There were no words

I was going to do this post yesterday but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Today i'm over it, so we're all good.

I was up at 5:30 with Kyla and Presley and I was exhausted, so I layed in my bed, and fell asleep maybe. I woke up to Kyla saying "mom the girls made a big mess!!" So I jump up start running down the stairs and I smelt it.

Nail Polish.

In my head I thought, Mindy your kind of an idiot, didn't you learn last time to put the nailpolish in a DIFFERENT spot?!

So I went into the bathroom, and literally gasped! I didn't know how to react. I was so mad, at them, and myself. I will NEVER go back to my bed again. (If anything i'll go to the couch...)and I will NEVER leave the nail polish in reach!

I was too frustrated to take a picture, and wasn't sure how to deal with it, so I just threw them in the bath, I took pictures when they got in but they are nude so here is the best I can do. Their HAIR was covered, their legs, arms, and spots there shouldn't be nailpolish even had it!!

Sorry this picture has a shadow from the camera strap, but if you click on it or look hard enough you can see their legs and arms....

Oh did I mention it was BRIGHT pink!?!

Awesome eh?

I bathed them for an hour! Because I know when I used to paint my nails, if i'd get some on my skin, it would come off in the shower. So I was hoping a lot would soak off. Nope not really. I had no idea how to get it out of their hair, so I looked online and it said baby oil or mineral oil. So I pulled out the baby oil, it took FOREVER but it worked. I had to pull piece by piece apart until I got most of it all out. The skin I used nailpolish remover where I could but by the end of the day most of the main spots wore off.

So then I had to rush and jump in the shower because I had to drive Kyla to school, still get them all dressed and ready and feed them lunch and it had been a few days of no showering so not showering was not an option! So I got ready and usually the girls just watch tv or play in Kyla's room. But no.... they were doing this....

This WAS my spotless livingroom...

And this is the bathroom.

That would be every deck of cards we own all over the floor, my stick plant, winter coats from the closet, and the bathroom with the pink nailpolish all over the rug from before. My new rug. There was also cereal all over my kitchen floor and the books and magazines were all over the stairs.

K seriously, my girls have NEVER been the type to do things like this. (Other than when they used my walls as their art canvas! Remember that?!) But they don't ever go through drawers and get into things or are mischevious. I was so mad. I made them clean up pretty much everything. But I was so frustrated because i've been so good at keeping up with the house and laundry and it made me so happy, and then they go and do this! Oh and it was only the twins by the way. Kyla was into her show, and upstairs with me most the time. I know I should have just checked on them, but I obviously haven't been with it lately. This I do know! But man. Oh and this was all before 10am! Could of killed. I definitely learned some lessons, and so did they!

20 weeks

Oh goodness. I'm halfway already. I feel like all I blog about is this pregnancy, but that kind of is my life lately!

I am "feeling" pregnant now. I have to take breaks and have to be careful not to push myself to keep cleaning, or just "do one more thing." Other than that, things have been great! I haven't been sick at all, and i'm getting good sleep so it's going great. I do have my days but they are pretty rare. I did like 6 loads of laundry yesterday, folded them, put them away, made ribs for dinner, baked cookies with the kids, and cleaned up the house and still felt great at the end of the night. Dustin thinks I have more energy now than before I was pregnant! What are you trying to say hun??

Here's me at 20 weeks. I swear the picture makes me look smaller than I feel! I took like 70 to make sure too!

The Tree and The Bean

We put up our tree on Monday and I finally finished the "christmas corner" yesterday. So here are a few shots of us decorating. I let the kids do it all and I never fixed one thing and i'm not going too. Dustin guided them and did the high ones, but I was exhausted so I passed out the ornaments. I put the poinsettias on the other day because I found them randomly in the box. The kids did a pretty good job i'd say!

Presley, Kyla, Jayci

Putting up the star!

All finished!

The "corner"
I don't have a lot of room for decor so this is all i'm doing this year. I have one more project i'd love to do but that means another trip downtown. Maybe next week sometime.
ps: know what movie that is we're watching? The girls love it, and I forgot how hilarious it is. It's Elf by the way. I love all these Christmas movies, that's something I remember loving growing up and I think my kids do too.

So this was one of my projects that I started last year. I have an image in my head when we have a house, the "stockings" will go on the fireplace, and the stockings will hang below it. Cute right? So this is our "mantle" this year. Meh it works. Oh and we're missing Dustin's and my stockings because they are red and white and fuzzy and do not match, so we'll just put up the kids for now. Next year I want to make us all new ones, that was the plan for this year, then I got pregnant and lazy. So next year it is, by then we'll have a house too.

We bought the original frosty the snowman movie yesterday for the girls and they LOVE it. See what I mean? oh don't look at the tv, obviously I didn't get around to cleaning it.

Onto the bean. We had our ultrasound yesterday. I love it when I get to watch and I got to see the entire time. Well mostly, until I had to turn away on my side. It took an hour to do! Poor Dustin was waiting in the waiting room the entirSe time! She sure took her time and was very thorough, and showed me everything. It was pretty awesome. She had a hard time getting the other side of the heart so she made me walk around to get the baby to roll over and it wouldn't until she got what she could and brought Dustin in, then it rolled over for her. It was great. I am measuring right on track to the day, so i'm happy about that because i'm feeling pretty big for almost 20 weeks, I think anyways. Picture to come, maybe tomorrow since it'll be Sunday and i'll get ready! ha

So here is the spine, she was obsessed over how "beautiful" it was. Of course it is, it's our baby! duh.

The profile, my favorite. She also said it has a perfect round head. Just like our girls, they all had such round heads.

The foot

The creepy alien face pic. She held it on the face for a while and we saw the hands come up to the face together and the mouth opening and closing. It was so amazing.

the hand and arm

I never got to see the "parts" so no I have no idea what it is. Which is good! Only 20 more weeks and we'll know! Actually i'll be amazed if I go full term given my history. I kinda hope I do though, so I can take all the time I need to get mentally prepared for a 4th kid in the house. It's coming so fast, i'm kinda freaking out. I kind of want another girl because I like my girl names a little better than Dustin's boy name. I'm freaked if it's boy, I know nothing about them.

Well I might be a good mom today and take my kids out to play in the snow since we got a bit more today, we only had a couple inches until today, I think we'll get a few more. It's lightly snowing and no wind, and the girls are obsessed with snow so i'll probably take them out. By the way, did you know December is on Wednesday??! Christmas is SOON! I'm so excited. I have lots of fun stuff planned, and thanks everyone for the great ideas before. I'll share our plans next post. It should be a fun Christmas for the girls!

Dreams do come true

Tell me. What do you see in this picture?
(Besides the clutter in the corner)

It's an EMPTY SINK!
good guess.


why is it empty?

BECAUSE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.......

I got THIS!!!!

A FREAKIN DISHWASHER!!!

yes, I am SO yelling at you!!

Do you know what this means? Well refer to the first picture if you don't. I actually have a counter, and an empty sink and time to do other crap besides the dreaded dishes EVERYDAY!!

I have gone 5 out of the 6 years we've been married, without a dishwasher! The only time we had one was in our condo in Okotoks and we only lived there a year. Our renters get to enjoy it now. When we moved into this place there was a hole in the wall for one, but they didn't supply it. Gay. I debated, a lot, whether we should waste the money on one without knowing how long we were going to be here for and it only being a rental. So I talked myself out of it for over 2 years now. I'm crazy, I now know this.

So this last month, that was it. I was NOT going to be pregnant and doing dishes ALL day for 5 people!! They add up dangit! I'm either doing them for 1/2 hour to an hour once a day, or constantly after every meal to keep up. So I no longer cared about the money or how much longer we were going to be in this place. I couldn't stand at that dang counter any longer and wash dishes. I also had to come to a decision when I thought, "what is the one thing that would make my life a lot easier right now?" I instantly knew. So, I did it. I looked all week on kijiji and finally found this one, 2 years old and they asked $100, Dustin said to offer them $75, so I did and they said YES! The best $75 I have EVER spent! I never thought this day would come. I am a WAY happier person now and life is AWESOME!! AWESOME I SAY!!!

SO, never give up your dreams PEOPLE

Miracles happen!!!

and we've witnessed one right here.

Can I get a hallelujah?!!?!?!

What's yours?

First of all, let me share my girls awesome pedicures they did on each other.

Cute eh?

(I may or may not have been taking my time getting out of bed (sleeping) while they were discovering their new love.)

Who says nail polish can only go on your toes?

Next I need to tap into your brilliant minds. This year we are having Christmas here, just us. I'm excited but this means I actually need to get going on it. I want to make our own traditions with the kids, and make it special for just our "little" but big family. So what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions, or crafts that you have done with your kids?
I have a few ideas and things we have always done, such as pj's on Christmas eve, (my favorite) and some of what Dustin's family has done, but i'd love to hear what other people do, because I want to add new traditions as well.

So any help would be great!

I also have a few projects for Christmas decorations I want to make this week, i'll post them when i'm done! I actually finally finished a project that was supposed to go up LAST year. But we didn't even put a tree up since we were gone 3 weeks over Christmas, and I was so glad we went that route when we got home! So it was saved for this year, and I hope it looks good when it's all up.

Don't you love these faces? I sure do. (Except when they are screaming.) I need to pull out my earplugs real soon!

You can tell she is squeezing them so hard in this one.

Pure love right there.

Let's elaborate

I'm sitting here trying for the hundredth time to work on my relief society lesson and for some reason I just can't get into it. So I start thinking why.

I have Jayci and Presley not napping today because this week they decide to take until 9:00pm to actually stay in their room and go to sleep, so up and down the stairs we go over and over to put them back to bed, and they still wake up at 6:30am. So i'm taking out the naps to see if it changes. Which leaves me with busy whining, CRANKY girls all day. Then there is Kyla who is home sick with a sore throat and also really cranky. They are all so tired and I am trying to decide what is better. No nap and dealing with insanely cranky high maintenance girls and then they go to bed at a decent time and then we get to have the night without kids, OR nap during the day and have an hour or two of piece and quiet and deal with putting them to bed for 2 stressful hours.

I've decided, i'm just going to run away.

I realized i'm now 18 weeks, that's almost half way! I've barely had time to even acknowledge the pregnancy. I find myself at the end of the day thinking "did I even eat good today?" No wonder this pregnancy is going by so fast, half the time I don't even realize i'm pregnant. Then all of the sudden another week has gone by.

I was reading this website the other day on preparing for baby and this huge checklist they have for it. I got a little overwhelmed because it hit me that another baby is coming in 5 months, that is SOON and all this baby stuff came rushing back to me! I've done nothing to prepare. Not that I need much, we have pretty much what we need. But I need to sort through boxes and find baby stuff, plan where this baby is going to go, maybe get a few boy things here and there, and just basically prepare for a baby! I guess it's kind of a big deal?

I'm kind of at my limit right now, and sometimes I wonder how the heck am I supposed to take care of ANOTHER kid??? Besides I think I should be allowed to complain.

I need to lock myself in my room. Ok, I can't, there is no lock. Even if I did, they would pound at the door. The one time I did escape I told them I needed to go to the bathroom and I locked the door for about 10 minutes. It was awesome.

By the way, did you know, Christmas is SOON?? Like next month, as in 5 weeks?? I have not done ONE thing to prepare. Do you think the girls would notice if we skipped it?

Oh and i'm having a Stella and Dot jewelry party and anyone can buy stuff. You just have to go to the site and punch in my name under hostess and do your order! Just like shopping online! They have some great stuff and it would make a perfect Christmas gift! If you want to do an order just email me. mindyfrancis{at}hotmail{dot}com. The party closes the last day of the month. Thanks y'all.

Just thought you should know

Being pregnant with 3 kids is not easy!

Love Love Love!

This picture is the best.

Can you tell who's who?

I LOVE these two little girls. They are hilarious and are so much fun and make us laugh constantly. They are changing daily, talking more, learning things, and I am enjoying every minute of it. They are so cuddly and will always give you a hug and kiss. They answer "yes" to everything with a little nod, but it sounds more like"yis" with a little girly voice, and it is the cutest thing. They love to dance and I wish I had a video camera because it's the funniest thing. I can't believe they are 2 and a half already.

They are so excited for "baby boy" to come. I swear I never told them to say that, one day I asked if it was a boy or girl and they said BOY and they were quite certain about it too. They ask "I see baby boy?", or if you ask what's in mommy's tummy, they say "boy!" It's so funny. Kyla also thinks it's a boy. I asked her if she would be happy if it were a girl too, she said yes, so that's a relief. I feel like I just had these two yesterday. I remember being in the NICU with them thinking how it felt like forever and I would never be able to take them home, but 3 weeks flew by and now they are little girls. They are 2 and a half already!

The tantrums aren't enjoyable and if you don't answer them they yell it over and over, until you respond with exactly what they said. They have so much personality and great imaginations when they play with Kyla. They really love her and she is a great teacher to them. Always teaching them colors and numbers and they love to listen to her and learn.

I seriously love them so much, and i'm so lucky I get two of them.

ps: check out the hair, I shoved it into a ponytail! I freakin love it! Although it could use a little more hair on the sides. Not too much longer and it'll all fit.

Oh Jayci is on the Right, Presley left. Can you tell a difference?

Pres (with a cut on her chin)

I wish I could have got the other side of this picture

This was them posing. See the shoulder shrug? I wonder where they got that from?!

Yay for sparse ponytails!

Another one

Just thought you might want to check me out one more time. Besides Sundays are the only day I really get ready so I may as well document it.

Actually my belly doesn't look as big in this picture than the last one, this is more true to size.

Relief

I had my appointment with the Obstetrician this morning. He did an ultrasound and I love that I got to watch the entire time, instead of a quick 1 minute show like usual. He has a tv up in the corner so you can watch everything he looks at. He measured everything and checked to make sure the baby was ok and developing on track. He said it all looked good! My cervix looks good he said, and that is huge with all the cramping, I was worried something might be wrong. He still is concerned about delivering early, since my last two were both early, but he said we'll worry about it later and he wants to keep an eye on me. He wants to put me on some progesterone to stop the cramping, it just helps "it" relax (it being the uterus I think? ha) which I am so happy about, because other than that I haven't had any other worries lately. Besides the cramping has subsided a lot and I usually only get it when I overdo it, and it's usually at the end of the night when i'm wiped!

He also asked if I wanted to know the sex, and sitting there knowing I could know right then was exciting, but I said no. I'm strong. I also thought about that last night and why I don't find out. I just came to the conclusion that it wasn't a big deal to know now, and I don't "need" to know. So we'll continue to wait! It'll be worth it.

Dustin is back at work, I kind of already hate it. I loved having him home by 4 everyday and off on the weekends while he was in school. I got spoiled. But I am so glad he was here through the worst part of the pregnancy and i'm feeling so good now so it worked out great. He also got transferred out to another job and it's going to be a good thing for him. They really love him out there so he loves working there. He also found out he passed school! He is now a 4th year! He went from a 2nd year to a 4th year in 6 months. That is so huge for us. He also wanted to go to school in Feb to get his ticket but we've been talking about it a lot. I'll be due right in the middle of school, since it's 3 months, not two like the others. I really want him available to take time off and in school you can't. We also need some time to catch up financially from the last 6 months. It kind of killed us and 4 months isn't enough, especially with the baby coming. So we might wait until Sept for him to go again. We'll see.

Random story.

A few weeks ago I pulled up to our house, and we park in back so it's right by our fence. I just got back from getting Kyla from school and all 3 girls were passed out in the car. I pulled up and right beside our fence was this weird looking bird. Something i've never seen before, it looked like some sort of wild bird. So I grabbed my phone, rolled down my window and snapped a couple pictures of it. Later I forgot about it, and last week Dustin and I were sitting in the hospital and he had my phone and was going through the pictures. He goes,

"Mind, why do you have a picture of a pigeon on your phone??"

Dangit.

He laughed forEVER.

I was so sure it was something awesome and that I made some incredible discovery. He just ruined it!

Maybe another time. I could share the picture, but it's on my phone and it's not an awesome phone and I don't have internet on it because i'm cool like that. So you'll just have to use your imagination.

So that's about it, everything is going great and we are back into our normal routine. It kind of feels boring but I think i'm going to enjoy it and relax a lot, and just take it one day at a time.
I would have a belly picture but I put it in the last post. So i'll leave you with a picture of the twins hair after waking up in the morning. It's like this every morning. It's pretty awesome.

Halloween weekend!

We are back from one busy weekend! Most of the busyness was from tending to kids! It was crazy to see so many kids in our family now. I finally got to meet Laynie and Deklin, and I spent every minute I could with them! I hate how far I live from them, but we had so much fun while we were all together. I loaded a ton of pics so i'll just explain as I go.

The biggest baby hog was Dust, he always had one. I think he is going to love having another baby around soon.

The second biggest was me of course. Look at me go, like a pro, multi tasking two babies. Burping one and rocking the other with my foot. I'm good.

Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandkids!

Britt, Jeff and Laynie on Laynie's blessing day

Little Laynie and me

Presley and Deklin, they loved to hold the babies and Kyla did too. I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of her holding either of the babies.

Jayci and Deklin

Krist, me, and Kyla

Carving pumpkins. I ended up doing it all myself, and it was a masterpiece! I was quite impressed with myself.
My girls LOVED it.

The amazing Dora pumpkin. Tell me i'm not the best mom ever for this!

Goin trick or treating!
My little witches

And my bumble bee

Ready to go, this was the best picture I could get with them and all the pumpkins.

Their loot.
Which sucked I must say. Every house gave one mini chocolate bar each! Who does that? Their buckets weren't even 1/4 full. Don't be fooled by the 3 bags of chips that pretty much filled them. It's good enough for them, but all the work of going down two long streets and two culdesacs and that was the outcome. I'm not impressed.

Britt and Jeff's ward had a halloween party the night before so we went to it and the kids loved it. They had a kids parade of costumes, and my girls all won prizes. The twins got prettiest costumes, and Kyla got cutest Tot! I was so proud. I yelled, "those are my girls!!" ok not really but I said it, and there may have been a tear.
The gang

Our not so little fam

boys will be boys

Joseph smith and his pirate and pumkin.
ok he's not joseph smith, he was a beetle, but we liked Joseph better.

Another cute little fam

And that's all you get because it took FOREVER to load these. Blogger needs to come up with a better plan for loading pictures. I think i've said that a million times.
Anyways we had a ton of fun and the kids loved it!

In other news, i'm 16 weeks! Told you it's going fast. For me too! I barely feel pregnant half the time, and I forget, a lot. It's true. I feel great! Other than I get worn out super fast. I'm finally able to enjoy it, before I get too big anyways. But here is me at 16 weeks. I think this picture makes me look bigger than I am, maybe it's the shirt. Oh well, almost half way done already!