Back to Indiana

Looks like the kids and I are headed back to Indiana to stay until daddy finds a better job, sells our house, and finds us a safer place to live. I know God had big plans for us but right now we are riding the roller coaster of uncertainty. We are hanging in there just sad to be away from daddy at Christmas time.

We are all getting over a cold that started on Thanksgiving Day. We have been sloshing around in snot, poop, and puke for several days. It looks like we are on the mend, we left our house for the first time since last Thursday. The weather was great today in the 60s. I love Alabama, well except for this neighborhood that our realtor neglected to tell us about.

Oh well, we are moving on to bigger and better things!!!!

The Break-In

Please pray for our family. Someone kicked our door in the on Monday night and stole my laptop computer. That computer had all of our kids photos on it from birth. We had some of them backed up but not all of them.

We are not feeling very safe right now. Thank God no one was home and nothing else was really disturbed. We are not going home for Thanksgiving so we are going to spend it with just us.

I hope everyone has a GREAT Thanksgiving Day remember all that God has blessed you with in the past year!!!

Grandma is Coming to Town!

I could not have survived the past two years without my mom. I know I do not tell her enough but she has been a constant rock in my life. She is my best friend and I hate being so far away from her but it does make her visits that much more special. Here is a little about my mom. This is my mom on my laptop while I was in the High Risk unit at St. Vincent Women's Hospital in Indianapolis. Now let me first say that I was only there for one week before my little ones were born but it seemed like a long time. Those of you that know, my back never stopped hurting and I had constant side pain from my big huge belly. She never left my side. She was there to do whatever I needed. Chris, daddy, had to work and she spent every night with me. How do you thank someone like that??

Here is Grandma holding little Sophia. I think she may be just a little proud, what do you think?

Here is Grandma cuddling Henry and Sean when they first came home from the hospital. The boys came home first and because my mom had a break in nursing school she spent every night for about a week with us. We could not have done it without her.

Mom,

I love you. I aspire to be a mother just like you. You are so much more than you will ever know. Please know that you touch my life every day. I remember all the dolls you made, the cakes we made, and all the love and compassion you passed on to me. I thank God He gave you to ME, you are my sunshine. Please know that even though we are miles apart. I pray for you daily and you are always on my mind and I carry you in my heart always!

Love,

Jen

How much are those Babies in the window?

The kids are facinated with our new big window over the couch. This is the only place I can put the couch because if I put it on the other side of the room they climb over the couch and can get out of the fence. So...this is the lesser of two evils. Sean and Sophia climbing up to look out the window.

Henry trying to climb onto the playroom window. Sorry buddy that is not going to work. Although one day they did manage to push their little picnic table over to the window and climb up. What will they think of next. They are aways keeping up hopping, that's for sure!

Sean standing on the window seal. I hate it when they do this my heart just stops. Little Zowee standing on the couch, maybe she is waiting to save him.

Overall I think the kids like their new house. Mommy is still adjusting. We did lose over 1000 square feet, a basement, and a garage. But we have given a lot of stuff away and are finally starting to fit in our new house. It's not small, it is a four bedroom two bath it is just smaller than we are use to.

101 Dalmations? Well...5 anyway.

This year our family dressed up as the cast to "101 Dalmatians", yes all of us. I was Cruella DeVille while daddy and the kids were Dalmatians. We didn't take them trick-or-treating of course but we did attend a festival in our new town of Foley, Alabama. It was somewhat fun. We were stopped every two seconds. We didn't win the costume contest, there were a billion people but we did make the newspaper. We were one the front of the Baldwin County section of the Mobile Register. We are no strangers to the newspaper. It was a nice little surprise for us.Here is our little Henry.

Little Sean, they don't seem to mind being dressed up. I am not sure they really noticed.

Four little dalmatians playing in their playroom.

Daddy Dalmatian with his four little Dalmatians. It was in the high 80's during the festival. The kids were sweating and so was daddy. We did keep their hats off. Poor little puppies.

Sean, Henry, Sophia, and Edith.

The Big Move

Ok, so this is the big giant pizza that we ordered to entice our family and friends to help us. This is bigger than a card table and barely fits through the front door. It is called the BIG BUBBA.

Instead of using boxes we used many many many many tubs. Oops, I don't think Edi was suppose to get packed.

Hey, Uncle Rick, bring her back she goes on the van not the moving truck.

Papa entertaining the kids. Henry trying to help pack up the tubs. Thanks to papa, Melissa, and Amanda for entertaining the kids while all the others ran around doing last minute packing and trying to load the vans and truck.

My beautiful old house getting emptied. It was very sad to leave our big old house. But we are on to hopefully better things!!!!

The move went, well...ok. We found out that Sean gets car sick. That was not fun. My mom ended up riding down in the van with me while Chris drove the moving truck and pulled our minivan behind him. Oh yeah he also had our three toy poodles with him.

I ended up stopping to stay in a hotel, in order to wash a carseat, so it took two days. I do not know how many hours it took. Though...it seemed like FOREVER. Thankfully now we are in our new home, completely unpacked and trying to find a new routine.

Connected to the World Again! Whoo Hoo!

We are finally connected again. I am so excited. I felt very isolated for the past couple of months. Moving so far from home and having no internet. But we have survived and now it is time for some major updates!!

LIFE IS STILL CRAZY

I will try try try to update asap. We still do not have the internet at our new home but we are still working on it. Thanks for all you love and support. Will also add lots of pictures when we get up and going!!!!

Crazy Times!

I am sooooo behind on blogging. I am actually getting ready to go sign the papers right now to close on our new house in Alabama. It looks like we are moving Sunday. I will try to get some pix but life is crazy right now. Smiles to all!!!! :):):):)

A Walk in the Park

Ok...so it's not exactly the park...we took a walk the other night with some very special people. Melissa, my cousin, came over and we hung out for a while. We threw the kids in their strollers and walked to a restaurant in our town. At the restaurant we were joined by my mom, step dad, and another cousin, Brad. We are so lucky to have such a great family. We don't get to see them as much as we would like but oooohhhhh how much we love them. Melissa, Chris, G-ma, and Brad with Sean, Edith, Sophia, and Henry.

After dinner we took a walk. We love to take walks and the kids love it too!!!



What is going on in this picture you ask...well Steve, my step-dad, is walking his little hairy daughter, Annie. Melissa behind him is pushing a dog stroller, just in case Annie gets too tired to walk. How cute. I would love to say that this is crazy...ya know a dog stroller...but I actually bought it for our dogs and they cried when I put them in it. They are a little pampered.



Steve with Annie. Melissa, Chris with stroller, Brad, G-ma with stroller.

Oh, our loving family. What a big mess!!!!

We are so blessed to have so many people that love us. Sometimes I forget how much I miss the time I use to spend with family outside of our house. I pray as the kids get bigger we will have more time for other family. Sometimes I feel like they are going on with life without us.

Better Days

Mommy with Sean, Henry, and Edith. Oh and one of our little puppies on my head.

Thank God, we are all feeling better. The kids are still a little on the cranky side and they have a little bit of a cough but the 103 degree temps and runny noses are behind us!! Chris and I are still pushing through, it's not like you can take the day off to rest. I was so worried about them, especially Sean. This is only the second time that they have been sick. The last time was right before Christmas. All I can say is I am so thankful for our good health.

If I have any advice to give anyone it is WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS. We also take hand sanitizer everywhere we go. Even though we have a tough time sometimes with family not wanting to wash before they interact with the kids, we hold strong. Afterall we are responsible for providing a safe environment for our children.

Summer Colds

Today we woke up and we are all not feeling well. Edith had a low grade temp and she, Sophia, Henry, and I all have runny noses and little coughs. The packing must continue. Hope we are all feeling better tomorrow. Edi has been the worst and she took a second nap this afternoon and seems to be doing better. Mommy is also feeling a little better. We called the pediatricians office but we did not get a reply...we called again later but still haven't heard anything. Just using Tylenol for now. The pharmacist told us to use Benedryl but the instructions say not for kids under 6 yrs. or under 2 yrs. with drs. orders. So we wait...

Our Little Lost Puppies

Yesterday at around 4:30pm someone openned our gate to our backyard and let out two of our little hairy kids. Now I would call them dogs but they are much more than that to us. Through our years of infertility they were are children. We have only left them overnight on two occasions. Once when the kids were born and recently to go to a wedding in another state. Needless to say I was frantic we called out all of our family, thank God for them, and we searched for hours. We did not find them lastnight and because it was so late the animal shelter was already closed. We drove over to the shelter to check all the outside kennels but they were not there. Early this morning we began making arrangements to offer a cash reward for their return. My husband had called a friend of his on the police department and he notified all the officers of our missing little hairy kids. We had people searching, praying, it was amazing!! Early this morning we began calling our local shelter. FINALLY, someone answered and they did indeed have our little pups. We did not see them in the outside kennel because they had kept them inside. GOD IS GOOD! I am so greatful for all our wonderful friends and family. It's funny how we take them for granted. I am blessed with some pretty terrific people in my life. Chris with Pierre and Baby. Jennifer with Zowee.

Here is a family portrait of Chris and I with our little hairy kids while I was still pregnant. We do not have an updated picture...you try getting four babies and three dogs to sit still long enough to take a family picture. LOL.

Just another reminder, I AM BLESSED!! :):):):)

Oh yeah, I would also like to mention that our local shelter took excellent care of our little hairies...did you know they could alway use donations??? Well...if you are a dog lover, you may want to consider sending a little donation to your local animal shelter!

The Singing Puppets

Ok, so Chris and I are not big tv watchers. The kids do not or did not see much tv but we do listen to a lot of music. Well recently I was packing for our big move and I found two old vhs tapes that were sing along songs with the Muppets and Seseme Street. WHAT A MISTAKE! Edi on the Sofa with Henry and Sean on the ottoman and Sophia at the fence.

Sophia, usually she and Henry are both up here glued to the tv right here at the fence.

Henry, laying on the arm of the couch.

Sean, he sure loves those little puppets.

Edi, she is usually standing and dancing when they sing.

I am not sure how many times we have been forced to watch these two tapes. I looked on the internet to see if I could find some good deals on some different ones. We rented a disney sing along but they do not like cartoons only the puppet ones. I am not sure how many more times I can watch Kermit the frog sing the Octopus's garden or Miss Piggy shaking her can can.

Now Henry goes over to the television and wines until we put it in. I miss our normal music. We still try to sneak it in sometimes!!!! :) Let us hope this is just a phase and it will pass really soon. It could be worse I guess, it could be Barney. LOL

What'd I do????

Oh, look at this sweet innocent beautiful face. That is what you think when you first lay eyes on our little Sean, right? Well...WRONG. Sean trying to look as innocent as possible.

Now Sean, why is Edi crying? Do have any idea what happened to her, Sean????

Notice the big red bite mark on our little Edi's arm. Wonder who did that?

And here it is a little closer. OUCH, mama!!!

So...how do we get our little Sean to stop biting. He just keeps doing it over and over. All the kids have bruises all over their arms from him biting them. It makes me very sad. He does it even when the other kids are just standing beside him, they don't even have to be doing anything to him.

Let's hope he grows out of it soon! Mommy cannot take this too much longer, it makes me very sad. :(

Thank you, St. Vincent Women's Hospital!

So...without this Hospital and without these people we would not be the family we are today. I know God sent us to this doctor and Hospital because our children were suppose to be born big and healthy. There is no doubt in my mind that without them our outcome would have been much different. Dr. Sumners with Edith, Sophia, Sean, and Henry.

One of our fabulous NICU nurses. She was a second mommy to Sophia and Sean. Well actually in the beginning they probably knew her better than me. I can never thank her enough or express the gratitude I feel. She dedicates her life to help little babies have a chance at life. What a fantastic mom she will be to her little guy.

J.J., Layton, and Shelley.

Micah, NICU nurse, was the one who really pushed Edith to eat her bottles at night. She is the reason that Edi came home before Sophia. Thank you, Micah, for taking such excellent care of our little ones. You're the BEST!

Micah with Henry, Sean, Sophia, and Edith.

Nurse Elizabeth was the delivery nurse for Sophia. Though she was not one of their primary nurses we were always happy to see her working with our kids. WE LOVE YOU!

Sophia and Elizabeth.

Though I do not have pictures I would like to mention a few other nurses. Brooke, whom we love dearly. Brooke took care of Edith and Henry during the day. What an awsome person. Becca, Sean's delivery nurse, I cannot say enough about. Also, Meghan and Sarah and many many others.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

I am so amazed at the compassion of these women. I can honestly say that each night when Chris and I left the hospital, without our children, I never one time worried about the care they were receiving. I absolutely trusted these women with the lives of our children and never had a doubt that they were being taken care of as if by their own parents. I will be forever grateful that God sent us to St. Vincent Women's Hospital were we were forever touch by the care and compassion that we encountered there!

Looks like we are movin'

We signed the contract today on a house in Foley, Alabama. Oh yeah, did I mention it is about 15 minutes from where this picture was taken. GOD IS GOOD! We are so excited. Now I just have to figure out how to pack up a two story house with 15 month old quadruplets and move all of us including 3 toy poodles halfway across the country. I am definately up for the challenge! BRING IT ON!

Rumpke Still Stinks, but we're movin' on!

A lot has happened since the last posting about my husbands job. He has severed all ties with that company. HIP HIP HOORAY! I have never felt so sure about any decision in my life. They were treating him so terrible and he did not feel right about a lot of the things they were doing. It is funny, he loved his job at one point and he was aways very good at it, although good luck finding anyone with authority to back that up at Rumpke. Even though Chris's back will never be good again, he had to leave. Hopefully he will figure out what NOT to do to keep his health in check. With four small children he does not want to take any unnecessary chances. Life is too short to waste any of it!

Now that our Rumpke nightmare is over, we are moving on. Chris had a 3rd interview on Monday and he will find out tomorrow if he got the job. So, please send up a little prayer for us! We are so excited and we feel that God is leading us to greater things.

Oh, by the way did I mention the job is in Foley, Alabama? YUP, that's right. In case you don't know that is approximately 15 minutes from the beautiful beaches of Gulf Shores. Sometimes life leads you were you never dreamed. Who would have thought we'd be getting ready to move 1 house, 2 parents, 3 dogs, and 4 toddlers 700 miles away. NOT ME! Besides the fact that we are leaving our families behind we are sooooo ready for this move!!!

We're Famous

So... we went to King's Island in June... Our neighbors went this past weekend and they were looking at the pictures in the Keyhole Photography booth. This is were all the photographs that are taken when you first come in and anytime you walk toward the front of the park. Anyway they were looking in those little keychains that have a picture in them and they looked at the guy there and said, "Hey, that's our neighbor."

They said we are in every keychain. Kinda weird, huh??

Tomorrow is the NICU picnic at St. Vincent Women's Hospital. We will get to see all of our doctors and nurses from when the kids were born. I will let you know how it goes and have lots of pictures, of course. Have a blessed weekend!!

Is it getting smaller?

The ball pit is getting smaller. It seems like every time one of the kids get into the ball pit the other three follow. They cannot stand it if one of them has something that the others do not. OH...it starts early! Now, even though there is a whole bunch of balls Sean has to take the one that Sophia has in her hand.

Henry is laying down. He likes to lay in the balls sooooo cute. Edi often stays out of the ball pit when the others are in there because she gets picked on a lot and this way she can get away fast. You will often find Edi in the balls if no one else is around.

Henry is trying to take Edi's ball it is a much better ball than the 100 other balls he is sitting in.

They are best friends, always playing together. How could you ask for more? Instant best friends! :):):):)

The Crazy things they Do

Everyday the kids seem to do something that just makes you want to laugh. Sophia is running from Henry because she just took a toy away from him.



"Hey, has anyone seen Henry?"

Henry is hiding under one of their toy bins.

I cannot find Sean anywhere. I looked all over the toy room and the living room.

Sean, after he climbed over the fence and was hiding behind the rocking chair.

What a little sweetie!

Here is Edith standing like a big girl. She was taking all the donuts off and putting them back on.

Even though there are many times I am so frustrated I do not know what to do, the kids seem to have a way to bring a smile to my face. I am so Blessed to have them. They are a lot of work most days but I would not have it any other way!! :)

Four little Monkeys

Four little monkeys...
Now all of our kids are so brave!! They can all climb onto the couch now. Sophia and Sean have both fallen over the edge. I am just not fast enough. They are sooooo BIG. Sean realized the other day that he could climb onto the couch over the fence and escape. What a little booger. They keep me on my toes. Sophia, Henry, Sean and Edith. Don't they look like little lost puppies? So cute.

Everyday is an adventure, you never know what they are going to do next. :)

Rumpke STINKS!!!

For 15 years my husband has worked for a waste company. He has done just about every position from driver to supervisor to overall supervisor. Right after I got pregnant with the kids he injured his back and had to have a series of procedures and physical therapy. Well he received a disability rating and the doctor said his back would never be the same. Recently he injured it again. Only because his company refused to follow the advice of the doctor that treated Chris and they had him moving over 200 lbs by himself. Anyway he hurt his back again and had to have more therapy and another procedure. Now the doctor restricted his CDL, commercial drivers liscense, and gave him a lifting restriction also. He cannot drive for more than 4 hours a day. Because of this they have cut him down to Part time. Apparently there is nothing we can do about it, other than pray.

Please pray that he will find another job that will support our family. He has worked for this company for so long that he does not have experience in anything else. Because he can no longer use his CDL, no one will hire him because of the 4 hour restriction we are very concerned for the future of our family. He will graduate with his bachelors degree in computer information systems in a couple of months but we still need to support our family. Please pray God will lead us where he wants us to be and that we will be strong enough to obey!!!

STOP Biting, Sean.

We have a biter. Sean, who has a mouth full of teeth, is constantly biting the other kids.

This picture is from a couple of months ago but today he bit Sophia's hand and Henry's arm in three places. I do not know what to do. We tell him no and take him to another part of the room but he doesn't seem to care.

He bites hard too. He leaves welts and bruises on the other kids. Because I am not always in the room I have no idea how it happens. I do know that Sophia pulls hair all the time and Henry is always scratching at their faces. It is hard to tell which one is more to blame but the welts and bruises are very disturbing. Hope we figure this one out soon!!!!

Sophia's First Steps

Our little Sophia then...

Our little Sophia now...

Now it is no surprise that Sophia is our first to walk. She has been taking a few steps between toys but today she walked across the room. My dh yelled and I grabbed the video camera and went a runnin'. Of course she wouldn't do it with the camera on but I did get to see it a little later.

Sophia has been the first to do everything except grow teeth and that medal has gone to Sean who is now sporting 8 teeth. Oh, and she was the last one to come home from the Hospital too. She has been so close to walking for months, she has actually been walking around on her knees. It is the strangest thing, I have never seen a child do that in my life.

Anyway we are so proud of our little Sophia. Good job, honey!!!

Big Yard Sale is Over

Ok, so how do you arrange over 1000 articles of clothing for a yard sale?

Well...like this. It may be hard to see in this picture but my dh built this lovely contraption for me to hang all my baby clothes on for the sale. This little hanging contraption is 15 feet long and 5 feet wide. It is openned on one end so shoppers can also go inside to shop. There are also double rods on each side.

That equals 70 feet of hanging space for all their clothes. It was a bit tight but we made it through. Shoppers thought our contraption and the ribbon pricing I used were ingenious. I don't know about that but I do know it was very organized. That is what I love most, ORGANIZATION!

Instead of using price tags I had five different prices and used five different colors of curling ribbon for each price. I posted signs on all sides of our contraption. The prices were secure and easy to see. It was very nice.

Still Remembering

The time in the hospital seems so long ago now. Even though they spend such a short time in the hospital, at the time it seemed like an eternity. This is little Sophia in her first few days. She is still sporting her feeding tube.

Edi in the tanning bed with her little sunglasses. Well... actually under the light for jaundice but I like to call it the tanning bed.

Little Henry hangin out with his legs proped up holding mommy's hand.

And Sean...could he be any cuter? I swear he saw the camera and posed like a little angel.

How blessed are we??? I am not sure why God granted us these four little blessings but boy are we so glad He did. We are so undeserving yet He gave us these little ones to look after, trusted US. WOW, there are still times it truely takes my breath away!!:):)