we love our pool!

The Golf Outing

We had a blast at the Golf Outing a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for all who participated and for supporting our family. We are truly blessed. Even Thad had fun golfing, which probably had more to do with the beer in their cooler than anything else. Thanks Liz, for the pictures!

Our Family Covenant

On May 4, we had a very special Dedication ceremony at church for our daughters. We wrote a letter as a covenant to the girls about some promises we make in raising them and want to share it with our blog readers so you can help hold us accountable in how we parent these precious gifts from God.

Our Family Covenant
May 4, 2008

Dear Keegan, Samantha & Maggie,

We will always remember receiving the most shocking and wonderful news of our lives. At a normal prenatal appointment, our doctor suggested an ultrasound with a suspicious smile. As we sat in the waiting area, we snuck a peak at the doctor’s order and saw that the doctor suspected twins. However, ten minutes later, we found out we were going to have triplets. Oh, how our world changed and what an amazing journey it has been! We quickly changed gears from preparing for one baby to planning for three bundles of joy.

Girls, we are here today, before many of our family and friends, to celebrate not only your birth but also, with God’s help, to make a series of commitments to you and to one another.

As your mom, I promise to:

• To guide your journey in becoming the women God has created each one of you to be,


• To help you pull pranks on your dad,


• To hold your hand when you cross the street and let you run free in the park,


• To teach you how to sew and be crafty,


• To watch every episode of Gilmore Girls with you as many times as you want, and


• To laugh and cry with you when times are good and bad

As your dad, I promise:

• To teach you how to change a flat tire,


• To explain the rules of baseball and soccer,


• To pass on my love of music, reading, and learning,


• To drag you to art museums,


• To watch chic flicks with you


• To dance with you whenever and wherever you want, and


• To be a God fearing male role model so you will have good relationships with men in the future.

As a couple, we promise:

• To love and stay committed to each other,


• To say we are sorry when we have wronged each other, and


• To keep God at the center of our marriage.

As your parents, we promise:

• To love you unconditionally each day the Lord gives us together,


• To give you words of encouragement and guidance,


• To help you develop the wonderful strengths and gifts God has blessed you with,


• To pray for you daily and discipline in love,


• To teach you to be respectful to others and help those in need,


• To encourage you to love and enjoy life to the fullest,


• To provide a safe home for you to grow and develop ~ where your needs will be met, you can be free to be yourselves, and know that you forever have a place to come home to,


• And most importantly, we promise to demonstrate our love of God, and His creation, every single day so that each of you too will come to accept the Lord as your personal Savior and make Him the priority of your lives.

There is a verse we want to share with you in

Deuteronomy 6: 5-7
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Our prayer for each one of you is that you will learn to love the Lord as your Heavenly Father with all your heart, soul, and strength. We will do our best to teach you the importance of this and are challenged to live our lives in a way that will only encourage your relationship with God.

We don’t know what the future holds but expect that there will be challenges along the way. Through it all, we promise to stay committed to God, one another, and the three of you for the rest of our lives. Thank you for teaching us how to become better people and challenging us to examine our strengths and weaknesses. We feel so completely blessed by the birth of our three beautiful daughters and are completely blown away by the blessings and joy each one of you has brought to our lives! We are already so proud of our girls and look forward to each new day that God gives us together.

With God helping us, we pledge to live this covenant each day.

Love,

Your Dad & Mom

today's walk

i was walking down the sidewalk with the girls this evening in the stroller pictured above, trying to unwind from a difficult day at the office, when i was interrupted by three people in front of a house:

lady #1: are they triplets?

me (thad): yes

lady #2: we see you all over the place!

me: (smile)

guy: how did you do it?

me: (thinking........thinking.......how do i answer this question?.......birds and the bees......anatomy lesson.....various hand gestures....super sperm.....spontaneously.......)

me: i don't know (as i walked off as as quickly as possible)

probably the worse response i could have come up with, but at that point i was desperate to get away from a longer conversation. please let me know if you have any good/funny/witty responses to this question so that i am better prepared the next time i am asked!

below is my favorite picture from this past saturday:

15 MORE DAYS!!!

We are thrilled that there are only 15 more days of the RSV season. The weather is gorgeous and we are counting down the days until we can resume somewhat more of a "normal" life (can you even say having triplets is normal?). anyway, we have lots of plans for the remaining days in April to help pass the days. We have the spring time Mothers of Multiples garage sale this week (how exciting), a nine month doctor's check-up, birthday get-togethers for Grandma Joyce, the dedication class at Mars Hill in preparation for the girls' dedication in May, a get-together with friends from DAB, an Early On assessment (recommended by the NICU when the girls were born just to check in where they are in regards to development) and bathroom remodeling work each Saturday.

Plus with the great weather, we plan on taking lots of walks to help with the fussy times. Although, last night we took a walk during the fussy time and Samantha cried almost half of the way home, which of course got the other two crying. It was horrible. We were at least a mile from home and there was no way to comfort all three of them. Thad ended up running them home and coming back in the t.u.v. to pick me up. Not fun!!! I'm not exactly sure what the crying was all about. We walk like that all the time but something was not quite right. Our theory is that Samantha rubbed sunscreen into her eyes because she kept rubbing her eyes when she was crying. Eventually we think the tears from crying cleaned it out. But that is just a guess ~ who knows?!

We get the craziest comments when we walk. We of course draw attention ~ it's not everyday you see triplets, right? So some of the comments we have come to expect are:

• "What are they?" (to which, I am tempted to say "babies")
• "Wow, you must be busy!"
• "Do you get help?"
• "How do you do it?"
• "You must be tired!"
• "Three babies and a dog; wow, your house must be busy!"
• "I can't believe you are able to get out and about."

But then there are the comments that totally catch us by surprise:

• "Aw, look at the cute puppies!" (WHAT is that all about?!)
• "What were you guys thinking?" (And that?! As if we had any control over this situation or had triplets on purpose?)
• "It sure would be nice to be pushed around like that." (I don't even know how to respond to that.)
• "Oh look, they are all sleeping!"... this person actually yells into their faces..."Oh, not anymore, I guess now they are awake." (are you kidding me?)

We are convinced one of these days our walk will cause an accident. People actually slow down when they are driving and roll down their windows to make comments and ask if they are triplets. We have seen many near accidents and hold our breath every time bracing for impact. I don't mean to complain. I am thankful that we live in a friendly community and I enjoy interacting with people but you feel on display all the time and get so much attention it can be a challenge. I told Thad I want a naked person to walk on the opposite side of the street as us and see who draws more attention (I know the volunteers are going to start flooding in!). I bet we still would draw more attention!

Grandmas are a lifesaver. It seems like whenever I get to my breaking point (which is unfortunately quite often), one of the grandmas shows up and gives me the boost I need. It is amazing. They both see what needs to be done and silently do it. I will find the dishwasher unloaded and laundry put away and think when did that happen? It is so uplifting. The girls (of course) love them too, so it is also helpful getting a breather while they entertain them.

samantha thinks it is funny to put the bucket on her head ~ that is until she can't figure out how to get it off and then gets upset.

keegan has figured out how to crawl ~ except she can only crawl backwards!!! so she often ends up under the couch and cannot figure out how to move forward.

our upstairs bathroom project. we are replacing the plumbing and doing electrical work (adding a bath fan/light combo and many more outlets in preparation for three teenage girls primping!)