Baby Face

She's got the cutest little baby face!!!
We have moved into a house about 5 minutes from my job. We have internet and cell phone coverage. We are planning on being here for at least the next year. What are God's plans...well we'll just have to wait and find out!
Here are some long overdue pictures of the family.

Yes, she is a thumb sucker!!! No matter what position she is in she will find her thumb!

Isabella had her friend over for her first (of many I'm sure) sleep-over!

Baby-girl, fast asleep.

The Phlaum Family.

What is a month among friends?

Well, when I said that I would write back the next day, apparently I meant the next month. Life has been blitzing by so fast that it is hard to find the time to update this blog!
I am sorry, I don't have any pictures of the baby with me. I spent the night at my brothers house somewhat unexpectedly, so while I have access to the internet I didn't bring any pictures with me.
Jennifer is back to almost normal. She has been cleared by the doctors and can get back to "usual" house hold duties. Thank the Lord! She needs to still take it a bit easy, but she is on the mend.
Khalia-Ann is doing great. She was just weighed and measured yesterday so she is 12lbs and 23 inches! A growing little baby. When we put her on her stomach the other day she scrunched her legs up under her and flipped herself over on to her back...and promptly scared herself half to death. It was so cute, but we had to pick her up, she was so frightened!
Isabella is a wonderful big sister. She loves her baby sister and loves taking care of her. We are so thankful that there is no jealousy issues as of yet!
I am still working as manager of my little restaurant. It is a fun yet challenging job. I am always praying for wisdom when I head into work. I could be one of the only Christian lights that these people see and I don't want that light to be dimmed in anyway by bad decisions on my side.
We are still house hunting. It had to get slowed a little with Jen on bed rest and all, but we have looked at a few and Lord willing will move into one the first of November. It will be nice to be able to be home 5-10 minutes after I get off work, an not an hour later!
So that is what is going on here...
Thank you for all your prayers.

Going to the doctor

Not a whole lot new going on in our life. I am still working, Jen is still on bed rest and the two little ones are growing up!
We are going to the doctors today so Jen can see if there has been any progress with all the rest she has been having. We will be heading there in about 15 minutes, so if there is anything big to report, (either good or bad) I will get back on here tonight or tomorrow morning. Thank you for your prayers!

Why, hello there...

Only about a month later do I finally get to a computer with Internet and free time on my hands. We are back in S. Oregon so the only time I can check e-mail or update this thing is when I am at work...off the clock of course.
Life is moving right along.
Khalia-Ann is now 5 weeks old, pretty crazy.
Isabella still loves her to death. I was wondering if the "baby thing" would get old after a while, but that is not the case. She hugs and kisses her all the time, to the point that we have to let her know that she should take a break!
Jennifer is still on bed-rest with her prolapsed uterus and in one more week she is supposed to be able to start exercising a bit in order to get things back into shape. It will be a long slow road for her so please keep her in your prayers. She is home with a newborn and a 4yr old and she is on bed-rest...not a fun time for her.
I have been getting back into the groove of the restaurant. Alot of mental work as well as physical. I pray for wisdom all the time! Trying to balance 20 different personalities into a smooth working environment!
We are looking for a house closer to town right now. We have been house-sitting for Jen's parents, but it is an hour away from work, and they are now talking about charging us rent... so if we are going to pay rent we are going to move closer to work so we don't have to pay that as well as gas!
So life as most people know it. Very different from what our life has been for the past 7 years, and a bit of an adjustment for us, but God is in control!
I will try to get pictures as soon as I can on here.

Have to either laugh or cry...

Jen and I got all packed up ready to leave Thursday morning. Jen was feeding the baby for the last time and we were going to hop in the car and head to Portland. I was checking the "vitals" of the truck before we left... Such things like oil and water and all that good stuff. I noticed that the water in the radiator was down so I filled up a gallon jug, and it ALL went into the radiator.
Not a good sign.
I looked under the truck and saw my gallon of water pouring out onto the ground.
An even worse sign.
It ended up being the water pump and the shop couldn't get it in until the next morning.
Friday 11 AM and the shop calls and says that the water pump is fixed, but the radiator is leaking as well.
It takes to 6 PM to figure out what to do, and we then leave Baker City knowing that we need to keep an eye on the temperature gauge and the water level.
We make it an 1 1/2 hours and the right side tire of our trailer blows. It takes me an hour to get it replaced with our spare. I drive a mile down the road to a gas station to check the air in the tire only to find out that it has blown already too!
It is now 9 PM and we can go no farther!
We spent the night in a hotel and first thing this morning I went to a tire shop for two new tires. We left Pendleton at noon today and made it to Portland without any more mishaps.
Thankfully.
We are heading down to S Oregon tomorrow so we are praying for nothing else to happen!
On the positive side everything that happened, happened at a place where we were still home or within a very close distance of a town. So while it seemed like a pain, it was a pain in the best possible place!
That is something to be thankful for!

Life happens while you are busy planning.

After Khalia-Ann was born Jen, Isabella and I all got the stomach flu! It was pretty crazy. I was trying to take care of the house, the ladies and get packed for our move...Again pretty crazy. I was talking to my mom on the phone and with-in a day her, my dad and my lil' bro came up to help. It was such a relief to see them! We packed a lot today with more planned for tomorrow and Jen and I are planning on being in S. Oregon Saturday. It will be a bitter sweet time. Nice because we will get back to a somewhat "normal" life again, but also our time here with friends will be ending.

My dad...

...and my mom's first time seeing Khalia-Ann.

If life is what happens to you while you are busy planning, then your quality of life is dependent on how you respond to the life that you are given.
Jen and I have planned so much in our life, and it is amazing how often our well thought-out and prayed over plans go awry!! Khalia-Ann's due date was July 11th and we were going to be back in S. Oregon by then end of the month, only to have her at the end of the month! We were going to find a house closer to where I work so I could spend more time with the family and start writing classes in September. But it looks like those plans are going to change as well.
Jen was feeling so good after the birth that on Tuesday she decided to do some house work. She overdid it and ended up with a prolapsed cervix. We are told that she needs to be on bed rest for several weeks. So the idea of getting home, me starting work, Jen on bed-rest and us trying to find a house and me get signed up for classes in less then two months...seems a bit much.
I'm sure that God has it all figured out, we'll just have to see what His plan is.

Our trip "Home"

Khalia-Ann was born on Monday and we stayed with Pat and Marcia until Wednesday evening. It was a very nice and relaxing time. They are the couple that owned the house that we had Isabella in 4 1/2 years ago, we have quite a relationship with them. Every baby seems to tighten that bond! Our trip home was about five minutes long and like most first car rides, uneventful!
We will be here in NE Oregon for about one more week and then head back to the house in S. Oregon. (It is kinda hard to figure out where "home" is at the moment...)
We are going to miss our friends here in this part of Oregon so very much. We didn't realize that we were going to have so much free time while we were here, so during this time we have deepened some friendships a lot!

A few more pictures...just because we can't get enough of them!

Pat and Marcia...the surrogate grandparents.

Me and my ladies all dressed up for the trip home. (Well they are at least).

First car-seat picture! It is amazing to see how small she is!

Isabella, passed out from all the excitement. With all those books around her you can tell she is a girl after my own heart!

More pictures of the newest one!

Well, we have had a new member in our family for about a day an a half now. We catch ourselves just staring at her. We all fight over holding her...Isabella included.
Isabella absolutely loves her little sister. She just sits there for so long holding her or just sitting by her. I know how much energy she has so seeing her this quiet and sitting still for so long is kinda funny.
Thank-you everyone for the love, calls, e-mails and just support! We are excited and it is so cool to see how many friends that we have and see your excitement as well!
Here are more pictures of our little ones.

Isabella and Khalia-Ann

Isabella and Khalia-Ann gave each other gifts, beautiful dresses!

This is "Marno" the lady who owns the house that we have had two of our babies in so far!

I had to take this picture...she is so small!!!

Big sister says enough pictures for the day...you are bugging the baby...
(It is amazing how girls learn "the look" so early!)

I am proud to introduce to you...

Khalia-Ann Joy

Jen had 5 hours of labor and this beautiful miracle we given to us. She was born on July 30th at 2AM. She was 8 lbs exactly and 21 inches long. She came out and started to cry! We are all excited and thankful, (not to mention tired!)
We are so thankful for everyone who lifted us up in prayer for the last 10 months of our lives! Jen and Khalia-Ann are both doing great. Jen is taking a nap right now at the house that we had the baby at, so I am taking the opportunity to put some pictures on here. I will put some more as time allows.

BABY???

Yeah, so, it is 11:22 in the evening and Jen has been having strong contractions for about 2 1/2 hours now. So this might be it? Keep us in your prayers, please and I will update this as soon as I can with at least one photo!!

Sooooo....

The midwife came this week and did a quick prenatal. From measuring Jen's belly, listening to the heartbeat and feeling the baby she says that everything is just fine and Jen is "due" any day. (just in case we didn't realize that before)...
Then she started looking at the results from the ultrasounds. As she was reading those she saw that the ultrasounds only gave a 25% chance that the baby would be due on July 11th.
OOOppppsss.
I would have been nice if the doctors had told us that! Or maybe if the midwife had read the papers when we faxed them to her months ago!!!
On one hand we are glad to hear that Jen probably isn't 2 1/2 weeks late, on the other hand we could have come here to Baker much later that we did.
Good thing God is in control, huh?
So, the baby could be due as late as Aug. 5th!!!
Not what we had in mind, but it will all work out, I'm sure!
Well, we just thought that we would keep everyone updated on what is going on!!!
We are just hanging out as a family...getting to know each other well again!

Keeping busy in NE Oregon

Well, the little one is officially 13 days overdue. A full two weeks tomorrow!
People are asking us what are we doing to keep busy.
Let me tell you...not much!
Which is good. The two months before we left S. Oregon I was so busy at my job trying to get everything running smooth before I left that we hardly got any family time at all. And once we get back we will have a new little one and work will start up again and all that, so we are getting quality and quantity time in now.
Sometimes it is hard not to get a bit antsy and start wondering when is this little one going to emerge!!!!!! But we know that God is still in charge and we have seen His timing too many times to get too frustrated!!
Here are some pictures of us doing various things during the week to keep ourselves occupied.

Isabella and I had a "date" today. We went to DQ and had lunch. We got there at 11:50 right before the lunch rush...We didn't leave until after 1. I was amazed how slow my daughter can eat, especially when we are just sitting there visiting.

There is a lady who is going to keep an eye on Isabella when Jen goes into labor, (assuming that one day she will indeed go into labor). Her daughters are close to Isabella's age. (One is only 2 months younger). We have gone over to their house several times now and Isabella just loves her new friends. They have little pool and you can tell by their tans how often they use it! Isabella is quite the little whitey next to them!

With her friends at the park...

...and all dressed up after church.

Jennifer and Isabella keeping busy by making chocolate covered strawberries...

...and decorating sugar cookies.

Thank-you to everyone who has been keeping us in your prayers. We know that there are plenty of you that are, and you are such a blessing! Keep an eye on this blog and prayerfully in the next few days you will get to see some baby pictures!!!

Trying to go into Labor

So when Jen was pregnant with Isabella and she was 17 days late, we were living here in NE Oregon and we brought Jennifer to this bowling alley to try to get her to go into labor...
It didn't work.
So since this baby is 8 days late now we thought it would be fun to bring Isabella bowling and see if we could get the mother to get things moving...
It didn't work.
But it was fun! And we got some funny pictures!!!

It looks like Jen is trying to bowl with 2 balls!!!

Isabella the bowling model...

Both the ladies.

The whole family.

The sad thing about the whole experience was that I almost lost!!! The first several sets I was pretty behind BOTH the girls. I was getting scared, but I finally pulled ahead (Of the 9 mo prego and the 4 yr old!!!)

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

Today is our anniversary! Jen and I have been married for 7 years! How crazy is that, huh? Sometimes it seems much longer and sometimes it seems like there is no way that we have been married this long!
Jen's parents stopped by last night on their way to N. Dakota and are leaving tomorrow so it has been good to spend some time with them, even if it is just for a day. They were hoping to see a baby too, but no such luck! Maybe on their way back?
We have some more pictures for everyone...

Jen is showing off her belly and her beautiful hair.

We went swimming at a friends pool and we forgot some sun-screen for Isabella. I guess that she has my hair, but her mom's fair skin!

A family picture after church. When Isabella was a couple weeks old we took a picture in front of this tree here on campus...and here we are over four years later and getting ready for another little one!

Our anniversary picture...With the cute belly!

Isabella was trying to take a picture as well!

Due Date

So today was the due date...and guess what, NO BABY!!!
Not really a surprise there I guess. Isabella was 16 days late. Anarazell was a month early so we thought that this one would be right in the middle...but, no...no it wasn't. As it is, it looks like we are in for a bit of a wait.
How long? Only God and the baby know that!
Here are some pictures of our day while we were waiting for the little one to emerge...

Jen started "nesting" and cleaned the whole entire house...I mean everything. She was starting to scare me she was moving so much...But still nothing!

Jen showing off her belly at the pool. Our church had a BBQ with swimming afterwards so we went to that. I wish I had gotten a picture of her trying to swim with her huge belly, it was quite funny!

Isabella a kick'in and a scream'in! She wasn't moving very fast or getting very far, but she was sure having a good time.

Now a very tired and very cute girl is going to sleep...we'll see if the baby comes tonight!!!

Just Waiting

We took this picture just today.... Doesn't she look so cute!
We have 5 days before the official Due-date...so we are here waiting.
Everything is going just fine with Jen and the baby. Kinda getting excited!

Our Time So Far...

Well, we have been here in NE Oregon for less then a week now, and boy have we been busy! We got here on Thursday and on Friday we had company from our church in S. Oregon come up and spend the night with us.
On Saturday we all went to a wedding.
Sunday our friends went home and we drove to Idaho to our church up here. It was so good to see everyone there.
Monday we went to a local ranch that is owned by a couple that we knew from S. Oregon and Isabella got to ride a horse and I got to "help out" with giving a bull some shots. (My helping out consisted of me watching and wondering what would happen if this very heavy, very angry animal got loose with me in the pen!)
Tuesday we actually got some rest.
Today is July 4th and we are heading back to Idaho to our pastor's house for a BBQ!!! Tomorrow we will be back here in Oregon and having another prenatal to see how much longer we have until baby day!

Here are some pictures of our events...

A picture of us at the wedding

A very pregnant Jenny baking a cherry pie.

I thought this was a cool picture of Isabella on a swing.

Isabella and the baby horse. She was so excited to be around so many animals...

...and then she got to ride a horse. At the end of her ride you could tell that she had the disease...the "girl wants a horse" disease!

In North-east Oregon

Well, we made it.
We made it to NE Oregon to have our baby.
Why did we drive about ten hours away from our house to have a child?
Excellent question...
Here in this part of the state we have a mid-wife, the same mid-wife in fact that we had with our first daughter Isabella.
We have a house to have the baby in, also the same place we had Isabella.
There is a hospital within a five minute drive of this house, just in case.
Those are the main reasons we are waiting for the little one to come...here.
We had a prenatal with the midwife today and one scheduled next Thursday. The last ultrasound put the baby around 6lbs 6oz. That is a blessing. With about two more weeks left to go it could be a good size baby!
YEAH!!
Please keep praying for us. Our hearts are still "on guard" until we actually hold the little one in our arms. As soon as that happens we will post sooo many pictures here!!
For the next month or so we will be here with both cell phone and internet!!!!
So I will try to e-mail as many people as I can and Jen will try to call!
Drop us a line if you can...we would love to talk!

Hot Air Ballooning

Isabella and I got the opportunity to go up in a hot air balloon. My restaurant sponsors one of the pilots so we got a ride!
Isabella was sooooooo excited and scared at the same time! I am terrified of heights, but once we got up there it was great. It felt like you were standing on something solid...a few thousand feet above the earth!

If you can see Isabella's face you can see the mixture of excitement...and not so sure!

Such a beautiful sight. There are 7-8 balloons in different stages of taking off in this picture.

The balloon my Pub sponsors, (See the sign?) I got to help fill the balloon up right before they heated the air. You can see Isabella watching with interest.

"Bye Mom!!!"

The pilot was a little uncomfortable with Jen going because she is so pregnant...so she got to ride with the chase team and take video from below.

One of the balloons landed right in the middle of town. I was facinated to see how small of a spot it took to land one of these things!

Just a beautiful picture from the air of the field and so many balloons taking flight.

One of the coolest balloons, and by far the largest was "Arky". This balloon had to find an extra large field to land because it is more then twice the size of the "normal" balloons.

Well, a safe landing. We found a parking lot as well and set down there. Such a fun trip! One that Isabella and I will remember for ever!