It's good to be back!

Wow....am I grateful. Where do I begin? First...thanks Dad and Mum for this laptop!!! For real? This is so wonderful to be "up to date" and now so much more capable to doing what I love to do...blog and archive our families memories. For the past months my "go to" has been Facebook, which isn't bad but there is so much more to share and one or two sentences does me no good...and I'm not sure everyone on Facebook wants to know my stuff. Here's a Taylor update and then we are off and running on here again.
   Caleb is now in almost 5 months old! CRAZY. He is doing good for a 3 month old and that is what we expect. He weighs in at 11 lbs. 8 oz. and as far as growth...he is tall and has a huge head!!! Just like Malachi! He has done great with sleep until about a week ago and one side effect of being a preemie kicked in full gear. Constipation...and not how we seem to think. I am so so so grateful for our home health nurse, Pat, who is UNBELIEVABLE in her knowledge of preemies. She is an expert. She has warned me of things to expect and helped us soooo much with caring for our sweet boy. So his struggles are not that the "do do" is hard... it is incredibly runny. But that tiny muscle we don't seem to think twice about in our journeys to the "pot" is hard for preemies to relax. So they hold it. And because of that he struggles when eating because his tummy hurts and isn't sleeping well...waking up every 5 to 6 hours. So, we are working on it and with Pat's help he should be good here soon. He is a joy. His smile is wonderful and with that I will say he is ours. FOR SURE! He has giggled here and there and we find joy in watching him with his older siblings. He is anxious to roll again. He rolled both ways about two months ago and hasn't tried again since, but I think his core strength is getting better with some great physical  therapy we are doing with him. He also made that BIG move three days ago into Rachel's room. She is an amazing little mama. She finds so much joy in serving and caring and I beamed this morning when I heard him cry in the monitor. And next we hear Rachel saying, "It's ok Caleb. I'm right here. I will sing you a song....." and on she went to make him cooo! He is amazing.  I find myself constantly looking at his first pictures and remembering my fears for my son. And finding peace in my Saviors arms and my husbands sweet prayers with me. We are blessed.
    Malachi is finishing up kindergarten and man it flew by. He is doing phenomenal. I am a proud mom and could go on and on over his achievements in class...but what I care more about is his heart. He is learning to put Christ in the center of his life. We have had many opportunities with him in school to teach him to not be ashamed of what is right. It's been great to show him that when he has felt that his friends would make fun of him if he hugged us goodbye we have gently explained that he needed to figure out whether hugs were bad or good. He knew the answer. And then I went on to explain to him that I was teased for talking about Jesus in school. I asked him if he thought I then stopped doing what was right. He knew that answer too. NO WAY! So he figured out that if his friends thought it was silly to hug his folks then they probably needed hugs to and he needed to show them that what he was doing is a good thing. And not to be ashamed of it! He is amazing and sometimes difficult. I am grateful for him so much. I love to here him pray for his friends and teachers and love on his brothers and sister...when he's not forcing them to hug him. He will be starting in a baseball team this summer with the Fort Collins Baseball club and his team is all from his school. Should be awesome and incredibly busy. But he loves sports and is pretty good at whatever he tries(just like his dad).
    Isaiah is incredible. He is the life of the party...next to his sis. He loves to be goofy and silly all the time and is really now just starting to form sentences. What a relief!! There are times in my day that I will have some tunes on and find him wiggling every part of his body for at least an hour of dance time. And let me say, the kids got moves! From the minute that we brought Caleb down from the protective cave of our room with oxygen and set him in his bouncer...Isaiah was attached. It was amazing to see how much Isaiah adored him. He instantly grabbed a train and set it on Calebs tummy and said "share". He will lay in front of Caleb leaning on the bouncer looking at him and talking. It's so fun because one main reason we desired another munchkin was so Isaiah would have a buddy...and man did he know it! Isaiah is super into Thomas and Mcqueen...for real. He's hilarious! The main goal for him in life now is to stop thumb sucking...ha....and getting him to tell us when he needs to get on the toilet! Someday!
  So Rachel...our princess! She is fantastic...except those random occasions where she falls walking. Yep, her auntie Rachel gave her her nickname "Noodle" when she was a toddler and she may never grow out of that. She just had her first recital last week with the Celebrate Ministries of Art that was held at our church. (I will post video soon) There were 172 dancers that performed in this show and they have four other locations in Colorado where they do them...pretty awesome. It was so great to see her worship the Lord in dance. She, like Isaiah, loves loves loves music and can't stop moving to it so we are excited to see her dive into what she loves and see her passion for it. She is my little mama and is such a great help. She is also reading now and loving to read the words now in quiet time instead of looking at pictures...which usually lead to her being bored in her room; fidgeting; and causing some sort of destruction of something in her room because she couldn't sit still. She will be starting kindergarten next year ...yep, even though they are two years apart, Malachi and her birthday just place them one year apart in school. She is so ready for it though. Malachi loves to go through his daily "PILES" of homework with her and she loves learning from him. And she will have the same amazing teacher Malachi had at Liberty...Connie Trout! We adore her and are blessed by her, her love for Malachi and her love for our Lord Jesus.
  Aaron and I...well....we are tired! I would love to get back to more sleep...but like my friends who work night shifts in the NICU...maybe I'm adjusting too much to no sleep! HA! I don't think so. Aaron just had to trips last month with work. One to Estes Park for "For Managers Only" and then the following week to Clearwater, Florida for Sales Leader Summit. He was awarded there for his achievement in sales last year. I am so proud to be his wife. He's an amazing man. He is a great businessman but what draws me nearer to him daily is his love for our Lord Jesus. I am grateful for him. Me...my garden is started and I am so excited about another blueberry bush in my front yard. We hope to do all our landscaping this summer...which is sooooo fun to me! Aaron and his dad did one part of our inside house project when his dad was here visiting...they stained our kitchen cabinets to cherry and they are stunning. Well...I will post pictures and videos asap, don't you worry. I sure hope I haven't lost any of you!!

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