Hello again! It's been awhile since I last posted. Josie is 5 weeks old today. I just can hardly believe that she is 5 weeks already. She continues to do really well and we enjoy her more and more everyday. She has started to smile and that has been so much fun. She is a little cutie! Hopefully I will be able to catch it on camera and post a picture soon. She is still getting up about once a night to eat, but then goes right back to sleep. I have been trying to get her on a schedule, but kinda forget how to do it. It's been 3 years since I had a baby and it's hard to remember. Any advice would be grand!
Our most exciting news is that we bought a van last week. It has been wonderful. We were getting along fine with the car, but it was just so tight in the back seat. We looked for a van for a while and found a really good deal here in Fort Wayne. We are super excited about it! The kids love it and there is just so much room. We traveled to Illinois this past weekend and that was great! The kids had so much room to sprawl out! This was the first time Josie made the trip and she did wonderful. She slept most of the way and didn't cry hardly at all! I am so thankful. The ride out was the part that I was most worried about. It was fun to be home and be with family again. It was really fun to show off little Josie. Most of our aunts and uncles hadn't seen her yet, so that was fun for them all to meet her. Babies change so fast, she will probably be alot bigger next time we go home.
Well, Josie is getting hungry, so I must go feed her. Good night all!

Happy Birthday, Caden Joseph!!!

Today is Caden's 3rd birthday! I can hardly believe that 3 years have gone by since the little guy came into this world. It has been a wonderful 3 years and I don't know what we would do without him. He has been the "problem" child from the beginning. We didn't sleep through the night until 10 months (and even now we sometimes wake up), we got cold after cold followed by ear infection after ear infection. All this lead to getting tubes in his ears. The tubes have been a blessing because we haven't gotten a single ear infection since they were put in!! Then there was the stretch where he would get random nose bleeds ALOT!!! That has seemed to go away and not return! We then moved onto studdering! This all started about a month or so before we moved to IN. So, I know that all the stress from the move was probably the culprit! A couple months after we got setteled in he stopped the studdering and now has NO problem talking. We always thought that he was going to be the quiet one....boy were we wrong! He still comes down with a cold/cough about every month/month and a half, but those are bearable. I'm so thankful that all the things we went through with him were not life threatening. So many children in this world are much sicker and some may not see their 3rd birthday. So I'm not complaining by any means! Libby loves her brother so much and I'm so thankful for their close relationship. They love to play together, but also can get SO mad at each other! Alot of nights I will go into Libby's room and find them both in her bed, cuddled together, fast asleep. I hope that this relationship continues far into their lives. Caden is becoming more and more onery as the days go on! It can be reallly frustrating at times, but looking back we just have to laugh at the things he does and says. I hope I never forget these days! Caden Joseph, we love you so much and are so thankful that God gave you to us 3 years ago today!

One Week Old

Well, my little Josie Mae is one week old already! I can hardly believe a week has went by so fast. She is doing wonderful. The precious little girl only really cries when she needs something. She has been doing wonderful at night too! Last night she ate at 8:45pm then fell asleep till 1:30am. We fed her and she went right back to sleep and didn't make a peep till 7:30am. How wonderful is that!! She had her first bath last night because her umbilical cord fell off yesterday. She HATED it!!! She doesn't like to get her diaper changed so I imagined that she wouldn't like the bath. But she Hated her bath!! She was screaming so hard she was turning purple!! But she survived and when I wrapped her in the warm towel, everything was all better! :)

Libby and Caden continue to adjust pretty well. I can tell that Caden is a little different, but nothing horrible. He is just having a harder time obeying and they both are having a harder time going to bed at night. Last night they both were still awake at 11pm. 3 long hours after I put them to bed. I think part of the problem has been that Dustin was gone Monday and Tuesday. He had to go on duty by himself and spent the night over at Hickory House. That is not normal for the kids and I think was harder on them than I thought it would be. For the past 8 months our little family has hardly been seperated for more than a couple hours, so for Daddy to be gone ALL day and ALL night was really a change. Thankfully those 2 days have passed and we can get back into a routine again.

My mom was here the week before the baby was born and Dustin's dad and mom came last week. His mom left yesterday. It was so nice to have them both here and the kids really enjoyed the attention from both sets of grandma's and grandpa. I think that attention was good for them. We go back on duty together on Saturday night. I don't know if I'm ready for that, but we will just take it one day at a time. I'm sure everything will go fine and we will just get back into that routine. Well, I think that's all the news I have for right now. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

OK....so I have no clue how to turn this picture. Any advice would be great!

Josie Mae Hodel

Well, she's finally here! Josie Mae Hodel was born Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 3:56pm. She is just perfect! Labor was pretty good this time around. I went in on Tuesday morning at 7am to start the induction. When I got there I was almost 3cm!! That was exciting. They started pitocin and in a short while I started to feel some contractions. Since I went so quickly with Caden they gave me my epidural about an 1 1/2 hrs. after the pitocin. So I was feeling good! It took longer for me to dilate though because I wasn't quite soft yet. By the time I was fully dilated I could feel the contractions. They gave me more medicine, but that didn't really help. So I felt the whole delivery part. Not very fun, but once she was here, it was all worth it!! She was 6lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches. She's got quite a bit of dark hair, but not more than Libby did. She is just the sweetest little girl and I am madly in love with her already! I'm so excited to watch her grow!

So I thought it was time to update again. We have been so busy, the last two weeks have just flown by. We went home to Roanoke over Thanksgiving. It was a nice trip home and we had a lot of fun spending time with family. Dustin and I went shopping on Black Friday together. It wasn't as horrible as I was expecting and I managed to get some pretty good deals. Target and Kohl's were the worst, so we just didn't even try and look. I think that I enjoyed just spending some quality time with my hubby alone more than the shopping. After shopping, I met my old roomies at Panera to have lunch and catch up. It was wonderful to see them again, even though they all weren't there. It just brought back alot memories. Good times!
The day we got home we went on duty at Hickory for a four day stretch and then had a maint. day which consisted mostly of meetings. Now we are on at Pine for a four day stretch. This is a new adventure for us, as we have never worked in a co-ed house but we are really enjoying it. Man o man the difference.....girls are just so full of drama and when you put seven of them together you just have WAY TOO MUCH drama! It has been fun to just experience another house. I will have to say I was quite nervous about coming into a house with kids I didn't know very well, but they are doing a great job.
We are looking forward to a couple days off though. Hopefully I will be able to get some Christmas shopping done and our Christmas pictures taken and sent out. Oh, and my house decorated! Our tree is up, no ornaments though, and our stockings are hung. That's about it. The kids are excited to finish decorating!
My pregnancy is going good. I had a sono yesterday and baby girl is measuring just on schedule. She weighs 4lbs. 5oz. Seems so tiny. I am getting anxious to meet her! I think Caden will have a harder time adjusting to life with a little one than Libby will. We will get though it though. I have stopped trying to potty train. He did so well without a diaper but we can't have a naked little boy running around all the time. I just don't think he's ready and I don't want to push him. I have come to accept the fact that I may have two children in diapers again. Life could be worse.
I hope all of you are enjoying this holiday season and remembering the true reason for the holiday. It seems like we can get so wrapped up in the commercial scene that we forget the real reason. One of the things that I want to stress to these kids is just that. That the real reason we have Christmas is for Christ. Before I can do that, I need to check myself and make sure I am living what I am teaching. Have a great weekend everyone!

It seems like it is so hard for me to get into a routine of posting. Then when I do have the time to post, there is so much to post about that I just feel overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. Things have been going well. We are busy, as it seems we always are anymore. But I don't really mind the business. It helps me to stay focused on what God's purpose is for me here and I don't have time to feel lonely or sorry for myself.
Gateway Woods has hired new Alternate Houseparents and they moved to Leo on Saturday. We are especially excited about this because the wonderful couple is from Roanoke!! Chad and Kristy Kaeb have joined the Gateway team and we are excited to get to know them even more. Libby is really excited to have them here because their daughter Abbi is Libby's age and since they live 2 doors down from us she thinks that they will be playing all the time!!! It will be nice to have her so close. Libby really hasn't had a playmate on our street since August and she has really missed that.
We have started to paint our kitchen finally. I have wanted to do this since we moved, but have just not gotten around to it. Hopefully it will be done in the next day or so and I will post pictures as soon as is complete.
I don't remember if I have posted about potty training with Caden, but will update anyway. We have been attempting to potty train our little boy. He gets it I think, but doesn't always do it. He does do it consistently when he doesn't have a diaper or underwear on. This poses a problem because I can't have my child running around naked all the time. He is so good about telling me he has to go or just going by himself, but the minute I put a diaper on, he is back to his old self. I just don't know how to handle this. I have tried gum, which is something he really likes, but that doesn't seem to work. If you have any suggestions I would be delighted to hear them. On another note, he has been sick this week. On Saturday night before I went to bed I noticed that he felt a little warm. Dustin said that it was probably just cause he was under the covers so I didn't think much of it. Well, he woke up in the middle of the night burning up, poor kid. So he has had fever off and on, mainly on, since then. I think that it is down this morning, but he still isn't himself. So now I have to make the decision of calling the doctor or not. If it's not one thing it's the other.
Libby is doing well and now has homework sent home with her from preschool. She just loves to do it and bugs me about it all the time. I hope this continues throughout her years of schooling. Something thing tells me it won't be that easy. Oh well, I can hope!
Dustin and I are doing well. The baby continues to grow and is rarely ever still. I wonder if she is going to be long because it feels like she just stretches across my whole body! It is sometimes easy to forget that I am pregnant because we are so busy, but she makes sure that I don't forget for long! I can't believe I am at week 30 already! Time flies! We are getting more and more excited, but there also is some fears that come along with that excitement. I just have to remember to give it to God and He will provide. Houseparents have babies of their own all the time and they turn out just fine!!
I feel like I have just kinda rambled on for a long time, so I will stop now. Hope you all are doing well and are having a great week!

Five Years Ago Today I Married My Best Friend

There is so many thoughts rushing through my head and I just can't put them together. The last 5 years have been incredible. They have gone by so fast! I can hardly remember my life pre-marriage! Looking back to my wedding day, I never thought that in 5 years I would have 2 children and one on the way and be living in Leo, IN serving at Gateway. It's probably a good thing that I didn't know, or else I would have been terrified! God has truly blessed our marriage and I wouldn't have changed one thing. Well, I guess there is one thing that I would change, Slow down and enjoy every moment.
Dustin, I love you so much! Thank you for choosing me! Thank you for always being there no matter what life brings. I'm sure that I haven't been the easiest or most fun person to live with at all times! :) I wouldn't want to spend my life with anyone else but you and our children. You made my life complete they day we became one. I'm excited to see how God leads over the next 5 years!
I LOVE YOU!!