The past three weeks, I have heard story upon story of guys falling from treestands with horrible outcomes.  I'm not sure if more people are having this type of accident, or if we're just more aware of them with Casey's fall on Oct. 19th, but I had to write this today as one of my good friends from Cedar Falls called to let me know that a guy we knew fell from his stand a week ago last Friday and is now paralyzed and is having some internal problems as well.  Just wanted to call those of you following the blog to pray for the Heying family as Aaron starts his recovery up in Rochester. 

When I heard this story, my eyes welled up with tears because our life could be so very different right now.  I'm so thankful that Casey's essentially back to normal.  Apparently God wants him able-bodied, and I'm so glad for that!  Don't take any day for granted, friends. 

PS Casey was already back in the stand last Tuesday, crazy kid.  I think he likes me to chew my fingernails off as I wait his arrival at home.  Thanks to a good buddy, he was in a safety harness.

We've got a Cubbie!

Jacie has been attending AWANAs at the First Baptist Church in our town for about a month now and LOVES it!  It really is an amazing program, she's memorizing Scripture like crazy (Casey and I have been committing more to memory through it too!), loves the kids she attends with, and the leaders have it so structured and organized, the kids always know what to expect. 

When she gets home she is bursting at the seams to fill us in on every detail of AWANA, down to the snack they had.  It's great.  Here she is so pumped to tell Daddy

Our little Cubbie :)

She thinks her vest is the COOLEST piece of clothing she owns.  I love it.  Very WalMart-esque, but it shows her patches that she has earned through memorizing verses, and it's a big deal at AWANA!

Five Months!

As of November 10th, our baby is five whole months old!  What!?!  I know.

Miss E has only rolled over 1.5 times (ha), and is very content to just chill on her blanket.  As the mother of three, I'm perfectly content with her waiting a bit to start moving like a crazy chick.  We've got our share of movers and shakers between the older ones.  :)

Eden is sleeping from 7PM to 7:30AM, nursing 5 times a day, however just today we're trying out the four hour routine, and succeeding so far, so we're aiming for 7, 11, 3, and 7 feedings, with two hour naps between each one and twelve hours of sleep at night.  Gotta love routine around here.

Eden's a talker.  Go figure.  Casey's in for it.  Luckily he is a great listener!  :)  My mother-in-law, Jessica, I, and the babies (Eden and Grant) went shopping in Des Moines last weekend and the babies did great in the hotel and in the stroller at the malls.  When Eden and Grant saw each other, Eden went crazy with baby babble filling him in on all he had missed in her life, since we hadn't seen them in about a month.  He pretty much just looked at her in and then tried to beat her on the head with a ball.  She just smiled.  :) 

Here's as updated a pic as I have of her!  The girls have fun with her, and as I've said before, thank goodness she's laid back.  Yes, she's in a doll stroller. 

Five month stats:
13 lbs. 12 oz.
25 3/4 in.

Eden's Dedication

On October 17th, we dedicated Eden at church.  It's always a big day for the girls when we do this, and both Jacie and Kamry were dedicated at PLC in Cedar Falls.  Our church in Creston is Crest Baptist Church, and we love our church family and our pastor, Chuck Spindler.  When we dedicate the girls, we pick out a "life verse" for them that we pray specifically for them and we also pray Jeremiah 29:11 for all three of them. 
Eden's verse is Philippians 4:8.

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

 

Dedications are important to us and we love to have as much family as we can there to support us.  In this world, it takes the love, support, and prayers of wonderful family to raise up children in the way they should go.  Our prayer is that when they grow they will not turn from the values, truths, and paths we strive to set them on.

 

 

Just in case you were wondering, Jacie's promise verse is Psalm 25:4-5:

 

Show me your ways, O LORD,

teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

And Kamry's is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's

will for you in Christ Jesus.

And for everyone out there, know Jeremiah 29:11 says "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."  It doesn't get much better than that!  :)

Have a great week!



One foot in front of the other...

So some of you might know that our past two weeks have been anything but easy.  Two weeks ago this Tuesday (the 19th I think?) Casey was bow hunting and I was home to fend the wild animals we call children on my own.  It was supper, bath, bedtime at home, so I was crazy busy and my phone was on the charger downstairs.  Apparently it rang three times as I gave Jacie and Kamry a bath, but I didn't hear it.  Just as I was about to pray with Kam, I heard Casey downstairs, and something didn't feel right, so I ran down there to see what was up. 

Turns out while Casey was waiting on a doe to turn broadside, the strap holding his tree stand about 15 feet up in the air broke, and he, the stand, his bow, and two live arrows fell.  After a few minutes of catching his breath and wiggling his toes to make sure he could, he walked out of the timber (albeit slowly) praising God he could walk.  I got the girls down to bed, nursed Eden and put her down, and we called a girl we have watch the girls once in awhile over so that we could head to the ER.  He had a hard time catching his breath so I wanted to make sure he didn't break a rib and puncture a lung or something crazy like that.  Turns out he really did "break his back" with a compression fracture on L2 (mid to low back) and also what they called a limbic fracture.  Nothing really we can do, but it is pretty painful for him, and it's been tough around here with the three little girls (okay, and me too) who like to hang on him.  He's been going to the chiro several times a week (we usually go at least 2x a month anyways for wellness) and that is helping some too.

Anyways, keep us in your prayers!  We keep saying to each other, "Just put one foot in front of the other" as we tackle the everyday chores in maybe just a little different way.  I've really had to conquer my fear of the basement because Casey isn't supposed to carry the laundry up.  ScArY!  :) 

Happy Halloween!

So we're not huge into Halloween, but the kids like dressing up, and so we took them to the hospital where I work last Tuesday evening.  (That's one week post Casey's 15 foot fall from the treestand for those of you keeping track, and yes, I unloaded the stroller, not him :) ).  I got the girls' costumes last year at Target for 90% off, and so Eden ended up a pumpkin, we didn't know her gender at the time!  We called Jacie a Candy Corn Princess, Kam was obviously a giant piece of candy corn, and Eden our little pumpkin.  They had fun and Kamry tore it up scoring treats.  Saturday night we went with some friends and their two kids to First Baptist Church's Harvest Party which was a blast, except for we had to leave early as Jacie ended up coming down with the stomache bug.  Sorry to any kids we unknowingly infected at FBC!



What a lucky guy :)