quad talk...

"Hold you...", This has been a favorite saying of the tribe for quite some time. I remember how my now six year old niece would say the same exact thing when she was little. At first it was SO cute to hear them express how they wanted you to hold them. Awhhh! It is not "Hold ME" it is "Hold YOU", TOO cute! They say this day in & day out. Having four toddlers makes it even tougher. They usually all want Mommy to "Hold you...". VERY hard to hold four kids at one time! SO you can see how it gets old pretty quick! Then there's the words that don't make any sense! That's when I am at a total loss! Miss Linz is the best at this. She will go on jibber jabbering FOREVER! She tells stories in her own lingo expecting me to understand. I just say "Really?" and she will usually say "Yes". Ha Ha little does she know her momma just pulled one over on her! When they are trying to tell me something they will just repeat it over & over until I "get" what they said. It's like a record that skips OVER & OVER & OVER! You want to grab that needle & stop it from skipping! hahah! I love our children more than life itself but just do not appreciate them when they repeat stuff ALL the time. Like last week when Dustyn got his haircut. Mr B, our best speaker, went around saying, "Dustyn... haircut... Dustyn... haircut...". We were like we know that he got a haircut Mr B! But he kept saying it! (= Oh was I gonna pull what hair I have left OUT! I think Dustyn was going to also! LOL! {BTW, D needed that haircut BAD!} Another part of hearing their "cute" statements of love & affection is how my hubby never "gets" what they say! He will repeat back something other than what they just said until I yell from the other room what they have been trying to tell him! CRAZY! Is this because I am around them all the time that I know their lingo? hmm... Trust me there are quite a few occasions that I actually make them repeat themselves SEVERAL times just so I can "get" what they are saying! I must admit there are still times that I do not "get" it & I just let them rattle on. I nod my head in acceptance in the hope I did not just agree to give them candy or something else they should not have! I figure at least I tried! LOL! I think my hubby just chooses not to "understand"...

quad talk...

rockin' the hawk...

We, actually I, recently decided Brendan needed a new 'do. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook you have seen the pic's of his new 'do. If not here are a few pic's of his NEW "Mo Hawk". I never really thought about giving him one until after his last cut when my good friend Des commented about how she gives her son Christoffer one over the summer. Her son & Brendan are a few months apart & are both complete "toe heads"! So I decided this last trip to the barber he would get one! Daddy actually took him to get it done. This was a FIRST because usually Uncle Bob or I take him. This is how it went down at the barber shop per Michael. When it was Mr B's turn in the chair the barber asked him how he would like his hair cut, you know, a "princeton" or 3 on top & a 2 on the sides, etc... When Michael told her a "Mo Hawk" I think she thought he was joking around because she said "No, Really how do you want it?". He says it again "A Mo Hawk". She looked at him and said "Are you sure?". As you should know by now he was sure! LOL! I was excited to see how cute he would look! Heck I would much rather see him in a mo hawk at 2 years old than 14! Apparently doing a Mo Hawk is harder than I thought. You have to be VERY precise & cut the line perfect. No wonder she wanted to make sure he was serious! LOL! Needless to say we have received mixed reviews over his new 'do. Most people LOVE it & a few just do not get it. It's just hair people! It will grow back I promise! (= What can I say we just love how cute he looks! He is...

rockin' the hawk...

canned pumpkin people!...

Last night we met up with quite a few friends from our multiples group at the Pumpkin Patch. I got the tribe all decked out in their Halloween garb. They looked SO darn cute! I just LOVE Halloween! The turn out from our multiples group was AWESOME! Wait till you see our group shot! There had to be over a dozen families of multiples there! Can you imagine how many kids that is!? AMAZING! A local church has this pumpkin patch every year & this was our first visit. Hard to believe but true! They had pumpkins of all sizes & colors. I was in AWE! I had never seen so many before in one place! This was such a great photo op that our good friend April, also a multiple mum, took photos of us all. She is such a talented photographer in fact she has her own business, CoConut CirCle Photography. They have photographed the tribe on a few occasions in fact she will be taking our Christmas pics this year! SO excited!
There we were surrounded in a sea of orange, with pumpkins EVERYWHERE! The tribe did not know which one to grab first! There were big ones & little ones, bumpy ones & smooth ones but the ones that drew most of my attention were the white ones! CRAZY! Who knew that there could be white pumpkins! WOW! This was an EXTRA special evening because not only were we going to the Pumpkin Patch with our friends but we were also celebrating Daddy's Birthday! Yes our Daddy turned another year older yesterday! He was such a good sport spending his evening trekking through pumpkins with all of us! You'd never know he was 43 years young! I made sure to get a picture of him with his tribe! They just LOVE their leader! (=We wanted to go to the pumpkin patch more to see our friends & be a part of this annual event then to pick pumpkins. Sounds strange I know to go to a pumpkin patch & not get any pumpkins. But remember we are native Floridians & I really think this activity is more of a northern thing. My parents never took us to a "Pumpkin Patch" when I was little. Did they even have one back then? LOL! I must say that I do love the look of pumpkins and a carved one at that but have no plans on carving one up myself! My kind of "carved" pumpkin is an artificial & reusable one! Ha! The thought of having to scoop out all of the pumpkins innards with your bare hands, YUCK! Just never wanted any part of that! LOL! I guess you can say we are the...

canned pumpkin people!

Ready... Set... JUMP!

I can now say that the tribe LOVES to "swim"! No they do not swim on their own yet but they are pretty darn close! The girls have become pro's at jumping in the pool from the spa with their "swimmies" on. It seems the higher they are the better! LOL! In fact there have been a few occasions that they jumped in without them! SCARY but true! It was Brendan that was our hold out. He did NOT want any part of the pool. Just mentioning the pool or swimming would upset him so! He'd say "No swimmies" in between his sobs, yes he would cry at the thought of having to go swim! CRAZY huh? He really would fight us tooth & nail that is until Daddy "broke" him. {Those were his words!} One day Daddy just put his "swimmies" on him, made him go into the pool like his sisters have been doing for eons when low & behold he started swimming! Now you cannot get the darn kid out of the pool! He swims ALL over the place! He LOVES it! He will even go over to the ledge on the side of our pool, stand up and say...

Ready... Set... JUMP!

re thinking the "time out" chair...

I have been trying "new" ideas lately. OK they are not new exactly new ideas, just new to me. (= People always ask me how I get our children to "behave" and I really do not know how to answer them. I tend to give this answer much thought! What do I do that makes people want my opinion on handling childrens behavior?! The one thing I catch myself telling people is that I expect a LOT from these children of ours. I really have had HIGH expectations of them ever since they have been little. I think that since it has always been them & me during the day I tend to talk to them as I would talk to other adults. My hubby constantly tells me "They are just kids..." but I do not think they should get away with certain behaviors just because they are kids. Is this the right thing to do? I do not know. I tend to think it works for me. Now I am not saying they are angels because they are not! I am just VERY consistant & like I said expect a LOT from them! I say what I mean & mean what I say! In the end they do listen for the most part. I mean they are two and a half so being WILD is to be expected! LOL! Over the past few months I started reading a few parenting books to see if I could improve my parenting style. I mean you can never be too old to learn a few new tricks! LOL! Well one thing I learned in particular was the use of the "time out" chair. We invested in one of these! I found a VERY cute hand carved one at our local HomeGoods store. {LOVE that place!} I thought when all else fails we will use the "time out" chair. Everyone seems to use this method with their kids but does it really work? In one book, God forbid me I cannot remember the name, they say that "Time Out" should not be a form of punishment, it should be a place to reflect. Hmm... Don't penalize them give them their space to "re group". SO here I am having the tribe go to the "Time Out" chair & think about why they behaved the way they did. This is a VERY hard practice to do when you are programmed a different way! Each time they act out I tell them to go to their chair which I placed in the hallway away from everyone. It gives them some quiet time to think about what made them do something "ugly". I should say that the others tend to gather around the "bad one" in moral support to give them company! Very cute to watch! It took awhile to get them to actually learn the concept of leaving the child that was being "ugly" there ALONE. SO far so good. Now they actually tell each other when they should go take a seat! ha! I realize this is just the beginning but I'm really starting to enjoy this...

re-thinking the "time out" chair...

standing room only...

These children of ours LOVE watching me change their diapers! When anyone even mentions that they have a poopie they will all get up from whatever they are doing, run ahead of me & then gather in their room. The first one in is usually the one with the poopie. They climb up onto the changing table & get ready for me to change their dirty deed. The funny part is that they don't fight over being FIRST it is 2nd place that they all want! They want to be the one to stand on the diaper pail placed strategically at the end of the changing table that gives them their "perfect" view. Little did I know that where I placed their diaper pail would create such drama! The new configuration is due to them using their changing table as a means to get to the other side of the room during nap time. SO mommy put the darn thing in the middle of the room to curb that! It amazes me how amazed they are to check out their own poop! I cannot tell you how many times they say "See it", CRAZY! Nothing like checking out one of the grossest functions your body creates! When Dr Oz said you should check out your poop I do not think he meant this! hahah! Oh the things that amaze these children of ours! They can make even a normal activity exciting! And to think this all started by fighting over...

standing room only...

puddle jumpers...

Check out our newest purchase! I LOVE LOVE LOVE these rubber boots! TOO cute! Got them on sale which makes them even better! I almost wish I had a pair! Can't wait to see them jumping in EVERY puddle! Our next purchase will be their rain slickers! If you know of a GREAT deal please pass it along!

puddle jumpers....