Screaming...

There is a lot of screaming in our household lately - and it's not Andy and I at the kids! The girls have been screaming - a lot. It's not the normal kind of yelling, it's the bone-wrenching, nails on a chalk board kind of screaming... And it. will. not. stop. And when one starts (usually Aven), the others chime in and then Declan jumps in and Andy and I wish we had padded walls to throw ourselves against :-)

Here's a snippet of what I'm talking about... It's during lunch today - not as bad as normal, but you get the jist...

And here's a cuter video from this weekend of Stevie and Declan dancing... I love it when Stevie dances :-) She's just so cute with her "moves."

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year... Although it was pretty quite (as quite as you can get with 3 2 year olds and a 5 year old), but it was nice to not have to run all over the place and do what we wanted.

We kicked off the holiday with my birthday - I'm happy to be 35!! I love getting older as I've always felt like I was playing catch up with my age - ask me at 40, but for now, I'm happy with my age! Aunt Em watched the kiddos as Andy and I went out with a friend after the girls went to bed. I'm pretty sure we were home and in bed by 11 pm, but hey - it was fun while it lasted! My one accomplishment that day was finishing my "40 before I'm 40" list... Yep - I've got 40 things I want to do before I'm 40. I think it's a good one and can't wait to get started!!

Christmas Eve Em came over and we decided to make and eat hors d'oeuvres all day long.  We made each of our favorites and then stuffed ourselves! That night we did our annual (3rd year in a row) outting before bed time and went to see the Christmas tree in downtown Princeton. The kids just wanted to run around in the mud and dark, so we didn't get many good shots, but it was still fun. And it was perfect because it started snowing just before we were leaving, just in time for Santa to come!

Auntie Em with Declan and Stevie before the outing...

Bria (L) and Aven (R) not too keen on getting all bundled up to go... Auntie Em in the background trying not to spil her coffee mug wine :-)

The only picture I got off all the kids by the tree - they were off and running!!

Daddy and Aven...

Bria - help it's SNOWING!!!

Daddy and Declan...

Christmas day the adults were up before the kids... Em came over and we ate breakfast before anyone was even awake :-) And then the kids got up and tore into the enormous amount of gifts... Here's a few pictures from the day...

The before picture... Our kids must have been good because Santa brought a lot! That and we are blessed with an amazing family who sent lots of gifts!

Bria and Aven trying to get a glimps of their new kitchen!

Bria...

Stevie on Em's lap...

Bria ripping into her sisters gifts - it was chaos!

Declan hugging his new iPad from Santa... I'm excited that I get my iPad back now!

Daddy working too!

Aven playing with some creapy horses from Grandma Sally :-) She loved them!

Stevie on the new "indoor" play gym - Grandma Mary bought the kids a climber (since they LOVE climbing) - it's small so we set it up in our living room for the winter :-) All the kids love it!

Aven playing with their new tea set from Papa and Grandma Judy...

Bria playing with the girls little people horse castle from Aunt Linda...

Stevie playing in her new fridge from all the grandparents... All the kids LOVE LOVE LOVE their gifts...

This morning we all woke up at 10 am - YES 10 AM!!! I jumped out of bed, very startled with the time since I myself haven't slept that late in, well since I can remember! We had to wake the girls up and Declan was just getting up himself. The girls have been crazy sleepers lately - meaning they sleep all the time. Not a bad problem to have and today Andy informed me that you get smarter the more you sleep (now I know what happened to me the girls first year!) I'm thinking the girls excessive sleeping either means they are getting sick, they are going through a growth spurt or they are just tuckered out from all the playing and new fun stuff to play with. Time will tell...  

This year we are yet again blessed with amazing children, each other and awesome family and friends... Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Sister love...

The girls have just started to really enjoy each other... Don't get me wrong, they still fight A LOT, and don't necessarily like when each other takes what they were playing with first, but they also are finding that it's fun to have sisters! It's honestly adorable and likely the best thing that I've discovered about multiples... I can deal with the fights when they are this cute!

Bria and Aven holding hands and then Bria and Aven dancing... Melts my heart!

Party!

Yesterday, Em, Andy and I and the kids went down to my Aunt Conny and Uncle Jim's house for a Christmas celebration. We were really looking forward to getting out of the house and spending time with family. I was curious how the girls would react since it's been a while since we had been there and they have had a lot of stranger danger lately. But the minute we put the girls down, they were off and running! They loved, loved, loved being there, playing with their cousins, terrorizing the dog and finding everything that they shouldn't touch and touch it.

Here's a few pictures from the night (I didn't get a lot of good ones because I was busy trying to find the 3rd child running around)...

The kids watching the girls eat their snack :-)

And Declan attacking his cousin :-)

The girls terrorizing Aunt Conny's living room...

And the dog...

They got the girls the most adorable seats - it's a 3 seater!!! (L to R: Aven, Bria & Stevie)

Here are some other pictures from the last few days... Aven hugging Bria :-)

Happy Stevie!

The girls really happy to see Aunt Em! They were banging on the door when they saw her...

Stevie & Aven holding hands - love these little girls...

Aven and Stevie sitting nicely in front of the tree...

The girls have been having a love hate relationships with each other... I'll take it because it's better then all hate! They have really started to actually play with each other instead of just parallel playing with each other - they still have their moments of pushing each other, but they do enjoy chasing each other around and playing games... Here's a video of Bria and Aven playing with each other (Aven is in the laundry room)...

Sunday Funday....

Helpers...

We have had some unusual Jersey weather latetly - well unusual for us over the past 3 years... We have had snow! We had a few inches earlier this week and then it snowed all day today - will likely end up with 4 inches or so... Although a far cry from Wisconsin weather, it provides for some interesting long days :-) Here are a few shots of the kids today...

During naptime, Declan and I played outside - pretty sure it's the first time I have worn my snowpants in 3 years, a bit big, but they did the trick!

And here is what the girls were doing while we were outside - this is an hour into their nap... They did decide to finally fall assleep, but then we had to wake them up at 4 pm! Steve is on the bottom left jumping up and down - you can faintly see Bria (on the right) and Aven (above Stevie) - this is a typcal naptime playtime routine when they aren't too tired :-)

When the girls got up, I decided to let them help me make potato soup... Yet another challenge with having triplets is that if one does something, then they all want to do it. Aven has always had the longest attention span, and best fine motor skills - which makes her great at coloring, cooking, helping, etc. Bria and Stevie on the other hand - not so great at these things - or rather it depends on the day.

As I was chopping, Bria and Aven wanted to know what I was doing...

Aven starting to help... 

More "helping" - I still need to re-organize this drawer...

All the girls join in!

Bria & Stevie...

And earlier this morning Aven and Stevie playing TOGETHER! Amazing... It's really cute lately that Stevie wants to do EVERYTHING that Aven does - Aven takes off her shirt, Stevie does it; Aven puts her brother's shoe on, Stevie puts the other one on; Aven plays with a stroller, Stevie playes with one... It will be interesting to see how long this lasts.

And Stevie looking cute today...

25 Months!

The girls monthly birthday snuck up on me yesterday, so I had to take the opportunity to take some pictures just before bed... The girls continue to develop their own personality and it amazes me every day at how different the three of them can be. I think I figured that having three at once, although all fraternal, that they would be similar in personality - so not the case... They all have strong personalities, yet so different. They continue to test their limits, make us laugh and pick up something new every single day...

Aven: Aven is our biggest test... She will find anything and everything that will push our buttons. She wants the most attention and if you aren't paying her any, she will go out of her way to make sure you start too. On a daily basis, we see more and more of Declan and constantly catch ourselves comparing her to Declan at that age. She's also the one who wears her emotions on her sleeve - if one is upset, she is sure to be as well and when others are happy she feeds off of them (usually).

• Nicknames: Avie, Ave
• Favorite thing to do: She currently likes her little people, building things (blocks or big legos) and lining things up in a row (magnets. blocks, cars, little people, etc - all in a perfect line). She also loves reading books and coloring. 
• Favorite food: Any type of breakfast food (i.e. waffles, hash browns, eggs)
• Favorite toy: Books, blocks, little people and shoes (doesn't matter who's)
• Favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba and Mickey Mouse Club House (she likes TV the most)
• Morning or Night: Night - she's usually the last one to go to bed and her and Stevie often mess around for a good 30-60 minutes while in their cribs. She's always been the most restless of the girls and not much has changed. Although she's like her brother and Dad in the morning or when waking up from naps and tends to be a bit crabby...
• Things she likes to say: Her favorite word and sign continues to be "more" - I'd say, she's the least chatty of the three of them. She says a lot and has full fledged triplet talk but we don't understand a lot of it.
• Funniest thing she does: She loves chasing Declan around and around and around, all over the place... She's really figured out how fun he can be and she just goes nuts with him. She laughs, he laughs and they have a great time. She's also insists upon taking off her shirt randomly throughout the day...

Bria: Bria has been our little angel lately... Happy, full of life and just a lover. This has always been part of her personality, but she has also had big swings - just lately she's been this all the time (and a great balance for us with the other two). She loves to give hugs and kisses and she's just got a lovable, likable personality...

• Nicknames: Bri, Bri Bri, B-B, B
• Favorite thing to do: Climb
• Favorite food: Meat - any kind, chicken, hot dogs, hamburger - oh and she likes bananas now :-)
• Favorite toy: Car, riding toys and books
• Favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba (but she's always been the least interested in TV)
• Morning or Night: Night, definitely not a morning kid... Much like her big brother and Dad, we almost always have to wake her in the morning and she's generally crabby in the morning. Is definitely our best sleeper - first to sleep and last to get up. When her sisters are up chatting away, she's out cold. Can't even remember the last time she woke up in the middle of the night (now I just jinxed it).
• Things she likes to say: Mama, Dada, Papa (for Grandpa), more, done, up, bye, hi and several other things that make sense to her and her sisters but we don't understand.
• Funniest thing she does: Gets naked in the morning or at a minimum takes of her diaper in the morning before we get them all out of bed. It's about every other day that we go in and Bria is either naked, with just a diaper on or has her PJ's on, but no diaper (which is always interesting). 

Stevie: Although traditionally Stevie has always been our little angel, she's really been testing her limits lately.  I think she's finally figured out that to be heard she needs to make a little more noise. I also think that traditionally she's been a few months behind the other two girls, so her "difficult phase" is coming on in full force right now. She still is a little lover who LOVES giving hugs and kisses (and will meet  you at the door handing them out :))

• Nicknames: Sweet Pea (that's what Andy calls her a lot)
• Favorite thing to do: Read books, climb and sit on the top of the couch like a cat (on a blanket).
• Favorite food: Bananas (still)
• Favorite toy: Books, little people, music toys and any of Declan's toys
• Favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba
• Morning or Night: Both, but is happy in the morning (mostly) - she will trade off with Aven on who wakes up first. 
• Things she likes to say: Hi
• Funniest thing she does: At night when her and Aven are having their deep conversations, she puts her blanket over her head and walks around her crib while her and Aven laugh hysterically (we watch on the video monitor). She's also become quite the little hoarder... When you get her in the morning, you need to bring with her blanket, lovie, stuffed animal and pillow.

Although they can be challenging, they are so much fun too (and way easier then when they were babies). Here are some pictures from the last few days...

L to R with their crazy hair: Bria, Stevie & Aven...

Stevie...

Bria...

Aven...

Trying to get a kids picture - failure...

Stevie and her hoarding... fully dressed, but PJ's back on (just the sleeves) and her collection of the other girl's PJs...

Declan (there must be a theme with our kids not being fully dressed)

Stevie acting like a cat on the top of the couch...

Aven tonight without her shirt on... Oh and I forgot to mention whenever Aven takes her shirt off, Stevie MUST have hers off too.

Crazy Aven...