Amy Horton Photography

Amy Horton came out this weekend to take some shots of our family. She is a talented photographer who specializes in outdoor, on location photography. Check out more of her work by clicking here!

Just a heads up, the girls are wearing the cute little red gingham outfits and the boy's their overalls that you have often seen them in. They are some of my favorites therefore we will get/have gotten our use out of them. Last time, I promise :]

Stay tuned... next post cranial helmets and baby food!

Mommy & Me

Not much. Just a few pics from our fun day at home together...

No this is not a new smile I am sporting.

I was trying to plan a funny noise at just the right time to make her smile... our timing was off.

...no smiles but she's still beautiful!

Notice this is her first real bow to wear (as in no headband) YAY for new hair!

Unfortunate timing.

Let's try that again...

There it is!

Big Broman not really in the mood today.

Hope everyone had a good Wednesday :]

Hello Church!

We took the babies to church for the first time yesterday! I was so nervous and excited at the same time. My church is and has always been a HUGE part of my life and not being able to be there on a regular basis since the babies have come home is a total bummer and one of the many sacrifices we have made to help protect them. We got there in time for the 11am feeding and took them in at the end of the service for everyone to see. After church, we allowed the kids to come up to the stage to get a closer look as well, they too had all been waiting to see them. A few of the things I over heard them asking "Why his head flat?" "What's on his leg, does it hurt him?!" (talking about Brody's hemangioma) "They are SOO little!!!" "What do they feeeel like?!". It was neat to see the kids finally seeing these little babies who they had been praying for for so long and had only seen pictures of. I'm glad we got to go and hope to go a few more times before RSV begins.

Bethany with Korb leading the pack ready to squirt people with sanitizer if they come near. Anna with Baxlyn, myself with Broman and Kim with our little puker, Kylee!

Baxlyn, Korbin, Kylee & Brody

Grandma gave them these adorable outfits. The girls had little khaki skirts to match and the boys shorts that all said "His Gem. Created for God's glory" in pink and blue stitches.

The front of the onsies said "His Creation" and the back...

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Genesis 1:31"

Brody

Baxlyn

Kylee
Korbin



Don't you just wonder what they're thinking sometimes! Korbin with Daddy.

Our sleepy angels with no halos

Our little family :]

Another special thanks to our church family for supporting us and the never ending prayers for our family. We love you all!

-Bret & Heather

Brody's MRI

We went to Children's today for Brody's MRI. We knew it was going to be a big trip to begin with because it is a long drive and we were planning on taking all of the babies. Here I was totally prepared, packed and ready to go and I get a call from his neuro's office last night. "Did anyone tell you Brody needs to come sleep deprived and hungry??" UM NO! Nobody told me that. They told me if he wasn't able to be tired enough to fall asleep and stay still during the MRI, we would have to reschedule so they could use anesthesia. This is the part where I started to panic a little, making a second trip is not what we wanted to have to do. How were we supposed to keep a baby up for hours and on top of that- IN THE CAR? Their favorite place to sleep is the car, ugh! All we could do was try.

We woke them all up at 6am this morning (they usually wake 7:30-8am) to feed them and turned on The Little Mermaid to keep Brody occupied (which they all ended up watching). We headed out of the house at 7:15 to meet up with Bethany, our extra pair of hands for the day. Brody was trying so hard to drift off before we even got out of the neighborhood, he wasn't interested in hearing how cute and chunky he was and I apparently wasn't interesting enough to look at. We ended up letting him sleep from about 7:30-8am. I figured it was better to let him have a cat nap then rather than when we got close to the hospital. We were able to keep him up after 8am by using cold, wet burp rags (I know sounds mean), musical toys, goofy faces, with an occasion head rub and arm shake thrown in every few minutes. We arrived at the hospital around 9am and I carried him to help keep him up. While in the waiting room it was time for them to eat again but they didn't want us to offer Brody a bottle until he was on the table, hoping it would push him over the edge and he would fall asleep. So we fed the others.... right there in front of him. Poor guy :[ He didn't seem to mind, just wanted to go to sleep SOOO bad. He would try to smile and have fun but his eyes would be rolling back at the same time. If we looked away and stopped talking for just a split second he was gone!

This kid is a TROOPER!

When it was finally his turn to go back, Bret took him and Bethany and I strolled the halls of the hospital with the others. It was only about 30 minutes later, Bret called and said they were done and Brody had done great! He didn't even need the bottle to go to sleep, the second he hit the table, he was gone!

Big man finally gets to eat his bottle!

After the testing, we headed over to Dr. Honeycutt's office to get the results. When he walked in he had a big smile on his face and said everything looked great, thank you Jesus! His ventricles looked much better than his last MRI (a lot smaller) and it seems as if the shunt is working properly. He said Brody still has a lot of damage due to his IVH (brain bleeds) but only time will tell what that will mean for his future. I remember telling Bret when we were going through all of this just a few short months ago "As long as he can know who we are (Bret myself and his siblings) and be happy" it will be ok.... and he is and he does! By no means is this all that I desire for his life, but I thank God he came this far. I have every reason to believe his little life will be as happy and bright as his sunshiny blonde hair :]

"Love you Brody and as always SO PROUD!"

-Mommy & Daddy

6 Months Old Already!

I can't believe my sweet babies are 6 months old today. WOW! I am so grateful that they are all here and doing so well. They had their 6 month check up this week and Dr. Reyes said they are doing fantastic. He said it's rare for 28-29 weekers to go their first six months without having any respiratory illnesses... yay for healthy babies and an over-protective mommy and daddy! They also had their not-so-fun shots and hearing screenings. During the hearing screenings the room has to be quiet... so while one baby was being tested the other 3 had to be out of the room. My friend Bethany stayed in the room with the one being tested while I visited with the nurses in the office with the other 3. At one point one baby was in the office doing computer work with one of the nurses while the others were up front at the front desk answering phones and we switched the babies out as another got done. Luckily the office wasn't busy and we had the extra hands to help out! The boys passed their tests, Baxlyn was too feisty/machine wouldn't work with her ears, and they were able to get one of Kylee's ears to cooperate. So we still have 3 ears to be evaluated in the near future. Fun!

Here they are at their 6 month check up.

Baxlyn, Kylee, Korbin, & Brody

At times I feel like they are such little babies and then other times when trying to remember just how small they used to be, I feel they are HUGE! I wish I had a little mold of each of them from when they were born so I could see exactly how much they have grown.

Stats and pics will have to do!

My Bro-man

At Birth: 3lbs 15in
Today: 15lbs 5oz 24.5in

My Little Miss Baxlyn

At Birth: 2lbs 10oz 15in

Today: 12lbs 12oz 23 1/4in

My Sweet "Tiny" Kylee

At Birth: 2lbs 7oz 14.5in

Today: 13lbs 11.5oz 23 3/4in

Mr. Korbin My "Korb Worb"

At Birth: 2lbs 11oz 14in

Today: 13lbs 12oz 24 1/4in

Here's a few more pics showing just how far they have come!

Their diapers. The one on the very left is what Kylee started in, it measures just about 2 inches in height. The others started at the next size. Proud to say my little monkeys are now in size 2!

Their bottles. The one to the left we would attached to their feeding tubes and let gravity move it down into their little tummies. I remember we used to try and try and try to get Baxlyn's little tummy to digest just 3ccs of milk only to go back at the next feed and find it all still in her little tummy, the day she finally did it was such a big deal.

From drops to ccs to ounces... we now find ourselves going through an unbelievable amount of formula. We make a gallon a day. Below is a pic of about 6 weeks worth.

This was their first picture together in their personalized hats that swallowed them...

Today in their hats...

Look how far you have come sweet babies, we're SO SO SO SO proud of you.

Thank you for being such little fighters.

We Love you :]

Mommy & Daddy

Our Busy Weekend...

We got out Saturday morning and headed to the Gerwer's to check out their quad stroller. I'm sure you've seen them in pics the huge limo looking strollers that hold all four babies... yeah that's one of our wipe out the bank account purchases we will be making along with new car seats soon. Casey and Robbie are SUPER great and have been there for guidance and support since we were pregnant. They have also helped us out with car seats, toys, bottles, CLOTHES... just to name a few. Don't know what we would do without you, thanks guys!!! Best part of seeing them this weekend was letting the quads meet each other for the first time!

Cameron was the first to check them out up close "BABY!!"

Apparently Kylee and Korbin have the same "lovies" as Brady and Cam. Here's a pic of Casey trying to explain to Brady that this one was not his!

We managed to get a great shot of them all together.

L-R & T-B Cameron, Brady, Reid, Trey

Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin

Brady giving Korbin a little goodbye kiss... soo cute!

That afternoon we headed to the hospital for our 2009 NICU reunion. We got to see some of our nurses, doctors, and other babies who were in the NICU at the same time as ours. It was so fun and I look forward to going back each year until they kick us out!

Dr. Kuforiji with the me and the babies.


Baxlyn reunited with her baby buddy Meredith!
(So good to see you girl!)

Bret and I with Michelle and the babies!

Michelle and her awesome new hair with Korbin. She decided she would "hold him until he cried"... after about 45 minutes of angelic behavior, she had to put him down so we could mingle with others!

They even got to meet Blue while we were there!

After the reunion we headed upstairs to labor and delivery to see some of my nurses.

Dr. Leveno happened to be there too, it was great seeing him! On our way out we took the babies to the skywalk where Bret would wheel me everyday during my 20 minute outings from my room. Kinda cool pushing the babies down it rather than BIG O' me for a change!

Sunday one of my best friends KK came over to hang out. We have known each other since we were little babies ourselves! Unfortunately she doesn't live too close so we don't see her as often as we would like. Love you K, it was great to see you!

Kylee having a great game of stretching with her Aunt K.

She and Korbin LOVE their stretches lately!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Stay tuned, babies have their 6 month check up tomorrow!!!