I've been in blog withdrawal!

Hi all,

We've been super busy on "vacation" and up in the mountains and readjusting to life back here in the Dallas area, so I feel like I've not had any extra time at all to blog. We had a wonderful trip to CA, though, and loved, loved, loved getting to introduce at least two of the quints to Gavin's family and home church out there. We were ultra blessed by our time there and by the response to the babies and assurances of all the prayers over all these months and ongoing.

I have to put the word "vacation" in quotes because our time in California was so non-stop! The three babies who stayed here did just superbly with their caretakers. In fact, I was a little bit put-out that they weren't happier to see me! They sure were happy to see each other, though! Marcie and Will squealed and flapped their arms and ended up bumping heads (and crying) in their glee. Seth just smiled and laughed over and over again.

David and Marcie are bumbling and crawling all over each other, and Will gets in to the action pretty well too with his forward scootch. Seth is getting so frustrated at watching them be mobile, he started bouncing on his little rear-end today trying to move himself while still sitting. He's doing better at being up on all fours, though, so Lord willing crawling won't be too terribly far away.

Our trip back was a bit more eventful than our trip out to CA as just after take-off Seth emptied his very full stomach all over my clothes and his. The sweet flight attendant actually took him from me and dressed him in fresh clothes while I tried to minimize the smell on my soaked clothes by using paper towels and baby wipes. Yuck!! I think he got motion-sick. But he's been vomiting a lot more in the past few days, which is frustrating, so we're back to continuous feeds until he can regain the weight he's lost - 9 ounces in 3 weeks! Thankfully he's improved a lot in his eating and physical therapy. He ate an ounce of sweet potato baby food plus lots of whipped cream today - pretty amazing for a kid who hated having anything go down his throat at all! We pray that continues and increases. He was distracted by someone sweeping the floor around him, so it seems to be largely a mental issue for him. If he's not thinking about the food going down, he can handle it going down a lot better.

Gracie, Gavin and Isaac are continuing to enjoy time at the family cabin in the Sierras. I am a bit jealous but mostly just glad to be home with my babies. I love them so much! They are TOO cute and fun! To make things more easy and enjoyable, God provided Gavin's great-aunt Bev and cousin Julie and her daughter Chloe to come help out for five days. I'm so grateful! They worked nearly 12 hours straight today - I think they have more stamina than I do!

Time for pictures:

Gracie in her cousin/uncle's pool on the 4th. She was just gleeful about this baby tube!

Gavin's grandma, Murmps, with the kids and me

Seth and Gracie

Just the grown-ups (Gavin, his cousin Grant, and me) on a pack-trip to Ragged Peak in Yosemite

The view from near the top (Young Lakes down below)

The view from the top facing the other direction. I was feeling a bit silly. :)

Gracie at the family cabin a couple of days ago

Grace enjoying Marmi's yummy cake. Most of it ended up between her legs!

The traditional Camp Sierra bath photo. All of the babies over the years have had this photo taken.

Couldn't choose between the two photos. Figured you wouldn't mind seeing two!

Those eyes of Gracie's!!

Taken after I left for TX with Seth: Gracie is clearly laughing at something she finds funny!

On the shores of Shaver Lake (Grace again)

Isaac, his cousin Levi and his grandpa "Papa" on a rented jet-ski

Gracie conked out in the shade right there on the beach

Gracie with Uncle Jared

Just hanging out in her playpen!

Sleepy Seth with his Marmi/grandma (taken before I left, obviously) 

Happy Independence Day!

Seth (left) and Grace at The Hampshire with great-grandma "Murmps" and her friends. So much fun!

Seth seems very excited to have Murmps in the picture and is trying to communicate the delightful news to Grace.

Seth in Les's cowboy hat at the church's annual 4th of July pancake breakfast. It was already HOT by 8:30 a.m.!
Seth also fell asleep in Dorothy's arms for at least half-an-hour. Kids always seem to know who the natural baby-lovers and grandmas are, don't they? Both babies enjoyed their time and all the attention very much.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

Will clearly suffering in our absence ;)

Will and David having a playdate with all new toys - what fun!

Okay, maybe in this picture Will is/was actually suffering. David was determined to smush him!

Will having pancakes at Whataburger after his walk

My beautiful Marcie Jane with my beautiful mother Jane
To quote my dad's email: Marcia did great at Cowan 4th party! Had a smile for everyone and reached out to a number of residents there. Rather made a mess at table between chips, beans, watermelon and ice cream.

California fun with family!

 We're all having a great time with Gavin's brother and his family and parents! It's been busy but absolutely wonderful! Here are a couple of photos of Grace and Seth with relatives who have loved and prayed for our babies from afar. We're just thrilled to get to introduce at least two of the quints to their delightful Central Valley family. More about the three left behind in a coming post . . .

Gracie lying down and Seth sitting up with Lisi their cousin (our beautiful Ethiopian "princess").
Lisi is a devoted and loving babysitter. She's been a huge help!

Aunt Colleen, Caroline (her granddaughter), Gracie and Seth

Gracie and Seth were absolutely entranced by their beautiful cousin Caroline. She was SO sweet to them: She showed them how all of her Grandmommy's toys worked, and she rushed a toy over to Gracie when she heard her fussing. 

Great flight!!

Thanks so much for praying! Seth and Gracie did just wonderfully. What was really fun was that a couple with boy/girl twins almost our babies same age got on the plane just ahead of us and sat in the row directly in front of us. I think everyone in our section thought, "OH NO, what is this flight going to be like??!!" Their babies and ours did just fabulous! Seth slept almost the whole flight and breathed deeply and quietly and slowly, completely at peace. Gracie didn't sleep much, but she was mostly content and very talkative. It was really cute. The other little girl twin also talked a lot. She's tiny like Gracie is, and the boy is chubbier like Seth. Funny all the parallels! Funny also to be parents of "twins" for a while. Isaac, as always, was a wonderful help. The people who sat around us complimented both sets of parents on how well the babies did. :)

Happy Seth after a 2.5 hour nap! (He looks like the spitting image of my brother and me as babies in this picture!)

Seth trying to touch the Sierras. We were right over Shaver Lake where we plan to go in a few days!

Marmi and two of her six babies. The quints have a cousin about their age, too.

Grocery shopping for quintuplets

We got a lot of sniggering due to the contents of this cart. Obviously they didn't realize we were buying for five! And this was only about a third of the formula needed for the month. We bought the store out! Also in the cart are jars of baby food, baby cereal and arrowroot cookies. 

As an aside: Several people have assumed I am still nursing/pumping. Alas, no. All the babies are on formula because they all developed reflux severe enough that they refused to nurse. They would just pull off and cry and spit-up. At first I was really sad and struggled to find a way around it, but there's no safe way to thicken breast milk for former preemies - the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis is too great, and human breast milk breaks down all the "safe" thickening agents. I have to admit that in the end my enforced weaning was quite a weight off my chest (ha ha, pun intended!). The freedom and extra time to spend with all the babies, not just the nursing ones, has been a blessing. I still feel very bonded to them when bottle feeding formula. There's just a twinge of sadness left . . . 

Off to California!

Tomorrow we are off to California for a quick visit to see my (Gavin's) side of the family as well as our home church on the West Coast.  We are taking Isaac, Seth, and Grace with us while some close friends/family watch the other three.  It will be wonderful to be able to get at least a few of the quints to meet my family.  We considered, very briefly, taking all five of them with us on the airplane.  Once I recovered from the catatonic state into which that thought plunged me, we reassessed what we would be able to do just with us two adults and Isaac.   It will be our first time on an airplane with more than one baby, so we would highly appreciate your prayers for traveling mercies as we go-- not just for us, but also for those in nearby seats.

Seth has been off oxygen again for about a week now and is doing very well.  We will be at higher altitudes on the airplane and in the mountains, so please also pray that his good oxygen saturations continue.

Isaac is very excited to be getting together with his cousins whom he hasn't seen since last year.  Even more exciting for him is that they are going to take him with them back up to Oregon for a few weeks after Carrie and I head back to Texas with the babes.  Good times!

Thanks to all!

Will and Isaac hanging out