Q. How many Crist kids can you fit in a tub?

A. All of them...
barely!
























JP didn't want to be left out of bath time last week, so he joined his siblings. I think he's figured out quickly that it's much more enjoyable to take a private bath! I also have decided that giving baths is my least favorite thing about having multiples. I make Ryan sit in one of the chairs now because he would not sit down in the tub at all. Also, when they are all out of the tub and in their bedroom, it is chaos trying to get each one to sit still and get a diaper & pjs on.

Ryan & Madison have learned a new trick this week, how to adjust the volume on their fishy toys attached to the cribs. JP likes to go into their room in the morning, and at first I thought he was turning up the sound. Nope, one afternoon during nap, I could hear it very loudly & realized that Ryan is pretty crafty. Poor JP, he's going to automatically get blamed for everything!

The babies got their last RSV shots on Wednesday and the clinic said they have a feeling they won't need them next year. We are so grateful we qualified for them this year and escaped winter with only 1 shared cold among them.

Madison is starting to make some improvements in getting around. She had learned how to slide around on her stomach & then will turn around and scoot on her back. She also learned how to sit up in her crib this week. Hopefully she keep figuring it all out and be able to catch up with her brother & sister shortly. Both Ryan & Caitlin are getting pretty good at climbing the stairs. I purchased a VCR & DVD guard at Babies R Us as well as some more cabinet locks. Its amazing that we never had to use these things with JP.

We've been enjoying the spring weather and trying to get the babies outside on walks during the day and to play in the backyard with big brother in the afternoon. I realized that with my almost 40lb stroller and 60lbs in babies I get quite a workout. They're my personalized exercise program!
























JP pretending to get Ryan with his water gun. Of course Ryan wanted to follow him all around the yard.




All of them love to eat the rocks. I am constantly picking Ryan up and taking him away from the rocks.
















Caitlin






















Maddi- the thinker.



















Notice Ryan trying to follow JP out the back gate.


























Having fun on a warm day.

Big Trouble

And will the Real Photographer please step forward?

I take so many pictures around here I sometimes think that I don't need to have them professionally taken also. But, we did it for JP and I'm so glad we chose to have professional shots of the babies taken as we get ready to celebrate their 1st birthday. As Joe tells me, "They're only little once."

They turned out so great & there is even a surprise one we used for their 1st birthday invites!

Here's the link to copy & paste of our proofs: sallycphotography.com/images/#/crist/

It's only online until April 27th, so check them out!

11 Months Old

Wow, 11 months old. My babies are getting big! The party plans are starting to take shape & pretty soon they'll be called toddlers!





This past month has brought about lots of changes. Both Ryan & Caitlin have become pretty quick crawlers & if they see something that interests them, i.e .an open dishwasher, open refrigerator or Daddy's office door, they will be there in a flash. Ryan has been pulling himself up on just about anything he can making us very nervous. Just today, Caitlin started pulling herself to standing also. Poor Maddi is left in the dust by these two. She's starting to try and get in the crawling position, but just doesn't have it figured out yet.

Ryan started making sounds this month. He can say da-da pretty well. Caitlin can say da-da, mama & Caiti. She's also mimicked a few other words, but doesn't say them all the time. Madison can say da-da. She leads the pack with 3 teeth, Caitlin & Ryan have 2.

To hear these 3 laugh together is the best sound in the world. They play games with pulling binkies or each other's hair and laugh & laugh. But if someone steals a toy, watch out- we all hear about it. Caitlin & Madison sit on the floor and turn themselves in circles on their butts. Caitlin uses this move when Ryan comes to try and steal something from her- pretty cute!

Big brother is having more fun with them also. One night after Ryan was crawling all over him, pulling his hair and laughing, JP came up to me and told me he had the best time playing with Ryan. It was so great to hear!

Quick note about JP. We met with the orthodontist this week & it looks like he will be getting a lower retainer back on. The chin guard didn't seem to be helping as much as they would like, so we're going to go back to the retainer to try and get his top teeth better aligned over his bottom. They are so impressed about how great JP does dealing with all of this. He had to wear the chin guard almost 24/7 the past 2 weeks and I never heard him complain. What a trooper!

Today I played photographer. The girls have had tutu's that we forgot to use when the "real" photographer came last month, so I decided to try them out!








Caitlin:

Madison:

Happy Easter 2009!

Today was such a nice family day. I was woken up (out of a wonderful, deep sleep) at 6:20 by JP telling me he looked out his window and saw some eggs outside! Could he go see if the Easter Bunny had brought him anything? I said sure! (and tried to get another 5 minutes in). He was soon back telling me he had and that the Easter Bunny had brought candy for the babies! We had talked about the babies not being able to eat candy yet. I said the Bunny probably didn't know and I would help eat it :) :) **sneaky, yes I know!

The babies were soon up and everyone had fun checking out their baskets. JP is the perfect age for this. All day long he kept telling me things about the Easter Bunny. When we were getting ready for church, I told him I had something to give him him too. He replied "I knew you did", with a big smile on his face. I then gave him some new socks and underwear. Later I asked him if that's what he thought I was going to give him- I assumed he thought I would give him a toy. He said yes it was because last night the Easter Bunny came up and whispered in his ear while he was sleeping that I would be giving him socks and underwear!

Of course, JP wanted to go outside hunting for eggs right away. When I told him we couldn't look until after church, we quickly moved up our mass time from the 10am to the 8am! Joe & I figured there was no easy way to take the babies out on this cold day, so JP and I went alone. When we returned, Daddy had the babies ready for a nap and had baked our overnight Pecan French Toast- yum!

I think JP wanted jelly beans for breakfast instead. He was having so much fun emptying his "loot" from his egg hunt!

The rest of the day, we spent just hanging out. Joe was doing his best to catch The Masters on TV along with watching the kids while I cooked dinner. JP was eager to test out his new sidewalk chalk, even on this cold day. The babies did some new things today also. I discovered Maddi now has a 3rd tooth. She is also getting much closer to crawling, which will be a very good thing given how vocal she is about being unhappy she cannot. Ryan learned to crawl up steps today. Looks like we may need another baby gate soon! And Caitlin should be able to pull herself up to standing any day. Ryan does this on anything and everything. He's gotten quite a few bruises along the way!

We hope everyone had a fun day with their families. Here are some more shots from Easter. I tried to do a slideshow on Photobucket, not sure if I like it or not. If it goes too fast, you can stop & do one pic at a time.

http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g301/jhc4963/triplets/?action=view&current=4b166ef0.pbw

The Kids..Sepia Style

I decided to test out the Sepia tone coloring mode on my camera today....




Who needs a dog? After each meal the babies love to go after the scraps!

Do we think big brother is going to teach them any things they should Not be doing?

So happy with his one tooth!

This is how Caitlin looks 90% of the time.

Sweet Maddi, she's the baby doll.

Fun in the kitchen.

Cute girls