still sick

We had a wonderful Christmas break with daddy! We just love spending the day with him. He has gone back to work today and Franke was supposed to go to back to school today, he is still coughing really bad and his nose is still running. Elisabeth is still sick with a fever and now we are concerned her Asthma is being effected. I am calling the dr's today and going to take her in, and I think I have caught one of their bugs...

Today is my dad's 62nd birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA, Love Franke and Elisabeth! and of course me and Frankie.

A New Year a New Start

I have been wanting to blog for a long time and just thought it has been to long to start again. Then I thought "it is never to late to start again", so here we go....

This New Years Eve we stayed home with two sick babies who have the croup. Franke is now just coughing some thing horrible and Elisabeth has had a fever of 102 since yesterday afternoon. We had pulled turkey sliders and some Champagne (of course a Michigan one ) to celebrate. Franke had his own sparkling juice, which he thought tasted like pop :) We did not take any pictures because of how sick everyone was. We also watched a new movie, (thank you grandma) Babe. and had some popcorn.

We are very excited as a family to see what 2012 has in store for us, and we know we will be able to handle it all as long as we stick together as a family.

Here is a family picture we take every year on Christmas Eve right before we leave for church and put out the cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

NICU Reunion

We took Elisabeth back to St. John for her first NICU reunion. There are a lot of kids that went through the St. John NICU. We ran into her doctor and a few of her nurses, but we did not get to see our two favorite nurses while we were there. It was fun for Franke too. He got to play some games and got some tattoos.

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year for Franke and Elisabeth. Elisabeth got dressed up like a pea pod and Franke was a lion.

They both really enjoyed carving the pumpkin. Franke got right in there with his spoon to get the guts out. Elisabeth was content drooling on the pumpkin.

Franke got to go on a train ride and trick or treating at Huckleberry Railroad with William, Nana, Uncle Scott, Aunt Nikki and Olivia. He thought the train was so cool.

We took Franke, William, Tatee Nicki and Grandma to Zoo Boo. They had a lot of fun watching the monster show and walking around getting candy.

How Franke loves Elisabeth

Franke loves his sister SO much that he brought her to mommy! He took her out of her bouncy seat, she was not strapped in and walked her over to me. He was so proud! My heart sank into my stomach. OH MY, is all I can really say.
Today he wanted to hold her and while he was "holding" her, he read her his book. The big truck book. He would point to picture and say what is was and then touch her check. It was like see this one. It was one of the cutest and sweetest thing I have ever seen.

Fun in the Sun

Franke has been loving being outside! He is so patient while I slather him with sun block :) Elisabeth finds her fun while "sun" bathing in the shade or in the AC. Franke has no fear when it comes to the water. We are very proud of him and his willingness to explore. What a great summer so far!! We are looking forward to the rest....

The last couple of months....

It has been a LONG time since I blogged. It is not because our life is boring or stagnate. It is very busy and full of joy, laughing, and lots of kisses! We are so proud of our beautiful children. They light up everyday of our life and they sure do not let things get dull. Here are is a little update on each of them.

Franke is the best big brother! I was a little worried about how he would react when we brought Elisabeth home, but after the first day I was not worried. He is very loving towards her, he loves to kiss her head and is VERY concerned when she fusses. You must stop whatever you are doing and check on her. He is talking up a storm and pronounces his words so clearly. I would love to be inside his brain. When he plays he has a very specific idea and a plan. He still loves to read and play with his cars. Now that the weather is nice he would spend all day outside if I let him. His favorite thing to look for out side is bugs and if there is water around he is in it! I took him swimming and he had no fear of the water. This is wonderful and little scary. He loved jumping in the pool into mommy's arms. We have spent time at the boat and he did great wearing his life jacket and playing. He also loves to tell you what all the animals say. He does a great bear and cow :) He is such a little lover! Though he is truly one of the boys and needs to be boys and do what ever they are doing, he is a mommy boy in his heart. We love you little bear!

Elisabeth is thriving! She is now two months old! I never thought we would ever get her home from the NICU, and now she is two months! The five weeks she spent there, were the longest weeks of our lives. The staff was wonderful to us, but they were not her mommy and daddy. She is now a little over 6lbs and is getting bigger every day. She eats about every three hours during the day and the nights are a little rough. She has been upside down with her days and nights. We think we finally got that fixed, but now she has hard time sleeping at night, we are not sure if is her reflux or if the chair she sleeps in is not comfy or....?? She not awake most of the day or night, but for a few minutes now and then. She sleeps a lot and they told us in the NICU that is when they do the best growing. So grow baby girl grow!!! We are excited to get her first round of immunizations so we can go out in public together as a family. We are limited in where we take her for fear of her getting sick. As of now she would have to be admitted to the hospital for iv antibiotics if she got sick. And I do not want to have to take her back!

As her due date is quickly approaching I have mixed emotions. I am excited because we will be able to go out as a family, ie church, out to dinner, going to stores. And then I think about how she was supposed to have a summer birthday. Funny how you never know what is going to happen, but God sure does. And we will never really understand how He knew it was ok for Elisabeth to be born 10 weeks early, but He did. And we are truly thankful for all the prayers from our family and friends and the strangers that heard from someone that she needed them.