw me and handed me this huge roll of paper towels. Haha!

The boys ate about 2/3 of their ice cream and then we went home. When we got home, they decided they wanted the rest of it right away and it had melted a little. They made a huge mess and Evan needed an entire outfit change. Then, he decided he didn't want a new shirt and would rather go around shirtless. He played for a little bit and took a nap shirtless. Such a goober.

We got a package in the mail from Brandi and I want to open it so bad! Eek! But, I'm trying to wait until Christmas. I love getting packages or even just mail. It makes me happy.

After the boys nap, we asked them what they wanted to do. Evan always wakes up in the morning and from naps with a specific plan of what he wants to do. It's almost always the opposite of what we need to do that day. Like on preschool days he says he wants to go to a friends house, on days we have our play dates, he says he wants to go to the store, on days it's raining he wants to go to the park. But, we let them decide what we did and they both wanted to go to the park. They had a blast. It was chilly, but not too bad.

So, that was our day. I have no idea what the next step is going to be after they test the blood, but I do know that getting more blood work is not an option. Hopefully, we'll get some answers from the blood work and won't need to do anything else, but we'll see. We should find out in about 2 weeks.

Sunday Drives and Breathing Treatments

Sunday morning, the boys were bored and fussy. It was rainy and cold out and Carter wasn't doing as good as he was on Saturday, so we went for a drive. We put them in their carseats, got some coffee at Sheetz and just drove around while the boys watched a movie in the back. We got out of the house and it entertained the boys. We haven't done that since they were infants and wouldn't take a nap.

 

Monday morning, the boys woke up in good moods and played with their toys.

The boys love playing with their blanket forts and Evan loves jumping on and off anything he can.

We headed to our play group and the boys had a blast. The mom that hosted even had an ornament craft set up for the kids. I forgot to get a picture of the boys ornament but it was super cute.

I did snap a picture of the triplets making their ornaments.

During the boys nap, I got on Pinterest like I usually do and was just looking through pins and I come across a picture of my friend, Brandi! I thought it was so neat, of course I had to take a picture and send it to her immediately.

I went to Walmart to get a few things and wanted to mention how obsessed I am with these. I got a plug in wax cube warmer for my secret sister gift at MOPs and the sparkling cranberry zest wax cubes and they smell amazing! I went and picked up a couple more scents and I'm going to get a few more wax warmers also. The wax cubes are only $2.00 and they smell so good. It's like Scentsy, but less expensive. :)

We've had to give Carter a breathing treatment 2-3 times a day per the doctor's orders. She suggested doing this for several days, even if he sounds better. It's pitiful and he's starting to hate it. He does the best with the first one of the day when he first wakes up.

We put on a movie and hope that it distracts Carter enough to last through the treatment and also distracts Evan so he's not trying to "help" Carter by turning off the machine or trying to take off the mask.

Tuesday afternoon, we took the boys to the park. Evan has been throwing more tantrums the past couple of days and I think he was just getting bored since we were staying home more than usual. We went the park and let the boys get some energy out and then went to the store (one of Evan's favorite things to do) and it made a huge differnce. These boys definitely need their outdoor time.