Category Archives: family

Family Portrait

This is our first family portrait after the baby was born. He made this one just a couple weeks after we had Shell.

Jackson is quite the artist lately! I’ve been very impressed by his art work lately.

Here is his latest drawing:

Can you tell what those are? Its two of these…

Not too shabby, eh?

He’s been very busy creating lately. He loves to make maps. There’s always an X to mark the spot, and when its finished we go out and have quite an adventure getting to where it tells us to go! It seems we always have to fight off some bad guys, watch out for the crocodiles, and go through a cave or tunnel to get to the right place! Its pretty entertaining to watch his imagination go.

Shelly has been smiling like crazy! I haven’t gotten too many pictures because the camera is just not her favorite thing. Here are my most recent attempts:

Today Lacey was playing with her and she smiled for her several times – Finally! Lacey’s been dying to make her Shell happy. She still comes up to Shell and says “baby’s so coot!” We love our Shelly girl! She’s a cute and sweet girl!

And here’s our “Fancy Nancy” that’s been hanging around lately

She asks for her Minnie dress everyday and cries if its in the washer or dryer. She loves her accessories… she wears her bright pink and orange square “watch-thing” (watch) almost always (it must have fallen off for a second during this picture). It really completes the outfit.

I love the fun personalities that children come with.

Finally… Jackson has been watching me put this post together and requested to type his own name, so without any help from mom, here it is:

JACKSON

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A Fun Weekend

Jackson and I woke up first this past Saturday morning and made pancakes for everyone. Since he was the big helper, we made his name.

Then Micah took us down to the Gateway airport for a families of employees special to see this HUGE airplane… the C17. It is used to transport tons of cargo and troops in a war setting and someone there told us that they also use these to take the President’s vehicles wherever he goes. It was really neat – we were able to go up in the cockpit and see everything.

We had to take a van out to the C-17 and on the ride we past these other cool jets. Jackson loved it!

That night, like the night before, Lacey woke up with a terrible dry cough and had trouble breathing. We got her calmed down a bit, and then about 1:00 AM took her temperature at 104! Micah took her in to the pediatric urgent care and after listening to her breathing, breathing treatments, and x-rays decided she had croup. It was one of those crazy nights – we were all up until about 11:00 or so and finally Jackson fell asleep, Rachelle was up and down most of the night, and by the time Micah and Lacey got home it was about 4:00 AM. Then Rachelle was up again, and the morning was here.

Sunday was Rachelle’s blessing.

So we put some drops in to clear our bloodshot eyes and went to church! I decided to try to make a blessing dress for Rachelle, knowing that if it didn’t work out or get done in time, I could use Lacey’s dress. Well, if I could just understand a dang pattern I would be awesome! I’m slowly learning by trial and error; I didn’t get to the little jacket that should have gone with it, but the important parts, the dress and the slip were done enough.

Grandpa and Grandma Stubz flew in right before church and the kids were so excited to have them here. We had a beautiful blessing and we were so grateful to everyone who came! Mamama and Papa-dad, Mama and Papa Great, Devan, Chip, Erin and family, the Geigle Family, and the Arnett family (did I miss anyone?). I called Lori before church and asked her to stay at our house with Lacey (who slept until 2:00ish). Thank you! Rachelle started a little cold Sunday and the cough has stuck around! After the blessing Rachelle and Grandpa took a nap.

Monday we were planning on going to a park or the Botanical Garden or something, but when I picked up Jackson from school he was acting pretty mellow. He has still been sick, and although Lacey was feeling better, I decided not to push it with them. So sorry Grandma and Grandpa, we weren’t very exciting hosts! We watched a movie and relaxed that afternoon. That night we went to Joe’s BBQ (Joe’s Farmgrill was randomly closed for ventilation issues),

and came home to celebrate Grandma’s b-day with cake! Happy B-day!

Other than everyone being sick, we had a fun and exhausting weekend!

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One Month – Who’s Who?

Not too hard to tell apart, right?

I started this post quite a while ago, but we haven’t been able to get a picture of Shell where she didn’t start crying or make a weird face – she really doesn’t like the camera!  She smiled for the first time last Sunday, but she’s not just giving them out to anyone…we’ve only seen her smile once or twice since then. We probably won’t be able to capture it on camera for quite some time I’m sure!

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Happy Birthday to Jackson

Poor Jackson… he’s had pink eye this week, again! Well, this morning he woke up, Micah took him out to breakfast, and after Micah dropped him off and headed out to work he started crying that his ears hurt! It must have been pretty painful – I tried to distract him with making his cake, playing a couple video games, and letting him open presents here and there throughout the morning, but he kept coming back to just wanting to sit with me and get his back scratched. In the last post, there’s a picture of him holding his ears while opening a present. In the other picture he’s sitting on the couch with his blankets and he was mad because I got up to take a picture when he wanted me to be sitting with him (don’t worry I sat down and took good care of him after that). I scheduled a dr’s appt. for him for this afternoon when Micah would be home, and the doctor confirmed that he has a double ear infection! Oh boy! I feel like we’ve been to the doctor about every other day between the kids and I since Rachelle was born… with newborn checks, well checks for the kids, pink eye, ear infections, and the post delivery check ups for me. Lacey has also had a pretty high fever this week. I think the fever broke today, so hopefully tomorrow morning she will be well and we won’t be going to the dr’s office yet again (at least until Tuesday when Jackson has his well check). Thank goodness its so close and they always squeeze us in! The biggest upside to this is that I feel like our doctor finally knows who we are!
Anyway, back to the birthday celebration – Jackson got some clothes and baseball stuff from us and some other fun stuff from grandparents.

He loves the tee/automatic pitcher and is pretty good at it too. We went to the park for a picnic dinner and played some ball.

March is a beautiful time of year here! Then we had a delicious Skor bar cake when we got home – we sang Happy Birthday a couple times and blew out candles several times at Jackson’s request!

Jackson enjoyed several birthday phone calls today and he is so excited to be a big 4 year old. I still think of him as my little boy. I love my Jackson. He is a sweet, loving brother and has such a good heart. He loves to be the big helper. He really, really enjoys primary and preschool and he listens and learns so well in both. It has been so fun to see the ways he’s matured this year. Happy Birthday Jackson!

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Growing up!

Wow – 24 days old! I still feel like she is brand new – at the same time, it feels like she’s been apart of our family for forever! We love our little Rachelle. Thank you to everyone who has helped us so much! We are so grateful – my recovery has gone pretty well and I’m sure its because I was able to get a lot of rest the first week or two. It’s been nice to know and feel at ease that Jackson and Lacey have been well taken care of and very happy.  Jackson and Lacey adore Rachelle. Jackson loves to just look at her and say “she’s so cute, Mom.” Lacey just always wants to be next to her or holding her or touching her. She loves to help her sister. She tells me all the time, ” That’s my sisser” and “she my frien.” I hope that sticks – I’m sure they’ll be friends like only sisters can be 🙂

I think Jackson took this picture

Rachelle is a sweet little baby. She sleeps pretty well. Last night was about 11:00ish to 4:15. Not too shabby, some nights are better than others. She is very content most of the time especially if someone is holding her. She’s been a lot more alert the past two weeks – a lot more awake time. I love how she studies our faces now. Jackson loves to get his face close to hers and watch her look at him. He says, “She’s thinking, What in the world? Is that my brother!?!” I love our one on one time together, usually in the evenings after Jackson and Lacey have gone to bed. I love how cuddly and content she is after nursing. I love to watch her drift off to sleep. I love to watch her sleep – there’s something so sweet and tender about a sleeping baby.

Today is Jackson’s b-day! Here’s a few pictures of the birthday boy, and how he’s been spending the day. More details to come on that later – the baby is calling!

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