Latest pics

I still don't have a picture of Jacquelyn's first tooth. Now, it has two friends!! The second one came in about 2 1/2 weeks after the first. The third one came in today. She hadn't been napping well over the last few days. It's so hard to tell at this age if it's changing weather, growth spurt, tooth, etc. I hope she sleeps better now that it has made its appearance.
Jacob is now 4. Where does the time go?!? We will celebrate with a party on Saturday. He is very excited but didn't understand why he couldn't have it on Wednesday, his actual birthday. The fact that he got several presents in the mail that day seemed to help a little!
I will post more after we take pics on Saturday!

October 2008

The kids are doing well and we are settling back into a routine. Jacquelyn finally got her shots last Friday. There were four as well as one oral vaccine. She wasn't to happy with the shots but came through like a champ. She is now 19 lbs 4 oz and 27 inches long. It sounds big but she is actually slowing down. At birth, she was 2 pounds bigger than Jacob but she is only 1 pound more than his 6 month check-up. She also decided to pop out her first tooth. Monday night was a rough one. She woke up every hour. Since Ben was out of town, I thought she just had the cold that is going around. (Kids always get sick when Daddy's are out of town.) Turns out it was just a tooth. She didn't sleep well last night either but it doesn't seem to bother her during the day. I will take a picture when I get a chance. She isn't showing it off yet! Jacob is anxiously awaiting the day when she can play with him. He wants to feed her and loves to spend time with her. He has been such a big help and I feel blessed by my wonderful little boy!

Has it been a week already?!?

I can't believe it has only been a week since we returned from our Gustav evacuation. The ride home took 12 1/2 hours but the kids did well. The morning started off much as our trip up...the DVD player stopped working 15 minutes into the trip. After a meltdown, I had to explain for the next three hours that McDonald's doesn't serve Happy Meals this early (7am) in the morning. When we finally did stop for lunch, he was disappointed that they were out of Star Wars toys. I'm still in a sleep deprived haze and Ben is still recovering from working nights in St. Louis. Now he gets to work long days for the aftermath of Ike so it will be awhile before we are well rested. Jacob was able to start school on Wednesday but it was cancelled on Friday. It will resume tomorrow. Jacquelyn is 6 months old today and we have been trying rice since yesterday. I'm not sure if it's the texture or the taste but she doesn't seem to enjoy it. Due to the storm, she gets a reprieve on her shots. The MD lost her vaccines in the power outage following Gustav. We will call back in 3 weeks to see if they are back. Can't wait:)

Plan to return home tomorrow

Ben got home this afternoon. They flew him to the NAS/JRB. When he finally made it to the house, we still had no power. We expected this. From what he could see, we didn't have any damage. There was much debris in the yard but we will clean it up when we can get into the garage. He bolted the wooden door closed since it's rather flimsy. We have to wait for the power to come back on to use the garage door opener. He thought he smelled the decaying food aroma from the fridge. Thank God it's already in trashbags. I would like to wait for the power to come back on to cool the food back down and kill some of the smell before we open the door. Removal of the boards from the windows to allow the house to air out is also a must. The kids and I plan to leave tomorrow and drive back. We will stay with Ben in a hotel downtown. Several of our friends will be back so Jacob will have people to play with if he gets tired of Daddy (or Daddy needs a break?) I think Ben is still recovering from the night shift! The Children's Museum and Aquarium are both open on Sunday. Jacob will spend as much time in the hotel pool as we allow but this will give us other options. This may be my last posting until our power returns (unless I can borrow someone else's computer.) I pray for a safe return for all those on the road tomorrow!

There's no place like home.....

Ben is scheduled to fly out tomorrow after his shift. He should be leaving around 8:30am. Once he gets back to NOLA, he doesn't have to work for a few days. As of right now, we still don't have power. According to the local news website, Orleans Parish can expect 100% power restoration by Sunday. I have no idea what time Sunday or if we will have it back sooner. At this point, Ben will go home to check on things and clean out the refrigerator, freezer, and deep freeze. Trash service was scheduled to resume today but I'm not sure if that is still the case. The Coast Guard will pay for a hotel. Unfortunately, they are all booked. The military bases are also closed. Needless to stay, I will be here at least until Saturday morning.

Still Waiting

I know that we didn't have any flooding but I don't know yet about roof or tree damage. The power was out yesterday and I haven't heard if it's back on yet. The phone was still plugged in but we have cable phone service. Since the cable is out, I can't call home to see if the machine picks up. Now we are waiting to see what Ike and Josephine do before we decide to go home. I hope to be home by the weekend. It's been good to visit family and friends but a little stressful as well. Neither child is sleeping well and Jacquelyn either has allergies or a cold. Makes things a little harder. Since Jacquelyn isn't sleeping at night, I'm not either. This should make the drive home very interesting! Baby is crying now. I hope she goes down for a nap!!
It's many hours later. She did not go down for a nap. We decided to go to the park to let Jacob run around outside. Just as we were leaving, Ben called to see how we were. Jacob was so excited to talk to him and we decided to drive into St. Louis to see Daddy. It was a good visit but too short. Jacob was very sad to leave (as was I). Jacquelyn fell asleep 10 minutes into our drive back to Grandma's and Grandpa's house. Jacob fell asleep 2 miles from their house. I drove around for an extra 20 minutes to let him sleep. It was difficult to get both kids to sleep but they are down for now.
Tomorrow, we hope to visit with friends in the morning while Ben sleeps. Mid-morning, we will drive up to see him and spend the afternoon. The plan right now is for him to return home Friday morning. As of now, we still don't have power. I'm not sure when we will be returning. I will keep everyone posted and pray safe returns for all of our friends.

A waiting game

Ben once said that he wasn't sure if he could stay in NOLA permanently because he didn't want to deal with hurricane season every year. I replied that at least you knew it was coming and could plan. With tornadoes, you got blind-sided. (Both of our families live in tornado-prone areas.) I still stand by my original statement but I'm not sure if I needed this much time to wait for it to happen! Ben got to St. Louis late yesterday morning. He was going to the hotel, to get lunch, and to sleep before reporting at 7:15pm last night. I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. Luckily, he was flying. The other man in his unit had to drive Ben's GV out of the city. Unfortunately, he had to take the admiral to the airport first and wasn't leaving until 8:30 yesterday morning. I'm not sure when he made it where he was going. Ben should be off already this morning but I've temporarily misplaced my cell phone and can't call him. It will turn up eventually. I continue to pray for all of our friends (and the friends and family that have taken in extra house guests.) In a few hours, we should know more. God bless.

Good Times!!

Jacob, Jacquelyn, and I left NOLA on Friday morning. We could have waited longer but my brother and sister-in-law were going to be in St. Louis for the holiday weekend. Leaving Friday gave us extra visit time. Looking at the news now, I'm glad we didn't wait. I wouldn't want the trip to have taken any longer. I knew it was a bad sign when we left. The buses carrying the Orleans Parish Prisoners (along with 20 cop cars escorting them) got on the highway just as we were leaving downtown. If the criminals are leaving, it was a good bet everyone else would be ordered to do so soon. The trip took 12 1/2 hours, the DVD player quit working one hour in, and we weren't able to find any of Jacob's music CD's before we left. This sounds like a horrible road trip. God bless, it wasn't. Jacob entertained himself with toys and his imagination, entertained his sister when she fussed, and was a big help. Now, if he could just hold her so trips to the bathroom would be easier!
Ben had to stand watch at the Federal Building last night. Mostly, this means watching the storm not watching for criminals. I talked to him at 6:30am and he was getting ready to go board a shuttle to the airport. He is flying up to St. Louis and will begin standing watch at 7:30pm tonight. He isn't thrilled about flying but is taking his first ride on a C-130 makes it a little more exciting. I don't know how long he will do this, what exactly he will be doing, or how long we will be here. This storm is so much bigger than Dolly and his team works regardless of where it hits on the Gulf coast. The kids and I won't return home until he does (or we know people are in our neighborhood). I'm not that proficient with a gun and the people that decide to stay behind will either be protecting their belongings or looting the belongings of others. Not a good place to be with 2 kids.
We pray that all of our friends are safe and we will stay in touch.

It's been a busy month. I keep trying to update this and haven't made it yet. Here are some recent pictures that at least show the kids. I'll post more when I get a chance!

July 2008

A busy month!

I kept thinking that I would get around to uploading pics and now realize a month has passed. It has been pretty busy. My folks came down for the 4th of July. Dad and Ben did some work replacing rotting boards on the garage. If it hadn't rained every day, they could have finished more quickly! It looks great now and we are so glad to have it done. Jacob didn't stay up for the fireworks but he did get to do some non-fireworks (champagne poppers, snaps, etc.) He had a blast and didn't know what he was missing. We went to Storyland for the first time. It's a little park that has painted statues depicting many of the Mother Goose fairytales. It was very hot out but worth it. Jacob was even able to ride most of the rides at the amusement park connected to it. I was shocked when he stepped up to the 'Must be this tall to ride' line and was 42 inches. I need to measure him to see if that is accurate. His school scrapbook from May listed him at 39 1/2. He had a blast and asked to ride many of them over and over. I'm excited about this and can only hope he will share my love of looping roller coasters! Jacquelyn is already 4 months old. She was 17 lbs and 7 ozs, 25 1/2 inches, and her head was 41 cm. She is already rolling over. This actually started around two months but she is so good at it now that I can't leave her on our bed while I wash my hands after diapering. She is also trying to push herself forward but gets her right arm stuck. Problem-solver that she is, she rolls over to free her arm and rolls back to push forward again. Reclining in the bouncy seat isn't very much fun right now and she's constantly trying to sit up. Unfortunately, she can only sit pretty much bent in half which causes spit-ups. Oh well! Right now, Ben is busy at work. He is excited to finally have something to do. First, he was helping keep track of boats, personnel, and equipment as Hurricane Dolly made land fall. Now, he is helping with the oil spill in the Mississippi River her in New Orleans. He just got switched over to it today so I don't have details yet on what his part is. I think that covers all the exciting things in our world and I will try to get pics posted soon!!

Still learning the ropes of blogging!

The pics below are from the past few weeks. The picture in the yellow dress is Jacquelyn's 3 month b-day. What are the odds that I would dress her in the same one she had on in her 2 month pics? You wouldn't think they would be that high since she has so many different outfits. Jacob still loves to be close to her and I can't wait until she is old enough to play with him. She smiles when she sees him and he can make her laugh. She babbles quite a bit right now and is somewhat scheduled (if we were ever at home!) Ben just finished his last of three trips out of town. Unfortunately, it was in Iowa and he didn't find out until he got there that they were too flooded to do the training. He drove up just to turn around and drive back. He even called to verify the training earlier in the week but I guess they changed their mind. We have been getting rain for the past week so it's been difficult to do much. We went to the Aquarium yesterday and the Farmer's Market in Gretna today. The Aquarium was crowded with kids from area daycare groups and day camps but Jacob had a blast anyway. Jacquelyn slept through most of it. The grown-ups just tried not to go crazy from the hundreds of kids running around in an enclosed space. We will have to try on a different day next time!

3 months old!!!

Jacquelyn is growing well (as you can tell from the pics). She is two months old in the yellow dress (taken 5/14/08). The other pic was taken somewhere around that date. At the doctor's appointment she weighed 14 pounds, was 23 3/4 inches, and her head was 39cm. That sounds so big but it's about the amount that Jacob gained in his first two months (from birth weight to 2 month visit.) She is starting to smile at us and babbles quite a bit. Jacob still adores being around her and wants to hold her every chance he gets. He is such a big help when I need him to get items for her. He has even offered to change her diaper!! I'm tempted but I think he's still a little too young. Daddy had his first long road trip since Jacquelyn was born. It was exhausting for me but we all managed to survive it. Thankfully, we have friends that live close by so Jacob could play and burn off some energy. Jacob and Daddy continue to be greeters at church. Jacob is really getting into it and even starting to learn some names of the members. Daddy has also started singing in the choir so Sundays are busy days for us.

The first pic is from her first week home. The second one is from a week or so ago. We will write more later

First Time Part 2

It's not easy to find time these days to get on the computer, phone, or take pen in hand to write a letter. I can't believe that it's already been 7 weeks since Jacquelyn was born. It seems like just yesterday. Then again, sleep deprivation does make one day run into the next. We are starting to get into a routine and I even managed to survive my first 2 days with Ben on the road. We all lived to tel the tale but I'm still not looking forward to his next trip in a few weeks. Jacob has been amazing as a big brother. He wants to hold her every morning as soon as he wakes up. When she gets fussy, he wants to try to calm her down. It doesn't even faze him when she spits up on him or her diaper leaks through. I have been informed, however, that we need to make sure she doesn't play with his toys when she starts crawling. We explained that wouldn't happen for a few more months but he wanted to make sure we were aware of his wishes.


We have been busy since March 14th. My (Brande) mom was in town from Feb.23 until the week after Jacquelyn was born. Dad drove down to pick her up when it was time for her to return to Missouri. Then, Ben's mom came to town. Ben's dad is trying to schedule a trip here. We have a new little niece in Dallas (born 4/27) so I don't think Uncle Chris and Aunt Trish (Ben's brother and sister-in-law) will be coming any time soon! Besides the visitors, Ben and Jacob have become greeters at church. Jacob even has his own nametag and shakes hands with a 'Good morning' as people come in the door. It's so sweet to see!


Well, Jacquelyn will be calling/crying soon so we will write more later! Love to all and God bless.

First Time

This is our first time posting on our Blog. We thought it would be a quick and easy way to keep family and friends updated.