He’s kind of a big deal…

Yep, it’s kind of a big deal around here when short people make steps closer to being diaper-free! With his siblings, Bethany and I there as witnesses, Blade successfully peed on the potty {at home} for the first time tonight! Can’t believe this sweet boy will be TWO on Saturday!!

Pride

Since becoming a mother 5 years ago, there have been countless times that I’ve been so overcome with pride for my babies. I remember going in to see them the day after they were born. Hardly able to even stand at their isolettes, I remember gazing at their tiny bodies and truly realizing for the first time that these little beings that laid lifelessly in front me were some of the strongest I’d ever see. True miracles that had already overcome so much since the day they were conceived.

I watched my sweet boy change the doctors words from “he has us backed into a corner and there’s nothing else we can do” to “…we don’t know what happened but he’s turned a corner and is improving by the minute” within a matter of just a few hours. I watched that same little boy start to finally pull himself forward on the floor towards a bottle of baby lotion at 12 months old. I watched him take his first steps at nearly 18months old and finally learn to jump, two feet off the ground, at 4 years old. Moments I’ll never forget.

I’ve witnessed these babies, at risk for well, just about everything, defy the odds and thrive more than we ever imagined they would. Pride is watching your sweet little girl pray over each meal being sure to ask that God keep “evweybuddy in the world safe”. It’s watching your babies sing, dance and rejoice while praising Jesus in church. It’s hearing their little conversations at night when they think nobody is listening. It’s watching their first tee-ball practice and fighting back tears because they’re the slowest and least-coordinated on the team but they try their hardest to keep up with the rest of their teammates…all with huge smiles on their faces. It’s hearing your little girl insist on telling her dog “I love you” each time she leaves the house.

This morning I watched my precious four walk into Kindergarten. I watched their nervous smiles greet their new teacher as they looked back at me for reassurance. This morning, I watched their wings spread a little wider as I was forced to let them go just a little bit more than I ever have before. Pride. Immeasurable Pride.

Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin, I love you so much and am SO incredibly PROUD of each and every one of you. Never forget that, sweet babies. –Love, Mommy

 

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

Kylee & Baxlyn’s 1st Haircuts!

I’ve gotten pretty ehh…decent at cutting the boys’ hair with the clippers at home but occasionally we take them in for a “professional” do. This trip we decided we would take the girls along as well for their very first cuts. Those of you who “know” our babies, know that Miss B has had some slightly different hair over her three years. Kylee’s pretty good in the hair department but Baxlyn definitely needed a good trim to cut off the excess hair that came in MONTHS before the rest of it. I personally didn’t like the idea of cutting Kylee’s hair but Daddy insisted. She’s got the most precious baby curls (hard to see in these pics as she was freshly bathed) and I was terrified to lose them.

Korbin gladly decided to go first… The girls watching closely as brave Korbin got his hair cut. Miss B watched for just a minute and made herself comfortable on a cushion with the kids’ books while happily volunteering OTHERS to go next to get their cuts.

I thought that if anyone would give us a problem it would be Kylee. I thought for sure she would get scared and that would be my ticket to not having her hair cut ;) I was wrong. She was excited and hopped right up in that chair like a pro! Besides not keeping her head in one spot for more than 1.3 seconds for the lady, she did great!

  We only cut about an inch off of her hair and her beautiful curls are still intact!

Kylee & Korbin – who is quick to ham it up for the camera nowadays!

Brody was 3rd to have his hair cut and did great as well. The dude has so many cow licks (and his lil’ famous swirl in the front) but the hairdresser was able to work around him and make him look just as handsome as can be :)

At this point, I was over prepping Baxlyn, letting her know that there were no other kids to be cut and that it was her turn. I turned around to find Brody (my little cleaner) helping sweep up the remaining hair on the floor, sweet guy!

Baxlyn did good with her haircut as well. Wasn’t afraid but refused to give the camera a smile…We cut about 3 inches off the longest part of her hair which left her with a straight cut across the back. Notice Brody admiring from the side…       My foursome after their haircuts enjoying their suckers…  The 2 days prior to their haircuts they had been talking nonstop about waffles. We haven’t had them (frozen, of course) at the house in a while, someone mentioned them and it stuck. I had gone to the grocery store the day before and forgot to buy them and boy oh boy did they et me know! As a reward for doing so great during their haircuts we all, including Daddy, went to the store on the quest for waffles.

Here they are spread out among the frozen food aisle in search of their waffles. I’m always amazed at the simple things that stick out to them, being a quadruplet. As we walked in the store Brody exclaimed “We not in duh stwoller!” he was beyond thrilled they had the freedom to walk, which doesn’t happen when I’m alone with them. I had taken Korbin to Target the other day, just me and him, and that was the thing he was excited about too. He had glanced over and seen an 8 year old across the store and said “She walk like ME!!!” I couldn’t help but laugh as I’m sure the clerk was left wondering why my three year old was so overly impressed another (bigger) kid could walk. Ohhh….the life of a singleton ;)

  They found the waffles and we pulled the biggest box we could off of the shelf. Little, but oh so mighty, Baxlyn insisted she was going to carry the box to the register herself. The lil’ 28 pounder carrying a box half her size was on the verge of losing her pants the whole way but managed to make it a good 20 feet before handing it off to someone else… I wish I would have gotten a picture of Brody’s face. He couldn’t see at all where he was going but he was proudly grinning ear to ear while helping carry the waffles! This lil’ dude, by the way, doing GREAT with his braces!

As challenging as these 3 year old days are, I love seeing them get so excited over the little things. Who would have thought a trip to the grocery store to buy a box of waffles could be such a FUN family event…. ahh so blessed!

It's kind of a big deal...

Since birth Baxlyn has alwayyyyss been the leader of the pack, the do everything first, let me show you how it's done kind of girl. She was first off the ventilator, first to feed, first to sit up, crawl, walk and talk. Today she lead by example, once again, by GOING POTTY ON THE POTTY! We were at the pool, she asked to go, I took her, she tried and ended up tooting (girls toot, they do not fart, by the way) we celebrated her little toot and went back to swimming. We got back to the house she tried again and wa-la, she peed! Aunt Beth was quick to bring out the stickers to reward her and you can bet the other three were waiting in line to try to go themselves! None did, but made an effort :) We are not potty training right now and I wasn't planning on doing so until they were closer to three years old. After today, I'm wondering if we'll take on the challenge sooner (God help us!)?!?!

Here's my little princess of the potty! Forgive her awkward smile, she was trying her hardest at a thumbs up!

Our First Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

Enjoy these absolutely flawless pics taken by one of the most talented children's photographers around, Betsy Marie. Check out more of her amazing work here!

Brody

Baxlyn
KyleeKorbin

Thanks again Betsy for capturing these amazing pictures for us to treasure forever!