Last night I downloaded the song “16 Tons” to my Ipod. It’s an old song from the 50’s but its in one our favorite movies, “Joe Versus the Volcano.” Meredith heard it yesterday and wanted to watch the video of the song, so I popped it on and pulled out the camera.
Enjoy. Until next time…
People often ask me, “Is it getting any easier?” It’s a difficult question to answer and I’ve thought a lot about that question recently. As you’ll read below, the best way I can put it is that it’s not any easier, just different.
Since returning from Oma and Opa’s house in Rock Rapids a couple weeks ago, our family has gone through a ton of change and I’m not sure it’s been more difficult on us or the kids.
Last week, we got Meredith a big girl bed and when a little girl becomes a big girl, she doesn’t use pacifiers any longer. Angela came up with a great idea that I hadn’t heard of before, the Binky Fairy. During Meredith’s first night in her big girl bed, she gave up her binkies and in the morning, she found a little present. She hasn’t asked for her pacifier since. Great idea, Angela!!!
We’ve also made some changes with the kids’ feedings. Since our trip, it’s become clear that some of the kids are more than ready for big people solid food. Madeline won’t leave anyone alone if there’s food around. We’ve jumped in to feeding the kids what we eat or at least something similar and we’re trying to reflect more regular meal times; 3 times daily. Madeline is our best eater. She seems like a happy baby, almost like we were starving her before. Lauren is really good too, but she’s quiet. Emma does a pretty good job, but can be picky. Alex isn’t very good and has a tendency to not chew his food, which was one of the things holding us back from starting this sooner. Brook is just flat out resisting. She really isn’t eating anything. We’ve tried darn near everything. We’ve tried mixing fruits and veggies in their baby food, but she won’t take it. If it isn’t Gerber coming from the Gerber container, she isn’t eating…except for graham crackers and cheerios. She’s getting along fine, but sooner or later, she’s going to get hungry and play ball.
We also quit giving the kids bottles. They’re all packed up and in storage containers in the garage. Holy cow, we have counter space! We decided to quit, cold turkey. The kids didn’t want to follow procedure the first day and go with our plans of sippy cups only, but after some dry diapers in the morning, they seemed pretty eager to drink from a sippy cup and they’ve been fine ever since.
The new meal planning has been a big challenge for us. We really can’t seem to find something that they all like and will eat, which is really frustrating. We’re still giving some baby food once in a while to supplement so that no one goes entirely hungry, but it’s hard. We can’t be a restaurant with a full menu for 6 kids. Just isn’t gonna happen. Finding the seating room for everyone has also been a challenge. If we cook for Angela and I first, the kids want to get started with dinner early and if we get the kids going first, then Angela and I aren’t eating until around 9pm each night, which isn’t the best for us. It’s just difficult, but we’ll get it figured out.
Meredith has been increasingly difficult the past couple weeks. She’s been hitting the quints and throwing toys. She isn’t listening and flat out ignoring us when we tell her to do or not do something. When she does listen, she’s been talking back. Where the hell do kids who are totally isolated from that kind of behavior learn to act that way? I just don’t get it because she’s at home all the time and that kind of talking back doesn’t happen here. Today in particular has been extremely difficult with her, and all the kids for that matter.
Have you ever woken up and thought to yourself that you really don’t like your life very much. Today was one of those days. Angela and I talk about it often. I’m being entirely serious when I say that we think that if we could just wake up and like our lives more often than not, then we’d be in pretty good shape; but Madeline is really pushing us to be on the wrong side of the equation. Since our return from Rock Rapids, she’s been waking up earlier and earlier each day. She started getting up at 530, but quickly started getting up earlier and earlier and earlier. I have no problem letting a child cry, but at that time of the morning (or night depending on your perspective), the kids aren’t sleeping deeply any longer and they all start to wake up if we don’t get her out of the room. We’ve tried letting her cry. What’s really frustrating is that she’ll go back to sleep in our arms or on the floor in the other room, but she flips her top if we try to give her a pacifier and lay her back in her bed. Today at 4 am, we had enough. It was gonna go poorly if I went upstairs, so Angela went upstairs to deal with her for the first time since she broke her leg, but I could hear every second of it on the intercom. At 6 am she came back down to bed and I went up. 4 of them were up at this point. It was an extremely early morning and it was the last time. Angela and I are discussing wholesale changes to how we deal with nap time and sleeping at night/morning. I’m not entirely sure yet, but these kids are eventually going to fall in line. For everyone’s sake, this has to end.
The morning continued in traditional train wreck fashion. For whatever reason, Alex’s breakfast didn’t settle well and he threw up 3 times. 3 damn times…2 of them on the living room carpet. He also had a blow out diaper that went all the way up to his neck line. Un-friggin believable sometimes. Guess who got a special bath before 9 am today? Later that morning, Meredith and Angela shared the following conversation:
“Momma?”
“Yeah, Meredith.”
“Momma?”
“What Honey?”
“Alex smells.”
“What does he smell like?”
“He smells like sick.”
And that’s how our day has gone.
Still later today, I need to get Madeline to quit crying a take a friggin nap, mow the lawn, do a few loads of laundry, another load of dishes before dinner, help with dinner, update the website, write an email for the volunteers regarding our next week, do some planning with Angela for a trip to Tama later this month and also plan for a garage sale following the trip, and get some photos updated and added to the website and write another blog about the trip to the zoo that we took last weekend.
So with that said, I have a few things to get done before the daylight slips away.
Until next time…
We have successfully completed our first road trip as a family. The trip went well and was a good learning experience for everyone involved. A week ago, last Friday, Oma and Opa drove to Wisconsin early in the morning. They helped us get packed and loaded. The kids have their final meal and bottle for the night around 7 pm with all of them usually going to bed by 745/800pm. Instead of carting them all off to bed, we loaded them up in the van for a nighttime drive. During the trip SW to Rock Rapids, Oma sat in the back of the BAV and Opa followed behind. The crying stopped very quickly. 3 of the kids were sleeping in the first 15 minutes of the trip. Alex was in the front row of the bench seats along with Meredith. He lasted about an hour before he finally gave up. Meredith though, made an amazing performance of endurance and stamina. She talked and talked and talked. I was upset after two hours of all the talking but by the third hour, it was becoming laughable. The highlight of the drive was probably the following conversation (keep in mind that Meredith in is the first of 4 rows of bench seats and Oma is in last row):
“Oma!”
“What Meredith.”
“Oma!”
“Yeah Meredith.”
“Oma!!!”
“What honey?”
“I saw the chicken nugget sign!!!”
Conversations like that took place ALL NIGHT LONG.
About 3 hours in to the trip, we were treated to one of the most impressive lightning storms that we’ve ever seen. My brother Robert called and warned us of the storm, but we barreled right down the interstate in to the teeth of that storm. We watched for a solid 20 minutes or so before it started getting hairy. Opa called and warned me that he heard on the radio that a semi had been turned over on the interstate just 10 miles from where we were. I could see the rain coming down from a half mile away. Just like a wall. It was impressive. Once it started, I didn’t last a mile. I couldn’t see outside of the windshield at all. The wind was deafening. I quickly pulled over, but that was challenging because I really couldn’t see where I was going. It was disappointing because we were making such good time. Typical comment coming from a man, I suppose. The wind was so strong. The van was just shaking and rocking. Thank goodness that we didn’t get any of the hail that fell in other parts of the storm. The storm really scared Meredith. Keep in mind that it was near 11 pm and she’s still wide awake. She screamed and cried quite a bit and that woke the other kids. Our control of the inside of the BAV was quickly slipping away. Before you knew it, two more cars pulled over behind Opa and one more in front of us. After 5 minutes or so, we decided to continue. I had to get that BAV moving or the kids would have lost it. Due to the pending traffic issue due to the turned semi, we got off at the next exit and headed south. After dodging another developing cell to the storm, Meredith finally fell asleep with 45 minutes left (around midnight) in the drive. We arrived quietly in the drive between 1230 and 100 in the morning.
The week went remarkably quick, but there were times that we felt like it would never end. I got a chance to play a round of golf with my dad, which hasn’t happened in years. I also worked with my boss in Sioux Falls during the course of the week so I didn’t have to face the brunt of the weekday activities back at the house. Meredith spent some time with Opa in the afternoons and she told us a wonderful story about the airplanes that she saw. I’ve included some new photos of Meredith with her airplanes and Opa. Click here to see them. We had a wonderful assortment of family and friends from the community help out with the kids during the week. We had shifts for people to come, much like we do at home. Becky Carlin and Anne and Tina Ageson spent a lot of time with us, but there were many others. Thanks so much ladies. 
I promised Sabrina Sieperda that I’d get her pic on website. She and her mom were a couple of our helpers during the week too.
Everyone was getting tired by the end of the week. Following our previous travel routine, we took off on Saturday night after the kids’ final meal and bottle and arrived back at home a little after midnight on Sunday morning. We had a bit of a navigational issue, but that was my fault. We still made very good time even though we needed to make a trip through the city instead of taking the back highways. By noon on Sunday, Oma and Opa got back in the car and headed south.
I’ll leave you with this little funny story from the week. If you’ve ever ridden in the back row of a bus, you’ll know what I’m talking about. We were flying down the interstate a little before sunset as we headed south to Rock Rapids. I hit one of those dips in the interstate where you can see all of the oil spots. In a car, you may not notice the dip too much, but in the BAV, it’s apparently a pretty big deal. I saw the bump coming and as we hit it, I saw out of the corner of my eye in the rear view mirror my mother fly off her seat in to the air. I wish I could have seen the look on her face. While laughing, I yelled back at her that I was sorry. It was hilarious. She asked me to try to miss the next one. That will teach her to not wear her seatbelt.
Thank you Oma and Opa, my brothers and their families, and the rest of our extended family for your help. Thank you also to everyone else in the Rock Rapids community for your help during the week. It really takes a village to raise this family.
Until next time…
Angela and I have decided to go ahead and take our first road trip as a family. So…are we a little crazy? Yeah, a little. Why would we want to spend 5 hours in a Big Ass Van with 6 kids under 3? We don’t, but Star Trek technology doesn’t exist yet so we really don’t have a choice.
We’re going to Rock Rapids first. Angela’s home town of Tama will be later this summer. We’re going travel at night and pray that the kids sleep during the ride. They normally do well when we make little trips around town and they sleep pretty well early in the evening so I think that we’ll be ok. I sure hope so.
We’re going to need a little help while we’re there. I’m not gonna be around during the days. I’m going to try to work a few days while we’re back in the area. My boss from Indiana may even be in town for a couple days too. Rock Rapids is in my sales territory, as is Sioux Falls. I don’t travel to Sioux Falls for work as often as I should and I’d be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity. We will be staying at my parents’ house and we’ll be there July 24-31. If you’d like to help, we will have shifts similar to what we have here at home over the course of the week. If you’d like to help, please send me an email by clicking here. If for any reason the link doesn’t work or you’re having trouble, my email address is: heath@tillefamily.com. I need to know what day and general time of day you’d be available. For example, I could help in the morning on Monday the 26th. If you can, please include your contact info in the message in case we need to make a phone call. My mom is managing the schedule and is filling all of the shifts. I’ll be forwarding all email requests to her and working with her to fill things up as best as possible. If you’re comfortable enough calling my mom and you know the number, go ahead and give her a ring.
Before you pick up the phone or click “send”, I want to share with you a little about where the kids are developmentally. The kids are crawling, but not walking. We’re asking that if you want to fill a shift, please consider your own physical abilities. We basically need you to be able to actively play with them. You need to be able to easily pick up 25 pounds. You need to be able to get up and down off the floor with them. You need to be willing to change a diaper and spoon feed the kids. We rarely rock and hold the kids anymore. Things will be VERY structured. When nap time comes, there will not be any rocking or cuddling. They go to bed. No exceptions. Sorry for the harsh stance, but that’s the way things work at home and we need to be consistent.
So with all that said, if you’re in the Rock Rapids area and you’d like to be a part of the circus, go ahead and send me an email or give my mom a call. We look forward to seeing you all soon. Wish us luck.
Until next time…
I’m finally getting around to talking about the photos that we had taken during the kids’ birthday party and baptism. They’ve been on the site for a while, but I haven’t had time to get anything written about them. I’ve added two more folders of photos on our “photos and videos” page. I’ve also added a new video.
Many people have taken photos of the birthday weekend and shared them with us, but we really want to thank Erin Hegrenes for her amazing photography service. We invited Erin to come back and take all of the photos of the weekend for us. Erin is the daughter of one of our volunteers. She has a photography business and you can find out more about Erin by checking out her website www.picsbyerin.com. This is the second time that we’ve had Erin help us out and we think that she does an awesome job. I’ve only provided a handful of the photos on our website. We have over 700 of them between the two days and I’ve uploaded all of them on snapfish.com. You can see all of our photos by clicking on birthday or baptism. This will re-direct you to snapfish where you need an account to view the photos. Accounts are free to set up and you are not obligated to buy anything. This type of site allows me to show all of our photos. Adding all of those photos to my site would cause problems and take me months to complete. We hope you enjoy them.
Thank you Erin!!!
Until next time…
One of our fantastic volunteers, Peggy Kugel, recently offered up a tent that she used with her kids. Since its arrival, it’s been a hit down the hall in Meredith’s room. The kids have all love it. I even got Meredith to sleep in it once. Now that the kids are crawling, they’ve been in Meredith’s room more than ever. I took this video of the kids a week or two ago.
You can check out all of our photos and videos by clicking here or by visiting our youtube page by clicking here.
Birthday Party and Baptism photos are coming soon!!!
Until next time…
Angela and I got out of the house last night.
Let me try that again…I got out of the house last night, I drug her along and forced her to drive me home. Some college friends of mine arranged for some tickets to see the Minnesota Twins play the Tampa Bay Rays. Sounds right up her alley, doesn’t it? Angela is most wonderful person in the world. I owe her a foot rub, at least that’s what I thought the agreement was.
I had a chance to take a quick pic before we went in
Our seats were about as far away from home plate as possible. My friend Brendon was in charge of getting the tickets so, I guess I should have expected the seats we got.
I’m proud of this pic that I took of Old Glory as the National Anthem was being sung.
Old Glory
The food was great, but a bit expensive (even compared to what it was back in the dome).
I even had a chance to say hello to my childhood hero, Kirby Puckett.
My childhood hero, Kirby Puckett
Go Twins!!!
I love baseball. I love the Minnesota Twins. I love the new ballpark. Outdoors is the right way to watch a game; sunshine, a light breeze, a brat and a beer. Anyone who thinks that they should play in a dome is just wrong. Sorry Dad.
Until next time…
I promise that I will work hard on the website this weekend and get several things updated, including adding tons of photos and videos. Be patient and check back.
At the request of my bride, I give you the following post.
Several of you have asked for a copy of one (or some) of the recipes we used for the kids birthday party. For those of you interested, here you go…
Macaroni Salad
1 16oz. package macaroni (cooked)
Dressing:
1 cup sugar
1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup vinegar
2 cups Miracle Whip
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
Mix the above dressing ingredients well and stir into macaroni.
Add any meat and veggies you wish, as well as cubed or shredded cheese.
(**We added pepperoni, shredded cheddar cheese, fresh red onion and fresh yellow, red and orange bell peppers.)
Broccoli Salad (courtesy of Angela Kaiser)
1 cup Miracle Whip
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. vinegar
3 cups chopped broccoli
3 cups chopped cauliflower
½ cup red onion
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
12 slices bacon crumbled
Mix Miracle Whip, sugar, vinegar. Add veggies, onion, bacon and cheese.
Raspberry Sherbet Punch
1 ½ gallon container Raspberry Sherbet
1 2 liter 7-up
1 33oz. can of pineapple juice
Until next time…
You know, I opened up a bit last night after a fantastic weekend. I was in great spirits and felt like we could handle anything these guys threw at us. Then late last night happened.
5 of the six kids spiked serious fevers. 101-103.5. They wouldn’t break either. They were so crabby. Tylenol, Motrin, Tylenol, Motrin, more Tylenol. Every three hours they were getting more medicine. They just cried and cried and cried. They cried all day long today. Meredith is one of the 5 who isn’t well. She didn’t cry all day, but was clearly not well. She vomited this morning…on me. Figures. She spent more time cuddling than running around. She even asked me to cuddle with her. I stayed home and tried to get some work done, but they just cried all day long. We later found out that Meredith is cutting her two year molars. The other kids don’t have any other symptoms so teething is possible. We just need the crying to stop. Uncle. Uncle. Uncle.
Until next time…
Wow! What a great weekend! What a year. Actually, when I think back on it, it’s more like the past 18 months. I can tell that the past year was “full” because every major memory over the past 12-18 months involves me crying. I cried a lot this year.
I cried when I drove home from Duluth after Angela told me that she was in the hospital and that we were expecting more than one baby. I cried that night after we found out that there would be five. What were we gonna do? I cried when Angela had very serious conversations about what we would do if the kids were born too early and also when we discussed how we would handle the burial of our children if any of them wouldn’t make it. What a horrible, but very necessary conversation that we needed to have.
I cried when I sent Meredith to stay with my parents while Angela was in the hospital. She cried, reached out to me and told me that she didn’t want to go. I remember that moment so clearly and I’ll never forget it. I never ever want to be in a position ever again where I can’t take care of my family. That was my first of countless doses of pride that I’ve swallowed over the past year.
I cried when I gave Angela’s mom a hug before the delivery of the kids. She told me that everything would be ok.
I cried when the quints were born. What an emotional day. After I saw that they were all alive and well and breathing I named them and came back to the delivery room and ever so gently kissed my bride on the forehead and told her that they were ok and everything would be fine.
I cried with Angela as we left the hospital when she was discharged after the delivery. Leaving the children behind was so difficult for her and I didn’t like seeing her like that.
I cried when we brought the last of the quints home. We were over the hump. We had a sense that things might be ok.
I didn’t cry much during the year, but it was full of really special moments:
● Taking two of the kids to the ER at Children’s in Minneapolis was a tough day.
● I should have cried, but didn’t when I had my little operation. I still have my bag of peas in the freezer. Yum Yum.
● 5 months in a row of RSV shots sucked a lot. Those nights were so challenging.
● Meredith climbing in her dresser drawers was a memory that will stick.
● Halloween night was fun. I won’t forget that. Our Five Things and the Cat in the Hat will be tough to beat.
● The night that I fired my mom and grandmother and sent them back to the hotel.
● Angela’s gall bladder surgery.
● Christmas
● Our first family photo during the night of the Iowa win in the Orange Bowl.
● Putting the kitchen furniture on the deck because Meredith climbs too much.
● Putting my kitchen furniture in the attic and replacing it with the kids new table.
● The flu, the flu again, a cold, the flu, a cold, a cold, vomit, lots of vomit, ARGH!!!
● Angela and I watching and cheering on the UNI Panthers at BWW’s. I love March Madness!
● Easter was a great day.
● Angela broke her leg. Damn it. Did we really need that?
● The BAV!!! Finally!
And then I cried again this weekend.
Saturday was such a great day. We took the kids over to the church for our open house a little before 11. They just got passed around all day. I never had a real good feel for where they all were at a specific time and I was ok with it. The party was a traditional birthday party with cake, food and balloons, but a bit larger. We think that we had around 150 people there. All of our family members made it at some point over the weekend. Thank you all so much for coming. It meant so much to us to have you all around!!! The kids ate cake…kind of. They aren’t very good with food yet. We sang happy birthday and I cut my first tear of the day. I tried to hide it, but I know some of our guests saw it. We had a party at the house later that day and in to the evening.
On Sunday, we took the entire family to church for the first time. The kids did GREAT. No real crying. Just a little fussing near the end of the service, but it was approaching nap time and they were hungry. They all leaned back at the time of the baptism. Not a peep from any of them, not even Meredith. I cried during the entire thing. Sunday was such a major goal for us. I was so happy. We did it! We made it through the first year! It was so hard at times, but we made it!
Thank you all so much. Angela and I are so blessed to have such supportive families. We’re so fortunate to live in and be supported by such a wonderful community. I’m sure that we don’t tell you often enough, but I hope you all understand how much we truly appreciate everything that you do for us.
Until next time…
