5 yrs 2 mo!

Sorry for the long hiatus but we were in Cali all last week! I'll post more pics soon : )

CET are 62 months old!

Nehala

On our trip to the coast last month we made our way to the Nehalem Bay Winery but when we got there the boys had all fallen asleep in the car. The boys aunt Janet volunteered to stay in the car with them while the rest of us went inside to do a little wine tasting. When we got in we heard a loud meowing just outside another door. Being the cat lovers that Phil and I are, Phil opened the door so we could go see the kitty and get a good petting out of it. To our surprise the kitty just jumped right into Phil's arms and wasn't afraid of us at all! We talked to the owners and they told us that she had just appeared there about a week ago and they tried not feeding her to see if she'd go away but after about three days they didn't have the heart anymore and started feeding her. They jokingly asked if we wanted to take a cat home with us. Since we'd been wanting to get a cat anyway we agreed! She was just the type of kitty we'd been looking for, so friendly and brave. We couldn't take her home that day since we had one more night to spend at the coast but we agreed to pick her up the next day. The winery people graciously found us an animal carrier and gave us two free bottles of wine when we came to pick her up, what a great deal! We named her after the winery we got her from, Nehala (pronounced Nuh-hay-la).

As some of you know we've been sweet kitty deprived since our cat Lankston died two years ago. We were only left with Pachacutti, which many of you may know is crazy. You can pet her twice after which she will proceed to scratch your face off if you pet her anymore. Needless to say, she does not tolerate the boys. It has been soooo nice to have a normal cat again.

Nehalem Bay Winery on the Oregon coast

Family picture before picking up our surprise!

Here she is! We think she's about 6 months old and she's smaller than she appears in pictures, I don't think she even weighed 5 lbs when we got her.

The boys, being the cat connoisseurs that they are, just love her to bits!
They can be a bit rough with her at times but she just learned to run away and hide for a while (unlike our other cat who'd scratch their faces off if they got fresh with her).

About as close as these two will get to one another. It's a cat paradox, Pacha hates people but loves other cats and Nehala loves people but hates other cats! Pacha is easily three times as big as Nehala but Pacha is scared of her! This was not what we were expecting, ha!

The grown ups are enjoying her as well!

Loving their kitty!

Just chillaxing with her boys as a good family cat should : )

She can do neat tricks like roll up into a perfectly round ball

and fold herself in half!

And she even does impersonations, this one is of Falkor from The Neverending Story, ha!

Caleb and Nehala : )
Excuse the toilet in the background, haha!

Due Date

For the past five years I've wanted to do a "due date" post but somehow I always forgot! I got the idea from all my fellow bloggers who always remembered to do a due date post, but for some reason it just doesn't hold much meaning to me, which is why I think I always forget. The minute they told us we were having triplets the "due date" became meaningless me. Even if your body could hold out to 40 weeks there is no doctor out there that would be crazy enough to let you. Most doctors will not let you go past 37 weeks with triplets. And if you have identical triplets who share a placenta, most would not let you go past 35 weeks (some 36 weeks). So I knew there was no possible way I'd ever deliver around my "due date." At about 32-ish weeks my doc scheduled my c-sec for 36 weeks and 2 days and even then I thought there was no way in Hades that was happening (but it was mostly because I was so uncomfortable, I'm pretty sure there would have been some begging to deliver sooner had I not gone into labor at 34 weeks). Developmentally at their due date my boys were not acting like newborns, they already had the skills of the 1.5 month olds that they were (preemies catch up fast than you think!). I only realized this because someone else pointed it out to me, because really, what did I know about newborns as a first time mom. So you can see that even their adjusted age is not a great measure for what your preeimie should be doing.

There is however one significant thing that I started to notice each year around the boys November 10th due date. So every summer I used to put away the boys winter/fall clothes and all summer long they pretty much wore shorts. Then in the fall I'd bring out their clothes to see what still fit. As I suspected most things would still fit. But then come November their pants were now capri's! This happened two years in a row until I caught on that the boys always have a growth spurt around their due date. I measured the boys a couple days ago and sure enough all were half an inch taller then they were at their 5 year check up 6 weeks ago! I learned not to save their pants for the following year and now we just jump into the next size up since they'll only be too big for a month or so : )

I'm pretty sure this is the only "due date" post I'll ever do. I'm done feeling guilty for always forgetting it. It's not worth the effort trying to remember it every year, although really this is the first year I've remembered in time to blog about it, ha!

On November 10th 2010 their official due date (they were 6 weeks old).
I mean really, what newborn can already karate chop!?

I found a couple more pics that I thought would be a sweet flashback to post!

Eli and me!

5 Year Pictures

On the second day of our beach trip we took pictures on the beach of course! Either Phil or the boys tia Janet took these and they came out great!

CET

This one would have been my favorite if the wind hadn't blown my hair in my face : (

Caleb

Caleb

Eli

Eli

Thomas

Thomas

CET, Caleb and Eli's fat little belly's in this pic crack me up!

My new trick to get them to smile naturally is to show them a silly picture of myself, ha!

Tia Janet captured this gem : )

The best one of all of us!

Beach Trip Part 2

Some more pics of the rest of our time on the Oregon Coast!

The T-rex is coming!

Taking turns flying the kite with tio Chance

On our last beach walk of the trip

Seaweed fun!

TEC

Caleb

My terrific three!

With tia Janet

Waiting for our crabs to be cooked, they were our yummy dinner when we got back home that night. We picked up another thing on our way home as well but it's so special it'll require it's own post, so stay tuned!

Touring the Tillamook cheese factory!

Beach Trip Part 1

The boys tia Janet and tio Chance came to visit us last week. We took a little beach vacation with them on the Oregon coast. We took lots of great pictures (including a 5 year photo shoot), so I'll have to break it down to several posts. Here are some highlights of the first two days : )

Our first morning out for a walk

Family picture!

another

...and another : )

with tio Chance and tia Janet

The next day we drove to nearby Cannon Beach

Lunch at Bills Tavern, Caleb with Janet

Chance with Eli and Thomas

Goonies at Cannon Beach, ha!

Family picture while papi sketches

Group picture!