So. Very. Tired.

I know, I know.
I've just had my fourth major surgery in 6 years and we have a 4 day old living in the house with three other children under the age of seven.  What did I expect?
All in all, things are going well.  We have had so much wonderful help Nina & Pops and neighbors.  I am so grateful.
Not that it has been a cakewalk...Nate is  having a tough adjustment to not being the baby and being two years old in general, Sam seems a bit overwhelmed by everything and Caroline just doesn't want to sleep ever...but golly, things have gone so much better than I imagined they would.  I have felt just so yucky and sick and itchy the past few weeks, that even though I'm in pain from the section, I feel so much better than I did.  It's really nice to feel good enough to want to do things (even if I get yelled at by everyone for doing too much). 
Benjamin has a nice case of the day/night mix-ups.  This has allowed both Jim and I to catch up on old episodes of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager", "How I Met Your Mother," and "Star Trek:"  So it's not all bad...just makes the daytime a bit more challenging...
Jim and I are sitting here with Benjamin, who is making the most beautiful cooing sounds that I have ever heard, listening to the baseball game with the other kids in bed and I have such an overwhelming sense of appreciation and gratitude and blessing that I could  cry. 
Wow.  Just wow.

So - enough sappiness - time to deluge the blogs with pictures from the past few days.

Here are Daddy and Nate reading a favorite "Thomas the Tank Engine" book...

 Caroline and Sam conned Auntie Chrissy...Ummm....I mean Auntie Chrissy was nice enough to get Caroline and Sam each a new stuffed doggie while she was here last weekend.  I made them each a collar and leash out of potholder loops and they were walking their pets all around the house.  The kids have been playing "pet shop" and pretending they are dogs and cats a lot recently.  They haven't come out and asked for a new pet, but I know it's on their minds.  I hope Benjamin will distract them for a little while... 

 Caroline insisted on taking a belly picture of me earlier this week.  I, of course, wanted to wait until tonight because Q wasn't going to arrive until tomorrow!  Yup - sometimes my kids are smarter than me.  I admit it. 

 Nina and 3/4 of her brood.  We love having Nina around.  What an amazing help. 

 Chilling with Benjamin after bathies.   They just want him to be able to play with them so badly.  I hope it lasts say, another 18 years...

 The First Official Pictures of the Fantastic Four...

 Sleeping like a baby.  I love these little outfits that all four of them have worn.  Takes me on a nice trip down Memory Lane.  And then I stop in amazement/astonishment because it re-occurs to me that I am a mother of four.  HOLY SCHNIKES!!!!!