New Toy for Mommy!

Well, after lots of research and thought (on tim's part of course!), we finally found the perfect "triplet-mobile"!  Initially, I wanted a tahoe, but quickly realized there was zero trunk space, so that was ruled out!  Suburbans were next, but we didn't feel as comfortable driving those as the next ones, so they were out too.  That left us with Armada and Expedition EL (extended length).  They are both beautiful and packed with awesome features, but we finally decided to bite the bullet and splurge on the fully loaded expedition... It took some careful persuasion on timmy's part to convince me we "needed" all that stuff, but i'm so glad we did! 

    The craziest part to me is that EVERYTHING in can be controlled with your voice...phone call, radio, navigation, finding restaurants, playing Ipod, etc.  For now i'm still getting used to that and still mostly using the touch screen on the dash.  If you accidently get a call from me from the car or i hand up on you, i'm sorry hah! I have 3 Christi's, 4 Chris's, several Alysons in my phone, so sometimes it's a guessing game who it's going to call haha!  I think my FAVORITE part however is the perforated (dotted) leather that makes for air conditioned seats!! It's perfect for houston weather, and a pregnant woman like me who could use a "cool breeze" while I sit :)  Never heard of those till now!   And the back seats are power fold with the push of a button, so i won't have to be juggling the car seats while i fold down or move anything whew!

  



  Another big event this week was our furniture delivery/assembly yay!!!  I'll post pics of those tomorrow...I am so happy with it and so thankful to mom and dad for taking care of it all!

I'm sure many of you enjoyed the Royal wedding yesterday...ahh the elegance and beauty was so amazing!  In honor of that, I had to pull out some old pics of our Europe trip a few summers ago!  Brought back so many memories of our time there!



Buckingham Palace (where they kissed!)



statue outside of the Palace (where we watched changing of the guards)

 

Trafalgar Square (where the masses gathered to watch)



Westminster Abbey



                                                                                             Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!                                     

announcing NAMES!! (plus cake pops pics!)

Happy Easter!!  I hope you're enjoying this meaningful weekend as we celebrate our Risen Lord!  As is the norm for holidays with us, we have a  weekend of family and fun! It can be hectic at times, but I'm so grateful that we have 3 different sets of family all in the houston area that we are close with and I wouldn't change it!

I'm sorry to those of you who have been waiting on the announcement....we've had our names set for weeks now, but I just keep forgetting to post it up here!  So here we go (keep any negative comments to yourself please....all 3 have special meanings to us and we aren't going back now! :))

Londyn Grace
Layton Jack
Lance Craig

Also, i've been slacking on the stats updates for a few weeks, so here is another:

how far along?  19 weeks

how are you measuring?  26 weeks
size of babies?  about 8 ounces, and 6 inches long each

total weight gain  +16 pounds

stretch marks? No, not yet!! 
sleep?  still not good :(   I even bought a good pregnancy pillow (the preggle), and it almost stressed me out more than helped b/c i couldn't find a good position with all the options!

maternity clothes?  oh yes!

 best moment this week?  joining our church!  Since we moved to katy, we had visited quite a few and never settled on one until this year. we fell in love with Grace Fellowship UMC, and attended the membership class on Sunday to make it official!  God definitely showed us exactly where he wanted us to be, and I'm so thankful!

movement?   YES!  all the flutters started last week!  No kicks yet, just the fizzy feeling!

food cravings? anything really~ lots of meat especially! mom made us a yummy chicken casserole midweek, and that really hit the spot

what i miss:    getting to ride the jet skis and boat today at the lake :(

what I'm looking forward to:  getting the nursery furniture delivered this week!  mom and dad were so sweet to get the entire room for us, and i can't wait to see it all set up!

how are you feeling?  can't complain :) 

Okay, so Wednesday I promised you pictures of the adorable cake pops one of my girl's moms made for my class shower.  I am SO SO blessed by my precious kiddos!!  Here's just a peek:

 

 

a good report! :)

Hi friends! Well, had another appointment today (I don't know how people wait a month between them and not have an ultrasound each time!...now that I've been going every 2 weeks even that seems like a long time to not see my babes!)   Anyways, everything was good!  They have shifted up higher in my tummy (guess they were getting crammed below), and all were growing!   The BEST news I got was that I can for sure keep working till May 6th, maybe even the next week depending on how I'm doing!!  I was so worried she might say I needed to stop right at 20 weeks which would be next Friday, and I'm just not ready to be home full time yet!  This week I've felt great (although last week not so much!), so i want to stay there as long as I can.  However there was a condition....she said i HAVE to be laying down when I get home each evening, and not be doing much outside of work.   I told her I will cut out (or back heh) on my Target trips as long as I could aim for May 13th!!  She agreed (although mom and timmy aren't too happy about that and think it may be pushing it....we'll just play it by ear i guess!)

Today was also a GREAT day b/c my kiddos absolutely spoiled me at school!  One of the sweet moms got a very very generous collection together from both classes, and made the most adorable "Baby" cake pops you have ever seen (pics to come I promise!).  We had a blast opening their precious gifts, and looking through the precious scrapbook she put together of all the "predictions for babies" my kids wrote/drew about.  It's crazy to start seeing things with their names put on clothes, bibs, etc...makes it all SO real!!  I cannot thank you enough Tiffany...you are the most generous and gifted person, and I am beyond blessed to have you!  Can't even describe how amazing my sweet kids are...I hope everyone can experience that much joy from their job on a daily basis!

Overall, can't complain at all!  It's been a smooth ride so far, and as my Dr keeps telling me to do...I'm "just enjoying it" till the rough patches come!

There was a lady sitting next to us today who was already 31 weeks and still looked good/seemed somewhat comfortable--of course she's on full bed rest, but still that was really encouraging! 

Hope you are all doing well....thanks so much as usual for all the sweet words and prayers you're sending our way!  Love you!

Laur +3

a story to share...

Not much to report on the baby front this week (it's an off week for appointments) except I felt the "quickening" movements of them for the first time Sunday, and have each day since then!  It's such a cool feeling....exactly as i heard it described--- little bubbles or butterflies fluttering.  It's mostly been the boy on my left side....he must be crowded or something haha!  

I wanted to share with you a beautiful story a friend sent me a while back (thanks Elizabeth!).  It really touched me after my painful experience last year, and i'm hoping it will do the same for some of you!

It's a part from the true book "Heaven is For Real" that documents a four year old's trip to Heaven during surgery.  Anyways, in a part of it the child who went to Heaven runs up to his mom and says, "I have TWO sisters." He only had one sister so his mom replied, "no, honey, you have one." He responded with, "no, mommy. You had a baby before me but she died in your tummy. She hugged me in heaven and told me that she's excited about you and daddy coming up to meet her one day. She has brown hair just like you and looks just like (his sister)" the mom asked him if she had a name and he said, "no, she said that y'all hadn't named her yet."
The mom had never told her son about the baby before him, hadn't named it yet, and had never known the sex of the baby. It was amazing closure for her to know that her child was in Heaven, excitedly waiting for her, and immediately knew her siblings.
Isn't that amazing!?  Sometimes we can learn so so much from looking at things through children's eyes. I know I learn way more from my students than I ever imagined!

On a different note, I had to recommend a really neat place if you're looking for something new and different! It makes a great couples date night, or girls night out, etc.  Pinot's Palette has 3 locations in houston....Galleria, Montrose, and Katy (convenient for us!)   You bring your own wine and snacks/dinner, and they guide you through a painting (see ours attached and especially note timmy's trees ha), all for about $40-50 a person.  It was really fun and something unique!  Just wanted to share....they book up pretty quickly for the good paintings, so check the calendar on the site if you're interested!

17 week update!

Happy weekend! As pretty as it looks outside right now, i think i'll be spending most of the weekend indoors b/c of the humidity! If you know me well, you know i LOVE being in the sun and don't mind sweating or going on a long run midday in the summer even, but that heat is really getting to me now!  Even the 20 minutes of recess each day leave me a bit lightheaded and feeling icky!  At least I'll be on bedrest during the heat of July, so won't have to worry about that!

This blogging thing is so new to me, as is reading other peoples.  However, i am becoming obsessed with keeping up with old/new friends that are new (or soon to be) mommies, and seeing what they are going through too!  It's esp. fun to see other triplet ones....so much to look forward to!!

balloons my sisters brought
to school after we found
 the genders...of course my kiddos
were so excited to find out!!

Anyways, mom was telling me last week I should keep a little journal during the pregnancy so i won't forget all the many things that are going on inside of me.....since i'm not much of a journal person (3 different To Do lists start flying through my head as soon as i start to write hah!), I decided to take an idea i saw on a blog recently. (hope you don't mind Katy!) Each week, she uses a "template" of question prompts, and fills in the blanks based on that week.  SO, I will try to do that each week or 2 (figure it will be an online journal for me and the babies to have in the future!)  We'll see how diligent I am with it...she's pretty amazing with posting something--recipes, shopping finds, pictures, etc.-- EVERY day!  I'm so impressed! Maybe eventually when I'm off work i can strive for that!

17 weeks

how far along?  17 weeks

how are you measuring?  25 weeks
size of babies?  5 ounces and about 5 inches each (same size a single would be at this point!)

total weight gain  +13 pounds

maternity clothes?  Sometimes. Most of my jeans i still wear, just do the rubberband trick!  I have quite a few "flowy" tops that work, but am quickly having to move to maternity only!

stretch marks? No, not yet!! 
sleep?  not good this week at all!! Every night when I go to bed I am tired, but as soon as i lay down my pulse is really fast and feels like I just downed a frappucino! Usually takes an hour to fall asleep, then I wake up around 1 or 2 and come in the den for a snack/meal!  I have been averagint 5 hours a night, which is crazy considering at the beginning of the preg it was around 8 or 9 hours!  Dr. said it's probably a combo of stress and changes in the tummy!

 best moment this week?   finding out the genders!!! I'm SO excited we found out all 3 this early...really didn't expect to do that! Of course we are thrilled with the outcome, and it was so neat to share the news with our parents--it's all of their first grandchildren, so super fun!

movement?   not a whole lot yet! the girl's head is RIGHT next to my belly button--so crazy to figure out what that "hard thing" was when we had the ultrasound 

food cravings? nothing too specific this week....just very hungry still! Eating lots of cheese still, along with peanut butter, breakfast foods (esp eggs!), and lemonade!

what i miss:    working out! it's so hard for me to not even be able to do walks or yoga! fitness has always been a huge passion for me, and it's so weird to not have set foot in a gym for 5 months!

what i'm looking forward to:  a fun day with my hubby....Studio Movie grill, dinner at Brio, etc 

how are you feeling?  can't complain!  have to sit down a lot more at school (hard to do with my busy 3rd graders!), and definitely exhausted by 4:00, but nothing too hard to handle!

 

Laur +3 

a princess and 2 all-stars!!

I'm so happy to say that today we found out the genders of all 3~~~~  we're having a GIRL and 2 BOYS!!!  So so so excited!!  I got exactly what I wanted (both!!) and if you remember I actually made this prediction months ago!  And my sweet grandpa even had a vivid dream recently in which we had that exact line-up, so God was really preparing us I guess!!  All I know is that girlie is going to be one little princess and mommy's best friend, and the boys will tear it up on the same baseball/football/soccer team with coach dad!!   I think the mix is just perfect for our family!!


Here are a few pics from today... I color coded the boys/girl :)  Yes, a bit OCD I know!

 Still can't believe we found out today!!  All looked really good, and were 5 ounces each!  Dr. said that's the size of what singletons would be at this point, so that was good to hear!  That's one of the good parts about going every 2 weeks and having a high tech ultrasound each time...really get to see the growth and detailed development...so fun!!

Thanks for all your prayers!!  We are so blessed by being able to share our joy with all of you!!

Laur +3

4 Months and GROWING.....

Happy April everyone!  Spring is blooming and so am I as you can see in the pics!  Finally (with much effort!) the weight is coming on and I can see them growing!   At my last appt. I had gotten to 132 yay, and hoping for even bigger numbers this week!  I'm still feeling really good, just restless during the night.  Usually a rerun of Kathy Lee and Hoda (Today Show) along with lots of cheese and crackers will help put me back to sleep though!   Another thing that helps is reading!  I feel too guilty to read the mindless chick books now with so much to learn (sure that'll change on bedrest), so here is what I'm into now...                          

Most of the info is super helpful and VERY new to me, considering it's so different than even a normal pregnancy. The books and internet can get quite overwhelming, so I try to not to fixate too much on all the negative possibilities, and just keep my eye on the prize!  It's also been so wonderful to compare notes with one of my best friends who is also pregnant and will deliver almost the same time as me!  Makes it a lot easier to have someone that can totally relate to all the highs/lows, etc!

The nursery is getting closer to completion yay!  We got all the paint matched and ready last weekend, chair railing installed,  then Timmy, Ash, and Al painted today while I was at a friend's shower.  The did an awesome job, and i LOVE how it has turned out so far!                


Till Wednesday (when we hopefully find out the genders!),

Laur +3