Goodbye New Jersey!

We wrapped up our final week in New Jersey as a family... While I travel for work, Andy will be back next week coordinating the movers and the grandparents will be watching all the kiddos. It was certainly bittersweet for us leaving as we've enjoyed our time there, met some really great people and of course leaving my sister is tough. We'll see how it all plays out but for now she's staying in New Jersey, so we'll make sure to send a lot of pictures and do a lot of FaceTime.

Some pictures of our final few days... All the kiddos with Auntie Em! (Stevie and Aven on her lap)

Back in the tennis court / triplet play land for fun in the puddles!

Yep, Aven and Bria are drinking from the dirty puddles... I thought Aven puked in the 15 hour car ride home because of being car sick, but perhaps it was from the parasites she was drinking from the tennis court puddles... hmmmm...

After this last trip back to WI, I'm thinking it might be a while before we take another. They were overall pretty good, but my head almost exploded after the 2, 657th time that Declan asked "are we there yet" and the fresh smell of vomit during 13 of the 15 hours was a little much. Luckily our drive from Kennesaw is a little bit closer than Princeton.

Last Weekend...

As we round out our last weekend in Jersey, my sister and I took the kids to my Aunt Conny and Uncle Jim's for the day. Andy unfortunately had to spend the weekend in Wisconsin because his Great Aunt passed away, but he said the day was beautiful and the service was nice, and I'm sure his family was happy to have him there for support.

The kids love my Aunt and Uncles place. I mean, they LOVE it. Declan cried all the way home because he wanted to stay the night or live there forever. He loved playing with his cousins, being outside and running running and running. And the girls loved being outside, running running and running, and the water fountain (again this year :-)) We sure will miss visiting them often, it's certainly been nice having family around for the holidays and just to get away! And of course it was nice when the hurricanes came and we didn't have any power for days!

Here are some pictures from the day... We started the day with Declan's baseball - which he loves, so we'll need to get him signed up asap in Georgia.

Our big boy!

Declan and our neighbor friends (twins!)

Likely not paying attention in the outfield...

Base running...

Good hit buddy!

And it was a gorgeous day to look at the gardens! Aunt Conny with Stevie and Aven...

Stevie going for a ride...

Auntie Em, Stevie (L) and Aven (R)

Sweet Stevie

If only my lap was a bit bigger and I had more arms! I could only get Aven and Bria on this ride.

Bria

Obsessed with this waterfall (again)

Declan loved the swing too!

Aven giving him a little push...

I just really liked this picture of Stevie in the background...

Stevie marching

Aven and Stevie off and running!

 Aven

Bria

It was a wonderful day and we will sure miss them!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's day never used to feel like much besides recognizing the wonderful mothers that raised me (which is extremely admirable!)... But I never fully appreciated it as a mother... Well that changed 5 years ago and then just a few years ago, the day took on a whole new meaning when we went from 1 to 4 kids! As crazy as life is, I try to take time to reflect on where we are and how amazing our kids are... Because they are.

They are strong, smart, kind, tough, opinionated, quick, funny, inquisitive, creative, loving, shy, outgoing, curious, sisters, brother, and family. Declan is such a good big brother - yes, there are times where he is jealous, doesn't like his sisters messing with his stuff and is a bit wild. But he loves his sisters even more than he knows... He loves making them laugh (sometimes making them cry), loves it when they copy what he's doing, loves hugging and kissing them and loves playing with them. And they adore him even more. I can't wait to see their bond and friendship grow over the years.  The girls... What can I say. They amaze me every single day. The fact that they were between 1 pound 3 ounces and 1 pound 11 ounces and they are crazy, running and talking toddlers now is amazing in itself. I know they will do great things in life, I have no doubt based on what they have already accomplished in the 2 short years of their life... Although some days I want to push fast forward to when the kids are all out of the house, a large part of me wants to push pause and slow it down because it's just going way to fast.

I'm lucky, privileged and blessed to call these kids mine and I cherish the title that being their mother carries...

(L to R: Stevie, Declan, Bria & Aven)

2 1/2 Years Old!

This week has been bittersweet as we have said goodbye to some of our favorite Doctors. On Monday the girls had their final endocrinologist appointment with Dr. Calabria. We've been seeing him for 2 years and love him. He's the perfect kind of doctor because he doesn't push things and really wants to hear what we want to do. He's rationale and honestly is just overall a nice guy... The good news is that he's left it up to us with continuing to follow up with an endo when we move. He's asked us to take the girls to get a hand bone age xray done to see how they look... He's not concerned, but wants us to understand where they are in the growth spectrum. We do have plenty of time to decide if we want to do some sort of growth hormone for the girls, so I think we will continue as is with not doing anything and keep an eye on them. Typically preemies catch up around their 2nd birthday, our girls have just been slow and steady. Our feels on this whole thing this that as long their size doesn't hurt their development, we are okay with having shorties :-)

We also had to say goodbye to our pediatrician... We LOVE LOVE LOVE Dr. Harvey and she has been the girls Doctor ever since they came home from NICU. She's amazing, caring, smart, kind and loves our kids. We had the girls 30 month check up today and brought her flowers as a goodbye and she cried. It was so sweet and we are going to miss her so so so so much!

Aven: Something interesting has happened this past month... Aven became a sweetie! Although she still has her 2 year old moments, she is a doll! She's still a mommas girl, but I love her hugs!!!

• Nicknames: Avie, Ave
• Favorite thing to do: Dance and jump - everywhere (off the couch, off the chair, off their climbing thing)
• Favorite food: Depends on the day... They all still eat great, but they are getting into that 2 year old difficult phase of one day they love it and one day they hate it. So honestly, she pretty much likes everything, but it depends on the day.
• Favorite toy: Yo Gabba Gabba dolls
• Favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba
• What she doesn't like: When her sisters want to play with her Yo Gabba Gabba dolls (even though we now have 3 sets)
• Morning or Night: Both - she is still usually the first one up and the last one to sleep. There are days where she doesn't nap, but we still make her stay up in their bedroom. When that happens she will just sit up there and talk to herself and wait for one of her sisters to wake up (usually Stevie) and then they start throwing things and laughing at each other.
• Things she likes to say: She is becoming a little parrot now too, but she's the most difficult to understand.
• Funniest thing she does: When she chases around her sisters... Usually at the end of the night they like to get crazy and it's cute and funny she they chase each other around trying to hug and love each other.
• Therapies: Aven has a few more therapies this month before we move - we are looking into continuing DI when we get to GA... 

Bria: Something else has happened this month... Bria has become a little terror... She has literally switched places with Aven and has becoming difficult, throws temper tantrums and is just a plain 2 year old! She still gives such great hugs and is still a Daddy's girl, but boy is she testing our limits!

• Nicknames: Bri, Bri Bri, B-B, B
• Favorite thing to do: Sing and talk...
• Favorite food: Same as Aven, but she is definitely more hot and cold. Some days you'll put her favorite food in front of her and she screams and trows it. It's just hard to tell. 
• Favorite toy: Books, Puzzles, Little People
• Favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba
• What she doesn't like: Her diaper changed and baths (this is a new one this month and it is killing me... I mean seriously, who doesn't like baths? I'm not sure if she has had a good bath in a month - stinky girl!)
• Morning or Night: She is a challenge to get to sleep - if I took a picture of all the stuff that is in her crib by the time she goes down, you wouldn't be able to find her. But once she's down, she is down and she sleeps good and takes good naps still (usually)
• Things she likes to say: Her speech has really taken off... Not everyone understands her, but we pretty much do. I was gone for a few days this week and when I came home I could see the difference. Today when we brought them downstairs, she came over to me and said "Hi Mommy" - my heart melted because I'm not sure she's ever said that before... She also is saying "Sister" - so when we ask who everyone is, she says momma, dada and sister. She can also say her name when she points to herself (or she says "me")
• Funniest thing she does: She always makes funny faces... It's hard to get a picture of her where she isn't... And she always, always, always walks around the house with Declan's shoes on. I'm not sure I've seen her without a pair of his shoes on in the past month.
• Therapies: Wrapping up a few the remaining DI sessions... Their DI therapist has done wonders for her and Aven!

Stevie: Oh Stevie... She is as sweet as a button usually... And a bit obsessive... Depends on the day, some times it's being obsessed with Auntie Em (which is pretty much every time that Aunt Em is around), or it's me one day and Andy another day.... She just doesn't like it when you leave her alone some days. But then the next she wants to be completely independent. Wait, am I explaining a 15 year old? I just saw our lives flash before our eyes...

• Nicknames: She really doesn't have one anymore... We just call her Stevie... 
• Favorite thing to do: Dance, run and chase her brother (or sisters)
• Favorite food: Same as her sisters... Some days great, others not so much... 
• Favorite toy: Magnadoodle and playing dress up (usually in her rain boots)
• Favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba
• What she doesn't like: When you don't give her what she wants (which can be challenging she can't always tell us what she wants)
• Morning or Night: Her and Aven are pretty similar on the sleeping patterns
• Things she likes to say: Her speech is getting better by the day. She will now mimic what you say and if you ask her to say something she will (or at least she will try). 
• Funniest thing she does: She loves dancing and she will dance everywhere at any time. Today at the Doctor, with no music, she just started dropping moves :-) 
• Therapies: With our upcoming move, we have stopped PT and her Speech Therapist just recently had her last appt with her because she too is moving. We'll get her back on track when we get to Georgia.

My attempt at getting some good shots for Mother's Day (of course I am behind in my duties to all our Moms! Per usual :-)) Declan wanted to look nice today and picked out his outfit for the pictures - there is hope yet for our children! L to R: Stevie Bria & Aven (this was the best I could get).

L to R: Stevie, Bria & Aven...

And this is pretty much how the rest of the pictures went...

Aven

Bria