Held

Friends of ours are expecting their first child. Eva who is from the Dominican, is about 30 weeks pregnant with their baby girl and has been visiting some of her family in New York. She began having symptoms of preterm labor this weekend and her husband Carlton flew out to be with her in the hospital. Praise the Lord, that the doctors were able to stop the contractions and mom and baby are doing well. Please pray that she will be able to carry Baby to term. Doctors have told Eva and Carlton that they won't be able to stop labor again if contractions resume.

Backyard Party

We had a backyard party for Mason today. He was so excited, he said "It's not even my birthday!" The kids played in the yard, in the pool, in the house and on the swings . . .they were all over the place, and I loved it! Noah and Mason went home with Grandma and Grandpa Martin who both have the day off tomorrow and will be taking the boys to see Ratatooey. Is that how it's spelled? No, I guess that's the English spelling . . .in French it's Rataouille. Anyway, this is a first for them, to both be with their grandparents overnight. I know they'll have a blast and their grandparents will probably collapse in an exhausted heep tomorrow night!

Technical Difficulties

Please bear with me, my blog site is having problems and I have temporarily changed it. I could use some advise from you veteran bloggers who have customized your own pages!

Mason is here!

We drove to Decatur last night to pick up our nephew Mason. We'll have him for a week before his great-grandparents pick him up for a week of camping. Wow, he's a busy little fella.

Noah had the camera in the back seat and here are a few of the fun shots he got. More to come I'm sure!

Still blessings

Psalm 42:11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.
I've been down the last 36 hours with a migrain. . . probably one of the worst ones I've ever had to deal with. But even in the midst of it I was able to recognize a few blessings. The first one was that Josh got home just in time for the worst of it, so I did not have to be alone. He held my head, brought hot towels, held my hair back when I was throwing up and slept on the floor near me until I was able to get up to bed. What an amazing man! Another was that Noah and Bronwen went to bed early and to sleep right away. They never saw how bad it was. In the morning, Noah took care of things. He kept Madie (yes, it was my day to have her) and Bronwen quietly playing upstairs and helped Bronwen in the bathroom when she needed it. He even dressed her . . .and she let him! Little Annabelle had a bad night, but a good day so I was able to rest while she napped. And finally, mom was able to get away from the office in the afternoon and pick up Noah and Bronwen for the night so I could rest more. This morning, the storm has passed and I just feel bruised, but so loved and cared for that my heart is bursting. I don't know if I'll ever find permanent relief from migraines, but I know that He will never give me more than I can handle!

Weights and Measures

We just updated the doorway growth chart and here are the results:


Noah 45 1/2 inches, 47 pounds


Bronwen 33 3/4 inches, 23 pounds


Annabelle ( I still have to get her inches,) 13 pounds

Ladies and Gentlemen

Noah found a good place to put his hat when he sat down to dinner. We were just talking about manners and how gentlemen take off their hats when they come indoors, sit down to eat or go to church. For ladies, some believe it is proper to cover their heads. He thought that was pretty funny. I did too. I'm glad that I don't have to cover my head all of the time. But it was an interesting discussion!

Tuesday

Tuesday. We are usually gone all day on Tuesdays. Moms' group meets at the church in the morning and then we have lunch and naps at Mom's house. Every other Tuesday I have Madie, but not today. I also watch Madelyn and Chloe for an hour or two while Christine works and before Mom get's home from work. So it's often quite loud and busy. But today it was just me and mine. Noah and Bronwen explored the back yard and I tried to help Mom get some work done. Poor Bronwen fell and scraped her leg. . . one would think she fell because of her new stacked flip flops; but she has a few other scrapes that prove otherwise.

4 months

on Grandma's bed she looks like another stuffed lamb.

I'm still trying to get a really good picture of her blue eyes. This one is pretty fuzzy.

We received a package from Adam and Katie. Inside was this soft little bunny lovey with Annabelle's name embroidered on it. She just loves it as you can see.

She's just so sweet! It's hard to remember life without her. And now she's 4 months old already.

Greer, SC

Here are some pictures of Noah and Josh's trip this past weekend. They had a blast together and with our family.

Safely home

Josh and Noah got home around 9 tonight. Thank you Lord! And thank you to everyone who was praying for their safety and for peace for me :) Noah is so excited about the new van. He had to show me everything and even asked me to take him over to the church parking lot so he could drive it! Not tonight Noah!! Everyone is really tired so I'm going to crash early. The girls and I stayed with Mom and Dad so it's good for everyone to be back home and in our own beds tonight.

Road Trip

Noah is hitting the road tomorrow morning with Josh. They are driving to Greenville South Carolina to pick up our new '99 Honda Odyssey that Josh bought on eBay.

I'm a bit nervous about this trip which is why I'm still up at this hour. I've packed fun things for Noah to do in the car and made a list of games he can play with Daddy while they are driving. I know he'll be great in the car. And I know this will be a great experience he will always treasure. But I always worry when any of my children are not with me, even if they are with Josh. This is something I have to give to my Heavenly Father and trust that he will take care of. But please pray for their safety this weekend.

When they get to Greenville, they will be only minutes away from the Gilvins so they will be spending Friday and Saturday nights with Aunt Bev and Uncle Cal (Noah is really hoping to see Katie and Adam while they are there too.) They'll be driving back home on Sunday.

A Simple Night

Just as I got comfy on the couch and settled in to watch Home and Garden television we lost power because of the massive storm that had moved in over South Bend and surrounding areas. We don't usually loose our power when it storms, so I was expecting it to come back in a few minutes. But after a call to the power company, we realized we were in for a long night.

So instead of TV or blogging, I enjoyed a very quiet night of reading by lamp light. I grabbed a book I've been wanting to finish, but "haven't had the time." It is surprising just how quiet the house is when all the machines are not humming. Josh and I used to have one night a week when we would turn everything off and play a game or talk by lamp light, just to connect with each other without distractions and to be reminded of a time when things were much simpler. It's a shame we got out of that practice.

Eventually the very loud thunder and constant lightning woke Bronwen. I cuddled with her on the couch reading for a while. On her way up to bed, a loud crack woke Noah so we were up for some time longer praying and talking. Annabelle managed to sleep through it.

So, at first I was disappointed to not be able to watch the program I was looking forward to. I really needed to know how to do what they were going to do with the counter top. But I really had a much better evening than I could have planned.

Autumn

Annabelle 4 months

Bronwen 5 months

Just look at these little ladies. Noah has made sure each one is comfortably resting on his beloved "Autumn" stuffed puppy. He is such a diligent and caring big brother.

Strange Bug

Anybody know what this is?

I was leaving the yard the other day and this little guy was on the gate. I was fascinated by his likeness to a grasshopper. But it's not like a grasshopper I've ever seen before. Any guesses?
I was thinking in the grasshopper family since there are over 10,000 species, but he doesn't appear to have wings.
I looked at over 40, and my search has not been very successful, but I did find these great insect learning-sites:
http://42explore.com/insects.htm

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/stories/hurtrnot.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/printouts.shtml

Ok, I'm back . . . I think we have a winner. It appears to be a Tettigoniidae and the genus . . . Katydid! I've just never seen this species before. I'm more familiar with this one:

Mine is a female and the large brown sharp structure on her netherside is an "ovipositor" used for sticking her eggs in the dirt or the stem of a plant. Now we've all learned something new today!

I'll do it!

Bronwen wants so badly to do everything herself these days. She's so tiny, it's hard for me to just let her do some of the things she wants to. For instance, she insists on climing in and out of the car which is quite a step for her little legs. The other night, she insisted on a shower, not a bath . . .and she wanted to do it all herself.

She's taking more of an interest in baby Annabelle and wants to help with her much more which thrills me.

She loves to play with trucks, airplanes, trains and motorcycles just as much as with dolls.

She learned how to blow bubbles this weekend.

At the family reunion Saturday, the older kids walked to the back of the field and Bronwen wanted to go too. Here's an idea of how far it was. That little dot in the middle is Bronwen, she walked the whole way there and back!

"I did it too!" Just like the big kids. Don't rush growing up my little one. It'll happen soon enough.