Happy 2nd Birthday Austen, Caitlen & Brooklen!
My babies turned 2 today.... ok, I think at age 2 they are no longer babies, but considered toddlers, but they are my babies, so I can always call them babies~ right?!! I cannot believe they are 2. Where has the last 2 years gone? How can they be 2?
It's so bittersweet because I'm sad that they are already 2, but it's so much fun watching them grow & learn sooooo much every day!! The time is just flying by & we are just trying to enjoy EVERY minute of it. Yes, even now that they are 2 and in the past two weeks have really learned to throw a temper tantrum!

Here are a few recent pictures.
This one was taken at my sister's house after Bailey's 1st communion brunch. You are looking at a VERY rare photo. What you are viewing is almost 2 year old triplets, sitting on the same couch, all sitting, no fidgeting, crawling away or screaming- So rare!
These are pictures from last month. One rainy afternoon I tried a home photo shoot. As you can see Austen wanted no part of it! Side note: his day hadn't started off the best. When I got them dressed & I put tights on the girls.... well, Austen wanted tights on too. I think D.J. was VERY thankful I only had 2 pairs of tights or he probably would have been wearing tights. I convinced him tights were just long socks for the girls & he got to wear short socks. Caitlen wanting to play outside. Brooklen posing so good for the camera. The girls giving each other a kiss.Coloring & reading at their table. They LOVE their table!

Flood Cleanup Update
**If anyone is interested in donating money to the flood relief fund, AEGON has set up a foundation. You can make a tax deductible donation to the flood relief fund established by the AEGON Transamerica Foundation. Your donations will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1 million!! Checks should be made payable to AEGON Transamerica Foundation and designated "Disaster Relief Fund". Donations should be mailed to Marie Swope, 4333 Edgewood Road N.E., M.S. 3430, Cedar Rapids, IA 52499. To qualify, they must be received by September 1, 2008.**

We'll they were all hard back at it all day today, cleaning & clearing out the house. D.J. said at times it's really hard to see so much gone, the memories tug at your heart strings. Sometimes you just have to stop & take a breath, but you can't think for too long or it's overwhelming. Today they tackled the basement & the garage.

They are coming to the conclusion that it's probably not worth repairing...... that's just so sad. I feel so sorry for them, all of them- Sharon has lost her home & almost all of her stuff. D.J. and Dusty are seeing their childhood stuff just ruined. Jon got into town today & was just shocked at the devastation. It's gotta be so hard to see such damage to your belongings. It is just so sad & unbelievable!

Below are some more pictures from yesterday. They cleaned out the whole main floor, all furniture, the carpet & the padding, everything!
Look at all this carpet & padding. D.J. said it was super heavy!

This is a picture of the porch.

The kitchen she pretty recently had redone with new tile & new appliances.

What was the livingroom.

The livingroom looking into the diningroom. What was beautiful hardwood floors underneath the carpet.

Flood Update
On Sunday, D.J. & Sharon stood in a line for 3+ hours & waited to be escorted to her home for someone to go in & inspect the home & so they could assess the damages, that didn't happen~ it didn't happen for anyone at her "checkpoint". Instead the inspectors waited until Monday & forced their way into the home by breaking down the door (see photo. It's hard to have someone purposely damage your home after the flood has already taken so much from you.)inspected the house, they then would mark the home in one of two ways. If the building ONLY has a sticker on the door, the Entry Team has completed their assessment. The owners can enter the house at their own risk. There still may be hazards that are dangerous and caution should be taken. If the building has a sticker AND is wrapped in crime scene tape, the building was determined to be unsafe to enter. They then posted the addresses of the homes that could be re-entered.


Well, Sharon's home was marked with a sticker, so this morning they entered at their own risk. What really upset me & D.J. is they broke into Sharon's home, put the home on a list of homes that homeowners could return to, but did NOT continue to police the area!!! Anyway, Sharon & D.J. were able to go through the house & are currently clearing out the main floor. The water level got about 2-3 feet on the main floor, which is a lot of damage. Just think how much of your stuff is 2-3 feet off the floor. All furniture, all drawers, a LOT of stuff.... pretty much everything! I believe they have about 7 or so people helping clear out the house, not sure if they are going to attempt the basement today. The basement still has a few feet of water..... they really need to be careful D.J. said at least 1/2 the houses in the neighborhood were determined unsafe. D.J. took a couple pictures of neighbors where their basement wall collapsed. It's hard to decide which is easier or harder- to have the whole house determined "unsafe" & just have it bulldozed down, or have to sift through all your belongings & see how ruined everything is. It's going to be long, hard, emotional weeks, months. Sharon was also interviewed by many news teams; CNN a couple different times & they were set up right outside her home and then local KWWL & I think local KGAN.

Here you can see how high the water went up on Sharon's home.It was so humid & warm in the home when they entered the camera lens fogged up. Here is a picture from the diningroom into the livingroom. The door from the livingroom out onto the porch. You can see how the wood is swollen & bubbled up, D.J. said it was REALLY hard to get opened! The diningroom & some of the toys our kiddos liked to play with at Nanna's house. Most of the toys just floated around. You can see the layer of filth on the chairs. A shot down the stairs to the basement. You can see how filthy the walls are! Here are a couple pictures of neighbor's basement walls that collapsed.

Flood 2008~ Historic Flooding

Hi~ I just wanted to blog quick to let those of you know, we are all alright here. As I believe most of the country knows, and as many of you have called us~ THANK YOU for all your thoughts & prayers! Here in Eastern Iowa, we are being hit hard by major, major flooding. It really is truly unbelievable, we are not only breaking flood records, but we are shattering them! It is a historic & catastrophic event. Unbelievable to say the least. The Cedar River (in Cedar Rapids) flood stage is set at 12 feet...it crested yesterday at 31.12 feet! The good news for CR is....it has been falling today.
This tragedy is hitting too close to home. Not only is it hitting cities we grew up in or close to, but it hit D.J.'s mom's (Sharon / Nanna) house. We are not sure of the damage yet, but we know it filled her basement & is on the main floor~ we are just hoping only a couple feet onto the main floor. Sharon received a phone call Wednesday morning at 4:00am that she needed to evacuate her home. She did as she was told & grabbed necessities. Her legal documents, valuables, pictures, medicines & clothing for a few days. She has been here with us for the past few days, watching the news~ that is all that is on, it's depressing, but also very hard to shut it off. Being here with us she does have some relief~ the kiddos that can make her smile & see the bright side of life. She is hoping to get to her house tomorrow to assess the damages & then we'll head in to begin clean up, which we know is going to be a very long & hard process, but we are all ok & everything else is material & can be replaced. Sharon has lived in her home for over 40 years & our blood, sweat & tears will put it back together once again. It'll be better than before!

Here are some photos DJ & Sharon got today. It was this morning they decided to drive as close to Sharon's house as they could & see things for themselves. They could only get pictures of the garage & one corner where you can see a couple of evergreen trees she has planted. You can see on the garage doors that the water is going down.

Here are some photos, most aerial views that I got off the internet. Like I said it is just truly unbelievable!

Here is an aerial view of Cedar Rapids.

Here is the Czech Slovak Museum, which is near Sharon's home.

Downtown Cedar Rapids

The Linn County Courthouse and May's Island are under water

Floodwater of the Cedar River surrounds the Quaker Oats plant

Here is a photo of Mercy Hospital, 8 blocks from the river. On Thursday night/Friday morning Mercy Hospital had to be evacuated. How do you evacuate a hospital~ unbelievable!!

I believe this is a photo of Interstate 80 that is closed due to flooding.

As for Iowa City, they are bracing for the worst. The Iowa River is expected to crest Tuesday. It looks like the University of Iowa, its residents, and businesses in the area will be hit hard!
The Coralville strip is under water yesterday, after a levee was breached Thursday night.

Water pours over the Coralville Reservoir spillway yesterday.

Just trying to sit down & write about it is very hard, sad, unbelievable! My thoughts & prayers go out to everyone touched by this horrific event. If you can, please get out and volunteer or donate. Many people are in need. Thank you!

You can go to KCRG for information to donate or volunteer.

Hi~

I know, I know & all I can say is.... Sorry! I'm a bad blogger =( I'll try to do better. Sometimes I just fall off the wagon, but I'm getting back up & trying to catch everyone up to speed with what we have been up to the past month or so.
THANKS for still stopping by & checking our blog.

Happy 10th Anniversary to us!
Today is our 10 year anniversary- WOW, 10 years.... that is a long time! I can say I don't think it feels like it's been 10 years, but then when I look back at all we have done, accomplished & enjoyed, we've done pretty good the past 10 years & I'm looking forward to 10+ many more.
Looking back, we have lived in 2 states, 6 cities, bought 5 houses (sold 4). We purchased a Harley & went on wonderful rides up through the Rocky Mountains. We took trips to Las Vegas, went to Lake Powell many times (some of our best memories!), went to Denver sporting events, went to many, many live concerts. Got to go on 2 super fun vacations with friends- one to Cancun and then a cruise to the Western Caribbean. We then decided to moved back closer to family & we had our 3 wonderful & oh, so precious children. I wouldn't change a thing!
I love you sweetie~ Forever!
Here is a picture of us on our wedding day & a picture today... I don't think we've changed a bit. (HA HA HA.....I really think DJ looks pretty much the same, but I look just a little older =)

We are celebrating with a weekend getaway to Wisconsin. I know it's not far or extravagant, we wanted to go on another cruise (we went on a cruise for our 5th anniversary & said we'd do it again in another 5 years) but times & money are tight, so we just headed up the road a few hours & spent the weekend with some good friends. We went out for dinner, did some shopping & just relax. Thank you very much Josh & Betsy for a GREAT weekend! We hope to see you again in a couple months.
This was our first time leaving the kiddos overnight- BIG, BIG step!!! My mom is watching the kiddos tonight & Sharon is watching them tomorrow. Both the mom's will be coming to our house to help keep the kiddos on schedule. A huge THANK YOU to the mom's for babysitting so we could have a weekend getaway.

Sesame Street LIVE~ Elmo Makes Music

We took the kiddos to see their first Live show; Sesame Street Live~ Elmo Makes Music & they just LOVED it!!! They love Sesame Street (started watching it sometime in January) & they love music. Oh, it was so much fun. Most of the show I just watched the kiddos faces. They just lit up seeing their favorite characters up on stage, so big & right there! It was great. We invited both our moms to go, Grandma & Nanna, which they did & they also enjoyed watching the kiddos faces. Special thank you to Nanna for the Elmo outfits, the kiddos looked too cute!

Here's a few photos of them before we left for the show.

Austen chillin in Daddy's chairCaitlen with Honey BearBrooklen with Dobby (favorite buddy)
Got to the show just a little early, so we enjoyed some juice & teddy grahams, to try to keep us in our seats until the show started. Snapped a few photos during intermission.
Photos from the show

Happy Mother's Day

Sending out a very Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother-in-law, my sisters, my sister-in-law & all my friends & relatives that are Mom's. I hope everyone has a special day & maybe gets sometime to relax. I know us mother's don't get much time to relax & spend some time on ourselves.
Enjoy your day!

March of Dimes / March for Babies

A BIG Thank you again to everyone who donated!! We collected $830! I think that is absolutely awesome! Next year our goal will be $1000!!

Unfortunately, we were unable to make it to either of our walks this year- bummer! The CR walk was April 27th at 7:00am & it's a 8 1/2 mile walk. We woke up to a pretty chilly morning & we didn't think it was a good idea to take the kiddos out in the cold. I know they say you don't catch a cold from being cold, but we've had our share of colds for the winter & I'm ready to be done with colds! D.J. & I thought about just us walking, but we didn't have a babysitter at such a late notice. We didn't think too much of having to miss since we were planning on walking the following weekend in DM on May 3rd. On Tuesday, April 29th my Grandma W. passed away and her funeral was held on May 3, so we didn't make that walk either. It was also a windy & chilly morning in DM on May 3, but most of our group made it for the walk. Here is a picture of our group minus us & one other family.