Join the Kesler Crew in support of the March of Dimes

Seth, Paul, & Clay (L to R)

The Kesler Crew has joined March for Babies because the March of Dimes champions the needs of moms and babies in our community and across the nation. The money we raise for March for Babies will help:

- support all-important research offering preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects

- educate women on things they can do to increase their chances of having a healthy baby

- provide comfort and information to families with a newborn in intensive care

- push for newborn screening and health insurance for all pregnant women and children
Please help by donating today!

The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. I encourage you to look back in our blog and follow our journey while our babies were in the NICU. http://keslercrew.blogspot.com/2008/01/meet-our-boys-born-january-3-2008.html We know that our boys would not have had such wonderful and top notch care while in the NICU without research and donations from the March of Dimes organization. Please click on the link posted above and see how far our boys have progressed over the last 14 months - we are SO amazed!

Unfortunately, there are lots of babies born every day that are not as healthy as our boys were. We are walking for our babies and well as those that need support now, tomorrow, or months from now. We know that these are tough times in the economy, but if you feel like you can find a way to help support a great organization we would love to have your support as the Kesler Crew takes this walk on Saturday, May 2.

There is a button on the side bar of this blog page where you can donate as little or as much as you would like, should you feel that you can. We would greatly appreciate as would other families that are or will be in need. In addition, if you would like to join our team in this walk we would love to have you there. :)

Please feel free to contact Hope directly if you have any questions. Thanks you in advance for any help and support that you may be able to provide!

Dump trucks

The boys have been having such a great time playing outside! They love these TONKA dump trucks that they all got for their birthday. It's awesome to watch them push and run behind them. They are almost walking....

The great outdoors

As I am sure most of you know, we have always been outdoorsy people. I am so thankful that our boys share our love of the great outdoors. Our weather last weekend and this week has been so great, so we have been spending as much time as we can playing outside.

We took the boys on a picnic to Sardis Lake over the weekend and all of us had such a wonderful time. The first 2 pictures are from our trip to Sardis Lake. I can already forecast that we will be spending a lot of time there when the boys get older. If anyone has a boat they would like to donate to the Kesler Crew in the future, we would gladly take it off your hands! :) Sardis Lake is HUGE and from what I understand, it's the place to BE in the summer time. There are several different picnic and camping areas as well as lots of playgrounds. The lake itself is surrounded by a beach, which really surprised me. There were a lot of people riding dirt bikes and 4-wheelers along the beach front. It looked like tons of fun. Yes, a 4-wheeler is something else for our wish list - hint hint!

The last picture that I have of the boys was taken this morning in our front yard. Again, I can't believe that I got them all to sit still while I took this photo. Aren't they just adorable?

Hot Mess

This is my new favorite term to use - my boys are a HOT MESS!!! My house is a wreck and today I'm just going to let it go. Maybe I'll let it go all weekend! At least they keep us laughing....I am finding it rare that I can catch them all sitting still long enough for me to get them in the same photo. I know they will all be running around before long and then I will be in REAL trouble. The photo above is from the morning. Can you see Clay's busted lip, he can thank Brother P for that. Can you tell they love being in the kitchen? It's bright and they get to see a lot of the outside. We are SO ready for spring time!!!

PS - Who knew that I could carry 3 approx. 20lbs babies at one time? I didn't until just now....they pulled a box off of the table that had a glass coaster and picture frame in it, which broke into SEVERAL pieces when it hit the floor. Better to protect my boys from broken glass that to wonder if I could actually grab them all at once. Well, now I know that I can get them all at the same time. I hope I don't have to try it again soon! Don't worry, we are all okay! :)

A quick look

Seth, Paul, and Clay (back to front or left to right)

Getting ready for a walk around our property.

Isn't this the CUTEST wagon?!?! They LOVE IT!!!

Paul, Seth, & Clay (left to right)

Hanging out in the kitchen while trying to get the attention of Chester, one of our sweet dogs.

Since I haven't had the chance to update my blog in a while, here are a few quick photos.

Trip to the Mountains

Here are some photos from our recent trip to the Smoky Mountains with my family for the great birthday bash 2008. This was something that my folks cooked up about a year ago and it was a wonderful time for all of us involved. There were 5 families from all over the country; CA, MS, TN, MO, and VA - 20 people total. It was the first time that we've all been together in a very long time, it was really nice. The Kesler Crew had a blast - it was our first BIG road trip with the boys. All went very well. By the way, if you are interested in vacationing in that area let me know. Our parents have a beautiful cabin there that they would love to rent out to you, so feel free to contact me and I'll put you in touch with the right people. (Papa Al and Yaya, I hope you don't mind that little plug.)

I'm sure that most of you know that we LOVE being outdoors, so this trip was a big treat for us. Shane and I were so looking forward to doing some hiking. We were able to hike to Abrams Fall one day while Yaya and Papa Al watched the boys. Let me tell you, it was WONDERFUL to be outside in nature. Shane and I have been missing it. We discussed as were hiking along that we hiked this same trail almost 9 years ago on a camping trip with Shane's sister Shannon. It was just as beautiful as we remembered! :)

The boys hanging out with Mom on the front porch of the house.
Relaxing with Dad.
Seth (with Yaya)

Paul

Clay

Cades Cove Loop

Some beautiful ice strings that we saw on our hike to Abrams Fall. They looked like sugar ribbon. They were so delicate and pretty.

Shane at Abrams Fall.

What a beautiful day!

Today is their 1st birthday!!!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Paul, Seth, & Clay

I have tried to sit here patiently and write a post that included pictures in honor of Paul, Seth, and Clay's very special first birthday; however, the pictures will have to wait until tomorrow or another day. You all know that I have no patience! ;)

So, I thought that I would post some updates.....

This time of the year has been very bittersweet for my family and I. We were in such a different place last year....all excited and scared. It's hard hard hard to believe that this much time has passed and that we are celebrating my sons birthdays today! Really, where did the time go?

Most of my time is spent running around chasing and taking care of the boys, something I truly LOVE to do - especially when they are being good, which happens to be most of the time!

Here are some updates on each of my guys....we go in for their actual one year check up sometime around the middle of the month. So I will try to post more accurately then.

WE ARE DONE WITH FORMULA!!! Yay!!! We finally got the boys on to plain old whole milk right around Christmas time and they seem to be doing really well with in. Do you know how much $$$ this switch is going to save us? I am now working to completely get them off of baby food. I try to do most of their cooking, but some days I simply just run out of time. I am ready for them to start chewing just a little better so that I can trust them more to eat right. Let me tell you, it is hard to keep a close eye on 3 babies - so the easier things can be sometimes, the better it could be for me!

All of the boys are pulling up. Paul, the man, is the master! He will pull up and walk along anything. I anticipate that he will be the first to walk and that it won't be long! Clay pulls up and gets down very well, but he doesn't move along things so much. He would rather crawl in order to get something he wants. Seth is BUSY! He was the last to pull up, but that's not holding him back. He scoots along things and can army crawl really fast to get what he wants. Seth loves to hang up-side-down and jump around on things. All of them LOVE to jump and hide with all of our pillows. It's the cutest thing!

All of the boys are also jabbering away! I don't know what they are saying, but they are having whole conversations and they seem to know what they are saying. I don't think they understand each other at this point either, but it sure does sound cute!

They all respond very well to each of their names and seem to understand when we ask them to do things. They love being free to roam our house and explore, they are all very curious!

Another post coming soon, I promise!