Dave and Cheryl's family with the twins

I know some of the blog posts are out of sequence, but I don't care. :-) Here at the top is Conrad. Below is Benji. Next is Cheryl and Grace; then Dave, and last is a shot of Hannah and Grace. Dave and Cheryl kept Jake and Stan while I was in the hospital giving birth. The next day they brought their clan and two of our clan all the way to the hospital for a visit. I was so thankful they did. I was ready for some visitors, and I was glad Jake and Stan could meet their new brothers.

Jacob turned 6!

Jacob turned 6 years old in July. He loves baseball mostly. He loves video games (he's dying for us to get a Wii). He's learning to read, and enjoys being read to and reading himself. Right now he's reading a book about Albert Pujols. He enjoys his friends and his brother. His days are mostly filled with playing baseball outside or actually playing with his new pitch back or playing catch with his dad, pitching to his dad and also batting - he tries to get "home runs" over the back fence. He has succeeded in that a few times. I remember Brian telling me earlier in the summer, that he thought by next year Jacob would be able to hit the ball over the back fence, but here he is doing it already.
His birthday fell on a Saturday which is, of course, the best day for a little boy's birthday. We started the day with presents.



Then we a breakfast of donuts from our local donut house. YUM.

Then we had a birthday party in the afternoon. Everyone met at the park for a baseball game! It was so much fun! Then everyone came back to our house for a backyard BBQ. This picture is of most of the cousins and 2 friends from school who were there.

Here's "Dad" grilling hotdogs - this is a baseball party remember!

Stan's cast

Our little guy broke his foot about two weeks after the twins were born. We thought it was just bruised, but he kept limping on it, so we took him to the doctors and then to the hospital to get an x-ray and then to anther doctor to get the cast. He was very brave. The only time he got upset was when they were wrapping the cast, but as soon as he realized it was going on and staying on, he didn't ever complain about it. He got very good at walking with it and even running! It only stayed on about 3 weeks and now, a couple months later, he is completely healed up and is walking normally again. We praise God for his healing.

Fan Fest 2009

The All-Star Game was held in St. Louis this year. As part of the festivities the city held an event called Fan Fest at the America's Center downtown. My mom's coworker and friend had some tickets she couldn't use, so Brian and Jacob got to go. Jacob has become a HUGE Cardinal's fan, and also loves playing ball so this was the perfect thing for him. He had a great time, I'm told.

Here he is batting, and below he is getting ready to field a ball.

Here he has just completed a pitch. His favorite thing to do is pitch. He loved this thing here, because it let him pitch to a real baseball player (on a screen). It measured his speed and I think it was about 30 MPH.

The goodness of the Lord

I would be remiss if I did not post a bit about the goodness of the Lord through the past year. I cannot say how much I owe to my Heavenly Father. The fact that he has given me a husband that loves me and four beautiful children makes me so happy. I am so happy to be a wife and a mommy. God brought me from the brinks of personal ruin to this!! It is not my doings - it is His! I would not love the Lord, but for his drawing me to Himself and loving me first.

I am thankful that the twins were healthy and that I was able to deliver them with no complications. I am thankful for an excellent obstetrician, who was willing and able to turn Baby#2 from a breech position in order to be born with no ceseserean. I am thankful for Brian who was so supportive and helpful through the pregnancy and then especially afterwards. He was amazing - he kept the house running smoothly with food and cleaning and spent gobs of time with the older two boys. I am thankful for my dad - he started doing my grocery shopping for me in the middle of my pregnancy and is still doing it! He is awesome! I'm thankful for my mom who cleaned my house for me so many times during the last trimester!! I'm thankful for my sisters who babysat on numerous occasions. I'm thankful for lots of family and friends who brought me meals after the babies arrived. I'm thankful for my mom-in-law who came and stayed with us a week after the babies came. She brought lots of delicious food and told lots of stories! She is an amazing storyteller. I'm thankful for my sister, Melanie, who comes over twice a week to help me with the twins so I can have a couple hours to myself to do whatever I need/want to do. She is so good with the babies!

I'm thankful that God has been helping me these first weeks with the twins - getting things worked out and adjusting to life. Jacob and Stanley have adjusted SO well to having the twins around. They love their new little brothers and I am so glad!! The twins are great sleepers and I mean great! It is pretty amazing how great.

The first few weeks of life with 4 children have gone quite smoothly. I do not know what the future holds, but I know Him that does know, and that is all I need to know. May the Lord help me to rest in Him no matter what!

Backyard Campout!

Last night was a campout in the backyard. I'm planning on taking Jacob camping later in the year, so this was a chance for just Stan and me to camp together. But first, the whole family enjoyed some s'mores from the grill:



We set up our little 2-man backpacking tent in the yard. Stan especially enjoyed hammering in the stakes with a rubber mallet. We were equipped: Therm-a-rest pads (those are the green things), sleeping bags, pillows (having a real pillow is certainly a camping luxury!)

Also, we each had our head-lamps:

And four rather long children's books. We read the books until it got dark.

Stan was a little noisy and moving around, but he finally got still.

It was hot, but it cooled off a little overnight. We really didn't need sleeping bags.

In the morning when we woke up, Stan wanted to know if we were going to sleep in a tent that night. Sorry Stan, just one night this time!

The Broken Window

A young hoodlum, say, heaves a brick through the window of a baker’s shop. The shopkeeper runs out furious, but the boy is gone. A crowd gathers, and begins to stare with quiet satisfaction at the gaping hole in the window and the shattered glass over the bread and pies. After a while the crowd feels the need for philosophic reflection. And several of its members are almost certain to remind each other or the baker that, after all, the misfortune has its bright side. It will make business for some glazier. As they begin to think of this they elaborate upon it. How much does a new plate glass window cost? Two hundred and fifty dollars? That will be quite a sun. After all, if windows were never broken, what would happen to the glass business? Then, of course, the thing is endless. The glazier will have $250 more to spend with other merchants, and these in turn will have $250 more to spend with still other merchants, and so ad infinitum. The smashed window will go on providing money and employment in ever-widening circles. The logical conclusion from all this would be, if the crowd drew it, that the little hoodlum who threw the brick, far from being a public menace, was a public benefactor. (http://jim.com/econ/chap02p1.html)

Thursday, I got up and left to go to work and found out that, during the night, someone had thrown an egg at my car and also broken the windshield (not, I presume, with an egg). Of course, I shopped around and got the cheapest "glazier" I could find, and of course he stood me up on Friday and didn't finish the job until today.

As we were leaving for a family gathering today, I noticed someone else in the neighborhood having his windshield replaced. I stopped and inquired - yes, another victim of the same miscreant. And I noticed some other cars in the neighborhood had been egged as well, but I saw no damage.

Whoops, I didn't blank out my license plate (why do people on the internet do that?).