Christmas '09

A quad pow wow.
Allee trying to get her thumb. She has been really trying to suck her thumb but usually ends up with her whole fist in her mouth.

Ashton with his blanket. He loves to snuggle it and rub it all in his face. He sucks on it to fall asleep.

Look at that smile. (I'm not sure what is wrong with my camera, sorry for the blur)

Aiden playing.

Bella giggling.

Anastasia with her presents on Christmas morning.

Adrien helping her unwrap them.

This is her favorite.

This was too cute. Anastasia picked up this pacimal and tried to hand it to Arabella, when she wouldn't take it from her, she just popped it in her own mouth. Anastasia has never took a paci or anything. She walked around for awhile with it before finally giving it up.

Adrien opening presents.

Alex opening presents.

Both boys getting a mega gift from Auntie Leslie.

The big boys basically had Christmas morning on their own this year. They got up without us at 1am and opened their gifts from Santa all by themselves. They finally got us up at 4 to open the rest of their presents and to give us their homemade gifts to us.

Daddy sportin' his crown hand crafted by Lex.

Our precious gift from our boys.

Mommy's Helpers

All 4 babies smile and coo now, it's the most precious thing in the world. Bella is the easiest to get a smile out of. You just look at her and she smiles. She loves attention. She even laughs now, her grin is so wide that her big ol' cheeks nearly close her eyes. I am enjoying her so much right now, all I want to do is hold her and play with her. She just has so much expression. Allee was the first to give us her beautiful smile. Her whole face lights up when she smiles. She's pretty easy to get a smile out of, but really all she wants to do is 'talk.' And she gets such a serious look on her face, looks you straight in the eyes and just jabbers away. And she wants your full attention, if I turn my head away she stops 'talking' and resumes once I'm looking at her again. It's too funny. Ashton is also a good smiler and 'talker,' but only on his terms. If he's in the mood he'll give the biggest smile and 'talk and talk,' so I have to enjoy it when he gives it because I don't know when I can get it again from him. Now Aiden, he is a tough one to get a smile out of. He has the most wide open mouth smile and his usual stoic face just lights up, but he is stingy with them. So when he gives me a smile I stop everything else and he gets my full attention to coo away.
Now as for their cries, Allee is by far the loudest, screeching, makes you want to rip your ears off crier. Bella's cry gets to me, it's just a pleading cry for help. She doesn't cry much, so when she does I know something is wrong tho. Ashton and Aiden have the most whining cry ever, they sound like they are dying (or atleast think they are). It is a very low pitch, soft cry. They will just cry and cry and carry on and I'm not sure why. Atleast they seem to take turns, for a week or so Ashton will seem to cry more and we don't hear a peep out of Aiden, then they'll switch.
After a feeding on the infant loungers we turned all 4 babies facing each other and they just looked and 'talked' to each other for the longest time. It was too cute! Below Adrien and Alex are making Christmas cookies ALL BY THEMSELVES while I feed all 4 babies. I just kept sneaking away from feeding and snapping pictures of them. I am so proud of them for being so grown up and independent to help me out the way they are these days. I know they enjoyed making the cookies too but it was a huge time saver for me to have the cookies made while I was feeding. And trust me, I need all the time savers I can get these days.
Adrien mixing the cookie dough. Alex mixing his cookie dough (yes, they made separate batches).

Adrien rolling out his dough to cut into shapes.

Alex cutting his cookies.

Adrien making his 'special cookie' with the last little bit of dough, shaping it by hand.

Alex and his pan of cookies.

Now for the fun part... decorating the cookies!

Last night the boys were the biggest helpers ever. Alex got called into work, not just for 1 but 2 cases. So I knew he was going to be gone all evening. Leslie gets off at 7pm and had stayed late the previous 2 nights, so I didn't want to ask her to stay late again. So I decided that I'd try it all alone. At 7pm the boys and I took the 4 babies and Anastasia upstairs for their baths. Lex and Adre undressed, I bathed, lotioned and cleaned ears, and then they redressed them. The big boys did such a good job, they were able to undress and redress including diapers and onsies all by themselves. I gave Anastasia her night bottle, bathed her and put her to bed at 7:30pm. Then we took the babies back downstairs for their night feeding. Lex fed Aiden, Adrien fed Ashton and I fed the girls. The big boys did an awesome job, it was ALOT of BORING work they said tho. They fed and burped and rocked to sleep "their' boy. We had all the babies fed, put to sleep and into their crib by 9pm. Then I cleaned up and pumped while they played on the computer and we were in bed by 10pm. What a night! I really appreciated Mommy's Helpers!

And of course I had to snap a couple pics of my big boys burping...

and rocking the little boys to sleep.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Children at Play

Adre and Lex being goofy with balloons.
Lex, Adre and Kevin.

Kevin is Adre's Bearded Dragon (a lizard). He has had Kevin for 3 1/2 years now and he takes full responsibility for him. He was 6 when he decided he wanted a lizard. We went through several different types of lizards (all catastrophic loses) before getting Kevin. A bearded Dragon is the only lizard that WANTS to be held! The rest of the lizards just ran from him, Kevin will go to him.

Lex at his school play.

Anastasia loves to play the piano, well she loves anything musical. She likes to have music on and dance. She has swayed to music since she was 6 months old.

We let her play on our old upright piano too. this piano was a gift from an awesome friend in Kansas and it has surely gotten alot of use.

Oh and she just loves the bongo drums too.

And now onto what the babies are up to.

Ashton sitting in the horse jumpy. He didn't really seem to enjoy it, he never even smiled. But he fussed when I took him out so he must have liked it.

Alesandra checking out the exersaucer. She is such a flirt. She just stares at you with those beautiful eyes until you give in and pick her up.

Aiden riding the horsey. He seemed to enjoy it. He was watching his older brothers be goofy.

Arabella was actually the first to experience the exersaucer. She was having a blast, but her facial expressions are just so animated. She is so expressive and will never be able to hide how she is feeling.

She had so much fun she got exhausted! so I put her to bed.

Aiden, Ashton and Allee just hanging out while sister checked out the exersaucer. They don't really like to lay in this toy, but they seem to enjoy sitting around it looking at all the toys, for now anyway.

Mom and daughter time. Aunties were playing dress up again with headbands with flowers and Bella and I were just having some girl talk. It is so precious when they 'talk.' I think it is my most favorite time right now. They will look you straight in the eyes and jabber away, just like they are really saying something.

Bella with her new headband.

Hallelujah! All 4 babies slept until 8am this morning. Usually one of them (usually Ashton) will wake up early. I hope this is a new trend. But usually Ashton will wake up at 6:30 and go to his swing and wait for the others, not even fuss. Last night Kathy and I got them all bathed, fed and in bed by 9pm. Well, except for Allee. She is so hard to feed at night due to her reflux. But she was in bed by 9:30. So not bad.

4 Month Baby Weights

We weighed the babies yesterday. Wow, are they growing. They are outgrowing their 3-6 month cloths all ready. It makes me so sad. I know I've said this before, but knowing this is our last children (even though we have 7), I get so sad with each milestone (even though I'm happy for their accomplishment) because I know it's the last time I'll experience it with my children. And it seems to go by so fast, I mean really can you believe they are 4 months already? Before I know it they'll be crawling, then walking, then preschool. OK, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but you get the point. I just want to enjoy every minute with them. Which takes me to the next point. I really do like the new schedule the babies started this past weekend of sleeping in and eating at 8am, noon, 4pm and bedtime bottle at 8pm. However, during the work week I seem to have less time with them now. So now I am at work before they even get up in the morning. I really miss our morning time together. Then if I have to work late or if there is something going on in the evening (like the boys have something after school) then I miss the 4pm feeding and the only time I really get with them is bath time and night feeding. That is not enough. We are very busy at work right now so I am having to work full days (whereas usually I only work 1/2 days), so when that settles down I will have more time at home. But right now I am missing my babies terribly. The weekend is coming and I will get my fill though! especially with Alex out of town. Oh yea, Alex left today to go visit his brother.
So a typical day now is: I get up at 6:15 to pump and Alex and I leave for work at 7am. The boys get on the school bus at 7:30. Anastasia gets up at 7:45 and eats breakfast in her highchair while Leslie and Kathy get the babies up and feed at 8am. The babies nap and Anastasia naps at 9:30am. Anastasia gets up at 11:30 for lunch and the babies eat at noon. The babies nap and Anastasia naps at 2pm. The boys get home at 3:30, shower and do homework. The babies feed at 4pm. Family dinner at 5pm. The babies are more awake atleast on and off during the evening for some fun times. Bath time at 7:30 for all 5 babies. Anastasia's bed time is 8pm and the babies get their night time bottle and usually go to bed about 9-9:30. Then I pump one last time and go to bed. And it all starts over again tomorrow!
OK, so now for the weights.
AIDEN = 12lb 10oz
ASHTON = 12 lb even
ARABELLA = 11lb 7oz
ALESANDRA = 10lb 15oz
I don't know what percentile that is, but they seem like pretty good weights for me. Especially considering they were only 3 pounds just 4 months ago. The last time we took them to the doctors office for a check-up all 4 of them came down with a cold just 3 days later. So we are going to try to minimize the time they spend at the doctors office, at least during the cold season. That means we are not taking them in for weight checks and the Synergist injections (to help prevent RSV). We brought them to the hospital where we work and weighed them in a clean secluded area (to minimize contact with sick people) and we are fortunate enough to have one of the office RNs come to our house to give the injections. How nice is that? I am very grateful that our doctor and nurses are willing to go out of their way to accommodate the babies (that's an advantage of living in a small town). They will go in for their 6 month check-up in Feb.
I will work on getting some pics up soon. I wrote this while at work waiting for a case, so no pics for now.

4 Months

The babies are 4 months old now. Things are going much smoother than I could have ever imagined with 7 children. I credit the Aunties for that. Kathy and Leslie are amazing, they are such great help, they keep things moving so smoothly. I don't even want to think about how things would be without them. Alex is an amazing hands-on Daddy too, he is involved with every aspect of their care. The quads are a full time job in and of themselves, let alone add a 1 year old and two 9 year old boys! Taking care of 7 children is tough sometimes, no not tough, just time consuming. It really takes all our time to devote to our children. But once we do that and say no to all other outside stuff, it's really not that bad. Probably the toughest part of our day is bath time. We bathe 5 babies in about 30 minutes, put the one year old to bed and get ready for the night time feeding. The babies are usually hungry and cranky and crying all at the same time. That can be a trying time. But then you pick one up and they look you in the eye and flash a big ol' smile, and that honestly makes it all worth it.
Alesandra laughing, how precious is that? Allee talking...

and talking some more. The girl likes to talk. If she is awake then she wants to talk and be talked to.

My gorgeous Aiden smiling. What a round face he has. But notice those sparkly eyes when he smiles. This was Mr Stoic himself, but now look at him. Is there anything better than a smiling baby?

Aiden talking. He's still pretty stingy with his smiles and coos, so I was very lucky to capture him in pictures.

Bella talking. She also has to be in the mood, but seems to be smiling and interacting alot more these past few days. She just loves to be talked to.

And I sorta caught a smile. What a happy baby she is. Check out that dimple. Actually all the babies have dimples on both sides of their precious little cheeks (that comes from Daddy!).

And this is all I could get out of Ashton at this photo session. Usually he is the talkative one, but not at this time.

All the babies seem to like sitting in the bumbo seats for short periods of time, but they want someone to sit with them and talk to them. That is their favorite thing right now, being talked to and talking. The smiles and coos are just so precious.

They changed their schedule again. And I do say 'they' because they do it. They have been stretching out when they want to eat, like we've had to be waking them up to eat and then they don't finish their entire bottle. Then Saturday they slept in! They didn't eat until 8am! I couldn't believe it. Then they ate every 4 hours after that. So all weekend they ate at 8am, noon, 4pm then night bottle at 8:30pm. I like this new schedule, it seems to give me so much more time. Except now the babies are more awake and want our attention, but that is the fun part.