Christmas Eve

We were so excited about our first Christmas as a new family.  Ben could not hardly wait until Christmas day.  Christmas Eve is almost as good as Christmas day in our family.  We were excited to have the Daniel side of the family to our house for a big family meal and festivities.

Ben's new Spider Man!

Cousin Natalie (Nat-Nat) and Ben

Tyler is so excited about his first present

Daddy with Ryan and Chase

The cute wagons Papa and G-mama gave the boys
with a little monogramming help from Mommy.

After our big, delicious meal, opening presents and spending time with our family, we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  It was a wonderful service.  My only regret is not taking a picture of Ben and the babies in their matching Christmas outfits.  We rushed out the door to make it to church on time and one of the babies had a blow out while at church.  Oh well can't get them all!

My four Christmas babies in their jammies

After the church service, we headed back home to have Christmas with Derek's parents and sister.  Ben had already had a full Christmas by this point and Santa hadn't even come yet! We started a tradition last year to open one present on Christmas Eve.  Their Christmas jammies!

Our first family Christmas picture

Cookies for Santa

Ben had a blast making cookies for Santa.
We put them on his special plate and sat them by the tree for Santa. What a wonderful day it was! I look forward to many more with my family.

Can't forget the milk!

Ready for Santa!

Ben's Special Outing

Derek and I took Ben to Santa's Village and the Galaxy of Lights.  It was a special outing.  The babies stayed at home with some of our family who was in town for Christmas.  We try to find opportunities to take Ben on special outings such as this so we can give him special one-on-one attention.  It's hard to go from an only child to suddenly sharing attention with 3 other siblings who can be very demanding of our time.  He has been such a trooper sharing his parents with the babies.

In Santa's Sleigh

Ben loves Christmas time and Santa.  We have watched the Polar Express for months now.  We surprised him by taking him to Santa's Village first.  There he was able to visit Santa's workshop, sit in Santa's sleigh, see real reindeer, write a letter to Santa, make an ornament and visit Santa and Mrs. Claus.  He gave Mrs. Claus a hug and she pulled out a book to give him.  She said, she only does that for the ones that give her a hug.

Thinking about sitting with Mrs. Claus...

Hugging Mrs. Claus

Giving Frosty a high five

We stood in line for almost an hour to see Santa for the second time this Christmas.  The day before, Ben decided he no longer wanted a blue bike for Christmas, but a blue race car instead.  I was sure he was going to tell Santa this when he saw him.  Fortunately, when he got in Santa's lap he confirmed that he still wanted a blue bike. Whew! That was a close one.  The last thing I wanted was a disappointed little boy on Christmas morning.

Writing a letter to Santa

He had an amazing time at Santa's Village.  He can't wait to go again next year and take his brothers with him.  Next, we were off to the Galaxy of Lights.  It is a huge Christmas light display that you drive through.  It had 180 light displays.  Ben loved seeing all the different animals and characters.  It was a wonderful night full of great memories.

5 Months

Wow!  I know I say this a lot, but time is flying by so fast.  How can my little babies be 5 months old? They are not little newborns anymore. This month has been a little challenging as we are transitioning into a new phase.  Beginning solids has made feeding time a little more complicated, now that we have to do bottles and then go to the highchairs to eat solids.  I tried to prop bottles in the highchairs, but it doesn't work very well.  The highchairs recline, but not enough to easily prop a bottle.

Our living room looks like a daycare.  It is baby central filled with pack-n-plays, swings, bouncy seats, exersaucers, jump-a-roo, bumbos, play gym, highchairs, etc.  We will eventually gate this area off to create a baby safe zone when they become mobile.  The babies also got foam tiles to create a large, soft, play space on the floor.  It won't be long and they will all be mobile.

We are now on the go quite a lot.  Thanksgiving was our first trip to Chattanooga.  We have taken 3 trips to Chattanooga in the last 4 weeks and two times we stayed over night.  The babies did wonderfully.  Ben got sick with a fever and cold on our first over night trip to Chattanooga.  This made things a little more difficult, but we worked through it.  The next week the babies all caught Ben's cold, too.  It was inevitable.  It made me very nervous, especially since Derek was also out of town and I was on my own with 4 sick children.  I set the babies bouncy seats in the bathroom for nap and then I would turn on the shower and steam it up.  They took all their naps in there for the entire week.  It might sound crazy, but it really helped their cough and congestion.  I was glad to get them back healthy again especially with Christmas around the corner.  We are so excited about our first Christmas with all four boys, but Ben is the most excited of all.

Chase

Chase is our thinker and observer.  He also keeps everyone on schedule.  He lets me know when it's nap time and time to eat.  He loves to grin and laugh.  He is not a big 'talker', but when he does he is very soft spoken.  He is trying so hard to roll over from back to front.  He just can't get his arm out from underneath himself.  He gets very frustrated that he can't do it.  I love his chubby checks!

weight: 15 lbs. 6 oz

Ryan

Ryan was our feisty one, but he is now the most laid back of the three.  He is usually happy and the most patient.  When he is ready to go to sleep it does not matter where he is.  He will just quietly drift off to sleep.  I often find him asleep in the bouncy seat or swing. Don't let this little bit fool you though! He may be the smallest, but he loves to squeal loudly when he is happy.  He also loves to suck his thumb.

weight: 14 lbs. 2 oz

Tyler

Tyler is the sensitive one.  He cries the most out of all three.  He loves to eat and is usually the first one awake to eat.  He is also the talker.  He is almost always talking. He loves to lay beside his brothers and play with them.  He loves to rub their heads and feel their hair or hold their hand.  It's adorable to watch.

weight: 14 lbs. 4 oz

Ben

Ben is a great big brother.  He loves playing with and entertaining the his brothers.  He has just recently been able to identify each baby and is almost always right.  Sometimes he is still not sure between Ryan and Tyler, just like us all, and ask us for confirmation throughout the day.  He loves to talk about what they will be able to do with him when they get bigger.  He loves to play patty-cake with his brothers.

Back to Reality

Ever since I was put on bed rest, I have felt as though my normal every day life was put on hold.  I was stuck in my house while the world went on living their lives as normal.  It was hard to know I was missing out on family and social gatherings with friends, church and things as simple as going out to eat or shopping.  Things have slowly returned to normal or the "new normal" for us, but total normalcy would not return for me until we were able to attend events with our friends and family, return to church, and go out to eat as a family. This past week we got the ball rolling with a trip to Chattanooga and our family outing to see Santa and eat dinner. We continued the momentum and took the babies to church for the first time.  It was hard work, but we were able to make it to the 9:30 am service on time. Everyone at church was so helpful in getting the boys unloaded, signed in, and into the nursery.  They were all well behaved in the nursery during the service, too.  It felt so great to be back. It is possible to live a normal life with 4 children 2 years old and under although at times I haven't been so sure it would be.

Bumbos, Swaddles, & Solids

We just keep changing things around here and there have been a lot of changes just this week.  The babies are growing and getting stronger every day.  Now they can sit in their Bumbos!  Yes, we are still using our Bumbos despite the recall.  Bumbos are great as long as you use them with some common sense. They love to sit up and look around.

We no longer have to swaddle the babies before they go down for nap or bedtime.  We have swaddled them since day one.  They sleep so good when they are swaddled.  At first, we used blankets and when they got too big and strong for regular blankets we used the SwaddleMe blankets with velcro closures.  The velcro made it harder for them to bust out. They were getting too big for the SwaddleMe blankets so I worked them out of them by first only swaddling one arm, then swaddling them with both arms out, and then we moved to the zip up sleeper blankets at night.  I am so glad because it cuts down on my laundry and I don't have to swaddle babies 15-20+ times a day.

We started solids.  For now, we are only eating rice cereal.  They definitely aren't crazy about it, but who would be happy about eating bland rice cereal.  I can't wait to start adding in more foods.  I plan to make baby food for the boys because buying baby food for three would be quite costly. More to come on that later.

Meeting Santa

After a great Thanksgiving day out of town, Derek and I were feeling brave and confident about taking the babies out.  Derek was asked to help take Santa pictures at a local tree lighting celebration in town. I did not want to pass up the opportunity to get the boys picture taken with Santa, especially if Daddy was the one taking the pictures.  Derek's parents came to help me with all the boys while we were there.  It was great to get the boys out and do something fun.  They had their picture taken with Santa.  He was awesome.  He didn't even blink at the idea of holding three babies all at once.  He said he had experience with triplets.  The best thing was no one cried.  This is a big deal because Ben has cried the past two years.  This year Ben was all business.  He climbed up next to Santa and was on his best behavior.  After the picture with all the boys, Santa took Ben in his lap and talked to him.  He asked him what he wanted for Christmas and Ben told him a blue bike.  It was so sweet!

We had a great time at the tree lighting festivities.  Still feeling courageous, we decided to take the babies out to eat for the first time after the tree lighting.  I'm not sure what the hostesses thought when we walked in with two double strollers, a single stroller, two toddlers, and 4 infants.  It took us a few minutes to get everyone situated around the table, but we managed it.  The babies were on their best behavior at dinner.  We had great time eating dinner with our friends and it was nice to feel normal again.  Another successful first!

Thanksgiving- The First Out of Town Trip

My little turkeys
Tyler, Chase, Ryan

 I have been mentally preparing for this day for months.  Just the thought of loading all four children up in the car, travelling two hours in the car to Chattanooga, visiting both of our families and then loading back up and driving two hours home was exhausting.  We were determined to have Thanksgiving with our family.  I packed everything the night before.  The babies had two large diaper bags to hold everything they would need plus extra (I did not want to run out of anything) and one small backpack for Ben.  We woke up around 6:00 am, fed the babies, got everyone ready and were out the door by 7:30 am.  Luckily, we had an extra set of hands because my sister had spent the week with us. The babies were amazing in the car.  We barely heard a peep from any of them.  Ben watched a movie during the drive.  He loves mommy's new van.  Derek and I were able to enjoy a two hour car ride together like we were the only ones in the car.  Derek even joked that we forgot to put the kids in the car.

The entire day was wonderful.  It was so great to visit with family.  I enjoyed all the extra help.  I don't think I fed a baby all day!  The babies did awesome away from home.  I think they enjoyed the change of scenery and all the special attention.  They could hardly eat for wanting to see everything around them.

Ben, watching a movie in the van.

Playing at Uncle Jason's and Aunt Jen Jen's house

Tyler checking out cousin Cooper

Uncle Scott and Aunt Chrissi

Ben and Uncle Scott

Nana Bell and Chase

Cousin Sarah and Tyler

Chase, playing at Pops and Nanny Jeffery's house

Ryan, hanging out at Pops and Nanny Jeffery's house

Nannie Daniel and Tyler

So, from the pictures it looks as though Tyler was held all day while the other two played on the floor.  I can assure you this was not the case.    They all received attention.  Tyler must be more photogenic than the other two.  We are going to have to make it a point to make sure we get pictures of each of them.

Pops Jeffery and Tyler

Ben pretending to talk to Santa at Pops' house.
He knows Christmas is coming...

The car ride home was just as peaceful.  All four boys slept the entire way home.  When we got home we put Ben in his bed and left the babies in their car seats and placed them in the nursery.  We didn't hear a peep until 6:30 am the next morning.  If out of town trips are this easy, we can do this a lot more!