What happens when you cross an actuary and an accountant???

You end up with dinner conversations like this...

Me: "Guys, you have 15 more minutes to finish your dinner if you want dessert" (in case I haven't mentioned it, I have the slowest eaters in the world.)

Drew: "That is 900 seconds"

Me to Spencer: "uhhhhh.....is that right"

Spencer back to me, after a BIG pause "ummm...I think so"

Jack: "yup, 900 seconds is 15 minutes"

So, I was asking Drew this morning how he knew that 15 minutes is 900 seconds. His response was "well, I know that 5 minutes is 300 seconds and then it is just about 3's and 5's and you get 900". Ok, whatever. "Drew, how did you know that 5 minutes is 300 seconds". His response was "Jack taught me".

We're in TROUBLE!!!

A Trip to the Dentist....

Well, I typed a whole summary of our trip to the dentist, but Blogger shut down for a few minutes and I lost my work. I don't have the energy to do it again, so here is a quick synopsis.

The boys did great!! They were not scared and not shy. They marched right back with the hygentist when their name was called and never looked back. I was very proud.

I, on the other hand, did not do quite as well. I forgot to have them brush their teeth after lunch/before their appointment. I also happened to let Ben have some "Mike & Ike's" that he still had leftover from "Fat Tuesday". I'm sure the hygentist enjoyed scraping that off his teeth. Finally, I gave Charlie his binkie while we were actually still inside the dentist's office. I swear that he only gets it while he is in his crib and while we are at church, but it was an hour past his naptime and he was so tired.

Hopefully, the boys' good behavior overshadowed my bad and nobody noticed much. ;)

Jack

Ben

Drew

"Binkie Boy"

Sisters....Just for fun!!!

Please know this was written in a very light-hearted and fun tone.

I would guess that anyone that has a sibling close in age often finds themselves in quite a bit of competition with that sibling. If you add that with the fact that the Conneely family is extremely competitive by nature, my sister and I were bound to engage in a little 'friendly' competition now and then.

Kelly 3, Jennifer 2

As the "big sister", I think that I probably have taken our competitions a little more seriously than my sister. It really does stink to lose to your "little sister"....what a blow to an ego! Whether we were playing tennis or Monopoly, it really hurt to lose to her. Because of my experience, I always root for the older sibling. Venus Williams is my favorite tennis player, I was so sad for her when her little sister was beating her in all of the tournaments...how humiliating. I also will always root for Payton Manning over Eli. Of course I am glad that Serena and Eli are doing well, but I want them to lose to their big brother/sister every time!

That little sister needs to sit still. ;)

Guess who's fish is bigger???

Same sport, different school.

Thank Goodness!!!

I guess she wins the hair contest though...LOL!!

Well, I am about to lose a huge contest to my sister. My triplets were born at 33 weeks and 6 days. I have been quite proud of that accomplishment over the past few years. I realize that this accomplishment had little to do with things that I had any control over, but regardless, it was a tough road, I worked hard and I was proud. Well..........tomorrow is the day that my sister hits 33 weeks 6 days. While of course, I am thrilled that she has made it that far, a little piece of the child in me is sorta bummed to lose such a big contest.

Now, in my defense, I have to mention two things that I would like to have considered before declaring me the loser of this particular contest. (Maybe I could get a star next to my score or something.)

1. My sister's doctor, who happens to be the same doctor that I used, has been telling Jen for the last few weeks that it is his goal to get her to 34 weeks so that she can beat my family record! I was really surprised that he took such an interest in this. Well, it turns out that he is the "little brother" in his family and his big brother is only a year older. That seems a bit unfair if you ask me. He was totally biased and using his 'doctor power' to give her an unfair advantage.

2. I also did not realize, when I my kids were born, that I was going to be involved in this competition. Had I known that my sister was going to get pregnant with triplet boys almost 6 years later and challenged my family record, I surely could have hung out a few more days. Maybe a couple more days of magnesium sulfate would have kept those boys cookin' a bit longer and I would have been unbeatable by my little sister.

What do you think?!?! At least a star with a footnote?????

So, anyway, in all seriousness, I really am thrilled that Jen is almost 33w6d. It was a very lucky number for our family and a few months ago, it seemed so unobtainable for her, considering her situation at the time. I can't believe she made it this far. Way to go!! If I had to lose a contest to her, I guess this is a good one to lose. Pretty soon, we can talk about first kids to walk, talk, sleep through the night. Actually, I don't think that I am going to win any of those contests. I think that I've got first kid to read locked up though....then again, I've been taken by surprise before. ;)

Here she is at 33w2d!

That doctor really should end this put her out of her misery...like now! ;)

February Birthdays

We had a small party yesterday to celebrate Spencer and my mom's birthdays. We all had a nice time. It is fun to think that the next family holiday should include 3 little babies. This was probably the quietest and calmest a family gathering will be for a long time. Too funny considering there were still 4 little boys under the age of 6 at the party. I'm sure that by Easter, the invasion of the Schmidt's will bring lots more craziness and fun. We can't wait.

"The Family"

Except, there were not "Smitzes" at the party, according to Jack

My mom told mee that she heard on the radio a story of a little boy that called up to wish his Grandmother a happy birthday. While the little boy was talking to his grandmother, he asked her how old she was. She told her grandson that she was 62. The little boy was silent for a minute and then he said...."did you start with one?"

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Happy Birthday Honey!!

Doesn't he look like a pretty happy guy for just starting the second half of his life. ;)

More Birthday Party Fun....

Irish vs. Catholic

This year, Easter is on March 23rd, which is obviously very early for Easter. But did you know that Easter has not been this early since 1913 and will not be this early again until the year 2228? Wow!!! I had no idea until I just looked it up.

I bring this up because I was listening to the news on the radio the other day and they were 'reporting' that there has been some talk that "the church" thinks that traditional St. Patrick's Day celebrations should be skipped this year due to the fact that St. Patrick's Day falls during Holy Week this year. Since Holy Week is supposed to be a solemn time for the church, they do not feel that the St. Patrick's Day festivities are appropriate.

The part of the news report that cracked me up was the 'guy on the street' that they interviewed. The reporter explained the position of the Catholic Church and the guy was trying to make his point that the St. Patrick Day celebrations must go on. He said "Well, ya see, you are born IRISH and then baptized Catholic. Since you are Irish before you are Catholic, celebrate away on St. Paddy's Day!!!" Whew...Thank Goodness...I was worried. ;)

Jack - St. Patrick's Day 2003

Bowling!!!

Spencer's office was closed this afternoon, so we went bowling.....actually, Spencer, Ben, Jack & Drew went bowling. I went 'Charlie Chasing' and 'Nacho Eating'. I think that everyone had a good time. Ben got a spare...all by himself. All of the brothers were impressed with that!!! Here are a few pictures. I was bummed that I didn't get any good action shots.

"The Bowlers"

Daddy

Ben, Drew & Jack

Poor Charlie was beside himself with excitement when we walked into the bowling alley. Unfortunately for him, these balls were way to heavy for such a little guy!

He felt better when he discovered a 'new toy'....the hand blower

Who's First???

The boys and I went to Wendy's today for our weekly lunch out. With their meals, they each received a cute little game called "Whoonu". After the boys finished their lunches, they started looking at the game and punching out the pieces. I started reading the directions. The first direction said that "the player with the next birthday goes first". I thought that was funny so, I read it to the boys. They immediately said "daddy" and then quickly realized that his birthday just passed (finally ;-) ) Jack then said "Ben should go first because he is the biggest...wait...Drew should go first because he was the biggest when he was born". Then Jack got his mind back and he said "wait....wait......wait......I should go first because...because....because...I can't wait too long."

Very honest and very true!!!

Full Moon

Spencer called me from work yesterday morning to ask me to Tivo "Guiding Light" for him. LOL!!! He did have a good "guy reason" for wanting to watch it, but this post is more fun to leave that part out. :-)

Third Wednesday Happiness!!!

It is the third Wednesday of the month...YAY!!! My triplet mommies' group meets for dinner on the third Wednesday of each month. My triplets are five and a half and I still really look forward to these dinners. Triplet moms are fun!!

I remember I met a couple of triplet moms at the park one day a couple of years ago. Their triplets were a few years older than mine. They told me that they used to go to the monthly dinners, but they stopped when their kids started school. They told me that I would probably lose interest and stop going to the dinners too when my kids got older. I was sad to hear that. The triplet moms that meet for these dinners are my friends and I would really miss it if we stopped going. We always have such a good time.

I guess those moms from the park were wrong about me. I still very much look forward to the dinners and plan on continuing to go. In some ways, with our kids being older and busier, the monthly dinners are the only times that I get to see my old triplet mommy friends. We need those times to catch up and have fun.

Only four more hours to go....not that I am counting.

BTW, the boys look forward to their "Boys' Night" once a week with daddy too. Lucky me!!

Over the Hill!!!

Spencer turned the big 4-0 today!! Happy Birthday Honey!!! We love you!!


The poor guy's big day was on a Tuesday and the temperature was about 4 degrees. He worked all day, but when he came home, we went to Olive Garden for dinner and then had a big cookie from Mrs. Fields and he opened a few presents. It was a relatively subdued birthday, but I think he enjoyed it. We are going to have a little party for him and my mom on Sunday to celebrate their birthdays.

Spencer said that Jen called him today to wish him a happy birthday. She told him that she was so relieved that it was looking like she was not going to have the babies today. She was worried that her boys would infringe on his future birthday celebrations. LOL...so sweet.



When Spencer got home from work, Drew was trying to explain to him that it was his day and that "we" were going to do things to make him happy. He said "tonight, we are going to do what makes you happy Daddy, because it is your birthday.................but you need to tell us what makes you happy, Daddy...............or we just won't know". Always the thinker!!



Here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago of Spencer with all of his 40 year old friends. ;)

What nice kids!!!!

My friend Jeanne has the nicest family that you will ever see. Jeanne and her family live in Grand Rapids so, we do not see them very often, but everytime we do get together, I always leave feeling really good. I don't know how some people have the ability to make it seem like the world is a good place, but both Jeanne and her husband have that gift.

We were lucky enough to have a short visit with Jeanne and her family today when they were in town for a hockey tournament for their son Will. We probably only spent an hour with them, but it was a lot of fun to see Will play hockey (He is REALLY good!!!) and enjoy a few quick conversations.

Apparently, Jeanne's kids (Kaleen, Will and Ben) have inherited their mom and dad's personalities. They are so good to my kids and my kids LOVE them!! Since they live so far away, the kids only see eachother about once a year. But, there is no awkwardness or shyness when the kids get together. They were all so happy to see their friends today. Like a 12 year old girl doesn't have better things to do than hang out with three 5 year olds, but as soon as Kaleen saw the boys, she went right to work talking to the boys and 'showing' the boys to her friends. She made them feel so good about themselves. Almost too good...all the way home, Jack kept saying "Kaleen's friends said that I am sooooo smart and I am only 5 YEARS OLD!!! Did you know that mom???". He was so happy and proud.

Drew said that his favorite part of going to Will's hockey game was when Will was on the bench, across the ice from us, Drew waved and him and Will waved back. He thought that was so cool that his important, cool, hockey player, friend was waving to him during a game!! After the game, Will came right over to the boys to say "hi" and gave them all high-5's. After he was changed, he came back out to hang out with us and the boys. At one point, I saw him put his hands on each side of Jack's head and give him a little shake...like a "cool kid" would do to one of his friends. At first, I thought Jack might be a little freaked or shy about it, but when he turned and I could see his face, he had the biggest grin that you have ever seen. He ran over to Drew a minute later and did the same thing to his brother that Will had done to him. Drew definitely had a "what the heck are you doing to me?" kind of look, but it was really funny and cute to see.

I can't finish this post without mentioning the Bens. Our Ben thoroughly enjoyed his visit with his friends, but he said his favorite part of the hockey game was when the Zamboni machine came through at the end. It was a close call though because he really enjoyed the time with his friends too. And, the other Ben is following in the family ways. He is the sweetest, funniest, freckled face, kindergartener that you will ever meet. I really hope that he will grow up to be good, long-distance, friends with my boys.

It was definitely a nice way to spend an hour on a cold afternoon!

Drew wearing Will's hockey pin.

The boys all took turns.

Will's hockey pin is now proudly displayed on the curtain in the boys' room

What I have learned.......

If you want to build a "model" with your kids, don't buy the model kit at the Dollar Store!! AND, if someone else buys your kids a model kit at the dollar store, don't let that "someone else" leave your house until the model is completely assembled!!! ;-)

I love all my BOYS!!

Being the only female in a house full of 'men' is really cool on Valentine's Day!!! You would think it was my birthday. Everybody was giving me so much love yesterday!!! Spencer had the boys make valentines for me while I was out getting my haircut the other night. They hid them in one of Spencer's drawers. So, Valentine's morning, they all came running in to my room and started emptying Spencer's drawer. They finally dug out the valentines that they had made. They were too cute. Here is a picture of each of them. Charlie even made one. Aren't they cute!!

The boys also made valentines at school and most of them were for MOMMY!! As if that isn't enough, since it was Thursday, I got to see my FIRST Valentine (my dad) when he and my mom came over to watch the boys so that I could go out with my REAL Valentine. We had dinner at Domo77...yum!!! It was a great day. Aren't I a lucky lady this Valentine's day!?!?!

P.S. I have to add the funniest valentine that I received this year was from Drew. It is actually the one pictured above, but it is not possible to read all that he wrote.

To: Mom

From: Drew

I love you because you are my Valentine.

I love you when

I'm sad

I will love you whatever

time

like

2:19

5:28

or

7:06

My life is the BEST!!

32 Weeks!

Jennifer is now 32 weeks and 2 days. Amazing!! Our entire family is, of course, so grateful and feeling very blessed. We are all very anxious to meet these little munchkins now!

Does she really have 3 babies in there???

Oh yea, she definitely has 3 babies in there!! ;-)

Here is an email that Jen sent to family and friends on the 12th, which was when she was 32 weeks exactly.

Hello...
Wow do our family and friends say powerful prayers! First of all, in our wildest dreams we never thought we would be blessed with triplets, and then to make it this far in the pregnancy is beyond a miracle. Thank you so much for your part in making this a reality for us.

As promised, I am sending another update, as we reached another huge target… 32 weeks!!! At this point, if our boys were born today they would still have a challenging beginning, but no long-term problems. We are still hoping to make it to March 5th, but feel comforted in knowing that we made it to this point.

I continue to ‘hang-out’ in the hospital, which is getting more and more challenging. I am now up to 70 nights in the hospital, which is near ridiculous! I miss my hubby, my home, and my energy, but I do understand that this is a small price to pay for healthy babies.

We’ll be sure to pass along the exciting news and pictures when our little miracles arrive. Until then, please continue to do what you are doing.

Love,
Jennifer
FYI- Based on body measurements, our babies weigh approx:
Baby A: 4lbs 5oz
Baby B: 3lbs 2oz
Baby C: 3lbs 7oz
Even though there is quite a difference between the three boys’ weights, our doctor is very pleased with all of their growth, movement, and overall health.

Here it is.....

Nothing like feeling like the biggest dork in the world by trying to take a picture of yourself.

Enjoy!!

No Ponies in this House!!!

I chopped off my hair tonight. Well, I didn't exactly do it myself, instead I paid someone a lot of money to do it for me. You can believe me when I say that I really got A LOT cut off. Maybe I'll post a picture tomorrow....then again, maybe not, I'll have to see how it looks in the morning.

I guess this will be a good way to see who reads my blog. If someone says OMG!!! when they see me, I'll be able to tell that they are not a regular reader. ;)

Baby Gates

What's wrong with this picture?!?!?

June 2007

Baby gates are wonderful. I say that, but we don't have any up. We actually only used baby gates for Charlie for about a month. We kept the triplets contained in the family room and kitchen areas in our house until they were about 2 years old. I thought for sure that we would do the same thing with Charlie. But, as everyone always says, having a single baby is definitely not the same thing as having triplets.


In a few ways, it was actually easier keeping the triplets "locked up" because at that time, it was only them. They were "the action" so, even if I left them in the gated area for a couple of minutes by themselves, there was still a lot of activity and they weren't exactly lonely in there. With Charlie, when we had the gates, he was in there by himself most of the time. He HATED that!! He would just hang at the gate and cry when his brothers left. He is definitely a man that likes to be around the action! The other problem that we had that caused us to stop using the gates with Charlie was that the big boys could not properly open and close them. It was really a pain (x3) to have to keep opening and closing the gates every time one of them wanted to get out, or back in, or back out again....you get the idea. For a while, I actually would set one of the pressure gates about 12 inches off of the ground. That way, the big boys could crawl under, but it took Charlie a while to figure it out. LOL!! Needless to say, it didn't take THAT long for him figure it out, especially after a few private lessons with Ben. Why Ben thought it would be so cool to teach Charlie that trick is beyond me!

June 2007

Charlie: "Dad, whatcha doin'"

Anyway, I could not come up with a good solution to our gate problem so, I took the gates down. Again, having one baby is very different that having three and this time, it proved to be much, much easier. When the boys were very little, opening the gates was a big free-for-all. They would just scatter in three different directions. Something my mom would call "a disaster". (Inside joke - Hi Mom!!) But seriously, it was pretty difficult and a bit stressful trying to corral them. Just like a cartoon, as soon as you would get one, he would take off while you were finding the other two, and so on, and so on. Fortunately/Unfortunately, with Charlie I have the complete opposite problem. He is my little shadow. He literally follows me wherever I go. I really don't have much of a worry of him getting into things that he is not supposed to because he is always right behind me blabbering away.



Why am I writing about this? Well, Charlie apparently doesn't like my blog, or anything else I do on the computer...a baby gate sure would come in handy about now. :)

What a Really Great World!!!

Those are the words that came out of Jack's mouth last night when we were driving home. Why did he say those words you may ask.

Well, the boys and I were driving home in the van after having dinner at Red Lobster. We met Spencer and his mom there so, they were in a different car. Anyway, as we were approaching a railroad gate, Jack said "look out Mom!". "For what?" I answered. He replied "look out so that the railroad things don't come down on the car". I expained to him that the railroad gates just don't drop out of the blue, that before they come down, the bell starts to ding and the red lights start to flash so that the cars know to stop. Jack then said "Really?!"...(pause)..."What a really great world this is! Mom, don't you think that this is the greatest world in the whole.....(he totally almost said world again).....UNIVERSE?!?!".

Yup, it sure is, Jack!!!

New Sleeping Bags

Grandmom Adelaide got the boys beautiful LLBean sleeping bags for Christmas. The boys are officially trying them out tonight on the family room floor. Spencer is gone for the night so, the boys and I stayed up "late" watching the movie Cars. The movie was cute and none of us had seen it all the way through. Other times that we put the movie on, the boys would be all excited about watching it, but then lose interest after an hour. I figured if we set up sleeping bags and the only other option would be going to sleep, everyone would see the whole movie. I was right, movie night was a success. Now, the boys are all sound asleep in their really comfy sleeping bags. I'd love to post a picture, but my camera is with Spencer. He better have some good pictures when he gets back because I'm missing out here!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Ben and Drew from Christmas Eve.

These are the boxes that the really nice sleeping bags came in. ;)

Charitable???

We're trying to teach the boys what it means to be charitable. Actually, in addition to us, the school and church are also trying to teach that lesson in their own way. It is hard.

I guess the boys first introduction to the idea of donating things to people that are needy happened when they were 2 years old. LOL!! That is when I made them *donate* their binkies to new babies that don't have any. They collected all of their beloved binkies and we put them in a brown bag to send to the poor babies. My boys were sad to see them go, very sad actually, but they seemed to take a bit of comfort in the fact that they were going to babies that need them.

Oh yeah, we did not actually give the binkies to a new baby...gross, but the boys don't know that.

July 2002 ~ Jack, Ben, Drew (poor Drew dropped his binkie)

We are, apparently, at a whole new level of charity now. The boys came home from school last week all excited because they were going to be "jumping rope for heart". The American Heart Association has teamed with their school to raise money. The boys have no concept of what the AHA is or why they need money. All they know is that if they want to win a prize. Jack has his heart set on *winning* a jumprope and Drew wants to *win* a t-shirt. I'm really having a hard time explaining this whole concept to them.

First of all, I have always hated soliciting things. I was a girl scout for a REALLY long time and absolutely despised selling cookies...my sister actually used to sell most of my cookies for me. I just have never felt very comfortable asking people to give me money. So, needless to say, I have problems sending my small army of kindergarteners out to ask for money from their unsuspecting family and friends.

I guess that I might feel more comfortable with the whole idea of them raising money for a charity if the boys understood what they were doing. I just cannot get their understanding of this whole project past the 'if I ask people for money, and they give it to me, then I jump rope and then I get a prize'. It sure seems like a win-win-win for the boys! I've been trying to figure out how to make this all work for us. It just seems to me that the boys should be feeling some of the pain of this work of charity.

As if the Jump Rope for the Heart is not enough for us to figure out, with the start of Lent, the boys each received a box from church to save money for the poor. My kids each have a piggy bank with about $30 that they have saved, from gifts. The boys don't get an allowance, Christmas is done and their birthday is not until May. They are so proud of the money that they have in there and are very careful about spending ANY of it. Am I supposed to make them take some of THEIR little-bit of money out of their piggy banks for the poor people? That doesn't seem fair since they don't really have any means to build it back up and that money is from gifts to them. On the other hand, am I supposed to just throw some of MY money in their boxes? That doesn't seem real productive in teaching them to be charitable and not to mention, not fair to me. ;)

How are other families handling these things...am I just spending too much time thinking about it?

What I ended up doing for the jump rope thing was telling the boys that I would give them each a small donation. I complicated it, for them, by telling them that I would match $ for $ any donation that they made from their own money. I am just against BUYING them a prize. For the poor boxes, I told them that I would give them each 10 cents for a good deed or extra job that they did, up to 3/day. So, they are sorta working so the poor people can have more food to eat. They were all excited about it today and I had some extra helpers. I just hope it lasts the whole 40 days of Lent!!

What do YOU think? Any comments or ideas???

Fat Tuesday...Continued

The boys have been asking to make their own pizzas for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday was looking to be a great day for that project. We shopped for all of the ingredients after lunch. I kept trying to tell the boys that we could get a whole pizza at Little Caesars for a SMALL fraction of the cost of making our own, but they weren't buying it. Apparently cooking is fun?!?!?

They actually all did really well. Ben made a pepperoni pizza, Jack made a sausage pizza and Drew made a cheese pizza. Mom and Dad even made out with a yummy Tangy Chicken Pizza.

Working Hard!

All Finished

mmmmm...ingredients!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy FAT Tuesday!!!

How can it be Lent already??? The boys did not have school today...apparently Fat Tuesday is a school holiday. ;) We stopped at the grocery store and ended up picking up a few treats to celebrate the holiday. My "treat" is already gone. :(