4-Year Stats

Last week we had our 4-year well child check-up. Did I just say 4?? Oh my goodness, where has all that time gone? SO many memories gone by with so many ahead.

Lindsey takes the weight title at 34 lbs, barely beating Dylan at 33 lbs. Although, he's got her by a 1/4" in height; Lindsey is 39" tall and Dylan is 39-1/4". Lindsey is tracking along at 25-50% and Dylan remains around the 25% mark. Then there is our little peanut, Taylor. She weighed in at 29 lbs (5-10%) and we decided we are going to have a BIG "celebration" when she hits that 30 lb mark!! She is 37-3/4" tall and remains in the 10-25% category (when compared to other children - singletons). Our pediatrician was pleased with their health, development and growth progress but said we could increase Taylor's calorie consumption. Funny, she eats the MOST of all 3!!! She can shovel it in and eats anthing and everything; never picky, always hungry. So we went ahead and baked Christmas cookies with lots of frosting - nice excuse for the extra calories, right?

Recent Quotes from the mouths of babes:

Lindsey:
"Oh sure, mom!" (her infamous quote whenever I ask for her help)
"Dilly, I better call Santa and let him know you are being naughty"

Dylan:
Daddy asks, "Are you my 3 little pigs" (pretending to be the Big Bad Wolf).
Dylan responds, "NO! we are little stinkers"
At prayer time, mom asks who do we want to pray for and Dylan says "a big airplane".
When moms says, "let's try to pray for a person instead of things",
Dylan responds with "ok, how about the people on the big airplane?"

Taylor:
"Baby Jesus, don't worry, I make you toasty warm" (as she plays with our Nativity Scene)
"God's watching you!" (to Dylan when he tackles her to the ground)
"Oh, baby doll. You sleep now - no whining!"

Sounds of Christmas - Part 1

Aaahhh, the sounds of Christmas - young babes singing Christmas songs. We had a little better luck this year at KPT; no tears and a little more singing. Dylan was our shining star while Taylor took the oath of silence; Lindsey flashed her smile a few times and sang a few lines here and there. I guess it didn't help that Taylor (our little Peanut) was placed behind some kiddos that basically covered her up - kind of hard to shine when you can't see. It's funny, Taylor is typically the one to run around the house singing Christmas songs they learn at Sunday School and KPT to all her dolls. It's absolutely precious.

LTD get to sing again this Sunday at church (Part 2). Last year, LTD were placed front and center, the girls in angel outfits and Dylan in his lamb outfit. He cried 30 seconds into the production - poor little man. He had to be pulled off the stage and our Pastor got a kick out of it. In fact, Dylan was the topic of conversation at their weekly church meeting on Monday. Let's hope this year it is much more enjoyable.

This week is action-packed. We have been baking and decorating Christmas cookies, and have dates for the Holidazzle Parade, to visit Santa at the Mall of America, to see Disney on Ice, have the Erickson 5 over for holiday cheer, and to go to a birthday party for Baby Jesus. The kiddos are SO excited and really enjoying the beauty of the season.

Pump It Up!!

We want to pump (clap), you up! Anybody else remember the SNL skit? Everytime we go to Pump It Up, I giggle inside thinking of that goofy skit with 2 wanna-be muscle boys in their grey sweat suits & weight belts, pretending to be Arnold. Ok, so I am dating myself here!

Back to the point. The LTD addition were all healthy and the party went on as planned at "Pump It Up". They invited 15 of their closest friends and had an absolute blast!! The only downfall was leaving "daddy" in charge of electronics and getting to the party realizing our camera was missing the memory card. Cake (check), candles (check), party favors for our guests (check), Lindsey, Taylor, Dylan with clean faces, combed hair and no snot (check), electronics to document memories of a lifetime (oops, left that one minor detail to daddy). Thankfully, our friends offered to take a few photos on our behalf and we have included a few of those. More will be availabe in our KodakGallery photo album for Nov/Dec at the end of December.

Lindsey, Taylor & Dylan are officically 4. They keep reminding us that "they are grown up now and ready to ride the big kid rides at MOA and Valley Fair".

They truly enjoyed their first official birthday party where they got to invite all the friends they love to play with. The only "glitch" was when it came to gift opening which is always a struggle with Dave and I. We would rather people not bring presents since the real gift is having friends with parents we hold near and dear to our hearts there to share in our special day of life given to us by our Savior. But then again, is it right to rob a 4-yr old of their birthday joy? Such a struggle. Thankfully, we have friends who share in our dilemma and concerns around this issue. After all, 4 out of 5 families at the party were triplet families; the other family (Uncle Ken) is a family with 3 precious angels on earth (cousins Faith, Anna and Baby Jordan) and one miracle on the way.

Dave and I are just so very thankful for our children's health, their smiles & laughter, their unique personalities, and the love in their hearts. That night when we got home, they prayed for ALL their friends at the birthday party. I think they are starting "to get" how fortunate they are to have such wonderful friends in this world that care enough to be there for them on their ultra-important day. Thank you to all our friends and loved ones for the smiles you bring to LTD's faces.

Happy 4th Birthday, LTD!

It's hard to believe 4 yrs have passed by since that day Dave rushed us to the hospital at 4am driving 110 mph! Just yesterday LTD were still learning how to walk, talk, dance & sing. In fact, I just had to go back and capture some moments from their first birthday timeframe (oops, no video of their actual birthday celebration that first year; only photos). It's amazing how much these little angels have grown. Please God, can we stop the growing process and keep them this young forever?

We have already had 2 birthday celebrations with cake & cupcakes: one this past wknd with Papa & Grandma Good who were in town for the Thanksgiving holiday and one at KPT today. They also got a chance to go birthday gift shopping with Papa and Grandma Clark and had an absolute blast!!! Thank you SO much, Papas and Grandmas, for your love and generosity and to our entire family for the thoughtful cards, birthday calls & songs!

However, I am starting to believe Camp Clark has a birthday curse. Today I received a phone call from KPT at 11:30am telling me that Dylan was feeling sick and sleeping and that I should come get him. Poor little guy was singing so happily at breakfast and then, WHAM, the curse hit. Every year we have at least one child sick on their birthday - UGH! We are supposed to have a birthday party at Pump It Up on Wednesday night with all their little friends but may have to reschedule now for a later date. They are SO looking forward to it and will be really bummed but we can't take the chance of getting other children sick. Most likely Dylan's illness will spread to the girls as most viruses typically do at Camp Clark.

Christmas Cakes

LTD absolutely adore story time. Two of their recent favorites include: The birth of Baby Jesus and Twas the Night Before Christmas. Baby Jesus and Santa consume their thoughts, playtime activities and words. In fact, they just HAD to make two Christmas cakes; one for Baby Jesus and one for Santa.

Dylan wanted to decorate Santa's cake himself so the girls shared in decorating the cake for Baby Jesus. They were really intense in making sure each cake was decorated perfectly with snow white cream cheese frosting, lots of colorful ornaments and sparkles and then topped them off with a shining star. They did a fantastic job!

One cake lasted approximately 2.5 minutes before they wanted to dig in and taste the fruit of their labor. Dylan insisted we save his cake for Santa since he will be really hungry when he gets here on Christmas Eve to drop off their presents; so it's in the freezer officially taking up space.

We have a Nativity scene we put up that is like a magnet that little hands just can't keep off. Thankfully it is very durable since Baby Jesus has been dropped several times. It's a riot to hear them "play" the story of His birth with all the figurines in the scene. Taylor is especially transfixed and you can hear her saying, "Oh, baby, that's ok. Let's wrap you up and get you toasty warm. Oh look, visitors!" I MUST get all this on video since it just warms the heart and soul to the core.

Tree of Thankfulness

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and with that comes reflection of everything our family has to be thankful for. In the corner of our formal dining room sets one fake evergreen shrub with sparkling lights. LTD have always called it "the BABY Christmas tree", although it's up yearlong. This year we received a great idea from our SIL, Heidi, and decided to start a new family tradition and have officially changed the shrub's name to the "Tree of Thankfulness". The kiddos decorate the tree with paper ornaments they make by hand that list what they are thankful for that particular day. Not only does it make each one of us talk about what we are most grateful for, but it allows them to visibly see ALL that we are fortunate to have been blessed with. They are so proud to disply their ornaments but we have also found other things hanging from the poor shrub such as cars, dolls and necklaces. We have lost a few ornaments due to scissors experiments (thank you, Dylan), but for the most part they are holding their own.

Things they are most grateful for include:

Mommy & Daddy

Papas & Grandmas

God

Baby Jesus

The sun

Snow

Friends (Aimee, Ella, Kendrick, Anna, Ben, Maddie & Melise)

Cousins (Anna, Faith & Baby Jordan)

Aunt Heidi and Uncle Ken

Trucks/Cars

Dolls/Dollhouse

In addition, each night before bedtime when we pray, LTD always get a chance to pray for somebody or something specific. It's so precious hearing who and what they want to pray for. Each night it's a whole new experience and brings alot of smiles to our faces. Our goal is to instill in our children the importance of being thankful and to pray for people they love and others who are in need or less fortunate.

Memory Lane

In the last week I have been exceptionally emotional and disheartened. Perhaps it has something to do with witnessing our country leaning deeper and deeper into the grips of liberalism and socialism (Obama elected President - YIKES!!!!). Our conservative and Christian values seem to be less important in today's society and we can only trust and have faith in our loving Lord & Savior and His master plan. Let's continue to pray for our country, our leaders and the future of our children so that they too may know the benefits of living in the greatest country on God's green earth.

With emotions running high, I searched out the past and managed to resurrect our family's very first web site on CaringBridge. This was the web site we used to keep family and friends updated on our journey through a triplet pregnancy as well as the aftermath. How sad that when LTD were about 6 mos old, life got REALLY busy and I quit posting journal entries and it all got slowly left in the dust. SO, I thought to myself this week , I said "Tina, why not find the old web site and put a link on this blog so we can reflect back on the early days and let our children have something to look back on as well?" So that's just what I did. I realized we had 4,226 visitors to that site by the time the kiddos turned 6 mos. old!!!! WOW!!! It's simply amazing how positive news (the birth of healthy babies) is equally as "popular" as negative news which we are so accustomed to hearing in our world. Check out our CaringBridge link in the right hand column of our blog (immediately under our Kodak link) to look back on a few pictures (their old web site template only let you post 3 pictures at a time), journal entries, and guestbook entries. What an incredible experience!!!! God has been SO amazingly wonderful to us and I feel it is our duty to spread His word, especially in times of uncertainty. Let us all stand up for what we believe in so that we don't fall for "anything", never waiver, and bring others on the journey with us. May God bless you and this great country.