11 months

The girls will be 11 months tomorrow and we are finally to the point where we feel comfortable taking them places. So far we have attempted the zoo and the beach. We went to the zoo over Valentine's Day weekend. They were not all that interested in the animals, but I think they really enjoyed getting out of the house and just enjoying the nice weather. Many times throughout the day, we felt like we were an exhibit with all the people stopping to stare at the "triplets", but in spite of all the attention, we were able to have a nice day as a family.

Last weekend, we tried the beach. We went with our family friends, the Byrnes. It was a hit! They loved the sand and shells. The water was still a little too cold but they loved everything else. We stopped on the way home from the beach at a fruit stand and got some fresh Florida strawberries. The girls loved the strawberries.

We had so much fun that we decided to try the beach again this weekend. This time we went with Derek, Jessica, and Mya, and this time the girls had more fun eating the sand than anything else. We tried very hard to keep it out of their mouth but with 3 of them...inevitably some sand was eaten. We were able to find a small patch of warm water and they girls LOVED it. They played in that water until it was time to go.

As far as their development, they are all walking along the couch and standing up on just about everything they can find. Everyone has mastered the correct way to crawl and Mark and I spend most of our time chasing them around. We have recently switched over to normal foods (not baby food). We were wearing more of the baby food than they were eating because they just kept spitting it out at us. So we decided it was time to switch. So far we have tried eggs, pancakes, jello, peas, carrots, bananas, mac-n-cheese, cheerios and watermelon. We can definitely tell Jillian is going to be our eater. Payton doesn't seem to like much of anything except cheerios and Gerber puffs. Hopefully she will grow out of this. As far as sleeping habits, they no longer sleep through the night. We had a good run there for a few months, but now that they can stand up and crawl around, they wake up and wake each other up. Their cribs are so close together that they will stand up and bang on each other's crib trying to wake someone else up. The bedroom they are in is probably the smallest of the 3 extra bedrooms we have, but we chose it because it was closest to our bedroom. We also chose it before we knew we were having 3. So during my spring break here in a couple weeks, we are going to paint our guest bedroom and make that the girls new bedroom. The new guest bedroom will now be the babies old bedroom. I am especially excited about this because we can paint it pink and make it super girly. We picked out a green color when we were told we were having 2 girls and 1 boy. Obviously they are all girls so now pink is the plan.

We still have challenges every day and life is no where near easy, but we finally feel like life is getting easier and we can really start enjoying our girls. This first year has been a blur and nothing short of crazy, but we wouldn't trade it for the world. Enjoy some pictures and videos.

*Mark would like me to add a disclaimer to this video that he DOES have shorts on*

Daddy and the girls in the tub

Payton standing up on the toy box

They love looking at themselves

Payton climbing

Payton eating eggs

Chloe eating eggs

Jillian eating eggs : notice there is nothing left

Jillian

Sharing the toy (this doesn't happen very often)

Eating fresh Florida strawberries

Payton and strawberries

Jillian: strawberries

Payton at the beach

Jillian eating a shell

Chloe: Excited she found a shell

Chloe and her shell

Jillian

Searching for shells

Picnic at the beach

The water was a little cold

"please get me outta here"

Kevin and Chloe

Jillian does not want to touch the water

Jillian and Daddy

Chloe and Kevin

Payton and Mommy with our toes in the water

The Byrnes at the beach with us

The girls with the Byrnes at the Beach

Royer Family at Mickler Beach

Payton on Daddy's shoulders

Daddy and Payton on the Beach

Chloe going for the Drink

Chloe chillin on the Beach

Pretty Chloe

Payton Posing on the Beach

10 months

It has been a long time since I posted, and the girls have been growing like weeds. It is so hard to believe that they are 10 months old. Over the past few months, we have had lots of help. Our family friends, the Byrnes, come over on a daily basis to help Mark and I out. Samantha is over EVERY night helping with feedings and baths and she has just been such a blessing. Conor is over almost everyday, helping Mark out during the day. Then Anne and Samantha come over once a week so I can teach at night school in the GED program to earn some extra cash. I also have school friends in and out helping when we need it (we have actually gotten a couple of date nights recently). We went from thinking we were pretty much on our own, to feeling like we have an entire support system around us. WE are so blessed.

The girls are all crawling. Jillian is doing the traditional crawl, Payton does an army crawl, and Chloe does this worm thing. It is so cute. Chloe can pull herself up to a standing position. Payton and Jillian are also pulling themselves up, but not quite as good as Chloe yet. They seem to find a way to pull themselves OVER things instead of UP. They like to escape. We finally had to put up some baby gates and enclose our living room. As you can see in one of the pictures, Payton escaped down the hallway, at that point, we knew it was time to start blocking things off. Our living room is very wide open, and we can't find a baby gate big enough, so we have tried to come up with some creative ways to block them in. They seem to outsmart us every time though. They love to escape the living room and play with the door stop in our hallway. I can't complain though, it keeps them entertained for hours. I know all you parents out there are screaming just wait...we know it will get worse. Hopefully by that time, we will have a better plan of action.

Probably the best news I have to share, is that they are all holding their own bottles now. This has cut our feeding time down tremendously. This really helps make things easier on us. We also started giving them baths in the actual tub. They LOVE it. They can play in the water and play with their toys. They all go in the bath at the same time, and the adults form an assembly line, one person bathes, one person dresses and if we have extra help one person puts them to bed. They are getting to bed usually by 9:00 now(about a month ago it was closer to 10:30-11:00 before they were in bed), it is so nice to have an hour of adult time every night! We are starting to finally get the hang of things and get into a routine. Jillian finally got a tooth on Super Bowl Sunday. Payton now has her second tooth coming in and Chloe still just has her two bottom teeth. Teething has been a challenge, but with lots of Orajel and Tylenol we have gotten through it. They all have become little parrots and will mimic everything we do. Some of their favorite things to do are to clap and smack their lips and tongue clicks. Hopefully we will have some videos of these soon. As the weather is warming up, we are planning a trip to the zoo and the pool. Stay tuned for pictures and videos.

Jillian Hangin with Sammie

Jillian holding her Dolly sitting on Grandma Anne

Chloe chillin with Kevin




Payton...Startin early....We got a problem! : )

Chloe with Roofis (Byrne's Beagle)







Jillian being silly





Can't keep your eyes off them...Baby gate and enclosures were setup shortly after this stunt by Payton. (See Picture Below)




Enclosure Setup (Jillian was quick to figure this one out)

Chloe Clapping

We are feeding our bottles to ourselves (Mom and Dad= YEA!!!)

We don't know how this happened... but she woke up like this smiling.

1st bath time together in Mommy and Daddy's bathtub

Payton's Cheesy Smile!...Gotta Love it!

Girls playing in the water

Payton holding herself up on the couch.

Chloe says "Here I come!"

Jillian: " I fell right through the bouncer, How did I get down here?!?"

Girls have found the door stoppers in the house

Chloe riding the Dragon from Grandma Dimmick

Chloe found a good place to sleep on Charlie

Jillian moved during feeding time and got smacked with Carrots

Payton "Put a sock in it!"

Jillian coming face to face with Charlie

Jillian

Chloe

Jillian Striking her famous pose

Girls Riding in style in Uncle Conor's Jaguar

9 months

It is hard to believe that it has been 9 months since the girls were born. They are doing very well and getting so big. Today we took them to the doctor for a check up. They are finally catching up to what a normal 9 month baby should be. Payton is 17lbs 11oz, Jillian is 18lbs 8 oz, and Chloe is 19lbs 4oz. Everyone is healthy and right on track. We also took them to get their 9 month picture today. Since they are now all sitting up on their own and in a very smiley stage, it was a lot of fun. They really turned out well...

babies in flowers
This is what it is really like trying to take pictures with triplets

Day at the beach

Jillian

Payton

Chloe

Payton, Jillian, Chloe (Jillian had to be sitting up becuase she was crawling away)

Chloe

Jillian

Jillian

Payton

Payton

Chloe

Chloe

Chloe, Payton, Jillian

Newspaper Article

The long awaited newspaper article arrived yesterday. I am so glad they sent us a copy. I was able to find the article online so I am just posting the link. Click on the link to read the article. We were listed on the front page of their website in their scrolling pictures. :) We think our girls are very special. I am glad other people do to!

Monroe County Reporter Monroe County, Forsyth, Ga > News > Triple your fun at DQ