Saturday, October 18, 2008

Brynlee and Weston playing in the toy basket

The kids new favorite activity is to climb in the toy baskets to play with their toys. Here are some pictures of Weston and Brynlee doing one of their favorite things.




Addison in the Kitchen Cabinet

One of my kids' favorite activities right now is pulling out all of the plastic plates and Tupperware from the only kitchen cabinet that is not child proofed. One day it was so cute because after the kids had pulled out all of the fun stuff, Addison climbed right in and I found him sitting in the cabinet, very proud of himself. He is our sweet, gentle giant.


Friday, October 17, 2008

Got Milk?

Isn't this picture of Weston cute playing in some spilled milk? He just looks so innocent. Our old sippy cups that we got for free from the Safety First company are just not doing the job anymore now that the kids like to throw them down. The lids keep popping off, so we've switched to the Playtex sippy cups and they're working fine, but all sippy cups leak, no matter what the packaging says.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Playing in the Sand at the Park

On October 2nd, the second day of no morning naps, we spent the morning on a walk to the park by our house. The kids loved playing in the sand. It's amazing how dirty kids get when you actually let them play in the dirt. It's probably about time that my kids no longer live the sheltered life.
Cambria loved scooping sand into her bucket.

Brynlee enjoying the sand toys

Addison, Brynlee, Weston and Cambria getting busy in the sand

Weston kept on crawling out of the sand box.
Here's Weston with dirt all over his face because he fell in the sand face first!
Addison hanging out with Karina in the sand




Weston just loves chocolate!

Our Weston just loves to make a mess. The best nickname for him is the "Cookie Monster". Any food we put on his high chair he just grabs it with both hands and shoves it in his mouth. I gave him his first peanut butter bar. He loved smearing the chocolate all over himself. Kids at this age are so not fun to clean up after meals, but it's a big part of my life that I must accept. I love the mischievous look on his sweet face.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Our First Time at the Mall Play Area

On October 1st I finally accepted the fact that the girls are ready for just one nap a day. I've been in denial for a while because the boys still take a great morning and afternoon nap. However, the girls take a great morning nap and then the afternoon nap becomes a social hour in their room. They talk, giggle, scream and just have fun for two hours in their cribs, but no sleeping occurs. I talked it over with my sister Jeannine and she said that I need to face the facts that they're growing up and they don't need as much sleep as before. Darn it! Why can't they need two naps a day forever?! That's life! Our schedule has been wonderful for a while now. They would wake up around 7 am and then go back down for their morning nap at 9 am. Then they'd have lunch at 11 am and then go down for their afternoon nap at 1 pm and not wake up until 3 or 4 pm. And then go to bed around 7 to 7:30 pm. When they were much younger, they used to take a short nap around 5 pm also. Those were the days........So, anyhow, I decided that it's better for them to take a longer afternoon nap and skip the morning nap. So, on October 1st, 5 days before the babies turned 16 months old, Karina and I decided to take the plunge. In the morning, we took them to the mall play area for the first time and they absolutely loved it. It was a little crazy me keeping track of two and Karina keeping track of two kids because there were many kids running around. However, since that time until today, they've had awful colds and I owe it all to the mall play area. I don't think we'll go back there until the RSV season is over. We did some fun things during those days between the mall play area and the time they got sick. When the babies got sick, we switched back to the old schedule of one nap in the morning and one in the afternoon because they needed the sleep. But, yesterday the babies proved to me that they are over their colds because the boys in their room and the girls in their room had social hour during the supposed afternoon nap. So, today we went back to one long nap in the afternoon and it went great! We took a walk to visit Aunt Nini and the kids' cousins. Cambria
Brynlee

Addison

Weston






Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Rub-a-Dub-Dub Four Kids in the Tub

Addison, Brynlee, Cambria and Weston just love bath time!! Bathing all four of them together is a very rare occurrence because it gets a little crazy, but bath time goes a lot faster this way.



Saturday, October 11, 2008

Just some cute pictures from when the babies were 13 months old

Cambria with a favorite book
Weston is so cute as he maneuvers through our baby gate

Addison and Cambria reading a book with grandma

Brynlee with her sippy cup
Cambria has the prettiest curly hair. I'm so glad she got that from her dad!
Brynlee and Cambria just enjoying ripping some tissues to shreads together
Sweet Addison when he used to just army crawl. He looked so adorable when he did that!




Daddy and kids playing with a basket

These pictures were taken on August 13th. The babies were 14 months old. The babies love to crawl in baskets and have daddy push them around.
In this picture, Cambria is pushing daddy, Weston and Brynlee are in the basket and Addison is crawling away.
Brynlee loves to stick her fingers in daddy's and mommy's mouth.
Cambria behind Daddy and Brynlee
Cambria and Weston watching Daddy get Brynlee out of the basket
Weston and Addison trying to crawl on top of the basket


We love you Karina!

Karina has been our nanny since the babies were 5 weeks old, July 12th, 2007, the night they came home from the NICU. She started out working nights 6 to 7 days a week. All during the night, she would do the babies' laundry, prepare their formula and bottles and help feed the babies every three hours with either my mom, my mother-in-law, Jeremiah or me. In the beginning, the schedule was feed two babies at 8:30 pm and then two babies at 9:30 pm and then do that every three hours. There was not much down time because each block of feeding lasted two hours. Without Karina, I don't know how I would have survived that time of sleep deprivation. Once the babies were sleeping through the night by October and they were four months, she switched to our daytime nanny working from 7:30 am until 4 pm Monday through Friday. She has been such a huge help to me and to my family. She is like a second mother to my babies. Karina has such a gift with babies and children. She loves my babies as her own. It's so nice to have her to help me give my babies the attention they deserve. She is such a hard worker. She does so much more than I ever ask her to do. She has been the main person to truly help me keep my sanity as a mother of quadruplets. I can honestly say that I love being a mother of my sweet babies because I have Karina's help. I cannot repay Karina for all that she has done and does for me. She's such a great friend and support to me. I'm really not sure how other women raise their multiples without the help I receive from Karina. I love you Karina and wish you the very best in all that you do.
I love these pictures of my babies with Karina. They love her so much.


Play date with the Mast Quadruplets

On September 10th, we had a play date with my friend Stephanie's quadruplets. It was quite an adventure with two moms and eight kids under three years old. Stephanie was nice enough to have us over to her home. It's so nice to have a friend who completely understands the joys and craziness of quadruplets! Stephanie was always a great mentor to me while I was pregnant and is now.
Me, Mast, Cluff, Mast, Cluff,Cluff,Mast, Cluff, Mast, Stephanie
--in case you were wondering which kid belongs to who.

Oh, How We Love Grandpa and Grandma Cluff!!

My kids are the luckiest grandchildren in the whole world to have Grandpa and Grandma Cluff as their grandparents! They come over a couple of times each week and their whole attention is on Cambria, Addison, Weston and Brynlee. I don't think I've ever witnessed prouder grandparents than they are of our babies. They sing songs with them, feed them snacks, read them stories, cuddle with them and just fully enjoy every minute they spend with them. I know my babies feel very loved by their grandparents! We're so lucky to have them so close by us!

They all love to huddle around grandpa and grandma.

(These pictures were taken on August 2nd--the babies were almost 14 months old.)



Aunt Cheri's and Aunt Candy's Birthday Party

On August 24th we went to Aunt Cheri's and Aunt Candy's birthday party at Grandpa and Grandma Cluff's house. The babies were 14 months old. These aunts (Jeremiah's sisters) are so good to our babies and my kiddos love them right back.After the presents were opened, we put a bow on Brynlee's head. She didn't even try to pull it off. Things have sure changed now! Here's Brynlee with her favorite man--Daddy.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Beach Babies

The week of my sister Nellie's wedding, August 4, 5 and 6, we had a family reunion with all my brothers and sisters and their families and my parents at Newport Beach. We had such a great time and my kids experienced the beach for the first time. They loved playing in the sand and having the waves hit their feet and legs. To be completely honest, taking four babies to the beach isn't exactly easy and the old days of relaxing on the beach with a book are over for me, but it was worth it to see how much Cambria, Addison, Brynlee and Weston enjoyed it!
Cambria

Brynlee Weston Addison
Cambria just loved the waves!
Brynlee wasn't quite sure about the waves at first...and then she really enjoyed them. In case you were wondering, the girls' hats say "Bling Baby". Too cute!
Addison loved the waves, but his poor eyes got all red and infected from the sand. Don't you love that hat--it says "My Mom Rocks"
Weston didn't want to stand up when the waves came. He just wanted to crawl in the sand.