Meade Family Blog

9/22/11

Days of Our Lives

I am getting terrible at trying to keep up our Blog! I have so much to say, but I could go on for hours!

We had a great trip to Wisconsin. The car ride there wasn't too bad, the 1st week was wonderful and the boys really did outstanding!

Our family did so much to make all of us comfortable and enjoy our trip. We stayed at Uncle Mikey's and loved it! He has a beautiful log cabin on property that backs up to some family land. We had fun going on the four-wheeler and just sitting outside on the porch.

We had a pool party with a ton of family and amazing yummy food and a luncheon put on for the boys by Cindy's sister, Julie and all of their friends.

They did a lot, met a lot of people, skipped naps, took extra naps and all sorts of "off our normal routine" stuff, but they did amazing and it was so good for them and us.

The following week Jason went to Canada with family and close friends (a yearly event that they all try to keep up), while Cindy and I held down the fort in Milwaukee with the boys. The boys got to meet their cousins for the very first time and it was awesome! My sister, Shanna has two little girls so we all got together and went to the Childrens Museum in Milwaukee. It was the highlight of my trip and way overdue.

All in all we had a nice trip, but by the 2nd week the boys were tired, they got sick, the lack of naps caught up with them and then I, mommy got a bit stressed.
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When you put everything together that the boys experienced, even what Jason and I experienced for coming out of "our little world we live in", and add being out of their comfort zone, only being 17 months at the time; it's really amazing how well they did.

I will leave the trip on that note, because the ride home to TN was not magical. I would rather not re-live those 12 hours...ever...ever...again. Trust me, no-one would!

Since being home, our lives continue as normal. We are busy, the boys are doing great, Jason is good, I am good and my business is doing great!

I can't get over the changes the boys have made. They are so quickly growing into little men. I wish I could record their every second. They have more words to their vocabulary. The other day Asher all of a sudden said, "baby" like he was 3 years old. Skyler has become quite the sweetheart. He loves hugs and kisses and LOVES to give them. Ryder too seems to be changing into this comedian. He is quite funny and oh man is he wild!

I am trying to keep this short and sweet so I will leave you with some pictures below...too many pictures, but I can't help myself! We Love you all and thank you to all the family in Wisconsin that did so much for us.
Peace...

Uncle Jay (my sister, Carries husband) and the boys

Cousin Nolan and Asher

Sky and Ash checking out the river at Grandma and Grandpas house

Took a trip to the Cedarburg Park

Sky at the Park

Ash and Daddy

Ryder

Cousin Nevaeh and Ryder

Asher and Cousin Isabelle

Sky loving the slide at The Milwaukee Children's Museum

Ryder makin' some music!

Asher

Grandma CiCi and Sky at The Milwaukee Children's Museum

The Crew!

My niece, Isabelle and her cool shades

Ryder

We tried our hardest to get a picture!


Drum Circle

Sky

Ash

The boys

Ash, Grace and Maggie (neighbor girls)

8/7/11

And We're Off!

We have some busy days ahead. We leave on Friday for a much needed trip to Wisconsin! It's our 1st real road trip with the boys and 1st vacation with the boys. For weeks now Jason and I have been preparing list after list to make sure we will have everything needed for a two week trip.

Our 1st stop will be in Indiana to meet up with the Blakemore/Kiefer crew. It will be a quick over-night stop, but the Kiefer boys and Meade boys can't miss the opportunity! We can't wait!

After the Indiana stop we are off to Lodi, WI where the boys will have plenty of family to love and hold them every second of the day. There are a lot of fun events planned for the boys and our visit so thank you to all of you who have put the time into making their 1st visit to Wisconsin the greatest.

Next stop will be Milwaukee and that is where the remainder of my vacation will be. Jason, his dad, brother, cousins and a few friends will be in Canada for a week so Grandma CiCi, the boys and I will be holding down the fort.

I am sure you can only imagine the amount of stuff we would have to pack to go on such a trip when you have 17mos old triplets; fortunately many friends and family were kind enough to hunt down all the big items we will need while away....THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU! No U-Haul for us!

In the last two weeks we have been busy, busy...as always. We had some friends in town for a long weekend. Melissa, her daughter, Maddie and Mitch came to join the crew for a few days. We took them for a fun trip of tubing down the river in the mountains. Had some run-ins with some mean rapids that flipped a few of us off our inter-tube, but it was a blast! Later that day Jason ran back to Knoxville to pick up the boys and our babysitter and off we all went to a pool party in Maryville for the evening.

The boys swam, the adults played corn hole (bags for some of you) and then we had our 1st bad accident with Skyler. Skyler was walking with me and our friend/babysitter, Grace around the pool when he lost his balance and fell on the corner of the diving board. He hit his eyeball and his eye was instantly swollen and black and blue. On Monday we took him to the Dr. and then to Childrens hospital for some xrays to make sure he hadn't fractured anything...the result came back fine and Sky was a trooper. You will see some pics below.

The rest of Melissa and Maddie's visit was pretty low-key. Jason and Mitch got out to Golf for an evening and us girls hung with the kiddos.

The boys are doing great. We continue to try the training potty out. Asher sits with his book and I always get to do the pee-pee dance! Good job Asher! I know we are so far from the actually training, but the sooner we can get them comfortable with it, the better. They are not far from 2 years old you know! If we can have them trained by 2.5 I will be one happy camper!

To date I believe we have one new word and that is "tree". It is funny what words the choose to pick-up on.

Yesterday afternoon, we loaded the boys up and took them into Pigeon Forge (near the mountains) for some live outdoor bluegrass music. We had a nice little grassy area for them to run around. The bands ended up coming on later than we had anticipated so by the time the music was ready to take off the boys were ready to go home. They enjoyed what they got to hear, but hopefully next year will be better. WDVX, which is a local TN station put on the event and our boys were lucky enough to have their pictures taken by the station. It should be up on their website in the following days.

That is about that for updates. Wisconsin here we come! Wish us smooth and safe travels! Love to you all!

Sky after the hospital.

Ryder and Maddie

Sky and Maddie

Asher getting ready to play ultimate frisbee...peekaboo style.

Look at all my teeth!!!

Ash

Ryder

Sky

Ash listening to the banjo tune-up

Ryder and Sky lovin' the music

Proud Dad

Asher

7/24/11

16 Months & Here They Are...

Hellllooo! We are rockin' and rollin' these days. We all have been quite busy with everyday life. The boys continue to change and amaze us. They are doing great with their swim lessons, it is so much fun to enjoy the summer sun in the pool with them.

The boys are all walking and beginning to run. They are growing like weeds and learning as if they were all Einstein. Brilliant kids...I'm serious. A parents opinion I guess...

They still love to dance and have acquired some great moves. I believe there is one picture where Ryder is showing you his "sprinkler move". Compliments of Daddy's dance moves I guess. Ha!

Asher continues to read his books and talks up a storm, but still in his own language. He did start singing "You Are My Sunshine" with us and now will do ABC's with us and will count to 3.

Recently, I bought a training potty for the fun of it and we have been practicing "pee, pee in the potty". I know they are only almost 17 months, but why now?! We have put a routine in place during bath time and so far Asher and Ryder and used the potty. Now, I don't think they really knew it was happening, but they did get the idea that something came out of you know what and ended up in the potty. Mommy did the pee-pee dance and excitement filled the room!

Life is becoming a little bit easier, but man it is still hard with 3. We are still very limited with stuff that Jason and I can do with them, but we are learning what we can handle and branching out on that. In fact, in a few weekends we are planning to take the boys to their first music festival near the mountains. The bluegrass festival is on a field so it is just perfect for the boys to run around.

Jason is doing well. He is in PT to strengthen the on going knee issues he has had with hopes he can start to regain the strength and get back to working out. He recently took on killing the front and back lawn to grow a different type of grass so that the boys have the best lawn in town to play on. It has been an undertaking, but I think it might be paying off. Jason has also been working hard to help me with my business as far as accounting and IT goes. He might become my 1st employee! Jason hasn't been fishing much as the weather has just been too hot, but in just a few short weeks he will be of to Canada for a week of fishing, fishing, fishing!

I am doing well too. I am very busy with my business right now. It has been so up and down, but the dedication will soon pay off...I hope! I am still doing Zumba twice a week and started bootcamp workouts on Saturdays. I am right now entertaining the idea of doing Knoxville's Marine Mud Run. It is a 3 mile run with obstacle courses, a jaunt thru a mud pit and then thru a river. My only fear is being with people that are too competitive. I am really wanting to do this for the experience. If I decide to do this, it takes place on September 10th. I will let you know!

Jason and I together don't get to do too much, but we are trying. We had a babysitter a few weeks ago and went out for dinner. Hopefully once it starts to cool down we can get out and do a hike together or see some music. We are working on that.

I guess that's all to report! I will leave you with some pics of the boys. Enjoy!