Have your cake and the icing too, lots of icing.

Today is my birthday and to celebrate I baked a chocolate cake. And since Audi does not like chocolate (I am having a DNA test run) I also baked vanilla cupcakes. I had to make vanilla icing for the cupcakes and left the extra on the counter in the mixing bowl. I planned to put it away, eventually. So I am in the living room cleaning up a mess and Audi comes in with a spatula full of icing. I assume it is what was left after scraping the bowl while mixing icing. I tell her to eat it in the kitchen and share with her sisters. Ten minutes later Audi returns with the spatula again and as I say "I thought I told you to eat that in the kitchen", I notice that the spatula is still full of icing. So I enter the kitchen, after taking the spatula away from Audi, and find Gabby and Juan standing on a chair at the counter and eating icing from the mixing bowl each with their own spoon. Now these kids had already had large pieces of cake, so the sugar buzz in this house will last for some time.

Audi, Gabby & Josie

The little darlings. Don't they look so innocent.

Juan enjoying his milk-free cake and icing.



Chino brought me roses for my birthday.

Juan in one of his BETTER moods.

He's so cute when he's mad!

Juan does not wake up ready for the day. He spends half an hour deciding if he wants to leave his crib. He acts like he wants out but will not allow you to remove him. A little music usually helps. He needs more room than a crib for dancing.

Gabby sleeping it off.

After a rough day in the pool a little rest is in order.

Audi the Super Model

I told Audi to strike a pose, but it looks like a strange dance or new exercise movements.

Josie the Amazing Fish Girl

Josie was flipping backward out of the floatie.

Josie dove through the little floatie. She is quite the swimmer.

This child has taught herself how to swim. The girls took lessons a year or two ago, but Josie couldn't even put her face under the water then. She has taught herself how to go under water without holding her nose AND with open eyes. Now Josie is teaching Audi to swim. This totally amazes me because I can not swim. We are considering a bigger pool next year.

Thinking Back

Josie at one month old.

Audi at one month old.

Gabby at one month old.

My trio top left Josie, top right Audi, bottom Gabby.

I took pictures each month with this doll to compare

size. The girls are one month here.

Here the girls are just over two months. It looks
like I may have had a nap.

Here the girls are three and a half months.

They are in bed with Papi, but they are not sleeping.

Thinking back to this time in my life is a blur. I was so sleep deprived that I often confused dream and reality. I would dream (during my fifteen minutes of sleep each night) of caring for babies. So it wasn't really restful. I would wake to find a baby in my bed and not know how it got there, or worse, I would wake and frantically search for a baby in the covers that I thought was there and wasn't. I would always find them safe in their cribs. Caring for three preterm infants was the hardest thing I have done so far in my life. With premies you have to wake them to be fed every four hours (every three hours the first month). You would have to force feed them the 3oz. bottle and try to keep them awake and eating. After a half hour you give up and go to the next one. I was also pumping milk at this time and that would take a half hour also. So you do the math. I'd spend two hours feeding and pumping, than take a two hour break for rest. Then I would start all over again. If nobody woke me up in that two hours. If I was lucky Chino would help out some nights. And my mother and sister would come over after work and care for the girls while I got an hour or two nap. I wouldn't do this again if you paid me.

I was dreading my fourth child's infancy, thinking of how it was with the girls. But he was full term and single birth so it was a breeze. Getting up twice a night was nothing. Of course he didn't completely sleep through the night until well over a year old. One at a time is the way to go.

Outside Play

The kids love to play outside. Our yard is great. It is big and contains lots of toys. I am sure the neighbors love us. We have two swing sets, a teeter totter, two little tike slides/clubhouse, a pool and a gator. What a mess. I guess the children are a little spoiled.

Boy with Dinosaur

Juan appears to be wrestling with his dinosaur. I am not sure who won the match.

First Day of School

Waiting for the bus.Boarding the bus.
One last good-bye.
Coming home.
Watch your step.
The girls had a great first day at school. Audi was actually first off the bus but had to go back on because she forgot her backpack. I guess she missed me and was in a hurry to tell me about her day.

Meet the Family

My name is Carie and I have been married to Chino for almost 10 years. (come October) We have four beautiful children together. I stay at home and Chino stays at work. We have triplet daughters that are 5 years old. (Audi, Gabby and Josie) We also have a 16 month old son. (Juan Tomas) I call him Juany. And I take a lot of slack from my friends for that name but it just comes out. The girls just started kindergarten so I am suppose to have a lot more time on my hands, but I haven't really noticed it. It is nice to clean a room and see it stay that way (until the little tornado's come home). And I have enjoyed shopping without all the "can I haves". But Juan is enough trouble to shop with all on his own. He shopped so well as an infant but alas it didn't last. Now he cries the entire Walmart trip and tries to climb out of the cart. I have people stop me and try to help out. They think he just wants out of the cart or held. If I take him out he throws himself to the ground and bangs his head on the dirty tile floor. And if I hold him he squirms and thrashes until I am holding on to nothing but his head.

Let me introduce the kids.

Audi is the first born (baby A). She is beautiful and intelligent and very badly behaved. The girls have been in schools for a month and I have heard from the principal personally twice already. The first time I received a call because Audi was acting up in music, again. School had only been in session for one week. I hadn't realized there had been a first time but this time she had run from the classroom screaming. Three adults chased her through the hallways while she laughed at them. The only response Audi gave was that music is boring! The next call came a week later. I thought it might be a follow up from the first problem but it wasn't. This time she stuck out her tongue at her speech teacher. The teacher told her to apologize and instead Audi spit, kicked and yelled at her. Audi spent the next hour in the principals office. We have gone almost two weeks without a call from the office! Yeah! It is the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.

Gabby was the second to be born (baby B). She is also beautiful and very active. She was our boy before we had a boy. She can climb anything and has an upper body strength I have never seen before. She has been able to do flips on the rings since she was 3 years old. She is a bit of a tomboy, but she wears a dress. Always. I can count on one hand the number of times she has worn pants since her 3rd birthday. The fancier the dress the better. She wore black velvet on her 5th birthday and begs on a daily basis to wear a fluffy thrilly dress that looks like a wedding cake. Gabby is really enjoying school. She comes home with "green lights" every day. That is the discipline system in her classroom. Red, green and yellow light. Her and Josie are in the same classroom. They are pretty much connected at the hip and have been since birth. Gabby can't make a decision. She weighs the pros and cons of every choice and spends a year picking out a candy at the store. She often just asks what she should pick. Of course, she usually picks the opposite of what I suggest.


Josie was the third triplet born (baby C). She is a wonderful little girl. She is very sensitive and kind, sweet, beautiful and well behaved (for the most part). Josie is out going but shy at times. She requires reassurance from her sister Gabby. (since they are attached at the hip and all) Josie comes home everyday and tells me about all the boys in her class. She especially likes a boy named Nick. They were in preschool together and he can do no wrong. She is the most boy crazy of the three. Josie makes friends easily. I think because she allows the other person to lead where that want her to go. At home it is a different story. She seems to lead the pack. She makes decisions for Gabby, and decides if they are to play with Audi that day. Josie was the first to figure out the swing. She loves swimming and can go completely under water and even do flips. Josie is also the best eater of the group. I have some picky kids when it comes to food.
And finally there is Juan Tomas. He is named for both his grandfathers. Some call him J T. But he is Juany to me. Juan is a great baby. He is so full of personality. He throws fits like Gabby, has Audi's intelligence and rocks like Josie. I am not talking about rock music. I mean he physically rocks when he is sitting down. It often also involves the banging of his head. It seems to be a comfort thing. Juan is very active. He climbs on everything and is very curious. He tries to figure out how things work. Juan loves when his sisters play with him or at least let him stay in the room they are playing in. He loves shoes and knows he needs them to go bye-bye and he always wants to go bye-bye. Until we get to where we are going. Then he is not happy. I guess he wants to be some place else. Juan waits for the bus every morning with the girls. He sits on a low window ledge and watches them leave. Then we go inside to watch Elmo. Juan loves music and dancing. He does little knee bends and thrusts one arm back and forth. He does it all with a big smile. I am having trouble getting Juan off the bottle. Hopefully he will not take it to kindergarten.