Happy Halloween from our 3 Peas In A Pod

Thank You Stacey for loaning us the costumes!

(we are excited to see pictures of your little strawberries)

aaahhhhhh.....

"Thank you Tim & Ivan for all the furnace help, now we can roam around the house in normal outfits instead of always having our parents bundle us up like below."

Three Pictures From Today

Keegan, Maggie & Samantha

Smiles

!

"Keegan, I do not stink!"

"Enough DAD!!!"

our night away

we feel so completely blessed and rested after our good friends liz, amanda & tim, brad & jill, dave & catrina, and laura gave us the gift of a night away. they bought us an amazing hotel room here in the city for friday night while liz, amanda, brad and jill watched the girls for us. they thought of everything down to giving us a gift bag of goodies for the hotel room. we felt like newlyweds again. we began our night away with dinner at Don Pablos (thanks to a gift certificate from Dawn). then we went to the hotel for a swim and slept for 13 hours. it was heavenly!!! the hotel had an awesome breakfast in the morning and then we went back to bed to sleep some more. on our way back home we stopped at Robinettes as it was a beautiful fall day perfect for apples and cider. we were so excited to see the girls after 24 hours away from them. they were full of smiles and told us all about the great care they received. we really cannot say enough about how special it was and comforting to know the girls were in such good hands while we got some much needed rest.

brrrrrrrrrrr...............

today we found out that both of our furnaces have to be replaced because of cracking in the heat exchangers (i.e. the potential for carbon monoxide leaking into the house). we have two furnaces because the house used to be a two unit and we have been told it is virtually impossible to convert to a single furnace setup. we have received multiple quotes for new furnaces that are a lot more than we can afford. SO, we thought we would see if anyone out there has some connection to help us get our furnaces replaced inexpensively. does anyone know of someone who is able to purchase furnaces at cost and then we could find some help to get them installed??? or is there someone out there that owns their own business or knows of a business that would be willing to do the work for their cost of the furnaces or do the work after hours we would love to put an ad on our blog to promote the business. with three little mouths to feed, money is extremely tight and the cold weather is quickly approaching. we just thought we would check. if you have any connections or ideas on how we could save money, please feel free to email us at thadvh@gmail.com.

a month already?

the van van household is never boring now that there are three bundles of joy around. we can't believe it has been about a month since the last post, sorry! well here are a few words to explain the lack of blogging the past month as well as give a little insight in to our daily world: new schedule, adjust, adjust again, adjust once more, hmmm seems about right, fingers crossed; flu, cold, flu, cold, doctor's appointment, more sleep <--- yeah right; spitting pacifiers, new pacifiers, still spitting pacifiers; won't eat, doctor's appointment, hour later, new bottle, trip to the store, still not working, another trip to the store, all good; cold, hot, cold, broken furnace, still cold = warm clothing; t.u.v. rides; walks; laundry, dishes, laundry, bottles, bottles, eat/sleep?; smiles, smiles, smiles, smiles, melting hearts, smiling, smiling, cooing, more smiling, cooing; doubt, heartache, stress, love, thankful, amazed, dumbfounded, laugh, cry; and probably a thousand other things that i'm forgetting but above all we are having fun.

Growing Like Weeds

The girls had their doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning. We knew they had grown but we were surprised to find out how much:

Keegan: 10 lb. 14 oz. & 22 inches

Samantha: 9 lb. 13 oz. & 20 3/4 inches

Maggie: 8 lb. 15 oz. & 20 1/2 inches

The doctor was extremely impressed with how wonderful the girls are doing and gave us the okay to adjust their feeding schedules. Well in theory this is a wonderful thing but actually figuring out a new rhythm has so far been all but elusive. Hopefully all will settle down tomorrow as I will be going out of town starting tomorrow night through Tuesday evening on a business trip. Please keep us in your prayers as I will be missing my four girls immensely and Michelle will be managing the household.

Earlier this week we officially took the leap and became the proud owners of a van that is mini. Yes, Michelle finally cooked up a special potion and got me to agree to buy one of those vehicles that have three rows and will allow our family to travel more than five miles from home. The said vehicle will be delivered tomorrow and will promptly acquire "Love Wins." and Detroit Tigers stickers (necessities for any VanVan vehicle). Here is a picture of Michelle's new hot rod:

Other things that have happened over the past week or so include the following:

-the girls are expert garage salers as they know how to turn on the charm and get free stuff (i.e. a whole crate of wooden blocks) and find good deals (e.x. a small radio flyer push scooter).
-signs of cooing and smiling have begun
-keegan is a big fan of the hippo baby gym
-if the girls would have been born a couple of months later their names would have been: Lorelai, Rory & Sookie
-Reeds Lake has been a wonderful place to bring the girls for a relaxin' Saturday afternoon
-thank you to Elizabeth for pointing us in the direction of a super cheap and amazing triplet stroller that will be perfect for next summer
-the girls love the cooler weather and look adorable in fuzzy sleepers
-sleep is overrated
-i finished my first book since the girls arrived (and yes it was a graphic novel)
-next week Sunday Michelle and I will have been married for SEVEN YEARS (and I can't wait for the next 50+)

new pictures

keegan

maggie, keegan (who is NOT happy) & samantha
maggie and mom

maggie

maggie

maggie

maggie with her new (oversized) sun hat on

samantha with her hat on

maggie and cousin dawn

mom & samantha

grandma joyce and samantha

aunt lindy & maggie

keegan

keegan

samantha

uncle ben, aunt miriam, madison & maggie

aunt miriam, cousin madison & maggie

aunt miriam & maggie

keegan