Pool and Dinner Please

Folks - what a crazy weekend we had. Our neighborhood pool is up and running and a great place to visit. Tanya asked Jeff to lather up Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan on Saturday afternoon with sun screen especially their heads. She took Brenden to the pool separately along with some cousins.

Well, Jeff decided to put 60 SPF No-Ad on the boy's heads. Problem is --- it ran into their eyes when they sweated during the walk to the pool and their eyes got really irritated. We called the doc as well as poision control and everything turned out ok but the three little guys were NOT HAPPY!

On Sunday Tanya and Jeff had Brenden, Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan in bed by 6. We then had crab, Carona, and watched the movie "Taken" on pay per view. What a great date night!

Four Little Men

Hi everyone! Here's our latest update. It was certaily warm here today in Richmond and the whole family visited our neighborhood park this morning. Brenden did great taking care of his brothers. Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan were elated to be on the playground, soccer field, and playing with mulch.

We had some awesome photos taken of the all the kids and they turned out great. We had a gift card and a coupon so it went from an impromptu kind of thing to an amazing photo finish!

Ethan, Tristan, Zayne, and Brenden

Zayne

Zayne, Tristan, and Ethan

Big Brother Brenden, Mr. Hansome

Tristan

Ethan

Thanks for stopping by our blog and for all of your continued support. We're looking forward to this summer. We wish you and your family all the best!

14 Months - All Walkin!

Hi everyone - we did a Spring update in our last post but forgot to mention and show photos of Ethan, Zayne and Tristan's birthday party back in February. The boys tured one on February 13 and here are their cake photos. Also, all three boys are walking!

Ethan - yum yum yum

Zayne - cake by the fistful

Tristan - give me MORE!

Zayne, Brenden, Tristan, Ethan with Mommy and Moppie

Also, many years ago we started a Relay for Life team in Chesterfield, VA. It's now led by Kim Chiaramida. The proceeds of this 24 hour team walk go completely to the American Cancer Society. Jeff's mom, referred to by the kids as Moppie, is a two time survivor. Realizing times are not the best these days, if you carve out funds in your budget for philanthropy, please strongly consider donating to Jeff's mom's fundraising. It's an absolutely amazing cause. Below is a photo of Moppie (Rosemary) at a previous Relay event along with Kevin and Mary from her office. And --- here is the link for donations: https://secure3.convio.net/tacs/site/Donation2?idb=1368015659&df_id=1006253&FR_ID=13226&PROXY_ID=10297709&PROXY_TYPE=20&1006253.donation=form1

Happy Spring!

Here's our March family update! Lots has happened since we last posted. First and foremost, big brother Brenden is getting so big and he's amazingly helpful with his brothers. After a long day of helping, here's a photo of Mr. B catching some Zs! We love Brenden so very much.

Brenden is thriving at home and at Darcie's day care. He's now three years old and brings home tons of craft projects every day, can count lots of numbers, has HUGE vocabulary, knows lots of colors, some sign language, Spanish, we could go on and on and on. He's such a smart little boy. And, he'll be starting soccer in April at an indoor complex right around the corner from our house! Brenden loves to play outside, and - his favorite thing right now are all of his robots.

Breaking News - Tristan is WALKING! And, he's so proud of this new ability. He walks everywhere, stands up on his own without a counch to lean on, and is all smiles. Zayne has taken a few steps this weekend and Ethan is close behind these two. We think all three will be walking by April; it's so cool.

Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan are still sleeping through the night and they wake about 6 AM. They get up, have a bottle of milk, and then breakfast. At about 9:30 AM they're down for an hour nap. Once they wake back up between 10:30 and 11 AM, they're ready for a sip of milk from their special cups and then it's lunch time. Between the three of them, they eat like horses. They play for a couple of hours and then take a nap between 2 and 3:30 PM. After they wake back up, they play until about 5 PM and it's then dinner time. After dinner they take a bath every other night, get changed into their night clothes, and then have their second bottle of milk for the day before bed. They go to bed about 6-6:30. Our moms - Kayela, and Rosemary, continue to come to our house every weekday afternoon and help us so very much.

Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan all got tubes in their ears in late February. And, since that operation, they've had no ear infections. We are elated. We love Ethan and Zayne and Tristan so vey much!

Here are some recent photos. More updates soon...

Ethan left, Tristan right, Zayne in the back

Ethan left, Zayne middle, Tristan right - loving the dishwasher!

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of fallen Oakland Police Officers -- Officer John Hege, Sergeant Daniel Sakai, Sergeant Ervin Romans, and Sergeant Mark Dunakin. Please be sure to include them in your family's thoughts and prayers. Also, please keep all personnel and family members of the Oakland police department in your prayers.
http://www.odmp.org/

A Much Overdue Update - Jan 2009

Hi everyone - we are behind on our updates. It has been a wonderful past few months. First and foremost, Brenden turned three in December. He had a firefighter party and an engine company from station number 7 in Chesterfield brought an entire crew! Brenden and all of his friends and family had a great time.

Also, Brenden and dad have started up a model rocket hobby and had our first launch this past Saturday. It was a blast. Special thanks to Tim McGee's family and Amanda and Jordan for helping herd the fam to the neighborhood field on launch day :)

Rocket launch day with Brenden, Oscar, Jordan, and the Trio

Big boy Brenen on Christmas Day 2009

Now - about the trio - these guys are doing great. Ethan is up to 19 pounds, 14 oz. Zayne is 23 pounds and Tristan is 21 pounds. They're getting huge! Tristan is almost walking; he's clearly the most mobile. Zayne is close behind him and Ethan is now pulling up to a stand on any sturdy thing he can latch on to.

Ethan loves to repeat "wow wow" from the Nick show. Whenever Jeff walks into the room he chants "wowo wow Wubzy!" and he and Jeff chat it back and forth. Zayne loves to humm and sing little tunes. Tristan has developed his own language and every object in the house has it's own Tristan name.

We're struggling a little with chronic ear infections. Currently all three boys each have two ear infections and this is the fifth time this season they've been diagnosed. So, our pediatritian has asked us to set up some time with an pediatric ENT doctor to figure out some preventive treatment ideas. Luckily, we're closer to the end of the sickness season traditionally speaking.

Tanya has Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan on an amazing schedule. They are now up by 6:30 AM and have had a bottle and breakfast by 9 AM. They take a short nap about 10 AM and then have lunch at 12. They have a long nap about 2 PM and get up about 4 PM. Then, it's more play time, dinner at 5, a bath every other day or sometimes two in a day, and bed time by 6. It's amazing.

The three will start transitioning to whole mike on February13 which will be great! Here are some recent photos. Many thanks for all of your support.

Tanya's crazy bath day. Brenden, Ethan, Tristan, Zayne

Here's Zayne!

Zayne bottom, Tristan middle, Ethan top

Tristan left and Zayne right

It's Tristan!

Here's another of Tristan

Here's Ethan!