Just can't wait that long...

I have been looking forward to vacation since we booked the house in February. We are supposed to arrive at our McMansion on Sunday however we decided that we just can't wait that long!!! So we rented this tiny little beach "cottage" for Friday and Saturday nights! It's not much but it's literally a few steps to the beach and has a nice enclosed porch. I am nervous but excited to be away for a little while! I'm nervous about taking 4 kids under 4 on vacation 9 hours from home on a tiny barrier island but I really think we are going to have a blast as long as we just "roll with it", the good and the bad. So for the next 3 days I'm going into overdrive more so than usual to get ready to leave in the wee hours of the morning Friday morning!!! Yippie!!!

Lunchin' It

We went to a restuarant for lunch yesterday. It was only the second time we attempted it as a family of 6, and it went really well! The kids were so well behaved and loved getting to eat outside at the restaurant.

Half of a Dozen

I watched TJ & Molly's little cuties today for a little while and here are a few pictures from our afternoon:

Cutie Colin!! Emily, Colin, and Grace doing ColorWonder markers.

The whole gang, (l-r Leah, Evan, Emily, Colin, Grace and Madeline sitting on the floor)

Nice glasses Colin!

Craft time!! (Please excuse the pile of Beach stuff at the end of the table!)

We had fun! I was surprised that it was a little easier than I had imagined. I guess it's true what they say; that after having 2 kids adding more is a breeze!

:)

"No"

It worries me a little that Maddie and Leah have already mastered "No"...Pretty sure it will be their first word too besides Mama and Dada.

Dreaming ~

This is a picture of the top floor living area of the house we are staying in for vacation! I look at pictures of it everyday just to give me a little "boost"! I cannot wait to see how much fun Grace and Evan are going to have on the beach and in the pool! The only thing I'm a little concerned about is Madeline and Leah crawling on the marble floors. I think I'm going to get them BabyLegs to help cushion their little knees. Living in luxury for a week is just what I need, a little break from the monotony. I think it's going to be a challenge to keep Madeline and Leah from eating their weight in sand but we will manage. I know it will be here before I know it but it still seems to far away when I think of September 6th. I cannot believe that kids are heading back to school already. And that my baby girls will be turning ONE in a few short months. Wow. It really does make me sad, but that's another post all together.

Outside in our undies!

Leah and Madeline hanging out in the grass, and eating a little of it too! Notice they're sporting a little muffin top! ;) ( Leah is on the left, Madeline on the right) Miss Maddie skinny dipping in the pool and loving every minute of it!

They're always going in two different directions! (Leah is on the left, Madeline on the right)

Baby Jail

"Hey - Let us out of here!"

Multiply

The mess in this house just keeps multiplying! We now have every single toy that the kids own out in the toy room. I took this picture this morning and, oh my word, I cannot wait to pack up some of the toys that they no longer play with for the yard sale on Saturday. I really hope a lot of things sell, but am trying not to get my hopes up.

Why is it that the kids all seem to gravitate towards one another? They always seem to be literally on top of each other.

Nice Rack

Matt's schedule is separated by 'racks'. The rack he is on now is my least favorite all month. He worked Friday, Saturday and Today, then has off tomorrow and goes right into night shift Tues, Wed, and Thursday night. It's hard on us and especially hard on him to switch from getting up at 3am for day shift to sleeping all day and leaving for work at 3pm for night shift. The week off every month is worth it though, and that in reality he only works 15 days out of every month. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

I'm not sure what the kids and I are going to get into today. Since my parents are away we might go over and check on their house and play in their yard for a little while since it's sooo much bigger than ours. Speaking of ours, Matt and I are talking again about moving. We may even go look at a house within the next two weeks. Just to take a look and then talk long and hard about what a move would mean to us right now. Speaking of moving, our friends TJ and Molly are in the process of buying a house and we're thrilled for them! It will be such a good change for them, and they sure have worked hard enough for it!

I'm trying to resist the urge to do a little Internet shopping today. I have been comparison shopping for weeks now for a new car seat for Evan and I think I found one on sale since my order at Amazon got cancelled b/c the promo code I used was an error. I knew it was too good to be true but thought I would give it a try anyway. I also need to order one more diaper cover but just don't want to pay shipping on just one cover, but think that I'll have to since I cannot find a store locally that carries them. I want another Bummis Super Whisper Wrap.

Must.Unload.Now.

I haven't blogged in a while and for good reason, I have no time!! The only way that I keep up with Facebook is thanks to my iPhone. Madeline and Leah are crawling up a storm and pulling themselves up to standing - plus cruising the furniture and playing dare-devil by letting go of things to see how long they can stand up. I guess an added benefit of cloth diapers is the extra padding for all of those falls! Evan has been really good with Maddie and Leah lately. He will play gently with them and let them touch his toys. It's so cute to watch! Grace is 50-50 with playing well. She's strong willed. Wonder where she gets that from?! Evan's nemesis has been eating. He makes it into a power struggle even though he's starving. Tonight I put him in one of the highchairs and wouldn't let him get down until he ate something. He sat there for one whole hour before he finally gave in and DEVOURED his dinner. Then asked for a yogurt and an apple.

We are more than looking forward to vacation - I hope that the weather is nice. My parents and sister are down there now and Hurricane Bill is messing up the first several says of their stay. The only road down the island is flooded in several places around high tide so it made the end of their 9 hour trip down a little dicey. I hope they have a good time and the weather gets better.

I have so much shopping to do and so little money to do it with. Thankfully the hospital bills that we still have from Madeline and Leah's births and my hospital stays are almost paid off. We're trying to get Matt to pick up some overtime but it's scarce.

Matt and I have started talking about a huge possible change we may end up making and I'm so scared yet excited at the same time. I know that's teasing but I don't want to say anything until we're more sure of what's happening.

I have been getting ready for a yard sale that's coming up on the 29th and am already sick of the piles of yard sale things piling up in my house, it's mostly piled in the foyer and kitchen and the piles just keep growing. I have so much to get rid of. Whatever doesn't sell will not come back into the house unless it's a "high-dollar" item like a bouncy seat that I may be able to sell on Craigslist or at a consignment shop. Everything else will most likely go to the church for sale in their consignment shop.

I cannot believe it but I'm starting to think about Madeline and Leah's first birthday party, and Grace's 4th birthday party. Holy crap - where did the time go?? I am trying to think of a theme and how big of a party we are going to have. I'm leaning towards quite small. We will see. One good thing about the twins turning one is that we will no longer need to buy them formula!!! So diapers and formula purchases every month will be a thing of the past with the exception of a few new cloth diapers here and there! I'm stoked about that!

We are hoping to get up to the mountains for a short visit next weekend - leaving after the yard sale hopefully around 1pm. We all miss Debbi, Rob, and Grandma, not to mention that we need a little change of scenery. Matt is finishing up day works tomorrow, then has Monday off but starts night shift again on Tuesday - Thursday with the following weekend off.

Matt and I have been trying to decide what to do about sending Grace to preschool in the fall. We have her enrolled but are having second thoughts. It's more expensive than I thought it was going to be since they raised the prices from last year, not to mention that Grace would be in preschool this year and next year and then start Kindergarten. Grace has a November birthday so she will be one of the older kids in her Kindergarten class. Plus, we are going to miss orientation and her first day since we will be away. We planned the vacation and reserved the house way before we enrolled her in preschool. So I just don't know what to think. If we don't send her to preschool I want to enroll her in some classes at the Y, like gymnastics and ballet. On a selfish level, I'm not sure I am ready to start the whole "school schedule" just yet. Madeline and Leah aren't walking so I would need to take the double stroller out to drop her off and pick her up. Needing to be somewhere by 9am isn't always an easy task with 4 kids under age 4 so that has me a little worried also.

At least my living room is clean...

Because the toy room sure isn't!!

Oh, Bite Me!

As you can see, we're having a slight problem with biting in this house. Grace is the main culprit however now that Evan realizes how much it hurts/bothers him - he has taken to doing it back to Grace, just not as often or as hard. This is the worst one yet from last night, and now even today he has a perfect bite mark ring on the side of his face. Needless to say, my kids are spending a lot of time in their room in time-out or standing in the corner. Oh the joys of parenting.

Wordless Wednesday #2

Wordless Wednesday

A Cute Video and A Serious Post

What a crazy 2 days it has been! I started cloth diapering Madeline and Leah last week. I bought a different clothes detergent to wash the diapers in and thought they were having an allergic reaction to the new detergent, so until we figured out what was going on we went back to disposables. Then last night all 4 kids ended up with fevers. Grace threw up everywhere and had the highest fever out of all of the kids. This morning she was better and Evan seemed better but both Maddie and Leah still had fevers and the rashes were spreading so I took them to the pediatrician. It turns out that all of the kids have a virus that is in the same category as Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. It's not a big deal and we just have to let it run it's course. Normally I would have just shrugged it off and taken care of the kids and not worried too much, however recently I read about a 17 month old twin who died in his sleep from what could possibly have been complications from Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (You can read about it here, but be prepared to cry. It's heart wrenching. I literally ache for this family.http://martinomadness.blogspot.com/2009/07/18-month-well-baby-appointment.html So needless to say I'm scared and keep checking on the kids every five minutes.

Phillies Game!

Here's a picture of Matt before the Phillies game - I hope they're having a great time!

Tuesday

Today was an up and down day for all of us. Madeline and Leah are getting at least four more teeth each all at the same time so they are pretty fussy, and I feel so bad for them. I took all of the kids over to my parents house to let them run around in the peace and quiet up there, no one else was home there so it was just nice to relax in the quiet watching the kids play. I am doing pretty well with cloth diapering. I was just a little caught off guard when I saw just how bulky the diapers are. I feel like I'm doing something wrong but am hoping there is just a learning curve that I'm at the bottom of. Madeline and Leah look like they have 'junk in the trunk' with their new diapers on! That's the one negative thing I can say about them, on the other hand, I'm a little sad that I didn't cloth diaper all of the kids. I feel like I should apologize to Mother Nature for all of the diapers sitting in the landfills because of my children. It's just so much easier and a lot less hassle that I thought it would be. Do the other CD kiddos have the ghetto booty like my girls do now? Please let me know I'm not alone or doing something wrong!
Tomorrow I have a doctor appointment right near my Grandmother's house so I am going to drop Grace and Evan off there and probably just take Maddie and Leah with me to make it sooo much easier. I should only be gone for about half of an hour so I don't feel TOO guilty about asking my Grandmother to watch them.
I have to order Evan's new car seat from Amazon while the amazing deal is still going on. I cannot wait to get Maddie and Leah into Grace and Evan's "old" car seats since the girls are getting soooo big and have all but out grown their infant seats.

Monday, Monday

This is my attempt at a group picture... Who is out there?

Sisterly love!

Dirty Diapers!

I just finished my first laundry load of diapers - not so bad! Madeline and Leah look adorable in them too so that helps! I am still feeling a bit awkward with the routine but I have a feeling that after about a week it will just be second nature to me! I'm so happy that I finally took the plunge and we're not looking back! Erin, whose blog you can read here http://player-to-be-named-later.blogspot.com/, helped push me over the edge to make the switch! Her boys just look too darn cute in their gDiapers, not to mention how easy she said it was and that even her husband thinks it's easy! Thanks Erin!



This weekend didn't go exactly as planned. I have had a horrible migraine all weekend. It started getting really bad on Friday night and I still have it just not as intense. We were happy to see Debbi and Rob this weekend, but not happy that they came down because MomMom went to the hospital. She seems to be a little better now but it was scary none the less. Add that to Grandma's fall on Thursday and it's just been a pretty stressful few days. Thank goodness Matt was home today because I got to sleep on and off most of the morning because of my headache. Then my Mom and Dad stopped by to drop something off and ended up offering to take Grace and Evan to their house for the afternoon!!! I was elated! Grace and Evan had such a good time and it gave me the chance to rest more while Maddie and Leah were napping and then spend a little alone time with them.
Matt goes back to work tomorrow for 4 day shifts and then starts his next week off on Friday! I can't wait to head up to the mountains next weekend and let the kids play and go to visit Grandma.