Due July 5th, 2007

It's a baby...

Yummy Yum Yum

MMMMMMmmmmmmm...........whipcream kisses!

Home is so nice.

We hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas! We did. Alyenna cleaned up with all her new toys. We had a very busy few days and are glad to be at home resting today. There was alot of lack of sleep for baby... but with all the action she was a great tag-a-long. I'm having some technical problems with my program that loads the pictures off my camera and on to the computer... so I hope to resolve that soon. I had an ultrasound yesterday to tell how far along I actually am and I am 13 weeks. So my new due date is July 5th. Just around the corner! We also decided to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. That ultrasound will be sometime in Feb.

NO, NO, NO.

Yellow and clear are so much better. Aly is starting to feel much better... and sleeping thru the night again! I still think that she is working on the teeth next to her bottom teeth though. So I went to my nurse educator visit yesterday. That nurse's job must be so boring. She has this list of people who are newly pregnant and she has to ask them a million and one questions about their medical history and take their blood pressure and then tell them food and health related info during pregnancy. So I must have really bored her because all of my answers were no. No muscle related problems. No non-functioning organs. No diabetes. Nothing. She did inform me that if I choose to, I can have an ultrasound to determine my due date accurately. I was all over that!!! I only got to have one ultrasound with Aly. So this time I will get to have two! So my 1st doctor appt and ultrasound are day after Christmas! Woo-hoo. I can't believe that it is the 15th! Ahhh. I need to finish shopping! P.S. Why does the scale at the doctor's office have to say something SO different than my scale at home!

Green is no fun!

Having a baby with a cold is just no fun. She really hates it when I come near her with the bulb sucker thing... but man does that rattle her brains as I suck the snot out of her nose. Poor little girl. She is such a sad case when she is sick. Don't you wish you could just give your child a tissue and say "Here blow your nose". Not the case I guess. When do they learn that skill? Not soon enough. It is so hard to pin her down with one hand... hold her hands out of the way and try to get her to hold her head still as I approach with the sucker with the other hand. What a production. She has mastered avoiding that thing like a pro! When I just touch the rim of her nostril with the sucker she freaks out! And I mean a ROYAL freak out. Like I was slowly sawing off a limb is what it sounds like. She is napping right now.. thankfully. Sleeping is hard for her when she can't suck her thumb. Her nose is stuffed up so she has to breath out of her mouth. She didn't wake up last night though. Thankfully! Owww... it just feels good to vent!

How well do you know me?

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Mmmmm... paper.

What type of animal likes to eat paper? Well, I will tell you that it isn't an animal at all... it is my human baby. Any type of paper and she is down for a bite. She has 4 top teeth now and her bottom teeth make for some great chompers. Almost all the papers in the bottom drawer of my desk have little Aly bites out of them. Right now she is trying to score a bite of the envelope that holds our house documents in it. Not just thin paper... the thick folder type. Ohhh she got a bite. At least now she has the coordination to get it out of her mouth when she realizes that it is not food. Hmmmm babies a interesting breed. When she was on my lap this morning she tried to score a bite of the Woodland Town Paper. No type of paper is a task to hard for my little girl... she will get a bite!

under the weather... explained.

We have news...
A is going to be a big sister. I am about 10 weeks along! Surprise.. what a blessing!
I have been feeling like a pile of nauseous junk for the last month or so. Much worse than the first time I was pregnant. I took 2 home tests two weeks apart and they were both negative... so I went in for the blood test and confirmed the symptoms that I was having. PREGO! So my due date is end of June. We are surprised, shocked, excited and a little nervous. The babies will be 19 months apart... eeeeek. I'm going to be a busy mommy!

How cute am I?

Look at all her teeth! All of the sudden she has a mouth full. I've been feeling a little under the weather the last few days... so the blogging has taken a hit. Have a great Turkey Day everyone. I know that Aly will have a great time enjoying turkey and all the trimmings. She is a meat lover. She will pick out the meat off her plate and skip the veggies, unless I feed them to her with my fork. She loves puzzles lately.. especially the wood ones. As you read in a previous post she is part beaver. All her puzzles pieces have teeth marks in them.

Quiet.... too quiet.

Here is why
it was so quiet
in the kitchen.
Mmmmmm....
dada's coffee grounds
out of the garbage.

It's not to late to sleep like a baby.

La La La La La... I'm kicking my legs and playing in my crib. I'm suppose to be getting tired and taking a nap, but la la la la la. I think I just lay here and kick the side of my crib and dangle my legs in and out of the slats. I don't even know that my momma is watching me and listening to me. I can hear my music and am just enjoying life. Wow...it has been like 10 minutes and I'm still just as content as can be. Talking to myself and dangling my legs out of..... ASLEEP!! How is that even possible to fall asleep mid kick? She didn't look to comfortable as you can see from the pictures, but I wasn't about to go in a wake her up to move her. She fell asleep like that so it couldn't be that bad. Needless to say she woke up about 1 hour into her nap when she realized that she couldn't get her leg out of it's tight spot. So I went in and picked her up and we sat down in the glider and rocked for a bit. She fell right back to sleep and then I laid her down in her crib and she slept for 2 more hours. I got a great nap in too!!! God bless the rain... it just makes you want to stay in bed.

(Please note the fashionable addition to the end of her crib. She had chewed through to the wood that could give her slivers, so I had to cover the end of the crib so that she wouldn't get wood in her lip~! )

Dirt Water Pool

I think that our house is going to erode away with all this rain. We live at the top of the hill and so therefore all the water that runs off our property goes down the hill. Well our neighbors are just below us so guess where our water runs off to? You guessed it... there house. Their driveway is a lake and the streams coming down off our lot are the major contributing water source. There are little eroded pathways in the dirt leading from the top of the side yard down into their driveway. Our driveway has some carved out little streams of it's own dumping out into the street. When it is really coming down you can look out the window and just watch the water run down into their driveway where it is puddling under their cars. There is a break in the rain right now and I can actually see across the valley. It is so pretty because all the deciduous trees are turning yellow and so the landscape is dotted with yellow.

Ode to Rain.

Rain coming down so loud
Wondering if I might drown.
Want to go outside and play
Wishing for a sunny day
Dark and cloudy day outside
Thinking of a Slip N Slide
Waking up at night from rain
What a pain, what a pain
Can't take baby for a walk
Stuck inside, wanna talk?
It's warm though, that is nice
Ohh a nap... to me entice
Must go now my time is up
Baby crying and needs some lup :-)

Big Girl

Miss D had her 9 month check up today. She is a long girl.
She measured in at 29 1/2 inches long. That is in the 97%.
She weighed in at 19lbs 11.6oz... keeping her in the 75%.
She did have a head growth spurt. She went from 42cm to
45.5cm. She went from the 50% to the 89% for her head.
So there are the stats. She did have to have a finger prick
to check for anemia. No shots though! Here is our attempt
at the self-portrait... all Miss D was into was the camera strap.

Beaver or Baby?

Taking a baby outside now is a bit of a production. Get on the hat... she pulls it off. Get on the shoes... she kicks them off. Get on the jacket... what a bundle of joy. Trying to put a bundled up baby in the carseat is really a task. It doesn't help that she is anti-carseat anyways. She spent the morning with my neighbors today while I was at Bible Study Fellowship. They played and played. It facinates me how well she does when there is so many people to entertain her. That's why I tell Steven.... see we need to have more children. They play together and don't need their mommy to play with them. She is down for a nap right now... because on Wednesday's she usually skips her morning nap.

I noticed the inside railing of her crib the other day and much to my surprise it looks like a beaver sleeps in that crib. She has chewed with her little teeth a ring around the railing. I have wondered in the past when I pick her up out of her crib what that brown powder-like substance was on her face?

Did you know?

http://www.biblebelievers.com/jmelton/Halloween.html

SHOULD CHRISTIANS OBSERVE HALLOWEEN?
The Origin of Halloween

The idea of observing October 31st as a holiday originated with the ancient Celtic priests, called "Druids", around 300 B.C. The Druids lived in the area between Great Britain and Germany. Their new year began on November 1st, so October 31st was set aside to worship their god, Samhain, the god of the dead. So October 31st was the Celtic New Year's Eve, the time for their Festival of Death.

The Druids believed that Samhain gathered all the souls of the past year's dead on this night. These souls had been confined to the bodies of various animals to atone for their sins. Animal sacrifices and even human sacrifices were carried out , usually in forests. This practice was observed until around 61 A.D. when it was outlawed by the Romans. However, some animal sacrifices were still practiced as late as 400 A.D.

The Druids taught that the spirit world was closer to the earth on this night than at any other time, and that "the gods" would even appear on this night to play tricks on people.

Pope Bonoface III, in the seventh century, set aside May 13th as "All Saints Day" or "All Hallows Day" as a time for Roman Catholics to honor all known dead saints. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved the date to November 1st which conveniently merged "All Hallows Day" and "All Hallows Eve" with the Celtic New Year and the Festival of Samhain.
This custom wasn't much observed in America until the 1840's when large numbers of immigrants came over from Ireland and Scotland.

The Pagan Customs and Characters

Halloween is filled with all sorts of pagan characters and customs that Christians need to avoid.
The black cat, for example, was believed by the Druids to be evil spirit friends of witches, and even witches themselves. These cats were often kept in wicker cages and burned in animal sacrifices.

Witches are worshipers of Satan, and they are an abomination to God (Exo. 22:18; Deu. 18:10-11). Why would a God-fearing Christian want to dress-up their child like something that God hates?

Scary masks were worn by the Celts to scare away evil spirits. The jack-o-lantern was used for the same purpose, although a turnip was originally used.

What the world thinks of as "ghosts" are not the spirits of dead people, but rather EVIL spirits which we are warned about in the Bible (Lev. 19:31; 20:27; II Kgs. 23:24; Mat. 10:1; Mar. 3:11; Acts 8:7; Rev. 16:13). Why would a Christian want to decorate their home with such wickedness? Does God want you to dress your child up like an evil spirit?

Even the orange and black colors of Halloween have a wicked origin. At the Druid Festival of Death for Samhain huge bon fires were used for offering human and animal sacrifices. So the colors of the night were orange flames glowing in the dark.

Trick-or-treating finds it's origin in the custom of peasants going house to house begging for money to purchase necessities for a feast for Muck Olla, the Druid sun god. A blessing was promised to generous givers, while threats were often made to those who were stingy.

Apple bobbing probably comes from the Roman festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. This festival was merged with the festival of Samhain after Rome conquered Britain. In honor of Samhain, subjects were forced to bob for apples in boiling hot water. Those who lived through this ordeal were set free.

Friend, Halloween is Satanic! You may pretend that it's a harmless game for kids, but in reality it represents paganism, Satanism, human sacrifice, torture, rape, murder, idolatry, witchcraft, and spiritualism! Did you know that October 31st is considered by Satanists to be their most important day of the year? Friend, WAKE UP! Don't honor the Devil! Honor God instead by refusing to observe Halloween this year. The Lord Jesus Christ wouldn't dress innocent children up like the devils of Hell and march them around town, so why should you? Are you a TRUE follower of Jesus Christ? Then SKIP Halloween this year and tell others to do likewise!

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" (I Tim. 4:1) "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Eph. 5:11) "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." (Rom. 13:12)

Have You Been Saved?

Jesus Christ came into this world to lay down His sinless life for YOU--to pay for your sins because you couldn't. Jesus is your only hope for salvation. Only by receiving Him as your Saviour can you enter the gates of Heaven. There is no other way. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

The Lord Jesus Christ has come and PAID for your sins by shedding His own Blood on Calvary. By receiving Him as your Saviour, you can be WASHED from all your sins in His precious Blood (Rev. 1:5; Col. 1:14; Acts 20:28; I Pet. 1:18-19). Notice these important words from Romans 5:8-9: "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

Jesus PAID your way to Heaven for you! By receiving Him as your Saviour, you will be receiving God's ONLY means of Salvation. Are you willing to forsake YOUR righteousness and receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your ONLY HOPE for Salvation? Romans 10:13 says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:9 says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Are you willing to forsake your own righteousness, and ask Jesus Christ to save you? Why not pray right now and ask the Lord to come into your heart and cleanse you from all sin. He will save you just as He promised.
Copyright © 1999 James L. Melton

9 months now.

Here are a few pics that I took of her 9 month birthday!

Chunky Monkey

Miss D is sitting amongst her pile of paper and books again. What a busy little girl she is. My brother and his wife came over for a visit this weekend. We had a great time with them. Thanks for making the trip down Kevin and Jen. Now, when I say that WE had a great visit that's what I mean... Miss D on the other hand, decided that she wanted to wake up after 3 hours of sleep. I fed her, then tried to put her back to bed. Well...1 hour later she was ok with that. Then I heard crying at 4:45am. I go in and she thinks it is time to wake up. She was all ready to get down on the floor and start playing with her toys. I had other plans! I fed her again and put her back to bed. Then she woke up at her normal time of 7am. That night gave me an all to familiar taste of what it was like to have a newborn. I was SO tired in the morning. I should have told the story of the night before as a lead in to this story.... Well here is goes... and beware if you have a uneasy stomach don't read on. Saturday evening was going normal. I had feed Miss D her dinner and then we were getting ready to go over to our neighbors house for dinner and to hear their daughter Sarah share about her trip to China. Miss D was her normal self... happy in the evenings. So we head out. Eva is so happy to see Miss D and gives me a break and takes her to play. After a little while Miss D starts to get grumpy. I go to the rescue and put her on my lap for a while. Greg sets up the pack and play so that we can stay for dinner while Miss D goes to sleep. I go into their room and start to feed Miss D. All is going normally... done with one side and I burped her. I move to the other side to finish her off and she makes this choking noise. I sat her up and burped her and then out comes the mother load. She was vomiting.... not just spit up either... FULL ON VOMIT. I was frozen.. what do I do? Here it comes again... and again and again. Four times in all. I was covered and so was she. Note the color of the font and you will be right there with me. Her blanket had chunks all over it and so did our neighbors bed. Just a little got on the bed... but still it is their bed and someone just puked on it. I gathered her up and put her in their bathroom. I tried to get Mr D's attention, but he was in the kitchen. I didn't want to exit the room because people were eating dinner and if they saw what covered my shirt and pants their dinner would have been ruined. Sarah saw my deer in the headlight look and got Mr D for me. He came into the room to find me and Miss D covered in her dinner. We striped her down and put a blanket around her to take her home. Thankfully we were next door and didn't have to go far. We got her home and then both got changed. I thought that I would feed her just a little bit to settle her tummy. Bad idea because what was left in there came up along with what I had just fed her. So, we both headed to the tub to get cleaned up. After all of that she went to bed at 9:30pm and slept all night until morning. What a nightmare. Thanks to Shelia for coming to the rescue. After 6 kids it was nothing to her to have a little puke on her bed. We felt so bad to just puke and then leave. But, they are the best most understanding people we could have living next door to us. So that was the inside scoop into my weekend.

Yesterday...

Is anyone else having photo posting problems? I've tried for 2 days now to post a photo and the page keeps failing????? I'm frustrated, because I have a cutest pic from yesterday and I want to SHARE IT!!!!

Whole Heart Faith

I'm sitting here at the desk with Aly at my feet cleaning out both of the bottom drawers. There are envelopes and paper scattered about. You can always tell where she has been because she leaves a trail of toys. She is a bit like me when it comes to that. I'm still trying to learn to pick up after myself. As I am still learning, I can be an example for her. Being an example is what we talked about today at BSF. Do we have to obey the 10 commandments if we are saved by faith and not by our works. One would think that "well I can do whatever I want, God will forgive me." I'm sure that your conscience in telling you that isn't true. The truth according to Romans 3:31. "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary we establish the law." We need to uphold the 10 commandments and live according to the law to be an example to other people who need Jesus. They will see through our lives that we are trying to live a life pleasing to God and that Jesus can live through us. Therefore our choices are His choices. We need to have a faith that upholds the law. God knows what is best for us and that is why we have to follow the law and obey Him. People may have faith in doctors, finances or anything else that is of the world. Where the challenge lies in having faith in God. Having faith that he knows what is best for us and that we can find the answers to life's questions in HIS WORD. Now Aly is standing on to my chair... looking at me like HELLO aren't you going to play with me? Wait... no I just found a pile of paper to play in... no wait I'm over that. Play with me!