The Ides of March

Yes, it has been a while since we've had any updates here at Rollin' For Trips. As you may have guessed, things have been extremely busy around here.

Everyone always said to us, "Wait until they are moving!"

Well, they are moving. They sort of get on all fours and do this lunge/crawl thing while they make a lot of noise. They are pretty good at sitting up, Zane happens to be the best at it for some reason. They have a mat that they like to crawl around on, and it is extremely amusing to watch them interact.

Let's get right to some pictures, because I know that's what you came for.

Here are the boys in their Kansas State University Wildcat Pajamas. They really get behind the Wildcats. They understand that the University of Kansas is an evil place and that the colors Red and Blue are ugly.


This is one from back in February when my brother Jason and his wife Sara came down for a visit. They are still eating four times a day, and we have moved them onto more solid food and are starting to cut down on the formula. The formula days are about over and this freaks me out.


Here is one of them on the couch around the same time. Cash and Zane are the two with the curly hair. Cade's hair remains straight as an arrow. We are getting to know them and what to expect from each of them. Generally, Zane is extremely happy. He loves to sing and he is very content. Cade on the other hand will generally be the one that is the most pissed off. Cash goes either way. In this picture they are very happy...for a second.


These next pictures are from the last two days. Carrie is getting quite good with her camera. Recently, Cade discovered that he had a tongue. He sticks it out all the time


Lately, we have been moving their jump jumps outside. It's been really nice here, and the boys really seem to like hanging out outside and listening to music. We play them a wide variety of stuff. Yesterday we listened to The Mavericks and George Jones. This is Cash. He is wearing a Boston Red Sox Shirt. You can't tell because he has to have a bib on to keep it from getting soaking wet in five minutes.


This is Cade with Uncle Joe. He plays in Back Porch Mary with Dad. Joe is an extremely good Nanny. He helps with the kids and helps Dad drink beer. It's a win win for everyone.

I personally think that Zane is going to be a Doctor. He has a very good bed side manner and shows great concern for his patient.


Here is one of Zane singing along with George Jones. Zane has a great deal of respect for Genuine Country Music. He understand the roots of the music and knows that George Jones is perhaps the finest country singer that has ever sang a note.

Here are the boys yesterday. Much to the chagrin of their mother, they really got dirty yesterday.


This is the latest fun thing. Playing with toys on the mat. It generally involves trying to take the toy from your brother. The toy your brother has is always better than the one you have. This is Zane sitting up and Cade laying down. These pictures were taken just a few short minutes ago after breakfast and before the mandatory morning nap.


As I mentioned, Zane is the best at sitting up on his own for the longest period of time. I always say to the other two, "Why can't you be more like Zane?" Well, if you triplets are reading this someday in the future, know that Zane was first.



Here is our Cash Buddy again. We had a bit of a scare with him this week. We went to their 9 month check-up, and Cash's head had grown quite a bit between the 6 and 9 month visit. The Doctor was concerned enough that she ordered an ultrasound done through his soft spot to see if there was any trouble. Turns out, Cash has a bit of excess water outside of his brain. This condition is called benign external hydrocephalus. Carrie and I were petrified. They referred us to a neurosurgeon. We went to that appointment on Thursday, and he gave us some great news. He saw the water on the ultrasound, but says this is normal for kids that have large heads. Turns out, Carrie's entire family on both sides are known for their extremely large melons. The excess water is usually absorbed by the time the child is 18 months. We are going to keep monitoring the situation just to make sure, but the Doctor said he is developing normally and he wasn't concerned. We are very thankful for our healthy boys.

There are big changes for the Krug Family on the horizon. The boys are almost 1 year old and we can't believe it. They are getting so big and growing up so fast it's scary. We will try to keep you up to date. We really want to make a new video for Trip T.V., so we'll work on that.

Finally, here is a big THANK YOU to everyone that voted for us in the photo contest. I am proud to announce, and Carrie is even prouder, that we WON. Yep, we won hands down. You people really pulled it out. That means that Mollie Kendall is going to be taking the boys one year pictures. I bet we post them right here.

The Ringleader

They said the personalities of our boys would start to show through around the 7 or 8 month mark. I have to say without a doubt that this is the case. They have discovered their voices. At times, this can be amusing. At other times you scan the house for something to stab into your ears in order to make the noise stop. There is a list of things that they like to do. Let's take a look.

1. Slap Things - Slapping things is fun. It can be the "jump-jump", it can be the tray on their high chair. It can be their brother or the dog. It doesn't matter. Slapping makes a cool noise. Also, if you slap something and yell at the same time, you can make more noise. If you get a brother or two involved, you can make three times the noise. Let's make sure Dad can't hear the television.

2. Lick things - If you can reach something you can lick it. This can be the side of your car seat, your bib, the side of your bottle, or my favorite, your brother's head. Cade gave Zane a strange hair style the other day when he licked the top of his head for a while.

3. Get Licked - The Tess Dog loves the boys. When they are in their jump jumps, she goes from boy to boy licking the face of each one. What do you do when a dog is licking you? Naturally, you OPEN YOUR MOUTH. This allows the dog to lick the INSIDE OF YOUR MOUTH. This grosses out your mother, which may be why you are doing it in the first place.

4. Steal Toys - Oh yes. The other day I put Zane and Cade on the couch, each with his own toy. I went to get Cash, and as soon as I came back I noticed that Zane had STOLEN Cade's toy. He wasn't playing with it. No, he simply took it from Cade and placed it on the other side of him so Cade could not reach it.

5. Pull, Scratch, and Tug - Pull Mom's hair. Scratch Dad's face. Tug on Mom and Dad's lips and nose. Pull the glasses off of Mom's face.

All of these things are exciting to one degree or another. Another thing we have discovered is the "RINGLEADER" phenomenon. For example, this morning at 6:00 a.m., I hear one baby start to scream. Then another joined in. I ran into their room and picked up Cade because he is the one closest to the door. I picked him up and he stopped crying. About five seconds later, Cash stopped crying too. What is this madness? I looked at Cash. He was staring up at me. Carrie actually discovered this. If one starts to scream, one or both of the others will start. If you can get the first one to stop, the other two will generally stop as well. I have to say that one baby is emerging as the ringleader. Mr. Cade Richard Krug is generally the instigator of the screaming sessions. Don't get me wrong, they are all capable of going insane, but Cade seems to be the ringleader more often than not.

Look at him.


He even looks like he is folding his hands. What a little angel? I'm not so sure. I think in this photo he is wringing his hands and coming up with some scheme to make sure no one gets any sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I used to have a bed without three other guys in it.


This is not the case anymore. It's still early, but at this moment this is how I size them up.

Cade Richard - Emerging as the potential ringleader. He instigates a lot of yelling and is generally the first one up. We're in for real trouble with this one. He reminds me of me. I don't know if we are going to get along. He's going to have to learn that there is only one boss in this house and that's his mother.

Zane Chad - He is a very sweet boy. Seems a bit more quiet than the other two. The last to start yelling. This morning when his brothers got up so early and decided to scream bloody murder, I had to wake Zane up in order to feed him with his brothers. He had that look of confusion that said "Hey, it's not 7:00 yet. What's the big idea?" Although he is sneaky. Remember the whole stealing Cade's toys. I think Zane might be the first to sneak out of the house.

Cash Dean - He can go either way. Cade can easily drag Cash into whatever shenanigans he might be up to. He can also go along with Zane and be pretty quiet. He is very into whatever I'm doing, which only spells trouble for him. He needs to steer clear of Dad's path in life.

Last night was my night to stay home and take care of the boys. I thought it was going to be awesome. I cooked some wild game venison hot dogs my brother sent me. I was going to practice guitar all night and drink good beer.

I put the boys to bed at 8:00 p.m. and the night was all mine.

I was in bed by 8:30 p.m.

Being Fair

Greetings from Austin, Texas! It's another fun filled day in the land of triplets. First and foremost, we are trying to win a contest and we need your help. Mollie Kendall is a really good photographer from here in Austin, and she is running a photo contest on her Facebook Page. Naturally, we entered a picture of the boys that Carrie took here at the house.

To Vote you need to do four things.

1. Have a Facebook Account

2. Go To Mollie Kendall Photography on Facebook which is right here: Mollie Kendall Photography

3. Click on "LIKE" You must "LIKE" the Mollie Kendall Photography Page First.

4. After you do that, go to this link, which is the link to our photo and click "LIKE": Krug Triplets

That's it. It's a straight up popularity contest, and we want to win. If we win, we get a free photo session with Mollie and free photos. It's all about winning, and Carrie and I are very competitive. There is no way we can lose with our people behind us.

After you do this, post this link on your own Facebook page and encourage your friends to vote for us also.

Diaper Derby Contest

We thank you for your vote. The thing is, right now we are almost 100 votes behind the leader. They got off to a fast start when the contest started yesterday. I know that my people won't let me down. They can't beat us. Period.

What's been going on around here? Well, mainly it's all about feeling guilty about which boy is getting the most attention. At least for me anyway. I always worry about how much time I spend with each one. Say I'm holding one on the couch and another boy is in his jump jump and Carrie has the other. Well, the boy in his jump jump starts looking forlornly at me. I then feel all guilty and try to hold two at a time. Or, in the morning I try to rotate who gets up first and who gets their bottle first ect ect. It's tough, because you always think that one baby is probably feeling like he is getting the shaft. I also feel guilty that the dog is lonely. I guess this is just how my life is going to pan out. A feeling of constant guilt that someone is not getting enough of my attention.

The boys are doing more and more things everyday which makes it fun. They are grabbing at things and smacking things, including each other. The other day I was feeding the boys green beans. Carrie makes her own baby food and she tried green beans. Well, they ate them, because they will eat anything that doesn't eat them first, but you could tell they weren't big green bean fans. As I was spoon feeding cash, he jumped up in his chair and knocked the jar of green beans out of my hand and onto the floor. He then settled back into his chair and looked at me like, "What do you think of that?".

Here in Austin, the weather has been pretty strange. One day we were back down at Town Lake and this was happening.



Oops. I forgot Tess. She was there too.



This was Austin, Texas on that day. Here is a photo I snapped looking into town from the South. It was around 75 degrees and as you can see there wasn't a cloud in the sky. What a beautiful day.

The very next day this photo was taken by a guy named Stanford E. Moore. I think this photo is absolutely beautiful. This was taken looking west from some building downtown, I believe from the angle that it may have been the Holiday Inn Town Lake right beside the lake. I'm not sure where it was taken from, but we were down to around 15 degrees that day. It NEVER gets that cold here, but it sure made for an excellent photo.

This made things interesting around the house. Carrie took this photo right outside our front door.

Oops. I forgot. Tess was there too.

That's snow. That's snow in Austin, Texas. That's not normal. What to do? Well, for one thing, you can hang out on the mat and flop around while staring and yelling at your brothers.

This passes a little bit of time. If you are really brave you can head off the mat like little Cash here has decided to do. He is pretty impressed with himself.


Apparently, it's always fun to be a slobber bucket. The boys are in some stage of teething. We can't decide. They don't have any teeth yet, but they are always drooling. It's a constant battle to keep clothes dry. They think it's funny, and now they have taken up spitting. This is Cade.


They also all have bib overalls. They are pretty pumped about this. Dressing them up is like putting clothes on a monkey, but they look pretty cool when it's all done. It takes me quite a while to get them ready. Carrie is a lot faster at it. They just laugh at me and kick their legs when I'm trying to put their pants on. They think it's funny to watch the old man struggle. Well, I guarantee you that the old man is going to have the last laugh when I'm watching them struggle to mow the lawn using only scissors. Paybacks are hell boys. By the way, wait until one of you is hanging out with a girl at the house. I'm going to be in the other room screaming bloody murder.



Usually she is behind the camera, but every now and then I talk her into a photo with her boys. Here is a really good one of Carrie and her lumberjacks.



Anyway, please go vote in the contest. Carrie will not be defeated. Period. We CANNOT LOSE! Please help. We realize there are two wars going on and a lot of starving people in the world, but this cause is worthy of your best efforts. Thank You!

P.S. See I wasn't fair. You got Cash and Cade by themselves. What about little boy Zane? Well, here is.


Oops. Tess likes Zane too.

Diapers and Day Trips

I wanted to wait before I said too much about it. Sure, before the boys were here, we told everyone we were going to do it. I wanted to get several months of using them under our belts before I started bragging about how if we can do it with triplets, then anyone can. I'm talking about cloth diapers. When we found out we were having triplets, my second heart attack came from the thought of how much diapers would cost. I went on the Sam's Club website and found out that diapers are costly. That's when a friend of ours introduced us to Bum Genius Diapers. Now, we go through around 36 diapers in a 24 hour period. That's average. At that rate, we would be spending around $250 a month on diapers. Couple that with the fact that you are putting lots of diapers in the local landfill. I know I have talked about this before, but we would be looking at around 1080 diapers a month that we would be throwing away. For those of you with one baby, that's around 360 diapers a month. That's a lot. That's 4,320 diapers in a year. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Now, everyone you talk to will tell you that you are absolutely insane for trying it, but I'm telling you it's not only possible, it's not really that hard.

Check out this website:

BUM GENIUS DIAPERS

When you use these, you will not only save lots of money, you will be saving the environment. What do you need? Well, we had a big sink installed in our utility room right beside the washer. I would say the total cost on it was around $250. You will save that in your first month. What's next? Well, before you have your baby, register for diapers for your baby shower. That's right, while you are shaming all of your friends into buying you stuff for your baby, shame them into buying you diapers. It's not that big of deal. By the way, the baby shower system in this country is about as close to pure communism as you can get.

Okay, so I think each Bum Genius diaper costs around $20.00. Having 12 of them is a good number, so you are looking at around $240 for the diapers. That's no big deal at all. You are already seeing the savings. You may want to get more. Maybe get 20. Who cares? You're saving money, you're helping the environment. The sink and the diapers are going to cost you around $500. Sure you are going to use some water and electricity washing the diapers, but that cost won't touch the cost of disposables.

Now the big question.

How hard are they to wash? Not hard at all. Obviously some of the diapers are going to need to be rinsed out in the sink. I wear rubber gloves and try not to throw up when I'm doing this, and if I can do it, then ANYONE can. I have a very weak stomach. Washing them is pretty easy. Throw them into the washer and wash them on cold with no soap. Next, run them through the hot heavy duty cycle using this soap:

Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Detergent

Throw them in the dryer, and then you are done. It's that simple. We even take these diapers with us when we head out of the house. Yes, we do have some disposable diapers on hand for emergencies, but we haven't gone through very many at all since the boys came home.

Now, Pampers and Huggies can go away.

In other news, I must say that the boys are really starting to be a lot of fun. The other day we went down to Town Lake here in Austin. The Colorado River runs through downtown, and it is absolutely beautiful down there. There is a place for dogs to run and Tess had a good time swimming in Town Lake.



She also had fun posing with the Austin Skyline in the background:


Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of the greatest guitar players that ever walked the earth. There is a statue of him beside Town Lake. We had to take pictures.


Oh, we have kids too:


Carrie wanted to get some pictures of the boys with the Austin Skyline in the background. Sometimes, triplets don't cooperate.

Actually, triplets rarely cooperate at this age. I can make the dog do pretty much anything.

That's right. She'll sit there forever. She is a very good dog. However, when it comes to triplets, Zane is the only one that would look at the camera.

Don't think for a second it was because I asked to him to look up at this precise moment. They will stare at you and smile until the camera comes out, then they are face down and usually crying. Sometimes in a really good moment at home you can get this:

This next picture is from this morning. Mornings are very nice around here. The babies seem to be morning people. It's from the hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. that they scream bloody murder.


Carrie and I can handle the diapers, the laundry, the feedings, the mixing of the formula, the making of the baby food, the endless bottle washings, the dishes, the holding, the changing, and pretty much everything else that comes with triplets. The one thing we have trouble dealing with is the yelling. I swear that I'm going to have serious issues for the rest of my life with the blood curdling screams that these three can produce. It wears you down. They say water boarding is torture. It probably is. However, being locked in a room or a car with these three screaming at the top of their lungs is a different kind of torture. The screams work their way into your brain and drive you literally insane. Carrie and I will be riding in the car, staring straight ahead and doing our best to ignore the nightmare in the backseat. We try not to take it out on each other, but it is difficult. At this point you want to throw the ownership of the children onto your spouse. I might say something like, "Your kids are loud." This feeble attempt at humor is not met with the laughter you might expect. It's usually not met with anything. The volume of the screams seems to intensify. The boys feed off of each other and push themselves to higher and higher volumes. When they finally stop, it's the best sound on earth. The other night we had a much needed night out alone. For the first twenty minutes neither one of us said a word. We didn't listen to the stereo. We just drove in absolute beautiful silence. Silence is a beautiful gift here in the land of triplets.

Jump Jumps

I'm not sure what they are actually called, but in this house we call them jump jumps. I have heard them referred to as exersaucers, but I don't know if that's even right. I don't even think that exersaucer is even a word. Whatever. Anyhow, the jump jumps are the center of the triplet universe and without them, raising triplets would be virtually impossible. We use them all the time and pretty much for everything. When the boys get up, they go in the jump jumps. After they eat, they go in the jump jumps. Sure, we hold and play with each boy, but while you're holding one, the other two have to do something. Another awesome triplet family passed us down two jump jumps. Ryan, the other triplet Dad helped me load them up in the triplet mobile.

As we loaded up the Fisher Price Rain Forest Jumperoo, he said to me:

Ryan: This is the best one that they make. Your boys will love this one.

Me: Really. Oh.

I had no idea what these contraptions were or how vital they would become to our existence.
Here is a picture of what is really the Aston Martin of the Jump Jump World.

Here is an Aston Martin:


The key to these jump jump is the fact that the suspension starts from way up high. Note the dangling parrot and the dangling frog or whatever that is. There are also things that spin and make noise and drive you out of your mind. Not only are all those things annoying, but it plays music. When you add a loud baby to the jump jump, it looks like this:


This boy is very happy. Jump Jumps can also be used to take naps. Sometimes you just jump so hard you have to sleep for a while.


Up until yesterday we only had one Fisher Price Rain Forest Jumperoo. This was unfortunate. The boy who was lucky enough to get into this jump jump really owned the day. The other two jump jumps, while nice, just aren't the Jumperoo. It got to the point to where the other two boys would sit in their inferior jump jumps and scream bloody murder at the baby with the Jumperoo. Yesterday we got lucky and found a used one for cheap. Now we have two Jumperoos. This is awesome. However, I can feel that we are going to need a third.

Here is Cade in the third Jump Jump. The other two are in the Jumperoos, while Cade is here. This is a fine jump jump that someone is letting us use. We are grateful, but if you leave a boy in it too long, you are going to get what we call a meltdown. There is nothing worse than a triplet having a jump jump meltdown.



We have learned this lesson all too well. Now, we have discovered another thing about raising triplets. If one boy starts screaming, they all start screaming. One baby will prove to be the ringleader. If you can quiet the ringleader, the other two will automatically get quiet. I find that strange.

Here is Cash, who is often the ringleader. They take turns actually, but Cash is pretty loud and so is Cade. Zane will hang in there, but I'm starting to think he is a bit more reserved than his brothers. The jury is still out.

Sometimes at the end of a long day of jump jumping, watching jump jumping, and being a dog listening to all this, everyone needs a nap.

A New Year

The triplets passed from the year of their birth 2010, to 2011 with little fanfare. Their projects included the following:

Slobbering all over the place.

Yelling and laughing.

Jumping up and down in their "jump jumps".

Smacking things and yelling when they can't get things in their mouth.

This is pretty normal behavior for babies that turned 7 months old on January 2nd.

Unfortunately, the behavior of Mom and Dad has not been so normal.

Mom and Dad's behavior has been erratic and unfocused. During December Mom and Dad decided several things.

The conversation went something like this:

Carrie: Hey, don't you think we should strip all of the kitchen cabinets, repaint them, and basically remodel the whole kitchen in 10 days?

Mike: Sounds good to me! By the way, the band is going to record a new album starting in December.

Carrie: Great! Oh, and another thing, in 10 days we are going to have 6 members of my family here for Christmas. I think we should make some really complicated meals and really get stressed out about how they turn out.

Mike: I can stress with the best of them! I'm going to head outside and make the house look like Clark Griswold decorated it.

Carrie: I REALLY like the 7 foot Santa Claus we got.

Mike: Me too! I need to go borrow a ladder from the neighbor. If you hear a big thump, it means I must have fallen. Call 911 if that happens.

Carrie: Sounds good. I'll try and call if I hear you fall. I'll get started on making the house clean from top to bottom.

Mike: Oh! I almost forgot. We still have those three kids to take care of.

Carrie: I'm sure we can manage. They are only 6 months old! How hard can it be to remodel, clean, cook, record, and decorate?

Mike: Not hard at all!

At this point, the "Leave it to Beaver" theme miraculously started playing and we smiled and went about our business. Everything worked perfect and there were absolutely no problems. The kitchen drawers didn't break and send Dad into a fit of cursing. The cabinets were very easy to sand and paint and didn't need 3 or 4 coats. The pipes didn't explode under the sink and force us to cut off the water to the entire house. The entire house did not have a layer of dust on it from the sander. The pressure to complete everything didn't send us into episodes of sobbing uncontrollably.

We are thankful none of THAT happened.

The boys went to get the final installment of their RSV shot series last week. Since they have to be weighed to see how much medicine they get, we found out that the boys weigh the following:

Cash 18 pounds 3 ounces
Zane 17 pounds 9 ounces
Cade 17 pounds 15 ounces

As far as their development is concerned, the boys are changing everyday. They can do more and more things such as holding their own bottles.





Unfortunately, the kitchen re-modeling process was a little tough on Zane. His role was that of a supervisor, and unfortunately, he fell asleep on the job.


The boys are rolling over, sitting up, and seem on the verge of crawling. Often times, this is the view you get when you walk into their room to see what all the commotion is about.


Each boy is learning the guitar. Since they are advancing rapidly, I thought what can a few crazy expectations hurt? I say start living vicariously through them now.


Last night, for the first time ever, Carrie got a picture of them laughing all at the same time. Note that Zane's shirt is soaking wet. Not only do the boys slobber really well, they have also discovered spitting. We go through around 304 bibs per day.



Although they "rarely" also known as "never" sit in their Bumbo seats, the great Austin photographer Neely Brook got a good picture of them doing just that.


She also captured what may be my favorite photo of the boys so far.

Also, I would like to thank the fine folks who make the television show Yo Gabba Gabba. Without Yo Gabba Gabba, things wouldn't go as well as they do around here. Our boys LOVE Yo Gabba Gabba. All three of them can be having a serious meltdown, and BAM, put on an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, and then everyone is happy. This allows Mom and Dad to actually get things done. We have set up the DVR to record every episode. Just play them over and over. They don't care. As long as they can see and hear the show, all is right with the world.

Finally, you have the Creasey side of the family that came and visited for Christmas. You could also say they rescued the kitchen remodel.