More than anything...

More than anything I must have flowers, always and always.

-Claude Monet

Cross from my dear friend Lisa reminds me to pray for my family.
My orchid is blooming again!

Deck is finally ready for Summer!

That Monet quote is one of mine and my sister's favorite quotes. With a "treeman" for a father, we grew up just naturally loving plants. Every vacation we would have to go to the botanical gardens if they had one. Pretty much every place we've been to has had one!!! One of my Mother's Day gift this year was a bouquet of flowers from Abby (and Jason). Unfortunately I didn't remember to take a picture of it before some of the flowers died. :( I did get a picture of my orchid though which started blooming again Mother's Day weekend. Orchids are my favorite flower, yet I've never been able to keep one alive.... until now!

This past weekend I got my flowers planted and the deck cleaned up. We can enjoy that space again! Both Abby and Caleb were napping, so I ate lunch outside and just enjoyed God's creation. I hope to have more afternoons like that! Caleb is already developing a love for the outdoors. He now points out all the flowers, trees, sticks, leaves, rocks... he's just fascinated by it all! I love that about him! He is a bit afraid of the grass though. I don't think he likes the way it feels yet. I often wonder why do we have all these toys when he is happiest playing with a bunch of rocks?! I was just in the mood to share something that makes me happy today. Next time I'll show pictures of the kids again. :)

Abby's 1st Month and Caleb's Obsessions

4 Weeks Old!
Modeling her Brazilian outfit from Aunt Jodi!

Our big boy loves his mac'n'cheese!

What her shirt says is TRUE!

We can't believe how quickly a month has passed. Abigail is still doing so well and had her 1 month checkup today and is 12 lbs. 2 oz. already. She looks much older than what she is, so sometimes I forget she still needs her snuggling! Caleb is still enjoying her and likes to push her in the swing... actually he likes to play with the lights on the swing more! Which brings us to Caleb's recent obsessions. It's funny how we pretty much do the same thing every day, but he loves it!!!! He loves to turn lights on and off, but that means picking him up. Needless to say he doesn't get to do that nearly as much as he would like! Only if he says, "please!" That's very important! His other obsession is so odd and I can't believe I haven't shared about it yet! SMOKE DETECTORS!

It started when he was calling the detector in our house a "ball." Grandma Becky explained it was not a "ball" but a smoke detector. Well, he just loved that word I guess and now says "detet!" and tries to find all the dectectors everywhere we go: at the hospital, the zoo, the pet store, etc... Even if there are crazy monkeys right in front of him, he is trying to find the detectors. Oh... it's the same thing with ceiling fans too! :)

We love Caleb! He makes life so interesting. Abigail will be giggling all the time with him around.

Abby's 1st Couple Weeks Home!

These past couple weeks at home have flown by! Abby will be 2 weeks old tomorrow! I cannot believe how well the transition home with Abby has gone. Grandma Mary was here for the entire 1st week, and we couldn't have done it without her! She took care of Caleb... He's a bit chunkier now! She was hoping to cook more, but like me was too tired by the end of the day because of dear little Caleb. We had yummy takeout several nights! Thank you for all your help, mom!

Caleb really enjoys his baby sister! He always knows where Baby is and loves to pat her all over! He calls her "Baby" or "Sissy." He seems to have reverted to some of his more baby-ish tendencies as you may see in some of the pictures. He's more cuddly and is obsessed with the pacifier.

Abigail has already surpassed her birth weight: 10 lb 2 oz when we had a weight check on Wednesday! That was a big relief for us. She is a very easy going baby! The Lord knew we needed her in our life! It certainly wasn't our timing, but now I can see His hand perfectly. She is the perfect addition to our family!

Enjoy the pics! Keep praying for us!

It's a Girl!

Abigail Grace Redoutey
Born: April 4, 2009 at 4:37 pm
10 lb. 1 oz. and 21 inches long

We are so excited to welcome Abigail to our family! We are glad to be home and doing well as a family of 4. Abigail was born on her Great-Grandpa Russell's birthday! Caleb loves his baby sister. He doesn't pay her too much attention yet, but is very aware she is around. He will be her protector I'm sure! One cute story: yesterday after we came home from the hospital, Abby's hat had fallen off and I told Caleb that was baby's hat. Well, he picked it up and brought it over to her! So sweet!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Walking 101

We shared with you a little bit of Caleb's first tries self-feeding with the spoon, well here are some of his 1st steps! We are so proud of him. Just like crawling... he had to wait a while, but once he's ready he just starts taking off. We'll try to show more later, but we ran out of memory on the camera while shooting. Caleb learns to walk just in time for his brother or sister to arrive.

Yeah Caleb!

"March"ing in like a Lion

Staff vs. Senior Game at Pinckney High School

We had fun watching "Dr. J" play some b-ball!

Caleb learning to walk with daddy!

We're in Frankenmuth... do I look German?

Sleeping with Pooh Bear in my mouth!

Well, we had quite the busy weekend, which reminded me of how fast our time is quickly flying by! Friday night we went to watch Jason play some b-ball at the high school where he's been student teaching at. It was fun to see him in that environment and now to be able to picture where he goes every weekday! He has 3 more weeks of teaching in the classroom, and 5 more weeks left of student teaching. The end is in sight! After the game we went to Zukey Lake Tavern, which apparently is famous in MI. I definitely had the best burger ever!!!! I thought the picture of Caleb walking with Jason in L&L (our grocery store across the street) was so cute! He looks like a little man! Sunday we went to Frankenmuth to celebrate Great Grandma Redoutey's 80th birthday! We had a great lunch and had lots of fun seeing everyone. Caleb enjoyed being the center of attention and played a lot of peekaboo at the table. This morning I was waking Caleb up from his nap and noticed he wasn't just sleeping with Pooh bear... he had Pooh bear in his mouth while sleeping! No wonder it's always disgusting! :) I had to take the picture before he woke up.

Self-Feeding 101

I so appreciated everyone's comments on my last posting. It seemed to hit home to many of us! Caleb is finally recovering from being sick for about a week and a half.... cough, cold, 2 teeth coming in, fever sometimes! I'm so glad he has his personality again... I think. :) I'm just kidding! Caleb just has such a strong temperament sometimes, and I wish he could just talk and tell me what's wrong. We do our best in communicating right now as much as we can. I just want him to know that we love him! Caleb now has 7 teeth that are in. He is still cruising around the furniture, but hasn't walked on his own yet. I do wonder if that might not be a good thing with Baby #2 coming in just 3-4 weeks. :) Caleb loves to play with the coasters on the coffee table right now. He spins them around, drops them on the floor, picks them up, and does it all over again! He likes to pat mommy's belly when we talk about the baby. I'm not sure if he understands or just thinks my belly is the baby! We're getting so excited to find out if we're having a boy or girl. Either way, we'll be soooo excited! Hope you enjoy the video of Caleb. Haven't taken too many pictures, but thought I'd share something we're working on.