January Birthdays

-January 16th-

Granddad's 86th birthday.

(It was also Willie's 5th birthday.

{my nephew} )

-January 19th-

Grandma's 84th birthday.

(It was also Karis's actual day of birth.

{my niece} )

 -January 31st-

Zachary's 12th birthday.

 

We celebrated Granddad & Grandma's birthdays together on the 15th as the birth of Karis was imminent and we were planning to head up to meet her upon her arrival.

Adam & Valerie were able to join us for the celebration.

They ordered lasagna for their birthday meal this year.

Bring on the cake!

Time for some cards & gifts

We celebrated Zachary's on his actual birthday - the 31st.

He got to have some of his friends over for the afternoon and evening as part of his special day.

Though not in these pictures, Adam & Valerie were able to join us again for his birthday celebration.

Some of his siblings decorated the house a bit for him.

As Zachary has shown a lot of interest in football of late, Kimberly made him this wonderful football cake!  (Very yummy, by the way!)

The three buddies - Jeshua, Zachary, Josiah

More Karis Photos!!!

Mom and camera are back home, so I have more pictures for you from Karis's first week!

Saturday

First-time Daddy - What a pro at this baby-holding stuff!  :-)

I mentioned in the previous post that we had to wait in the hall for a few minutes.

Hospital rules were that the baby could not be outside of the room unless he/she was in the crib.

I don't know whether it was more because Joe was impatient for us to meet her,  or because he knew how hard we were trying to be patient out in the hall, but whichever was the reason, he brought her out for us to meet and hover over.  :-)

 

 

 Nurses finished up, and Mary was all set.  They welcomed us in...all of us at once.  :-)  Greetings and congratulations went all around  - to the parents, the aunts, the uncles, and the grandparents!  It was a delightful time!  A loving family, and wonderful relationships with the in-laws make for a very sweet time!  Oh, and sweeter yet is the time to hold that little bundle of life!  I don't have pictures of everybody, but here are a few.

Baby Karis meets Aunt Lisa!

  Annie's turn!

 Time to pass her off to David!

 Oh!  My siblings love it when Kimberly comes to visit!  Joe got a shoulder massage.  Mary Jane got a foot massage a little later - once the crowds dispersed enough to make room.  :-)

 I must thank Zachary for this photo.  I don't believe I have ever been so pleased with a photo of me holding a baby!  (Normally the angle is bad and my glasses look like they've fallen down to the end of my nose...or it is blurry.)  I'm sorry you have to put up with me talking about myself, it's just that the photo really turned out nicely and that's a very rare occurrence!

Karis meets Aunt Heidi.

 

 This photo is a bit blurry, but its point was to show how very long her hair is - It wouldn't pass a collar check!

 Look at all that hair!  :-)

 Kate holds her niece like a pro!

 The Stoll aunts admire their newest niece!

 The Stoll Sisters with Baby Karis

The new little family

 Nope.  Being new parents hasn't made them totally serious!  ;-)

 

 Another waiting time in the hall...

 ...and playing a game!

Sunday

Daddy and daughter exchanging adoring smiles.  :-)

 First car ride - Going home!

Wednesday

Home with Mommy - There's nothing better!  :-)

 Sleeping like a baby...Yes, she is one!  :-)

Thursday

Awake and alert - What's that you're holding, Nana?  Oooo, it has a little orange light!
(Growing up in this age, little one, you'll learn all about digital cameras before very long at all!)

Taken on the 29th, it's not part of her first week, but this is the latest picture I have received.

A picture speaks a thousand words....so I just gave you many thousands!  :-)

I hope you enjoyed them!

For those wondering about my teeth, they're healing up nicely as far as I can tell.  I'm off the pain medication, and most of the dissolving stitches have come out.  I'm being very careful about what I eat and how I eat it, but don't worry, I'm eating plenty!  :-)

Latest News!

Hey folks!

Please allow me to introduce you to my newest little niece!

Karis Evangelynn Mueller was born this past Saturday (01/19/2013) at 12:18 in the morning!  She weighed 9 lbs, 13 oz, and was 21.5 inches long!

The Lord was faithful to supply much-needed grace for Joe, Mary Jane, and Karis throughout the many long hours of labor, and to bring them safely through that process.  They are all doing well.

Interesting fact: Willie Barta (Jared & Becca's first - who happened to be a boy) shares his birthday with his great granddad (Bruce Carter).  Likewise, Karis Mueller (Joe & Mary Jane's first - who happened to be a girl) shares her birthday with her great grandma (Eleanor Carter).  :-)  I just found that very interesting and wanted to share it.

Here is one of the first pictures they sent us as we waited up into the wee hours at the Stoll house with her other aunts - a delightful time, I might add.  :-)

After getting all the stats, sharing them with many friends and family members, seeing a picture or two, we all headed to bed...I think it was before 2.

They told us they'd be ready to have us come around lunchtime, so we got some semi-decent rest and occupied ourselves with wondering this, that, and the other thing about who she'd look like, how long her hair would be, etc., etc., etc. all the rest of the morning.  :-)

Karis looks so sweet and serene.

We got to sign in and wear official visitor passes.  I wonder what was going through the mind of each of the nurses who walked by and saw all 13 of us waiting in the hall outside their room while they made a few final preparations for our first visit.

 

Everybody got their turn to hold her.  I don't have those pictures until Mom brings the camera back, but I'll try and select some of them to make another post soon here.

Sweet little Karis

Here she is in the dress her grandpas picked out of the clothes Joe & Mary Jane had for her when Mary Jane asked for an outfit to be brought from the house.

 Her eyes are open again!  :-)

"Hi, Sweetheart!"

Oh, by the way, the first thing pretty much everybody said was "Look at those cheeks!".  They are pretty big!  In fact, we found it kind of humorous that, if you look at her straight on, you can't see her ears past her cheeks!  (I can verify that she does have ears, in case you were concerned.)

  

Here's the picture Mom sent us this morning - her last day up there.  What a doll!  :-)

Now, I know this is totally unrelated (except that it required us to come home sooner), but I'm including it in the same post so it does not appear above and hide the post about Karis.

I, Heidi, got my two bottom wisdom teeth pulled on Monday.  All went well, but here are some pictures for those who like to see chubby chipmunk cheeks.  =)

Photo Progression of Heidi's Recovery from her Wisdom Teeth Extraction:

Monday morning on the way home

Comfy on the couch

After first food - some lime jello for "lunch".  No, I wasn't pouting - That's just the way my face was swollen.  Yes, I had swallowed.  No, I had no idea I was saving that jello for later until I looked at the picture I had taken.

 Tuesday evening

 

Wednesday afternoon

 Friday afternoon

Saturday afternoon - The swelling seems to be pretty much done with its performance.

Now it's time for the bruises to show off.

Happy New Year to all!

Greetings to everybody!  As we look forward to what the Lord has planned for this new year into which we have just flown, I am making one public "New Year's Resolution".



Ready?



My "New Year's Resolution" is...



...to make more blog posts in 2013 than I did in 2012!  ;-)  For those of you who want to know exactly what that amounts to, you can take a look at the "Posts of the Past" listing on the sidebar below all of the pictures.  What you'll find is that your memory serves you quite accurately.  You didn't see very many posts this last year.  Actually, there were a total of 6 for the entire year.

Obviously, this *shouldn't* be too difficult...but it's a goal that I would like to reach.  I would personally love to go way beyond...I'm just not going to make a grand promises since I can't tell what this year will hold.

For those wondering about the weddings posts that were (and are) to come, but haven't yet been seen, let me explain what became of them.  I was carrying many loads at once.  The posts kept getting set aside because other things had a higher priority and greater urgency.   They kept weighing heavily on me and I had other things I wanted to post about that wouldn't take as long...but I don't like to back-post as I find that to be rather confusing (In other words, I like to keep things chronological.)...but I wasn't about to skip over the weddings entirely! Well, I needed to relieve myself of part of my load and get a few things off my mind so it would be more effective at what was required of it.  Therefore, I determined that I would go ahead and post things that were current (like my new nephew, for instance), and save each of the wedding posts for their one-year anniversaries.  Now you know when to be looking for them!  :-)  (And now I know when my deadlines are... :-/ )