FIRST TOOTH

On Friday, Amelia's first tooth came in. We were soooo excited!!!!!! Her tooth is on the bottom and her second tooth is about ready to come through right next to it. I'll try to get a picture and post that too.

Nate Vaill

It has been almost four years since Nathan saw his high-school friend, Nate Vaill. Last weekend we went up to Nathan's hometown, and saw Nate and his band in concert. We wanted to surprise him, and man was he surprised. I think when he saw us, he forgot the verse he was in the middle of singing. It was a great time and so good to see him.

Our Little Koala

Zeke loves to climb the tree outside of our apartment. He says, "Look, Mama, I'm a koala".

What a Cutie

Amelia is so cute. For the past month or so, she has started sucking on her fingers and holding a blanket close to her face. What a cutie!!!!

Library Days

One Saturday, we all went to the library to see a play put on by the Columbus Children's Theater. Zeke loved the play and spent some time reading books with Daddy.

In Formation

Ezekiel, for some reason, loves lining all his toys up. I'm not sure what this tells us about his personality, but I think it's pretty stinkin' cute!!

We thought we would try and see if Amelia would eat cereal. So one day Nathan and I took turns and gave it a try. She did okay, but we'll keep practicing with her so that when she turns 6 months (in just a couple weeks) she'll be eating like a champ.

Fun Fair

We just recently went to a community function called the fun fair. As you can see, Ezekiel and Amelia got their faces painted. Zeke's friend, Sofie, was there too. There were games and food. Zeke loved the bowling game and basketball game. Amelia was just along for the ride!!

Sleepy Head

Just wanted to update you all on Ezekiel's sleeping. He is doing great!!!! He only occasionally gets up during the night now. Normally he sleeps all the way through and just gets up earlier. Can't complain about that!!!! Thanks for all your prayers. (thought I would add a picture of him sleeping, for fun).

Cosi Children's Science Museum

During the winter, it is "fun" finding things to do for Ezekiel. Every week we go to story time at the library, but other than that, there's not much else to do. So I try and set up play dates with other kids his age. We were fortunate enough to get a membership to Cosi Children's Science Museum. And we try to set up a play date there about every other week. So here are some pictures of Zeke with his friends, Caiden and Landon at Cosi.

Bowling

On Saturday, Watershed had what we call a "mixer". A mixer is basically an outing/event where we invite our friends (non-Watersheders). It's just a fun time for us all the hang out, get to know each other, and "one-another" (which is basically a non-threatening way of networking). So for this mixer we went bowling. I totally stink but it was actually fun! And we had several visitors. So it was definitely a success. And it was Zeke's first time bowling, man was that fun!!!

Snow Days

A couple weeks ago we had lots of snow days, and since I teach part-time, I was able to stay at home with the kids. We had a lot of fun. Ezekiel and I played in the front yard while Amelia took her nap. And when she woke, we spent time helping her practise rolling over, with Zeke cheering her on. Now she rolls over all the time, even in her crib at night. Zeke and Amelia also got some great quality playing time. Oh, and here's a story...when Zeke and I were outside, I let him play on the car and slide down the front window (which for those of you who don't know Zeke, this is right up his alley, he is not afraid of anything). Well, one time I set him up there and readied the camera, and said go. I shot the pic just as he slide and he slide off the side instead of the front, landing on the side view mirror. But the funny part was that he got stuck there. He couldn't get down!!! After that, he wasn't too keen on the idea of sliding down the car and the next day, a large bruise miraculously appeared on his leg. We still had fun in the snow though.

Roll with me!

That's what Amelia is saying today...because on her 4 month birthday, she rolled over. We were so excited and have been trying to get her to do it again, but I guess she'll do it when she wants to. But praise the Lord, Amelia is developing totally normal!!!!

Shunt Update

Yesterday Amelia had an appointment with her doctor. They did another CT Scan to see if the shunt is working properly. Well, great news, it is!!!! He even said the shunt was shrinking her Dandy Walker Cyst!!! So that is a huge praise!!!! Thank you God.

Our Frustration

Hey all! I'm just blogging this morning to get some advise if you're able to give it. Here's our frustration. For the last month, Ezekiel has been getting up during the night and coming in our room. And when I say, "get up", I mean getting up 5-10 (or more sometimes) times a night. Meaning, Nathan and I are really not getting any sleep. For instance, he came in at 11:30, 1:00, 3:00 (six times between 3:00 and 4:30) and then "woke up" at 7:30. Amelia, however, is sleeping through the night. It all started when Zeke was tormented in his sleep, by what he described as man is a blue coat and a hat that came in through is window and spoke to him saying, "get up and go to mommy and daddy". And for several reasons, we feel like that was an attack from Satan on our family. One afternoon Nathan was praying with Zeke during naptime and Zeke pointed and told Daddy the man was in the doorway. Of course, Nathan saw nothing but began praying. Nathan said he felt a strong evil presense. Without going into too much more detail, Nathan gets very little sleep due to his hours with UPS and the church, and the less sleep he gets the harder it is to operate Watershed. We felt like Satan was "sending" this man to wake Ezekiel so that Nathan doesn't get much sleep. All this to say, the nightmares have stopped (praise God!!! and thanks to all who knew and prayed for our family). Ezekiel hasn't mentioned the man in a couple weeks, however I feel like the man coming to him at night began a habit of him waking a lot throughout the night. And although he doesn't have nightmares, he still wakes often. So basically, we are at our witts end and were wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to how to get Zeke to sleep through the night again. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Post Surgery

Just want to let you all know that Amelia's surgery went very well. Dr went in and fixed her shunt. She is such a trooper. We only had an overnight stay, so we left the hospital this morning. And since then, she's been her same old cheerful self. Thank you for all your prayers.

Ice Skating

Watershed had a mixer tonight and went iceskating. We had a lot of fun and had several visitors come to the mixer. Wooohooo!!

Baby Kaitlyn

Our good friends, Nick and Nicole, had their baby on December 29th. We went to see her the next weekend and she is soooo adorable. Lots and lots of hair. She was only 5 lbs when she was born and seeing her made me realize how big Amelia is getting. Praise God!!!!

My Musicians

Nathan has taken up playing the guitar, and Ezekiel loves playing it too. So Aunt Gwenda and Uncle Ryan got him one of his own for Christmas. So my musicians often "practise" together. Zeke has quite the collection of musical instruments, piano, drums and now a guitar. Maybe he'll be the next Mozart (or maybe Justin Timberlake...hehe).

Surgery...again

On Tuesday, we had a routine follow-up CT Scan to check and see if the shunt in Amelia's brain is drainging the excess fluid properly. Well, we found out that it isn't. So her doctor suggested that he go in a do a revision surgery to check/fix the shunt. She is scheduled to go in Tuesday morning, January 16th. So please keep us in your prayers. Thankfully, Amelia is feeling fine. The fluid has not built up to the point of discomfort for her and the doctor said it also isn't to the point of brain damage. So praise God for that!!!!