A turning point

When you have 3 kiddos only 18mths apart it can be pretty hard at times, I think we've reached a turning point at our house. The girls are getting older, talking more, listening a little better and O is having more fun with them. He loves 'showing' them stuff and 'helping' them do stuff although most times they don't want help. They are more interested in what he is doing and are starting to understand their boundaries with his stuff. I can leave them alone in a room for longer periods of time and don't have to worry about someone getting hurt, it's getting a lot easier for me. Don't get me wrong there is still plenty of crying but I am noticing they are all enjoying each other and O often asks when he can wake the girls up, I think he is bored without them around. I am hoping we have many more photos like this.

7yrs

Monday was our 7yr anniversary, hard to believe. It feels like forever maybe because I've been with Kev for over half of my life now. We didn't do much of anything to celebrate because our babysitter is out of town and well it's just hard to do anything special with 3 kids.

Kev's brother Jeffrey sent us this and the kids were so excited. You'll notice the hand in the 1st picture, O couldn't even wait for me to snap a quick photo. It looked pretty for all of 2 minutes until it was taken apart and eaten and the sticks of course were used a swords to poke each other with. It's hard to believe how excited my kids get over fruit, they didn't even really like the chocolate covered pieces.

Here's to many more years....

Fat Witch

I got these from my father in law for Christmas, well they were addressed to the kids but I know he really meant to send them to me. They are the most delicious brownies in the world, I don't even want to know how fattening they are....

I share everything with the kids with a few exceptions and these just happen to be one of those exceptions. Thanks Bob you always know how to make a girl happy (chocolate in my case).

Christmas Town

We went to Busch Gardens today, Christmas Town is their version of winter wonderland. Although the kids are still a little young to enjoy it we figure we probably won't be here for Christmas next year so we went to check it out. The park was decorated really nice and the music was very festive, it was pretty crowded for the day after too. The kids had a good time looking at everything but there wasn't much for them to do there. O was too stubborn to go on any of the rides, the girls went on both the carousel and the swings. If only they were a little older while we were stationed here I think they would have a blast.

And yes K did bring her baby with her and at one point we lost her and I almost went into panic mode, we CAN NOT loose baby, but we found her where we had been previously, thank God! That rag Kev is holding is actually baby, K would surely die without her...

Merry Christmas

So today was the big day or not so big if your kids are 3 and under. O came downstairs looked at all the presents and was not a happy camper, a bit overwhelmed I think. He's a HUGE creature of habit 1 little thing out of the norm can really throw him off. Anyway after we went back upstairs into my bed and watch a few cartoons he was ready to go back down and tackle his stuff.

The girls are so easy going they just go with it and don't notice anything different. They wanted to try on all their new clothes after they opened them, such girls!

We are all so blessed to have so many people that love the kids and spoil them with Christmas presents, for now mom and dad don't have to buy much. They got so many great gifts and played with their new stuff all afternoon, thank you all.

Twas the night before Christmas

So here is what it looked like the night before Christmas in the Welch house. I more than glad to be getting rid of our tree soon, I am such a grinch but the needles and ornaments are driving me nuts. I find ornaments all over the house, even in my UGG boots.. Our kids are still to young to actually know too much about Christmas, we talk about it but I don't think they really 'get' it yet. We left out chocolate chip cookies for Santa (his request) and carrots for the reindeer a cup of milk and a bowl of juice (O's request).

Their stockings are HUGE, something I should have thought about before I bought them, it's hard to fill them up. They have more gifts to open than they could possibly ever need but it should be fun. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Big Day

I had to take the girls to the doctor yesterday afternoon (10 day cold driving them nuts) so I decided to drop O off with daddy at work. He is in heaven with his dad at work he asked all day long when it was time to go, 2:30 made for a really long time. Well here are some photos that they took, I've never even seen the jet with Kev's name actually on it, pretty cool huh! You may ask what O is doing in the 2nd picture, well he's rubbing his mittens in a puddle of jet fuel. Yes while Kev is taking these amazing photos of his very own jet O is soaking up jet fuel with his mittens, perfect! Although he came home very stinky and I made him eat dinner with no clothes on he had fun.

On a side note F was fine just a lingering cold and poor K has a pretty bad ear infection. They have both been troupers as usual and only slightly grouchy, hopefully they'll both be feeling better by Christmas morning!

O took this picture of Kev, he does after all have his very own camera at home to practice with.

Brushing

We are working on brushing our teeth and not just eating the toothpaste. Oh and we're also getting used to the potty but haven't got that quite down pat yet. If you notice the gunk in K's hair she got into my hair stuff and decided to do both her and F's hair, they looked great.

Snow!!!

We got snow here in VA yesterday, a miracle for this area. We are ill prepared for the cold weather and this is actually the 1st time the girls have been out in snow. O had his fair share in OR but I'm sure doesn't remember any of it. He went out 1st thing in the morning with his pj's, rainboots, coat, hat and sister's mittens (I told you we are not prepared). Later in the day all 3 of them got to play for a little while, F was not too impressed and K just thought it was a pain to ride a bike in. O had a blast on his ATV thank God it's only a toy for now.

Our Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree on friday night and decorated it on saturday afternoon. We got a small tree this year because we are running out of room in our living room due to an overflow of toys (soon to be trimmed down by me). The kids had fun putting the ornaments on, good thing I took this picture because there aren't very many still on the tree at this point. We really only have to keep it up for about a week and I'm pretty sure it'll barely last that long in this house.

Warm and sunny

Here are a few more picts from our trip. We went on a catamaran trip around the whole island and got to see some beautiful beaches with no one on them. Since the weather here in VA is so miserable today I thought I'd post some nice warm Antigua photos, doesn't Kev look so relaxed...

My Girls

At daddy's office, having a blast with some ice and a plastic cup!

Snowcap cookies

O and I made these cookies for Kev's work Christmas dinner, they turned out really good and were very festive looking. He is a great helper and rolled every single cookie in the powdered sugar for me (there was more sugar on the floor than on the cookies).

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 teaspoons instant espresso
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Confectioners' sugar, for coating

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, espresso, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well combined; mix in cooled chocolate. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; beat in milk until just combined. Flatten dough into a disk; wrap in plastic. Freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Pour confectioners' sugar (about 1/2 cup) into a medium bowl; working in batches, roll balls in sugar two times, letting them sit in sugar between coatings.
3. Place on prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes; cookies will still be soft to the touch. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
4. 
   

Our Trip

We had an amazing time in Antigua it was so relaxing and nice to be just the 2 of us, it's been a while. We stayed at Sandals which I was really not in favor of when Kev picked it but it turned out really nice and I am glad we went with it. Our room was great, it had actually been over 3yrs since I've stayed in a hotel sad but true.

What a great idea

When we get tired of O this is where we put him, the girls couldn't be happier. Actually he told me he was a bull and had to go into his cage, of course I wasn't to keen on the idea of closing it but he insisted. I'm gonna keep this bin handy in the future.

Squeaky clean

The girls found some muddy water to play in the other day, they had a blast and I was cringing thinking of the cleanup. I went with it like a good mom should and they were covered.

O was smart for once and stayed out of it....