{Five Things} Quad Squad Edition

This Five Things post is my first-ever "Quad Squad Edition" that features some of the items the crew is loving right now! Plus a bonus item! 

1. Old Navy bootcut jeans - I've got a bunch of skinny minnies so these pants have proven to fit well, both on the girls and Harrison. I like that the 18-24 month sizes don't swallow them up and the legs are long enough!

2. Munchkin Snack Catchers - After learning how to use these months ago, these snack catchers have made my life a million times easier! The kids all get their own snack cup after naps and can eat from them freely in the play room at their leisure. They squeal with excitement every time I bring them out!

3. Baby Einstein On The Go & Baby's Favorite Places - The two newest additions to our Baby Einstein DVD collection, these films are fantastic for familiarizing the babies with common places around town (like the post office and library) as well as moving objects like cars, boats and more. They point and repeat most of the words and love all the colorful images. We're big Baby Einstein fans over here. ;)

4. Melissa & Doug Construction Wooden Chunky Puzzle - I've acquired several of these types of puzzles over the past few weeks since Harrison has taken to doing puzzles like a lil genius—and I'm a huge fan of all Melissa & Doug products. He loves them! Right now this is his favorite and it's adorable how his sisters look over his shoulder while he puts it together and then take their turn at it when he moves on.

5. Aveeno Baby Eczema Therapy Moisturizing Cream - Harrison had a mild all-over case of eczema ever since he was a tiny baby and eventually we got it under control when our current pediatrician recommended using this lotion. It works wonders and I'm so glad that's all it took!

6. Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Stack & Roll Cups - We've got about four complete sets of these cups, some new and some used, that the kids enjoy taking apart and putting together and stacking inside each other. They've messed with them for months but now really seem to understand the various ways they work and the numbers and bright colors come in handy for teaching.

I look forward to your feedback on this new addition to the blog as well as what some of your tot's favorite things are, too! Leave me a note in the comments section!

{DIY} Peppermint Sugar Scrub

This past Christmas, I decided to give DIY gifts because it would be something I could create at my leisure and I apparently thought I had a lot of spare time on my hands. While the latter turned out not to be true so much, I still managed to throw together some cute mason jars of DIY sugar scrub and wanted to share the recipe with you!

Peppermint Sugar Scrub
3 cups white sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil + extra for drizzling
1 cup olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 tsp peppermint oil

Place jar of coconut oil in a sauce pan filled halfway with water over medium heat and let warm until the oil has melted.

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir well. Spoon into glass mason jars and drizzle additional coconut oil on top. Screw on lids and accessorize as you please!

I ended up adding a pretty generous drizzle of coconut oil to the tops of all my jars because I didn't want the scrub to be very dry. My favorite scrubs are typically the ones you squeeze out of a bottle so they have a lot of liquid to them and form a smooth paste, almost. You can adjust the oil in this recipe as you see fit once you get a look at the consistency you've created in the bowl. You can also swap out the peppermint oil for lavender, lemon or another favorite scent! I used these free printable Christmas labels for mine and just cut them out then tied them around the top of the jars with twine.

This scrub is very oily when used, but man does it work well! That coconut oil is such a great all-around product for so many things, and it leaves your skin feeling silky smooth and moisturized. Just be sure to rinse well and follow up with your usual body soap!

Have a favorite homemade recipe for a body or beauty product that you love? Please share it in the comments section so I can try it out!

Happy scrubbing!

{Weekend Recap} Sugar Highs & Go Fish!

I decided my weekend officially started on Friday at approximately 4pm. Because that's when I poured myself a (nonbreakable) glass of wine—from my Bota box of malbec, if you must know!—and gave the kids a change in pace with their afternoon play time. Instead of heading downstairs to the play room after naps, we hung out in Trystan and Logan's room with their bin of cars and two car mats to play on, plus snack cups of cheerios and frosted animal cookies. Which they decorated the floor with liberally, but I did not mind because I was happily drinking my wine and listening to the radio on the intercom while I watched them play. ;)

I just had to throw in that last photo of Logan because her hair is so pretty and I love pulling it into pigtails and ponytails and even a half-up do! She got her mama's thick hair, to be sure. 

The husband and I both fell asleep on the couch while we attempted to watch some TV shows on the DVR after the babies were in bed, and all four of them slept in on Saturday so we weren't downstairs for breakfast until 9:30am!!! I loooooove that my babies sleep in on the weekends without a problem, which makes for a really nice change in pace for mama and daddy! However, despite the late rising time, I was still so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open so I took a 2.5 hour nap when the babies napped that afternoon. That's a rare occurrence, since I'm not really a nap person. They tend to slow me down versus help me out, but exhaustion has hit me hard this week. I was glad for the extra rest because the husband and I handed off bedtime duty to the nanny and hit a local resto for dinner with friends of ours. Much needed beers and delicious brisket enchiladas!

Sunday morning, I actually woke up feeling more energized and ran off for some donuts and kolaches while the husband changed diapers and brought the kiddos downstairs. It was the quad's first time to eat donuts and, of course, they loved them!

After a successful nap time during which I worked on my computer and the husband watched a movie (poor guy has a crick in his neck), we loaded up the babies and headed off for another first: a trip to Petsmart. They were totally fascinated!! We'd never plunked them down into the open area of a shopping cart before since they always sit in the belted seats in the front. But they took to it with no problem at all, sitting of their own accord (and saying "sit, sit!" to each other) when the cart was in motion, then occasionally standing up a little to get a better view of the animals. 

I think their favorite part were all the cats moseying around their boxes. The babies have come to love my cat, Snowball, who is now 18 years old!! And Snowball has come to adore the quads, she realized last week that she can come to the baby gate of their play room that opens into the hallway and lay beside and get petted by four sets of hands. She'll start purring and halfway close her eyes and doesn't even seem to care if someone pulls back a handful of fur.

Both the husband and I loved watching the babies discover animals in the flesh that we've been learning about and repeating nonstop for the past several months. They perked up at the colorful orange goldfish and watched the blue and green parakeets hopping about in their cages with unfettered excitement. We also walked by the dog training area that's enclosed by a solid clear wall of glass. But I felt like we were the exhibit instead since so many of the folks in there were pointing, oohing, aahing and waving at the babies when they realized we had four!

After Petsmart, we reloaded the 'burb and headed a few parking lots over to Costco. It was almost painful to put everyone back into their car seats for such a short distance, but we had already decided we were bound and determined to get our Costco shopping done. I was excited I wouldn't be having to do it solo later in the week, bulk shopping is exhausting!!

We were stopped many, many times in Costco on this particular outing—probably because it was a busy Sunday. Lots of gawking, stares and questions but thankfully no one was rude. We did try to politely exit a conversation with an older couple and the man just wouldn't take a hint and kept trying to ask us about intimate details of our daily schedule. But finally his wife told him to let us be so we could finish shopping while our kids were behaving so nicely! And another lady who was shopping with her husband ran up and asked the husband which baby was "Baby A" and had been born first. She excitedly explained she was a twin herself and thought it was so neat to see such an adorable set of twins. Then she glanced up and realized all the girls were dressed in the same tops and we were actually together, so I said, "Or quadruplets, which is even better!" with a big grin and her face just about killed me. Sometimes we like to have a wee bit of fun with people. ;)

Apparently I got a second wind when we got home, but we were also smart and picked up Pizza Hut for dinner so we could feed the babies as soon as we arrived. Always a great plan! They were enjoying their dinner 15 minutes ahead of schedule—despite a meltdown from Kailey afterward—and I wolfed down a slice of pepperoni and poured a glass of wine then unloaded our entire grocery haul, cleaned out the whole fridge and put everything away, all neat and organized! (Speaking of organized, I always have to have an organized grocery list when I hit up the store and have been using a simple printable one I found on Pinterest. Find it on my Organizing board.)

The husband neck still wasn't any better, so he started dressing the babies for bed while I took care of everything else. Saturday he was super motivated and I was exhausted, so it worked out that I felt better on Sunday! By just after 9pm, the babies were sound asleep in their beds and I'd poured a second glass of wine (yeah, yeah, I enjoy my wine at the end of the day!) and was headed to my bed and the DVR.

Oh, and don't forget to enter my giveaway before midnight CST tonight!! You could wine a bottle of Red Velvet wine, coconut lotion and body wash and cookie chips! Just click this link and follow the instructions at the end of the post.

Have a great week!

{Five Things} Energy Tea, Caramel Lip Balm & More

1. OPI Barre My Soul - I just recently squeezed in a speedy manicure at my local nail salon (I'm usually more of a pedicure gal, but had been chewing my cuticles too much), and I picked out this color since I didn't want it to be painfully obvious when the polish started chipping. I love the subtle pink undertones and neutral hue and even got rave reviews from the manicurist. Definitely getting it again!

2. Sparkly Green Earrings - This book just arrived in my latest order from Amazon and I'm eager to crack it open! The author, Melanie Shankle, is also a blogger over at The Big Momma blog and the tome is all about her humorous, and some not so funny, memoirs as a parent. I've got book writing plans of my own—about raising multiples and keeping your sanity!—and thought this would be good inspiration.

3. L'Oreal Colour Rich Balm in Caramel Comfort - Grabbed this color at Target after a fellow quad mom spotted it on Pinterest and I added it to my Get Pretty board. Love it! I already had the light pink lip balm but this caramel shade is perfect for pairing with darker eye shadow or bronzy looks.

4. Lipton Natural Energy - It's been a few weeks now since I added to this to my tea stash in the kitchen and it's become a regular go-to. I don't drink coffee and limit myself to one Coke a day, so the rest of the time I'm sipping water, gatorade or tea. (Um, or wine.) I really do feel like it perks me up and gives me a boost, since it has more caffeine and thiamin then your average tea bag. Often, I'll pair it with some Tazo green tea for more flavor.

5. Now Foods Solutions Coconut Oil - Ta-dah! The item I couldn't wait to share with you most is my beloved coconut oil!!! I've cooked with this stuff for years now, and it's great for high-temp stove-top fare. But I've begun incorporating it into my beauty routine and am in love with this product. First, I made a DIY sugar scrub with it (blog post on that coming soon!) and then I started using it as under eye cream at night, dry spot face lotion during the day, elbow moisturizer, a quick remedy for household burns on skin, dry and red cheeks on the babies, foot lotion, knuckle moisturizer and more. I mean, seriously, you could put this on just about anything for any reason. It's all natural, high in moisture and isn't greasy once absorbed. Get you some of this!!

What products are you loving lately?

And don't forget to enter my giveaway, just leave a comment on this giveaway post to enter! You could win a bottle of Red Velvet wine, coconut lotion and more! Giveaway ends Monday night....

{Quad Squad} $1 V-Day Finds + Learning Activities

I must tell you something that might be difficult to hear...

I absolutely do not like Valentine's Day.

In fact, I really have never liked Valentine's Day. Pink is one of my least favorite colors (I was shocked when finding out I was going to have three girls!!), and the whole pink, red, white thing kills me. Not to mention the overload of hearts, puckered lips and XOXO's. Gag me with a fork!

There's no ulterior motive behind my dislike of the Cupid-chasing holiday. It's just never appealed to me. Then when the husband and I first started trying for a family, I found out about the first pregnancy on Valentine's Day several years ago. I actually got him a card—not something we normally do for V-Day—and wrote the surprise message in it for him. I miscarried less than two weeks later. Needless to say, the holiday has found even less favor with me since.

Buuuuuuut, then I had four babies. And three of them were girls. So I knew my days of pink-less behavior were going to have to be behind me. Their drawers of clothes have been filled with an impressive array of pink attire ever since. And last year on Valentine's Day, I actually took a photo of them with hearts in it. I know.

So while this year I haven't yet decided if I'll be posing them for a Love Fest photo, I did indulge in a few $1 finds at Target, which reaffirmed my love and devotion to that store. See? There's a little romance involved!

First off, my kids are obsessed with gel clings. They have windows in their play room so these come in handy for entertaining them when I need 20 more minutes of peace to finish dinner or when they're starting to sound off in whines of boredom. The same goes for pipe cleaners—those are a great activity for in their quad table to buy me a few more minutes or to entertain them after a meal. I also give them a stack of colanders from my kitchen sometimes and they practice threading the pipe cleaners through the holes. Most of the time, though, they just spend all their time stacking, unstacking and restacking the colanders and carrying them around the play room. Whatever works!

The frosted animal cookies were $1 for the whole bag and those were a hit as well, they tried the frosted version for the first time today after lunch. I'll sneak a few of them into their snack cups for this afternoon! I also love Target's board books for a buck. They're super cute and are really great for little hands learning to turn the pages. And for a dollar, it doesn't matter if they get beat up or torn apart, even though they've all lasted darn well with my crew. These particular books are all about love and the blue one with the owls on it has lots of animal pictures inside, which the quads really enjoy. The beaded necklaces were the only thing that didn't come out of the $1 bins at Target, those were in the party section but still $1 for four of them. They're super cute and I first spotted them on Megan's blog, Hello Newlywed Wife, for her little tyke so I snatched some up for my girls.



In the meantime, we've started working on colors and shapes with the kids. Lots and lots of repetition. I sound like a broken record 90% of the day! I recently drew shapes with chalk on my DIY magnetic chalkboard fireplace cover in their play room to reinforce them at a glance when we're in there. They've also really been enjoying using their magnets—especially since they don't seem keen on putting everything in their mouths anymore—and I plan to get some colors and shapes magnets as well.

Another way to teach colors has been courtesy of their ball pit. Since the balls are all primary shades and they play with them a lot, we hold one up and say its color and they typically repeat it a few times. Again, using things on hand that are ready at a glance seems to be the way to go for us!

Lastly, Harrison has become a whiz at puzzles. He whips those pieces around and slides them in so quick. I'm beyond impressed and have picked up a few more puzzles at places around town the past few weeks so he has more to practice on and I just keep a couple rotating through the play room. Ross and Once Upon a Child, a kid's resale shop, have had the best deals, but I've also purchased a few from Amazon and Ebay as well. Melissa & Doug are our favorite puzzle brands since they seem to be better quality and I like the chunky pieces. I've noticed Logan has been watching Harrison intently whenever he puts a puzzle together, and she's been improving a lot, too. I usually put a puzzle in with their books and quiet toys at nap time so they can all practice at their leisure.

Happy Valentine's Day and bah-humbug!!


P.S. Don't forget to enter the awesome giveaway I'm hosting to celebrate my blog being viewed more than a million times!!! All you have to do is leave a comment to enter, giveaway ends Monday!

P.P.S. This post was not sponsored by Target or any other brands, it is a production of Texas Tales and all items were purchased myself and all opinions expressed are my own.