Little Achievements (8yr 2mo!)

CET are 8 years and 2 months old!

A while back Thomas and Eli told me that they had ran the mile at school. They boasted 6th place and 10th place then 1st place and 2nd place, blah blah blah. "Tall tales" I thought to myself as I feigned excitement. I knew they were fast runners but how fast could they be compared to other kids that tower over them. Well the other day as I walked through their school hall way I ran into a big collage made of pictures of kids running and huffing and puffing in the school field. In the middle of the collage was a list of the top 25 fastest kids in the school. Wait what?! Out of the whole school, they weren't lying! (See next pic below) And I should mention they are among the shortest kids in the second grade. Little but mighty they are!

The second little achievement award goes to Caleb! A couple of weeks ago I had a parent teacher conference to get an update on how the boys are doing in school. They are good students, obedient, could use a bit more work on their reading speed, yada yada yada. Then the teacher hands me a TAG nomination for Caleb. Wait, what? Caleb? He's the least I'd expect to get a nomination. I had to ask the teacher what they heck that even meant. Talented and gifted (TAG). You know I love my children and definitely think they are very smart but gifted? Nah! It took some convincing and explanation. I guess they test them in 3 different areas to see where they are "gifted or talented." Caleb did not score high enough to be nominated under reading or math (I would have guessed math but no). The area that he tested exceptionally well in was in intellectual reasoning. Again, I was like "what the heck does that mean?" Turns out intellectually gifted is defined as a student who exhibits the ability to reason and use information in unusual ways. And the way they test for this is with puzzles and images followed by questions about what they see. Hmmm, interesting...Caleb definitely does think out side of the box and he's always saying the most off the wall stuff! As they say, it's an honor just to be nominated but I really don't see him passing the final evaluation where he'd have to be in the top 97th percentile to get into the program. 

Mile run times, those are some fast little legs!

Papi, Eli & Thomas

Back in mid October, headed to the beach!

Great beach day!

Exploring a different beach the next day.

Taking a corn dog ride, ha!

Thomas looking so hipster : )

Happiness : )

Getting cozy with their fuzzy kitty bean bags.

Silly boys

Eli's rendition of our family.
Love the building and kitty he drew on our clothes, he knows what we like!

Thomas' rendition of our family.
Love that Phil is the lightest, I'm the darkest and he's mid way, haha!

Caleb's, the only one who drew us all, even the kitties!
Not sure what that says about Eli and Thomas, ha!

Personalities 8.0

Triplets 8.0

Today I blurted out, "hey boys we have to measure you, yesterday was your due date!" Funny enough but I've never told the boys what a due date is. I explained it and they were very puzzled but also fascinated by this new tid-bit of information. I'm pretty sure it blew their minds when I said, "you really should just NOW be turning 8 years old!" So we measured and sure enough just like every year of their lives, they grew! The boys always have a growth spurt right around their due date. 

These guys are doing really well, growing and developing as they should. I'm so grateful we have no issues with them what so ever and I pray it stays that way. The other day I got an impersonal email from their teacher, urging parents to please talk to our children about their behavior at school because I guess that day the kids were very trying. Apparently many were talking loudly and not paying attention to instruction. It was bad enough that the teacher felt compelled to email all the parents. I talked to the boys and they all acted very innocent and blamed the other kids in their class. I was very suspicious because they pull this kind of stuff all the time at home (blaming their brothers when it was really them). Well the next day I asked the teacher if they had contributed to the problem. To my pleasant surprise she said they are great students who always follow the rules! They were not the problem in the least. I'm so proud of them for being such good boys even under bad influence.

Traits they share include their love of Beast Masters (similar to American Ninja Warriors or American Gladiators), Pokemon cards, and Legos. They are adventurous eaters which includes any ethnic variety, seafood, spicy foods and weird meats (for example, chicken gizzards). They are great swimmers and love the pool. They don't seek attention but they LOVE it when they get it and all three are super affectionate. 

Caleb 2nd grade

Caleb: Such a chill boy most of the time but he can loose his top on occasion. His brothers urge him to join them to play sports outside but about half the time he chooses to just relax inside. He always asks why we have to "always do stuff" (e.g. go to school, grocery shopping, etc). I think his perfect day would include intermittently playing outside, building with legos, watching tv and eating yummy foods all from the comfort of his own home. Even still he is pretty active and has recently gotten into soccer although he's not the best at it. At his request we may try to do a soccer team in the spring. Caleb speaks his mind and comes up with some pretty off the wall stuff (he keeps Phil and I laughing). He's got a good imagination!

Eli 2nd grade

Eli: Such a smart and quick witted little guy, always ahead of the game so to speak. He's very outspoken and can talk your head off. Eli is incredibly athletic, he's far ahead of his peers who easily tower over him by 2-4 inches. Particularly he's great at catching a football even while running. People who see him in action comment at how impressive he is. Phil and I like to call him a Velociraptor, not because of his speed but because he can freak out rather easily. We tend to tip toe around this guy so as not to awaken the Velociraptor within! I guess you can say he's pretty emotional. Eli is a very hard worker and is always the first to volunteer for a paid job.

Thomas 2nd grade

Thomas: This kid loves to draw and create, you can always find him crafting and building away. A master at freehand Lego building as well. He can be a bit of a brut, not knowing his own strength or being a bit impulsive at times. Even though, he's been pretty obedient lately, following though on requests with little talk-back (while his brothers on the other hand think of everything under the sun to try to convince me why they shouldn't have to do what I asked of them, ha!). Thomas is a very good fluid reader and sets goals for himself, like how many times he can read one book during a certain time frame. He just got a pretty thick Hombre Perro book and he intends on finishing it from front to back before reading anything else. He LOVES playing sports and is very athletic. 

8 Yr 1 Mo & a wedding!

CET are 8 years and 1 month old!

My handsome trio : )

Our Friends R&C got married last month and it was a beautiful wedding!

Thomas

Eli

Caleb

A rare family pic, only ever attempted for special occasions, ha!

Another of Caleb : )

Another of the three!

The weather here is finally changing! We were getting spoiled with summer like weather up until a week ago. When summer is over I usually feel like I need more summer but not this year. I'm ready for cozy fires and drinking warm beverages. We now live near a park with a great hill, so really hoping for a good snow day this winter. Life has a good routine these days, probably due to the fact that we don't have any on going home renovation projects. Its a nice break before we begin the next project, there are so many its hard to decide what to start next. Over the summer we had an egress window put in the basement so that will someday become a 4th bedroom but we will need to level the concrete floors and finish the space with walls, flooring and insulation. It's a tall order but it'll really add value to our house. The kitchen really bugs me but it's another very tall order. I'm planning to at least get the cabinets re-painted over Thanksgiving break. Yikes that's coming up fast!

EIGHT!!!

CET are EIGHT YEARS OLD!!!

The boys preemie clothes next to a new born sleeper.
I can't believe they were ever that small!

They will always be my babies!

Even 8 years later and I still feel like Thomas in this picture, haha!
Raising triplets is no walk in the park, ha!

We had picture day recently, lets hope this year went better than last year, haha!

Boy the years just keep flying by like an out of control train! My kids should not be this old, eight is crazy! Life with these bozos (a term of endearment we've recently adopted, ha!) is hectic, frantic, loud, busy and wild. They play constantly, they fight constantly, and complain constantly. So yeah life is pretty age appropriate right now. They can be pretty sweet and snugly too, even to each other! After a fun summer we are settling down to a new school year. 2nd grade is going well and we finally have homework this year. I'm not a fan of homework at their age but its been really bearable, only 20 minutes of reading everyday. I'm already seeing so much improvement and a love of reading is starting to develop. We don't allow screen time Monday through Thursday. I secretly regretted making this a rule during kindergarten and 1st grade but now I see them entertaining themselves so much better this year. I guess it was worth it after all. As terrible as I've made them sound they are actually pretty good little dudes, just age appropriate acting out, we have to keep readjusting them. I've heard 8 is another emotional age, oh boy, they are already so emotional! Here we go again with the terrible threes. At least this time I was warned unlike when I celebrated when two was over but the worst was yet to come!

This years' obligatory couch photo!

Funny at 7Yr 11Mo!

CET are 7 years and 11 months old! 
(picture taken on the first day of 2nd grade)

Over the past few months I've been writing down the funny things the boys say. These silly phrases remind me how little they still are!

Caleb

"They were selling free home cookies."

"Day time is the same as night time except its dark."

"They made a squirrel store with a much of acorns and them chugged it up." Then Eli corrects him "You mean them chugged it down."

"Are bigfoots a little creepy papi?"

Eli 

"I wish Neyney (our cat) was a real girl. Then I would hug her every day. She would be so soft like bigfoot."

"I don't know why cavemans are so strong."

"I feel like its 8 in the afternoon."

Talking about Star Wars: "Then they figured-out-ed (one word) it."

"Who is the dice president?"

When talking about being cold in the morning: "I get frostbites." 

"I was brooming." He meant sweeping.

Thomas

After showing me his book he wrote about snakes, "I can be a basketball player and an author."

"There's like 3 beaches on every island."

"The big boat crash." This phrase is used as a noun and not a description. A term they coined when they were little and still use it all the time even though they know that it's actually called the Titanic!

7Yr 10Mo! & More Stitches

CET are 7 years and 10 months old!

Our CA adventure started in Oceanside CA where we rented a
house that was walking distance to the beach! 

A full day at the beach proved to be relaxing and fun! They were getting an unlikely current from Mexico which made the water unusually warm. It was wonderful not to come out of the water shivering as we normally would, ha!

On another day we tackled Legoland!

We also discovered the boys love of roller coasters, uh oh! If you know me you also know that I despise those contraptions. They certainly didn't inherit this from me, ha!

Made a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico!

The kidos in Mexico : )

We met up with my cousin who has a business in TJ and he took us to a local seafood restaurant. Our group of 10 ate like kings with drinks and all. The bill came out to a measily $66!!! If you wanted to eat like that in the states you'd have to add another zero to the end of that amount. I'll be dreaming of those shrimp tacos and octopus cocktail for years!

We only spent one day in Davis on the way home but of course
we had to see mama Sue and papa Ed : )

One last treat before we went home was stopping at Wildlife Safari in Oregon.

Lots of interesting creatures, and many that I'd never seen before or knew that existed. It's really neat, feels like you are driving through Jurassic Park only it's animals that still exist, ha! If anyone is traveling along I-5 through Oregon I totally recommend this place. Affordable family fun is what I'm talking about (she says after footing the bill for Legoland, at least it wasn't Disneyland prices haha!).

I'll explain Caleb's chin down below, ha!

Thomas

Eli

Oh Caleb not again! Remember last summer around this exact same time he cut the back of his head being a wild monkey at mom's that resulted in 3 staples.
This boy is going to be the death of me!

On our way home, we stopped just South of Roseburg (about 3.5 hrs from Portland) so that we could camp for the night. We were surprising the boys the next day with the Wildlife Sarafi park. We were 5 minutes into unloading the car when Caleb goes down this steep hill with his scooter. Well he claims he forgot how to brake because he got going too fast and lost control. He got the wind knocked out of him and he must have hit a sharp rock because there was a huge gaping hole in his chin! Which oddly enough took a long time before it started bleeding, super creepy! I instantly knew we had to leave for the closest urgent care. We packed up the car and drove 30 minutes to the Roseburg urgent care. The boy got 8 stitches! Caleb was as cool as a cucumber the whole time and that really impressed the doc. Five days later (lower left pic) he went in to get his stitches out. And two weeks later (lower right pic) is how it looks like now. It's amazing how fast it has healed. I'm doing all I can to avoid a noticeable scar. We kept it completely covered with Neosporin for the first 10 days, keeping it moist while it heals is very important. The docs both advised to always have sunscreen on if he's outside and to rub vitamin E on it once it has completely healed. It looks as if Caleb has taken over Thomas' clumsy title, only Thomas has never hurt himself this bad, not to mention twice! : (

The Walking Pneumonia (7yr 9mo!)

CET are only 3 months away from turning 8, yikes!
How is it possible that I started this blog over 8 years ago and I'm still going!?!

The Walking Dead Pneumonia

On the Saturday before the last day of school the boys all came down with low grade fevers and were complaining that they didn't feel good. Over the next couple of days I treated them with tylenol or the like. They didn't seem too bad so come Monday morning, off to school they went. They were a little lack luster and slightly coughing but would always perk right up after getting some medicine. I thought is was just a cold (which is kind of ridiculous since it was mid June!). On Tuesday while at work I got an email from the teacher stating that 3 kids in their class had been diagnosed with walking pneumonia and if your kids were exhibiting it's symptoms to please not send them to school! I quickly googled this scary sounding sickness and all the symptoms matched up perfectly with the boys, uh oh! On the bright side if there is a pneumonia to get its walking pneumonia you want, it's the least of the evils and you can still function more or less (this is why they call it "walking" pneumonia). Long story short more than half the class got it and the boys hacked and coughed for over 3 weeks. Phil and I thought we were in the clear when after two weeks into the boys sickness and we still had not come down with anything. Well we spoke too soon because we both got to experience walking pneumonia. Let me let you, it's no regular cold! Now I understood what Eli meant when he'd tell me his chest would sting and why the boys even after two weeks still only wanted to lie around and not go out and play. My poor babies certainly felt worse than they looked : (

Everyone would randomly fall asleep during the sickening.

On the last day of school not looking too great since they were about 1 week into WP. 

I felt compelled to document this experience because it encapsulates just how quickly kids grow up. One day they're playing with toys and the next day they're not. Eli had been wanting some dumbbells which I had not taken seriously. He'd recently come into some money from doing chores and a generous $20 from tio C. We were going to search for curtains at Ross and since I know the kids love to ogle the toys there I told them to bring their money in case they saw something they wanted. Eli goes straight to the dumbbells with his brothers in tow and picks out what he wants. His brothers look on enviously because they don't really have much money to buy anything. 

As we wait in line I ask him "you didn't even want to look at the toys?" And his reply was "no, this is the only thing I want." Such a big kid purchase!

Mama Elda came!
After a week in Portland we drove them to Cali to stay at grandma's house for the next two weeks. 

Granny cam captured the boys anticipating the next Mexico game in the Worldcup!

As promised, here are before and after pics of our living room
(this is the listing picture so this is not our stuff, ha!)

The kitchen before with laminate floor that look like wood, ugh!
Ironically, the kitchen had fake wood and the rest of the house had real wood that was all covered up, haha!

The oak floors refinished and now look brand new, they are absolutely gorgeous. Until now I never appreciated how beautiful oak is, look at all that beautiful grain variation!

Our new kitchen tile floor!

The living room after!
All the natural light is wonderful but makes it very tricky to photograph. 

The other end of our living room and you can also see the new floors in our kitchen. I'll refrain on posting any pics of our kitchen. We've done so much (floors, school house light fixtures and painting) but it still needs a lot of work. New counters, tile back splash, cabinet refinishing, and gas stove will hopefully start happening within a years time.

They always look so sweet when they're asleep : )