Casey is currently house hunting for our new home. We'll be heading out there this Spring. He took these pictures tonight. A huge change from the heaps of snow outside our window.
Fort Walton Beach Florida...our next duty station.

Out of Suzanna's mouth I heard her say: "You're my best friend" to Ella. I smiled. That makes me happy. So Sweet. I pray that won't change.

Have we told you of Will's new room?

This might be the last bit of snow we see for a few years......I've heard you can't find a snow shovel in Florida.
Little footprints in the snow.

This will make you laugh!

Although it's chilly outside, the sunshine makes it pleasant to bundle up and play outside. What can entertain them for hours outside, you might ask? The Gingerbread Man game. Yes, everything has been centered around gingerbread in our house for awhile now. They are the Gingerbread Girls and you can guess who is the fox. The fort in the back is their gingerbread house and is off limits....the fox can't eat them when they are on it.Suzanna using her imagination.

Around the house you'll find laundry swishing away, the girls singing songs ("Some Where Out There" is their favorite. It's really sweet watching Suz teach Ella the words.....I'll have to catch it on camera some time) and William napping. What a big sigh of relief. We are blessed with health and modern medicine.

Next big task? Decluttering the house. We've got packers coming soon and we need to go through everything; clothes, shoes, movies, books and toys to see what we'll be donating, throwing out or keeping with us.

Little William has been giving me a break.....the last two nights he's only woken up once. What a treat.
Can you guess who took this picture??

We're finally all home. What a great sigh of relief. Thank the Lord!

Here's Mister Mom.
"Hi Daddy!"

Ella is such a character. Her personality is much bigger than her stature, that's for sure. At the doctors office this last visit (when we caught the gunk) she'd finally got to sit in the front of the fire truck. A little boy and his mom walked in and sat down. The boy had been eye balling the truck and made a few steps closer in the direction of the truck. Ella made a noise "UHH" and shook her head no. The boy then walked backwards back onto his mom's lap. The mom encouraged him to go and play when he inched his way back towards Ella, she again made it known that he was not welcome in the front with her "Uhhh" and she shook her head again. She's got Casey's lashes.

Its been a long week. We're trying to keep our head above water. It all started two Thursday's ago when we went to the doctors office for Ella and Will to get their well baby check-ups. Little did we know that these well babies were going to get really sick. They caught it when we were at the doctors (we hadn't been anywhere else all week). Ella started coughing the next day, Suzanna the day after that and sadly William caught it last Monday. Because he's so little, the RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/lung/rsv.html) had a harder hit on him. He took spiked a fever Wednesday and we were rushed to the Children's hospital (Cardinal Glennon) in St. Louis Wednesday afternoon. They couldn't find his veins, it took many sticks to find it, finally the one that worked was in his head (poor guy). At this point he was just monitored with an EKG and oxygen monitoring. Sadly there's nothing you can do to treat RSV but time. We stayed over night, his fever dropped and we were sent home Thursday.

Friday morning he started to look very pale and had labored breathing. His last meal was at midnight, and he refused to eat after that. We went back into the Pediatricians and since his oxygen level was low (75%....anything above 90% is best) he was taken by ambulance back to Cardinal Glennon. Casey stayed home with the girls and I rushed to the hospital. Again, the only vein they found was in his head, so he's got an IV coming off the top of his head, a nasal cannula under his nose to give him oxygen, 3 EKG wires stuck on his chest and the oxygen monitoring stuck to his toe. Let's count them, 6 wires and tubes all together.

William got RSV and pneumonia on top of that. He had x-rays done and they found that bacteria in his lungs. This is common for this age since they don't do much moving around, more sitting still. Since he's under 8 weeks, he's got to be monitored in the hospital because if a young baby were to go down hill they go down hill really fast. Luckily he's over 4 weeks (just by a week) and won't have to have the spinal tap one (ouch).

It's Sunday and the doctors want him to stay one more night (hopefully no more than that). My body is sore from the pull-out futon and nursing on the wooden rocker, tired from beeping machines, nurses and hearing crying babies thru the walls. We attempted to give William pumped milk for the first time and he took well to the nuk bottles (good thing I have all that frozen milk stored away)! Now we've got more options so Casey and I did a swap on William's 3rd night in the hospital.

We're blessed to have church family nearby. A friend came over for a few hours last night so Casey could come and visit. We've some friends wanting to bring us dinners and watch the girls when we need it.

We're blessed that we have an offer on our house, having only been on the market 2 weeks. Although we haven't had much time to enjoy in that, it's been a load off our shoulders. Now our full focus is on getting William home. Please add William in your prayers tonight. The girls especially want their baby brother home whole and well.

Poor little thing has not been feeling well all day. It started after she got the flu shot.

On one of our dates while Aunt Angie and Mimi were visiting last week, Angie made the girls dinner. She made a big pot of spaghetti with vegetables. (By far spaghetti is top of their favorite dinner list!) Here's some of the photos taken of the delicious dinner. Look at the fun the girls had while we were gone, and the fun Aunt Angie and Mimi had cleaning them up!
Suz dubbed it "Dirty Spaghetti".

William has been very gassy. We finally went in for his one month check up and the doctor gave us a prescription gas medication. It seems to be working well. Also, the doctor was worried about how many dirty diapers he was having a day (every diaper was dirty) so he said he'd start with me (since I am the source of his food supply). I'm on a no dairy, no chocolate or green leafy veggies (including broccoli and cabbage). Can you guess what I've been craving? We'll see if he gets better in the next few days to see if it's what I am eating.

A lot has been going on around here. The jump from two to three has been crazy. I'm meaning two kids to three kids. When you've got one, it's just you and the baby.....you sleep when they sleep, all you think about is the two of you. With two if you're lucky the oldest will play by themselves and do their own thing (like Suz did) while you try to tend to baby (nursing, soothing, naps, etc). Three is a new ball game. With three under the age of three.....when I'm tending to baby the girls have free reign...it gets hairy. It's something else right now.

My stress level is high, not only with juggling three but putting our house on the market. I have set expectations of myself to keep the house tighty to be able to show well, at any time someone can call and ask to see the house. Today alone we've got two people coming to see the house, at 3:15 (we'll have to wake Ella early from naps) and 7:15pm (we'll have to keep them out late). Oh moy!

We've appreciated the help from you all when you've come in town, but our stress level is beyond our ability to accept any out of town visitors. Hotel Shockley is closed, it's been great these last three years opening our doors to y'all but the time has come to an end.....if any visit is a necessary, check for lodgings at the nearest hotel.

Wish us luck on selling!!

One of our gifts to the girls this Christmas were flight lights. During Nana's stay she happened to bring her flight light as well. This occupied them for a few hours each morning as Nana-Poppins tried to keep them quiet as I slept for a little bit more or when I was nursing. Now flashlights are a hit. Tonight as Casey and Will were asleep on the couch, we turned all the lights out and made up some stories on the ceiling.

We're coming up on a three years here in St. Louis. Our time here is coming to an end, we've got orders for Florida. Yes, yes, it's hot there....but the temperatures in Fort Walton Beach (where we'll be) are near the summer highs here, the only difference is we'll be loosing a chilly cold winter for an all around swim weather there. The girls are excited. I'm excited, that is if we can sell the house first. The house is offically on the market this week, sign in the yard and w'ere ready for a buyer.
Suzanna is talking about our new beach home already.....so this morning they both decided to wear their swimming suits, you know to get ready for the sunny beach come the end of March.
Aunt Vicky sent the girls these really cute backpacks and dress-ups. The girls love them, thanks again....you can't go wrong with sparkles, backpacks, pretty's and wands when it comes to girls.

For all those who are wanting more pictures of baby Will, here he is in his little Christmas outfit....broken neck and all.

It's amazing how newborns can sleep through just about anything. This little brother can just cat nap about anywhere......with the vacuum going, laughter, tears, big sister hugs, kisses, pokes and pulls, you name it!

It's New Year's day 2009. Casey and I planned to sleep into the night (no plans to celebrate the new year) but William wanted to and so at midnight he had his first meal of 2009.
The girls have gotten a little stir crazy, it's 24 degrees outside but they have all this energy. Ella was at it again, Suz was climbing on Casey and she quietly went over, grabbed the hat, inserted it in mouth and began to run. Suz finally caught up with her on her second lap around the kitchen...see picture below.
Casey being a good sport.