Hello....Hello... Anyone Out There?!

Hello out there! It's been a (long) while, I know. First I have to say is WOW, you guys sure do keep me in check on the whole blog thing. Over the past few months, I have received your comments, emails and voiced concerns to Bret and other friends at work. We are all fine and doing well, busy as most people are these days. You'd think life would free up when four of your five kids go off to school, but in reality, I think you get busier. Crazy to think I haven't blogged since MOTHER'S DAY. I had every intention of getting back to blogging when Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee and Korbin went to first grade (what?!). I came home after dropping them off on day one, wrote a post, went to publish and Blogger threw me for a loop with some techy stuff. Ugh. That post, along with an added school update, will be up next!

I'll play rewind for the next week or so to share (and document!) some of the things that went down over summer and fall in our house! 

Dr. Reyes, our beloved pediatrician, spoiled us once again and sent Bret and I to the Kenny Chesney/Jason Aldean/Brantley Gilbert concert. Talk about a fun, kid-free date night!

Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee and Korbin had their first field trip AND first trip on a school bus to the Dallas Zoo to finish up their kindergarten year. I was able to attend as a chaperone and enjoy the day with them!

L-R Brody, Baxlyn, Korbin and Kylee at their Kindergarten end of year celebration!

Our small town offers sport camps during the summer. We let each of them pick one camp. Brody chose basketball. He had fun, bless his heart, but it was a challenge to say the least. Kylee chose softball, another challenge but an accepted one! Korbin & Baxlyn were brave enough to endure the Texas heat during a week of outdoor soccer. I'm not too sure any of our little quadlings will be an all-star athlete, and that's ok :) Here's a pic of Kylee, who was awarded "Best Attitude and Hardest Worker" for the week! (Yup, they spelled her name wrong, she didn't notice.)

Fourth of July fun!

One BIG deal this summer was (finally) transitioning out of their toddler beds. Yep, our kids were in their cribs/toddler beds until just before first grade. We bought the convertible beds that would go from crib, to toddler to full sized beds but decided we didn't want to take up that much of their floor space in their rooms with two full beds in each. I wanted something that didn't take up all of their floor room, that would grow with them and offer them some personal space as well. After debating for a longg time as to what type of beds to invest in and getting input from other moms of multiples, we finally found what we were looking for at Nebraska Furniture Mart. Each quad now has their own twin bed that has a dresser and shelving built right in! Having the dresser drawers under the beds allow us to eliminate the need for a dresser (or two) and the shelves are perfect places for "THEIR" stuff.

 One of my favorite parts of the bed is the extra storage space beneath them! There are doors on either side of the bed that allows kids to crawl straight through. As you can see, ours are pushed against walls but the kids love going under there and having yet another space to put their own things. I added one of those battery operated push-to-activate night lights under each one which makes it that much more fun. They love to hide out under there, color...etc. I swear after the beds were delivered, I didn't see a kid for like 3 days ;)

We, of course, spent many days of our summer swimming. We put in a pool last summer and goodness do we love it. So many people told us a pool at home isn't worth the maintenance, SO not the case at our house!

 Although they're getting close, they're not quite swimming yet in the deep end with no puddle jumpers. This past summer was the first summer I've felt comfortable taking them all into the pool by myself. Baxlyn can jump into the deep end and swim across but it still scares the crap out of me. Slowly but surely, they'll all get there!

Kylee Mae and those sweeeet freckles!

 

Baxlyn, oh dear Baxlyn. I went into her room one day and my mouth about dropped when she turned to ask me a question. She could NOT understand why I didn't believe her when she said she didn't cut her hair. LOL!

Another exciting adventure this summer/fall was CHEERLEADING! Kylee mentioned last year that she wanted to be a cheerleader. Having been a cheerleader myself through Jr. High & High School I was TOTALLY onboard with the idea! Not only did I sign her up, I somehow got roped into coaching the squad of 32 girls ranging in age from 3 years old through 2nd grade, along with a few other amazing moms. Miss B ultimately decided she wanted nothing to do with being a cheerleader. If you know Baxlyn, you know she would rather stay low, color, organize and clean. Although very strong and independent, she wants nothing to do with performing or being in the spotlight. This whole being a quadruplet thing has brought her more than enough attention as far as she is concerned. Here's a picture of the adorable cheer buckets the other cheer moms and I made. While they're gear included embroidered bags, these buckets worked well for carrying their needed items AND we added a padded seat/lid which allowed the girls to sit without burning their little rears on the hot Texas ground.

The girls had one practice a week and cheered each Saturday for the tackle football team of little boys their age. It was SUCH a fun season cheering on our boys and watching our girls grow! I'm excited to say that Baxlyn had a change of heart once the cheer season began. Once she realized many of her friends were cheerleaders and that she was great at doing the cheers herself, she decided she wants to join next year!

For now I'll leave you with that! Over the next few days I'll catch you up on school, all the updated medical stuff and more details on our sweet number 5!