Lovely Weather!

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!

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

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

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

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. ;)