This and That

My friend Jackie just gave us a nice little wood desk. It will be PERFECT for Rachel, she was very excited to try it out! Thanks again, Jackie!


Just another poor attempt at all 4 in one shot.


This is a typical night, Tommy sucking his thumb with his favorite blankie and Rachel "reading" to him. She really is picking up lots of words and trying to write them. I chuckled reading Steph's blog yesterday about Olivia's notes, Rachel likes to write notes, too, but Rachel's usually say things like, "Dere mom and dad today is Thursday love Rachel"

The boys both have toddler beds, and Abby loves to crawl around on them. I found her today on Tommy's bed looking at a book. :)

A Good Morning

We are just so tickled to be over our gunky colds that I decided to venture out today. We met some of our MOPS friends at McDonalds and had a play date. We have done nothing for 2 weeks, so after playing hard all morning the kids went down for loooong naps this afternoon! Adam first fell asleep on the floor right in front of the door (where it's cold!) then he moved to the couch for a while. I love taking pics of him sleeping, he is so peaceful!

Look Who Came for a Visit!

Casey's mom and sister Sarah came to town today- with my new nephew Liam! He was born on New Year's Day, and we have been just dying (is that spelled right Kelly?) to meet him! He is so precious, he has really big eyes, and he can let a good squawk out of those little lungs!
Rachel was all smiles when it was her turn to hold him.


Here is Adam posing with the little fella.


I could just sit and stare at him all day!


This is where Liam looks the cutest- in his mama's arms.

Pictures for Jenny

Awww look at my little Buddy. Adam has been exhausted by 6:30-7 almost every night this week.


Even though they are almost 5 years apart, I think they will be close in life. Rachel thanks God every night for the baby in mommy's tummy, too.


Here are Tommy, Abby, and Adam enjoying a little snack this morning. Cinnamon toast, that sounds good right now.


Abby got so tired trying to figure out the cupboard lock that she had to pull up a chair.


Wow, look at this lively bunch! Abby laid in my lap like this all evening. I rather enjoyed it.

Nothing New Here

I have really been enjoying reading everybody's blogs. When you are trapped in the house it makes me feel like you are all near to me. :)

I think I need to be on an antibiotic, but am hesitant because of my pregnancy. Maybe I'll visit a ready-med tomorrow, we'll see. I'd really like to go back to work Monday. I miss big people. I miss feeling good. We have went through about 4 boxes of Kleenex this past week. Seriously. Rachel went back to school today. I miss her. She was excited, though, because it is art day. Abby still has a cruddy chapped nose. I haven't seen her suck her thumb in about a week. I wonder if this will break her of the habit? I'll post some pics later- for Jenny, because she needs to see pictures.

Adam and Rachel like to play "theater". They close the shades and turn the lamp off and put in a video. This was a nice quiet activity for nap time.
Rachel's school was closed Monday and Tuesday, and I am keeping her home today. She got up coughing and has that puffy look to her eyes still.


Here is Aunt Laurie and Abby. It's so exciting for me to watch Laurie's growing belly, even though I don't think she looks very big for being over halfway already!


While Laurie was over, Thomas hit his head and had a loud fit. She told him he needed a helmet. He came back a few minutes later with his hard hat on.

Well, I stayed home from work today. I have coughed so much the last couple days that today it feels like someone is jabbing a knife into my left side. I've never felt like such a wimp in my life. The kids are laying around watching a cartoon. Nobody is feverish today, there are just a lot of runny noses and we are all whipped. I've had the sinus headache to go along with it.

Tomorrow is a fun day at MOPS- a pottery place is coming and we are each going to make a special plate for our families, you can use it for birthdays or just for a "special day". I am going to be really sad if I can't go. I actually started to cry last night when I was telling Casey about it. A pregnant lady can only take so much, you know.

It's a Hit!

Laurie got the kids a Thomas the Train set for Christmas. Usually it stays in the basement, but with Casey and I feeling cruddy I brought it upstairs, and the kids played with it for a good portion of the afternoon. Adam was actually so busy arranging pieces he didn't have time to flap his jaws, which is usually what he does all afternoon when the 2 little ones are sleeping.

We're sick of being sick

Casey and I coughed the night away last night. The boys seemed better today, but now the girls have it, Abby has a constant river running from her nose, and last night she had the barky cough.

Well my dear friend Amanda called me today after getting a whiney complaining email from me. That's right, she feels sorry for me (I think?). She wondered if there was anything she could bring me- I said how about that vaporizer I keep hearing about. So about a half-hour later she pulls in with a brand new vaporizer (I knew she loved me), and just about everything else I needed and didn't think to ask for (did you notice the Dove chocolate bar in the picture?). There was even a box of puffs tissues that I forgot to include in the picture.
There is a bible verse that says there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother... and I think Amanda is one of those friends. Thank you for always being concerned and caring A, you made my day. :)

Quarantined (or that's how it feels)

My cold is better, but still coughing up the crud. Thomas was up a lot last night with the croup. I kept wrapping him up in a blanket and taking him into the cold garage because he was wheezing so badly. And his little body was burning up, but he never complained, he just wanted to sleep on the couch, which I let him do. He seemed better this morning, which is typical. He took a 4 hour nap this afternoon, so of course he doesn't want to go to sleep for the night. Adam's cheeks were all flushed tonight and he is sawing logs as we speak, I hope he makes it through the night without the croup cough. He can be pretty dramatic and he might be panicky if he wakes up wheezing and coughing. Oh there's nothing like having sick kids.

Thomas

I think Tommy is getting the crud now. It will travel slowly through the house, making me wish summer was here even more.

He likes to put on his pajama pants and pull them up way too high. He knows it always makes me laugh.

The Many Faces of Abby

This is the "I'm cute and I know it" face.


Here we have the "I tolerate this because I know you miss me when you're at school" face.


This is the "I like to eat crayons and chalk and I'm proud of it" face.


Here we have the "Get away from my Honeycomb" face.

Our Story

I was tagged by Amanda to tell the story about how we met, our first date, the wedding, etc. Hmmm, I guess I'll start at the beginning... (this is going to be a really long post I'm afraid)

I worked at the Olive Garden for 2 years before Casey arrived on the scene. I was a hostess, he was a wanna be server. He started out hosting, but we quickly saw that Casey could do any job at the restaurant that you threw at him. He finally ended up waiting on tables. He was one of the best servers they'd ever had . And he was cute to boot.
He was dating someone, I was dating someone, we were friends, nothing more. For 2 years this went on. I was eventually single, he was single as well. I was working late one night at O.G. and the phone rang. It was Casey. He asked me what I was doing that evening. I said going home and going to bed, which was what I really wanted to do. I was almost done with my dental hygiene clinicals and still holding a part-time job, I was beat. But he said, "No, you're not going to bed, we're going to the movies." He was there at the end of my shift with his dazzling grin and we went to the movies. I rode all the way there crouched down in the front seat for fear we might be spotted by some O.G. cronies. Mind you, he had just broke up with one of the other hostesses and she was crushed. She spilled her guts to me. And here I was going to the movies with him. Ohhhh this could be bad.
So I honestly don't remember what movie we saw. I was that excited to be holding hands with him. I had been ogling him for some time, but I didn't think I was really his type- whatever that means.
Three weeks into our dating he started talking about getting married. I laughed every time he mentioned it. It was so soon... right? Well, he proposed in July- we had dated 4 1/2 months. We were engaged for 4 months. We wed on December 4, 1999.

This was at the rehearsal dinner. Look at how long my hair is!


Here we are with Pastor Aaron. He looks kind of serious here, but he is one of the funniest people I have ever met. And he did great with our marriage counseling. Just look at what a success we are!


I love chocolate cake. No, we didn't shove it into each other's faces, but I did almost choke to death when he shoved it into my mouth.

Baby number one is here! February 2002
Wow, look at Casey's face in this picture! It cracks me up every time I look at it. This was taken not too long after Rachel was born. She was 8 weeks early, so she had to spend 4 weeks in the NICU. It was a tough time for us, but she never had any major problems.


Oh looky! Half the people that read my blog were there at the hospital the day I had Rachel. We were posing with Rachel's picture since she couldn't be with us in person.


I wish this photo wasn't so blurry, but I treasure it because it was taken the day they took her off the fancy oxygen machine and she just had a nasal canula. Ahhh, progress.


We bought a trampoline before we had kids. We had a blast on that thing. This pic is of Rachel with daddy. I have a hilarious picture of Jenny on the trampoline somewhere around here!


Rachel and Thomas (3rd Veihl child)


Here we are on our 8 yr anniversary this past December.


Here are the four munchkins- Abby (1), Thomas (2 1/2), Adam (4), Rachel (5 1/2) this past Christmas. We are so blessed. We had that Gaither song sung at our wedding, but at the time I didn't know just how blessed I was going to be with my husband and my babies. I wouldn't change a thing.

Now I tag Jenny L., Pam W., and Steph A. !! Tell us your stories!

Yes Yes You all sensed it!

So here I am pregnant again! It is strange the number of times I have already been asked, "So are you happy about it?" Um, yes! Like I've said before, when #3 came along that was a tough one, but after that it seemed to be smooth sailing. My husband is incredible, helpful, caring, hard-working, the list goes on and on. Obviously I couldn't do this successfully without him! And God, of course. He gives me the peace to know that I can do it even when I have tough days. That we have a roof over our heads and food to eat has never been an issue even though we are not rolling in the dough. He always provides, and we trust him completely.
Pregnancy can be tough. I have thrown up twice. I would like to sleep all day. I'm afraid of hemorrhoids and hernias- only because I've experienced both. TMI??? Maybe, but you'll want to stay tuned!

Due date August 9. I've never had one in the summer, I can just see the sweat rolling off my swollen body as we speak. Ugh.

This pic was taken a couple days ago, the night we told Laurie we were expecting. Of course I had to have Casey take a picture of us together. I think it's funny that at one point this month all 3 of my sisters-in-law and I were pregnant at the same time!

Casey's Making Eyes at Me!

Now this was a total gut-buster for Rachel, Adam, and Tommy. Abby on the other hand was not so amused.

Overheard

This was a little conversation that I overheard between Rachel (5) and Adam (4) today...

Adam: "Rachel, last night I dreamt that a mouse came in and bit my head off!"

Rachel: "I did, too!"

Wow what are the chances of that?

Barb crocheted each of the kids a little baby blanket. Here Rachel sports the more grown up look for the blankies.


Abby loves to play with this headband, it makes her look too old.


Abby has to be confined to her pack and play while the other kids get their baths. Thomas felt sorry for her and wanted to keep her company.


They are just hanging out on the toy box waiting to go to bed.

Snow Angels

After helping daddy shovel on New Year's Day, the kids had a good time rolling around in the snow. It really was beautiful, but it made for some worries around here with Jenny and Josh traveling that day. So glad they didn't have any problems getting to their destination. Once again God answers prayer.

He has a name!

Laurie already posted this today, but I'll mention it too because I'm so excited! Sarah and Kyle named the baby Liam James. :) James is Tommy's middle name, too!

Update

I just talked to Maude! She said that baby boy weighed 8lbs. and 14.25 ounces and was 21.25 inches long! That's a big baby- especially when it's your first! Laurie was right- they are waiting a day or so to announce the name. I can't stand the suspense!

My sister-in-law Jen who has been so sick with her pregnancy actually ate a cheeseburger yesterday after she left the hospital! That made my brother very happy. She goes back to the doctor today, they are going to do an ultrasound this time. Keep praying!

What's His Name?

Casey's mom called about 11:40 last night to tell us the baby finally made his way into the world! She had not been in the room yet, but from down the hall she could hear Kyle coaching Sarah all the way! We are just waiting for the details now...

People on my mind

First off, my sister-in-law Sarah was to be induced this morning at 7:30 am. We haven't heard a thing so I am starting to worry now. I hope she doesn't take after her mother and have to have a c-section.

My brother's wife Jen is 2 months pregnant and extremely sick. He took her to the hospital today because she hasn't been able to eat or drink anything. They put a couple IV bags into her to get her re-hydrated and also gave her some anti-nausea meds and sent them on their way. She was sick the entire time she was pregnant with the twins, so I really pray that this passes quickly.

So if you think to pray for these gals in my life it would be appreciated!