Quad's First Birthday and Other Fun Stuff

This post will probably be quite large since I haven't blogged in a while and I want to cover Halloween, the Quad's first birthday, and their 12 month check up. So here we go!

First off, lets talk about Halloween. We didn't actually take the babies trick or treating on Halloween, but we did take them to our church's annual trunk or treat activity, which was loads of fun. Fortunately, we didn't have to buy any costumes. Tyler wore his costume from last year willingly, and Daniel and William wore Tyler's costumes from his first and second Halloweens. Allison wore a costume a church friend gave us before the babies were born, and Alexis wore the cutest handmade elephant costume that our friend Amber made for her oldest daughter and loaned to us. On Halloween I did take Tyler around the block and the babies stayed in with daddy to pass out candy. Here are some of the pics of the festivities:

Lexie the Elephant

Allison the Kitty...very appropriate!

Tyler the Shark

William the Dragon and Daniel the Monkey

Tyler found some chicks...it was hilarious!

Next...The big birthday!

The quad's birthday fell on a Friday and their party was the next day so we decided that we would do their smash cakes at home on their birthday to contain the mess since their party was being held somewhere else. Let me just tell you...it was HILARIOUS! Lexie picked at her cake and William took a while warming up to it, but Allison and Daniel destroyed their cakes and all that was left was about a handful in the highchair.

Front to Back: Allison, Daniel, Alexis, William

William's Final result

Daniel and his "Precious" LOL!

Allison and her massacre

Lexie...this is about all she ate before rubbing icing in her hair and throwing the cake on the floor.

Their party was the next day and we had a very interesting start to our day...no power. Fortunately we were able to shower but that was all. So we made our way to the venue to set up and enjoy the electricity.

The party was a lot of fun. The kid's Granny, Aunt Aprile and Uncle Bo, Uncle Lee and Aunt Anne, adopted sister Nikki and her mom Tami and sister Ashley, our friend Michelle, and our good friend Shannon came with her girls, Addi and Grace, and her mom and dad, Miss Mary and Mr. Jerry, came to have fun with us. Everybody was so generous and brought the nicest gifts for the kiddos. And Tyler and Addi got to have a blast running the halls and dancing to Rio playing in the hallway.

Allison giving Nikki kisses with Lexie and Ashley

Addi and Tyler

Allison and Granny

Aunt Aprile and Lexie

Group shot

Lexie enjoying some cake and Allison begging for more!

Allison getting more cake..."faster daddy!"

The Cake

Uncle Lee and Lexie

Miss Shannon and Gracie

The babies playing in the tissue paper from their gifts

Uncle Bo, Aunt Aprile, and William eating cake

Nikki and Daniel having cake

Finally....their 1 year checkups! They have all grown so much. Here we go:

Alexis

At birth she weighed in at 2lb 6oz and 14.75". At one year she weighs 17lb 14oz and is 28.75" long! That is 15lb 8oz of gain and 14" of growth! What a big girl.

At a year she has 6 teeth, crawls like a champ, climbs the stairs, is cruising around, and climbs on everything. She used to be my puker and didn't start eating solids a full month or more after the others. She is now one of my best eaters!

Allison

At birth, Allison weighed 3lb 2oz and was 16" long. At a year she weighs 20lb 7oz and is also 28.75" long. She has gained 17lb 5oz and 12.75"!

At a year she is just barely cutting her first tooth...finally! She crawls, loves her kitty, cruises, screams when she doesn't get her way, and has the cutest, cheesy grin! She is kind of a picky eater compared to the others, but she gets by. LOL.

Daniel

At birth, Daniel weighed 3lb 7oz and was 16" long. Now at one, he weighs 21lb and is 28.5" long. He is my shorty! He has gained 17lb 9oz (?-fuzzy math) and 12.5"!

At a year Daniel has 6 teeth as well, can climb the stairs, loves his bib, sucks his thumb, cruises around, tries to say words, and is the sweetest of the sweet! He is my BEST eater...what a chow hound.

William

William has always been my big boy, born at 4lb 10oz and 16" long. He is now 25lb 3oz and 30". He has gained 20lb 9oz and 14"!

At a year, William has 6 teeth as well, crawls, cruises, knocks everything over (HULK SMASH!), throws himself back, likes to headbutt, and has the sweetest smile! He loves to eat whatever we give to him!

Tyler

No, it wasn't Tyler's birthday, but he has survived the first year of being big brother to quads. At 4.75 years old, Tyler is still my first baby! He is such a big boy. He helps where he can, usually throwing away diapers, picking up empty bottles, and playing with the babies. He is so smart.  He draws better than most adults I know and has very good penmanship for a 4 year old. He wants to be in the middle of everything we are doing especially if the babies are getting attention. We love our big boy!


There you have it! :P

Katie

As of Late...

I am such a bad blogger that my hubby blogged about Tyler's first day of Pre-K...oh, Pre-K...this momma's dream...dashed to a million pieces! Tyler lasted about 9 days in Pre-K before they too got annoyed with his repetitive accidents and he has been temporarily (hopefully) kicked out til he gets his potty habits under control. I literally cried for like 2 days. He is doing very well this week though. I don't know if it is because he is finally getting it, or if it's because hubby is home...on furlough... :(

The Wild One

Yep...we are among the reported 800,000 who have been deemed "non-essential" thus income free til this is all ironed out. Although there is some stress attached to this situation for us, we are enjoying the family time and I am especially enjoying having my partner in crime here to help wrangle the masses.

The masses....they are well. They are crawling, climbing, and generally getting into whatever they can get ahold of. They have a new home...the Thunderdome. ;) I'm pretty sure I am Mad Max.

The Masses on the move!

The Thunderdome

Anyways, life goes on here. Crazy, wild, and wonderful. We are so blessed to have each other and these five little wild people in our life. Have a great day!

Katie

Off to School

Tyler is growing up fast. Yesterday was his first day of preschool -- and he wasn't nervous or scared. He jumped on that bus so fast the driver didn't even get his name; nor did he look back to Katie to wave or say bye. And when he got to school he made a bee-line for his classroom, devoid of any apprehension. Last week I asked him if he wanted Katie or I to drive him to school the first day or if he wanted to ride the school bus... without hesitation he declared he wanted to ride the bus. I hope he continues to have the same enthusiasm for school and learning for the next 14 years as he does now -- he will do well.

Celebrating his first day of school!

How many pictures are you gonna take?

Waiting for the bus with his preschool buddies.

No looking back!

"Quadruplets? How do you do it?"

That is probably the number one question I get asked..."how do you do it?" The simple answer...I just do. I don't have a choice. But I guess it's more complicated than that. Its all about routine, I suppose....here is generally what our "routine" looks like:

*Sometime between 5 and 6 am - Bottle then back to bed
*By 9am up for the day....get dressed and have breakfast (usually oatmeal mixed with fruit and sometimes yogurt).
*10 am bottle
*Between 10 and 11 first nap...YAY!
*Between 1 and 2 bottle
*Between 230 and 3 second nap...YAY!
*Between 4 and 6 sometime dinner (usually a veggie combo and maybe some fruit)
*Around 6 a mini-bottle if needed
*7 sharp BATHS! (BTW, hubs baths all 5 kids almost every night! What a man!! Hubba hubba!)
*Bottles right after baths and straight to bed (usually by 745)

I'm not much of a routine girl, so during the day we go with the flow, but at 7pm we're all business....those babies need to go to bed, ASAP! LOL!  On rough days, I find that if I focus on when the next nap is I can cope much better with whatever the day throws at me.

 Naturally, as babies grown, routines change....we're kind of at that point, and I don't really know how to change it. Most days the babies are sleeping til 6 and the sun is coming up so its light and some mornings they don't want to go back to sleep. I could get them up at 6 and make them wait to eat til 7, but that is an early and very long day for momma!

Anyways, fortunately I'm not alone everyday. I have help at least two weekdays and sometimes more now that school is out (I <3 you Nikki!). I live for those days. It means a lot fewer trips up and down the stairs....yes, they nap in their cribs, which means if I'm alone I make at least 12-16 round trips up/down the stairs those days. Can anyone say "cardio"?

The good news about all of this is that all of the hard work...and it is hard work!...is nothing compared to the reward. We have 5 very healthy, happy children. We are so blessed! Our 7 1/2 week premature babies are huge and have caught up with other babies their age in size. They smile, laugh, babble, roll all over (and puke all over), and make me smile all the time. Our 4 year old is so smart and talented and keeps us laughing with the funny things he says. Every day is a new adventure and full of surprises, good and bad.

The babies lined up at bottle time with Tyler and Cousin Jessie who came to visit!

Happy Lexie

Allison practicing sitting up

Lexie and Allison playing on the floor

Wild Daniel

Daniel and William chilling on the floor

Sweet William...mommy's big guy!

First trip to the pool

So, how do I do it? With love and as much patience as I can muster up...and with the love and support of my amazing hubby and my faith that God knows what he was doing when he sent us these amazing little people.

Katie

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July from the Voelckers!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I was really trying to blog more, once a week or so, but many days I don't have the time or energy (imagine that!). So, I have a minute and I thought I would give a little update.

The babies are continuing to grow like crazy. They are so curious and are getting more and more talkative. They are 5 months old now (I know, crazy right?) and have officially moved into the 3-6 month size clothes. Allison and William are rolling over front to back, and Allison is close to rolling back to front. William is also starting to scoot on his belly. We are working on splitting them into two rooms (literally today) so we had to get 2 more cribs and another changing table to make it work. I am excited to split them up, I think they will sleep longer/better.

 In the last 6 weeks or so, we have started adding baby food to their diets (except Lexie, she can't keep it down), and it is going okay. Some days they like/want it, and others they don't, but up until the last 2 weeks I didn't push it. Now they get fruit and oatmeal every morning, and I'm trying to add in an afternoon fruit/veggie feed as well. William and Allison seem to be able to tolerate everything I have given them, but Daniel has issues with orange foods...carrots, sweet potatoes, and peaches so far. I have even made some baby food of my own, avocado and pears, and it was pretty easy!

Daniel after breakfast

William after breakfast "clean me off please!"

Allison after breakfast

Lexie a while back when we first tried her on baby food

Now that spring is FINALLY here we have been a little more adventurous. About once a week I and a helper (usually Allen, my MIL, or Nikki) will load up all the kiddos and run errands. Its a lot of fun. They especially like eating in the car. It is pretty hilarious. They smile around their bottles and look all around.

Nikki feeding Daniel

Mommy feeding William

Lexie talking to Granny instead of eating

Lexie getting her pants changed

We also had their first Easter. We loaded the crew up and went to church. We did a practice run the Sunday before so we knew how to make it work. Here are some pics of the kiddos in their Easter duds.

William and Daniel

Allison and Lexie

Allison, Alexis, Tyler, William, and Daniel

For my next post, I want to do a "day in the life", so stay tuned!

Katie