Snow Fun

After getting absolutely no snow since winter hit, Kadence was thrilled to wake up earlier this week to a few inches of snow. And then the next morning when she awoke to 10 inches of snow, the girl thought she was in heaven. :)

We spent the last few afternoons sledding and playing on the 4-wheeler. I pulled her behind it on the sled and she thought that was pretty awesome. And she only fell off twice, which was meant it went much smoother than I thought it would. ;o) Wish I would have gotten some pictures of that... maybe tomorrow if the snow hasn't all melted.

Didn't get the babies out- not because we didn't want to, but because we didn't purchase winter gear for them. Kind of silly to buy 3 snowsuits and 3 pairs of boots and 3 sets of gloves and hats when it's only snowed one time here. Next year I'm sure they'll all want to go outside and play in it, then we'll invest in all that stuff. ;o)

Computer's on the Fritz

Which is why I havne't been posting!

Apparently I need to do a system restore...but before I do that, I need to back up everything on my computer. None of my pictures are backed up (well, the shoots I've done are...but not my personal photos) so I don't want to lose those. I would cry a lot if I lost my pictures. I haven't had pictures printed off in almost 2 years, so I would literally lose everything!

So we're trying to decide on an external hard drive, then do the system restore, then I *should* be good to go.

Anyone ever have problems with their windows operating system? I can't copy files to a disc, or copy anything to a disc for that matter. The Dell guy (well...from what I could make out from what he was saying...) thinks that's my problem. How about external hard drives? Any recommendations?


Kids are all doing fine, Kadence has been having a blast playing in our very first snow fall of the winter! I'll get some pics posted as soon as I can.

Davey and I are relaxing with pizza and a movie tonight. I so need it, it's been a loooong week.

Check-ups and Evaluations

Just thought I'd fill you in on the babies last well-child visit and also their Early Intervention evaluation. (they are every 6 months)

Not a whole lot to report from the doctor, other than he thinks they are doing just perfect. :)

Height:

Rowan- 32 1/4"
Joey- 32 1/4"
Elijah- 32 1/4"

Weight:

Rowan: 24 1/2 lbs
Joey: 25 1/2 lbs
Elijah- 25 lbs


Isn't that funny that they're all the same exact height right now? So crazy!


So then they had their evaluations today with EI. Basically they are all at an age appropriate level, which is 18 months. (they are actually 21 months, but 17.5 months with their adjusted age) They have no significant delays, in fact one of the stipulations for qualifying for EI is having a 30% delay or more, and none of the babies have that large of a delay in any area. (they test motor skills, social skills, speech etc.)

We are a little concerned about their speech (they tested at a 26% delay) so we're having a speech therapist come out an evaluate them sometime in the next month. If she finds they have a 30% delay or more, then they will begin speech therapy. If not, that's great too! We just want to take advantage of all of the services that are offered to us. At the age of 3 EI stops, so getting delays diagnosed now will help us out tremendously in the future as far as getting assistance.

The developmental therapist (who has become like family to us) told the service coordinator today that the babies were just "extraordinary." To come as far as they have come, and to not have any significant delays is something pretty amazing. It's good to hear that. :)


And how do we manage at the doctors office with 2 parents and 3 babies? 2 parents I might add who are germ-a-phobes ever since we had premature babies, and whom we don't let down to walk at the doctors office?



Daddy holds 2... (Eli on the left, Joey on right)


And Mommy holds one! (Row Row!)



Enjoying their suckers they were given by the nurse after their shots. They were a slobbery, sticky mess, but it stops the tears and that's all that matters. :)


Pooped out from their big day. Plus we have about an hour car ride home from the Pedi's office.

Rowan



Joey in the back, Eli in the front

Musings from a 5-Year-Old

Tonight as I was tucking Kadence in, we got on the topic of triplets. I told her that when she started Kindergarten, that she would probably be the only little girl in her school that had triplets for siblings. This is the conversation that occurred.


"What does triplets mean Mommy?" she asked. She had heard us mention the word "triplet" many times over the past few years, but I guess she wanted to be 100% sure what it meant so that she could explain it to her classmates. "Well honey, triplets are babies who all grew in their Mommy's tummy at the same time, and who all share the same birthday. They're all the same exact age!" I explained.

"Oh," she said, "I see!"

"And do you know what twins are?" I asked. "What?" she wondered. "Twins are 2 babies that grew in their mommy's tummy at the same time, and who share the same birthday." "Oh yeah!" she said, enjoying this refresher course on multiples.


"And 1 baby, like you and me, are called singletons," I explained.


She giggled over the word singleton, then held up 4 fingers. I waited to see if she remembered that four babies were called quadruplets, but as she stared up at her little fingers, she turned to me and said very matter-of-factly, "And 4 babies is tooooo many babies."

New Layout

Do you like the new look? I love it! I purchased a pre-made layout over at LeeLou Blogs, and then I created an image of the kids that would fit on the header. I think it turned out so cute! I love the girls over at LeeLou!



Oh, and here's my new signature that I created all by myself! Totally cute right? :)

Well-Child Appt Tomorrow

Not a whole lot to report, just that the babies have a well-child visit tomorrow with their pedi. I think this will be the first time the babies have been out in public since their last well-child visit 3 months ago, so it will be pretty exciting for them. :) Well, except for the shots...that won't be too thrilling for them I'm afraid...

Emerson Update

I'm posting this mainly for the non-believers out there. As I stated, this story is very real, and Emerson could use your support.

Click here for news coverage on Emerson from Omaha.

Here is a news story from Colorado.

Need Your Help. This is Important Guys.

This is Emerson White. She is a very sick little girl. She has already undergone an intestinal, liver, and spleen transplant. Unfortunately, those are failing now, too. She needs another transplant, but the state of Colorado is ending her Medicaid in 2 weeks because she has been in the hospital in Nebraska for so long, they are no longer considering her a resident of the state of Colorado.

Here is a letter from Emerson's mommy pleading for help from anyone who will listen.

"Colorado won’t budge. Period. Nebraska already knows about Emerson and has preemptively declined her any and all medical coverage insisting she is NOT a resident of Nebraska. Clearly they cannot be expected to pay transplant bills for every out of state patient that comes to this hospital for treatment. They are writing a formal letter to Colorado stating their position.

So – for all who have ever wanted to help us, here’s your chance. I am officially organizing an all out campaign to address this absurdity. I am asking for letters, phone calls, &/or media contacts.

The main thing to remember is this: Colorado will NOT reinstate Emerson’s Medicaid unless (&/or until) her little body is physically in Colorado. That is impossible. If Emerson were to be transferred back to Colorado she would DIE. Make no mistake about it. There are NO hospitals in Colorado equipped to manage her right now. There are NO hospitals in Colorado that perform small bowel transplants. As a matter of fact, there are only 4 hospitals in the WORLD with established small bowel transplant programs.

This is a story the media should be all over – a beautiful young child who’s fought through every possible post-transplant complication & overcome all the odds to now be denied a life-saving second transplant because Colorado won’t acknowledge her residency. Meanwhile her father, her brothers, her home, her bedroom… ALL in Colorado. It’s nonsense. They chose the wrong person to make a point with. Emerson has already fought much harder than any of us will have to. I’ll willingly fight this one for her. The law MUST be amended. Through all our efforts we can help other families too. No one should be faced with this situation.


Your letters do not have to be lengthy. You do NOT need to recount Emerson’s entire story. A few key points & reference to “Emerson White” should be enough. They’ll all know her story soon enough. Pictures, also, are great. Additionally, on the outside of every letter & under the address, please write “re: Emerson White”. My goal is that by this time next week the governor of Colorado is asking, “who’s Emerson White?”

Quantity, quantity, quantity – please ask everyone you know to help us out. We need hundreds, even thousands of letters all flooding the Governor’s Office at once.

Following are the addresses. Write as few or as many as you’re able. Start at the top with the Governor, then his Public Health Administrator, etc. Again, you don’t need to write a lot.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Governor’s Office

Bill Ritter, Governor

136 State Capitol
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 866-2471

Internet messages can be sent at:

http://www.colorado.gov/apps/oit/governor/citizen/assistanceUtility/welcome.jsf



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Department of Health Care Policy

Joan Henneberry, Executive Director

1570 Grant Street

Denver, CO 80203

(303) 866-2868



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Diana Degette, Chief Deputy Whip

600 Grant Street, Suite 202
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 844-4988



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Doug Lamborn, U.S. Congressman

1271 Kelly Johnson Blvd.
Suite 110
Colorado Springs, CO 80920

(719) 520-0055



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your help is immensely appreciated. Together we can make a real difference – for Emerson and for the many children who will walk this path after her.


Thank You…"


Everyone, please take a few minutes out of your day and write a quick email to the Governor of Colorado.

Thank you so much,

Giggles All Around

I was sitting in the dining room with the babies and they started yelling silly things, and then they'd just bust up laughing. I caught a couple of minutes of it on video. :) (don't mind me being silly...I was trying to get them to say what they had been saying that I thought was so funny!)

Snapshots

Just wanted to share some recent pics of the kids. Enjoy. :)


Rowan being a silly girl...and adorable all at the same time. :)


Being silly in our highchairs (Rowan, Eli, Joey)



Kadence and Rowan playing dress-up





A very "triplet" moment. I thought this was precious. ^_^


They love climging up on my coffee table. (Eli is the one with the scab on his nose)

Holy Smokes Guys!

My inbox has been flooded with emails and comments from you guys wanting access to my weight-loss blog. I am so excited!

I promise I will get to all of your emails sometime later on today. I just got back from grocery shopping, so I need to put the groceries away, then I need to exercise. If I get that stuff done before the babies wake up, I will start adding those of you who have requested access to my blog. You'll need to check your inbox's for the invite.

Thanks!

I did it!!

I lost 20 pounds!!!! I am beyond excited. ^_^

Photo on left taken in July. Photo on right taken today. :)



If anyone is interested, I have another blog where I discuss my weight loss. It's not open to everyone, but I'd be willing to open it up to those who are wanting to lose weight or who are curious about what program I'm using to shed the pounds. Shoot me an email if you're interested! kristi_michelle@hotmail.com

Bruiser

This is Eli's face after he decided to take a daring leap over the baby gate today. Onto the hardwood floor.

He scratched his nose we think on the toybox


And his goose egg.





After speaking with the nurse, we concluded that he probably gave himself a mild concussion. He couldn't walk straight for an hour. But he was up running around playing (and yes...trying to climb on things...) immediately afterwards, and was showing no serious signs of head injury, therefore it did not require a trip to the doctors office. We were told to keep an eye on him, make sure he didn't start vomiting etc, but that he was probably fine. Fast forward 24 hours, and he is indeed fine.

I'm entering a whole new territory with boys. And it frightens me so.

A few Words from Ms. Rowan

Agh! Nickelback sucks!!

*Edited*
I disputed the claim from YouTube (thank you Anonymous for the tip!!) and my video is now running with audio again. Yay!!!


So I get this email from YouTube today:


Video Disabled

A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video Our preemie Triplets- From the Nicu to Home. The audio content identified in your video is Far Away by Nickelback. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.


Can you believe that crap??? As if I'm the only person to create a video using a song that someone else "owns"? I'm not trying to make a profit off of this, it was intended to share our journey in the NICU. I can think of several videos that I've watched online that included this same exact song. How sad if they make every single one of these videos "blocked" to the rest of us.

Are they going through and deleting everyone's videos then? Or is this strictly a Nickelback thing? This makes absolutely no sense to me.

Fortunately I have the video saved on my hard drive- now I just have to find somewhere else to host it. It had a good run on YouTube too darnit all.

So until further notice...my video is no longer viewable online. :(

*edited*
Ok, so you can view the video, there is just no sound. How in the world can they block out all of the audio when only one song was Nickelback's song? The first one I actually purchased (as in I am able to do what I want with it) and the other song was by Daughtry.


I'm so angry!!!

Bonnie had her Puppies!

SOOO CUTE!!!

Bonnie (a toy poodle), Gaga's dog, had 4 puppies on Sunday. 3 little boys and 1 girl. Kadence is smitten. ^_^ She knows that in 10 weeks the puppies will be finding a new home though. She's been through this before, so hopefully it won't be too hard on her.

Anyway, just wanted to share the pictures with you!

Favs

Here are my favorite pictures from the holidays. Some were taken during our family Christmas, our Christmas with Davey's parents, Christmas with Ashley and Daniel, Christmas with my Mom and sisters and nephews and nieces, and some with Christmas with my Dad. They are not in order whatsoever, and have no captions. BUT, I narrowed them down...as much as I could. That's something, right?



































On a happy note, I feel good for getting this blog accomplished tonight! My Christmas decor, sadly, is still up. :/