I love surprises!

Last thursday I did one of my most favorite things to do, surprise my husband. He is really hard to surprise because he LOVES to try and figure them out. (yes, he shakes his presents at Christmas) He was feeling pretty overwhelmed trying to keep up with all his stuff plus taking care of all of my stuff as I recovered. And I wanted to thank him for being such an amazing & supportive husband.

So I sneakily planned a surprise date night for us. Our best friend  "Aunt Ashley" agreed to come and stay with the girls. On thursday morning I took the girls to a friend's house to play. I went and bought myself & Jeremy new outfits ( a huge splurge for me!!) Then I laid out his outfit with the movie listings for that night. The girls and I hid in our bedroom and when he came home yelled, "Surprise!"

We went to eat at a fancier place downtown. Then we went to a movie. Hannibal just got a brand new fancy digital theater. We went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. Neither of us had ever seen a 3 D movie. We then headed to our favorite "coffee" shop for white hot chocolate. It was a great night!!! It had been quite awhile since we had a date night.

I am so thankful the Lord gave me this idea. I had no idea we would be gearing up for another exhausting weekend with Faith getting sick, but the Lord did. He gave us just what we needed time to reconnect and recharge.

ER Finale

No, I am not talking about the TV show. We made another trip to the ER and I am seriously hoping it is the final one! (at least for a long time) Friday night almost two weeks to the hour that I went to the the ER we made the decision to take Faith to the ER. On Friday Faith started running a temperature and coughing during nap. I thought she was probably getting a cold. We were headed to Jeremy's dads for the night. We got to Keokuk and his parents had gone to dinner. Faith's fever got to 102 and she was having a lot of trouble breathing. At one point she was grunting to breathe. I was starting to get very nervous at that point. Faith's grandma teaches nursing so we were glad when she got home. She went to get something to check her oxygen saturation. It was only at 90%. I was shaking at this point. I was really having a hard time emotionally, worried about her, flashing back to two weeks ago, and not knowing what to do. Jeremy stepped up and decided we should take her to the emergency room. I was so thankful he decided because I was a wreck.

We decided to take her to the Fort Madison Hospital so Grace could stay with my in-laws. To make a long story short after testing we found out she has RSV and was experiencing respiratory distress. After two breathing treatment and a steroids shot they admitted us to the hospital. She responded great to the treatments and we were able to go home on Saturday afternoon. I am SO thankful! It was a long night, but we made it through.

Currently we are doing breathing treatments at home and waiting for her little body to fight off the virus. I am totally exhausted. While I was hoping to get back to some type of normalcy this week I think that will have to wait.  To be totally honest I keep thinking about God's promise that he won't give us more than we can handle. I keep asking him, "Are you sure you didn't get me confused with some super strong woman?" I feel like I've been running a marathon lately, and I'm close to running on empty. I'm so thankful I don't have to rely on my strength alone I know God can fill my tank. And so my prayer, FILL ME LORD!!

My Gorgeous Girls

Sisterly love!






My mom recently took new pictures of the girls. As you can see they weren't super cooperative. Or maybe this is just what a photo shoot with two kids looks like.  Although we did get a few cute ones, especially the ones with Aunt Jo Jo. I especially love the ones of their feet. I of course think my girls are absolutely gorgeous!! (even if they aren't cooperative) They are getting so big.

Girls,

I hope you will always know that you are beautifully and wonderfully made by our heavenly father. I continue to learn that truth in my own life so I can model it for you.  Your dad and I will keep reminding you how beautiful we think you are on the outside and teaching you how to allow the Lord to make you beautiful on the inside too.