HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTY!!!!

My wonderful husband's birthday is tomorrow. I'm so thankful for the husband that God gave to me. He is everything I could have dreamed and more. He is my best friend and the one I can always turn to. He puts up with my wild tendencies and spurs me on when I need it. He loves me when I don't deserve it. He is the best father in all the world and is a great leader in our home. Thank you Monty for all that you are and will be. I love you with my whole heart and I can't imagine life without you.

TWINS

Though you would like to see pictures of the twins!! The black one the kids have named Vinny. He is the smaller of the two and I have a hard time getting him to eat. The white one is Vince and he is bigger and more agressive and eats very well. Enjoy!!!

The kids are really enjoying them so far! Also Katie is home and is doing better everyday! She really liked meeting these guys!

Here it is, Late at night again and I'm still up. I just finished up with the paperwork that I have so the only thing I will have tomorrow is the new stuff they give me. It feels great to be caught up on that. I have all the kids laundry from upstairs to get done though. I'm going to try to go through it and reorganize it all at the same time. Their clothes get to be such a mess. I guess if its not one thing its another. I have been working hard to stay caught up on the chores around here and part of that is teaching them to pick up after themselves. It takes longer right now, but if they can catch on to the idea it will pay off later. Natalie does pretty well, but I think Rachel will just be Miss Disorganization for awhile. Hailey is still a bit young to know exactly which way she will go. Speaking of Hailey, she is doing much better. No fever for a couple of days now. I'm not sure what caused it, but it was scary having it go so high.

Natalie has all A's for this quarter. I'm so proud of her. I know she works hard. She tends to melt down if she thinks somethings not PERFECT! For the semester she averaged all A's and one B. I think she has done a wonderful job. She doesn't struggle academically much, but she does struggle with feeling very self conscious. At school she is a very different girl than at home. In our home she is very out going and bubbly. At school she holds back and won't do anything that she thinks someone might consider silly. Getting up in front of her class is very difficult for her. Hopefully over time she will open up a bit more.

Hailey (and other things) Update

For those of you wondering how our Hailey is doing here it is. She started with the very high fevers on Thursday night and continued at about 103 until yesterday (saturday). As of yesterday she was actually worse. She was topping out at about 105 and her whole little body was red. I think she is probably sick of baths by now. She had a very high fever this morning at 5:30 so I gave her more IB. We stayed home from church, but she really didn't go back up through the day so we went to help with the Patch Club stuff. Just before we left I could tell she was going to go back up so we only stayed for the beginning. By the time we got home she was 101. I'm so thankful it seems to be taming down now, but we will see what the night holds. She likes to spike up when she is sleeping a lot of times. Over all though, today was a much better day and she actually was playing and wanted off of my lap.

Patch Club did a wonderful job tonight. Rachel did her very first solo. (No, I couldn't find my camera). I was so proud of her. She even managed to not dance while she sang it. I don't think she was nervous at all. She LOVES the spotlight. Natalie was in her first skit tonight too. She memorized the part on her own and did great. She was a little more nervous, but carried through and I'm so proud of her too. I'm not sure how she stayed standing because her legs were twisted some weird way and she was standing on the sides of her feet. My feet would have to be broken to do that. They are all great kids and I love them so much. God has truly blessed me.

Has it really been so long since I've posted. The last two weeks have flown by. School is back in session so that means back to the reality of getting up in the morning. Thankfully some of the snow has melted off so it isn't quite such a pain to get around. The first semester ends on Monday and I can't believe it. It seems like school just started up. Natalie is halfway through her 2nd grade year and even scarier is that Rachel will start kindergarten in the fall. That should be an interesting adventure. Anyway, life has been slightly busy. I'm learning more and more that God allows things in our lives so that we can help others. Sometimes circumstances of life are painful, but God makes us stronger through them. Now it is my responsibility with God's help to pour myself into making a difference in the lives of others. What an awesome responsibility it is, but even more it is a privilege. God wants to use me and that is amazing!

Well, we are back to Hailey being sick. She is spiking temperatures over 103. She seems fine with the medication, but as soon as it wears off she is miserable. Thankfully there are no problems with breathing so far. I'm watching her closely though so we don't have the lungs functioning under normal capacity this time. She is definitely my weakest one when it comes to illness. Just pray that she will get better and grow stronger. I pray that all is well with each of you. Have a very blessed day.

SNOW from where?

The snow on the roof is very deep.Here you can see how deep the ice dam is on our roof.

This is the snow in the drive way after 1/8th of the roof was shoveled and Christy had shoveled for half an hour taking it out.

This is where she was putting the snow.

Well, the New Year is definitely under way. We have had our parties, late nights, late mornings and way too many snacks. Tomorrow was supposed to be back to reality with school and work and early mornings. We get one more day however to laze around the house (Or organize some more) and forget that real life does exist. All the public schools have been forced to close and all private schools have been advised to. We are expecting another big snowfall tonight, but even if we don't get much the road conditions are horrible. The snow is to the point of not being able to see around any corners and the ruts make your car go sideways before you can go forward. It really is crazy. Officially 69+ inches and counting. There is no end in sight. Monty unfortunately hasn't had the opportunity to peel away from reality like the rest of us. After work every day he has been somewhere shoveling snow. He is tired, but doing well.
Many of you have asked about how Hailey is doing and I really appreciate your prayers for her. For those of you who don't know, I took Hailey in to the doctor this past Tuesday after turning quite blue. She had been coughing and running a fever for three days, but I didn't hear any wheezing. By the time I got her there they told me that she could not breath deep enough to wheeze and she was breathing over 60 times a minute. Her lungs were no longer functioning properly. If we would have waited through the night we most likely would have been admitting her to the hospital. The put her on Neb treatments every 4 hours (more if I needed them) and gave her an antibiotic to clear the chest. She is doing better although when she runs around a bunch I have to give her more treatments. She gets out of breath more quickly than normal, but she knows when she needs "medicine" to help her. Thanks for all your concern and prayers on her behalf.