March for Babies

It is that time of year again!  The kids and I will be participating in the Columbia March for Babies, raising money for the March of Dimes.  Our family has been touched by prematurity.  I can't imagine what life would be like without my premature babies, Emma, Owen and Claire!  So, how could I NOT participate again this year??  

Looking back on our premature births, I am amazed at how truly uneventful Emma, Owen, and Claire's stay was in the NICU.  We were so very blessed to have 3 healthy babies, born just a bit too early.  Even for our "uneventful" stay though, they still did receive lots of advances in medicine...intubation (less than 24hrs!), surfactant to help the lungs, indomethacin to treat PDA (for the girls only), feeding tubes, and more.  In fact most of it I've probably forgotten without the help of my journal to look back on.  My point is, that without the research that the March of Dimes does, standard routines of practice wouldn't necessarily be so standard.

Okay, not to brag too much, but I have been a "TOP 5 WALKER" now since I've been walking.  I DO want to brag on all of you, my friends and family, that have donated so generously, putting me at the top for these last 5 years.

So, here is a walk down memory lane, to show you how far we've come...and to pull at those heart strings and open those wallets:-)

Finding out at 19 weeks, that we had 3 babies, not just one...

Their first group photo, at about 3-4 weeks old.  

September 2003

Claire, Owen, Emma

First trip to Shell Knob- about 9 months old

Summer 2004

Owen, Claire, Emma

18 months old

June 2005

Emma, Claire, Owen and Brendan

Playing dress-up

December 2005

Emma, Owen, Claire

We made those tie-dyed shirts!

Fourth of July 2007

Claire, Brendan, Emma and Owen

Big Four Year Olds!

October 2007

Owen, Emma, Claire

Go TIGERS!! 

Five years old

October 2008

Owen, Claire, Emma

Five and 1/2...don't we look older?

March 2009

Claire, Owen, Emma

Big 6 year old kindergartners

August 2009

Owen, Emma, Claire

So, where can you donate, you ask?  I have a link on my Facebook page, as well as on my blog, where you can just click and donate online!  It is all secure and goes directly to March of Dimes.  You can use Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, etc.  Of course, if you would rather pay by check, just mail it to me and I'll bring it to the March.

Thanks to everyone!

Tanya

CRAZY Clothes Day

Look at that school spirit!  

The kids have "Crazy Clothes Day" at their school today to raise "Pennies for Pasta" for the Leukemia Society.  They took it seriously and went as mismatched and crazy as possible, from their crazy hair right down to their mismatched shoes!  GO EAGLES!!

Happy 93rd Birthday Clarice!

Join us in wishing Great-Grandma Clarice a wonderful 93rd Birthday!!

The Birthday Girl.... with Claire, Brendan, Emma and Owen

Brendan's SECOND 5k

Brendan and Darran ran the Resolution Run 5k in January , which now puts Brendan at TWO 5k runs, with plans for many more.  It was a chilly morning and a little icy, so they actually only (haha) ran about 2.9 miles.  He came in at 33:58 or an average 10:58/mile, beating last year's time by over 2 minutes.  Way to go Brendan!!

How much we've grown...

Well, I am a little late in posting this, as we measured everyone on New Year's Day, but here are the results from our Annual "Measure Up" tradition:

Brendan 53 and 1/2 inches
Emma 46 inches
Owen 45 and 1/4 inches
Claire 43 inches

This year's overall winner was:  EMMA, with 3 and 1/4 inches in growth.  No wonder she gets those growing pains at night:-)  She widened that gap over Owen from last year.  He came in with 2 and 3/4 inches growth, Claire at 2 and 3/8 inches and Brendan at 2 and 1/4 inches.  As a side note, none of the triplets is as tall as Brendan was at their age.  Emma is about an inch behind where he was at 6 years old.

Emma is crouched down in this picture, so don't be fooled!

Chicago 2009

Where to begin? We had a fabulous trip to Chicago! Here is our little journal:-)
Saturday, December 26th...TRAIN RIDE!!!

The train ride was great!  We left from Jefferson City (thanks to Ann, Blaine and Patrick for seeing us off!) at about 10:30am for an almost 10 hr train adventure, including a 1&1/2 hr layover in StL.  The kids loved being able to roam without car seats to confine them.  It was a lot less stress for Darran and I, as we were able to read, play with the kids, rest, whatever.  We arrived at Union Station in Chicago around 8:45pm.  Off to the Embassy Suites (a great, family friendly hotel that allowed all of us to have a bed--no small feat for a family of 6--, a hot breakfast, pool time, and was conveniently located less than 2 blocks from the subway).

Sunday, December 27th..first subway and city bus rides, Museum of Science and Industry, and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (where Claire lost her first tooth--see previous post)

R2D2 mailbox outside the Museum

Christmas trees from around the world

Mom and Jeff were able to spend the day with us as well, so here is the fam near the german submarine exhibit.  The Museum of S&I was really one of our favorites.  So many things for the kids to do and see and they were at the perfect age for it!

On the city bus, after a long day at the Museum.

Silly brothers at the Rainforest Cafe

Monday, December 28...American Girl and the Lego Store followed by Sears Skydeck and Gino's East Chicago style pizza

Well, we thought this would be a "down" day.  Boy were we wrong!  We spent a whopping 2+hrs at the American Girl Store (thankfully the boys were allowed to check out Nintendo DS' while the girls shopped..great idea on AG's part!), followed by another 2 hrs at the Lego Store.  The kids got money for Christmas with which they could spend at these stores, if they wanted.  Boy, did they want to!  Emma even got her doll's ears pierced, so she could truly be just like her:-)  We then went to the Sears Skydeck.  Although the kids loved the Skydeck, Darran and I felt differently.  The view of the city was awesome at night...I just didn't need to go out over glass to enjoy it:-)  Pizza at Gino's East was fabulous!  Thinking about it makes me hungry for more!

 

Kit Kittredge dolls (Claire's)

                                     Just Like Me dolls (Emma and Suzie Q)

Build your own minifigures...

Darth Vader from Legos

    some 1200+ feet above the city

Tuesday, December 29...Field Museum and Adler Planetarium

The Field Museum is such an awesome place!  The kids loved the resemblances to things in the Night at the Museum movie.  We could have done without the Planetarium, which was a bit disappointing.  I'm not sure if it was just too old for our kids or what, but the view from the Planetarium was at least worth the trek there.

Kids with Sue (aka Rexxie:-)

Boys with Pterodactyl

    View from Adler Planetarium

Wednesday, December 30...Shedd Aquarium and the Art Institute of Chicago

Well, I am sad to say I took no pictures at Shedd.  Hard to believe as this is the one place I really wanted to go.  However, the crowds were insane here and I just wanted to not lose my children:-)  Kids did love what we saw here--octopus swimming, turtles, beluga whales, otters, sea dragons and more.  Unfortunately, the crowds got the best of us and we opted to head over to the Art Institute.  This is one place that Brendan really wanted to go to.  He loves art and was really looking forward to visiting the Art Institute.  They had a couple of kids areas, where the the kids were able to build puzzles of sculptures found in the museum, to do rubbings, to try on armory, and more.  We spent some time looking at the famous Monets, Picassos and more from the Impressionism gallery, as well as the Miniature Rooms area.  All the kids really enjoyed the Art Institute.

 

Thursday, December 31st...trip back home:-)

Took the train back.  So thankful not to be driving, especially since it was snowing along our route home.  We were nice and cozy in the train.  This is a picture during our stop in StL.  We only had about a 45min layover in StL, so we opted to stay on the train.  Had the whole car to ourselves!

"Mom was really on this trip" photo

Couple of side notes:  Our kids were true city kids...they loved traveling by bus and subway/El.  Chicago was beautiful this time of year and the cold really wasn't bad while we were there.  Owen couldn't stand seeing the snow all the time without touching it.  Probably could've used a day to just find a place to play in it:-)  All-in-all a great trip.  So glad to know that we can actually take four kids into the big city by ourselves!  We've come a long way from our last big family trip to Florida (summer 2005), where we needed lots of extra hands!

Claire loses her first tooth in Chicago!

Before dinner...

After!

We have many pictures to sort through from Christmas and our Chicago trip...but I had to get this one up there right away! Claire lost her first tooth while we were in Chicago, at the Rainforest Cafe no less:-) It really surprised her and she didn't know whether to be worried or excited, so I think she was a little of both. She lost it during dinner...I'm not sure how she didn't swallow it! Yay Claire!

The folks at the Embassy Suites were nice enough to give us an envelope to put her tooth in and, thankfully, the Tooth Fairy found us all the way in Chicago!