Year One

You know the saying, “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun”?  Well, time has certainly flown this past year, but I can’t say it was all fun!  I honestly can’t believe we made it through this past year.  From the day the boys were born, one year ago today, life has been an absolute whirlwind.  When Brennen, Graham and Liam were in the hospital, I thought it was hands down the hardest thing I had ever had to endure.  Then when we brought the boys home and they were eating every three hours, had feeding tubes and struggling with feedings, I thought that was the hardest thing I ever had to get through.  THEN, when the boys stopped sleeping much at night and hardly at all during the day, I thought that was the hardest thing ever.  I guess what I have come to realize is every phase we have been through this year has been hard in very different ways.  From the emotional toll the hospital stay took on us, to the physical toll sleep deprivation took on us it’s amazing we made it out in one piece! 

But I can also look back and take so much joy in all the good moments.  The days we brought the boys home; Liam on June 29, Graham on July 4 and Brennen on July 4 were euphoric.  Just knowing our little guys went through so much and came home to us healthy was a miracle.  Every first we had with them was something not to be taken for granted….First full bottle feeding, first (and every time) they all slept through the night, first smiles, first teeth, first crawls…I could go on and on!  We are so incredibly lucky to experience all of this three times over!  Not only that, but the boys are the happiest little dudes ever, and I love watching them learn, explore and interact with each other.  We have had our fair share of grabbing, pushing and pacifier pulling already, and I am sure that will continue.  I know they say you shouldn’t wish one phase away too fast for the sake of a new phase, but I am so excited to keep watching these guys grow and have so many more firsts.  I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel that has just started to appear this last month or so, and things are beginning to get slightly easier.  I am sure life will continue to be chaotic and we will still have our ups and downs, but such is life with four kids, and we’ll just keep calm and try not to freak out!

I sang happy birthday to each boy individually tonight and smothered them with hugs and kisses (happy they’ll let me do this for a few more years), and I realized that one year ago today I could not even hold them and just had to settle for holding their tiny hands.  This realization to me was what really brought the whole year into perspective and make me feel like I’m the luckiest mom in the world!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Brennen, Graham and Liam, we can’t wait to see what year two brings! 

P.S. I am having technical difficulties and will post photos when I am able! 

Blog? What Blog?

I seriously blocked it out of my mind that I even had a blog, if only to simplify my life and eliminate one more item from my to-do list. As you can imagine, life has been insanely busy with all the kiddos.  Plus we decided to pack one more giant change into our lives to end 2012 with a bang...we moved to a new house! 

Our new "Crib" to fit all our cribs

Let me back track a bit and give a brief summary about why I have been M.I.A.  See things had been going pretty well with the boys and I was like, "I got this", but then...dum dum dum, they started teething.  Gone were the nights of 11-12 hours of sleep, they began to wake up, sometimes every hour, leaving Brandon and I utterly exhausted.  Teething was followed by illness followed by teething, it was like a vicious cycle.  I would like to say we're back on track with the sleeping, but it's really hit our miss.  Some days we wake up at 6:30am and realize a miracle has happened, all the boys slept through the night.  MOST days we wake up at least once during the night.  It has made for two very sleep deprived and cranky parents. Despite my best intentions to sleep train them, I have not gotten very far.  Mostly because we like to swoop in fairly quick to keep one boy from waking up the others with his crying.  Again, another vicious cycle!

Despite all of our little "issues", the boys continue to thrive.  They are 10 months old today, as a matter of fact, and are happy little dudes...most of the time.  

Brennen

Brennen is still our little peanut weighing in at 14lbs. 2oz.  He is so incredibly sweet and has the best, widest smile.  It is a hard earned smile, but the reward is so worth it!  The laugh is even better, and best brought out by a couple of raspberries on the belly.  He is pretty quiet, letting his brothers do most of the talking, but you can see the wheels turning in his head. He will hold on to toys and examine them for the longest time, as if to figure out how everything works (like his dad). Don't let him fool you though, because when he gets mad, he gets MAD!  I have the hardest time letting him cry it out, mostly because he is so loud, but also because he's still my tiny little guy.

Graham

Graham now weighs 16lbs. and he is such a charmer, quick to smile and definitely a little ham. He has had to go to the children's hospital several times to be treated for a hemangioma under his eye, and he has all the nurses wrapped around his little finger.  On one particularly hectic day, it was 3:00 and I hadn't had time to eat lunch, so our nurse "watched" him for me while I got a bite to eat in the cafeteria. She really just walked him around to smile at all the other nurses!  He is rolling all over the place, sitting up a little, and always seems to be in cahoots with Liam.  I have a fear of what the two of them will get into when they are older, and am counting on Brennen to be the voice of reason!  

Liam

Liam, oh Liam...where do I start.  He is 15lbs. 11oz and I believe we have a trouble maker on our hands.  He started crawling a few weeks ago and it's been crazy.  Crawling, however, was not a enough and he is now pulling himself up to a stand on whatever he can find.  I think he has a bump and bruise on his head for every day that he has been mobile, mainly because he still thinks the best way to get down is to let go!  He is definitely an inquisitive little guy, and I predict the first one we'll have to take the ER to treat an injury.  I also call him my crying crawler.  They are going through yet another round of teething, and he will crawl after me and cry in my leg until I pick him up.  He has also recently started to head butt me in the leg if I don't pick him up fast enough! Today that resulted in a bloody lip when I moved to pick him up and he face planted on the kitchen floor.  Mom fail!

Addie

Last, but not least is our big 4 1/2-year old (as she's quick to remind you) Addie.  She has grown up so much!  I think this big sister gig is getting easier for her.  She especially loves to play with Liam now that he'll crawl after her and laugh.  She has also begun to take an interest in feeding them their baby food.  Not only that, but she is often my voice of reason, reminding me when I start to freak out about the house not being clean, or toys being everywhere, that I have four kids now and that's just how things are going to be!  Addie started attending Montessori school and is really thriving.  It makes me so happy to see her doing so well because we had a really tough time with her at her old daycare when the boys were born. She astounded me last week by making her own turkey sandwich for lunch before school.  We were running late, as usual, and I was running around like crazy trying to get the boys bottles, as usual, when she just said, "I'll make my sandwich mom."  She then proceeded to make a really yummy looking turkey and cheese sandwich, complete with mustard and mayo, cut in half and put in plastic bag to eat on the road!  As proud as I was of her independence, I couldn't help but selfishly think how this bodes well for Brandon and I in a few years when we can send her down in the mornings with the boys to get them breakfast and turn on cartoons while we sleep in! 

So finally, we made a big move in December and purchased our very first home in Zeeland, Michigan.  I can't even begin to describe how good it feels to be out of our "crappy rental", as I affectionately called it.  Our new home has 4 bedrooms and a finished basement, so plenty of room to grow for our busy family.  It is also really close to Brandon's work, allowing him to come home at lunch and give me a little relief.  It was tough to leave Rockford, especially the wonderful support system we had built there, but we have begun to meet people in the community and I have a feeling we're really going to like it here.  

I can't make promises to anyone these days, but I hope to hop on here more often, if only to relate funny stories that happen throughout the day, instead of big crazy updates that take hours to read! 

Addie feeding the boys veggies...yuck!

Just waiting our turn

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Christmas!

Graham is a good sport about being a speed bump