Mark dressed up as Daniel, and the others were the lions in the den! My mom made the costumes, and a friend drew the fur on them. (Thank you Mom and Annie!!!) Usually Halloween is pretty warm here, so I had anticipated just putting them in the onsies, hoods, tails, and socks, but it was chilly so our lions wore jeans! :) Thank you to Mimi for the bags; the kiddos definitely enjoyed carrying them around!
(back) David, Mark, Becca; (front) John, Kate, Ali
The challenges of picture taking! We walked to a local shopping center on Friday for early trick or treating fun.
We definitely drew a lot of attention! We had a great time! Mark got lots of candy, and all the kids seemed to enjoy being outside and watching all the people.
We went trick or treating in our neighborhood Saturday evening. Saturday morning, we carved / decorated pumpkins. Each kid got a smaller one which we put stickers on. Bill and I each had a big one that Bill and Mark carved. Papa and G.G. came over that morning to help with pumpkins and to enjoy the fun!
All of the kids dove right into the pumpkins! They seem to really enjoy new things! Our family of pumpkins
John, Becca, Ali, David and Kate turned one on Sunday! It has been an amazing first year! We celebrated on Saturday with a BBQ in our backyard and enjoyed having many of the wonderful people who have helped with the babies join us! The weather was perfect, the kids had a great time, and it was a fantastic day!
Ali, John, Kate, David and Becca
It takes a lot of work to get 5 one year olds to look at the camera and not cry!
John has an incredibly sweet disposition and an infectious smile! He often will play by himself and enjoys his own space, but he will also come join our group too.
Becca is very independent! She is the one who will wander off if we go out! She is always exploring. Becca is also a climber, and you never know what she might be on top of! She is very talkative and extremely expressive! Becca likes to stack blocks, try to do puzzles and use shape sorters.
Ali is our littlest and also expressive. She says "mama" the most which I love! Ali likes to play games. She will play peek-a-boo herself or hide and giggle when you find her. She seems to like to make the others smile too.
David is our biggest and is very sweet natured. He loves to play with Mark and is very tough! David really likes to cuddle and while he is rough and tumble when playing, he definitely enjoys snuggling in a lap.
Kate is adorable and very sweet. She may have the strongest will out of the group and tends to take whatever she wants from whoever has it. She loves to read and will bring books to adults and just wait to hear the story. She really enjoys being held and would sit in a lap all day if she could.
The party went very well. We sang happy birthday to each child before letting them dive into their cakes. They had no trouble with that and didn't even hesitate! Below is a video showing the cake eating.
We've thought a lot about where we were a year ago. Life has definitely changed. It's hard to believe it has already been a year, and yet being in the hospital seems like an eternity ago! David and Becca are walking, Kate and Ali take about 6 steps at a time, and John took his first steps yesterday! We are so grateful to have all five of them and incredibly blessed that they are so healthy and wonderful! Thank you to everyone who has helped us this year with Mark, with meals, with babies, with rides, and with your prayers!
Here is a slide show with some of our favorite pictures from the past year.
We thought it seemed fitting to show their birth video on their birthday.
John got his first haircut yesterday! He was a little nervous at first, but he settled quickly and did great! People always say that your child look less baby and more little boy after that first haircut. I saw that a lot more with John than with Mark or David.
Before
During After
Mark and David got haircuts too so that the boys would all look nice for the birthday this weekend. While David wasn't excited about his first haircut, he was WAY less excited about this one! Mark always likes haircuts because they give him a lollipop! :)
Our church has a pumpkin patch this year, and we went after this morning's service. We arrived right when they opened and were the only people there for awhile! It was fun letting the kids crawl / walk around and explore. Becca really enjoyed venturing out, and John was very excited about the pumpkins!
Ali and Becca have enough hair that they now have pigtails! I was going to try to french braid Ali's hair, but I don't think she would sit still long enough!
I took Mark to Chuck E Cheese today for Bill's cousin's son's birthday. Happy birthday Cole! We had a great time celebrating such a special day with you!
Mark enjoyed many of the games, but he really liked the monster truck one. He liked seeing the big truck drive, raise up on the back wheels and smush the car. Can you say boy?!
We went outside to play today! A cold front came through so it was not as muggy and hot. The kiddos enjoyed the wagon, the "beep-beep," and various other toys!
Mark wanted to climb in the wagon too!
Mark pushing John in the "beep-beep."
Ali with her hair blowing in the wind during an afternoon drive! :)
Last weekend, a good friend of the family came to visit from Pittsburgh. It was great seeing Jan again, and she seemed to really enjoy meeting all of the babies and seeing Mark again!
Entertaining with 6 small children takes a little creativity! One feeding table, one highchair, a kitchen table, a cardtable, two tv trays, all at a diagonal in the room! Perfect! :)
It has been a long time since our whole crew went to the park, so we decided to go yesterday! We made it back home just before the rain started! Perfect timing! The kids had a ball! I enjoyed getting out too!
Kate's appointment went well Monday; her head has actually already made pretty significant improvements! She goes back in three weeks.
John looked good at his appointment Tuesday, but the doctor decided to leave the drain in for another week, so we go back next Tuesday to have it removed.
Mark got his stitches out this afternoon, and his cut seems to be healing very nicely.
We met playing 42 (dominoes) at Texas A&M University. We got married in May 2001. Our first son, Mark, was born April 26, 2007. Our quintuplets (John, Becca, Ali, David and Kate) were born October 25, 2008. Click
here to contact us.
The challenges of picture taking!
All of the kids dove right into the pumpkins! They seem to really enjoy new things!
Our family of pumpkins
All of the kids dove right into the pumpkins! They seem to really enjoy new things!
Our family of pumpkins
