9 MOS OLD

I can hardly believe the triplets are 9 mos old already. When they are so good and cute, I can't believe that much time has already gone by! But when they all cry, I always felt like the time was dragging and they've been around forever! It's almost time to start planning a 1st birthday party already. I wish I could have enjoyed more of their earlier months and not have been so stressed out, but I don't know if that was really possible. Don't get me wrong-I've enjoyed them and love them so much, I just feel guilty sometimes when I think of all the time I cuddled with Alli and just hung out with her and I don't get to do that as much with these guys. I'm sure all parents having their second kids probably feel that way a little bit, I just feel guilty 3 times over. Just a lot of hard work. Its funny how I used to think it was hard taking Alli out to the store or dreaded feeding or giving a bath. Now I realize how easy I had it :) Anyway, everyone used to tell me I would miss their baby days, and I don't think I will too much, but I do a little already. I was at Target last week and saw some pregnant ladies and started thinking I want another one. Of course, NOT YET. But probably someday :) Of course, I guess I have to talk this over with Jim.

Day by day though, the babies are getting easier to handle and they are so smiley and laugh so cute. Alli makes them laugh so hard. I love to watch her interact with them. She is so sweet and always wants to see them first thing when they wake up in the morning. I think Jenna laughs the hardest at her, followed by Jimmy.

I'm making appts now for their 9 mos pics, but thought I would put a few videos on of them...nothing majorly exciting or anything, just them looking cute.

We had their 9 mos checkup today. They are doing well and only had to get one shot today.....here are the stats...I don't think they put them on the preemie curve anymore, so the girls are kind of small for being 9 mos. Not sure what happened to Jimmers.

Jenna is the runt weighing in at 16lbs 1oz (15%) and 27 in (45%)---so far, she has a body nothing like mine....long and skinny legs


Cassie weighs 17lbs 9oz (25%) and 26 in (10%)

Jimmy weighs 24lbs 1oz (93%) and 28 in (50%)---now this sounds more like my body type-haha!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. We've been keeping busy here. Let's see.....we had bachelor/bachelorette parties to attend for Dawn and Nathan. Dawn and I met in college and became really good friends. She found a great guy and they are getting married 9/13 and I get to be a part of their special day. Now I just need to work on fitting into my bridesmaid dress :) With my personal trainer, I only lost one pound, but I did lose 7 inches. But, I've been slacking, so if I want to breathe that day and be able to eat and drink, I have to bust my butt and eat healthy. I have 3 weeks :)

Here is the most of the group that went out for the party.
This is most of the rest of them
We had to go to the mall that day to get me a shirt for the party. I let Alli ride the rides in the middle of the mall, but only once, then she threw a fit when I made her leave. But she looks so cute in this picture

My Aunt Sue passed away last week. She was fighting cancer for almost 14 years, so now I know she is more peaceful up in Heaven, looking down on all of us. Jim's Uncle Rick also passed away suddenly last week. He was only 41 and they think he had a heart attack. I had only met him once, but he seemed like a really nice, good guy. Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers from everyone.

This past weekend, we went to visit my sister and her family in Nashville. It took a long time to pack and we had lots of stuff. The ride down there started off bad, because hwy 64 was closed downtown, so we had to take a detour and it took us 40 mins out of our way. Then we stopped at McD's for dinner and that took another hour by the time we fed everyone and changed them, etc. Then we got stuck in one lane traffic for another 20 mins. SO, it took us 7 hrs to get there. The babies were so good and slept the whole way down, but of course, we got there at 11pm and we were tired and ready for bed, but they weren't. We spent Friday at the pool, then went to Demos' for dinner with Jackie and Bill. They always talk about how good it is, so I've been wanting to try it. It was very good and very affordable. Good meal :) Saturday, we didn't do much. Went to Bread Co. for a bagel in the morning, went and got some lunch, then that night I went to see Pearl Heart perform at the Musicians Hall of Fame. They did great, like always. It was cute to see people (fans) wanting to get their pictures taken with them. Jim stayed home with the kids--none of them felt good. I'm not sure if it was the Southern air or the dog or what, but all 4 kids had runny noses, wheezing, coughing, sneezing, etc. None of them slept well, so that was hard on us. It was a good trip, but sort of hard. At home we have swings, exersaucers, etc to keep them occupied and give us a rest. But we did have extra helpers, so that was nice. Anyway, it was a good trip, just sort of rough. Hopefully next year will be a little easier :) It was good to see everyone though and that was our test trip. When Alli was 9 mos old, she went to Poland and Italy. The triplets at 9 mos got to go to Nashville. I'll probably be hearing about that when they get older ;) Oh, we made it home in 5 hrs and didn't have to stop once. Just kept shoving bottles in their mouths when they would cry.

Getting ready to go to the pool....that took about an hour just getting ready
Jimmy puked on Jim's forehead
Jimmy fell asleep on Daddy. He didn't feel very good :(
Alli got to play on the playground
I told Alli to get a picture with Chase and she decided she wanted to do a full photo shoot. She is such a character!
Mommy and Alli

Alli and Steph (or as Alli calls her, Snefanie)
Newest family photo :)
Uncle Bill and Alli
From all of the pictures of Alli, I'm sure you could tell she had tons of fun :)

Today my friend Christine helped me take all the kids to the helmet appt. It was the best appointment we've had to date! Only 45 mins long! AND.....Cassie is the first one out of the helmet! She looks so darn cute without it. Jimmy and Jenna are looking great too, so hopefully when we go back in a month, they will be done also. And, I thought I was going to make my last $500 payment for Jimmy and be done with the $4500, but they told me insurance picked his up and we should be getting a check for the other money we paid for his. So, at least one was covered. We are working on the appeal for the girls. Hopefully this just makes our case stronger, because Jimmy's head was the least severe of the 3 of them, and they covered his helmet, so why wouldn't they cover the girls????

Anyway, we met Ann and the babies at Bread Co. for lunch and now we just had our first appointment with the new physical therapist through First Steps for Jenna and Jimmy. She is going to come twice a month. She didn't see any major issues with either of them, but did give us some stretches and exercises to do with them.

And this is MY little escape artist (Cassie)....we can not leave her alone for 5 seconds in her car seat or she flips out of it. She is always on the go. Starting to scoot backwards a little, but rolling all over the place.

Last week we went to see Pearl Heart sing the National Anthem at the Cardinal game. They did awesome and were so excited to be able to perform for their hometown. They've always wanted to sing at Busch Stadium. Next they'll be doing a sold out concert there, I'm sure :) Here is a link from KSDK if you want to hear them. How neat!

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=151591
We had tickets to the game, but gave them away for a fundraiser, so we had to come up with new tickets. Lucky for me, my friend Kristen won tickets from work and invited me to sit with her in her company seats-4th row behind the dugout! Awesome! And she caught a ball at the end of the game from Ryan Franklin. Yay Kristen! And Happy 27th Birthday today!
This past weekend, we had a BBQ with our big group of friends. Some of them we see pretty often, but others we haven't seen in almost a year! Times have really changed from our dinner club/BBQ's of the past. There were only a few of us that had kids. Now, there are 23 and Janet has one on the way! I have the most--haha! We are missing Parker in this picture, so there are only 22 here. The others are just a few random pics....I didn't take that many b/c I was running all over. It was a lot of fun and I was glad to see everyone.

Nice guys....why is my child eyeing a beer on his high chair???
Jamie, Derek, Kari, Lincoln
Stacy, Beth, Alivia, Janet, Jimmy, Becky, Dawn, & Nathan
Dustin, Kyle and Alli swinging, Wyatt and Amy, Beck
Alli and Amy
Jim and Cassie, Craig and Alivia
Random pics
Cassie
This one is blurry, but Cassie is trying to show everyone her two bottom teeth :)

Jenna can't get enough of her toes lately!

Alli loves to take pictures with my camera. I usually have to delete 99% of them, but she got a few cute ones of Jimmy

And, last but not least, we finally got to make another trip to the pool on Tuesday. Toni met me up at Bellefontaine and we met up with Jane and Ken. It is so hard to get them all packed up and out of the house by myself, with the sunblock, suits, swim diapers, food, etc, etc, etc. But, once I got on the road, I was done with the cussing and swearing and we had a good time at the pool. And I got a tan, which is what really matters. Thanks to Jane, Ken, and Toni for helping me with all of the kids! And to Jane for letting us come to your pool since my stupid pool doesn't open until 4. Hello????? Prime sun is 10-2!!!!!
Here are lots of pics

Jimmy and Toni
Jenna, Cassie, Jimmy
Jimmy-see Daddy, my Mommy puts sunblock on me!
Alli LOVES the pool
Cassarinos
Alli cleared the benches behind her when she turned on the water and sprayed the ladies :)
Jane and Jenna, Ken and Alli, Me and Cassie, and Toni and Jimmy
Jenna - I kept the hat on her most of the time b/c she has skin like her Daddy
Now this is a cool little girl :)
Jimmy was a little unsure at first - I love his pouty lower lip
Cassie - soaking up the rays
Jane with Cassie and Jenna
Katie and Cory showed up at the end, but we didn't get to hang out b/c mine were tired and ready to go!

Everyone is doing great!

Today we went to our 6 mos NICU follow-up at St. John's. I guess they like to monitor how the kiddos are doing. I figured it was a free check-up from some medical professionals to let us know that our babies are awesome. And, that is pretty much what they said :) They are about 6 mos adjusted age right now. The girls were right between 5-6 mos and Jimmy was right at 6 mos, so they are right on target. Jimmy weighed 24.5lbs, Cassie 17 something and Jenna is now the runt at 16.7lbs. So, Jimmy was off the charts for weight, but once we told him that Alli was huge when she was a baby too, and everyone in both of our families pretty much have big fat babies, Dr. Chow wasn't too concerned and said he wasn't worried if we weren't. And we're not :) And, I thought it was so nice that he remembered us from the NICU, what room we were in, by the window, etc.

My big man :)

Thought I would throw in a few pics of Alli......the Cardinal one is when she was 5 1/2 mos and the one of her on the chair is 8 mos. Too cute!!!! Everyone says Jimmy looks so much like her, but I can see all of them.


We have been doing physical therapy since we got their helmets about every 3 weeks b/c they all had a condition called torticollis (a condition in which the head is tilted toward one side, and the chin is elevated and turned toward the opposite side). Its pretty much tight neck muscles limiting the range when looking either way. Cassie's has been resolved, Jimmy's is doing way better, but Jenna is pretty bad. So, since we are involved with First Steps but have not been using any of the services, we are now going to take advantage and get a physical therapist to come out to the house to provide therapy for Jenna and Jimmy. I wish we would have thought of that sooner......we won't have to load all of the kids up, save gas money, save co-pays! I'm excited. Now, Jim and I have to get better and do the stretches....we always forget, which is not helping her!
This is a good example of how Jenna is always tilting her head to the right

Cassie and Jenna both started sitting up last week very well. I still keep the boppies around them just in case, but they all sit in a circle and play with the toys. Every time I bring a new toy over, Cassie is the one trying to grab it away from the others.
Jenna & Cassie

My dad took us all out to lunch last week to...GUESS?? Yep....Bread CO :) We took up a whole section and took lots of pictures. I'm sure we were getting on peoples nerves, but oh well.....Ann brought her twins and I had the triplets, so lots o lots of babies!
Jimmy, Jenna, Cassie, Michael, Matthew

And, I guess all this heat brings lots of storms too! Allison finally got to use her umbrella last week.