So cute!

Had to share this because its just too cute. Caleb is learning the Lord's Prayer in Awana, and although they haven't finished it all yet, I thought it was worth posting already.

Sorry for the sideways view. I have to remember not to hold the camera lengthwise if I'm recording!

Home Sweet Home

Last Friday, the 18th, we closed on the house, with everything going smoothly. We couldn't believe it as we drove off with the keys in our hands. It is ours! God is amazingly good to us, which we all know full well, but are still blindsided by now and then.

Now, the work begins... Our to do list is ever so long. The good news is that the boiler was fine, but we do need 3 replacement radiators. (basically rare, hard to find cast iron antiques). The plumbing is being fixed by our wonderful friend. He has been working hard all weekend. We have to decide on a cooling system, get a roof estimate, and do a bazillion things inside. But, it will get done. (it will, won't it?) Who knows when we'll move in... We were hoping the end of May, but... Pray for us!

Flip Flops

The weather has warmed up significantly, and Aidan has been very intrigued with mommy and daddy's flip-flops (much to Daddy's dismay when he couldn't find one of them for the longest time yesterday). He's been flopping around in our gigantic ones, and then I remembered I had these ones. His chubby feet barely fit, but he loves the idea, and has been proudly wearing them all day. Such a cutie.

A look into his world.

I got to spend the neatest afternoon with Caleb on Monday. I rode the bus with him to his preschool, and spent the afternoon there. I basically shadowed him throughout all his activities, and got to meet his precious little friends. It was a very neat experience, and he was thrilled to have mommy there, though he got a bit jealous when many of the other kiddos wanted my time as well.

I loved seeing how he interacted in that environment. He was a tad spacey, but he sat still, followed directions, and answered questions well. The other kids seemed to enjoy him. I was actually very relieved to see that although he wasn't a strong leader, he wasn't very timid either. We ate lunch, sang songs, read books, played in the learning centers, played outside, made a craft, etc.

Guess what I woke up to this morning? Figures.

http://www.galesburg.com/breaking/x282705142

Yep, a 5.2 earthquake rocked our old brick duplex around 4:40 AM this morning. If you know how I feel about earthquakes, you know it definitely freaked me out. Especially when I considered in my half awake panicky fog, just when our duplex was built, that it was definitely not retro-fit, and that we were basically on the 3rd story. At first I thought it was a tornado? or a plane crash? It couldn't be a quake in the midwest... isn't that a big part of the reason we moved here? :)

The boys didn't wake up, and Weston pretty much just rolled over and went back to sleep. Sigh.

Kellan and Ethan doing a puzzle

Got out a puzzle for the twins to play with this morning, and it was comical to watch how differently they interacted with it. Ethan was very curious, took a piece out gently and immediately attempted to try to fit it back in. Kellan, grabbed the pieces as quickly as possible, and passionately flung them all over the room.

Grrrr...

Caleb: Knowing he is not allowed to pretend shoot people, just things, "Mommy, are we allowed to shoot animals?"
Mommy: "Yes, I guess we are allowed to shoot animals."
Caleb: "Even bears?"
Mommy: "Yes, even bears."
Caleb: After thinking for awhile, "but mommy some people are bears..."

Ahh, the wisdom of the young.

Looks like we just might have a house...

Everything seems to be going super smoothly. We got our financing secure, and we heard today that we might try to close this Friday! How crazy is that, that God might get us through this whole process and into the house in a little over 2 weeks from when we put the offer in! We're getting pretty excited. Trying to decide just what we'd have to do, and want to do before we move in. Our plan would be to rent here at least one more month so we can get as much done as possible before we actually move in. How we are going to get much done with 4 little kids in tow will be interesting, but I know it will all work out.

Spiritual Things

Caleb has really been grappling with "spiritual things" recently. He's been trying to wrap his head around some of the aspects of God. How come we can't see God? How come we can talk to God but we don't hear him talk to us? Does everyone go to Heaven?

Today, his Sunday School teacher stopped me after service to share a sweet moment that happened during class. She said it was pretty quiet at one point, and they heard Caleb say in a very sweet clear voice to his friend, "Aren't you so happy that Jesus died on the cross for you?" She said all the adults in the room pretty much teared up at that. Mommy did too.

On the way home from church in Daddy's car, they drove by "our" house. Daddy reminded Caleb that it might be our new house pretty soon if God decided that He wanted us to have it. So Caleb said, "I'll ask God if He wants us to have it.". Then he prayed aloud, "Dear Jesus, do you want us to have this house? Amen." Then he told Weston, "God said 'yes'", and Weston asked, "Did he say yes to you in your heart?" and Caleb replied "yes". Then Caleb launched into a story about how the other day in bed he heard his stomach say "feed me".

The Chunky Monkey Award goes to...

Kellan! He weighed in at 23lbs.3oz. and was 30 3/4 inches. Ethan was 21lbs.5oz. and 30 1/2 inches. And you can sure feel the difference when you pick them up. Funny though because Ethan is the better eater... but Kellan likes his milk a lot more.

Sleepy Aidan

Today Aidan did not get his normal nap. I had scheduled a few appointments today because Mondays are Weston's days off, but he had to be involved in house stuff most of the day. So I had to drag Aidan along for the twins' one year well baby visit. Thankfully, a friend happened to have the day off and came along to help me. And I sure needed it! The visit took over 2 hours, with 2 shots each, and blood work. They were all troopers though.

Anyways, my plan was just to keep Aidan up when we got home, and put him down early for the night. But he fell asleep on the couch. We tried to wake him up, but no luck. Snapped this pic when we tried to wake him up for dinner.

a house at last?

Wanted to fill you all in on what's developed this past week in regards to us buying a house. Last Tuesday night, a house we'd already looked at, loved, and tried to buy twice before was relisted, again. This is the third time we've seen it listed. The first time, the buyer backed out because they found out it had been winterized wrong, and the pipes had burst, leaving a pretty expensive problem. The second time, the buyer had to back out because they couldn't get financing. Each time before when we went to make an offer, we were too late. This time we jumped on it first thing in the AM, and by Thursday evening we found out that they accepted our offer. (and each time they've relisted the price has dropped, hooray!). So now, we're in the middle of escrow, but there are so many variables and contingencies that we are still not celebrating... We are very nervous that things could still go wrong. It is a foreclosure/repossesion, so that also complicates things a bit. One big hurdle is in regards to financing... some companies won't even talk with us since the house is currently deemed 'unlivable' due to no running water. However, we can't fix it until we own it, so it's kind of silly. We think we've found a bank that will do it (side note, applying for a loan in a small town bank is SO different than So Cal... ) and also have a back-up plan if that doesn't pan out.

Its a great house, plenty big, 4-5 bedrooms, full basement and walk-up attic... Great recently remodeled kitchen (even granite countertops!), attached garage, nice yard with a play structure... It would be wonderful for us. Great neighborhood, close to the church, feeds to a great elementary school, and on and on. Built in 1920, brick, hard wood floors

Today we had a thorough inspection of the house and a plumbing estimate. The bank also had an appraisal done, and the bank loan officer herself came out for a 'walk through'. Weston got to be there for a lot of it and it seems things went pretty well. The plumbing might not be as expensive as we'd thought. But, it looks like it will need a new roof. We are still getting an estimate about a cooling system done as well.

Now we just wait. We have a few more paperworky things to do, but mainly its in God's hands now. Not like it hasn't always been.

Hope I'm not allowing myself to get too excited.

Our closing date would be April 23rd. They want to rush things through as quickly as possible.

Anyways, all this to say, we covet your prayers!!!!

Ethan's Helmet Progress

Wanted to give a quick update on Ethan's helmet. He has been wearing it for a little over 3 months now. We see the doctor every 3 weeks for a refitting (they shave out part of the inside of the helmet based on his head growth). Last week, Ethan's measurement (basically of head symmetry discrepancy) was 9mm. It started out as 17mm. They consider about 7 mm average. So it's doing great, and we are keeping it on one more month (at least) to try to get it a little further corrected, and with the hope that the ear misalignment might straighten out a bit more.

We notice a BIG improvement when we look at his head now. Especially as we've looked at old pictures, and in certain angles it really stood out just how flat it was.

I've had several people come up to me and tell me that their child or grandchild wore one and it worked wonders, and several others say that their child or grandchild should have worn one because their head is still noticably misshapen (at an elementary school age.

So, all in all, we are really grateful with the progress, and happy that we elected to go ahead with the helmet. Thank you all for your prayers and support!!!

On another note, he has started to really break out on his forehead from wearing it, and has a yucky irritated red spot in the back, so we have to head back to Peoria for another visit tomorrow!

Sweet Aidan

Just had to record this quickly because it was so sweet. Aidan has such a sweet tender side to him sometimes!

Caleb woke up crying that his tummy hurt this morning, and sure enough, at about 8:30 he vomited. After which he just wanted to lay down pretty listlessly on the couch. Aidan was with me at the table, and he wanted his morning vitamin. I gave it to him, and he usually then brings Caleb his, but I told him that Caleb didn't need one today because his tummy hurt.

Then I watched Aidan trot over to Caleb, pat him on the back, and say "Caleb sick. No feel good. I sorry Caleb." and then he gave him a little hug.

Melt my heart.

So brave!

Caleb has started swim lesson. Preschool swim lessons. Not Mommy and Me. Sniff sniff.
We took him to his first class last Tuesday, and we were really curious about just how he would be. He admitted being "a little scared", but told us he would "be brave". And he was! Trotted right out there with his class. His teacher was really good with him and had to coax him a bit, but Caleb always kept a really good attitude and eventually tried what was asked of him. No crying or whining until it was over, and he didn't want it to be. :)

Also, had to take him to the doctor today for the first ever Oxley ear infection. Our doctor was astounded that with all our kids we'd never had one before.

"I Silly"

Aidan stuck his head in the basketball hoop today and stated, "I silly". I agreed.

Another cute story about Aidan. His learning has been skyrocketing lately; counting, letters, colors, shapes. He's got his shapes down really well... except for one... whenever I point to a rectangle and ask him what it is, he says, "robot". Guess that would be Caleb's fault? :)

A look back on the twins' first year...

Photobucket limited me to 30 pictures... so you guys get off easy... :) They are such cuties! Its so fun to see how they've grown!

Twins' Birthday

We celebrated with a Veggie Tale Pirate themed party last night! It was very fun and the boys did great! Enjoy the pics! (the beginning ones are from their actual birthday)