4 months, a baptism, & Randy's finger

Saturday Timmy turned 4 mo. old. This week he had a routine check up and he's doing well. He weighed 14 lbs. 1 oz. He's starting to coo a lot more, and he seems to be almost rolling over and smiles a lot, especially at people. The kids continue to take great care of him.

Last weekend we traveled to Illinois to see Sara and Eric's (Randy's little sister and husband) new baby, Parker, be baptized. I was honored to be choosen to be the little guy's godmother. We had a fun weekend hanging out with family and the baptism went very well.

Cute little Parker after the big event.

Henry holding Parker after the baptism.

Here's our crew all decked out for the baptism.

On Sunday Randy's finger started bothering him. By Tues. this is what it looked like. By Friday imagine it about twice as big more purple and the nail pulling away plus big yellowish coloring by the nail. ( I meant to get a picture). It was gross. And very painful for Randy. He was on Tylenol most of the time but when it wore off in the middle of the night it was so painful it would wake him and he couldn't sleep. But Friday when it had gotten worse instead of better, they did surgery. It was at one in the afternoon at a Surgery Specialty building. He has been feeling good and it seems to be doing just fine. Tuesday he needs to go back to have the surgeon look at it to make sure it's healing well.

It's been awhile

Here is our post of our Christmas vacation. It was a daunting post to do because there are so many pictures to try to pick from, and we are blessed with so much wonderful family and I didn't want to leave anyone out. As always we had a great time while we were in Iowa and can't wait for our next trip home. (whenever that may be).

We started our Christmas vacation with a Christmas celebration with Grandma Steffen's family (no pics.) The next day we celebrated with almost all of Randy's side of the family. In the picture Alex is playing a game at the Steffen Chistmas with LeAnne and Madison.

Max checking out some of his Christmas loot.

Henry intently watching his cousin Gage open his toy truck, with cousin Corah right beside them.

Timmy and his Aunt Renee next to cousin Kelli


We spent a lot of Christmas eve at my Dad's. Here's the group photo of all the kids there. From left to right is Kale, Max holding Brady, Hunter, Caden, Alex, Henry. On the floor is Addison, Sophia and Timmy. They are all 9 and under. .




Merry Christmas! There's Timmy on his first ever Christmas morning. Max, Sophia and Henry gather round as Randy read Sophia's letter Santa left her. And Alex was happily surprised with a b-b gun from Santa. There he shooting ( a soda can).


We spent a few days in Cedar Rapids with my Grandpa and Grandma Wood, my brother and his family, my Aunt Eileen, Uncle Pat, and cousins, Sarah and Emily. Here's Alex playing Sorry Spins with Pat, Sara, and Emily.


One of the best surprises this Christmas was that my brother, Nick, got to come home from Afghanistan (sp). It was so wonderful to see him. That is his family, wife, Joni, and two boys Kale (4) and Brady (1).


We were able to see the kids Great Grandma and Grandpa Leymaster. Here's Timmy with his Great Grandpa Leymaster.




We finished our trip with a stop in Illinois. Randy's little sister, Sara and her husband, Eric, had their baby! A little boy, Parker Steffen Shook born on Dec.26. We were able to stop and visit,it was great! Here are new friends Timmy and Parker who are roughly 3 mo. apart. (When we told Sophia Aunt Sara had a baby boy she said, "oh, Timmy will have a friend now.") Then the line up of all 7 kids 9 and under. And Oliver and Henry who are roughly 4 mo. apart in their matching pj's.