Springtime of Hope Pageant

 

This past weekend we entered the babies in the Springtime of Hope Pageant.  This was a local pageant sponsored by a friend who was raising money for the American Cancer Society. So what a great opportunity to dress up the babies and have a little fun!!!

Here they are dressed and ready to head out for the big event!

First off was the Baby Princess Pageant

Daddy was such a good sport and showed off Lila

 

Mommy showing off Maddie

Here are all of the contestants and next to Brad is Chris and Isabella

 

Showing off the girls

The girls with their future bestie Izzy. They had to compete against each other but were really good sports…lol!

Daddy giving Lila good job kisses

 

  Maddie winning her awards…she won Best Personality, Best Smile, Most Photogenic, and got 1st runner up

 

Lila winning her awards…she won Best Dressed.  Daddy kinda had her bunched up a little so I don’t think they got a good look at her…I know they missed her eyes!!  I felt bad that she didn’t win much but I guess that is the way it will be for the rest of their lives.  Everyone had a good time and did a great job so that is all that matters!!

And our little Izzy won!! We were very happy for her…isn’t she so cute!!

And then it was time for the Baby Prince’s

Carter showing off his stuff…isn’t he such a stud.

I had to sit him down because he was getting a little heavy to hold as the judges scored him!!

Carter winning his awards…he won Best Dressed, Prettiest Eyes, Most Photogenic, Prettiest Hair, Best Smile and 1st Runner Up

 

Lila giving Uncle Chris a high Five after a job well done!

Maddie trying to eat her awards and looking mighty cute!!!  The awards are bigger than she is:0)

Lila looking so adorable with her medal and ribbon.  She thought they were pretty tasty too!

And the big man…Do you think he maybe stole the show…lol!!!  And obviously he thinks the awards are YUMMY !!!!

Congrats to all the winners and a job well done to everyone.  And a big Thank you to Yolanda for a great event!!

Then on Sunday we had our very first professional photo shot.  I really just wanted a family picture of all of us but by the time we loaded everyone up and drove to Florence (30 minutes away) I don’t think they would have been as cooperative.  Mark Ferguson, a friend our Brad’s from high school who takes pictures professionally, came out to the house to take them.  I was hoping to get outside so I had already cancelled on him last weekend and of course it was raining again so I said lets just do it.  I am glad I didn’t wait around for a sunny day because we got plenty of great shots.  He commented on how well they were doing and looking right at the camera.  I laughed and said…that is because a camera has been in their face everyday since they were born.  I am so excited to get them back in a few weeks and as soon as I do I will post some of them.

The big 6 month check up is on Wednesday so we are excited to see our new weight and heights and also what fun things might be in our future….ie some real food.

Here is also a cute email that I received from one of my triplet mom’s..and most of this is VERY true and the reason for the most is because we haven’t experienced some it yet but we will soon enough.  Its a little long but well worth the laughs.

You Know You Have TRIPLETS When:

Your stroller has a steering wheel

Your Costco 2% rebate check comes in at $300

Dinnertime is officially declared an Olympic Event

You arrive at your doctor’s appointments early just to read the magazines in peace.

Root canals are a great chance to catch up on your sleep.

You laugh at singleton moms that are struggling to get their stroller out of the car.

You wonder how come singleton moms need a diaper bag the size of a suitcase, while you travel with enough for your babies in a bag half the size.

You can unload three babies from car seats and put them in your stroller WHILE you are laughing at the singleton mom getting her stroller out of her car.

Your husband has seriously tried to add GPS and motorize your stroller.

Men whom you have never met ask to 'test drive' your stroller.

There is no room in your refrigerator for food, all available space is occupied by pre-prepared bottles of formula.

You look at a closet full of diapers and think “I’m running low”

A regular sized pack of diapers lasts only 3 days.

Every morning you mentally prepare yourself for the worst before your enter “that” bedroom, (naked toddlers, wet bed sheets, diapers on the floor and three little voice saying “poop, poop”)

Your biggest dilemma is how to keep those dang diapers on.

You've either used, or considered using duct tape on diapers.

You are obsessed with diapers.

You can throw French-fries to the rear set of seats without looking and none end up on the floor.

You consider wearing jeans being 'dressed up', and it's a formal event if you're wearing make-up

You can change diapers standing up, while in line, at the Children’s Museum.

You feel like a sheepherder instead of a parent

You have people asking if you run a daycare because that’s what your yard looks like.

You can carry 3 plates of food and 3 cups to the table without spilling anything and you’ve never been a waitress.

A trip to Walmart for diapers is a vacation even at 1:am.

You don't think twice about going to Target with bed-head

Your stroller costs more than your first car.

You have a stroller addiction.
You can hold at least three conversations at the same time.

You no longer have a proper name you are either “The Lady With the Triplets” or Moooooooooommmmmmmm yyyyyyyyyyyyy

You consider the commute to work Mommy time

You consider your shower Mommy time.

Your shower is now the most precious time of the day, if you get one.

You find yourself singing songs from Yo Gabba Gabba while at Walmart

You can quote Monster’s Inc. verbatim.

You do your grocery shopping in stores with aisles wide enough to accommodate your stroller

You automatically divide or multiply everything by 3

Complete strangers take pictures of your kids in their stroller... and they wonder why we call them the Paparazzi???  THIS REALLY HAPPENS

You have diapers in your purse, in the glove compartment, your desk drawer and in every room of the house – just in case.

Every square inch of seating in your vehicle is taken by car seats.

Your vacuum cleaner never makes it back into the closet.

You can sweep, talk on the phone, AND read to your children all at the same time.

Your monthly grocery budget is greater than the annual budget for the State of Rhode Island.

Four hours of sleep is “fully rested” and falling asleep over the kitchen sink is a “fulfilling nap”

The first thing you ask upon arriving home is for the poop and pee report.
2 minute tasks take 30 minutes because you have to keep returning to the play room to break up fights, peel the kids from the wall, change a diaper you can actually smell from the next room, break up more fights, remove a child from the top of the couch, perform surgery on the VCR because there is an UFO inside of it, fill sippy cups back up with water because whatever was in them disappeared mysteriously (only later when you sit down on the couch you will find where it went) remind them not to jump on each other, break up a few more fights and change more poopy diapers.

You not only are familiar with what a 186 count box of baby wipes looks like when they are all removed from the box one at a time, but you know for a fact you can’t put them back because you’ve tried.

You curse stores for only having two of something in a package, or for only having two of something on their shelf.

You buy Baby Motrin, Cough Syrup, etc, 3 at a time, and the clerk looks at you funny, while the whole time you are wishing they sold it in gallon containers.

You pull 3 tickets for Car seats at Babies R Us to take to the register, and when you get there the clerk says, “Ma’am, I think you picked up too many of these or they must have been stuck together”

You’ve fallen asleep in any of these places: The shower, washing dishes, sitting on the floor reading them a book, with your fork on the way to your mouth.

You agonize over what it will be like when they get to school and you have three teachers to visit on parent night, three different sets of homework, and your babies aren’t even out of the NICU yet.

Instead of a wallet full of photos you carry around a CD because it holds 700 megabytes of them. 700 megabytes is 1 night worth of photos.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows who you are, even though you’ve never met them before.

The grocery store clerk has commented on the 6-9 gallons of milk you buy each week, telling you it would be cheaper to buy a cow.

You know how to prop bottles with wadded up receiving blankets.

You’ve ever truly considered strangling someone who said, “you’ve got your hands full”, "are they all yours", or “I’d shoot myself”.

You’ve ever been so sleepy that you can fall asleep with the baby lying on your chest and fail to wake up despite the fact that the baby is screaming directly into your left ear.

You are both shocked by the rudeness, and amazed by the kindness of strangers in the same 60 seconds upon entering Walmart.
Walmart is probably your favorite store, since its open till Midnight, diapers and formula are cheaper there, and they have triplet carts. Oh, and you consider going to Walmart at 11pm “going out”

If you’ve ever charted poops, pees, and food intake in an Excel schedule.

You know at one time you did have a spouse, but now you can’t remember

You have to wash the dinner dishes by hand because the dishwasher is full of bottles and sippies.

The singleton mom in front of you at Walmart buying one can of formula and one bag of diapers complains about the price and you have to restrain yourself from hitting a complete stranger.

The clerks at the grocery store have to regularly restrain you from pummeling any singleton mom that takes the last multi seat-shopping cart.

You are both revered and hated by the staff at your pediatrician’s office.

You don’t see anything unusual with the fact that you know not one, but several, triplet moms.

You no longer have to wonder what a “poop painting” would look like.
A complete stranger walks up to you in the mall and says “my niece has triplets, her name is _________ do you know her?” and you can answer “yes I do”

The awareness of silence strikes terror into your soul.

You know the black market value of a Runabout stroller.
You know the black market value of a Choo Choo wagon.
You know what a Choo Choo wagon is.

You consider cereal dumped on the middle of the floor, not to be bad parenting, but rather a unique picnic breakfast!

All kids are aware that any sippy cup left unattended is fair game.
Whining is heard not just in stereo, but in surround sound!

You go to an amusement park with your triplet stroller only to realize YOU’VE become the source of amusement, or you go to the Zoo and find the other visitors watching your kids more than the animals!

You use the word singleton.

You need a hitch for your stroller

Your stroller dictates what kind of vehicle you can drive

You refer to your babies as A, B, and C

$15.00 baby outfits seem too expensive.

You buy a single weeks worth of formula, and the clerk asks you if you are stocking up.

You laugh at singleton moms for sterilizing pacifiers. You can’t stop yours from sucking on each others fingers, nose, ears, toes etc, so you just shake your head because you know those germs are building up their immune system.

You enroll them in or join every activity and playgroup you can, you visit every playground in a 10 mile radius, sometimes more than 1 a day, just so you can be out of the house from dawn to dusk so you have less to clean up.

When discussing child proofing and singleton moms say “you just have to tell them no, you can’t child proof everything” and you laugh and say “Wanna Bet?”

After 20 minutes in the car you realize you are not only listening to the kids tape, but you are singing along with it, and there are no kids in the car.

The $250 travel system stroller that singleton moms complain about being too big, look like toy strollers to you.

You say to your husband “if you wake up these babies I’ll kill you” and you mean it.
You say to your mother “if you wake up these babies I’ll kill you” and you mean it.
You say to your dog “if you wake up these babies I’ll kill you” and you mean it.

All of a sudden everyone you know, knows someone with triplets.

Crib Tents? You can’t afford NOT to buy them.
You know what a crib tent is!

You consider leashes a viable safety option

You burst into laughter at the site of a diaper Genie… AS IF….!!

You celebrate the birthdays of the people who invented the spill proof sippy cup and the auto repeat replay function on DVD players.

Your home has become a complex maze of gates, locks and barricades.
Your kids have never actually walked through the zoo or store, because getting out of the stroller is NOT an option.

You are not horrified at the idea of “waking a sleeping baby” to eat. After all, it is time to EAT so sayeth the master schedule!

You seriously wish someone would sell Orajel in a toothpaste-sized tube. Is this little tiny tube supposed to be a joke? And that’s with the one day supply of infant Tylenol… don’t they know I need a 10oz bottle?

You spend more time pumping than sleeping

You don’t think the Suburban is a large vehicle.

When hearing of a new pregnancy, you first question is “just one?”
You call one baby a singleton (before your triplets arrived, it was just “a baby”)
All your friends have multiples.
Your main connection to the outside world is through Facebook and triplet blogs
Some of your best friends you have never even met in person.
You send 7 invitations to a birthday party, and you have 15 kids show up, and you were expecting more.
You don’t want to potty train because the though of trying to take all 3 to a public bathroom yourself sends shivers up and down your spine.
You make formula by the gallon and it lasts only 24 hours.
Your pediatrician’s office recognizes your voice.

It's considered a 'date' if you husband goes with you to the Mother's of Multiples garage sale.

You refer to your babies as the "blue one" or the "green one" (color coded infants to tell them apart)
You start to question phrases like: "God will only give you what you can handle" and you just pray a lot more in general!

6 months old and alot of firsts

Happy 1/2 Birthday to our beautiful babies!! This past week has been alot of 1st!!!

I had a wonderful 1st Mother's Day!!

We had our 1st bath in the big bath tub. They loved it!! Maddie is still a little small for the the seat but she did just fine. Lila didn't want to get out...she was really enjoying herself and Carter was in heaven as well.

Carter eyeing his ducky

Lila is loving the bath

Maddie would prefer to just eat her hands!



And our 1st trip to the zoo!

4 Mommies, 3 sets of triplets and 3 big brothers equals 15 kids!! On Wednesday, we packed up and headed to the Cincinnati Zoo for the Babies first Zoo trip. We met 3 other mommy friends for a fun filled afternoon. We brought our babies to see the zoo babies. We received alot of comments such as "is it triplet day" and "is this a daycare". No its not triplet day we are all friends and no unfortunately its not a daycare they are ours!! It was an awesome day with great friends and lots of fun!

Getting ready to put everyone in the strollers and head out

Cincinnati Zoo here we come

The newbie of the group can you tell...I couldn't figure out how to get everything under the stroller and everyone was patiently waiting for me. We were going to find a shady spot to feed everyone so I just figured I would carry it until we stopped and I could shove it underneath.

Angela...the SUPERMOM...she was pushing her triplet stroller and pulling the big boys in the choo choo wagon

ALL OF US

The babies are ready to go see the zoo babies

Kara and her one year old triplets

Stacie's 10 month old boys

Angela's 9 1/2 month old girls

The big brothers....two are Angela's and one is Stacie's

Finally TIME TO EAT

Lila and mommy....getting ready to eat

Carter waiting his turn to eat

Maddie chowing down

Mommy potty break

Zoo mommies...Stacie, Angela, Me and Kara

Zoo Babies

Why did they build the zoo on a massive hill

One of Stacie's Boys checking me out

This picture was taken by a man that worked for National Geographics and he was in awe over us...maybe we will make the magazine...lol!

Carter just chilling

Lila sleeping through the zoo

Maddie trying to stay awake

FINALLY HOME after a long fun filled day!

A Special Day

11 years ago today I met the love of my life. I would have never dreamed the path we have taken together so far but I wouldn't change it for the world. If you would have told me then we were going to have triplets I probably would have laughed. I now can't imagine it any other way they are gifts from God made because of our love for one another. We have had some hard battles to fight and hardships along the way but those things have only made our bond even stronger. I am so thankful today for our love!

Today we also celebrated our three healthy premature babies by walking in the March for Babies walk. We want to thank everyone for their donations and prayers. Even though the rain threatened us from going we decided to try the odds and God blessed us with a beautiful morning to celebrate.

Here we are getting ready for the walk

Our walking buddy Kara...she has triplets too. We stuck out in the crowd and Brad was amazed at all the comments. Can I take a picture...one person even asked to take a video!!

The babies walking buddies...Kara babies Zachary, Colby and Avery!

Breaking a sweat...we need to exercise more!

Here are just some fun pictures!!

Maddie

Lila

Carter

The Blankie, The Cool Chick and The Singer

Lila has been fussy as usual always wanting to be held and never taking naps. She loves to put put her dress in her mouth and cover her face with anything and everything. I could be wrong but I think its because she spent so much time in the womb with her brother and sister laying over her so she is comforted by having something covering her face. I have been saying for weeks that she might like a blankie that has a little toy on the end. I had received a few of these as shower gifts but it just wasn't the material she was looking for. Then the strangest thing happened....the UPS man shows up at my door and delivers a box...its from learning curve...yeah I finally received something from all of my multiple letter freebies that I sent out. I quickly open it up and there were 3 blankies inside and some sippy cups. It was so ironic that they sent these because it was exactly what I had envisioned. I gave Lila one of them and she LOVES it...loves it is not the even the word...she can't live without it now. Best of all I decided the next night to put her in her crib and she went right down and slept until 4am in her crib and then I put her in her swing and unlike her usual fussing in the swing she went right back to sleep with her blankie. However, since then she does go right down in her crib which is a huge improvement but she has started waking up in the middle of the night wanting a bottle. She is even taking naps in her crib along with her blankie of course. Hopefully this blankie phenomenon will only continues to improve her sleep habits!!

Lila sleeping with her blankie!!

This day like so many (before the blankie) Lila did not want to take a nap so we sat her in the rocking chair while we put away clothes. After about a half hour this was the result....minus the stuffed animals which later Grammy thought would be funny to surround her with...Where is Lila??

Oh yes....this is our diva!! We are going to have our hands full with this one...just look at her she has trouble written all over her face.

Madelyn is still the most pleasant baby and always smiling but when she wants to be heard watch out because she can yell louder than the others. She has found her thumb and she loves it just about as much as Carter does.

Sitting up like a champ in her bumbo seat. She was the first to really sit well but I she doesn't like it quite as well as Carter does!

Our very cool chick...she will let us do about anything to her!!

Our little man or should I say big man!! He is already starting to outgrow his 6 month clothes. He has only rolled over once and I guess he decided that it wasn't exciting enough to do it again. However, when he lays on his belly he really arches his head up so he can see what is going on around him. This is Carter spread eagle sleeping!

Playing in his superseat...it took him a couple of days to stop the head bobble but he cries now when you take him out!

Carter on his belly checking out what mom is doing!

He is also our future singer. If daddy knew I was posting this with Carter in a pink boppy he would kill me. We just sit babies wherever there is an open spot...so just ignore the pinkness. I was in the kitchen making bottles and I heard Carter really getting into his signing so I decided that I better come in and check on him and this was what I found....

We are praying that it doesn't rain Sunday morning so we can take the babies to Cincinnati for the March for Babies walk. We are very excited about this and so far have raised $200 so thank you everyone who has donated and if you haven't and would like to there is still time:0)

Carter Rolled over today....

Carter rolled over today and I missed it but Daddy seen it! I guess he rolled over very slowly and very calm unlike the girls. Hopefully I can catch it on video tomorrow and will post it soon!

Maddie Rolled Over today...

Maddie rolled over today...I actually seen the first time she did it!!! Its just amazing to see the surprised look on their face when they do it...and then they do it over and over and over again!! Belly time will never be the same.