Made Our Morning

We had the nicest thing happen to us today! I convinced Will to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast this morning. He had pointed out that we had eggs, bacon, and biscuits in the kitchen; I claimed we were on vacation and it'd be nice to not have to clean up after breakfast. Plus I argued that the boys are great breakfast eaters and would be well-behaved since they had just woken up. I won, and away we went.

We got the usual stares, comments, and questions during breakfast. But as I (pretty boldly) promised, the boys were in great spirits the whole time we were there. They happily ate and interacted with several people who came over to talk to us. Will had just gotten up to pay the bill when our waitress came over and said that someone had taken care of our bill. When she heard that Will was at the cashier stand, she ran up and snagged the bill away from him, telling him the same thing.

I can't believe that someone did that for us. I belong to a triplet mom group on Facebook and have heard numerous other moms share stories of random strangers paying for their meals, but I never thought it would actually happen to us. We have no idea who picked up our tab, but we were really touched by the gesture. Will gets especially stressed when we take the boys out to eat (he doesn't like all the attention we get and feels extra pressure for the boys to be well-behaved since all eyes are on us) so this was a great morale booster for him. This random act of kindness is proof that there are still great people in the world, and that a little kindness goes a long way!

Christmas 2016

The boys loved their second Christmas, decidedly more than their first! They were spoiled rotten by Santa Claus, grandparents, aunts and uncles. So spoiled that we took several days to open all their presents!

Santa brought them monogrammed Anywhere Chairs from Pottery Barn. I'm sure they will learn to love them as much as their parents do. I think their favorite item from Christmas morning, though, were the Reeses' Pieces candy canes from their stockings. They didn't even know there was candy in there, but they loved to shake them!

We enjoyed some tasty treats over Christmas. They love homemade chex mix:

And seem to be pretty fond of Nutella, too:

Especially Cooper

They enjoyed opening presents. Our little neat freak Will insisted on handing us every little piece of paper that he ripped off- no tossing the paper on the floor for him!

Sometimes it's more fun to play in the box than with the toy itself!

And sometimes it's more fun to sit on the gifts than to open them!

It takes quite a bit of time to open presents when he's as meticulous as he is.

Channeling his inner Zoolander while he models a new vest

Christmas morning chaos

Loved those candy canes!

Apparently our children are ready for pillows. They loved all the pillows that everyone else received!

Luke modeling my new Christmas gift!

Little Drummer Boy

We have been enjoying a lot of new stuff over the past few days:

Jumping on our new trampoline

Eating lunch at our new big boy table! We're not ready to sit there full time yet, but we like to practice!

Snack break

Playing with our new slide

Potties!

Hopefully we're ready to start using these in a few months

For the first time in my working career, I have the week between Christmas and New Years off. We are making the most of our time by doing very little. It's nice that the boys have plenty of new toys to keep them occupied, and family has been in and out all week. It's been a wonderfully low key and relaxing Christmas break.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to Me!!!

I had a follow up appointment with Dr. Higdon today. I'm healing quite well from my surgery, and everything looks great. Just as I was leaving I asked if I still needed to wait a few more weeks before I could pick up the boys again. He leaned in, gave me a hug, and said, "Merry Christmas- you can pick up your babies now!"

HOORAY!!! I'm so excited that I can hold my babies again!

(The timing of this news was perfect. Shortly after I arrived home, Will got a call from his dad, who was stranded on the side of the road in a broken down truck. Will was able to leave on a moment's notice to go help his dad, and I was able to function as a solo parent again! It feels SO GOOD to be back!!!)

Christmas with Papa and Grandma

Mom and Dad came down for the weekend to celebrate Christmas with the boys, despite the warning that they would likely return home to Decatur with more than merriment in their hearts. The boys were acting much better, but we've still been dealing with some bad diapers!

Sunday morning was the last day that Santa was in town, so we got up bright and early to head to Cheekwood and get our annual picture with Santa. I just re-read our post from visiting Santa last year...we also waited until the last day to see him. I guess that's our thing?...We expected to have a long wait time and were eager to get the visit in before nap/hunger meltdowns occurred. We were pretty surprised when we arrived at Cheekwood and found a ghost town. It was a great surprise! No wait for Santa!

You'll notice in the pics below that Griffin is not wearing a matching outfit. This is thanks to a MASSIVE blowout diaper that we found when we got to Cheekwood. It was honestly the worst diaper I have ever changed in my life. I am still on lifting restrictions so Mom joined me to help get Griffin onto the changing table in the bathroom. It took both of us, and nearly an entire pack of wipes, to get him cleaned up. It was in his socks. His socks. Poor buddy. Thankfully we were prepared with spare outfits and Santa was blissfully unaware that, had we arrived 30 minutes earlier, it would have been his lap that bore the brunt of Griffin's diaper.

I think we're lucky that Papa Mason has a big white beard like Santa. The boys weren't scared of him at all. There were no smiles for us, but they didn't cry, either, so we take that as a win!

I love this one of Will looking at him!

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Not sure why the picture cut off the Wills' heads!

Post- Santa Mom and I walked around the mansion to look at an art exhibit. Admittedly, we're not an artistic family...but white on white canvas? I just don't get it.

Seeing Santa is exhausting!

That evening the boy got to open up their presents from Papa and Grandma Wingard. They got a fun kitchen set for the downstairs, and lots of pots and pans to help them cook up some masterpieces in their new kitchen. They all really, really enjoyed ripping the wrapping paper off their presents!

 

We're glad we got to spend some time with Papa and Grandma for Christmas! Their kitchen gift was the main motivation for us to get our own kitchen area baby-proofed so the boys have room to roam around. They love their new-found freedom!