Pictures galore!

Finally, I am sitting down to upload a week's worth of photos! Actually, some are older than that even. We've been using three different cameras because Gavin had our good camera with him in PNG, hence some quality differences between the pictures. I know you, our family, loyal "fans" and pray-ers, won't care. :)

Marcie and Gracie

Babies all ready for an outing to the "interactive fountains" at Uptown Village in Cedar Hill. David can actually crawl around on the "grass" there because's it's astro-turf. He's allergic to real grass and breaks out into a rash, which is hard because he loves to explore the backyard!

Will Will follow in Granpadad Neal's footsteps as a football player?
(My dad played for the National Champion Michigan State University Spartans!)

Will pushing David

Will losing interest in pushing David

This picture of David looks so much like a picture of me as a baby. I wish I had it at hand! But everyone agrees, hands down, that David is a "mini-me" of Gavin. Someone said this week, "It's really weird feeding David, because I look down at his head and feel like I'm giving Gavin a bottle."
David's latest funny thing is giving monologues in his own language, full of intonation and expression, and looking like he's waiting for the proper response from us. We're not quite sure what that response is, but we think he's adorable!

Marcie continues to flash her very gorgeous smile. She smiles SO big she has to rear back and tip her head back even to fully express her joy!She also sits super cute, with her knees bent so her legs face backward, making a W with her little bottom. She is definitely the most obvious of the two girls about being a Mama's Girl, which of course this mama loves (although it can create some stress, too, when Mama can't hold her just then!). Gracie seems to really love me too, though, "gyrating" in place for attention - legs and arms moving constantly, up and down, in and out - or coming to me to be held. Both girls are also crazy about Daddy.

This one deserves re-posting. Our sweet Gracie makes the most darling little coo-ing sounds and says, "mee-mee-mee-mee" and "bee-bee-bee-bee" and soft little "ba's" in addition to her long baby talk "sentences." She chortles like the world is the funniest place ever and she is the funniest person in it! Her joy and silliness is just contagious. 

Will is LOUD and very, very expressive. He will shriek or growl or babble off "sentences" with a ton of expression in his face. It cracks us up when it's not SO loud we can hardly think! And even then, sometime you just gotta laugh! He is very quick to let us know when he doesn't like a situation or is DONE with an activity (eating being the main one - he shoves it in like you wouldn't believe, then is absolutely intolerant of sitting there any longer). He doesn't suffer in silence. I think he's more like me than his father in that way. :} A little girl at the fountains in Cedar Hill came up to me and said, "Your baby keeps growling at me. What does that mean?" I told her it's just his way of talking.

Will is the most aggressive baby right now. That can be a problem sometimes because he's so much bigger than the others and can just move them or remove them or things from them at will.  They will cry, but no one fights quite as hard as he does to get their way. Of course, that could change next week. Marcie used to to be the dominant one, and before that David was. Now both will just cry and let Grace and Will and even Seth lord it over them! Last night Seth was grabbing toys from Marcie (who loves to fit the shapes into the shape-sorter), and she just let him, sweet girl.

Precious Seth sucking on a pacifier. He is ALL OVER THE PLACE now! He even unplugged his own oxygen concentrator today; Sam came out to find him happily waving the cord in the air. Crazy kid! We have barriers up, but he manages to problem solve his way around them. It's such fun to watch him go, go, go. He crawls a really funny way now; his therapist says he's decided it's HIS way to crawl, period. He tucks his right leg under him like he's about to sit Indian-style and pulls himself along the floor with just his left foot and hands. It's like he doesn't want his knees on our hard floor. :) But he pulls up and walks with both legs equally well, so his little idiosyncrasy doesn't matter.

He's requiring less oxygen and was even off for a few hours recently, satting just fine. The fever the other kids have had still hasn't turned into anything after all! Maybe the Lord is really holding it at bay in answer to your prayers!

Another praise: Seth's speech therapist said he did the best and ate the most he's ever eaten for her when she was last here. She said she'll be "shocked" if he's not taking all his food by mouth in 10 months. I so hope and pray that's true!

The little baby birds at the feeding hand of their Grandpadad.
They absolutely MOB him the moment they see he has any food in his hands!

In other news, thanks for praying for me. The Lord has mightily answered, and I feel like I've had some great time to decompress thanks to the wonderful ministry of others. I can't express how much I appreciate your prayers. I told Gavin, "I just want to sit on the porch of a cabin in the mountains by myself and read some magazines." He agreed the cabin and the mountains part sounded nice. :) I'm sure he'd happily read a woodworking magazine, but then he'd have to go put it into practice! Anyway, obviously we can't make that vacation a reality, but we can find peace in the midst of the circumstances in which God has placed us because He provides a way to stand up under it all. He just proves over and over again that He does it all for us and in us, using us weak people so only He gets the glory! 

Speaking of God providing, one of His very greatest provisions for us these past many months has been our Nanny Sam. She is returning to Michigan the middle of next month to go to nursing school. We are so proud of her and so grateful she was here to keep us sane and help us meet Seth's many medical needs since late January. We pray Seth does NOT need to go back to the hospital because I don't know how we could do it without Sam! Besides that, the babies and Isaac just love her. She has a real gift with children and a level head and will be greatly missed. 

Love and gratitude as always,

Carrie