Ashley's Wedding

Last weekend my sister got married. With the babies being 20 months old, I really did not want to bring them to the wedding because I know how they act when they have to sit still and be quite for a longer period of time. She really wanted them there for the family pictures after the ceremony since they are part of the family. Since I was in the wedding and Kevin was an Usher, Kevin's sister, brother in law and niece helped out with the babies during the ceremony. They surprisingly did very well. I only heard a few noises from them and they were just talking, not fussing. One of them saw a dog outside and decided to say "dog", but when they made any noises, they were quick to walk out the door and not have any interruptions. Ashton was dressed up just like all of the guys in the wedding party and Kevin, including his little Vans shoes. The girls had light blue dresses. After the ceremony, Kevin took the babies and Allie back to the hotel so she could watch them during the reception so we could have fun and not have to run around chasing down 3 babies! We are so grateful for our families!! Here are a few pictures from the wedding.

Growing...

Well, we haven't had to move into the toddler beds yet because we haven't had any more episodes of the babies trying to crawl out. However, they are now sticking their legs through the slats so we are thinking we are going to have to take off one side of the crib now. We have to do a little more baby proofing in the room and then they will be set to have freedom in their room.

Toddler Beds

Last week Caitlyn decided to try to climb out of her crib because I wasn't fast enough to get her out myself. She didn't actually climb out, but she lifted her leg up over the railing. I'm pretty sure within the next week or two, we are going to try to transition them into toddler beds. Our cribs that we have now turn into a toddler bed so we just have to take one side railing down. Giving them freedom to their entire room at night is going to be a nightmare, but hopefully they will do good and stay in their cribs! Stay tuned for the toddler bed experience!

ER trip

We had our first visit to the ER last night. Caitlyn started to get a fever around 3:00pm yesterday and wasn't going down after taking Tylenol. When we laid her down for bed, she started to cought really bad and sounded like she was wheezing. I called her doctors office to speak with a nurse on call to see what I should do. The nurse on call said since this was her first time experiencing this, I should take her to the ER. Around 11:15pm, I took her to Sentara Careplex ER. After waiting in the waiting room for about an hour and half, we were finally called back to a room. As soon as we got into the room a nurse brought Caitlyn some Motrin and listened to her chest. About 5 minutes later, the doctor came in and checked her out. He listened to her throat and chest and checked her ears. The left ear was a little red so he gave her some antibiotics for her ear. He said her chest sounded crystal clear so there was no need for a chest x-ray. He diagnosed Caitlyn with Croup. Basically Croup is a barking cough that comes with a cold. Caitlyn's croup was a viral infection, so they treated it with a steroid before we left the ER. You can read and learn about Croup at the following website:

http://children.webmd.com/tc/croup-topic-overview

So far today Caitlyn hasn't been coughing like she was last night, but they say that the coughing usually comes at night. Hopefully tonight she will sleep better than she did last night!

I hope this is our first and last trip to the ER!

Pictures with the Camera

I use to take pictures of the babies almost every week. Since they have become more mobile and active, it's been harder to sit and take pictures of them because they want to get close to the camera and touch it. The past few days, I have been able to get some really good pictures of them.

Love for Elmo

The babies LOVE Elmo!! We have a little routine in the morning of watching cartoons. We usually watch Strawberry Shortcake from 9:00 to 10:00 then The Adventures of Chuck and Friends until 10:30, then we turn on Sesame Street until 11:00. Around 10:45am, Elmo's World comes on. Now, don't think the babies sit and watch TV for 2 straight hours! They TV is on those shows, but half the time they are in the playroom playing with their toys. They will come in the room with the beginning of Chuck and Friends comes on because they like the opening song, then they will go back into the playroom and play. When I turned it to Sesame Street, they don't notice until Elmo's World comes on. Want to see how they act when it comes on? Take a look at the video... (Sorry about the rotation, I don't know how to rotate it!)

As you can see, the girls love to dance! After the theme song to Elmo's World is over, they usually go back into their playroom again. They seem to only like the music parts to shows!

We have about 5 Elmo stuffed animals and they still fight over them! If you ask them to go get you Elmo, they will go and find the larger Elmo (which is about the size of them)! Here are a few pictures of them with the 3 different Elmo's that we have.

Caitlyn with the small Elmo

Brittany with the medium Elmo (Tickle Me Elmo)

Ashton with the large Elmo

Growing up

The past few days the babies have been growing up so fast. I went outside to put the diaper bag in the car and when I came back inside, the babies were in the kitchen! We have a playard gate around the living room so they cannot get out of the living room. I was puzzled on how they got into the kitchen because the playard was not moved and the couch cushions didn't look they have been touched. Well today I saw just exactly how they were getting over on the other side.

(Sorry, I could not figure out how to rotate the video)

Ashton is the shortest so it takes him a little longer to get up onto the couch than it does the girls. He was so excited to get over to the other side! Usually when he gets over to the other side, he goes into the kitchen. I was surprised to see where he ended up! I have been working with them with potty training, but it's just them sitting on the potty not doing anything.

Since they have been escaping and getting over to the other side of the gate, we did a little rearranging tonight. We moved the gates around so they could get behind the couch, but put a gate up so they couldn't get into the kitchen. We left the gate up into our bedroom and the bathroom, but took down the gate that led to their bedroom because Brittany decided to climb over that gate. She did this very gracefully, just like Ashton climbed over the couch. When we were cleaning the babies room up, Ashton decided to climb over the gate that went into the bathroom. He didn't do this very gracefully! We heard a thump, then a scream! He landed right on his forward, so now he has a nice bruise and bump! I guess that's all about being a boy! Im sure the gate going into the bathroom will be taken down soon and we will just have to keep the door shut.

Now the babies have full access to their room, I wondered how long it would take them to get into the dresser drawers. It took them a good hour at least to get into it. I don't think they would have even gotten into the dresser if I didn't have to get their clothes out to spend the night at my parents house. After I got their clothes out, they figured out the drawers open! They would open the drawers and take the clothes out and throw them on the floor. I came back into the room 5 minutes later and the clothes weren't on the floor anymore. They put the clothes back in the dresser. I would see a arm of a shirt hanging out of drawer and a pair of pants hanging out of another. I was very surprised that they did that! Of course they weren't in the same drawer as they were originally, but hey, they were back in the dresser!

Art Work

A few months ago, I bought the babies a floor coloring pad and big crayons so they can start coloring. It is very difficult to sit on the floor with all 3 of them and try to color. One will run around with crayons in the hands, one will actually sit down to try to color and one will sit on the paper! Can you guess who does what?! Ashton sits on the paper, Caitlyn runs around with the crayons in her hand and Brittany will sit down to color!

This morning after breakfast, I decided to get 3 sheets of paper and while they were still at the table, let them color. It was still hard because when they went to doodle, the paper would move around. I helped them each and held the paper as they doodled. Here is their artwork!

Caitlyn's art work

Brittany's art work



Ashton's art work



Forward facing...

We decided to change the car seats in my car from rear facing to forward facing. We looked up the laws in Virginia to make sure we weren't breaking any laws before we changed them around. The law states that a child must be 1 year AND 20 pounds. They all 3 are over 20 pounds and over a year old. The all are tall and they looked so uncomfortable rear facing because there legs were scrunched up. Ashton wasn't feeling very good so he fell asleep on the way home, but the girls loved facing forward and seeing all of the traffic lights and street lights.

We are going to keep the car seats in the truck rear facing until winter is completely over, in case we get a good snow fall (which is unlikely). But the truck would be safer to travel in if we had to go out somewhere.

One thing we can't do anymore is sneak in a bite to eat if we go through a drive-thru.

Valentine's Day

This was our second Valentine's Day as a family. Last year we went to Olive Garden for dinner. The babies were only 6 months old so they just ate formula. This year, we decided to stay home and make dinner. I made marinated tuna steaks, Caesar salad and loaded baked potatoes. The babies ate ravioli and corn. We all sat at the dinner table together and had a nice family dinner.

After dinner, we went to Bass Pro to see the fish get fed. Every time we go to Bass Pro the babies love looking at the fish and we always seem to miss the feeding. This time, we didn't! The babies loved watching the fish swim everywhere and fight for food.

It was a great night spending it with my family!

Dancing queen

Moving my truck around

Love my Elmo

Waiting for Daddy to get home