Thanksgiving 2015

We made the trip to Decatur for Thanksgiving this year so the boys could meet their Wingard side of the family. It was great to see everyone and the boys (more or less) enjoyed all the attention from meeting new friends and family members. Admittedly this trip home was a lot tougher than the Hilton Head trip we made in early October. The difference between traveling with 3 1/2 month olds vs. 5 month olds is pretty significant! This trip the boys were much more aware of their surroundings and not always pleased to be in unfamiliar places. I think they had sensory overload a lot, which made them fussier than usual. We had several long nights in a row trying to get all three calm and happy sleeping in their pack and plays. We gave in with fighting Cooper a couple times and let him sleep in his rock and play. One night I had to pull his rock and play right up beside me and fall asleep with him holding my hand. It would have been very sweet had it been any other time, but not at 2:00 in the morning!! They are all working through cough and congestion issues which didn't help in the sleeping department, either. Since we were in a hotel room we heard every. last. noise. which meant little sleep for mom and dad.

As is always the case when we head home for a few days, our schedule was jam packed. We arrived late Wednesday evening and went straight to the hotel to get everything unpacked and the boys fed. We skipped a bottle for them and drove 6 hours straight through so they were a little stir crazy and fussy from missing a feed. Mom, Dad, Ella, Shaughn, and Andrea came to the hotel and unfortunately witnessed some not-so-happy babies. Not the best way for Andrea, Uncle Shaughn and cousin Ella to meet the trio! In retrospect we would have been better off getting the boys settled in and postponing visitors until they had their bottles. They were very distracted by the new environment and new faces which meant they didn't take their bottles well. That in turn meant they were hungry in the middle of the night, which meant a late, long night of nursing and rocking for mom and dad! 

Thankfully they were in much better spirits on Thursday morning! We wanted to swap out their morning nap for an afternoon one, so we plopped them in front of the TV to watch their first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade while we got ready to go to Mark and Pam's. The parade actually did a good job of holding their attention! 

Totally captivated!

It worked out perfectly that we arrived at Mark and Pam's with just enough time to feed them and get them down for a nap. We were very grateful that Pam had a bedroom upstairs set up for us to take over with all of our stuff- it was nice to have a quiet room to settle them in. I'm sure the young kids weren't happy to give up their play room, but we sure appreciated it! :) Will and I were able to enjoy our Thanksgiving meal with the rest of the family while the boys napped. Once they woke up they spent the rest of the afternoon being passed from Aunt to Uncle to Cousin to Papa to Grandma to Mom and Dad. There was no shortage of cuddling for the boys! Overall they did pretty well with all the new faces and attention. It's a tough call to say who was more excited about the babies- my adult cousins and aunts, or all the little cousins running around! Both groups flocked to the boys, though it seemed like the little cousins drifted in and out of interest depending on what fun they were having together.

Griffin acted happier the majority of the day

Cooper and Lisa

Faye and Will

Leslie and Cooper

Uncle Shaughn got lots of nephew snuggles in- it was his first time meeting the boys!

Jacky and Will

Tickles from Daddy

Of course, Griffin was interested in the football game

Dinner time for the boys

Lots of bottle helpers

Cooper and Grandma

Emry and Liam were especially interested in the babies when Uncle Shaughn had them

I love this picture! Cassie was so sweet with the boys. She must have hugged and kissed them each about 50 times throughout the day.

Grace waited patiently all day for her turn to hold one!

Aunt Molly and Will

These pictures make me laugh. The kids were all trying to keep the boys entertained in their car seats before we left

No shortage of attention!

Katie was trying her hardest to keep all 3 babies quiet. She would rock two of them in their seats, then when the 3rd one cried, she would rotate over and start rocking him. It was so cute! I wish I would have gotten it on video.

My handsome little men

Playing with their cousins at the hotel

Relaxing after their big Thanksgiving 

Friday I had an appointment with my sister for my annual hair-hacking, then we headed over to Springfield to meet up with one of Will's best friends from high school, Colin, and his wife Jackie. It was great to spend a couple hours catching up with them, and to finally meet their little girl who is already 17 months old! I'm so mad that I didn't think to grab a picture of Colin, Will, and all their kids. Griffin was the only baby who came out during our lunch date. The other two were content to stay in their car seats and observe. We met at an odd time, so the restaurant wasn't crowded at all. But I did have to laugh at the fact that of the tables that were sat, almost all of them had kids with them. I guess all parents know that it's best to dine during non-peak restaurant hours!

We spent Friday evening at my parents' house, and again dealt with some fussy babies. Will and Griffin in particular seem to have trouble adjusting to being in new places. Cooper is fine as long as he's being held (this is typical Cooper behavior most days, though!).

I spy 3 babies in this picture!

Saturday we packed up and headed to the bakery to meet up with my best friend from high school, Kelly, and her husband Brian, and see their little girl Scarlett. Kelly hadn't met the boys yet, so we spent a couple hours catching up while we had lunch and fed the boys their bottles before hitting the road for our drive home.

Ready for another long day in the car

Kelly and Griffin

Ahhhh, Poopah!

Glad we got this pic of Papa and Grandpa with their grandbabies before we left town

A little cramped!

As is always the case right now, when we are venturing out of the house with the kids we are pressed for time. I've said it before, but it's amazing how quickly four hours can pass when you have to be somewhere or do something outside of the house. From the moment they finish their bottles we are in a race against the clock to get them changed (if necessary), loaded into their car seats, into the car and to whatever destination, before needed to worry about feeding them again. Most parents will agree that keeping babies on a schedule is important to some degree...but it is especially important with multiples. We live and die by our schedule during the day. We can't feed on demand, otherwise we would never stop feeding! Missing a bottle by an hour can throw the rest of the day off and in turn, puts our nights at risk for upheaval. Our weekend was so busy trying to see a lot of folks that it felt like we were constantly rushing from one activity to another, or from one location to the hotel so we could feed them. It is exhausting work! Needless to say, by Saturday we were very tired from being on the go all weekend. After they finished their bottles at the bakery we were anxious to get on the road as quickly as we could, so we could minimize the amount of time they went between feeds, as we were skipping a feed for them to drive straight through to Tennessee. We arrived home around 8:30 PM and expected another meltdown from them when we took them out of their car seats, but to our surprise we had 3 happy campers! They seemed very glad to be back in a familiar setting and all 3 were smiling and chatting patiently as we got their bottles ready. 

It was nice to have Sunday at home to get the boys back into their routine and  get organized for the week. I realized as I added pictures to this post that I didn't do the best job on photos over the weekend. Not a single pic of our party of 5 on our first thanksgiving together, no photos of Will and Colin with their kids, or of me and Kelly with our kids. It makes me sad that I missed those moments. I need to do a better job of capturing those memories, though it's often the last thing on my mind when we're rushing from one place to the next. We get so focused on packing the babies up and staying organized and on schedule that it feels like more trouble than it's worth sometimes to take them all out of their car seats for a picture. But in the grand scheme of things, what's a couple extra minutes to take some photos, even when you're racing the clock? I need to remember to step back and relax sometimes, too. I'll try to do better in the future!