Truly Blessed

When I found out I was having triplets, I never imagined the community that I would join.  It is truly amazing the way triplet moms (& dads) band together in good times & bad.  I have made so many "friends" online that have helped me through so many things.  I look to them daily for advice and laughter, tips and stories.  They have also helped me realize how truly blessed we are.  People whose only triplet experience is ours, have no idea what issues being a preemie can bring.  So many families have endured serious health issues or other chronic problems, or have even seen one of their babies get their angels wings way too early.  Every time I read one of these stories I thank the big guy upstairs for giving me three healthy, happy babies.  Recently the Bissing family sent their little warrior, Owen, to watch over his brothers in heaven.  Our belly buddy Linus is home with his brothers, but will inevitably need more heart surgeries in the future.  There are countless other families whose stories tug at my heart and ground me.  When Ben is being a cranky-puss, I am thankful.  When Nate & Sam are wrestling and pulling each other's hair, I am thankful.  When I have to play Binkie BINGO at 2AM, I am thankful.  I will always be thankful for the 3 amazing boys I have been given.

Little Owen's assigned color was orange (his brothers are green & blue...sound familiar???).  His mom asked people to wear orange the day of his funeral to show support.  We were a day late, but here are the boys showing their support and rockin' their (or should I say, Nate's?) Orange for Owen.

Nate- Sam-Ben

Teefies!!!

We've got 2 teefies...on Mr. Sam!!!

Nate's are going to pop any minute and Ben's been drooling all over the place...We're buying stock in baby Tylenol...

Memorial Day

Being a family of 6 now, we're trying to find ways to do fun things without spending any money.  So when we see an opportunity to go to a parade, we jump at it.
Last weekend was a Memorial Day Parade locally.  I dragged Dave to it knowing that there would be some kind of miliary fly over and because he's into all that military aircraft stuff, I knew he'd be in.
It was pretty uneventful and the boys got to rock their Red White & Blue.
The cannon and the gun salute scared the tootles out of Eli but the babies didn't react to either.

Eli & Dave
The giant flag is on a crane (I think)

Nate

Sam

Ben

 Oh yeah...the flyover didn't just fly over.  It landed.  It was a Black Hawk helicopter.  It blew Eli's hat right off his head.  Nobody minded the noise though.

Eli even got to sit in it.  Luckily, not in the front!

Dave sizes up the beast...
"Yup, we could fit this thing in there."

Nate-Sam-Ben
practicing sitting up and showing their Patriotic Pride!!!

Royal Rumble

The boys are becoming moderately mobile, well Nate & Sam anyway.  They can roll anywhere at any time.  Because of this, things are getting a bit hairy around here...literally.  Sam is constantly pulling his brothers' hair.  Most of the time he goes for Ben since he's a stationary target.  You should hear the scream they let out when he gets them...oooow eeeeee!!!

They have also been much more into stealing toys from each other...all...the...time.  It's mostly Nate.  No matter what toy we give him, he always wants somebody else's.  He's our little peanut,  but he's a force to be reckoned with.

Ben yanking on Nate's ear

Nate returning the favor

Sam's got Nate in some kind of figure 4 leg lock

Look Mom!  I got him!!!
Sammy pinning Nate

Sammy using Ben's head as a soccer ball.
Believe it or not, this happens a lot.

Sammy once again tackles Nate.

All of these pictures prove that in a few years (or less) we will be installing a padded room in the house.  Most of the time it will be used by the boys and on occasions when I feel like I might need a break...I'll go in there to bang my head against the wall!!!

Toys"R"Us Wish List a gift registry for Birthdays, Holidays & special occasions

Wish list for the boys' baptism:


Toys"R"Us Wish List a gift registry for Birthdays, Holidays & special occasions

Can't be beet!!!

For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a good idea to make beets for the babies.  This wasn't a good idea on so many fronts.  They were impossible to cook and took forever to get soft enough to mash.  Everything I touched while cooking them turned a lovely purply pink.  After the fiasco of cooking and preparing them, we put off actually feeding them to the boys.  We finally broke down and did it.  They LOVED them!!!  They look awfully pissed in the pictures...not sure why.  Maybe it's because we ran out of beets???

Nate the Great

Ben-Nate-Sam
They've started eating each others' bibs.  Oy!!!

Sam
Dave thinks he looks like the Joker here.

Ben with his famous
"Ben in the headlights" look

I think we'll do zucchini next week...

ETA:  FYI:  When you feed your babies beets, EVERYTHING will come out pink the next day.  Consider yourself warned!!!

Look who's 5!!!

Over the weekend, we celebrated Eli's 5th birthday with a bowling party.  We invited everybody in his class as well as a few family friends' children.  I can honestly tell you that I was very overwhelmed.  If I ever choose to do something like that again, please smack me!  I needed a bottle of wine after the party.  I didn't drink it, but I should have!!!

We had a bowling shirt made by a fellow triplet mom, Astrid.  You can find her on FB as {Sig}nature Creations.  (I couldn't figure out how to link to FB...sorry!)

basking in the black light

strike!!!

gotta love it!!!

the birthday boy!!!

mom...really???  another picture???

guess who ate the whole bowling ball!!!
no...not me...eli!!!

He had a great time.  The moms tell me I did a great job.  A few of the moms even held the babies so I had 2 hands to wrangle the 5 year olds.  It was nuts, but we all survived.  Phew...now...for that bottle of wine!!!