Pictures from Thanksgiving

Maria, Just chillin' in her bouncy seat.

Scary times

Well, we have survived our first scary moments with Maria. On Sunday morning I took her for a follow up appointment with her Dr. We had taken her on Saturday morning because her cough had gotten worse and she had thrown up a few times. He wasn't happy with her oxygen saturation level. On Sunday it was low again so he decided to admit her to the hospital. They put her on prednisolone - an oral steroid, and albuterol nebulizer treatments every 2 hours. I was a little scared because obviously I was alone because Scott was at church.
They kept her in the hospital for 2 days. We brought her home yesterday morning and she seems to be doing ok. She still has a pretty bad cough but she doesn't sound wheezy anymore. Please keep her in yoiur prayers though that she would continue to get better.

New Pictures

Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago when my family came to visit.

Sam has inherited my love of reading. He has books everywhere!








This is a picture of Maria and my Mom after her first bath.
She liked it for the most part -
the getting out part was too cold though.

Welcome to the Sick House!

Poor Sam seems to get anything and everything that is going around. He is on his second dose of antibiotic and just finished a round of Predisone for Croup today. I know that we are trying to teach him to share his things, but his germs I wish he would keep to himself. Alas, he has shared with everyone! Including Maria. Poor baby girl is all stuffed up and has a lovely cough. The doctor says it's just a cold though. Scott and I have gotten different aspects of Sam's sickness. Scott has the stuffed head and I have a cough.
One goo thing about having to bring Maria to the doctor is that she got measured and weighed. She is now a whopping 8 lbs 10 oz!!! That's 2 lbs. since she was born. I had no idea she was growing so much. She is also 22 inches long now! The nurse measured twice to make sure. So, 2 lbs and 2 inches in 6 weeks. No wonder she eats so much! Sam is a growing boy too. He is 37 inches tall and 32 lbs.

Sorry, we don't have any new pictures of Maria right now because we don't have a good camera. Hopefully I will have some from Halloween soon.

New Arrival!!

Maria Ruth was born October 2 at 9:40 am. She weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches long! She looks just like Sammy, but has lighter hair and unfortunately her eyelashes are not even close to as long as his are. She is a beautiful little girle and had no trouble figuring out how to eat like her brother did. She's a good sleeper to, although not on any kind of schedule yet.

At her last appointment she weighed 7lbs 2oz.

So, Sam is still udjusting to having a baby. He knows that Mommy has a baby in her belly, but still doesn't really get what that means.
He is fairly convinced that all babies are girls though and that they are all named "Abby". There are 2 babies at daycare and they are both girls. Only one is named Abby, but he refuses to call the other one anything but Abby, even though her name is Maya.
So we figure that even though our daughter's name is Maria, her nickname will be Abby because that's all Sam will call her!

Surpise...It's a girl!!

We got a surprise when we went to our last ultrasound they told us that the first tech was wrong and that it's not a boy! So, in October, we are going to have our first baby girl! Scott and I are very excited. Her name is Maria Ruth. We chose to name her after a dear friend of both our families - Maria Fenty. She and Scott travelled to Southern Sudan together in 2001. Unfortunately during the missions trip she contracted Malaria and died not long after retuning home. She was such a wonderful woman with a true heart for God and his people. The name Maria is also similar to Marie which is either the first name or middle name of about 1/2 the women in Scott's family! :-)
Ruth is also a family name. Scott's grandmother's first name was Ruth and my grandmother's middle name is Ruth.

We have been struggling with choosing a hospital and doctor for this pregnancy. I like the practice where I am currently, but would prefer to go to a bigger hospital than the one in Oneonta - which is the closest. We looked at going to Albany, but keep thinking that it is very far away. (about an hour and 1/2)
Recently we were at one of the hospitals in Binghamton and think that we might look there as well. Please keep this decision in your prayers.

More pictures from Samuel's Birthday Party

Grandma and Sammy blowing out the birthday candles. To this day whenever he sees a candle he says "happy" and tries to blow it out.

Sam and one of the bikes he got. He rides around the house everywhere! He is working on getting a handle of the peddles. He had lots of fun chasing "Eewe" (Livvy) around the house on the bikes.






Sam loves to play in his new toy box. Maybe someday he will let us put toys in there.

It's a Boy! (Most Likely)

We had another ultrasound in Albany this week and the tech was pretty sure that we are having another boy! Of course this means that we need to come up with some names since we had a girls name picked out, but no boys names. So, if oyu have any suggestions. We want to do a Biblical first name and family middle name like we have done with the other two.

The other thing that they could see on the ultrasound was that the baby has a skull! Which is VERY important since that is what Josiah was missing. We are very excited! And relieved!

Samuel's 2nd Birthday!

Here are the pictures I promised from's Sam's birthday party! He has so many toys he doesn't know where to start! Of course the clothes were not really a big hit with Sam, but Mommy and Daddy were very glad that he won't have to run around naked any time soon! :-) He is growing like a weed. At his 2 yr. visit he weighed 29.5 lbs and was 36 inches tall. I think he grows more every day!

Snowy Day

Here are some pictures from the last big snow storm we had a few weeks ago. It was the first time Sam had really been able, and wanted to, play in the snow. He and Daddy made a snowman. Well, Daddy made the snowman and Sam tried to make snow balls out of him!

Who Needs Toys?!

Who needs toys when you have a mop bucket and a TV tray holder? Sam LOVES to push anything and everything around the house. The mop bucket is a favorite because he can put his blankets and binky (or "dat" as Sam calls it) in there.

More News

Well, as many of you know Samuel is 2 years old now! I promise I will get pictures of his party on here soon, really.

I also have news on my job front. I am the new librarian at Otego elementary school! It's still pending board approval, but that should happen in about 2 weeks. Otego is only about 10 miles away from home and I love it! There are 238 students here so it is a nice small school with a VERY supportive principal! It's interesting to start in the middle of the year, but I think I am getting the hang of it.

News Update

Well we have some exciting news to share with everyone...sometime in early fall we will welcome another little Garno into the world! So far Sam tells us that he would like a little brother, or a little sister, or one of each! He will not however tell us if he is going to be a good big brother or not! Apparently he is reserving judgement for later.

Little Drummer Boy

The music man is at it again! This time thanks to cousin Annah and Jeff. Sam loves his new drum set and plays it all the time. Although the dogs get "mistaken" for the drums every once and a while. he has pretty good rhythm for a not quite 2 year old. He likes to make it a duet most of the time though and rope someone else into playing with him.