4th of July weekend/first road trip PART-1

Yes, you have read that correctly. I am gonna have to post this in three parts due to all the "excitement" that went into our 4th of July weekend and 1st road trip. I took lots of advice from my fellow quad moms on taking a road trip. I got to packing first because clearly that was going to be the biggest challenge of this whole adventure "I thought" (more on that later) I put all 6 kids outfits & pj's in a big ziploc for each day. I did the same with their swimming attire.

Then I put 4 booster seats , 4 pool floats, diaper bag for road, toys, snacks, movies, GATES, runabout stroller all in the garage to load up the next morning. Thankfully my mom had gotten 4 pack n plays for us, so we didn't have to worry about packing that. We got up Friday at 6am, Jeremy loaded the Expedition with all "the STUFF".

I was busy changing babies and feeding them breakfast so we wouldn't have to stop and feed them that meal on the road. That is a note to self good idea. Last we loaded the kids and finally ourselves!

It started off a great ride, the babies fell asleep and slept for a couple of hours, except for ......yep, Casen. He wasn't about to miss a thing. HA! But he was so good, he never fussed at all, not even after his poop mess.

However, Haiden (who has HORRIBLE migraines) started complaining of a headache, so we gave him his medicine and hoped he would be able to sleep his headache off. WRONG!!!! That will be in post #2.
We did make 3 stops along the road: one to change Ella's poop diaper, then Cooper's poop diaper, and last to change Casen's poop diaper and clothes. Yes, ladies & gentlemen he POOPED all over himself and his car seat. You can just imagine the stink that came from that mess.HA!

However after 5 1/2 hrs on the road we made it to Mamaw's & Papaw's house. We got unloaded and were ever so glad to be out of the car.

We went straight in to "baby proof" the house with the gates. Unfortunately, my poor Haiden was not getting any better from his migraine, so he went to lay down and Jeremy and I just plopped ourselves down. Funny you would think after being in the car for 5 1/2 hrs, sitting would be the last thing we would want to do, but we were ready to just PLOP!

I have to say all in all the road trip wasn't bad at ALL!

Stay tuned for the 4th of July post, which will be part 2~

A sneak peek

This post will be a short sneak peek at our 4th of July. We will be going on our first road trip as a family of 8. We are spending the 4th with my mom at her house. I took this picture of the babies the other day and realized they were all in red/white/blue. This will have to hold you until we get back from our trip with the REAL 4th of July pictures and all the fun stuff we will being doing. Until then..............
They crack me up in this picture, no one is looking at the camera. Poor Cooper crying and Casen's look on his face is PRICELESS! He is like "I didn't do anything to him"!

Father's Day!

I honestly think there should be a blogger award out there given to the person that is late on blogging EVERYTHING! Ok enough with pour me!

We spent father's day here at the house. Jeremy was still working everynight on the shutdown at work, so he slept most of the day. That's ok, cause our daddy works hard and he brings home our groceries, so we won't complain. When he got up, I told him let's give it a shot and put the babies in the big pool. I had went out earlier that day and found the floats with canopys. Of course I could only find 3 that matched. Oh well! He aired them up and I smothered the babies in sunblock, and if you look close enough at some of the pics, I didn't rub it in good enough, or got way to much on them. Well, techincally I don't think I could put too much sunblock on them. You get the idea! Some of them look like they had powder poured on them. They had so much fun. Ella loves the water, so much that she wants to just "jump" right in. We also got a visit from Nonnie & Popo on there way back in from out of town. I went to visit my dad and before we knew it our daddy had to go back to work. We really enjoyed our time together. I know some of you are asking yourselves why Kennedy & Haiden aren't in any of the pictures? That is because they were out of town at my mom's house. They spent the week there, and were flying in town the next day with my mom. So Jeremy got to celebrate father's day twice!

Dear Jeremy,

You are such a wonderful husband & father. I couldn't ask for a better man. You unselfishly give so much of yourself to be able to provide for our family. I love the way the kid's faces light up when you come in from work, and all 6 go running for you saying "daddy's home". Then one by one you give them their individual attention, and they just smile and look you in your eyes. Ah, it melts my heart. Our children are so lucky to have you and be able to say your their daddy. You are someone I admire and have so much respect for. I know sometimes life can get crazy, but having you as their daddy & my husband, ANYTHING is possible. I love you and hope you had a wonderful father's day and look forward to spending so many more with all of you.

Love,

Brandy

And she danced.............

Kennedy had her dance recital recently. She did such a good job. She absolutely loves to dance. After watching her jazz routine and seeing how she pops her hips, I think her daddy realized he really has his hands full. She is such a diva, so you can imagine how much she loves being in the spotlight. This is her 3rd year to take dance. Auntie Ashley, stayed all day and late into the evening with us. Her dance instructor has them do the rehearsal & recital all in ONE day. UGH! I think it is harder on the moms than anyone else. HA! But Auntie was a trooper and spent the day with us. Kennedy just loves her to death, so it was great that she was able to spend the whole day with her. Thank you Auntie for all your help that day, and to my mom for helping out with the babies. Also a big thank you goes to Nana Shelia for staying with babies during the recital so all of the family could attend, plus it didn't even start until after there bedtime. Can't wait to see what next year's recital has in store for us. Just think in two years I'll have 2 ballerina girls.

Here is she is with her partners in crime. Zoe, Sidney & Kennedy!

This is her with her Auntie Ashley

I've been featured!

I am so excited! Multiples and More Blog featured our blog today on their blog. I am super excited for many different reasons. One, their blog is wonderful. It has lots of information for families of multiples or soon-to-be parents of multiples. They have TONS of giveaways, and honestly who doesn't like that? Plus, the interview experts, and it's a blog to find other families with multiples & their blogs.

I can remember first finding out we were having QUADS, and thinking "I don't know anyone with quads". Well, after some Internet googling I found several blogs that were families with quads. I was so relieved to have another resource to turn to with ALL my questions. I have continued to keep in touch with these ladies, and I have even met some new ones along the way. All through the blogging world. Granted some people I have met were at the hospital, my local multiples group, or just word of mouth, but mainly through blogging. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found Multiples and More blog. They asked for people that wanted to be featured to send an email. That is exactly what I did, and with in no time they got back with me, and later sent interview questions for me to answer. It is a wonderful thing when you find other families with multiples that totally GET & UNDERSTAND where you are, where your coming from and where your going. It is a great resource to have. I strongly urge families with or going to have multiples to find others in the same boat, it can be a lifesaver or sanity saver depending on the day. HA! I can't tell you one person with multiples that I know, that is not willing to help you. It may through an email, phone call, meeting up with them, or even passing along items for multiples that are lifesavers. I can't imaging not having my friends of multiples to lean on & have as a resource. So go check out their blog, Multiples and More, and read the post about Perez Party of 8! They did a wonderful job!

OF course I wouldn't do a post without a few pictures of the kiddos! Now how fair would that be? This is their new toy, as you can see from the pics, some love it and some don't that seems to be the thing around here lately!

NO EXCUSE!

I hate when I have such great things to blog about, and I get busy or don't sit down and take the time to blog about them. Or start a blog and take forever to finish it. I have made a promise to myself, that I will get better at posting, my goal is 2 posts a week. There are soooo many things I want to blog. This is a perfect example about something I had started but didn't make myself finish. It should have been something I posted a MONTH ago, so without further a-do, I give you my Mother's Day 2009. We had a great day, we had the family over to our house for dinner. The day was beautiful, so we decided to take out the baby pool and slip n slide for the big kids. The pool, we thought was going to be a great idea, well it was for Cooper and Ella. Casen & Cole on the other hand, HATED the water. It was too cold for them. I felt horrible, they cried as soon as they touched the water, so I took a quick picture, and out they came. Then I thought, I know, I'll take a picture of them in their bathing suits in the grass. WRONG! The two that didn't like the water, didn't like the grass. Again, I just snapped a quick pic, and up into the arms of family they went. Here is the attempt to get a picture of me with the kids. We had to put a towel on the grass, for the ones that hated it. Last year I spent part of Mother's Day in the NICU with the babies, and the other half at home with Haiden & Kennedy. This year I was blessed to spend it at home with all 6 six of babies and my wonderful husband. It was a wonderful Day.
I am pre-warning you, the rest of the post is pics from the day. So you may go into picture overload, so don't say I didn't warn you!