Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

Wishing all of our friends, family and blog readers a very Merry Christmas!!! We have plans to stay home tomorrow and do very little aside from spending time together, having fun and making Christmas memories.

Please remember all that is Christmas and thank God for His gift to us on this special day.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Love and blessings to all. And "to all a good night".

Kids on TV

We took the kiddos for their first haircuts yesterday and then had an errand to run at the mall. The local TV station was doing a little blurb on a kiosk there selling "stress-relief" items (massaging tools, heated wraps and the head massager - AKA "The Tingler". Our cuties got in the story - right at the end. Check out the link and you will see why:

http://www.wbir.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=53717478001#/PS%3A+Relax/53717478001

I can't get it to post and take you right there, so just copy and paste the link to view. The kids are at the very end.

Hope you get a giggle out of this one!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Louis Family!

Pictures: Uncle Stevie and Ems doing some building. Clark and A spending some time being crafty. Kendall and H doing some coloring. The three munchkins when they first met Shoney Bear. They LOVED him. Go figure. Clark with a Fall leaf. The girls in their Fall "best" (Go Vols!). Ems and her Pooh pumpkin. Kendall and her Pooh pumpkin. Clark swinging at the park.

We wanted to tell everyone how thankful we are for your love and support and so I thought I should get some pictures posted. The outdoor pics were taking during a "photo shoot" at Nanny Barb's house while Mommy and Daddy were celebrating their 5th anniversary. Mr. Jerry, Auntie Karen and Uncle Tom and H were all there to help manage the three kiddos for pictures. Not sure who had a better nap that afternoon - kids or adults?????
This past Wednesday was a special trip to The Fantasy of Trees (a local event benefitting Children's Hospital). We had help from Nanny B, A (boy), H (girl), Uncle Stevie and Auntie Karen. Once again, the adults needed a nap as much (or more) than the kids did once we got home.
We are missing Nana as this is the first real holiday (beyond Halloween) without her. Thankfully we know that she, Pop-pop and Grandma Louis are in Heaven feasting with the King of Kings.
We wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving with many blessings to be thankful for on this special day.

Trick or Treat

I thought it was about time to share some pictures from Halloween. I'm posting some video clips from the last couple of weeks. Nanny Barb took some video of the kids playing on her roller coaster on the back deck (at her house). They were having a blast. In some instances, it took more than one video clip to cover the entire ride, but it was worth the wait.
Kendall was a (purple) butterfly. For those of you who are around enough to know that purple is NOT Kendall's color. It is normally an Emma color, but it is what they had at Old Navy last year on sale, so that is what she got. Emma was a ladybug and she wasn't her usual bubbly self. She seemed a tad overwhelmed by the number of people around and all of the attention that they got as a result of being way too cute! OK, it was probably the choo choo wagon that drew all of the attention, but it certainly doesn't help that they were OOZING cuteness that evening! Clark was our little bat-boy, meaning he was a bat. At one point, he was so relaxed, he had kicked his feet up on the choo choo wagon and was just taking it all in while he rode around in style. There are also some outside/garage/patio pictures from Nana's house. We've been taking the kids over there to play because there is a really great area that is pretty safe and confined. We have riding toys, a broom and try to spend snack or lunchtime there also so that they can eat at the "big table" without the aid of high chairs. I'm sad that we are there without Nana, but know that she would be happy that the kids can be there and have fun. We didn't get to a pumpkin patch this year as we had hoped. There was a trip scheduled with the Knox Multiples Club, but it fell on a rainy, wet Saturday, so it was cancelled. Hopefully the kids can enjoy a trip to a pumpkin patch on a hayride sometime NEXT Fall. We hope you all had a super-fun Halloween.

Cuteness!

Jammer-time! 1.) Kendall. 2.) Emma and 3.) Clark Homemade smoothies in a bowl seemed easier than in a cup. I don't know that I feel the same way about that as I did before our first attempt. 4.)Kendall 5.)Clark 6.) Emma And a rare photo with all three together. Snack-time in the playroom. Yummy! 7.) Clark has a new trick... he can take his pants off! And he likes to wear them on his head! Woo hoo!

OK, I admit that I MIGHT be a tad bit biased, but seriously, I really think I have three super-cute kids! Sometimes, yes, they DO get on my nerves. But, when they are cute, they are CUTE! Emma even has this thing where you get a "hiiieeee" when she does something annoying and it seems that she is trying to get you to forget all about that little issue and get caught up in her cute-ness. Sneaky little booger.
Anyway, they are super-cute in their footie pajamas since it's a little chilly around here. We've had quite a time trying to find some that fit and keeping them straight. Often, Emma gets the "hand-me-downs" and wears whatever everyone else has outgrown, but who cares??? They are cute whether they have dinosaurs, princesses or dots.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

The New Normal

I have wanted to post something, but just can't seem to come up with what to say. Tonight, I'm going to give you an update on each baby and skip the pictures. Hope you will forgive a post without pictures.


Kendall: Chatterbox. We are thinking that she might be a public speaker and maybe even do stand-up comedy. She is always trying to get a laugh out of her siblings. She likes to imitate how we tickle the other two. Kendall is also the one who loves to pop out from behind things and make Clark and Emma squeal in delight. She was the first to say "no", although honestly, it doesn't appear that she really understands the meaning behind the word, but it does sound cute (for now). She continues to love to dance and has learned a couple of songs ("Twinkle, Twinkle", "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and even part of the Elmo theme song). She doesn't necessarily know all of the words, but she tries and often knows when to place emphasis on a certain sound. VERY cute. She is SO good at blocks and seems to really understand the process of stacking them while also being happy with knocking them down.

Emma: Tiny dancer. She loves to twirl to the music and do the actions for "Twinkle, Twinkle" especially. Emma is a great climber and has learned to be cautious about getting down so she doesn't land on her head. The slide is a great source of entertainment and she would love it if it were always her turn. Ems loves "boo-ahh" - her word for a movie. And she is a big fan of singing "Row, Row" (doesn't know the rest of the words yet). She too likes to sing other songs, though not quite getting the words right, she might get the sound at just the right time. Emma is our puzzle-girl and always likes to spend time working new puzzles, though she does express frustration when the pieces don't fit like they should. She is a fan of Elmo, but also any sort of music and stuffed animals. Another favorite word is "book" because she LOVES to sit and pour over books (and chew on them, unfortunately). One other cute thing to note is her tendency to say "hieeee" (hi) whenever she has just done something to warrent a stern "no" from a parent or sitter. Suddenly she turns on the charm and a big "hi" and her cheesy grin. Who says that 20 month olds can't manipulate their parents???


Clark: Cuddle bug. More accurately, WHINY cuddle bug. He has been exceptionally whiny, but the only thing that makes this even REMOTELY tolerable is his ability to snuggle up to you and hold on tight. Clark is a slide-guy. He LOVES to slide and would gladly push his sisters out of the way so that he can slide often. He learned how to confidently climb and maneuver around when he was attending preschool in Oak Ridge. He is vocalizing more and more everyday with sounds like "mama", "ba ba", "dada". He can also scream like nobody's business. It's frightening actually, but funny. He loves to run laps in the playroom, especially at night. Speaking of which, he has also learned that it is smart to run and dive into the kiddie tent (also in the playroom) when we come to get him for bed. That way he seems to think he is "safe" and won't have to go to bed just yet. Once he gets there, though, he gets under the pillow and grabs a blankie and he is OUT. Aaaah. Clark is a really good sleeper these days and a champ at eating.

All three seem to really be learning so much each week. They love to try new projects such as the felt board, magnet boards (one for each), puzzles, blocks, music and dancing. The girls seem to like "craft time" more than Clark. He would definitely prefer to run around outside and scream rather than draw on paper. Who can blame him?

We've also been spending some time visiting Nana's garage. She has a great open garage that has a courtyard area attached. They love to dig in the pea gravel and run around with a kid-sized broom and sweep things up. We brought some riding toys and the turtle pool (without water) and a kiddie basketball-type thing, so we have things they don't normally see on a regular basis. It's good for us because it makes us feel a little closer to Nana right now and the kids get some fresh air and lots of exercise (the fact that they sleep like ROCKS afterwards is a bonus!).

I will work on getting pictures and/or video posted soon. I know that I have some downstairs, but that would require that I risk waking the kids up when I tromp up and down the stairs, so I'd rather wait until later. I'll get that posted soon and just leave off the updates.

Happy Fall!

Saying Goodbye to Nana

Many of you have already heard that my mom (their Nana) passed away this past week. I am sorry that I haven't posted more of the kids recently, but once we knew something was wrong, we spent the last few weeks taking care of her. We are very sad and miss her so much already. I wanted to post some pictures of the kids and Nana that mean a lot to our family. Thank you to the many family members and friends who came to celebrate her life at a service today. We have been blessed by the kindness of so many who brought us meals, prayed for our family, shared stories about mom and who took the time to hug us today. It was also so wonderful to be surrounded by so many people who had been touched in some way by our mom. She was a special lady and will be missed greatly. We know that our family has another special angel watching over us in Heaven. Goodbye sweet Nana. xoxoxo

What?!?! It's August?!?!?! Where did July go?????

Pictures: Slide-time on the porch at home. Emma spent most of the time at the top until she had some help sliding down. All three of them contemplating how to be at the top together and how to slide down. Kendall being serious. Clark decided how he should make his approach (could be head first or feet first, we never know). Emma deciding if she is going to slide down....not yet. Clark taking a break for some hydration. Kendall concentrating on her landing (Mommy thinks she nailed it). The three of them outside Jason's Deli trying to get a picture with Uncle Tom (Clark wasn't feelin' it at that point). Ems chillin' with monkey. Kendall at the park. Clark stylin in his Hawaiian shirt.



Once again, we are moving through another month and I barely realized that I was missing it. Or my "devoted" blog followers have missed it. I've barely been on here to let you know what we are up to these days and I apologize.
Today was a BIG day as Clark started preschool. Long story, but it's just him attending right now. He will be there two days per week for a total of 5 hours. The teacher said it was the best first day ever. He did GREAT! What a big boy. We are happy that he enjoyed it.
SIDE NOTE: I wonder to myself...should I feel like a bad mommy because he doesn't cling to me, desperately dreading the moment that I leave the room? No. I'm raising children who thrive around other people as well as their own family. I want them to enjoy the company of other children and adults. While it's nice to feel indispensable at times, it's also wonderful to feel like you can leave your children with other people and they will be happy until your return. Otherwise, it is really hard to get away and have "me-time".
While Clark was busy at preschool for 2.5 hours, Miss Pam and I headed on an adventure with the girls. We had plans to attend a "Mommy & Me" class, but still had about 90 minutes to kill before it started. We did a quick tour of the area K-Mart (we no longer have one down the road from us, so it's been a while) and then found a park. The girls LOVED the swings. We had them in the toddler swings and then moved to the adult swings and let them sit in our laps. That was really pretty fun, except that Kendall was a little too relaxed and started to slide off of Miss Pam's lap. We didn't have any accidents, but it was funny that she was almost lulled to sleep while swinging.
Unfortunately, our class was cancelled, so we had to turn to Plan B. Wait. We didn't have a Plan B. So, we went to the Dollar Tree. I admit that it wasn't a great substitute for running around a gym with other moms and kids, but it was all we could come up with that would still allow us to pick up Clark on time. Ems enjoyed shopping and wanted to touch each and every item that caught her attention. Kendall was happy in the shopping cart trying on the bird hats and pineapple sunglasses (pretty cute, BTW). We also found princess skirts and wands, books, coloring books and silk flowers (for sniffing). We didn't actually BUY anything important, but it was a way to kill some time.
Clark seemed happy when I walked through the door and it was obvious that he had been having a lot of fun. The teacher mentioned that he would probably sleep well later since he had played (HARD) since I dropped him off. He was also very content to get into his seat in the car and see that Baby Einstein (or Elmo) was in progress.
We decided to take them out for an Italian lunch. That was probably not the best idea after an early start to the day and a relatively busy morning, but they did OK. As expected, they were diving into their beds for naptime when we returned home. Poor little Clark was ready for bed about an hour before the usual time tonight and we haven't heard a peep from him since he went down. The girls have a chance to sleep in a little tomorrow morning, but Clark will be back at school early tomorrow. Woo hoo. Life in the fast lane!
In other news, we've had a few playdates in the last couple of weeks. Mommy has been hesitant to embark on playdates because we did get them out a couple of times in late April and ended up with sick kids. But, it's time to work with it and "build their immunity". Just throwing them out there into the mix of germs and snot and all of that fun, gooey stuff. Last week, we met another triplet mommy and her three boys at a park. The park is a fenced-in area at a church that has toddler-sized outdoor play things. It also has mulch. I hate mulch. I despise mulch. My kids like to EAT mulch. I've FB'd about it and now I will blog about it. Why do they have mulch in play areas? Younger children that play in these areas tend to put everything in their mouths. Why give them something else intriguing to eat? Yuck. So, I spent the better part of 45 minutes trying to be sure that no mulch was actually consumed (and I don't remember seeing any diapers full of mulch later, so I think we did OK). They had a GREAT time as this was a chance to be free of the Super Yard "gated" area in which they live. They roamed all over and climed slides. Yup, climbing. Not really sliding down. Just climbing up. It was cute. A little risky, yes, but funny to watch. The other kids were pros at sliding and "park-ing" in general. There was another (skinny) mom there with her son who was really cute too. Clark was surrounded by BOYS for the first time. And he could have cared less because he was more interested in.....MULCH!!!
We had a MOPS mommy kindly offer to come and watch my kiddos so that I could get some work done as our regular sitter wasn't available both days last week. B brought her son E, who is 2, and they spent the morning playing and hanging out. It was another chance for our kids to be around children a little older and another BOY for Clark to get to pal around with and do "guy-stuff". Kidding. I don't know that there is really too much "guy stuff" to do at 18 mos old, but I think he gets tired of the dance DVDs that the girls like to watch and the pink piano was a little froo-froo (spelling??).
I also tried taking all three of them to a Mommy & Me class/group on Monday morning with Auntie Karen. It was only 30 minutes. I figured that we could all survive 30 minutes, right? Not exactly. We left 15 minutes into the routine. They were too excited to be released from their usual area and were around new and exciting things to touch and explore - coffee pots, shelves with papers Bibles, CD players and an open door to the hallway of the church. Why sit in our laps and sing songs and watch a lady read a story??? I decided that we were a little too distracting to the other children in attendance (quite a big group, actually) and we headed for the van. Ironically, once they were watching Elmo in the van, Auntie Karen and I were able to visit for a few minutes because they were completely content. Go figure. At least we tried. But it's definitely wise with triplets to plan to take extra people along for outings like that. It's SO hard to keep up with 3 kids going in different directions. They are SO excited and curious that they want to see and touch everything and sometimes that just isn't wise.
All and all, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Mommy is working hard to give them some new experiences and opportunities to build relationships with other children. I think it's great for them to be exposed to older kids because they learn new things. Hopefully I will stay motivated to get them out and about as much as possible. There are so many options for activities with the kids in our area and it's great for all of us to get out there and SOCIALIZE!
Thanks for your patience. Happy Back-to-School for all of those headed back to class in the next couple of weeks!

July Memories - Catching Up With Pictures

July has been a busy month with out-of-town visitors. We have been so blessed to have family members travel to Knoxville to see the kids and the rest of the family - and the sights of East Tennessee, of course. I realized that I had neglected to post pictures from our trip downtown to the Market Square interactive fountain in early July. The Isch's (my side of the family) came to town for about 4 days from Ohio and we were lucky to get in a great day of playtime for the kids and sightseeing for the adults.
Aunt Marsha, Uncle Bill and cousins Marshall and David have also been in Knoxville in the process of taking David to camp. We had a great time with them at the zoo this past Saturday as well as adult-time to celebrate Troy's birthday at Pelancho's one Saturday evening.
We had more visitors from OH (my side again) this past weekend as well as my cousin and his twin boys from Denver, CO. Again, we had great fun catching up and getting some pictures taken at the same time.

I have a hard time adding captions or descriptions to the pictures when I post on the blog, so I'm going to try to let you know who is in the pictures:

The blonde toddler is Emma Grace from OH and is my cousin, Susan's,daughter. The kids had a lot of fun playing with Emma Grace during her visit because she is a little older and has more freedom than they do and they wanted to find out how that was possible. She was with Clark in the rocker at Mast General Store downtown. She was also part of the water play in Market Square a few weeks ago. There are also pictures including my cousins, Pat and Larry and their daughter,(adult) Kristen (as well as their other daughter, Susan and their granddaughter, Emma Grace).

Aunt Marsha is in a picture with Emma. Marshall (their cousin) is in one picture from our trip on Saturday to the zoo. He did a great job helping us get the kids loaded into their strollers when we arrived at the zoo. He was also really good at encouraging them to see animals, etc.

Aunt Marsha, Uncle Stevie and Daddy are in a picture from Pelancho's when we went out to celebrate Daddy's birthday. We had a great time with them and the food was really good, as usual.

My cousin, Doug, and his twin boys (who are 9), Alex and Evan, were here from Denver, CO last weekend. The boys played with the kids in the play zone and were even subjected to a Wiggles dance video and an Elmo DVD...and survived. They had fun playing with a neighbor out front and then got in a visit to the Smokies, Zuma Fun Center and their hotel pool. I included some pictures with Aunt Edna, Nana, Doug, Evan, Alex, Uncle Ray, Barbara, Sharon and maybe Troy or myself. We were trying to get in a few pictures before everyone headed out of town and the kids were at home with Uncle Stevie.

I've been posting video lately and realized that I haven't managed to get any pictures on here and thought it was time to catch up. Troy and I are spending a couple of days at a friend's lake house while Nanny Barbara stays with the kids. Needless to say, we are very relieved to know that the kids are happy and doing well while we are taking a break.

One more note relates to the pictures of Emma and Kendall in their dinnertime bibs and highchairs. Not great facial expressions, necessarily, but we wanted to show the first attempt at some sort of pig tails - or spout - with their hair on top. These didn't last long as they were pulling at them shortly after Daddy got them "installed". :) But TOO CUTE. I hope we can get to the pig tails soon enough.

By the way, here are the latest "stats" on the kids:

Kendall 22.8 lbs and 31.4 inches
Emma 20.0 lbs and 31.5 inches (this is not correct since she isn't taller than the other two, but was very squirmy when they were trying to get her height)
Clark 22.6 lbs and 32.2 inches

Obviously, Ems remains our little peanut, but the dr is very happy with their growth and development and they are happy, healthy babies - OK, toddlers. :)

Happy July!