Everyone get off the roads!

This is an old video....but we finally just got the cord to connect our video camera to our computer so now we can hopefully post more videos!  Before, I was just using my old digital camera to record videos... so we'll see if this works. 

Cabin Fever :)

Yup.  It's official.  We have cabin fever. :)  The girls are getting bored with the same old thing every day...so we've been trying to get out more since it's been like 30 degrees instead of 2. :)  We went to the mall yesterday looking for flower girl dresses for my sister's wedding in August so that was fun.  They actually do very well in the mall with so much to look at.  We still get stopped quite often...and it's funny to me when people don't know what to call them.  Like they try to say twins but they know that's not right and they don't know what comes after twins.  :)  We did find some adorable dresses for the girls but of course we only found one in their size.  I thought I could find them online but they aren't online!  Oh well..we'll figure something out. :)  But anyway, here are some of the things we've been up to.  :) 

This is Emily's way of telling me that her sister Hailey was in the laundry room messing around with all of their shoes.  I think Hailey also had a friend with her. :)  
This is what we call a stroller traffic jam...
Stroller figure eights...
Stroller catastrophe...
And a stroller pile - up...
We like to wait by the door for Daddy to come home...
And this was the best....usually, after dinner, I do the dishes and clean up the table while Ryan gets to play with the girls in the playroom.  The other night however, I was doing dishes, and I turn around to see that Addy had gone in the other room, grabbed a washcloth, and started to wipe down the highchairs!  It was so cute to see her trying to copy me on her own!!  :) 
Great Uncle Glen came for a visit! 

Addy wearing pigtails!!!!

"Seriously Mom, no more  pigtail pics?" :) 

Ash Wednesday

Hi!  This morning I went to our church's Coffee Break...and Margo Fiesler (a lady who used to be one of the DJ's on a Christian radio station here) was the speaker.  It was too good not to share some of the things that she was talking about.  I didn't have a piece of paper or a pen but these are some of the things that she mentioned that stood out to me so I wanted to share them with you.  

She talked about not losing your First Love (being Jesus) ...and about moving my relationship with Jesus from a personal relationship (that comes and goes)...to a PASSIONATE relationship....  She asked "Can you remember a time in your life when you were more in love with Jesus than you are right now?"  She said "If you said yes, then you are moving in the wrong direction." Gulp.  Um yes.  There are definite ups and downs in my walk with Jesus  - times where I feel so close to Him...and times where I don't even think about Him!   I usually like to get up early for quiet times with God but sometimes, that doesn't always work when the girls are sick or when I get sick...or when the girls just feel like waking up TOO early!  So then I just get distracted and fall further from God...and yet I know that He is always waiting for me...and that I just need to ask Him to give me the desire to want Him more again.  Margo talked about John 21...and how Jesus asked Simon Peter "Do you love me?  Do you really love me?"  And how he had to ask him 3 times.  It's so easy to just say "Yes Jesus, we love you!"  But do we REALLY mean it.  Are we IN LOVE with Him?  Such good stuff!  She talked about her super hard struggles that she's had to go through in her life...and how her mom kept praying for her all throughout her life...and the prayer that she prayed was "Do not give Margo peace....until she finds peace in You."  And oh how that prayer was answered!

Some other little tidbits

"Reading the Bible will keep me from sin....or sin will keep me from reading the Bible."  "A dusty Bible leads to dirty lives."   

"If you are living in the world, you will be conformed by it.  If you are living in the Word, you will be conformed to it."  

"Today, may I do something that only a Christian would do." - Corrie Ten Boom   - convicting!

Today is Ash Wednesday...the beginning of the Lent season until Easter.  I know this time of year many people give things up...things that go in their mouths...things like chocolate or caffeine or sugar or whatever.  This Lent season, I'm not going to give things up.  Instead, I want to focus more on putting the Word of God IN my heart.  So that the Word of God will flow from my mouth...(Matthew 12:34 - for out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks).  

I wish that you all could have heard her talk as God was definitely speaking through her to me today...

Saying a prayer for all who read this today!...

In His amazing Love,

Shelly :) 

Florida!!

We're back!!!!!  And oh man did we have a GREEEAATT time in Florida.  We couldn't have asked for better weather and Naples is absolutely a GORGEOUS area.  We said that we wouldn't have changed a thing about our vacation!  Let's see...what did we do....we laid out at the pool, the guys went golfing twice, the girls went to the outlets, we played tons of intense beach volleyball, we played great games at night, went out to eat at some amazing restaurants, walked on the golf course at night which was beautiful, walked on the beach, collected shells, rented a speed boat and took it out into the Gulf for a day, oh!  and the guys surprised us the first morning that we were there with a massage at the spa for Valentines!  What a treat and a surprise!  I took tons of pics so I'll try to get a good variety on here. :)  But basically we had a blast and we feel very refreshed and so thankful for sunshine!  :)  I was in heaven! :)  But...yes, I did miss my babies back home.  Funny how we were gone for 5 days and I think they've grown an inch, have longer hair, feel heavier, and talk more!  I seriously love them so much!  It was great to wake up to them this morning as we didn't get home til 12:30 last night.  Grandpa and Grandma Dooyema took GREAT care of the girls too and we can't thank them enough for helping us out!!!!!!!  This morning the girls have been extra clingy which is great because all I want to do is hold them but it also makes for a rough transition back to reality when they cry a lot since I can't hold all of them at once!  But, I'm so happy to be back too and I feel like I can handle anything now that I'm all relaxed and tan. :) Ha. :)  Anyways - here are some pics! :) 

Oh!  And thanks so much to all of you who commented on my last blog.  It is so fun to see who all reads this and we love hearing your comments so feel free to post anytime!  Thanks for experiencing our "journey" with us!

As you can see, Ryan was golfing the day before. :) 

This is a pelican....and I took this pic without zoom!  I'm not so sure I'd say these are pretty birds.... :) but neat to see so close! :) 

Here's the whole gang on our last night.  Such great friends! :) 

Beautiful flowers were everywhere!

My attempt at some interesting photography. :)  We did play TONS of volleyball though and since I didn't capture any "action" shots, this will have to do! :) 
I absolutely LOVE palm trees!
Eww.  Yes, the guys (well actually Dave was the reeler -inner but I think it ended up being a team effort since this thing had honkin TEETH! - Ryan swore it was a salt water pirana!)  managed to catch this Sheepshead fish in the ocean off of the boat we rented.  I guess it was quite hysterical when they reeled this fish in and noticed it had man teeth!  Quite the rush! :) Everyone actually cooked up this ugly thing and ate it one night!  Supposedly it was a good, light fish but after seeing those man teeth, there was no way I was going to eat that thing!  

A HUGE highlight of the trip was the day we rented a boat and saw 4 dolphins swim SO close to our boat!!  One even swam under our boat!  (The most I could get in a pic at once was 3 as you can see) :)  I've never seen dolphins that close before but it was AWESOME!
The gorgeous beaches...ahhhh...and check out that water!
Desirae, me and Heidi on Valentines night.  And yes, we are all wearing pink. :)  

Ryan and I all dressed up and ready to eat a bunch of food. :) It was so nice to focus on "just us" for a change!  We had a blast together!  And now it's back to our crazy but wonderful life at home. :) 

Sunshine!! Woo hoo!!!!!!

Ryan and I are headed to Florida for a much needed vacation with friends!  I can't believe we're actually leaving!  We'll be gone til Tuesday...but Mom and Dad Dooyema will be staying here with the girls.  They are AMAZING!  We are very excited for our trip as we haven't taken an extended vacation without the girls yet.  It's my first time away for longer than a day or so ..so...we'll see how I do! :)  The timing of the trip isn't the greatest for Mom and Dad Dooyema seeing that Shane is still in need of help at home.  Thankfully, the girls are acting and feeling better but still need to have the nebulizer treatments and medicine.  I will miss my babies like crazy but I know that I'll come back and be able to be a better mom because I'll be very refreshed!  Then I'm sure Mom and Dad D. will need a vacation! :)  

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know that there won't be a blog update til next week sometime! :)  But, Ryan and I would actually love to see how many of you actually read this thing.  It's not fair that you get to check in on our lives but we have no idea what's going on in yours.  So...if you read this, can you please write on here?  Just click on the comments, then write us a note even if you just say hi.  Remember to sign your name...and then just click Anonymous if you don't want to set up an account...and then it will be fun to hear from you all!  :)  Okay, until next time.... :)  we'll be golfing and laying out and RELAXING and sleeping in and eating out and all of those things that just don't happen with triplets! :)  Can't wait to spend some time with friends too!  Okay - ta ta! :) 

More Dr.

Above is Hailey with her nebulizer.  Poor girl.  At least it put her to sleep.  Half the time they relax and love it.  The other half of the time you have to wrestle them down  and use all your might to make them sit still.  
Emily is looking much better now but this is what she looked like all weekend. Nuk and blankie everywhere she went.  
And Addy.  She is normally our GREAT eater but since she hasn't been feeling well, she must not have an appetite and decided to run her food ALLLL through her hair.  This better not be the start of a new trend!!  

So today I brought the girls into the Dr. again for a recheck and turns out that now Addison and Hailey have pneumonia too!  They had to get chest xrays done too...and now they're on the medicine that Emily is on too.  CRAZINESS!  At least their fevers were all gone this morning so that makes a HUGE difference in how they act. What a wild winter we've had!  All I can say is start praying NOW for that mom of octuplets + 6.  I hope she never has one kid that even has the sniffles!  I can't imagine keeping up with all of those runny noses.  People always ask me how I do it with triplets...but really, this is NOTHING compared to what that lady is going to deal with! It's always a matter of perspective, right? :) 

So yea, and now I have a cold too.  I just am VERY anxious for summer to get here!  

Good news on Uncle Shane though  - he is HOME!  So he's still recovering and very tired...but at least he can rest at home now!  I still can't believe he's already able to go upstairs and even WALK already!  Unbelievable! 

A Little Better...

Hi there - just thought I should give you all a quick update.  The girls seem to be doing a little better today already.  The breathing machine thing has helped with their breathing so that is GREAT as that is the most scary part.  They still have fevers...and as long as those are under control with Tylenol, then they are doing pretty good.  The worst is when they just want to be held and snuggled and I just can't hold everybody!  There are lots of runny noses and lots of bad coughing...but they are more manageable so that is HUGE.  You must be praying! :)  Thanks so much!  It was so cute this morning, I was doing the nebulizer thing on Emily...and she was screaming...and then Hailey went and found Emily's green blankie and brought it over to her like she was so concerned and knew what her sister needed.  She gave it to Emily and she stopped crying the rest of the time that I did the nebulizer!  So sweet!! :)  And today, I was blessed.  :)  A lady from church offered to come over this afternoon to help me while I was doing their nebulizers (since you really have to hold them tight and then you can't let go to make sure the other 2 girls are behaving). :)  Anyways, that was a huge help and then when they were napping, I even got to get out to the hospital to see Shane and Jody again.  Shane is feeling okay....he's just VERY tired.  Even the littlest bit of socializing wears him out.  He keeps progressing though so that is great to see.  

Thanks for checking in on us!  

Uh - oh...

I can't believe it.  Addison, Emily, AND Hailey all have RSV.  Yea, that's that bad virus that the girls got shots for last year when they were little...the ones where our home health care nurse would come to the house once a month and give them $1000 shots EACH so that they wouldn't get RSV.  It's a big deal for little kids to get this, especially preemies!  So anyways, our insurance wouldn't cover the shots for this year....and guess what - they get RSV!!!  Scary!!  Kids can be hospitalized for this!  Emily has it the worst and Hailey and Addy have the start of it.  I took Emily into the Dr. this morning (along with the other 2 by myself because Kathy was with Shane) ...I thought that it would be pretty quick but boy was I wrong!  I originally thought Emily was teething but then she had been having a fever and wasn't sleeping and had a bad cough and then last night, I noticed she seemed to be breathing faster so that scared me so we went to the Dr. this morning at 10.  Turns out, the Dr. ended up looking at all 3 of them and they ALLLL have RSV!!!  Ahh!!  Emily (poor Emily - she always gets the worst of everything!)  actually has the virus RSV that caused brochialitus...and then she got pneumonia on top of that.  She is one sick baby!  I feel so horrible!  Having sick kids makes me feel SOOOO bad.  I get thoughts like I'm the one that caused it or that I should have done something sooner but the Dr. assured me that I couldn't have done anything different and that they will be fine.  Now I just have to put these breathing nebulizer machines on the girls every 4 to 6 hours to clear out their lungs and help them breathe so we'll see how much they like that!  Why does this stuff always happen when Ryan is out of town?  This is just CRAZY times for the Dooyemas!  Shane had his huge surgery, the girls all have a serious illness now, and did I mention that Grandpa Dooyema had a 4 hour surgery on Monday to remove a cyst in his neck?  What is going on??!!  

Want to praise God with me??!!! :)

Seriously, we have an AMAZING God.  Simply AMAZING.  Okay, so Shane's surgery went well!!!  Praise the Lord!  And we can't thank you enough for your prayers!!!  Here's the scoop:

So, the day started out early for me...Emily woke up at 4:30 and wouldn't go back to bed so I was up early praying for Shane already because they were driving to the hospital at that time.  Surgery began at 7 a.m.  I got to the hospital around 9:15 a.m.  I sat with Jody, her parents, and Mom and Dad Dooyema in the waiting room (which was very nice actually!)  We talked and chatted about stuff but all the while you have this nervous feeling inside about what is going on with Shane.  I think it was like 9:45 when we found out that Shane was off of the bypass (which means now his heart had the mechanical valve in and was pumping on it's own!)  This was the best news of all to know that!  Then, around 10:30, Dr. Werner came down to tell us the news that everything was done and everything went fine.  He is a man of VERY few words so that's all we got!  Then it was a little over another hour before we could see Shane.  

Let me tell you it was SOOO good to see Shane.  It was very hard to see him...but just such a relief to see him too.  He had tubes everywhere - his mouth to breathe for him, an iv in his neck, and other tubes that I have no idea what they were doing.  :)  But when I first saw him, he could just squeeze our hands...so we knew he could hear us.  By the time I left, he could barely open his eyes a tiny bit, could give the thumbs up sign, and could shake his head yes or no.  He is SUCH a trooper, soooo strong...and all of this today just AMAZES me.  Do you realize how AWESOME of a GREAT Physician we have??!  It just blows my mind that medicine and technology is now able to fix people's HEARTS.  I'm at a loss for words.  I've witnessed yet  ANOTHER miracle in my life. :)  

And, the amazing thing is that Shane actually ended up having 3 major surgeries in one today.  First, they replaced the aortic valve with a mechanical one which is what was expected.  Second, they wanted to try to fix his aorta but it was too enlarged to they had to put a graft (spelling?) in....and then third, they found a HOLE in his heart that was bigger than the size of a quarter!!!  And they didn't know about this before!  Usually the only way you can find out about this is by having a stroke or an echocardiagrahm but Shane had an echo and it didn't show up!  Soooo....AGAIN we see God's hand at work...AGAIN we see His grace and His protection in Shane's life... and AGAIN today, I could see why God gave Shane such a great gift in Jody as his wife.  Really, to see her care for him at his bedside was such a neat thing.  The fact that she knows so much medically and is such a compassionate servant and encourager is just what he needs.  Shane has always been in God's hands...but I know he's also in his wife's very good hands as well. :)  We love you so much Shane and we're SOOO glad everything went well!  

"Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; 
 his greatness no one can fathom."  Psalm 145:3

Sleeping troubles...

Hi there!  Just thought I'd update you on a couple more pics....and let you know that our girls are not big fans of their new sleeping/napping schedule.  The first of the year, they switched to one long (well, it's supposed to be long) afternoon nap.  BUUTTTT....that has not been happening as of this week!  Ahhh!!  Makes for a long week.  The girls have been waking up at 5:30 or 5:45 a.m.  One day it's Addy, one day it's Hailey, and one day it'll be Emily.  AHHH!  This is what they did this morning!  Then Ryan and I think "Oh good, then they'll just take a really long afternoon nap."  Nope!  They only slept for an hour and a half and then someone was up..who then woke the other two up.  And now we just have fussy babies on our hands!  Oh man.  I do think Emily and Hailey are teething though and they haven't been for a really long time so that could be it.  Poor girls....and their poor parents!  Ha! :)  Oh man...really we're .just trying to get used to this new schedule...

Anyway, this is a big week this week too because Shane goes in for his heart surgery on Wednesday morning.  People have been great and offered to babysit the girls so that I can go sit with Jody and Mom and Dad Dooyema during the long surgery.  We would DEFINITELY appreciate your prayers this week. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Here's Addy making a funny face at the camera.  She's been doing this lately.  Not sure if she thinks this is her smile or what. :) 
Emily on the slide - we told you she was the dare devil!
We're having fun playing with Addy's long hair. :) 

And below you'll see that we had Spaghetti for dinner. :)  Hailey..

Emily
Addy
They love parading around the house in their "robes"  (aka blankies)
Dooyema passes to Dooyema passes to Dooyema!  SCORE! :) Such a team. :)