Another "first" tooth GONE!!!

Hmmmmmmmm. Not really sure about how I feel about this one. I think that may have hurt a little. :>



Okay, I do have this really cool hole in my mouth and there is blood. That is "awesome". (new kid word of the week)



Now I am loving it, has that darn tooth fairy been here yet?!?!?!?! Oh, how quickly they grow up. This is Jayson and he has been working on his teeth for about a month now. And now that one is gone he is working on tooth number two, while Nathan is going for three, and Bryan and Cassie are still trying back for one again. They all just want their dollar for the dollar store. :>

So grown up so fast. Hug your little ones tonight and remember how quickly it all changes. Good night my friends!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I think this year was the best Mother's Day yet!!! Jay is usually out of town on Mother's Day, so just having him in town was a treat. :> I remember one year..... not only was he gone, but we had to be out of one base house and in the new house within three days. The little ones were almost 2, I think. Luckily, mom flew out and the ward helped out or there is no way I would have pulled that one off.

So this week was interesting. I love to listen to the raido as I am dropping kids off at school and I heard that a local station was honoring moms the entire month of May. I came home and told Jay he should nominate me!!! I even found the form and emailed it to him. Subtle, I know!!! But hey, they are giving away a trip to San Diego for four days and three nights. How awesome would that be?!?!!? Well Jay wrote a letter and sent it. ( I think he is hoping I will take him with me if I win!!! )

I was on my way into the gym and my cell phone rings. It sounded like someone trying to sell me something so I was getting ready to tell them that I did not have time right now to talk to them. Well, lo and behold it was the radio station. I was so excited and surprised!! I was the Mom of the Day!! When they asked me who might have nominated me it just did not seem right to say...... well I made my husband do it because I wanted to win a prize...... So I told them I hoped it was my husband. They did read me the letter and it was very nice. I really sounded good. It is a good thing that he has to write a lot of performance reviews, he knows how to say things. :> However, there was a catch. Since we have a half dozen kids (which is basically abnormal ) and Jay is a pilot for the air force they wanted to come out and do a news story for the 10:00 news on Mother's Day. I really do not like doing news stories. We have done sevearl since we were to pregnant with the quads. But I agreed as long as they promised to make me look good. :> So the next day they came out to meet the kids and do a story. It did turn out nice and the kids always enjoy seeing themselves on tv. We are still waiting to see if we will win the trip, and now a local pool company is also giving away a above ground pool so we might win that instead. That would all be fun!!!! Keep your fingers crossed!!!!

Sunday was great. The kids made me some great cards, gorgeous pictures, and took really good care of me. I got to lay in bed a little longer, got some great flowers, a cake, and Bride Wars. I love that movie!!! Great romantic comedy. All in all I was sad to see the day end and get back to the grind. It was nice to be appreciated!!! And then came Monday and everyone forgot "that I was the best mom ever." Just kidding. I am very lucky to have such a great family. My kids are miracles and even though being a mom is the hardest job I have ever had, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I recently heard the song "Ordinary Miracle" by Sarah Mclachlan. If you have not heard it you should take a moment a listen to it. It will give you a whole new look at each day. I am thankful for my "ordinary miracles". Sleep well, my friends.

March of Dimes T-shirts

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I am making some good progress catching up. LOL. Here are the t-shirts that I made for our March of Dimes walk. Thank you so very much to all of our sponsors for the walk. We were able to reach our $500.00 goal. We were so very proud to be able to do this walk and help to support March of Dimes. As you can tell by our pictures having had four preemies this is a very near and dear topic for us.

I spent 7 weeks in the hospital on bed rest after having been on bed rest at week 12 of our pregnancy. The babies were born at 30.5 weeks and we then spent another 7 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit before being released. It was a roller coaster of a ride but we made it!!! And as you have read in previous posts they are truly keeping me on my toes. Again, thank you everyone who helped us to reach our fundraising goal. Have a great night my friends. I will post actual walk pictures very soon!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

So Jay's birthday is April 7th! (this is not too late. :>) He was supposed to be out of town for his birthday so I had no gifts, cake, decorations, nothing nada. The night before he is supposed to leave ,he lets me know that there has been a change of plans and he will be here after all. He explains to me that since I am woefully unprepared it does not matter. I try to explain to him that after having children our birthday's are not about us anymore they are about the kids. If we do not have presents, cake and decorations for Daddy they will be disappointed.

So the morning of his birthday I drop the kids off at their respective schools and with only about two hours I run to Walmart, Jcpenney, The Party Store, and Cold Stone Creamery. (which by the way are not all located close to each other.) When I say run I literally mean run. I barely got back home as the bus was pulling up to drop the quads off.

We frantically wrap presents, and inflate over 50 balloons. It is then time to run to the bus and get the older boys. We run back home to put up streamers and signs, run Cassie to choir, run back home, make dinner, do homework, run back to get Cassie, shove dinner down as fast as we can get it, run the boys to karate and finally back at home for bath time and party time. Whew, makes me tired just thinking about the day again. However, despite being woefully unprepared we managed to pull off a pretty good party, if I do say so myself!!! We were so glad that Daddy was able to be home for his birthday!!! Another successful and yet unpredictable day!!

Calgon cannot begin to take me away!!

Now for the record, I know that our kids live up to what we say about them, that being said, these two identical boys ARE MY TERRIBLE TWOSOME!!!! They have so much energy and together they will give you a run for your money. Cassie and Bryan try harder to make sure they are not in trouble. But with these two as ring leaders you never know what to expect. Yesterday being a perfect example. We do not have preschool on Wednesday's so I do my best to entertain and keep them busy and out of trouble. Not so much. Jay is on night shift this week . So when I went to exercise he said he would watch them. Great!!!! I came home, he was showered and ready to go. I thought that was awesome! Clearly I would be able to turn the tv on and sneak into the shower too. NOT!!!

They were playing ever so nicely outside, so I decided to get a head start on dinner. In they come running as fast as those legs will carry them. "We are going to play upstairs," they holler as they fly past. Hmmmmmmm..... that does not sound good. So I quickly head up the stairs after them. And what to my wondering eyes do I behold..... they have their screen out and one is half way out the window to the roof. (something they were playing with landed and, of course, they are going to get it). I nearly died. So I close and lock the windows and as I am trying to calm my heart, let them understand that I am not kidding that is a absolute unacceptable behavior. Back downstairs we all go. Next, I decide we need some clean clothes so I am in the laundry room and again notice it is a bit too quiet. I head to the kitchen to see what they are up to this time, they are trying to light paper towels on fire with the gas stove?!?!!?!? Are you kidding me? Again, I am scolding. Within minutes I hear them laughing their little butts off... they are now outside trying to light the gas grill and "build a campfire." Oh I wish I could tell you it stopped there, no.... they had rock throwing contests at my neighbors windows to see who could get the rocks the farthest, let's see who can throw more rocks faster into the pond, let's see how big of a toy we can flush down the toilet, can we get on top of the fridge and jump off, and what happens if I pick the bunny up by her back legs. So, I ran around all day long just trying to keep up with the little devils. I was so thankful for bedtime and trust me it did not come fast enough.

But the story does not end there. The house is quiet, almost eerie after my day, I decide I am going to relist some stuff on craigslist so I need some pictures from my camera. Well....... as I am looking at the pictures I realize that Daddy did not get off scott free while I was away for an hour. He just did not know what was going on. 100 new pictures on my camera. Yes, I kid you not. I had pictures of walls, dolls, each other and one that had me laughing so hard I nearly died. A lovely naked butt shot. I do not know who's darling little butt it is (no one will fess up this morning) it will make nice blackmail in a couple of years. But seriously, I thought I had until they were about 16 before they would start mooning the camera. HAHAHAHA. I would post the damaging evidence, however I may end up in jail. :>


And before I end, I have one more cute story. One of our biggest pet peeves with our yard is the pond. It is lovely to listen to but horrible to keep clean. We had just cleaned it out AGAIN...... and I see Nathan over there putting something in. I head over to see what is going on and redirect him. He was putting red goldfish crackers in there as fast as he could. I told him to stop immediatley, "but mom fish die if they are not in the water". Now how do you argue with that logic. I had to smile and just walk away.

Have a great day my friends, and don't be surprised if one day you visit and I have my velcro room installed. :>

Migraine or Mommy Brain?

Interesting question!!! I had a moment yesterday that if you did not know me better you would have me placed somewhere for observation. I am sure that we all have those moments where you do "stupid" things and truly believe you are losing your mind. For instance, putting milk in the cupboard instead of the fridge, putting something somewhere for "safe keeping" but then you cannot for the life of you remember where that "safe keeping" spot is. Well yesterday took the cake for me. In my defense (see I am already trying to explain away my "stupid moment"), I had a horrible migraine. I think it was a combination, stress, allergies, lack of sleep, and possible cold coming on. But regardless, I could not get rid of it. I had tried tylenol, caffeine, and motrin and would have loved to have just gone back to bed but again it was not in the cards for me. I took Tanner to is ortho appointment in town and then after dropping him off at school I decided I would drop by get Jay some fancy vinti, lite , java chip frap with whipping creme thing...... Can you tell I am not the starbucks drinker in the family. :> I had just taken pity on him because he was getting ready to head out of town, he was sick, and he had been with the quads all morning. I also decided to run by Subway to pick up a couple of subs. Two days earlier I had decided it was time to give up my sugar again so I really wanted a Dr. Pepper but had succumb to the fact that I was going to have to have the Diet Coke. Well if you shop at the subway inside of Walmart they have these great packets of lemon juice and that is the only way I can get it down , so without paying much attention I open a "lemon juice" packet and squirt it in my Diet Coke. I am noticing that I am getting really odd looks from other patrons and the workers. I look down into my Diet Coke and I am horrified to discover that it was not in fact lemon juice but mustard. Dang it, now what do I do. My head is pounding I can barely make out where the door is, I have people staring at me like I have lost my mind, so naturally, I stirred it in and proceeded to drink it and happily walk out of the store. Once I get to the car I try to dig out the mustard but at that point it was a lost cause. LOL. If my head had not hurt I would have just laughed it off and dumped the drink and started over, but instead I stirred and drank. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Who Does that?......... For the record Diet Coke with mustard.........DISGUSTING!!!!! It did add humor throughout the day for me though I would find myself just cracking up later in the day as I was thinking about the looks on the faces as I left so totally in control and happy. Little did they realize I was about ready to gag. But I can also promise you will never look at Diet Coke the same way. You will also smile when you think of me and that "stupid moment" . See even being far away I can help to bring humor into your lives. Now that should be worth something!! So you tell me.... Migraine, or Mommy Brain?

So if you are unfamiliar with who this is...... let me introduce you to Baby Grandpa Bruce. Bryan has always had a special bond with my father and this is the perfect example of that. Two years ago Cassie got a doll. Bryan took it over and has named it Baby Grandpa Bruce. If you call him Baby Bruce you will be corrected as that is not his name.......it is "Baby Grandpa Bruce." But after visiting Utah and his cousins (they had a baby bed) Bryan decided that his baby needed one too. So he and Daddy made this one. Well I thought that would be good enough..... no such luck. He had to have a pillow and then I had to make a baby size blanket. He tucks him in during nap time and bedtime. If you sneak in at night you will witness his little hand on the cradle rocking it. So precious!!! Sleep well my friends!!! If only we all had a Bryan to tuck us in, take care of us , keep us warm, but most importantly just love us. The love of a child is truly "something else".

Happy Easter!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What a crazy weekend it was!!! I am not sure if it was the full moon, the excitement of Easter, the excess sugar, the fact that everyone is getting a cold, or a combination of it all...... but these kids were crazy. Which, of course, equals a crazy mother. LOL. But despite that we had a good time and I think we were also very productive. Jay managed to get the garage cleaned out so that we should in the very near future be able to park two of the vehicles in there. That will be very nice.

I also found myself feeling a bit emotional this weekend. It will be two years ago this week that we lost my grandmother. It is not the anniversary of her death that I find hard, it is missing her on special days that I find hard. I would have called her, visited her, or sent her a card, and that is what I miss. She lived a great,full life though!!

I also found myself feeling a huge sadness that my brother in law, Dan, is not with us anymore either. It is when you have those quiet moments or those holidays that you finally acknowledge that there is a huge loss, a piece of your heart missing that cannot be replaced. I have never before been impacted by a suicide. So this really "rocked" our world especially to have it happen so close to home. Losing both of these loved ones has been a blessing in disguise. It is a reminder that life is so very precious and you have no idea how quickly life can chang. So you must treasure each moment that you have. But also, that you need to make sure that people know that you love them. Grandma always used to tell me, "No regrets, make sure that you have no regrets." And she always made sure that we knew that she loved us. As a matter of fact, those are the last words I heard from her, "Jackie, I love you!!" We miss you Grandma and Dan and look forward to one day when we will meet again!!!