Thursday, December 8, 2011

Shocker Sound-Off

Hi everyone.  I hope everyone is ready for Christmas.  I will be at
All-Sports Wichita located in the Westlink Shopping Center, 8909 W.
Central Ave., to do a Quadfather book signing.  1410 AM KGSO will be
doing a live remote from All-Sports for "Shocker Sound-Off" (the
pregame show for Wichita State men's basketball).  As a Wichita State alum, (and former assistant basketball coach at Friends University) it is quite exciting for me to get a chance to do a signing as a small part of the show.  I've listened to the show when I can as part of the WSU pre-game at it's an excellent source of insight from the coaching staff and to get a sense of the pulse of the fans.  I've also been into All-Sports on a few occasions and I know it is a wonderful place to look for Christmas gifts for the sports fanatic in your family...even if they are KU fans:)

The show runs from noon to 2 p.m. this Saturday and, like I said, airs
on 1410 AM KGSO.  If you are from out of town and would like to listen to the show, you can stream it from www.kgso.com.  Seeing as how it is the WSU basketball team show, you probably won't have to hear me get on my soapbox and explain why my Broncos are playing so well and why Bama DOES deserve to be in the national championship so you don't have to worry about that:)

I hope to see a lot of you there and, if not, you get a chance to listen.

Happy Holidays,

Billy

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Small mix up

Hey all,

There was a mix up so I'm not going to be on tomorrow morning.  We are working something out for the next week to week and a half on KGSO 1410 AM.  As soon as it gets sets in stone I will let you know. 

For the people that live or will be out of town, though, you will be able
to listen through your computer.  The website is, www.kgso.com, and it has online streaming.  Sorry about the mix up and I'll update you when I find out more.

Thanks,
Billy

Quick Quadfather update

My publisher is releasing The Quadfather on Amazon.com for hard copy and the Kindle.  If you still want a signed copy, you can order it through my website on the paypal button in the top left corner of the blog.

I will be on KGSO 1410 AM tomorrow morning to talk the book, and some Bama and Broncos football.  I will be on around 9 a.m. so if you get a chance, tune in.  Hopefully it goes well.

See you all later,
Billy

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

So, I was blindsided earlier this week while cropping/fixing the pics we took for Halloween this year. It turns out, I have almost every pic I’ve taken already loaded into a Picasa Album. I got lost for hours looking through all the memories from before the quads were born, through their NICU stint, the infant years, and now almost graduating their toddler phase.

So, the trip down memory lane got my mind thinking about this post I’m about to present to you all.

Billy and I have ALWAYS loved Halloween and we would dress up creatively for the holiday every chance we had before kids came into the picture.  Now, I’m all about obsessing thinking about new costume ideas for the kids in the future (even if Halloween was only a few days ago). I’ll admit……..it IS an illness.

But I thought it’d be fun to showcase our Halloween attire just so everybody can see where we started.

First off, I present this year’s costumes…….Oompa Loompas from the 1971 movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

oompa loompas

These are my personal favorites and were easy to make. Plus, the kids LOVED them and still go around singing the Oompa Loompa song and break into the Oompa Loompa dance randomly throughout the day.

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LAINE

DSC03021 DSC03024  FORREST

 

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PIUS AND LAINE

 

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PIUS…..WHAT A GOOBER

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……A REALLY BIG GOOBER

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FORREST

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PI-PI AND DADDY FACING OFF

 

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FO-FO, LAINE, PIUS, DANNA……IN A VERY GREEN BATH

……AND NOW, FOR THE GHOSTS OF HALLOWEENS PAST…..

2010 - “Four-of-a-Kind”

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2009 – 3 Elmer Fudd hunters with Danna as their bunny rabbit

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2008 – The Wizard of Oz

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DANNA AS DOROTHY

forrest scarecrowFORREST AS THE SCARECROW

 

pius lion

PIUS AS THE LION

 

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LAINE AS THE TINMAN

 

wizard of oz 

 

2007 – ALL 4 IN A JACK-O-LANTERN

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They were SO much easier to contain back then! But I really don’t miss those days.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Graf’s World…It is a Changing!

This morning, we had our first ever parent-teacher conferences. The verdicts:


Pius: “Enjoys Prekindergarten. Pius is tender-hearted and gets his feelings hurt.” He is doing very well. He is polite, and is very good at his “gross motor skills,” a.k.a. catching and balancing. Look out NFL, here comes the Pi-Pi.


Forrest: “Loves to have a ‘Helper Job.’ Confident.” Forrest is also doing well. He is very good at his Language Arts, and has mastered the prayers, names and various songs. Look out Pulitzer Prize, here comes the Fo-Fo.


Danna: “Danna is becoming more comfortable with the routine of Pre-K. Quiet.” There are still areas of concern. She isn’t quite as social as her brothers, but she is starting to follow the rules. Danna just continues to live in “Danna World,” overly concerned about doggies. Look out PETA, here comes your biggest supporter, Danna Banana.


Laine: “Likes to answer questions. :)” Laine is also doing a great job at school. He loves to be the “grown-up,” and be involved with Mrs. Meier and Ms. Glenda. He loves trying to be a leader. Look out politics, here comes The Train.


Overall the kids are doing well. It was great hearing where they are each ahead of or behind other kids their age. Each of them have strengths and weaknesses, and Mrs. Meier said, “You can tell they are siblings. They take care of/fight with each other all the time.” I think we are doing alright so far. They are polite and they love each other, and that has been the most important lesson we’ve been trying to convey. Love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself.


Moni continues to work her butt off. She is scheduled for 3 12-hour shifts a week at the hospital, she always picks up at least one extra 8-hour shift, most the time 2 extra shifts. Her normal hours are 2 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., but when she picks up extras, her hours change. Her body plays hell trying to maintain the kids and my normal daytime hours, but she usually keeps up.


As for me, I’m still peddling my book. I’ve done speaking engagements for Rainbows United, Inc. and for PAMOM (Plano Area Mothers of Multiples). I am waiting to hear back from other regional multiples groups, and hopefully I’ll get some momentum going locally. I was on KGSO 1410 last Wednesday, and I am waiting to hear back from a few other radio stations who had said they would have me on after the book was published.


We have also made some changes to our appearances. For those of you who hadn’t heard, Pius gave Danna a haircut and so Aunt Donna came over and rescued Danna’s hair. Now, both of my girls in the house have my favorite kind of hair. Short, and jaw length:) After the Broncos finally changed quarterbacks and Tebow led the Broncos to a John-Elway like comeback, I decided that I would make a fresh change, too.


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billy's beard



sink after I shaved it



face after I shaved it


Until we meet again:)…

Thursday, October 20, 2011

We should be the Von Graf Family Singers:)

 

Forrest and Laine wanted to be on the blog doing “The Lazy Song” dance, too.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A quick video from the Graf house…

Pius is obsessed with the Bruno Mars song “The Lazy Song.”  Pius always picks one of the monkeys to act like.  Hope you enjoy:)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

These are a few of my favorite things…

This morning has been one of the few times in the past year that the kids have woken up in a great mood.  I know I’ve said it before, but “terrible twos” my ass.  The age of three has been, to say the least, the most challenging year of my life with the kids.

Growing up, one of the favorite movies in my house was The Sound of Music.  Now I know that may sound a little strange to some people that know me best, but I don’t care.  It is still one of my all-time favorite movies.  It is truly one of my guilty pleasures:)  Because of how this morning has gone, though, I will tell you my favorite things about each of the kids.

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Pius-My favorite thing about Pius is his ornery attitude.  I love that he is always getting into something or up to something.  He is a curious little boy who loves candy, stickers, makeup, nail polish or anything that we tell him he can’t have or we give him in rations.  It has become a habit at nap time and bed time that we check Pius’s bed for any contraband that he may have hidden away for down time, especially after he foiled Grammy one time with a butter knife.  He is a sweet boy and LOVES to cuddle against mommy’s chest…..although I think that might be more related to his fascination with boobies.

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What a cheeseball:)

Forrest-My favorite thing about Forrest is his imagination.  He loves to make things up about dinosaurs or anything else that has held his attention for a little while.  He is so smart and he listens to everything we say and he remembers it.  Forrest can name more trees and flowers than I can and he loves to learn about everything.  He will watch and listen and remember everything and then turn what he has learned into games and stories.

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Forrest with the Monarch butterfly.  “DON’T CALL IT A MONARCH, FORREST.  CALL IT A BUTTERFLY!” –Uncle Ryno (Mommy defended her little genius by telling Ryno not to be hateful because a 3 yr old knows more than him)

Danna-My favorite thing about Danna is her determination.  This not only goes for getting things she wants but also for getting things done.  I am so tired of drawing doggies for her on her magna-doodle and because I don’t do that for her nearly as often anymore, she has learned to draw doggies.  I can guarantee that she is better at drawing them than I am.  To watch her sit and draw is amazing.  The look that she gets on her face and the care she puts into it is truly a joy for me to see.

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She does smile!

danna's dog drawing

The Beaner’s depiction of a doggie….pretty impressive for a 3 yr old, if you ask me!

Laine-My favorite thing about Laine is his maturity.  At 3 years old, Laine thinks he is 30.  He knows right from wrong and honestly thinks he is the boss of his brothers and sister, and will attempt to dole out timeouts and punishments for his siblings appropriately.  He is a little tattle-tale and one of the easiest ways to get him to snap out of a bad attitude is to tell him, “If you want me to treat you like a grown up, you need to act like a grown up.”  He does a good job of telling the truth when he misbehaves.DSC02738

Don’t let that grin fool you.

As for how school is going, they really seem to be enjoying it.  Their teachers, Mrs Meier and Miss Glenda, are awesome and the kids love going to school each Tuesday and Thursday morning.  When I drop them off, they always tell me, “Daddy, you need to get out of here.”  But to see their faces light up when I pick them up is priceless.  Forrest and Miss Danna have each received two notes from home in 9 days of classes and Pius and Laine have each stolen a toy.  I’m pretty sure it is going to be an interesting 15 years when it comes to school.

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At Old Navy picking out book bags.  Amazingly, the boys all picked the same one.  The looking was over for Danna after she saw the Sparky the doggy.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

An update from The Quadfather

Hi everyone. I'm home from my first speaking engagement with a
multiples group. On Tuesday, I was invited to speak with PAMOM (Plano Area Mothers of Multiples) and I learned a very important lesson. If you haven't done your speech in about a month, you should probably practice a couple of times before doing it again. When I spoke with Rainbows United last month, I was very well prepared (with a ton of help from my family), and afterwards, I felt very good about my performance. When PAMOM invited me down, I went back through my first speech, added some stuff, subtracted some stuff, but it was about 75% the same. I found out I was a little overconfident, because I stumbled around for the first couple of minutes, but after I found my groove, the rest of it went well. The audience was awesome, it was a lot of fun getting to meet some other multiples families and overall
it was a profitable trip:).


I don't currently have anything else (speaking engagements/signings)
scheduled for now, but I have exchanged emails with a few other
multiples groups regionally and I'm hoping to hear back from them.
I'm also going to get back in touch with my local media (radio and tv)
contacts and see about trying to get a little momentum back locally.
Any other ideas are more than welcome.


As of right now, I have sold 501 copies of the book. I have heard
back from a lot of the people who have read it and they say they
really enjoyed it. Of course, I don't think friends or family are
going to come out and tell me that it sucked, but I have received some
feedback from people I don't know and it has been good, too.
Hopefully, if it gets released to some kind of professional reviewer
or parenting group or website, it will be as well received by
professional people.


Almost all of the people I have talked to about the book have asked
me, "We don't have to wait another three years for the next
installment, do we?" I think I have a fun idea for the next one, and
may start working on it shortly, I just wanted to concentrate on this
first one for a little while.


It is still available here via paypal so if you know someone who has said they were interested or if you haven't got your copy yet and would like one just click on the paypal button in the top left corner here on our blog. Thanks again for all of your support.


Sincerely,
Billy


P.S. I’m working on a new blog with pictures from the kids’ first month at school. I’ll have it up by early next week.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

My kids are old enough?

I am kind of starting to understand what people mean when they say that time flies when it comes to your kids.  I remember, what seems like yesterday, we were living in Phoenix, over 1,000 miles away from home, scared to death, not knowing what was going to happen.  Now we are dropping the little nuggets off for pre-school!

DSC02693 The first of our feeble attempts.

DSC02694 Attempt #2.  (Pius what the hell are you doing?)

DSC02695 Us walking in, Danna running to catch up.

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The boys getting name tags, and Danna looking for a doggy.

Last night was pretty hard for me as I sat out their clothes to wear, and got their “emergency clothes” ready for them to take.  I just sat down and thought, “Where did the last four years go?”  I know on my Facebook page and in talking to people sometimes, I seem completely exhausted from the kids’ antics, but they really are a lot of fun.

Pius, my little instigator.

Forrest, my little sweetheart.

Danna, my little Diva.

Laine, my little practical joker.

I’m so proud of how far they’ve come in such little time.  I can’t wait to pick them up, find out how their day went and hear if they’re going to be allowed back:)  

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Since we saw you last…

We left off last time with the Graf quads meeting another set of quads, The Goerlich Quads. Looking back, that was just a really cool weekend. My kids haven’t forgotten them, and they want to pray for the Goerlich quads at least three or four times a week at bedtime. I hope that we can meet more sets of quads and see our new friends again sometime soon.


We got our Moni back later that week. She returned from her quadmama vacation in the New Orleans/Biloxi area with more fun stories (a lot of them, frighteningly, had to do with planking). For awhile, after she had returned home, it seemed kind of like I had a middle schooler on my hands to go along with the four toddlers and puppy running around the house:)


As for the kids, and their latest update:


Right now our big thing we are working on is potty-training at nap and bedtime. We are completely comfortable with their pottying when they are awake. Danna even poops on the toilet now and has better aim while she is peeing! It’s going pretty well, but any suggestions for the nap/bed time training would be welcome:)


They also start pre-school next week. We went to get signed up last week and they got to see their room. Pius, Forrest and Danna took off, but Laine grabbed my hand and it took him a couple minutes to calm down. I really hope they do well with it because I think I’m going to have a rough time if they panic.


Our current favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz. I had forgotten, but that movie really is pretty good. It is such a fun and creative story, plus it has a tornado in it, so it’s got the boys’ total attention. The also love the “knife guys” (the wicked witch’s guards) and the flying monkeys. They always want me to name the monkeys and guards so I do the best I can to come up with people they know.


The Quadfather continues to do well at shows. Yesterday I had my first speaking event. Our Early Childhood Intervention resource, Rainbows United, Inc. asked me to come and speak about our story. The audience was awesome, and very receptive to my speech. On top of that, Danna was the star of the show. Moni (as is typical) was about 15 minutes late and when her and the kids came in the room and Danna saw me speaking on the stage, her face lit up, she started running towards me and yells, “HI DADDY!” They came to the stage and I introduced each of the kids and Moni. When I got done introducing, Danna was holding on to Odie (her new stuffed doggie that goes everywhere with her) and she holds him up and says, “And Odie!” It was a lot of fun, and the sales afterwards went well:)


And finally, the latest pictures from the park…


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Pius making his “mad face.”


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Forrest having fun on the teeter-totter.


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Danna hitting up the slide.


1312082729624 Laine on the other end of the teeter-totter.


1312082739890 The kids with all their new friends.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

I’ll tell you what I’d do, man. Party with two sets of quads at the same time, man. That’s what Chris Goerlich and I decided to do a couple of weeks ago as our wives’ quad mom group planned their third annual quadmom vacation. Chris emailed me because he was taking his kids north to visit Mari’s family and their trip happened to roll right through Wichita. We made a quick weekend party of it. Here is how it went down.


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(L to R on the step): Finn, Cohen, Sophia, Pius, Forrest, Noah, and Laine. Danna in the front.


The Goerlichs rolled in here around 5 p.m. Friday night. There was all of the normal sniffing and feeling out that goes along with 3-year-olds. They stayed pretty close to their own siblings the first night. The Goerlich quads have met other sets of quads before, but this was the Graf quads first rodeo. They were so excited to see and meet them.


We decided to have them all have a “slumber party” in the Grafs’ bedroom. As the Goerlichs are veterans of this situation, they handled it very well. The Graf boys also did very well with it. Danna, on the other hand, screwed it up for everyone. She is usually the last one asleep anyways, but now she had four more 3-year-olds in the bedroom to terrorize. I felt like I had an infant again because I had to go into the room about 4 times through the night because Danna would wake up screaming. It wasn’t a fun night time for us dads, and I can imagine, for her roommates either. Amazingly, though, we survived.


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This was their cluster…err…sleeping quarters for the two nights.


On Saturday morning we took the 8 man crew to my cousin, Ashley, and her husband, J.D.’s swimming pool. We rocked it for a couple of hours over there, and mine were so excited at first because I actually swam with them, too. I am terrified of water for myself as it is, but when I add my four toddlers to the pool my anxiety level goes even higher. So normally, I sit on the side and count to four…CONSTANTLY. All 8 of the kids have puddle jumpers and have become very good at “swimming” so it wasn’t bad. We had a blast, and it worked really well because they were all wiped out and took a nap so we didn’t have to battle Danna again.


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Taking a break from the pool for some snacks.


Saturday evening we grilled out over here. I made “spicy burgers” for the adults, and chicken and hot dogs for the kids. They all ate really well and they stayed up pretty late driving our four power wheels cars around. What was really cool was that as the day went on, the kids started to interact with each other a lot more. The kids had a ball playing with each other throughout the day. Saturday night bedtime went a lot better so it was a good end to a good day.


100_0600 The Grafs and Goerlichs attacking Stubby on Saturday night.


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Dinner time!


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Pius and Finn cruising the back yard.

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Danna watching Cohen and Forrest.


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Chris finally figured out how to make the fire truck go. Add a dude on the back.


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Pius doing his best to charm Sophia. After they left Sunday afternoon, Pius and Laine started fighting about who Sophia would sleep next to the next time they came over.


Sunday morning we rolled out of bed, ate some breakfast, played with the powerwheels/in the basement for a little while and it was time for the Goerlichs to continue their trip. It was one of the coolest things I think I’ve seen. My kids interacting and playing with another set of kids that they had a ton in common with. I know Moni always says that those girls are her best friends and she is so thankful she met them. In this last year, as I’ve got to know each of the couples more, I’ve really started to feel a bond with all of them, too. How lucky for us to have such great friends that we share a pretty unique trait with:)