Princess Emma 

Dragon Sydney 

Go Molli go!! 

our spooky crew 

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...

It's amazing to me that you can blink and days sweep past you. This never fails to hit me on the kid's birthdays....you stop and wonder when they stopped wearing diapers, stopped eating random non-food items, stopped needing you every second. but it's never more real to me than when I have an infant. The first weeks of their little lives fade together and before you know it they are two weeks old. The last two weeks I was pregnant lasted an eternity and yet, as soon as he was born, I blinked and now it's already been two weeks! His looks are already starting to change, from the newborn preciousness into the adorable infant. And somehow it's sad to me....a deep realization that time waits for no man.

Life continues to press on, we've gotten quite accustomed to getting everyone up and out of the door for school every day. Life seems to be settling into a pattern, which is somewhat comforting. I spent nine months waiting for this month to be here and now it's come and gone. Sunday it will be October.....good grief.

Here are a few more pics of my little man, you guys are going to get very tired of looking at pictures of my son, I can tell :)


Here's Syd...looking very bored by holding her brother



My sweet boy


Jonah, who still tells me every day how awesome it is to have a brother




And for something a little different, our kitties latest hang out spot, a gift bag!

All clean and snuggling with Daddy 

His first bath 

Thomas and his bink 

Emma building 

Emma at school 

Update: Thomas and I came home from the hospital late Sunday night and all is well. We went back to the doctor on Monday morning just to make sure his numbers were still coming back down and indeed they are. Thank you all so much for your notes and e-mails of encouragement. This was a rough time for me, I guess hormones and all. But he is well, thank the Lord.

Other news: We continue to adjust to having five children. It really hasn't been too big of an adjustment. The kids are fantastic with Thomas..they really adore him. I was worried about how Sydney in particular would adjust but for the most part she just ignores him. She does tend to be a little rough when trying to love on him, but that's fairly typical 2 year old thing I think. I was also worried about getting everyone to school, getting ready in the AM, etc. But that has gone well as well. Thomas is such a good baby and so sweet. I can hardly believe it's been a wek already. I spend so much time just snuggling on him, I just can't help it! Emma started school last Thursday and with all the baby drama, I neglected to post pics of that awesome day. but blogger won't let me so next time!

And last but not least I am an aunt again. Landon Kenneth Kurtz was born today at 3:04 AM. So Thomas is exactly one week older than his cousin, pretty cool.

Just a quick post as we are out the door again...

Thomas was admitted to the hospital again on Saturday afternoon for jaundice. I was a wreck emotionally....they took my new baby and put him in this box and I couldn't touch him. They let me nurse him every three hours still but I also had to let them give him formula too. It was a rough time. We got home last night around 10 PM and he is doing fairly well. We have to go back to the doc this AM to have his levels tested again and make sure he is doing well. So please keep him in your prayers that he will continue to improve and that we will not have to go back into the hospital. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!

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HE'S HERE!!!!!

Thomas Michael Kurtz
September 12, 2006 1:21 AM
8 pounds, 19 1/2 inches long
Lots of dark hair!!!

No, I have not had this baby yet. I think he's setting up an apartment in there and he'll come out around the age of 18 or so....

My husband however is getting lots of practice. Yesterday afternoon, he ran out to the car to grab a book for me. As he was out there, he heard a woman across the street yelling for help. He ran over and peered into her house and she was on her hands and knees. He asked if she was ok. She rolled over onto her back and asked Matt to get her shorts off. Matt was really confused at this point. It was then he saw a little baby head crowning. He kneeled down just in time to catch this little boy as he entered the world. Matt sent the onlooker man (not sure his relationship to the woman) to get a clean towel. He rubbed the baby so he was fussing, cleaned out his mouth and spoke to the 911 woman who was on the phone. He held the baby till the ambulance arrived and the paramedic took over. He came home, covered in blood and on a total adrenaline rush. I decided(after I got over being angry that he was out delivering stranger's babies and I couldn't even go into labor)that that is definitely a creative way to meet your neighbors. So here's to Dr. Matt....our local hero.

Yesterday, I saw the mailman coming. I raced (ok, well maybe not raced exactly..but waddled fastly) to meet him and gasped as I looked through the pile. There they were...oh how we had waited and waited. So last night, we tucked the children into bed and took our precious package to the DVD player. LOST season 2. We had avoided the TV every Wednesday last year so that we wouldn't get ANY hints as to what was happening. Matt had to go to bed early, but I stayed up till 11 watching, drinking it all in. WHO KNEW?!?!??! It's so good. I can't wait to watch the rest....

Life in general is still forging on...I get bigger by the second and have given up trying to sleep at all. I've tried every position, the couch, the recliner...you name it, I've tried it. I give Thomas pep talks every day encouraging him to come out, I've even bribed him with all sorts of things....alas, he remains in his warm bubble, away from the world. Now I've taken to begging the Lord to let me go into labor. I've even promised such crazy things as not using any drugs. Do you think he'll hold me to that?????

I must admit that it is nice having the children back in school. Molli and Jonah are settling into the routine nicely. It's awfully quiet around here, especially when Sydney goes down for her nap and it's just Emma and I. Emma starts school next week and then it'll really be quiet around here. Makes it nice for little cat naps though :)

I'll keep you all posted, as soon as anything changes...you'll be, well maybe not the first, but at least the third and fourth ones to know :)

Seems so weird that I have been talking about the kids going to school for months and then, all of a sudden, it was today! We did pretty good getting up and out of the door. Of course I had to hike all over the school to find out where they went as they rearranged everything! So after our third lap around the school, as I am breathing heavily and having contractions, we finally located the appropriate places for everyone and they were off on their school adventures. Today was only a half day so tomorrow will be a little more telling after a full day. And Emma doesn't start till the 21st. But here are some pics of the first day...


Tried 4 times to get them to take a serious one...ah well!


My big kindergarten girl


My goofy second grader!