Cute Pics Today

As promised here are some cute pictures of the kiddos. Sorry I haven't been posting as many pictures lately - I have just been busy. So here you go - enjoy. They are getting SOOOOO big !!

Just got done eating dinner

Tanner Loves his Sissy's

Playing on the Floor

Last Picture with Jordan & Ben :(

Mason @ the Park

3 screaming babies at Publix

Well I know I normally write all the good and sweet things that the babies do each and every day which gives most folks a vision of 3 perfect little angels that never cry or fuss. Well I have to say this isn’t always the case and last night was proof of that! Dave & Mason went to the airport to go get Grandma Gorka who came down for a visit for a couple weeks and Melissa & I stayed with the babies. Well we decided we needed baby food and cereal so we loaded up and headed to Publix. Usually this is a very unordinary trip and nothing too exciting. Well the babies had other ideas this time. Instead of sitting sweetly and enjoying the ride in the shopping cart they decided it would be more fun to scream and cry. So – we were those people in the store with 3 crying babies. By the time we got all the food we needed and headed to the checkouts they were still crying – all 3 of them! Therefore, I said I would keep one in the store and check out and Melissa hauled the other 2 outside to the van. And then – it was peace and quiet (well for me at least) Melissa still had the 2 screamers. The thing that is hard sometimes is that when one starts crying the other 2 usually like to join in. Oh well – that’s the joy of triplets!

We did however accomplish one thing at Publix we bought Tanner some baby food with meat in it. This was Grandpa Millers idea!! He said maybe Tanner is so hungry because he needs some protein and some meat and potatoes. I figured anything was worth a shot to get him to sleep all night without a bottle. So we fed him a vegetable beef dinner last night and he slept an extra hour and a half and ate at 4 instead of 2:30. I’ll take an extra hour and a half!! 4 is better than 2:30! Let’s hope adding this to his diet each day will help keep him full.

Yesterday was also a fun day because the babies came for a visit to my office!! More information and pictures to follow later today or tomorrow!!

Dinner with Jeanne & Ken

Tonight was a fun night!! We invited Jeanne Smith and her husband Ken over for dinner at our house. Jeanne was the triplets favorite NICU nurse :-) She was truly amazed to see how big the kids have gotten. Beth, Michael, Peyton, & Jackson also came over. Peyton & Jackson were also in the NICU for awhile and the twins had Jeanne as one of their nurses as well. However, instead of cooking dinner with 5 babies around we decided to order pizza's instead - a MUCH easier choice with 5 babies & a 3 year old in the house. It was so nice to see Jeanne and meet Ken - we had a good time!!

Tomorrow we are going to take the babies swimming for the first time - we are so excited. I bought the girls their first bikinis!! They are just way to cute!! I will take plenty of pictures and post them tomorrow.

That's about it for now. House is cleaned up, babies fed and sound asleep in bed. Time for Mom & Dad to catch a few zzzzz's as well!!

Oh and on another note Jasmine & Allie slept all night last night!! Come on Tanner time to follow suit!!

Kudos to Jordan on my Blog Makeover

Okay thanks to Mrs. Jordan Smelser my blog has been completely made over. It went from dull and boring to exciting and colorful!! It will definitely give me the motivation to keep up my blogging so everyone can "Keep up with the Gorka’s" It’s not easy to do!!!

On Sunday we have to say goodbye to Jordan & her hubby Ben. We have known Jordan & Ben now since Mason was just 14 months old – shortly after we moved down to Florida Jordan answered a Craigslist ad for us looking for a babysitter for Mason. She had tons of experience with kids and was a perfect fit for a babysitter so Dave & I could get out every now ad then. After about a year though she moved back to New Hampshire (their home state) to be closer to family. Well we kept in touch and when I found out the big news about the triplets Jordan was on my list to tell all about it because I know she has been a nanny for several sets of twins and LOVES multiples. It just so happened that she was moving back to Lakeland for awhile while Ben finished school. Shortly after the babies came home from the NICU Jordan & Ben came over 2-3 nights a week to help with the kids and give us a break and keep our sanity with all the work that is involved with taking care of triplets and working full time as well. They would come around 7 or so, play and love on the kids, feed them and get them to bed. That would allow Dave & me to get to bed early so we could get some straight sleep before the first night time feed would come up. It worked out GREAT and they were both awesome with the kids. They will truly make GREAT parents some day and all of their kids will be blessed to have them as parents!! They are leaving though to pursue new adventures back home in New Hampshire. Ben is graduating and has landed a great job in Boston and they will be starting the next chapter in their lives. We wish them the best of luck in the future and want to thank them tremendously for everything they have done for us. You both have truly been life savers and we will miss you greatly!!

THANK YOU JORDAN & BEN!!!

Top 10 List of Updates

Long past due update

I again apologize for the lack of blogging!! I am just so darn busy I just don’t get the time!! I promise I will take some cute pictures tonight and post them!! But for now I will post an update of what’s been going on in the Gorka household in a Top 10 list.

#1 All 3 babies can now roll over from front to back and back to front – we have been waiting on this one for awhile
#2 All 3 babies are VERY close to sitting up alone. Allie has pretty much got it down, J & T can do it for awhile then tip over, but if you put a boppy behind them sit up just fine.
#3 Tanner is still a pig and insists on getting up anywhere between 2AM and 4AM for a 7oz bottle – seriously – he is 7 ½ months old!! How can he be so hungry. He eats 3 meals of food a day and a snack along with bottles. He is going to be a BIG boy!
#4 Allison has slept through the night consistently for 7 days now!! She eats at 9, is asleep by 9:30, then eats again somewhere between 6:30 and 8AM!!
#5 Jasmine sleeps most of the nights if I can get in there quick enough to grab Tanner and feed him before he awakes his precious sissy!! The nights I am tired – sometimes makes this a task then J wants to get up and have a bottle too. I have found that if I feed Tanner in the living room – sissy doesn’t hear him drinking his bottle then doesn’t wake up.
#6 Cutting my coupons last week and using my Southern Savers site I was able to spend $97.00 at Publix and saved $88.00!! I also bought 2 large packs of Pampers at CVS for $27.48 (the cost of 1 box is normally $20.99 at Wal-Mart)
#7 Mason quit Karate – he lasted 3 classes and then said he did not want to go anymore – we are now going to try swimming lessons.
#8 Mason is now hungry 24/7 – he has realized how good snacks are and is constantly asking for them!! He eats his dinner and then wants more – he is a GROWING boy. Any suggestions to stop getting him from asking for snacks ALL THE TIME!!!
#9 We planned a trip to WI on July 1st – July 11th. The babies will be baptized at my parents church in Whitelaw and we will be relaxing all week!! Can’t wait!!!
#10 Life continues to be CRAZY busy all the time – but that is what we are used to now and we are getting closer and closer to our 1 year mark!! The trips will be 8 months old on May 8th!! Can anyone believe it???

Identical Twins???

Well I gave in and decided to do the DNA test on the girls to see in fact if they were identical. I didn’t tell Dave I was going to do it because I wanted to surprise him. So I ordered the home kit online and I found it for $99 which is a great deal for the test. I saw others range from $150-$300 so for $99 I was sold. It was a very easy test to do. The kit came with 2 envelopes and 2 cotton swabs. All we had to do was rub the inside of each of the girls cheeks with the swabs for 20 seconds, label the envelope with each girls’ name and information, and put it back in the envelope, send it back to the lab, and sit and wait. It took about a week and I got the email from them with the subject "DNA RESULTS" I was so excited to open the email. I really didn’t care if they were identical or not, but to not know this was driving me crazy. So I open up the email and there was an attachment. I opened the attachment and it showed a list of several different numbers and then two columns next to the list with numbers in each column. As I scanned down I noticed the numbers were matching in each category and in the 3rd column it said match. I was getting more excited. As I finished reading I came upon the conclusion on the bottom which read the following.

Conclusion:
In order for two siblings to be "identical twins" they must share an exact DNA profile. The results of the DNA test indicate that these two individuals share identical DNA profiles. This outcome confirms that these two individuals are monozygotic twins (identical twins).

Sure enough my predictions were correct!! My little girls are in fact identical twins. So now that this test is complete I know the following. I was in fact supposed to have twins (a boy and a girl) and then God decided I needed one more baby and the girl egg split in half. I guess this is more believable to me though that an egg split because I wasn’t understanding how I could have produced 3 eggs at once. So I only actually had 2, maybe I’m not as big of a freak as I initially thought.

All is said and done that and I have to say I wouldn’t change having triplets for the world. Yes my life is chaotic most of the time, but every minute is so worth it. They are awesome and I love each of them more than you can ever know and each in their own individual way. They are 100% perfect, healthy, and the sweetest babies in the whole wide world. Thank you Jesus!!!

Just pics today Jasmine asleep on my lap!!

The ladies!

Everyone is looking WOW

Before everyone was looking

Look at the smiles on those babies!!

Party in Jasmines crib

Sweet Big "Bubby"

Okay let’s see it’s been almost a week since my last post and I promised I’d post once a week so here we go. This week we will give an update on our big brother Mason. I have to say Mason still continues to steal my heart each and every day. He is just a very sweet and kind hearted little boy. He makes me laugh each and every day and is just 100% perfect!! Also he is the BEST big brother in the world. He now refers to Tanner as his little "bubby" and he is the big "bubby" Also – if I accidently put a pink blanket on Tanner in the morning Mason makes darn sure it doesn’t stay that way. He says Mommy – Allie or Jasmine has Tanner’s blanket!! Then immediately walks over to switch them. He makes sure each baby has their own blanket. I think I need to find someone who embroiders though so I can put their initials somewhere on the blankets since the girls have the same blankets and when they get older we don’t want to mix them up!! Each morning when Mason wakes up asks if the babies are still sleeping and if he can go give them a kiss. It’s absolutely adorable. Currently, Mason is enjoying the Jungle Book movie, Wonder Pets, Diego, & Dora and enjoys playing outside. He asks a zillion times a day if he can go outside no matter if it’s 40 degrees or night time. He also LOVES to get mail so if anyone wants to send him a note he’d love you forever.

Other than that not much else to report. Dave & I are actually going to sneak away this weekend for some "couple time" We are so excited. Dave has 3 couples coming in from Wisconsin and we are going to Cocoa Beach on Thursday and St. Augustine on Saturday. It should be an awesome time. However – I will miss the kiddos greatly, but will enjoy some nice long nights of sleep without having one ear open for a baby monitor. Melissa is so awesome – she’s watching all 4 kids for the weekend!!! Let’s hope they behave for her!!

Pictures Pictures Pictures

We had a Photo shoot on January 31st - sorry for the late post ;-) The photographer did a great job and the best thing was she did it our house!! This weekend was good. The babies got out quite a bit. Melissa & I took Jasmine & Tanner to Brandon on Saturday for a trip to Once upon a Child. We put them in umbrella strollers and they LOVED them!! ;-) Then we went out to eat and the babes were so good. Ally stayed home and got some Grandma time and Mason went to the jumpy park with Daddy. It was a good Saturday.

Miss Jasmine

Ally

Mason & Oscar

Tanman ;-) Otherwise known as Tanner

Mr. Mason

Brothers

Tanner again

The "Foursome"

New Jammies

Tuckered out after a day of shopping!! He was exhausted. Wouldn't even stay awake for his bottle - he was like a dead weight. It was pretty cute!

2 Ear Infections = less sleep for Mommy & Daddy

Well we have survived our first 2 ear infections – they started out as colds a week or so back. The colds just weren’t going away and after a few nights of little sleep we decided it was time to take them in. After going through many ear infections with Mason they are pretty easy to diagnose for us. If they wake up screaming at night – that usually means it’s more than a cold. Dave took Ally in last week and sure enough ear infection and she got some medicine. However – please note giving a 5 month old medicine is NOT easy and the whole put it in her cheek and let it run down their throat does not work!! They scream so loud and then end up not being able to catch their breath. Not good!! So after a few tries Melissa said to try and put it in a nipple and let her suck it out – well it worked great!! However, she still didn’t like the taste and after a few tries caught onto that quickly and wasn’t liking it. This was the same day Jasmine ended up going to the Dr because again Mommy though she now developed an ear infection – the 2AM screaming fit gave it away. Sure enough she did and she got medicine too. Well Jasmine simply REFUSED to take her medicine, cried, turned blue, and I had to pat her back to get her to breath so giving her the medicine was obviously not going to work. Then Melissa & I thought well why don’t we ask the pharmacy if we can put it in her milk, and sure enough we could!! I wish we would have thought of that sooner! And now – after trial and error and very unhappy babies they now take the medicine like champs!! I never had to give Mason medicine till he was 13 months old so we never had the pleasure of learning how to properly give it to him as an infant. Knock on wood – Tanner is still pretty healthy. He has a little stuffy nose but no cough like the girls did and isn’t fussy. I hope we can bypass this sickness without getting meds for all 3!! I really don’t want to feel like I live at the Drs. office. Mason also has a stuffy nose so let’s hope his passes as well. I have a feeling sickness in our house will now be at least a 3 week cycle everytime someone gets sick – oh the joys of having 4 kids!!

Other than that – not much else going on. The babies are now eating rice cereal, sweet potatoes & bananas. However – Ally has determined that she does not like bananas and proceeds to spit them out each and every time she eats them. Oh well I guess not everyone likes bananas – maybe I’ll try peaches with her ;-) Tanner on the other hand will eat each and everything you give him – he LOVES food. He is also the biggest coming in at around 16 lbs now!! Yep you heard right 16 lbs!! Jasmine is 15 lbs 3oz, and Ally about 14 ½ or so. It is truly AMAZING how much they have grown since Sept when they were little 3 and 4 pounders in the NICU.

Oh and one more thing – we are starting to think that the girls may in fact be "identical twins" They just look SOOO much alike it’s amazing. Even the doctor has said this. What could have happened is the egg may have split in the first 8 weeks before my 1st ultrasound and therefore I had 3 placentas. There is a 33% chance they are identical and this happened. When that happens, the only way to determine if they are twins is to do DNA testing. It’s very simple. You order a kit online for $150, swab the inside of their cheeks, and send it back to the lab and the results are sent back within a few weeks. So……if anyone wishes to send donations for the identical twin curiosity fund….feel free!!

I guess that’s about it for now. We are still keeping busy but everyone is doing so well. We are truly blessed and enjoying every day with our 4 precious kids. I will post some pics this weekend I promise!