Well I survived.....barely :) Just kidding. Thomas finally settled down and I was able to determine that he was reacting to things I had eaten, guess I kind of went braindead about nursing there for a while! We had a great weekend with my grandma and aunt who were visiting from New York.

This week my mom and dad are on vacation so we are camping out at their house taking care of Noah. It's nice to be able to help out.The kids are so excited about being able to sleep over at Grandma's on school nights. I'm excited about sleeping in Grandma's big bed!!

Here are some pics from this weekend....and some new pics of Thomas for Kenny!!


Aunt Lisa and Noah


Noah got a hold of my camera and took over 100 pictures including about 30 of Molli

Emma playing




My little man


Our Chip

It started out well. Wednesday night Thomas slept five hours in a row. You remember those days?? First you freak out, thinking that something must be wrong with them, you check their breathing, etc. I was so thrilled. Of course I geared myself up for this to be a permanent thing. First mistake.....

Last night he did the normal 2 hour routine till 3:30....he refused to go back to sleep. Nor was he content to let me sleep. I tried for an hour to get him back to sleep....no luck. So I got up, changed him, swaddled him and put him in the swing. he konks out. Of course, now I am awake. Fast forward...now it's 10 PM and I've been up for 16 hours. Thomas is hysterically crying, nothing I try is working. Matt is in
Grand rapids and I am losing it....

Time for a real post I suppose...

Not too much going on in the Kurtz home. Matt is in Grand Rapids for the week for work so I am experiencing single parenthood. And let me just say, hats off to those of you who do this full time or have husbands who are away for long periods of time. Ugh. Even going to bed is hard.....

I had my 6 week postpartum checkup today. Can you all believe it's been 6 weeks already? Nothing like a pap smear to get your day going :) No matter how many times I have that done, it's so embarrassing. Ah well.

ok....what else. hmmmm....nothing. Wasn't that exciting??

If there's no tractor at the pumpkin patch, use grown ups!!


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Emma and Thomas 

Sleepy boy 

Wait mom, I'm not ready! 

Thomas and I shopping in Saugatuck 

the view from the top 

These were steps built into the side of this mountain, I climbed it...holy cow! 

Well alas, the weekend was not what I had hoped for. We left Friday morning, despite the snow and went shopping which was very fun and freeing to be out and feel like a grown up. Even though Thomas was strapped to my chest :) He was so very good until we got to the camp. Then he decided that he did NOT like being away from home. He was very fussy all evening which made my quiet times impossible. God was on the move however and taught me things that I didn't see until later. Thomas cried for most of the night (my deepest apologies to those of you who were in our room!!) so Saturday was exhausting. He refused to let me put him down for more than 5 minutes at a time. So my personal times were spent just keeping him quiet so everyone else could commune with the Lord. The camp was beautiful though and we did have a wonderful time despite the obvious. Truly, there were times when I laughed harder than I think I ever have. Good memories.

Back to life though....here are some newer pics of Thomas....because I know you guys never get sick of those..lol.

Today is the 12th of October...the 12th. This means that my baby boy is one month old today. I can hardly believe it's been a month already, where does the time go???

We awoke to snow this morning, actually I awoke to the phone riniging. I answered groggily and heard Christmas music blaring through the phone. My family has this tradition of blaring Christmas music when it snows for the first time. Actually playing any Christmas music is absolutely forbidden until the first snow, according to my father. Too bad for him that it snowed on the 12th of October!!! The kids were convinced that it was a snow day and they needed to make snow angels in the .000125 inches that was on the car!! However,I must eat crow when Molli gets home as I told here that surely we wouldn't get enough for it to stick. Well we now have roughly 3 inches on the front lawn....ah well!

Tomorrow morning I get to escape. We're having a ladie's prayer retreat this weekend. We're going to a camp in Saugatuck, MI which is right on Lake Michigan. I'm so excited. We're leaving first thing in the morning and shopping all day before the retreat starts. Matt got the days off so I can go. I have such a sense of anticipation for this event. I think God has big things in store. PLus, this is the first time I've been away in quite a while. Although, Thomas is coming with me. But he just sleeps anyway. Think God will mind if I breastfeed while praying?? :)

Here comes Emma's bus so off I go.....

After my last depressing post, I decided we needed a little happiness. So here's some pics of our trip to the corn maze/ pumpkin patch last night. What a blast, definetly one of the best things about falL!!


Create Your Own!

Alright, will someone please tell me when it gets better??? When do my emotions go back to normal? When will he sleep for more than 1 1/2 hour stretches at night?? When will my boobs stop hurting??? (sorry, that was slightly graphic!) Sorry, just feeling slightly tired and it appears to be affecting many things.....

Yesterday was awful. I had braced myself for it and yet it still hit me like a ton of bricks. My brother left yesterday for Iraq. He's going to be there for 14 months. I thought I had dealt with it, however, I lost it. First, I missed his last call so I didn't even have a chance to say good-bye which broke my heart. Then he left me a message telling me he loved me and he would be in contact as soon as he could. I just wept. All I could think about was him getting on that bus, watching his wife and four children out of the window as he drove away, not knowing when he would see them again, knowing that he would miss a year and a half of their lives.....made my sadness seem obsolete. However, he's my brother. The one I grew up with. We're 14 months apart...even though there was a time where we didn't speak, he never stopped being my big, little brother. And thinking of his wonderful family, without him for so long. And they are so far away in Alaska, I can't even offer to help. So if you all think of it, will you remember my brother, Tigger? We're praying for his protection, not just physical, but emotional and spiritual as well. Iraq seems to be such a dark place spiritually and being away from accountability and Christian friends....also, having to deal with the fact that he might have to take someone else's life....I can't imagine wrapping my mind around that one. Plus he is a sergeant, so he has men underneath him. When I asked him if he was scared his answer was yes. He said he was most afraid of losing one of his men or a friend. I asked him if he was scared about not coming back, he replied no. He knew where he was headed so that was not fearful for him at all. Sorry, my thoughts are so jumbled right now...