HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Here are my two power rangers, my cute little bunny (a suit borrowed from a sister in law) and some random red fleece snowsuit hand me down, because we're too poor to get another halloween costume for a baby that won't ever wear it again (and when I say too poor, I mean too cheap, and when I say we, I mean my husband..)
Anyway, Trick or Treating was a huge success, considering what a disaster it could have been. The girls slept the entire time, and my boys got a ton of candy.. which brings me to the worst part of this holiday.. the candy, and how much they are allowed to eat of it.. I've pretty much spent most of my morning telling my 3 year old that he could not have another piece of candy.. to which he replies, "buuuuttttt me hungry.." Ugh.. I've made a million suggestions on what he could eat instead (my last one being a poop covered sundae with cheese- he didn't laugh a bit!) I can't wait til his brother gets home from school and goes right for the candy bag! I've already weeded out the really good stuff anyway! haha

This is my god son (on the right) with my boys.. He's only 2! My youngest (who is 3 1/2) used to have a hard time sharing with him.. Not anymore!

"This isn't the beer talking, but you look really good"

This is what my husband said to me on Friday night.. after his second beer, while I was changing one of the babies.. this is as close to a compliment as he gets, and it usually takes at least one beer to get it!

This past weekend my oldest son was up during the night coughing. He sounded terrible, and of course it was messing with the sleep that my husband and I so rarely get with 2 babies. It wasn't until this weekend, that we really started thinking about this cough.. this is the first time that we've had to be up with him, so I suppose we've just gotten used to hearing it. I've been saying that he's fine, if he wasn't he'd have a fever. I called his dr's today, and when I said that he's been sick for about 3 months (sounds good huh?) the nurse said they wanted to see him. No shit. We hadn't even put it together that it had been that long. We are seriously in one big fog at home and I guess we're lucky that the boys are getting fed and bathed and some attention every so often.. ugh.. what a couple of losers!
His doctor thinks he's got a sinus infection and we're starting him on antibiotics... he should be better in a few days.. He's such a trooper though, and has no idea how bad I feel that it's gone on this long.. I'll get the hang of this some day..right?

Most people don't throw their own birthday parties, right? I mean, if you're a kid, your parents do, but then as you grow older, it turns into cake and maybe dinner with friends. If you have a romantic spouse, or even a thoughtful one, maybe they'll surprise you with a party or a nice dinner.. jewelry, whatever. Well, a good friend of mine turned 35 today. He's a friend of mine from high school who currently lives in Vermont. I don't get to see him much, but when I do, it's always a lot of fun, and usually requires a couple of days to recover from.
I called him this morning with birthday wishes, thinking that his birthday would probably just be another day for him, not much going on.. yada yada.. Well, I should have known! He's throwing himself a party tonight, at a club he rented with the d.j. he hired! He passed out flyers to this "event" and in order to get in, you must bring him a scratch ticket! He could potentially be rich at the end of this party! It's brilliant!!
Happy Birthday Tahdster!!

Here he is, my banged up little boy! The cut looks worse today.. only because he fell down the stairs last night and split it open again.. I didn't bring him to the ER, although I'm sure we could have.. I don't want to start looking suspicious! Jeez, they probably already think we're beating him! He's just going to have to ride this one out.. I'm hoping it won't scar too badly..

Quality time in the Emergency Room..

I got some alone time with my youngest son today.. it's hard finding time spend with all my kids individually, but my little one has found the perfect way to get me to himself for an afternoon.. It's called a trip to the Emergency room! That boy is sooo proned to accidents it's ridiculous! This will be the third time in his three years of life that someone in that ER has had to either glue or stitch his head shut! I'm starting to worry about brain damage at this point, jeez!
He was playing a game today after lunch, one that included him running, jumping onto a pillow on the floor and kind of launching himself off of it. The girls were both napping, and I was about to try to get a snooze in myself. That lasted about 10 seconds when I heard a thud, turned around to see his mouth wide open (about to scream) and blood dripping down his face. He had fallen face first into our entertainment center. I called his dad, then my mother in law. She came right over to watch one of the girls, and I took my son and the baby and headed to the hospital. My husband met me there, and took the baby home after we decided that having a 3 month old in the waiting room of an emergency room was stupid. Anyway, we were there a total of 4 hours, and my son was a trooper through the whole thing. They glued it this time (thank god) And he got to take home the coolest set of latex gloves blown up to look like a chicken ever! Thanks to his mom! He's now home, like nothing ever happened, racing around the house.. jumping off the furniture.. ugh.. it won't be the last visit we have with that one!

Work Work Work..

I've gone back to work.. it's a nice break.. but it's weird just sitting here typing, I feel like I should be nursing a baby, or doing laundry, dishes, getting someone a snack.. ahhh.. it's like freedom! My husband has been getting help from my mom the last two nights. He hasn't been alone with the girls yet (with the exception of last Friday when I was gone 10 minutes to run to the store) I'm sure he's going to do fine, it's only for an hour and a half. They are getting easier and aren't requiring quite as much holding as they did before. They slept through the night last night- they've been doing this a bit. It's amazing how getting a few hours of consecutive sleep makes such a huge difference!
But alas my 1.5 hours is up, and it's time to return back to my life.. my 4 kids.. and my frazzled husband!

Jack Me

These are the words I found on a piece of paper that my son was writing on. He was making a list of all the kids in his class, when he was interrupted and only spelled the first two letters of Jack's last name.. Pretty funny to see that on your coffee table in first graders handwriting!!

BABY GOT BACK

The word 'back' was one of my son's spelling words. This is the sentence my husband told him to use the word in..

I'm sure I only have a minute.. the girls are napping, actually one hasn't even gotten up this morning..except for once at 5 to nurse.. It was a good night sleeping, finally! We changed the formula that we've been using as a supplement, and it seems to have made a difference. We usually get two screaming babies at night, but last night they just drifted off to sleep.. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Tonight my husband and I are going to open house at my son's school. I thought I'd dress up in drag, and really make his teacher wonder!
I had a dream the other night that I had a free pass to cheat on my husband with Jesse Metcalf from Desperate Housewives. He's cute and all, but would not be my first choice for a free pass. Dr. McDreamy from Greys Anatomy, or Mike Rowe from Discovery's Dirty Jobs would suit me fine. Mike Rowe is an older guy, and not a total hottie, but he's funny as hell and apparently at my age humor is more important than someone's looks. Back to my dream though, I never ended up using the free pass.. I was way too insecure about how I looked, and randomly through my dream my husband and kids kept showing up. It was weird!
Anyway, here's a picture of me carrying the twins.. it's a killer on my back!!

This and That...

I've always known that it's good to know people.. and in this particular instance, it just so happens that knowing a secretary at my son's school gives me an inside scoop to what rumors are buzzing about.
The latest rumor milling about happened to be about me and my family. My sons teacher asked the above mentioned secretary if my son's father was gay.. I guess she was under the impression that because my name is one used by both genders (but mostly by men) that my son was being raised by a gay couple. What makes this particularly ridiculous is that I've met his teacher. In fact, we've both met her, with our 4 kids in tow. But people are going to assume what they want, even if they know better.
In other happenings.. I've had it up to here (just picture my hand way over my head) with my son's transformers.. not only are they the most annoying toys to "transform" and have the most sexist show with only 1 or 2 female characters who they insult constantly by telling them they should be at the mall shopping rather than helping the men save the galaxy.. but they are also a killer under one's foot. Last night in the dark of our house, I was on my way to change one of the twins when I stepped down right onto my son's favorite transformer. This sent me flying to my knees, which now have no skin on them. Under normal cirucumstances, I would have been laughing my ass off (people falling make me crack up, even if it's me) But at 1 in the morning.. while I'm carrying an infant.. not so funny.. Anyway, the girls are napping at the moment and some laundry is waiting to be folded..so off I go!

Smile!!

This is what makes it all worth while..

Chicken and Dumplings..

I love chicken and dumplilngs.. I made some last night for dinner, in between taking turns holding a screaming twin.. it was a labor of love to make this meal.. It came out great, and would have been even tastier if I could have savoured it a bit more.. however, the girls make sure that I spend little time doing anything else but hold them. Anyway, after dinner, and baths and putting the boys to bed, my husband and I picked a twin, and started our nightly ritual of walking around with them til they fall asleep. It's usually a contest, and last night he won. His twin was in bed early, before 8. I spent the next 3 1/2 hours walking around with the other baby trying to calm her. She didn't want to sleep and she didn't want me to stop moving. There was a lot of crying, and a lot of time spent in the kitchen with the water running (one of the only things that will calm her down) As I'm standing there in the kitchen, I'm getting totally annoyed by the mess that's been left. My husband had long since gone to bed thinking his twin would be up and ready for hanging out in the wee hours of the morning, so of course he did nothing to pick up the mess made by preparing my homemade chicken and dumplings. So, I'm start putzing around as I'm holding her, putting dishes in the dishwasher, throwing things away.. and perhaps the dumbest thing to do while holding a baby.. trying to put away the huge pot of soup. I almost made it to the fridge, with my baby secure in one arm, that is until she decided to flop her not so steady head back and almost come flying out of my arms.. I had no choice but to drop the pot of soup. All over the floor, and all over me. It was not a pretty sight.. unfortunately it had to sit there on the floor for over an hour until I got the baby to sleep. I managed to get changed as quickly as I could while she sat and screamed in her car seat. It was a fun night.. The good news is that the baby didn't get hurt while I was being so dumb, and I still have some leftovers.. not all of it landed on the floor..

My son found this cute hand me down sweater in the girls room and just had to try it on.. pink is his favorite color, and he's very independent (this is a cardigan..obviously backwards..) but he put it on all by himself, and we are very proud of our young man!!

Up A Cow's Butt For A Milkshake...

This is what my husband tells the boys whenever they ask him where he's going.. like if he's putting his shoes on to get the mail, or getting ready for work in the morning.. I just love how we're setting such good examples for our little men!

Here is my husband holding one of the twins in their new favorite position.. It's a killer on your arm, but it keeps them quiet. The days of them just sleeping the day away are over, and it would appear that being held is what they love best.. just like this, on our forearm, with our index finger in their mouth so they can suck on it. It's not something that I can easily do, in fact it kills my arm, but I'm getting good at holding them both this way at the same time.. I'm going to have some buff arms pretty soon!! My husband was holding her this way, and doing homework with my son.. he's been amazing with the kids! I can't wait for the end of the day when he comes home to help out. This is more work than I've ever done before.. I'm waiting for the day to come that the girls will entertain each other a bit.. right now they don't even know the other one is there. They don't like hanging out in their swings or bouncy seats (not yet anyway) it's all about being held, and being on the boob.. My mom is staying over again tonight, I swear, I don't know what I would do without her at this point.. pretty ironic considering how I had been feeling. At least all her pop in's now are welcome, and useful!
My husband and I went out last Friday night.. I had a great time, we closed the bar and didn't get home til close to 2.. I'm way too old for that, and have way too many kids to be out that late. The next day was brutal.. but we made it, and it was definitely worth it to get out and see some friends and be a couple again, instead of a couple of parents at home...

My 6 year old has learned a new catch phrase.... "Damn it!" I can't tell you how often I've caught him saying this.. He doesn't seem to understand the concept of swear words, even though I don't really consider this one a swear.. I don't say it however, and I'm not exactly sure where he's picked it up. I definitely don't want him saying this at school.. and I've put a lot of stress on that fact. He's trying to say "darn it" instead, but it really just doesn't have the same punch..

The girls had their 6 week check up this morning. It went well, except for all the crying and all the shots. They weighed in at 8.4 and 8.1 lbs. That's about a 3 pound weight gain in a month! I was thrilled about that! My mother in law came with me to help out. I love her dearly, but honestly I sometimes wonder how she raised 6 kids on her own! She started off trying to wake up one of the babies before we even made it into the office.. just by talking to her. Then moments later with the same baby, she tried shoving the pacifier into her mouth (while she was sleeping..) Anyway, it wasn't a total loss bringing her, she did watch my youngest son while I was talking to the dr. and came in handy when I needed to give one a bottle.
Anyway, we're home now and the girls are sleeping off the torture they endured.. This Friday my mom is staying over and my husband and I are going out! I can't wait! This will be the first time that I've gone out somewhere besides the grocery store! Well, one of the girls is up.. gotta go!!

My nephew has moved out. It was rather anti climatic, considering I've been looking forward to this day for months.. but I ended up feeling kind of bad for him, or rather bad for myself since I shouldn't have been so anxious to see him leave. Or at least that's what my inner mom is telling myself.. but hey, I'm not his mom, and quite frankly my husband and I have done all we can for him and it's time for him start doing for himself! Harsh, I know.. but I have my own huge family to worry about.
He's living in Durham, in an on campus apartment that is way too expensive. He does regret not holding out and finding something more suitable. It would make sense if he was going to UNH, but since he's working 25 minutes away in Exeter, and supposedly going to be taking classes in Stratham (another 20 minute commute) then it would have made sense to be a bit closer. I suppose it's a life lesson. He's learning, that's for sure.. I'm just hoping with all that he's learned that he'll apply it.. although I'll be surprised. I remember being his age.. and knowing everything!! Except for one important thing.... that I knew absolutely nothing!