Thanksgiving...Take 1

Happy Thanksgiving Take 1 commenced last night! Seems all of my many families go here and there and everywhere these days, so we have Thanksgivings early, on time and late! (Lucky us, right?) Thanksgiving last night was at my mom's house. We had the usual crowd: Mom and Al, Josie (Al's daughter), Gigi, Rosey, Mary, Emilio, Brinley, my little family and the new addition of the Conca Family-Dave, Cody, Autumn and Antonio.

Since Dave's wife, and our good friend Kim's passing, (you may remember her from this post), the Concas have become regular members of all of our families. We often pick the kids up from school several days a week and lucky for all of our kids, they come over and play! It took several visits for my kids to really 'let loose' with Autumn and Antonio, but now, they talk about them night and day and constantly ask when Autumn and "An-to-nee-no" are coming over. It's pretty safe to say they are my kids most favorite 'big kid friends.' And never were there two more gracious kids than Autumn and Antonio. They are so, so, so sweet and helpful. It was a great addition having them over for Thanksgiving.

And certainly this is a household for giving thanks. Between my mom and Al and even Gigi, they care for my kids 4, sometimes 5 days a week, and are there at a moment's notice when one of us needs anything. They pretty much rock. Seriously. My mom watches Three 3 year olds AND a 1 year old, and doesn't miss a beat! She's apparently the talk of Preschool as several of  the other moms watch her effortlessly escort 4 kids out of the car, through the gates, up to the doors, AND sign them in and out every Thursday and Friday. She is pretty flippin amazing. And I definitely don't tell her enough. {I love you, Mom}

So here are some photos from the evening.

Brinley and Josie

(Hunter will tell you that Josie lives in a fire truck.) 

In real life, she just works on one.  :) 

Place Settings 

Hunter and Colton sampling the punch, 'aka' pink soda, as they kept calling it.  :)

The Table

It's not a Thanksgiving Celebration unless there's football on, right? 

(OMG, did those words just come out of MY mouth??)

Mary cooking

Mom cooking

Treasure Island Salad 

Me cooking

The kids' table (or bar)

How many adults does it take to open a box of wine? 

Rosey, Autumn, Mary, Emilio

Brian (in red), Me, Josie, Antonio, Dave, Cody, Emilio

Gigi enjoying her 103rd Thanksgiving!! How crazy is that? 

Could she be any cuter, seriously? She is amazing. 

And then came group photo time. 

We're kind of obsessed with the multiple shots in a row deal, because it's our moment to feel like supermodels...Here we are testing out the scene....

Pose, 

Pose, 

and Pose! 

Sorry about the darkness..

I make up for the darkness with Hunter's cheesy smile.

The Concas, being 'normal', as Mary instructed them to do! 

See that old kid on the right? Yeah...He's a sophomore in HS, AND we share our birthday, AND I had him in Kindergarten...a few years ago...Holy Oldness, Batman! The other two kiddos Mary had in kindergarten! We love them! We loved Kim just as much and don't let a single day pass by without thinking about her...

And then came the big group shot! 

I've included the outtakes as well...cuz that's just funny stuff. 

And the rest of the night was spent hula hooping (or Lula Hooping, as Ethan calls it in the second video). Enjoy! And happy Thanksgiving to you! 

Colton's hula hooping debut

Ethan's Lula Hooping

Hunter, shaking those little hips! 

That's all folks! 

Lucky Me :)

If you follow this blog regularly, then you know this blog is usually about the babies, their adventures, their antics, etc. And even I can't keep up with blogging about every event we do, every place we go, every person or group we meet. I would do nothing but sit at the computer all day! I know that I have left people out along the way, and if you are one of those people, I am truly sorry! It's not because I don't love you, it's because life is happening faster than I can even attempt to keep up with. The babies are growing faster than I would like, and all I can do is give it my best try to continue sharing our daily lives with all of you!

So like I said, I know it's usually about the babies, but bear with me a few moments as we take a little detour....

It may be someone different to everyone, but everyone's got one. You know, THAT person.

The one in your life you go to for the most important favors as often as you do for the most insignificant favors. For me, this person is my mom. Though she goes by a new name these days. Even I don't call her "mom" anymore, she's "Grammy" now.

And darn it, she earned that title. She waited for it. She waited patiently for it. She probably wanted to be a Gramma as much as I wanted to be a mom, but NEVER once through all my years of infertility did she ever allow me to feel even one ounce of guilt that I had not given her a grandchild yet. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She was one of my biggest cheerleaders even offering to give me shots though I know she was deathly afraid to. (If you've been reading since the beginning, you may remember her fruit bowl becoming her "practice shot targets". Poor oranges...they never saw it coming.)

I often think about how my life came to be the way it is, and I smile about my three miracles. It's as if God knew how big the hole in my heart was for all those years and so he blessed me with not one, but three beautiful babies. Well, I think it was the same for my mom. She had a lot of gramma love to give...one grandchild probably wouldn't have been enough for her. :)

I am only 5' 2" tall, and when I got pregnant with triplets I weighed 99 pounds. It was highly likely that I was going to deliver very premature babies and it was even more likely that I would spend a considerable amount of time on bedrest. But you know, I made it. I made it 33 weeks (a typical triplet gestation) without one hiccup, one problem, one scare. And NOT ONE day on bedrest. I did that with help from friends and family. Specifically, my mom, who would come over and wash laundry, sort, fold and hang HUNDREDS of pieces of baby clothes so that I would not have to exert as much energy. She was literally about ready to build me a laundry chute so I would not have to carry loads of clothing up and down the stairs HUGELY pregnant and probably would've, had Brian not cared about having a gaping hole in the floor! My point is that her brain never stops working...never stops thinking about ways to help.

My mom has had a hard year. After 39 years of marriage, she and my dad are going separate ways. By no means would I assert that it's been easy for my dad, but I can say firsthand, because I spend more time day to day with my mom, that it has definitely not been easy for her. It has been hard to watch her struggle while trying desperately not to fall apart. But the thing is, despite all of the heartache, she never once missed a beat with her grandchildren or her own children. She has often said that these grand babies kept her whole at a time when she was falling to pieces. But she may not even realize how much she does for them. For me.

It's a phone call. Almost daily. And it goes like this.

"Hello?"

"Hey Mom. Whatcha doin?"

"Oh I'm just cleaning out the refrigerator, building a shelf, tiling the floor, etc."

"Hey, I need to run to the _____ (store, doctor, post office, mall, school, etc.) Can you _____ watch the babies for a little bit, come with me, meet me at my house, etc.)

Whatever the request, the answer is always yes. I'm not kidding. I don't know if she's ever turned me down.

She knows that while I love being a mother of triplets, sometimes I need a little help. {gasp! I admit it!}

She has helped me with the most mundane things and she has helped me with the most important things...

Every so often she keeps the babies overnight, just so we can have a night off...and sleep in. She always finds laundry to do when she comes over to play with the babies. She lets me bring her the healthy child to stay the night when the others are sick. She comes with me to Pediatrician appointments so that there are two of us to cuddle 3 three babies who've been pricked with needles.

On two separate occasions, she took care of Ethan and Hunter while I spent a week in the hospital with Colton. The only thing worse than having a child in the hospital is having to worry that your other children are being taken care of and loved. I know she wanted to be able to visit Colton more freely, but I thank God that she was there for my other babies. Plenty of people offered to watch them, and I know they would've been well cared for with anyone, but with my mom, I didn't even have to give her a single instruction. She just knows them.

She knows how to make them laugh when they're cranky, she's a master at Peek-a-boo, she knows how I like her to cut the mandarin oranges. She knows how to tackle bathtime with more than one baby, she knows the right temperature for their bottles, she knows that sometimes Ethan whimpers briefly at naptime but that he's not really ready to wake up. She knows how I like to fold their clothes, and she knows what their favorite toys are. She knows when Ethan doesn't feel well and she understands why I need them to be on a schedule. She knows what times they eat and when they sleep. You would think having grand-triplets was a piece of cake. She just handles it.

My mom watches the babies, often all by herself, so that I could go back to work. 2 1/2 days a week, she gives up her freedom to make my life easier. I know she enjoys her time with them, but still, she doesn't have to do it, and she does.



For me, the best part of my mom as a gramma is the joy she gets when she is with them. I know she loves them but she's never seen the way she lights up when she sees them. I have. I have always been lucky to have her as my mom, but I am blessed to have her as my babies' grammy.

The pictures from this post are all from our trip to San Diego. My babies' first trip to San Diego. Our first trip without my dad. Do I think it was easy for her? Not a chance... (Frankly, it wasn't easy for any of us, my dad included.) It was extremely hard for me not to have my dad on a trip we've been taking as a family for YEARS, and I know it must've been even harder for her to be making new memories in a place where so many great ones already exist.

But that did not stop her from making it the most enjoyable trip ever for the babies. That's the beauty of my mom. She would do anything for us.


Mom, you inspire me with your creativity, your knowledge and your energy. I often smile when I think that someday I'll teach Hunter how to hang a picture frame using a level and a stud finder and I'll smile knowing that I learned that from my mom and she's learning it from hers. :)



So thank you Mom...for all the big and all the little things you do for me and the babies. You have made raising triplets a joy.

So cheers to life! Cheers to being a mom, a grammy, a friend, and a smokin' hot newly single lady who can still pull off skinny jeans!

I love you, Mom. :)