Our Liv turns NINE

Since it's the girl's year for Birthday parties.... Olivia was so excited to have her friends with her to celebrate the big nine. Unfortunately I could only handle 4 girls this year. This mama is a little tired to say the least but I think this Birthday was one of my favorites!

Her invites included some little slippers for the sleepover.

The evening began when all the girls met at the house, all so excited to get the party started.

We had a fun, yummy dinner at Red Robin.

Then we headed to the hotel to check in.

We opened presents.

Then went to check out the awesome indoor pool.

Olivia NEVER gets to swim for her November Birthday so she was so excited for this!

After hours of swimming, the girls got into their new jammies and we headed to Arby's to get a late night milk shake for our movie in bed, Brave.

 Bright and a little too early we hit the continental breakfast and said goodbye to the awesome water slide.

Olivia is an amazing nine year old and she deserved such a wonderful Birthday.

Liv's actual Birthday fell on a Sunday. She and all my other Activity Day girls sang a sweet song in sacrament meeting that day and then after dinner the cousins came over to help us eat her ice cream cake.

 Tyler and I got her one present and I think she was a little surprised to say the least. Maybe because I've said absolutely not for years now. 
Her very own iPod touch.

 Happiest Birthday to our sweet little girl!

.TEAM BABIES.

I've made it to TWELVE weeks!

Always a great milestone. Next huge goal is 24 weeks.

With triplets there is still a 7% chance we could lose all 3 babies before 24 weeks. 7% doesn't sound like much but it's always in the back of our minds.

Last week we had another appointment. This time with a fantastic dr. that I felt totally cared about us!

One thing we were looking for at this appointment was the membrane separating the identical twins. And it was there! Such a relief. So the twins are in the same sac but then they are each in separate bubbles, lets say. They do share the same placenta too which can be tricky later but hopefully we'll breeze through that too.

The babies are growing! Which means I am growing... I just bought some maternity clothes since I got rid of all mine. I still want to look cute even if I'm the size of a horse. I'm so glad black leggings and big baggy blouses are in style right at the moment...

The babies are the sizes of limes this week. Three little limes floating around.

Yesterday was also my first day NOT taking Zofran. I was nervous but ended up not feeling any different from the day before, which is pretty good. I just can't believe how tired I always feel. I am getting plenty of sleep but can't seem to stop yawning all day!

But still with all the yawning I feel like I'm getting back to my normal self. I am amazed of all the things I've accomplished this past week. Christmas shopping just about done(thanks to online shopping), Christmas cards done, cleaned and re-aranged the basement, and tonight I'm taking Olivia and her friends out for her Birthday! Heaven help me, it's a sleepover. All in all it feels good to get things done around here. Because we all know nobody else is going to do it. Tithing settlement may be the death of me.

Baby A

Baby B 

 Baby C

It's the little things.....

Remember a few months ago when Alex ran himself over with our car? Our little family could have changed forever. But it didn't and instead we just had a very long night at Primary Children's Hospital. Every time I have gone to that hospital, I am amazed. 

When you are so upset and you're thinking how your life could have been changed in that single second, and how you are watching other's lives around you change right before your eyes. It's the little things...

The little things did not go un-noticed. The toy they gave Alex to calm him down. The dinosaur fleece blanket homemade by someone to keep him warm all night. And when the nurse said she was going to grab a wheelchair for me to take him to the car and she brought a wagon......

They really know kids.

...................

And Christmas is for the kids.

Last year I got an idea from my friend Brooke. A neighborhood fundraiser instead of neighbor gifts. Brilliant! 

So 2011 was our first Neighborhood Gift Card Event and it was a huge success! All the gift cards went directly to Primary Children's Hospital. 

It's such a great idea.......I wanted to share in hopes others may take it. Although I loved getting neighbor gifts in the past, they were getting very time consuming, expensive and it was so hard to leave anyone out (not to mention 99% of them just made me fat).

The first year is the hardest. I know when I mentioned it to my neighbors last year there were a few that had already bought their neighbor gifts....either super on top of it or they grabbed some Christmas clearance the year before! But it still turned out awesome! And this year should be even better! 

Here is my flyer from last year. It's nothing spectacular and can easily be recreated for your neighborhood.

Do something great for your neighbors. Let them donate their time and money to those who really need it!

{2011}

.TEAM BABIES.

At 9 weeks we had our very first Dr.'s appointment with the "high risk" clinic. Because this is a triplet pregnancy I cannot just go to my normal doctor. We have to see the best of the best. And this clinic and hospital is prepared for anything that could happen.

We were assigned to the dr that had the first available opening. Even though I wanted a different one. He was good but man he did not sugar coat anything. He let us know every single thing that could go wrong with a triplet pregnancy. Every single thing. I felt overwhelmed. Even though this was good information to have I felt he delivered it in a condescending way. 

Needless to say our next visit is with the Dr. I originally wanted. I'm hoping this guy believes in the power of positive thinking like I do.

I see the team of Dr.'s every other week until some point in my 20's then it will go to every week visits. The nice thing is we get to see the babies every single time! There is no way to monitor three different heartbeats with just the tummy doppler so they will do ultrasounds to see the heartbeats. Plus we are keeping a closer eye on the identical twins. They are the ones that will give us trouble if there is any. And there are a slew of things that can go wrong with them. 

One thing that we want to see in my next visit is a membrane separating the identical twins. The twins are obviously in the same sack but there is supposed to be a thin membrane in-between them, so they don't get tangled in each other's cords. Some times this membrane isn't there and it just causes more worry. We really really want this membrane to be there. So I hope I have good news come Friday. 

Now that we know ALL the things that can go wrong, we can focus on the positive and look forward to the three new babies that will join the family!

(I'm not sure why we didn't ask for a picture? I will for sure on my next visit. It's quite fun to see how they are developing and growing!)

HEY YOU GUYS

.The Goonies 2012.

One of my all time favorite movies. I have been wanting to do the Goonies for awhile. I am so glad I could pull it off with everything else that's been going on. It was so fun putting all these costumes together, they are truly original and the kids loved them!

.Sloth and Mama Fratelli.

 .Data.

 .Chunk.

 .One Eyed Willie.

 .Andy.

.church party.

.friend party.

.neighborhood party.

.Trick or Treat.