Christmas Part I

On Christmas Day we flew to Ohio to see Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the Ohio clan. The trip went as well as could be expected when travelling with three babies! Here we are in the airport in Ohio waiting inside where it was warm while Daddy got the car seats in the van outside (where it was 30 degrees!)

Helen in her old crib back at Grandma's

Grandma and Alex

Ella showing Grandma and Grandpa how she can clap

Ella playing with her new Christmas toy

The whole Boeckman/Cauley clan - Grandma, Grandpa, my brother Brad, my sister in law Alison, my niece Caroline, my nephews Andrew and Matthew, Helen, Ella, Alex, Cecil, and me.

The Cauleys - me, Cecil, Helen, Alex, and Ella

Ella getting her cousin Caroline to walk her around the house - again, and again, and again, and again.....

Helen and Alex playing with new toys at Grandma's

Mommy with Helen, Ella, and Alex

It was actually warm enough in Ohio one day to go for a walk - Andrew and Caroline did an excellent job pushing the strollers

Alex in his doggy sweater - complete with big floppy ears!

Sweet Ella - she looks so innocent....but we know better :)

Ella getting Daddy to take her for a walk

We discovered Grandma's pots and pans!

We are still in Ohio so these are only the pictures that I pulled off of Grandma's camera. I have a lot more at home that I hope to get up later this week. Thankfully the weather has not been too bad here in Ohio. It is cold but no snow storms - thank goodness! The kids were a little restless on the plane; it was about a 2 hour flight. Alex was in his car seat and the we each had one of the girls on our laps. One would think that since we were flying during nap time that everyone would sleep. No such luck - there was a way too much exciting stuff going on! Everyone slept in the car on the way home from the airport though.

Once we got here, it was a flurry of social engagements. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we had parties at Grandma's house with lots of people to visit and lots of kids to play with. Everyone was pretty exhausted and very stimulated. The kids did great though and held up pretty well. Even Helen warmed up quicker than usual - as long as no one other than Grandma, mommy or daddy tried to hold her within the first 30 minutes of strangers arriving. Tomorrow is the flight back home and hopefully it goes as smoothly as the flight up here. Then we have a week to recover and it is off to Disney World! We are cramming in a year's worth of excitement in a couple of weeks :)

Big Steps and Getting Ready for Christmas

Alex wiggled around enough on the changing table that he crawled right off of the changing part and ended up with all of the diapers. He thought it was a great adventure.

Last weekend we had several Christmas parties. The first one was with our multiples group. Lots of twins and triplets everywhere. Before we were ready to party we had to fuel up.

Mommy and Alex (he's eyeing the cookies and can barely contain himself)

Miss Helen

The Bouncy House was fascinating. We were not big enough to be get in but we loved watching all the other kids jump around.

Feeling it bounce around was pretty exciting too

Are you my mother?

Picture with Santa - even this went well, although notice that I am still holding Helen

Sunday was the Cauley Family Christmas at our house. Ella instantly made new friends.

Helen and Mommy with Alex and Christina behind us

Ella gets Uncle Jerry to walk around with her - she cannot get enough walking and will walk with anyone who can tolerate the aching back

Alex on a wonderfully warm day - we had to break out the short sleeves for the 80 degree weather!!

Queen Ella with her mantle of rings

Our new shirts to keep track of our birth order :)

Ella and Helen getting ready for Christmas

Alex loves to pull all of the books onto the floor

Happy Helen

Helen has decided that the fireplace is the new most interesting place - and her siblings are happy to follow suit

We tried spaghetti and loved it. Unfortunately Ella was one spaghetti covered mess. Good thing it was bath night!

It has been really busy getting ready for Christmas. On top of the Cauley Christmas and our other party last weekend, we also had a neighborhood party. They had a horse drawn wagon going through the neighborhood. The kids did that too and loved it. The sides of the wagon were the perfect height for them to stand there and look out. Helen was a little skeptical but Alex and Ella were smiling and laughing.

We now have lots of new tricks too. Helen and Ella can clap and wave bye-bye. Alex thinks he is clapping but he is really waving bye-bye. Every time I say "Yeah!!" when Helen waves bye-bye, Alex thinks saying "Yeah!!" means its time to wave. So while the girls are clapping when I cheer and say "Yeah!!", Alex starts waving. Too cute. And he's so serious when he does it - like he knows it is a test and he's looking at me to make sure he is doing it right. I don't have the heart to tell him he's got it backwards. At least he is not clapping when I say bye-bye!

The biggest news is that Ella took her first steps last night!! She's been cruising and walking around holding onto only one of my fingers but last night I moved a few feet away from her and held out my hands. I could tell she was a little nervous and hesitated, but then in pure Ella fashion, gave it her all and just went for it. She took a few steps and then fell into my arms. Then she repeated her trick again when Daddy came home. So exciting!! Helen is doing a great job of standing on her own so I suspect she will not be far behind but she's always been a little more cautious so I'm not sure how long. As soon as I can convince Alex that there's more food if he walks, I'm sure he will do it.

Last week I took Alex to the doctor because he was not always keeping his bottle down. Of course I diagnosed him with reflux and decided that he needed some medicine. The doctor did not agree. She said I was overfeeding him! So I've had to cut him back but what's a mother to do when the human eating machine drains his entire bottle and eats everything I put on his tray and STILL looks at me like "Where's the rest???" No doubt he is a healthy thriving boy!

This weekend we are going up to Georgia to visit Cecil's family then next week it is off to Ohio for Christmas. Say a prayer to the flying gods that these three kids are relatively well behaved on the plane :)

One Year Check Up and Santa #1

Bath Time!! Mommy and Daddy got brave and started putting us all in the bath at the same time. It is kind of like trying to contain mexican jumping beans - everyone wants to stand up and climb out at the same time. Mommy has to say "On your bottom!" about 50 times during each bath (too bad we have no idea what she is talking about!)

Ella loves her bath

Helen is unusually still for a moment

We had our one year check up at the doctor this week and we were all pronounced very healthy - the doctor may have even said we were "perfect" but mommy does not want to push her luck. We had a great time playing with the new toys while we waited for our exams. We were doing fine until we had to get our shots. But after the shots, we were introduced to one of the many wonders of the world - suckers. We each got a different color and mommy and daddy were cleaning sticky slober off of us for days.

Cousin Jennifer sent us new pajamas for our birthday. After breakfast one morning mommy left us in our chairs (to prevent the usual crawling around the occurs during a picture) and propped us in front of our Christmas tree (this is the closest we are allowed to the tree).

Sunday was the holiday luncheon at Daddy's work. Did you know that other people have that cool green uniform too?? Here we are seeing Santa for the first time ever.

We did great at lunch (food usually keeps us happy) but at five minutes until 1:00 (1:00 is naptime), Alex started losing it. Eat and sleep - those are his priorities in life. Here's mommy trying to keep him happy until it is our turn to get a picture with Santa.

We had no shortage of admirers at lunch. When we first walked in, we were trying to get everyone situated so daddy had to hand Ella to someone. She had no problem and proceeded to get passed from person to person the whole time. Of course Helen cried the first stranger that she saw and Alex has happy flirting with everyone -- from Mommy's arms.

Merry Christmas Santa!! (no way was Helen going to sit in Santa's lap so mommy got to be in the picture too -- and we are pretty sure Santa had a glint of fear in his eye at the thought of holding 3 babies)

Alex soaks up the testesterone (especially in the "sissy" overalls that mommy put him in)

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

On Friday we got to open an early birthday present - a picnic basket from our cousins and Uncle Brad and Aunt Alison. We love it! But we were definitely more interested in the box than the food for awhile.

It was warm enough to go outside and play on our castle. Alex is the King of the Castle

Helen loves her cup and her egg. She takes the egg out and puts it back in over and over again. I'm assured that this is a developmental milestone for this age!

Our friend Freddy gave us a McDonald's drive through along with lots of food to play with. Here's Ella eating my order.

Alex is trying to figure out why it looks like food but it does not taste like food

Alex and Ella are working the drive through

"Would you like fries with that?"

Our outside play area

Grandma made Christmas cookies and Alex is ready to dive right in

Ella is a little skeptical

Helen is not sure that she likes cookies

On our birthday we went for a walk with mom and dad in our spiffy new triple jogger!

The calm before the storm

Alex and Chace at our party

Having our pre-cake bottles

Daddy videotaping the event

Distracting Alex until his sisters are done with their bottles

Ella looks a little bored and is waiting for the action to start

Singing Happy Birthday

Helen is not really interested in her cake

Alex quickly decimates his cake and starts shoving handfuls of cake into his mouth

Ella decides to start putting cake in her hat

Smearing cake around everywhere looks fun too

Alex is still living high on his cake

Helen digs in a little bit but really does not like getting her hands dirty

Ella and Kim getting ready to open presents

Mommy helping Ella open her first present

Helen opening her presents

Ella's hair is completely matted with icing - it took a full bath and lots of shampoo to get it all out

Helen is a little overwhelmed with all the new toys

Birthday present carnage

Alex is learning how to tear off the wrapping

Helen and Sophie

Ella and Helen in their new birthday dresses from Aunt Cathy