Say Chee-eese!

If you remember I said there were going to be some blogs where I said very little and just posted a whole bunch of pictures. . . this is one of those blogs. On the fourth, we went to get some portraits taken, this was the babies first non-doctor related trip. Traveling with triplets is NOT an easy task. This took over an hour and was exhausting, but as I am sure you will agree it was a spectacular success.

Enjoy. . .

Emily was dancing and was about to jump, when the photographer snapped this pic.

Our little goofball in her purest form. This is Emily!

Sitting on the floor...making faces at Daddy and the photographer.

Not sure what had her attention during this pic, but the picture is ADORABLE!

Could it get any cuter than this?

Emily is such a ham when there's a camera around...when she's done with her "shy" bit, that is.

We LOVE this picture!

Emily has always had the best expressions...here's another great one.

A great family pic...Emily has the perfect smile, Daddy looks good, Mommy is smiling nicely, Meghan is looking at the camera (more or less), Lizzie is a little scrunched and Charlie is fussing...however, when are you ever going to get a perfect picture with this many newborns involved?

A close runner up...Meghan is yawning, which makes it look like she's trying to eat Daddy's pocket.

A pile of babies!!

Binkies for everyone! Meghan with purple, Charlie with blue, and Lizzie with pink. Sometimes this trio doesn't want their binkies...an offense that their big sister just can't understand.

How can you not want to suck on your binky? Are you crazy?

Lizzie, bored with this pose, lets us know how she feels.

Lizzie, now in full fuss, just wants to be done taking pictures so she can finish her bottle and take a nap.

We have dubbed Charlie "Mr. Magoo" for his furrowed brow and worried expression that he always has.

(Christa also thinks that he looks like Vizzini from The Princess Bride, when he's wrinkling his forehead...Inconceivable!)

Meghan, wide awake, and ready for her close-up! I have a feeling that she's going to be just like her big sister, when it comes to photo shoots.

The whole bunch...aren't they adorable?

Emily gave each baby a kiss. Here she's kissing Lizzie...but notice Charlie's expression...

"Hey, what just happened to me?"

Emi Moves Into a New House

So, with everything being all about the babies recently, Emily needed something special...something just for her. We started to think about what we could do to give Emily some attention, and some joy. The answer came to us on Craig's List...a playhouse for our backyard! Emily loves playgrounds, slides, and places to hide. This would be something special, that only she could play with, at least for now, because the babies are a bunch of noodle necks that can't even hold their own heads up yet (not that they can hold up anyone else's head up either).

Since Christa has more time on her hands during the day (while the babies are napping) and she has access to a laptop, she did the legwork on this idea. She was able to find a really great playhouse for a really great price. So we headed out pick it up and bring it to our backyard. Luckily, Christa's Dad surprised us with a visit that weekend, because his mini van came in extremely useful in this process.

Once we got the playhouse home, the process of putting it together began. Emily could hardly contain her excitement, but she was as patient as a 2 1/2 year old could be. She was right there the entire time, cheering me on. She was sooo excited when it was all put together, and she could actually play on it. Now Emily has her very own "Wee" in our backyard, and she loves it!

Emily supervises the construction of her new backyard playhouse.


"Emi help you, Daddy?"


Auntie Mandy & Emily watch as construction of the bridge begins.

Daddy assembles the roof...

"Yay, Daddy! Daddy did it!"

Emily tries out her new house.

It's much more fun while wearing a pink tutu.

Taking her steering wheel for a spin.

This is so much fun!!!!

"Emi hiding, Mommy."

Weeeeeeeeee!

Climbing up, down, over and under...

Rolling her ball under and through...

Emily was playing on this for hours throughout the day.

Not quite sure where to go, or what to do next.

"Hi, Mommy! Emi down here!"

A full view of her new playhouse.

Another angle.

Last angle.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

As you probably guessed from the title, my birthday just happened. It was the Saturday at the end of the week that started with Father's Day, which created what I like to call the Week-O-Steve, or Steveapalooza. I think it was a pretty good week, mostly because I got to spend it with all of my adorable children. For those of you who are curious, things are going pretty well. Taking care of triplets is very much like taking care of just one baby, but with alot of repetition. Right now the challenge is to get all three of them to stay on the same schedule. They are currently pretty close, but they occasionally get messed up, and that usually occurs between midnight and 7:00 am. Like I said, we are working on it.

I am guessing that you are curious what I did to celebrate the final day of Steveapalooza, my (ahem) 25th birthday. Well, last year I decided that because I am not terribly fond of the whole getting older thing, that I wanted to do something meaningful on the anniversary of my birth. So, for the second year in a row, we prepared dinner at the Ronald McDonald House. We made a delicious chicken dinner that was completely devoured and much appreciated. The trips were a hit too. So there you go, Stevapalooza is over and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

oh yeah, pictures. Here you go. . .

Emily spent most of her time playing in the large play room that is conveniently located off the kitchen. Papa Jerry happened to be in town for the weekend and was able to come be part of the crew for the first time. His job was to keep track of Emily.



Meghan and Lizzie sleep away in their stroller. This was their first time taking their double stroller for a spin.

Charlie slept away in his stroller too...he also has a double stroller...he gets to share with big sister Emily.

Emily made sure to say hello to a very special friend of hers. She also gave Ronald a hello hug & kiss.

Emily also sat on Ronald's lap while Daddy got the trips ready for their photo op.

Emily loves Ronald and will talk about Ronald as soon as she learns of where we are going.

For Daddy's birthday, the kids worked on a special art project. Emily painted one pink hand print on Daddy's pocket...

...and the babies left behind a few footprints.

We went outside to visit Joseph's brick.

Emily was showing everyone her brother's brick...she would point to it and say, "Joseph's brick."

Emily had a lot of fun running through the garden, along the brick path.

While we were cleaning up and getting packed to leave, Emily was watching Tom & Jerry on YouTube with 2 other little girls.