Summer Volleyball!!!

Volleyball is one of my favorite things in life. :) I LOVE playing and it's even BETTER playing with my hubby AND my brother in law and sister in law and friends IN the sun ON the beach! It's soooo fun!!! I look forward to it every Thursday night! After we play, I always feel like I was just on vacation - so it's great when we get to play every week! Thanks so much Mom and Dad D. for loving to hang out with Addy, Emily, and Hailey! We play on a co-ed league on Bradford Beach on Lake Michigan. It's actually been really good competition and so far, we're undefeated! Woo hoo! Hopefully we make the playoffs! Here are some action shots of our fun last night. :)

Our Fab team! Our team name is B-D-H (for all of our last names) - if anyone has any cool creative ideas on what else that could stand for, let us know. :)
Dominator Chad
Nice block Shane!
Going up for the kill....too bad it's impossible to jump in the sand :)
Loving Milwaukee!!!

Tears of Joy

This morning I had tears of joy.

We had the girls' last development assessment with the NICU to see how far they have come. And wow, they are exceeding in every area compared to most babies born at their gestation of 31 weeks. They were assessed at 30 months even though they are really 32 months now. They were testing at a 35-42 month age which is unbelievable. Every time the 'assessers' would flip out at how they were doing, I would tear up!!! I'm just sooo proud of them and feel so incredibly blessed. At the end of all of their testing (2 hours long!), we meet with the neonatologist to report all of their findings (they assessed their fine motor skills, cognitive skills, and speech). The Neonatologist that was on today, happened to be the girls' primary neonatologist from when they were in the NICU! It was so neat for him to see them after 2 1/2 years. So often those dr's work so hard to save these little lives and then they never get to see how they really turn out. I just can't believe we are officially DONE with all things "NICU." That road in our lives has ended and what a road it's been! In the evaluation, they rehash all that they went through in the NICU and sometimes, it seems like just yesterday..and then other times it feels like DECADES ago - worrying about how many cc's of milk they kept down, blood in their stools, watching the monitors go off as they would stop breathing every now and then, changing their humungo preemie size diapers on their teeny bodies through the isolettes...and ALLLL of that. I'm just amazed at God's hand in it all...and how He continually watches over Addison, Emily, and Hailey even now. I am once again humbled and completely amazed at how far He has taken them. I can hardly believe it!!! What an honor it is to be able to parent these amazing children of His!

It was particularly interesting to see how similar and different they all are in the testing. Even though they all did exceptionally well, they responded to the tests differently.

Emily continues to be very detailed and happy go lucky.

Hailey continues to talk a lot and pronounce everything so well. She also likes to create reactions in people (like teasing people - even in the testing!). :)

Addy continues to be very observant and follow directions well. She is quieter..but doesn't miss a beat and prides herself in pleasing people. The other day I took her to Sam's Club by herself and she talked to me the ENTIRE time. Seriously - non stop. It was pretty funny and I just LOOOOVVEE and truly cherish when I get to have one on one time with my girls. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen often enough, but when it does, I eat it up - and so do they! :)

So thanks again to EVERYONE who has helped us along the way in this journey of parenting triplets so far....thanks to all those who have ever prayed for us, babysat for us, made meals, donated diapers, invited our 'chaos' over to your house, or kept me company. And thanks to those who somehow STILL read this blog. :) We literally could not have come this far without ALL of you!!! I'm sappy today! Ahh! :)

Happy Father's Day!

Emily, Addy, and Hailey with the best Dad ever. :) They really don't even know yet, how lucky they are. :) Not only can they thank him for most likely being tall and skinny :) , but he's also very fun and loves them soooo much! We love you Ry!!!
Even though the girls love Ry a ton too, they gave him a little scare the other day - two days after the make up incident in fact. :) They were on a role. So, we always go upstairs and kiss the girls good night and "re-tuck" them in. So, Ryan went up there first, opened their door, and then freaks out - because TWO girls were GONE. Kinda scary!! He checked the nursery for Emily and Hailey in case they went in there or something but nobody was there. He went to our room to see if they snuck out and went to sleep in our bed or something....but nope. Then quickly ran to see if they were into the make up again - nope. Finally, we found them in THEIR bedroom CLOSET with the door shut, sound asleep on the floor. Soooo random to find them in there in the dark on the floor. Here's what we saw. :)
In the morning, I asked Hailey why she slept in the closet and she said "Me want to sleep with Emily." We have GOT to have our antenna's up all the time with these girls. We're afraid all of this trouble is just beginning. :)

Yesterday we took the girls to the community pool for the first time since we didn't even think we could handle all of them with just the two of us before. Now they do much better in the water so it's much more doable. They LOVED it!! As you can see by these pics of them in the sand, they were soooo focused and wouldn't even look at us.
Hailey
Em
Addy
Hailey
and all the girls loungin' in the water w/ Daddy. :)

Multiple Mischief

Ryan was gone all week last week...so on Friday, the girls were so excited to see him...but he got home after 7. So for an hour or so, we sat outside, planning a little strategy on how we were going to "squirt" him when he got home....

A, E and H showing me their weapons. :)

Posing with their squirt guns, they are very focused. :)

Addy, Emily, Hailey - "is daddy home yet?"

Might as well take a drink while we wait.....

and squirt some ants to pass the time...

Discussing strategy...

THERE HE ISSSS MOMMM!!!!

And they're off...

Hands up!!!

Pure joy and delight....and determination :) So good to see him again! :)

Okay so THAT was the "fun" mischievous stuff...and THEN...here's the REAL trouble they were in yesterday. Here's the story. So...2 of my high school youth group girls came over to hang out (now they're in college). Anyways, they came over at like 12:30..we put the girls to bed at 1:15. Of course, they didn't really want to nap (sleeping in general has been a struggle for them lately as I'm pretty sure they are very close to going w/o naps - tear!) Anyway, so they got out of bed, I put them back. They got out again..and then they got a spanking. Usually, after they get a spanking, they do not get out again. So we went downstairs, waited 5 minutes, didn't hear anything...and then went outside to chat and catch up since it was nice out. Well....about an HOUR later, I see Emily and Hailey standing by the back door. I wasn't sure if they had just woken up from a very short nap cuz their eyes were closed...or if they were messing around that whole time. Well, turns out they were having a PARRRRTAAAY in my room and in their bathroom!! OH my goodness. Hailey had a combination of hairspray, toothpaste, eye shadow, and eye liner all in her eyes so her poor eyes were stinging and she couldn't even see! So I rushed to rinse her out. Emily looked like she had a swollen mouth and was talking all funny. She had an entire stick of lipstick in her mouth. YUCK! Just the thought of eating that is so disgusting! So I go up to my room, nervous to even see where Addy was...and there she was in my room. They had gotten in to ALLLLLL of my make up. Every single thing was empty. No more lipstick anywhere - all my brushes were full of gloss and who knows what. The walls had stuff all over them. Toothpaste was spread everywhere. And the floors were so sticky with hairspray everywhere!!! A bunch of our clothes and their blankies are ruined with lipstick stains now. Ohhh man. Lucky for the girls that I had friends over...because my friends just kept saying "Oh they made a memory Shelly!" AHHH! :) :) :) It was funny and maddening and disgusting and shocking all at the same time. I knew stuff like this is bound to happen w/ 3 two year olds....but MAN! I can't believe they were having a hay day in there for an hour and I never heard a thing! They are so sneaky!!! Here's the damage...

Their bathroom -

pic doesn't show it all over the cabinets and walls and floor...

Alllll my make-up empty and everywhere...

This is what the floor looks like AFTER vacuuming, carpet cleaning, etc. ... naughty naughty girls...and I guess I should be in trouble too for not checking on them again.... what a day!!!

The girls kept saying "Just vacuum Mom" as if that would solve the problem. Oh man. Here they are today, imitating my "mad Mom face" from the day before. :) Making memories...for sure!!! Hopefully that is all with the mischief though!!! (Hailey, Emily, Addy)

Memorial Weekend Fun

Emily, Hailey, Addison - sooo attentive during the Memorial Day parade

Mostly they cared about getting more candy. :) Notice their hands. :) They held them out like this FOREVER. :)

Then we went to a park after naps with some friends to grill out and hang out. :) The girls had a blast playing with the ice cubes though!

Emily, Addy, and Hailey feeding the ducks

Here Hailey is at Grandma Kathy's house. She found a TRIPLE slip'n'slide! So fun! The girls are just a tad too young yet though! Next year they'll LOVE it!!
Dad had to show them how it's done. By the looks on Ry's face, it looked like a pretty intense slide. I can see why the girls were apprehensive! :)

And the girls are getting the hang of pedaling! Emily knows how to pedal on the "big bikes" too. Addison and Hailey can do the tricycle but not the "big bike" yet. Emily is so proud of herself it's so cute! They look SO big to me when they bike around the driveway!
And this pic cracks me up. Addy and Hailey (Emily already gave it up).

Rainbow Toes and Friends

Here the girls are with our neighbors! So fun that they are so close in age - only 1o months older than my girls! Emily, Avery, Hailey, Addison, Addison
LOTS of rainbow toes today!!! :)
Letting their toes dry in the sun...

And this is what the girls like to do every morning now. They grab their blankies and watch Dora. :) Notice how they have their 'Flip Lops' on with their jammies at 6 a.m. :) It's the first thing they think about is getting their shoes on. :) Ohhhh boy. Addy, Hailey, Emily

Kitties

What a beautiful day here today! It's in the 80's and I LOVE it! :) The girls do too. They LOVE being outside and we've pretty much been living outside all day every day. My house is going to be a disaster this summer because when it's nice out, it just never gets cleaned! Oh well, we have all LONG winter to do that, right? :)

Anyways, not too much has been going on but it always feels like a lot is going on. :) Wednesday morning, we had a brunch over here with a couple triplet mom's in my multiples group who all have 2 year olds. It was so fun to hang out with them and have all of our kids play together. I thought it was going to be extremely chaotic but they actually played really well together! What else...the girls have been doing MUCH better with potty training and I can't even tell you how much easier that makes my life. I feel like I should have a Potty Trained Celebration party or something because these past few months have not been my favorite! Here's the status:

Addison - 100% trained! WOOHOO ADDY!! She hasn't had a poop or pee accident in weeks. I think she's done!!! So proud of her!

Emily - She goes #2 on the potty most of the time and just occasionally has an accident if I don't get here to the potty fast enough. For pee, she's good most of the time as well but if I forget to take her and she's too busy playing, she'll have an occasional accident. She's ALMMMOST there though! Yay for Emily!

Hailey - Hailey turned the corner when my parents came to visit and started doing MUCH better with going pee which is huge for her! She still occasionally has an accident, but again, it's usually my fault when she does because I forget to take her. She still needs a bit of bribing....but she totally KNOWS how to do it so she'll get there! She hasn't figured out #2 yet...only done it a couple times! I love it that she's TRYING again though! You can do it Hailey!! :) :) They all wear pull ups for naps (and wake up dry) and at night (sometimes wake up dry) so I just need to figure out when to risk it and not put them in pull ups anymore! :)

We are soooo close to being done w/ this stage and I can't even tell you how excited I will be to NOT live in the bathroom and have NO more accidents to clean up around the clock. It will be GREAT...AND it will be SUMMER! I can't WAIT! :)

The other day, our neighbors asked if we wanted to come to her sister's house. Her sister got a box of FIVE 3 week old kitties dropped off on her doorstep because someone was about to burn them! Now I'm not generally a cat lover...but these kitties were sooo tiny and cute. You should have seen Addy and Emily with them. They were so nurturing and cute holding them. That is until Addison started THROWING the poor things back into their box. She thought she was being gentle though. :) Hailey was scared out of her mind. Poor thing. Here are some pics. :)