40 little toes to take care of!

My mom was teasing me right before we left the states. She said she realized that I had 50 finder nails and 50 toe nails to clip including my own! I had not thought of it like that! After I had bathed the kids the other day I remembered what she said and had to snap a picture of those cute little toes. (I knew that there was no way I could get all the fingers and toes in the same picture with my little ones).




















My kids are having a fun time and adjusting well here to Mexico. Although last night Silas climbed up in my lap and asked if we could please go back to our other house. Poor little guy is having a bit of an adjustment these days with going to school and all.

My Garden

Something that I am really enjoying here in Mexico City is my garden. I have never bee very good at keeping plants alive! Our house had some plants/trees already thriving and I had little chance of killing them. There are many different plants/trees all around the yard (rose bushes, ivy, ferns, crape mertles, lime tree, avocado tree, palm tree, grass and a couple others I don’t know the names of). Most of you won’t fully appreciate the part about grass! When we were looking for a house here in Mexico this is the only one that had a yard and grass! Unfortunately when we were out of town the grass dried up and my lime tree missed its pruning time. We are working on salvaging them both. The lime tree is either really old and dying or just going through a hard time. For the sake of the next tenants I hope that it is the latter!

My three boys and two dogs have also been hard on the plants and grass. I am in the process of training them to be careful…

I did go to our local ‘nursery’, bought a few flowers, and planted them in the empty spots (made by the five heart beats mentioned above). Hopefully I will be able to keep the plants alive and growing!

Pictures

Here are a few pictures of our life the last week or so.

Our loaded truck and trailer

Silas and Annie - He is so sweet with her

Our little clown Ruben

Tucker checking her out...

I got them all looking the same direction all by myself...well Annie's eyes are closed, but you cann't have it all!

Our new little puppy Daisy. She is an offspring off our lab Ben and Brock's brothers boxer. A cute mix.

Annie one month old!

Ruben!

Silas - monger

Tucker - boy

My Little Girl

So here we are a week after my little girl, Annie Jean was born. She is precious. Her older brothers are having fun trying to figure everything out. Tucker is ready to hold her at any moment (of course he needs help!), Silas showers her with kisses and LOVES to tickle her toes, and then there is Ruben who calls her 'baiboo' and loves to touch her, but with just his index finger. There has not been a lot of jealousy, mostly the boys are sad that I cannot pick them up right now.

I have started to figure out what I need to do to keep my baby nourished. Being that she has a cleft palate she cannot suck and swallow right. We are praising the Lord that the hole is mostly in her soft palate plus that it is only about as big as the end of my pinky. The first week has been hard just to get her to eat enough. Then we finally got a bottle, cut an 'x' in the nipple, and just let her 'bite' on the nipple in little spurts. One thing that is difficult, especially during night feedings, is that I have to pay close attention to her so the milk keeps going down and her nose stays clear. Yes it does take a while, but both she and I are getting better at it every day.

The doctors/specialists say that she will need surgery at about 10 months of age to close in the hole. Before that our main concerns are to keep her eating enough without choking and watching out for ear infections. About 90% of kids with cleft palates need tubes in their ears. Which makes sense in that everything up there is connected (especially in Annie's case).

We are anxious to get back to Mexico City! We are trying to finish up doctors visits and tie up loose ends. Thanks for all your prayers.

My Baby Shower

One of the perks of being around our sending church these days is hanging out with friends. Some of the women from our church threw me a baby shower. We met at Olive Garden and just socialized, ate, opened presents, and of course ate cake!

Thanks girls! Also thanks for all the pink stuff!

By the way I have about another week to go at the latest! And for those of you that thought a month ago that I could not get any bigger, I have! Check out the comparison between my third and fourth pregnancies.

My boys' Favorite Christmas Present

Yes there was one present that stood out from the others. There is a ton that I can share about Christmas, but I could not let this get lost within another post.

Brock and the boys LOVE watching reruns of The Dukes of Hazard together. We have some on DVDs and we have about worn them out! Earlier in the year we were at Brock's oldest brothers house. There Tuck and Si saw that their cousin, Seth, had a 'General Lee Dukes of Hazard' matchbox car. They fell in love with it and played with it constantly. At that time we started looking for a couple cars for them. They are hard to find! Finally we found a couple on e-bay and snatched them up.

When they opened them on Christmas morning they were so thrilled. Tucker went around and showed it to everyone there. Silas just stood there and shouted, "I got a Duke car too! Look Seth, now Tucker and me got one too..." Then they wanted to go back to Seth's house and play 'Dukes' together!
















Honestly they have barley let the Duke cars out of their sight since Christmas morning. They have already worn some of the paint off the cars! We have set a few ground rules though. (Especially since we are not home, traveling a lot and it is harder to keep up with toys.) They have to put them in their pockets for meal time. They cannot take a bath with them, but they can take them to bed. They cannot take them to Wal-mart, restaurants, playtime outside, and church. I have been designated the keeper of the cars when they cannot play with them. I do not know if I am ready for all the responsibility!

My sweet boys! I love making them smile!

(P.S. Ruben did not get a 'Dukes' car. He did have favorite presents too, but that is for another post)

Time warp!

For the time that we were down in Mexico City we felt like we were in a time warp! Time flew by, but also went slowly. We loved it and enjoyed being refreshed. The people within the church in Tlalpan have been very warm and helpful. I am really going to enjoy being involved with the ladies too. Maybe I can start a play group for my little guys! We will see what I have energy for come February...

On December 20th we left Mexico to spend Christmas with Brock's family in Texas. We are staying in Dallas through New Years. Then we will head down to Louisiana, see my family, visit my OBGYN again, and wait for the baby girl to be born! Lots of travel, but so far things are going great! I am very tired, but I know that happens when there are only a few weeks left in the pregnancy.