Bennett is 9 months old!

Bennett turned 9 months old on Saturday! I cannot believe she will be 1 soon... her first year has gone by so fast! Bennett weighs 16lbs 11oz and is in the 20%... She is 28 1/2 in tall and is in the 75%. So she follows Gunnar in the tall area and Conrad in the small/skinny way! At her doctors appointment today, I found out that she will have to see an eye doctor because she is crossed eyed. Looking at her now, I see it, but before this morning I never noticed it! She has a condition called Esotropia, which is the smart word for being crossed eyed.... I did a little reading and found out that there are 6 different kinds of esotropia. If this is in fact the correct diagnosis, she would most likely have congenital or infant esotropia. 1-2% of babies have this condition and it does not get better with age... surgical correction is required sometime between 6 and 14 months of age. We have an appointment on March 9th at the North Iowa Eye Clinic with an ophthalmologist. Please pray for Bennett's eyes... that whatever condition she has would be easily resolved without surgical correction. I am nearsighted and have worn glasses since the 2nd grade and one of my biggest fears was that I would pass my bad eye gene's on to my kids... let's face it, the chances were pretty high! I just didn't expect to have to deal with it all so early on. Pray that I would have a good attitude about all of it, especially if she needs to wear glasses. I just really hated wearing glasses my entire childhood and I don't want Bennett to feel the same way. On a happier note, here are some things Bennett is doing at 9 months old!

• Crawling on hands and knees
• Pulling herself up to standing and then getting back down to sitting/crawling
• Walking with toy walkers and when we hold her hands
• Taking 2-3 naps a day... I'm still working on cutting 1 nap out!
• Eating baby food and finger foods like cheerios and mac/cheese
• She can do "So Big"
• Waves Hi
• Claps her hands when you say "Yeah"
• She loves the bathroom and toilet paper
• She enjoys chewing on the darts from the boys' nerf guns.

Getting the boys to sleep through the night as babies was easy! Gunnar did at 4 months and Conrad at 2 months, but I can't seem to figure it out with Bennett! Letting the boys cry it out worked awesome... 2 nights of crying and then they were fine and still are for the most part. I have tried this way with Bennett multiple times and it seems to work for a few weeks or a month and then she is back to being up in the middle of the night... she has had 2 ear infections this winter, so I blame some of the sleep stuff on that... also, all the kids share one room so I am apprehensive about just letting her cry a lot because I don't want her to wake the boys... namely Conrad! So when I've tried to train her to sleep through the night I put her in the pack n play in the living room. So with all that said, I am looking for advice on how to get my 9 month old to sleep through the night consistently.... Also, just this week I have started feeding her solid food right before bed (Grandma Lori's suggestion!) and this seems to be helping somewhat!

Growing up so fast!

Bennett has been pulling herself up to standing for a couple of weeks now and today was the first time a thought to get the camera out!... She'll be 9 months old in a couple of weeks... I can't believe how mobile she is already!

New Thru 30 Thoughts

Thaddeus and I are doing a new testament read thru in 30 days with Elevation Church click here to view the reading plan. I just wanted to quickly share a few of the verses that have stuck out to me in the first 2 weeks.

2 Corinthians 4.16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Romans 11.33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. James 3.17-18 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. Romans 5.15-17 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Daddy Love

Reading Plan

Through the next 30 days, Thaddeus and I will be reading through the New Testament, following this plan http://newthru30.com/ It's not too late to start!

God is at work!

In order for us to go on our trip to Kansas City Thaddeus had to take some time off work and unfortunately he does not receive any paid time off... so his paycheck for the next two weeks was smaller than normal and did cover most of our expenses. Really, we barely have enough for food and diapers, but this is besides the point... I have to fill you in on some of the back story. So, back in November we decided to start tithing regularly to Rhythm Church (the church we are planting http://www.rhythmchurch.org/). We haven't tithed regularly for quite some time and felt that it was really time to show God that we trust Him fully with our finances... we knew that tithing would make things tight for us but we want to give when it hurts most! Here are some things that have happened this week... I totally see how God is providing for us in these little, but big ways, and we feel so blessed and want to give Him all the glory. So I weaned Bennett and she's on formula now... which is so expensive! Well, we qualify for WIC so we get free formula, but I didn't have the checks for formula, since she was breastfed, and I didn't have another appointment for new checks until February... On monday I called and was able to get an appointment for the next morning, which was when I ran out of the last of the similac I had bought! Totally awesome that we didn't have to spend what little money we have on similac... God provided! During tax season I work for an accounting/tax office running files and such... they usually don't have work for me until the end of January or early February... On monday they called and said we have work for you now... come work whenever you want! How awesome is God! He knew our need and opened a door early! And finally, yesterday we got a Christmas card in the mail from our landlord's. They gave us a $50 HyVee giftcard, just for being good stewards of their property! Wow! God you provided for us again! Now we can buy some groceries and use our other money for gas in our vehicles! I always knew that tithing was important, but never fully understood. I'm not saying that if you tithe God is going to give you money in other ways... My point is to just trust the Lord with your finances and see what happens! I know that tithing has given me a peace and I worry less because I know God is in control!

Christmas and Kansas

So it's already the second week of January and I haven't even posted about Christmas or our trip to Kansas City, so here goes.

We were supposed to spend Christmas day at our home in Mason City with Thaddeus family, but because of Iowa weather!... nobody could make it here. So instead, we invited some friends who could not make it to their families, and our neighbor Denny. I baked my first ham (with Thaddeus' help, because I was at Sherlock Holmes when it needed to go in the oven!) and we had other delicious holiday foods and it was a nice Christmas, even without family! I was pretty bummed at first that our family couldn't come, but it helped me to see and remember the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus Christ... and spending it with my husband and kids is all the family I really need! Gunnar & Conrad of Christmas Eve in their new pj's! Bennett Christmas morning playing with her princess stocking stuffer

Thaddeus reading the story of Jesus' birth to the boys on Christmas morning

We got up early the next morning and headed to Cedar Rapids to do Christmas with my parents and brother and his wife... we all got lots of great gifts and ate good food! That afternoon we headed to West Liberty to Thaddeus' parents house to do Christmas with them! It was a busy day, but very good to see everyone! That evening we left Conrad and Bennett with Ted and Lori and Thaddeus, Gunnar and I headed to Des Moines. We left Des Moines Sunday with our friends, the Skinners, and headed to Kansas City! Sunday night we stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge which has an indoor waterpark! Super fun place, especially if you have older kids... our boys were not tall enough to go on the big waterslides.... but they still enjoyed the smaller slides and swimming areas. I would totally recommend the lodge to anyone... very nice place with lots to do, we also enjoyed the arcade a lot! Monday and Tuesday nights we stayed in downtown Kansas City in a very nice hotel... the living room and bedroom were separated by french doors which was convenient since he had two 3 year olds with us! We stayed up late every night playing Monopoly Deal (super fun card game)! We also went to a children's museum that had a bunch of rooms with fun activities for the boys and we walked around downtown Kansas City's shopping district... GAP had some really good sales! We ended our trip driving by the Cheifs and Royals stadiums... they are super big, maybe our next vacation can be to see a game! I am so glad that we were able to go... it was our first vacation since our 1st anniversary! It was even more fun going with the Skinner's and just catching up on life and making memories with them! They are the type of friends that even though they live a few hours away, we will still be friends with 20 years down the road... pretty cool to think about!

Conrad and Bennett had fun with Grandpa Teddy and Grandma Lori... Lori had the fun job of weaning Bennett onto formula and bottles for me... I hadn't totally decided to be done with breastfeeding before we left, but after pumping for 4 days and losing some of my supply it just seemed like the right time. Bennett has adjusted pretty well and is starting to sleep through the night better... and I just have made a rule not to feed her before 5am. Hopefully in the coming weeks her sleeping will become more routine and everyone in our house will sleep better! There are so many positives to being done with breastfeeding, yet I find myself missing that time with her... I never really went through this with the boys so it's kinda weird... must just be a hormonal thing! Here's Bennett playing while at Grandma Lori's house! Gunnar on a waterslide at the Great Wolf Lodge

Gunnar and Jordan at the lodge The kids at home after our vacation... they were all happy to be together again!