Denver Vacation- Part One
Our 1st family vacation!! The drive out was pretty good considering how long the kiddos had to be stuck in their car seats. We figured it normally would have been about 12 hours in the car & it probably ended up being 15 with all the stops- about 30 minutes each stop! Ugh, trying to take the girls into the bathrooms and Brooklen is SCARED to DEATH of the toilets flushing and the hand dryers. At our last stop I didn't even make her go she was crying & I thought it's not worth that!! I don't want her to be scared & have any potty regression. We stayed overnight in Lincoln, NE. Most rooms were booked because of a bunch of construction going on so we didn't get the best place... it was a motel, not a hotel- I just don't like motels, kind of creep me out!! Austen maybe slept 2 hours in the motel. Just out of routine & missing his room. He has continued to struggle with naps & bedtime. It was just so different, we were all in the same room & the kiddos are in sleeping bags (ready beds- they had a blow up mattress in them, pretty cool) but Austen is so use to being in his own room, by himself. Every night he has crawled into bed with me for at least a 1/2 hour, if not the whole night & then he has been up at 6:00am I think every morning!!!


Saturday: We got into Denver on Saturday night, we ate some dinner and then just drove around our old neighborhoods until it was almost time for Traci, Steve & Brady to get home. (We are staying with one of my best friends & they were just getting back from a vacation in CA- I know, how nice to come home from vacation & have people waiting for you-- THANK YOU Traci!!) We just unloaded some of our stuff & chilled on Saturday night.

Sunday: we relaxed from the drive. We just hung around, played in the backyard and went on a walk to play at a park. Then Sunday evening we went to a BBQ at Traci's neighbors who had a small kiddy pool & a nice swingset to help entertain the kiddos!! My friends Katie & Kenny drove up from south Denver to visit with us before Katie had to go out of town most of the week. Thank you sooo much for driving up Cuz (I know it was a long drive), it was so good to see you!!!

Monday: we got up & drove to the Denver Downtown Aquarium. It was great and the kiddos had a wonderful time!! We saw all kinds of fish, sharks, stingrays & even a tiger! Then we went to play at "Sharky's Play Zone" a kid play zone & there weren't many kids playing so we just hung out & played away!! Unfortunately both of my camera batteries were low, so we didn't get many pics ;(
Tuesday: it was going to be a cloudy & rainy day so we decided it'd be a good day to just take it easy. We got up leisurely and then went to a couple of scrapbook stores- yep, I got to visit Archiver's Westminster, one of the stores I use to work at- store still looks great! Then I went out for a couple of drinks with my friend Noelle. It was great to see her & catch up a bit!

Getting ready for vacation!!
Oh goodness it is hard to plan, pack & get ready for a vacation, but we are tryin to get ready. We are getting ready for our first family vacation!!! I'm so ready, but not "ready"!! Still doing laundry, trying to lay out all the stuff we need to take, checking my lists (sounds like Santa!) Trying to pack some new toys for the kiddos to play with in the car to help keep them occupied!! We are hoping to leave tomorrow afternoon, after DJ gets home from work & we get the van loaded.
I might try to do some posts while we are gone.... I know that is wishful thinkin, but I'll try ;)
Anyone have helpful hints for kiddos on a long car ride, please pass along!!

Getting ready for the kiddos first dentist appointment! Everyone is up, we are all dressed, we've eaten breakfast, we've brushed our teeth & we'll head out in about a 1/2 hour. I really hope it all goes well. I'm not expecting for the dentist to actually be able to do anything besides maybe get a smile & open wide from each..... I'm really just hoping for no tears!
Wish us luck.

March of Dimes / March for Babies 2009
Thank you everyone who donated, we made our goal of $500, we raised $510!! Hooray!!
We did get up & did some of the walk in CR this morning. It wasn't the best weather, but it never rained on us & it was warm (really not too hot or too cold) The CR walk is an 8.5 mile walk that starts at 7:30am! Anyway, we got there right about 7:30 and headed out. We started pulling all 3 kiddos in the wagon and then they took turns walking. The kiddos did great & we probably walked about 2.5 miles. Then we went back to the start and let the kiddos play in the jump house for a bit and headed home. I'm a little bummed, I didn't take any pics of the kids, I'll try to remember next year. Thank you again everyone who donated, this is a cause close to our hearts & we appreciate it!

Hi everyone!! It's that time of year again. We are hoping to walk in two 2009 March of Dimes "March for Babies" this year. We plan on doing the Cedar Rapids walk on April 26th & then maybe the Des Moines walk on May 2nd. The walk in Des Moines will be our 3rd year with team H.O.P.E. (Helping Other Preemies Excel). If anyone is interested in walking with us in either walk, let me know and I can get the information for you.

For anyone who does not know, March of Dimes funds research to help prevent premature births and help premature babies. This is such an important cause for us since our babies were born prematurely. When I was pregnant with the triplets I went into the hospital for preterm labor and an incompetent cervix at 23 weeks (it was three years ago, April 10th. Oh gosh, just thinking back that was such a very scary time for us! Yes, I'm crying right now just thinking about it), at that time I had an emergency cerclage and was given the Surfactant steroid shot to help the babies lungs develop (the research that was done to make the Surfactant steroid shot was funded by the March of Dimes) I was then in & out (mostly in) of the hospital for the next 3 weeks and then home on strict bedrest with a monitoring system for almost 3 months to give our babies time to grow and develop. The end result of all that hard work are our 3 beautiful and healthy toddlers that were born at 33 weeks gestation (7 weeks early, on June 18th) and only needed about 2 weeks+ in the NICU to learn to eat and grow. If the physicians and medical community had not had the knowledge and skills that they did, I don't know that we would have been so lucky.

Please come walk with us or give a donation to help other families have happy endings too!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/Ernbergertriplets

Come see our blog for pictures of the kiddos and see what they are up to and into!
http://www.ernbergerfamily.blogspot.com/
Thank you!
Kristi, D.J., Austen, Caitlen & Brooklen

Potty Training
ok.... here we go... I'm going to give this a shot! I'm all prepared, I'm all ready- now, let's hope the girls are ready to potty train! I'm tired of changing diapers!!
I bought the book- How to Potty Train in a Day (my friend Wendy had good luck with it, so I thought I'd give it a try!), I got the girls some new underpants & I've got a plan. I'm going to start with C & it'll be just me & C for the day. DJ is taking B to my mom's & A to Nanna's house, then he's going to run some errands so Mom & C can have some dedicated potty time. Then C gets mom & dad for the wknd to herself! How fun! Then next wknd it's B's turn. Then I'll add A when I think the girls have the potty stuff down a bit! This is going to work!! This is going to work!!
The hard part for me is......if you notice a certain letter a lot in the above paragraph-- the letter I..... the hard part is-- I really have no control over this! It is up to the girls.... so, I'm ready & I sure hope they are!!! Wish us LUCK!!

Hot Chocolate Incident :)

To start, we went outside to play in the snow this morning. We ran all over the back yard- fence to fence. Threw snow at each other. It was a lot of fun, but then we got chilly and it was time to come inside & time for Hot Chocolate & a snack!
We ventured out a bit more and had the Hot Chocolate in an open cup..... as you can see, we need to work a little more on the open cup idea :)

Playing Dress Up....

Above we have Prince Austen Charming (yes, in the spiderman outfit! I gotta get him something to "dress up" in so he has something to choose from other than dresses!!)

Princess Caitlen Jasmine and Princess Brooklen Aurora. Those are the names they have given each other =) check out the cute princess shoes!

Merry Christmas~

Santa came!!Here are a few picture of the kiddos Christmas morning opening gifts. Yes, they love their Santa & Mrs. Santa hats and just had to wear them =)The girls enjoying their trikes and princess shoes.

Our backyard Winter Wonderland & Hot Chocolate!!
All bundled up and ready to head outside.

I was trying to wait for it to warm up a bit, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so we'll just take what we get and bundle up! (boy, does it take a long time to bundle 3 kiddos up!!)
The snow wasn't too deep, but we did do a lot of falling and tried to make some snow angels.

Austen struggling to get up in the snow, it's hard bundled up! "I can't put my arms down"
Caitlen, oh so cute
Brooklen enjoying herself! She LOVES it outside!! She would have stayed out all day- no matter the temp. Austen isn't a fan of the cold weather and snow, he was the first to want to come in. So, me & Austen headed inside to make some Hot Chocolate for everyone to enjoy. We've been watching The Polar Express (oh, the kiddos LOVE it!!), so while we were enjoying Hot Chocolate we sang the song "Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate"