...Everything as loss...FOR GREAT GAIN

The typical time out in this house is "stand still with your hands behind your back and nose in the corner. Well, this time it was my bad for leaving some good dance music on while I was cooking...and Malachi was in time out...hillarious!!!! He still doesn't know I got this on tape.

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 kn...

So we are thrilled at his progress! He is now 4 lbs 11.4oz and last night he drank his whole feeding from a bottle!!! And in 15 minutes...big eater! He is progressing well with nursing and they are just impressed with him...so are we! These pictures are great...and sometimes I forget when I look at the picture how tiny he still is. Yes, those are preemie diapers and they go way way way up his back just to make them fit. He also has been off the cafeine since Sunday and so we are now in the waiting game...it usually takes a week for it to get out of your system and then we will see how his heart reacts and breathing. It is good to come to you with good news and more exciting to hopefully get weeks closer to him being home. We miss him daily. A lot. Lets just say the hospital has been wonderful to us but it is not home. This is his wall...the kids did birthday cards after he was born and then we made a collage of pictures of the munchkins for him to see them. It will be so wonderful when...

It has been an amazing start to this new year. I am so grateful to our Savior, our Healer, our GOD! He has continued to watch over Caleb the past 19 days of his life and Caleb is doing fantastic. He now weighs in at 4lbs 7.4oz!!! He is growing about 1 1/2 ounces a day!! The nurses tell us he does really great every day. And they seem to all want to take him home with them...yeh, not going to happen! He is loved. And not just by those amazing nurses! He is still being fed through his nose to his stomach but for the last two visits we have started nursing and he is doing just fine. Taking it slowly since this little man really shouldn't be doing this yet.. he should be nestled inside my tummy! His brain function is doing great. He is still taking two doses of caffeine to keep his heart going if it stops...which happens at his gestation so it is good to know that that is helping him. Other than that he is just peaceful. And precious! Malachi is doing ok...been a tough time for him but...

Ok...this has been an amazingly strange and difficult December. I will list what has happened...Caleb came...AWESOME! Then...my niece goes to ER with croup...then my parents are here for CHRISTmas and Mawmaw from TX is here too...and Mawmaw throws up 2 days after CHRISTmas. We are still at this point going to NICU two times a day to hold him skin to skin and try to nurse. Mawmaw gets better thru the night...then Aaron is sick for 8 hours on his day to be home with me and help while folks are out and about with my sis. Then, little Rachel throws up...not much. And here we go...last night little Rachel is struggling with a cough that brings up pain in her throat and makes her feel like she's going to throw up so we are taking her into a steamed bathroom then directly to the cold air outside...a few times in the middle of the night. And while I finally sit down yesterday to play trains with Isaiah he throws up and can't stop. My mom helps me to get things clean then my dad gets ho...

Wheewww! What a CHRISTmas we have had. I know many of you all know about our surpise gift of delivering Caleb almost 9 weeks early on Dec. 22. But I also know that there are many details we just have been too overwhelmed with this to share. So here goes. This journey has been amazing. It is as if the Lord just said "I want to show you more of me. More of why so many things and people are in your lives. Remember...I am the one writing this story and I have always had something greater than you know planned." No kidding! The minute that the doctor said I was dialated to 6 we looked at each other and a flood of crying came...and came...and came. And then thru the tears Aaron's first words were..."Do you like Caleb Anthony?" Yep, we had not fully decided on his name and this was our top pic for a while we just couldn't hammer it down. Absolutely is his name= "COURAGEOUS". When the time came for the last few hours of real hard contractions this time, i...

Added two more pictures of it set up!! So just a few days ago Danelle let me know we had been asked to make a cake...and get paid for it! WHAT? Well...we made our first Topsy Turvy three tiered cake for Bare Escentuals adn their customer service company, Center Partners as they celebrated 4 years of working together. I would have to say that physically working on this 8 hours straight yesterday till midnight was not our plan but with 5 kids super little between us that would have to do! So here are some pictures...it is not complete because their is a funky chocolate 4 that was put on top and an awesome white chocolate plack with their logo's drawn on it.( just so you know Aaron stepped in and did the logo's on the chocolate and the awesome logo on the powder lid!!) It turned out wonderful...and the homemade sponge cake tasted great! Yeh...we got to sample because we shaved a lot of cake in shaping it! Also notice the great detail inside the powder case...holes and powder...Dan...