We Love Christmas!

Another Christmas has come and gone. It seems like the holidays come faster and faster every year. By the time I dig out, clean up, and put away one Christmas, it is time for another. It's all good though because we all LOVE Christmas. In fact, I don't like most holidays and I think they are a complete waste of time and energy (bah-humbug) but Christmas is different. I love having a houseful of family and I love to give presents. Again this year, we had Christmas brunch at our house and had about 30 people show up. We will definitely need a home that is better suited for entertaining if we are going to keep this up!
December has been a busy but fun month. I went to Wendover, NV with my sisters to see a Guess Who concert (if you don't know who they are, you are probably under 40), Jaxon lost his first tooth, the kids and I made our first gingerbread house, and we visited with Amber DeMaria and her 17 month old quadruplets who were out here from California on vacation. Seeing the DeMaria's brought back some great memories, especially when she removed a gate she had on the stairs and all 4 babies moved at warp speed to try and navigate them.

We also had a Christmas photo shoot with the kids that turned out pretty darn cute!

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and send best wishes for the new year!

My Awesome Neice

I have a lot of really incredible family who I love dearly. My sister Jeanna has been blessed with 7 children who are some of the most kind, caring, empathetic people you could ever meet. Her oldest daughter, Jennifer, posted this on her blog today. She already brings so much happiness to people through her affiliation with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a volunteer organization that provides professional photography to families suffering a stillbirth or early pregnancy loss. Not only does she do gorgeous photos for these families but she befriends them all and truly feels pain for them.
Check out her blog but have tissue handy.

6 Weeks Off

"Well, it looks like I don't have any work for the next 6 weeks." announced my wonderful hubby last week. Instantly, my brain rejoiced at the prospect of some family time together and a little help with educating 4 increasingly curious seven year old kids. Not to mention that I might be able to take care of an errand or two without the kids in tow. Oh, the possibilities seemed limitless!

So, a couple of days ago, I leave to run errands and leave Jeff in charge of our precious angels while I am gone. I had completely cleaned the family room the night before and even shampooed the rug as I am getting ready to host Thanksgiving here this year.

Here's what I came home to...

Which reminds me of a saying that I need to adopt as my mantra, "Cleaning the house while the kids are still growing is like shoveling the snow while it is still snowing!"

Hmmmmm, hope I survive the next 6 weeks!!!

Happy Birthday Amber!!

Today is Amber DeMaria's birthday!! If you get a chance, stop by her blog and send good wishes her way!! (Maybe the babies will sleep 10 hours tonight as a birthday gift for their mama :p)

Happy Birthday Amber....WE LOVE YOU!!!

A Wing and a Pray-er!

Hey Melody and Amanda...Why such looks of terror??


It's just a little bug...

And that is MY arm I let it crawl on....

Just to prove there was nothing to be afraid of.

(Believe me,I prayed the whole time it was crawling on me!)

Glad We Got the Warranty

Of all the things the kids have broken, I miss my laptop the most.

Two days ago, my laptop shut itself off. No problem, just turn it back on right? Well, it was not to be. After running itself through a bunch of diagnostic tests that are completely beyond my realm of understanding, it got stuck. So, I called my 24 hour computer service (my little brother Terrance) and he promptly came to my house to fix the faulty device. I knew it was trouble when he informed me that he would need to take it with him and see what he could do. "Is there anything on the hard drive that you need me to attempt to retrieve?" he asked. "Just my pictures." was the sad reply. Thank heavens most of my pictures are already saved on a thumb drive.
Today, the results came in... Dead. The hard drive only has 4% health (whatever that means but I'm guessing that means 96% of it is gone). Apparently it has been dropped on it's head one too many times and cannot be repaired. I've never been one to buy the expensive extra warranties that stores offer, but when Jeff bought me the laptop for Christmas he opted to pay an extra $300 to cover the computer for everything, including quadruplet abuse. I'm hoping to have a functioning laptop soon.


Amber DeMaria, one of my fellow quadmom friends, tagged me for "Honest Scrap." The idea is to tell 10 things about yourself that others may not know and then tag 7 others to do the same.
So, here's mine:

1-No big revelation here but I am late for everything. I always have good intentions of being on time, but it just never happens.

2- I cannot remove the cotton stuffed in the top of pill bottles to keep the pills from rattling around. I always have to get Jeff to do it for me. The sound is like nails on a chalkboard, just thinking about it gives me the chills!

3- The first time Jeff asked me out on a date, he stood me up. Rather than taking that as rejection, I took it as a challenge and vowed that he would go out with me...whether he wanted to or not!

4- At one time in my life I was adamant that I would never use fertility treatments and that if I hadn't had kids by 36, well, I just wouldn't have kids. (OK the quads were born when I was 37). On the other hand, from the day we were married on, Jeff always said that we would have one kid unless it was twins.... God certainly has a sense of humor, don't you think?

5- I absolutely HATE looking for things and I could literally go crazy if I can't find my car keys.

6-I'm quite obsessive compulsive and all you have to do is look in my closets and drawers to see it. The kids clothes are folded and stacked in daily matching outfits, all color coordinated and ready to go. Even the jammies.

7-I'm an Air Force brat born in Alaska.

8- I'm terrible with names but great with numbers. If everyone just had a number rather than a name, I'd never forget.

9-I'm allergic to all fresh fruit and vegetables. Most of them I can eat cooked or canned but eating them raw is not a good idea for me.

10- When we started down the road of infertility treatments, I knew something weird would happen to us. I always knew that we would have 4 kids but I thought we would have two sets of twins. In a way I guess we did, (two identical, two fraternal) they just all came in one litter!

So, now I nominate the following to give me some Honest Scrap:
Jenny Loves Louisiana
Lydia from Taggart Times
Jen Holt
Jackie from Six Pack of Fun
Julie from The Green House
Ana & Ado + 4 (don't worry about translation, I figured out how to do it through the blog.)
Stacey from Oh My Melody

Thanks for playing and I'm interested to hear about your quirkiness!

A Birthday, A Secret?, and Roller Skates

Yesterday, Jeff became another year older...
It's amazing how much heat is generated when you have 47 candles on a cake!

The kids and I went to Wal-Mart and bought him a laptop. On the way home we had a long discussion in the car about secrets.
Me: "Kids, do you know what a secret is?"
Kids: "Yes, it is something you don't tell"
Me: "Well, daddy's birthday present is a secret so we can't tell him. Does everybody understand? NO TELLING DADDY!"
Kids: "Ohhhh we won't tell daddy. We know, it's a secret."


Feeling quite proud of myself that I handled the situation so well, and having confidence that the kids would NOT tell, we arrived home and got the computer into the house without Jeff noticing. After all, this was Saturday and Jeff's birthday was Sunday so they only had to keep the secret for one day. Sunday came and the kids bestowed their father with his gift. After he unwrapped it, he acted surprised, thanked me and them and then proceeded to try and figure out how it worked. (Jeff is a teeny bit computer illiterate) Later on, Jeff asked me how I managed to buy a computer that was almost identical to the one he bought me for Christmas 9 months ago for a cheaper price than he paid. "How do you know what I spent?" I asked. Well, it turns out that little Carson just could not keep that secret. No sooner had we arrived home from making our purchase, he just couldn't keep it in. Not only had he told Jeff that we bought him a laptop, he also told him how much we spent.
So much for keeping secrets!

After ordering roller skates, then patiently waiting...They are finally here!

Amanda practices roller derby down the hallway!


Jaxon wants to wear his even while watching TV



Mason is THRILLED to have new skates so he puts all his gear on, in spite of the fact that the only thing he had on was his undies. The pose looks almost a little Freddy Mercury to me!

Here's Carson, (sans pants) also showing off his new skates and all his safety equipment.

The kids really want Jeff and I to go roller skating with them.

Given the apparent age of Jeff's skates, we may want to invest in an new pair before embarking on such a challenge...

Perhaps we should have bought Daddy skates for his birthday...

Visions of Things to Come

Last night we attended the annual picnic hosted by our IVF clinic.


It's always fun for me to dress the kids up and show them off (no matter how much the kids protest). It's also a great time to thank the doctors once again for all the help they gave us in creating our family. We are so grateful for our kids and feel so blessed.



Amanda got to assist the magician and was rewarded with some silly gifts for her efforts.



In all the years that the clinic has been in business I believe they have only had 2 sets of quads conceived through IVF (and they would like to keep it that way). I had heard about a family who had quads 9 years before us but had never met them. Last night we were finally introduced to the 16 year old Palmer quads from Liberty. I was so excited to talk to their mother Julie, who is one impressive lady! She is quite petite, no bigger than I am, had her babies at 40 years old and carried them to 36 weeks 1 day! (I can feel my uterus rupturing just thinking about it.) Two were born at 4 lbs and two at 5lbs! I felt a little unworthy :o) It was great to hear a little of the experiences they had shared over the years and to talk to these awesome young adults about how they felt being quads. They are now juniors in high school and still seem to be just as close knit as my little ones are now. I think they really feel lucky to have been raised with so many siblings their own age. I'm really hoping to stay in touch so that I can learn from someone who has "been there, done that" and done it in style!

Thank you Palmer's for turning the van around and coming back to the party to meet us. It was definitely the highlight of our night!

Party Animals

Yesterday, the kids threw a party for Slithers, who is now apparently one year old. It wasn't on my calendar so I had no idea we would be having a party! (I should have ordered cupcakes)

Just in case you don't know who Slithers is, he is one of Jaxon's Webkinz. (Webkinz are great little stuffed toys that kids purchase in stores and then adopt and care for online).

This is Slithers looking at his paper birthday cake that Amanda made.

All Slithers friends came and were dressed with party hats made out of Kleenex. (Gotta give the kids credit for creativity)

They all partied around a "table" which was really a pillow off of my bed. Hmmmm, maybe it's a good thing I didn't order those cupcakes after all.

Anyone need a party planner? The quads would be happy to plan any party you want (for a fee of course:o))

California!

Our little friends, the DeMaria quads, turned one last week. Since we are suckers for a good party with great friends, we packed up the kids and headed to sunny California for a week long adventure! Fortunately, the weather was cool and beautiful and the beaches were awesome! There was only one mishap where Carson decided to remove his life jacket and head to the middle of the hot tub, where he wasn't tall enough to reach the bottom. Mom had to go in after him fully clothed, shoes and all (and did you all know that nothin' dries very fast in San Diego?). Took two days before I could wear those shoes!
Thanks for inviting us to your party Mike and Amber! It was great to see all of you!

What Goes Up

I am such a dope. Three nights ago, I saw one of my cats, Angel, on the roof of my house so I thought I'd go up and check on her. I hadn't seen her in 3 weeks or more so I wanted to make sure she was OK and she could get down. (Note to self: If a cat can get up there, it can get down. It does NOT need human help.) I went to the side of my house where my sweet husband is building a retaining wall and concrete pad for tool storage and I got the great idea to climb the fence and then just jump up on the roof.

Well, getting on the roof was fairly easy and I was able to go get Angel and see if she was OK. She ended up clawing me and running away so I decided to just leave her up there. Then came the part where I prove that I am brainless. I decided to get down off the roof facing forward instead of turning over on to my belly and then feeling my way to the fence. I was thinking that I didn't want to scrape my belly on the roof tiles. I inched myself off to the point that I thought my foot was going to land on the half inch wide fence, however I did not compensate for my 44 year old eyes and my obvious lack of depth perception. Just as I went to shift my weight and put it on to the fence...I missed. Soooo I fell off my roof. I just about pulled my arms backwards out of the sockets (since I was coming off the fence forward), have quite the "road rash" from hitting the fence on the way down, cut two toes, got a nasty sliver in my hand, and now my knee is sore and unstable. I'm just generally pretty frickin sore today.
The most embarrassing part? Amanda saw the whole thing happen and said..."Mom I told you to wait, I was going to get dad to get you a ladder."
OK, my 7 year old is smarter than I am.

The Big Weekend!

Thanks to all of you who joined us for the quads birthday party! We had so much fun and were so grateful to have such awesome family and friends to share it with.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It was also Our our 20th anniversary (can you believe it?). Brad and Cathy graciously watched the kids while Jeff and I went to Park City on a real date!
We went Zip Lining...

Down the Alpine Slide...

And survived!!

I made sure the world knew how I felt.

I love you Jeff and I look forward to 20 more years of being your "ball and chain"!

A very Special Friday Flashback

Seven years ago today, a love story of sorts began. Jeff and I layed eyes on our 4 beautiful newborns and fell instantly head over heels. Never a day goes by that we don't stop to think how incredibly blessed we really are.

We thank God for them everyday and cannot imagine our lives without them.

Happy Birthday Mason, Carson, Jaxon, and Amanda. Mom and Dad love you so much and we are so very proud of who you are.

*Edited: The date at the top says Thursday July 2 and it should say Friday July 3. Blogger must date posts based on the date it was written, not the date it was published. (That's what I get for trying to be efficient by writing the birthday post early....) I'll go back to procrastinating now.

Bye Bye Girl

When I became pregnant with the quads I had 5 dogs. They were my fur-children and they got me through many tough times.
Yesterday I said good-bye to Patience, the last one surviving. She was the best dog I've ever had and I doubt I'll ever find one like her again.
I'm heartbroken and I miss her.

Karate Kids

The kids started Karate a few weeks ago. Friday they had their first belt graduation and recieved a yellow stripe on their white belts. I'm not sure that they love it but we'll continue lessons for a little while longer. Self discipline and respect are a big part of any marshall art program and heaven knows I can use the help teaching such important lessons.
Congrats babies, I love you!

Butterflies Flutter-by

As part of our biology studies this year, we decided to raise some butterflies...

We placed an online order for some Painted Lady's and waited for the UPS man to deliver our package. When they arrived, we were all shocked to see just how small the little larvae were.

We did our best to create a comfy place for them to eat and grow inside of the plastic terrarium that came with our order. A few sticks from the yard, some cheesecloth to cover the large holes, and some plastic "dishes" full of "food", and we were in business.

They ate like crazy and grew...

and grew!

In a little over a week, we had big fat caterpillars making a trek to the top of the terrarium to make their incredible transformation.

And a short time after that, they emerged from their slumber.

Amanda wasn't too happy when I told her that we needed to let them go in the backyard. I think she wanted to keep them as pets. Eventually she got used to the idea and we all headed out to the yard to set them free.

(The three extra kids in the photo are cousins.)

Gently reaching in to help them get out...

One of them LOVED Jaxon and didn't want to fly away!

They were all pretty tame and didn't mind crawling all over the kid's little hands.

After placing them on flowers, they eventually flew away. We still see one or two of them flying around the yard, I guess even butterfly kids are sometimes reluctant to leave home!

In a completely unrelated story, my 10 year old Chinese Wisteria finally bloomed. I'm not sure if it is supposed to take that long, or if I'm just a poor gardener.

Whichever the case, it was worth the wait.