Grandma Gwen is here!

Grandma Gwen made it! The minute she walked in the door we threw the girls in her arms and she was smiling all night long. :) I was holding Addison when she walked in and so I had her guess who I was holding. She thought Addison was so tiny that it must be Emily. But Addison is the BIG GIRL! :) So she was all mixed up from the start. :) The girls were misbehaving for their Grandma's first night of helping though....they did not want to go to sleep until 4 a.m. AHH! So needless to say, coffee is our friend! :)

Winter is here..

Winter is here! We're excited about the snow but bummed about the timing. My mom's flight was CANCELLED today because of the weather! ahh! She's been waiting TOO long to hold her grandbabies and what torture to wait just one more day! We hope she can make it in okay tomorrow.....
The babies continue to grow! Addison is now 6lbs 6.5oz! Emily is 5lbs 2.5 oz and Hailey is 4lbs13.5 oz. They won't be small for long!
Here are some more pics!
1 - Addison trying to fit into the Baby Bjorn - she's still got some growing to do. :)
2 - 30 little piggies!
3 - When things get crazy and they are all screaming at once, we turn on the vacuum and they quiet right down! It works! :)
4, 5, 6 - Hailey, Emily, Addison

Some random pics!

1- mom and Addison 2 - mom, dad, uncle kyle and auntie kara after putting up the Christmas tree! 3 - Soon to be Auntie Jody and Uncle Shane with A - H - E 4 - Dad and Emily 5 - The alphabet (triplet style) :)

THANK YOU!

What an exceptionally GREAT Thanksgiving we had this year. I can't even begin to tell you how thankful Ryan and I feel right now. We thank God EVERY day for choosing to share Addison, Emily, and Hailey with us. We're so thankful for so many things this year that it really is overwhelming! We cannot believe the generosity and love and prayers that we have felt through this whole journey and we just wanted to thank all of YOU for all that you have done for us. We feel so incredibly blessed and our prayer is that somehow, in some way, we can be a blessing to all of you some day. We hope to raise our girls to be a blessing to tons of people just like YOU have all been to us. THANK YOU so much for all the prayers, cards, gift cards, cute baby clothes, hugs, meals, cookies, visits, calls, emails, and help that you've already given to us. We really don't even know how to express how thankful we are. We would not be doing as well as we all are if it weren't for the love and prayers that you have given to us. We praise God for you all of the time!
We had a great week last week since my brother and sister came out for a visit. And again, we have so much to be thankful for! On Friday, we took all 3 girls in to the pediatrician because Addison had thrush, Hailey had puked, and Emily had her eye exam done. We are thankful that Addison's thrush is just a mild case and that it hasn't spread to the other girls. Hailey hasn't thrown up again...and her poop came back negative (no blood!) for the first time in a month! Yay! :) We still need to keep an eye on it but we were so pumped about that! And Emily's eye exam came back normal so they are all good to go on their eye exams for another year. WOOHOO! :) What else - the girls are all gaining weight. As of last Friday, Addison weighed in at a whoppin' 5 lbs 15 oz!!! Emily - 4 lbs 14 oz!!! And Hailey - 4 lbs 11 oz! They are getting so big!
Ryan is off of work this week and then my mom comes for the month of December on Saturday. We can't wait! :) We're still getting about 4 - 6 hours of sleep depending on the night but I think this lack of sleep is making Ryan a little whacky. :) Last night, he woke up, stood by the side of our bed and was flipping the covers and sheets all around for some reason. I asked him what he was doing and he said he couldn't find Emily under the sheets. What??!!! He got back into bed cuz she was in her crib. Then, at 2 a.m., all babies were sound asleep but for some reason, Ryan jumped out of bed and started walking to their room. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to feed Hailey even though she was sound asleep and they weren't due to eat until 4 a.m. Oh man.. :)
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The pics below are Uncle Kyle and Auntie Kara with the girls....and then the first 4 generation picture with Great Grandpa Kuiper, Grandma Kathy, and Dad and the girls. :) And the last one is a picture of how we had to fit everyone in the "mini." :)

Say CHEESE!

Oh my goodness. I don't think we're ever going to be able to get a picture with all 3 girls smiling at the same time. :) The picture above (H-A-E) pretty much sums up our day yesterday. :) We had someone come over to take pictures of the girls and OHHH man did they hate having their picture taken. For about 2 hours straight it was constant screaming! They did NOT like being stuffed in Christmas stockings or having naked baby pictures taken - but who would, right? :) It was pretty funny actually trying to get them to all look in one direction AND not cry at the same time. We would put the nuks in their mouths to calm them down and then at the count of 3, yank them out in hopes that we could get one shot with them not crying. Oh boy. :) I hope some of them turn out though! :)
Ryan went back to work today so my mother in law is helping out today and then tomorrow Uncle Kyle and Auntie Kara come so they're very excited for that. Ryan's so funny - he keeps trying to come up with different theories on how to get them to sleep through the night. First he thought we needed to wrap them tighter in their blankets and keep their hands away from their faces. Then he thought they needed the ocean waves music on for background noise...and then last night was the best. He was putting them to bed and I went upstairs to find their bouncy seats actually IN their cribs. But, crazy thing is - it worked! The girls slept AMAZING last night in their bouncy seats in their cribs. :) I don't want them to get in the habit of that but what do you do when it works?! :)
This weekend I hit my wall. I was officially TIRED. I think I had been going on adrenaline for the past 2 weeks and then all of the sudden I just HAD to take a nap - lots of naps. :) I feel better now since they slept so great last night but I know I'll just need to start taking naps more often.
Well, it's about that time for the feeding to begin again. Have a great day!

All is calm...

Hi! Thought I'd take a few seconds to update you all since the girls are sound asleep. :) We woke them all up and wanted them to "play" together for a while this afternoon but that was a bad idea. They all started screaming bloody murder AT THE SAME TIME and Ryan and I just looked at each other and laughed. We even got the video camera out since it felt like absolute chaos. :) But....they really don't do that that often. For the most part, they are great girls! They sleep a TON right now...and then they're each up for about a half an hour every 3-4 hours to eat. Hailey is still the peanut and needs to gain more weight. (She's supposed to gain an ounce a day but right now she's gaining 1/2 an ounce a day). But they all do very well bottle and breastfeeding. Addison still LOVESSSS her sleep. She could sleep for days...and she grunts all the time like she just wants to be heard. She's so patient when she has to wait to eat. Emily and Hailey are in a constant state of competition - first fighting for who was going to be the smallest...and now who can be the loudest when they cry. I'm sure they are going to be the outgoing/spunky ones. :) Emily and Hailey act like they don't want to miss out on anything. It takes them longer to fall asleep. Anyways - things are going great here at home. Ryan's been off of work all week which has been so nice.... We're having tons of fun just being with the girls at home and getting into the swing of things. I'm actually getting more sleep than I thought I would so far....but I'm sure that could change. :) Overall, we just LOVE being able to cuddle with them at home. Here's a couple pics!

All 3 Dooyema girls snug as a bug AT HOME! (Emily - Addison - Hailey)

Wrapping..

Here we have Hailey in a Q'doba burrito wrap...

and then we have Addison in an "amateur" attempt at a wrap.... :)