Two and A Half

Stinker Boy is TWO and A HALF!

Colby is a very strong willed spunky little boy! He knows what he wants and doesn't know how to take no for answer! Most days he thinks he's four and can do everything that Kyle and Emily do.

Colby is completely potty trained. Most days he does good with going to the potty...but still does have accidents every once in a while. At night, we set him on the potty before we go to bed...other wise he wets the bed.

Colby loves Spidey, Elmo, and the color yellow.

Colby is very smart. He can identify most capital letters and can count to eleven all by himself! He also knows most of his colors. Colby can do pretty much any puzzle we put in front of him...he even helps with the "big people" puzzles! He talks in completely sentences...although half the time we have no idea what he's saying!

Allergy wise...
The only food allergies we are now dealing with are tree nuts and peanuts. He can eat pretty much anything else. He does tend to have GI issues though if we left him eat too much processed food (too much as in more than a "meal" of processed food every few days.)
He's still allergic to lots outside. He's talking three different allergy and asthma medicines to help him breathe easy. For a while we were having do two nebulizer treatments a day because his wheezing was so bad, but now we only use the nebulizer as needed. We also have an inhaler that we carry with us in case he has trouble breathing when we are out and about. Hopefully this fall we will be able to stop all the meds like we did last year and he'll be good through the winter.

Colby is still a boob boy! Most days he's only nursing at night, but every once in a while he will during the day. If I let him nurse during the day, he only gets give drinks. He knows this and is okay with it. I've started talking to him about being done and will continue to do so, but I'm not ready to force him to be done yet. We'll keep talking about it and hopefully soon he will decide on his own that he's done.

Our pediatrician and allergist have been said breastfeeding is most likely the reason that Colby's gut has healed form the damage done by gluten and has helped heal him of his food allergies. I'm really hoping that when we do stop, that he won't start having more issues with food again.

Colby still isn't a great sleeper. Most days rest time is a fight and some times bed time is too. If we are lucky, he goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 8am and takes a two hour rest in the afternoon. Lately, he has been waking up in the middle of the night crying (we think bad dreams) and it sometimes takes him a while to go back to sleep.

Colby loves being a big brother. He loves to "help" Peyton do things and loves to give Peyton hugs and kisses. He also likes to nurse at the same time as Peyton...when I let him, he normally holds Peyton's hand or rubs his back while they are nursing together.

Some days Colby really likes to play by himself. Other days, he follows Emily or Kyle around and playing with them. Him and Emily like to do a lot of imaginative play together and its a lot of fun to watch!

Colby has recently learned to stand on his head with the help of the couch or a wall...it's his favorite way to "sit" on the couch at the moment!

Colby loves the water! He loves to splash around in our little pool and loves to jump into big pools. We've swam a couple times in a friend's pool, a hotel pool, and Lake Michigan. Colby has no fear and has to be watched closely because he will just jump in with no floaties!

We are so thankful for the two and a half years we've been blessed with our little stinker boy so far and pray for MANY MANY MANY more!

I asked Colby the same questions I started asking Kyle and Emily at two and a half...

What is your name?	Colby
How old are you?	Three
What is your favorite color?	yellow
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?	Yogurt
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?	Noodles
What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner?	Noodles
What is your favorite snack to eat?	fruit snacks
What is your favorite fruit?	fishes
What is your favorite vegetable?	Noodles
What is your favorite thing to drink?	Apple Juice
What is your favorite animal?	Lion
What is your favorite toy to play with?	Spidey
What is your favorite book to read?	Spidey
Where do you like to go?	Zoo
What is your favorite song?	Batman
Who is your best friend?	Peyton
What is your favorite thing to watch on tv?	Elmo
What do you want to be when you grow up?	Adult
What is your favorite thing to do outside?	Blow Bubbles
What is your favorite thing to wear?	yellow
Who is your favorite person?	Mommy!

Church Update

Even though this blog is mostly about our kids, from time to time I share about other stuff going on in our lives... it's been a while and we recently had a "big" change, so I thought I would give a quick update!

Last Sunday, Brent was voted in by the congregation at our church to be moved to full time status! So, as of July 1st, Brent is a full time pastor! The full time roll comes with a few more added responsibilities at church, but we are very excited for the change!

We haven't really felt the difference of this change yet, but are excited for the new work schedule for Brent... and the fact that he will not have to drive to Lansing two days a week anymore!

Last week, we took our teens on a missions trip to Chicago. We worked with a ministry called Inner City Impact and helped facilitate a soccer camp and their day camp. I'm not going to lie and say it was a lot of fun... it was a very long and exhausting week... but I'm glad that we went and excited for the impact we were able to have.

For me, the best part of the trip was listening to Kyle talk to another little boy. They were talking about Jesus and the little boy asked what the big deal about Jesus was. Kyle responded "Jesus died on the cross and then came back to life so that we can go to Heaven. We just have to tell Him we are sorry for being bad!" While I'm not sure he really "gets it," words can't express how it makes my heart feel to hear my son sharing to Gospel with another child!

This week is Day Camp for our church... it's pretty much a VBS type program. Kyle and Emily didn't want to go on Monday, but decided today they wanted to go see what Daddy was doing and see the puppets. They are excited to go back again tomorrow.

Thankful Tree

We celebrated Thanksgiving all month long with a Thankful Tree! Each night, Emily, Kyle, Brent, and I all wrote something we were thankful for on a leaf and added it to the tree! Brent and I tried to do something new every night, but we let the kids do whatever, so they did have a couple duplicates. We loved doing this and I'm pretty sure it is going to be a yearly tradition in our family!

Colby didn't participate this year, but if he had, I'm pretty sure his leaves would have said "Mommy," "Boob," "Daddy," "Kyle," "Emily," and "Socks"! :)

Day 1
Brent: Keyla, Emily, Kyle, Colby
Keyla: Salvation
Emily: Mommy
Kyle: Mommy and Daddy

Day 2
Brent: Family
Keyla: Brent
Emily: Daddy
Kyle: God

Day 3
Brent: Jesus
Keyla: Emily, Kyle, Colby
Emily: God
Kyle: Grandma and Grandpa

Day 4
Brent: Church
Keyla: My parents
Emily:Grandma
Kyle: Church

Day 5
Brent: Sharing
Keyla: Friends
Emily: Toy Story characters
Kyle: Grandma and Grandpa

Day 6
Brent: Food
Keyla: Water
Emily: Mommy
Kyle: Crayons

Day 7
Brent: Sleep
Keyla: Food
Emily: Suckers
Kyle: Suckers

Day 8
Brent: Indoor plumbing
Keyla: Washer and Dryer
Emily: Slides
Kyle: Bounce House

Day 9
Brent: Kisses
Keyla: Camera
Emily: Daddy
Kyle: Queen and Mater

Day 10
Brent: Electricity
Keyla: Cloth Diapers
Emily: Teacher (2 year old class)
Kyle: Kiarrah

Day 11
Brent: Paul
Keyla: Pumpkin
Emily: Milk
Kyle: Cookies

Day 12
Brent: God's Plan
Keyla: Van
Emily: Toys
Kyle: Toys

Day 13
Brent: Two Jobs
Keyla: Church
Emily: House
Kyle: Car/Van

Day 14
Brent: Sports
Keyla: Money to buys things our kiddos need
Emily: New Shoes
Kyle: New Shoes

Day 15
Brent: Pop
Keyla: Children who behave
Emily: Brush
Kyle: Lions

Day 16
Brent: Gravity
Keyla: WIC
Emily: Lilly
Kyle: Mister E and ByeBye

Day 17
Brent: Roof
Keyla: Crockpot
Emily: Slide
Kyle: Bounce House

Day 18
Brent: Teenagers
Keyla: Camera
Emily: Circles
Kyle: Brown Candy

Day 19
Brent: Dan and Cathy
Keyla: Dan and Cathy
Emily: Water
Kyle: Milk

Day 20
Brent: Forktrucks
Keyla: Reusable Pounches
Emily: Jessie
Kyle: Brown Ice Cream

Day 21
Brent: Headlights
Keyla: Family Time
Emily: Alligators
Kyle: Rainbows

Day 22
Brent: Toodles
Keyla: Four Seasons
Emily: Library Books
Kyle: Firetrucks

Day 23
Brent: Fingers
Keyla: Bedtime
Emily: House
Kyle: Froggies

Day 24
Brent: Photos
Keyla: Heat
Emily: Snowmen
Kyle: Snowmen

Day 25
Brent: Sunshine
Keyla: Vicks
Emily: iPad
Kyle: People

Day 26
Brent: Cereal
Keyla: Cuddles
Emily: Cereal
Kyle: Daddy Cuddles

Day 27
Brent: Shoes
Keyla: Movies
Emily: Shoes
Kyle: Shoes

Day 28
Brent: Pie
Keyla: Being silly
Emily: Grapes
Kyle: Goldfish

Day 29
Brent: Music
Keyla: Internet
Emily: Grandma and Grandpa
Kyle: Two doggies

Day 30
Brent: Love
Keyla: God's Provision
Emily: Gabby
Kyle: Hiding

Our very full tree!

One down... One to go...

On Thursday Brent went and did our final walk through of our apartment in Mason... our lease is finally over there so we are no longer paying rent for two apartments!

The landlord has supposedly been trying to find someone to lease our apartment since November so that we could get out of our lease... but she obviously wasn't trying very hard and failed! But we have a good God who provided for us so that we were able to keep paying rent for an empty apartment.

We still technically own our house in Delaware though. We've signed all of the paperwork and the bank was supposed to sign the paperwork this past week, but when they went to do the final property inspection before they signed the paperwork, they found that someone had stolen the AC condenser unit from the back of the house. Because we had already signed the paperwork, it is the bank responsibility. They have already ordered a new one, but sounded like they have to wait until it is installed before they will sign the paperwork to make the deed-in-lieu official. Our contact person is supposed to be figuring out if they can sign the paperwork sooner since the new unit has been ordered or something... either way though, we should officially be free of our house by the end of the month!

We're Moving!

We are taking a step of faith and moving to Ionia next week! We really feel the need to be closer to our church so that we can be more involved in the church and the teens lives without having to drive so far. We are signing our new lease for Nov 1st and trusting that God will provide a new tenant for our current apartment by Dec 1st so that we will only have one rent to pay.

We have been working with our landlord to get out of our lease... the only way to terminate our lease is to find someone else to re-rent our apartment. Because we living a low-income tax credit apartment complex, we can not sublet; a new tenant has to go through our landlord and be approved and sign their own lease. We asked about a month ago that our landlord start looking for someone to re-rent our apartment too, but it didn't really seem like anything was happening. So Brent posted an ad online himself last week and we've had several interested people. We have told them all to get into contact with our landlord and have passed all of their info on to our landlord as well. From what we hear on our end, there are two people that are pretty serious... one that wants to move ASAP and the other the middle of November. Hopefully our landlord will work with one of these two to get them approved so that they can sign a lease for our apartment.

Brent is going to keep working his job here in Holt for the time being. Driving the Focus back and forth three times a week is cheaper than driving the van back and forth, like we are doing now. But he has started to look for another part time job in the Ionia area. He is in the process of apply to be a substitute teacher in some of the area schools, and seeking whatever other opportunities might be available.

Please pray with us during this transition. There is a lot to pack up and do in a short period of time. Please pray that we will have the time and energy to get everything done that needs to be done to make this a sooth transition. Emily and Kyle are already concerned and confused as to why we are packing up boxes again. Please pray that God will provide a new tenant for our apartment in Mason as we are trusting Him too. Also, please pray for the financial aspect of the situation as we will have two rents to pay for the month of November, along with moving expenses and all that other fun stuff. Pray with us that Brent will be able to find another job in Ionia so that we can pay our bills. We are trusting that God will provide us with everything that we need; just as He has been doing the past two years since we left our old church in Delaware (and WAY before that too!). 

If you need our new address for whatever reason, send me an email and I'll give it to you.

Ups and Downs

It's hard to believe Brent is already starting his second week of work in Michigan! It's also hard to believe all that has happened in the past week and a half!

Last Saturday we moved into our townhouse. On Sunday, Brent's cousin Thomas and his wife Allie (who live in Lansing) came over for Easter dinner and we played Mario Cart. After they left, Brent and I took Kyle and Emily to Meijer to go grocery shopping.

Monday we found out that Kara was coming home from boot camp. She had been medically separated due to something pretty stupid (she's fine, no need to be concerned for her health). She tried to fight to be able to stay and go back to boot camp, but lost her appeal.

Monday night when Brent got home from work, my mom and I went to look at vans but didn't really find anything I liked.

Tuesday night, my mom and I went out again to look at vans and found one that I liked.

Wednesday afternoon the babies and I met my mom and Michael (my step-dad) after work at the car dealership so that Michael could check out the van. He found a few things wrong with it but the owner of the dealership said he would take care of getting them fixed. We told him that we would talk about it and be in touch of Thursday.

After looking at the car, my mom, Michael and I went to pick Kara up from the airport. It was bittersweet to see her... I really missed her and was happy to be able to give her a hug and such... but at the same time I was sad that she was no longer at boot camp.

Kara came back to our house on Wednesday and spent the night.

Thursday we decided that we were going to buy the van, so Kara, the babies, and I went to Steak'n'Shake for lunch and then went over and put down a deposit on the van so they would start the repairs.

Kara spent the night again on Thursday and my mom came over for dinner to spend a little more time with Kara.

Our van was supposed to be ready on Friday afternoon, so my mom came over after work to pick me up and take me to the dealership and Michael met us there. Kara stayed home with the toddles and Brent got home just as we were leaving.

When we got to the dealership, the van wasn't ready. A few of the things the owner had promised would be fixed, weren't fixed or weren't fixed the correct way. There was also a "small" issue with the breaks. After what seemed like forever (really, a couple hours), we were on our way out of there with the expectation I would return in the morning for a "quick fix" for the issue with the breaks.

Saturday.... oh my! I was at the dealership at 11am when they opened... and I didn't leave until 4pm... and because their story seemed a little shady... I went to my mom and Michael's house to get everything checked out because we put the toddles in the van to drive to Battle Creek on Sunday.

On the way to Williamston, our Realtor called to inform us we had an offer!

Once Michael check out the van and determined it was safe to drive and that the who had worked on it were idiots... I was finally on my way back home.

Sunday we drove to Battle Creek for church and such. When we got home, there was a nasty "hot" smell coming from one of the brakes.

Sunday night we got a second offer on our house.

Today, I took the van to a local shop to get a brake inspection so that we could have documentation of how bad the dealership screwed up. The mechanic took apart the brakes more than Michael had and found some more issues... and I ended up needing parts for everything to be put back together safely...

This afternoon Kara was here... and my grandma and cousin and her baby came over for a little while. And then Alyssa and Nora (our newest niece) came over for a little while.

This evening we signed the offer we accepted and our Realtor has it almost ready to send to the bank in the morning....

Michael and I have a plan of "attack" for the van and the "wonderful" dealership...

What A Long Week!

It's been one of those week that feels never ending....

Tuesday morning Brent started to get a headache, but figured it was from not having any caffeine, so he drank some pop hoping it would just go away. It started to get worse as the day went on. Tuesday night, Brent hardly slept (which means I also hardly slept) because he was in so much pain. Wednesday morning, I canceled my physical therapy and the babies and I took Brent to the medical aid unit (if you know Brent, you know it's REALLY bad when he actually wants to go to the doctor). They didn't really give us much of an explanation for his headache, but gave him a shot of pain meds and told us that when the meds wore off, if he head still hurt to go to the ER.
Brent pretty much slept all day on Tuesday from the pain meds. Around 4:30, they finally wore off and Brent's headache was back and worse than before. I called our friend April to see if she could come stay with Emily and Kyle while I took Brent to the ER.
The ER wasn't much fun.... but we didn't have to wait too long considering it was the ER. Once we got there and got him all checked in and stuff, it would only about an hour before he Brent was put in a room. When they doctor finally saw him, she was kind of clueless as to what might be causing the headache. He wasn't really having classic migraine symptoms, but that was their best guess. They gave him some migraine meds through his IV, but they didn't really help a whole lot, so they gave him some other pain meds. They were talking about doing a spinal tap to make sure that he didn't have a bleed or meningitis, but then decided against it because the pain meds seemed to be working. After he was able to keep down some crackers and ginger ale, they sent him home with an Rx for migraine meds and told him to follow up with his PCP the next day.
We got home around 11:30pm and Brent went right to bed. I washed bottles and diapers and pumped, and then went to bed. Around 3:00am, Brent woke up and his headache was back. He tried to take a bath to see if that would help and I looked online to find a 24 hours pharmacy... but there isn't one close to us and the roads were really bad. Also around this time , Kyle and Emily decided they were hungry... then after they ate their bottles, Kyle decided that he wanted his mommy... and would not stop crying if I put him down. So I sat in my chair and rocked with Kyle for about an hour and once I thought it was sound asleep, tried to lay him back down in his crib. But as soon as I let go of him, he woke up and started screaming.So I brought Kyle into bed with us and we all slept on and off until about 6:00, when Emily woke up. The babies and I played for a while, while Brent tired to sleep. A little before 8:00am I went to the pharmacy to get Brent's Rx filed. When I got home, he took his me and went back to bed.
Brent had an appointment at 2:15 with his PCP. Our friend April came back over to watch Kyle and Emily, so we didn't have to take them with us. Brent's PCP was also kind of clueless as to what was causing the headache. He said to keep taking the Rx that the ER doctor gave him and ordered a CT of his head. Our insurance requires a prior auth for the CT, so it is scheduled for Tuesday so that the prior auth can be done. (The ER doctor should have really done a CT so that we wouldn't have had to wait for a prior auth because if it's done through the ER, one isn't needed.)
We got home shortly after the babies woke up and they pretty much clung to me for the rest of the day until they went to bed.
Brent had his Skype interview Thursday night with the church in Ann Arbor. The interview went really well! After his interview, we washed bottles and I pumped early and we went to bed early... or at least tried too. I was so tired, I had trouble falling asleep. It around about 11:30 before I actually fell asleep, and then around 2:30, Kyle woke up screaming. He wasn't hungry, he just wanted to cuddle. I sat and rocked him for about an hour and he finally was sleeping soundly enough that I was able to lay him back in his crib. It was also 4, but the time I was able to fall back asleep. Then at 5:00, Emily woke up and was hungry. So I pumped, fed the babies and then they both went back to sleep. Around 6:00, I went back to sleep, but had to wake up at 7:00 for physical therapy. Brent said that he and the babies woke up around 8:15.
They took a good morning nap yesterday, but did not take an afternoon nap. Luckily, when Brent got home from work he was feeling okay enough that he could play with Kyle and Emily while I took a short nap before Kyle's physical therapy. I took both babies with me to Kyle's appointment so that Brent could take a nap before having to work again last night.
Last night at dinner Kyle and Emily were little piggies and ate a ton. Then when they went to bed, they both drank their whole bottles that I put an extra ounce in. I was very excited that they ate so much and hoped that meant they would sleep through the night. I ate dinner, washed diapers and bottles, finished folding laundry and putting it all away, pumped, and then climbed into bed. As soon as I feel asleep, Kyle and Emily both started screaming. I made them bottles and Emily sucked hers right down and Kyle wouldn't take his. They were still crying and both just wanted to be picked up. I ended up bring them to bed with me after they cried for about a half an hour. They were both almost asleep, then Brent called to say he was on his way and that woke them both back up. When Brent got home, he got Kyle to drink his bottle and we put the babies to bed. Brent took another bath to see if it would help his headache, and shortly after he got out of his bath, both of the babies were crying again. They came to bed with us for a bit, but wouldn't lay down. Finally around midnight I got more milk for them and they finally went to sleep. They both woke up at 6am this morning and have been awake every since. They are currently in their cribs and staying there until lunchtime (noon) or if they fall asleep, I'll let them sleep until they wake up!

So... please pray for us. Brent's headache still hasn't gone away. It's tolerable now with the medication, but he still isn't feeling up to par and isn't sleeping great. I woke up this morning with a headache and am exhausted. I'm pretty sure my headache is just from the messed up schedule we've had this week and from being so tried.
Also, please pray with us about the church in Ann Arbor. The senior pastor called Brent yesterday and told them they are interested in pursuing him further. The next steps involve a theology discussion, called Brent's references, and a visit. We are praying about it for a couple days, and then we'll go from there.
We still haven't heard back from the church in Ohio yet, but are also still praying about that ministry as well.

Welcome 2012

The first two days of 2012 have been pretty low key for us. Brent had to work on New Years Eve, so we didn't make any plans. He got home from work about 10:00pm and we went to bed! 

We went to church yesterday morning, then came home, ate lunch, took naps, and enjoyed time together as a family.

Today Brent had to go into work early, and it's Monday, so he went to both jobs today. Emily, Kyle, and I hung out at home and played. We had a couple visitors stop by to drop stuff off, and Daddy played with the babies for a little bit when he was home in between jobs. 

Here are a few of the pictures we have taken so far this year....

Emily's favorite spot when playing in her room.... she likes to reach into her crib and play with Lilly. She's  only  allowed to play with Lilly in her crib... otherwise I don't think we would ever get Lilly away from Emily!

The normal sight Mommy finds after nap time! Two very happy babies!

I was trying to take pictures of Kyle and Emily... and Kyle just wanted to sit in my lap!

The rail in Kyle's crib... thanks to his new teeth :(

At one point they had a clean room.... that is, until they got out of their cribs took everything off the shelves again.

The new toy shelf. It's in the closet so that Mommy and Daddy can decide how many toys Kyle and Emily get to play with.... until they figure out how to open the closet doors, then we will have to come up with a new idea!

Other updates...
The offer that we thought we had on our house fell through. When the people originally made the offer, they didn't realize that it was a short sale. At first they said they were still on board, but when it came down to it, they backed out because of the short sale.
Brent has a Skype interview with the church in Ann Arbor on Thursday evening.
We are still waiting to hear something back from the church in Ohio. They told Brent we should except to hear something in the first couple weeks of Jan.

Opening Doors

Brent's interview on Tuesday with the church in Ohio went very well. They are interviewing four men and then going to bring their favorite for an in person interview and all that fun stuff.

Last night Brent received an email from the church in Michigan (Ann Arbor) saying they would like to do an interview with him over Skype the first week of January.

Please pray with us about these two possible opportunities.

Update on Life...

Last week I wrote that the church in Ohio had contacted Brent about a phone interview. His interview is tomorrow afternoon.... so if you think about it, please pray for him and the pastor interviewing him.

Other exciting news... we are finally moving forward with Bank of America with the short sale process. We were originally told in March that we didn't need to do anything with the bank until we had an offer for a short sale. We then found out in June that we needed to get approved first.... and we have been trying to get approved since June. We have been having all sorts of issues (the bank is stupid and keeps changing policies and losing paperwork and blah blah blah). Last week after still being given the run around, I emailed the CEO (after a friend suggested it), and finally as of Friday we are officially in Phase I of the short sale process!

To go along with that...someone submitted an offer last Tuesday! Unfortunately they weren't aware that we were doing a short sale. Our realtor contacted theirs and they said they were still interested, but have yet to return the short sale addendum to us, so we're really not sure what's going on with that....

My back is finally starting to feel better. I'm still having tingling in my arms and pain in my back, but it's better than it was. I've still been going to physical therapy three mornings a week. Tomorrow I go back to see the neurosurgeon, so we'll see what he has to say and if he wants me to continue with therapy.

A couple days ago Kyle figured out how to undo the Velcro on his helmet. After he undid that a few times, he figured out if he pushed enough on his helmet, he could get it off his head. So now when he has his helmet on, all he does is try to get it off. This afternoon, within an hour, Kyle had his helmet off five times. I finally just left it off of him. We are going to AI before we go to Michigan to get new Velcro put on his helmet, so hopefully that will solve the problem.

We're leaving in a couple days for Michigan! We're very excited to see family and friends... but not really looking forward to the LONG drive with the babies. I think the longest we've been in the car with the babies has only been two hours. We are planing on driving through the night, so hopefully the babies will just sleep. Please pray for us as we prepare to leave and as we make the long drive.

One Door Shut... Maybe A Couple More Open

A while ago I wrote about a possible ministry opportunity at a church about 20 minutes north of where we currently are living. Brent had breakfast with the senior pastor and was excited about that, so we went to visit the church. We enjoyed our visit at the church and enjoyed getting to know the senior pastor and his wife a little bit. We visited their youth group and loved the fact they had a great group of teens. When we left the church on Sunday night, we were excited about it. We prayed that God would make it clear to us if this is the church He wants us at or not.

When we got home, Brent had an email from a church in Michigan that said after reviewing resumes, they had chosen him as one of the men they would like to continue to consider for their youth pastor position.

The next morning, Brent had an email from a church in Ohio that pretty much said the same thing.

Over the next week, we continued to pray that God would make His will clear to us about the church out here. Brent talked to a couple Godly men to seek their advice and when it came down to making a decision, we decided that the church out here is not where God is calling us. It was a great opportunity, but we were hesitant to pursue it farther because we weren't "jump up and down" excited about the church. So, on Sunday, Brent emailed them to let them know how we felt.

Today the church in Ohio emailed back and would like to do a phone interview with Brent.

Please continue to pray with us as we seek God's will for our next step in ministry.

A Ministry Door Open?

One day last week Brent got a phone call from the pastor at a church about fifteen minutes from us. Their church is looking for a new youth pastor and the pastor was given Brent's name. He asked if Brent would be willing to send him his resume and cover letter. Brent e-mailed it to him and a little while later, they had a breakfast meeting set up.

This morning Brent had breakfast with the pastor and really enjoyed talking to him; getting to know him a little bit and getting to know a little bit about the church and the ministry that takes place there. The pastor asked if we would come visit the church on Sunday to see what it's like and if it's a place we would be interested in serving. 

Please pray for us and we explore this possible opportunity and seek to see if it's God's will or not. 

Mommy Broke Her Back

Sunday afternoon I was bringing Kyle downstairs after his nap... And I slipped on the stairs! I protected Kyle and took the brunt of the fall on the middle of my back.  Brent grabbed Kyle (who is fine) and called 911 while I tried my best to stay still.
The ambulance got there and the EMT's put a neck brace on me and loaded me up on the back board. They took me to hospital and then I laided and staired at the ceiling for a little bit. Eventually, doctors and nurses took me off the back board and I got sent for a CT.
The CT showed a fracture in my T4 vertabra. This meant they had to send me to the trama center at another hospital, so they loaded me up and I went for another ambulance ride.
Once at Christiana, we waited in the ED for a long time. I eventally saw the trama doctors. They admitted me and ordered an MRI. I got to my room about midnight, and had my MRI around 3am.
I had to lay flat on my back with the neck brace on and wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything until they got the MRI results back to know if I needed to have surgery or not. I also had to attempt to pump while laying flat on my back... let's just say that got a little messy - but with the nurses' help, we made it work. :)
A little after noon, the nurse said the neurosurgeon read the MRI results and they finally let me drink and moved my bed so I could sit up a little bit! We knew this was a good sign that I wasn't going to need surgery!
Around 4pm the neurosurgeon finally came in. He said no surgery! He also informed me that I have not one, but two fractures (T3 & T4). He said my neck was okay, so he took the brace off my neck. He helped me sit up and checked me all out. He told me I was allowed to get up out of bed and could move around a little bit. He also ordered a brace for me. He told me that if I had to break my back, I broke it in the best place with the best type of fracture.
I spent one more night in the hospital and am now at home! The only restriction is "if it hurts, don't do it." But really.. that means not bending and twisting or picking up anything heavy. He told me Kyle was probably the heaviest thing that I was going to want to pick up. I am pretty sore still and moving carefully. I haven't picked up the babies yet, but have cuddled with them in my chair and sat on the floor and played with them. I'm very happy to be home with my babies again... I missed them very much!


My mom and Michael (step-dad) are here right now and are staying through the weekend. Next week Brent's mom is coming out (which was already planned) and then the following week Kara is coming out to help. And the week after that, Alyssa (and Cubbie!)  is available to come out if we need her. We also have some great friends out here in Delaware that have helped and have offered to help if we need it. We are very thankful for the support system God has provided us with.


After taking care of the babies full time for two days, Daddy has a new appreciation for all of the work mommy does... He's just a little worn out! :)

Broken Broken Broken

In the past month and a half or so... we've had lots of things "break"....

• The light in our extra bedroom/office stopped working
• Thankfully my step-dad was able to fix it for us - it just needed a new switch
• Brent's brakes on his car broke
• Thankfully we had a friend who was able to fix them... and my parents took care of the bill as Brent's birthday present
• My breast pump broke
• Thankfully we bought the warranty and were able to get most of our money back for the new one that we had to buy
• The drain clogged on the utility sink in the basement
• Thankfully my step-dad was able to fix it for us
• I spilled breastmilk all over one of our laptops and it died
• Thankfully it turned on for a couple days and I was able to get most of the picture of Kyle and Emily on a DVD
• I didn't think to get anything else off of it though... thankfully we have a friend who is going to look at it and see if he can get it to work again or at least get the rest of the stuff off of it for us
• Our dishwasher broke
• Thankfully a friend was able to fix it for us - it was just a loose wire
• Brent's cell phone went through the wash machine
• Thankfully we had one of my mom's old phones that Brent is able to use
• We currently have it in a bag of rice and will try to turn it on in a couple days

What's going to break next? 

Wouldn't It Be Nice...

....if money grew on trees?

The whole situation with our house is not a fun one. Our short sale approval is pending at the moment... A couple weeks ago, we were told because we have an FHA mortgage, that we have to go through a loan modification before we can be approved for a short sale. You would have thought they would have told us this six months ago when we started the whole short sale process with the bank.... but the short sale department doesn't really seem to have their act together. We've filled out the application for the loan modification and we have provided them with all the documentation they need to see that we are poor and can't afford to make our payments. Now we just wait.... our mortgage modification counselor called yesterday and said the underwriter had everything and we should hear back soon what they are willing to let us drop our payments to. Then, once the modification all goes through, we have to let the short sale department know and they will start looking at our account again.
In the meantime... we are officially in default on our mortgage as of September 2nd. We've had some expected (car insurance) and some unexpected (Brent's brakes, Keyla's new crown, a new breast pump(will be reimbursed for, but had to pay for up front)) things we had to pay for in the past month, and just didn't have the money for our mortgage payment. Luckily God has provided and everything but the mortgage payment was able to be taken car of!

It finally happened...

....Brent was fired about eight months ago, and we haven't had to touch our savings in those eight months. Somehow God had provided enough money where most months, we still have been able to money into our savings. Well... this week, I had to transfer some money into our checking so that we will be able to pay our car insurance (we pay every six months). Then on Tuesday Brent's car started making really loud noises - he thought it car was finally dying. Thankfully, it just needs new brakes! Even though new brakes are cheap compared to a new car, it still cost money - which as of right now means more money from our savings. :(

Update: Thankfully God provided a friend who was able to fix Brent's brakes for cheap and a wonderful step-dad who bought the parts and sent them out with Kara.

A Year Ago...

. . .

It's amazing how much has changed in the past year. A year ago today when we found out that we had finally gotten pregnant, who would have thought how much life would change in that year. Here are a few of the "highlights"...

• Keyla am 20 lbs lighter than she was a year ago today
• Brent is not currently serving as a pastor
• Brent is looking for a new ministry to serve at
• Our house is for sale
• Keyla is "unemployed"
• We know way too much about pre-term labor and "false alarms"
• WE HAVE TWO BEAUTIFUL BABIES
• We know way too much about the NICU and how it works
• Keyla (and the babies) goes days at a time without leaving the house (and she doesn't care
• It's quite the event to leave the house

.... and the list could go on :)

New Nipples and Big Girl Clothes!

Over the past couple days I have been trying the "fast flow" nipples on the bottles. Kyle seemed to take right off on them and it took Emily a time or two to catch on to the faster flow of milk. I have no officially put away all of the "slow flow" nipples and the babies have the "fast flow" on all of their bottles! Kyle and Emily have seemed to eat faster and eat more with the "fast flow" nipples. Hopefully more food at meal times will mean less meal times (specially in the middle of the night/early morning).

I have put away most of Emily's newborn clothes. Most of the newborn stuff was warm clothes, so I put that away last week. Yesterday I put away her newborn onsies, as they are starting to get too short for her. She still has a couple outfits and dresses that are newborn still in her drawer, but all of her onsies are 0-3 months and she is starting to wear the 0-3 month sleep'n'plays.

It's crazy how quickly my babies are growing up!

On another note... God is good and has provided for us once again. First, God provided the money to cover the cost of Brent's new tire! Second, God has provided Brent with more hours at Pat's. He is currently working Friday and Saturday nights delivering for them - last night they asked if he would be willing to pick up another shift, so he is going to start delivering on Monday nights as well. This means another day I am with Kyle and Emily by my self for 12 hours or so, but it also means more money to help pay our bills.

We are continuing to pray that God will show us where He wants us and provide a new ministry for us. We are praying for His will in our lives, but also praying that His will would be closer to Michigan!

Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, and A Flat Tire

Kyle and Emily have been doing great sleeping all week! We've finally got back on a pretty good schedule and they are eating, "playing", and then sleeping during the day, and sleeping lots at night. After they eat, they have been awake and playing for about an hour and a half or so and then they start to get whiny. When they are starting to get whiny, I swaddle them up and put them in their crib - most of the time they are asleep within five minutes! Then they sleep for an hour to and hour and a half. When they wake up, they are ready to eat again. At night, they have been eating between 8:00 and 9:00 and then going to bed. We wake them about between 11:00 and midnight to feed them, and then they sleep for another 7 or 8 hours, wake up to eat, and then go back to sleep for another two hours or so!

Today our schedule got a little thrown off and they seemed to do okay with it. Brent had a flat tire, so I went and switched cars with him for a bit and got his tire replaced for him; it couldn't be fixed:( He had a HUGE bolt on the edge of his tire... Emily's head would have fit through the hole once they got the bolt out!

We are getting excited to go to Michigan next week for Alyssa and Shane's wedding! We are excited to introduce Kyle and Emily to family, but at the same time know it's going to be a very busy and tiring trip! Pray for us to have all the energy we need and that the babies will stay sort of on schedule with eating and naps! (If we are hanging out with you, please don't be mad at me if I say it's nap time and put the babies down for a nap - we don't want to have crabby babies!)

We heard back from the church in Indiana yesterday. They are offering the job to someone else. We are very okay with this! We thought the church was great and that the ministry was an amazing ministry, but we didn't really feel like it was the right fit for us - and apparently they didn't either. We are continuing to pray that God will show us where He want us and are looking forward to seeing what ministry He is preparing for us (and hoping that it will be close to our families).

Happy Easter

This is the first holiday the babies have been out in the real world to celebrate. It wasn't too exciting of a day... The babies babies started the day by throwing up several times. We went to church, where they were both being fussy. After church we ran home so that I could pump, and then we went to Jim and Janet's (friends from our old church who attend the same church we do now) house and enjoy Easter dinner with their family. We came home and I fed the babies while Brent mowed the yard. We then played and cuddled and took naps as a family. It's so nice having all of us home together :) I think Sunday afternoons are my favorite for this reason:) And now Daddy is reading the Bible to the babies and getting them ready for bed!

Brent is now working three jobs and has a regular schedule. Monday thru Saturday he is working at Primo's from 11:00am to 3:00pm. Monday thru Thursday, he does to the dry cleaning place after Primos and drives their van and normally gets home around 7:00pm. Friday and Saturday nights he is delivering for Pat's Pizza.

We are officially going to Indiana for an interview. We leave the morning of Saturday May 14th and come back on Monday in time for Brent to be to work. Please pray for us as we prepare to go and try to discern if this is the ministry that God is calling us to or not.

Still no interest on our house... hopefully as the weather is nicer and such, there will be some more...

Another prayer request... my cousin Monty was killed in a motorcycle accident early this morning. Please pray for his parents, Jeff and Diane (dad and step-mom) and Gayle (mom) and his brother Dustin.