Howard Trio Plus One: New House, Visitors, and Lots of Cuteness

We have now been in our new house for a little over three weeks and it still feels like we are trying to get settled. Micah and I both don't have much patience for chaos (I know you all must be laughing at us for having triplets with that comment!), so we get a bit stressed when things aren't working properly or aren't in the right place. Although this house was built in 2000 and doesn't need anything major done, we have lots of little projects that add up so we have been spending as much time as possible getting things checked off our list. Things have also been added to the list since we got here as this house was not as clean as it first appeared. I spent over 8 hours scrubbing the laminate flooring in the kitchen with a metal brush to get the years of grime out of the cracks...it looks great now but definitely an unexpected task. So needless to say we are worn out and ready to feel more settled.

The grout in our master bathroom should really be white. It's not perfect yet, but the part on the left is how it started...black.

Dirt caked laminate floor

Evening #1 of 4 scrubbing the floor after the babies went to bed. I did end up using a bigger brush than that the other three nights, but it still took a very long time.

Although we have been busy getting things done so our house is more comfortable for us, we have still been enjoying our new space. We moved just in time for the babies as they needed more room to roam, and I am enjoying the extra space all over the house! Although I can't wait until everything is "done," it is a great layout for our family and we are enjoying the neighborhood as well.

Lots of room in the hallway by the bedrooms upstairs for us to spread everything out during bath time

Jack's room (it's actually a big room but there's not much in it right now)

The girls room. I decided to put their cribs on an angle in the corners which I really like. Now we need to fill up this space more as well (there's a lot of room not showing in the pic).

The loft upstairs which has been a great feeding and diaper changing area. I love that we no longer have three bottle warmers in the kitchen and the rock n plays are upstairs out of sight since they only use them for feedings now. It's also convenient to have everything upstairs since they drink bottles after waking up from naps and night time.

The family room / play area (before the cords were put in the wall). We love all of this space and we are storing all of the toys on the shelves in the wall.

Playing on the grass at the park by our house (a 2 minute walk!)

Lexi in the swing at the park by our house

Faith and Jack sharing a swing at the park by our house

Jack enjoying the double swing. We won't be able to do this forever, but it works great now since there's only two swings at the park.

Two weekends ago my friend Katie came for a visit while Micah went climbing (he's training for a Yosemite trip in May). We had a great time and the visit was definitely too short. Katie is always a great help as she enjoys getting things checked off my list almost as much as I do, and we have a lot of fun even though we spend most of the time doing work around the house. Her last visit was in September when the trio was 3 months old (1 month adjusted) so they have changed tremendously since then. Last time they were just starting to smile but now that they are very interactive it is obvious that Alexis, Jack, and Faith all love Katie! We can't wait for her next visit, but I'm hoping to make a trip out to visit her this summer alone...crazy to think about!

Katie helped me make my first batches of baby food! This is the sweet potatoes.

I had heard about the mesh feeders so Katie and I decided to buy them and try them out. Everyone LOVES eating out of them. So far they have fed themselves banana, avocado, and pear without me worrying about choking.

Katie with Alexis, Jack, and Faith (left to right)

Me with Jack, Alexis, and Faith (left to right)

Me making sure Jack and Alexis don't fall backwards while sitting (they are getting much better at this every day!) while I catch Faith falling. I am a great multi-tasker :).

Micah's parents came last weekend and they worked their tails off getting things done around the house for us. Micah and his dad:

moved the electrical wiring so that it is behind our TV in the wall (baby proofing) which included cutting two large holes in the drywall and then patching them
put knobs and pulls on our kitchen cabinets and drawers
put shelves up in the garage (which Karen spent time staining)
changed the pipe for the cold water supply line (something that came up in our inspection)
put in a new water heater (not from the inspection but since they were messing with the water anyway and it was an old, small heater we decided to go for it)
painted part of the garage white since it was a dark shade of blue that made the garage feel smaller (Karen actually helped Micah with this one)
changed out the shower head since the one in our shower leaked
and I'm sure there's more I missed...

And that list doesn't even include the stuff Karen and I completed (cleaning a disgusting oven, cleaning carpet along the walls that hasn't been cleaned in years, other misc cleaning like washing random dirt and food off the walls, putting up a family photo wall, and of course taking care of the babies all weekend while the guys worked on the more technical projects). It was a very busy 2 1/2 days and I am so thankful that they live close enough to come down and help as they are both very hard workers!

The cords are gone! We are all super excited! L to R: me :), Alexis, Faith, and Jack. They wouldn't sit still so I had to join them in the pic.

And through all of this the babies have continued to be super cute. Although we are having some problems with the girls sleeping through the night (trying to figure out why...teething, increase in solids, too cold in their room, trying to crawl, hungry because not drinking as much due to eating solids, etc??), during the day they are great babies and I tend to forget the difficulty they give me at night :). Here are some recent pics.