Merry Christmas!

In case things get too hectic, here's a little Merry Christmas card from our family to yours!

Don't Mind if I do... Picture Happy!!

Today marks a year ago that we lost our little boy James. If I write too much I will break down (again) so I wanted to keep this short and sweet. We think about him always and will in the future. Dan and I toasted to him during a special dinner on what a great job he's doing watching over his sweet sisters.  OK, can't do this anymore, just wanted to share that it is the anniversary.

We got the one year photos back today! Sarah Swanson is an amazing photographer! When I can figure out how to work the slideshow gadget, you will be able to see the pictures...hopefully soon.

I hope everyone's having a smooth December. I'm realizing having their birthday in December puts more stress into the month! Luckily, despite the CRAZY storm during their birthday weekend, the party went on like planned. The recognition of baptism went pretty well. The girls didn't have to get doused with water (since they already were baptised a year ago), but we all stood in front of the church and had special candles and shawls. The pastor spoke to each girl individually. Sofia and Maddie both broke out crying when they were singled out, and Josie looked to be on the verge. After we sat down, the girls lasted another 20 minutes, but started to get noisy (happy sounds) so we took them out to the reception area. The party went well despite the crazy storm. Of course, we couldn't pick up the cake until the day of their party because Coldstone didn't open during the storm! And we also missed the Purdy's who couldn't drive from Duluth. Besides that, the girls had fun playing with all the guests and opening (well they kinda helped) presents. They tried the Coldstone ice cream cake but the cold ice cream did not go over well. Maybe they'll like ice cream this summer!

I have to write down a couple of things I've noticed lately, just so I have it on record and the girls can have fun reading this later...

~Madeline is very well mannered throughout the day, but a lot of time gets tired and cranky first at night- BUT a lot of times she copes by sucking her fingers and blankie (but sometimes, like TONIGHT, she does have a meltdown).

Happy Maddie!! Warms my heart!

~Josie's love of her daddy is growing more apparent every day! She crawls really fast when he comes in the room and freaks out when he leaves! Josie, please love me too! (Haha, I know she loves me, don't worry.)

Josie with her million dollar smile

~I have to say that Sofia is still the most social. I taught her to make her tongue go back and forth, making a noise, and she copied it to a tee. Madeline tried but got it all wrong and Josie just didn't care! She doesn't look very social in the pic below, but believe me!

Sofia waking up from a nap.

~We've been talking about teeth since the start of the summer and not ONE yet! But, I think Josie is getting one, for REAL!

~All three girls LOVE getting pushed in their new car when Dan or I push them, but, depending on their mood, start crying when one of the sisters pushes them! Sometimes they don't mind (as evident in that video a couple posts back).

That's all for now. Here are some more pics....

The Public Recognition of Baptism (l to R Josie, Sofia, Madeline)

Dan and I braved the storm for Stephanie and Pete's wedding (the storm last weekend that collapsed the Metrodome!) Beautiful wedding!

Cousin Peter is not used to so many babies around!

Playing with cousin Peter, top view. He does not win the most hair award.

I tried to get a good pic of them all standing but Sofia started to squat down too fast! (M, J, S)

Sofia and Josie just playing

Sofia is NOT so sure about Maddie pushing her

Yes, Odin really is that big (Sofia and Maddie)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOFIA, MADELINE AND JOSEPHINE!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Sofia-Madeline-and Josephine, happy birthday to you!

They are officially one year old today! They were born at 3:15 in the afternoon on Wednesday the 9th last year. Read these two posts if you weren't reading the blog a year ago. What a bittersweet moment their birth was. Most births you only think of as sweet, but at 27 weeks we knew that we were in for a long NICU stay. We were hoping it would be uneventful but as you know we lost our boy James (and the three girls had their share of struggles). We are grateful for our girls' health but we miss James! He is doing a wonderful job looking over his sisters.

To celebrate we had a busy day! First, we had a visit from ECFE (they still come every month or so) and they told us they are developing wonderfully (it's OK to brag about them on their birthday). The other big event today was their one year physicals, complete with a round of shots (bleh!) Sofia weighed 15 lbs 3 oz, Josephine weighed 16 lbs 6 oz, and Madeline weighed 17 lbs 5 oz. I'm actually glad I got to ask the doctor all of my questions, but having their blood drawn (for thyroid and hemoglobin) and shots were NO fun!


Dan had a fun idea to post both of our baby pictures so you can all vote on whether the girls look more like me or Dan. Maybe they are the perfect combination of us!

 

Madeline

Sofia

Josie

     To celebrate today, we let them have some cake and played with them a ton.  The real party is on Sunday, when they'll be baptized again and then a birthday party after. The party will be pretty small, but I'm sure it'll be more than lively enough for them!

Playing with a new toy from grandma and grand

I have to post some fun cake pictures or it wouldn't be a birthday post...

First we have pre-cake and squeaky clean babies....

Sofia

Josephine

 

Madeline

Then the cake was introduced!

Sofia's first tastes of the cake...

Josie's pretty wary...

Hmmm..what does Maddie think about this?

Sofia is full force now!

Josie warms up to the cake

Madeline does not care about getting dirty!

They had a nice little bath after that... haha! I feel exhausted after our busy day and we haven't even had the party yet! This is my life flashing before me with every December being a mad house! Girls, you should have waited until January! (Just kidding, but really.) Well I can't wait to go to bed, so off I go!

The Latest

It's great to be back at home after a nice long week in Duluth for Thanksgiving! Can you believe in a week from Thursday my girls will be one year old? Not too much is new here but I thought I'd share some new pics and videos.

Sofia is doing very well. Lately she loves blowing raspberries- either she'll just start doing it randomly or she'll copy one of us doing it. She seems to be really in-tune with us. She'll respond with noises and babbles when we talk to her (more than before). Another thing I've noticed lately is that she is getting pretty clingy to me and can get very "stranger danger". She warms up to new people after a bit but at first she'll cry. I still can't believe she's identical! (Well I can believe it, but it's FUN!)

Miss Sofia!

Madeline is still a busy body and loves to be interactive as well. Sadly, her cough has returned from summer. Ever since her summer cough she's been "rattling" and late last week it got worse and turned into a cough. I brought her to the doctor and he prescribed her antibiotics but it's nothing serious. We just have to be on top of that stuff!

Madeline!

Josephine is a sweetheart and we think she's a "daddy's girl" lately. She lights up when he comes home and tends to gravitate towards him during play time. She is pretty opinionated but can also have the best moods. She's probably the  neatest eater- she doesn't grab at the spoon or blow raspberries during a meal like the others. Ha, next meal she'll prove me wrong- we'll see.

Josie and her beloved blankie!

These next couple of weeks will be busy busy! This Saturday we're getting one year professional pictures from the same woman who did them before. The weekend after that we're having their second baptism (the first was in the NICU so we'd like a happier one) and their birthday party. We're going to keep the party small and simple. (And I can't believe Christmas will be here before we know it!) Below are some new pics and a couple of videos. I hope everyone has a great week!

Group Pic at Grandma and Grandpa's house! (Josie, Sofia, Maddie)

Sofia with her "Thankful for Mommy" bib!

Josie is "Thankful for Daddy"!

Madeline with the two grandmas!

Thanksgiving meal: baby food, then Cheerios on a tray! Next year the real meal?

 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Klopps!!!

Results are IN!

......
they are all identical!!! It's exciting news... I am happier to find this out than I thought I'd be! Anyways, that's all for now...the girls and I are going to Duluth tomorrow through Thanksgiving weekend, woohoo!

11+ Months Old!

It's been too long since the last blog update! The girls are over 11 months old (which makes them 8 months old adjusted). They are busy and happy- life is good! We haven't gotten the results from the DNA test back yet. It's really interesting to see all your votes, though! It's basically been 50/50 the whole time! I will definitely post the findings when I get them!

Sofia, Josie, and Madeline

    Josie is over 16 lbs and she is the first baby to wave! Since she started this I have noticed the other two do it too but I give props to Josie for being the first. Also, we were testing Josie to see if she could point out the cow stuffed animal and she did (and she did it more than once so we don't think it was just luck). It's crazy to think they might actually know some of what we're talking about

Sofia is finally 15 pounds! She is just a little peanut still. She basically does the same things as her sisters- pulling up, crawling, crawling over obstacles, feeding herself finger foods, etc. She doesn't like when her sisters crawl on her but she does the same thing to them! She will sometimes stand on her own briefly for a couple seconds (and once up to 10 sec according to my dad).

Madeline is over 17 lbs and she is still our easiest to put to sleep, which is a lifesaver. She is starting to work on clapping her hands now. It seems like they've really blossomed this past week so I can't imagine what they'll be like a month from now at age ONE!

Madeline

Happy Belated Birthday to Grandma! Don't you love this pic below??

Happy Birthday Grandma!

One of the girls' favorite things to do is to "ride" each other, where one will hold onto another one and kind of knee-walk while the other tries to crawl. It's hard to explain so I posted a little video below! Madeline is riding Sofia and Josie is having fun crawling along with them. 

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween weekend! Saturday we just hung out as a family (which I just love to do). On Halloween we had a typical day up until mid-day when we put the girls in their costumes. It was pure anger at first! They were rolling around on the floor and had a hard time crawling around in their bulky costumes. Halloween at this age is solely for the parents. They were so cute in their costumes and they started to get more used to them as the day went on. 

The first couple of pics are pre-costumes but they all have on their "First Halloween" bibs.

Sofia patiently waiting for her food

Josie

Madeline

  Here is the first group photo of the animals! Sofia is the giraffe (I noticed her long eye lashes right away when she was still really little), Josie is the tiger (she has very pretty "cat" eyes) and Madeline is the monkey (she is the monkey of the group because she's all over the place). Deciding who is who is not just random!

This basically the only picture from home that they weren't horrifically mad.

They were content during the walk, but not overjoyed by any means.

We got a smile from Sofia!

Sofia back to serious face

Josie is not amused

Madeline ignoring me! (They weren't crying at this point, just really serious.)

"Do we really have to keep these costumes on?"

The girls took a little refresher nap before we went out and about. We went to our friends Marie and Adam's house first. All the kids had fun together after our girls got used to the new house. They were all in great moods!

At our friends' house with their two kids (Eva as a skunk and Luke as a race car driver from Cars). They are starting to loosen up.

YAY genuine happiness!

Josie looks like she's pretending to be a tiger!

Sofia exploring her new surroundings at Marie and Adam's.

Next we went to the Kaiser's house. Their daughter Emmi was a cowgirl and baby Anders was a baseball. It was fun to see some friends yesterday! Our last stop was at Dan's aunt and uncle's house. By that time, we could tell the girls were getting a little exhausted, so we made it home for an early bottle and bedtime. It was a great day- very smooth! Next year they might actually be excited to dress up!

Our second stop was at the Eddy and Katie's! Sadly we didn't get a pic with Emme and Anders but they were super cute!

Have a great first week of November- Thanksgiving and Christmas (and of course their birthday) is around the corner- crazy!