Halloween 2013 – Just a glimpse!

Happy Halloween from our 5 Lil’ Monkeys!

Unfortunately we are still having some issues with our full Halloween 2013 Post. Stay tuned for the entire picture gallery ;)

Halloween 2013 – Technical Difficulties

For those of you poppin’ in because you received the Halloween Post update via email, hang with us. We’re having technical difficulties and hope to have it up again in the next day or so!

Meanwhile here’s something sweet to look at :)

Blade’s First {Barnyard} Birthday Party!

To help celebrate our little big man’s 1st birthday, we brought back Debra from Anna Acres, who helped us out with the quad's 2nd birthday! You can never go wrong with a petting zoo-themed birthday party…at our house anyways!October is one of those months in Texas where you don’t know if it will be 40 degrees or 90. Our morning started off pretty chilly but by afternoon it was perfection!

Brody & the bunny!

Blade was just as interested in the pumpkins as he was the animals!

       

   

I LOVE the way his cakes turned out! We had them made by a long time family friend, Mary, with L & M Cakes! Go check out some of her phenomenal work by clicking here!

His adorable smash cake…

    

…which he enjoyed thoroughly ;)

Happy Birthday, Sweet Bubby! You have brought nothing but joy to our lives over the past year – such a blessing!! We LOVE you!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Our Sweet Baby Blade!

A year ago today I woke up happy and {happily} huge, ready to deliver our “Sweet Number 5”. Although we were still unsure of what this precious baby’s name would be, we were all VERY excited to add him to our family! At 12:34pm our precious boy came into this world at a whoppin’ 10lbs8oz and in perfect health. Since 12:34pm on 10.25.12 our lives have never been the same. If I had even a dime for every time I’ve been asked since he’s been born “Was he an accident? Did you TRY to have another baby?” there’s no doubt he would have his first few years of college paid for. I’ve lost count at how many times Bret and I have discussed what a perfect addition he is and how he (along with our sweet quadruplets, of course) is the best “decision” we’ve ever made. We are eternally grateful to God for the opportunity to be this sweet boy’s Mom & Daddy!

 

 

My Blade. My buddy. My tug. My sweet number 5. Since the day I very nervously brought you home I tried to soak it all in. I knew from the start how quickly you would grow. I studied your tiny new feet, I held you tightly and tried to embrace each and every moment of your “littleness” while it lasted. Somehow, here we are, you’re very first birthday! Words can’t express how much I adore you and the joy you’ve brought your daddy and I, as well as your siblings, is never-ending. After watching you grow over this past year it’s very clear you were molded by God to fit perfectly in our little family. Your daddy and I love you so so much and look forward to watching you blossom even more into who God wants you to be over the coming years.

Happy Birthday Blade, you’ll never know just how much you’re loved. Love, Mommy

 

Future Stylist?

At four years old, the quads don’t care too much about what they look like. Wearing a too-small 18 months shirt because it’s your favorite, sign me up. Shoes on the wrong feet, sure. Buttcrack hangin’ out, why not. Now days, they just don’t care.

Baxlyn has just recently been exploring her ability to do her own hair. She came out this morning looking like this…

 After a slight cringe, Bret and I both told her she looked absolutely beautiful. I smiled big as I watched her very proudly walk in to school this morning.0

Oh to be a four year old and not care what anyone thinks. Stay innocent, my sweet baby girl <3

Just when we think he won’t, he shows us he just may…

Bret and I were JUST talking yesterday about Blade walking. We both agreed we didn’t think he’d walk before his first birthday. Lo and behold, he took his FIRST TWO STEPS (in a row) this afternoon! Wouldn’t consider him a “walker” just yet but he’s sure gettin’ there!

Great job, our sweet sweet chunky buddy, keep on keepin’ on!

A few firsts – Fishin’ & Boatin’!

    So I’m WAY late on blogging about this but want to document it for sure! The quads got to go fishing for the first time this summer while on our annual trip to Kentucky – so FUN! Our KY family lives on a beautiful piece of land that has a creek that runs right through it so Jennifer and Linda thought it would be fun to let them fish. We took them one at a time so they could have undivided attention, something that’s hard to come by when you grow up a quadruplet. Although I like to fish, I don’t do the whole hook and worm thing so I left that up to the others and stood back with the camera, of course :) First up was Brody. How cute is he in his lil hat and boots?!

His catch came pretty easy!

One by one the others took their turns but unlike Brody, they were having a hard time catching anything…

After a while (and realizing there were still 2 kids to go) we brought in back up. If you look to the top right of picture below you’ll see Austin, one of their cousins, with his own pole on the other side of the creek. Austin would catch a fish then pass it down and across the creek. We would then tell the quads “Let’s try this pole”, make the exchange, give it a few seconds before pulling the line out of the water and WA-LA they caught a fish!

Kylee and “her” catch!

Next up was Korbin…

 

…and then we have Baxlyn who was probably the least excited about fishing. She’s a different kind of girl, that’s for sure, and she’s not easily impressed. She gave it a whirl with Linda anyways.

  Although excited about her fish (again, mad props to Austin!) like her mama, she wanted nothing to do with touching it. I love how she keeps a good distance between her little body and the slimy fish!

   

Another huge highlight and first for this year’s trip was getting to ride a Pontoon for the first time! Mamaw, Wayne and his brother had this planned for months and the quads LOVED it! Despite rain being in the forecast we stayed dry and had a great day out on the water jamming to one of their favorites, Pontoon, by Little Big Town. L-R Korbin, Baxlyn, Brody & Kylee.

  The smiles on their faces say it all. Love this one of Kylee absolutely thrilled to get to steer the boat by herself. God bless her little happy self – notice her left side super tensed up? That’s a sign of pure excitement!

My Sweet Baxlyn <3 (yes, that would be our potty seat aboard. we still go nowhere without one!)

One of these days I’ll get around to framing these next two pictures. Seriously, they loved every minute of the day!

 

Brody & Mamaw having some special time taking it all in…

   

Sweet Korb passed out in the back of the boat!

Bret and I love experiencing all the firsts with our little people and look forward to many many more! So blessed and (incredibly thankful) to have them all here with us today <3

“Homemade” Pizza

I usually leave the grocery shopping up to Bret, we both prefer it that way. I suck at shopping, really I do. I can head to the grocery store to stock up on foods for the house and somehow I end up coming home with 16 frozen pizzas, a few candles & about $200 worth of the latest cleaning supplies. It had been a while since I had a solo trip with the kids so after picking up the quads from school, the 6 of us headed to good ole’ Brookshires. As if that idea wasn’t crazy in itself I decided to go all out and let them all push their own shopping carts for the first time. Go ahead and picture it in your head… FUN!

Our trip went well and the quad-lovin employees welcomed us and watched our shopping adventure with smiles. I stuck to our list and we got most of what we went for. We picked up everything we needed to make homemade pizza. I use the term “Homemade” loosely. Growing up my dad made homemade pizza on a regular basis. He made the dough from scratch, seasoned his sauce to perfection and was sure to use the best of toppings. Those of you who know me personally, KNOW I don’t cook.  I can make your house SPARKLE, but I am no cook. Bret does most of the cooking and I think that’s yet another thing we both prefer ;) Some pre packaged dough that you pop open and roll onto the pan, a can of sauce, some shredded cheese and pepperoni tossed in the oven IS about as homemade as I’m gonna get on any given afternoon with 5 kiddos.

We flattened out our dough and took turns with the rest of the jobs…

 

Baxlyn, the one who I thought was least likely to spill the sauce, spilled the sauce onto the counter I mean, poured the sauce into the bowl!

Brody had a great time mixing!

We ended up preparing to make 2 pizzas. The directions on the “easy” premade dough was to preheat the oven and start off by cooking the dough for 8 minutes before adding any toppings. Here is Baxlyn and Korbin waiting patiently for the timer to go off. Although it looks like a clear shot of his butt crack, I assure you those are Korbin’s heels sticking out of his black socks ;) 

They take turns spreading the sauce on our prebaked dough…

…and then all help sprinkle the cheese and pepperonis on top.

We move on to tackle our 2nd pizza and I notice the edges are a little tough. I pick it up only to find – SURE ENOUGH I burned it! We didn’t even make it past the 8 minute prebake before somehow screwing up. I told ya, I’m no cook.

Luckily we had extra dough in the fridge and was able to give the second pizza a second shot. We covered it in toppings and snacked on the extra pepperonis and pizza sauce the entire time both pizzas baked in the oven – another thing my dad taught me!

 

Our final product!

     

Although they were delicious, this is all we ate between the 5 of us. Normally, the quads can finish off an entire pizza by themselves but thanks to Mom’s brilliant idea to snack while they bake, our tummies couldn’t quite handle it!