Happy 1st Birthday!

How can one year seem to have passed so quickly and so slowly at the same time?  I remember my time on bed rest in the hospital and the girls' delivery like it was yesterday, but there are so many moments over the last year with the girls that are a blur.  There were so many times in those first 10 weeks that I cried and was so scared.  I felt as though I had failed because I didn't carry them longer.  We are so blessed to have such healthy girls. 

Overall, this last year hasn't been nearly as bad as I anticipated.  There have certainly been moments that tried my patience.  My personal experience with having triplets is that the first year was pretty easy.  Everyone says the first year is the hardest, but I'm finding that it's getting harder and harder as time goes on.  The first several weeks that all three girls were home was hard.  Once we got in our groove, things went incredibly smoothly.  The girls have been sleeping through the night since they were 12 weeks old, and I have been getting plenty of sleep too.  Now that they are on the move, I really think it's getting harder.  I'm also getting extremely frustrated with my self-imposed quarintine (flu season).  I cannot wait to get out of this house.  At the same time, I'm scared.  I hate the attention.  I just want to have a "normal" life and be able to go somewhere without being accosted by strangers. 

To celebrate the girls' first birthday, I ordered a cake from Costco.  My mom came over, and we opened presents given to the girls by my friends and my parents.  Then we let the girls dive into the cake.  Katie LOVED it!!  She dug right in and squished it around in her hands.  It took a minute for her to realize that she could eat it.  Once I felt she had enough, I took it away.  She was NOT thrilled that I took it away.  Maggie was very delicate with her eating of the cake.  I had to push her hands into it and show her that she could eat it.  She loved it too, but didn't go as crazy as Katie.  Izzy-B also took a little while to figure out that she could eat it.  Her enthusiasim and mess was somewhere in the middle.  It was so much fun to watch the girls enjoy their first taste of sugar.  After cake, they had a bath.  We'll do "one year" pictures later this week, and I'll post their official one year stats on Friday.  It was just too much to get it all done tonight. 

Here come the pictures.....

 Thank you Karen!

Thank you Cherrie!

 Thank you Kathy!

 Thank you Aunt Dodie!

 Ohhh - soft.

 Are these my size?

 Thank you grandma and grandpa!

 Thank you Aunt Novita and Uncle Paul!

 This is fun!!

 See the cake on the wall behind her?

 Where's my cake?!?!?!

 Such beautiful red lips!

Happy 1st Birthday to Katie, Maggie and Izzy-B! 

Trouble with a capital I

Izzy-B has transformed herself from the quiet one observing her sisters to the trouble maker.  She may even end up the dominant triplet.  She now steals toys, is the center of the action and just might be the ring-leader.  She is by far the fastest crawler.  Do not let the innocent look on her face fool you.

Sometimes I daydream about the trouble these girls will get into; the headaches they will cause.  This one surprised me.  I guess I need to move their highchairs farther apart.

Here's another video of Katie (since she was left out of the last post) - she just might knock her highchair over!

 
I don't like using the shoulder straps on the highchairs because they take too much time, and I've never needed them before.  But, there comes a time for everything.  Sorry girls - safety first!

Groundhog Day

Seriously - how strange is the practice of relying on a groundhog to determine the fate of the weather?  Future civilizations will be laughing at us.  Or, maybe they'll think we worship groundhogs.  I still don't even understand how they know whether that poor groundhog saw his shadow or not.  Does he even know what a shadow is?

Anyway - my life sometimes feels like my own personal Groundhog Day.  The monotony can really get to me.  I'm a stickler about the girls' schedule.  Things MUST happen at a certain time, so, I guess, I am partially mostly to blame.  There are definitely surprises each day.  The girls interactions with one another, the things they "say" and do.  Those moments make my day - not in an Clint Eastwood kind of way.

I have to admit, having a house that is two stories is much more difficult than I imagined.  And, really our new house is 3 stories since we use the basement frequently (it's partially finished and serves as our office - and, of course, laundry).  I calculated the other day that I go up the stairs 28 times a day and down the stairs 28 times a day JUST IN MY CAPACITY AS A MOTHER TO THE GIRLS.  This doesn't count the numerous times I go down to the basement to check e-mail or Facebook or to do laundry.  This move is a definite, but welcome, workout.

So busy

I've been so busy with moving, unpacking, cleaning the old house and getting it ready to be on the market, I have negleted my blog.  I have a couple of posts in my head, but I don't have the time to get them typed up now.  I thought I'd post a few pictures and videos from my iPhone.  Some of these were also posted on Facebook, so some of you have already seen them. 

Maggie sleeping this afternoon.  Seriously - how can that be comfortable?!?!

Izzy being cute and quiet while her sisters sleep today.

Izzy pondering life before our move:

Maggie from a couple of weeks ago:

Izzy from a few weeks ago:

I don't know why I don't have any recent pix of Katie on my iPhone.  I'll have to make up for it in a future post.

The Move

We did it.  We moved.  This is one of the most difficult moves I've ever had to endure, and I've moved a lot.  Growing up, we moved a lot.  I actually liked it for the most part because I loved having a new space to live in.  I tend to get sick of a house after couple of years. 

I can only remember one time in my life when my family hired movers.  We usually did it all ourselves.  Robin and I last moved from Golden to Englewood.  We hired movers, and it was such a great experience.  I couldn't believe how fast they were.  It only took 3.5 hours from start to finish.  This time, we decided to use the same moving company.  They did a great job, but I sure did underestimate the amount of stuff we accumulated over the last 4.5 years.  I know we gained three additional family members, but I honestly didn't think there was that much more stuff - particularly because we left a lot of furniture behind to stage the house for showings.  Therefore, I assumed that for everything we gained, we were leaving something behind.  Well - that certainly wasn't the case. 

The movers were scheduled to be at our house at 8am - they were very prompt.  I had already scheduled the cable guy to be at the new house between 1-3pm.  I thought that would be plenty of time.  I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.  Well, by 11:30am, the movers were finally finishing up LOADING everything in Englewood.  AND - they couldn't even fit everything in the truck.  Seriously - we had to leave a lot of stuff in our garage behind.  They were finally finished unloading everything in Golden at 2pm.  That's 6 hours total.  This move cost me twice what the last one did, and I still have to go back and get more stuff.  Luckily, the cable guy arrived about 15 minutes after the movers left.  It all worked out perfectly (hey - that's not where you thought this was going). 

The movers were very nice, and they did a great job.  I know by 2pm, they must have been quite hungry (I know I was).  They said more than once that we had a lot of stuff.  He did compliment my packing skills (or wait - was he trying to get a bigger tip?!?). 

We now have to focus our attention on the old house.  We need to CLEAN it (yikes), get it staged and get the rest of our crap out of the garage. 

We focused our attention on getting the girls' room set up.  It's a lot smaller than their old room.  We were able to get three cribs, the dresser and the changing table in there with some creative furniture positioning.  We also had a chair and a bookcase in their last room, but there is no way wer are getting anything else in the new room.  Unfortunately, the closet is also smaller and it doesn't have doors right now.  We had new carpet installed in 2004 - the pad is thicker and the pile is higher, so the closet doors wouldn't open and close.  The renters we had in here before removed the doors.  We need to have them planed (I think that's what it's called).

I mentioned before that the Golden house is a duplex (kind of more like a townhouse, but we're on the end).  It's a really weird set up.  It's actually a group of four duplexes connected by garages and all of the front doors open to a common pathway (two duplexes on each side).  I feel like I need a diagram.  We, by far, have the best lot because we're on the corner.  We have the most land, the most parking and the best views of the mountains.  It's so nice to be back in Golden.

I'm completely exhausted.  I packed up the entire house, and I have done a lot of the work moving stuff around and going back and forth taking car loads of the girls' stuff.  My muscles are so sore, my back hurts and I just ache all over.  Sorry for complaining.  I could never be a mover.  I don't understand how someone can move other people's stuff all day, every day.  Even though it was expensive to hire them, I think it was worth every penny!!

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post.