An Owl, a Dragon, and the Devil Fly Into a Pumpkin Patch...

Nope, Benjamin would have nothing to do with the shenanigans of dressing up.
We'll try again tonight...smiles or tears.

Check, Check

Impossibly cute babies in Halloween-y tops? Check.
A huge family of Jack-O-Lanterns? Check.Vampire-bitten cupcakes filled with cherry blood? CheckA ridiculous amount of candy? Check.Costumes? Check, check, check, check.(You didn't really think you'd get to see them before Halloween did you?)

They Made It Out of the Van

Spoons ready and baby propped.
Scooping seeds, which dad thought we should roast. Then mom laughed at him. When she got impatient and just reached in there with her hand, we looked at her like she was crazy. Who would touch that stuff? Get bored and threaten to hit your napping sister. Go to time out.
Artistic daddy is still working on his. Mom and dad pumped these out during nap time.

First Car Keys

Little does she know, that we already have plans for her sweet 16 and her first set of real car keys. Alida will get a matching set. And if you hold them up against their brothers’, they will look strangely alike. A gold, seven seat, 2004, automatic Toyota Sienna awaits! Complete with her own day of the week that she gets to drive, as long as she takes her siblings too.

The Mayor

We're not sure why he does this,


but we call him the Mayor.
To all well-meaning suggestions, no he won't wear a cap unless its bedtime and he's inside. And, yes, that is precisely where the lawn mower belongs if you ask the Mayor.

Just a Little Imagination

In the Stuber house, the box that diapers comes in is generally larger than the children that will be wearing them.
And of course, what a great box for a fort, said mom. I’ll reinforce it and make it into a tunnel, exclaimed dad! They could color it and cut out a window and have a fort, insisted mom. OR, they could color it and make it into a tunnel, remarked dad.

And in the end, it became a slide.

A Tale of Two Cribs

The pre-National Guard playroom.
There were two brothers who shared together. There were two brothers who fought together.During dad’s week home with the tots, there was some furniture rearranging, which needed to happen. The Stubers lived prior to that week wondering when Child Services would show up due to the children standing in the upstairs window every morning. The double bed that had served as baby staging area, second changing station, sometimes parent nap place, trampoline, and medicine administration point of service had changed. It had become the morning path to the window because it was shoved up against the wall. Once to the window, little feet fit nicely on the sill and hands hold on just right to the locks, and it is just wide enough to accommodate two toddlers greeting the day from the second story. It had to be moved.A happy coincidence of having to rearrange the room to move the bed, is that the toddler’s cribs wound up right next to each other. Mom and dad had dreams of peeking in on their children sleeping quietly in the night holding hands across cribs. (Naïve perhaps, but you actually read people saying this happens in the Twin magazine.) They can play together before falling asleep! They can comfort each other in the night through the slats! In the morning they can chatter quietly as the day breaks!Or, you can deal with reality.Sunday afternoon nap:Trip to the room one: Mom comes in to calm everyone down. She finds that Nicholas has taken every single clean diaper that his little arm can reach off of the changing table and passed them out amongst himself and his brother. They are now each sitting in a pile of diapers, tearing them apart. The changing table is moved away from the crib and shoved in the corner.Trip to the room two: Mom comes in to shut up the escalating screams for GAGGEEEE! (read: “gah-gee”, which has somehow evolved from “uker,” which is the toddler version of “yucker,” which is the father’s version of “pacifier.”) Child one has given his pacifier to his brother and brother will not return it. Another pacifier is given to the toddler who no longer has one.Trip to the room three: A repeat of trip to the room two, only the children have reversed roles. The toddler who previously had no pacifier is now holding three and the other is screaming at the top of his lungs.The final solution? Haul the children out of their cribs and start moving furniture. It doesn’t even matter where at this point as long as the cribs are not together and none is touching the changing table. This is trickier than it sounds with a full size bed in the room. The changing station is moved into the closet. The bookshelf is pinned against the door. A crib with wheels is flung to the far corner. The bed, holding toddlers who have been instructed not to move an inch, is wheeled around and around in search of a place to land. The bookshelf is moved into the closet. The changing table is moved back to the room. The cribs are separated by the bed. This is reconsidered. The changing table is shoved back in the closet, the bookshelf drug back to its original spot. A crib is nearly shoved into the closet. Children have escaped the bed, and a screaming infant was brought in at some point and is now sleeping in one of the cribs while the toddlers begin pushing their toys around mimicking their mother. Where is the other infant? We have no idea at this point.And in the end, the puzzle fit together and no child is touching another or the changing table. The bed has stayed and the bookshelf has been banished to the closet. This means that the diaper wipes had to leave their home atop the bookshelf and live down on the changing table. The children must have been eyeing them all night because the first thing Benjamin did Monday morning was march straight to the changing table and pull out the wipes in an effort to begin distributing them.As night closes on National Guard weekend, we are thankful that it darkens the mess so we can ignore it.And so life marches on in a continual struggle to beat the toddlers at their own game.

God Bless America

Three days,
Four babies,
One Mommy
Everyone in their pajamas and ready for bed at 6:00 in the evening.
So on what would be Patric's evening, the girls got up at 1:30 AND 4:30 to eat.

The Tube

By far, the hardest worker in the Stuber house.

Ah Ladies

Alida and Elaine
ElaineAlidaYou will be 3 months old this week, and we are patient, and you are beautiful. We're not in a hurry for you to do a bunch of tricks for us, which is good because you don't. No real roll overs have happened, only that time that Elaine got a little mad... We love your smile, but here's the deal. You're killing mom, who believes you are in cahoots already. Since mom and dad switch nights up with you, they do get pretty good sleep considering. And, you really do have the bedtime thing down pretty well. But, she is convinced that on dad's nights you conspire to sleep from 8:00 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. and then you go back to sleep until 8:30 or 9, and on her nights you sleep from 8:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. and from 3:15 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. She's even imagined Alida nudging Elaine at 2:28 a.m. mumbling about how it is her night to get mom up; or Elaine hushing Alida on an alternate evening reminding her that it is dad's night to sleep. What's that about?

Pumpkins

The girls were dumbfounded to actually be dressed
and not spend the entire day in their pajamas and bouncy seats.
As you can see though, the jeans for the ladies were probably over doing it
since we are still wearing shorts and sandals here.
How Tall This Fall?
Tall enough to have to be pinned to the board for the photo op.
Can't you see the joy?
That didn't come until later when we went to McDonalds--priorities you know.
A woman there stopped on her way out the door to complement us on our manners. She was invited to view dinner at home some evening, but I don't think mom was actually serious.
Mom and dad had the same thought later that evening.
Will they actually make it out of the van for the holiday? Or will they just rot there before we get to them? Do we really want to get to them and the mess that carving will make?

Overheard By Mommy

Are you chewing on your brother's toes?Stop it!

Gentle Ben

Works hard at mastering new skills.
The little guy can now walk up and down the stairs using the handrail all by himself. (It even makes mom a little sad to see how quickly independence overtakes the toddlers. More often though, she is glad to have the extra hand since she is likely carrying at least one if not two babies.)
Needs only the television to quiet him for a few minutes.
Has yet to break his sunglasses
And after a rough start (and yes that is her pacifier in his mouth), he is proving to be a good big brother offering kisses and running to pat a girl on the back when she is upset.

Little Did Gracie's Granny Know

That when she sent the boys cereal straws,
we would have a little impersonator on our hands.
Thank you Gracie's Granny.

The Zoo And Other Thankless Outings

First off, mom almost pulled out her gun and shot these until dad explained they were pelicans not storks.
Saturday morning: up at 6:00 to feed girls, boys throwing books at an early 6:45. Sitting around by 7:30 on a Saturday morning wondering what to do today is a bit daunting. So we load up and are on the road to the zoo by 9:00 a.m.
And the unobstructed view of the lions so early was obviously very impressive to the toddlers. Mostly, we looked like an exhibit at the zoo with MANY visitors stopping to stare and ask questions. The most often asked question: "Are you ALL together?"
Eating crayons at lunch at the first restaurant we've been in since the girls showed up was a highlight. We also insisted on eating mom and dad's food instead of our own, threw some stuff on the floor, and drank a lot of lemonade.
But the ladies did sleep through their experience at Bahama Breeze, so we at least didn't have to abandon dinner early.
Once home after such an exhausting morning, mom and dad put us down for our nap, and we played as loudly and rambunctiously as we could for two hours before they figured out we weren't going to go to sleep.
Okay. We're a little dramatic; we did like the zoo. We did LOVE the penguins, and mom and dad said we caused quite a scene when they tried to move us on from that exhibit.

A Little Then and Now

Then: So cute. Little boys enjoying their bath in a clean tub, chewing on their clean toys and writing on the walls with their cute letters.
Now: Half clean boys attempt to escape the murky, black water because it is a little too gross for even them to stay long and play in.

A Week With Daddy

Daddy is obviously not a slave to either fashion or comfort.
Ingenuity kept us fed.
There was a dance party.
And in the end...
We made it through none the wiser and even pretty happy. But mom will make sure there are pictures to tell the tale.Some things that did get done around the house once he realized that mom wasn't making this stuff up?
Day 1: Child locks replaced on the kitchen drawers
Day 2: Furniture rearranged to keep people from climbing on the bookshelves after the phone and from jumping out the second story window.
Day 3: Laundry folded and another load complete.
Day 4: Well, you can't get things done every day.
Day 5: We'll report back at the end.

Try, Try Again

Two and a half weeks ago, we made it to church--all of us. It has taken two and a half weeks to get the stunning pictures up, but we made it--once. We may have worn ourselves completely out that weekend also going to the zoo and a restaurant--all of us. Since that weekend, we've not left the house except for a few evening walks. As you can see by the last picture there, three out of four Stuber babies agree, television is just as good as getting out of the house any day anyway. And, let's not be silly, if Alida had any neck control what-so-ever, her head would be cranked to the left as well.

The Wheels on the Bus

Are broken. A naptime fatality.

Alright, Alright

Apparently posts without pictures aren't even worth it. The girls are happy because mom went back to work today and they are spending the day with dad. (Elaine in stripes; Alida in solid)