Happy 1 1/2 Birthday to Trey, Reid, Cameron & Brady

One and a half years... really...

This may be hard to explain but it feel like its been forever to get to this point, yet went by in a flash. Having multiples is a crazy experience. You are trying to absorb and take in every moment with your kids all at the same time as the others. Meanwhile, survive the chaos and days that come with having high order multiples. Then you realize, wow, i wish i could have captured that more. But lately, I have been making a huge effort to slow things down and enjoy moments. Moments that i can capture on camera but I really want to remember how i felt, how it smelled, what it sounded like. I love that moments with kids can physically change how you feel. Not just put a smile on your face, but actually make your heart, your blood and you mind feel different, mushy but excited. I know i am rambling right now, it happens when i get a tad bit emotional :). Probably because i went back and looked at the post last year at this time. As i have watched four amazing, fighting preemies turn into happy, rowdy, healthy 1.5 year old KIDS, every day i am more and more amazed by the proof that miracles don't just happen once, but in this case, four times... and every day after that too.

Trey, our first born, always keeping mama on her toes. I think he really wants to make sure i am "challenged" daily and never get bored. And boy does he succeed. This child is a true button pusher... but a button pusher who is EXTREMELY intelligent... difficult combo is right! He loves to communicate via signing or words. Tickling is a sport for him. Loves to mow, well anything, with his mowers. Unfortunately is also really into climbing and throwing (food). He loves his mama with all is heart, needs me all the time and cant be away. He buries his head in my shoulder and neck and hugs with all his might. I LOVE IT! He is a FANTASTIC sleeper, my best, always has been. When I look at him, especially when he smiles, I feel like i am looking at his father 29 years earlier. They look so much a like and they both couldn't be more beautiful to me. Trey, I love you, Happy 1.5 Birthday!

Reid, our little firecracker. This girl is NON-STOP 24/7. As many calories as I try to pack in that little body, she will burn every last one of them. Reid loves to hug the other kids. She is the most patient with waiting in line for water cups or anything with the other kids. Books... OBSESSED with books. She will read to you all day long. She has a babble... we call it "Reid-enese". She really thinks shes talking to you. Its precious and both Robbie and I will stop just about anything we are doing to just look and listen. She's a tiny thing with a big personality. She LOVES LOVES LOVES her daddy. And her sissy, Cam. She is our Curious George, everything is "was dis (whats this)?". One of Reid's best qualities is she tends to know when we are having a rough day around here, and if all the other three are crabby, she seems to make it a point to listen, be sweet and not add fuel to the fire. One day, i swear she winked at me as if saying "i know mama, I got your back". She is my angel, the reason we delivered... she gives me my energy. Reid, I love you, Happy 1.5 Birthday!

Cameron, my little girly girl. My diva LOVES to dance! She can "raise the roof" for you and shake her bottom! Loves jewelry! And baby dolls and puppies. She is my biggest animal lover and is FEARLESS around any animal. She loves them! Her smile is contagious. I've never seen anything like it. Her big cheeks actually light up with she smiles, they have a light glow off them. She is a talker and can repeat just about anything. The most gentle touch too. She has the cutest shrug with her hands out to say "I don't know". When we do play dates or are around other kids, she is giving out hugs like there is no tomorrow! Cameron is so loving and sweet. She is 100% girl and mommy's little helper. Just yesterday she was telling Trey no no no to hitting the window. She had a rough start with some REALLY bad reflux when she was a baby, but what an absolute heart warmer she is now. She will capture anyones attention and make them fall in love with her. I fall in love with her all over again, every day! Cameron, I love you, Happy 1.5 Birthday!

Brady, the lady killer with his blue eyes and blonde hair. This kid is a CHARMER. To anyone and everyone, super social and always flashing a smile. He loves the ladies and has the CUTEST little raspy voice to go with it. Dangerous is right! Brady is generally very laid back, goes with the flow, likes to try new things and places. The way he walks is so great, he just lumbers along like he doesn't have a care in the world (he shouldn't, hes a baby). He is a giggle monster to the max and already a prankster... guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree there. He needs his mommy so much, he sleeps with one of my sleep shirts. He is great at playing independently and LOVES to build things. And talk about a cuddle bug. For a boy he has the softest touch. He will just walk by me and put his hand very gently on my arm and smile. I melt. Brady has a very special need for his mama and I for him. He will be sitting on the other side of the room, and ill look over at him, he'll just point to me and smile with just one side of his mouth as if to say "Love you too mom, right back at ya". We can practically communicate with our eyes. Brady, I love you, Happy 1.5 Birthday!

And look how big they are now... how times have changed. They recently started eating their snack and milk shake at their picnic table (that yes, is currently in my living room, trying to figure that out). They do so great with it and are so proud of themselves! From the girls end of the table...


The boys end of the table... sorry these were taken by my old camera again, it was closer


The kids get to watch Baby Signing Time before they take their nap and LOVE IT! As seen here...


Two things i notice about this picture....1. VERY TIRED KIDDOS READY FOR A NAP! 2. That is three bad habits i will have to break soon.... AAAGGGHHHH. Brady is the only one who doesn't do one of these...


We have a fun weekend planned for the kids! Happy Thursday!
Love, Casey

"Gerwer? Table of 8"

First off.... NO, WE ARE NOT EXPECTING TWINS! Or at all, for that matter!

Sunday we took the kids out to eat lunch and they did GREAT! I mean, SUPER GREAT! They made me so proud. As they do often. We took my in-laws (hence the 8 of us) to make sure we were man on baby coverage, but we didn't really need it! Though, they do love spending time with their grandparents! The kids did so well, the wait staff and fellow restaurant go-ers came up to us to complement them. I was one beaming mama!!! We had a little Mexican food and enjoyed our time out, feeling pretty normal actually! (PS. The pictures from the restaurant were taken with my old camera)

Cameron being silly, shes such a ham these days!


Cam showing off her coloring skills


Reid was the most unsure about the whole experience. She did enjoy coloring with mommy and her milk but pretty reserved.


Trey, master-multitasker like his mama


Trey and his sweet smile. When hes happy like this, its awesome! BUT MAN, is he ever going through some massive separation anxiety with me. I hope its just a phase!


Brady enjoying his first Oreo cookie


This week has been crazy busy and filled with emotions for many reasons. But one happy, but SUPER emotional day for me was Saturday. Does anyone know what Saturday was? BESIDES free Slurpee's because its 7/11. Two years ago, Saturday, I got pregnant with my babies. I had my IUI that morning at 11am, took the rest of the day off work, got home, felt pretty normal, then started cramping and got exhausted almost immediately. Woke up to my husband coming home from work. I remember thinking, wow, that was weird and so unlike me, maybe I finally did get pregnant! Of course, by this time I was almost a professional at not getting my hopes up after having so many broken hearts month after month. I can tell you, as I sat there on my couch after my IUI, never would I have ever imagined what the outcome would be. Life is amazing, it leads you to things you could have never imagined. Thank God it did!! I love my four kiddos so much! They are my world!!

I was trying to snap a cute picture of them all watching their signing times video that they get to watch before nap, but Cameron was on to me. And of course, had to turn around and flash her grin, silly girl!


Pre bedtime meltdowns sometimes happen (as shown by Reid in the background), but not Cameron, whip that camera out and shes happy as can be!


Meltdown ending...


Crisis averted! All is well!!


"Just let me play with the camera for a second" - Trey with his ever present desire to destroy EVERYTHING. Because of his need for destruction, we no longer have a gate between our living room and kitchen :(


The girls right before we went to eat lunch having a little shaded out door play!


Happy Tuesday!
Love, Casey

Designed For Babies... Check it out!!!

To my nearest and dearest blog readers,
Many of you may have noticed me occasionally mentioning me starting my own business (and the stress of doing so with toddler quads). Well, the secret is out and I'm SO excited. Though there is much more work to be done, we are off to a start.



Check it out!! www.designedforbabies.com

Many times while i was pregnant and in bed, tooling around online, i often thought, "I wish there was a site for baby gear that was more trendy but also for multiples". I was wanting a place that realized both being pregnant and being a mom still ment you had your sense of style (and still wanting comfort). And especially for those moms of multiples. With that, my vision was born...

Once I got mildly caught up and used to the daily life with quads (yea right, can you really get used to it), I started getting the ball rolling. Though its been a long work in progress and is worked on daily now, I at least wanted to introduce you to it. Designed For Babies will be an online baby store for you stylish moms out there but also the financially practical mom as well! Our online baby boutique will sell everything from maternity apparel, one-of-a-kind fun shirts for mom, cute onesies and shirts for the kiddos to custom designed diaper bags, developmental toys and strollers for multiples. We will also offer personalization too!

Being a mom to my four AMAZING kiddos is my number one job and my highest priority. But the career girl in me really wanted to embark on this adventure to help other moms out there like me. So, go take a look at my new site, and save it to your favorites. You can sign up for updates on progress there as well! I hope to see you there for our BIG launch in August!

Love, Casey

WHAT A MESS!!

There comes a time in every toddler's life when mom and dad finally say "We have to start learning to use spoons..." Which many of you now means two things... 1 - For mom and dad, it means MORE MESSY CLEAN UP! 2 - For the kids, it gives them a new device in which to launch messy, sticky food across the room. Not exactly a win win. But it has to happen so that our children learn the correct way to eat food and have some manners. As much as they would probably love to go to kindergarten and eat their pudding with their hands, its frowned upon by the general public... and me, Mom. So, no time like the present. We started about a week ago and they get better and better. I do mean that, despite what the pictures show. Sure its a royal mess right now but more is starting to end up in their mouth than on everything else now! YIPPEE!
We usually do something vanilla flavor, helps look less messy (yea right), but Robbie wanted them to try chocolate yogurt (its so good!!) and this is what that looked like...

"Mom, i think chocolate is YUMMY" - Cam


Trey not wanting to be photographed in such a messy state :) He is actually our best spoon user, though you cant tell here!


Reid not really as into the whole spoon concept as much as the other kids, but shes getting better.


At the end, Daddy thought it would be funny to "paint" a mustache on Brady with the chocolate yogurt... here are the results :) Brady thought it was HYSTERICAL! So did we.


This kid cracks me up!


Speaking of toddlers and the mess they can make, sometimes, when I'm cooking lunch or dinner, i will open the Tupperware cabinet and let the kids play with it to keep them busy. They love to stack and put things in the Tupperware. I have found shoes and all sorts of things later in my Tupperware cabinet. Anyways, Brady decided he wanted to crawl up into it... and push everything out... Very nice.



And in other news... I hope everyone enjoyed the pictures of Reid with her teeth fixed... She has broken them again. The repair that we knew may not be a permanant fix, wasn't. She is all over the place! So matter how much we pad the world around her and follow her around to catch her, shes a clutz and full of energy. What can you do? This time she fell on their toy truck. Small chip but still makes me so sad. We will be waiting a while to fix it this time. I so wish i could find a many football helmet with facemask for her to wear for about the next 2 years!

Also, there will be many posts about 4th of July weekend... lots going on.
Every year our neighborhood does a 4th of July parade. We start at the elementary school and end up at our neighborhood park. Last year, the babies were only 5.5 months and it was HOT. So we only made it out of the parking lot and back to our house. This year, much more fun! We took the choo choo and the kids looked at all the cool decorated bikes and wagons. I really slacked off and didn't decorate our choo choo. Bad mommy, it was just a busy week. But I did dress them in 4th of July shirts! We made it to the park and the kids got to get out and play with our neighbors dog (Clay, Ella and Delayne, thanks for letting my kiddos obsess over Honey!) and see the fire trucks. I didn't get too many pictures, as the park was not closed in, there were many people there and i was chasing babies left and right! So was dad!

Leaving our house, headed to the starting line! (Front to back) - Reid, Cameron, Brady, Trey


AND WE'RE OFF! Leaving the elementary school, making sure we stay hydrated and sun screened up!


This parade is just a small thing that our neighborhood does but it has big meaning to me. It pretty much goes right by our house. When we moved into this house, we had no kids but were trying and were in our struggle with infertility. On 4th of July, the first two years we were here, we watched all the families and kids having such a good time. I would always try to picture the day we could do that with our very own child. 4th of July, 2007 parade was very hard for me to watch, we were well into treatments with no luck. Little did i know that exactly 7 days later, i would be pregnant with my wonderful children. So walking in this parade with my kids is just such an amazing feeling. I'm out here with my four kids (never thought that would be the case) instead of sitting on the sidelines watching. God is good! We are blessed beyond our wildest dreams.
Us at the park before heading home.



Love, Casey

Happy 4th of July!

So in honor of our Independence Day I thought, let’s get some cute red, white and blue photos of the kids. HA! Photo ops are proving to be much more challenging these days... You can always count on Trey to get up as soon as I sit him down, Cameron to cry for no reason what-so-ever, Reid to put her fingers in her mouth and Brady to refuse to look anywhere we want him to look. The scene gets pretty comical at times. I enlist as much help as I can for these things. In this case, it was Aunt Sarah behind the camera, and our nanny Adrienne trying to get kiddos to look by blowing bubbles and I was resident baby-wrangler. Good times!

For as uncooperative as they were, the pictures turned out pretty good! Thanks Sarah!

Cameron, Brady, Reid, Trey


Cameron, Trey, Reid, Brady


This is more like it! Cameron being the diva she is, Trey being the button-pusher he is, Reid doing a crazy cheese face thing she does, and Brady day dreaming in the wrong direction... what a crew!


If you can’t beat em, join them. Couldn’t get Trey to stay put so mommy helped anchor him down. He was less than happy with this idea.


My little girls... They are SUCH a joy and are so sweet!!


Cameron & Reid


My lil men... true boys... Brady is charming and loves the ladies already and Trey is ALWAYS causing trouble!


Even being the trouble maker he is, Trey still LOVES his mommy and needs me more than anyone lately.


The girls basking in the bubbles!


Sweet Cam, what a lady!


Reid being bashful... so cute!


Trey... got his daddy's looks!


Brady's serious face... eat it up ladies...


"What do you mean I can't blow bubbles in the house... I'm a princess and princesses get bubbles!" - Cam

Trying to beat the heat SWIMMING

Swimming is one thing that comes to mind to help beat the heat, right? Well, that would be the case if the water wasnt in the 90's! It was down right warm! Can't wait to see what August brings! Okay, enough complaining, i live in the south to avoid COLD winters, would rather this than snow!

The kids have life jackets that they HATE!!! They cant move in them at all, legs, head or arms. So man on man defense is the key! An adult per baby! We are constantly calling out who we are with. We are currently working on a new means of floation device that they can move in!

Reid LOVES the water.. she loves even more to be thrown in the air over the water... and even more her daddy! She is GLUED to her daddy lately. Where ever he is, that is where she is! She didnt want to swim with anyone else.


Three of the four in the pool, they love the top step to sit on and play on. Trey was "assisting" Aunt Sarah with pictures...


When i say assisting, i mean running circles around her while banging bowls together.


"LOOK AT ME" - Reid, the water bug of the family, already jumping off the side to us, putting her head under...


Here is a quick shot of all of us (and our friend Mark)


Brady charming Aunt Sarah, such a ladies man


Reid w/... you guessed it, daddy, shes got him wrapped around her tiny little fingers :)


Cam, dressed as though to avoid the camera :)


"NO MORE PICS, I beg of you!" - Brady


Very wet group of Gerwer girls...


Sarah is quick with the camera and was able to capture some of Robbie's action shots off the diving board. The kids were very impressed :)




Love, Casey

Trying to beat the heat! (PART 1)

So it’s HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it’s only June. More good news is my kids LOVE to be outside and are super cranky if they don’t get to play outside. They apparently don’t realize that its 103 outside! Today was actually cooler (in the high 80s), so bonus! We try to do our outdoor activities right after breakfast and before lunch, before it gets too hot. Which is nice because it makes for a better nap day :)

So lots of pictures on this post! We have been staying super busy. The kids are also in full toddler mode, proving to be a very trying time on dear ole mom here. This age is tough with trying to help them understand right and wrong and constant fight against boundaries and rules. I’m learning a lot about strong willed children these days :)

Very little talk, lots of PICS!!!!

My kiddos HATE wearing hats but I try with everything I have to get them to keep them on. Poor Trey cutting four molars and not happy about his hat, poor guy!


My sweet girls, Reid and Cam love their play house


Lil Reid


"Mom, this hat makes me look like I'm Crocodile-Dundee" - Brady


"Dad, I’m not sure you fit in this house..." - Brady and his ever present facial expressions


"Umm, I’m so not wearing this" - Cam, the fashion-ista


Brady's expressive self again


"Check out my pretty new teeth... and my pretty hat" - Reid showing off her fixed teeth. I never did a post about this, im so far behind! Robbie was a wonderful daddy and took Reid to get her teeth fixed. They were able to just put filing in, essentially, because there was no nerve damage. Daddy does better with the screaming for things like this. We did not want her sedated if we could avoid it, and we did! Poor Dr. Rubin and his staff, what troopers! They rock!


They are always in different directions so I snapped a quick pic of all of them in the same vicinity!


Brady was the most cooperative with pictures on this day (as you can see). My sweet, handsome boy!


"But Dad, we want to swim!" Daddy jumped in to cool off, NO FAIR!!! (Cameron not pictured, she was standing at the other end of the pool where daddy was)


These pics were taken at the park. One morning, every weekend, we take the kids to the park to feed the ducks and enjoy the great big shade trees (that we dont have in our yard).
"Please, no pictures" - Reid being her true diva self


Cameron, my little girly girl


OKAY, PROMISE swim pictures next post which will be up SOON!!!! So check back. Also, going to try to upload some video our dear part time nanny, Adrienne got of Reid reading out loud. SO CUTE!!