Soon and very soon....

Well, we've gone from 15 weeks to 36 weeks and counting! The girls have all been born from 37 to 38 weeks. I've popped out and you can see him just a wiggle'n around.

18 weeks and just starting to not feel so sick...lost 23 lbs

20ish weeks

28ish weeks

31 weeks

36 weeks

The girls are so super excited. Grace Anne isn't sure if it is really going to happen anymore, she told me today that it was taking too long. Poor thing. She kisses him every day and is always wanting to feel him move. She just loves her "baby brudder" so much. Abby was due Christmas day as well but she was born the 5th of December. Maybe she and I will have a birthday surprise. I just want to get over this cold or whatever I have first. It has really run me down, especially today. I have no voice and my throat hurts so bad I can't remember the last time it hurt this bad....even sneezing is agonizingly painful. At least last week we got the baby's clothes out and put away. Not too much more to do until he comes....just clean...but that is never ending!  

We had a great Thanksgiving, my family is so fun! Neal caught a huge steelhead but lost it...it swam away with the stringer! The traveling wasn't too bad being almost 36 weeks...glad it wasn't any farther.

Maybe the next time I post we'll be holding our newest little one in our arms! Until then, Blessings!!!

News!

Yesterday I had 2 teeth pulled...well, cut out because they were stubborn. (Imagine that!)  I guess the stress of it all started some contractions that continued for about 5 hrs. It was recommended by the Dr.'s office to go to the hospital to be monitored. Everything looked fine and things slowed down and eventually stopped by evening. We are 16 weeks along so we found out some news during the ultrasound...good news. Baby #5 is healthy and growing fast! We love this little blessing!

The first picture is from about 9 weeks ago. 

Seven week ultrasound picture. You can see at the left the yolk sack (looks like the head but it isn't) and the leg and arm buds. The little blessing is only about the size of a BB pellet.

Now here are some pictures from yesterday. Growing fast! Isn't it amazing how God knits them together so perfectly! Here is some crazy news! WE'RE HAVING A BOY! He is nearly 5 inches long from crown to rump or as I tell the girls from the top of his head to his buns. They don't count the length of the legs because they are bent and hard to measure. Here you can see his cute little nose, the shape of his head and his shoulder. The ultrasound tech gave me a picture that showed the "obvious" proof, I didn't post that one but I'm sure you all get the idea :o)

In this one his mouth is open and his elbow is bent. The ultrasound tech said that he is growing fast, measuring almost a week and a half ahead, although the due date stays the same. She said genetics takes over by this point and he could be a big baby. I was wondering! I honestly thought there could be twins because of how much my belly was popping even though I was still 15 lbs under my starging weight.

The girls were so excited to find out they're having a brother. They ran around in cirlces in the living room singing "We're going to have a brother, we're going to have a brother, the baby is a BOY!" So, so long saying "the girls" when refuring to our children...now it will be "the kids" or something like that. Now this poor little guy is going to have 5 mothers but he will also have a daddy who will teach him how to be a man (and a good fisherman). It is a new chapter in our lives as parents, one we look forward to. It wasn't something we were "trying" for as some may think. We would have been overjoyed with another girl! We will see where the Lord leads our family. It is so exciting to see who he places in our lives.

Today Chloe` had her 15 month check up. She is one tall little girl! She is in the 97% for her height, 75% for her weight and wonderfully healthy. Oh, and quite the talker! She loves to jibber jabber and snuggle with her daddy.

Until next time,

Calle`

Oh, it has been such a long time since I have been on here....too long really. There is a lot to share in words and pictures!
We're going to have a wonderful Christmas present this year! A new baby! The due date is Christmas day. That will make 5 little munchkins. Abby is hoping for a boy, she says we have "too many girls in the family". We are wanting a healthy baby, boy or girl (although Neal and I both agree that we just may be hoping for a girl because a boy, the poor thing, would have 5 mothers!) I had my first check up this past Monday and all seemed to be going well. For a couple of months I have struggled with being so sick. At one point I had lost 23 lbs. I was in the ER 2 times. I hadn't gone to the ER for myself in over 10 years! We are at 13 weeks now and starting to feel better.

Neal has gotten his unemployment, which has been very helpful. He is doing so well since being done with that job. He's keeping busy with the garden and meeting with some guys every week as well as doing A LOT around the house for me..grocery shopping, dishes, helping with the girls, laundry....

We had a lightening storm in the beginning of May that fried the mother board in our oven. Well, after some discussions with the landlord, he is kicking us out of the house in August. Not fair. And what does an oven have to do with getting the boot? I know it doesn't make any sense.  But we are going to see it as an open door to move on. (Basically he wasn't shooting straight with us, got caught, then got mad and wants us out.)

Several weeks ago Selah broke out in eczema all over her arms, hands, feet and legs. She has always had a little on her back side but this was a major break out. We have cut gluten from her diet and low and behold she doesn't have ANY eczema. So now we are gluten free, mostly dairy free with the exception of cheese, AND vegetarian (yes, that is somewhat new too) with the exception of eggs and fish. It makes you feel great and I suppose with a large garden is easy to do. What do we eat? Well, we still have pizza it just has a rice flour crust and veggies or just cheese, we still have burgers..Bocca burgers with no buns or gluten free ones, and we love stir fry with tofu or just veggies over rice. We eat lots of nuts and seeds and love fish. Veggies actually have protein too!

Our garden is growing wonderfully this year with all the TLC from Neal and the sprinkler.

My handsome husband with his new reading glasses

Chloe`'s 1st Birthday cake

Eating cake for the first time! She had her own cupcake to destroy

Selah and Abby's eggs they decorated with color and glitter!

Easter egg hunt! Found one!

Grace Anne...is it naptime yet?!

Selah, showing off her eggs and missing tooth

Grace Anne was missing for a bit and then we discovered her in the back

eating the chocolates out of her eggs!

Grace Anne on Easter Sunday

A family picture, something that is very rare!

Tilling day! The girls were excited to watch garden Phill (as we call him)

till up our garden in March....(ok, so these pictures are out of order)

Freshly tilled earth...nothing like it!

Abby, what style!

Grace Anne had her tonsils and adenoids out the day after Easter.

Her buddy Sprouts never left her side!

Selah lost another tooth! She is such a cutie!

We had tadpoles this spring. Here one of them has gotten his legs

 and is ready to loose it's tale before we let him go.

Beautiful girl!

Neal and the girls found some morels but with such a dry spring there

weren't very many this year.

Yes, this is Grace Anne. She is our biggest garden pest. She has eaten (yes, not just pulled out but eaten) 3 rows of beets....greens, stems and root, although they haven't been very big it is still quite the accomplishment in my book since I don't think they are that great raw like that.

Chloe`

Selah

Mmmm...

Grace Anne took a big spill out of the stroller and scraped up her nose really bad...

this doesn't even do it justice

Strawberry season and Chloe` loved it!

The tunips this year have been amazing, some are as big as softballs

or bigger! The girls say, "they are bigger then the Amish ones!"

My favorite. Raspberries!

Chloe` helping in the garden!

We have lots of helpers. Selah is watering the tomatoes

 and Abby is picking peas. They also get a penny for every

potato bug they find and squish.

Here she is, picking away!

Cute or what?!

We also found out that Abby will be having her adenoids removed in the near future, we are praying for a quick recovery and good health.

It has been so hot here....a bit more than this Michigan girl can handle but I am so thankful for good AC and the occasional cool evening. Rain is something we have not had much of. There are burn bans...so as of now no fireworks! Yikes! But the good thing is no burning trash (something our neighbors LOVE to do)

We are excited to see my parents this weekend as they camp at the campground here in town. Summers are full of fun memories!

Blessings!

Calle`

A post by Neal

My husband, Neal, wrote part of the next post. I am proud of him and thankful for him.

I am relieved yet anxious over our new adventure. 

I turned to Psalm 66 on a whim this morning and read it. Something that encouraged me and strengthened me was verse nine.

"Our lives are in His hands, and He keeps our feet from stumbling."

Father, please bless us and help us.  Please provide for us both spiritually and physically.  Guide our steps and don’t let our feet slip.  Show us how to bear eternal fruit and to make you proud.  God, I pray that you would forgive all my sin so that my heart can be clean and so I can be in right relationship with you.  Father, I desperately need your guidance to know what to say and do.  Please guide me as I guide my family.  Amen

Neal

It is wonderful to know that the Lord has us in His hands and to have a husband who desires to be lead by the Spirit.

Yesterday the girls and I were playing a guessing game, "which hand is it in?". I'm sure you've played it before. Placing a penny in my hand and mixing it up, the girls would try to guess where it was. Towards the end of our game, with laughter ringing out, I didn't open my hand. They pulled and pulled trying to pry my fingers off the penny. Being nearly 4 times their size it was easy for mommy to hold it secure. They could not take it out. It reminded me of being in the hand of my Heavenly Father. "Girls" I said, "did you know that when you are a Christian, it is like being this penny?" "Your're silly mommy!" one of them said. "It's true Honey! when we are God's children He holds us and never lets go. We will always be His girl!" "It's good to be a Christian" said my Abby girl. "Yes, sweetie it is very good."

"Our lives are in His hands, and He keeps our feet from stumbling." Psalm 66:9

The last day

Today was Neal's last day at the Northeastern Center.  It is bitter-sweet. More sweet than bitter though!!! Not exactly how we expected this job of 4 years to end but we'll take it. It was hard. Hard on Neal and hard on the family. He won't miss the solitude, being the only person working with a house full of clients. We won't miss the long shifts. A 24 hr one on Saturdays with him getting home at 1:00 am Sunday morning made for very sleepy Sundays...for years. I won't miss him being on third shift 2 nights a week, I feel safer when he is here, especially with tornado season coming up!  (When there were just two girls I figured I could grab one under each arm and run for it...and maybe even with 3 if I got creative but it scared the snot outta me to think about having to get all 4 girls awake and carry them outside and down the ladder into the basement in the dark, in a storm, by myself.) The unusual schedule made it hard to keep things going around the house, a regular bedtime will be new and wonderful!

So what's next? We don't know exactly. We have some ideas... Neal loves literature. He loves teaching. He is good at both. So, he is thinking about Taylor University's on-line Transition into Teaching program. Would you pray with us for wisdom on the finances for this? We already have big school bills we are still trying to pay off and feel uncomfortable with going into more debt.

We knew what was going to happen today and to make a difficult day more enjoyable we celebrated! Celebrated the fact that God is in control and He is our Jehovah Jireh, our provider. Celebrated a new path that is before us, a new way of life. It may at first seem "too" light hearted for the circumstances but I guess it was our way of dealing with it. We had a party!

Neal invited his 'old' co-worker, Jacob, over for the party.

You can't be picky with the cake design on half off Tuesdays!

On to the next chapter of life. It may turn out to be harder than the last or it may not.

We don't know what our future holds but we know who holds our future!!!

Healthy Valentine's Day Chocolate!

Yes it's true, I just used the word 'healthy' right next to the words Valentine's Day chocolate, crazy I know! But you could also use the following descriptive words....Gluten free, dairy free, raw, packed full of magnesium, vitamins E and a whole slew of Bs, full of protein, great source of fiber, and high in iron. Oh the list could go on...Ready? Here we go!

   

They look like truffles here, sometimes we just eat it by the spoonful....is your mouth watering? Mine is!

Ok, start with some good raw almonds, about a cup and a half.

Chop them in a food processor, until they look like this. Put in a separate bowl for later.

Then take a heaping 1 1/2 cups of pitted dates. I always check each one to make sure the pit is out by bending them in half, I usually come across at least one every time and they are as hard as a rock, nothing you want to take a bite of!

Process until it just starts to form a ball

Now, add your almond 'flour', about a 1/3 cup of cocoa powder, and 1 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes.

Process. Pinch a bit of this deliciousness to see if it stays together. If it is a bit dry you may have to add a tablespoon or two of water, coconut, or almond milk. Usually by this point everyone has their spoon ready and it is polished off but if you want to serve it a little more fancy you can try this...

Roll them in the coconut flakes or cocoa or save some of the almond 'flour' too. They all look and taste great!

This was Daddy's Valentine's gift from his girls.

My sister shared this recipe with me. She sometimes uses oatmeal instead of coconut, a little bit like no-bake cookies I guess.  I was also thinking how wonderful they would be if you chopped dried tart cherries and stirred them in at the end...

Selah just minutes before loosing her first tooth...it was hang'n by a thread! How did she loose it? At dinner while eating spinach. It fell out onto the floor and she stood up with a shocked look on her face and announced, "I losth my toof!"

Yippy!

The girls and their valentine gifts

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!