The Mooney Clan

Happy New Year everyone!! I'm really excited to think about all that this year holds. All the firsts that our kids will have and the good times we'll have with family and friends. I'm relieved to be going into a new year without having to think about Ivf and the needles and hormones and everything else. I'm especially glad not to have to wonder whether IVF will work this year. We started the last 10 years or so always wondering what would happen as far as having our family went. Who'd have guessed this is how it would all turn out? :). We have some exciting things happening on Justin's side of the family this year. James and Nic are having a baby this spring; our triplets turn one, Maggie turns 2, Caden turns 3 and Jacquie turns married (I'm assuming it'll be this year - I might be getting ahead of myself!). So - it looks to be a fun year. I'm feeling really upbeat, even with no sleep and right before January. I usually look into January...

Hello there everyone. We are back from our holidays and it was so nice to spend them with family. We all had tonnes of fun. The babies travelled fabulously both ways. They just slept til feeding time and then slept again til feeding time. Perfect! So - what is usually a 7 1/2 hour trip ended up being about 9 hours. Not bad! It was really cold going out and really snowing coming back so I'm kind of glad to be home and not planning to go too far for awhile. I haven't even left the house since we got back sunday night. Justin is back to working all day and I'm home by myself with the 4 boys. The first day and so far the second day - have gone really well. All 4 are actually sleeping right now. They did that yesterday too but I napped. I should be napping now too! Oh, well. Every nap time is a decision to be made - sleep, do chores or have me- time. I try to do a little of each. We had such a good time with Justin's family in Calgary. Caden was at the age where he understo...

I totally don't have time to be blogging but hey...... Ok - so packing for these 5 days away has taken me 2 days and it feels like half of it is last minute stuff. Get all 4 kids fed enough ahead of time to be ready to go but not so far that the babies will be hungry too soon. I feel like I've packed everything we own. Whew!! All this on no sleep because I've been doing most of the nights recently so that Justin will be alert and with it to drive today. I am very very tired right now and yet I blog.... I know that if I stop doing stuff I'll crash and I may not be able to get up again. So - I have to make it a couple more hours and then I can sleep in the van. Then when we get there we'll have to get the kids in and bring in enough stuff to feed and change them and then unpack.... I'm not whining - just thinking with my fingers. It's all worth it and I'm really looking forward to spending Christmas with Justin's family and for the kids to hang...

I feel like I should write something but I'm not sure what to write. We are tired but is that news? Not really! I did the whole night friday night so that Justin could sleep and then Justin did last night so I could sleep. Tonight we will likely split it and tomorrow Justin gets the whole night since he is driving us to Calgary. That's what we think about in a day. Although right now I also have our table covered in 'packing'. That's the extra stuff I'm thinking about as well. I'm sure alot of you are thinking about that too! I have all 4 boys pretty much ready to go. I will pack myself tonight and last minute things tomorrow. We leave on tuesday and I hate having to rush and I like to be organized!! Plus I want to get out of here as soon as we can after Justin is done work. Why? Because I LOVE Christmas and can't wait for it to be Christmas holiday time. Some people think we are crazy to be traveling so far with little babies but I really d...

We just got back from the boys' 6 wk checkup and everything is looking good. The boys were weighed. I'm a little worried about Liam as he has lost some ground compared to the other boys. We need to get some more food into that boy! Here's their weights now: Dylan 10 lbs 1 oz Evan 8 lbs 7 oz Liam 7 lbs 12 oz There was a time when Evan was only 3 oz bigger than Liam and now he's 11 oz bigger. Yikes. Liam's eating had dropped off but then it has just picked up again so I'm sure he'll be fine. That's the update anyway. I said I wanted to weigh him again as soon as we get home after Christmas and Justin said - that's a good idea - everyone gains weight over Christmas holidays :)

We loved being at my parents' this past weekend - kind of our Christmas get-together since we'll be in Calgary for Xmas. I just thought I'd throw some pictures up. The kids just love going to grandma and grandpa's. There is always a lot to do and the cousins enjoy each other quite a lot. Caden on the Smart Cycle The big boys having fun at the island (this is the hub of the house - we are always gathered around it. Especially when the turkey is getting carved :) ) The bigger boys having fun at the island :) Auntie Sherry helping Beth take a look at her little cousins Those cousins hanging out on the kitchen table (Liam & Evan). Auntie Trinda with Dylan (I think) A sweet picture of a sweet girl (Beth) All the cousins for their picture There is just nothing like family and these kids are all pretty special. I'm glad we all live so close and they are able to know each other so well. I thank God for these blessings!! Merry Christmas!!

This past weekend was lots of fun with family and friends and one of the highlights was that our close friends, the Pippus', were finally able to meet the boys. We had started working on having a family when their girls were small and during the whole process, they went and grew up! But in the end it all worked out for us! They are bigger and so now we have even more people to hold and feed babies. Although, we were informed that 4 babies would have been more thoughtful of us - that way they'd each have had a baby to hold. Sorry guys! Oh and Tim was there too! The babies got lots of love. Everyone played with Caden too - unfortunately that's not quite as relaxing to do but it gives us a chance to sit for awhile! Megan and Evan Katie & Liam So Cozy! Sara & Dylan Could he BE more comfortable?

So, I know that many people have been reading this blog and seeing all the nice pictures that Jen has posted and you think to yourself, "How precious. Just a bunch of Angels. Why I could just eat them up." And a lot of these comments are true. Maybe not the eating one cause that's sick, but my kids definitely come across as great babies. And in many many ways, they are amazing babies. We were in Estevan over the weekend and the babies were randomly disbursed throughout the crowd and we heard on more than one occasion "Do your babies ever cry?" Well, I am here now to shed some behind the scenes action. News from "Behind the Buses" so to speak. The nitty gritty. The kind of stories the regular news channels won't cover. Life with the babies isn't all roses and potpourri parties. Well, there are a lot of different smells but not the kind you want to bottle up and sell if you get my meaning. Below are just a couple of stories that have occurred to ...

We were in Estevan for this last weekend and got to be a part of Estevan's Church of Christ Christmas party. They are still family to us, even though we've been gone for over 15 years. We spent time with family and friends and liked it so much that instead of going home sunday like we'd planned, we stayed til monday! On sunday we gathered all the cousins on my side of the family for a few pictures. It worked out pretty good!! The back row, if you want to call it that, is Lana & Kieran Hamel, Zack & Jaiden Jocelyn, our Caden and then Gabby Jocelyn. The 'babies' in the front are Evan, Elizabeth (Beth) Hamel and then Dylan and Liam. That's TEN grandkids for my parents, ranging in age from almost 10 down to almost 2 months. Later on I'll post a few more pictures from the weekend but right now I'm going to try to nap while Caden and the babies are sleeping!! CHRISTMAS is Coming!! YAY!!

I love these babies!! I just can't get enough of them and I'm already sad about them growing up too fast! I'm trying to enjoy every minute of them being tiny babies - and still trying to enjoy Caden at 2 1/2 - I don't want to miss that either. It's going pretty well so far, I think. It's a good thing I have this blog though. I hadn't taken many pictures in a while and having people ask for pictures reminded me that I needed to do that! Here's a few of each baby. First there is Liam. He's the smallest, the most vocal and looks the most like my side of the family. He hates being cold and gets pretty worked up pretty fast if something is bothering him. He still only fusses when hungry, gassy or cold - so not bad to deal with. He loves to be held and sometimes I fall asleep with him in my arms (a terrible habit but the things you'll do when all you want to do is go back to sleep...). We are sure that he will grow into his big beautiful eyes...