RED SHOVEL MADE THE NEWS!

my hard workin' man caught the eye of the people at channel 13 and they did a story on our business, the christmas decor part of it. here is is!

and just so we never forget....

well, aislyn is up to two ER trips now. shouldn't that be grayson instead? he only has one so far. just so we remember, sweet girl was just walking to the door. ian had picked she and liam up from school. they were in the driveway of our house and aislyn was walking while trying to take her coat off and just fell. with nothing to stop her fall. her head hit the concrete, ian said it sounded like someone dropped a cinder block. i heard frantic knocking at the door and screaming and looked through the window to see she and ian COVERED in blood. it was just pouring down her sad face. her nose was also bleeding because of how hard she hit, but we didn't even know that until we got to the ER, because I couldn't tell where the blood was coming from. after much discussion and a couple doctors, the original plan of sedating her and stitching it was bagged and we decided to glue it because of where it was cosmetically and because the second doctor thinks that all the skin might still be there. just really damaged. she is a trooper. they numbed it at the hospital, i gave her motrin when we got home, and have given her nothing since, because she says it doesn't hurt, which is great. anyways, here's the nastiness....

my little superheroes.

i love them. have you EVER seen a cuter batman? or a spunkier supergirl? and aislyn picked out her shoes and socks herself. she loved the way it looked with the outfit. :) grayson has about two or three layers underneath his costume, he really didn't just gain thirty pounds.



i love them. they are my heroes.

happy fourth birthday sweet girl...

our girl turned four at 2:15ish this morning. hard to believe! here is the post where i posted her first day pics. check out the one where she's smiling! and could she look MORE like kenny?

http://grebefam.blogspot.com/2006/04/youre-supposed-to-start-websites-like.html

and then this is from a few months ago... sweet little three year old attitude face. :) i will do her four year session soon..



anyway happy birthday aislyn. we love you now more than ever!

blue

a sweet lady who came across my photo blog sent me some hats for free if i would get her some kid model shots to use in her advertising. i am obsessed with hats, knit beanies, etc. grayson agreed to pose for a couple today. is he not darling?

grayson in action

no words for this video. i mean, what is he doing? and who taught them this?

http://braidynandmali.blogspot.com/2009/09/best-buddiesor-butt-buddies.html

9.5 weeks

and all is well so far. still a heartbeat. still complications, bleeding, subchoreonic hemmorhages, etc. but they have not proven to be a big deal so far. another ultrasound (the FOURTH) will happen next friday. so for now, they will just watch me. and that's that! our approx due date is april 13th, which i can't remember if i mentioned in the last post or not. we will be optimistic, as is our dr., that this baby will keep growing!

aislyn's name for him/her this week? mara. like mare-uh. she makes up a new name at least once a week. i think she REALLY thinks she gets to name this one. maybe i should stop telling her that.

thanks for the prayers. :)

THUMP thump. THUMP thump...

went our new baby's heartbeat this week. :)


we found out, MUCH to our surprise, that i am pregnant almost four weeks ago. i thought i had begun my cycle (way too much info but this is where i document things i want to remember:)), but three days later, when things were just a little too weird, i took a test on a whim when we got home from church. i was immediately devastated, knowing that there were already complications and that has never boded well for us in the past. our first miscarriage seemed to be a replica of this pregnancy. (yet our second seemed like a perfect pregnancy). i knew something was wrong. i called right away to get on progesterone, started it an hour later (i got people ;)) and started the roller coaster of emotional HCG level checks. our first number was 30. SUPER duper low. last time i bought a new robe as my "miscarriage gift" to myself to make me more "comfortable". i was already thinking, what can i buy this time... two days later, they had gone up to 68. good, not great. two days after that we were at 195. ok, now we're getting somewhere. we waited five days and they shot up to 3020. way more than doubling every other day which is what they are supposed to do. i was thrilled and started to relax about it all. that lasted a week and then satan took over. he filled my head with awful thoughts and convinced me that everything was wrong, that there would be no heartbeat. i could not distinguish this awful feeling from that of the enemy, or from that of God just preparing me for His plan. because i know that sometimes His plan is just that.. it's pregnancy loss, it's infant death, it's all of these things that we see as bad, but He is using them for His glory- to Him they are not bad things at all. i know that. so i prepared myself for the very worst, and if you asked my mom, i talked very pessimistically for about a week. ok, actually you could ask anyone who knew our secret and they would tell you the same thing.

finally, the day for the ultrasound came. our dr's office has this handy little roll around ultrasound machine, which is FABULOUS for moms who have had miscarriages and are jaded each time they go to the doctor. at your first appt, she does a quick ultrasound just to find a heartbeat and put you at ease. i walked in there just bracing myself for a large man to punch me in the stomach as hard as he could. i know i looked so downtrodden, my doctor even said that actually. the ultrasound began, she was silent for thirty seconds, no expression on her face. then without looking up, she said "everything looks great". i said "WHAT? you're kidding right? there's a baby in there? with a heartbeat? and it's not in my tube? or there isn't one in each of my tubes (which is one of the scenarios i played out in my head)." "no, look for yourself." she was right. a tiny little baby shaped blob with a heartbeat was visible on the screen. i really really could not believe it.

i know that God is teaching me to trust Him, but i also know that trusting Him means being at peace with His will for my life, whether we get to meet this baby or not. we are not out of the woods. i am just shy of 8 weeks, a month away from my second trimester still. anything can happen. but what we will do, is find joy in Him and nothing else. and if we meet this little one (who kenny predicts is a boy), awesome. if God decides to take him/her home before that time comes, then that has to be ok too. i'm done with the "everything will be fine" theology, meaning don't worry, everything will go your way, just have faith. i'm onto the "everything will be according to God's will, and i will rest in the fact that He knows best." that's my attempt anyway. i need accountability for sure.

so for now, we are expecting, due in april (right around tax day) and very excited at the prospect of a new little grebe, who kenny would like to name ritter. really?

thanks for your prayers. we covet them.