Happy Holi-DAZE

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Tripp Family!

I haven't posted in a minute because my holiday's were just that.....a daze.  A foggy, busy, hectic, chaotic sprinkled with a dash of fun, daze.

We had our usual busy schedule lined up starting at the beginning of the month:




the kids school Christmas cantata
Main x24 festival
Christmas parade
church preschool party
Christmas fireworks and boat parade
Mom's of Multiples Christmas party
Abba's house Christmas program
Nutcracker
Lyla's dance recital
Lyla's school Christmas party
Christmas Eve Eve service and party
Christmas Eve party
Christmas Day!

And in between all of that, staying super busy with orders for Yarn Therapy. Oh yeah, and keeping house and working a full time job. Oh oh yeah, and keeping up with three small children (which one always seemed to be sick)! It was all a little much and I got just a little stressed out.  Unfortunately that came out on Christmas Day with a few overwhelmed tears. But all is well now.I will talk more about that later.

Here are a "few" pictures from the Christmas season....

To start, we of course had to do a little decorating

Annual ornaments 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

Annual ornaments 2010, 2011, 2012

newest tradition, key for Santa from CHAiNGE the Subject

Gingerbread house: what was supposed to be vs. what it was.  But who cares? We had fun doing it!

and of course Lyla had her own tree in her room

Now that we had the house decorated. Time to get the kids hair cut before all the parties. Because Parties equals lots of pictures!

Lyla went to my stylist to get a trim and also got tinsel in her hair.  Then we went to Panera . Had a great mommy daughter day!

This was Sean's first "my mommy didn't butcher my hair" hair cut.  He sat in Tim's lap and did good!  After he was finished, Tim got his hair cut.  To this day, the single hardest parenting moment I have had.  Keeping all three kids in the waiting room.  They were knocking down shampoo bottles, running away, throwing stuff, screaming, and more.  It was crazy.  I left there sweating.

And then the parties began.....

Lyla waiting in the audience to see  her brother and sister shake some jingle bells on stage

Lyla performing 'Silent Night' in sign language

such a big performance deserves a big cookie

Lyla and her boyfriend Carlos. Their 4th year performing together!

Lyla and her bff, Alexis

My awesome city of Chattanooga does the Grand Illumination every year.  All the buildings downtown are lit up, there is a parade of boats and this year they added fireworks.  So we bundled the kids up (for looks only, haha), it was a very cold 60 degrees at NIGHT time.

Their first firework show. Sean was protecting Liv from the crazy stuff in the sky!!!!!!

ran into some friends - Lyla and Ellie

I love Christmas through a child's eyes. She is mesmerized by a scene in a downtown storefront

On this particular weekend, we had 5 parties we were invited too.  I was sad to have to pick and choose and miss some of them. But poor Sean missed ALL of them.  I kept him home while Tim took Lyla to the church preschool party (which is why there are NO pictures. Tim doesn't take pictures?!).  The next day, Sean still was running a fever so Tim took him to urgent care and I took the girls to the Moms of Multiples Christmas party.  Yeah. I was the mom there without twins, ha.
Sean had just gotten over pneumonia and now had another ear infection. Somewhere in between all of this, I got an ear infection myself and bronchitis. But didn't stop us from partying!!

Liv does NOT like Santa this year

Lyla LOVES him

After the MoM's party, we headed to my moms's Church for a Christmas program.  Liv is at the very difficult age where she won't sit still.  We made it about ten minutes through the play, didn't even get to see my mom sing.  I spent most of the time in the lobby chasing Liv.  Did stop for a cute picture in front on the nativity scene though.

Lyla's big day had come! Her Christmas dance recital! She isn't in love with dancing, but has enjoyed it.  I was afraid she wasn't going to do the recital, but the dress rehearsal went great. She said the lights were so bright on stage she couldn't see people looking at her, so she would do it. These girls were absolutely adorable dressed up ready to tap the night away to "Santa Claus is coming to town".  I was the class room mom for this recital which means I got to herd all the children backstage.  It was a tad challenging keeping five 4 years olds quiet for their turn. Finally, it was their turn ....lights down.... music off....they go out....and then, Lyla turns to me and says "mommy, I don't want to go." Just as calm as can be. I freaked out a little and said "I will buy you a toy, you can have as many cookies as you want, just please go!". She agreed to go if I took her out there.  But of course she wanted to be carried. So I ran out on stage with her and dropped her off. She looks up at me and says "mommy, I just want to cuddle".  So I gave her a big hug, two thumbs up and ran off stage.  She did the recital! She didn't exactly do any of the move likes she had done in rehearsal.  Mainly just smiled and acted silly on stage. I will take it!

glittered up and ready to dance!

that's her in the middle.  yes, the one flashing the audience

final bow with her cousin Kendra

Lyla decided she does want to do dance again. So we signed her back up and she will be doing the spring recital.  I don't think dancing will be her thing, she is not a performer in a group setting. She is more reserved (most of the time) and doesn't like being the spotlight (most of the time).  I think when she turns 6 or so, we will get her started in piano or something of that nature.

Now her little sister Liv? performer for sure!!

Lyla had a Polar Express pajama party at her school.  Her awesome teacher Ms. Karen made Lyla a horse blanket to match her horse pillow.  I absolutely love it! She had ordered hats for all the girls from Yarn Therapy for their Christmas gifts.  They looked so cute wearing them all.  They performed a few Christmas songs and then we ate some goodies. In the midst of it all, I had that overwhelming feeling of happiness about where my life was.  When I was struggling to get pregnant and I would fantasize about having kids. One of the scenes that would play out in my mind were school parties. Random, I know. So I had that little moment realizing that my dreams had come true. Love when that happens :)

she is the littlest most petite girl in the class

Tim's dad and girlfriend visited us Christmas weekend.  He made the kids an awesome toy box.  It was a big hit for sure! That and a very cool rocking horse. The kids were happy, happy, happy!

Our church has service every year the day before Christmas Eve, conveniently called Christmas Eve Eve service. It's a night of worship by song, and one of my favorite nights of the season.  This year, of course was a little more stressful and hectic.  The twins as I said earlier are not in the stage of sitting still.  We stayed after the service for some food and fellowship.  Lyla saw her cousin Kelsey who we haven't seen in a little while.  She has been away with the service. I think she missed her!

Lyla spent the night at Nana's afterwards, so we took the twins to the grocery store for a late night last minute Christmas shopping trip.  They were too cute together!

On Christmas Eve, we gave the twins their present from Mommy's nana early, so they could have some time to enjoy it. And because I desperately needed a new toy to keep them occupied. They loved it. And the box it came in!

That evening we were reunited with Lyla and got all the kids dressed up pretty to go to Grandad and Nana Paula's house for the annual Christmas Eve party.  As I came downstairs to put Sean's coat on, he was laying listlessly in Tim's lap. He of course had another fever.  Tim took him to urgent care while I took the girls to my dad's house.  This set up was becoming all too familiar.  Sean had another ear infection and his lungs sounded like he had something going on. He was put on a stronger antibiotic. I decided at this point I was going to take him to our primary physician after Christmas and start demanding something more aggressive  testing, something. He got an ear infection while still on antibiotics from the last one.  He can't live on antibiotics, not good.
I did take him the day after Christmas, got an ENT referral which will most likely end up in surgery for tubes and adenoids out. I am all for that. Lyla had it done and made a world of difference.  She hasn't been sick other than one small tummy virus in 2.5 years. In addition, we have a breathing treatment and nasal spray to help prevent infection at the first sign of cough or cold.
But back to Christmas Eve.......

My brother, his wife and their granddaughter

Liv looks like a giant next to her cousin Hayleigh!

My brothers all talking in the kitchen. I kept wishing Tim was there every time I would look in  :(

Lyla and my brother Matt

We got home pretty late on Christmas Eve due to having to call around and find somewhere to pick up Sean's meds.  Once we got home and Lyla got done telling daddy the exciting drive home and looking for Rudolph in the fog. We put out cookies and milk and hung Santa's key on the door

And then it was Christmas morning at our house

eating the crumbs off of Santa's plate

playing with mommy's new kitchen utensils

she really really loved her Merida shirt

girly girl playing dress up in her new necklace

Christmas afternoon at my mom's house (Tim and Sean stopped by for a second, but then headed up to his mom's house. We didn't want to get my nephew and niece sick)

Gabriel

Lyla's microphone from Uncle Mike and Aunt Tiff

mommy's nana and the girls

my brother Matt and I

Liv and Savannah

And Christmas evening at Tim's moms house

Daddy's nana and papa, the kids and Aunt Sandie and Kyler

one of the few family pictures from the whole season!

And a few more moments from the Holiday season

dressing up and playing out side in the warm winter weather

Lyla and Maggie holding hands at Chuck E Cheese for a classmates birthday party

Lyla and her new friend Lily at Chuck E Cheese

Sean making music

Liv and mommy day while the others were in SC visiting family (Liv had a fever)

She found her elf "Spirit" in the cookie jar!!!!!

snowflake princess

Lyla wanted to show Liv the Christmas spirit, and gave her all of her toys

dance hair!

my secret santa at work is awesome :)

Overall, the Christmas season was great.  There is nothing like Christmas with kids.  Which was sad because of the Sandy Hook tragedy.  It was a struggle enjoying the Christmas season while so many families were dealing with such a horrific tragedy. It felt like Christmas was stolen from so many people this year. The only thing I knew to do was pray for everyone directly and indirectly affected. In times like that, you have to give it all to God. I don't believe we are capable of dealing with that heartache on our own.  I just constantly pray that those parents know Him and they have turned to Him.
I am not going to lie, this season was very stressful.  I had alot of moments of feeling overwhelmed and incapable to handling it all and keeping the pace that I have been keeping.  But then I would get even more upset, because I would think about these families that are waking up on Christmas morning without their child.  Not only the parents in Sandy Hook, but so many families that have lost children.  They were all very heavy on my heart this year. In my moment of stressful tears, I would think about them and then I would feel very unjustified or undeserving for having a stressful moment.  My "problems" weren't even problems.  Those parents would do anything to be having to deal with rowdy kids while traveling from house to house on Christmas day. So I tried to keep things in perspective and just keep on trucking through.
This New Years holiday weekend has been off to a much better start.  We have all five been healthy, enjoyed eachother's company and have been productive! Tim has done an amazing job this week fixing up a few things here and there in the house.  He and his mother took down and packed away all the Christmas decorations while I was at work. Hallelujah! He cleaned out and organized the garage.  We are just a few steps away from listing our house on the market next month. Yay! Hoping for a quick sale so we can begin construction on our dream home. The one thing I am not looking forward to is the having to live in an apartment after we sell our house and before our home is constructed. That is going to be rough.

The kids are all napping, and I think we may actually do something out of the house today.  Possibly the TN Aquarium.
Happy New Year!