irish eyes were smiling....

Yesterday we went "out" for the first time in quite a LONG time. It was my cousin Patty's 50th birthday & they had a blow out bash for her at an Irish pub. Patty's Dad, Uncle Nelson, is my mom's brother. Her mom, my Aunt Pat, might as well be a leprechaun because she is SO Irish. To have the party at an Irish pub was very fitting! We were VERY lucky to have "Auntie Debbie & Karen" come over to watch them so we could actually celebrate with her. THANK YOU GUYS!!! I worked till 6, rushed home & left with no time to spare. It was SO nice chatting with my relatives & some new found friends. Ever since we have had the babies we have been blessed with "new" friends who have watched our children's growth. They became sort of celebrities once their commercial for St Mary's NICU aired. It is so nice to see that they have "fans" out there. hehee! I spent the evening eating Irish fare, having my Black and Tan & chatting away. It was like a Reunion, aka a "cousins party" like we used to have. Most of my relatives live in S Florida so it was great seeing them all! My cousin Richard, a Realtor, is going to help us find a BIGGER house. I love when family helps family! YAY! & cosuins Monika and Don who have a four year old son & 2 1/2 year old daughter brought us TONS of hand me downs! It was like Christmas in August! I LOVE hand me downs!! (= AGAIN we are SO blessed! We left the party happy & excited about what the future may hold for us! I really do feel that all the bumps in our journey are leading us towards the path God has for us! There really is a reason for EVERYTHING! Well, we arrived to a quiet home, the babies were fast asleep. A good sound to come home to! I asked if the babies were good, Did they eat all their food, drink all of their bottles, etc. They told us they were very entertaining. Yes, that they are!! They said that they told them it was bed time around 8pm & they just followed one another into their room. Then they gave them their bottles, IN BED! Debbie said each one of them took their bottle & they laid right down to drink it. I laughed so hard when she told me this because they NEVER get their bottles in bed! Well after hearing this I decide I better go check on them to see if the bottles were strewn all over OR if there was puddles of milk on their floor. They were fast asleep & low & behold Camryn, Brendan & Lindsey drank EVERY ounce of their bottle & Avery had half left! Those little stinkers! I am sure they thought this was a cool thing to have their bottles in bed and probably hope Mommy & Daddy go out more often! hahah! After retrieving their bottles I go back to show Debbie & Karen who were now watching the end of a Sandra Bullock movie (I just love her!). They thought it was funny too! (We still love you guys! (= ) I decided to pull out all the bags of hand me downs so I could sort through them & we all watched the rest of the movie. Debbie's hubby was not too happy that she was late coming home. Sorry Jim! (= AGAIN I have to say how we are SO blessed to have such WONDERFUL people in our lives! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! Each and every day that people ask me how I do it I remember each of these "moments". It is because of great people that have "adopted" us that help me in this journey! After quite an evening I really do think that....

Irish eyes were smiling....

a day at Costco....

Today Grandma & I took the babies to Costco, Grandma's home away from home. If we ever show up to her house & she is not home she is usually at Costco. The employee's there are like family to us now that we have had the babies. Especially Maria in the photo lab. She has watched them grow by seeing the pictures we take in for processing. I have even run into her at my local Costco. (She lives near us!) It really is a small world! It is amazing how much of a stir we cause when we show up to go shopping. In the beginning we would bring "BIG BLUE" aka our monster of a stroller. We decided that we could take them in their shopping carts since they are built for two. Thank you Costco for that! No other store accomodate multiples like they do. So we entered the store, I had the "twins" and Grandma had Cam Cam & Brendan. I really want to get a spy cam to attach to us just to capture peoples faces when they see us coming. The babies are used to it. They sometimes even wave. We went all over the store & had people following us at every turn. Things we heard were "Are they all from the same pregnancy", "Are they all the same age?", "Are they quintuplet's?"(NO there are FOUR not five of them here!LOL!), "Are they identical?", "How old are they?", I even heard a "You are a blessed woman". I LOVED that one because THAT I am!! We eventually made our way over to the food court to feed them some lunch. Those carts are even good to feed them in! One of the Costco employees came over & said I notice you did not bring their stroller. Even the employees notice our kids! I FINALLY took a picture of them there so Maria & the photo lab can display it. For now the babies just LOVE when they have...

a day at Costco....

indoor activities....

Since we are in the start of an ACTIVE Hurricane season I have decided to clean house & see what we really have stored away for a rainy day. We have been SO blessed by receiving so many hand me down clothes & toys! I have hoarded them away for just the right opportunity and it looks like the time is now! I discovered a ton of baby clothes, won't some new mommy be happy when I show up with that box!!, quite a few wooden puzzles & a "ride on" toy that they almost outgrew. I put it together yesterday when they napped. Boy you should have seen them when they saw it for the first time! I should have known better than to have only 1 new toy because all they did was fight over who was going to ride it. Luckily the horn, gear stick, center console thing came off so I could give that to one child, another could sit on it & one could push the child that was sitting on it. I had three of the four covered, oh to be the odd man out! I decided the one left out would get to spend some quality "mommy time". Whew! I escaped that trap! If a Hurricane comes what am I gonna do?? I need to get better prepared! So I am starting to organize all of their stuff. Not only do I have to organize the stuff we use but I also have to get rid of TONS! I have started a box of toys to give to Miss Janet, their former developmental therapist. We met her through "Healthy Start" where our little ones received developmental therapy from her in our home. She is truly one of a kind & works with mostly premature babies that qualify for her program. She brings a bag of "tricks", developmental toys, that she purchased on her own. SO whenever I have a developmental toy I try to pass it along to her. Then I have a box for a deserving family associated with the NICU full of clothes they have outgrown & then last but not least one for Goodwill. I always want to return the favor when we have been SO blessed. I never throw things away, I always find them a good home. Those last two boxes are the hardest on my hubby BECAUSE they never leave our house till they are full. He likes a CLEAN house full of no clutter! We have baby stuff EVERYWHERE! See what having four babies does to you? ha! I should have done this a LONG time ago! But I thrive under pressure! hehee! So I better get started while they are napping. I hope everyone enjoys their...

indoor activities....

rain rain go away!!!!

As I sit here typing It is pouring like you would not believe outside. You see this is Hurricane season for us Floridians & it seems like we are in for a different storm each week. We just had Tropical Storm Fay leave us & now Gustav is in our midst! Oh the trials & tribulations of living in SE Florida! Don't get me wrong, we NEED the rain but not all at once! Stop over Lake Okeechobee & give them the rain they need! Not over my house & make my backyard a lake!!! (I have included pictures of what our back yard looked like AFTER Fay) Now all we need is a boat! LOL! Our dirt road, yes we live in the sticks on a dirt road, is FLOODED! There is no place for the water to go when it downpours like this! We are now trapped inside this house we are slowly outgrowing! I peek outside to check the damage & notice that besides having a flooded yard I now need a good ladder. The storm brought down all kinds of pine needles which have clogged up our gutters so the water definitely has nowhere to go! Know anyone that makes baskets out of pine needles? I have plenty of them to give away! Some days I wish that we lived near civilization so I could take the babies outside after a good rain. So my yard would not get flooded & most importantly so I had a sidewalk that I could push my monster of a stroller down. But that is not to be. We are stuck inside for the duration. Let's hope that Gustav does not pose a threat & all we will have to do is watch the rain out the windows. Thank God we have Hurricane shutters! The easy kind that just slide out. Since Michael would get called in to work & I will most likely be here ALONE with the babe's if a storm were to come I am happy that we have them. I could never put up the "Old standard" like my mom had. Once the rain & wind leave then come the darn mosquitos. They are the WORST & they LOVE preying on the little one's. Poor Linz has been bitten one too many a time. She must be EXTRA sweet! LOL! It seems that I need to find some fun indoor activities for us to do. So as I sit here trapped inside our small house with the outside getting further flooded all I wish for is...

rain rain go away!!!!

twinkle twinkle little star....

Our little one's vocal skills are improving everyday & lately they have even started to sing! It is such a cute thing to listen to. Some mornings I will awake to a mini concert. The part that AMAZES me is that the song they sing is the one my then 4 year old niece Lauren would sing to them when they were in my belly. Each day that she came over to Grandma's house, where I did my bed rest, she would lay next to me & ask "How are the babies?" and then sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I recorded her singing it and played it for them when they were in the NICU. It is their special song. That is why it is SO special to have that be their first song! Each child has their favorite verse to sing. Camryn loves the "up above the world so high". She tends to sing that verse over & over. Avery & Lindsey will try & copy Camryn but their versions sound different. Mr B, well he just listens & laughs! I think he really wants to sing but just does not have it in him yet. It takes him awhile to do things on his own. Probably because his sisters rule the roost!! hahah! Oh I cannot wait to fall asleep so I can be awoken by...

twinkle twinkle little star....

"D"....

These little people of mine have a WONDERFUL older brother Dustyn whom they affectionately nicknamed "D". They love him SO much. You have to realize that Dustyn was the only child for almost elevan years before these four little monsters came into the picture. You see we had tried to get pregnant for quite awhile & it just never happened. So once we actually got the news that we were pregnant we waited to make sure it "stuck" before telling Dustyn. PLUS we did not know how to tell him that he would not just be getting a brother or a sister. That this pregnancy was going to be different and his entire life would be turned upside down. The day finally came for us to spill the beans & tell him. We were at Grandma's, my mom's, house. We got out the words that he was going to be a BIG brother. He was excited & had a BIG smile on his face. I think this was something he needed to "grow up". Then we told him that I had FOUR babies in my belly not just one. Well, his face looked blank & his next statement was PRICELESS! He said, "All I wanted was ONE". I think about that moment when we told him to this day! Going from being the ONLY kid to one of five kids takes some adjusting. I am SO happy that out of the four he got a brother! I make a point to tell people that EVERYONE has a brother & EVERYONE has a sister. He is a GREAT big brother! Very attentive & loves them SO much! Our life is a CRAZY life and he is AWESOME in how he deals with all four of them. They look up to their older brother with love, ton's & ton's of love! He really enjoy's them but most of all I think he just love's it when they call him....

"D"....

goosebumps....

OK, Ever since the babies were born I have felt that there was more to our story. More to why they were born when they were born, etc. Today I received some interesting news. You see even though Michael & I have known one another for almost 16 years we did not have our first date until a day in January of 2001. After dating MANY losers I took the advice of a good friend and asked Michael out on a date. Yes, I asked him out. Well, Our first date took place after a policeman friend of mine died rather unexpectedly. Our date actually took place after his viewing. I know that is weird but I felt that life was too short so I wanted a fresh start. Our date consisted of dinner at a local Friday's where we talked & talked. The FREAKY part is that the date of his viewing was January 17th, the same date the babies were born. I had wondered about this for quite some time but did not have confirmation until today. The babies were born on the 6th Anniversary of Michael's & my very first date!! You have to realize that there is more to this when their 40 week gestational age would be March 9th & that they exceeded any expectation by being born 4 weeks longer than quads normally make it till. So there was a reason that they were born on January 17th. GOD played a huge role in all of this! I knew that these children were meant to be! Now everything just came full circle! Talk about getting....

goosebumps....

superstars....

I wanted to make sure EACH child gets their moment in the spotlight & these two WILD women create MANY "moments" for mommy to talk about. They LOVE being the center of attention! I wonder where they get that from?! hehee! They LOVE wearing sunglasses & now own about 5 pairs! I do not even have 2 pairs!! Avery LOVES everyone but there is an extra sparkle in her eye when she sees her daddy. She will put on a show just for him. She also has music in her bones. I can be changing her diaper when she will hear a tune & start dancing ON HER BACK! She is TOO funny! Linz will try & imitate her at times & do a twirl every now & then but most of all she just LOVES the lens. She practically smiles EACH & EVERY time you point a camera in her direction. We RARELY catch her with a frown. She loves striking a pose! Can we say future model? Luckily we live in an age where we take plenty of pictures & videos to capture it all! I think that they will have a good laugh reading these posts & seeing their life in pictures/video. But mostly the blog. They are our little...

superstars....

everybody's got one....

As most of us multiple mommies know whenever you go out in public with multiples you cause a ruckus. People will search you out, ask ton's of questions, ALWAYS say that they have never seen quads in person, only on TV, etc. They check the babies out & decide who they like the best. Yes, they do this! Even though each of the babies can hold their own in the character dept. there always seems to be a favorite amongst the troops. We all know that there should never be a favorite, but there ALWAYS is & our's seems to be Miss Camryn. EVERYONE always seem to love Cam Cam a little bit more. Here is a short video on why I think that is. Hope you all enjoy her like we do!

The ESCAPE artist....

We have had a runaway, a streaker & now we have an escape artist! Miss Avery climbed, or should I say fell, out of her crib during nap time yesterday. I think she saw an opportunity & tried to escape!! FYI, This did not occur on my watch (= Daddy was watching them and I was at work. He called me to say that MY daughter fell out of the crib. I immediately knew who it was. You see the "twins" are our WILD women & never cease to AMAZE us! Anyhow, he said that he heard one scream so he went to their bedroom door to listen & all he could hear was laughter. So he opened the door wondering what could be so funny. Lo & behold in the middle of their nursery floor was Miss Avery holding one of her stuffed animals which she had to have thrown out of her crib. (Luckily she does not know how to open regular door knobs so she could not escape!) He then looks up to see that Camryn, Brendan & Lindsey are standing up at the edge of their cribs just laughing at her! He checks her over & the only thing he could find was a small red mark on her neck but the rest of her is perfect. Thank GOD! I'm telling you, she is one CRAZY kid! (I know I will look back at these post's & realize that these moments are PRICELESS!) I told Michael that they must have been saying, "Way to go Avery!! That was a "10"!". ha! Even though the REAL story was probably that she fell while trying to retrieve her "lovey". But I have to admit that the escape story sounds much better! hehee! The girl is CRAZY! Sometimes I think she was meant to be a boy! She can take a beating from her siblings & still have a smile on her face! She will climb up their new slide & will fall off backwards, does not cry, just gets back up & slides right down. She definitely is mommy's WILD one! But for now we'll just call her...

the ESCAPE artist....

a multiples mommy in a singleton world....

Ok, I need to VENT! I find that almost always I am faced with dilemma after dilemma regarding activities to attend with my little one's. Almost EVERYTHING is geared towards a mommy of a single baby! Oh I'd love to get them swim lessons at the local pool but you need to have a parent per child, or take them to gymboree sessions, etc. It is always the same story, You need to either have a "helper"(what is that?? LOL!), or pay EXTRA because God gave me 4 babies to love. The latest activity I would LOVE to participate in is the "Mommy, Daddy & Me" class at our local Rec Center. They have a resident & non resident fee to attend the class, which they should. The resident fee listed is $80.00. I call them up just to make sure what the cost for us would be & they say it is PER child. What were they thinking?? I explain that I have quadruplets and they are 19 months old, etc. I ask is it $80.00 for each of them? She says Yes without hesitation. Needless to say I was flabbergasted! They expect me to pay $320.00 for my four to attend an 8 week session, that only meets 1x a week. I decided to put a call in to the Director of the Center just to see if he agrees some families are different & if they could work with me on the fee. I have yet to hear back from him. Trust me, I ALWAYS ask if there is a discount when you have multiples or a sibling. I have found a few businesses that will accomodate us but in this case they would not. I swear the world just does not think about families with multiples. This is why I have taken being a multiple mommy so seriously! It is now my "mission" to make sure we are all treated equally & fairly! There should be some exceptions when you are ...

a multiples mommy in a singleton world....

all sick on the fulton front....

Our little one's are now ALL officially sick. They are MISERABLE! I think the teething of their molars have now worked into the start of a cold. They all seem to have runny noses, a cough & just plain "ucky"! Most of all they are clingy! It is so hard deciding who gets to get picked up first. It seems that Ms Linz, our baby, gets held the most. She reaches up & once picked up will rest her head on my shoulder more than the rest. TRUST ME, I make sure they are equally tended to. I do not want them thinking there is a mommy's favorite! My hubby will beg to differ on that! ha! He swears Camryn thinks she is my favorite. I just remind him that she needs me more right now. (= Growing up I was the only girl with three brothers & I knew who was my mom's favorite, it was not me!! My mom will disagree but you could tell. Now I have three daughters & a son to occupy my future. I hope that I can do neat things with them to help their individual personalities shine through! For now I just want my sick house to get well...

all sick on the fulton front....

our friend rosy...

Well it looks like Miss Linz has Roseola. Her fever subsided & she now looks like a bandit with a red marks across her eyes & neck. It almost looks like a mask like Zoro would wear! I feel SO bad for her! She is just MISERABLE! Can I say CLINGY! All she wants is her momma! It would not be that bad but there are 3 other babies I need to tend to. Ohh.. I cannot wait till she is feeling better! We leave Grandma's later today & hopefully she will be better in a few days! Just look her at her face.. my poor baby!
On a happier note, Grandma bought the babies a new slide for their "play room". They LOVE it! Miss Cam is the best on it, Mr B is the worst. He is still scared of being up so high I think. His sisters need to work on him! ha! Auntie Debbie brought over a battery operated ride-on truck for Brendan but again the girls took it over! They sure do have WONDERFUL people in their lives that bring them COOL toys to play with! Its amazing the things they come up with these days! I cannot even appreciate their new toys with a sick baby, ugh!
For now we have to deal with...

our friend rosy

oh, lucky day....

Today is suppose to be a lucky day, 8 8 08. I do not know if there is that much truth in that since I woke up EARLY to a screaming baby! Miss Linz decided to wake up an hour & a half before the rest, SCREAMING! This is the 3rd day that she has had a fever. I think it is teething but I just do not know. She just wanted to be held, by only ME! IT was rough. Her twin also woke up with a cough & some congestion so I decided I better take them in to the pediatrician just to make sure. Luckily Grandma had the morning free so we loaded up the babe's & off we went to the doctor's. Only having to take two babies in is a treat! Whenever they need shots I try to line up EXTRA reinforcements to help comfort them. You never think of those things when you have just one baby. Well there I was in the waiting room with them clinging on to me like glue. I guess that was better than letting them down to roam through the germ infested "sick kid" area. We waited about 20 minutes & YAY they called our name! They got weighed in & I am sad to announce that they are still under 20 lbs. No wonder we still call them "peanut"! We saw a NEW doctor to the practice which sometimes can be hard when you are so accustomed to seeing their regular one. She was great! She made sure they did not cry when she listened to their lungs & checked their throats. Let me tell you for all that we had to do to get them there you would think we woud leave with some sort of diagnosis. NOTHING! No ear infections, sore throats, congestions, etc. They were as healthy as can be. I guess I should have listened to my intuition & realized it was just them teething their molars...

oh, lucky day!....

chocolate chip cookies....

As I am here at the computer checking my emails, the babies are asleep, YAY! My WONDERFUL hubby is baking chocolate chip cookies. It has been a new routine of his the past month. He bought a tub of Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie dough, the kind sold at Costco. Each night after the babies are in bed I think the tub calls to him "Bake me, Bake me!" haha! It must talk a good game because without fail he bakes us cookies. If I gain 20 lbs I will stop calling him "WONDERFUL", ha! Anyhow, I am smelling something other than the aroma of chocolate chip cookies. It sort of smells Yucky & I make a mental note that the oven needs cleaned when a LOUD annoying alarm sounds in the house. Remember the babies are asleep & this noise is DEAFENING! I run to the kitchen to find that our "heat detector" felt it was too hot in the kitchen so it went off. I search for anything I can find to fan this thing so it will no longer think it is "hot". I am waving this BIG blue plastic lid from a storage bin up & down which I'm sure was quite a sight for our neighbors!! hahah! Someone somewhere decided we should have this in OUR kitchen. It should be written that a "smoke" detector, not a "heat" detector is required in a kitchen especially above a stove. I want to know when there is a FIRE not when the oven is on high! I cannot tell you how many times this alarm has scared Dustyn & most recently the babies. I am happy to say that the babies were not phased. They must be used to alarms from their NICU days. They slept thru the ENTIRE ordeal. That may be a bad thing if there ever is a fire. We are going to have to work on this!! For now we are going to eat our...

chocolate chip cookies....

birds on a wire...

The babies LOVE to go to Grandma's. They just love her house. It is their home away from home. They have all their toys in their "play room", their cribs in their nursery and most of all they have the birds on the wire. When we arrive at Grandma's they run immediately to her back room aka their "play room". They have their favorite toys but I think they love what is out the window even more. You see out Grandma's back window there is always birds. They LOVE climbing up on her couch & watching the birds. This activity is one of the few things that can really occupy their time. No matter what they are doing if we say "Ohh there's a bird!" They will drop whatever it is & come running! They start looking out the window for their "friends". They just LOVE watching them! There must be something about animals that amazes them. Sometimes there is just one or two sitting on the power line. I think they would freak if anymore appeared. They just stare & point in the direction of their new friend. I think they would even try to catch one if they could! It is so cute to watch them search the skies for anything that flies. Planes, the Blimp and especially birds! I cannot wait to bring them to Butterfly World & let them feed the birds. They will be SO excited! For now they will just have to settle for...

birds on a wire...

our little streaker....

We have an exhibitionist amongst us & no it is not me! haha! Little Miss Linz seems to LOVE to remove her diaper & then strip down to her bare bottom. Part of me thinks that maybe she is trying to tell me she is ready for the potty but then I think "No, she is only 18 months old". I have no idea when to start this potty training business nor do I think I am ready. What is a mother to do. Last week when Uncle Bob & their cousin Jenny babysat them she did it again! We came home AFTER their nap & I noticed on the changing table the pretty undie pants that go over her diaper. I said to myself please let those not be Lindseys! You see any other child would be ok during their nap with out panties covering their diaper but not Linz. I no sooner turn my head to check her, I see a diaper on the floor & she is standing up in her crib minus her diaper. Then comes the treat, poopies on her blanket. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK! I should have made Uncle Bob or Jenny clean it up but no I called on their dear daddy! Normally I do the poopies & he does the throw up. Doesn't that sound like a good plan! Well I needed for him to see it. You see we have had one too many encounters with poop! Linz just stood there, smiled & then laughed. You see she is....

our little streaker!