Nothing New

Seems everyone is wondering how things are going for us (health-wise) and I would say overall there is nothing new to report.

We are still catching up on all the previously scheduled summer appointments for now eyes and teeth. Eliya and Gabie both have great eyes - they see perfectly for their age and have strong healthy eyes. We are so thankful! They were both kind of bummed that they didn't need glasses (I think we made the Rachel glasses sound too exciting - haha!). I on the other hand need new glasses. I'm not one that wears mine very much as my prescription is more for the same reason Rachel has hers and not so much for actual 'see-ing' if that makes sense. Well, my eyes have now started to become more near-sighted so I actually do need the glasses to see better. I'm still not nearly as blind as some in the family (Mark :) but will need to start wearing them more often. This is fine since I had already gotten out the glasses to encourage Rachel in wearing hers, but the fun thing is since it's been a couple years I got to pick out new frames :)

We start our round of every-6-months dental appointments today. I'm quite sure that Gabie will need more help in that department. Her molars did not form properly due to the heavy antibiotics she was on as a baby. All but one were taken care of a couple years ago when she had her dental surgery but the one that was not is looking in rough shape. I'm hoping they can just do a filling and we don't have to have another silver tooth, but we'll see what they say today.

Annie has gone back to camp, we are so thankful for the month she was able to spend with us. She was a joy and a blessing to our family. Now, Nana is back which is also such a blessing. She will stay till mid-October when we hope that at least I am back to normal overall.

I am walking better each day - still use the cane, but don't feel the separation between the hip and pelvis nearly as much with each step so I am so thankful for that!

Mark isn't doing as well. It seems that the pain surpressors aren't helping at all, but we are trying to be patient and give them a chance as he's not up to full strength yet. He did call mayo this past week so see where they are at in terms of a game plan. His doctor was out so we hope to hear back in the next couple of days. He does his best to work as much as he can, and never complains. We just continue to pray for a miracle and that God would choose to reach down and heal him. In the meantime we pray for patience and endurance.

If you are going through a difficult time I strongly encourage the song Before the Morning by Josh Wilson. It's a wonderful testimony to God's providence in our lives! Thanks for checking in on us!

Appleton

Since Nate and Sarah have graciously been making the trip to Amherst to help us out every time Annie had to go back to camp, we figured it was our turn (and we still need help). So on Friday after school we headed to Appleton. Babies-R-Us was also having a great sale so I was able to stock up on a lot of stuff there. On Saturday we were able to enjoy the park, Octoberfest in downtown Appleton (ok that part was extremely short-lived due to our handicapped-ness), naps and a short trip to the mall where Sarah and I got our hair cut.

Ready for the park!

Rachel was a brave girl till she got about 3/4 of the way up and then she panicked and needed mom to come rescue her.

Eliya running through the playground equipment

They kept warm by running around.

guess we should've done the same as we were huddled up and chilly.

so sleep

carmel chin!

Yum! Every day Rachel starts out with a barette in her hair. She usually discovers it's there at some point, grabs it and pulls it out and says 'mommy, this fell out.' And then her hair is her face the rest of the day - oh well! At least she's cute!

The bees liked our carmel apples too

Once the sun came out it warmed up quite a bit

sharing a lemonade

Face-Painting

They had face-painting at Octoberfest which of course they charged for. Lucky for us that Sarah has a supply of face-paint and so the girls were still able to do it!

Sneeze!

A-CHOO!

Wow! That was a big one!

much better :)

XOXO

Days Remembered....

These pictures are just precious to me, because they remind me of my own childhood. I had a kitty named Princess and my best friend, Rachel and I would dress her up in doll clothes and wrap her in baby blankets and put her in a little red wagon that we could push/pull her around in and she just let us. I'm so happy that my girls have such sweet cats that let them play with them so much.

Party!

We had a birthday/going away party for Annie on Thursday afternoon. I ended up picking Eliya up from school early because of all the flooding. When I went to take Gabie to preschool a bunch of roads had water running across them and it was still coming down big time. So instead of having Eliya getting stuck in SP on Annie's last day here I just picked her up a little early from school. Our basement ended up flooding from all the rain, but thankfully some friends from church came over Friday to help clean it up.

Sister Snuggles

So Sweet

Hanging out with Annie

play mat

Polka-Dots!

Thanks for the adorable dress Jen!

4 Months!

These pictures were taken earlier, but she had her 4 month well-baby check-up today so it seemed appropriate to put the 2 posts into one. As you can see she is growing! She is sitting up with help (like in the bumbo seat or leaning on something). She is rolling both ways and cooing and talking all the time. It is always so amazing to me how quickly they grow and change! At her check-up the doctor declared her to be 'perfect' :) Her height was 23 1/4 (25%) and weight was 11pounds 1 ounce (5%), but her head was in the 50th % - which is probably why she does seem bigger then she is to many people.

Don't Forget us!

The cats are still here and doing great. They still love to snuggle and do a good job taking care of the girls (most morning your find them curled in with them).

Well-Child-Check-Ups

I had scheduled all the girls various appointments for this past summer in August, but had to reschedule everything after all our excitement, so we are now catching up. The older 3 girls had well-child check-ups on Monday. They were all declared quite healthy. I had a list of questions for each of them that were all answered and easy to take care of. Eliya is in the 75-95% for everything and doing great. She had to have a wart frozen off though which she wasn't thrilled about. Gabie was actually in the 40-75% in everything! WOW!!! This wasn't even corrected for prematurity anymore. She also had to have her hearing checked but it was fine, it's slightly affected due to her earlier ear ruptures and tubes, but not enough to need any intervention. She had to have 5 shots today though, which she made sure she told EVERYONE she saw to get sympathy points. Rachel was in the 50% across the board. She also had to get 2 shots today (which Gabie also pointed out to everyone that she had to get MORE then Rachel). All the girls were brave and cooperative with the appointment and as a reward we got a little shopping set that included food, a cart, cash register, $, etc. and they have been loving it! They have been playing grocery store non-stop ever since (and not even fighting!)

Some House Pictures

For those of you that haven't seen our house (or haven't seen it for awhile) here are a few pictures of some rooms that are 'finished'. It's such a process gettng settled into a house esp with 4 kids! We were able to finish some things up this weekend with all our help!
Eliya and Gabie's room which also is currently Annie's room.

Kitchen!

This looks like a chalkboard, but is actually chalkboarn paint - awesome! Sarah did the painting in the kitchen.

Dining room - this room had an AMAZING transformation. The floor was refinished, new curtains hung and some painting done. It's by far the most qualified for an HGTV show!

Our living room has also had a transformation, but I don't have pics of that yet.