So Long 2009

Another year has come and gone. Time has always seemed to go really quickly for me but raising 3 kids, wow does time ever fly. The days, weeks and then months are gone before I know it. It has been such a fun and amazing year to see our babies have so many firsts and learn so many new things.

We took the kids out for lunch today to Fuddrucker's. They had a great time watching everyone and chowing down on grilled cheese and potato wedges. They have always been so good anytime we are out in public with them. One man asked us how we got them to sit there so quietly. Daniel's response was "bribing them with treats." Hey, whatever works. Now if he were to stick his head inside of our door during the day he may not be asking us the same question.

Here are a few pictures from our lunch today. It is nice to go out and do these kind of things sometimes and feel like we can do what most families do without even thinking about it. It can be a lot of work, but worth it for us and them to get out of the house.

Casey looking a little zoned out.

Mitchell pounded back the wedges and chocolate chip cookie today like he was in an eating contest. Hmmm, eating out may be a way to put a little more meat on his bones (although unfortunately that would probably mean mine too).

Maggie looks like she's doing a ninja move.

That little belly is so stuffed!


This is their final picture of 2009.

Our rockin' New Year's Eve consists of Daniel watching the Canada vs. USA hockey game, me writing on the blog and the babies sleeping. To be honest, I am really hoping to be asleep when the clock strikes 12. It also happens to be our anniversary today. What a wild bunch!

2009 was so much fun and filled with so many memories, but I can only imagine 2010 will be even better. All the best to you!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope you had a good one. I was thinking back to 2 years ago when I would have given anything to be pregnant, to last year when we were in a bit of a fog with 3 tiny babies. Now this year we could really enjoy things. We had a nice half Christmas...we were at home for a few days and then went and celebrated with my side of the family. We had to postpone things with Daniel's family because the babies were sick.

They got to open one of their presents on Christmas Eve and then the rest Christmas morning. They did pretty good tearing into the wrapping paper and boxes. They were funny, they would tear off a piece of paper and then bring it over to us. So with them cleaning up after themselves there really wasn't much of a mess. Do you think this will be the same in the years to come?


We got the babies little plastic golf clubs. Casey figured out that if he put the putter into the tree he could hook it around the string of lights and then pull. He did it over and over and if we wouldn't have been holding the tree up it would have been down in an instant. This picture is him just before he figured that out...little stinker!

On Boxing Day I did some shopping in the morning and then we went to the lake later in the day. We had a really nice couple days there and the babies of course got spoiled.

Casey and Grandma

Mitchell cuddling with Grandpa. The babies have been so cuddly lately if you give them their blankies. It is so cute and we are soaking it in as much as we can (while it lasts!).

The babies all like their cousin Ava's carebear. I should have saved mine from when I was a kid.

G & G got them sleighs which will be nice to have over the next few years.



Once we got them outside my nephews Brennan and Brett were our two husky dogs pulling the sleighs.




The babies are finally feeling better again so we are hoping everyone stays well to get together with Daniel's family this weekend and have our belated Christmas with them.

Buddies With the Big Guy

We took the babies for their first visit to Santa yesterday. It was nice, we only had to wait a few minutes to see him. Another good thing...he was free! A few other places that I looked into you had to buy their pictures but this place let you use your own camera.

They were all checking him out at first wondering, "Does anyone know who's lap mommy and daddy left us on"?

But once they had a good look at Santa they were just fine to sit there on his lap. Everyone was actually kind of dazed (still not feeling good) and mellow...no meltdowns or tears.


Casey is one smart cookie. I think he figured that since he saw Santa already and told him he was a good boy that he could be a little booger now and still get his presents. He was on a mission this morning to torment his brother and sister and drive me crazy. Needless to say, we now have locks on the closet doors.

Mitchell had a good grip of Santa's fur.

Maggie was kind of in lala land. She couldn't escape the cold going through the house.


We have had to change our Christmas plans. We were supposed to go to Daniel's side of the family yesterday but we are home now on Christmas Eve with 3 sick babies. Everyone is still under the weather right now and we didn't want to spread it on to anyone else. Providing everyone is feeling better in a few days we will go to the lake to my parent's sometime this weekend.

So Christmas morning tomorrow we'll get up and watch the babies have a blast with all of the wrapping paper and bows, and maybe some toys if they notice them. The tree may also be coming down sometime tomorrow, either by the boys pulling it down (even with the superyard around it) or us taking it down. I can't wait for tomorrow!!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Yesterday the babies finally got into the drawer on the bottom of the stove. We could see it coming for a few days but Casey took the first plunge yesterday. Maggie hopped in next and Mitchell couldn't be left out. I was in their rooms making up their beds and this is what I walked into in the kitchen...most of the top drawers pulled out and Casey in his new favorite spot.

"Hi mom! I'll be in here if you need me."



About a week after getting over their colds the boys now have another, or maybe just a continuation of the last one. On Sunday Mitchell was feeling pretty rotten with a fever and cough, but was a bit better as long as I kept up with Tylenol. Casey had a rough day too with a runny nose, cough and now his first bout of croup. He woke up from his afternoon nap really wheezy. Our personal nurse Gail (auntie) came over to listen to the boys' breathing. We thought about taking Casey in to get something for his wheeziness (stridor) but by the time Daniel got home he was quiet a bit better. I took the boys to the doctor earlier today and their lungs are clear so that is a relief. I always have pneumonia on my mind now after Mitchell's bout. Maggie has escaped this second round of the cold so far, although not for a lack of swaping spit. I am hoping that everyone is feeling back to normal in a few days otherwise we may have to change our holiday plans because we don't want to spread it to another house with small kids.

On a positive note, tomorrow the days start to get longer....summer's coming!!!

Our Japanese Prodigy

So if you watched the video of Casey a few posts back he was doing his funny jabbering about who knows what. And I asked if anyone could decipher what he was saying. Well as I was driving the other day and listening to the radio it all made sense! He has been speaking Japanese!!

One of his favorite things to say is "goya, goya, goya" or "negoya, negoya negoya", over and over and over. I heard an ad for a new Japanese restaurant in the city called either Negoya or Goya (or something that sounded really similar). I couldn't stop laughing while driving in the van! He has been raving about this new restaurant and we thought he was just being silly. We'll have to go someday and introduce our bilingual boy to them.

The other night we all needed to get through a rough patch between supper and bedtime so we put all 3 of them in the tub together. Usually we bath the babies one at a time, either one each night or two the same night. But that night they had a great time. Maggie and Mitchell were entertained by Casey's splashing, although I think they all had drank quite a bit of water by the end of it.


Tomorrow is 1 week until Christmas, I can't believe it! I am really excited to see what the babies think of things and I'll have to keep tabs on how much destruction they cause at both Grandma and Grandpa's houses. Casey broke another 2 (5 in total) of the plastic cabinet locks. Our diaper champ is long gone. They were using it for a few purposes. One as a steam roller once they pushed it down, sometimes on top of somone. Another as a toy box - they would drop toys in it where the diapers should go and then flip the handle. Then I would have to fish to the bottom of the bag of dirty diapers to get all the toys out. The change table is pushed right up against the dresser so they can't open the drawers throw every piece of clothing on the floor. We also had to clear out the drawer in the bottom of the stove which they now want to climb in. I wonder what it will be tomorrow?

Signing

We have been working on a few signs. Maggie and Casey both do "milk" and everyone does "eat". They understand so much now of what we say to them. If we ask if they want to go downstairs to play, the motor right over to the gate and get impatient if you don't follow right away. When we are downstairs they go to the gate again when you ask if they want lunch. Other things we say like, change your diaper, have a bath, make your bed, have some milk...they all go to where they should be. It's really cute. They even share quite well. They usually will give each other something if we ask them to or even if we don't, unless it is something they really want! They usually give away whatever they don't want....makes sense I guess. Mitchell is probably the most willing to give and Casey is the most willing to take (whether it is offered to him or not)!

Here is Maggie showing me her milk sign.


The babies got a hold of some gift bags as I was wrapping Christmas presents over the weekend. Maggie put the bags over her shoulder and walked around showing off her Spiderman and Batman purse.



Mitchell proudly carried his Carebear man purse, or as Daniel was calling it, his gym bag.


Casey was too busy mugging Maggie and Mitchell to stop for a picture. He has figured out how to open the closet doors. I caught him red handed.


The babies got there 2nd dose of both flu shots yesterday and they did really well. Casey had a harder time with things, which makes sense because he is our sensitive one. Daniel was getting his flu shots first while he was holding Casey. Casey watched daddy get poked and just started crying...he looked so sad. I am not sure if he felt bad for daddy and was telling the nurse to bugger off and leave him alone or if he was thinking..."Uh oh, I'm next!!". Everyone was fine not long after the needles were done.

While at the clinic we got the funniest "triplet comment" that I have heard yet. A lady that was volunteering who I know through one of the programs I work with came up and said the usual congratulations, they're so cute, yada yada yada. Then came the good one....she said, "Boy, you must have been busy that night!". Oh man, did we laugh!

Ready For Santa

Our Christmas tree is up and we are hoping with a Superyard around it that it should be safe from the very curious little fingers in this house. We put it up a few nights ago and then it was lit up when they got up the next morning (no decorations on it yet though).

They weren't quite too sure what to think of it at first. They stayed back for the first few minutes and didn't want to get too close. But after that they were right up at it pulling on the fence around it and grabbing the branches. The tree had to be moved back and fence re-positioned a number of times. Casey also brought me numerous decorations that I thought I had out of their reach. So now the tree is back in the corner as far as it can go and the decorations are out of reach...until they learn how to climb over the fence which hopefully won't be until after Christmas. Our living room now has two superyards in it with a small path still going through to the window which they love to be at.



"I think I hear Santa on the roof!!"

Here is our little shepherd boy. Poor Mitchell has been under the weather with a bit of a cold and lousy molars. Every time he coughs I listen and think, is that a normal cough or is that a pneumonia cough again. Knock on wood...so far just a regular cough. Today they all seemed to be done with their runny noses, so now we just have molars to blame the meltdowns on.


We are going on Monday to get the 2nd dose of the seasonal and H1N1 flu shots. They weren't bothered at all with the first round of them so hopefully these will be the same. And hopefully it won't be -46 degrees with the wind on Monday. It was brutal today! You would think most normal people wouldn't be out trying to finish up Christmas shopping on this freezing cold Saturday, but there were a lot of us crazies out there.

Day At the Hockey Rink

Yesterday my parents and I took the babies to watch Daniel play hockey. They did really well considering we were there for around 3 hours and they only had about 15 minutes of their afternoon nap. The first period everyone was content to sit on our laps and watch all of the action. During the second period everyone started to get a little restless and didn't want to just sit and watch anymore. Maggie wanted to lie down in the stands for some reason.

The boys then thought that looked like fun.

A picture of all of us before the real game began.

Casey had grandpa chasing after him all over the rink. He wasn't shy at all, he even tried crawling up on a few girl's laps. Maggie and Mitchell kept grandma and I busy going up and down from bench to bench, lots of snacks and drinks, up to the glass for a while to watch the game up close and then everyone running around inside the lobby.

After the game we got pictures of Daniel with the babies on the ice.



We didn't really get to watch much of the game but it was good to get them out. It was similar to last summer when we took them to the Men's World Fastball tournament to "watch" a game.

Hockey is something that has been in both Daniel's and my life since we were young, either playing or watching. Next winter we'll get some little skates for them and see if we have any Steve Yzerman's or Hayley Wickenheiser's in the family. Every parent can dream, right?

Winter Has Arrived

I really shouldn't complain because November was such a nice month. But I think we are finally done with our above average temps, the snow and cold has set in. I took the babies out for a walk a few days ago with everyone in their winter jackets, fleece lined pants, boots, toques and mitts. They were just fine, except for Casey constantly pulling his mitts off either with his other hand or his teeth. Any suggestions on how to keep mitts on kids?
I am hoping that on the not too cold, non-windy days we can still get out for a few walks. Although the 25 minutes that it took me to get everyone dressed and loaded up into the stroller seemed a little much. Last year was actually easier that way because unless it was really cold we could just pile them up with blankets inside of their fuzzy bundle bags and zip them right up.

The Grey Cup party was good last weekend....I should say the party and company was good, the outcome as we all know was not. We got a few pictures before we left for the party. And we realized that it is easier to a picture with all 3 babies if they are sitting on someone's lap.


It's been an emotional few days around our house. The babies are all fighting a cold which thankfully so far it isn't too bad, just runny noses and feeling kind of blah. But the stinkin' 1 year molars have popped up and that has made things a little rough at times. Casey has two that have just poked through, Mitchell has one just barely through and Maggie doesn't have any yet but she has been chewing on her fingers so I am sure they are close. So hopefully next week everyone is feeling better.

Casey caught in the act. Hair pulling is the new favorite thing to do around here (along with pushing, pulling, and of course stealing toys, blankies, soothies, etc.).

The boys holding hands during supper.

Maggie just hanging out in her chair.


I was taking some pictures at bath time yesterday. Maggie was so embarrassed and had to cover herself with a sock.

What Did He Say?

Can anyone interpret this foreign language?

If you figure it out, please let us know...we hear it everyday.