Happy Birthday Markie/Daddy!!!

Cohen, Cecilia and Christian with Daddy and Caleb

Today is Mark's birthday and he was able to come by for a quick bite at lunch. Since

everyone was up and Caleb was SO excited about his gift and more importantly the cookie cake we got his we sang him happy birthday. This is the crew after blowing out the candles. Mark was holding all 3 babies but they were attacking the cookie and squirming so Cohen got booted to the chair. They all enjoyed O's with daddy as he ate his lunch and Caleb sliced everyone some cookie.

Mark and I do get to go out to dinner tonight and we are both looking forward to it. Dinner hour around here is so hectic I am concerned that we might scarf our food down the minute they put it in front of us since that is the habit. It will be nice no matter what since we will be by ourselves :)

sick

What is it with my kids getting sick on the holidays? Cohen was needy all day yesterday and thankfully Aunt Sarah and others helped tend to him while they were here. Everyone said that he was pulling on his left ear. I called the dr and of course they would not call in anything but I did have some numbing drops from his last ear infection. Between that, the ibuprofen he and the swing was ok (loves the swing when he is not feeling well). Today I took him to the doctor and it was confirmed that he did have a puss pocket in his ear. I just knew they were going to tell me nothing was wrong with him. When the doctor walked in and said 'you are not supposed to be smiling, you are sick' and I thought here we go again, but not this time. Last time he had the flu so really it just wasn't 'nothing'. I just don't want to be 'that mom' that is taking her kid to the doctor all of the time. This time we were right on with the ear infection diagnosis. Now, if we could all just get rid of these snotty noses we would be in good shape!

Last night was the worst night I have had with the kids in months. Everyone was up at some point or another and Cecilia was probably the worst. She was up for about 2 hours so I laid with her on the couch finally and she fell asleep. Thankfully Mark got up with all of them this morning so I was able to sleep a little longer, but he was up with them too so we were both tired today. Hopefully tonight is not a repeat of last night!!!

Christmas time

Yep, now we are officially allowed to listen to Christmas music!!! YEAH!!

Turkey Day

Today was such a nice day. We hosted thanksgiving at our house this year and my dad, grandparents, Jason, Sarah, Emma, Logan and Marks mom came over. I sort of cheated because I mixed up everything last night so all I had to do was pop it in the oven or throw it in a bowl. The only thing I really had to do was make the gravy and carve the turkey. I discovered make ahead mashed potato's that were awesome!! Anyway, Mark got up early this morning and put the bird in the oven so that it would be done by our feasting time of noon. We ate early since my brother and Sarah were going to her family's for dinner. It made sense either way since the babies are so much happier in the earlier part of the day. 5pm would have been really hard to do so I was happy with the timing. I pumped at 10:30, the babies ate at 11 and we ate at 12. I think I am still full. It is always so nice to be with family!!

This was actually my second turkey dinner that I made this week. Mark did some work for an elderly couple and decided he wanted to take them dinner. I'm still not sure what was so special about this couple, but thought it was so sweet and generous. Mark has a huge heart and I am really proud of him.

I think the holidays, especially thanksgiving have a little different meaning this year for us. I know that I have been a little sappy lately thinking back to last year and how I was feeling. I was so completely exhausted from the minute I woke up in the morning. It was a struggle to bend over, walk up stairs or really do anything normal. I went on as any mom would trying to participate and make my time special with Caleb, but some days I don't know what I was thinking. I even raked leaves last fall, how stupid was that!! If at any point in my life have I ever had more of an excuse to just sit and do nothing? In addition to the physical exhaustion, there was also the stress of what was ahead. I knew the possibilities and I feared hospitalization, and worried about the health babies but in the end we all survived.

This year I have raked leaves just about every week and felt good! I can play and run and have fun without worry and most of all I know that I have 4 beautiful babies and a wonderful husband to fill my holiday season and all of the year for the rest of my life. I know I have said it before and I will say it again that we have so much to be thankful for.

Soon after everyone left Mark and I decided to start decorating for Christmas. Caleb has been anxious for this for months and has been surprisingly patient. Right now Caleb has turned all of the lights off in the basement except for the tree and the lights on the train (and computer screen). Last year I remember his laying with me on the couch, both of our bellies hanging out and just watching the train for a long time. It seems to have a calming effect on him....hmm, maybe we should keep it out all year (he he). Tomorrow will be another day as I am sure the babies will love to try and chase the train, eat it and pull up on the tree. Thank goodness we have the superyard gate.

Test video

So this was a test to see if I could update video from my camera and it was SO easy. Why haven't I done this before? What this video was trying to show is Cecilia laughing at Caleb, Cohen just hanging out and then Christian (with his snotty nose) Clapping for everyone. Unfortunately you can not hear anything.

Puffs!

After the babies eat, there are usually some lingering puffs/cheerios on the floor. What happens is that they try to eat them and half fall into their lap so when I pick them up some fall onto the floor. This is when a dog would come in handy and if we had one it would be fat from all of the food that is dropped on the floor. Now that the kids can crawl they follow me into the kitchen all of the time and I have to say that we need more gates. I was looking for something in the pantry the other day and Cecilia and Cohen were pulling things out and one of then opened the bag of pretzels and the other was pulling stuff down too, it was funny and in the end I found what I was looking for so we were all happy.

I do still give them puffs. One, since I still have some and two they are nice since I do not have to worry SO much about them choking on then. I took these pictures yesterday morning. Christian was determined to climb over Cohen to get a puff. Cohen didn't seem to mind and actually thought it was funny since he had the hammer. You can see the puff in Christian's mouth and his excitement from reaching it.

Cecilia had ripped one of Caleb's pictures off the refrigerator and was playing with that.

eating...again

Earlier this week Caleb decided to help me feed the babies. Cohen is my neat eater but not when Caleb feeds him. Caleb was quite proud of the food all over his face as if it was some sort of a trophy. He is so sweet to the babies and loves them so much. I can't say that the other kids were any cleaner so I took pictures of them as well. All I can say thank goodness for bath days! This day they had sweet potato's and blueberries/apples which are both their favorites!!

Caleb and Cohen

Cecilia
Christian