The Life and Love of Us HAVING Triplets Plus 1!

Shelby's Newborn Photoshoot

2011-10-01T21:57:00.005-05:00

I knew if I didn't have a newborn photo session done for Shelby when she was just a few weeks old I was really going to regret it. So, since we headed up to Grammy and Pops for a few weeks right after Shelby was born (our house is still under construction) I decided to use a photographer in the DFW area last minute to get those irreplaceable pictures taken and here are just a few. :)

She really is just the most precious little girl. God truly blessed us with an easy-going babe. She is currently 5 1/2 weeks old and she is sleeping from around 6:30 pm to 3:30 am, 9 hours, before her first nighttime feeding. Now, that isn't every single night, we still have a few nights here and there where she is hungrier than others, but overall, she sleeps a long stretch and lets her Mommy and Daddy sleep as well.
She is starting to really focus on our faces and her sisters' voices. They are always in her face talking to her, so not noticing them would be impossible. :)
Baylee has taken to walking around the house saying "Ohhhh, Shelby. Ohhhh, Shelby...it's ok" at various times during the day because I'm sure she has heard me say that a time or two. Reagan is always concerned about Shelby's paci, as well as her own, but she always wants to make sure I know where Shelby's paci is in case she needs it. Addison likes to play with Shelby's feet, she thinks it's funny. I keep telling her to just leave the baby alone but no one listens to me. :)
I don't know how much Shelby weighs right now, but I am sure it is somewhere in the 10-12 lb range.
Things upcoming for the Huse family: The older girls' actual birthday party (a few weeks late) we are having an Olivia the Pig themed party because the girls L.O.V.E. Olivia, the completion of our house estimated to be in about 20-25 days!!!, and Halloween! It's already been a crazy year for us and the next three months aren't slowing down at all.

Shelby Dale :)

2011-09-18T21:32:00.010-05:00

You were born toward the end of the longest streak of triple digit temperatures in Texas history...and I was feeling it every day :). So hot!
I was pressing Dr. Beaird all the way through my pregnancy with you to allow me to deliver you naturally, but as we found out about a week before your due date (August 24th) that you were most likely already over 9 lbs. we decided it would be best to go ahead and schedule a c-section for August 23rd rather than wait for my body to go into labor on its own.
You were born August 23rd at 10:38 am weighing in at 9 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 21 inches long. You were precious and you still are! You had so much dark hair, like your Daddy, and everyone in the operating room was commenting on how beautiful you were. Such a pretty baby! :)

Pop and Grandaddy's first look at you :)

A lot of your family was able to be there the day you were born. Your Pop was the first to get to hold you. :)
Aunt Missy, Uncle Clark and your cousins CJ, Mark, Peyton and Mackenzie came to Waco just for your arrival.
Grammy, Gran, Grandaddy, Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Adam were all there as well to welcome you into the world and into our loving family.

Grammy holding you for the first time

Gran with her 4th grandbaby :)

Uncle Adam and Aunt Elizabeth

Your older sisters were able to come visit you at the hospital later that day and they weren't too sure what to make of the whole situation. Seeing Mommy all laid up in bed in a strange place was a little overwhelming for sure. But, they have started saying your name although it sounds more like "Selby" and most of the time they just call you "Baby." They have started loving to help me take care of you and be wherever you are when you aren't napping.
Your Daddy has been doting on you and singing songs with only your name in them since the minute we were alone with you.

Shelby Dale - 26 days old

You have been such a blessed addition to our family. You are such an easy-going baby and you don't make things too hard on your Momma :). We can't wait to watch you grow, but not too fast. ;)

Regardless, you'll always be my baby girl.

Anticipation!

2011-08-08T13:07:00.008-05:00

I know, it has been FOREVER since I have posted anything. As my Mother so sweetly reminded me the other day, "You haven't blogged in a while." Sorry Grammy! Things have just been NUTS around here for us. I feel like things are in a tailspin all the time and I am just trying to keep up.
Lately, our life has been all about anticipation. We are anticipating the arrival of our sweet Shelby Dale. Any day now, she should make her appearance, we hope. I am hoping and praying to go into labor on my own and not have to go through another c-section.
I am currently 37 weeks and 5 days pregnant and things aren't progressing as my OB had hoped for this point in my pregnancy. So, he's a little discouraged but hasn't completely given up on my desire to deliver naturally this time. He said at my last appointment, "I'm still walking down this path right with you, but there may come a point when you reach 40 weeks that I might have to counsel you on just scheduling a c-section." I trust him and he has been more than on board with me the entire time, so I know if he thinks it's time to just do the c-section, then it is time. But I'm not giving up until that exact moment!
Also, this week we are anticipating Baylee getting tubes put in her ears. We have known for a few months now that Baylee has been getting more than her fair share of ear infections and we finally got our pedi to refer us to an ENT here in Waco. He took one look in her ears and said she needed tubes for sure. I wish so much we had done this sooner because I am convinced the fluid and infections in her ears has played a part in her speech development. She just can't hear us correctly! So, we are hoping this will help Baylee Boo hear better, speak better and be just an overall happier kid.
We are also anticipating the completion of our new home! Everyday we can see progress being made and it is so exciting but also makes us want it to be completed that much sooner so we can start enjoying it. I have been spending time picking out doors, windows, hardware, fixtures and appliances trying to get all of the BIG STUFF picked out and ordered before Shelby gets here. So far, I think we are on track. The only things I need to worry about now are paint colors, but that will come at the VERY end, so I can relax for a little while.
Here are some pictures from the past few weeks to a month (sorry about the quality, all of our "good" cameras are packed up in the hospital bag so we have been using our cell phones for the every day shots).

Brent sharing his sucker with the girls-their 1st sucker :)

The Girls' Favorite Snack - PUDDING!
Baylee

Addison

Reagan

Playing with sidewalk chalk

Their new picnic table

Practicing holding hands to walk into MDO

Learning to catch with Gran - for some reason they think they need their backs against the wall to catch the ball :)

And some progress on the house:

Brent dozing the ditch out in front of the house

Drilling Piers

Framing getting started :)

More Framing..

Windows going in and more framing...

Roof decking and house wrap going on...

So far, over the end of last week and the weekend, a lot of the electrical has been installed and the duct work for the A/C has gone in. Today, they have been installing the black paper for the roof and hopefully this week we will see some roofing happening and possibly some stone work on the outside, maybe?! Oh, and I am totally obsessed/ecstatic about our bay window area in the dining room, finally I have an awesome place to put our Christmas Tree! I know, such a random, stupid thing to be excited about but I just can't stop talking about it to Brent. Every time we go look at the house, I comment on it. :)
The next time I post will most likely be with pictures of our new baby girl!

The Story of Us

2011-06-29T20:48:00.007-05:00

I let mine and Brent's 5 year anniversary get away from me without posting a blog about how we met in the first place.

Girls, this long narrative is all for you.

One of the things you hear when you start as a freshman at Baylor University, where your Daddy and I went to college, is that you are highly likely to meet your spouse there...same as any college I guess.
I didn't think that would be me. I dated a little in college but by my senior year I had pretty much given up on meeting the Baylor guy of my dreams...until one night in December during the week of final exams :).

At a wedding in West, 2005

Let me back up, your Daddy and I were both business students so we had relatively the same degree plan. We both opted out of taking 4 semesters of a foreign language and took classes in Communication instead. (A big mistake girls. We both agree learning to speak Spanish fluently would have served us much better in our careers and life and those communication classes we took instead were pretty much a joke...yet, it did bring us together, so everything happens for a reason.)

Seeing The Piano Man at Treff's in Waco, 2005

Your Daddy and I had Small Group Communication together in the Fall of 2003, our Junior year. We happened to be paired up in a group project together. Daddy, myself, a sorority sister of mine and another female classmate were assigned to create a presentation displaying the dynamics of a small group in a movie and we chose the movie "Ocean's 11."
I have to admit, your Daddy was quiet in our group meetings, he didn't say much unless he had something important he wanted to contribute. He also wasn't really excited about the project in the first place so when we assigned him to place the appropriate clips from the movie in our PowerPoint presentation (a major part of the whole project) and bring the finished product to class the day of our presentation, my sorority sister and I were a little nervous. :) He came through big time! The presentation was a big hit and we got an "A".
We didn't see much of each other in the Spring semester or that next Summer other than occasionally out on the town with our respective groups of friends. We'd always wave and say hello as we passed by.
This leads me to the Fall of 2004, our Senior year. The first day of our 8 am Public Relations Writing class, your Daddy and I discovered we were classmates yet again. We sat next to each other because we kind of knew each other and each day after class we'd wait for the other to walk back to the business school together. We'd talk about our classes, our friends, our weekends on our walks and we would e-mail each other if one of us missed a class to find out what we needed to know for the next class or test.

Bluhm Rd, 2005, who knew we'd end up building a house here years later :)

Your Daddy always wore a hat to class (what I later found out was due to a head shaving incident with his buddies and he was trying to let his hair grow back out) and I thought he was funny, sweet and really cute but I never imagined he was the slightest bit interested in me.
Until one night during Fall final exams week. I was out to dinner with a group of friends when I got a text from a phone number I didn't immediately recognize. (this was back in the day when the name of the person texting you didn't show up on the text, just their phone number.) It said, "Have any plans for tonight?"I turned to my friend, Steve, and asked if he recognized the number on the text. He said no, but if I hit "call back" and that person's number is saved in my contacts on my phone then their name will pop up. I hit call back and "Brent Huse" popped up on the screen. I was surprised but happy surprised :). I texted back that actually, I did have plans, I was going to a party at a friend's house and then we'd probably end up at Scruffy Murphy's, a bar across from my apartment, before the end of the night but he was welcome to meet up with me there. Your Daddy said he was with some friends right then but he'd try to catch up with me later that night. I have to admit, I was disappointed when I didn't see him at Scruffy's that night. (I later found out that he did drag his friends over there but I had already left. :) Your Daddy texted me late and said he was sorry we didn't meet up and asked would I mind if he called me sometime. I said sure but that I'd be studying for the GMAT the rest of the week and I was taking the test that next Wednesday. He said, "How about I call you Tuesday afternoon and we can make plans to go out after your test on Wednesday?" I agreed. And, your Daddy did exactly what he said he was going to do, he called Tuesday afternoon. (Bonus points) We were discussing our date the next evening and I was pleasantly surprised that he had already thought it through and made plans instead of all of that, "Where would you like to go?" "I don't know, wherever you like to go..." stuff. I hate that. Instead, he said, "I was thinking I'd pick you up and take you to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then we can go to Crickets to meet up with some of my friends." Excellent, I thought, a guy who isn't afraid to make a decision. (More bonus points)
I took the GMAT on Wednesday morning (I didn't do great on it, I don't think my heart was fully in it) and your Daddy picked me up right on time Wednesday night. (He picked me up in Grandaddy's truck. Your Daddy drove a silver Chevy truck through college that he worked hard to buy himself, but I guess he was already trying to impress me by taking me out in Grandaddy's nicer truck. :)
We had a great dinner together and it was so comfortable like we had known each other forever.
After dinner, we went to Crickets in downtown Waco to meet up with your Daddy's friend, Pav, and his girlfriend. We had fun and I think we went a few other places before he drove me back to my apartment, when I realized I had locked my keys in the condo and had no way in. I had NEVER done that before and I was really embarrassed. I had to call my roommate at the time, Megan, and ask her if I could come get her key from her. Your Daddy sweetly drove me across town to pick up the key and then took me back home.

Graduating from Baylor, May 2005

Unfortunately, since our first date was right after Fall Finals, I was leaving the next day to spend Christmas vacation in Brady, TX at Grammy and Pop's ranch. Your Daddy and I spoke by phone over the break but didn't see each other again until Spring rush, a week before school started in January 2005. From that point on, we were pretty inseparable. We spent all of our free time together and eventually had to designate study nights away from each other so we could pass our classes.
We were head over heels for each other FAST. The first time we said "I Love You" was on Valentine's Day 2005 and we both knew that was it, we'd be together forever.
We both graduated from Baylor in May of 2005 and were engaged by September 28th.

New Years Eve 2005

Engagement Picture

Our wedding was May 13, 2006 at Balcones Springs Resort in Marble Falls, Texas.

At the Rehearsal Dinner at Balcones Springs

Happy, Happy! Wedding Day, 2006

Honeymoon in St. John, VI, 2006

After 5 years of marriage, 3 baby girls and 1 on the way, your Daddy and I still hold hands all the time, we talk about everything and we can still make each other laugh so hard we cry.

Addison, Reagan & Baylee's Newborn pictures, 2009

Addison, Reagan & Baylee's first Easter, 2010

And most of all, we love you girls more than life itself.

Addison, Reagan & Baylee's 1 year pictures, 2010

Mommy's 10 Year High School Reunion Trip to Vegas, 2011
7 Months Pregnant with Shelby Dale

Building Our New Home - 1st Update

2011-06-19T21:07:00.003-05:00

We've slowly but surely started construction on our new home. Brent and I always say, "Nothing is ever easy..." and that has proven true even in the beginning stages of building this home and preparing our new property.

Our lot before construction

I've tried to take as many pictures of each stage to document building our next home for the girls because they won't remember any of this. It has been an experience so far but I know for sure that it will all be worth it when we get to move in and enjoy what we painstakingly waited for.

Measuring out where the slab will sit on the property

They began digging out where the slab will be on the lot and bringing in load after load of dirt to create a level surface for the slab to be poured once the piers are in the ground. The girls, Gran and I have spent many mornings sitting outside under Gran and Grandaddy's trees watching the trucks bring dirt in next door.

Dirt work begins...

More dirt work...

This last week the forms for the slab started being placed, but they left a few holes open for the truck to get in to drill the holes for the piers to be installed. One of our setbacks so far was working with the engineer and our builder on a plan for the piers. Apparently, regular piers just won't do out here because of the soil type...of course they won't. So, we had to go back and have the engineer draw up plans for a slab with bell piers...I won't bore you with the details of what bell piers are and why we need them, but we do.

Forms for the slab in the ground...

Setback #2: BEES! Brent had a friend from work, Dave, out here Friday night helping him to start dozing out all of the trees and brush in the ditch at the road in front of our property. The ditch has to be cleared before the water company will come install a water meter...of course. Dave was going about his business dozing away when apparently he hit a rather large bee hive and was swarmed on the dozer. He jumped off and started running but bees can fly pretty fast and they chased him. His head was covered in bee stings and after that, Dave was about done dozing. Brent and I felt terrible. We checked on Dave through the weekend and you'll be happy to know that he isn't allergic so he took some Benadryl and had a good rest and ended up with about 8 stings on his head and neck.

So, after that, the dozer was stuck in the middle of a swarm of bees....hmmmm, how do we get the dozer out? Well, when you live in the country, you call a neighbor. We have some really great neighbors who bought Brent's grandmothers house which will be on the left side of our house. They are a few years younger than us and have an 8 month old daughter who I know the girls and Shelby will become best friends with over the years. Brent called up our really nice neighbor and said, "Is that dozer you have over there pretty bee-proof?" Wouldn't you know it, but our really nice neighbor came out right away on a Friday night to doze out the trees and brush around the dozer Dave had been using to try to get the bees to find a new place to live. He did a great job and we hoped they would be gone by the next day.

The ditch Dave was dozing at the time of attack...

The dozer stuck after the bee attack...

Well, even after all our nice neighbor did, those bees stuck around on one little piece of the hive that was left on the ground near the dozer Brent was using. Brent wasn't going near the thing until they were gone.

The remains of the hive and the bees crawling all over it...

So, Brent decided it was time to call in the professionals...who would you call in a time like this...well, The Bee Man, of course. Bees Be Gone came out right away on Saturday and took care of the rest of the hive for us. There were still some remaining bees flying around the dozer so Brent gave it until today, Father's Day, to see how things had settled down over there.

The Bee Man

Brent went to assess the situation and came back saying that there were still bees buzzing around over there but he wanted to try to move the dozer away from the area and work on the other side of the ditch. So, we fashioned a make-shift bee suit for him. :) Complete with a laundry bag over his head and tucked into his shirt. Mind you, it's like 106 degrees outside right now and he's in two layers of shirts, long-sleeves, jeans, boots, a hat and the laundry bag....HOT!

My amazing hubby...Happy Father's Day honey, we love you :)

Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Adam and I drove Brent over to the dozer and watched from afar as he cautiously jumped into the dozer and moved it to a safer location.

After all of this, the rest of the day was pretty relaxing. We had a great lunch made by Gran and enjoyed Brent's fav, Red Velvet Cake, to celebrate his birthday. After the girls went to bed, I went next door with Brent to watch him get back to work dozing away.

Brent dozing a huge tree out of the ditch...

Hopefully, Brent can get the rest of the ditch cleared without any snags and we can get our water meter installed and maybe, just maybe, the piers will start going in this next week. Fingers crossed!

First Haircuts!

2011-06-16T12:56:00.007-05:00

It was time. I had been putting this off long enough and trimming their bangs to the best of my ability, and honestly, I just wasn't cutting it...no pun intended.

I made appointments at Kids Kuts in Waco for the girls this morning and overall they did very well. Baylee had the hardest time. I think she is very tender headed and having some stranger comb and tug at her hair wasn't very comfortable for her, but we got through it.

Baylee getting her hair cut...

The girls will be starting MDO again for the summer next Tuesday and they will be in a new class with new teachers and I really am worried about no one being able to tell Addie and Reagan apart.

Addison driving the Jeep...I think they need like a pink convertible or something for the girls...all they have is a Jeep

I mean, Brent and I have a hard enough time sometimes, how can we expect other people to know who is who when I DO dress them the same. (Side note: when they are old enough to care about what they are wearing, they will be able to choose what they want to wear, within reason. But, for now, it's just easier on me to only have to pick out one outfit each morning instead of three separate, equally cute outfits.)

Reagan being so good for her haircut...

So, I asked Brent last night what he thought about me cutting Addie or Reagan's hair a little shorter, like a cute little bob or something just so people can know at a glance who is who. He said, "You want to cut the length?! No, I don't want you to cut the length." So, that was that. Foot down, he wasn't budging. Plus, I knew my mother would kill me. So, this is what we ended up with, a little trim and the bangs slightly different.

Addie Before

Addie After

Reagan Before

Reagan After

Baylee Before

Baylee After

I'll just have to work on getting them to wear different colored hair bands or something so teachers and everyone else can tell them apart.

Where to start?

2011-05-30T13:53:00.011-05:00

Where, oh where, to start? We have been through so much in the past few weeks it is hard to determine where to begin explaining the changes that have taken place in our life.

First off, if I hadn't mentioned it before on this blog, we decided to sell our 3 bedroom/2 bath house and build a home on some land Brent's parent's gave us next to their house.

I'll be posting regular pictures of the progress of the house as soon as construction is under way, which should be late next week.

Where our future home will be :)

We thought our home would sell pretty fast but I don't think we were fully prepared for it to go the way it did. Our home was only on the market a little over 30 days before we received a CASH offer and the buyer wanted us out within 2 weeks. Que PANIC!

But, somehow, we pulled it off. Well, I know how, with A LOT of help from friends and family and A LOT of late nights on our part packing and moving things to storage. Keep in mind, I can't lift much because I'm 6+ months pregnant...so kudos to Brent for doing the majority of this stuff himself. We also decided not to cancel our plans with family during the two weekends we had before we were supposed to close on our house, so we spent our weekends up North of Dallas with family instead of at home packing and moving.

We spent one entire Sunday finishing A LOT of our packing and with the help of our great friends, The Paynes, The McKowns and Jessica Kolar, we packed and moved all of our big items to our new temporary home in one day. Whew! It was a killer. We then spent every night the rest of the week before we closed finishing our packing and moving what we could to storage while Gran and Grandaddy watched the girls for us each night.

Our new temporary home is at Gran and Grandaddy's house, right next to our construction site. They graciously offered to take us in since our house sold so fast and allow us to live with them until our house is complete. We have pretty much taken over, bless their hearts!
We also seemed to find some time a few weeks ago to fit in a photo session with our friend, Becky Kudelka. She always does such a great job taking pictures for us and this time she even agreed to do a full shoot of the entire Huse family. It was so fun and totally worth all the little tantrums. :)I must have compressed these pics down too far because they didn't come across all that great on the blog, but trust me, they look great!

Gran, Grandaddy, Uncle Adam, Aunt Elizabeth and us with the girls

So, we've settled in, and we decided to spend Memorial Day weekend relaxing at home. We did find some time to hit up the West Pool for the first time with the girls. I have a feeling we will be going there a lot when the girls are old enough to swim without someone with them the entire time.

I feel guilty every night when I have been meaning to put a post together and just don't have the time or energy lately to sit down at the computer. But, I am going to try harder to keep up with more regular postings now that we aren't in transition and are a little more settled.

Trip to Houston April 2011

2011-05-02T12:56:00.005-05:00

We have been wanting to get back down to Houston to visit my paternal grandparents, Mamaw and Papaw Chambers, for a while now. We wanted to wait until the girls were able to walk and traveling better before we made plans for the trip. This, by far, was the best traveling experience we have had with the girls in the car. They did so well there and back and everything worked out just perfectly.
We left Saturday morning and headed for Houston, Spring, TX to be exact. We met Papaw and my Aunt Susan and Uncle Bailey at a Mexican food restaurant when we got into town. We had a great lunch and headed over to where Mamaw and Papaw are living at The Village at Gleannloch Farms to spend time with Mamaw.
We got settled in a living room there and broke out the toys for the girls to have some playtime with Mamaw and Papaw.

Reagan with "Mo-mo" - So Cute!

Baylee took all of the toys out of the cube and put each one individually in Papaw's lap...for safe keeping :)
Huh? - She has this look in a lot of pictures, most of the time we can barely get her to look up for pictures, she's so busy all the time.

Our fam with my Mamaw who just turned 88! Yeay! Happy Birthday!

After our great time with Mamaw and Papaw on Saturday, we headed back to Aunt Susan and Uncle Bailey's house for some more playtime, dinner and bedtime. We played at the park across the street and the girls played on the slides with Aunt Susan and Uncle Bailey and had a great time on the swings. This was the first time Baylee has liked swinging. All other times we have tried her on the swings she has not liked it at all.

We had a great dinner and a few tired meltdowns, mostly by Reagan who refused to leave my lap for the rest of the night.

One funny story from the weekend - Saturday night we had already fed the girls dinner and gotten them into their pajamas and we decided to go ahead and eat ourselves. We sat down in the dining room with Reagan on my lap and Addison coming in and out and playing in the kitchen. At one point, it got very quiet...never a comforting sound with three toddlers around. I asked Brent to go check on Baylee and Addison in the living room. He was laughing when he came back. When he walked into the living room, Baylee had made herself comfortable on top of the coffee table with her legs crossed. She had taken the lid off of a jar of M&M's and was casually picking each one out and eating it while watching Nick Jr. Brent said she looked so content and just like, "Ahhh, this is the life." Haha! Brent promptly removed her from the coffee table and took away the M&M's. She knows that getting on the coffee table is a "No-no" and she rarely gets candy so I guess she felt like we were preoccupied so she would take advantage of the alone time. We were still laughing about it on our way home on Sunday.

The girls with hair down Sunday morning at Aunt Susan's house.

Susan had some pipe cleaners laying around and was making bracelets and necklaces for the girls Sunday morning. Brent made Reagan the bracelet she is wearing in the picture below and she wore it the rest of the day. Cute :).

Distracted by Nick Jr....a regular occurrence I'm afraid.

Pictures in front of Aunt Susan's house Sunday morning before we headed home

Bubble time!

Cutie babies!

They LOOOOVE bubbles!

After leaving Aunt Susan's house on Sunday, we headed back to Spring to see Mamaw and Papaw one more time before leaving to meet some of our friends, Tracy and Justin Slovak, for lunch in Montgomery, TX on our way out of town. The girls behaved pretty well during lunch at Wolfie's by Lake Conroe and afterwards had a fabulous time chasing each other around The Slovak's house squealing with delight.

We had a great time over the weekend, but were happy to be home because this Mommy and Daddy were pretty darn exhausted. :)

Easter 2011

2011-04-27T13:17:00.010-05:00

I think I'm about the last blog mom out there to do our Easter post. We've had all kinds of things going on around here including a terrible storm last night with threats of tornadoes. It was the first time since I have lived around Waco that I have actually had to bunker down because of tornadoes. All of this was going down around 9:30 last night and our tiny laundry room is the most interior room of our house so we made a pallet with blankets and pillows for the girls to try to keep them sleeping through most of it. We pulled the girls out of bed and headed for the laundry room and the pallet didn't work out all that great. Addison and Reagan ended up falling asleep on me and Baylee was just rolling around relentlessly on the pallet all by herself. Luckily, the storm passed very quickly, so we weren't stuck in that hot room for a really long time. We put the girls back to bed and Reagan was the only one who had a really hard time going back to sleep.
So anyway, on to the Easter events of last weekend. We started the weekend by heading up to Gunter on Good Friday. Saturday morning we took the girls to this neat sandbox and splash pad at a new outdoor shopping center in Allen across from the outlet mall on Highway 75. Missy and Mackenzie met us there after CJ's football game to enjoy some fun in the sand and lunch at The Purple Cow.

The girls had a great time! Such a great place to take the kids, I must say. I wish we had something like that around here.
Later that day, the girls were getting very restless playing in the house, so we headed outside to check out Pop's tractor and play in the pasture talking to the horses.

Just sittin in the bucket of the tractor :)

Riding along with Daddy...

On Sunday, we had a great lunch with the whole Chambers family and did an egg hunt in front of Grammy and Pop's house.

Grammy made the adorable dresses the girls are wearing, they were too cute to pass up for our egg hunt at their house

Our family, minus baby #4 coming in August!

Aunt Mandy and Uncle Tim egg hunting with cousin Luke

The girls had so much fun hunting eggs with all of their cousins, but all Baylee was concerned with was what she found in the eggs. :)

Peyton and Baylee hunting eggs

Marky loading up!

Grammy and sweet Mackenzie, Missy's youngest and the youngest grandbaby until August :)

Our precious girls

All the cousins! So fun! Reagan would not release her basket. Brent and I had to pry it from her mega-grip, and truthfully it took both of us to get it away from her when the egg hunt was over.

After all of this, we headed to West to see Gran and Grandaddy for our second egg hunt. When we got there, they had Easter baskets for the girls and a BIG Easter surprise for them as well. Check these out! The girls LOVE them!

Checkin out the eggs :)

The girls had dinner and then they were about pooped by the time we headed home. A long day but so much fun celebrating Easter with our family!

Mayborn Museum

2011-04-06T13:09:00.012-05:00

My sister, Missy, brought her family down to Waco for a night over the weekend and we met them at the Mayborn Museum Sunday afternoon to have some fun. 4 adults and 7 kids under the age of 5...fun times! :) This was our first trip to the Mayborn Museum on Baylor campus and we will definitely be going back. I had to practically tear Reagan away from the bumper cars room when the place was closing down! They LOVED it!

First, let me apologize for the quality of these pics. I, of course, got out of the house Sunday without the good camera so all I had was my iphone.

Brent with our nephews CJ and Mark learning about how the weathermen do it

CJ doing the news :) Our girls riding around in the choo choo for the first few parts of the museum Mark, still checkin out himself on TV :) so cute!

CJ playing with the weather ball

Ahhh, they grow up so fast :) Addie on the school bus

I tried to get a pic with all 3 in the windows but they were so excited it just wasn't happening...

Baylee Boo!

Peyton driving the firetruck with Addison hanging out the front

Baylee, I will show her these pictures when she really is able to drive. Adorable!

Addie taking a turn driving...that's my girl

Sweetie pie!

Reagan taking a turn at the wheel

Cutie Reagan!

Sweet, sweet Mackenzie Faith! Poor baby was trying to get some peace and quite to eat and it just wasn't happening with all those crazy kids running around screaming.

Their favorite thing, ever. The bumper cars room.

CJ, our oldest nephew. Sweetie!

Baylee, where's the gear shift in this thing?

A pic of the full-blown chaos

After the Mayborn Museum we took all the kids out to eat at Ninfa's. Crazy, I know. But Ninfa's in Waco always accommodates us well and they FOR SURE stuck us back in the party room all by ourselves. :) Missy said it was a blessing but also a curse because Peyton and Mark just went wild running around the room after dinner. The girls were laughing watching them go nuts. :)

We had a great dinner and left a HUGE 7 kid mess. Sorry Ninfa's busboy!

I have to add this little tidbit of hilarity about our walk out of Ninfa's that night. Out in front of Ninfa's there are a few patches of grass before you get to the parking lot. We are all walking to our cars and I hear Missy yell, "MARK!" and we all turn around to see Mark has dropped trow in the grass, with his shirt raised ready to relieve himself for all the parking lot and passersby to witness. Brent and I were cracking up because, well, we have girls so this won't be something we see all the time. Missy and Clark just looked like, oh, this happens all the time, no biggie. So funny!

One thing to add, we have been so busy getting our house on the market to sell that I haven't had time to blog about our news about the new baby. Brent and I discovered a few weeks ago that we are, in fact, having another girl! Brent has seen so many ultrasounds after having the trio that he could tell that it was a girl on the screen before the tech even checked for gender. :) I have already picked out some amazing fabrics for Grammy to get her creativity going on the nursery bedding for the new baby. It's going to be beautiful! Now we just need to pick out a name....more to come on that as soon as we have a decision made. :)

28th Birthday

2011-03-14T21:41:00.007-05:00

We spent last weekend celebrating my 28th birthday with my family at my parents' house in Gunter, TX. The girls are getting big enough to play on the huge play set my parents have and they just wore themselves completely out Friday and Saturday playing until they were ready to drop.

The girls went up and down, and up and down this slide until they were just so tired they couldn't climb the ladder anymore.

You can't see them very well in this picture, so I am posting this link http://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?SKU=129161 to the play shoes Grammy got for the girls. They are by IPlay and we LOVE them! The girls would hardly take them off. They are made from a Crocs-like material and are waterproof, dirt-proof....so completely kid proof. They are pink and soooo cute! They come in all kinds of cute colors. We will definitely be getting more of these!

The girls had a great time playing with cousins and running around Grammy and Pop's house exploring all weekend.

All of us with the cake my Mom (Grammy) made for my birthday...this was just as Baylee was sticking her toes into one of the roses on the back of the cake. LOL Oops!

Thank you, Grammy and Pop, for having the whole family over to celebrate my 28th birthday. We love you!

Definitely Not Optimal Conditions For This

2011-03-08T19:56:00.003-06:00

The setting for today was all wrong for what I got the whim to take on by myself. I guess I was overly tired and getting a little crazy.
The girls had been playing fine this morning but when it came to naptime, they resisted...BIG TIME! I only got a 45 minute nap out of Addie and Reagan and Baylee woke up after 45 minutes but after I let her sleep in our bed she slept for another hour. So while Addie and Reagan were running around the living room like crazy, I thought to myself, "We've got to get out of this house this afternoon or I am going to lose it!" And I was saving my trip to the grocery store for this evening, something I regularly do during Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays, but no MDO this week because of Midway Spring Break...sad Michelle :(.
I thought, "I am going to be WAY too tired tonight to go to the grocery store....hmmmm" and then it hit me. I'll take the girls, what's the worst that could happen?

Proof we were there and everyone is surviving :) in the TP aisle, nonetheless. Give these girls a box of tissue to hold on to and they are content.

Addie got the job of sitting in the basket because she is the most likely to listen to Mommy when I tell her to sit down on her bottom :).

I have to say, the only reason this worked was because I didn't have a huge list so I had plenty of room in the basket for a child as well as groceries. The hardest part of this adventure was unloading the car and trying to keep the girls contained while running bags in the house as they were playing in the garage.

Maybe I'll attempt this again at some point, when I am losing my mind a little but most definitely NEVER with the addition of Baby #4. :)

I will also add that the girls were VERY well behaved. There wasn't any fussing at all even without much of a nap and they didn't cry when little old ladies stopped us to gawk at them. And I only got a few, "Oh my God, TRIPLETS!" as I rushed the cart by with a small smile.

Lovely Weather!

2011-02-14T20:09:00.011-06:00

Even though Baylee and I are both a bit under the weather (no pun intended), we just HAD to get out of this house as a family over the weekend and take advantage of the amazing weather we are having. Low 70s! We were almost giddy with excitement!
Brent and I took the girls out to the park near our house and let them run free and have fun outside for a change.

Addie bear

Baylee Boo

Reagan Baby

Checkin out the rocks

Addie had the greatest time playing in the rocks...

Showing me the rocks...

Playing with Daddy

Dirty Butt

Tire Swing! So Cute!

Learning to drive...

In the tube...by far their favorite thing...they went in...

And out...in and out...

And in again

So after our great trip to the park that afternoon, we thought it would be fun to take the girls to Toys R Us and get some bubble toys and a fun little pop up playhouse of sorts. Really, we were looking for a pop out tube for the girls to crawl in and out of, but we found this cool thing instead. It has a neat little ball pit in the middle that the girls just LOVE!

Playing and playing!

They liked to stick their faces through these holes and yell at us :)

Baylee started to feel pretty terrible on Saturday so I took her to the doctor today and she has bronchitis (maybe RSV) and double ear infections. She sounds TERRIBLE and is having trouble sleeping because of the nasty cough, but we hope she is on the way to feeling better very soon. She was a little doll at the doctor's office. They had to do x-rays of her chest and I wasn't able to stand with her since I am pregnant so two nurses came to help out and hold her in place for the pictures. She sat so sweetly and didn't fuss at all. After being there two hours, we have doctor's orders for a new antibiotic and breathing treatments. Hopefully, we will see some improvement over the next few days.

Grammy Saves the Day!

2011-02-10T20:38:00.004-06:00

I probably have mentioned on my blog before how awesome my mother, the girls' Grammy, is but REALLY after this week it deserves repeating.
Grammy came to see her girls for a few days starting on Monday. We were so happy she was coming in the first place and I'm sure she was looking forward to the quality cuddle time she was going to get with her Huse Gals and did she ever get it!!!
Monday night Brent, Grammy and I sat down to a leisurely dinner after the girls were in bed and mom happened to eat something different from Brent and me. Not a usual occurrence, but she didn't feel like eating what we were having that night. Thank goodness!
Brent and I both started feeling terrible Tuesday morning. Baylee had a freak throw up accident in her crib that morning which we now know wasn't related to anything going on with Brent and me because she felt completely fine right afterwards and was able to eat fine and go to Mother's Day Out without a problem that day. But, when I walked into the girls' nursery right after she threw up, it completely set me off. Not my finest "Mommy" moment but as I yelled for mom to come help me I caught a whiff of the vomit and I lost it. I ran from the room to heave-ho in the nearest sink I could find. So after that incident, I thought that my extreme nausea was just my body trying to recover from our weird morning.
Mom and I got the girls together and took them to MDO, ran a few errands and ended our trip out (with me getting greener and greener as we went) at the grocery store. As we walked into the frozen foods section, I said to my mom, "Everyone should come to the grocery store when they feel like this, nothing looks good."
About the time we were checking out, I told Grammy I was going to have to go sit in the car and she was going to have to drive home, which proved to be a good decision.
On our ride home, I decided to call Brent and discovered that he was feeling just as sick as I was and as we were discussing our mutual sickness I felt my body starting to reject itself. I started to yell for Grammy to "PULL OVER!" but there was nowhere she could go. We were blocked on all sides and at a red light, so a sick girls gotta do what a sick girls gotta do. I let it fly out of my opened car door in front of all surrounding cars, and I'm sure, their cell phone cameras. I hope that didn't end up on Facebook somewhere. :-/ How embarrassing. What is even worse is that I didn't even think to put my cell phone down. So there I am, letting it fly in the middle of the intersection, with my cell phone to my ear. Really?! Brent really appreciated hearing that on the speakerphone of his truck. LOL! I can laugh about it now, but at the time I wanted to crawl in the backseat and die.
We came home and I proceeded to the couch and Brent was on his way home as well. Brent and I ended up spending the rest of that day and night in our bed, closed up in our bedroom, sick as dogs while Grammy was left to fend for herself taking care of the girls, all while funneling us water and crackers through our bedroom door.
By the grace of God, Grammy was here to save the day while we were completely out of commission.
Here is how great my mom is: she cooks, she cleans, she does laundry, she runs errands, she loves on her grandbabies, kisses their boo-boos, wipes away their tears, reads them books and cuddles them as much as they will allow on a daily basis. All while trying to take care of Brent and me. She is truly Super Grammy.

Here are some pictures Grammy took during her adventures with triplets...

Baylee playing inside a toy cube

The girls pointing this out to Grammy

Addie's turn in the toy cube

Reagan helping Grammy fold baby clothes

The girls helping Grammy do laundry

And now a few Mother's Day Out pictures...

The girls on their first day of Mother's Day Out

Second day of Mother's Day Out

The girls headed to Mother's Day Out this morning in their Valentine's Day outfit

And a few pics of the girls after an Oreo cookie or two....yum!

Thank you, Grammy, for rolling with the unexpected and taking over while Brent and I weren't able to get out of bed. You have proven time and time again that you can handle it all and if I can be any likeness to the Mother you are, I will be doing a great job. Love you, Mom!

Yeah, I Drive A Minivan

2011-01-28T20:24:00.002-06:00

I fought it pretty hard, I have to admit. I just couldn't figure out how we would get all of our "kid junk" in the small cargo space of a minivan. Also, my major hold back was the fact that a minivan symbolized to me that I was getting "older." I kept thinking, "Only mom's in their 30's with like 4 or more kids drive minivans..." and then it hit me - THAT'S JUST ABOUT ME!

Brent and I went back and forth with pros and cons on a larger SUV vs. the minivan and when the minivan came up with more pros than cons we knew what we had to do.
And, I'm going to admit here and now - I LOVE THIS THING!

It has everything! All the convenience features including navigation, rear DVD, remote start, 2 sunroofs...I LOVE IT! And, after loading the girls in this the first day vs. the Expedition, it is totally worth getting over my minivan hangups. It makes my life so much easier.

Our black 2011 Toyota Sienna

Rear DVD - The Best Thing Ever!

Our seat configuration - for the time being (we took out one of the captain's chairs)

Cargo room - the choo choo fits perfectly!

Christmas Miracle

2011-01-10T13:02:00.005-06:00

I have been holding out on you, my blog readers, I really have.

Partly, because we wanted to wait for a 100% confirmation and partly, because Brent and I have both been trying to completely wrap our heads around this.

Let me back up to, let's see, the day before Christmas Eve 2010.

I realized during the morning of this day that I was late....not late to an appointment but "late." I'm never late. Ever since having the girls - bing, bang, boom right on time every month. But I realized after checking my calendar that I was about a week late. "Hmmmmmm....what to do?", I wondered. I couldn't get the girls in the car for a quick run to CVS, plus, it is ridiculous to even entertain the thought that I could be....

So, next best option, wait for Brent to call me on his way home from work and ask him to run into CVS for me. "Ohhhh, what will he say?" I chuckled to myself. ;)

So, right on time, Brent calls when he leaves work to let me know he is on his way home.

I said, "Heyyyy honeyyyy...."

"Yes?" He asks.

"Would you run a quick errand for me on your way home?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Would you run into CVS and pick up a Home Pregnancy Test?"

Silence on the other end of the phone...

"A what?"

"A Home Pregnancy Test...I'm a few days late and I just need to make sure that I'm just late...no big deal, I'm sure I'm not pregnant, but I just want to be sure before we leave for the holidays."

"Well, ok, if it will ease your mind."

Brent arrives home a few minutes later with plastic bag in hand and passes it over to me.

He said, "I got the three pack...in case you get one of these wild whims in the future you will have a few extras on hand." He then proceeds to complain how crazy CVS is at 6:00 pm and that he thought as he was walking in, "This place is crazy and I'm about to go in here and waste twenty dollars."

I left Brent with the girls to run to the bathroom to do my thing. As I unwrapped the test I thought, there is no way but I've got to check instead of wondering all night.

The test says to wait 2 minutes for a result....It read POSITIVE (+) immediately.

As I sat there, test in hand, I thought...."No, this can't be right. Can it? I mean, we have less than a 1% chance of getting pregnant on our own. Brent's not going to believe me, I'd better take the test instructions with me so he can check for himself."

I walked back into the kitchen with the test and instructions behind my back.

Brent said, "Sooo, it's negative, right?"

I just smiled.

He said, "Just say it, quit messing with me! It's negative."

I said, "Nope, positive."

He said, "Your kidding........really?! Are you reading that test right?"

I said, "I knew you wouldn't believe me so I brought the instructions for you."

He looked over the test and the instructions and then said, "I can't believe it!"

He kept saying that over and over at random moments of silence throughout the entire night. :)

Our next conversation - Do we tell family over Christmas or wait until we know for sure?

Brent and I have always been very close to our families and open about everything so we voted to go ahead and tell them. They were just as shocked as we were but very happy for us.

Our next conversation - What is Dr. Beaird going to say? :)

Brent and I both really like my OB, Dr. Beaird, he is just wonderful. And I had told Brent about the last conversation I had with Dr. Beaird about contraception. :)

After my conversation with Dr. Beaird, Brent and I decided we would leave the next 5 years up in the air and if God wanted to miraculously bless us, great! If not, we would worry about prevention when the girls turned 5.

Brent and I also had a conversation during our trip to Oregon that we would discuss pursuing another child when the girls turned 2 and see what we thought then so it isn't as if we weren't entertaining the idea of having a 4th child AT ALL, but we you tried so hard to get pregnant the first time and thought you couldn't get pregnant on your own and it happens it is quite a shock!

I didn't sleep much that night. I tossed and turned and got up at midnight to take another test...still positive.

6 am - I'll take this third test, surely all 3 tests can't be defective...still positive. :)

As it seems now, I will be due with this baby 11 days before the girls' 2nd birthday. How crazy is that? 3 - 2 year olds and a newborn...we just thought our lives were nuts, it's about to get a whole lot crazier on our way to a family of SIX!

Huse Baby #4!

Huse Christmas 2010

2011-01-05T14:38:00.011-06:00

Christmas Day, after our chaotic morning, we headed to West, TX to spend the rest of Christmas Day and that night with Gran, Grandaddy, Uncle Adam and Aunt Elizabeth at Gran and Grandaddy's house. It was definitely a change of pace with the girls being the only three kids.

Gran cooking up a storm!

Stockings hung with care... The Huse Christmas Tree Elizabeth, Gran and Baylee Opening stockings...The girls, by far, loved the boxes of animal crackers they got in their stockings the best...this is Baylee shaking the crap out of her box :) Brent, Baylee and Elizabeth
Adam opening his stocking Baylee was having THE BEST time taking all the bows off of EVERY gift LOL! We started sticking them all over her...she was having so much fun! Addie getting in on the bow fun...they like to stick bows in their hair but they won't keep them there! Opening gifts all together... The aftermath... Baylee got so excited she threw up all over her shirt, hence she is nakey now :) and helping Brent pick up paper Reagan loving all the new toys!
Brent testing out his new sleeping bag for camping BOWS! Here she is sitting on top of boxes again... Sweet Addie! Addie and Reagan helping Brent open gifts... Baylee snuggling with Grandaddy after her nap...

We had so much fun spending time with our family during Christmas this year. The girls absolutely loved running around checking out new toys and playing with wrapping paper and bows. I can't wait until next year when maybe they will better understand the concept of "Santa." :)

This Christmas seemed to sneak up on us SO FAST and then it was over just as quickly. I'm hoping next year we can slow down a little and enjoy the Christmas season to the fullest. Then again, "slow down" may not be in our vocabulary. ;)

My Mimi

2011-01-05T13:43:00.016-06:00

Right after Christmas we lost our dear Mimi, my maternal grandmother.

Everything that I would want to say about my Mimi was summed up so perfectly by my mother in the eulogy she read during Mimi's funeral services. Mom was so strong and kept it together to get through reading all of our favorite thoughts and memories of this spectacular woman we called "Mimi."

Here is my mom's eulogy...
Who best to describe a mother but the women in her life? So I decided that it needed to be me to eulogize her. My mother was quite the lady. Prim and proper from head to toe. And sitting on her bookshelf, the guide to proper behavior “Miss Manners” and Amy Vanderbilt’s “Complete Book of Etiquette”. So it is no wonder that she was intent on passing her important details to me and my daughters.
Never wear white before May. And for her, never wear white at all because it’s blah!!.
Never forget to write thank you notes in a timely manner and be specific about the gift.
Silver set polished once a month.
Set your table correctly with the right silverware and the right glassware in the correct order and don’t forget matching tablecloth and napkins. I inherited no less than 75 tablecloths from her. Every color, every size table.
Always wear a necklace and make sure it matches your earrings. And what about a slip? I think we failed at that one!
Never go without lipstick.
Never wear flats with a dress or skirt.
Add color whenever possible which is always.
Never go without hose. I think we failed at that one too!
Give at least one surprise gift at Christmas.
Be at least 15 minutes early to an event or meeting. Otherwise you are LATE!
Give more than you get and forgive before asked.
My husband thinks I overdress for most occasions. Well, I came by it naturally. And I tend to go overboard on color. Again an inherited trait. And if I’m not 15 minutes early, then I must be late!
She had many acquaintances and a few good friends. She spent most of her time caring for her home and my father. Doting over my brother and I and my girls. And oh, how she would have truly loved playing with her 8 great-grandchildren, but she was not physically able.
She suffered for many years from a disease that has always been a mystery to us. She spent the first few years of her decline searching for answers but the diagnosis was never discovered.
My greatest regret is that after her decline she was never able to have a conversation when I had questions about how to plan a wedding, what accessories to wear, what color to paint the walls in my home, when to quit griping and just let things be, and when to challenge an injustice.
Although she never boasted , money was no object to her when it came to her granddaughters. I remember once, I was so proud of myself because I had learned to use a sewing machine and had spent hours making a few clothes for my girls. And in she walks with boxes of new clothes she had bought for them at a favorite shop in Del Rio where she and my father had a lake house. I wanted to shoot her because of course the girls loved the clothes she bought much more than the ones I had slaved over!
She never wanted to miss the girl’s eyes when they saw what Santa had brought them. So when the girls awoke on Christmas day, which was usually in the wee hours of the morning, she wanted to be called immediately and in less than an hour she and my Dad arrived at our home, coffee in hand, and the frenzy began with wrapping paper flying everywhere.
Her greatest achievement had to be the hospice she founded. Her mother died in 1989 under hospice care in Odessa. She called me one day shortly after that experience and said, “We don’t have access to hospice care in Hobbs, don’t you think we need to do something about that? I could be the volunteer coordinator and fundraiser and you could handle the business side.” We were both too naïve to think that we needed a medical background to start a hospice. And that’s where it all began. We spent hours in her upstairs office working out the details and learning everything we could about hospice care. She recruited a much coveted board of directors committed to making her dream come true. They could raise money like nobody could. The hospice thrived and in 1991 she was awarded citizen of the year by the Hobbs Jaycees.
My father died in 2007, and shortly after that I moved her to a wonderful nursing home that just happened to be 2 minutes from my home in North Texas. By this time, she had very few words, mainly “yes” or “no.” She loved to watch movies so I bought her a complete series of “I Love Lucy,” one of her favorite TV shows. One day a nurse at the facility stopped me in the hall and said, “Say, rumor has it that your mother is related to Lucille Ball”. I said of course not, but I knew what had happened. The nurses had noticed that all she watched were I Love Lucy episodes and when they asked her if she was related or something, she must have said “YES!” A little gentleman in a wheelchair made friends with her in the nursing home and came to see her twice a day for three years. He could make her smile when no one else could.
My girls, the “Three M’s” as mother called them, have memories they wanted me to share.

From Mandy:
Her crazy driving
Her bright beautiful clothes and jewelry
She remembers spending hours in her bathroom putting on makeup and jewelry
Her coke machine full of Tab
How beautiful her house was at Christmas
The dolls she bought for them
Their shopping trips where she would practically close down the store for them
How she loved to read
Her library of classic books
Easter egg hunts
How good she always smelled
Her cards and letters to me over the years
I feel blessed to have inherited some of her traits

From Missy:
She was always in bright colors and bold jewelry. My sisters and I used to love going into her massive closet to look through her clothes and high heels and try on all of her jewelry. She was always in style. Her home reflected her personality, vibrantly decorated to a T, not a white wall to be seen. She used to let me drive her Cadillac when I was way too young to be driving. I specifically remember driving through the Dunlap’s parking lot cracking up. She’d be in the passenger seat just giggling. She wanted the best of the best from cozy towels and sheets to feeding whole boiled chickens to their dog Wrinkles. Everything was slightly bigger than life and over the top with Mimi. Like the player piano she bought, the staircase banister had to be removed and a lift was used to get it upstairs to the loft area. The piano was always playing during parties they would host at their home. And the life size Easter Bunny that graced her front yard on Easter. She was very mannerly…maybe that’s why we thought she was so funny when an occasional bad word would come from her. She had a mischievous spirit at times which I loved …she’d wink at me and twitch her nose. I knew a surprise was coming. When we’d come home from college, she’d hold our hands as we were leaving and just squeeze. I remember her squeezing Clark’s hand at one time and he joked with her about her grip and she just laughed with this light in her eyes. You just knew you were loved by the look in her eyes. Everything was “FANNNNNtastic,” “WONDERFUL” or “FABULOUS” to Mimi.
I remember the time I called 911 from her house over and over, the police went to Papa’s office and I remember locking myself in their guest bathroom as Mimi tried to coax me out and to tell the truth. Each of my sisters and my mother are blessed to have inherited some of Mimi’s amazing traits.

From Michelle:
My Mimi rocked the 80’s and 90’s. Her home reflected her personality, always welcoming and vibrant with pictures of family everywhere. I specifically remember a picture of myself and my sisters in FAB jumpers with HUGE hair that Mimi had professionally taken which was then blown up to fit an entire wall in her dining room with a very ornate frame. Everything was slightly bigger than life and over the top with Mimi but she did everything in style. Like the life size automated Santa that sat on their front porch each Christmas waving at light lookers in the neighborhood. My favorite memory of Mimi is that I would lie down in the pew at Church and put my head in her lap and rub my fingers over her smooth manicured nails. They were always so pretty. Also when she took us to the Galleria in Dallas, just the girls, and gave us ice skating lessons

And from her sister Rheta:
Wilma was always the “big sister” that made sure that I was properly dressed when I was in High School. She had a good job at the Model Shoppe in Odessa and would bring me home the latest in fashion. I always looked up to her. She was special to my two boys as she always brought them special surprises when she came to visit. I was the youngest child and the “brat” of the family. Wilma was very popular in school and always had lots of boyfriends. Mother used to make Wilma take me with her when she had coke dates. I’m sure she loved that! I always reported to Daddy when a boy kissed her goodnight. After I became an adult our relationship became much closer and we enjoyed many shopping trips together.

As you can see there is a central theme. Colorful, graceful and loved her family more than life itself.

This is one of my favorites...so gorgeous.
Mimi and my Papa

Mimi, Papa, my mother and Uncle Mark

Mom and Uncle Mark

On Mom's wedding day...

Uncle Mark

Christmas time

My sisters and I...I'm the youngest with the akward look on my face :)

Mimi as Grand Marshall of a parade and Citizen of the Year

My parents and Mimi and Papa

My sister Missy and Mimi

Addison with Mimi

Reagan and Mimi

Baylee and Mimi

Me and Mimi

This is Mimi's obituary...
Wilma Dale (Roberts) Slater long time resident of Hobbs, NM and founder of Hospice of Lea County (now Vista Care Family Hospice) was born October 26, 1932 in Coleman County, Texas. She died on December 28, 2010 in Gunter, Texas at the age of 78. Services will be held on January 3, 2011 at First United Methodist Church, 200 E. Snyder, Hobbs, NM. under the direction of Chapel of Hope Funeral Home and officiated by Hospice Chaplain Elio Barrios. Viewing will be held from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Sunday, January 2. 2011.

Wilma attended Odessa High School, Odessa Junior College, and Sul Ross University where she met Charles Arthur Slater. They were married in Odessa, TX in 1952. They were married 58 years. Before moving to Hobbs in 1958, she modeled for a prominent dress store in Odessa, TX. She also worked for Hughes Tool Company and Don Hallum, Atty. She was a member of First United Methodist Church, Hobbs, NM. followed by First United Methodist Church, Sherman, TX.

She raised two children, Mark Wayne Slater who died in 1985 and Brenda Karyl (Slater) Chambers.

In 1990, she started the first hospice in Southeast New Mexico which provided end of life care for residents of Lea and Eddy County New Mexico; Gaines and Yoakum County, Texas. She was awarded the 1991-92 “Citizen of the Year” by the Hobbs Jaycees for her work in End of Life Care.

She is survived by her daughter Brenda Slater Chambers and son-in-law Steve Chambers of Gunter, TX; three granddaughters Amanda Rose (Chambers) Payne and husband Rev. Tim Payne of McKinney, TX; Melissa Renee (Chambers) Miller and husband Clark of McKinney, TX; and Michelle Ann (Chambers) Huse and husband Brent of Hewitt, TX.

She had 8 great grandchildren; Luke Payne, CJ Miller, Mark Miller, Peyton Miller, Mackenzie Miller, Addison Huse, Baylee Huse, and Reagan Huse.
She is also survived by a sister Rheta Duncan of Odessa, TX; a brother Don Roberts of Bixby, OK; and two nephews Michael and Jason Duncan.
She was preceded in death by her parents Vernon and Opal Roberts, her husband C. A. Slater, and her son Mark Slater.

The family wishes to express their deep appreciation for the special attention and care given to Mrs. Slater by the team of professionals at Hilltop Haven Care Center, Home Hospice of Grayson County and the personal attendants from Home Instead Senior Care.

On our way home from the funeral on Monday, I told Brent that I hope I can make some sort of impact during my lifetime and leave a legacy behind like my Mimi did with Hospice. She will forever be missed and one day I hope I can do something that would really make her proud.

Thank you to everyone that came to the viewing or the funeral to see Mimi one last time. It meant so much to our family to see you there.

Chambers Christmas 2010

2011-01-05T13:08:00.006-06:00

I apologize for not posting in so long. Our December just seemed to completely get away from me and we have had quite the roller coaster ride as you will see in my posts over the next few days.
So to kick off my return to blogging in 2011, I'll start with updating everyone on our Christmas, which started at Grammy and Pop's house Christmas Eve.
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning this year at Grammy and Pop's and the best way to describe our Christmas with 8 grandchildren under the age of 5....WHIRLWIND!
We started Christmas Eve with some pictures before heading out to the Candlelight Service at FUMC Sherman, TX.
The girls only lasted about a total of 10 minutes at the candlelight service until we decided it was time to go before chaos ensued. Ahhh well, we can always try again next year.

Grammy with her Huse Gals...

Our Family...all decked out for Christmas Eve Grammy's Tree...all shatterproof and non-breakable ornaments this year :) Grammy's Mantel...Look at all of those stockings filled to the brim!!! I loved this idea mom had. She made a wreath out of all of our childhood ornaments collected over the years and hung it from a stand in her dining room...See that gingerbread man on the left with my name on it? My 1st Grade Teacher, Mrs. Goodwin, gave that to me :).

After the girls were snuggled in their pack 'n plays for a good nights rest, Christmas morning came and we had a great breakfast and waited for the whole gang to arrive.

Opening stockings...cute hats from "Santa" that he got on his vacation to California ;) Precious Addison The Payne Family, Tim, Mandy and baby Luke opening presents :) Reagan opening gifts in my lap, of course Baylee - "I like to sit on top of boxes." Baylee - "Hey Peyter, why don't you let me help you with that one?" "Here, you really need to dig in there!"
Peyter-tot - "Hey, what's the big idea cousin?! This is my Christmas gift." The aftermath CJ checking out his gifts Addison and Reagan saying Hi to Luke and Aunt Mandy and helping clean up paper

It was a crazy Christmas morning. With that many little ones running around you don't get to see anyone else open their gifts, you are just lucky to keep up with your own and keep your kids from running off with someone else's stuff. Haha! It sure is fun though, and will be even more fun as all of the cousins get older and can really start to play together. That will be the time when you will find all the parents and grandparents out on the back porch relaxing with a drink in hand after a crazy Christmas morning like this.

Pictures with Santa!

2010-12-17T08:48:00.002-06:00

Well, it has been a few weeks since I have blogged so here is what we have been up to lately.

All of the girls are walking great now! Addison and Reagan started to really get around without a lot of assistance after Thanksgiving. Addison has also taken to climbing...Lord, help me. I've caught her twice standing on the window sills around the house looking down at Baylee and just so proud of herself. But once she sees me and the look on my face she gets that mischievous smile on her face and inches her way back down to the floor.

We decided over Thanksgiving that it might be a good idea to start the girls in a Mother's Day Out program beginning in January. We are hoping that this will help get the girls some socialization with other kids their age and also, maybe do a little to cure Reagan's separation anxiety. It was so bad over Thanksgiving that I couldn't even act like I was standing up to leave the room or it was an all out meltdown. So, after our decision was made, I tried calling around to some Mother's Day Out Programs around town. They all just about laughed in my face when I told them I was looking for three open spots starting in January. I called 5 or 6 places who all told me that we would have to get on a waiting list for maybe their Summer program or even their Fall program. I was feeling as if it just wasn't going to work out for us since we needed 3 open spots. I finally called a church close to our house that has a Pre-School and Mother's Day Out Program and at first the nice lady over the phone said she didn't think it would be possible for January, but when she checked the class she couldn't believe it but they had 3 open spots! I was in shock and so was she. I went the same day to check out their facilities, meet the teachers and fill out paperwork. I am hoping this will give me a much needed break from my day-to-day Stay At Home Mom duties and get the girls over their attachment to me. Even tonight, I felt so bad for Brent, none of the girls wanted to sit with him before bedtime, they all wanted to be in my lap which is very crowded with three. So, we've got to do something. Hopefully, this will help.

With staring Mother's Day Out it means that we had to say goodbye to our Nanny, Sarah. :( We are so sad we aren't going to get to see her every week but we are still going to call her all the time to babysit the girls because they just love her. On her way out of town for Christmas break, Sarah and her boyfriend, Trent, stopped by and gave the girls each a blanket she made with their names on them. The girls haven't stopped cuddling them. :)

Now for the ever torturous Santa pictures!

Sarah helped me take the girls to get their pictures made with Santa and I had her sit in on a few as a memento of her and the girls. You can see the progression from Baylee to Reagan....

Baylee - "I don't know this guy, but he seems harmless..."

Addison - "I'm about to lose it!!! And now Santa is starting to freak out!"
Reagan - "Stranger danger!!!"

Sarah did so great trying to keep everyone on her lap and all with a great smile! Isn't she just so pretty?!

Now Reagan is throwing in the body-drop-and-slide, but Sarah is a pro, she handled it perfectly.

We are looking forward to a wonderful Christmas holiday with all of our family! I can't believe how quickly Christmas snuck up on us this year.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-29T15:51:00.012-06:00

This year we are thankful for our three beautiful girls; our wonderful, supportive friends and our fantastic family. We are especially thankful for the newest addition to our family, Mackenzie Faith Miller. Little Miss Mackenzie was born Saturday, November 20th at 6 lbs. 11 ozs. and 18 inches long. My sister Missy's new little princess had some fluid on her lungs when she was born so she had a short stay in the NICU and came home the day after Thanksgiving. We were all so happy she was finally home, especially her three big brothers!

Mackenzie Faith

Headed Home!

Big Smiles!

This Thanksgiving it was our year to spend the holiday with my family at my parents' house in Gunter, TX. I left earlier in the week on Tuesday morning and took the girls to spend a few extra days with my parents. Brent has been very busy with his new job and joined us in Gunter Wednesday evening. The girls had a great time playing with Grammy and Pop and pulling out ALL of Grammy's stash of toys and spreading them out ALL OVER the new grandkids playroom at Grammy and Pop's house.

Huh? Wha? Me?

PJs and almost bedtime a.k.a. Mommy's breaktime

Cutie Patootie, Reagan!

Baylee all dressed for a walk outside

Grammy getting Addie ready to go

Brent loading the girls up in the choo choo

Choo choo ride at Grammy and Pop's

Pop holding Luke Slater Payne (My sister Mandy's son)

His onesie says "Gobble Gobble" such a cutie!

Me getting the girls' Thanksgiving lunch ready
The boys! Peyton (Peyter-tot), Marky and C.J. with Pop

We had a houseful of family!

My sister Missy, her husband Clark and her three boys.

My sister Mandy, her husband Tim and her son Luke.

My Aunt Susan, Uncle Bailey and cousins Brian and Casey.

Grammy, Pop and Brent's parents Gran and Grandaddy and of course Brent, myself and our three girls. 14 adults and 7 kiddos...wow!

Getting ready to load up on Thanksgiving deliciousness!

My Aunt Susan, Uncle Bailey and cousins Brian and Casey Blakemore

Sweet boys! Peyton, C.J. and Mark

Grammy reading the girls a goodnight story before bedtime

After a great Thanksgiving, we are looking forward to Christmas-time with our girls. I already have a CUTE Christmas dress picked out for them for the Christmas Eve Candlelight service. They are going to look so precious!

Miss Mischief

2010-11-12T15:04:00.007-06:00

We always had a feeling Baylee was going to be the ringleader of our own little circus, but lately she has been into EVERYTHING! Here are just a few things Baylee has done lately or likes to do on a regular basis that keep me on my toes.
Baylee is always carrying books around with her.

2 Books in hand!

Everywhere she goes, she has one or two sometimes three books in hand. She also likes to put these books in places where they don't belong for us to find later. The trash, the diaper pail, the bath, the laundry hamper, etc.

One toy and one book ready to be disposed of...

Every time I empty their laundry hamper, I have to make sure I sift through everything to find all the little treasures she has thrown in with the laundry. The record so far is 3 books and 4 small toys.

Aladdin, "A" Book, "Q" Book and 4 small toys from one load of laundry...

The other night Brent and I were getting ready to start bathtime and he ran the bath water like he usually does. He put Baylee in the bath and then realized at some point she had thrown 2 small Disney books into the tub...Bambi and Cinderella were soaked and ruined. Ahhh well.

Bathtime!

Baylee also likes to move furniture around. I often find kitchen chairs pushed across the room or pushed all together.

Where I usually find one or more kitchen chairs...and a few toys...

When there is silence, I jump up and go find out what they are getting into. Here's what we found when Brent and I weren't paying attention the other day. A whole box of Kleenex. :)
Baylee has also taken to throwing little tantrums here and there. She likes to throw herself down on the ground or if you are carrying her she tries to wriggle out of your hands or throw her arms up to drop out of your grasp. I often just put her down and let her throw her little fit until she calms down, but sometimes she likes to throw herself into things like a table leg or tile floor so I try not to let her have a tantrum where she can hurt herself. The other night I was telling Brent, "I really hope she never does that in public, because then we are 'those parents', the ones that can't control their misbehaving kid." and Brent said, "Oh, it's gonna happen, so just start preparing yourself."
Baylee may be a handful in and of herself but she is also the sweetest, cutest, funniest little Baylee. She makes us laugh all the time and she is Mommy's little nap buddy. If she wakes up early or doesn't want to go down for a nap, I'll bring her into my bed and she cuddles right up and goes to sleep.

Baylee also LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her Maddie Puppy from Grammy. She has to have it to sleep and she carries it around with her everywhere.
She loves to hug on her Daddy and when he comes home she runs up to grab both legs for a big hug until he picks her up. Baylee also loves her sisters but she especially loves making them laugh. :)

Miss Addison

Miss Reagan

So, Miss Mischief continues to run around with all of her curiosity throwing caution to the wind...I may need to medicate myself when we get to 2 years old. Haha!

Halloween 2010 and some other stuff...

2010-10-31T20:38:00.009-05:00

Here's just a little of what the girls have been up to lately...Saturday morning we wanted to get some music going in the house so we put it on CMT for some country music videos. Baylee loves her some Kenny Chesney...hopefully you can view this video I got of her dancing to Kenny before she caught me taping her and refused to perform. :)
***Please remember to scroll to the bottom of the blog page and pause the music player before viewing the video if you would like to hear the sound on the video.

"Mommy....what's the 'grocery store'?" I figured, one day, I would get this question from one of the girls because they just don't go to the grocery store with me...at all. Well, I decided to change that and start taking one of the girls to the store with me on the weekends when I go. It gives me some one-on-one time with the girls, gives Daddy a break only watching two little ones, and gives me some fun pretending I am a mommy of one. Let me tell ya, you don't draw near as much attention with just one kid. Reagan still got the smiles and hellos, mostly from the older shopping crowd, because let's face it...she's just so darn CUTE! And she was the perfect little baby girl at the grocery store. No fussing or screaming, mainly I think because she was just in shock and awe of this place she had never been before. She did put up a little fuss, though, when I picked out bananas for the week. They LOOOOVE bananas!

Reagan with Mommy at the grocery store

Finally, we get to the Halloween pictures! Yeay! I made their outfits. I found some fabric online that looks like sprinkles and cut it out to attach around the collars of their shirts. I ordered their cherry knit hats online from etsy.com. Brent helped me attach the cut out bananas to the sides of their choo choo wagon to complete the "banana split" ensemble. Gran and Grandaddy came over before we left for trick or treating and took these pictures for us.

Reagan (vanilla), Baylee (chocolate) and Addison (strawberry) The girls in their banana wagon :)

We went over to the McKowns' house to trick or treat with Matthew, who was the cutest little garden gnome I have ever seen!!!

Matthew, makin' a haul and lovin' every minute of it!

We trick or treated with Matthew and his parents for less than an hour before Addie and Reagan had enough. They didn't nap this afternoon (Baylee did) and you could tell by the meltdowns they were having every few houses. It was fun though!

Pam walking Matthew and Brent walking Baylee up to a door to trick or treat

We had a great weekend and we hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch!

2010-10-25T20:56:00.005-05:00

We finally got the chance to take the girls to the pumpkin patch in Waco for some cute Fall pics and to buy a few pumpkins. Gran and Grandaddy went with us to take pictures, wrangle babies and then they took the whole crew out to eat afterwards. It was fun, but I'm sure the people at Ninfa's that have to clean up after us hope we don't come back too soon. :)
The girls weren't in the greatest picture taking moods, but we did what we could.

First, here are some pictures Grandaddy took of the girls before we left for the Pumpkin Patch...

Gran and Baylee Boo...Oddly, this is what her hair looks like when I don't brush it out after her bath and try to leave it really curly...it backfired on me and just became this massive fro! So funny!

Addie...Their Daddy's solution to getting them out of the kitchen...letting them play with the Eggo box. So much fun!
Reagan sweetie! They are getting so much hair but I just can't cut it! I am constantly trying to brush it back or put bows in but they just rip them out. Playing with Gran Now our Pumpkin Pics!

Happy Fall from our family to yours!

Our sweet girls! Baylee slightly disturbed for some reason... Our only walker so far...So cute in her little jeans and sweater!

Showers and Celebrations!

2010-10-11T21:31:00.009-05:00

Last weekend was filled with fun times with our family. We spent the beginning of our weekend at Grammy and Pop's house so I could help host a baby shower for my sister, Missy. She is having her 4th and it's a GIRL! Brent was on baby duty while I attended the shower at Grammy and Pop's house. The shower was great and baby girl Miller got some really cute, girly things.
Here are some pictures of the newest Chambers grandbaby, Luke Payne, my sister Mandy's baby boy. He's such a sweetie!

Lukey!

Luke and his Mommy!

Luke and Aunt Susan

Luke with his Great-Mamaw
Me and my newest nephew

CJ showing off a gift for his "sissy" :)

Mackenzie's Maddie Puppy (all the grandchildren have one)

Sunday we got back to Waco in time to attend the 20th anniversary party for our NICU at Hillcrest Hospital in Waco. We asked Gran and Grandaddy to go with us and Grandaddy took all of these GREAT PICTURES! The party was held at the Cameron Park Zoo. We had a great time taking the girls around to see all of the animals and to see some of our fav NICU nurses and saying HI to Dr. Wheeler, our Neonatologist, again.

Some of Our favs: Lindsey, Candice, Nick and Kristi!

Dr. Wheeler

On our walk through the zoo, yes, a young woman actually said, "Hey lady, can I take a picture of your babies?" I said, "I'd rather you didn't, thanks."

On our way out, we added the girls' hand prints to the banner for the 20th Anniversary of the NICU.

A few pics from today...eatin bananas

Reagan

With her mouthful!

Addie, not wanting to smile for me...

No pictures mommy!

Cheeser Baylee! She's getting her first top tooth! You can't see it here though :)

Cutie pie

Mmmmmmm, bananas

Giving the remote control a bath today....Baylee's idea...she likes to put things where they don't belong :)

We LOVE IT when Daddy gets home!

Reagan lovin on Daddy

I'll stay right here, thank you!