Triplet Meeting...another funny story....

Ok, so here are the details. As some of you know, I have a pond garden. So we winter the fish in the basement in a huge cow water trough. Everyday I go down to feed them and check on them. The other day I went down to see them and realized one of the fish had a bacterial infection. Today when I went down, I noticed that more fish had started to be infected. So I immediately started cleaning the filters (a time consuming task)...thankfully the kids were playing nicely. I stopped to serve lunch to my little angels. After lunch, back to play for them and back to finishing the filters. I went down to basement for the last time, was down there approximately 5 minutes. I did hear something fall but no crying and when you are in the basement you can hear all movements. So I finished what I was doing and headed back upstairs. I came up to COMPLETE silence...not what you want to hear. So I peeked into the dining room where I left the kids. I found my three little angels sitting in a circle examining something. As I got closer I realized they were examing a leaf from my plant (which is the bump I heard - the plant and plant stand hitting the wall after they ripped the leaf off). Thankfully the plant did not fall over. So back to the kids aka the angels....Alex and Liz were in deep thought about the leaf and Zach...well he was eating it. Yes, that is right, eating it...he must get that from his Auntie Jean as she ate plant leaves as a kid. So I fly over the baby gate, practically break my toe, to fish the plant out of Zach's mouth. Well Zachary is not one to sit still if you are catching him doing something wrong, so he made an attempt to flee the scene. After a very short chase, all plant material was removed. Everyday he pushes the envelope. Life is never dull here!!!
Love Jen

Here are the angels...picture was taken in the morning before any misbehaving...
No they don't look like they would ever do anything wrong...right?!?!?!

Another walker

Yep it is true....Alex is walking. For the past week he has been doing a couple steps then falling. Well he has actually started walking in the last day. He will walk a couple steps get his balance and take another few steps. He is a very cautious walker unlike his brother, who is a holy terror! With plenty of practice he will soon be running with Zach. As far as how Zach is doing on walking or should I say running... he is non-stop...he prefers to walk rather then crawl. He is fast too. He has been walking with both arms raised in the air like a true Godzilla (that is our current nickname for him because he will walk behind the other two crawling and it looks like Godzilla). And little Miss Liz....well she is fine with walking along furniture or if she is holding on to our hands, but no signs of letting go just yet. When she walks behind the walker she does good except for being extremely stiff, she does not bend her knees. So we will continue to watch this and hope she grows out of it. So if you come to our house there are most likely some gates to step over. :) With each new development, there is new challenges.....but we are loving it!!!
Love, Jen

Remember this picture...it is Zachary's hand on top of mine....oh so little. This was taken last year on April 2nd.

Today, almost a year later, I had an opportunity to take another picture with Zachary and his hand on mine....can you believe the difference?!?!? They warned us that we will forget how small they were...and it is true. Even though we will never forget our NICU experience, it is getting more and more difficult to remember the little things that were part of our lives then. I am glad I am a photo-holic and kept some of their preemie clothes that were too big on them.

First field trip to.....

So we have had just about enough of being housebound. We are ready to get out and see the world. So where is the most obvious first place to go......well the grocery store. I needed to get groceries and decided it was time to try taking the kids in public. I am still working on being brave enough to do it on my own, so this time Grandma gave me a helping hand. After the kids ate lunch we packed them up and headed out. It was sunny and very windy, but it did not seem to bother the kids. Grandma needed to go to the post office first so I sat singing to the kids while she ran into the post office, then it was off to the grocery store. We unloaded them into a cart that was outside and headed in. I grabbed a cart to put the groceries in. First a stop at the bank, with only a few stares and a couple comments. Right away we saw Great Uncle John, he stopped to say hi. For the most part the store was pretty slow. Grandma pushed the cart with the kids and I grabbed the food and pushed that cart. As we cruised up and down the aisle, the kids tried to take everything in, great stimulation for these guys. I saw a couple people almost break their necks to turn and looks at us. A few people stopped to talk and ask us questions. All the comments or questions we got were nice. The last area we were in was the frozen department and there was a container of bouncing ball...so after careful selection we put one in the cart. The kids were so well behaved, they deserve a little treat. So we went thru the checkout lane and the checker and 2 baggers were very talkative with us. So all in all it was a great experience AND we did it in an hour!!! It sometimes takes me over an hour by myself! The biggest thing I worried about was them having a meltdown, but I was less worried after reading a post on my triplet forum and a fellow triplet mom making the point that you are not in the library you are at the grocery store...let 'em make noise! So onto the next adventure.....who knows what it will be. :)
Love, Jen

Proud Nana!!!

After going thru the pictures taken from this weekend for the last post I came across this one. I just had to share it with everyone. Nana aka Jeremy's mom was holding Zachary (one of the few times he slowed down long enough) on Saturday morning before all the guests showed up. I took this picture and it turned out great!!! She is a very proud Nana. I know it meant a lot to have her whole family together for Easter. Her smile says it all! Thank you for everything from all of us!!!
Love, Jen

Hoppy Easter!!!

Happy Easter to everyone. We traveled across the state to celebrate Easter with Jeremy's family. We left on Friday, late and in a snow storm. It took us 45 minutes longer than normal to arrive at Nana and Papa's. This was the first time the kids got to try out their new 'big kid' carseats. Yet another sign that we no longer have babies but toddlers. As you can see from the picture below, they like the new accommodations.

The kids loved being able to see us. Thankfully we had toys and their juice to keep them happy during the extra long trip. They were able to take a nap, which also helped to keep them happy. The following pictures are during the ride. 1st is Alex, 2nd is Zach and 3rd is Liz playing her new favorite game "Where's Liz?"


When we arrived at Nana and Papa's the kids' cousins (Mackenzie, Morgan & Madalyn) were there. So we took the opportunity to take another cousins picture. Smile were not in abundance from the kids....but they can't be smiley all the time.

On Saturday we celebrated Easter. The kids we all dressed up. We took a quick picture but it was hard to get their attention with so many people around.

So you are about to travel back in time. The first holiday the kids celebrated was Easter. Last year Easter fell on April 8th. Here are some pictures took on Easter last year and then some I took today. The boys are in the opposite position from last year but you can still see the difference. Oh, how far we have come!!!

Love, Jen

Yes, our kids DO eat dirt!!!

This will make you laugh.
So let me set the scene...it is Thursday afternoon...both boys were up from their very short nap....they were playing in the play area...I was sitting on the couch watching them...I decided to gate off the dining room to give them more area to play.
Due to sleeping issues, I have not been getting great sleep. My eyes became so heavy while watching the boys. So I decided to lay down. Within seconds of laying down my eyes slammed shut. I was only asleep for 5 minutes when I was awaken by something. I sat straight up and began searching the room for the boys. I found Alex standing next to a plant that had been guarded by the fence. Alex had a face full of dirt as well as a mouth full. I jumped up from the couch and immediately started looking for Zach. Although he was not by the plant he had a face full of dirt. In a panic, I grabbed Alex and rushed to the bathroom to wash out his mouth and wash off his face. I then grabbed Zach and did the same. It was only after I put Zach down that I realized I should have grabbed the camera first. So even though I do not have the pictures to prove it...our kids do eat dirt.
Lesson learned...before you close your eyes make sure kids are gated in play area!
Hope you got a good laugh from this, I know I did.
Love, Jen

February Fun!

First, I must apologize for it taking so long to get some pictures on here. I once again got behind on naming the pictures, which puts me behind on posting on the blog.
Second, I have put pictures from the whole month of February rather than just a few that I was going to put in the previous post.
Third, a quick update - Zach is still our only walker...Alex is trying hard-today he took two steps and then went down....Liz is working on her balance. Currently Liz is still the leader in teeth...her 6th one popped thru yesterday...Alex is in a close 2nd with 5...Zach finally had his first popped thru at the beginning of the week and his second is popping thru as we speak. They are great eaters. We are so lucky! We have not found anything that they flat out refuse to eat. Yes there are some things that they will wait until all the rest of the food is gone before they eat it, but they will eat it. They eat everything we eat...some examples: meatloaf, fahitas, tuna casserole, cottage cheese, eggs, various fruits, veggies. They are true Wisconsinities...they have had brats, hamburgers and cheese!!! They are ready for tailgating! :) They have a more relaxed schedule now as they drink milk with their meals like big people do. They are up later...bedtime is now about 8:30. Daylight savings actually has helped us. The kids were waking about 6:15 so now they are getting up at 7:15. We have been having some long nights due to teething and getting over the latest cold so that extra hour is pure heaven for me!!! Gosh, they have grown up so much since they turned one and this weekend they will be 13 months old.....where does the time go?!?!?!
Enjoy the pics!
Love, Jen
Liz helping with laundry....
Liz taking a snooze in the middle of playing...
Liz hamming it up...
The boys playing while drinking their juice...
Zach and Charlie checking out each other...
Liz hamming it up again...

The boys playing with Frank...
Who is this handsome guy???
Liz doing what she does best...posing for the camera...
Zach in deep thought...
Alex playing with his favorite thing...teether ring aka beads...

Liz, do you ever not smile for a picture?!?!?
Zach hanging out in the stuff animal basket...
Zach newest favorite thing...yup it is the broom...
See, I don't always smile...(soon after this picture she was throwing a fit...tears and all)
Why do we have toys when we can have HANGERS!!!

Liz and Zach hamming it up playing...
Yup, I can stick out my tongue too...

It did not take long to find the tupperware once they had access to the kitchen...



Three sleeping beauties(picture taken by me and they are sleeping on me, so it is not the greatest)...

Whatcha doing daddy??? Gettin' a beer???
Zach playing inside the toy's box...
After lunch the boys needed to be chaged due to the messy eating, they were all chasing each other around the table prior to this picture.
Liz insists to put toys in the rocker. She struggled a little bit with the phone but did finally succeed...
Mom, what's in these cabinets???

Zach and me chillin on the couch(another self portrait)...
Zach mission in life is to have all three nuks at once...he has finally succeeded!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Today is my birthday...I am now 31! If you look in the archives and look at my birthday last year you will see how far we have come. A year ago today I was able to hold Zachary for the very first time. It was all I wanted to do (16 longs days), but very scary. He had so many things attached to him. Now fast forward to today...he is a walking machine....nothing stops him...he is VERY determined...he is a miracle (as are his siblings).

So you ask how did today go? Well wonderful....Jeremy surprised me by taking a day of vacation so I could get some time off...that is itself was the best gift! But it gets better...him and the kids got me a few things for my pond garden. Nope does not end there....he took me out to dinner AND surprised me with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake! Although nothing compares to holding your child for the first time, but ice cream cake is darn close! :) He did good....VERY good!

So you ask what did I do with my time off? Well I went to the DMV to renew my driver's license, then headed across the street to Wally World to pick up some socks for the kids and some cabinet safety locks for the kitchen cabinets (kids are loving the cabinets). I then headed to Shopko to return a coffee pot that does not work with our maker (because I broke our pot yesterday..I am so clutsy) and pick up some more sippy cups. I then headed to the hairdresser (more to come on this). After I got done there I stopped at the resale shop (they are having a huge sale!). Then once again headed back to Wally World to find a coffee maker since Shopko had nothing to my liking. Then I headed back home and relaxed for the rest of the day.

So back to the hairdressers. As some of you may know, it has been a LONG time since I had my hair cut. In fact, I was 4 months pregnant the last time I got it cut. That is almost a year and 1/2 ago. Also most of you know my main hair-do is pulling it up in a scrunchy...most nights I let it down and it is still wet from my morning shower. So a few weeks ago I decided to get my hair measured to see if there was enough to donate to Locks for Love. Well sure enough there was, so I did some deep thinking. Well I did it...I chopped off my hair....10 inches!!! Yes it is shorter than I expected (does not even touch my shoulders) but it is going to something so important. I am getting use to it as is Jeremy and the kids. Here is a picture we took quick tonight, it is not the best but you get the idea.

BTW, I am planning on putting February pictures on within the next few days, so check back. Love, Jen