Hi Guys!

Lately

The girls have been getting used to their Virginia home and their mommy is learning more about her camera. You may have to bear with me posting several pictures with little blogging. These girls are photogenic.

Violet's favorite pastime.

Still getting over the hands in the mouth bad habit.

Genuine smile

Sun going down

Lulu getting ready to sing her first aria in her dreams.

Preparing the scene for pictures. My little helper.

 Silly picture

My sweet Rose

Forced love

Sincere kiss

 Getting ready to blow spit bubbles. One of Lulu's favorite pastimes.

Have a great Leap Year Day!

Time in Pennsylvania and What Not

Hello there internets. Long time no blog. We have been pre-occupied and posting pictures and writing about our adventures has been put on the back burner.

We ended our time in Missouri the day after Christmas. We had such a good visit with the whole family. There were several visits with aunts and uncles and cousins. The girls got to meet everyone!

The day after Christmas we started driving for Pennsylvania. We were headed to my parents new home. We planned a late Christmas celebration over New Years with my sisters and their husbands. My Aunt and Uncle even came up from Alabama the week of Christmas and New Years to stay at my parents so we were happy to see them also.

We had a great time with family over the holiday, making sure to get lots of candid Christmas shots.

The month of January seemed to rush by with Daniel and I doing house hunting online and then in person. Daniel went to Virginia after New Years and picked out a few houses for us to look at together and then we headed down the day he returned to look at them together. The Lord blessed our search and we found a wonderful home with a close commute for Daniel. Our home here in Springfield has several options for Daniel to get to work without driving. Daniel and I felt it would be wasteful for our family at this point in our time here to have a second vehicle when it would be sitting in a parking garage or our driveway most of the day. He has a short walk to the bus stop that takes him straight to the Pentagon in less than 30 minutes. Pretty nice compared to some people's commutes around here. More about our new life here in a later post.

Well, back to January. We had a great time with my parents in their new beautiful home. They were wonderful help with the girls as I was still getting used to the ropes with two babes. They wouldn't have it any other way. Dad would come home from work and hold Louisa for the rest of the night practically. He has quite a thing for babies, as does my Mom. But since she had Lulu and Violet all day she would relent to him having her most of the evenings. :) 

Violet's vocabulary has grown in leaps and bounds these past few months and she is changing in so many exciting ways. It is a joy discovering more of her personality everyday. She is a hoot!

January also had its difficulties. I had been having chest pains periodically since we started packing our home in California. The first time in Monterey was bad enough to send me right to the ER. The pain lasted about 30 minutes so it was ending by the time we got to the hospital. They ran several tests and had no clear conclusion on what it could be. Since the pain ended, my heart was great, and my lungs were fine, we left the hospital praying it wouldn't happen again. Well, it did. I had two very short episodes in Missouri and a migraine for a week. I have never had a migraine and judging from what people tell me, this is what it was. 

One morning during the week of the migraine, Louisa woke up with a 102 degree fever. We knew we needed to get her to the doctor being so little, so to the hospital we went. We got her to the ER and got fluids and antibiotics in her and her fever decreased quickly. They  still had to run a myriad of tests to try to rule out all the big scary stuff, meningitis, fever on the brain...all the things you have nightmares about related to your child. She checked out great. The tests were the worst part.  They took forever to get in IV in her little veins. Since she was feverish they couldn't send any nurses down from pediatrics without sending them home afterward, just in case Louisa spread something to them that was very dangerous. We had the ER nurses trying their best to find her veins. Thankfully, the main doctor who had to do a spinal fluid tap was great and it went quickly with only minimal crying. At that point she was almost cried out. Her little body was tired of all the poking and prodding. We praise the Lord that nothing serious beyond a small infection attacked her body. She and I stayed in the hospital for two days to make sure that all was clear before they released us. Since her fever decreased quickly with the IV, I took a quick visit to the ER myself to see if they could give me anything for the migraine. They did and it worked a little. The light sensitivity was the worst part and the medication helped with that. By the day we were released my migraine was mostly gone. I was thankful for the time to recoup myself with just Louisa to care for as well and Mom and Dad Goods help in taking care of Violet. Daniel is a super daddy! I couldn't have gone through all this without his help and encouragement.

SO back to the chest pains. We arrived in Pennsylvania and the week after Daniel and I chose a new home I had another chest pain in the middle of the night. This one lasted for a long time and I knew I wanted to go the hospital to try and find the problem. By the time I got in the ER I had a sick stomach as well and was vomiting. They started checking my gall bladder and low and behold I had an acute gall bladder infection and needed to get my gall bladder removed.  I was thankful they had found the source of this bizarre chest pain. Who would have thought that chest pain could be caused by a gall bladder infection? Come to find out several women have trouble with their gall bladders after pregnancy. One nurse I had said I was the fourth women post-partum who had their gall bladder removed in the last two months that she helped. WOW! This time it required a stay of 5 days in the hospital and my family was so helpful in the process with Violet and Louisa. This time I couldn't nurse Lulu so I was praying I would be able to keep my milk up during the hospital stay and more importantly that she would return to nursing once I was able to feed her again. She took to the bottle just fine and returned to me beautifully once I was home. We had a little rearranging required with my stomach tenderness after the incisions, but all in all she is a pro. I was and am still praising the Lord for his provision during that time.

I had a quick recovery time for a week at my parents while Daniel moved us into our new home with the help of some wonderful family and friends. Unfortunately, the chest pain returned the week after my surgery and this time it didn't go away quickly. It lasted for another week despite more hospital visits. I finally was referred to a gastroenterologist and he did more testing.  We are still waiting to find out more. I am feeling near 100% now but I don't know if the chest pain will return again. I know God is in control of the entire situation and I know he orchestrated it perfectly during Daniel's time off and our time with family. Without our parents help we would not have had such a smooth transition. Praise God for all His provisions!

Sorry for the small novel on my health above but it has been a large part of our last three months. I have seen a hospital in every state we stayed in. It makes me so thankful for the days of health for me and my family. Our bodies are so frail!

Our journey to Ginia, as Violet calls it was a long one, but it was filled with sweet family time and lots of rest and recuperation.

Thank you dear family for taking care of us so lovingly and sacrificially during our PCS. We are thankful for the long visits with each side of the family.

Missouri for Christmas

We made it safely to Missouri despite a huge winter storm following us through the desert. We thought a southern route would be best to avoid bad weather but the snow wanted to hit Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. It was Violet's first time seeing snow and Daniel is a very safe driver so no worries here. We took our time and made it to Missouri almost a full week later. We stopped for a few nights and enjoyed some down time in a few cities.

Well, things are going well with the Good clan. We are preparing to celebrate Christmas, both physically and spiritually. What a joy to have all of Daniel's family together this year!

The girls are adjusting to all the change slowly but smoothly. Louisa is still growing and changing. She gives regular smiles now during face time and diaper changing time. It really is the perfect time to get up close when they are feeling all fresh and clean. She is a real doll. We have our moments in the late evening before mommy and daddy go to sleep, but not every night. She gets really fussy for about an hour and then finally calms down and sleeps. I am at a loss at what to do. She is clean, has a full belly, is well burped and swaddled. We will see as time goes on if she grows out of that fussiness.

Violet is in playtime heaven. Mom has so many neat toys that she could stay busy just playing for a year. Dolls, puzzles, animals, tea sets galore! She is enjoying her time here also despite getting a little cold over the weekend.

Daniel is buzzing around helping his parents with odd jobs around the house, so I help when I can but mostly try to watch the girls. Mom gets her regular rocking time with Louisa everyday. That is a must!

We are thankful for our time off before the next job. What a blessing to have all this time for family to get to know the girls.

Well, I will try to post once more before Christmas, but I can't promise. Having two children is proving to be an around the clock job. I love it though!

Much love and Merry Christmas, dear friends!

Violet and her new apron and hat from Auntie Meghan and Uncle Everett.

Violet all bundled up to pick out a Christmas tree.

Reading with Pop Pop.

After picking out our tree we had to pose for some funny pictures.

 Louisa getting her Grandma snuggles.

Me and some of the cousins during the Christmas Eve get-together.

More of our Rose

Louisa is adjusting to life outside of the womb quite nicely. Her one week appointment was on Monday and she had already surpassed her birth weight by 6 ounces. Doctor says she looks great. I agree wholeheartedly. Vi wasn't this big until about a month old. We are getting along well with feeding and sleeping as we enter our third week together as a family of four.

It is still so wild to think about when we moved here we didn't even have Violet on the outside with us and in a few weeks we will be driving away from here with two precious gifts from the Lord. Our next home we have two little ones to consider in every decision. What an amazing 2 and a half years this has been here in Monterey!

We will start packing again this next week as we get closer to the day the moving truck arrives. We are planning on packing all of our household goods in a large truck and then the company we have hired will drive it to Virginia and store it there for us until we have a home to move into. It is crazy to think about living out of a suitcase for the holidays, but I think the simplicity will be helpful during the transition time.

Well, here are some pictures of our latest addition. She is a doll baby.

Violet in her latest fashion fad, Daniel's sweatbands. She loves 'em! Don't worry. They are clean.

She does a lot of sleeping as you can see. She is a real snuggle bug. We eat it up!

Much Love!