Merry Christmas!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! We had a blast!!
Wed morning we had our family Christmas just the three of us. We had chocolate chip pancakes and then we opened presents. Lainey had so much fun and was excited with every gift. We talked about Jesus's birthday and just had some family time.

At lunch time we headed out all packed and ready to make the trip to Muskegon. We had dinner with both Grandmas and then we headed off to Christmas eve service at the Journey. It was nice to be back with friends and family for the week. I miss The Journey and the friends we had there. I feel so much at home when im there.

Christmas day we went to Joshs aunt and uncle for dinner and some more family time. During the prayer that josh's uncle was doing, Elaine decided that he had gone on long enough and blurted out AMEN!!! before he was done praying. After that everyone erupted into laughter so the prayer ended a little early. Around 4 we headed back to muskegon to spend some time with my dad. Elaine got to open her stocking from Grandpa and she loved all the fun stuff she got. Coloring books, playdough and other little items. She enjoyed seeing grandpa and all the friends and family there too. She was exausted by the end of the night.

Friday night we had Christmas with my mom and sister and her soon to be husband. We headed down to holland for dinner. My sister and Jon made their first turkey. It was delicious!! They did a great Job. Josh had to carve it, that was funny!! he did a wonderful job too :) We opened more gifts. I was excited because I got a mixer from my mom. I have never had one and I cannot wait to use it. Elaine was so excited because she got a dora bike with peddles. Although when my mom and I went to buy it we asumed it was half way put to gether. We were wrong so so spent a while putting together the Dora Bike. It was all worth it in the end. She loves it and wakes up talking about her BIKE. she has been riding around the house, or should i say trying to ride it. Hopefully by spring she will have the hang of it :) It was a busy few days but it was wonderful to be with family and enjoying each others company.

Saturday Josh and I spent some time together and ran over to the mall. I had to get some stuff for my sisters wedding and then josh paitently walked through the BIG SALE at Bath and Body Works. I was so excited about my purchases! We headed home in the afternoon. We got home and played outside in the crazy 60 degree weather thats NUTS!!!!!!!!!

This next week will be busy as my sister gets married on New Years Eve!!! So i will be heading back monday afternoon. Josh heading back on Tuesday. We wont be home until next week Sunday!!! Crazy busy.

We wish everyone a blessed and happy New Year!!

p.s. we are almost 26 weeks pregnant and everything seems to be going fine. Im definitly getting more tired and starting to slow down a bit. Jacob's kicks are getting much harder and starting to hurt a bit. He is definitly growing :)

BIG SNOW

This week brought us a ton of snow. 12 inches by us. and at least that much in west michigan. Thursday am bright and early lainey and I headed out to Grand Rapids. I had a appointment with The Maternal Fetal Medicine group. I have to go every six weeks for a check up and ultra sound. Things look great! Its really a treat to see Jacob grow every month or so. Everything looks great so far. After the appointment lainey and I headed over to my moms. We spent the night there. Grandma and Grandpa T came over for dinner too, so lainey had all her grandparents for the night. Lainey was suppose to have her 2 year check up friday at 10am. I got up early because i knew it was snowing, and woke her early and got dressed. only to get a phone call that her doctors office had closed. I was so frustrated. She is a month behind on shots and i needed a health appraisal done so that she can move forward with the early on transfer. So hopefully the will accomodate us next week when we are home again. ( I have yet to find a doctor here for her, and I really wanted her doctor to finish up her first two years) Elaine and I spent the day together at my moms, watching cartoons,playing with the cats, and we both painted our nails red !! It was so fun!!

Friday afternoon we headed out to hastings to my cousins to meet up with my sister and get our hair done. It only took half hour longer than normal. and the roads really were not that bad. Elaine had fun with my cousins kids for a few hours. Lisa and I got our hair highlighted and cut. My cousin is doing the hair for lisa wedding so we tried some updo's on lisas hair.
Around 8pm, lainey and i headed home to Farmington Hills. The roads were perfect, dry and i was able to drive normal the whole way home. until, i reached the Brighton area.... Have we heard of snow plows here????? the roads were so terrible, i went from 75 to 30 mph. Finally we got home, i was so relieved. lainey and I slept in until 10 am !!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was wonderful!! Then Daddy made us eggs and toast. yummy!!!!!!!

This afternoon, I with Josh help made three batches of peanut butter balls!!!!!!!! Lainey kept saying yummmyyyy
We also ventured outside for a while, josh shoveled out the rest of the driveway, lainey norman and I just played. Elaine loved shoveling the snow "like daddy" she would say.

well, its almost bath time, and then bedtime!!! YEAH!! josh and i are going to try a new church tommorow, called Kensington? (sp) have a great rest of the weekend!!!!!!!!!!

LAZY DAYS

life around the troast home has been pretty lazy lately. having to stay home and hang low is tough for all of us. I got to go out the other night, when i got home i said to Josh it felt so weird to drive?? i have not driven in several days. thats insane :) I do a couple things every day around the house. today i vaccumed. Last night Josh helped me address all the christmas cards and seal the envelopes while we watched my favorite show, the biggest loser!! A women won for the second season!! GIRL POWER!! Elaine and I are headed to GR tommorow morning. I have another appointment with Maternal Fetal Medicine, and another Ultrasound. Then we are staying the night with Grandma O. Friday Elaine has her 2 year check up. Then we are making my way to my cousins on the way home to get our hair done. Hopefully that makes me feel better. my hair is nasty and it makes me feel terrible.

Last sunday Josh asked if we could bake cookies?? yes he really did. He usually only helps dip the PB balls. SO i said sure, he helped mix it, and roll the dough(we made sugar cookies) then i sat at the table and frosted them. Elaine also helped, she had so much fun!! i have posted some pictures of her helping, and the finished product.

We took our own christmas photo, with the timer on the camera, we look a little goofy, but we got it done, we both did a lot of laughing as we would set it and run to our places. It was a good family moment. We hope everyone enjoys them. :)

im going to get going and lay down for a while. Today is the second day Elaine has taken her nap in the big girl bed. I think this weekend we are going to move it into her room. Right now its in Jacobs room. She layed right down today and fell asleep.

explosion

funny thing happened yesterday. We were sitting down for breakfast and all of the sudden we heard a huge crack and water rushing..... Josh and I jumped up and ran into the bathroom right around the corner. The tank had burst right in half, water from the tank running all over the bathroom, it was crazy!! Josh quickly shut the water off. We both looked at each other and were like what the heck??!!! Our house is always cold we have no basement and are on a cement slab , the floors are cold and the water is cold, so maybe water comming into the tank warmed up and it cracked?? we dont know. By 1:00pm, the plumber came and fixed it and got us a new toilet. so now we have a all white toilet in our bright blue bathroom :) it was a crazy thing to have happen after our busy crazy couple of days. Thank goodness for renting because we did not pay for it or have to arrange it being taken care of. It was just one of those things that happen i guess. we are laughing about it now:)

Jacob and Mommy

My so far un-eventful pregnancy turned into quit a scare on Thursday. All week i have been under some stress, combined with some other stresses and monday Night i started to cramp for about 12 hours. through out tuesday things improved and weds night it started all over again this time it was worse and i had really bad back pain as well as a ton of pressure. By Thursday morning i could not sit still, rest or even walk around for long, everything just hurt. Thanks to a doctor josh works with he was able to pull some strings and get me into an OB doctor. ( a little back story, because we really want to deliver back in muskegon for convience and because i really like my doctor no doctors here in detroit want to take my case because they wont make money, so they tell me they cannot corrdinate the care between two doctors. I have been driving back and forth to muskegon for appointments.) So joshs doctor at work pulled some strings and I was able to be seen by one of the doctor groups that had turned me down. I went in about 4 pm thursday. She did an internal exam and at that point felt my cevix was softening. She imediatly sent me to Providence Hopsital in southfield. ( they have a level 3 NICU, its smaller than GR but has the same stuff) I was given morphin for the pain and was able to relax. They kept me in labor and delivery on monitors until friday night. I had another ultra sound and cervical length which turned out to be ok. They also did other work ups for preclampsia just to be safe, that all came back fine, my protien was 160 so that is ok for now, once we get to 300 than they are going to start worrying. But so far i feel fine with all that there are no other symptoms associated with it. I was just scared and did not want to be in any sort of labor, we are almost 24 weeks. so things would not have been the greatest. Im very thankful for all the quick prayers from family and friends, I know it helped and I know that is why things looked better on the ultrasound.Jacob so far is looking great and is very healthy. his current weight is 1 pound 5 ounces. I came home last night and Im on moderate bedrest, I need to stay home as much as possible. I can go out once or twice a week briefly. meaning no more walking the mall and all that stuff. I used to go out daily and that wont be happening anymore, well for at least two weeks when i have another check up. I will keep you posted. I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the weather on the west side, we dont have much going on around here, I sort of miss the occasional lake effect snow. Here its just cold with a small amount of snow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELAINE KATHRYN

Two years ago today I layed in a room at spectrum in pain and two hours from delivering lainey by emergency c-section. Last night I woke up every couple hours and could not sleep, i kept thinking about what i was doing at that time and how i felt, then i would cry and fall back asleep for a while. finally at 3:30am i fell sound asleep. I dont remember doing this last year but i guess im more emotional this year. Last night we were wrapping her gifts for tonight and i broke down again. oh well this too shall pass.

This morning when Lainey got up i walked into her room singing happy birthday,and she said to LAINEY!! and then she said" tank you" When josh called she said the same thing when he said happy birthday to her. We have been having a low key day, its been raining here all day long. So this morning we gave norman a bath and cleaned the bathroom. She and I have just been hanging out. Tonight josh is comming home a little early and we are going to have mac n cheese with hot dogs( her favorite food, although we dont have it all the time) and then i bought some cookies and we are going to put candles in them, then open a few gifts we got for her. This comming saturday my sister, her fiance and my mom are comming overnight and we are going to chuckie cheese. I just cannot belive how big she is and all the fun stuff that she can do now. SHe is such a big girl!!!!!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU LAINEY!!!!

OUR NEW HOME

wow, its been a while, its day three of our first week in the new home in farmington hills, MI. Things are going ok, we are pretty much settled in, only our storage boxes need to find a place to store:) and then we are fully un-packed. We left for home sunday afternoon at12:30 made one stop in allendale for our christmas tree, and we were on the road at @ 1 pm, and did not arrive home until just after 5 pm!!! We did hit some bad snow, but the roads were relativly clear, there was so much stopping and going it was crazy, at several points we did not move for 15 minutes. with clear roads. I think it was the combination of snow, and everyone going home at the same time. I hope those kinds of trips are far and few between.

Sunday night and Monday was spent un-packing and organizing and doing loads of laundry. Which i really like because the dryer here drys in no time. Our old dryer could take over an hour for one load. Lainey and I ended up outside to shovel and play in the snow. Monday night I ventured out to do some grocery shopping, I found a Mejier relativly close so I went there. NOT ALL MEIJERS ARE THE SAME, so i learned. most every fruit and veggie were on sale and rotten, i could not understand the lady at the meat counter, so i got way more lunch meat than i normaly buy, the store was dirty and gross, i wont be going back. There are some Krogers and Heartland stores closer, ill try those next. I came home to lainey sreaming, josh was watching shrek with her, and the dragon came on and appartently she was having nightmares. no more big kid movies. ( we dont have cable hooked up yet so we resorted to movies we had on hand) She was awake until after 10:30 and then again at 3:30am, 6 am and finally at 8 am. She ended up taking a three hour nap tuesday.

Tuesday lainey and I ended up at the twelve oaks mall!! ihad to schedual her two year pictures at JC Pennys and pick up a few things. This mall is HUGE, i only stayed an hour because it was such an overload on my senses. Lainey just kept saying " oh wow" over and over, its a big two story mall filled with any kind of store you want. I just could not belive how big it was. Tuesday night we got our tree set up and decorations out, I have all my christmas candles burning and it smells warm and cozy in here right now. Laineys favorite decoration on the tree is a sponge bob ornanment josh had from a long time ago, she keeps going up to it touching it and jumps up and down saying "spon BOB" yes she is weird:) ! yes she slept better tonight, only tears for brief moment and then she slept until 9 am!!! weds.

Its currently wed am. Lainey is engulfed in Veggie tails and so im taking the time out to write this. we seem to be adjusting well, josh is liking work so far, and getting used to his new enviornment. he has some tough stuff to do in the next months to come stuff that no boss really wants to do so pray that he can do it smoothly.
Im still trying to find a doctor, i found one today that specializes in problem pregnancies. But she declined to see me unless i dont go back to deliver in Muskegon, she said it was to hard to coordinate care. Im really down with this laty,all i want to do it come home for the delivery if i even make it that far. So i still dont have any doctors over here. things are so different here and all i want is to have doctors, and familar places of which i dont have. I handle things well until about nap time, when im sitting here all alone,and then i think about doing stuff back home, how easy things were and then i get really down and out. I hope it changes soon, i think being pregnant only multiplies stuff, but to me its all still real.

well, veggie tails is done, i better get going and get ourselves dressed we have to go to target for some tights for lainey, i bought some that are way to big on her. she looks like she has droopy legs its really funny. Enjoy the pictures!!