Happy ONE!

Reesey turned one year old today! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Her first year went so much faster than the trio's first year. Of course, she was a third of the work they were and I got 3 times more sleep at least! I love all my kids very much but I having Reese after triplets makes me appreciate her and realize what a gift she truly is. I have really enjoyed having one baby (of course having triplets is an amazing experience too but it's apples and oranges).
She is such a good baby and so happy most of the time. I haven't spent much time away from her at all and that's okay. Breastfeeding was hard but I'm glad I did it for the whole year (not sure how we're stopping that yet). I have her on a good schedule but she's very flexible. She loves her siblings and they love her right back. She's the apple of her Daddy's eye and I think she's pretty sweet on him too. I love that she's outgoing and really goofy!
Her little party is tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it and there's lots of pink cupcakey stuff around here. I hope she has a great time!
Happy Birthday, Reesey I love you lots!

My Recipe

I saw this on another blog and thought I'd try it. I figured you had to take a quiz but the recipe is solely based on your name. Apparently "Mindys" are very sexy. I think that part is hilarious because I would never call myself sexy and I should have 2 parts sexy. What the heck? Where's my sexy? I think the triplets and the extra kid stole that from me!

The Recipe For Mindy

3 parts Courage 2 parts Sexiness 1 part Prosperity Splash of Kindness Shake vigorously

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

A reminder and Feeling Good

I decided last night that the kids were staying home today. I certainly didn't want them to spread their germs around to their classmates and teachers although I think Addison and Ethan may be on the road to recovery but Caden threw up this morning. Here's a reminder for all you parents: no matter how much your child cries and begs for strawberry milk when they are sick, do not give in or you'll be like me scrubbing your couch and shoving pillows into your washing machine. At least we don't have carpet.

Even though the kids may not be feeling their best, I must say that maybe this isn't going to be another Bah Humbug Christmas for me. I sat down and started a list for all the people we are buying for. I always write lists but many times I get as far as the names and then am stumped and continue to be stumped for the next 4 weeks and end up shopping last minute and still don't know what to get. However this year is different. I have several "theme" gifts which I like doing and some ideas for homemade stuff and I'm actually excited. I had a chance to get away on Saturday and while I was out and about I saw a couple things that were on my list and they were on sale! So double bonus! I don't have a lot crossed off but some. Once we get Thanksgiving and Reese's party over then I will get serious about the homemade stuff and shop a little each week. I don't do Black Friday and I think I can find just as good deals as it gets closer to Christmas and there are usually good online deals too.

I'm off to disinfect every surface the kids touched and try to get dressed before the dishwasher repair man appears at my door.

Poop Central

That's right, we have some stomach bug floating around here. Fun, Fun, Fun! Addison calls it explosions so ya know it ain't good! She was sick yesterday and I thought was better today now her tummy hurts. Ethan calls "mommy, daddy" about 3 am last night and I'm thinking, he wants to get up. He sometimes wakes up in the middle of night, ready to get up and go. But I opened the door to their room and the smell smacked me awake. He said in his Polish accent, "mommy, I spilled". He threw up. I went to wake up Aaron and told him and he said "oh,no" and went back to sleep but I'm not doing that alone so I made him help. He changed and bathed him and I did the bed. You'll remember that Ethan sleeps with no less than 89 stuffed animals. But luckily most of them were at the other end of the bed and he localized his sickness. As soon as Aaron got him bathed and changed into new jammies, he threw up again. So more new jammies. He went to bed fine not even complaining about not having all those animals in his bed. Caden woke up at 5 am with "explosions" too. At least Addison and Caden are potty trained and have made it to the potty. I can't believe how many times we've changed Ethan today . . . we should get a prize . . . a good prize . . . not sickness. I have washed my hands so much today that they feel like sandpaper. Let's just hope we're over this in a day or so and healthy for Thanksgiving and Reese's birthday. I remember 2 years ago (I think) when we went to Keely's house for Thanksgiving and my kids were throwing up at the dinner table, now that's a Thanksgiving to remember!

Birthday Wishes and Back on the Patch

Been busy around here this week . . . so busy that I didn't even post about Aaron's Birthday on Wednesday. The kids were excited about his birthday and I never have any idea what to get him because he asks for impossible things like a fuss ball table (where are we putting that?), snow blower (sure.), or a new PlayStation that was like $600. So I just picked up some small stuff turns out I had 5 gifts so the kids each picked out one thing to give him and the wrapping paper to wrap it in. Caden even had the idea we should hide when he came home and yell "surprise" which we did. They wanted to know what kind of party he was having. They were a little disappointed when they found out they were going to Grammy's and we were going out to eat. We went to the Packing House for Aaron's free birthday dinner. It was good and nice just to eat by ourselves. Happy {late} Birthday, Aaron!

Ethan and Addison had eye doctor appointments yesterday. They are seeing the Pediatric eye doctor about every 4 months and yesterday was their yearly dilation. We were there for 2-1/2 hours. I hate appointments that never seem to end! Anyway we didn't get the best news. Addison eye and head turning is getting a little worse so she may have to have another eye muscle surgery to correct that. She goes back in about 4 months to see her progress. Now that Ethan is older, he is able to help with the eye exam and give them information on what he can an can't see. So yesterday it was determined that his eyes aren't of equal strength which is very important. If you have one eye that is stronger, it will keep getting stronger and eventually the other eye will not be give much or any benefit at all. So the doctor said the dreaded "P" word: patching. We've been through patching before. So long ago that I can't even remember when but I think we patched for more than a year before he was 2 years old. He fought us on it all the way. 4 hours (of awake time) a day. We managed to get 30 minutes in yesterday. You can see the battle we're up for! More on this to follow.

This is the first day this week we didn't have to be gone! YaHOO! I'm off to put dinner in the crock pot, do laundry until I run out of soap, and make a couple fun things for Reese's party! Have a great day!

A Little {too} Tickled Pink

Pink, pink, pink, add a little brown, and then some more pink! I'm all in pink mode here for Reese's birthday. She's having a very, very, very, small cupcake party! I thought I would be so burnt out from the Pirate Bash we just had two week ago but I'm loving the pink cupcake stuff so much and don't feel stressed or worried things won't get done.

It's going to be simple but I found some really great ideas and have spent virtually no money on most of the things I made so far. I made her a felt crown, a cupcake onsie, and a pink tutu. We're headed to get her photo taken in all of those today. I found all the ideas on the internet. Sure, everything was available to buy but we can't afford a $38 felt crown that she may or may not wear. The crown I made was about 40 cents but still cute!

I have found some other great ideas that I hopefully have a chance to work on them this week. I hope she's cooperative for photos today and will stand so she can show off her cute brown polka dotted dress and her pink tutu!

Happy Birthday, Monica!

It's my sister's birthday today. Her husband, John, threw her a small surprise party yesterday at her house. He made an 18 egg wedding cake and beat it by hand because Monica said wedding cakes were her favorite. He ordered out pizza and contacted Keely, us, my dad, and his mom. He cleaned up the house a little and thought of an excuse for her not to put their lunch in the crock pot Sunday morning. He's good at that stuff. It was fun and she was surprised when she came in and saw all of us.

Monica is a 3rd grade teacher. She works hard. She has 3 kids including Boston, in high school who does football and wrestling plus Chloe (3rd grade) and Cael (kindergarten) and they are involved in tumbling and baseball and soccer and church. Monica's one of those super organized people who will have her Christmas cards sent out by Thanksgiving (I saw the Christmas photo last night) and all her shopping will be complete by Black Friday. Her house is always clean. She always looks super cute with her hair and make up done and all dressed up cute. Her family is really involved in their church and not only attends Sunday services but they do things throughout the week sometimes. She's on committees and seems to have time to do things socially too. She bathes her kids daily (something I certainly do not do at which I'm sure she's appalled). She's a great mom, wife, sister, and she's one of my best friends too. She's always been there for me when I've needed her.

It's nice to get together. We don't do it often enough. It's hard since we live 1 and 3 hours apart and with work schedules and kids, you know the drill.

We even got all our kids together for a photo. I almost got a good one too except for cutting off Cael's head, sorry Cael!

Happy Birthday, Monica, my sister, my friend!

Givens at our house

These are the things that are "givens" (the only term I remember from HS geometry -- which I barely passed and still don't understand the purpose of that class) here no matter what:

1. My washer and dryer always have clothes in them: dirty, clean, wet, dry, wrinkled -- laundry may be the death of me!

2. We have 3 laundry baskets. Usually only one is empty, sometimes all 3 are full.

3. Our 18-1/2 year old cat will start it's nightly yowling as soon as the kids are in bed and quieted down -- extremely annoying.

4. Our phone will ring at dinner time -- 80% of time it's Aaron's dad (maybe he's hinting for an invite).

5. On days I'm stressed or in a bad mood, Aaron doesn't have time to empty the dishwasher and there's no diet mountain dew to be found in this house.

6. Ethan will walk at a snail's pace if we are in a hurry or late to an appointment. Otherwise he's running everywhere else.

7. On days we are really late for preschool, I can only find one of my shoes because my kids were wearing them but now don't remember where they are.

8. I am starting new projects. I usually begin a few each week, then they are forgotten or put aside. The excitement part of beginning is usually overtaken by the limited amount of time and various interruptions that keep me from giving it my full attention.

9. A child is always crying for some reason here when they are awake.

10. At least one child will spend part of the night in our bed.

11. No matter how many times I try to get our bedroom cleaned up -- it always is cluttered with stuff "waiting" to go somewhere else. Sort of like a temporary or long term storage area. I hate that.

12. My scrap desk is always covered with a huge pile of everything.

13. I will spend several minutes a day searching for stuff: pacis, shoes, coats, papers, coupons, cups, craft supplies. I have a "issue" when I cannot find something and cannot let it go until I find "it".

14. When I plan to get up really early before the kids, they will get up before me.

15. On days I am tired, sick, or stressed, Aaron will have to work late.

16. As soon as something comes on the news that I want to hear, the kids get unbelievably loud and by the time I get them to quiet down, the story is over.

17. There is way more stuff to do in one day than there is time -- this is true for everybody, isn't it?

We have a Walker!

She did it tonight! She's been practicing a step or two for the last week but tonight she walked several steps all by herself lots of times. I think she's going to be one of those kids who runs rather than walks and does a lot of face plants -- she had one tonight. I'm excited for her. It's fun to see a baby so proud and excited when they learn something new. The older kids get a little excited too and it's hard to get a photo of something because they want to be a part of it too. We have to remember that they are happy for her too and the photo is secondary to their support and love they are showing.

BASB "First" Challenge

I found another challenge blog -- I think I need to get off the computer. Anyway, I like new ones because everyone is starting fresh. I think it's hard to join in when challenges sites have been going a while and everyone "knows" everyone else. Anyway this one from BASB is about a first. I went to my photo holder and found photos of Caden when he got his stitches and that was a first for him and our family. I even hand sewn some "stitches" on the chipboard letters. (Click on the photo to see it larger and read the journaling).

I am so glad I have this blog. I didn't remember much about this until I looked back and I totally forgot all about the alligator story. Yeah, for my blog and start one if you haven't yet, Monica, Cathi, Ashley!

My Perfect Quote

This quote describes me to a tee:

Be like a duck. Stay calm on the surface but paddle like hell
underneath. --Michael Caine

No wonder I always feel so tired!

We're getting Physical!

We finally started going to the YMCA this week. I know we joined eons ago and have been paying our monthly membership without going . . . smart, huh? But right after we joined I got sick then the girls had pink eye, then we were in birthday party mode . . . excuses, excuses. Baby steps for me.

I like doing it so far. We've been twice this week. I'm doing a little bit the nautilus machines then walking a lot on the treadmill. I've never been on a treadmill before . . . geesh, I'm such a hermit. I would like to try some of the other machines in the treadmill room too some look like low bikes and other things look like you're standing while biking. I don't even know what they are called, let alone how to do them but I'll venture out soon. Each time I've done the treadmill I really push myself, today I "walked" over 2 miles in about 1/2 hour. I think after the new year I will try running but I need more practice. I almost fell off the first day, then today I leaned on some bar on a nautilus machine and almost fell on the floor. Can't tell I'm new! We are going to take the kids in the pool too maybe next week when they have open swim. They are excited. We're just not too sure if we can handle all of them in there at once. I think they will be taking swimming lessons after the new year too.

I wasn't too sore after the first workout, which to me meant I need to do more. I actually like being sore, not sure why but maybe makes me feel like I'm making progress. The kids like going to the daycare room too. Aaron and I are going to try to go together once or twice a week. Then I hope to get there once with Reese and hopefully on the weekend at a least a couple times, a month we can get the kids into the pool.

I'm hoping the exercise will help improve my mood. I've been down the last week or two. The time change isn't working for us. We've been late getting ready for school and we were really late one day this week. It's not because we aren't getting up either. We are usually all up by 7 am. The kids don't want to get dressed or eat, just play. I hate coats and gloves and hats times 4; half the time I don't even have time to put on my coat. The kids are beyond wild from about 6 until 8. I mean out of control: running, screaming, playing football, wrestling. The witching hour has switched and is now longer. I'm so not in the mood for that after a long day. I told Aaron next year we're not switching our clocks, everyone else will just have to deal if we're early or late. I've had NO TIME to do anything fun, creative, or get away. Yesterday, I decided I didn't care how messy our house was or how many millions of things I should be doing, I stopped and made a scrapbook page. It needs one finishing touch and I'm posting it tomorrow. Saturday, Aaron's mom is watching the older kids and we're taking Reese to get our flu shots, Christmas shop, and go out to eat. It's almost like being childless, she's pretty easy going. I'm so excited to do something fun and get away for a few hours.

Christmas is coming . . .Bah Humbug!

I may be ostracized for writing this but typically I don't like Christmas. I mean, at all . . . actually I could say I hate it. Before kids, after kids, although maybe my hate isn't as strong as it used to be. Mainly my strong dislike for the holiday comes from the abundance of everything at this time of year: obligations, expectations, traditions, spending money, decorating, gift giving, memory making. It becomes so overwhelming and frustrating, I can't be the only one who feels this way. I hate trying to buy gifts for people that I have no idea what to get for them. I don't have time to shop and probably the gifts go unused, donated, or thrown away. Not that people aren't appreciative but who wants a bunch of clutter? I don't. People get so worried about the gift thing too. Is it perfect, what do they like, I have no qualms about things getting returned but I know other people who get upset if you return their gift. Another example is some people are concerned with quantity in terms of my kids, did they get the same amount of gifts? Did I spend the same amount of money on each child? Please, my kids don't care about those things. They are little enough not to notice and on top of that we are raising them not to be the "Hey, it's not fair, so-and-so got more than me" and so far it is working, we don't make a big deal if someone gets something and others don't and there really hasn't been an issue about it. My kids got so much, too much last year and it was overwhelming me (and them) for several weeks after Christmas (plus throw in a new baby). We even bought into the whole same number gifts thing last year too, each of the older kids got 8 presents here at home . . . 8 x 3 that's 24 things plus the baby got stuff. In addition to the things they received from extended family and friends . . . over.whelm.ing!

I would really like to love Christmas and enjoy it, so over the last few years I feel like I am making changes to what I think Christmas should be and how my family chooses to celebrate it.

So that sums up my whole idea of Christmas: it's overwhelming. So my new motto for the holidays is simplifying (which happens to be my word for the year too). My plan is to:

1. Decorate less with what I want to decorate with, not everything I have. There's no rule I have to put up every decoration I own. Today Ali Edwards' Blog had a lot of good ideas about simplifying the holidays and one tip was just decorate one room of your home instead of the entire house. A fun and memorable tradition was to once in a while during the holidays to turn off all the lights except for the holiday ones and turn on some holiday music and sit and enjoy the decorations. We're so doing this. I'm thinking a couple times a week with some cocoa, what a fun memory for our whole family. It's a time to slow down and breathe and appreciate the holiday.

2. Buy less. We already do a grab bag for the adults with both sides of the family. We make it into a kind of game where you can steal someone's gift . . . it can be really fun although Aaron's family hasn't really caught on to the whole "fun" part of it but maybe this will be the year, it's a work-in-progress. This year on my side of the family my sisters and I decided to buy group gifts for each set of kids. Less stuff and togetherness. I like the idea. It's taking a little bit of thinking but I have some fun ideas floating around. For our kids at home I am adopting this idea for each child:

Something they need, something they want, something to read, something to wear. And I'm throwing in a toy from Santa and their stockings which we don't put a lot in. Santa also gets them a group gift. This year it is an electronic keyboard. We found a cool one for $15 at Walmart -- it's something that even Reese can play. That is going to help us out a lot in buying, spending money, and space issues. Plus the kids can actually concentrate on playing with the toys rather than run from one thing to another because there's so much and it won't be so unorganized and overwhelming to them.

3. Do the things we enjoy and skip the stuff we don't. I like making our cards, I like making homemade ornaments to give. However, I don't enjoy it when I have to make 75 of each of those things. I begin to feel like a factory. I'm cutting back on those. I will make the number of them that is more manageable and a few extra but that's it. Sure it's nice to give everyone I've ever met (and some people I haven't) something but if I see someone once a year or never why am I sending them a card -- we're evidently not that close. Likewise, we'll attend some holiday events that are fun yet affordable. We can't afford to visit Santa at the mall and pay beau coup bucks for a bad photo but Walmart or someplace usually has Santa there and you can take the photo yourself. We may head to the Festival of Trees again this year. Last year we weren't so impressed but I was 39 weeks pregnant and the kids weren't quite ready to walk but didn't want to ride in the wagon. Last year we never picked out a gift for the angel tree either we both really like doing this and I think the kids will too. We're not going to feel obligated to attend some events that we don't enjoy or don't have time for -- no guilt about it either.

4. Make some gifts. I like doing that too but unfortunately I run out of time. If I cut back on other stuff this year and make it a priority. I have some cute ideas for teachers and some family gifts too. I think I'm not going to stress too much if I don't get them done though. A gift card can be my fall-back if they don't get completed in time and then I can save it for another time or even next Christmas. I enjoy making stuff and it does save money but it is time-consuming but I also find it relaxing.

Christmas should be a magical memorable family time that is enjoyable and brings up pleasant thoughts about the blessings we have, instead of stress and worry. I hope I really enjoy the holidays this year and the memories we create with our families and friends. I hope you do the same.

Birthday Fun!

Wow! What a weekend! What a Party and boy are we tired and our house may never get put back together again but it was fun and the kids loved it and had a blast!

4 years old is the time they are REALLY into this kind of stuff! The preparation part went really well for the first time. We didn't have a ton to do the night before. Just decorated, moved around the tables, finished frosting the cupcakes and my disastrous cake, and took the majority of the toys that were downstairs upstairs. We put up the gate to the stairs because our upstairs looked like the playroom had thrown up and we didn't think anyone needed to see that. There was no fighting or divorce threats made. At one point Aaron said I know you get annoyed when I talk so I'm trying not to say anything . . . so after 8 years of marriage he has learned that when we are close to a deadline just work, no talking.

The party started with decorating treasure chests (wipe boxes that we painted brown with plastic paint) with jewels. These boxes doubled as their take home favors which I filled with some pirate booty.

They were really cute after the kids decorated them.

We played pin the X on the treasure map (the pirate take on pin the tail on the donkey).


Ethan was a great help at spinning everyone.

Noah was our big winner (I'm giving credit to him publicly because I didn't have prizes). We went out in the spitting snow/rain and freezing cold to smash a pinata. We let everyone have a hit but my nephew, Cael, is practically a professional baseball player at 5 went last and let him have a wooden bat instead of a plastic one and it didn't take him long to break it.


My poor pirate ship cake looked really good about midnight when we went to bed on Friday. Here's the shipwreck we woke up to:

The kids weren't that upset when I explained what happened and we just used cupcakes for their song and candles.

Opening presents was a chaotic mess but they had fun! They got lots of nice things to wear and play with.

After it was all over, Aaron and I agreed it went well and it was a fun party. However, we have decided that for their 5th birthday we will be waiting until their "half" birthday in May and having it in our backyard. We're thinking cooking on the grill, nice weather, bounce house, outdoor games, land ots of room to move around. Our house is way too small to have 54 people in it (actually we only 38 people that were able to attend). There's no room to play games, open presents, get good photos, move around comfortably, and even though it was in the 40's outside it felt like 100 degrees in our house with both door wide open. So we have a year and half to plan the next BIG party . . . and even though I really like doing it, I need the break!

The Story Matters Challenge

Here's my entry for The Story Matters Challenge Blog. I haven't missed one of these challenges yet. I am really tired from the birthday party festivities but I haven't missed doing one of these challenges yet so I made myself do it and whipped it together in an hour. It shows but I love this photo of Ethan!

I think I should get extra credit for using papers that Keely got me almost 3 years ago! No kidding. The "I am her to live our loud" tag is that old too. The birdie circles are brand new though. Way to mix up, huh?

The last challenge I did for this blog I won! Check it out here!

I will post about the birthday party tomorrow. I need to get some sleep!

Birthday, Appointment, and Conference

Boy, this week has flown by . . . I can't believe it's already Thursday . . . only 1 day until our big Pirate Party. The kids are super excited. I must say this is the most organized we have EVER been for a party. It's a shame too because normally Keely and Jeremy and their kids come stay with us the night before our birthday but this year they are just coming for Saturday. They had some excuse about their dogs but we really know they cannot possibly stand to listen to Aaron and I fight, cuss, and threaten divorce until the wee hours of the morning. But this year I really don't think that will be happening and we may actually go to bed before 2 am. Tonight I am supposed to be working on my slide show . . . actually I plan on creating the whole thing so I'm blogging to avoid that right now. Tomorrow I am sending the kids to Grammy's in the afternoon to prepare ALL the food so tomorrow night Aaron and I can just set up the tables and chairs and decorate. I think we are taking most of the toys and putting them away too to make room for people. 50 people in my house is pushing it and it's supposed to snow tomorrow so I doubt anyone can hang out outside.

Their birthday was great! They had a fabulous day at school. Went to Happy Joes with Grandpa, Grammy, and Papa then home to open presents. Got to bed an hour late and were tired today.

Today we had doctor's appointment for 4 year old well check-ups, flu-shots, and ear rechecks. Everyone is doing well. Addison is in 10% for height and weight. Caden is in 10% for weight and 50% for height, and Ethan who weighs 26 pounds and is 36-1/2 inches tall is in the 5% for both. At least he's on the chart now. Ethan faked cried before and after his flu shot but didn't really cry during the shot. Caden had the worst time -- he's not like me and Ethan in the pain tolerance arena. Reese now has two infected ears. She's been out of sorts this week only getting one nap in a day because we have so much going on, time change, and a runny nose with some coughing . . . she's not so delightful at times.

Parent-teacher conferences were tonight too. I can't believe how well behaved Caden and Addison are at school. Never gotten in trouble. No one even tattles on them? Are these really my children and why can't they act a little more like that at home? Addison wrote her whole name at school without any help -- what? Caden did well on a position word "test" but then Mrs. Duncan said he was using his neighbor for hints -- how do they know to copy? He's a pleaser like his mom. Ethan is doing wonderfully too. He seems to improve so much almost daily. Today the attendance counter was absent, so Ms. Flynn let him do it and she said he counted all 17 people by pointing at them with just a little help. He also came to snack time when called willingly without falling in a pile on the floor. I feel so happy about their progress. Maybe 4 will be the "good" year!

Happy 4!!!

4 years ago today, I woke up like I did the previous 76 days -- in a hospital bed. My c-section date had been set for November 18th. 4 years ago November 5th was a Friday. I hadn't had a detailed sonogram for more than 2 weeks which was not the normal but things had been crazy that week with 2 sets of twins born prematurely, then the quads were delivered that week too. So I kind of got forgotten about. I asked that morning about another steroid shot to develop the baby's lungs and got one. I also questioned about a sonogram. Normally they were only done on the weekdays so my next chance was 3 days away. Good thing for the reminder. I was always happy to see the babies and in detailed sonograms, the babies were measured for projected weights. I liked seeing the progression. There was a med student there to watch the process which was the norm in my hospital. Addison was first. Then came Ethan. Everything seemed fine but Caden's time went fast and his weight didn't go up. The sonographer left to go tell the doctor we were done and I waited with the med student . . . and we waited more . . . and then even longer. I knew something was wrong. It doesn't take that long to call the doctor to tell him that he needs to come up and look at the babies himself. Finally he arrived. He did his observations and then put his hand on mine and said "I don't' want to alarm you but we need to deliver you today" and he proceeded to tell me that it appeared that Ethan had fluid around his heart. He needed to come out now. I was excited and ready. The words hadn't really sunk in until I had to call people. I called Aaron to tell him to get to the hospital. He was two hours away. Actually I had to call him back a second time when I told him it was time to come because he was excited and got off the phone before I could tell him the news about Ethan. I called my two sisters too and it was hard to say out loud that something was not right. My friend, Sonia, had planned on coming to visit me this day and she arrived. I really didn't have too much time to get nervous about the surgery -- time flew. Of course, Aaron still wasn't there, my sister, Monica came and I asked her if she would go in the delivery room with me. The doctor said we couldn't wait any longer. It all happened so quickly. Addison was born and there was a little kitten cry. Ethan came next and there was a lot of commotion with him, and when Caden came last I felt such relief because he was so big at almost 4 pounds. I got to kiss Addison and she looked good. Aaron arrived and got to go with the kids to the NICU. I was left to recover and then moved to my regular room where I had to spend the next 13 hours unable to move off my left side because my blood pressure sky-rocketed. It took a while to get it stabilized. The hardest things I ever had to do was lay and wait and wonder to see those babies that I had wanted for so long, that I had worked so hard for, that we had gone through so many procedures and tests, and that I had worried and prayed for every moment of this scary pregnancy. Aaron brought these photos:

Caden, 3.15 lbs

Ethan, 2.6 pounds

Addison, 3.8 pounds

Shocking, maybe to some of you. I was prepared for it; it was all I had for 13 hours. I studied them and studied them. I sent Aaron down to come back and report. Finally at about 1 am they reluctantly let me go down to see them. I fell in love with those babies. They looked bigger in person, that is if 2 and 3 pound babies can look big! Then it was real. They were real. There were a lot of ups and downs in the days, weeks, and months ahead. The photos got scarier:

More machines added for Ethan and more questions as to what was wrong.

Addison needed chest tubes and a ventilator.

Mixed in with all that scary stuff they was great moments like this:

The NICU is not a place to catch your breath so it wasn't long and we had this at home:

while Ethan spent the next 4 weeks in the hospital where I went to visit him every weekday morning and Aaron visited him on the weekends. It was so hard to have 2 preemies at home and another struggling in the NICU over an hour away. Every day I when I woke up I said I wasn't going to go -- I was too tired, too overwhelmed, too everything, but I did because I needed to see him and he needed to see me.


After 5-1/2 weeks, Ethan joined us all at home where our arms and hearts were full.

I wish I remembered more of this time of their life -- but I don't -- it's probably the why I stayed mostly sane. At least I have photos even if the memories are foggy or non-existent

Even though the times with triplets continues to be a roller coaster of ups and downs and downright stressful so much of the time, we wouldn't change one moment of it all. We've had 4 years of fun

and love

and memories

In 4 short years from here

to here

we know we are truly blessed!

Happy Birthday,

Addison

Caden

Ethan!

We Love You!