Birthday Picture

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to our little baby quadies-

Anthony, Michael, Jaileigh, and Jakob.

What a blessing these babies are! We love them with all of our hearts and cannot imagine our lives without them. I cannot believe that they have been with us for 6 months already. I remember the day they were born, like it was yesterday. I cherish every second I have with these little miracle babies. I feel so blessed and loved that Heavenly Father chose Mike and I to be their parents. We hope and pray that we will do the job that He has lined out for us the way that we are supposed to.

Happy Birthday!

Jakob, Jaileigh, Michael, and Anthony- reverse birth order. Can you tell by the thighs who doesn't miss many meals? (Hint- count the rolls)





Feeding carrots for the first time. It was a family affair.

Michael- not so sure about things.

Jakob has a look of disgust on his face. He was NOT too impressed with the new flavor.


and dear Anthony- he is never one to keep his opinion to himself.

Jaileigh was ok with the carrots but not the Bumbo chair. You can see in the previous family picture that she was out of the chair and on daddy's lap. She has been a mammas girl for soooo long and now she is starting to warm up to other people. Thank goodness!

More pictures tomorrow of the celebration. We even had cake!

The Many Faces of Jaileigh

Jaileigh and Jakob

Photo Session All Together & Weights

New weights as of Saturday January 17. The boys have all stayed pretty close to the same weight, now Michael seems to be pulling ahead.

Anthony 12 lbs 6 oz
Michael 12 lbs 14 oz
Jaileigh 10 lbs 3 oz
Jakob 12 lbs 5 oz


Melissa, one of our NICU nurses, gave us new outfits we decided to try and do a photo shoot. Here are a few of the pictures, you can pick your favorite.

Mom and Jaileigh taking nap

Anthony and Michael

Fun Pictures

Michael flirting with one of his girlfriends
Jakob trying out the Baby Einstein Exersaucer

Anthony trying it out. Notice the phonebook under his feet. The babies aren't tall enough for it so we tried the phonebook trick.

All is quiet at the DeMaria's- for 2 minutes at least

Jaileigh and Michael in the laundry basket. They decided to help mom out.

Anthony Eating Cereal

Here is the lost picture of Anthony eating rice cereal and also some other pictures.

Anthony again with Jaileighs hand on his head.

Jaileigh with her rice cereal face. We either feed them in their Bumbo chairs or their boppies and we spoon feed them. This should make all the occupational therapists happy.

Michael showing his new dislike for cereal. He figured out that the bottle is much faster.

How many adults does it take to go for a walk with quads? . . . . . . . . 4

We took the babies for a walk Sunday morning. Yes, I am wearing shorts. The weather here is amazing. I love it and so do the babies. We went around the block. Mike said that it took us 9 minutes. Anthony was cranky and had to be carried until he fell asleep. Jaileigh slept through the walk and Michael and Jakob loved it, They got the front row seats in the stroller and really enjoyed the view.

First Meal

We gave in to the babies demands and gave them their first real meal - RICE cereal. Michael LOVED it. He would cry if I didn't give it to him fast enough. The others weren't to sure if they liked it or not. They were all pretty good at eating it. Michael and Jaileigh were even chewing it. Our pediatrician and GI doctor gave us permission to start it at 5 months. The babies are now 5 1/2 months old. At 6 months we get to start real baby food. We are all excited for that!

New weights:
Anthony 11 lbs 14 1/2 ozs
Michael 12 lbs 4 ozs
Jakob 12 lbs 3 ozs
Jaileigh 9 lbs 8 ozs

Jaileigh savering her rice cereal


Michael waiting not so patiently for his next bite

Jakob is not so sure that he likes it. Something happened to the picture of Anthony because I can't find it. I will have to take another one.

We also got BUMBO chairs for Christmas. They love sitting in them and socializing with each other. They are so cute too. Early Childhood Intervention comes in on Friday's to work with the babies and suggested we ask Bumbo chairs for Christmas. They are really neat chairs.

Playing with each others toes, Michael and Jakob socializing. They are really cute together. They are now aware of each other and actually "talk" to one another.

Anthony and Jaileigh

Playing with Michael

Blogger Friends That Blogged DeMaria

My mom summed it up today when she said, "you don't understand the magnitude of what goes into these babies until you live it for a few days." We recently spent 2 weeks at her house and I think she understands! My parents and sister were so awesome. While we stayed with them they got up for middle of the night feedings, they paced miles, they washed more bottles than anyone could ever imagine, they laundered, medicated, fed, soothed, cried, burped, wiped, changed, bathed, and so on and so forth . . . . We pretty much wore them out and then left them to recover on their own. The babies are so sad that they aren't with their Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Rori anymore. We are very sad to be home and miss them terribly.

I have attached some links to our friends blogs that have blogged about the DeMaria quadruplet experience. Jen, Michelle, and Marci spent weekends(s) with us and we are so grateful and feel so blessed for their help.

Jen's blog

Michelle's blog

Marci's blog

and now for the best part . . . . . . pictures

Michael and Jakob

This time they are trying their serious faces

Jakob- the happy boy


Jaileigh playing with Aunt Rori



Anthony and Michael playing together

Michael

My friend Kristen came up from Vegas to spent a night and a day with us. She and Michael bonded. They will be forever buddies now.

Grandpa with his forever buddy- Anthony

Mike and Jakob snoozing on the couch- they must have had a rough night.

Baby Major, my brothers son is 2 1/2 months old and is going to be very tall. This is a picture of his foot next to Jaileigh's.

Grandpa and Anthony taking a little nap together.

Jakob- grinning again.

Grandma and Jaileigh

Rori taking a nap with one of the babes. Do you think the babies got spoiled with all the napping together?

Grandpa and Anthony having some male bonding time

You may have noticed that Jaileigh quite often has a bow on her head. The majority of these come from my friend Darcy. She has given me quite a few of them as gifts and I love them! She makes and sells them and this link is for her store. The bows are adorable and very reasonably priced.

My Dolly's Bows