A Perfect Fit!

Attention Shoppers: The Children's Place is having a Monster Sale - an additional 50% off mark downs! We're talking $2 tshirts, $4 one piece outfits, and more! (Walmart can't beat that!)
I immediately called Brad on the cell when I found this:

Double Trouble (Times 2!)

AND they actually had 4 of them in the same size! Isn't it perfect?
I wish they would have had 4 of these since they're "Groundhog Babies" (born 2-2-07), but I settled for one.

Groundhog Day

Can't wait to see them sportin' their new tees.

Pinchin' Pennies,

4tunate Cookies

Apparently the drive-thu worker at Panda Express must read our blog or somehow knows we have quadruplets....

Brad and I have been taking the boys on a "date" with us in the van about once a week to escape the walls of isolation! =) It entails bundling up the boys, loading the boys in the van, driving through a drive thru, and scarfing it down in the parking lot (while the boys get impatient and sometimes quite angry). Sounds like a romantic date, huh? What else can you do in Indiana in 12 degree weather during RSV season with four babies????? It's actually become something I really look forward to....

So after loading the van, we head to Panda Express for Orange Chicken and here's the drive thru dialogue:

Brad: Uh, could we have another fortune cookie? (We get share an order to save cash, plus they give you a ton of food! So I wanted my OWN fortune cookie)

Lee*:How many?

Brad: Just one.

Brad gives back bag to Lee* and after a somewhat long delay hands the bag back to Brad

Lee*: There you go, sir. One extra fortune cookie. Have a nice day.

(Said with the smallest of smirks on his face)

*Name changed to protect the guilty (and save his job!)

I opened the bag as we pulled away to find it FULL of fortune cookies. I felt like we won the lottery!

I know we don't get out much and I probably find this story more hillarious and entertaining than most of you, but we were rolling! I wanted to go hug my new friend Lee*, but he seemed pretty busy and it would be kind of complicated to hug a guy through a little drive thru window. Thanks, Lee*, for inspiring this blog post, for the weekend snacks and the enjoyment of reading mindless fortunes aloud.

(Check back soon - I promise to update you on all the fun, crazy times around here....)

NICU Survival Kit Headed to The Big "D"

Well past my bedtime last night, I was putting together a NICU Survival Kit for Casey Gerwer who just delivered quadruplets yesterday at 29 weeks in Dallas, TX! You can find the stats on Reid, Cameron, Trey, and Brady on their blog. Please keep them in your prayers especially over these next few weeks as their babies transition from womb to the real world where they are expected to do all the full-term tasks (breathing, feeding, maintaining their body temp., and yes, pooping!) 11 weeks early. Congratulations, especially goes out to Casey as she fought so hard for these babies and did so well to make it to 29 weeks! Way to go quad mama, welcome to the club!

Can I tell you how much I love putting these kits together?!!! I find myself praying for the family as I pack the contents of the kit. I pray for the mom's recovery, strength for dad, the babies to be little fighters, the doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapist that are so vital to the baby's survival......and then I'm overwhelmed with gratefulness as I reflect on our NICU days and how blessed we are with 4 healthy babies!

Especially this little guy (Clark) who really made our NICU nurses work for their money

Our super-sitter (well, she's free so I guess she's not really a sitter), Tami, is on her way with some hand-made preemie blankets for the kit. So soft and sweet! Many of you have emailed about the blankets so I want to give you some "specs". Tami's are 12 x 12 (some a little bigger or more rectangle), and I could also use some 20 x 20's.

Lastly, an enormous thank you to my friend Melissa, who donated a sack full of really nice lotion from Bath and Body Works for the kits. I'm telling ya, your hands get so sore and dry from scrubbing up that lotion just melts in your hands. This will be wonderful, Melissa!

Oh yeah, one more thing...then I have to get some lunch while I have the chance! There's been a lot of chatter about Adsense lately (Suz added it to her site too). While we can't tell you how we get money from the ads due to "contractual obligation"- you can easily look this up on our friend google to find out if your curiousity is killing or check out problogger for more....or try monetizing out for yourself (you can sign up here by clicking on the link in the left column under the ads)!

.....Seacrest, OUT

The Diaper Diaries

For those of you scared to read any further fearing this is a descriptive post about a diaper blowout, breath easy (literally)! Perhaps another time....(kidding, mom!!!!)

I just wanted to post about our car payment diaper budget. When we first started telling people we were expecting quadruplets, diapers almost always became the next topic of conversation. At the beginning we estimated diapers alone (@ 40 per day) would cost $20.00 a day!!! That's $600 a month, basically a mortgage payment!!!!! Yikes!

However, thanks to many of you: our family at The Bible Church of Brownsburg, staff at Brown Elementary, Publicis, members of Pittsboro PHI BETA PSI, Reynolds United Methodist, and countless individuals who donated a pack or two - 2007 was a FREE Diaper Year for the Murray Crew!!!!! What a GINORMOUS blessing this has been!

So now that our diaper surplus is "drying" up I'm out to find the the biggest "load" for my money! I'll be carefully reading Baby Cheapskate's Top Diaper Deals of the Week and staying on the look out for the best diaper coupons....If only we could find a coupon for Pampers like the one we found for Gerber baby food!

On another diaper note....have you noticed that people are more passionate about their favorite diaper brand than they are about politics? Seriously, people divide friendships over Huggies! So you want my opinion????? (I do consider myself a diaper connoisseur) ....I'm a Pampers Girl if money isn't an issue, but Luvs for value. However, Pampers Swadlers are worth every penny in the beginning! Store-brands seem to cost more in the long run, because you end up changing more often, because they don't hold the um, ....elements! We're bumping up to size 4's this week!

I'll look forward to your comments on how much you agree or beg to differ with me....Better yet, where I can find the steal of the week on diapers! =) =) =) =)

PUBLISHED!

Back in June (a lifetime ago) my friend Michelle Harrod gave me this great site, Babycheapskate, and it's been saving me money ever since. It was featured in the July issue of Parents Magazine and has earned a great reputation for saving money on everything baby. Many of you will recall this site from our post in August, "God Always Provides...Sometimes through Coupons", where Brad and I (and a few comrades) were able to buy 513 jars of baby food for just over $10 (unbelievable)! Well, Angie, the Babycheapskate herself asked me to write a guest post on saving money with multiples. I was honored! Anyway, I know many of you already frequent her site, but I had to plug my little article! (You may need to scroll down, because she posts frequent updates on the best deals!)

Do You Think Anyone Will Notice Us?

I know I've kept you waiting for too long.....the surprise is:

WE OWN A QUAD RUNABOUT!

Some of you may ask, what in the world is a Runabout? To quote The Sandlot, it's the "sultan of swat, the king of crash, the colossus of clout, the colossus of clout, the Great Bambino". It's the "Babe Ruth" of all strollers!

The picture explains the set up better than words, but the main gist is Brad or I can take the boys on a walk single-handed! For the time, we are limited to our neighborhood, because the stroller is so big that it only fits in the van by removing seats. That isn't too convenient, since each seat holds a car seat in our van. The manufacturer of the Runabout sells a hitch to mount on the back of your vehicle, but we haven't decided if we will invest in one yet. For the time being, we are just grateful to be able to use the sidewalk for the first time in 7 months!

This stroller was a hand-me-down from our triplet friends, the Schelpers. It was given to them by a quad mom in Louisville. It's really in great overall shape. Some of you remember my post about Crazy Things You Ponder When You Have Supertwins and how I renamed this contraption "The Beast" and "TheRunUsOutofHouseandHome". Thanks to our friends, we didn't have to pay a dime! (New Runabout Quad Strollers cost about $1,000 + shipping!) And as far as my pre-birth attitude about how we "would not own one of these strollers"....well, let's just say that there is no hiding quadruplets. I've learned it's better to embrace the multiple products - they are designed especially for us! We are looking forward to passing it on to another multiples family when we grow out of it, as well!

Thank you Dave, Amanda, Alyssa, Drew, Jack, and Lauren!

The Schlepers and Murray's at their 1 year celebration

Daddy and his boys going for their first walk in the Runabout

Colts Training Camp

Ok, new adventure, maybe new family tradition.......

Our new friends, the Reynolds, invited us to meet them in Terre Haute today to watch our beloved Colts prepare for another Superbowl season. The Indianapolis Colts hold their training camp each year and allow fans to come watch.

We decided this sounded like a fun new adventure to try, plus we were itching to get out and enjoy some cooler weather after our recent heat wave. It was a beautiful morning and so fun to get such an up-close look at some of our favorite players and coaches.

Here is a group picture with everyone who met us there today:

(left to right: Murrays, Reynolds, Boltons)

We had such and awesome time and the boys were very content most of the time we were there. We are finding that the more we push ourselves to get out and have some fun, the more things we are willing to try with them.

We got to watch Marvin Harrison make some great catches, and Peyton Manning calling some audibles, very cool from just a few yards away. I highly recommend Colts Camp!

Ok, going to try something new now, we took a couple of short video's for you today, posting video of the Murray Crew for the first time, let us know what you think!


(Boys showing their true blue)


(Clark laughing)

Ok, thats a wrap! Love you all!

Brad, Jen, Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac

PS The site that pointed us to the Target coupons for baby food, Babycheapskate, featured us on their site today! Check this site out, it can save you some serious money!

God always provides…….sometimes through coupons!

The picture you see above is about half of the jars of baby food that God provided for us. Jen found a coupon online for Target that allowed us to get each one of these jars for 2 cents each. So, I went to the Michigan road Target yesterday at lunch and bought everything they had on their shelves. (280 jars!) The total cost for these was just over $6! The original price after all of the jars had been scanned was over $160. (This deal was found on babycheapskate - a great website for baby deals/coupons.)

After getting this deal and telling a few people about it, we had a couple other friends volunteer to hit other Target stores for us to try to get more on this deal. The coupon expired yesterday, so we had to get it before the store closed yesterday. This morning, I found out that Judy (our secretary here at work) and Jayson and Jenn (friends) managed to pick up a total of 234 additional jars of baby food for us. This brought our grand total to 513 jars of baby food, and almost all of it was 2 cents per jar!!

We know that this amount of baby food will most likely not last all the way through, but it will take a huge expense out for us, and we praise God for giving us the opportunity to get in on it. God has provided for every single need we have had so far, and He continues to do so.

Just wanted to share our praise with all of you!

Brad, Jen, Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac

PS Stay tuned…..we got our professional pictures back and we will be posting those images for you soon! (with permission from the photographer)

25w5d and Counting....

Friends and Family,

I just wanted to give you a quick update. The good news is, there really is no news on the pregnancy! Jen is still resting at home and the boys are still playing soccer with all of her internal organs! Its great that they get a chance to practice with each other even before birth.

On a more serious note, I have been researching our options for health insurance and any assistance that might be available to a family in our circumstances and have come upon some potentially unexpected help. Normally we would not qualify for any social programs, but due to the number of babies that will be present, Lord willing, in our home in a few months, it appears that we might qualify after all. As we continue to try to figure out how to get our finances in order, would you pray with us that the approval process would go smoothly and quickly? If this assistance does become available, it would be another small piece that would help me figure out how to survive financially with four wonderful blessings from God to feed!

Thanks friends!

(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)