THIS is How we Roll!

So check out our new ride! I LOVE it! Yes I still love my Runabout beast, but it doesn't fit in our van and we don't have a hitch s0....i bought one of these strollers and I'm sooo glad i did. It folds up and fits nicely in the back of the van and actually we have more room than we did with the 2 doubles in there. The Beast is smoother of course but this gives me the freedom!!! ( happy 4th of July by the way and happy birthday to my sister!) to go anywhere by myself.

This picture is us trying our new stroller out at my cousin Michael's wedding. He and Lauren looked fabulous and we all had a good time. It was a looooong day for the kids (and us) but the trip to St Louis was great and we saw friends and family which was wonderful!

An update on the kids...FINALLY today ALL of them started holding their bottles on their own. They would do it from time to time but now they are becoming masters! YAY!

Anna has 2 teeth and working on another, Allie has 1 1/2 teeth, Baron has one coming in and Ben is following in my footsteps and still has 0. BUT he is the first to sit himself up from laying down so he wins a gold star for that! They are all pulling up some and just growing up WAY TOO fast! I can't believe they are just a few days away from 11 mos old. Where did my little babies go? :) I love their personalities and just seeing them play together is AWESOME!

Also my little sister is soon to be moving to Germany as a missionary. She will hopefully be leaving July 14th, but she needs to get the rest of her monetary support in before she can leave. So please PRAY that God provides the rest of the money needed for her to go. She is SO excited and I'm SO proud of her!

Also I have been talking with a family having quads --the DeMaria's from CA--and she was just admitted. Please pray for them and their sweet unborn babies. She's a little over 25 weeks and very scared of the unknown. (i know all you quad mommas out there know exactly how scary this is at this point!)

Anyway...I'm worn out from painting....we've been sprucing the house up a little and it's not as easy to do now that the kids are on the move...everywhere!
More to come from this weekend of celebrating!!!

Jenny




Ben---Working on his full-ride football scholarship!:)




















The Goof Troop enjoying some Messy teething biscuits.















My cousin Michael and his new BEAUTIFUL wife Lauren.


















Daddy and Allie at the wedding.

















Mommy and Ben.














Baron--You know you can't resist this, ladies...*WINK*


















Anna and Allie being Super cute!


















Benihana



















Daddy, Mommy and the kids all decked out for the wedding--(Brian's shirt and pants got puked on--of course--after months of no puking--he puts on some wedding attire and BLEAH.) BTW my mom made the girls dresses--cute aren't they!
















"No Anna...you need to wear it like me .....see.." Allie.















Bear and Ben
















My Sister Sarah with Baron and Me with Ben.

Father's Day post from The QuadFather!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages... the most electrifying man in bloggerland makes his long-awaited "every-once-in-a-while" return to bring you some updates on the most fantastic wife and children he's ever known.... (the crowd roars in excitement and anticipation!!!)

Okay, so I was never that exciting of a blogger, but I hope this will be fun for everyone anyway!

Before the pictures, I just have to tell you guys that I have what I believe to be the most awesome family in the world (hope all you other men out there feel the same way about your families...)

By the way, the pic above is from tonight with Grandpa... the Father's Day picture!

How cool is my wife???? She entered me into a "Father of the Year" contest through the local Talk Radio Station, News Talk 1280 AM, and guess what????

I WON!!!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!

How cool is that??? I am so stoked about it, but I know I am totally undeserving. I keep thinking there must have been a clerical error in Heaven or something when the decision was handed down to entrust me with my wife and kids, but hey... if it was a mistake, I'm glad it went my way. (Before I get a theological brow-beating, I know God doesn't make mistakes... it just seems to good to be true, and I have never felt quite worthy of the blessings I have... I know myself and my faults too well).

By the way, if you click on the link to the Father's Day contest, and then refresh it, you can read Jenny's entire entry. For some reason, on the first visit, it doesn't open up completely, but on the refresh, it does.

So, thank you to my awesome wife for entering me into that contest. Seeing as I am just starting to play golf, I'm really excited about that set of irons, because they are really nice, and I need all the help I can get!

So, on to the rest of the post... I have had an awesome Father's Day. I was awakened to my wife giving me two awesome framed pictures of the kids... one is a black & white of all four naked bottoms lined up outside after our first baby pool outing (which they LOVED, by the way), and the other was one I actually took with an aerial perspective of all the kids looking up!

Also, I got my first ever Father's Day tie!!!!!! YAY!!!!

Just being with the kids today has been awesome. There was a bittersweet moment this morning at church, because this was the first time ever we put our kids in the nursery during worship! We've been putting this off for weeks, but they are just getting to big and playful to keep under control, and even if we do manage to do that, we miss the whole point of joining together with other believers, because we can't pay attention, so we knew it was time... (not to mention the kids are a constant distraction to whoever is sitting directly behind us... it's not their fault... they are, after all, the four cutest kids in the entire universe!)

What else has been going on? Well, things have been busy for me personally with starting a new Financial Services Practice, and trying to get that off the ground (please pray for me in that... I love the work, but it is tough to get the networking rolling and be profitable). Jenny is getting out more with the kids during the day, which is great, because I know she hated being couped up all winter.

The kids are just getting bigger and bigger. Gosh, they grow up so fast, and I feel like we are missing stuff because it's flying by! They are all crawling and sitting well, although they aren't pulling themselves up into the sitting position yet. We really don't have any furniture for them to pull up on, because we are trying to give them plenty of room to play (maybe we should do something about that).

They still haven't gotten around to holding their own bottles all the time yet. They do some, but if you need to get all of them fed quickly, it's easier to just hold them yourself (which we don't mind, because it's hard to get to hold them all enough anyway)

Can you believe they are 10 months old???? It's nuts!!!! Soon, we'll be celebrating their first birthday, and it seems like yesterday we were asking for prayers that they just survived the NICU! Heck, it seems just like yesterday we started this blog during the pregnancy. Something about having kids makes Father Time go from a leisurely walk to an all out sprint!

We went to the zoo recently with the Tri-state MOMS (Mothers of Multiples) group, and that was lots of fun to meet up with the Wrights, the Yagers, and other multiples families in the area.

Both of the girls have teeth, everyone is babbling, (mama dada, etc) They all take steps when you help them walk... lots of exciting stuff!

Okay, enough talk... you guys came for pictures, so here ya go! There are so many pictures we could post... so little time!














One of the pics Mommy framed for Daddy (she cropped out daddy's gnarly feet, though!)

















Bear-Bear peeking around the corner!

















Messy Ben!

















Messy Allie!
















Messy Anna!
















REALLY Messy Baron!!!!

















Daddy and Bear














Our first pool day!

















Benihana
















P-nut
















Punkin
















Mommy and Bear!













Punkin + Pnut = Punk'n-Nut!

















The three most beautiful ladies in the world!














Not exactly flattering, but the girls were having a great time pulling and contorting daddy's face!














Benjamin Russell













Allie Grace














Anna Ruth













Baron Ross



God bless,
The QuadFather!

New Babies,Sweet Home Alabama, and the doctor

"How did I get here?...." Baron



Yes this is his new trick....he's a crawling fool and he likes to get under the exersaucer....but can't get out. Too cute!






So our trip to Alabama was great! The weather was sunny 80's (much better than storms and yuckiness in IN). It was so nice to be with all the family and to meet our new niece Alana. More about her in a minute.

I was worried we just got lucky last time we drove down. The kids were SO great back in December that i knew it wouldn't be so great this time, but actually they did really well. Aside from having to stop and feed them bottles at rest stops (which by the way do NOT have warm water when you need it! GRRR....our babies are spoiled when it comes to the temperature of the bottles.) we had to make friends with the WONDERFUL:) rest stop employees so we could use their microwaves to heat the bottles. In the end it all worked out fine! It will definitely be different next time we go down. It will be Thanksgiving and they will be 15 mos....oh i can only imagine what that will be like....we better start praying now:)

So i guess you'd like an update on the babies. We had our 9 month checkup and the doctor called them "model quads!". isn't that what every quad mom wants to hear?!:)

They are doing great developmentally. All are sitting up pretty well on their own now. We still haven't perfected the holding our own bottle thing, but that's OK. Mommy doesn't mind a little extra snuggly time while i feed them. we are eating lots more food now and are trying to cut out one of our bottle feedings...so far so good. Anna has 2 count em 2 front bottom teeth! They just came out of no where. Everyone else is on the verge of teeth as well. they are all moving around all over the place. Baron is still taking the lead on the crawling, but the others are right behind him. We finally had to put up a gate....i caught Ben trying to get his walker into the kitchen. I just know he was going to the fridge. So now they are caged in but at least they are safe.

For their adjusted age they are average or above ave for height/weight/head circ. so that's good news! Here are the stats:

Ben: weight = 21 lbs 9oz
height = 27 in
head = 46 cm

Allie: weight = 18 lbs 8 oz
height = 26 1/2 in
head = 44 cm

Anna: weight= 19 lbs 6 0z
height= 27 1/2 in
head = 44 cm

Baron: weight = 19 lbs 10 1/2 oz
height = 26 3/4 in
head = 45 1/2 cm

So as you can see they are GROWING!!!! i promise I'm not feeding them miracle grow...although they are miracles to me!

well I'm wearing down so I'll end this for now---I'm getting old. I'll be 27 tomorrow so i need my rest:) ha ha. (i know i know...I'm not old. But you try having for babies at once and see how that makes your body feel ....)

love you guys and thanks so much for every one's love and support!

Jenny

More to come i promise!







Feeding the babies at good ole McD's! I think the babies were SO happy to get out of their car seats. I know i was sick of the van.















Jessica Coleman and lil Bear. She's one of my dearest friends. I asked you to pray for her little boy Pierson who was born 4 weeks early. Good news!==he's doing GREAT! i think she looks great considering she just gave birth a few days before! LOVE YOU Jess!




















Big Baron Coleman and our lil Baron. (he's who we named our Bear after)
War Eagle!

















Welcome little Pierson Sumner Coleman born May 8 3:36am 5 lbs 13 oz and 19.5 in long. SO cute!




















Anna Ruth has a tooth! (actually 2 now....poor baby 2 teeth in one week!)


















Allie Grace --what a cute face!:)




















Big Benihana!:)


















My sweet Bear bear.


















Daddy and his babies at Grandmama's and Grumpus's house in AL.















Daddy and the girls taking a much needed nap.
















Grumpus and Ben.


















Mommy and Ben.














Garrett and his sweet little baby girl Alana Renee.


















Mommy (Brian's BEAUTIFUL little sister Barbara) and her little girl Alana, born April 30 around 8pm weighing 6 lbs 3 oz and 17.5 in long. She's BEAUTIFUL!

















Allie SO excited to be out in the beautiful weather.


















Anna cheesin it up.













Baron and the big hat!:)

















Ben looks ready for the beach....wouldn't that be nice!

HAPPY 9 MONTHS!!

We are 9 months old today! I CANNOT believe how fast it has gone. They've lived longer outside of the womb than they did inside. WOW! i just wanted to throw a few pictures up for today. We're getting packed for Alabama so I'll keep it short. Please pray for my dear friend Jessica. She just delivered her son, Pierson ( sorry Jess if that isn't the correct spelling!) this morning a month early. He's doing alright but is in the NICU needing a little O2 for his lungs. Pray for his health, lung development and peace for Jessica and Baron (her husband--yes he's who we named our Baron after). Thankfully we'll get to see them this weekend too! They live in Montgomery also. Funny how God works things out isn't it!
Also go over to Suz's Blog and wish her a happy 28th Bday. She's one of my quad momma blog friends:) She's Awesome!

Ben taking off crawling down the hall....now we have to watch em like a hawk! AGHH!













My little Anna Burrito!

















Allie feeling SO good after a MESSSSSY diaper...don't look too closely!













Ben and Baron ready for the bball courts!

















Bear in his homemade shirt ( one of the craft stores in town is going out of business and the letters were SO cheap. I was too excited. It's the little things in life ya know...)


















Punkin















Peanut













Benihana



9 months old Ben, Allie, Anna and Baron

Lots O fun to Catch Up On!

I don't even know where to start. We've had SO much fun
this past month that i just haven't had a chance to write about it!
Now that we're allowed to go out, we have been traveling fools.
We've visited friends, gone to church, gone to the mall, the river, and we're getting ready to go to Alabama this weekend for a visit to see our new niece/cousin Alana Renee born on April 30th!






"Grumpus" (Brian's dad) and his newest granddaughter Alana.


We're SO excited to go, although I'm nervous the kids won't travel as well as they did last time. They were only 4 1/2 mos old last time we drove the 8 hr trip and now they're almost 9 mos so...
I'm hoping out trip goes more smoothly than our friends the Steece's!PLEASE pray that all goes well! We have officially outgrown the baby carriers and are now riding in style in our big kid car seats. The jury is still out on if they like them. I can't wait until they're Forward facing like my friends the Murray quads!
We've been taking walks almost everyday, and thanks to our WONDERFUL friends the Goebel's for loaning us their runabout I can get out with the kids by myself. It's GREAT!








We dedicated the babies on April 20th at church and it was wonderful! They totally behaved themselves (except for Baron barfing on grandpas jacket during prayer! Luckily Bear had socks on so i ripped them off and wiped off what i could as discreetly as possible:) We took the kids along with gma and gpa and my mom's parents Nana and Pa to their favorite Chinese restaurant, China Bistro.

It was great to take them with us out to eat. we did have 7 adults so there were plenty of hands. And the owner and her sister, who are family friends were just eating the babies up! it was fun:)

Nana & Pa (Great gps) w/Allie

Jane & Ling LOVIN Ben

Great grandpa and Anna

Baron is a crawling...well army crawling. And Ben is starting to follow suit. The girls are just happy being little rolypolys:) We're all teething but none have popped through yet. Oh the drool...

more to write about but it's almost eatin time so i should go. I'm thinking about writing for posterity sake about the pregnancy and struggle to get pregnant. I know so many other blogs have written about it, but every experience is different and I know I'm already starting to forget little things from the past. So i'll write it out. It will be long...just giving you fair warning:)

Jenny

Here are some other fun pictures....More to come!

Anna not too sure about that grass... "Can I eat this and still keep my girlish figure?!"

Bear

Jasmine

Anna & Bear wrestling. So cute!

Allie & Ben wrestling...(I think you're getting beat by a girl benihana....)

Fun with a mirror.

Brian & his clone Baron.

Family Update

The kids after church 2 weeks ago..yes they are tired and hungry can't you tell?:) Ben, Baron, Anna and Allie









I just wanted to give everyone a quick update about what's going on with the 6 of us. Brian has a new job and is loving it! YAY Daddy!:) The kids are all doing AWESOME! we go back to the doctor the middle of May for their 9 month check up. Can you believe it will be 9 MONTHS!! WHOA (in a Joey Lawrence voice from "Blossom"--i know i was a dork and loved that show....) I'm doing well also.

I'm excited because we are dedicating the babies at church on Sunday. It's not a baptism as some of you may think. It is a way of giving our children back to God and dedicating ourselves to raising them up to follow God. It will be beautiful.:) I will post pictures!

As the weather has been warmer lately we have been taking DAILY (sometimes twice a day!) walks with the monster stroller! (aka the runabout) It's been nice to be able to get out with the kids myself. Although I can't leave the neighborhood alone with the stroller because it is too big for the van. It's either the kids or the stroller. hmm....And unfortunately our van doesn't have a hitch so...we may be looking into that...any suggestions from you other runabout owners. Would it be worth it?

Everyone is trying to crawl right now except Allie. I just think she's on her own "princess time". She'll do it when she feels good and ready to.:) SO I'll be needing to get some gates asap. yay fun. People keep saying "just wait until...(insert any stage that we haven't hit yet...)" And I say.." Yes that will be fun, but I'm trying to just enjoy what we're dealing with right now...thanks." They are growing up soooo quickly! Anyway on to different news...

My little sister, Sarah


is moving to Germany for 2 years to work with the Black Forest Academy. I'm SO excited for her, but I will desperately miss her. And I know the babies will too! She will be leaving in July so I'm asking everyone to pray, pray, pray for her and all the arrangements, finances, re-learning of some German etc to go very smoothly! She is such a great sister and I'm so proud of her for doing this type of mission work. If you want more details on what she will be doing, or if you want to know how you can help just email me at brjr26{at}yahoo.com and I would LOVE to fill you in. Well my energy for the day is starting to wane so I'm leaving it at that for now.

More to come....
Love y'all!
Jenny
Now time for all the pictures......



Daddy and his boys in their fishin hats and Hawaiian shirts.


















A rare picture of me with the kids.














This was my first venture into bathing all of them at once. It wasn't perfect but it was a splashing good time:) I think we need a bigger tub:)















Ben and Allie petting Jasmine. (I promise I didn't pose this...it really happened this way! Too cute)
















Crazy kids Allie, Baron, Ben, and Anna















Allie

























Benjamin


























Anna























Baron




















I just had to add this one...we were eating prunes and she kept sticking her big toe in her mouth after each bite! It was hilarious! She looks so sad about her toe being dirty...honey look in the mirror!:) Sweet messy Allie.

so we won:)!

So i just wanted to say thanks to everyone who voted for me on jen murray's blog.
I won a yummy gift card to Starbucks because my kiddos shenanigans were the cutest (sorry i just really like the word shenanigans.) Anyway. thanks so much to quad momma Murray for being so sweet and fun. You are the BEST! i will enjoy my Tall Mocha Light Frappacino ...mmmm. Maybe Brian can get something too:) i will update tonight after they are asleep...so much to tell. My sis is moving to Germany....kids moving around so much we need gates...etc. so I'll be back to fill you all in i promise! But for right now i hear them giggling in their beds so it's time to get up from nap:)

Thanks!
Jenny

VOTE for Me;)

Hey y'all. Just wanted to ask you to jump on over to one of my favorite sites and vote for our picture ( pic # 3). If we win mommy could get a Free Starbucks drink....YUM:) it's just a fun little contest that Jen Murray (one of my FAVORITE quad moms) is doing on her blog.
www.murraycrew.blogspot.com just in case the link doesn't work.
Here is the picture that was entered into the contest. i wish everyone could have seen this in real life...it was BEYOND hilarious! poor babies were just sooo tired!






Allie, Ben (yes he's REALLY asleep like that!), Anna and Baron








Love you all.
Jenny

I promise i'll post more when the kids are asleep!:)

Then and Now...

I just wanted to do a little comparison of then and now pictures of the kiddos. It's AMAZING to me how much bigger they are now! They have done a lot of growing these past 8 months. :) I can't wait until their next dr. appointment in may to see how much they've grown. I've weighed them on our little scale here and these are their approx. weights. Ben 21lbs at birth he was 3lb 4.5 oz, Allie is 19ish lbs at birth she was 2 lbs 12 oz, Anna now about 19ish lbs at birth she was our big baby weighing in at 3 lbs 5 oz, and then Baron now 20 lbs then he was 3 lbs 2 oz.

We get lots of comments about how big they are....are they really that big? people keep telling me that their 18 mos old is only like 23 lbs etc...i think that's kinda weird?! I know every baby is different...as long we they are all healthy:) they're all trying to start to crawl so i know their weights will be leveling off soon. Anyway i hope you enjoy......
We love you all!
Jenny





Ben and me : then 1 month old and now almost 8 months old










Daddy with the babies: then about 2 weeks and now about 8 months old in birth order Ben, Allie, Anna, and Baron.








Allie at 3 weeks old and now at 7 months old enjoying her bath. (Allie really looks like a chunk in that picture, but she doesn't look that big normally--kinda funny!)






Anna bathing at 3 weeks and now 7 months







Ben bathing at 3 weeks and now at 7 months








Baron right after his bath at 3 weeks (all of his bath pics from the NICU are showing TOO much if you know what i'm saying....i wanted to be kid friendly...) and now at 7 months.








Anna going home from the hospital after being there 30 days. And now sitting in her big girl car seat a few weeks ago.







Allie going home from the NICU after 47 days and now at about 7 months.










Ben leaving the hospital after 45 days and now.








Bear leaving after 35 days and now. Look at how SCRAWNY his little legs were...let me tell you ...they AREN'T now:)

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Well, Jenny promised some new pictures, and she got those put up here, but she had to run out and take care of some errands, so it's up to me (Brian) to take care of the updates. It's not like I have anything better to do. The kids are down for their midday nap, and I'm sitting here with an ice pack. Yup... we took a little "precaution" yesterday to make sure there won't be any additions to the QuadSquad, and I'm feeling it today. Guys, if you haven't had it done yet, and you're thinking about it, it's well worth it considering how much easier it is on you than your wife, but it is NO walk in the park... as a matter of fact, I don't think I could walk in the park right now if I had to! *lol*

There are some pics of the kids below in their new car seats. We got to comparing and got on Consumer Reports, and overall, the Cosco seemed to be the best value in car seats, so that's what we got. To me, they all looked about the same, and the Britax, we both agreed, was just way overpriced for a couple of features, like a velcro strap that you can add yourself. I really left it up to Jenny, and I would have agreed to the money for the Britax, but we just weren't sold on the idea that it had that much more value, especially after a thorough investigation.

Hopefully, I'll be feeling well enough tomorrow for us to take the kids to church for Easter. Of course, I can't lift anything heavy, so we'll have to bring some reinforcements to get the job done if we go.

Jenny is such an amazing Mommy. She is consistently calm, cool, and collected, even when everything is going crazy. She's an awesome wife, too, especially considering that she has a fifth baby to take care of this weekend!

The kids are getting so big! We don't have any official weights, but I know the boys are both between 19-21 lbs, and the girls are in the 17-18lb range. For 9 week early babies, that's unreal. the weird thing is that we don't overfeed them at all. They're just growing like crazy.

They're all rolling over. Baron and Anna are trying to crawl a little bit. We think Ben tried to a little today too. Allie still likes to be babied the most. Sometimes, getting her to roll over on her own is a chore, but we know she can do it, because we've caught her in the act!

Everyday I pinch myself at how blessed we are to have such well behaved kids. The reason I pinch myself is because I know these kids are related to me, and I know how bad I could be as a child. Thank God they all got a lot of their Momma's temperament.

While Allie is behind on the crawling, she is ahead on the talking. We get a lot of "mamamamamamamama" out of her, but we do get a little out of the others, too.

Well, I'm babbling, but there is just so much to tell. So many blessings, and so many people that God has used to pour those blessings on us. We're so thankful for all of you.

Enough babble. Here are the pics Jenny posted!

Their first ride in the quad stroller that we're being allowed to use by another awesome quad family that's not using it anymore. Thanks Kevin and Carol!!!!
















Our little punkin Anna!














Poor Jasmine has officially been demoted to "dog", but we still love her!












Cletus (Clete-dawg), who has officially been demoted to cat! (Jazzy was the baby, and Cletus was the equivalent of our dog! *lol*) Doesn't he look comfy?












Mommy and her clone, Benjamin!
















Daddy and his clone, Baron (you should see my baby picture next to this)

















Allie Grace trying out her new car seat!
















Happy Ben!















Sweet little Anna!















Baron












He's such a cute little Bear-Bear













Funny Ben after a bath!

















Bear says "mmmm... good towel!"
















Lil' Baby Ruth (Anna)














Sweet lil' P-nut Allie!














She's always surprised, isn't she?













Now that's a squad!












These kids were so tired after their feeding! Everyone but Allie passed out in their chair... Too Funny!!!!!!













Here's a close up of Ben with his head straight back!












Too cool for school! (Allie, Ben, Anna, and Bear)













Sweet Anna again












Our lil' Easter Bunnies (Ben, Bear, Anna, and Allie)
















Allie (Kinda hard to believe she used to weigh 2lbs 12 oz huh...)















Anna















Ben















Baron












LOVE this picture!!!! It's the easter outfit "dress rehearsal"! (Ben, Allie, Baron, and Anna)