It's A Boy

It is a boy!! Asher David was born this morning at 7:51am. He weighs 7 lbs and 14 oz. All are doing well - he has a couple of pretty excited big sisters!!

Stuff

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls from Easter Sunday. It was pretty neat to hear Autumn running around that morning saying "Jesus Is Risen - Happy Easter - Jesus Is Risen - Happy Easter"

On Spring Break the girls had lots of fun - here is Jayna making a calendar.

Here is Autumn feeding her dogs - she loves loves loves dogs (we don't have any real dogs, she is just feeding her imaginary dogs)

Of course they had to color their Easter eggs.

And finally, Autumn decided to start wearing make up while the girls were home.

This N That

Just a couple of things from the past couple of weeks!!



As promised - a picture of the girls bunk beds. Autumn has loved being in a big girl bed and the transition has been very very good. They are pretty good to each other.

Jayna had decided that she wants to play softball this year. Here we are on a warmer day a couple of weeks ago tossing the ball around. Autumn had to join in the fun (of course) - she really wants to be a lefty - Yeah!!

Also a couple of weeks ago, some great friends of ours had their twins. Here the girls are enjoying one of them in the hospital - it was so so nice to finally meet these babies and the girls were very excited to hold them!!

And lastly, last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity of travelling to Oklahoma to stand up in the wedding of one of my friends. Pastor Shannon and Sarah were married last Saturday night. It was a wonderful couple of days with them.

Family Fun

As we are preparing for the new baby - we are also preparing to move Jayna and Autumn into the same room. Part of that preparation is going to be bunk beds (they were delivered on Monday - I will post pictures when I get them assembled and installed - I promise). In the new bedroom decor the girls also picked out some nifty curtains. I hung them the other night with a couple of helpers. Autumn is way too daring and would climb to the top of my ladder if I wouldn't stop her. Jayna had to join in the fun. Here are a couple shots of them being them!! They bring so much joy and love to us!!

Autumn Faith Hess

So our little Autumn hasn't been feeling well for the past few days - a little RSV, the stomach flu and a fever. So her and Jen have been spending days together while she is trying to get better. For those of you who know Autumn - you know how unusual it is to get a moment like this with her. Jen said that this was her all day yesterday. She was miserable.

On my way home from work I stopped and grabbed something that I thought would make her smile - hard to believe but Dad is still the hero!!

Here is also a picture of Jayna doing a school project - she had to take 100 things to school for the 100th day of school. She asked me if she could take some wirenuts, so I brought some home and here she is counting out 100 of them.






Lastly, Autumn is feeling much better today - after 2 days her fever broke last night (I think that it was the rocking horse - Jen doesn't necessarily agree) so today she was much more herself. Jen decided to go to church tonight so Autumn and I hung out. When she is ready to go to bed Jen usually carries her to her room whereas I let her walk. Tonight she was a few steps in front of me and I walked in her room to this: (of course this is reenacted for video sake)

Dead End Roads

I have had the joy of living on a dead end road basically my whole life. I grew up on a dead end dirt road that was only a few hundred yards long, when Jen & I bought our first house in Midland it was on a dead end road and then we moved to our current location on the end of a dead end. One of the many joys of living on a dead end road is the lack of traffic which basically allows you to play in the road. Here are a couple of pictures of us this winter including some of us playing in the road here and some of us playing in the road at Mom's.

Beautiful Girls

Christmas Videos

Here are a couple of videos of Christmas Day at Mom's house. Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday

When we got back from Las Vegas we celebrated Jen's birthday. Here are a couple of pictures of our little party. Both of the girls love love love birthdays. They get very excited about anyone's birthday. Enjoy!!

Finally Pictures

I thought that I better show Jen how to put up pictures again - so here you are. I am just putting up a few pictures from our long weekend in Vegas a couple of weeks ago!!




Here is our hotel - it was huge and even had two Starbucks in the lobby. Crazy!! The 'House of Blues' was also located in our hotel - we enjoyed the World Famous Gospel Brunch on Sunday morning at the House of Blues and saw an incredible children's choir.







We spent the last day there at the Hoover Dam. Quite an incredible site.

We had rented a car for the day to drive to the Hoover Dam and were amazed when we looked back through the desert and could see the whole city. Definitely a little different than Michigan (it was so nice to come back home to trees for sure)

Just a Little Update

Sorry, I still haven't had time to figure out our picture thing. So for now, I will just give you a little update on our lives:

Jayna's Arm: Her surgery was a success, for the most part. The nails were removed, but it took a lot of time and hard work on Dr. Goethe's part. Also, he accidentally cut the tendon that controls her thumb, so she is in a soft cast for a bit longer to heal that properly. We think she will be cast free Feb. 12th.

Aaron and Jen's Vacation: Yes, we managed to sneak away for a few days and went to Las Vegas baby! Aaron hadn't been there before, and we got a really good deal. We had a super time! We stayed at the Mandalay Bay resort, which was very nice and a bit quieter than the middle of the strip. We were able to visit the Shark Reef Aquarium, House of Blues (gospel brunch), Hoover Dam, Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden, Antique Car Show, the mall and a wonderful show, "LOVE Cirque du Soleil." We really enjoyed being together. The girls stayed at home with Amber. They were super happy each time we called, which made our time away that much better. Of course, it was really nice to come home and be a family again.

Other: There is not much else to report, other than we are all healthy (praise God!) and living our day to day lives. We are thankful for so many things: each other, a loving/forgiving Father, health, "the necessities" and then much more, wonderful family/friends/church family, etc. We do have our ultrasound with the specialist on Thursday. We are trusting God that all is well, and He has a perfect plan for this baby within our family and beyond.

May you be encouraged today: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

So Many Events, So Little Time

I am so sorry about not posting during break. I tried a couple of times, but I can't get our pictures to load. I didn't have enough time to figure it all out, so I still can't load pictures. I have lots to share though when it does all get settled. Here is a quick rundown of our break/Christmas celebrations/New Year's.

Break:

We had lots of family time, which was WONDERFUL! We built forts in and out of the house, we baked/cooked, we did crafts, we played games, we went sledding behind the quad and manually, we watched movies and sports, we visited family and friends, we even went carolling inside the house (thanks to Jayna's spectacular imagination).

Christmas:

We spent the Saturday before with my mom's side of the family. We were able to spend time with Mom, Roger, my brothers, my sister-in-law, my two nieces and one of my nephews. We actually cleaned house with the family Bingo game!

We had our traditional birthday party for Jesus at home Christmas morning. We read the "birthday story," opened our stocking stuffers, ate breakfast, relaxed and got ready for the rest of the day.

We then went to Grandma Hess' for good food, presents, sledding and more family fun. We ended our time here with a silly string war that caused Autumn to gag. She has such a weak stomach.

We ended Christmas night with a nice visit at the hospital with our good friends Aric, Dena and the babies.

We then spent the Saturday after Christmas with the Messer family. That was a fun-filled time with musical children. Jayna received a guitar, my nephew Kahnen got a keyboard and Autumn sang. It was music to our ears!

New Year's:
We had a good party with the college age crew from church at our house. It was such a blast! We played cards, games, darts and even watched crazy stunts on TV. We all saw the new year come in, including Autumn who was awakened by all the noise. The party ended a little after 4:00, so yes we are old, but we can still hang!

Now life is back to normal. We are back to work, school, mid-week church and routine. It is nice to have some routine, but we sure did have a nice time over break. We do have a couple of prayer requests if you have time in your busy prayer life: Jayna has surgery on Wednesday to have her nails in her arm removed (She is fully healed!!!) and WE ARE EXPECTING OUR THIRD CHILD IN JUNE!