Mason's Day at Disney with Mom!

Well last Friday - February 18th Mason & I spent the day at Disney World with the Tancks (family friends) We had a GREAT time and hit 3 parks. We started off the day at Animal Kingdom and rode the safari ride which was VERY COOL, then the girls and I rode Everest which was a bit scary, but still cool. I'm just not a big roller coaster fan and this darn thing went backwards at one point which I DIDN'T know was going to happen! After Animal Kingdom we went to Hollywood Studios, rode Tower of Terror and the Toy Story Carnival ride which was really neat, Mason loved that one. After Hollywood Studios we headed to the Magic Kingdom, Mason's favorite park. He rode Splash Mountain (which we got stuck on for over 30 minutes) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. He loved both and was JUST over 40 inches and able to ride so he was excited. We shopped at the stores, saw the fireworks and the light parade and finally headed home about 9:30. Mason fell sound asleep in the stroller at 8:50 - he was TIRED. Here are a few pics from our day - sorry quality not great they were taken on my phone.

Mason & all his Mickey stuff Pam bought him - what a lucky boy!!

SOUND ASLEEP - rough day

Also this past Thursday we met Dave's sister Chris & brother in law Scott and our nephew Josh at Universal Studios at Nascar Grille for dinner. Dawn & Ava also met us for dinner. It was a good time, expect I wouldn't write home about the food - not all that great but I guess you are paying more for the experience than the food. The kids enjoyed the night together.

Sitting on a car outside the Nascar Grill!

Some pictures today - ENJOY!

My trio - getting too big
My girls!!!

What a sweet little face!

Kissy Face

Allie loved - Jas hated

This is what the "bus" looks like full!

I just love this picture!!!

Cute picture today!

Allie decided it would be a good idea to cry last night at 10PM and wouldn't stop! Melissa offered to take her in her room with her and let her rest by her and of course the little peanut went right to sleep and stayed their all night. Well when Melissa's alarm went off at 6:30 Allie figured it was time to get up too. So Melissa put her in the living room on this chair to watch Barney. The babies LOVE LOVE LOVE Barney - it's super cute! And made for a cute picture this cloudy, cold Friday AM. Here you go!

Missing when my babies were sooooo little!

I have been in this weird mood the past few weeks and am missing when my babies were soooo little! I do LOVE that they are growing up and doing so well, but I miss the little soft heads when they were first born, the small little cries, groans, coos, toothless grins, etc. Knowing that I am now having anymore babies is a bit sad sometimes. This past 17 months has just flown by and I feel I have missed some things - even though of course I haven't. So today I looked in the memory book and am posting some itty bitty pictures of my babes!

Oh and....I have met my 10 lb milestone! I have lost 10.8 lbs as of this morning! WAHOO :-)

First picture of all 3 babies together

Mommy's Little Girls

Tanner snoozing - so small

A sleepy Jasmine

Little Allie - look how big that BINKY is - and that stuffed animal is now not even as long as her arm!

The Wild Man Strikes Again aka Tanner

Well here is a small Monday post of my lovely Tanner the Wild Man. He is crazy and a DAREDEVIL. But a daredevil that WON'T walk! He will take 5 or 6 steps that is it. Driving me crazy. So check out the picture below and take a look at Jasmine cheesing in the background - what a silly girl.

We had a great weekend. It was sooo nice out! Saturday Dave and I cleaned most of the day and Mason & Lydia played outside in the morning. It was just a nice day. Then Saturday night Anita and Ron came for dinner to our house. We enjoyed the company and I think they enjoyed the little ones! Allie really like Anita - it was super cute!

Yesterday we hung out most of the day at home and after nap we went to the park in downtown Lakeland. They just redid it and it was very nice - the kids really enjoyed it and the weather was just great. After the park, we took the kids to BD's Mongolian Grill for dinner and of course they ate like pigs, they are such good eaters. It is soooo nice having Dave home now - I am thrilled he is back at Brighthouse and not on the road anymore it is just great!

We are also in the process of planning our summer vacation. We are going to rent a cabin for a week in Gatlinburg TN and enjoy the Smoky Mountains. We are so excited. We are going to bring Tara along for the week as well to help with the kids and then Dave and I are going to be able to go off on our own at night. It will be AWESOME!

On a final note - I have officially lost 8.4 lbs. Hoping to hit the 10 lb mark this week - then I will be rejoicing!

Morning Hair, Bottle Free & Tanner!!

Well let's see - it's now been a week since the babies had their last bottle! It's been a tough go at night and had some fussy times going to bed, but Mommy has prevailed and last night we had minimal crying at night!! Although Tanner & Allison have pacifiers at night at least we don't have bottles! And I'm not going back, I forgot how nice it was not to make bottles up anymore and wash all the nipples and everything. We are using only sippy cups and they are doing just fine with them.

I also am continuing my biggest loser at work - so far I am up to 7.4 lbs lost. Again not as much as I had hoped for but it's slowly coming off and I am sticking with it. Been going to the gym 2 to 3 nights a week to do hour long exercise classes. I really enjoy it and feel good after. I also am using this free website called myfitnesspal.com and it's great and actually some of the things are kind of like facebook. You log all your food, it gives you a calorie goal for the day, you enter the number of cups of water you drink, you get extra calories for exercise etc., and it tracks your weight loss. Try it out and if you do my username is stgorka so you can find me as a friend.

Oh and although Tanner can't walk too well yet (he's trying though) he is a crazy climber. Check out the picture below! And people wonder why he has bruises!!

And here is the picture of the day - Melissa sent me this yesterday AM gotta love the morning hair on Miss Allison.

Sniff Sniff

Okay so we reached a new milestone last night. One that I have mixed feelings about. Last night the babies went to bed without bottles!! We took bottles away at nap about 2 or 3 weeks ago and they did pretty well with the transition. Well I decided that last night was the night to give them a sippy cup at bed instead of a bottle. Well....you could say they were not too pleased....but overall they actually did pretty well. Jasmine drank her cup - Tanner and Allie didn't but decided to scream for awhile instead. I put them down about 8:10 and by 8:44 everyone was quiet and asleep so 34 minutes. And at about 8:34 only one of the girls was still fighting it, I think it was Allison, but I'm not 100% sure their cries sound so much alike!

On the other hand, Mom had a bit of a harder time with it. Inside I was pretty sad knowing that my babies are really no longer babies anymore. They have entered the "toddler world" and I am having a hard time wtih this. They have just grown up WAY to fast! Since they turned a year it seems like the last 4 months have literally just flown by and they have reached milestone after milestone between the blink of my eye. I didn't have these feelings with Mason since I knew we would be having another baby, but since we had the triplets we will no longer be having anymore babies and taking away the bottles, the last of the baby stage, was a little sad. But - when I am able to get rid of diapers I will be rejoicing - definitely won't be sad.

On another note - I will be 30 in exactly 6 MONTHS!! Yesterday was my 1/2 birthday, so I officially closer to 30 than 29! AHHHHH

Oh one more thing!! TANNER TOOK STEPS LAST NIGHT! Quite a few actually. I think he will be walking officially in 2 weeks or less!

Ok that's about it for now - I wish everyone well and pray that Mom can keep the bottles away in the garage LOL!

Our newest Addition

Ok I just realized I haven't posted any new pictures of our newest addition Jessie. She is our beagle puppy who is 100% crazy, has lots of energy, is a big dork, but also fits in just fine with the Gorka Family.

Introducing Miss Jessie - born Oct 22, 2010 and joined our family on December 23rd, 2010.

Pictures Today and small post

Well it's now January 17th - and we had our first "Biggest Loser" weigh in here at work. I am officially down 5.2 lbs. Not as much as I wanted, but I am still happy that I have lost some weight. If I can lose 5 lbs every 2 weeks overall I'd be happy. We now have a family membership at the YMCA and I have been working out 3-4 times a week which I am actually enjoying. I am doing Zumba class and this week I am going to try the kickboxing class - should be fun. I have done kickboxing before in college and had a good time with it, so I am excited.

Also - our little Tanman is still NOT walking! He gets very frustrated when we make him try to walk. I just don't get it - he's got the strength to do it he just doesn't have the confidence. The babies are now 16 months old, 14 months adjusted age. Allie has been walking for almost 3 months, Jasmine for 2 months, COME ON TANNER!! Your time has come :-)

Below are some LONG PAST DUE pictures! Some are from Mason's birthday and the others from the holidays. I have another goal this year - to take MORE pictures. I have been slacking lately and NEED to get better about that!

Waiting to see Santa!! Don't we look thrilled?


Also waiting to see Santa :-)

Bring on Thanksgiving DINNER

It's PRESENT TIME!

Look at my cool cake!!!

I can make webs just like Spidey!

Happy NEW Year!

Well I want to begin by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! I hope 2011 brings great things for everyone. We have been doing well here in FL. Our family had a great Christmas and are now off and running on 2011 and hoping this year brings great things to our family as well. 2010 was an up and down year for us and I am hoping for better things in 2011.

So - first off our Christmas was a good one. My parents flew in on December 21st and stayed till the 27th. It was a nice visit and great to see them. Unfortunately, my Mom had a decent cold that kind of brought her down, but she still had fun and enjoyed seeing the kiddos. Christmas morning brought lots of gifts for the kids under the tree. It was fun seeing them open them and the excitement on their faces - ahhh the magic of Christmas. I think Christmas will be an awesome time in our family for awhile with all the kiddos!

On December 24th my little boy Mason turned 4!! I can't believe he is 4 already. Time FLIES. We had his birthday party on Dec 10th at Backyard Adventures and it was truly a SUCCESS. He had his 4 year old check-up on Tuesday and he is healthy as a horse HA HA. He weighs 39 lbs and is 41 inches tall. Puts him in 70% for weight and 60% for height. He did great identifying colors, letters, and shapes for the doctor and answered all her questions perfectly!

So - here are the plans and goals for 2011 that we have planned.

#1) Grow Dave's business and obtain more steady customers. He had a rough November and December, but that is always the slow time for many businesses so we are hoping January has more work! It's tough when you are self-employed when jobs are down, but we have good things on the horizon so we are hoping for the best.

#2) Lose WEIGHT! Dave & I are both on a diet and are really going to try to stick with it. My company is having a "Biggest Loser" competition at work which helps with motivation. The girls in my office are participating as well so lunch is soooo much easier with less temptation! We weighed in on Monday AM and so far I'm down 5 lbs WAHOO!

#3) Exercise! We upped Mason's Y membership to a family membership. Tonight Dave is going to use the machines and Melissa and I are going to try Zumba class. And yes - I will be the one in the back row hoping to not look like a fool! haha. I'm excited though. And the nice thing about the YMCA is they have kid care for free while you work out! So Dave & I can both go and not have to hire a babysitter - BONUS!

#4) Get Tanner to WALK! Hopefully this one will be accomplished in the next 2 months. He has the strength to do it, but I believe lacks confidence to take those first steps. We have been working hard on this. People have to remember though - that we did have triplets who were 8 weeks EARLY. Development issues may pop up here and there for the babies, we just work on them, and hopefully conquer them one by one! If he doesn't walk in a month or so - we will have to have Early Steps come and do some therapy with him, but let's hope that it won't come down to that.

I guess that's about it for now - I will post some pictures soon! I promise. Everyone is growing SOOO fast!