Mae is 5 months old!!

Mae and I had to stay home from church this morning because Mae's battling a double ear infection. Poor thing. She's been on antibiotics for a week......ok, I've been trying in vain to ge a huge slug of amoxicillin in her twice a day for a week with most of it coming right back out onto her, me and the burp cloth. But anyway, her ears are worse and she's on a new once-a-day antibiotic with Mommy using some special equipment to administer said medication. She's doing some better but is still quite fussy much of the time and I didn't think it was wise to expose her to all the germs lurking at church today.

We broke out the bumbo seat in honor of Mae turning 5 months old today. She thought it was lots of fun......for about 5 minutes. She doesn't stay happy for long right now while she's sick but I did manage to capture some great smiles from our little peanut.

Mae is now17lb 7.5 oz. Oh my!

Mae is 4 months old!! (Actually, I'm a month late in posting but who's counting?)

Mae Mae......so sweet.

Mommy's doing Gentian violet again......hence the purple-tinged mouth.

Ella helping Daddy paint. She was so cute because this was all her idea. She's really into painting lately but usually that involves watercolors and some paper.....not latex paint and a door! But she really wanted to paint so we put on Mommy's old painting shirt, put down lots of newspaper and let her do her thing. She had a blast!

Niko is proud of his toothless smile!

So our peanut is actually 5 months old today but I wanted to be sure to post her 4 month milestones as well. She's growing like a weed. At her 4 month check-up, she weighed 15 lb 12.5 oz. Biggie girl. She's smiling and cooing so much. Sometimes she seems to smile with her whole body. She's also been a busy girl as a 4-month old. She got her first tooth (what?) on 2-4-10, followed closely behind by her 2nd tooth on/around 2-11-10. Oh my! And she's rolling all over the place. One of my favorite new activities of hers is watching her play with her feet. I've personally always been obsessed with my children's feet. Watching each baby discover that God provided not just one but two toys within arms reach that are always attached is pure joy for mommy!! They have not yet made it into her mouth but it won't be long......yummy.



The reason I'm a month behind is that we've decided to try to sell our house. It's been a whirlwind since meeting with our realtor on Jan 25. We spent 10 days working LONG hours with the help of friends and family to try to get our house ready to list. It's been quite an experience so far.......trying to keep the house tidy with 3 busy kids and a large (read: hairy) dog underfoot is stressful and challenging but we're doing our best. The copious amounts of snow we've been receiving have not exactly encouraged buyers (at least not buyers for our house!) but we remain optimistic. We are so blessed and have enjoyed this home for 8 1/2 years but we now feel cramped and would love to move to a larger home in Hendricks County (closer to Lenn's work). I feel a bit guilty saying that we don't have enough room here when there are families of our size living in much smaller spaces around the world. Frankly, between the kids' stuff, the baby gear, and the homeschooling stuff......we have clutter everywhere. We've done a major decluttering but that doesn't change the fact that we could really use some more room for this growing family and that we'd like to move a bit farther west and away from the city sprawl. We are praying that God would bless us with these desires but if God wants us to stay put, then we will do that with peace in our hearts. As my dear husband so eloquently stated, "Wherever our family is, that's where our home will be." Sweet.

Nicholas Loses His First Tooth!!!

Look at that mouth.......our biggie boy lost his first tooth!!!!

Nicholas examining his tooth with the magnifying glass

Daddy checking out Niko's mouth

Wow........what a day!! Niko lost his first tooth. He was so brave but Mommy wasn't. He could push his tooth all the way forward with his tongue........I could barely stand to look! He kept working at it and finally he asked me to just pull it. By the time he was ready for me to pull it, his tooth was literally laying sideways in his mouth! I didn't have to pull hard and there it was in my hand. He was overcome with emotion........then he was very proud of himself. What a big kid!

Mae Mae in her pretty dresses

Mae modeling her purple dress from Aunt Pam

Winnie the Pooh dress from Meemaw and Papa Carl

Just wanted to share some pictures of Mae in some of the pretty dresses she's received along the way. She's getting so big. She'll be 4 months old on Thursday.........oh my!

Lucas Oil Stadium Tour

This place is so cool and so huge!!!!

Go Colts!!!!

The Detwiler Family on the field........yippee!!

Ella and Nicholas posing in the visitors' locker room

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to tour Lucas Oil Stadium with our homeschooling group. It was really cool. There were about 30 people in our group and there were 4 or 5 groups there from our homeschooling coop........lots of folks came to tour the new stadium. We got to see behind the scenes from top to bottom. The escalators were huge........my heart was racing similar to riding on a roller coaster. We got to tour the visitors' locker room and even go out onto the field......however, there were very strict rules as to where we could walk on the field. They were in the midst of getting the field ready for the big playoff game on Saturday. So cool. We also toured the quarterback suite.......a big ticket luxury suite complete with its own bar and refreshments. Wow. Another cool feature we saw was all of the wiring that they need for all of the t.v. stations to broadcast the game........I don't totally get it but the way it is set up, a news truck can pull up and plug in and broadcast the game. Our tour guide, Jim, said that there's enough wire that if you put it all end to end, it would go around the equator 5 times. Oh my!!

Opening presents at Meemaw and Papa's

Meemaw and Papa with their grandkids

Ella getting ready to test out her new rocking chair from Meemaw and Papa

Niko loves the Roald Dahl books from Aunt Pam.......including titles like "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" and "James and the Giant Peach"

Niko and Papa checking out Niko's new golf bag

After several days of festivities, we finally had a chance on Tuesday evening to open presents with Meemaw and Papa and Aunt Pam and Cristina. Meemaw made a yummy dinner, then we got busy opening lots of fun presents. Now if I can just figure out where to store everything........

Snow Fun in Nappanee

Lenn and the kiddos enjoying some outdoor fun in the snow

Big fun sledding!!

Lenn sucking wind after pulling the kids in the sled......Niko wasn't helping make it any easier as he was dragging his arms in the snow!

Ella pulling Niko down the driveway

Snow Angels

There were a few inches of snow to play in in Nappanee and our kids took full advantage. A big thank you to Daddy for taking the kids out twice. It takes a long time to get them all bundled up and out the door but they loved every minute of it.