Anyone else feel like it should be February?

Seems the more kids you have the faster the days go! The online class continues to be very time consuming and stressful, but I AM learning a lot and getting good grades. Praying the next class is more on my knowledge level.

Esther is doing wonderfully. She's 5 months now. On our home scale (me holding her, minus me) she weighs 15.2 pounds dressed. So she's at LEAST 15 pounds. Tyler hit 15 pounds at 3 1/2 months, Grace was 16 pounds 5 oz at her 6 month appointment. So the girls are right about the same size. I do believe Esther to be longer though. She is now on two bottles daily, three nursing. She's still sleeping through the night, though lately that last feeding has come after midnight messing up mommy's wake up time more and more! We're trying to keep up with things inside the house, and homeschooling, and Gary has started getting the years worth of leaves raked out of all the flower beds around the house. We're already making plans for what we're going to take out to make the outside work easier. I'm not much for pulling weeds. If I'm going to spend time pulling weeds I want to do it where the reward is a fresh tomato sandwich! We do still hope to start a garden, though I wouldn't be surprised if that was the thing we had to forgo... to me the fence will be more important. And Gary wants a grill. :)

Our other fun thing we're doing is trying to find flower girl dresses! I think I'm having more fun than Grace!

Just a couple quick pictures of the kids the week we moved in...

checking in...

SPRING IS COMING!!! We'll probably have more snow first, but we're seeing signs of it! Last week we had some gorgeous days with sunshine and warm weather!

Thank you to all those who prayed for Mikey. He is home from the hospital and on the mend. He will have to have several more surgeries, so continue to pray for him as he has a long road ahead. His feeding is key, as being able to take a bottle and receive nourishment will help strengthen him and make his health stable for the surgeries.

Gary and I are currently taking a class through the University Of Phoenix. We have to take 6 credit hours every 4 years to keep our certification. We're doing both classes this spring, a three week class now, and another one immediately following. The work is all done online making it convenient, however doing a 5 week course in three weeks that you know nothing about is terribly hard. We chose two technology classes so that Gary could have something to use at his job, and I could attempt to keep up with the outside world in preparation for "someday" when I go back to teaching. So far the biggest lesson I've learned is that I know nothing about technology and do not handle stress well. The assignments are very time consuming, especially sharing a computer and feeling lost the entire time. Today ends our first week, five to go.

Yesterday we took a quick trip to Mansfield to attend the Ohio Wedding Reception of Graham and Seda Geisler. It was a wonderful event and we're so thankful we got to be a part of it. We're so happy for the Geislers and thankful they have been able to move from Cambodia, to America. We're praying for you Graham as you look for a job! Seda, it was a blessing and an honor to meet you! We saw many people that we worked with when we lived there and it was fun to see the reactions to our adding two girls to our family since many of them had seen us. The highlight of my day, was holding Ali Stauffer (and visiting with her mommy! I got to talk to a real live adult!!). I love that little girl and her parents so much! It's extremely moving to have prayed for something, almost daily, for years, and then to see God answer those prayers in such a wonderful way. Children are a blessing and we're so grateful God answered our prayers and sent Ali to Ben and Amy. We continue to pray for you guys and we love you!! Keep in touch! :)

Esther is now taking one bottle of formula a day. Thanks to a very generous donation I might switch her to two a little ahead of schedule. I also will be able to start cereal with her as soon as i find her highchair cover! She still eats, plays and sleeps right on schedule. She wants to sit on her own in the worst way, but can't seem to sit still so she falls a lot. She's not at all interested in rolling but has started getting herself turned around and scooted both from her tummy and her back. She's never where I lay her at night in the morning! She's such a good baby. Grace and Tyler are doing well too. It's been an adjustment for them, again, with my preoccupation with these courses. Having mommy preoccupied most of the day and daddy stressed and preoccupied at night has been rough, but they have each other and truly love to be together and play together. Having more space here has made a huge difference. They act up like crazy outside of the house so most people would never know it, but they are great kids. I feel badly about all the adjusting they've had to go through, and I'm blessed to have kids that are so resilient.

As I composed this in my head earlier today it seemed I had more to write... but now I can't remember. :( 5-6 hours of sleep a night is just not enough for us! I'm off to pack a picnic dinner for us to take to daddy's work. Phone problems will likely have him there most of the evening so hopefully he can help me with my power point assignment and we can let the kids run around in the hallways or gym a bit!

I hope to post more photos this week.... if not look for them next month! :)

Prayers for Mikey

My friend Lori's cousin Jamie has a baby named Mikey. He's had many issues with his lungs and was born with cleft lip/pallet. He's been in the hospital often since birth (he's a month or two older than Esther) for aspirating when trying to take bottles and problems with his lungs. He had surgery Tuesday on his lip, pallet and nose. He came out of surgery in stable condition and took a little from a bottle. He was also in considerable pain. Wednesday he began to have trouble eating and has had to be put on IV because He's not eaten anything since. He did try to drink yesterday, and aspirated into his lungs. Last night also the stints in his nose shifted, causing the nose to shift and they had to have the stitched in stint moved into the correct place with no medication. Please keep the family in your prayers if you would. Thanks!

Uncle Jim and Aunt Barb!

HI! If you are reading this you are in the right place! To the right is a list of "Archives" Go to "December 2009" AND "January 2010" for the most pictures.

Enjoy! Love, Heather

Marching into March! I"m happy to report that there is not much to report. Sometimes no news is good news. Yikes, where does time go? When I last wrote was already over a week ago! Last week I don't remember much about at the moment. I"m not sure if nothing happened or if i"m just that tired. :) We're still settling which is nice. The downstairs is almost complete after a 5 hour move-everything sweep and mop session yesterday. The wood floors are finally clean and the carpets where I want them. Toy bins still need to be re-organized. The home school room is in good shape and clean and ready for Rosy. Gary's parents are heading out tomorrow after Pap's surgery to visit Josh and Lia in NC so we'll be taking Rosy. We have a nice area we can block off, and hopefully she'll get out of there and be able to play with the kids some. They are "afraid" of her but I think they are coming around to her and after having her live with us for a few days I think it'll go better. It think it will also cement in my mind that I'm NOT ready for a dog! If we got a dog it wouldn't be an older, blind and deaf dog so it'd be a LOT more work. My mom is enjoying some time in Florida with Grandma and Grandpa Cline and Aunt Toots, as well as Uncle Jim and Aunt Barb. She opened her day yesterday with a run on the beach and a great view of a family of dolphins. Perfect way to start the day! (Minus the running part of course.) I"m not doing so well with the treadmilling. :) The days I do get on, I get in a really nice workout, but then I seem to miss two days in a row. At least i'm making the effort. Gary got to take Tyler to a basketball game last night. The Marlington Dukes won and Tyler had a good time. We had "girls night" here at home complete with dancing, making cookies, Candyland and Dora. As soon as Grace went to bed Esther decided she needed a good crying fit and needed to be held. I"m happy to do it. :) Gary's been getting us into LOST here since we moved. Great waste of time with all the new house projects... but i guess if you are going to get engrossed in a show, better in Feb/March than in June. I don't get the point, but it is addicting. At the end of most episodes i say "nothing happened!" But I keep watching because we watch together, and because something might happen. We're still plugging along with our Sonlight Curriculum as well as some reading aloud, and a preschoool workbook. Tyler is MUCH more willing to write these days so the writing pages are going well, and actually a bit too easy. I hope to get him back on the learning to read course sometime next week. We're staill praying through our Christian school vs home school decision. We're excited to have some company this weekend for the day on Saturday. We hope Josh has a great birthday and sorry he has to spend it with us! haha! We're really looking forward to having them and pray that Snow does not ruin the chance to see them! My brother also is having a birthday this week... I can't believe how grown up we are! My mom must feel the same. Esther is four months now. We started this week giving her a bottle of "mommy milk" once a day. Sunday she was not on board at all and only took 2oz over a period of almost an hour. Yesterday she took a full 3 oz and was so fussy an hour and a half later that I gave her another 3 oz. I hope today she'll take a larger bottle. It's funny I have no idea what to even offer her because I have no idea how much she drinks. We'll probably start her on formula for that one feeding this week or next week. I know it's time, but i'm hesitant to do it. My last baby and I don't want to wean her just yet! Last summer I had the privilege of getting to go to Amish country with my dear friends Jackie and Connie. It was SO much fun. I bought a Mennonite cookbook there and didn't get to use it until we moved here. In fact I made a point to have it unpacked right away so it was ready to use. I've made 7 recipes out of it now and we've liked them all! Many of them are pretty high in calories due to the ingredients so i look forward to experimenting with low fat substitutes for ingredients. Sometimes it just isn't worth it though. :) I did have to laugh at myself when making an egg casserole though. It calls for 1/2 lb or less Velveeta, 6 pieces of white bread, 6 eggs and 1/2 lb bacon. I was taking the bacon out of the skillet and thought to myself "how much calorie difference is it really going to make if I drain this on paper towels?" I did drain it and it was very yummy, and VERY filling! It's been fun to cook again and I can tell you the reason is THE DISHWASHER!!! I love that thing. Nap time is quickly coming to a close. Esther needs to eat, laundry needs my attention and the woodwork does not dust itself! Gary's got conferences tonight so leftovers it is!