Time Flies!

Wow. I am a bad blogger. Then again, life is busy and I love it! Some news:

Noelle finished 1st grade with all As so we celebrated at "A"pplebees of course! which of course only happened because God gave her a great brain so we had to go to "O"llies for frozen custard dessert. get it? A to O? Alpha to Omega? She is sad to be leaving her friends and her school but is already excited about her new school and new house. She is an avid reader and hopes to become an Author (Book Writer in Noelle speak) so we are working on putting together some stories this summer with me teaching her about plot, characters, settings and such.

Eli is a horse. There is just no other way to describe this child. He is as solid as a boulder but falls over as easy as a danelion in full bloom. He loves speech therapy and is catching on to signing pretty quickly, but really would rather speak and so is working really really hard on making his mouth do what his brain would like it to do. He has gotten brave enough not to hold onto the railing all the time while walking downstairs now. He is a nature lover and water maniac. I can just hear some damsel crying out for "Pool Boy" in his future - my already buff (Yes he has defined muscles) and beautiful baby boy! Dogs are his joy and terror rolled into one. They just have really big teeth. We have our appt on June 16th to get some clarification possibly on why his body isn't moving like it should or how he thinks it should. Here's hoping the experts will comeup with a diagnosis and plan for his next year.

Ruthie is my passive aggressive queen of clean. Maybe a bit OCD?????? She has a true servants heart at only age 2. She loves to help, but not to share (Just ask Eli about the teeth marks on his arm!) She is in love with her baby sister and tries to help with feeding, nuking and burping the baby. She loves puppies and babies, but like Eli can skip the whole big teeth thing. She is finally letting me do her hair! She is all girl. Loves dresses and pretties in her hair. FLowers and sparkles and beads oh my! Still me nervous Nelly when it comes to physical adventures like stairs and jumping and such, but we have time for all those things to develop. It's okay Ru-ster.

Anna. Where to begin. Well, thanks to Brad our babysitter, Anna is crawling and trying to pull herself up on the bookcase to reach books on the top shelf. Her first word was Mama :) Atta girl! She hates babyfood breakfasts (including all those cereals we are supposed to feed her) but loves her veggies and fruits. She has major skin issues that we are trying to deal with and appears to be allergic to carpet (well, something in new carpet at least). It looks like we may finally have a red head for Gramma - jury is still out since my babies never have hair. She is large. She is in the 75th percentile for height and weight without adjusting for being a month premature. She is wearing 12 month clothing with a few smaller 18 monthers thrown in. She loves her brother and sisters and thinks they are a riot! No one makes her laugh harder than Noelle. Instant belly laugh when she sees her. They are also now sharing a room.

Jeff and I are doing fine with the usual amount of stress in trying to sell ahouse, buy a house and raise 4 precious gifts from God. Not going anywhere on vacation this year but we would love to have company once we move! I will try to update more frequently. Sorry anybody who still reads this.

Really? an update?!

So, its been awhile. Sorry friends. I got sucked into the world of Facebook and ignored blogger. Can you forgive me?

We are all doing really well. Big news again from our household but does not include the word pregnant this time. I got a new job that starts this coming August so we are putting our house on the market in the next few weeks and prepping the house for a big move to Charleston, IL.

Updates by person:

Jeff is really looking forward to being a stay at home dad in our new home. work is still work for him and he is trying to find time to do the repairs needed to our current home before we put it on the market.

I am finally about healthy! Woo Hoo. Semester is going well and I have agreed to teach an intersession course for NIU so I will be done working by mid June.


Noelle is having a pretty good first grade year. Her academics continue to be top notch and she is really enjoying having siblings. She likes to hold Anna and play with the twins. They have built tents and made a very cushy spot to relax under Anna's crib!

Eli is still the big boy cruising around the house dancing and singing or shrieking all the time. Therapy is going well and we may have a diagnosis for some of his issues in the near future. He is a cuddle bug lately and I love it!


Ru is still the shy one but has gotten very gutsy with her brother and is aggressive right back with him if he tries to take her toy! She really enjoys Anna and tries to mother her. Then she goes and gets her own baby doll and mimics what I do. She is such a lover.


Anna is still the best baby ever. She is smiling, giggling and guffawing. Almost rolled over the other night! Absolutely a blessing and brings joy to everyone.


It's too late for pics but I promise I will post some good ones really soon. For now, these are all that I have.

Finally an update!

So much has happened since my last post. Start with the good stuff!

Anna is the best baby ever! She is eating and growing like a weed. She is two months old now and slept through the night a few times. Today, she has slept from around 12 last night and is still going! It is 8 am! She smiles and chortles and enjoys interacting with people - especially her daddy. She has lost that "I'm a newborn" look to her and has the best pudgy cheeks. Still wearing mostly 0-3 months clothes after being in newborn size for a month. She loves her teddy bear mobile and would rather be held and sleep on a person than any other place in the world. Daddy's side of the bed is a close second, however. She is such a Daddy's girl already :)


Twins are making progess in both therapy and teething! Eli only needs 1 more tooth to be caught up with Ruthie. He has been a grouch lately though because of all the teething. They go the dentist for their first appt just after the new year. Ruthie's speech is starting to pick up, but Eli is still very grunty and guttural in his language skills. Have a feeling that speech therapy will be starting in January. Eli was almost able to jump last week at therapy! Both feet off the floor and everything! It is a really big feat in case you were wondering! Ruthie is a very stubborn and strong willed child - not looking forward to the teenage years. BOth are wanting to sit in booster seats at the dining room table instead of in their high chairs. We will have to see about this!

Noelle is doing great in school - making straight A's on her report card and avoiding trouble more often than before. She loves reading, Bible time and art. She has been a great helper with Anna and is always available to wrestle with Eli :) She likes to build towers with blocks for Ru to knock down. Way to go big sister :)


Jeff has been a trooper since I am not always feeling up to snuff. He has put in a lot of late nights with Anna so that I could rest. Santa should be bringing him some extra presents for being so good this year.


My medical issues continue. Neurologist appt was good - headaches are due to my bp. My meds are not controlling my bp enough so Cardiologist appt this week. Just like my first pregnancy, i have a kidney stone and other urological issues, so appt next week. BUT I feel better these days and we are in finals week at work! Yeah!

Here are some random pics for your enjoyment!

Anna Joy 10-8-2009

Welcome to the world Anna! We have had quite a time lately. Anna was born on Thursday last week with much strife and illness on my part. I ended up in the hospital for 8 days with my blood pressure doing really wacky things. It is still not quite stabilized but we are working on it. She was almost an emergency C-section on Wed night but my bp finally came down and we were able to wait until Thursday morning for her birth (she was actually due Nov 2nd). She is absolutely precious. We did an amnio on Wed morning to check her lung status. All was good. She weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz and 18.5 in long. She is too tiny for 0-3 month clothing so my sister-in-laws mom did some emergency clothes shopping for us :) All the kids are so excited about baby Anna. Eli and Ru can't get enough of her and try to kiss and touch her all the time. Can't stay at computer for too long so I will post pics and update more later.

Proud or shameless Parents are we. HELP!!

We have entered Eli into the BabyGap casting call and would love your support. It takes a minute to go to www.gap.com/castingcall. Enter Eli's contestant number 946083687 and vote once a day. He is just the cutest thing - not of course to be outdone by Ru or Noelle, but his personality would actually allow people to take pics of him :) You do have to sign up for a Disney account - it's free and quick. Thanks much!

Baby Anna news and kids pic

Baby Anna is over 4 1/2 lbs now and is looking good! Unfortunately, I am not looking as good as my blood pressure is going up, swelling is not going down and stress is rising as well. I head back for a check up on Friday of this week for blood pressure. Keep you posted.

Noelle came home from school today early because she was sick - well really it was just allergies that made her cough so hard she threw up. Oh ragweed, you really need to go away!

Eli and Ru are doing ok, but both are teething and ornery. Eli is getting 1st year molars and Ru is getting 2nd year already!

Enjoy the pic!

First Day of School

Finally posting first day of school stuff! Noelle has been in school for 2 weeks already! Where does the time go? First grade and homework has begun but she loves to read and do math so its all good :) All other kids are doing just fine. New pics soon. Anna is still cooking and looking good. Another ultrasound this wed and hopefully a good pic!

Referral Anniversary

Hard to believe that a year has gone by since our referral (Aug 11)! It seems at some moments like it was yesterday that we first saw the pictures of our new children, but then at other times, it is like they have always been with us. We are so excited to see what the next few months have in store for everybody. Ruthie is now walking on her own, up to 10 steps at a time! Eli is still running and crashing into everything in sight. The kids have grown so much. At referral and now there measurements were/are:
Eli: 2008 24 in. and 9.4 lbs 2009 34.5 in and 30 lbs

Ruthie: 2008 21.6 in and 6.8 lbs 2009 31.5 in and 27 lbs

We are so happy and thankful that they are with us. We can't imagine life without them and remember their birth mom often.

A fun evening and pregnancy update

Well, it appears that I may have gestational diabetes. Oh yippee. I will be heading in next week to chat with the nurse and educator. All the kids are enjoying the warm weather - finally! Noelle has been swimming lately and the kids are enjoying going for walks. The pictures are from sidewalk chalk the other evening. Yes, we did have to change their pjs because they got full of chalk dust. it was a spur of themoment thing. Enjoy!

Basic news with pics

We've been busy lately with VBS and the twins club picnic along with other daily common life stuff. Noelle has been at VBS learning digital photography for the week. I will post some of her pictures later since they are still on her camera. We had a great time at the twins club picnic with over 400 people in attendance - all families have some version of multiple births and there were soooo many babies there! It has been cold and rainy so we haven't gotten out very much lately - hopefully that will change. Enjoy the pics and new updates will come soon - another doc appt for Annie on Tuesday.

Ru's big mess

Twins club picnic

It's RU!!!!!

Ru and Mom

Feed the pig

Eli being helpful

Dad and Eli