Happy "LOVE " Day

Today is Valentine's Day and a day that I think is so highly overrated; flowers are ridiculously overpriced, restaurants are  packed and they limit the menu choices to a couple gourmet selections, our significant other goes and buys a box of chocolates (See's if you're well loved) while we are still all working on our new years resolution of losing weight. This holiday is a sabotage and one I think is kind of silly. I would rather stay home, eat crab legs after the kids go to bed and save the money on overpriced roses. So instead of getting all mushy and being a $5.89 Hallmark card (hello why do cards have to be so dang expensive anyways) I am going to show off the 8 "loves" of my life.

Happy Valentine's Day

Playtime is hard work

Following in big sister's footsteps

Hard to believe that they all fit on the smaller playmat at one time!

They cuddle many times during the day.

Half a year old already!

This last month whenever someone asked me how old the quads are I kept saying 5 months. Even when they hit the half way point of 5.5 months they were still 5 months and as the days grew closer to 6 months they were still 5 months. For some reason when my babies hit 6 months I feel they are growing up. They are no longer newborns and this always makes me sad. I love the next steps of being more interactive, rolling, crawling, trying foods but they are no longer my itty bitty babies.

I can not believe my little 2 and 3 pounders are already 6 months. My pregnancy seemed to take forever, the nicu stay was short but felt like it was never going to end, the sleepless nights of being up every three hours were exhausting but we made it through and we now have four 6 month olds that sleep 12 hours a night, eat every four hours and reward us with the most amazing smiles. The four of you amaze your mom and daddy every single day and each day we fall more and more in love with you (there are some days that we are happy its 8pm but we still love you!).

Tate:
My big little man. You are smiles all the time and as I sit here typing I can here you giving a full belly laugh. Even after you spit up a fourth of a bottle you give us the cheesiest grin as to say that was the silliest thing ever. You are happy lying on your back and watching the world around you but boy will you bend your body to be able to see the television. It doesn't matter if I turn you so there is no way you can watch it...you find a way. I have to say you are our happiest kid. You seldom fuss. You are content wherever we put you. You love to cuddle after your last bottle of the day. You love splashing at bath time which turns into water getting everywhere. You will hang out in the exersaucer longer than anyone. You are so loved my little man.

Isabella:
Some how you have become our best napper. We lay you down, you watch your aquarium for a couple of minutes and then you are out. So different than how you were a couple weeks ago. You still let us know when you are unhappy with a very loud scream that keeps going til we pay attention to you. You boycott your evening naps because I think you have figured out that you get to sit at the dinner table in your bumbo. It is very funny because when you are at the table you make chewing motions with your mouth. Think you are getting ready for  real people food! Even though you are our best napper you get bored with toys very quickly. We look like the Easter bunny with you hoping form one contraption to another. After your evening bottle you and Rylan love to look at one another. For the last feed daddy feeds the boys and I feed the girls. As soon as you both are done and are being burped you two will just stare at each other. It is so funny. We love you my little girl.

Kenzie:
I often wonder if you are ever going to grow. I took out about 80% of your 0-3 month clothes because I was so tired of seeing them. You now wear some 3-6 month stuff that has to be rolled just so you don't drown in it! You have the most beautiful little smile. We are still waiting on your giggles but for now we are happy with the smiles you give. You had a couple miserable days a couple of weeks ago and could not fit enough of your fist in your mouth at one time. Tylenol wasn't helping your pain so I put on your amber necklace and within 1.5 hours you were a new baby. You now wear your necklace everyday. You sleep wonderfully in your crib at night but during naps you tend to wake after about 30 minutes. If we put you in your rock in play you sleep soundly so we are letting you be the princess you think you are and tuck you into your rock in play during the day. You also are becoming a right thumb sucker. You love rolling onto your sides but haven't yet figured out that this will get you to your tummy.  You are still the favorite of Natalie and Aubrey and I think it is because you are the size of their dolls. Our little peanut, you are so special.

Rylan:
Dad was just commenting the other night on how fun you are becoming. You have a very serious face but can't hold it for long when someone makes eye contact with you. You break into a heart melting grin as soon as someone talks to you. You still spend lots of time in your crib looking around and are mesmerized by your hands. We have also caught you a couple of times sucking on your left pointer and middle finger. A habit I really don't want you to pick up but it is so dang cute. The last couple of weeks you have really started to enjoy your time in the bumbo and exersaucer. You use to last a couple of minutes and then start arching your back to let us know you were done but now you will stay content for quite some time. You were the first one to roll form your back to tummy but have only done it once and then decided it wasn't that neat of trick. Rylan we couldn't imagine life without you.

This coming week all four of you will be loved on a ton. You will be baptized next Saturday so we have lots of family coming to celebrate this day with you. I can't wait to show you off. Daddy is concerned with how much you are going to want to be held after everyone leaves! This will be the first time Grandma Lynn will see you since you were 2 weeks old and we can't wait for her to see how big you have gotten. We will never forget the sacrifices she made to live with us last summer so that mommy could stay pregnant with you as long as possible. Natalie and Aubrey told us the other day that they couldn't wait for grandma to come again to spend the summer with them. Paul and I told them that grandma probably wouldn't be coming out this summer and that if she did come she would have to share Drew's room. They told us no she could have the couch! So grandma the couch is ready for you!!

Happy 6 months to our four amazing, beautiful, precious gifts.

I bought the babies shirts from Onesies for Twosies. If you are looking for some fun onesies visit Tricia at her etsy shop and she will give a 10% discount on all orders with the coupon code Multiples2012. If you are ordering for quadlings contact her and she will give you an even greater discount!

SISTERS
(yes the girls have different headbands. I didn't like the lighting of the first photo shoot so 
 I redid them! Not busy enough some days so I fill my time by doing things again!!)
 

 "Mom I am DONE with this. I am outta here."

Daddy and 2 of his girls

 

The Nursery

When we found out we were pregnant with four babies we had to figure out where everyone was going to sleep. We live in a 3 bedroom house plus an office. We thought about a couple options; having all three big kids share a room, the babies share a room and that would have left us with a play room. We thought about putting all the babies in our master and Paul and I would take one of the smaller rooms but I didn't want to have to go into the babies room all the time to shower. In the end we gave up the play room idea and moved all the toys into the kids room which is something I really did not want to do but sometimes one can't always have their way. We decided to leave Drew alone because he is a really good sleeper and I didn't want to screw this up by having the girls waking him up when they wake at oh five thirty.  

Once it was decided that the babies would go into the office we started figuring out how to add in a closet. While adding in the closet we added some extra length to one of the walls so we could fit two cribs across two separate walls. Then it was decision time...how to decorate for four babies without knowing if these babies were boys or girls. The nursery we had done before was "Twinkle, Twinkle  Little Star" and I wanted something brighter than this. I thought about doing a Dr. Suess theme but I knew I would get tired of it quickly. I started searching online for nursery ideas and found one that I loved. They even posted which paint colors they used. I did exactly as they did as far as paint. I also ordered the same rug (which was back ordered almost 5 months) that they had and based the rest of the nursery off of these colors.

Construction time

The opening is now the opening of the closet

I love how the room came together. It is actually my favorite room in the house. I love the color of the hardwood floors, love the organization of it, love that it is not cluttered with toys like the other kids' bedrooms are, I just simply love how it turned out. The only thing I would change is to have all four cribs match. We had two of the cribs from the girls along with the dresser. When I went to order two more the company had discontinued the color we had. I really like the ones we ended up ordering but there was no way I was going to order four new ones. In the end it will all work out because some day we will split the quads into boys and girls and the girls will get the darker wood furniture while the boys will get the lighter. It will all work out and for now I just have to deal with the mix matched wood. 

Sweet dreams my little loves...

This room makes me so happy

Tate (L)far, Kenzie (L)front, Isabella (R)far, Rylan (R)front

Love, Love, Love how the pictures turned out. They look small here but the big one is a 26x26 with four smaller ones of 12.5x12.5. They are beautiful and pictures that Paul and I will have up forever.

Disclaimer: We will be getting a cordless blind for this window as soon as they start moving around.

Even before the babies came home the doors to the closet were removed. I am in it way to often to be moving doors back and forth.

The above pictures were staged to be clear of all extra baby "stuff". This is how it usually looks with mobiles and boppies galore.

 And the four cuties that claim the room as theirs:

She is still so little!!

Someone has been caught red handed sucking on his two fingers a couple of times. As the older girls say, "sucking on fingers is NOT allowed in this house." Now if only Natalie would lead by example!