Merry Christmas 2011

For a minute it looked like 2011 was going to finish much like 2010 did for us. As you may recall, Aimee was in and out of the hospital fighting appendicitis and complications for much of December last year. This year, it was the flu and it visited all of us right before Thanksgiving, but Aimee got it particularly bad and for ten days we were back and forth from the hospital again. Of course, there was a reason why Aimee really struggled with it—she’s pregnant! Most of you already know that, but perhaps you don’t know that our third child is going to be a girl and should be arriving sometime in March.

Fortunately, one thing remained constant during the ten sick days in November—our little girl was safe and happy in the womb. It is amazing how wonderfully God designed us.

And speaking of a child in the womb, we pray you are joyfully anticipating Jesus this Advent season. Christmas always gives us pause to remember and be thankful for the blessings of the past year. Andy is almost four already and is growing into a very considerate little boy. He still loves helping daddy with projects and loves being a big brother. Liam is now 15 months old and a solid little boy. We call him our 25-pound sack of sand. When he and Andy get to wrestling, watch out! We’re working on the concept of “gentle”.

Aimee is now president of the foundation, which this year adopted the name National Christian Foundation – Heartland. Marshall is wrapping up his fourth year with Rhythm of Grace but is stepping down from his role at the end of this year.

We are grateful for the wonders that God has shown us this year and we look forward to many more. May you have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Marshall, Aimee, Andy and Liam

P.S. Obviously we've ceased updating this site monthly, but we did upload notable photos from 2011 right here, or you can find them on the sidebar.

Happy 2011

Praise God that 2010 is in the tank. Looking back, it was definitely filled with blessing, but it was also very hard and ended with a very rough month for this family.

How do you know when you've been to the hospital too many times? When you receive multiple get-well cards from the same staff on the same day (they send one to every discharged patient). All told in the month of December, we made 5 trips to the emergency room, were admitted 4 separate times, had 3 surgeries, and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in the hospital. We are very thankful that Aimee is on the mend finally.

Meanwhile, just as Aimee is emerging from this involuntary weight-loss program, Liam is growing like a champ, staying somewhere in the upper 90 percentile of everything. He is a strong little boy who will wiggle and stretch in your arms until he is upright and facing outwards (to see what's going on around him). He has also figured out how to roll over.

And leave it to our toddler Andy to find a way to soak his shoes and socks in milk. At a restaurant. We'll just leave this one to your imagination.

And speaking of Andy, we celebrated his THIRD birthday a few days after Christmas. He is developing his speech skills daily, but thankfully we still get to enjoy some of those sayings that only children can produce, such as:

"that kickles" (tickles)

"that weird"

And at bedtime or nap-time, Andy tells us he wants us to sit with him awhile to keep him company ("keep me cumpadee").

But in the midst of these cute phrases, he'll throw in grown-up words like "otherwise," and he'll correct Daddy by saying "No Daddy, that a goose-neck trailer, not flatbed."

We didn't take many photos last month for obvious reasons, and those we do have include pictures of tubes coming out of Aimee's body (the editor gave the ix-nay to posting these).

May we all enjoy a tube-less, hospital-less, blessed new year!

-Marshall, Aimee, Andy and Liam