And So It Begins...

Well, baby preparations are in full swing over here in Mid-MO, people. Gma and the Captain (Nick's parents) found two cribs in amazing shape at a garage sale, Aunt Sara (my sister in law) found two awesome bouncy seats at another garage sale, some friends brought over their exersaucer, and I've created a registry. Oh, and also this...

We did it. We bought a minivan. I desperately wanted to avoid being a minivan mom (I'll be honest, it's pure vanity. I really wanted an SUV, because they're cool. And I want to be cool.), but when you go from one to five children in a matter of months, some of these things get decided for you. So, there she is. And I'll admit it. We've had it for 24 hours, and I'm already in love. The doors open themselves, the captains' seats in the middle flip all the way forward for easy access to dropping infant seats into their bases in the back row, and there's a DVD player for big brother's sanity if babies are crying. Here we are bringing her home yesterday:

Obviously we feel and look pretty cool. Except not. We've just decided to embrace the weirdness. We were pretty weird to begin with, but now we will ALWAYS be the weird family with the quads, so, we're just embracing it. Starting with loving being a minivan family. And Jeremiah loves it because it has a "show watcher" - although, this is his face when he was counting the seats in it today and made the connection that we are going to fill every one of them once the babies get here:

Seriously. I die. This kid has us in stitches on a regular basis. He decided that his favorite baby was going to sit next to him and the rest will have to be in the back. When I asked him how he would decide, he said, "easy. The one we name Raphael. Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo will go in the back." I hope he's not crushed when we don't actually name the babies after the turtles. I guess that's a bridge we'll cross we when we get there.

In other news, this is a big week in our house! On Wednesday we will be 16 weeks along and get to find out genders!! We are pretty excited to know that important piece of the puzzle. I feel like I can't really get ready for them until I know how many of each gender we're having - I promise I know that we need more than cribs and bouncy seats! I'm also really excited to nail down names and be able to call them each by their little name instead of their letter.

BUT! Before June 10 was baby gender day, June 10 was already an incredibly important day in the Beydler house - it's our family birthday! The day Jeremiah got to come live with us forever. This Wednesday we not only celebrate knowing how many little brothers and sisters he will have, we also celebrate the good gift we've been given in having this amazing little human in our family for two years now.

When I look back at that picture and think about how far we've come, I'm amazed. Adopting a toddler and moving two hours away from all our friends and family just 14 days later was absolutely one of the hardest things I've ever done. But honestly, two years later, I can't imagine our life without him, and the hard parts are a distant memory that don't even seem real some days. In the moments when I am terrified about how we're going to love and raise and bond with four itty bitty babies, I am comforted in knowing that God knew exactly what he was doing in bringing Jeremiah into our family when he did, and he knows exactly what he is doing in bringing these tiny nuggets into our family too. Happy Gotcha Day, sweet baby. We are so thankful that you are the one who first made us "mommy and daddy" and praise God for the incredible gift of being your parents. We are totally smitten with you and can't believe He chose us to raise you. What a treasure you are.

Stay tuned...the next time I post we'll know how many boys and how many girls are joining our family this fall!!