Hello to all!
I just wanted to give a quick little shout out to whomever may want to hear. :)
Things are going well here. Our children are growing like little weeds...except they are good lil' weeds that I love. :) -Ruth seems to have had a growth spurt suddenly because yesterday (literally) she was wearing 3-6 months clothes just fine; now today I've discovered that 6 months clothes barely fit her!!! YIKES! Also, she is beginning to discover that she has hands that she can (somewhat) control AND she's also found a new best friend today...herself in the mirror!! :D YAY! I sat and watched her for about 15 minutes while she talked to herself and spit bubbles and gurgled at herself. It was all quite adorable; then suddenly it all came to an abrupt halt when she seemed to disagree with something she said to herself and suddenly became a bit aggitated. --Sometimes she reminds me of me...like mother like daughter. ;)
Simeon is taking on the big brother role just fine! He enjoys trying to play with Ruth on her jungle gym and giving her toys. -Sometimes they accidently hit her in the head, but it's really the thought that counts, right? He can get a little carried away at times with rocking her in her carseat or bouncing her in her bouncer (it's a good thing she has good neck muscles!) but a gentle reminder, that he needs to be gentle, is usually all he needs to regain control. Again, it's the thought that counts!
Simeon has really become quite the little helper around the house! He enjoys helping me with all sorts of household chores such as loading and unloading the washer and dryer, cleaning out the lint trap (a newly discovered delight), vacuuming, dusting and one of his very favorites is putting away the dishes. He knows where every dish and kitchen utensil goes! Amazing! I don't think Chad even knows that!! :D --He's quite the little guy, that Simeon! Oh yes, and of course he always has to clean up his own messes such as toys that he likes to strewn all about the house and his multitude of books that he seems to "read" daily!
Of course he has his little bouts of "naughtiness" that needs daily correction, but all in all, WE think he's a pretty good boy...but then again, we could be bias. ;)
When I write on here, I feel somewhat like a broken record player when the subject turns to Chad. I'm always saying that he is very busy, aren't I? Well, here it comes again.....Chad's been quite busy lately! :) Haha! What can I say? He's just a hard working man. :) Truly though, he has been quite busy this month. He has been working for his job, Metso (for whom he is out of the country right now) and also working on our heating system for our new house...which has been taking a lot of his time! Although, the system is really starting to all come together now and it all, I might add, looks very professional! Good job Dear! It will be a great relief for him when that is finally done! It's definitely been a learning process!
I have been fairly busy as well. I'm a wife and mother. :) I keep somewhat occupied with the wifely/motherly duties but I do look forward to getting in the country and having animals and landscape to tend to as well! I have so missed that in my life! I'm hoping to have chickens and horses and cattle in the future...and perhaps a small flock of sheep! :D Then I will be REALLY busy!! I suppose I should be cherishing these more laid-back days while I can! Hmm....never thought of it like that before... :) Once we are "farmers", we wont have too many laid-back days any more!
That then, brings us to the subject of our house...
It's a work in progress! Things had been put on hold for a while due to a wait on the heating system, but now that's almost done and we have a couple of propane heaters in there keeping it nice and cozy for my brothers; things are picking up once again! We are really shooting for a move in date of late April to early May, but we shall see how things go! All in the Lord's timing I suppose.
Please keep in prayer the selling of this house that we are in now. It isn't on the market yet but we are hoping to get the final touches on the remodeling done next month and get it for sale in March sometime. Hoping, hoping.....
Thank you for taking the time to read this little update! We greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers for us and our endeavors! Please feel free to drop us a note sometime! :)
Blessings in our Christ,
Jenny, for the Stewart family **Please note that I have a new email address: jen.stewart@zoho.com
Ps. I tried posting pictures but it wouldn't work for some reason. I will try again later!
Monday, January 27, 2014
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Ruth Anne
Hello to all!
Our much awaited treasure is finally here!! Now there is finally something good about the day they call "Halloween" too....our little daughter's birthday! :) YAY! Yes, as most of you have probably heard through the grapevine, the Lord has given us a little girl. <3
The birth was a very pleasant experience and everything went very well! We were able to have her at home like we wanted to. The Lord was gracious in all of it. He directed just as we asked! (Just like with Simeon's birth) :)
Ruth Anne Stewart was born at 1:34am on October 31st. She weighed 8lbs 6oz and was about 20.5 inches long. The entire labor (hard, active labor) lasted only 1 hour! What a difference it was compared to Simeon's birth!! :)
Here is Ruth's birth story for any of you that might be interested.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earlier in the day (Oct. 30th) I had a doctor appointment. We found out that I was 6 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. My doctor said that she's only ever had one other person that was that far dilated and not in labor. :) Yay for me! -- She predicted that this would be a fast labor...perhaps not even enough time to get to the hospital. I was kind of glad to hear that. :) Yet, I was prepared for a much longer labor. - I'm one to not want to get my hopes up.
Throughout the rest of the day I had some stronger contractions but nothing that hurt at all. Later that evening Chad and I watched an old movie and I continued to have contractions throughout. I was thinking in the back of my mind that "tonight is going to be the night."
Our movie ended at about midnight and we went to bed. That's when the hard contractions started and I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep so I got up to help things along and wait. - I didn't have to wait long. I told Chad that this was it and that we better get the bed ready. We put the plastic under the sheets, got all our things ready to go, lit our "birthing lamp" (an old oil lamp which Simeon was born to....lamp light is much more soothing than 60 watt bulbs) :) and let the contractions do their work.
I decided that I wanted to try a slightly different technique for dealing with the labor pains, so I decided to sing songs through all of them. This worked very well for me and created a rather calm ambiance. I sang and Chad made some final preperations. We really had no idea how quickly things were progressing.
We had decided that we would like for my mom to be there for the birth but didn't want to wake her too soon in case it was going to be a while, so, we waited. (my Mom was already here at our house staying with us for a while as my Dad was in California) The contractions got more intense so I asked Chad to get the birthing ball from the basement for me. By this time it was about 1:15 or 1:20am. By the time Chad returned, I was in more pain than I can remember ever having before in my life and knew that the time of birth for my child was at hand. I told him to go get Mom. He quickly went to alert my mom that "things are starting to happen" (apparently he wasn't quite aware of how far along things were :) ). As he was gone waking my Mother, my body built up a massive contraction that decided it was going to push my baby out, Chad or no Chad. I tried my very best to hold the baby in there until Chad returned. He walked through the door just in time as the baby was making her appearance. I informed him that the baby was coming out as he came in the bedroom. He seemed surprised, looked and exclaimed "Oh goodness!" With a gentle, careful push, out came the head. Chad checked for a cord and saw none so I continued to let the body emerge when Chad suddenly informed me to wait because now he saw a cord. It was a little tricky trying to stop the body from continuing long enough for him to slip the cord over the head, but we all managed just fine and out came our beautiful daughter. When Chad told me it was a girl I said "Really?" I was delighted.
Within a few minutes of Ruth's birth, my Mom appeared on the scene. She was quite surprised to say the least. She had no idea how quickly the baby was coming since Chad didn't either and only said "things are starting to happen" rather than "the baby will be born within 5 minutes" :) Haha...oh well. The look on Mom's face was priceless.
Ruth was so calm when she came. She hardly cried. After a little while I turned her over and rubbed her back till she started crying cause I didn't know for sure if she was breathing ok or not. Of course she was fine, just content. (One of the meanings of the name Ruth is "satisfied".)
All was very well and we were so happy to have this precious child finally here! I had gone 3 days past my "due date" and was pretty eager to meet this little one. I am so amazed by the miracle of life that God has designed! This little child is growing so precisely in the womb and is so perfect when she comes out. She knows how to cry, breath and eat without having to ever do it before or be taught it! The whole process is a miracle....praise God and thanks be to Him!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's been about a week and a half now since her birth and I have been feeling great since day 1! (Very different from after Simeon's birth) I haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep yet, but still all is well. :)
Thanks to you all for the prayers and gifts, etc. We are so thankful for each of you!
Chad, Simeon, Ruth and I are all going to be leaving for Michigan in a week for about a week and a half. Chad will have to be traveling a bit for work again and I've decided that I would rather the children and I go this time while we can, rather than being here without him for that long. I just get too lonely when he is away for that amount of time. :( ---That's a good sign, right? :) haha
Anyway, here is our new little one.
Blessings to you and your families. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Our much awaited treasure is finally here!! Now there is finally something good about the day they call "Halloween" too....our little daughter's birthday! :) YAY! Yes, as most of you have probably heard through the grapevine, the Lord has given us a little girl. <3
The birth was a very pleasant experience and everything went very well! We were able to have her at home like we wanted to. The Lord was gracious in all of it. He directed just as we asked! (Just like with Simeon's birth) :)
Ruth Anne Stewart was born at 1:34am on October 31st. She weighed 8lbs 6oz and was about 20.5 inches long. The entire labor (hard, active labor) lasted only 1 hour! What a difference it was compared to Simeon's birth!! :)
Here is Ruth's birth story for any of you that might be interested.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earlier in the day (Oct. 30th) I had a doctor appointment. We found out that I was 6 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. My doctor said that she's only ever had one other person that was that far dilated and not in labor. :) Yay for me! -- She predicted that this would be a fast labor...perhaps not even enough time to get to the hospital. I was kind of glad to hear that. :) Yet, I was prepared for a much longer labor. - I'm one to not want to get my hopes up.
Throughout the rest of the day I had some stronger contractions but nothing that hurt at all. Later that evening Chad and I watched an old movie and I continued to have contractions throughout. I was thinking in the back of my mind that "tonight is going to be the night."
Our movie ended at about midnight and we went to bed. That's when the hard contractions started and I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep so I got up to help things along and wait. - I didn't have to wait long. I told Chad that this was it and that we better get the bed ready. We put the plastic under the sheets, got all our things ready to go, lit our "birthing lamp" (an old oil lamp which Simeon was born to....lamp light is much more soothing than 60 watt bulbs) :) and let the contractions do their work.
I decided that I wanted to try a slightly different technique for dealing with the labor pains, so I decided to sing songs through all of them. This worked very well for me and created a rather calm ambiance. I sang and Chad made some final preperations. We really had no idea how quickly things were progressing.
We had decided that we would like for my mom to be there for the birth but didn't want to wake her too soon in case it was going to be a while, so, we waited. (my Mom was already here at our house staying with us for a while as my Dad was in California) The contractions got more intense so I asked Chad to get the birthing ball from the basement for me. By this time it was about 1:15 or 1:20am. By the time Chad returned, I was in more pain than I can remember ever having before in my life and knew that the time of birth for my child was at hand. I told him to go get Mom. He quickly went to alert my mom that "things are starting to happen" (apparently he wasn't quite aware of how far along things were :) ). As he was gone waking my Mother, my body built up a massive contraction that decided it was going to push my baby out, Chad or no Chad. I tried my very best to hold the baby in there until Chad returned. He walked through the door just in time as the baby was making her appearance. I informed him that the baby was coming out as he came in the bedroom. He seemed surprised, looked and exclaimed "Oh goodness!" With a gentle, careful push, out came the head. Chad checked for a cord and saw none so I continued to let the body emerge when Chad suddenly informed me to wait because now he saw a cord. It was a little tricky trying to stop the body from continuing long enough for him to slip the cord over the head, but we all managed just fine and out came our beautiful daughter. When Chad told me it was a girl I said "Really?" I was delighted.
Within a few minutes of Ruth's birth, my Mom appeared on the scene. She was quite surprised to say the least. She had no idea how quickly the baby was coming since Chad didn't either and only said "things are starting to happen" rather than "the baby will be born within 5 minutes" :) Haha...oh well. The look on Mom's face was priceless.
Ruth was so calm when she came. She hardly cried. After a little while I turned her over and rubbed her back till she started crying cause I didn't know for sure if she was breathing ok or not. Of course she was fine, just content. (One of the meanings of the name Ruth is "satisfied".)
All was very well and we were so happy to have this precious child finally here! I had gone 3 days past my "due date" and was pretty eager to meet this little one. I am so amazed by the miracle of life that God has designed! This little child is growing so precisely in the womb and is so perfect when she comes out. She knows how to cry, breath and eat without having to ever do it before or be taught it! The whole process is a miracle....praise God and thanks be to Him!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's been about a week and a half now since her birth and I have been feeling great since day 1! (Very different from after Simeon's birth) I haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep yet, but still all is well. :)
Thanks to you all for the prayers and gifts, etc. We are so thankful for each of you!
Chad, Simeon, Ruth and I are all going to be leaving for Michigan in a week for about a week and a half. Chad will have to be traveling a bit for work again and I've decided that I would rather the children and I go this time while we can, rather than being here without him for that long. I just get too lonely when he is away for that amount of time. :( ---That's a good sign, right? :) haha
Anyway, here is our new little one.
Blessings to you and your families. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Thursday, October 17, 2013
For now...
Hello to all!
I've been wanting to post all the new happenings around here for those of you that are, for some reason, interested. :) But I just haven't found the time somehow. :( So, I will just tell of the more important part of things.
Yes, I am still pregnant. :) Yay for me! Although, I am quite eager to meet this lil one who is, at the moment, playing banjo on my ribs. :) haha All is going well with the pregnancy. My body seems to be following the same pattern that it did with Simeon, so that's interesting. If it continues to do so, I should have this baby this week....but we all know how those things go. Knowing me and the Lord's sense of humor, :) I'll probably go a week over my due date! HAHA
We've been trying to work with Simeon so that its not a total shock when the baby does come, but that's not been working quite as great as we were hoping. He is still VERY attatched to me....which is quite sweet but hopefully he doesn't take his jealousy out on the baby when he/she arrives! : /
I love the little miracles of pregnancy and childbirth! It's very exciting...even though it can be trying and tiring at times. I was pondering the miracle of love last night. God gives me moments of overwhelming love for this one that I've never even met, seen or spoken with... and yet, I love him/her more than I can express at times. I think that is amazing! Does that happen in 'normal' life?
One blessing in this 'pre-term labor' thing is that Chad has been able to stay home since it all started. He had 3 trips planned for late September and early October but cancelled it all when we were advised to do so by our doctor. Now he has been able to do his work from home for the last 2 months rather than travelling! Yay! That's always so nice to have him home! The bad news though, is that he will have to make up for lost time after baby comes. :( It's hard to think about all the travelling starting again and me having 2 babies to care for myself! :( So lonely when he's gone! I know the Lord will give grace as always though.
We've been very busy with the building of our new home in Palo. My brothers are making progress on it and Chad has been helping and keeping busy with it a lot lately. Things are going a bit slower than we were hoping, but going very well still. It's a lot of work for my 2 brothers!! It's a very big house and we aren't the only people they are working for right now! Busy, busy.
It's hard to believe that it's going to be November soon!!! YIKES! Here comes the cold winter....and the 'sick season'. -Something that I am NOT looking forward to with a new baby! :(
Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I will be posting pictures of our new baby very soon!!! :D
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for us! We pray for you.
~Jen
I've been wanting to post all the new happenings around here for those of you that are, for some reason, interested. :) But I just haven't found the time somehow. :( So, I will just tell of the more important part of things.
Yes, I am still pregnant. :) Yay for me! Although, I am quite eager to meet this lil one who is, at the moment, playing banjo on my ribs. :) haha All is going well with the pregnancy. My body seems to be following the same pattern that it did with Simeon, so that's interesting. If it continues to do so, I should have this baby this week....but we all know how those things go. Knowing me and the Lord's sense of humor, :) I'll probably go a week over my due date! HAHA
We've been trying to work with Simeon so that its not a total shock when the baby does come, but that's not been working quite as great as we were hoping. He is still VERY attatched to me....which is quite sweet but hopefully he doesn't take his jealousy out on the baby when he/she arrives! : /
I love the little miracles of pregnancy and childbirth! It's very exciting...even though it can be trying and tiring at times. I was pondering the miracle of love last night. God gives me moments of overwhelming love for this one that I've never even met, seen or spoken with... and yet, I love him/her more than I can express at times. I think that is amazing! Does that happen in 'normal' life?
We've been very busy with the building of our new home in Palo. My brothers are making progress on it and Chad has been helping and keeping busy with it a lot lately. Things are going a bit slower than we were hoping, but going very well still. It's a lot of work for my 2 brothers!! It's a very big house and we aren't the only people they are working for right now! Busy, busy.
It's hard to believe that it's going to be November soon!!! YIKES! Here comes the cold winter....and the 'sick season'. -Something that I am NOT looking forward to with a new baby! :(
Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I will be posting pictures of our new baby very soon!!! :D
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for us! We pray for you.
~Jen
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