Hanson Triplets

I love this time of year! The summer is coming to a close and we are going into the holiday season. This time of year is also VERY expensive with birthdays, holloween and Christmas. The kids have been doing wonderful lately. They are fully conversational now. I have been waiting so long to be able to talk to them on the phone and have a actual conversation with them. It is so cute to call and hear their sweet voices on the other end.

The kids are all so close and want to do everything together. If two are outside they are screaming for the other one to join them. They have little nicknames for eachother. The boys call Emma "Em" and she calls the boys "bubbies". Her nickname for Evan is "Ev" They shorten eachother's names. They get this from me! It is so funny how they say things how we do. They are so nice to eachother most of the time, They make sure they are all taken care of. When they are around other kids (their cousins normally) and one of them steals a toy away from one of the kids. They swarm and make sure the others are taken care of. Emma will just walk up to her brothers some time and give them a big hug and tell them she loves them. She also has to give them kisses at night. The boys don't like that very much! Coming up is the annual trip to the pumpkin patch and halloween, The kids are all going to be monkeys this year. Should be pretty cute. Their birthday party is going to be at our church, New Spring.

The kids are all growing up so fast. Sometimes I look at them and it makes me sad at how fast they are growing up. Just in the last six months they have all grown like 2 inches. They are all going to be super tall it looks like. Emma is dressing herself now which is a huge help. She is becoming very opinionated about what she wants to wear in the mornings. Her new thing is, "no mommy I want to do it!" So independent! I think I am creating a monster. I was trying to put a hairbow in her hair the other day and she says, mom this doesnt match. I said yes it does..it is the same colors. She said ok fine...I like this one better though!

I have two kids that are out of diapers thank god! I can already see the cost savings! I still put them in pull ups at night because they are not able to hold it all night. Ethan is still refusing and I have dropped it. He will tell me he wants to go and then when we walk over to the potty he has changed his mind. Knock on wood but my kids also don't mind going number two in the potty. I heard from a lot of parents that it a hard for them to do??? Thank goodness mine are fine with it. Also, their constipation problems are all but gone! This is a lot less stressful for me.

I have decided on top of my Gymboree job I am going to start substitute teaching one-two days a week this school year. Circle just called me back and so I at least will have there to start out with. I am super excited about it. We can't afford to put the kids in childcare so I will just do it on the days my parents can watch the kiddos. When the kids are in school and Brent is done with his masters I will go back and get my teaching degree.

So my kids have a new favorite toy and it is my IPod Touch. I downloaded a bunch of preschool applications for sorting, numbers, colors, etc.. and they are OBSESSED. Pretty much one of them are playing it at all times. Evan is the worst about sharing it but they do pretty good about taking turns. Since they like that so much I might think about getting them Leapsters for Christmas.

Emma starts her Mommy and Me dance class in a few weeks. I hope she does well because I am SUPER excited about getting her started. If she is ready they will move her up to the main dance class next spring. I am not sure if she will do the recital or not but I think it is going to be super cute either way. She is just in love with dance and being a princess.

We are in the midst of potty training. I can say two out of the three are doing great. Can you guess who is refusing? Suprisingly enough it is Ethan! He is being so difficult about the whole thing. This is fine by me though because two is better than three. If I can just get two kids out of diapers it will save us sooo much money. I bought Emma a pink potty chair and blinged it out with rinestones and princess stickers. They both fight over this potty chair. The thing that worked for Evan is the Potty Treat Bag. I bought a Toy Story and princess gift bag and put candy, small dollar toys, etc. I started with a potty chart with stickers and then everytime Evan or Emma went potty they got a potty treat.  Evan has figured it out and he will go and just tinkle because he knows he will get a potty treat. He will tell you when he needs to go where Emma you have to keep reminding. We started out with multiple accidents and now Evan will just tell us when he needs to go. This has made things a lot easier. It is still really hard when we go somewhere because I don't want to mess with taking them to the bathroom certain places. It is so much easier to keep them in a diaper. Evan doesn't want a diaper on at all anymore though. Slowly we are getting this accomplished. I never thought this day would get here!

OK mommies! My sister in law Jenae started a wonderful new blog that is all about doing fun things with your toddlers. It is called I can teach my child. She is doing fun art, food and other interesting projects we can do with our kiddos. Check it out...I know you will love it! You can also find her in Facebook too!

 http://www.icanteachmychild.com/

Well we are starting to potty train. The kids are now 2 1/2 and finally showing signs of wanting to start. I tried to do it about a month ago and either they were not ready or I was not ready because it did not go well. I think I am in a different place now and the accidents don't seem to bother me as much. What surprised me is that Evan has been so willing. Ethan on the other hand could careless. Fine by me...two is easier than three. Expecially since they all want to share the pink blinged out potty chair. i bought a normal potty chair and then some rinestones and princess stickers to make it more exciting for Emma. Everyone around me is potty training so I thought I would just buck up and get it done. I know I should just lock myself in the house and continue the every 30 minute trips to the bathroom but I had to get out and take them to the zoo this morning, so on the diapers went. I can't imagine going to find restrooms and planning in potty time in our outing schedules. So two days down and we have had a few accidents but they both are doing wonderful!

Ethan has been doing fantasic since his surgery. He is talking so much clearer and also saying so much more. The kid is so funny..he plays with Emma and Evan but prefers to play and just hang out either with Brent or I or with himself. He is always the first one up in the morning. He wakes up about 45 minutes before the other two most days. He wakes up in a great mood and once he is up he is up for the day. We have Ethan's recheck with the doctor on Monday and we are going to take Evan and Emma so the doctor can take a look at them too.

Evan and Emma are little cohorts in crime. They chase each other around the house and are constantly feeding off each other. If it is quiet and you do not see those two, be afraid, be VERY afraid.

Our Forth of July did not go as well as I would have hoped. We went down on a Saturday and then spent all day at the lake. The kids did not take a nap but they still seemed to be doing ok. Then when we went to move Emma and Evan to a differnt bed and she woke back up. So about 11:30 pm i took Emma outside to try and let the other people in the house sleep. I finally got her back to sleep and Ethan woke up...then in turn waking Emma up. So about Midnight I loading Emma in the car and went for a ride thinking that might help. I get back and open the door and all I smell is puke. Ethan was sick all over. Emma kept saying her tummy hurt so Brent and I decided we needed to drive home. I was going to stay with Evan since he seemed to be the only one that seemed to be doing ok. Well, Brent was gone about five minutes and Evan woke up from a deep sleep and started puking too. I had him turn around and come get Evan too. So I grabbed all the dirty clothes and sheets and our luggage and about 3am we headed back home. We got home around 6am and put our sick kids to bed. So I bought fireworks but we didnt get to shoot them off until two days later. Bad stomach bug...at the worst time. We are feeling better now though.

Here is a cute picture I took of the kids for Brent's father's day gift.

So Ethan had his surgery last Wednesday and it seems like we have a different kid in our house. He only took about three days to recover and now he is doing great. It is completely silent in the boys bedroom. The surgery went great. My mom was there to be with him and held him while he went to sleep. He didn't cry at all and was just super brave. When they finally came and got me to go see him my mom was holding him. He grabed me and I laid in bed with him. He kept saying "mommy help me, mommy help me" that just killed me. We had to stay the night because he was so little. The crazy thing is that he kept going really low on his oxygen. I have a feeling he was having apnea's while he was sleeping all the time. When he would sleep really deep he would go into the low 80's and he should be at least 90's. They kept running in and putting him on O2. When he was up he would be fine...it was just when he was sleeping. We got out and spent the next day running after Ethan. He acted like he didn't even have surgery. He finally collapsed and took a huge nap. He has a very nasely voice right now but the doctor said that would go away after awhile. He went from hardly talking to now talking all the time. I really don't think he could hear very well. All day after the surgery he kept saying,"don't say that" I think he was finally hearing everything and it was a lot for him.

We are having a big weekend at the lake with family. The fourth is always a fun holiday for us. This is the first year that the kids are going to really enjoy the fireworks. I will take a ton of pictures so everyone can see.

My poor sweet baby Ethan is going to have to have surgery. Unfourtunatly our big man got his sinuses from his daddy. He has been snoring for awhile, so loud actually that you can hear it from outside the door when he is sick. Poor Evan has to deal with the loud sleeping. It wasn't until we went to Dallas and we had to sleep in the same room with his that I decided it was not normal and we needed to do something about it. I told my mom, which works at the Wichita Clinic and she spoke to an ENT doctor that she works with. We had an appointment with him on Tuesday. He took one look inside his mouth and commented on how huge his tonsils were. He then had to spray some numbing solution into his nose and thread this long tube down his nose on both sides. He did awesome actually! He is normally the worst at the doctor letting people near his mouth and such so I was kind of worried. He said he had to move Ethan's tonsils out of the way to see his adnoids. He said those for sure need to come out too. He then looked in Ethan's ears and found some fluid that had been there awhile on the right side. He wanted the audioligist to give him a hearing test to check his hearing function. His left ear passed but not his right ear. After seeing the results he decided to put ear tubes in as well. So in the next few weeks on the 22nd this is happening. He will have to stay over night to make sure he is getting enough fluids.

Our trip to Texas was wonderful. The car ride down was interesting because we ran into construction and traffic and so it took us 8.5 hours to get there instead of just 5.5. The first night we stayed with my friend Joy and the kids  had a wonderful time launching themselves off her couch with her son Marcus. The sleeping situation was interesting because we tried to get the kids to sleep on the floor with their sleeping bags. Emma ended up in bed with us and then Ethan was not feeling the floor so I had to go downstairs with him. He ended up falling asleep finally on the couch. I didn't want to move him so I slept on the floor and he got the comfy couch. I would have gone back up stairs but I wanted to make sure he didn't fall off the couch. We got up the next morning and went to Brent's sister's house. The cousins Sydney and Lexi were SUPER excited to see the kids. We did all kinds of fun things! We went to the mall and I did some damage at the Disney Store. The kids got to ride the merry-go-round and they LOVED that. The sleeping situation there was different because we got to put Ethan in Lexi's bed. He could snore to his heart's content. We got to go to a birthday party and then another block party for their neighborhood so the kids were super worn out.

Emma got her first haircut yesterday. Her hair was getting super long and the bottom was getting dried out. We barely cut any off because I like the length it is right now. She always watches the boys so well and she was super excited she got to have her turn. She just sat there like a big girl. The boys got their summer short haircuts and they look super cute too.

Well, I am getting so mad at myself for not posting more often but things just get so insane around here I barely have time. We are coming up to a busy Memorial weekend. We are finally heading to Texas for our trip that we have had to reschedule three times. It will be interesting to see how the kids do. They do not travel in the car well which we found out a couple of weeks ago at the rodeo. Emma cried for an hour and a half on the way home because she didn't want to fall asleep in the car. I might have to invest in some Benodryl.

The other thing that happened is Friday my brother got very badly burned while burning brush in his back yard. He is burned around 20% of his body and in so much pain. Both arms, both lower legs, and left side of his face. He has to get the burns scraped everyday which is extrememly painful for him. The prayers are working because the burns are healing and he seems to be in better spirits today. It will be a long time before he is back to 100%. They have wonderful family and friends that are helping them through this tough time.

To the kids....they are basically driving me INSANE! Mostly Evan I guess! If you can't see or hear Evan be afraid, very afraid! Just in the last few weeks him and his sidekick Emma have been giving me a run for my money. It all started with the Miralax disaster where Evan and Emma decided to dump an entire bottle of white powder all over the kitchen floor. I had company at the time so I told them I needed to sweep it up when their great grandpa left and Evan (without me knowing) found the broom and tried to sweep it up. Basically making the ENTIRE kitchen a disaster area!

The next day Evan decided to make wall art with poo all over his bedroom when he was suppose to be taking a nap. It was on the floor, the walls, the sheets...you name it. Sunday, Evan took an entire box of pantliners and use them as wall art in the bathroom. He took the backs off and used them as stickers. I think it was the day after that when Evan and Emma decided to grab the black permenent marker I was using for my garage sale stickers to draw pictures on their arms and my WHITE kitchen counters. Brent about went balistic but thank goodness for magic erasers because it came off the counters after a lot of hard scrubbing. It always seems to be the same two but they keep me on my toes. Here is a picture of the Miralax mess. See the two chairs...yes Emma and Evan!

You can also tell the phrases Brent and I use a lot because they have started using them with us. "Cool it", "Come on hussle", "Chill out!"  Those are the only ones I can think about right now. They are starting to talk back and say no back to us! Nothing makes me more upset when they tell me know and try to put me in time out. If they get mad they will point their finger and say "mommy time out!". They were right when they say this stage is hard. But on the other hand it is so amazing seeing their vocabulary grow, follow complex instructions, you name it. They understand when you read them stories what you are saying and they follow the story line of the book. Emma is great at this and has such a love for reading. The boys still like the flip up books and picture books but Emma loves to hear you read the stories.

So days like today make being a mom so much fun. Good times and bad our kids are so wonderful. Today started off with the boys saying, “mommy go by by, mommy go by by” I try and go somewhere with the kids almost everyday because if I don't I go insane and so do they. The boys have not been taking naps anymore....this makes for an interesting afternoon for us. I was downstairs paying bills, (something I can not do when the kids are around) I hear some banging around upstairs and try to ignore it. How much trouble can they get in their bedroom? So I made a phone call and decided after I heard silence so I thought it would be safe to venture upstairs and peek in their bedroom. I wasn't ready for what I would see! Naked from the waist down, the boys were launching themselves off their changing table onto the floor onto their mattresses they had taken off their beds. To make matters worse they had taken all the books off every shelf and scattered them across the floor. They both looked at me a laughed. I closed the door and took many deep breaths and went back in and asked them what in the world they are doing. I asked where their pants were and they both picked up their pants and said, “Right here mommy!” So they went downstairs got fresh diapers and watched Toy Story 2 for the billionth time!

We then went to the park at Nana and Papa's house. We got home and I needed to go to the bathroom and because we have an open door policy in our house I get three children in the bathroom with me. Emma said, Mommy I want to go potty!” I said ABSOLUTELY! Took her diaper off and she sat in the Elmo potty and just started going pee. She said, “I did it, mommy I did it!” I started screaming and called Brent in there. It was a potty party! Evan saw all the fuss and wanted to do it. I thought....am I really that lucky. So Evan tried but no dice. He will get it. I am super proud of Emma and this milestone. I think now that she has the idea of what it is like it will be easier. She was also excited when we called the grandparents and told them all the good news. I thought she was wanting to go on the big potty but I guess not. Maybe I will go get her a princess potty and make a big deal about how it is her special potty chair and see what she does. I was also so excited I decided to take a picture of Emma on her chair. No I am not going to be one of those mom's that takes a picture of the actual deal but she was so proud!

Back to the comment about Toy Story my kids are obsessed with Toy Story and everything about it. We watch it at least once a day. It started because I had the first movie and had them watch it about a month ago. We had to wait for Toy Story 2 to be re-released. It did a few weeks ago and we had to buy it immediately. They had Toy Story toys at Walmart from the movie so I bought the kids the Woody and Buzz talking dolls. They were $30 a piece so that is why I didn't get the Jessie doll. I wish I would have now. They are sold out EVERYWHERE! I actually had to go online and buy the Jessie doll. So Emma has her “Regular Pooh” as she calls it. We have “Naked Pooh” and “Regular Pooh” Any Pooh that has an outfit she will take it off and call it naked pooh. We have three naked poohs and one regular (the original pooh) Well now the boys have a favorite toy that they sleep with. Evan LOVES Woody and Ethan will take Buzz. Here is a cute picture I caught a few weeks ago. We are going to take the kids to Toy Story 3 in a few weeks as their first movie. It is in 3D so we will see how they like it. We are going to be spending ALOT of money to take them so I hope they like it. I think they will do ok, they will sit and watch the whole two hour movie all the time and not get up. I guess we will wait and see.

I know I have been terrible about updating this. Things have just been crazy around here. I don't knowwhat is going on but it seems this is the last thing I think aboutdoing. Facebook also takes up a lot of my time. I do not really postanything about the kids on there either but I get on there and starttalking to ther people and it takes up so much time. The other thingis that things are pretty much the same around here. I need to startthe potty training thing. Emma is so ready I have been trying but shejust won't go. If you ask her to go potty she will go sit down andthen just sit there and talk and do nothing. I know once she feelsthe sensation she will realize what to do. We have been enjoying theweather also. It is so nice to just be able to open the back door andlet them go out and play. I am so happy that we can get back outside.It helps my sanity being out with the kids. The only bad thing aboutthat though is now they expect to do something everyday. We startedwalks with the Cho Cho wagon around the neighborhood a couple ofweeks ago and now they LOVE to do that. We are also scheduled to dothe March of Dimes walk this weekend and I am so excited. During thewalk there should be signs with our kids pictures and theirinformation on them. I'm excited to see them. We had a great timeduring Easter...a big weekend and the kids were exhausted.