Sofia and Minimus

The newest Princess on the block is Sofia the First and she has a horse named Minimus so this is the new game to play in our house!  They were cracking me up playing at Burger King one afternoon.

My Princesses!

Brady loves Princesses almost as much as Aubrey and she has taught him that you need to dress up, spin and know all the words to the songs to be a Princess!

What do you do when something stops being effective?

Shake it up!  It seems whenever we find a good system it works for awhile then they start finding a loop hole in our system.  With the choices program they started finding a third option and telling me why that option was the right option to choose!  With the star program they stopped caring if they were getting stars.  They wanted the reward now or they didn't care if they were getting a star to go towards earning a reward.  Constant praise for good behavior and ignoring the bad behavior worked for a bit too then stopped.

I am constantly reading and listening to what other moms are trying and think about whether or not it is something I think will work for the foursome.  I came across this idea of getting an "X" on a chart for bad behavior...talking back, throwing fits, disobeying when asked to do something...and when they get 10 "X" marks they have to give up one of their favorite things.  Getting an "X" didn't seem to faze them...until tonight!

Tonight Matthew had a fit at dinnertime which resulted in "X" number ten.  He was given the choice of giving up his white dog, his special pillow or his horse.  He refused to choose so Ben made the choice for him and his horse was put up for the next 24 hours.  When he was done dinner he went to check his stash and found his horse gone which turned into a huge meltdown.

Shortly after it was clean up time and Ben asked them several times to clean the living room while I was cleaning the kitchen and no one was listening.  From the kitchen I warned them that when I came in the living room whoever was not cleaning was getting an "X".  I came into the living room to find Aubrey had cleaned up all her stuff, Matthew had cleaned up his stuff, Brady and Cameron...not so much.  They were standing in the middle of the living room telling me they weren't going to clean.  Two more "X" marks!  That put Cameron at 10 and he needed to give up something and he chose his pillow pet.  He went and got it but cried giving it up.  Brady still was only at 9 but he chose to give up his Britney dog too.  I tried explaining to him that he still was 1 away from having to give it up but he was adamant that he wanted to.

So, all three boys got new charts hung up to start with tomorrow and went to bed.  All three of them cried before going to sleep because they wanted their stuff back.  I am hoping this will be a lesson learned and they will reign their behavior.  We will see how long this one lasts...any suggestions are always welcome!  We will give anything we think will work a try!

Catching up!

I was gently reminded via facebook that I really needed to blog because it had been awhile.  There is always something going on that I intend to blog about but the days are never long enough and I never seem to know just what to write when it is just our daily life but we have had some exciting news around here!

First up Ben got a new job!  He started Monday working for VTrans out of Lunenburg.  It was a relief for him to find a job that provides us with medical insurance, a retirement plan and paid time off.  There are so many things we want to do with the kids in the summer and now we will be able to because he will have the opportunity to have time off.  A positive change for our family!

In November of 2011, I joined a company called Scentsy then added the Velata line up in May 2012.  I planned on using the money earned from the company to help us do the extras we couldn't afford otherwise. In July 2012, Scentsy released information on the incentive trip for the year and in the list of choices was Hawaii...somewhere I had always dreamed of going but never thought I would get there.  I set my sights on hitting the incentive and earning the free trip.  Through my hard work and the hard work of my team I was able to earn a solo trip and the opportunity to buy in a guest.  When all the details came out on how the picking was going to go I was fairly certain I wouldn't have to opportunity to pick Hawaii.  Someone was watching out for me and wanting my dream to come true because I got HAWAII!!! With Ben just starting at his new job he wasn't about to ask for time off so my mom paid the buy in so I didn't have to go solo.  Now it is just figuring out coverage for the kiddos!

This week has been school vacation so life here has been a little crazy but the kids enjoyed having different kids to play with and we even snuck in a trip to the children's museum in North Conway with the other quads...that will be a seperate post soon!

The kids have been asking all week for a camp out in the livingroom but I convinced them we needed to wait until Friday so we didn't have day care in the morning because I knew that they would want to be up late and I didn't want to worry about getting everything picked up before 6:45am.  Stay up late was an understatement...they were up until after 10pm and still were up for the day at 6am!  Needless to say nap time was a necessity today!

Sewing Sunday

One of my favorite blogs to read is  The Great Umbrella Heist.  I discovered it when I was pregnant with the quads and have enjoyed reading it every day since.  One thing I always love to see is all the cute skirts and dresses that she makes for her girls so when she posted this and this I was thrilled to give it a try!

The kids and I made a trip to the store and Aubrey picked out her favorite pattern and then material to go with it.  The boys kept asking what I was going to make them so I let them each pick their favorite pattern to turn into pillows.

I was a little nervous to attempt the skirt so I started with the pillows for the boys because I knew they would be a snap.  I sewed them and the kids had a blast stuffing them.  When those were all done I had no other option than to get going on Aubrey's skirt and it actually came out better than I expected!

Frosty the Snowman

The last time the kids made a snowman they...well, mostly Brady...were a little upset that we did not have the correct items needed to make Frosty.  This time around I made sure we did and they got to build a snowman with the kids from daycare.



Cam and his girlfriend...girl Kam

March of Dimes walk 2013!

As sad as it is I am sure if every single one of you think about it someone in your family or in your group of friends has been affected by having a baby born too soon.  Some people are very fortunate to have happy outcomes while others will forever have a space in their heart that will never be filled.  Because of this, Ben, the quads and I have all committed to walking in the March of Dimes walk in Lebanon, NH on May 11, 2013.

Our story had a happy ending due to all the research and advances that were made possible by the March of Dimes foundation.  The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.  Our quadruplets were born at 32 weeks gestation and had a very short journey in the NICU before coming home and growing into the healthy, active three-year olds that they are now.  Unfortunately two other families who are very good friends of mine did not have the same outcome.  I asked them both to share their stories with all of you...

Kristy's Story:

After 5 long years of trying to get pregnant, the miracle had FINALLY happened!  By In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), I became pregnant with my precious twin girls! It was a dream come true!  I was beginning to think I would never be a mother.  The day I heard the words "You are PREGNANT" was the best day of my life!

Sadly, my beautiful baby girls were born too soon...at just 23 weeks 5 days, they were too early to survive here on Earth.  My life changed drastically on October 13, 2012...Aryelle and Kendall's birthday.  My heart shattered on October 15, 2012...the day they passed away due to extreme prematurity.

They will always be my babies and they will never, ever be forgotten!

Melanie's Story:

After over 3 years of infertility due to PCOS and a lifetime of dreaming of being parents, we were blessed to find out we were expecting twin boys in April 2012. It was a rough go after suffering from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and gestational diabetes, but we were oh so happy. Our world was turned upside down when our boys were born 16 weeks too soon on September 3, 2012 at 24 3/7 weeks old to save my life.

Andrew fought for us for 3 days, but he was far too premature and passed away September 6. Samuel was feisty but lost his battle to live on September 25 due to NEC and pneumonia. Our world changed the day we found out we were going to be parents, even more when we found out we were having twins, and got completely torn apart when we lost them both. Not a day goes by we don't love and miss them. They will always be our sons, our angels.

I have decided to live my life to the fullest, to honor my sons' memories, and to cherish my family and friends. I am determined to raise awareness about PCOS, HELLP, and prematurity. Their names, their lives, will never be forgotten.

Our family has chosen to join Kristy and Melanie's team...Four-Ever Remembered...in honor of Aryelle, Kendall, Samuel and Andrew.  We are asking for your help!  There are three ways you can help us out...

1. Go to Kari's Page or Ben's Page and give a donation...there is no donation too small!

2. Go to the Four-Ever Remembered Team Page and sign up to walk with us!  

3. Go to my Scentsy  page or my Velata page or Melanie's Grace Adele and click Mystery Hostess and make a purchase!  All of my    commission goes to the March of Dimes and you have a chance to win some stuff free!

Thank you in advance for your support on a cause that is very near and dear to our hearts!