Baby Dedication

Once a year our church takes the opportunity to recognize and dedicate the new babies to the Lord's service - and today was the day. Ellie, Evan and Charlotte were joined by 4 other babies for this part of today's service. Our church is blessed with a bunch of current and future playmates for the trips. Here's a shot of the family with our Pastor - Trent Smith.

As part of the dedication, they were given their first bible. Here's shots of all three with their bibles.

Ellie

Charlotte
Evan

The dedication was for more than just the babies. It was for the families to make a public profession to raise the babies according to God's will. Jennifer and I fully accept this responsibility. God has blessed us with so much and these babies are part of that.

Dr. Office Visit

Monday was a real hectic day! I had to take the day off from work, but it was not a vacation day. AM picture session with Easy Street Galleries and PM Dr. Appointment.

Picture Session First - We scheduled a flexible window - 10 - 10:30 - which means we had plenty of time to get all the babies up, fed, and dressed. We were right on schedule - 10:15. Session started out great. Ellie was up first and was all smiles. Smiles lasted a few shots and then she got fussy. Ellie down - Evan up. Evan got up from a couple winks and was enjoying the attention. He showed out with his big grin. Charlotte's turn. She had fun and never got too upset. After a couple outfit changes we had managed to get it all finished by 11:30. By this time, all three were cranky and ready for a nap.

Dr appointment was not until 2pm so we stopped by the grocery store. This was the triplets first of many trips to the local Ingles. They were peaceful shoppers. Ellie stayed awake but Evan and Charlotte slept right through. We finished up grabbed some lunch and back to the house. We had to eat in shift because now Charlotte and Ellie were ready for some lunch. Evan still sound asleep and yes still in his car seat. We finished up and off to the Dr. Appt.

The Doctors Office - They just love the babies. They greet us at the door and comment on how big they are getting. I am curious on how they will feel later down the road when the trips are terrorizing the office!! Evan had not gotten lunch yet so he sucked down a bottle in the waiting room. They call us back and for the next hour the babies get to experience just about every emotion that they have learned so far and a couple new ones. They get stripped down to diapers - which they enjoy. The nurse comes in and takes all their measurements and then off to the scales for a weigh-in. At this point all the babies were happy! Here are their stats: Ellie 11lb 6oz and 24.5" long. Evan 13lb 6oz and 25" long. Charlotte 12lb 4oz and 24" long. They had all had good weight gain since the last visit - around 3 lb each in 2 months. The doctor comes in and does her inspection and answers any questions. Then it is time for the shots!!! You might want to keep you kids from reading this - especially if they do not like shots and medicine. They had to get 4 shots each - two in each leg. Ellie was first. She took down the oral medicine with a grimace - but it does go down. The first needle barely hits the skin and she went nuts. By the time she had gotten all 4 shots she was crying hysterically and in obvious discomfort. Charlotte was next and already had a look of concern on her face. She does not take the oral medicine well, in fact she threw it up along with most of her lunch right on the nurse. 4 more shots - same result. Jennifer turns to me to hand me Charlotte and I am still trying to get Ellie calmed down. There is no telling what was going through Evan's mind at this point and he look like he wanted no part of getting back up on the big blue table. His oral medicine was not too much of a struggle but he was not happy with the shots. The nurse is finally finished and we are ready to go but we are in a small room with three crying babies. I walk out into the waiting room and everyone just looked up gave that look of "wow you look overwhelmed." It is now after 3pm and the babies all go to a deep sleep. I just hope it was deep enough for them to forget the trauma they just went through. This was all unexpected for me. In the hospital, they were constantly getting poked with needles and they rarely made a peep. I guess that part of their life is far in the past and that is probably a good thing.

Here are some pictures of the handful.

Ellie in a walker

Charlotte in a walker
Evan in a walker

The babies sleeping in their cribs. Just kidding! I guess I need to post on what the nursery looks like, I'll see what I can come up with.
Charlotte
Ellie
Evan

Dog Days of Summer

Hi, this is Evan. Can you read what my shirt says?

It says "The dog did it"

This is a term we are already getting use to saying (even though we can't talk yet). We plan on having years of fun with our dogs, but every chance we get we will blame them for our mess ups. Enjoy some pictures of me and my sisters sitting with the dogs.

Hi, I'm Arizona or better know as Zona - the red dog. I am finally getting use to the new additions to our home. They sleep and eat a lot, which are my two favorite things. I can't wait until we can all go outside and run and play. I'm already getting use to my new roll in the house "The Scapegoat." Yes, they will blame me for everything. Which is ok, because I will probably be involved with the mischief.

Hi, I'm Phoenix. My nickname is Pee-Pie. I'm the first born Smith child and can remember days way back, when I was the only child. I enjoy being with our now "BIG" family. I just can't figure out where they all came from. I can't wait until they start eating real food - I want to clean up the scraps - that will be my role in this crazy house.

.......Seeing our Dogs and babies together is a pleasure. We have slowly increased their time together and feel that they are starting to get use to each other, which was important to us.

6 months old

Today our babies are 6 months old. Where has the time gone? Remember these pictures?

Evan

Charlotte

Ellie

And here they are today

Ellie

Evan
Charlotte
This past week we had a big change in the house.

No More Monitors!

The babies have been on an apnea/heart monitors since they came home. The monitor were worn to detect any abnormal heartbeats or if they babies were holding their breath while sleeping. The babies are so excited to not have anything connected to them. They have had something connected to them since birth. It is weird for us too. The monitors were a reassurance as the babies slept at night. Now instead of looking at their monitors for the blinking lights Jenn feels of their chest for movement. It is also weird to pick up a baby in the mornings with nothing connected. Here are the last shots of the monitors before we got rid of them. Good-bye monitors.

Ellie

Charlotte


Evan
P.S. The babies do sleep in clothes, we just wanted to show the monitors.


Mom & her babies

What an adventure the first 6 months have been. The early days of worrying over our sick little babies and now where an abnormal day is a baby pooping twice or a little spit up. It is and can be challenging and we do get overwhelmed at times, but we know that God has given us this responsibility for a reason and we will do our best not to let Him down. Darius Rucker (now country and formally with Hootie and the Blowfish) has a song out that sums up everyday "It won't be like this for long". I hear it often on my way back and forth from work and think of all the memories so far and all the one's to come. Click here to hear the song & see the video:

http://www.cmt.com/videos/darius-rucker/336930/it-wont-be-like-this-for-long.jhtml

I wonder what the next 6 months will be like?

Roll Over!

A few nights ago Evan was on his back laying in the floor trying to see what I was doing in the other room. He was twisting his hips around and swinging his arm trying to get momentum to roll over to get a better view, but never made it. We put him on his belly to see if he would roll over - but nothing. A couple days later we had Charlotte on the floor and to our surprise she rolled over with relative ease. She even looked proud doing it. Jennifer then went and got Evan to see if he would do - and yes he did. Ellie was next. She was not as interested in rolling over but she did it. Here's a video of each baby showing off their new trick.

Charlotte Rolling Over

Evan Rolling Over

Ellie Rolling Over

Summer Days

Ellie

Evan
Charlotte

Charlotte

Ellie

Evan

Relaxing in the hammock