Time Away

As our blog states I've been away from my family in Maryland for the last 2 weeks and I still have 3 more weeks to go. To say that I'm finding the time away from my family frustrating would be a severe understatement. I miss them dearly and long to hold them. The silver lining to this situation, however, is that it puts things into perspective. Second only to my God, my family is everything to me. Like the majority of fathers and husbands out there there is no amount of money, fame, or "happiness" that I would except in exchange for my wife's sweet kisses, my sons hugs, or my baby girls gentle cries. Yes I long to hear their cries just as you anxiously await a babies first cry as it comes into the world. I can only imagine the pain felt by those who have to deploy to Iraq for a year or more. My prayer is that God will bring them and their families comfort and that he will remind me of the important things in life when the details attempt to drown them out.

Our 6 week old twinkies!

Last weekend my sister and her boyfriend, Drew, stopped by for a quick visit to see the kids and here are a few pictures we took.
The girls are 6 weeks today and I can hardly believe it! We are working on establishing a nap time routine and that is going quite well. There is some fussing when they first go down (pacifier drama) but the goal at this point is they learn to fall asleep without the help of swing, bouncy chair or my arms (although there are times where I like my arms to be the sleeping spot!!) Bedtime isn't going as well as I would like, but it could be worse. It is hard when I compare Caleb/Luke and the twins...Luke was sleeping through the night at 7 weeks and Caleb at 8. The girls definitely aren't on the same track as their brothers. Patience...
Luke is totally in love with the girls. Today he was sitting next to one of them (of course I don't know who) when I had to take her to put her down for her nap he said, "don't take away my baby." He always wants to hold them and is getting really good at putting the pacifier in their mouth when it falls out. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to have the twins first and not have the boys until later, and in someways I think it would be but overall it is really nice to have helpers (when they're helping)!! Even though it is lots of work to have 4 kids under 5, I couldn't imagine life without my boys!!!

My friend Joy

Well, we had our first helper since Joseph has been gone and we couldn't have asked for anyone better than Joy. She was amazing. I have had few people serve me with such humility and love. Joy cooked (and froze meals for the future!), cleaned, did more laundry than any human should ever have to do, changed MANY diapers, stayed up for the late feeding, grocery shopped, drove kids to school, held babies, read to boys, looked for bugs with boys, gave baths, listened to a crying-overwhelmed-exhausted mom, made a crying-overwhelmed exhausted mom laugh and really shared with us what a servant with a heart for Jesus looks like. I will be forever grateful to you Joy for this past week and will never forget the sacrifice that you have made for my family! And her awesome hubby, Ben, took leave to be full time mommy and daddy to her children so that she could give us the amazing gift of her time and we are grateful to him as well.
We miss & love you Joy!!!

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The Mad/Ziggy Kids

I don't know how I missed this picture when posting all the pictures of the Mad/Ziggy kids, but thought it was too cute not to post!

Camo Caleb

Caleb got some camo face paint for his birthday...

this is his serious "army face"...

Mrs. Bishop helped him apply his paint (good job Mrs. Bishop!)

and here he is confident enough to help his neighbor friend put her "army" face on

The Doctors vs. The Preachers

Our amazing friends the Ziggy's stopped by to meet the girls and visit with us on their way to a family reunion. We hadn't seen them in a year and it was so awesome for our families to be reunited again. We have been friends since before either of us were married and they really are as close to us as family. We've taken vacations together, visited each other at our different houses all over the country and have taken a road trip or two together. Whenever our families are together there are always good times, lots of laughter and usually FOOD! This time was no exception! The boys had a water fight and everyone was laughing hard! It started out as Daddy's against boys, but soon turned into "Preachers vs. Doctors".
We love you Ziggys and hope to see you soon (and hope to see you either prego or with a little one next time!!!)

Joseph & Caleb aka "the Doctors"

Mike and Josiah aka "the Preachers"

Joseph against Caleb

Josiah against Mike

The Daddy's armed with protection (against 4 year olds!)

Caleb is the gunner & while Daddy is providing ammo for the doctors

the preachers need cover

so Mike finds a shield and distracts while Josiah attacks!

The Preacher making a fashion statement

The Preachers fashion statement is so terrible that he is able to distract the Doctors...

but they recover in time to attack back.

and all the while the little ones watch from the sidelines (behind protection)

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Happy 5 Weeks Twinkies!

Our Little twinkies are 5 weeks old! Time is really flying by! We had to go to the doctors this week because we all had thrush and needed to get some meds. Last friday the girls started really acting fussy and it lasted for a few days until our friend, Joy, came into town and noticed the thrush on the girls tongue. I have no idea how I let that one pass my by since I was feeling the affects of the thrush as well. The girls fussiness has definitely decreased since they have been on the meds!

Last night they went 6 1/2 hours from the beginning of one feeding to the next! That would have been wonderful if they would have slept as soon as I put them down, but Miss Ella decided that she wanted to hang out and have some of Mama's undivided attention! Already seeking attention the negative way!She finally fell asleep around midnight, so Mama got 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep...it could be worse! The girls seem to tag team fussiness and pacifier drama. Once I get one settled the other one starts. We really need to work on that.

Joseph has been gone a week now. Our friend Joy is here helping me with the kids and everything else. It has been so wonderful having her! Over the next couple of weeks our door will be revolving with people coming to help and I am so appreciative. I'm not quite ready to be a mother of 4 by myself and luckily I don't have to be!

Daddy, Mommy & the girls

Your girls miss you Daddy!

"I know why Lily is fussy..."

Amy claims that the reason Lily was fussy this particular day was because...

she wanted her toenails painted like here sister.

Ella had her big toe painted so that we could remember who was who. Amy painted all of Lily's toes bright pink and now that is our way of identifying her now. I don't think that was the cause of her fussiness because if I do recall she was still fussy even after her pedicure.

Amy, Squeezy, & Lily

A few random snapshots...

Grandma LeAnn got Lukie some Thomas PJ's and he LOVES them! Luke loves Thomas the train!!

Our little sweet peas sleeping in the cradle that Papa Jim made for Joseph when he was a baby

I am pretty sure that this is Lily, but I'm for sure that whoever she is she's stinkin' cute!

A daddy and a girl

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Our baby, Caleb, turned 5 today!! I can hardly believe that we have a 5 year old. The time has flown by so fast. It really does seem like yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. He was so little and we were so scared. We weren't sure that we knew what we were doing and I was so scared that everything that I did was going to ruin him for life. Well I don't know if I've ruined him for life, but so far he seems to be doing pretty well. He's smart, sensitive, funny, curious, imaginative and turning into a GREAT big brother. We are so proud of him and love him so much!!

Below are some pictures that we took of Caleb's first (of 3) birthday celebrations. While his Grandma and Grandpa were here from Alaska they had a little celebration fo him and we invited a couple of neighborhood kids.

Grandma LeAnn got Caleb a pinata and here is Caleb hitting it.

Here is Luke's turn and he was so excited! At first he was just watching all the other kids and then when we handed him the bat he was SO excited!