Blog Hop

Pixel perfect time again!!!  Head on over for all the great edits!!  I used Photoshop CS4.

Ride the road to recovery on a tractor

Well, the kids are all in school today and feeling better, but what do you do with sick kids that don't want to lay around the house anymore.... let them ride the lawnmower with Daddy.

I Heart Faces - SMILES!!!!

It's all about SMILES this week at I Heart Faces. Here is a photo of Cody from March 2009. Visit I Heart Faces for all the other smiling faces.

The Pitty Party is Over

Well, I'm past my pitty party and feeling better. Every family has it's challenges and ups and downs. We are no different. I am still tired, however this time it is from being up the past few nights with sick girls. We've been very fortunate that illnesses for the most part have been pretty mild in our home (except for Cody's 106 fever recently), but I have to say this is a bad one. The girls are up every couple hours crying cause they can't breath with stuffy noses and burning up with high fevers. Kaylee has vomited several times in bed and all over the downstairs sofa. Jerry and I are exhaused and keep praying they are better soon and the boys don't get it.
Here is a flashback photo to October 2009 in the pumpkins and another from March 2009 "High Flyer":

I'm Just Tired....

The girls are sick with 104+ fever due to the Pharyngoconjunctival Fever. I didn't take them to the pediatrician for the diagnosis, it has 1/2 of their class at school out sick. I'm trying to keep the boys healthy, but not optimistic. Despite the added strain and up during the night for fever checks and medicine, that's not really why I'm tired.

I'm tired of worrying that someone won't like the color of their Flintstones vitamin in the morning.  I'm tired of worrying that someone might sit in Jadons claimed seat on the sofa or Cody might grab a handful of Kaylee's hair.  I'm tired of "I want to watch Beauty and the Beast"..."NO!!! I wanted to watch Peter Pan!!!" or "AHHHHHH,Kaylee flushed my poo poo!!!  I wanted to flush my poo poo."!!!!!!

There are a million and one things that trigger melt downs in this house and trying to mitigate them all is like walking through a mine field morning, noon, and night. When something doesn't go someone's way, do they respond with "Mommy, can you help me?" NO.... they respond with ear shattering screaming and crying.... then 1/2 the time I don't know who instigated the incident to know who to punish. I cringe when I see Cody open a "NO NO" cabinet. When I tell him "NO", I create more emotional drama. He wants to do what he can't do and won't do what he has to do. I dread putting him in a car seat because he fights it tooth and nail (a problem I never had with the triplets). Really, he fights everything; getting dressed, brushing teeth, going upstairs... you name it.

I often feel four kids the same age would be easier than 3 and one younger. Let's imagine, the triplets are all playing nice... bring on the toddler... chaos. He is just too young to join in most of their activities.

My day is spent trying to defuse the emotions of 4 little bodies. Most sane people even if they have a lot of kids have about a 2 year spread... (Ahhh a 2 year old, 4 year old, 6 year old, and 8 year old).... I'm sure it comes with it's own set of problems don't get me wrong, but it sounds nice.

Sigh... venting to whoever is out there. My Mom was a stay at homer of 2 small kids and she admits this is a far different experience. The work is never ending and I often feel out of control and I'm tired....Today anyway. Each day is different and some better than others, so I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow..........

Thanks for letting me rant and vent....  Oh, did I mention I also took on a part time job editing photos???? Am I crazy or what????

True Love's First Kiss/Blog Hop

The other night the kids were playing that Jadon was a spider (his face was painted) and he would touch them and they'd fall asleep. Then Cody would come by and kiss them to wake them up. My before and after is a snapshot of the magic of children's imaginations and "True Love's First Kiss."

Daddy Would Look Good On That....

Jerry has "trained" the kids to say, "Hey Mommy, Daddy would look good on that" every time they see a motorcycle or boat.  Ha, funny.... in his dreams.

The other day we had a dump truck parked outside our house. The kids and I watched the men work around it for a while then they piled it full of tree trimmings and loaded up. As it began to pull away, one of the kids said, "Mommy would look good on that!!" Ahhhh, out of the mouths of babes. Never really saw myself as a dump truck driver.

Here is a shot of Cody waking up from his nap:

Spiders & Flowers

On Sunday, we went the annual picnic thrown by Jerry's company.  The weather was horrible.  It had cooled down and it was raining.  If we had anything else to do, we probably wouldn't have gone, but what else are y'a gonna do with 4 babies.  We just don't have lots of options, but I am sooo glad we went.  Jadon wasn't so sure at first.  I think he just gets overwhelmed and responds with tears and attitude, but he got over it and soon was having fun.  Addison had her ears covered the 1st thirty minutes cause the music was loud, but she too finally let go and a good time was had by all.  They had a mechanical bull which the triplets rode very slowly of course, face painting, balloon making, popcorn, BBQ, cotton candy, and a water skiing show.  It was a 1st rate event!!  The weather cleared about 1/2 through the day and we all had a great time.  This is only the 2nd time the kids have gotten their faces painted and they were soooo excited about it, but very upset the next day when they looked in the mirror and saw it had all been washed off in the tub.

I Heart Faces - Collages

This weeks I Heart Faces theme is collages.  These are some pictures I took of Cody when he was about 6 months old.  Be sure to check out some of the other AMAZING photos.

Pixel Perfect Blog Hops Again

It's blog hop time again. I just couldn't decide which photo to use and they seem like a "collection" so I'm sharing them all with you.
Oh, and Julie at the Peanut Gallery (another blog hopper) posted this yesterday which I thought was horribly funny and a must read for all the moms out there....Click here

Jesus, Moses, Mary & Joseph live in our home

I love that when our kids play dress up, while they often choose to be Peter Pan, Cinderella, or Tinkerbell, most of the time they choose to act out stories from the Bible. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Moses and many others come to life in our home as the kids tie blankets around their heads and place a baby doll in a basket. Sometimes the baby is Jesus and other times baby Moses, but I've seen Jesus in the manger, I've seen David take down Goliath, and I've seen Daniel in the Lions Den. The stories of the Bible are alive in our home.

Here is Jadon in the role of Joseph (his favorite character)



You can see the straight out of the camera shots here. The originals were so dark that when I lightened them they came out a little noisy, but they are ok.

Easter Wrap Up

Ok, where was I??? Easter parties Thursday morning, bluebonnets Thursday & Friday night... oh yea, our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning so we dressed the kids and headed over on a BEAUTIFUL morning to hunt eggs. Jadon was sooooo funny though.... he would only pick up blue eggs???? He's a boy who knows what he wants.
On Sunday, we all went to Mass then spent the afternoon at my parents house where we sat in the hot tub, drank Margaritas, & ate a wonderful meal my Mom prepared. All in all, it was another wonderful holiday filled with fun and family.

Another Milestone...5 Years/4 Kids

Today is my 5 year wedding anniversary & the 1st time since our 1st year of marriage that I can say my years of marriage outnumber my children. But, it has been an extraordinary 5 years and having seen my husband become a father, I love him even more today than I did the day I said "I do." My husband is my friend and he would rather spend his time at home than anywhere else. He is a hard worker, but places family before work. He is an awesome father who is in the trenches with me every chance he gets and he never complains. He is smart.... I worked in the same company with him for years.... I know his work. He is giving... he volunteered his Wednesday evenings at the Children's Cancer Center before we were married. He is loving.... OH MY... He has always made me feel loved and special beyond words. He takes care of me and the kids and that is his 1st priority. I could write a book about my husband and his wonderful qualities, but when the kids read this years from now as adults, I just want them to know I love their Daddy with all my heart.

Raising multiples is hard and requires a great deal of sacrifice. but we make a great team and we love our life, our children and each other.

And thank you again to my Mom & Dad for the most beautiful wedding a girl could ever ask for.... I LOVE YOU both!!!

Last of the Bluebonnets & Blog Hop

Here are the rest of our bluebonnet pictures




I love the flowers in Jadon's pocket below...

Bluebonnets & A Blue Boy...

Thursday evening, the kids had on nice clothes from their Easter parties at school so we decided to take them to the bluebonnet hill for our annual "photo shoot." I was excited given it's nice to have a backdrop other than our sofa at home. Well, Jadon didn't want any part of it.... ugh!!! I was sooo mad at him, then just when he was about to snap out of it.... he fell and skinned his knee.... Well, so much for the photo shoot. I got a few shots (of the girls & Cody)... We went back again on Friday and things went better, but you'll notice we went casual this time. Here are a few of the photos. I'll post more over the next few days.

With kids, you just never know what to expect so don't count on anything going as planned...