Trying out our Halloween sodas!
We bought spooky sodas and the boys get to taste test one per day!
Florida 2019 Part 1
Check out our family’s first vlog of our trip to Florida!
Whoops!
Well, dad just let one of my 6 year old brothers drive my uncles golf cart and he straight away ran it into this truck. Sometimes dad just doesn’t think. Dad keeps mumbling about something called an insurance deductible… whatever that is. He also has been repeating, #funnyin20, saying it isn’t funny now, but he will probably laugh about it in 20 years.
Update: The guy just made me pay his deductible and car rental so it only cost us a mere $800 for this mistake!
My video for California Casualty!
Our first family YouTube video!
Phoenix Takes Flight
My oldest brother, Phoenix, graduates from Shawnee Heights High School this weekend. Then, just a few days after he graduates he heads to Camp Barnabas to work the whole summer. We are all excited for him, but it is sad that this is his last week in the house. It makes me wonder if my 3 year old brothers will really ever remember living with him. Or the times Phoenix would play and wrestle around with them.
Phoenix with Louie in Florida in 2015.
He ought to have a pretty busy and exciting summer. Camp Barnabas is in southern Missouri and provides a great camp experience for people with special needs and their siblings. When Phoenix was 10 and Bronze 7, mom and dad took them to visit the camp because the teens from our church were working there that week. Even though they wouldn’t be old enough to work there for a few years, mom and dad said my brothers always talked about how much they were looking forward to it. Phoenix has served there for the past four years, but this is the first time he is actually working for the camp. Check out this Camp Barnabas promo video and their website too.
Phoenix at Barnabas in 2015 with his two campers
And with his camper in 2016.
Phoenix will get break in the summer and during that time he will join the rest of the family as we go on vacation. Then at the end of summer, he will only have about 10 days at home before he moves just south of Branson, Missouri to Hollister to attend College of the Ozarks. Jacob, his friend from church, will be his roommate. I guess from the way my parents go on and on about it, the college is a great opportunity for my brother. Only about 1 in 10 applicants get accepted to the school. They do something called a work-study program where Phoenix will work on campus and have a chance to graduate debt free. He also has opportunities each summer to go on foreign missions trips too. Check out their website.
With his college roommate Jacob
Bronze and Phoenix on Beale St. in Memphis
Brothers forever
Bronze will certainly miss his best friend. My parents say these two have been virtually inseparable since Bronze was born… mostly because Bronze would never let that happen. They have always shared a room and do nearly everything together.
They liked making videos together when they were younger, like this one. They always hated the ending that dad made them do, but we still stay “brothers forever” to this day.
Mom with Phoenix when he was about 6 months old.
Mom says she will miss those times when all us young boys were in bed sleeping and Phoenix would stay up late and talk with her, Bronze and dad. Also, she said he always had a sense of when things were getting overwhelming for her. During such times he often would take us little ones to the other room to play with us or be a mediator.
Phoenix with dad at summer camp around 2002.
Don’t even get dad talking about Phoenix moving away. He starts quoting the Beatles song “Blackbird”… “All your life… You were only waiting for this moment to arise. Blackbird fly. Blackbird fly” Then before he gets choked up and buries his head in his hands dad will say something about his original “little buddy”. I think there will be a lot of tears this week.
Here is Phoenix and me in Florida over Christmas break this year. I think I will really miss him playing card games with me. He’s my buddy. Even though he will only be about 4 hours away, I will really miss him.
This is when Phoenix won King of Courts this past year.
(written from Journey’s perspective by dad…but partially typed by Journey)
Name to Fame
In my first blog I told you that me and my brothers have kind of strange names. I have heard my mom and dad tell how they got our names many times. Before Phoenix was born, my parents told his name to anyone who would ask. Nearly 100% of the time it was met with quips and remarks that weren’t necessarily flattering. “Why don’t you name him Topeka! Har Har!” From then on, the names of the next five boys were nearly secret until they were born.
Phoenix around 6 months old.
After my parents had been married for four years, along came Phoenix Rane in 1999. His middle name is a combination of my parents middle names, Jane and Ramon (pronounced like the singular version of the punk band, The Ramones). They thought Rane sounded better than Jamon (Je-mone).
When my dad was growing up, he liked the actor River Phoenix, and that is where they got his first name. It’s probably good that dad wasn’t a big fan of Dudley Moore. Moore Rane might have been an easy target. Although, when Phoenix was little, the youth group kids did call him P-Rane. That’s pretty funny. His most common nickname around the house is Pheege or dad sometimes calls him Pheejix.
Later on dad said a verse in Malachi sounded like a reference to the mythical phoenix bird. Malachi 4:1 talks about a consuming fire. Then the following verse says, “the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.” Malachi 4:2b (NLT) Yeah… it’s kind of a stretch.
Bronze’s name actually did come from the Bible. In Revelation 1, John sees a vision of Christ and begins to describe Him. In verse 15 John says, “His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace” John 1:15a (NLT) So, essentially his name means, “feet of God”. No pressure there! Bronze’s middle name is Maximus. It is a nod to my grandma on my mom’s side whose middle name is Maxine combined with a little Roman flair from my dad’s Italian heritage. Bronze really doesn’t have a nickname, although they called him Bronzey a lot when he was little. Don’t do that to him now though.
Bronze at about 3 months old.
Next is me. I came along 9 years after Bronze. Journey Truth. Mom and dad were just talking about names one night and mom suggested Journey and dad said, “Hey, I had kind of been thinking of that too!” They just liked the sound of Truth as a middle name, so now I get to own it. Sometimes dad calls me JJ. That really makes no sense because there is only one J in my name, but whatever.
This is me around 6 months old.
By the time the triplets came on to the scene, I think my parents had kind of ran out of names. They had one easy name, Louis Ramon, just like dad and grandpa, but the others didn’t come as quickly. We sometimes call Louie Woo-lee.
Giovonni was a name mom and dad had talked about ever since coming up with Phoenix’s name. They had also kicked around Gianni but that one lost out. His middle name is just the initial T. which stands for Papa’s (my grandpa on my mom’s side) name which is Terry. Dad sometimes calls him Vondo.
Rocky’s name took a little longer to come up with. My parents had been in Chicago visiting friends when they met guy named Rocky. After they found out there were triplets on the way, both mom and dad said they liked that name and the rest is history. Rocky’s middle name is Sei (pronounced Say), which is the Italian word for six. Rocky is the 6th child and Rocky VI was the final Rocky movie, just like Rocky would be the final child. His nickname is sometimes Rocket, Rooster or Rocket Rooster.
Me chillin’ with the trips on their first Halloween in 2013. Can you guess who is who?
It has been said that you don’t know how many people you don’t like until you try to come up with baby names. I don’t think that is why they gave us strange names. Dad says that when you have a unique name you are destined to do great things! (No offense to all of the Brian’s, Mike’s and Jeff’s out there…I’m sure you are great too!)
Says the guy named Zaldy Doyungan!
(written from Journey’s perspective by dad…but partially typed by Journey)
A Series of Firsts
It wasn’t long before we got the babies out and about. My family isn’t much for sitting around so when we could, we would take the triplets to new places.
One of the first things we did was take them to Shelley Jensen to get their pictures taken. This one turned out pretty sweet.
Within a couple of weeks of being home, we took them on their first walk around the neighborhood. Mom is a bit of a workout fanatic, so you really can’t keep her from moving. We took this first walk with two double strollers, but about a year later a friend gave us a quad stroller. After dad put it together, all of us couldn’t even wait to get it out of the living room before we climbed into it for our first ride!
Dad’s birthday is exactly a month after the triplets. He wanted to go to Tacos El Sol so we loaded up the whole family for the first time to make that trip. We had recently purchased a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan from our neighbors. Dad took out the middle bucket seats and replaced them with bench seating like the back seat. Now we could fit all 8 of us in one vehicle. This was officially our first trip out in public.
This picture is of the triplets first trip to Orange Leaf. I was making a crazy face and mom was pretending to feed one of the babies some frozen yogurt. Bronze just always eats like that.
This picture was taken at during my brother’s first trip to the doctor’s office after they were born.
Our family is kind of a spectacle every where we go. It must be kind of like watching the circus parade through town. In the beginning we traveled with quite a bit of baggage.
In fact, when we went on our first road trip to Branson on Labor Day weekend just three months after they were born, we were really loaded up. We squeezed the eight of us and all of our luggage into the minivan. We also had three pack-n-plays, the strollers and all of the other baby gear like bottles and diapers. I think we filled up Bubby and CiCi’s (my grandparents on my dad’s side) van with our stuff as well. I can’t believe we all got into one hotel room. I’m not sure it was real relaxing for my parents.
It was always a big production for us to pack up and get ready to go anywhere, even if it was just to the mall. A lot of times people will tell my parents, “I don’t know how you do it.” They always have had lots of help from other people, but I have also heard them say, “We just do what we have to do.” However, I kind of think my mom is a superhero. Today is her birthday and so be sure to wish her well!
(written from Journey’s perspective by dad…but partially typed by Journey)
How Do You Tell Them Apart?
The most common question people always ask my family is, “How do you tell them apart?” Well, it’s a valid question when you have identical triplet brothers. When they were in the hospital, they had their own labeled beds which made it easy. However, once we got them home, mom and dad had to figure out a system.
The first way was to paint the thumbnail on the right hand of each with a specific color. Lou got blue, Rock was red and Giovonni’s thumbnail was green. You can catch a glimpse of that in the above picture.
Later on, someone made little bracelets for them of the same colors shown in this picture.
Many people would assume or ask if we could tell them apart from their different personalities. Well, maybe, but their personalities were always shifting. The fussy one, the contemplative one and the ornery one wouldn’t always remain that way from week to week. Plus, personalities are never the quickest way to determine who is who.
It would help to occasionally dress them in their designated colors, which mom and dad often still do to this day. This was especially helpful when they became mobile. When one of them starts to run off in the grocery store, mom really doesn’t have time to sort out personalities, you just have to memorize who wore what that day. Currently, if one of them is only in their undies, it is likely Rocky.
It is kind of rare that mom will dress them in the same clothes. She likes to dress them similar but not really the exact same outfits. That usually only happens for pictures or special days like Easter or Christmas.
When they were infants, there were other little clues to help tell one from another. Rocky has a double cowlick in his hair. Giovonni has kind of an elf ear on the right side and a small birthmark on his head. Louie…he was just the one who didn’t have any unique markings.
I’ll tell you how I can tell them apart right now. Louie has two red dots on his face. Rocky’s mouth is little. And Giovonni…he just has a big head.
The way I figure it, what would be the difference if we DID ever get them mixed up early on. It’s not like one was going to receive all the inheritance and the rest would be out of luck. They have the same DNA so if we started calling Rocky, Louie, then I guess that is who he would be from then on out…or until we got him mixed up again.
(written from Journey’s perspective by dad…but partially typed by Journey)
ps- Here is me with my Twenty One Pilots shirt!
Quote of the week
“I want you to stop your voice.” -Giovonni (to his mother)
Eight's Enough 