Shhhh....don't tell the kids!

I've been really wanting to workout for a while now. When fall hit, I did a lot of walking since the weather was so nice, but now that's not so much possible. I really don't like the cold, so taking a walk when it's much less than 60 is not going to happen. I seriously need to get this body in shape. I mean, I have to say I'm looking better than I have in years (68.4lbs and counting, thankyouverymuch) and weigh less now than when I got married 14 1/2 years ago. I can squeeze into a size 10!! I find it very surreal. But this body is FLABBY! I think my rear end touches the backs of my knees. Well, almost. So I treated myself...to a Wii! This cracks my husband up as I swore we would never have a video game in this house.

Well, this one's for me. And it's been fun playing all the Wii Sports stuff and my husband loves it, too. We have it set up in the bedroom (tight fit) and escape when the kids are having their afternoon "rests" or after they are in bed for the night. And if they dare grace our doorway while it's on, we snarl, "Living Room!" Not nice, I know, but the kids do NOT need to know we have it in the house.

But after a day or two, I found myself longing for WiiFit. Surely this is the answer to my woes?! Thanks to amazon.com and their texting thing (which is how I got the Wii to begin with), I was able to score one! It's supposed to be here Friday. Hold on a sec...got to wipe the drool off my chin. I'm hoping the tracking, etc. will be the challenge I need to stay motivated.

In lieu of the WiiFit, I have woken up early for the past two days to workout before I got the kids up. Tuesday morning I did arms and abs and this morning I did lower body. Result? I'm sore from head to toe and utterly exhausted!! I think I'll take the day off tomorrow, but get back to it Friday. What could be better than being a mom of 8 (6 + 2 angels) with a rockin' bod?? I'm also hoping to see a plastic surgeon this year to discuss removing the excessive skin around my middle so I want to be in the best shape possible for that (insurance pays for that, right? ****crickets chirp*****).

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On the kid front--

I have LOTS of pictures of the kids from our various Christmas activities, but they are all still in my camera. I'm working on it and will share some soon.

My husband has been off this week and we have loved it! We took the kids to a model train exhibit on Monday, had lunch at the mall, and then grocery shopped as a family. I absolutely adored having two carts!! On Tuesday, we went to the zoo and out to dinner (mmmm...TexMex). Today, we hit a local pizza/playground/rides type establishment and were pleasantly surprised to find that most other people had stayed away! The kids had the best time there and Mr. C had fun in the toddler area, which he essentially had to himself. Tomorrow, we have dinner at my parents, we plan on going to a different zoo in a neighboring city on Friday, and exploring our light rail system on Saturday. Did I mention, we love when Daddy is home??

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That's it for now. Thanks for checking in with us this year. Please keep coming back and here's a New Year's resolution for my readers: Leave Kate more comments! I love hearing from y'all! Unless, of course, it's not nice. In which case, I really don't want to hear from you. But to the rest of you, your comments really make my day!

Happy New Year!! So long 2008. Hello 2009!

The Final Cut

About two weeks ago, I posted the outtakes from our attempt at a Christmas picture. Since Mr. J really needed to be held (he has very little head/trunk control) and Mr. C wouldn't sit still, my husband and I ended up having to be in the picture. I think the final cut was a good one: most of the kids aren't only looking at the camera, but also smiling. Of course, I've got hair in my mouth (I was in charge of setting the timer, running and grabbing Mr. C, then sitting down in position trying to look cool and collected), Mr. C looks pained, and Miss L looks too serious, but such is life. This is our first family picture since the foursome turned 2, and the first that includes Mr. C!



We've only taken three other family pictures since having the crew. Just for kicks, here they are in reverse order:


This is at their 2nd birthday party. There was a "dress-up" theme to their presents, so the girls are ALL decked out.


This was the 4th of July when the crew was one. Yes, I'm one of those people who likes to dress in matchy-matchy Old Navy shirts. Mr. B was not thrilled with the whole process and the nurse who took the picture cut off poor Miss M.


Our first family picture since adding the crew to our family. This was at their 1st birthday party and Mr. J (pre-brain injury) had just returned than day from a four day stay in the hospital. He was still continuously ventilated then and VERY active!

*****I never got to take one of us with the all the kiddos in the NICU before Mr. L died. Mr. B wasn't allowed in as he was too young, so it really wouldn't have worked out anyway. *****

I think I'll take a little rest

My husband took the big kids to the school parking lot (less than a block away!!) to ride their trikes and bikes. As soon as they got home, he sent them to the potty. Miss L made it as far as the potty, but apparently could hold it no more (typical) and let loose all over the floor in front of the potty. Our motto is, "You make the mess, you clean it up." So she was handed a towel and instructed to take her pants, undies, and socks off. She was also provided with clean underwear. After a long time, I went to check on her. She was on the floor struggling to get her pee-soaked jeans over her equally soaked sock and, surprisingly enough, not frustrated. I reminded her to put her wet stuff in front of the washing machine and she responded with a smile.

Later, Mr. J's nurse comes to find me in the kitchen, "Miss L is asleep on the bathroom floor." I went to look for myself; sure enough, she was completely passed out hugging the stuffed puppy Santa left for her. She slept through Mr. J's nurse filling up the tub just inches from her head and she remained asleep throughout Mr. J's bath. I had to pick her up and carry her to the dinner table. It took her awhile to really become alert. Poor thing. All this partying has worn her out!

My husband told me that he thinks Miss M also took a little snooze...while they were at the school parking lot. He's pretty sure she laid down behind a shrub and fell asleep. He picked her up and she snuggled some in his lap. These kids are exhausted!!

And I kept them up late again tonight (well, 8:30--late for my kids!) so we could have our Friday Night Movie Night: Nanny McPhee which Mr. B and Miss M give two thumbs up, but the other two found "scary". I thought it was cute, but I love Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, so I might be biased.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I know we did!

Do you remember that party when...

Do you remember that Christmas Party when Mr. C puked all over his uncle? Repeatedly? Right when the entire group was gathered around to say grace? Do you remember that?

Fun times. Fun times.

Yep, Mr. C made it memorable today.

Oh, Christmas Tree

The kids enjoyed a lovely afternoon outside today (it was 70 and sunny today -- sorry to those folks knee deep, or more, in snow and ice!). Mr. B and Miss E decided to gather some of the leaves up off the front porch into a pile. "We're making a Christmas tree!" they announced. The two of them then scoured the porch and yard for bubble wands and other debris to use as ornaments. Here is their end product (and the proud creators):



Doesn't it put you in the holiday mood? (I know...me neither.)

Boys in the Tub

It was "Boys Bath Night" last night and I just thought it was so cute watching my little men play together with the shaving cream on the wall. So I whipped out my cell phone a took a couple pics. These two guys get along so well. Mr. B is a wonderful big brother and Mr. C adores him. *sigh*

And just cuz it's cute...

On Tuesday, Mr. C and I had to pick the girls up from school and it was COLD outside (well, at least for this warm-weather girl--there was at least ice on the windshield!). So, I had to bundle up my little man! My little Nanook of the North:

I'm pretty sure he couldn't put his arms down. Reminiscent of another little boy:

Picture Tag

I was reading Debi's blog over at Who Says 8 is Enough and found out she was playing Picture Tag with Suzanne over at Steece's Pieces. I was excited to find another higher order multiple mom as Suzanne has one-year-old quads! So I decided to play along.

The object of the picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same

NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)

Here's mine:

It's a picture of Miss M taken when she was 11 days old. She's sunbathing under the bili lights! She was (is) Baby A and was assigned red by the NICU (everything associated with each baby had a color and some nice nurse knitted them all corresponding hats that were ready to go when they were born).

And as Suzanne is tagging everybody, head over to her blog and leave a comment if you'd like to play along (you can leave me a comment, too :))!

The Outtakes

After we got home from church this morning, I gathered the kids around the Christmas tree and attempted the annual Christmas Card Photo. While I did end up with an acceptable shot (which has already been ordered and will be ready for pick-up tomorrow), I ended up with a lot of outtakes (aka duds). So I've gathered them together and made y'all a slide show. Enjoy!

I love...

...shopping online!!


This all arrived today. Well, actually, there were three more but they were Mr. J's supplies so they don't really count. :)

Miss M: I'm starving.

Sweeter words were never spoken.

My girls came home from the NICU fresh from surgery to insert feeding tubes. Shortly thereafter, they went from eating a little by mouth to nothing at all. They started private feeding therapy twice a week until the insurance ran out then switched to Early Childhood Intervention who provided a feeding therapist once a week. They were discharged a few months shy of their 3rd birthday.


Miss M with her Auntie, the day after she came home, not taking her bottle.


Mommy swaying, patting and shushing. All three girls were being tube fed by feeding pumps (this was almost 2 months after they came home).


Miss M trying to figure out how to connect herself to her food.


The girls' at their first Christmas party. Miss E is up front with her Auntie. Miss M is back on the couch with a dear friend. They are all hooked up to their feeding pumps. Miss L was "eating", too, just of the frame.

It wasn't until shortly before Mr. C was born that I was able to aggressively wean them from their tube feeds. Miss M used hers the longest, having to go back on them after her 3rd birthday for a short while and then again last May for a couple weeks after a round with a tummy bug. The other two girls had their tubes removed in April and Miss M had hers removed in August.

Me: What did you just tell me?

Miss M: I'm starving.

YIPPEEEEE!!

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

We took the kids to the Christmas Parade yesterday. I got a little testy with my husband when we couldn't find a spot to park the triple and double jogging strollers as we left later than I hoped, but in the end found a great spot. It was chilly outside, but not too cold, and the sun was shining. Perfect weather. The kids had a great time watching, except for Mr. C who was pretty much done immediately. Oh well. Next year he'll be able to appreciate it more.

Later that afternoon, Mr. B told me he wanted to make gingerbread men. I looked in my favorite cookie cookbooks, but could only find "Light Ginger Cookies". Good enough. The came out really nice and tasted like ginger-flavored sugar cookies. After we baked them, I made frosting and got out all the sprinkles. They had so much fun decorating the cookies.

I'm really amazed that Mr. B remembers so much about things we've done around the holidays. Yesterday, he requested that we make homemade pizza for dinner today and eat it in the living room while watching a Christmas show. I guess we did that last year. So, his wish is my command. After church this morning (Daddy stayed home with our sick boy Mr. J), I took the crew by the store to get the ingredients. They had a blast putting the toppings on, but had more fun munching on them. Then we all sat in front of the TV and ate our pizza while watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", the original TV special. We ended up watching it twice! We needed more time as the kids wanted to eat their decorated gingerbread men for dessert.

Our First Friday Night Movie Night

Well, I've been inspired by Debi over at Who Says 8 is Enough (and by Jon and Kate Plus 8 *) and have instituted Friday Night Movie Night. I'm hoping it will become a regular part of our routine like Sundaes on Monday. The only rule I have is that the movie can NOT be a cartoon. We watch enough of those. Oh yeah, and since it's December, the movie had to have a Christmas theme.

I gave the kids (or should I say Mr. B as he did all the deciding for the group) three choices: White Christmas (I own it), Home Alone (could get it from On Demand), or Polar Express (own it and yes, I know it breaks the rule but it's such a sweet story!!). I think they were sick of Polar Express as I subjected them to it twice on our pre-Thanksgiving trip and they really had no idea what Home Alone was (I'll have to remedy that), so White Christmas won out.

I love White Christmas. I love Bing Crosby's voice (and Rosemary Clooney's for that matter). I have visions of my girls singing the Sisters song when they are older just for my own personal amusement.



Of course, Mr. B likes the male version:



Here's some pictures of the crew with their pillows and blankets enjoying the show:


Mr. B started out in his chair, but soon moved to the floor by his sisters.


I love the song being sung here: "...and you'll fall to sleep counting your blessings..."


Even Mr. J joined us, at least until his night nurse arrived (no day nurse today). He really liked hanging out in the living room all day but he was a lot of work as he's got a cold. But despite not feeling well, he was a pretty happy guy!

The kids did great. I had to do minimal threatening to get them to stay still ("no arguing or you'll go upstairs to bed!") and Mr. C just wandered around eating popcorn, harassing his siblings, getting cuddles, and just having a great time.

I definitely want this to become a tradition in our house!

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* I rarely watch Jon and Kate plus 8. It's a sore spot with many moms of multiples as that is one of the top five questions we are asked, "Do you watch Jon and Kate plus 8?" Very annoying. If I didn't have sextuplets plus two, I probably would enjoy the show. I used to watch every special I could on the Dilley's. But it hits too close to home now. When I do watch it, I usually get sad at some point during the show. Why did all six of theirs survive? How come all of theirs are healthy and mine aren't? Those kind of questions drive me nuts and allow me a pity party that I probably deserve but don't want to attend. It serves no purpose.

That being said, I really do like their family. I can relate to her, the pressure she is under,and the magnitude of the task she is facing. It's hard raising that many kids so close in age. And I like that they don't try and sugar coat it.

That's my two cents.

We've Christmasfied

Well, since my husband was off last Friday, we dragged out all the Christmas stuff. The kids did a great job of helping us set up the tree (I believe my husband described them as "slave drivers" as they were handing us the parts faster than we could assemble). The kids also did most of the work of hanging the ornaments. My husband and I moved some around when they were done but only because I didn't want any breakable ones within reach of Mr. C (though he has shown little interest).

Here's a picture I took tonight of the tree:



What I really love about it is that it was done as a family this year (except for Mr. C and Mr. J who were napping). The girls and Mr. B remembered about doing it last year and were so eager to dive in this year.

And here's a picture of all eight stockings:



Sadly, I only have four stocking hangers as they were purchased the day after Christmas at Crate and Barrel when I was under the delusion that we'd only have two kids. HA!!! I'm going to have to try and hit the store this year and see if I can't score a couple more. I'd also like to add two more stockings for our littlest angels as they are gone but never forgotten.

Mr. B's Birthday Cakes

Mr. B's birthday party was only a month ago, but as I didn't take any pictures of my own, I had to wait to collect them from others. While in St. Louis with my in-laws last week, I finally got my hands on some of them.

Mr. B likes to coordinate his birthday cake with his Halloween costume. I started this at his third birthday as that was the first year we had the crew to deal with and it just made the deciding easier. Since Mr. B was dressed like Lightning McQueen's pit crew, he wanted a Lightning McQueen cake:



I cheated by buying the pan, but it still took a lot of work!! There were 8 different colors of frosting!! And since this wasn't enough cake to feed the masses, I made a regular 9 x 12 cake and used up the frosting I had left. It turned out pretty good.

Now let's take a trip down memory lane and visit cakes of birthdays past. :)

5th birthday:


Again, I cheated and bought the pan, but I made two cakes with the pan and stacked them. The wings are made with those discs you can melt. They came out pretty good! And you guessed it: Mr. B was a bumblebee for Halloween.

4th birthday:


A fire truck for my little fireman.

3rd birthday:


It's a barn. Mr. B was a farmer. The party was at my parents' house as our house was a disaster area between the remodeling and having three baby girls home who had a LOT of stuff! I made the pig (if you can even see it) out of a pink Starburst. Really, it's not bad considering the sheer chaos we were dealing with. I'm not sure where I found the time or energy.

2nd birthday:


I loved this racetrack cake. The cars were the candles. Isn't Mr. B a cutie? And you can see my pregnant belly. I was only about 15 weeks pregnant then. Ahhhh....the calm before the storm.

And finally, Mr. B's 1st birthday:


I saw this in Parents magazine. I think it's supposed to look like the stacking cups toy. At first, the layers didn't want to stay, so I had to pull it apart, put each layer on a cardboard round and stick cut-off skewers in the layer below for support. Lesson learned. That's why it's so crooked looking. But I think that adds to its charm! ;)