More June Moments...

The following are a few more pictures from June that were too good to go without posting...

We officially turned over the full family room to the boys this month. We removed the play yard that was blocking the fireplace, we removed (and actually sold) the diaper champ and the boys now have the fire place as part of their play area. Here are a couple pics of the boys discovering their new play area...

We eventually removed the screen so the fireplace is actually fully open now....

The boys discovered Mommy's shoes.... Mike likes the caption of "I don't know what these are but Mommy has hundreds of them"...

Jared starts the day off with some push-ups....

Oh... it's going to be one of those days...

Murray just 'loves' the boys!!! He completely lets the boys climb all over him and tug on his jowls without complaint. Look at how thrilled he looks...

The month of June was filled with many "No, don't touch" moments with the boys wanting to climb on the end tables. I fully believe Wes knows he is not supposed to touch the table because he touches the table and looks right at you as if he is daring you to do something....

On this day, Andrew had a run-in with a sippy cup....

The boys have introduced strategic climbing into their arsenal. They push the toy box over to the counter. What fun...

Don't worry, we still love to play inside of the toy box...

On this morning, we woke up and actually greeted the boys by opening the curtains into the master bedroom. The boys nursery connects to the master bedroom with these french doors. The boys were a little surprised to see on the other side of the doors. While Jared and Wes (closest to the door) were awake, Andrew (farthest away) was still sleeping. Andrew lifted his head to look at the door as if to say... "five more minutes"...

Wesley is very curious about how he can get into this new room...

Here is a fun picture of Pooka! I hope I am this spunky when I am 90 years old....

Andrew is finally able to climb onto the ottoman and boy is he flaunting his new ability...

Wesley with a big cheesy grin...

Wesley and Andrew both climbed onto the toy box and it was a perfect moment to capture a few pics. When Jared walked into the picture, it was a rare moment to get all three in the same frame. This is not very easy these days...

I love these faces....

Murray really does love the boys and they also love him. Here are a couple pictures of him cuddling with his baby brothers...

During this month, we turned 14 months old and were able to bring smiles to the faces of many.

Bring on July!

Take care,

Weekend at Grandma's House

This weekend, the boys and I packed up and headed down to Brandon to spend the weekend with Grandma. I remember when the thought of traveling with the boys caused significant anxiety. Now, it is relatively easy to get on the road with them. We arrived on Friday and had a nice dinner with Grandma, Aunt Pam and Zach. Zach was also spending the weekend with Grandma but we did not see much of him. He seems to have turned into a teenager and was sleeping most of the day away while we were there.

Andrew was particularly excited to get back to Grandma's house because he knew that he was 'first up' to have his special alone time with Aunt Kim and Uncle Lance. Andrew could not wait to give them a call to let them know he was dressed and ready for his day out. He was so very excited to call them.....
Sadly, Aunt Kim and Uncle Lance were unable to make it over this weekend. Andrew is going to have to wait some more time before he has his special day. He was a sad but happy to hang out with Grandma....

We finally wore Grandma down and we spent the weekend helping her move everything that we tried to break. The boys were able to play downstairs and it was relaxing to watch them roam. We even put the baby gate part of the way up the stairs to block them. The boys have been continuing to master climbing up Grandma's stairs. On this trip, the boys even mastered scooting back down the stairs.

Here is Wesley finishing his sippy cup while playing with the blocks on the fireplace. These blocks are ... let's just say old. Uncle Lance and I played with these blocks when we were babies.

Here is Jared carefully going through Grandma's bag of toys. This bag of toys is filled with a lot of little McDonald's happy meal toys and other random items. Jared absolutely loved this bag of fun. Jared has turned into our quiet thinker. He seems to really enjoy figuring out how something works. In this bag of toys, he found an empty Q-tip container that he found most magical. He spent over 30 minutes opening and closing this container. It is so interesting to watch him 'thinking.' He is turning into our little engineer...

We had a nice weekend at Grandma's but it was over way too fast. We headed home on Sunday. The trip home turned out to be longer than expected. For some reason, I was very tired. I don't like to drive tired, especially with precious cargo, so I pulled over at a rest stop to close my eyes for about 10 minutes. The boys were wonderful and they were quiet during Mommy's nap.

Before I really got back on the road, I pulled over to get myself something to drink and the boys deserved a little treat. I ordered them each a bag of McDonald land cookies (I so did not realize they still made these.) We wanted to expedite our journey home so I opened the three bags and handed them over to my traveling companions. It was interesting to watch them figure out how to get to the cookies. Jared was able to eat out of the bag, Wes ate out of the bag until he became frustrated and dumped them out and Andrew just dumped the cookies onto his lap without hesitation....

We had a great weekend with Grandma! We will be back very soon!

Take care,

Ooooooooo...

Andrew's new favorite sound and funny face! He is saying "Ooooooooooo." This was taught by Aunt Connie and he does it all the time now. Ooooooo, he makes me laugh!!

Take care,

Wes scares Mommy!

Yesterday afternoon, the boys were playing as usual. They were running around having a grand ole' time. I was sitting on the couch and I saw that Wesley fell in the kitchen. He started to cry just like he does with a typical fall. When the boys fall, I say "come here" and they will come to me, get a hug and then head back into the mix.

Once I saw him fall, I said "come here." I could hear him coming and then I saw him appear around the love seat. There was blood pouring, SERIOUSLY POURING, out of his face. I rushed over to him and went flying to the sink. His nose was bleeding, his top lip was busted and his bottom lip was busted! He must have hit the floor very hard.

It took a while to stop the bleeding. He stopped crying and wanted to get down before the bleeding stopped. Once I was able to get all of the bleeding to stop, I looked down and both of us were covered in blood. There was even a trail of blood on the floor from where he walked from the kitchen to the family room.

He was such a trooper. I actually had to hold him to keep him still while I held a cold pack to his mouth and then changed his clothes. He was ready to play. I know that this picture does not reflect the severity of the story but check out his fat lip....

The site of his face covered in blood is something I do not want to see again any time soon. Wes is our dare devil so I knew that he would be the cause of my heart skipping a few beats over time. However, I did not expect this type of injury to come from tripping over his own feet.

Take care,

Happy Father's Day!!

Daddy,

We all love you very very very much! We are not sure we can say thank you enough for everything you do for our family. When we receive a compliment about how well our family is doing, they usually direct their comments to Mommy. Little does everyone know but you are really the glue that holds everything together and keeps our little household running smoothly.

If Mommy was in charge all the time, we would eat Pizza every night and we would all be lost in a mountain of shoes piled up all over the place. Oh and let's not forget to mention how we would never see the top of the counter ever again if Mommy was the only one in charge.

The truth of the matter is that it requires a true partnership to successfully raise triplets and our Mommy is very proud to be in this partnership with you. You are the best Daddy in the whole wide world and we know we will grow up into very responsible and caring men with you as our role model. We will even learn to love cooking just like you...

We can't believe you even rushed home to cook Mommy dinner on Father's day. She is one lucky lady!

We absolutely adore you and we know that you adore us as well...

We hope you had a wonderful Father's Day!!

We love you,

Drew, Jared and Wes (and Mommy too)

Boys will be boys...

Daddy is so very smart but the boys are getting smarter. When we purchased the toy box, Daddy was able to think like a little boy and realized that he needed to drill holes in the bottom of the box. In the event that one of the boys became trapped in the box, they would still be able to breathe. Well today, Andrew took advantage of those holes to continue to breath when trapped in the box by Wesley. If you notice, Wesley is also covering one of the holes with his knee, Jared is covering one of the holes and then Wesley is sticking his finger in another hole. It is like they are intentionally trying to cut off Andrew's air supply....

I can not believe my boys are that malicious but then again one of their 'responsible' parents took time to grab the camera and take this photo before rescuing Andrew. I don't know where these boys get their mean streaks! Don't worry, I am confident that Andrew will get his revenge. Boys will be boys... and it is survival of the fittest in this house!

Take care,

Our Funky Dancing Frog

I would like to introduce our Funky Dancin' Frog! This frog is a 'gift' I received at a company holiday party. This was the result of one of those gift exchanges where you bring something worth $10 and you will get a gift in return. I brought a picture frame and went home as the lucky recipient of this funky dancing frog.

We introduced the frog to the boys on a couple other occasions. The first time we brought him out, the boys were about 9 months old and they just started to cry when he started to move. On the second attempt, they were about 12 months old and while they were hesitant, they were not scared. We put him back away and we brought him back out last month. This time, they were no longer scared and the boys (particularly Andrew) are now in love with the funky dancing frog.

I have an image into the future when I hear this song on some "Classic Oldies" station and I turn it up to jam and the boys are not only embarrassed at their mother "jamming" but clueless as to who Usher is. I will be sure to tell them how they loved to boogie to this song.

Here is a little video of Andrew and Jared showing you they can dance.....

I use to be a huge fan of this song... "Yeah, Yeah!" but after hearing it about 50 times a day... NO MORE USHER!!! The boys will bring the frog to you, we will turn it on, they will grab it, run and dance. When the song ends... repeat and then repeat and then repeat. I think you get the picture.

Take care,

Hurricane Darnell!!!

Every morning when we wake-up, we walk into the family room and all the toys are neatly tucked away in their respective places. Since we have opened up the fireplace and built-in to the boys, we have managed to keep their toys organized.....
Each morning, the floor is clear! We can walk without tripping on toys and it is very nice to have 'reclaimed the family room.' I like to enjoy a few sips of coffee before we unleash the boys. Here is what the floor looks like in the morning....

The boys wake up each morning between 7:30 and 8:00am and within minutes the calm serenity of organization is BLOWN AWAY by 'Hurricane Darnell.' Here is a pic of the same space after I put the boys down for their morning nap (aka - the eye of the storm)....

It is amazing to just sit back and watch them attack their toys. Their chaos is somewhat choreographed... Andrew heads straight to the blocks and dumps them over his head, Jared proceeds directly to the toy box to pull it out and dump it's contents onto the floor and Wesley proceeds to stand on whatever object is available to pull each item off the second shelf.

Each evening we put the toys back away so the family room can feel like an adult space again. We use to do this after the boys go to sleep. Now, we have started (or trying) to put the toys away while the boys are awake so they can see the amount of effort that goes into picking up the toys each night. Doing this in their presence is quite the aerobic activity because the are working against the grain by taking out the toys we are putting away!

I hope that one day they will respect this effort and resist the desire to just scatter the toys for the sake of scattering them (ha, ha)!! I also look forward to the day when the boys put the toys away themselves... dare to dream!

Take care,

Our New Pool & "The Mall"

We purchased the boys a kiddie pool while we were at Grandma's. On Friday, we set up the pool for the first time and Andrew and Wesley enjoyed a little pool time after their afternoon snack. Where is Jared you ask? Well, he was whisked off to the mall to spend some one on one time with Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim.

We set up the pool in Grandma's front yard so we placed the play yard around the pool to contain the boys. Wesley and Andrew both enjoyed their time in the pool....
On Saturday, we set the pool up again for some more fun in the sun. This time, Andrew and Jared were enjoying pool time while Wesley was out shopping at the mall with Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim. It was noticeably calmer during pool time without our Wild Wesley in the pool but the boys were still able to have fun....
On Monday evening, we set up the pool for a third time and this time all three boys were swimming together. The boys mostly would walk around the pool and splash....

For the astute reader, you may have noticed that Andrew partook in pool time during all three swimming adventures. Jared and Wesley each missed a pool day to spend some alone time with Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim. During these outings, the boys rode on a carousel, rode in a single stroller, ate at Chic-fil-a, got a special gift and most importantly got to experience life as a singleton if only for a few hours. Andrew, sadly did not get his chance to go out alone with Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim. It is hard to see the boys learn so early in life that it is a cruel cruel world and everything is not always fair.

Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim promise that they will take him out alone "next time." I hope he can hold on until his turn comes around :-) Hang in their Andrew, your time will come!!!

Take care,

(Note - I actually encouraged Uncle Lance and Aunt Kim to take the boys out on individual outings so I am partly to blame for this injustice.)

The Eskimos Provide Comic Relief

When everyone is experiencing grief, there is nothing to lighten the mood like sprinkling a few toddlers around!! The boys were the perfect medicine to bring a smile to every one's face over the past few days. Here are some pictures of the boys providing some needed comic relief....

Here is Andrew wearing his hat and bringing a smile to Grandma...
Jared giving Grandma a big hug....
Here is Wesley after eating a mini-cupcake. I love the look on his face that says "what are you looking at." The funny thing about this is that we were digging blue icing out of his nose for several days following this picture...
The boys spent a lot of time in their play yard set up in the living room. Wesley turned into "Frankenstein" (as named by Grandma). He would stretch out his arms to everyone that passed by hoping that someone would fall for his bait. Some innocent passersby would fall for his spontaneous show of emotion but little did they know that he was only using them to escape from captivity. After about 5 seconds, he would try to get down and run free...

We finally let the boys run free for a little while and Wesley met a new friend. He started lugging Grandma's blue cat around the house. Don't worry, he did not cause the tear in the tail, that was already there....

Here are the boys teaching Grandma, Aunt Sue and Aunt Connie how to say "all done".....

The boys also lead the ladies through some stretches following breakfast....

This picture is one I have been wanting since the boys were born. The three Giroir girls with the three little Eskimos.....

We sure love these boys and the joy they bring to our lives!

Take care,