With quads Christmas in the Kelly household can be chaotic but they wouldn’t have it any other way … story in the DAILY MAIL. 
Sean and Lisa Kelly feel so lucky to have their four adorable little girls. The couple, who have a ten year old son, had problems conceiving a second child and had almost given up hope. Then on their third IVF attempt, they were delighted to find they were expecting. What they didn’t expect, however, was that they’d be pregnant with quads. Incredibly the two embryos that had been placed back inside Lisa’s uterus had both divided into sets of identical twins.
When the twins were born on 27th December 2009, they made the front page of the Daily Mail newspaper after becoming the first set of quads to be identical twins – beating 10million to one odds.
This Christmas Featureworld caught up with the quads, who celebrate their second birthday.
Despite being so busy, Lisa – who still manages to work as a nurse – adores her big family. And now the girls are truly developing their own individual personalities, life with quads is becoming even more interesting.
Explains their mum: ‘Heidi is the most dominant and probably the naughtiest as she is always up to something and her twin, Annabelle is very placid.
‘Sean and I can’t tell Jessica and Hannah apart just by looking at them – so Hannah, whose only difference is a freckle behind her left knee – wears a bracelet. But Jessica is super lively and always on the go while Hannah is more timid and loves sitting on my knee.’
On a normal day their mother, who fits part time work around her husband, goes through 20 nappies, two packs of wet wipes, eight pints of milk, 2Ib of potatoes, puts on four loads of washing and does several hours of tumble drying.
She says: “We’re on our second washing machine and tumble drier in less than two years. And I shop every other day for food – my bill comes to around £200 a week.’
A usual day in the Kelly household begins around 5.30am when the girls – who each share a room with their twin at the family’s four-bed detached house – wake up.
Says Lisa: ‘Sean and I give them their bottles. Then an hour later we put up four high chairs and give each of them their bowls of cereal. After that it’s upstairs to get dressed – which can be quite difficult with four wriggling toddlers.’
The couple cook all the family meals from scratch. She says: ‘It would be easy to give them fish fingers and chicken nuggets but we manage by bulk cooking. So we might make several shepherd’s pies in one go and freeze them.’
And she manages their wardrobe by buying identical outfits – although buying the same for four children means a dress, cardigan, tights and shoes for all of them often tops £150 a shop.
She explains: ‘I do feel very proud seeing them all dressed in the same little outfits. But mostly going to the park is much easier if they are all dressed in the same clothes. For example, they all have a bright pink coat on with ducks and when I round them up I just have to search for the bright pink toddlers. Needless to say though, I try to avoid buying any clothes that need ironing…’
Meanwhile, the family also possesses a quad buggy with two seats in two rows from America, which just about fits into their Espace car.
She says: ‘We do take the girls on holiday – earlier this year we went to Centre Parcs but we always travel at night as the girls can be quite noisy and it’s much more peaceful when they’re all asleep.’
In the evening, baths are taken in twos with the girls going to bed around 6.45. ‘Sean and I often don’t eat until 9.30pm ,’ she sighs, ‘it is tiring because obviously we are also busy with Cameron taking him to friends and after-school events.
‘But despite that, we adore having a big family. And I only have to see the girls in their cots asleep looking like little angels to forget even the busiest and most fraught days. And they are already growing up so fast – so Sean and I are determined to make the most of every moment of their childhood.’
Are you expecting quads or more? If you would like to sell your multiple birth story, then do tell us about it via our specialist sister site, Featureworld.
