7.01.2013

{Weekend Recap} New House Progress & Family Fun!

This weekend was a really good one—and I'm glad for that, because things are about to get a whole lot of crazy up in here. Moving day is just three more days away!!! We'll be transporting the babies to our new "forever home" on Thursday, July 4, as well as most or all of our apartment belongings. Movers will bring the rest of our stuff from our two giant storage units the following week. It's everything I can do not to throw all the stuff in the pantry into a box, grab the babies and their mountain of supplies and haul it on over to our new place. Course, that's all easier said then done and since I need a small army to make it happen, I'm back to watching the clock run down the hours. Tick, tock...

Saturday morning, I spent a few hours out by myself getting a pedicure and running errands and I loved every minute. I actually really enjoy going to the grocery store and I really, really enjoy going to the grocery store by myself when I don't have strict time restraints that only allow 10 minutes to find and purchase a week's worth of food!



I finally had time to do a little meal planning and so when I got back home, I grilled a steak (on my stove-top grill pan on an electric stove...be impressed!) and made some mac & cheese and green beans for our lunch. The babies munched on the exact same thing, plus a few extra snacks, and really dug into the mac & cheese. The husband and I sat at the table and ate our lunch with them, something we've been doing more and more of lately. Family meal time will definitely be a big staple in our house—our new house!


I also whipped up five freezer meals that will make dinners a cinch after we get moved. The last thing I'll have the energy for is to think about and assemble dinner. I chose meals that I felt the babies would be able to eat as well, and that I could make easy side dishes to go with them like rice, steamed broccoli, salad and so on. I find a lot of my crock pot recipes and freezer meal ideas from the Six Sisters website

Shepherd's Pie - made enough for our dinner that night plus a large container to freeze! Find the recipe here

Crock pot freezer meals! Thaw them out 24 hours ahead of time then toss in a crock pot and slow cook all day! There's BBQ ribs, cilantro lime chicken, BBQ cranberry chicken and garlic citrus chicken. For the latter, I just added roasted garlic cloves, 1/4 bottle of citrus chicken marinade, peas and carrots.

Sunday we lounged around all morning and implemented our new napping schedule. Instead of two naps at 10am and 2pm, the crew is only going down for one nap right after lunch (around noon). They've been fighting naps pretty hard and don't sleep very long, so I figured this may be the answer to our problems. We're still in the "test phase" so we'll see how it goes over the next few days!

After nap time and dosing everyone with Advil—two of the kiddos have had high fevers and two low-grade fevers as a result of their 12 month vaccines last week—we headed to Home Depot with the quads for the first time. They loved looking around at everything and I think they enjoyed sitting in their quad stroller versus their car seats that attach to the two twin stroller frames. We didn't attract a ridiculous amount of attention, a couple people tried to stop and talk but we just kept moving.


We loaded the babies through the back of the suburban since their car seats were still in place inside. Which meant, ladies and gents, that yours truly had to climb into the back seat like a spider monkey then turn and wrangle the babies over the seat as well and into their car seats. My level of flexibility is mildly impressive sometimes, even to me!!

While we'd been shopping inside, I'd fed the babies animal crackers and graham cookies, then did squeeze pouches of applesauce and a Plum Organics meal for their snack once we got back in the car. Worked out perfectly! They lulled off to sleep on our drive over to the new house so we could check on the progress and drop off a couple things. I was so happy to see the babies bedrooms painted and dry wall going up in the all the holes!

formal living room 

wet bar repairs in between formal living and dining room

kailey and harrison's room - love the white and gray!
next they'll paint all the cream-colored trim and built-ins white

logan and trystan's room painted cream and light celery green

After we got back to the apartment, I made chicken fajitas for dinner, along with refried beans, Spanish rice and guacamole. The babies got their own dinner tray and the rice was a big hit! It also made a biiiiig mess. ;) Again, we sat at the table and ate our dinner as we fed the babies. Thankfully, they're getting better about eating fruits and have been wolfing down strawberries and blueberries.

the babies' dinner: Spanish rice, refried beans, avocado, cantaloupe, fajita chicken, cheese and blueberries


To our complete happiness, once we put the kiddos down for bed not a single one made a peep and they all slept soundly through the night! The husband and I got to leisurely get ready for bed, watch a couple shows and still fell asleep by 10pm. A perfect weekend in my book, made only better by moving into our awesome new digs in just a few days time. Can't wait to share about our first weekend at the house!
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8 comments:

  1. good luck with the move!

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  2. AnonymousJuly 01, 2013

    I love your blog & reading about your babies & your adventures & new house----on & one. But the one thing that always sours it is your reaction & attitude toward strangers. You seem to be a little on the mean side or always looking for the next smart-alecky thing to say. I'm sorry, I'm just being honest. After I read the part about what you said & wanted to say in HD, I just felt a little deflated I guess. I get the feeling you are such a nice person but then I hear these things & I'm not sure.
    The reason I say that is because people are always going to stare, look & ask silly questions and even intrusive questions. Always!!! You made the choice to have quads, so you know this is one of the downfalls. I think it would be so much nicer if you were just able to pleasantly field off the questions. I get a "mean-girl" vibe from your reaction to these strangers.
    Sorry to lecture you, I really didn't think I'd get this long winded but I've had this on my mind from a couple of other times when I read your blog.
    But again, I do love everything else and I mean everything else on your blog, it's always a fun & interesting read. :)

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you've been enjoying the blog, that's always good to hear! Although I have to say, I didn't choose to have quads. I decided to do my best to carry them all and prayed for the best possible outcome. So, to be clear (and fair!), I did not decide to have quadruplets on purpose then wonder why in the world everyone stares and asks me questions.

      I've had a lot of kind and wonderful people come across our path in this journey. Including strangers. I've had people say some really mean things, though, unfortunately. Both anonymously and to our face when we've been out in public. It's likely that those incidents put me on edge and make me somewhat guarded and protective of my kiddos when we're out in public. I certainly am not as crass as I probably sound when I type things out on my blog, my husband and I are both very polite but short and sweet when we're out and strangers dig and pry. You give them an inch, they take a mile!

      I'll keep your words in mind moving forward, as I certainly don't want to drive people off because they think I'm rude. So many readers have been so wonderfully supportive and have helped make it so enjoyable to share our journey. But it *is* hard to know what it feels like unless you walk a day in my shoes, and I never know what people are going to choose to ask or say or accuse me of because I'm walking around with quadruplets! I'm pretty tough so I just try not to leave much room for bad encounters. I'll work on softening my approach, perhaps, in the written word... ;)

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    2. AnonymousJuly 02, 2013

      Awww thanks for responding! When I said you chose to have quads, I didn't mean it rudely, I just meant....well, whatever, hard to describe.....!! You are right, it is hard to get things across in the written word!! I can't tell you how many emails I've received & immediately had a bad attitude because it came across so rude---but I knew there's no way in the world the person sending it would be rude!

      My mother had twin boys with her 2nd husband and they both had red hair and let me tell you, she was stopped a million times a day by well-meaning grannies who had to fawn over them! And there I stood, the gawky 12 year old. LOL!!! But luckily she never had any rude comments, I hope you don't encounter too many of those awful people.

      Once they get older and out of the baby stage, you won't be such a spectator sport!

      :) :) :)

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  3. You are living an exciting week! How great that soon there will be room for your family to expand and sread out.

    There will always be people who want to be unkind or hurt. I have four kids in five years and it was sometimes hard to get comments from strangers that either I was mad or religious or whatever to have so many kids in such a small age gaps. Oh well, I just had to learn to let those comments get in from the other ear and out from the other. When there is no nice way to comment there is a way: smile nicely, stay quiet, and move on.

    Hugs and kisses from a Finnish mom

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  4. Great weekend! The babies dinner looked amazing, yum o! Getting out with the whole fam is always nice and enriching to the babies. So funny how a single comment about not attracting too much attention can ruffle feathers. Looks resolved now :)

    The new paint is beautiful! I know you're excited!

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  5. Oh, your quadruplets look so adorable! Anyway, it's good to see you and your family with all those happy smiles on your faces. And good luck to your “moving out” phase. Bet you've had a fun and thrilling experience. Keep posting! Love your blog so much.

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  6. Moving can be hard but by the look at your family faces they look so happy. keep posting great staff.

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