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.

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.

  

LAINE

  FORREST

 

PIUS AND LAINE

 

PIUS…..WHAT A GOOBER

 

……A REALLY BIG GOOBER

 

FORREST

 

PI-PI AND DADDY FACING OFF

 

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

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

2010 - “Four-of-a-Kind”

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

  

 

2008 – The Wizard of Oz

DANNA AS DOROTHY

FORREST AS THE SCARECROW

 

PIUS AS THE LION

 

LAINE AS THE TINMAN

 

 

 

2007 – ALL 4 IN A JACK-O-LANTERN

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

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

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.

Until we meet again:)…

We should be the Von Graf Family Singers:)

 

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

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:)

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.

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.

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.

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.

She does smile!

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.

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.

      

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.

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.

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!

The first of our feeble attempts.

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

Us walking in, Danna running to catch up.

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:)