Hoppers

I will admit it.  I was a bit undecided on the trampoline.  I really didn't think it would fit in our back yard.  It does.  In addition to the space part, I was a bit nervous just about the trampoline in general.  That being said, once we had it put together (after many swear words and help from Ciara, thanks, Bang) it is really very safe.  The net goes all the way around it, which eliminates falling out.  The only trampolines I have ever jumped on have been ones without the net.  Super unsafe.  But the net really takes the scary factor away and bumps up the safety.  The Beauties LOVE it!  They have been out jumping on it almost everyday.  They all four are very good at taking turns and also enjoy jumping all at the same time.  Chloe is like a fish in water.  She does all sorts of stunts and tricks.  Still not sure where she learned most of them, but she is fun to watch.  The triplets of course try to mock her every move.  Mommy and Daddy even get on and jump.  I foresee a lot of time being spent in the backyard this Summer.

good morning

My first born beauty.  

Chloe.  You are only six.  Beauty is not what your clothing looks like.  It is what you hold inside.  Appearance does not define you.

You look cute, sweet, sassy, adorable, nice, fine, great, in style, cool, chic, awesome, pretty, comfy or what ever adjective you would like me to describe how you look in your outfit for school today.  Every night, we spend a minimum of 30 minutes (which is 29 minutes longer than I spend getting dressed) selecting your outfit for school the following morning.  You go to bed satisfied and confident that your outfit of choice is "perfect" for the day ahead.  You sleep.  You wake.  You piddle.  You have to be told to brush your teeth forty-seven times.  You eat and brush your hair.  As the time draws closer to donning the outfit, you begin to act nervous about how the weather will tun out.  Will you be hot/cold, not comfy?  You enter your department store (room) and begin to throw clothing everywhere.  Then the melt down begins.  10 minutes go by.  Still melting.  I come in and make 9 different outfit suggestions.  I leave the department store (room) frustrated that we are doing this yet again today.  I leave you to pout and melt.  I come back in 5 minutes, yep, still melting.  Time check...8:00.  Daddy will be here to take you to school.  You must be ready to walk out the door in 15 minutes or you will be late...again.  8:10...Daddy enters room.  Offers craziest outfit combo I have ever seen.  Nope, you are not biting.  Daddy offers 6 more suggestions, still melting.  8:25...Daddy says "Fine, you will just stay home from school today."  You scramble to find anything to put on, because you will not miss school.  Daddy saying too late, you are staying home.  Mommy trying to peel triplets off, so she can get ready for work.  I tell you to put something on, anything.  You will be late for school, and yes, we will be late enough to require us to sign in at the office.  Daddy tells you to thank Mommy, because if he would have made the last call, you would not be going.  We arrive at school at 9:07.  You are 37 minutes late.

I kiss you goodbye.  

Cannot wait to do it all over tomorrow.

Three in the Bed

There were three in the bed and the little one said...good night.
The Beauties are officially in their toddler beds.  It has been a about a two week process, and I think (knock on wood...hard knocking please) we are home free.  the first week was rough.  Super rough.  Tears, knocking, pounding and clothing covering the entire room every single morning.  Mommy and Sissy did a lot of sleeping on the floor the first two nights.  After night three they were in the room alone (as alone as you can be in a room shared between triplets) they weren't sleeping well yet, but they weren't crying either.  For the first week, it took well over two hours every night for them to stop jumping from bed to bed, throwing clothes everywhere, reading books and talking to actually fall asleep.  This week has been much much much better.  We now have a closet door in place (this due the the fact that EVERY article of clothing found it's way to the floor in the middle of the night, every night the first week.)  If you are wondering, yes the closet is very clean now and not only sports a door but also a lock, smart Mommy.
They are going to sleep within an hour and fall asleep while chatting to each other, or reading a book in the dim night light.  I am also proud to say (knock hard on wood again) that the afternoon nap has resumed.  Thank the stars.  Ten long days without one...it is very much a fact they are NOT ready to be sans nap quite yet.  Neither are Mommy or Daddy.  they are not napping as long, but at least they are sleeping.  Bribery has helped out with the napping.  I promise we will go outside after nap everyday, and we do.  Works well so if it's not broke, I am sure not willing to fix it.

Faces

Silly.Sweet.Sassy

Life Begins

We had a much overdue "family day" yesterday.
WONDERFUL.
So very needed for all of us.  Daddy, Mommy and the Beauties were really missing being together.
It was a gorgeous day outside, so we took full advantage of the sunshine.
Grandpa Dave raises cattle.  Spring is here and the farm is growing with all kinds of new baby animals.  Well, cows mainly.  However, we did see cats, chicks and bunnies too.
We headed out to the pasture in the "Gator" (what I like to call it, Silvie likes it too) and there were lots of momma cows and calves.  Oh and lots of poo.  Gross.  Sugar is still not a farm girl, just in case you were wondering. 
There were a set of twin calves born about a week ago.  They are being bottle fed several times everyday, because the Momma didn't take to them and had no milk.  The Beauties were able to feed them a bottle.  It was so sweet to watch them.  The Beauties were so excited and so were the baby calves.
On our way back, we were searching out Chloe's "pet cow" Cindy Moo-Who.  She has a white face with a black spot around her eyes.  Chloe loved her the first time she saw her (when she was a calf) and decided that Cindy Moo was "her" cow.  She had her second calf this year, both of which have white faces just like hers.  We call her calves "Who Calves." 
We snapped some photos of Cindy Moo and Babe and headed back.  On our way Gramma Val and I spotted a cow...becoming a Mommy Cow...literally.  We were just in time to be able to see a cow birth her calf.  AMAZING.  The Beauties sat and watched in amazement too.  Chloe thought the "slime" was a little icky, but we all agreed it was a really incredible thing to watch.
Farrah was a little concerned why the momma was "eating" the baby.  We gently "explained" about new babies.  A little on the how, why and where.  Not too far in depth...not ready for that talk quite yet.

A memorable day for our family. 
Looking forward to the next.

Easter Beauties

This year was sort of different as family holidays go.  A good different, but different.  My parents are in the processing of packing.  They sold their house and are moving at the end of this month.  That being said, there house is boxed and hosting a family dinner there would have caused more stress on my Mom than necessary.  Matty was working for the Easter weekend, and his family had no plans either.  My brother's wife, Deanna has a large family, most of which are in this area, and they always have big holiday gatherings.  Deanna's sister in law, Lee, invited all of us to share the holiday with them.  It was so nice of her to offer, so of course we went. 
In addition to dinner, what is Easter without an egg hunt?  Deanna's family goes all out for the hunt every year.  They have about 500 plastic eggs filled with money and candy.  Each year they men and women take turns hiding the eggs.  It was "the year of the female this year."  After dinner, Dee, her sister Barb, Lee and I all headed out to hide eggs.  They also have a traditional gold and silver egg filled with a big cash prize!  My brother had the privledge of hiding those this year.  We were told that last year he hid one of the special eggs in his coat pocket.  I can imagine how long that took to locate. 
The Beauties had a wonderful time hunting eggs.  I must say they were quite good at it for first timers. 
At the end of the hunt the Beauties had four plastic grocery bags full of plastic eggs.  (Which they were not at all thrilled about having to empty and give back.) 

RUN...

...It's a LADYBUG!  AGHHHHHHHHHH!

Yes a Ladybug.  Not a monster.  Not a snake.  Not a wasp.  A Ladybug.  The Beauties are afraid of them.  Really, truly afraid of they harmless little buglys.  They run screaming with fear whenever one is sighted.

Worms however, they LOVE.

The first beautiful day we trekked outside to the backyard.  We raked, the swept, we picked up sticks.  We ran from the Ladybuglys, and we had a BLAST playing in the mud with slimy icky worms. 

Don't forget your smile

Chloe had her very first music concert at school Thursday.
She was so very excited to show off all that she had been learning in music class so far this year.  It was K-4th grade.  Each grade singing their own three song montage.  Super cute of course.  There are three Kindergarten classes at Chloe's school.  They are performed together.  My favorite of the three songs they sang, "Eat your Veggies."  The words went a little something like I eat my veggies everyday...YUM!  Hmmmmm I have never seen Chloe eat her veggies everyday.  YUM?  I had fun after the program teasing her a little bit about her excitement during that song.
BTW...her little "boyfriend" (since the very first day of school, still going strong) Aiden is the cutie in the tie. 

Missing Beauties Missing Sugar Mommy

I would like to begin this post as follows...
"Dear loyal blog readers,
Yes, we are all okay.  No I have not left the planet.  Yes, I do intend on continuing the blog.  I do feel bad for neglecting it.  Really, I do Gramma Pam and Aunt Molly.  I promise to find a few extra minutes a few times a week to dedicate to the blogs again." 
Life has been a little hectic.  Okay a slight understatement.  The Beauties are growing and changing so quickly, sometimes I think I forget to breath we are so busy.  Five birthdays in 2 weeks time.  School, spring break, work, household things, laundry, derby, dance, work, laundry...it's crazy here.

Spring is officially here,  We are finally spending some time outside.  YAY!  How we were really disliking icky weather.  I think this in itself will help both Mommy and her Beauties feel more alive.  We were all sick of being cooped up in the house.  Even the mall was getting a bit old.
I am working about 20 hours a week at Care, which I really enjoy.  I think Matt is enjoying having some time with the Beauties as well.  I will say however, that not a lot is being done at home.  Our house is a disaster.  No, it really is.  It's gross.  I really need to clean it.  But, tonight I chose the blogs.
I have lots more photos and stories to share of the last couple weeks.  I will do a little each day (for Aunt Molly, Gma Pam and u too Sam.)
For now, nite-nite.  Enjoy the updates.

Daddy's gonna jump in the water

We went to the Lake on Saturday afternoon to watch the "Polar Plunge."  The Plunge is an annual event that raises money for the Special Olympics.  This year was Daddy's first year to participate in the plunge.  Burr.  the Beauties were very very excited and intrigued waiting for the jumping to begin.  We had front row view.  The Beauties had a great time throwing rocks and sticks in the water as we waited for the fun to begin.  Daddy jumped in with a group of officers and he even went under water.  Did I say burr?  The water in March, in Iowa?  Burr.  He was all smiles the entire time and the Beauties wanted him to jump in again.  He passed, and said next year he would.  The Beauties also were able to meet and get their photo taken with Herkey.  They were all very excited, well except Jocelyn, she only liked him from a distance.

The Beauties favorite part of the afternoon...throwing rocks and sticks into the Lake.

Three Princesses and The Party

Three Babies that look like Little Girls

Three years.  Three wonderful, crazy, fast paced, emotional, challenging, exhausting, overwhelming, unique, incredible, beautiful, amazing, busy, couldn't imagine my life without these beautiful miracles years.  I sit here and think of all the witty things I could write so that one day when my beauties are reading this they might say, "wow, Mom really knew how to put it into words."  Although I know the truest of words are those spoken from your heart.  From the heart is all I know.
When Matt and I learned that we were expecting triplets we were overwhelmed with joy.  We could not believe it.  We had been through numerous losses and couldn't bare the thought of losing another baby.  We took one day at a time.  Some days one minute at a time.  The pregnancy was scary.  So many what-ifs.  So many unknowns.  I went into preterm labor at 24 wks and spent the rest of my pregnancy as a resident in the mother/baby unit at the hospital.  It was difficult, however worth every single second.  My labor was kept under contral being stopped three times over the course of nine weeks.  At 33 wks and 1 day...we would finally meet baby girls A B and C.  Jocelyn, Farrah and Silvie were born on March 11th, 2007 at 10:37 and 10:38 and 10:38:15.  Everything happened so fast.  The details are really a blur in my mind.  The one thing I regret terribly about their birth...not video taping it.  I so wish I would have let Matt film it.  With Chloe I felt like an active participant, no epidural, pushing, breathing touching her and holding her the second she came.  With the triplets I was merely the "porthole" baby, baby, baby...just like that.  I remember crying the entire time and shaking.  I head all of them cry, but was unable to see any of them for several minutes because they were premature.  Matt went with them to the NICU, while they finished putting mommy back together.  It felt like an eternity before I fianlly was wheeled to the
NICU to meet my precious three.  They were perfect.  They were beautiful.  They were my triplets.  We did it.  We really did it.  This was only the beginning.
The first several months is a complete blur.  I was ALWAYS breastfeeding on of them.  I breastfed exclusivly girls (remember that when you have your own.  Mommy did three at a time.  I will be your lactation guide.  Cheering you on.)  Matt went to the Law Enforcement Academy fo 13 wks.  Only home for the very shortened weekends.  Their first birthday.  What a milestone.  How did a year pass that quickly?  Then the second bithday.  A second year gone.  With this day, another year, the third year.  Three year old triplets!  I know it is overused but, "where has the time gone?  I blinked and they are three.  Three.  Really?
I look at them and I see babies that look like little girls.  They are more than I ever imagined possible.  I wonder why God picked me.  I am grateful to him every second.  I hope when my Beauties are all grown, they will read this and know that while Mommy may not have been very witty, or creative with her choice of words, she loved us with her entire being.  I hope they know that my life was better because they were my daughters (all four).  Our lives have been blessed.  Touched be the Lord above.  As I sit here with tear filled eyes...Happy Birthday to my Three year old Triplet Beauties.  Jocelyn.  Farrah.  Silvie.  Mommy loves you.