Hi Chris!!

Chris wanted to take a picture of me from above. LOL
Our roof with no shingles, pray for NO rain!
The cross braces that Chris put on the chimney so I could sleep. :) What a good hubby.

As I have mentioned in a few previous posts we are getting a new roof put on right now. One of the issues on our home that Chris wanted to fix before putting a new roof on was the chimney. Anytime we had a significant wind storm, the wind would blow the chimney metal top and the wind would send a huge crashing sound down into the house, our master bedroom in particular. The noise would keep me up for hours at night. Anyway, crazy Chris decided that he would fix it today, so I thought I would take some pictures of him. The reason I say "crazy" is because the chimney is 11 feet off of the second story of our house. He was literally about 38 feet up in the air!!!! Only firemen would do crazy things like that!

I am going under...

The day started out at 4:45 when the sun was still down and Ava was crying in her bed. I let her cry for a while, but the cries kept getting worse and worse and worse. I went in to go check on her and I stepped into something warm, wet and mushy..... ewwwww. Needless to say, I got Ava up and took her downstairs for a little cleaning up and new clothes. I decided that I was going to take Ava to see the Dr. today because of her sudden general fussiness and lack of sleeping. The Dr. told us that she has a pretty bad ear infection, go figure. After we got home Lucy decided to throw up all over the place and make a mess up her second outfit for the day. Yes, Ava has an ear infection and Lucy has had the flu for the past 3 days.


We started our roof project today and I was rather skeptical about how the kids would nap. Surprisingly, Lucy slept her usual 2 1/2 hours without a fuss and Ava slept for about 1 hour. I was actually surprised that either of them slept at all with all the noise going on. After nap, Lucy got sick a few more times.. Poor thing. I sure hope she can keep some food down soon. This is the 4th day she has not eaten anything... Ava was a grump all day and Maddie started throwing up just tonight. She had been complaining most of the day that her tummy hurt, but I honestly just thought she wanted the same kind of attention that the babies were getting so i kind of put it off. I guess she wasn't just messing with me. Oh, and to top it off Ava stepped on a nail outside that came off of our roof. It did puncture the skin, so now I have to watch for infection.

Ava continues to sleep terrible. I am lucky to get her down by 8:00 most evenings and she is gets up by 5:30, sometimes earlier. ( She usually sleeps from 6:45pm to 7:30 am). Her naps are almost non existent... I got about 45 minutes out of her today (May 20th). She usually will sleep for at least 2 hours. Maddie woke up in the middle of the night with throw up all over her sheets... I don't know how much more of this I can take! I am SO overwhelmed... I pray that Ava starts sleeping better, Maddie gets better and Lucy stops puking all over the place. I have never done anything more challenging in my life than raising three kids, especially two that are the same age.

We are at a new phase of development with my little Miss Ava. She has officially decided that climbing out of her crib is fun. She is not the best napper in the whole wide world, but at least she will stay in her port-a-crib for about 1 1/2 hours until she starts to cry to get up. Yesterday I heard some banging around in her room and I knew she was not napping. Then I hear her crying, but the crying is getting louder and louder and louder?!?! What? I hurry upstairs to find Ava running down the hallway.. Geesh! This morning right around 5:50 I got out of the shower and I heard the monitor making a funny noise. I go out to investigate and my little climber has once again climbed out of her crib, her bedroom door was open, and she was half way down the stairs! Today I am going to BabiesRus to find a solution to this problem. I can't have her waking up the other kids and causing chaos everyday at 6:00 am!

This is so cute! Madeline is such a great big sister :) I only had my camera phone handy when this was going on, so the quality may not be the best, but you can get the idea.

One of the girls new favorite thing to do is to pretend to change each others diapers. They each take a turn laying down on the diaper changing pad while the other one changes the diaper. Then the switch. LOL They are both so fascinated when I change one of their diapers too. I will say, "let's go change your diaper Lucy" and everyone comes running like there will be an ice cream cone waiting or something. Then of course they have to say bye bye to the dirty diaper as I throw it away. These kids sure are funny! To bad they won't really change diapers.

Laryngitis must love me because this is the 3rd time I have had it since April 7th. I never realized how frequently I got laryngitis before I started keeping track. The day I had my hip surgery I also had laryngitis. The Dr. was concerned and they were not sure if the were going to do the surgery or not. I told them it was not big deal, that I got laryngitis a lot. The Dr. asked how much and I said "oh, about 8-10 times a year." He looked at me rather puzzled and said, "have you ever looked into that? If not, you should." I left it that and I started to wonder if maybe I didn't get it as much as I thought, so I decided to keep track. Well, I think I may have underestimated because 3 times in 6 weeks is going to far exceed 8-10 times a year! Anyway, I am so sick of loosing my voice... This is just no fun..

I had to go to the mall today to return some shoes that were a bit to small. I put the twins in their side by side double stroller, which will always cause them to get a lot of attention anytime we go out in public. Almost every outing creates some kind of conversation that goes a little like this...

Nice person: Are they twins?

Me: Yes, they are.
Nice person: But they are not identical?

Me: No, they are fraternal.
Nice person: Oh, they are so cute. This one has brown eyes and a little darker hair and this one has blue eyes and a bit lighter hair.
Me: Yes they do look a little different.
Nice person: They must be a handful. You sure are busy.
Me: Yes, I am very busy, more than you can imagine.
Nice person: Good for you, you are very lucky.
Me: Thank you, have a good day.

But today was different, this lady caught me off guard. We went through the normal round of questions and then she said, "oh, this one is so chunky! (She is referring to Lucy) I just love her chunky cheeks and thighs!"
Me: Oh, you think she is chunky? Well, I guess maybe she is a little.
Her: Oh, it is cute, she will grow out it.... I hope so anyway.
Me: OK, thanks... have a good day.

So, is Lucy really that chunky? She doesn't really look chunky to me, but I have been getting so many of these kind of lately. She looks like a normal healthy kid to me? Oh well, even if she is chunky, she is my cute little chunk!

We are in the process of finding a contractor to re-roof our house and as most of you know, a big remodel or big project can become quite stressful. We have a 17 year old heavy wood shake roof that is a 9/12 pitch and around 60 squares. The first big company contractors that came out wanted to charge us a ridiculous amount of money. Chris and I both thought that there had to be a cheaper alternative. So, the research began. We talked to so many people trying to figure out how we were going to go about this. We ended up going to a supply store in Sacramento that put together a price list for just materials. The materials were expensive, but what really got me was the additional charges like putting the tile on the roof, gas charges, truck charges, permit fees, a structural engineers report, gutters, special flashing for out chimneys etc. After we got the final price for materials, I was shocked to learn that these roof companies were charging more than double the cost of materials for labor!! They obviously think we are rich, and maybe they think we are stupid. We have now had over 10 contractors come to the house to give us bids. We are smarter now, we tell the contractors that we are not willing to pay over X amount per square, and if they are going to come back with that amount please do not waste their time or ours. Of course this as put us at a different level with the contractors, their customer service is not the same as it was before we were educated. Tomorrow we are meeting with a company that both Chris and I feel really good about.... lets just hope their price comes in right.

I am officially crutch free!!! I can't begin to tell you how good this feels. Kids, house, husband and responsibility doesn't go well with crutches. I am just so glad to be off of them and at walking like a normal person, well liming anyway. My Dr. told me that I can start riding my bike again for 5 minutes a day. Yes, 5 minutes! He said it would be about 6 months before I am back to normal activities. His best advice to me was to do mostly non weight bearing exercise (swimming). I have no clue how to swim, but I guess I will now need to learn!

I forgot to post a while back that when Chris was on baby duty he created a trailer for Maddie's Barbie jeep. The twins always want to ride in the Jeep, but of course there is only room for one baby at a time. Chris couldn't handle the whining in between taking turns, so he made this wonderful contraption. :) (Good job honey!)

How much cuter than these girls get! I love how they all love to play dress-up. And this time they even cooperated and let me take a picture. What you can't hear going on is all of the girls are saying cheese over and over and over and over... you get the point. LOL. In fact, every time the girls see the camera come out they start saying cheese! Too cute. :)

I know I have not been posting much lately. It just seems I can't get even a few moments to get anything done, and when I do it is usually not on the computer. School is almost over and I am really trying to keep up with that and get good grades. I am contemplating taking a chemistry class over the summer. It is 4 days a week for eight weeks... I haven't made a final decision on that one yet.

Madeline seems to have new activities in her schedule daily. I don't know what I am going to do when she has homework for school every night next year?!?! We just signed her up for soccer and since I have so much spare time I volunteered to be the assistant coach. I guess no one ever taught me to say NO when I was younger.

So, my recovery from hip surgery is much slower than I anticipated. I still can't walk well and I am getting tired of going everywhere on crutches. I just want to be healthy and normal again. It is hard to pick Maddie up from school or go to the grocery store with two toddlers that think it is fun to run away in opposite directions. I am so thankful that the moms at Maddie's school are so helpful and carry my kids or chase after them when they run away. I am also thankful that Chris can get a few grocery items for me while he is on duty and even bring the groceries to our house if I need him to. :) Hey, that could be a new business, firefighter grocery delivery!

Anyway, Lucy has been sick with some fever illness... She seems to be getting better, but Ava suddenly got it tonight. She was throwing up all over herself and Chris when we were getting her ready for bed. Poor thing. I know she couldn't have been feeling good, not only because she threw up and had a fever, but because she fell asleep on the floor while I was getting her redressed just minutes after she threw up. I feel so bad for her and I hope she feels better soon... especially since Chris just started a 60 hour shift tonight at the fire station.

OK, enough for tonight. I will try to post some pics of the new playhouse we just got for the girls. The absolutely love it!

Oh my gosh, I have the sweetest daughter ever! Last night when Chris and I finally got home around 9:00, there was a single white flower sitting in a cup with a little note on it from Maddie. Gosh, how did I get so lucky to have three wonderful and beautiful daughters?

Picture coming soon..

Today the girls and I went to Karen's bakery in Folsom to celebrate Kim's pregnancy of her twin boys. Kim is so sweet and so cute and is due in July. It was great to see our group together again. (We missed you Amanda!) I took a few photos, but we forgot to get our group photo.. Darn! I don't know how Kim is going to get much bigger. :) Just look at that belly!!!

My good friend Karla gave us the cutest dog house the other day. I didn't think that Daisy would like it, but I knew Ginger would. Ginger already loves her kennel, so this dog house was going to be pure luxury for her. :) (no, I don't let my dogs on the couch, or under the covers with me...) After we put the house together Lucy and Ava had fun in it. Now, Daisy LOVES it. She doesn't look so happy in the picture, but trust me, she is!

Look at the picture of these quadruplets!! J/K.

My good friend Brittany came over today with her twins that are only 6 weeks younger than Lucy and Ava. We took them all for a walk down to the river by my house. It was really fun even though on the walk back my girls had a major melt down. They are usually so good on walks, but not today! Anyway, despite my kids crying, I still enjoyed having them all over. :)

Ok, so I am a day late on my Easter post..... But here is it anyway. We went to church, came home and started to prepare dinner, put the girls to bed, they woke up, we had and Easter egg hunt, then we ate dinner, cleaned up the dishes and went to bed. :)

Well, it may have been a bit more interesting than that, but that about sums it up. The best part of the day was going to church to celebrate what Easter is really all about.

The twins were grumps as you can tell by the pictures. But that is nothing new, they are always grumps. LOL

This morning started off quite crazy. The girls had one of those mornings where they had to be held all the time and needed one on one attention. It made is close to impossible to get ready and out of the house and head off to our Easter Egg hunt at the park. We were supposed to go to ElDorado Hills to meet some friends at 9:00 or 9:30, but when 9:30 rolled around and we were still at home, I knew we were not going to make it. So, we did the next best thing, we went to the park by our house. And save the day, my brother called me around 9:45 and was going to the same park! I say "save the day" because now I had an extra pair of hands to watch the kiddos, plus Maddie was able to play with her cousin. Anyway, overall the morning went really well. Lucy and Ava had a blast collecting Easter eggs and were slightly upset when they were all done. We went to play at the park after all the fun festivities were over. When we got home, Maddie and I dyed some Easter eggs... The only thing that could have made our morning better is if Chris was able to join us. Unfortunately he has to work...

I forgot to post this cute picture the other day when we all went on a walk to the river. On the way home Maddie was getting tired of walking, so we let her ride on the front of the stroller. This is not the first time she has done this, but it is the first time I took a picture. People give you the funniest smiles when they see you pushing three kids with two dogs attached to the stroller. :) It really is not as hard as it looks, I promise.

Arn't these girls just so darn cute when they wake up in the morning? I love Lucy's hair! :) The twins have now started "talking" to eachother from across the room when they wake up. I just can't get over how darn cute all three of these girls are!!!

I haven't worked as a Paramedic since Maddie was 10 months old, and the whole time I have not been working I have kept up with my Paramedic license. I got a notice a while back from CA EMS telling me that I needed to renew my license because it was going to expire soon, blah, blah, blah. I put it with the rest of the stuff that goes in my "in box" and told myself I would get to it later... Fast forward a few months.... I am paying bills a few days ago and realized that I have about 2 1/2 weeks to take 48 hours of continuing education if I want to keep my licence current!... OOOPS! I have been frantically trying to get in all done, and guess what? I finished today. :) I am so happy that my new license will be coming soon and I am officially a Paramedic for another 2 years.. Hopefully next time I won't put if off until last minute.

The girls love to go outside everyday, and so do I if it frees me from crying! LOL My newest challenge is keeping the twins out of the street. They think it is so funny to walk in the street and have mommy come running after them... Can you tell I am amused? We are making some progress with them staying on the concrete and the grass in our front yard , but it is sloooow. Lucy "ran away" on her little riding toy and by the time I caught up with her she was sooo proud of herself. LOL Just look at that grin she gave me!

Madeline got an extremely good second trimester report card, so we decided that she would get to pick out a present. Madeline picked out some new Rollerblades, and she is just thrilled! She wants to use them everyday, and although she is far from good, she is darn cute!!

We had another one of those perfect and gorgeous days here in Sacramento. I think it hit about 70 or maybe 72 degrees today. Anyway, we decided to go to the zoo after the girls nap. The zoo was a bit crowded, but all the girls had fun. We try to keep them in the stroller, otherwise they end up running in two different directions. Ava listens pretty well, but Lucy? Well, she thinks it is funny to run away. Not to funny if you ask me...... The most exciting part of our zoo visit today was petting the deer (this deer is a visitor, not part of the exhibit.) Yes, we actually pet a deer! This deer was so friendly and kept walking up and down the fence line looking for some love. :) The bears were also out and up close. My gosh these bears are BIG!!! No way I would want to run into one of them in wild!

Here are a few misc. pictures of the kids. They are all doing well!!



I am SO cute!!

Thank you Grammy and Grandpa!!
I don't know what it is about this hat, but the girls are always wearing it!

The girls love to kiss each other now... Ahhh, so sweet!

I finally got the results back from my hip pain... I have a labral tear. My hip hurts almost daily, although the pain really gets bad after I work out at the gym or play to hard with the kids. I refuse to live a sedentary life style, so I am going to have surgery on April 7th to repair it. I am keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well. :) Here is a good article I found on the internet that explains a labral tear.


Labral tear
The function of the labrum is to add stability and cushioning to the hip joint. It’s the cartilage found around the bony rim of the hip socket, acetabulum. Degenerative labral tears can be associated with arthritis or occur from years of repetitive minor injuries to the hip. Oftentimes, those playing sports may tear their labrum by causing rapid hip motion through sudden stops and turns on the field. A labral tear causes pain in the groin area, or a “catching” sensation within the joint, but usually doesn’t result in pain during normal daily activities. If you believe you have a labral tear, see your physician immediately for individualized treatment.
In most cases labral tears require surgical repair. However, your orthopaedic surgeon may initially prescribe physical therapy and activity modifications along with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen and ketoprofen.
Arthroscopic surgery may be necessary to repair the torn labrum if symptoms persist and you cannot continue your desired physical activities. This arthroscopic surgery is done on an outpatient basis. Full recovery usually occurs in eight to 12 weeks.

We sing this song all the time at our house...

Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton

Well, I have a thing to tell you and it won't take long-

The way I feel about you is a kind of a song.

It starts with and OOO and it ends with a KISS

and all along the middle it goes something like this-

It goes: OOO! Snuggle puppy of mine!

Everything about you is especially fine!

I love what you are,

I love what you do.

Fuzzy little snuggle puppy, I love you.

I say, OOO snuggle puppy of mine!

Everything about you is especially fine!

I love what you are,

I love what you do.

OOOOOOOOO I love you!

Now, I wanted just to tell you,

and it didn't take long-

the way I feel about you

is a kind of a song.

I started with OOO

I gave you a KISS

I hope you like the middle, not we'll end it like this...

OOO, Snuggle puppy of mine!

Everything about you is especially fine,

I love what you are,

I love what you do...

OOOOOOOOOOOO!
I LOVE YOU!!!!

And of course my girls are my snuggle puppies. :)