It's a girl!

Sugar and spice and everything nice? Well maybe not to Mr. Slade:) But we are so excited to welcome another frilly fancy princess into our family! She is in perfect health and measuring right on track!

Surprise!

Well, life has gotten busy so I haven't gotten to post those birthday pics yet...one day! Brian ran to get supper so I only have a few minutes for an update. Over the last two months when I didn't post we've had quite a few milestones. Slade can now crawl and pull to standing, Ella can walk, and as of yesterday Claire took about 8 steps alone as well. Its weird having three babies at all different stages but its neat to watch the progression as well. In addition, Claire can blow kisses, point to her nose and dance...or what we like to call dancing anyways. When given a pen, Ella immediately bends down to "draw" which is a big step being that her siblings suck on it immediately instead. Slade blows bubbles on everything and has turned into a fabulous eater so hopefully he'll catch up in weight to his sisters too. Finally all three are now turning the pages of board books and really enjoy the kinds with different textures. OK, so for most people reading this I'm sure this is super boring. However, I haven't updated the baby books in awhile so this is to serve as my bookmark of events. Ella has 5 teeth, Claire 3 and Slade 2. Boring I know.

So the fun part...the surprise. Well it turns out I'm pregnant. I'm actually teetering on being 18 weeks pregnant. This was a surprise however we did plan on having more kids so we like to think of it as early gift. My c-section will be late January although it will be scheduled 3 weeks early due to the amount of scarring I have due to the trio. Being pregnant with one it turns out though is awfully easy...compared to three that is. I had no idea how hard I had it the first time around. I can still almost sleep on my stomach where at this time with the trio I was already on bed rest and measuring around 30 weeks. However, nausea still comes and go's which is a pain. We were definitely shocked to find out the news as I'm sure many of you are as well, but with the help of our wonderful family and friends I'm sure we'll survive. We are excited and can't wait to see what this new little one looks and acts like!

So with that being said, we were quite nervous about our recent trip to Seattle with the babies and me pregnant. But it went so well. They did great on the plane as well as on the train, bus and ferry. We went hiking, took a ferry through the San Juan Islands, ate fresh crab, and got to play in the grass with no fire ants or bugs! One day I'll post those pics as well!!!

Ok Brian's home, I'll try and not wait so long between posts but no promises!

Happy Birthday Babies!!!

On July 19th our tiny little babies turned 1 year old. Its so amazing how far they've come from their under 2lb little bodies. They are crawling, pulling up, babbling, and eating toast for breakfast. We are just so thankful for the doctors and nurses who helped our little trio grow and thrive into the perfect little creatures they are today. Each weekend of the month, we took and individual baby out to lunch for a little alone birthday celebration with mom and dad (and grandpa's). Thank you to Heather, Dustin, Holly, Matt and Darcy for watching the other two so we could make this possible. Each baby enjoyed their alone time and we had fun getting to go out as well! Their birthday was just a small celebration as they will get to have a big party next weekend. The only downside was it was the only time for the babies to have their 1 year checkup, so they had to start their new year with vaccinations. However they handled it well and now all three are on the charts for their weights! What a great year it has been, although its been absolutely ridiculously hard, I still believe that its all been worth it! Pictures to come...

1 year weights
Ella - 18lbs 11oz (13 percentile)
Claire - 16lbs 9oz (1 percentile)
Slade - 16lbs (.05 percentile)

Gymboree

Last week we went to Gymboree while my sister was in town and the triplets loved it! Slade especially loved the bubbles and parachute games. However, it was a trial run and there is no way we are signing up. For 1xweek (45min class) it costs 72$...for one child. So basically to sign all three up it would be about the same as a small car payment. However, I learned some fun ideas and will try and create my own Gymboree classes at home for now!

Hip Hip Hooray!

So today we got the go ahead from the pedi to stop our night feeds, HOOOOORAAAAYYY! We have to gradually decrease it but by Tuesday night, we should be getting a shot at 8 hours at least. Slade & Claire are still in the 0% for any age above 6 months but she is confident that they will make up the calories during the day now that they eat 2 meals of solids a day as well. So yipppeee for us, now lets just hope they agree with the new situation!

Here is a picture of the trio with Grandma & Granpa at their new house!

Segway

So a little non-baby info for today. My dad and I decided to take a Segway tour of downtown and it was GREAT! I know what your thinking, bicycle helmet, super dork, right? Well I thought so too but I was so wrong. It was so fun and such a weird experience for your body to gain the right equilibrium to drive one of these things. At first I was terrible at it and very wobbly but by the end I was zooming down hills at 12mph.


On another note, Ella has a tooth! Good for eating...bad for the arms of her brother and sister!

Spaghetti and Pools

So this week we have had a lot of fun already! On the few sunny days we made a couple trips to the local pools to the joy of the babies. Well, only Ella actually LOVED it, but the other two enjoyed the outings as well! On the rainy days we tried to find fun indoor activities and the highlight was our spaghetti bonanza! Not only did they work their motor skills by playing and transferring it from hand to hand, but they also got to eat some as well. It entertained them for a full 1/2 hour, which for us is wonderful!

The girls are ready to head out!

Ella is ready for the pool...or Hollywood...

Claire enjoys a splash with Grandma

Ella & Slade explore in their floaties

Ella didn't quite make it to her crib afterwards...

"Hmmm do I like this or not?"

Oh yes, I do!

Rolling in it is fun too!

Mom's best shot at a panoramic view