Abbie Turns One!

Our little baby girl has finally turned one! Where has the time gone?! Here are a few photos of her little party. At the bottom of the post we'll fill you in on what she's been up to and what we learned at her 12 month doctor visit...

She was more fascinated by the candle than with the cupcake.

Chomping down on her first piece of cake.

Gotta love a birthday cupcake!

She wasn't terribly agressive about opening her gifts. She would rather sit back and have someone do it for her.


The balloons were a hit with the kids. Jeremy and I would get them all in one corner of the living room and bounce them off their heads. Jaron and Abbie went crazy over that!

Abbie went in for her 12 month doctors appointment this morning; we were anxious to see what the doctor would say since Abbie has not yet started to crawl. It turns out that the doctor has diagnosed Abigail with Hypotonia. Hypotonia is a medical condition that causes low muscle tone and low strength; it is typically brought on by other disorders and diseases and cannot be considered a medical disorder by itself. It is basically a by-product of a list of other medical issues; on that list is Infant Botulism. Now, we don't know too much more then that except that the doctor urged us to start physical therapy for her as soon as possible. That will be done here in the home or we will go to a therapist for it - that has yet to be determined. We don't know the long term effects hypotonia will have on Abigail, if any. And we may not know for awhile.

Please pray that the Lord would find it pleasing to give Abigail the strength that she needs.

Her fine motor skills, however, are doing well! She grasps food well. She scoots around on her bottom. She waves bye-bye, gives kisses, gives high-five, claps her hands, sounds like she says "Dadda & Mamma", she's a great sleeper (two naps a day), a great eater with table food, she still nurses twice a day, and today she discovered her belly button. She seems to learn something new every day. She still has no teeth, does not like tummy time, does not roll over, does not stand on her feet well, but she's coming along and we pray that she will have increased strength in a short time. She is a tiny little thing. Her weight is only 18 lbs., which is in the 10th percentile for her age. She's only gained 2 lbs. since her last check-up, 3 months ago, but she's gaining consistently enough where there's no cause for concern. She's certainly eating well! Her height is also only in the 10th percentile.

We're so incredibly thankful for our little girl and can't imagine life without her. We love her so much. Yes, it's been a rough first year for her, but the Lord loves her even more than her parents do. That is quite evident, so we chose to put her life in His hands. God's will be done for Abigail Kathryn. Happy Birthday princess!

Lost and Found

I just went through a very stressful few hours. Wanna know what happened? Well, this was my afternoon. I was at Babies 'R Us getting diapers. Then I went across the street to another shopping center to GIANT. I had gone through the grocery isle with everything scanned, the cashier gave me the total, I went to my bag to get my wallet and… IT WAS GONE!

With Jaron and Abigail, I had gone back through every grocery isle, the parking lot, gave them my info., went back to Babies R Us, checked their parking lot, talked to the desk, left my info. No luck. I was panicked. I called Jeremy who wasn't too far away from there, and he came to help me look. It was getting late so I had to stop looking and just go home to feed the kids a late lunch and get them down for naps. Jeremy had already started cancelling our credit cards. Then after I got J & A down for their naps, I checked our answering machine, which I should've done right when I walked in the door. A lady had called and said she found it in the BRU parking lot and had dropped it off AT MY HOUSE. She said she had just left it in between our two front doors. I ran to look and sure enough, there it was sitting in an envelope between the door and the storm door.

I can't believe how well the Lord takes care of us! I can't believe how He answers our prayers! But that's just it! I don't believe, not enough anyway. My faith had fallen short. I panicked instead of remained peaceful. I doubted instead of trusted. I should have trusted that even a lost wallet was in the Lord's hands. I am ashamed.

Of course, when something like this happens, you think the worst of what could happen. My thoughts were that it might have fallen into the hands of a dishonest person who wanted to take advantage of free money and credit cards. It didn't. It fell into the hands of a lady who says she does this sort of thing all the time. (Was she an angel?) She said she saw the wallet driving past it and had stopped to pick it up. She wasn't even going to Babies 'R US, but another store in the shopping center.
Anyway, the Lord used this incident to show me my weakness and my need for Him. He had been faithful to me, even though I wasn't being faithful to Him. Doesn't that sound a lot like the Cross?

Fall Fun

Costumes, visiting friends and carving pumkins were the best part of Halloween for us. Abigail decided she wanted to be what her big brother was for Halloween last year (even though she had not yet entered this world at the time), so she went as a bumble bee.

Jaron was a construction worker. He already had the hard hat and the tool belt (Christmas and birthday gifts from Nanna/Pappa and Gramma/Grampa) so once we found an orange construction vest, it was complete!
Even though we were supposed to gain an hour of sleep last night from Daylight Savings Time, they actually lost an hour since we kept them up past their bedtime. We went to our neighbors houses to say hello, then we packed 'em up in the car to go visit "Aunt" Carole and Fred Pletscher (a wonderful couple from church who say they now have two more grandchildren, J & A) where we stayed for about an hour. Then we went to visit a college friend of Jeremy's and his wife, Matt & Danielle, who live a few blocks from us. There were a few others we wanted to visit, but the kids were SO tired, we knew we had to call it a night, get them home for a bath and into bed. Overall, Jaron and Abbie were really good sports about it. We had a fun time!













Jaron was very excited about his first Jack-o-Lantern.

Mary was a little too excited about hers.