Eleven Pounder

Abram was two months old on Wednesday. At his appointment yesterday, he weighed 11 pounds! I was quite surprised. I knew he was growing, but didn't think he would weigh that much. After the nurse saw 11 pounds, she said, "he'll be growing out of those 1 diapers any day." The funny thing is that he is still wearing newborn diapers. Abram has a tiny little rear, what can I say?!

Thanks to Stephanie Oschner and Stephanie Zielke, I am taking Abram's picture every month with his monkey from his Momma Amber to see how he is growing.

2 months

1 month He has definitely filled out from one month to two, but he doesn't look quite as big as I thought he would look, compared to his one month picture. He is still a little peanut!

Time with the Cousins

Abram is not having much fun, but Sydney loves holding him! This is such a great picture . . . Sydney is kissing Abram while holding his pacifier in. She is such a little momma!

Sydney and Mya posing for the camera.

Snuggling with Abram

More poses . . .

Mya took this picture of Syndey and I . . .

Kisses from Aunt Kate

Hanging out with Aunt Kate

He doesn't look so comfy here, but sometimes when I have to go get laundry downstairs, I put him in the basket to carry him and the laundry upstairs! This outfit is Abram's first 0-3 month outfit. He is finally outgrowing his newborn clothes.

Brady's baseball game Monday night

Home Sweet Home . . .

. . . for good!

Our original plan before we got Abram was for me to work part-time at Cornerstone, just 7-10 hours/week. We had already been living off of just Jason's income, but without me working, we would have to add at least $300 to our budget for insurance. So, this, combined with thinking it would be great to stay connected to working at Cornerstone led us to deciding I would work part-time starting July 1st.

Ever since we brought Abram home, I've felt that I would do whatever it takes (not buy clothes for a year, etc.) to get to stay home 100% of the time. But, I thought I had to work a little to make ends meet. I'd been feeling a knot in my stomach about having to work even a few hours per week, so I met with my boss to get the details on exactly what I would be doing and how often. He said I could work all from home, which was great. But, as I drove home, I just was hating the idea of working.

It is not that I couldn't work 5 or more hours per week. I'm sure I could sqeeze it in. But, as I thought about orienting my life fully around caring for my husband, my son and my household, which is what I am commanded to do by Scripture (Titus 2:4-5), the thought of even working 5 hours per week really bothered me. It would rob my focus off of my husband, son and household. I would rather use those 5 hours to research healthier meals for my family or figure out how to fix something around the house, etc.

So, I sat down and talked to Jason about this 1.5 weeks ago. I was willing to work if I had to, but I needed to know just why I was working so I could gear myself up for it. Jason listened to what I said. He said he heard me saying I didn't want to work at all and I said "YEP" (I had previously been afraid of admitting that because I thought I had committed to working).

Unbeknownst to me, just that week, Jason had been listening to some teaching on the Biblical roles of men and women and he had been convicted that if we need extra income, the burden should fall on him to provide it, not me. So, he told me I didn't have to work.

OH MY GOSH . . . Next to getting married and getting my son, I don't know if I have EVER been happier. I am so grateful to now be able to focus ALL of my heart, mind and energy on mangaging my home and serving my husband and baby.

After we committed to having me stay home full-time, we found out my insurance might cost $600/month (just for me!). But, we decided to trust God and look into other options. God has already provided . . . I am able to carry cobra insurance from Cornerstone for 18 months (and it is very reasonably priced). And the other miracle God did is to provide us with a renter, which we had also been praying for. He has provided a GREAT gal to live with us and she is moving in this weekend. Just in one week's time He has provided all of this!

Yes, our budget is going to be tight. And I might not get to drink a white chocolate mocha from Burgies for about a year! But, God is SO faithful. And giving up the things of this world to gain the treasure of time with this little guy is definitely worth it.

A Tale of the Traveling Sisters

My sister and I and all FIVE of our kids took a road trip back to our old stomping grounds of southwest Iowa. One of our cousins got married on Friday night, but we made several other stops along the way.

We left at 10:00a on Friday. The first stop (after stopping in Adair to eat sack lunches and feed the baby boys) was to visit my grandma and grandpa in Red Oak, Iowa. Brady and Mya gave Kate and I a hard time because we drove past the Red Oak water tower four different times trying to find my aunt's house! Bummer that they are old enough to know we were lost! Kate and I were laughing hysterically.

One of our cousins and his family (who live in Utah) happened to be visiting at the same time. We haven't seen them in about five years. Below are a bunch of grandpa and grandma's great grandchildren. Only four were missing. Angelica (holding Abram) is half Hispanic and had been looking forward to meeting Abram!
We left Red Oak and drove to Treynor, Iowa, to the friend's house (Josh & Shelly Guttau) where we were spending the night so we could catch our breath and get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was in Council Bluffs. We unloaded everyone out of the car and got three steps away from the car when Kate and I realized we forgot Greysen! Had we gotten further away, it might not have been so funny, but we laughed pretty hard about it.

I don't have any pictures of the actual wedding or the bride and groom (oops). But, plenty of pictures of the kids at the reception.

Sydney only took a nose-dive off of her chair THREE times during the evening. That girl is quite the rough one! Jason and I have her pinned as the athletic one of the bunch.

I mostly hung out with Abram at the reception . . . while supervising Sydney eating her cupcake, which was quite the mess as you can see above!

Mr. Big Eyes!

Kate & Greysen

Good thing Dad was with us. He had Greysen-duty most of the time . . .

After the wedding and the girls had a BLAST playing with Joslyn Guttau, who is four. They were like three peas in a pod!

Saturday morning (late morning) we met Dad and Mitch for breakfast at the Treynor Clubhouse (at the golf course). Kate and I had our very first jobs in high school at this place! Dad's best friend, Kenny, joined us too, of course.

Uncle and the boys (thank you Brady for displaying the lovely menu!)

Papa and Abram

After breakfast (which was now noon), Mitch took the kids for a ride in the golf cart. Sydney wasn't loving it so much.

Our next stop was to visit one of Kate and my best friends from high school, Dana (bummer, no pictures of this stop). She lives in Treynor and her and her husband just had their second baby last week. So, it was good timing to stop to see them.

The other great timing is that our cousin Donell had her baby on Friday. We knew she was due that day, but didn't know if we she would have the baby during the time we were back for the wedding. At the beginning of last week, we found out she would be induced on Friday. So, Saturday afternoon, we got to go see her in the hospital in Omaha.

Donell with Courtney Lois Kvall

She is such a doll!

It was such a blessing to get to see her!

Unlike Mary Greeley Hospital, the kids got to be in the room. Aunt Janell (Donell's mom) held Abram the whole time.

And she entertained Mya. I learned on this trip that Mya is introverted. We were in several different situations with several people she didn't know very well. At first, Kate and I thought she was tired, but when she would get in the car and just her and Brady would play or when she played with Joslyn (who she knows), she would be SO happy and like a whole different girl. I identified it easily because I am introverted and know the feeling of being with a lot of people you don't know very well.

Meanwhile, Uncle Wendell (my dad's brother . . . can't you tell!), entertained Sydney and Greysen . . .

Brady became obsessed with the camera and must have taken this one of Uncle Wendell and Sydney being so silly!

We got home around 8:00p on Saturday. I think we got in and out of the car a total of 19 times in the 35 hour trek! At one point I was carrying Abram in his car seat in my right hand and carrying a very sleeply Sydney on my left hip. No wonder my shoulders were killing me yesterday! Even though Kate and I were WIPED OUT by the time we got home, it was such a fun trip and definitely something I'm sure we will do again. Praise the Lord for allowing me to be a mom and not work so I could do this with my sister. It was priceless!

How Long Does It Take to Suffocate A Chipmunk?

. . . We are about to find out!

This morning after I turned on the dryer, I heard an animal running around in my dryer vent. Of course I FREAKED OUT! Jason thought I was deathly ill or something. I was so glad he was still home.

Jason went downstairs and let me know it was "definitely bigger than a mouse." Great. I stayed upstairs while I heard Jason banging around downstairs. It was a chipmunk. GROSS! He literally tore apart the utility room trying to catch it, as you can see below . . .

And tried to set up a barrier to keep it enclosed.
The chipmunk made its way from the utility room into the storage room (at least the storage room is much smaller!). Jason said the chipmunk jumped and he was able to put the bucket over it as it landed!! He yelled at me to come help him and this is how I found him in the storage room. I died laughing! And then said, "wait a minute, I have to go get my camera!"

The chipmunk is under the bucket, duct-taped to the floor . . .

. . . with a bag over the bucket!

Had I been willing to help, perhaps we could have gotten the chipmunk into the bag and outside. But, I hate ALL animals of every shape and size and I refused to even take a look at that nasty chipmunk who made its way into my house through my dryer vent! Just seeing its tail wiggle once through the bucket made me shriek with horror!

So, the chipmunk is currently waiting to suffocate to death in our storage room in the basement.