March 2011/ 21.5 Months

Here's a little update on what's been going on in our world:

The girls are all well and doing new things every day. They love to be read to, love to play with their kitchen/play pretend and love to play dress up and put on hats, shirts, shoes, etc and walk around. They've started watching Sesame Street and are all obsessed with Elmo or "Melmo" as they call him. Izzy is especially fond of him and has to sleep with him as well as "Wigga Wigga" the chicken. Ally is still very attached to "bunny" and her "Paci" when going to sleep and promptly requests them if she knows it's time for "night night". Abby has even started verbalizing her requests for Srog the Frog or "Sraw" as she calls him. They're talking so much and I'm very proud of all they're doing and how they're developing. The lady from Parents as Teachers still comes once a month and she's always so impressed with how well they talk and follow directions. She always brings them new books or puzzles and plays with them while she's here. She affirms me and the job I'm doing as a mommy, which is very nice to hear too.

Last time I updated, I mentioned that Izzy and Ally had climbed out of their cribs a few times, but THANKFULLY this has stopped! We took the bumpers out of the cribs (where they were getting a few extra inches leverage), so we still have a few more months before looking to move to toddler beds. I mentioned getting those crib tent things, but they make me a little nervous... afraid a baby could get caught up in it and suffocate or something. They ARE NOT READY for toddler beds! I don't care what other people have done in the past... these girls will not stay in a bed... they would roam all over the place and get into all kinds of trouble in a toddler bed. So... we're sticking with cribs as long as we possibly can.

The weather has been getting nicer and nicer, so I took the girls out in the backyard to play last week and took a few pics, while chasing them down!



Ally riding her 4-wheeler



Izzy



Abby (with her lil pony tail)



Ally about to slide, Abby swinging, Izzy waiting her turn



Ally's very good at sliding...


Here are a few pics of the girls playing in their jammies one day:


Ally pushing her bus all over the house



Sweet lil doe with srog



Izzy hoarding all the Elmo dolls

 Two weeks ago, I was cleaning house and I took the trash outside. While out there, the girls figured out how to lock the front door!!! I had NO IDEA they could do that! Luckily, since I was cleaning, I had a Baby Einstein video going and everything was baby proofed in the area they could roam. I ran next door, used the neighbor's phone and called Matt's mom, since she has a key. I played with the girls through the front windows while she booked it over here. It probably took about 7 minutes from the time I figured out I was locked out, but it felt like an ETERNITY!!!  I stayed calm, except for one moment at the neighbor's house when I almost started crying! It's funny when it's all over and everyone is safe, but I felt SO helpless, knowing they were in here and I couldn't get to them (without breaking a window, anyway, which did cross my mind)!

On Saturday, we took the babies to the Baby and Family Fest at the Expo Building in Tulsa. They advertised a petting zoo (which was not there by the way), but we had fun anyway. They had a group leading some dancing and fun activities for little kids. The girls ran around to music, played with balloons, and made a few new friends (especially Izzy). Here are some pics from our fun time:



Izzy playing with balloon



Izzy and Ally playing with their balloons. (The blue harness is for keeping them on little leashes. Some people may think it's inhumane.... I think it's the only way to go when you have 3 toddlers!)



Izzy, Abby, Ally and Andi Mae (in plaid shirt and jeans) playing with balloons. Our friends, Andrew and Courtney came with us.



Here's the J2 Crew leading the dance... Izzy was mezmerized. The other kids are in line following orders. Izzy is standing in the middle of the dance floor! So cute!

Izzy in middle of floor... Ally and Abby off to the left.

My girls holding hands and dancing

The J2 Crew wanted their pics taken with the "cute triplets"

Izzy made a little friend. She just walked right up and took this little girl's hand!

Andi Mae and Abby

Izzy and her friend

Abby kept guard over the strollers.

There was a Cute Baby Contest at the Baby Fest thing, and I said, "ok, I'll enter them if all you have to do is show them a baby and that's it". Well, the contest was exactly that! So... we showed them our babies and just knew we had the competition clinched! Ok, I just knew we had it clinched... Matt didn't care. Would you BELIEVE they DID NOT pick these babies as the cutest?! I think the whole thing had to be a rigged or something ;)

The girls are getting pretty good about holding hands with each other and walking places, which is SO NICE! Yesterday, after church, the 5 of us walked out holding hands: baby-mommy-baby-daddy-baby. This is a lot less work than carrying all of them everywhere we go! Also, we went to eat at Goldie's and, as we were leaving, we told the girls to hold hands. The 3 of them held hands with each other and nicely walked to the door! I was BEAMING as everyone looked at my lil cuties!!!

We have had some recent activity on the house lately. We lowered the price, added a bonus for the realtor that brings the buyer, and added a one-year warranty to the buyer, hoping this would boost interest. Well, it seemed to work, because we have a couple that looked last week and decided they want the house. Unfortunately, they can’t make an offer for 30 days… we’re thinking it has something to do with the financing (has to be at his job a certain amount of time, something to do with credit, etc). As Matt says though, we can’t be sure until the money’s in the bank, so it’s still quite “iffy”. Although we were planning on building when we sell this one, we did find a nice home that has 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and 2500 square feet within our budget, here in Pryor. We really liked it, though it needs a lot of updates. (It’s very hard to find a 4 bedroom, 2000 sq ft plus house within our budget, which is why we were opting to build). This house has been repossessed by the finance company, so we were hoping to get a good deal on it. Unfortunately, they won’t take a contract with a contingency of selling your own house… so, now we’re stuck waiting to sell ours and really hoping this one doesn’t sell to someone else in the meantime. Please pray everything works out for us… I have been extremely patient about selling ours, up until now. Now it’s consuming my mind and stressing me out! We know God has worked in amazing ways before, so please keep this situation in your prayers.