Woo Hoo, Only 2 weeks since my last update.  Now if only I can keep that up, lol.

Life continues, My girls are growing up and my tummy is growing out.

Rosy is taking an interest in growing up.  Yesterday she asked, How long till I can have my own husband?  It is not uncommon for to ask, how many years until I turn XXX?  It is usually something between 13-and 20.  She taught herself simple addition.  As long as each number will fit on a hand, she can add it.  Her answer is usually correct, albiet backwards.  She till is anxious to read, and is making progress with her letters and sound.

Gracie has turned into quite a talker.  She can go on and on and on. (Wonder who she got that from?)  She doesn't just talk, she ask questions.  And she expects an answer everytime.  "Uh, huh", and "I don't know" do NOT suffice!  She will reword the same question 10 different times, and want you to give her the same answer each time.  We are trying to teach her patience, but I think that she is teaching it to us, lol

Lizzie has blossemed into a little girl.  She is walking everywhere and had has abandoned crawling!  Nothing gets past her, and she wants to eat anything her sisters eat.  At least she thinks she does.  She is getting at saying thank you, and she loves it when we sing.

Andrew has learned how to do summersaults and does them day and night,

Nathan is learning what it is like to work in 115 degree weather!  That is not fun, and is a far cry from the refrigerated slaughterhouse that he worked in in CO, where it was 40 degrees year round.  Please pray for him as he adjusts to the change!

Not much has changed for me since my last post.  I'm still surviving bedrest.  I have a doctor's appointment today, and a cervical length sonogram.  It will be good to see if there have been any changes.

I had to laugh when I read the last sentence of my last post about trying to do better at keeping y'all updated. Here it is nealy 3 months later. Wow! So much has happened between now and then. It somehow seems like too much for one post. However, there is no way to catch than to just do it, so, here goes.... Our first big news:

ITS A BOY!!!!!!!

Yep, after 3 precious girls, the Marr house will be blessed with a little boy, Andrew Lansdon Marr. My girls are so excited about having a brother.

I have been on bedrest over 13 weeks now. , and have nearly that much time left to go. Sometime I wonder how I will survive, but Nathan reminds me, “once say at a time.” Yes, I think that I can make it one more day.

My preterm labor has been under control. This time I have done more prevention, which has given me less risk of have Little Andy at any moment. If I follow my rules to the letter, he is safe where he belongs, which is a good thing, considering that is is not much more than a pound, yet. I have to stay completely down. I can not do much of anything. No bending over or turning at my waist, even while laying down. Those things will put me into labor.

I also have my list of natural remedies that help prevent labor. So far, every time the contractions start to build up, I increase my natural remedies, and have been able to stop it. We have had a few scares, but have always been able to get it under control before I needed an emergency trip to the hospital. Praise the Lord for that, and that I have not yet had to begin any medications besides the progesterone shot.

We are grateful that we are able to have a nurse come to our home for the progesterone shot. The shot is giving me some bad side effects, but not as bad as the medications I took last time. I do have to deal with daily headaches from the shot. But it is hard to determine if the rest of the symptoms are from the shot or simply from having been on bedrest for so long. But fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, foggy brain, and a general “blah” feeling, come and go on a regular basis.

However, God continues to bless us and provide for all we need. For nearly 12 weeks, not a day has passed without someone here to help me. For about 6 weeks, the ladies of my church took turns staying with me. I am completely unable to stay alone with the children, now. Michelle, my friend who stayed with me a while during Lizzie’s pregnancy is with us again. She has completely taken over caring for my house, and all of the work that a mother would normally do daily. She has been a huge blessing, and she will be with us until after Andy is born.

Yes, there still is so much more to say, but it will have to wait until next time.

Life has always been full of the unexpected, so why should now be any different?  I am sure that most of you reading this blog are aware of my history of preterm labor.  We had hoped to delay, or even prevent it this time, but I still knew that it was likely going to happen.  What I didn't expect was for it to start at 14 weeks!  So, to make a long story short, I am officially on bed rest until this little one is born.  I am due Sep 6rh, so we are talking about a LONG stretch of bed rest ahead of me.

I would really appreciate your prayers!  This is no small feat with three young children, the oldest only 4.  Ever day, every hour is a challenge.  I cannot get up for more than 2 minutes or the cramping starts up.  I am not allowed to do ANY housework.  There are some things that I have to do, when I am alone with the girls, such as diapers, putting them down for naps and feeding them.  And that is a challenge.

Poor Nathan is working long hours and comes home to a messy house and all of my work awaiting him.  He has a good attitude about it, though.  I am sure that he will need plenty of prayers, too.

A lady from my church came over yesterday to help me rearrange my living room, to make a play area next to the couch.  That will help to keep the girls right ear me and occupied.  I will ty to do better at keeping yuou all updated!

At least I didn't go a month this time!  Life is so busy that it is hard to remember to write, sometimes.  at least I have good intentions, lol.

So far, this pregnancy has been much better than the others, at least in the area of morning sickness.  I am almost 10 weeks, and haven't even thrown up once!    I think that is a record.  That doesn't mean I have wanted to, though....  I have felt sick on and off, but I am grateful that it is not constant like some pregnancies.

However, I have been SO tired.  I guess that is normal for any pregnant mother with 3 young children.   especially when one of them often wakes up several a night!  Lizzie had been sleeping through the nights at least half the time, and waking up to nurse once on the other nights.  But because of my risk of preterm labor, I have had to wean Lizzie.  That was quite a tramadic event in our house!  Lizzie highly protested, and for a while, I was having to fight with her for an hour to get her to take 1 ounce of milk.  She would fall asleep exhausted, but wake up an hour later because she was hungry.  So, the first few days, I was spending about 14 hours a day just feeding her.  She has finally accepted the bottle, and is getting all she needs now. 

But I am finding that we spend about 3 hours a day more than when we were nursing.  Since then, I feel like I have been a step behind on every thing I need to do... Also, Lizzie is now waking up several times every night.  I pray that stage will pass soon.

Wow, I can't believe that I actually let a months slip by without updating.  My intentions were 2x a week, at least.  But so much has happened since then!  First of all, I am pregnant!!!  Yes, that does mean that I will have 4 children, ages 4 and under! Now that is a record that not many people have, lol.  We can't wait to see if we will have 4 girls so close in age, of we will have a son.  We will be happy either way.

This past week has been so busy with weaning Lizzie.  She was 95% breastfed, with just little tastes of solids.  But I have to wean her because of my high risk of preterm.  She wasn't to happy about that, to put it lightly.  I put in some long days, and even longer nights, trying to get her to accept the bottle, and, Praise the Lord, we have finally had a breakthrough.  It is still taking longer than I would prefer, but at least she is eating sufficient, and it is not taking 10 hours a day.  So, that is progress.

Unfortunately, morning sickness decided to hit.  I should have known that it was inevitable.  I should be grateful that it waited nearly 8 weeks to start. Meanwhile, I think that spaghetti will become a staple.

Rosy and Gracie are so excited about a new baby!  The first thing that Rosy said was, "Wow, we are going to have to see who's hair it matches."   Gracie cries at least once a day, because the baby isn't hear yet.  Seven more months just doesn't mean much to her.  She wants this baby NOW.  Yesterday she said, "I don't want the baby to be in your tummy, I want it in my arms." Gracie is also determined that this baby is a boy, and really wants us too agree that it is.  I suppose that we will find out in another 2-3 months.

I would appreciate your prayers for me concerning my risk of preterm labor.  With Rosy, it started at 28 weeks, with Gracie at 22 weeks, and with Lizzie at 19 weeks.  All in all I have spent 13 months on bedrest, and 6 weeks in the hospital before Lizzie's birth.  We have yet to find  a cause, but I would give most anything to avoid that this time.  We are doing some research to find some potential causes and soon as we find a doctor, we have some things that we want to get check. 

Have a great day, and hopefully I will be back in less than a month.

Ok, I am going to give posting a picture another shot.

Me and My girls. (again!)

Wow, Has it really been a week since I wrote?  Well, you know what they say.  Time flies when you are having fun!   We have been busy, and we have a busy week ahead of us.  I think that we will be spending time with somebody from our church every single day for eight days in a row! 

Gracie woke up yesterday and asked if we were going to have company today.  She cried when I told her that we weren't.  But she was thrilled when she found out that we were after all. (Thanks for coming, Cristina)

Today will be house cleaning day.  I have gotten a little behind this week, and I need to catch up.  Rosy is learning to help.  At 4, she is learning more and can do pretty good sometimes, if she is motivated.  We pulled her bed away from the wall, so that she can walk on both sides of it, and that allowed her to learn to make her bed.  She is proud of herself.  Pretty soon we will be making a chore chart for her ans she will get stickers for each chore.  That will motivate her for sure!

Gracie doesn't yet understand much more than picking up her toys.  To her, washing the dishes equals playing in the water, which is, unfortunately become a favorite thing to do, especially in the bathroom sink.

This past week I have been selling on Ebay.  It is fun and I enjoy it.  That is a nice way to earn a little extra money.  And to declutter, too.  Yesterday I shipped out about 10 packages.  I will probably wait until after Christmas to put more up. 

Ok, you can really tell I am a busy mother..... I just looked over my previous entries and realized that I had posted the turtle soup story twice!  I had no idea that I did that!  Whoever said that you lose a piece of your mind with each baby knew what they were talking about, lol.

Life is good and all is going well.  Today I will be busy.  The girls and I need to get their room cleaned up!  We don't have a place for everything yet, so the piles of stuff that I had stacked on the dresser ended up on the floor.  We need to figure out a place everything so that they can put it away on their own.

I also plan to make meatballs today - 15 meals worth!  I got ground beef on sell and I am going to mix 3 parts beef to 2 parts deer.  Cooked meatballs are great to have on hand.  It is so easy to grab a pack and throw some BBQ sauce on it for a quick, delicious, meal.  There is also a variety of things to do with them.  We like Sweet & Sour meatballs, too.

This evening Nathan will be giving guitar lessons to the boys of a family in our church.  We will be going to their house for supper, and then the ladies get to visit while the guys do guitar.  So I need to get a salad ready to take.

Rosy is enjoying school very much.  She has the A mastered!  If I give her a paper with something written on it, she can go through and circle all of the big A's and Little a's.  I guess that we don't need a week for each letter, like I thought.  I think that I will introduce 2-3 letters a week for a few weeks, and see how that goes.

Up till now, Gracie has been utterly terrified of the toilet, and I had postponed potty training.  Then yesterday, she decided to try!!!  She sat on the toilet several times!  That is a major improvement!  She hasn't done anything in it yet, but she is talking about it, and she is trying.  I will take it slowly.

Last night Lizzie must have thought it was day time.  She ate every 2-3 hours.  She usually sleeps straight through until at least 4 am.  But sometimes she makes it to 6ish.  Not last night!  SHe rolls around the livingroom now.  She is not crawling yet, but I are trying to show her.  She loves the attention. Lizzie is very much a Daddy's girl!  She lights up when Nathan talks to her, and laughs and giggles.  I can hardly feed her when he is in the room.  She simply has to look at him everytime he says a word.  She tries to do it without letting go, lol.

I remembered the funny thing that Rosy said.  I gave her a hug one day and said, "I am glad you are my daughter.  God did a good job when He made you."  Rosy responded, "Yes, He did.  He did  really really REALLY good job making me."  How funny.

We had a full, busy fun week.  We are pretty much settled into our new home.  We are very grateful that the Lord led us here to Phoenix.  We never would have imagined moving to Phoenix, but man plans his ways, and the Lord directs his steps.  And His ways are so good.  We have no doubt that this move was God's will, and He has already blessed us tremendously during our time here.  He has also given us some wonderful friends, and we are sure enjoying that blessing!

Yesterday we had church, and then a pot-luck meal, which we have every week.  That was followed by the second service.  We had a pastor from Liberia there this week.  We went home for a couple of hours before we left again for a Christmas party/hay ride/ Christmas Caroling and a good time of fellowship.  It was "cold" and everybody was bundled up around the bonfire.  I must say that I like AZ cold much better that CO cold! 

Rosy is really wanting to start School.  I will start the Before Five in a Row program with her to day.  It is a program where you read  a book five days in a row and each day you learn something that is related to the book (for example, if the book takes place on a farm, you might learn about farms, if there is a duck in the book, you might learn  about ducks, if there is a bus, you might study different forms of public transportation, etc. etc. etc.) BFIAR is desighned for preschool level.

Rosy also wants to learn to read.  I haven't decided what I will use to teach her, but I am going to start off with learning her letters, and during that time I want to come up with a game plan.  She just turned 4, so I am not going to push it, but if she wants to learn, I want to help her.  She has been writing her name for a few months.

To day I plan to focus on house-cleaning.  I got a little behind this weekend, and I need to catch up! Hope you all have ba great week, and I hope to keep up a little better this week!

Gracie asked me what we were having for supper. “I don‘t know,” I answered. Gracie responded, “Well, I wanted to have sweet potatoes, but since we don‘t have any, I guess that we should just have turtle soup.”

Rosy told me that she should have five of something because she was almost five. Hmm, only 358 days to go, or something like that. She said something really funny today, but since I can’t remember what it was, It’ll just have to wait until I do remember.

After my first 2 girls were bald for so long, I was pleased to see that Lizzie had hair, which was surprisingly pretty dark. I expected her to lose it by 2 months or so. But no, she celebrated 6 months with all her hair. And then promptly started losing it! In this past week, she has lost a good bit of it, and it appears that she will be losing the rest of it pretty soon. Oh well. I am curious to see what color it grows back to be.

I hope that you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday, Gracie asked me what we were going to have for supper. I said that I didn’t know and she responded, “Well, I wanted to have sweet potato, but there is not any more, so I guess we can have turtle soup!” She says some of the funniest things, sometimes!

I am grateful that since we have 2 stories in our new house, the stairs are carpeted and have 3 landings. So, if the girls fall, they only have 5 stairs to tumble before they hit a landing. We’ve had a lot of experience with that already! In spite of that, the girls are loving the stairs, and spend a lot of time going up and down. Their favorite is coming down on their tummies, head first!

Yesterday, Nathan was talking to his mom. She mentioned that it was such a nice day, and it had gotten up to the 30’s. At work, Nathan;s co-worker was complaining about how cold it was….it had gotten down to 60! Wow, what a difference in perspective. I must admit, I am grateful to miss the CO

 winter. I might miss the CO weather come summer and it is 125, but for now, I am sure enjoying it.

Yesterday, I made 2 gallons of homemade yogurt. I am going to make several things with it. I am going to mix some of it with frozen juice concentrate, and use that to make more popsicles. Yummy and good for you. Then, I am going to spread some of the juice flavored yogurt on the fruit-rollup trays of my dehydrator, and make yogurt rollups. I have made a version with half yogurt and half peach puree, and they were delicious. And of course, I will keep some of the yogurt to serve on top of pancakes.

Well, I’d better start getting things ready to go to church. Have a great day everybody.

It has been a busy, profitable day today. I got a lot of cleaning and organizing done. Our house is starting to take shape. That’s nice. I will be glad when everything has a place and is in it’s place.

I have a roast in crock pot, and boy, it sure smells good! I need to make mashed potatoes to go with that. I also need to make a cheese cake tonight for Rosy’s birthday tomorrow.

I also wanted to get a big batch of popsicles made tonight. I blend banana and pineapple juice. That makes the best popsicle and they are good for you, too. I usually make 3 dozen at a time and freeze in Tupperware popsicle molds.

I got a 40 minute workout done yesterday and today. Boy, I am sore, but it is a good kind of sore. I am recovering quite well from my 4 months on bed rest. I am grateful that God has enabled me to get back in shape so quickly. This time has been so much faster than the previous. Exercise really helps a lot. I hope to someday have the energy level that I had before my pregnancies and 13 months total bed rest. I still have a ways to go for that, but I have come so far.

I haven't had the time to figure out the picture thing. Maybe Nathan can help me tomorrow.  I have a bunch to post, so be sure to come back and check them out.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. There is so much to thank the Lord for. I am looking forward to having Nathan home all day. That will be so nice! Goodbye for now.

Hi everybody,

I am officially posting my first entry in my first bog!  

I plan to use this blog to keep in touch with my friends and family, and keep you all up to date on my family and all the things going on in our home.  Hopefully I will figure out how to post some pictures soon.  You will have to bear with me as I am learning the ins and outs of how to do this.

We have been in our new home in Phoenix for 8 days.  It already feels like home.  We are glad that we moved in the winter time!  I can only imagine what summer will be like.

Nathan began a new job installing siding and porch awnings.  He is enjoying the work and catching on fast!

Rosy will be 4 on Thanksgiving day.  She is excited about her birthday.  Yesterday she told me, "I love helping you."  As she is getting older, she is learning more about helping.  She is a good big sister. She helps keep up with Gracie and as they grow, they are leaning to enjoy each other's company more and more.  Rosy absolutely loves Lizzie, and Lizzie adores her big sister. 

Gracie just turned 3.  She says, "I am the same age as you, Rosy," and is quite proud of that!  She wants us to sing her another birthday song to here, so she can have another present!  Gracie was born blind, but God has graciously restored some of her vision.  We are unsure of just how much she sees. The doctor says that she will always be "legally blind" but that is a big range, so only time will tell.  We plan to do her schooling in braille. 

Lizzie is nearly 6 months, and she is a joy! She is such a smily baby, and loves to interact with other.  She is my only baby to have hair, and hers is dark, very different from Rosy's red hair and Gracies dark blond hair.  Lizzie is starting to sit up, and is enjoying her introduction to food.

Well, that's all for now.  Now I just need to figure out how to post this, LOL.