you gotta have friends...

It's amazing how things come full circle once you are an adult. How my friends have kids that now play with my children. Heck my friends children even babysit my children. CRAZY! I never thought this day would happen but it has & I'm loving it!Just the other day we had an unplanned "play date" at my good friend Kathy's house. Her oldest daughter Reyna is six months older than the tribe. We live like 25 min's away from one another however we rarely get together. Sad but true. Life with quads has really been rough that I pick my battles when it comes to activities. It was not until recently that I will venture out of my norm with them. I have been trying to get them involved in more things. So now that we joined My Gym which happens to be in the same town as Miss Kathy we are making a conscious effort to get together. I sort of hid out at her house after the bad exiting experience from My Gym. I was SO flustered and upset that I called Kathy up & asked if we could come over to her house to calm myself down. She was such the hostess, besides finding bathing suits for each of them she fed us all! What a friend! The tribe did exceptionally well especially with NOT having a nap! Their backyard is like a toddlers paradise. They have a swing set, a sand/water table & TWO kiddie pools. We slathered SPF 50 all over them & you would never know they were outside. She even had her hubby put the canopy up over one of them so my fair headed angels would not fry. SO thoughtful! They even put one of the pools at the end of the slide {DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION}& the kids slid into it. I really did not think my kids would do it but 3 out of 4 did. See how they amaze me every day! We ended up spending the ENTIRE afternoon & evening there. They played & played! I got to catch up with my dear friend & they made new one's. It was SO cute seeing Reyna with them. She would hold their hands & say come on kids, come in my room! The funnier part was that they actually listened to her! LOL! I hope these play dates form a lasting bond between them because...


you gotta have friends...

things will get better...

This past week has been a rough one. The leader of our tribe got sick which affected our ENTIRE routine. It's amazing how much you count on someone/something until you don't have them. The biggest change in our schedule was being OUT of the house ALL day & not getting any naps. The tribe needs their sleep! The things we will do just so Daddy could get his rest AND so we did not catch his cooties! He is NOT a happy camper when he is sick! I guess none of us would be in good spirits if we didn't feel good. Daddy in a weak moment, I blame it on the drugs they had him on, said "Go to My Gym". If he was in his "right mind" I really believe he would NOT have told me this. LOL! This is a luxury we can barely afford but is SO needed! I did not look a gift horse in the mouth so I agreed with him. Luckily I had been corresponding with the owner of our local My Gym & was able to finagle getting the tribe into a class that day.FYI the first class you attend is FREE! They will also assist you with your kids if you don't have "helper's" to attend with you. As a parent of multiples this is HUGE! So we rushed through breakfast & hurried off to our very FIRST My Gym experience. I was sort of worried since it was going to be just them & me. They have never been in a "classroom" situation before & I did not know how they would deal with that structure. We arrived about ten minutes early. For anyone that has multiples knows that this is a MAJOR accomplishment! We are never early for anything! We did our meet & greet with a few of the other kiddos there. It just so happens that Dustyn's fifth grade science teacher brings her daughter there. What a small world! We ended up having quite a big class which made me even more worried. More kids meant more time for them to learn how to wait their turn. This is something we have been trying to work on forever! They are NOT good at this! And I am not good at dealing with four kids that don't listen. I SO did not want to be the parent of that kid that did what she wanted & did not listen. In the beginning they were allowed to play on all of the cool kid "gym" equipment. Brendan LOVED the ball pit! In fact they all did! {I promise to post some pictures when I get them} Then there was the balance beam. Avery wanted to get across it to get back into the ball pit. (= Once Camryn spotted the trampoline she was smitten. She just walked in front of every kid there & hopped up on it. This was where things got hard for me. She did not get the concept of taking turns. This is when having just me there to wrangle them takes it's toll. I wanted to cry but I held it in. If I could have managed it I would have grabbed them & headed out the door. I think a few of my mommy friends knew this because they reassured me that it would get better. That their kids were just like this in the beginning. I had to keep reminding myself that they need this. Getting out amongst other kids & having this structure is SO important for them. Heck I need this! After all was said & done we signed them up! We will attend a class a week & any "free play" we can manage. I was psyched! We said "Bye" to Miss Kristin & off we went. Not far mind you because my tribe became animals! If I was upset at their behavior inside My Gym I was really upset at their behavior outside! They ran in all directions & refused to hold hands as we left. I was getting SO upset. This nice woman must have seen how upset I was because she came out from a restaurant & offered to help me walk them to our car. I wanted to die! There I was yelling for Camryn to come with us & hold her brothers hand & she basically flat out refused. She acted like she could not even hear me. I walked the three of them to our vehicle as this woman, God love her, held on to Camryn's hand. I rushed them into the 'burb & started it up. Then I hustled over to Camryn to get her into the 'burb too. I was SO mad. Mad at them for not listening & mad at myself for letting them get the better of me. After everyone was buckled in & sat there for what seemed like 5 minutes telling myself that I can do this, that...


things will get better...

adventures in "barber land"...

My Brendan, aka Mr B, was in need of yet another hair cut. It seems like yesterday that Uncle Bob, Brendan's Godfather, took him to get it cut. He has taken him quite a few times. I've been told that Brendan can cause quite the scene! }= Besides getting freaked by the "buzzer" aka clippers, he also gets SO many compliments on his platinum white hair. He has quite the fan base! awhh... This boys hair grows SO fast! He gets a haircut & before the week is over it has grown back! During the "in between times" I have "tried" my best to trim it but he really needed a professional cut! That is why we decided to go for a drastic cut today. Less "in between times" for me to worry about! Lucky for us Grandma found a coupon for $4 off a boy's cut at Sports Clips in her recent Valuepak. YAY! Sports Clips is such a COOL place for men of all ages. It's all about sports right down to their "shower" room. They happen to have one in the shopping mall just down the road from Grandma's house, so today was the day! We took the entire tribe there & it was an experience! They did good for about the first 5 minutes. After that I was NOT responsible for theirs or my actions! They proceeded to take out EVERY magazine in a failed attempt to read them, ha!, hid behind the register & then played with the various sports flags, stickers & decals like they were wind chimes. If that display fell down I would have been mortified! I was chasing after them & even broke a sweat! ugh! This is the craziness that comes with multiples. It gets even better when one tries to push on the other, out do the other, out scream the other. Yes there was screaming! It was more like what they do in Grandma's shower, singing/screeching like they are in their own personal recording studio. I am sure the guy before us getting his hair cut did not appreciate my munchkins being all CRAZY! But I was a mommy on a mission, my son needed a hair cut & I had a coupon. Don't mess with me! LOL! I was making sure he got the BEST cut & that I saved money at the same time! WOO HOO! When it was finally Brendan's turn he knew his fate. He started to cry as we climbed into the seat. I told Agnes, the barber, that he was going to be upset either way so to use the buzzer & keep on cutting, QUICK! We chose a 3 on the top & 2 on the sides. My niece Katie said I should do that, so that's what we did. This was the FIRST time that I took him to get his hair cut by a barber. Grandma on the other hand had prior experience. She has accompanied him once before. She said he did MUCH better this time. YAY! Maybe it was because he had his Momma there to hold him.Well that's what I'm telling EVERYONE! LOL! (= Looking at his after shot you'd think we shaved his head! Trust me, there is hair! One day I hope to get a shaver/buzzer/clipper set of my own to cut his hair. Yep I'll be the "barber". I guess I am preparing him for his future fate, when Mommy will be creating her own...


adventures in "barber land"...

kicked OUT of the house!...

Today I took the tribe on an afternoon adventure. It was really just running errands but I always bill it as something "SPECTACULAR" to them so they will get excited! We were sort of kicked out of the house due to Daddy being sick. He has the flu or something close to it, feels yucky & was in a foul mood! He could not take their abundant energy or whines any longer! When he is sick you better stay clear of him or else! hehee. I needed to get the tribe out of dodge before they really ticked their Daddy off! He ROARED & we fled! LOL! We needed to drop off his RX at the local pharmacy so that was stop #1. To go anywhere you have to drive like 20 miles so they spot cars as I drive. This has become one of their favorite activities! It seems that EVERYWHERE we go they are always on the hunt for certain cars. Like Grandma's car, Mommy's car, I never get that one because we are always IN it! LOL! Then there's Vinny's car (My mom's neighbors son) & Daddy's car, they both drive a truck. I guess it's better that they don't yell out their version of "truck" so we just say car. It is SO cute how they can spot their car's a mile away. They only do this with these four types of vehicles. Weird huh? We, I mean I, decided to do a little shopping. If we needed to waste some time why not at a store? LOL! We needed to waste some time & stay FAR away from home. SO there we were at Home Goods. This is one COOL store! First off I have to plead with the company to get some bigger shopping carts! Not accomodating for multiples in the least! I had all 4 of them crammed into the SMALLEST cart ever! I whipped out my stash of chocolate & they soon forgot how crammed they really were! hah! I do think seeing 4 kids in a tiny shopping cart was even more of a spectacle than our BIG blue quad stroller! We got a few stares & MANY comments! (= I really LOVE Home Goods! They have SO many neat home decorating things & best of all they are cheap! I even found us a 5th Anniversary gift, funny because we just celebrated our 6th Anniversary! LOL! We had wanted a BIG wooden bowl since wood is the gift for the fifth anniversary. I scored a HUGE one at a GREAT deal! Now on to Iron which is the gift for your sixth! hmm... At this particular store they are attached to a Marshall's. So I had housewares on one side & my next favorite thing, clothes & purses on the other! Needless to say I got some of my Christmas shopping taken care of today! We stayed later than expected & started to venture into the nap hour. These kids of ours need their nap! When they need sleep they get CRANKY! I think I pushed my shopping excursion to the limit & we needed to head home. The tribe has this new game they like to play regarding where they sit. The "twins" will rush the door & grab the two front seats, Camryn & Brendans normal seats, and then start buckling themselves in. YAY for helping mommy BUT this is when the fight begins about their seating assignments. Again I turn into a referee. Brendan starts whining about how he wants HIS seat and after TOO many bad experiences with one of the twins harassing or harming him I agree. No "twin" sits next to Mr B! SO to stop the crying & commotion I tell Cam that I need her to sit next to him because she will "love" on him. I could tell that she really wanted Avery's seat in the back but she obliged me. Everyone gets buckled into their proper seats & we're off! We get about a block down the road when what does Cam do but try to grab her brothers arm. She is SO smart. I think she figured if she also treats him bad she won't be made to sit next to him in the future. She has another thing coming because I am on to her! LOL! Despite Daddy being sick it was fun running errands with the tribe even if we were...

kicked OUT of the house!...

I'm vomit, you're poop!...

These words actually came out of my hubby's mouth tonight. CRAZY but true! You see we made a pact a LONG time ago that when the kids vomit he will clean it up & when they poop I would do the same. This was one deal I had no problem making! I do not care how many poopie diapers I have to change as long as vomit does not come my way I am good! I think I'd throw up just looking at their vomit forget about the smell! YUK YUK YUK! SO tonight when Miss Avery told us that she had poopies her Daddy proceeded to tell me...

I'm vomit, you're poop!...

Happy HALF Birthday to you...

Today is the tribe's HALF birthday! They are 2 1/2 today! Scary but true! At approximately this time of day 2 1/2 years ago the tribe was born at St Mary's Medical Center. Boy time sure does fly by! Seems like yesterday they were little wee people laying in a row in the SAME crib. Not able to do that anymore! (= You may ask why celebrate their HALF birthday? Because we want to! Nah.. I ALWAYS wanted to celebrate my own HALF birthday being that my birthday is in December. Having my birthday 4 days BEFORE Christmas was not much fun! Fast forward 36 years & what do I do?? I give birth to my only children 3 weeks AFTER Christmas! LOL! I think it was fate that things happened the way that they did. Since my parents never obliged me so I figured why not allow this special "treat" for the tribe. They can now have that HALF birthday celebration I always craved PLUS it's WARM out in July! WOO HOO! Can you say pool party!? We LOVE a party surrounded by the people we love! This birthday snuck up on me & before I knew it their day had come & I was NOT prepared! We decided to keep it low key & have just a few people over. NO presents, just the presence of the people they love. These kiddo's of ours have quite the fan club! Over the past few weeks we have been practicing singing the infamous "Happy Birthday to you..." song but added HALF in the middle of it. Each rendition we'd add a name so they all got to hear their name & then the birthday song. They just LOVE to sing & the happy birthday song is becoming one of their favorites! I am making them their cake. This is something my mom always did for us & I want to keep up the tradition. Trust me I am NO Betty Crocker! There I was googling & searching online looking for the right recipe. Yellow cake with homemade butter cream frosting & strawberry filling! YUM! I cannot wait till we sing...

Happy HALF Birthday to you...

while Daddy's away...

Last night I had the tribe all to myself. I was not THAT excited about it since I had them ALL day too! My hubby had a meeting so I made the most out of it! He was home long enough to give the kids some smooches & to change into his game warden uniform then he was gone! {He is a Reserve LT with the Fish & Wildlife here in FL} I made them dinner & happily they ate most of it. SO happy about that. They have this habit of eating MY food after they eat there's. I just don't get it! They will say "All done" and get out of their seats only to help me finish off MY plate. Hmmm... They are pulling something over my eyes! LOL!



I had the honor of not only cleaning up the kitchen & dining room but also giving them a bath. I had to psyche myself up for that! haha! Usually the tasks are divvied up. I make the dinner, Daddy cleans up, I bathe them, Daddy dresses them. Tonight I was doing it all! Whew! While I was getting their PJ's & diapers together they were up to some mischief! Here's a few pic's to share. I have some WILD one's here! They LOVE to jump on the couch & then "found" a new roll of toilet paper! WOO HOO! Ain't life grand! Not only did they unravel more than half of the toilet paper into the toilet they flushed it too! Good thing it did not overflow! I would NOT have been a happy camper! Oh the things they get to look back on once they are older! As most of you know I get them to do things by either lying through my teeth {Terrible but true!} or just plain bribery. I either have a lizard or bird in my hand OR I'll give them some chocolate or better yet "Popcorn"!Boy did they listen when I said the "P" word. They are definitely related to their Grandma, my mom! She is one popcorn fanatic! Whenever anyone goes to the movies they will bring her back a bag! I told them whoever wants some popcorn needs to sit on the couch. WHOOSH they went! I walk into the living room with the 4 of them sitting nicely on the couch! I LOVED this! Why don't they do this more often?! We watched a "show" while they ate popcorn. What a night! Sometimes a fun time can be had...

while Daddy's away...

bath day...

As I have probably mentioned before, our Linz has just started having a "lovey", you know the stuffed creature children can not live without! None of the kids really had anything that they were really attached to UNTIL we went to my nieces high school graduation in May. We drove up to Atlanta & I made sure each of them had something to snuggle with while they slept in their pac n' plays. If I only knew that this would create more drama in our lives I may have re thought the entire thing!Lindsey's snuggly happened to be a stuffed Panda bear that Dustyn won God knows where! She liked it so much that it was an easy choice for her. We gave her the name "Patty" & that was that! WELL little did I know how much that event would change our entire lives! Now we cannot go twenty minutes without her asking any one of us where that darn panda is! It's CRAZY! I get afraid if we forget it at Grandma's!UH OH! As you can see Patty is her new best friend, she takes her EVERYWHERE! Needless to say that the Panda get's quite dirty being dragged over heaven & earth! SO I designate a special day to give her a "bath". I make sure I tell Linz the day before that tomorrow "Patty" is getting her bath so she will be forewarned! It has seemed to help her grasp not having her around for the two hours it takes to wash & dry her. Sometimes she will forget & when I tell her she is having a bath she will run into the laundry room. It is SO funny to watch her run in there just to watch her spin in the washer! LOL! I just wonder how long "Patty" will hold up for her...



bath day...

won't you be my neighbor?...

My mom has THEE greatest neighbors! Whenever we visit her, which is a lot, we always have one or two of her neighbors gather on her porch. I wish I could say they were coming to see me but we know the REAL draw, the tribe. The feeling is mutual!

Just the other night we attended the 6th Birthday party for my mom's neighbors daughter. Jennifer & Boris are such a great family, they have 3 daughters in fact they give us MANY hand me downs! You know how I love hand me downs! The birthday girl is Ashley & she was turning 6! She is SO cute. For months she has walked over to see the babies & would tell us that her birthday was "tomorrow". Her big sister Emily would say nooo it's not tomorrow & laugh! I never knew when the real day was! So when Ashley came over on Thu asking us to come to her party I was perplexed. I checked with her mom & yes it was in fact her big day! They celebrated with a pool party! I was excited because the tribe has been swimming a lot lately & LOVES the pool! The bad part was that we had NO swim diapers! We were given a bunch awhile back & we finally ran out!
That's partially due to the fact that we do NOT use them in our pool. So far I have only had to clean up 2 pooptastrophe's! Yes we had poop in the pool! It was Cam Cam who did the deed! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd pick someone's poop out of the pool! There I was making sure I got all of her terds! YUK YUK YUK! It was disgusting but cleaning up floating ones is SO much easier than what it could have been! PLUS it's SO much cheaper than having to buy swim diapers each & every time they go for a swim! Now when we are going to be in someone else's pool I will splurge. Mommy did not plan well & there were no swim diapers to be found, so NO swimming. Tell this to 4 two year olds! They were NOT happy! We dressed them nice since they would not be swimming & walked over to the party. Instead of being in the pool we had 4 FULLY clothed two year olds walking around the pool! We had a lot to watch out for! The pool was full of six & above aged girls. They SO wanted them to come in & go swimming!

Only one "accident" where Cam tried to sit on the steps of the pool & got her dress soaked. So then she was just in her diaper! I am going to plan better from now on! We had such a fun time hanging out with the adults, eating all the tummy munchies & then it was time for the pinata! Yep a pinata! It was SO cute how Vinny, Ashley's older brother, sat on the roof holding the pinata rope. What a brother! Needless to say it took awhile to get that puppy open! The kids went crazy when they finally broke it open & all the candy flew out! Our kids now LOVE candy! Thank you Jennifer! LOL! A fun time was had by all! I wish our neighborhood was like that!

won't you be my neighbor?...

the monkey crawl...

Having a swimming pool & a pond in your backyard creates quite the dilemma when you have 4 toddlers who cannot swim. Swimming lessons X4, YIKES! I have checked into it & though important it's also VERY expensive! So where do you find the money?Looks like at least for now it will be Michael & I giving them half assed lessons. I keep telling myself that it is better than nothing! We really are SO lucky to have built our pool BEFORE quads because we never would have built one after them. Heck we would never have been able to afford one now! CRAZY but true! SO we're lucky, broke people with FOUR munchkins that need to learn how to swim! I take them all out in the pool pretty much every day. In the beginning it was rough. They did NOT like it if the water was TOO cold or better yet they did not like going under the water. My how things change with just a few short months. They LOVE it! They will sometimes stand pointing out the sliding glass door "MY pool". I kid them & say NOOO it's MY pool & they would joke back saying it was theirs. We went all out & got ALL the bell's & whistles. At that time we had the money & I never thought I'd become a mommy so this was to be my "sanctuary".


Well it turned out better than we could have expected & now 3 1/2 years later it has served us well! We have a sun shelf where if I ever sunbathed I'd lay out & get my vitamin D. But now it is their playground. The perfect place for a toddler to play! They actually behave & stay there while I bring one of the tribe out into the pool for some "mommy swim lessons".




The twins, Avery & Lindsey, aka "The twins", are WILD! They will jump in towards you, go under the water & come up grinning! Nothing phases them! Brendan is becoming a little fish. He is cautious but LOVES it when I take him under water or get him kicking those legs of his. PLUS he does not want to leave the pool when it's time to go in. Then there's Camryn, the MOST cautious one of all. She can perform leaps & bounds above the rest of them BUT does it the safest way possible. She watches & learns from EVERYONE.She pays attention & sees everything!







My six year old niece can swim like a fish & there was Camryn watching her EVERY move. In two short days she taught Camryn what we've been trying to teach her, them, since March. How to grab onto the side of the pool if they ever fell in & get back to the steps. My cousin Lori started showing them that & we have repeated it hoping they would "get" it. Thanks to Lauren our Camryn can now go all the way around the pool doing...







the monkey crawl...