The Rafferty Triplets!!!

My first cousin Genny and her hubby JJ welcomed triplet boys last week on the 21st. She was such a trooper and made it to 31 weeks before baby C decided he was better out than in. Once she went back for her C section they had all three babies out within the SAME minute.  They were delivered in ABC order.  When they were a few days old Rusty, my parents and I got to go meet them. -Side note, I'm really glad we got our Whooping cough vaccines early so we didn't have to wait to see them in the NICU. All of the boys are a little jaundice so they had the super cool eye masks and blue lights in their isolets. They also have feeding tubes, and the other wires you see are for temperature (the gold heart sticker) and vitals monitoring.

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This is Asher "Baby A" he was 4 lbs and 16.5 inches  Seriously, look at the size of his head compared to that paci! So tiny! 

This is Brooks "Baby B" he woke up and watched us the entire time we were there. He was the biggest of the bunch at 4' 11oz and 18 inches. He kept wiggling to the edge of the isolet and had his feeding tube stretched to its limits.  

This is Genny and Caden "Baby C" She hadn't been able to hold him out of the isolet yet so she was loving this chance to hold him-ish as they changed his diaper. Baby C is who got the party started. He was the smallest of the three weighing only 2'14oz. and 14 inches long.  Can you see his eyes? He was awake a lot while we were there too.

Preemies are super sensitive to all kinds of things, so the room lights were kept low, you talk quiet and when they need to be comforted you can't stroke them like you would a normal newborn.  You do this technique that I will now call "the Baby Sqwash". You take their feet in one hand, and their head in the other and sorta sqwish them into themselves.  How do I know so much about the "Baby Sqwashing?" Because I got to settle Mr Brooks down.

Asher slept the whole time we were there but when Caden was being changed Brooks started fussing and his heart rate shot up, so since I was the closet I got to calm him down. I would calm him and then when I would try to remove my hands from the isolet he would get mad again.  I gave him his pacifier, which by the way all three babies have a good suck which is really remarkable for their age, and I could have stood there holding him all night.  I don't think it was coincidence that of the babies it was the baby with the B name that I gravitated to.

We left the hospital and headed to Genny's house to give her some gifts and visit a little bit more.  Jace (her son) and Rylie (her oldest and now the ONLY girl) had a blast taking me from room to room in the NICU and again at their house.  Rylie was even wearing the shirt I made her.

These were some of the others.  Genny and JJ are music people.  That is putting it mildly, so I had to make some musically minded clothes for the babies.

 Jace's shirt

 Rylie's shirt

 JJ's shirt, the back above and the front below

 Somehow I ended up not getting a picture of the front of Genny's shirt. It had three babies on it and it said FAQ- the back had the answers. Some times I amuse myself.

 And the triplet's onesies. One of the music references for each and then a set of the "triplet" ones.

I know, I am very punny. Can't wait to see the babies big enough to wear them! 

Aspen Grove iPhone Round Up...

Here are pictures from my phone and Rusty's. In no particular order. 

Photos on every bronze statue was a must for Brenner 

 First taste of chocolate milk- he is a FAN!

 Me & Kelcie, Ryan and I geared up 

 Paintball was one of the highlights of my week.  I was the queen of the headshot, and I only got hit twice, in the arm. It HURT! It was hot but so so so fun.

 Water color class ended up being pretty painful for most of us, because we can't draw like Ryan and Kelcie can.

 My best effort, I swear.

 Who needs a fork?

 Spot stealer. 

 We had a genealogy night with our family.  Boss thought right under the podium while Liz was speaking was the best place for him to be.

 I didn't even know there was goofy golf until I saw these when we got home- the camp is huge!

 This last one was from our drive home, we stopped in Kanab at The Junction.  We love the food there, and this sign was new from last year and we thought it was sooooo funny!

Aspen Grove Part 2...

Tuesday was a fun day.  After the kids classes and dinner we promised the boys we would take them fishing at the little pond there.  We missed out on the cowboy night but we had fun as a family.  

 Sarah was so willing to help the boys get started.

 Boss rarely sat still, but he was having fun watching everyone.

 Brenner really looked the part.

 Eventually we had a pretty big crew fishing.

 Braden looked like a pro.

 Jill, Kelcie and I became determined to catch a stinking fish.  We could see dozens of them and they WOULD NOT EAT OUR CHEESE.  We got more than a little frustrated.  In the end, no one caught anything but we had fun.

 Boston included.  Rusty was there too, but he was behind the lens. 

Wednesday I didn't take many pictures in the mornings and afternoons.  But this night we had Minute to Win It games in the amphitheatre.

 Braden volunteered for a game 

 We were the cheering section in the way way back.  The windows on the end were to our room and Becks room.

 Kelcie was playing Candy Crush like a boss...

 Jaci went up for a game too.

 Rusty kept the littles entertained on the badminton court. 

And when they weren't doing that they were entertained by all the huge boulders around.

Thursday, the last full day at Aspen Grove.  In the spirit of keeping it real, I have to say by this time I was so over being on vacation.  Three weeks being in the same small room with my kids was really hard on me.  So, I may have made a small break down that morning.  But on the plus side I was packed really early and could relax the rest of the day.

 Walking to the Water Follies that day I caught a glimpse of Jaci and Berk with their group.

 Braden and Rusty participated in the Water Follies.  The divided the pool into four areas and they had tasks for each one.  Our team name was Space Unicorns.  And some little boys made up a song too.

 Another glimpse of Berk

 This one was getting all the colored balls into the right colored hoop. We were smart enough to stack the hoops and put them all in one spot.

 This one they had to get Floaters and Sinkers.  Thank heavens Braden had his goggles, or we would have never found the last golf ball!

 Water dominos.

 They had to fill the bucket with a strainer, and everyone had to hold it.  We set a camp record.  8 seconds.  The next closest was over a minute.

 The best part was the syncro routine. I laughed and laughed.

Not sure if the video will play but if it does-- you're welcome.

 Closing assembly was fun.  Mer was cutting Ryan's hair, no big deal.

 As we picked up the kids for the last time we got pictures with their leaders.

 Braden didn't have to get 'picked up' so we didn't get one of him.  The last day we also wore our 2013 family shirts.

 Boss kept wandering around and sitting by Alison.

 The kids went on stage like they did the first night with their groups and did a song.  The whole night was very patriotic.  They also handed out awards.  Rusty was the only one to win the TP award.  At archery one day he hit a roll of toilet paper, and he did it twice.  No one else that week did.  He also got the award for Quarterman -he has pretty good aim with a rifle too.

After that all that was left was getting souvenirs at the shop and packing the last bit and we were finally ready to head home!