My day starts out like the rest of the world when my eyes open.  My alarm clock is not the radio or a buzzer, but rather the sounds of small voices coming into the room or of the voice of the smallest person in my room, Cole.   Lucky for me the kids don’t get up until 6:30 or 7 so at least the sun is shining so I feel like I got enough sleep.  (Well, that is after being awake for an hour sometime between 2 and 4 to feed Cole).  After waking up I feed Cole again and then off to the shower.  Most mornings I share with at least one if not two, or three boys in the shower.  (Something you never really think about happening.) Then it is time to dress the clan and hurry off downstairs to start the breakfast routine.  Let’s not forget that we before breakfast we need to fight about what to wear today, getting dressed and getting our hair combed.  This is usually followed by lots of crying and even some forced tears. 

Ok so now it is time for breakfast and if we agree on what to have I may drop dead.  Cole=breastmilk…Druw=fancy toast (french toast)…Jake=eggo waffle…Barret=cereal and I usually just eat whatever someone didn’t eat because chances are someone doesn’t want what they really wanted in the first place.  Sometimes I just make myself some toast but never really eat it because even though that was an option to eat no one wanted toast until I made it for myself.  And if I don’t share then there is more crying and whining.  We all have juice and hot chocolate, but don’t actually drink anything at breakfast so back in the refrig it goes and we can drink it throughout the day, but if we don’t have it something is off and there is more crying.

So now it is 8:10 in the morning and I have to start yelling to get the boys to finish their meal so we can get to school on time, well at least not be more than 30 minutes late.  Now getting into the car…should be easy right…NO…”Where are your shoes? No, you can’t start the car! Where are your shoes? You sat in the middle the last time! Where are your shoes?  Just get in your seat! Where are your shoes?  Don’t touch Cole.  Where are your shoes?”  Now off to school…”Mom, I don’t have my shoes….!”  No, I am serious…this is all before 8:30AM!

Ok, so Jake starts school at 8:30 but in reality we get there sometime between 8:30 and9.  Remember, Jake, Druw and Cole all come out of the car and then Jake gets checked into school and Cole and Druw get back into the car.  Freedom from 1 child for at least three to three and a half hours.  Ok now rush home, time to feed Cole again and then do my workout.  Druw can actually entertain himself for a little while, but that being said, every toy in all rooms of the house has to make an appearance, but it gives me about an hour to exercise (if I am lucky…Cole cries most of that time so it isn’t that great).  Then the rest of the time before Cole and Druw and I have to get back into the car to get Jake I spend cleaning up…breakfast dishes and toys…toys and yes more toys.  I start the laundry, which is another entirely horrible story to tell, then sit to check email, but wait, no I have no time left and off we go to get Jake…where did 3 to 3 and a half hours go?!

2 kids in the car, 2 kids out of the car…3 kids in the car, 3 kids out of the car and we are back home…12:45.  Lunch.  Now to kill time until 5.  Some days we run errands…3 kids in the car…3 kids out of the car.  Target …3 kids in the car…3 kids out of the car.  Home. Once a week we have swim lessons…3 kids in the car…3 kids out of the car. Swim …3 kids in the car…3 kids out of the car.  Home.  I like to make playdates at the park, but …3 kids in the car…3 kids out  of the car.  Some days we just stay home.

Being home means entertaining.  Isn’t that why we all make siblings for our kids?  So they would have built in playmates and we don’t have to sit on the floor and play all day.  Most days I can play for a little while until I can’t do it anymore.  I like to play with the Geotrax or Lincoln Logs.  I make the greatest track or houses and spend lots of time getting it perfect.  After the kids start playing I feel like I can step away and check email so as I sit down…oh wait I am not even a foot away and the crying and whining has begun.  “He is not playing it right…I want a turn…He hit me…I want you to play with us…he is breaking it…”  So apparently no computer time for me.  By this time the entire track or house has been destroyed and they want a new one…”WHAT?!”

Ok time to switch the laundry and do the lunch dishes…”keep up…you can do it…Maybe we should go outside and play for awhile…”  Leaving the huge mess in the family room we head outside to give ourselves a little more space from each other and maybe no fighting.  “Get your shoes on and get dressed….go get your shoes…where are your shoes…you can’t play outside unless you have shoes on.”  (Oh, as soon as we walk into the house all clothes have to come off and only because I am a ‘mean’ mom they have to wear underpants. ) After a long fight to get dressed and shoes on we are outside.   30 seconds later…”I need to go inside to get water.  I need to get a toy from inside.   I want to watch TV.  When are we going inside.  I am going inside to wait for Daddy…”  SERIOUSLY?!

So if I am lucky it is now close to 4:00 or 4:30.  The kids are begging for food most of the time so I feed them dinner early.  “What do you want for dinner?”  I opened a can of worms with that question.  Do they want the same thing?  NEVER, but I am only making one thing for them.  What is it going to be tonight?  Chicken nuggets, pizza, hot dogs (although Druw had decided he only likes the bun with ketchup…hold the dog please) or of course the famous noodles with butter.  Then we have to decide which kind of noodles…spirals, tubes, shells, elbows, or mac n’cheese…whoever came up with so many choices of the same thing did not have kids.  Jake has chocolate milk with dinner, while Druw has strawberry.  Some kind of fruit is placed on the table AND  is actually eaten, but veggies…well…NEVER…We pretty much go through the breakfast routine again with the fact that it takes 40 minutes to an hour to actually get them to eat.  Why is that?  I can eat an entire meal in less than 10 minutes and have actually chewed every bite. 

We made it 6:00, time for jammies, maybe a half hour of TV and then go to sleep.  Oh wait…that was only a dream situation…actually 6:00…time to fight about brushing teeth, fight about going to the potty one last time before bed and fighting about how many books to read.  I know being a teacher I should read as many books as they will sit through but I don’t think we would ever go to bed…Now 6:30…”We want to watch a movie in bed…fine which movie?”  More fighting…”NO movie”  More fighting, “Just go to sleep!”…more fighting…1 kid up, 2 kids up…1 kid back in bed, 2 kids back in bed…more fighting…ok 7:00  Jake has finally decided he is tired of playing games and is actually tired and wants to go to sleep so he is out…1 down…now for Druw…”I want a different movie…Which movie?  I don’t know take all 50 movies down and tell me what we have…NO! Go to sleep!”  More fighting…In the mean time I have not had dinner yet and I am getting crankier by the minute…finally I just leave and he is settling down and Barret and I can eat…1 kid out of bed…1 kid back in bed…dinner well is as pleasant as it can be with a 3 month old that never cries unless the food is on the table and he is not being held.  Rush through dinner and dishes…8:00  Druw is finally out now just Cole.  30 minutes of relaxing TV with the husband IF Cole is not screaming.  (This is the worst time of the day for him).  Then 8:30 one last feeding for Cole and he is swaddled and out by 9:00…I climb in bed, take a deep breathe hoping 2 AM doesn’t come too soon…

With all this baseball around me Barret has decided that the boys will start t-ball on Saturday mornings.  The boys go out in the afternoon to practice and I must say they have a blast.  Here is the most recent of batting practice with Druw actually pitching the ball to Jake.  I love that Druw claps after Jake hits the ball each time…

The first thing was to find an agent to list the house for a price we were happy with and then let the cleaning up begin.  We had a list of small items to take care of to make the house in the best possible condition to sell as well as deep cleaning.  I think that (keeping the house clean) was the hardest part about putting the house on the market besides the fact that we may actually sell the house and have to move.  With two kids, keeping beds made and toys put away on a daily basis become quite a challenge.   My new routine included waking up and making beds, washing counter tops and putting toys, laundry and stuff away hourly just in case someone wanted to see the house.  And most days no one came, but I wanted to be prepared so it was a constant fight.

After 6 months we sold the house and after looking all up and down the southern coast we found another.    We originally thought we would not be able to stay in Point Loma because it was just too expensive so we began looking for houses in Carlsbad and to the south.  We spent many days driving up the 5 looking in Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Pacific Beach and everything in between.  Even Scripps Ranch and Poway became in our looking area.  It was very stressful because there were a lot of great houses but no place felt like home like Point Loma.  Luckily our agent continued to look in Point Loma for us and we bought a house that actually never come on the market.  Unfortunately we could not make dates work so we ended up having the rent a house between moves…which means 12 weeks pregnant one move and then 37 weeks pregnant another move!  Can’t say things are dull for this pregnancy.  Should we talk about the fact that we are also going to do a little remodeling, painting and redoing floors and hopefully everything gets done before the baby arrives…

I have great news to share.  I had my ultrasound for baby #3 today.  19 weeks and I am happy to say that the baby is a boy!  Three boys…wow…I just don’t know what to say except for the fact that I am glad we bought a bigger house with a yard and lots of rooms to play in.   I am glad that he is healthy and he is going to love being a part of this crazy family!  I guess after all Barret got his golf foursome.  Now on to finding the perfect name…oh man…

“You want to have a baby?”

“Yes”

Then about 5 weeks later I took a test and it was positive.  Then the second baby … “Want to start trying for a second?”  “Ok”  and then 6 weeks later pregnant again.  I thought it would go the same with the third, but apparently not.  It is fine at this point because after 6 months…a positive test!  It is amazing the kind of rush you get from a positive test.  This is only like the fifth test I have taken in the last 6 months, but after I took the test, Barret said he wanted to go and see it.  He walked into the bathroom and then a minute later came back smiling this funny smile.  What does that mean I wondered.  I was too scared to look.  Barret got Druw, picked him up and asked how many lines do you see?  “TWO.”  I hesitated for a minute because you never know with Druw and numbers, but then I could see it for myself.  I was so excited!

So far I feel good, very tired but good.  With the other two I think I was sick from the second I got pregnant, but we will see, hopefully it will go easier this time!

 We decided to pick up a pizza on the way back and the kids were ready for bed.  They actually did a great job in the car so the thought of jumping back in the car the next day wasn’t too terrible…by the way who ever decided to put TV in the car is my favorite person in the whole world right now.

Day 2 we were off to Park City.    The kids slept for the first part of the ride so the last part went fast for them.  We stayed in the neatest little hotel that literally sat into the mountain.  We are now staying at the Marriott MountainSide.   It is a one room villa so we have lots of room to move around.  There is also a kitchen and full refrigerator, stove and oven so I can do a little cooking here in the room. (Just what you want to do on vacation right?  Well this is not vacation…remember…work….I am going to need a vacation when we get home!)  Having a kitchen is so great because with the kids it is really easier to feed them there in a home setting than having to eat out for every meal.  We basically had breakfast and lunch in the room and then went out for dinner. 

 Attached to the hotel they have ski lifts for the winter, but during the summer they offer some different activities.  We decided to do the Alpine Slide with the kids, which they really loved.  You have to take the ski lift up the hill and then you take a sled with breaks down the hill. 

 It was really fun, but I must say I was pretty nervous because last time I was on a sled I ended up with a broken hand!

Day 3 and 4 and 5 we ended spending the days at the park.  This was a business trip for Barret so the kids and I were on our own so finding a near by park was the best for us, lonely for me, but fun for them.  We also found an inflatable world.  It was a whole bunch of inflatable jumpy houses and slides, definitely tired out the kids.  We stayed busy during the days so the trip really went by fast.  One day we went to a park in Salt Lake City too.  

Jake and Barret also road on the Alpine Coaster, while Druw and I went on the rockets and carousel. 

Then it was time to move on once again.

Off the Las Vegas for the last night.  We did some swimming and  it ended up raining, but luckily it was warm so we were able to spend a little time at  the pool. 

All in all it was a great trip.  The boys did awesome in the car for all 1730 miles!!!