And, of course....Ms. Abba!

So, this ONE picture is all I could get of the kid....the rest looked like a Jackson Pollack painting (all smears and blotches...etc.). Luckily, this is a keeper. Abby was quick to want to see the "finished product".

A quick wink from Stelly....

I don't wish anyone to believe that we have any less than 3 little girls running rampant in the house at one time, and I know with the recent Zoe posts, it may seem so. Here's some pictures of Stelly from this morning. The middle picture is our "work in progress" wink. :)

Zoe, day 3...

Here's a few new pictures from this morning of Ms. Zozo. As you can see, she pretty much has every color of the rainbow in the shiner that she has. Thankfully, she is in really good humor about this and hasn't acted any different....wait a minute, is that a good thing?

Poor Ninny!

Last Saturday, 7/11/09, we had my side of the immediate family meet for pictures. Following this, we had a brief get together for the girls' birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Good day. Upon returning home, Abby and Zoe began to "entertain" by showing off. Stella was asleep in the girls' bedroom. Zoe and Abby raced around the house, eventually running into each other. Abby flew towards our refrigerator, barely missing it. Zoe, on the other hand, flew in the opposite direction into a "load bearing" support beam in our kitchen, hitting this perfectly square on the corner with the left side of her face. The noise that she made, and the visual of her doing this makes me ill to even think about. Zoe, despite the blood loss, was a trooper, and she got a "free" Minnie Mouse stuffed toy out of our ER run. No stitches, the wound was superficial enough to require only glue. Judging by the pictures, one wouldn't believe this. Zozo is doing well with this, almost eerily so....as long as one of her sisters doesn't mention it, that is. The first picture is Zoe with her initial headband (that was fashioned especially for her upon our entering the ER)...Zozo wasn't too enthused with this, mostly because she couldn't see a darn thing.

Stella, Stella, Stella

As I've mentioned before, the girls LOVE chewing gum and do really well with it. But its days like today, that I'm not a fan of little girls with gum.

Ian called me at work, leaving a voicemail that said, "how do you feel about doing haircuts tonight after work? Stella really needs one. Call me and I will tell you why." Instantly, I'm thinking...great, there's gum in her hair. Sure enough, she had a wad of it matted into the back of hair when Ian got them up this morning. But, before I asked where in the back of her hair it was located, he informed me that there was no other option than to cut her hair to get it out. I seriously thought that he was joking with me, but he wasn't. He ended up cutting about an inch of her hair off and did an amazing job evening out the rest of her hair. She looks so old now.

Sorry there's not a before picture, but here is the end result.

Our first vacation

It's been a couple of weeks since our first "official" vacation. Sure, we always go on mini-vacations (extended weekends) to visit my family in Minnesota, but our trip to Wisconsin Dells was an "acation" as the girls lovingly referred to it as.

We spent a little over 2 days at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells. The great thing about it was that they had indoor water parks, which were a total blessing that weekend as the sun only shined the afternoon that we left. It was crazy busy while we were there which kind of intimidated the girls. They didn't really warm up to the idea of playing in the water until after a quick trip to Wal-Mart brought us some extra toys for the pool. By day 3 they enjoyed sitting on us in the raft as we floated down the lazy river or hung out in the wave pool. Stella and Zoe enjoyed one of the children's areas that had some water slides.

So, imagine that...we worked so had to have them play in the water but have no documented proof. Here are the only pictures I got of that weekend.

Zoe
Stella
Abby with a Water wing on her head
The girls in the bunk bed

Polar Bear Dance

Stephanie taught the girls a new dance, but Abby was crabby, that's why she's not in it.  Enjoy

Picking Up Where We Left Off

Time has sure flown by once again!! Hard to believe that in a month from today the trio will be three!  We've kept ourselves busy trying to finish the basement and thankfully we are almost there!  However, the girls seem to be enjoying the new carpet and that fact that the room is empty as they love to chase each other around in circles and listen to their echos when yelling.  I hope they enjoy it as much when it becomes their new toy room!

We participated in the March of Dimes, March for Babies Walk at the end of April.  We are so grateful to belong to such loving and supporting families who were willing to walk...9...long...miles...with us!  The day turned out beautiful despite the chill and the clouds the day before.  A big thank you to all who donated to Team A.N.T.Z.S. too-without your support we wouldn't have had the necessary technology to assist the girls while in the NICU!

We've been spending a lot of time outside the last few weeks checking out every swing and slide at the parks of Cedar Rapids.  Once there, it's hard to get the girls to leave.  They have become good climbers and brave sliders (often going down head first) but still enjoy the majority of their time swinging.  Most recently, they have become fond of the sand box at our new favorite park, although it takes Zoe a little time to get warmed up to the idea of actually sticking her feet in the sand.

Their vocabulary continues to amaze us on a daily basis!  Most of what they do and say now is done in song fashion accompanied with none other than an ice cream microphone.  

I see that Ian did do a brief update about the progress of potty training the girls.  Not that he didn't paint an accurate picture for you in his post, he just forget to mention that, as part of the finishing the basement, we also added a half-bath.  I chose to make that into the Kermit (the Frog) bathroom, complete with neon green paint.  The girls ABSOLUTELY LOVE going in there to look at Kermit and I happen to think that it has motivated them to want to go to the bathroom!

Abby has pretty much caught on and has actually been doing well now for a couple of weeks.  The pull-ups seem to be working the best as when we attempt to switch to actual underwear, she tends to have more accidents.  Stella and Zoe have their days and won't hesitate to tell you that they have to go to the bathroom after they already have...in their diaper.  However, in the last couple of days, they too have showed more interest in wanting to "go potty on the toilet" and Abby pooped in the toilet for the first time (yes, Ian called to inform me of this at work).

Shortly after I posted the "Crib Olympics" video, we decided to take the sides off of the cribs after Zoe fell out trying to climb back and forth.  That didn't last long anyway and it was just easier to take them down and utilize a full size mattress for all of them-and they honestly love this.  However, this transition has not made bed time any smoother, but only fostered the ability to touch each other, talk and play in closer quarters.  It's actually heart warming to see and fun to listen to at night...provided I don't have to go in there 15 times to tell them to settle down!

Over Memorial Day weekend, we ventured to the Niabi Zoo (just over the Quad Cities bridge) into Illinois.  The day was very deceiving!!  It looked nice when we left Cedar Rapids, but got rather chilly and rainy by the time we made it to Davenport to meet Grammy and Grandpa Fox and Laura and Andy.  But, we managed-and borrowed some warm shirts from Aunt Laura and had a fun afternoon!

After the zoo we headed back to Andy and Laura's for supper and ate corn on the cob for the first time...and we LOVED it!

Another first for us (well, Stella, Zoe) occurred last night, when I had them assist me in making cookies (Ian and Abby were at the doctor due to Abby's wheezing).  They did really well taking turns dumping the ingredients into the bowl.  They even helped crack the eggs (okay, crush the eggs) into the bowl-leaving me to fish out tiny eggshell particles.  Truth be told, these girls love their CHOCOLATE (hmm...wonder where they get that?) and it was a struggle for me to convince them to put the chocolate chips into the bowl!  Zoe couldn't shovel the chocolate chips in fast enough and wouldn't you know, we were up with her much of the night due to a tummy ache.

Overall health-the girls have been doing well.  Everyone got pretty sick at the end of April with lung and ear infections.  After a few rounds of meds, we are managing a fairly healthy period.  Abby continues to battle with the Asthma and we pray that she will SOON out grow it.  These girls continue to keep us on our toes, but we wouldn't have it any other way!  Who could resist these faces anyway?!?

If an elephant can...in the woods...

We are in the midst of potty training, and I was looking for something, anything that could convey where the family is at or really how large of a task I think this is going to be.  After seeing this picture, I thought, "mission accomplished?"  I mean, if a zookeeper can instruct an elephant to poo in an oversized toilet, then what am I worried about?  Good question....

3 little monkeys jumping on the bed....

This is but a taste of things to come.  Sorry we haven't updated in so long....Look how much we've changed!  Left to Right:  Stelly, Abby, and Zozo.  This was taken prior to "Sesame Street Live:  Elmo Grows Up!" on 5/12/09 at the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.  Everyone (Mommy, Daddy, Sarah, Mallory, Kari, and the girlies) all had a good time.  The girls were even in bed that night by 9pm!

Crib Olympics

So, Ian called me at work today and all I can hear are blood curdling screams in the background as he asks, "Guess who I found in Stella's crib?" followed by, "all 3 girls and they weren't that way when I laid them down for a nap and now they are mad that I separated them".

I just laughed...until tonight when I walked across the hall to get the girls' toothbrushes, turned around and this is what I saw...yep, cute at first, but after the 27th time in the last 10 minutes of having to go into their room to separate them...I'm thinkin' it's time for big girl beds.

Another Round of RSV

Abby fell victim to RSV again this year.  She was hospitalized on Thursday 3/12/09 and was released Monday 3/16/2009.  Thankfully we caught it early enough and only required 2 rounds of steroids and oxygen when she slept.  It made for a long few days and her sisters seem glad to have her home.  We also got a chance to catch up with and be cared for by a few of the girls' first NICU nurses.  Abby enjoyed taking a bath EVERY night as she had the whole tub to herself and could swim back and forth.  Here are a few pictures from her stay.

NICU Graduates!

It's official...the girls have graduated from the NICU Follow-up program!!  We had our last visit at the clinic yesterday which consisted of a series of test, the first being a hearing screen-all 6 ears were good to go.  Then each girl had to participate in different activities to test developmental stages.  Those tests included; stacking blocks, stating the colors of the blocks, naming items on a page, coloring, throwing and kicking a tennis ball, feeding a doll it's bottle and hopping. They were extremely impressed with the girls' language skills.   It was rather entertaining!!  We are happy to report that everyone scored at the developmental age of a 3-year-old or better!  

The BIG BOPPER visits Cedar Rapids, IA

Earning our keep

All dressed up

It's not too often that we get all fancy (or match each other), but we can clean up with the best of them. This happened to be the night before we had a March of Dimes speaking engagement. Pretty cute huh?