Merry Early Christmas!

Hi!  Well last weekend was a great one!  We celebrated early as we'll be celebrating with my family later!  So Friday night we celebrated with just our family and it was so great!  We had a nice dinner and then gave the girls presents.  They were ALL about it all this year.  It was so much fun.  We took each of them shopping and had them choose something to buy their sisters too this year so that was great.  They were very particular about which sister got what.  Emily REALLY wanted this Strawberry shortcake dress when we were shopping and I said she had to shop for her sisters....so I said how bout we give it to one of them (and then I'm sure they'd share it with her :) )  ....well no...then she didn't want to do that.  So she'd rather not have it in our house at all than give it to one of her sisters.  So funny.  It's just so neat watching the girls learn about giving and receiving and sharing and all the joys of the season.  I love it!  

We gave the girls Leapsters this year (they are like little video game type things except they are educational!) :)  So far, they love them!  Hopefully they'll be GREAT on the plane ride! :) 

 The only problem with gifts and everything with triplets of the same sex...is that they seriously want everything that their sister wants.  They are the same sex at the same stage in life with seriously a lot of the same interests!  So no matter what toy they get or whatever, they always want to play the same "type" of toys at the same time.  So if we don't have 3 of them...it is a cause for lots of tears and "refereeing" and Ry and I going nuts trying to have someone have it for 2 minutes, now switch....2 minutes again, switch...ahh!!  So people say we shouldn't get them 3 of everything....and believe me we try not to....but seriously if you don't get them 3 of something similar, WE go crazy more than they do!!  People tell us that then they won't learn how to share....but I feel like they've been BORN sharing.  They've shared the womb, they've shared us as parents since day one, they share their room, ALL their toys, their clothes, their friends, you name it!  It's just tough with the whole triplet Christmas thing and I just wish I could explain what it's like better.  That being said, they LOVE it when they get to open a present that is JUST for them.  They know they'll have to share it eventually...but the fact that they can call it their own is a big thing.  Here they are in 3 different dress up outfits from Great Grandpa Junior.  Thanks! :)   Strawberry Shortcake (Em), Ariel (Hailey), and Rapunzel (Addy)

 Then Saturday we went to Grandpa and Grandma Dooyema's for "Christmas" over there!  We had appetizers first and the girls got to be fancy and drink sparkling grape juice from grown up glasses.  :)

 They are always interested in whatever baby Erin is doing.  She's getting so big!

 Here is an attempt at a grandparent/grandchildren shot....this is the best one!  Addison, Hailey, Erin, and Em :)

 Then Sunday night the girls had their Christmas program at church.  They did great and sang all the songs!  So cute!!!!  (EHA)

 Em giving their friend Isabelle a look.  Not sure if she sang off key or what. :)

 Em had fun playing with her friend Lydia's hair during the program too. :)

 And here Addy is in her Dr. dress up clothes from Grandpa and Grandma.  She says she wants to be a Dr. for little babies when she grows up!  I can see it!

 And Em is a beautiful bride!  This pic makes me tear up a little!  My babies are SO BIG!!!!

 And Hailey Grace as a fireman....love this girl. :)

 And then Monday they had their school Christmas program and they also did a great job!  They get very focused and pretty serious up front.  They do the motions and make sure to sing.  It's kinda fun cuz I hear them singing some of these songs at home and they correct each other if someone sang the wrong word or something.  Here they are following their stars all around the school looking for the BIGGEST and BRIGHTEST star....which they ended up finding by us again and a real baby "Jesus" was under it!!!  So then the kids sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  So sweet.

 Here's Hailey and Erin today!  It is Auntie Jody's first day back at work as she's a nurse so we got to watch Erin all day!  We are LOVING having her here!  She is such a sweetie!!!

 And Hailey today after she gave herself a makeover.  :)

Aaron Rodgers and our girls!!!!

Go Pack Go!! :) 
So, last week, our family friend Laurie insisted that we try to get the girls on TV to ask Aaron Rodgers some questions.  (Every Tuesday people submit video questions to Aaron and he picks his faves and answers them on TV).  So she came over and we asked the girls to just think of a question that they'd like Aaron to answer.  Turns out, they got on!!!!!  So they were on the news last night at 10:00 and then again this morning!  Can't believe they got on.  They were so excited to see him answering their questions.  Addison said "That's pretty cool Mom." And she's SURE the Packers are going to win the superbowl now.   And Hailey was a bit distraught.  She said "I'm pretty sure his other favorite color is pink.  I bet he left his pink shoes in his closet."  And the other day the girls were chatting over lunch and I heard Emily say "I really hope Aaron answers my question."  They are quite the fans.  :)  I really do feel like they are famous now or something. :)  So funny.  We started getting text messages like crazy.  Ryan's coworker texted "I just saw the TRI-FECTA on TV!"  Then we went out for lunch today and I thought everyone was going to recognize them or something.  So funny.  So glad he's an amazing quarterback and also a role model who shares a faith in Christ too.  Gotta love him!!!  GO PACK!  Here's the video! Just click the link :) 


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Triplet boys!

Hi!!!  Well I'm super late on posting this now but my friend Heather HAD HER TRIPLET BOYS!!!  They are like a week old now but I am so unbelievably happy for her, proud of her and STILL in shock that she just had triplets too.  I feel like we will talk about it our entire lives...like we will never really believe it that I had triplet girls and she had triplet boys.  I love it. :)  She did an AMAZING job carrying them to 34 weeks!  Andrew was 4.10, Derek 5.12 (!!!), and Micah 4.15.  That is awesome. :) This week has been hard not being able to be there with her!  I call her like every day just to hear the latest update on who drank how many cc's or who's off what machine or whatever.  It is all so familiar and so fun to have your best friend go through so much of what I already went through.  I told Ryan "this makes me want to have triplets again!"  And then he said "Take it back! Take it back!" :)  Oh dear. :) 

Anyway, I'm just so excited for Heather because I truly LOVE having triplets and I know she will too.  Yes it's definitely tough and there are definite "seasons" of difficulty...but I love how they always have a playmate...and how they understand each other so well...how they come home from school singing songs that I don't even know...I love how they get to have a sleepover every night....I love how we get to have family nights and play "Princess Yahtzee" together....I love how I get a break cuz they're all in school at the same time! :) I just love my girls and it's so fun watching them grow up.  Here they are giving us an electric guitar performance.  (These guitars play "I'm a Barbie Girl" all at 3 different paces...and then they sing "twinkle twinkle little star" OVER that sound.  We like these guitars in the basement. :) 

 Here's proud big cousin Hailey with baby Erin!!  They can't wait til they can play with her!

 I love how the girls go downstairs to play and then this is how I find them having "girl talk" and taking turns telling their dramatic stories.

 The girls with their "boyfriends"  - all big Packer fans. :) (Addy, Tyler, Braden, Hailey, Lucas, and Em)

 Getting ready for Christmas over here!!
And I should really let Grandma Kathy write this little excerpt but she told me the other day this story about when she was babysitting.  We have this Little People Nativity set...so they were playing with it and re-telling the Christmas story to the girls and Emily was supposed to be the innkeeper.  So she was instructed that when Joseph and Mary come and ask for a room she has to say no.  Well, when Joseph (Grandma) pleaded and begged for a room - Emily, just got so concerned and felt so bad for Joseph and Mary that she said "Yes!  You can have a room!"  But then Grandma and Grandpa had to say "no no no, that's not how the story goes.  You have to say no.  There's no room in the inn."  So then Joseph (Grandma) pleaded again for a room - a garage or even a closet to sleep in...and the innkeeper (Emily) would just look at her with big compassionate eyes and say "Yes!!" Grandma instructed her again to say no ....there was no room for Joseph and Mary in the inn so they need to have baby Jesus in the barn!  Emily got frustrated and didn't want to play anymore. She said "I don't like the way this story goes."  She so badly wanted baby Jesus to be born in a hotel.   :)
She's always been our little compassionate one. :)