Christmas at Stone Mountain

Well we've tried to jam as much as we can into this Christmas season. On Friday we took the kids to Chuck-e-Cheese and had a great time. Saturday we went to Stone Mountain to see all their Christmas lights. They had about 2 million (literally) lights on display. We got to take a half hour train ride around the complex as well as watch a 20 minute clip of the Polar Express in 4D. Not too mention a little Christmas parade. Here are a few videos we took while we were there. We bought a new digital video camera, the Flip Video, nothing fancy but works great for it's size (a little bigger then a cell phone).

It figures that while we are in a drought...it rains the entire day we went. The picture may be a little dark but you should be able to get the point.

Enjoy...

Stone Mountain


More Stone Mountain. Kaylee watching the Christmas parade.


A Video from Chuck-E-Cheese.

Andrew's Baptism

Andrew made the decision a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to get baptized. The decision came after he participated in a fun weekend retreat, D-Now (Disciple Now), though Johnson Ferry Baptist Church which we have been attending for the past year. The weekend pretty much consisted of a couple hundred Middle and High school kids getting together for some bible studies, games, junk food, pillow fights, and a couple concerts. They were all broken down into small groups and they spent the weekend together at someones house. The church actually had people volunteer their homes to host these groups. Not a big deal until you find out that Andrew's group consisted of 12-14 6th grade boys!! Imagine opening your home to that!!!

At the end of the weekend Andrew made the decision that he wanted to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior and that he wanted to be baptized. Well they had a special service Sunday evening for all the kids who made that decision. They baptized, I believe, about 45 kids (30 Middle schoolers and 15 High schoolers).

Here are a few pictures from the service and the reception afterwards. They did the baptism via full submersion, not just a little drop on the head. The church has a full tank, typically hidden, up on the back of the stage so it was a little hard to get some good pictures. If you look just below the overhead screen you can see where the pool is.

We are very proud of Andrew and the choices he made on his own.

We're Moving Again!!!

In case you haven't heard the latest....We're moving again!!!

After some long conversations we've decided we need to move again. I know we have said that we were going to be here in Atlanta for awhile but the time has come to take our next step on to somewhere else.

After three to four nights in a row with temperatures dropping into the the 30's, even the upper 20's this morning, and only warming to the mid 40's during the day we've decided we've had enough and we're outta here! I mean my windshield was half covered with frost this morning...that's just crazy talk!!! We are not sure where we are going yet but this has just been too much, this cold weather is ridiculous!!!

We'll keep you all updated.

Disappointing Loss

Unfortunately we dropped another one Saturday morning. I think the 8:50 time slot was too early for a few of the boys. They just seemed to lack the hustle and enthusiasm they have had they past two weeks. We lost 19-22 and even had the chance to tie it up and take the lead with under a minute left, but we just didn't capitalize. To come back and make it that close was nice to see. We were down 4-11 at the end of the first and then tied 11-11 at the half. By the end of the third we were down again 13-20. So that made 2 quarters we held them to 0 and 2 points respectively. We just didn't play with the patience we have displayed the previous weeks.

Andrew did okay, he had a few rebounds (offensive and defensive) but no points. He is still trying to learn the game and how to move with and with out the ball on offense. His defense is his strength right now. Being the second tallest on the team (we have a short team) he usually gets paired up with one of their big men and typically does well guarding them. We are one of only a few teams in the league that dares play man-to-man, everyone falls back into zone coverage, but with our speed we usually do well with it.

We've dropped to 2-4 but after looking at the rest of the schedule we can easily finish 5-4 and make a good run in the tournament, when it really matters.

A Christmas Dance

I finally pulled out the Christmas CDs last night. Grandma Marty got us the Chipmunks Christmas last year and the girls love it. So we had a little Christmas fun before bed...

Warm weather

Here's my video intro...

If you have seen the weather lately then you know we have a warm spell going on...oh sorry to you Midwesterners going through your freeze though (honestly I'm not laughing). It has been up in the 70's the past few days (again, still not laughing). I took Kaylee and Allison over to the fields at the church Sunday to let them run around for awhile. I took a little video on my phone, sorry if it's small but I think you can see the fun we had, and yes we are wearing shorts.

Just a note that the voice at the end of the video is Kaylee even the it's Allison kicking the ball.

Some more of our little soccer star. Not bad for 15 months.

And a picture of Kaylee doing a little tumbling.

Good News / Bad News

Well I told you I would write more once I had some good news to report about basketball. Well, after this mornings game, now I do. We won a nail biter 27-26. The kids hung in there really well throughout the game and staged two 2nd half rallies (down10-14 at the half and down 19-24 late in the 4th) to tie it up as well as take the lead, only to loose the lead and then get it back for good once more with 26 seconds left. I spoke with the opposing coach after the game and he was telling me about the scouting report he had on us (seriously he got a scouting report from another coach on us, for U12 rec league bball). He said that he knew even though we were 0-3 we were "sleeping giants" (I think they were 2-1). Hopefully it's true and we turn it on for the tournament at the end of the year.

Now if you noticed the header of this post then you must realize there is some bad news coming. Unfortunately Andrew left his jersey sitting on the couch. He didn't realize it until we walked into the gym. By then the game was supposed to start, I am the coach so I couldn't leave, we drove the van with all the car seats so Mom wasn't able to load the girls up and bring it over and because they track stats they wouldn't let him borrow one from someone else (because of the numbering on it). So Andrew didn't even get to play in our first win. He did do a good job cheering on his team from the bench though.

Hopefully next week I will be able to post one of these titled Good News Good News.

Christmas Decorations

Here are some pictures from last weekend of the tree decorating festivities as well as a little Strawberry Berry Merry Christmas on the TV. We enjoyed decorating the tree so much we spread it over two days. The kids were not scared of the 4 foot Frosty the Snowman, they actually really like it and like to give him hugs and kisses, Kaylee even makes sure to tell him good night sometimes. I did stop short of putting the 8 foot polar bear in the girls room while they were sleeping. I figured the nightmares wouldn't be worth it.

The girls all had doctor's appointments this week. Kaylee and Allison had follow ups on their ear infections, plus Allison and Samantha both had immunizations to receive. Allison is holding steady weighing in at just over 22 pounds (Kaylee is only 24) and Samantha is now up to 9 pounds 6 ounces.

Basketball

Here are some pictures from our basketball practice last week. For those that don't know I am coaching Andrew and some other boys in a local 12 and under league. We were able to pick up some extra gym time the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Only a few boys came out and Grandma Marty got to come and watch, since she wasn't able to be here for any of our games. I'll get some results posted (once there are some worth posting 0-3 so far).

Happy Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving may be over but the fun will continue on, at least until the leftovers are gone and I have to go to work on Monday. By the way, for those that don't know I am starting a new position at a new company Monday. My last day with John Deere was Wednesday and I start with ACS on Monday. We had a good day just lounging around watching the parades and some not so exciting football games.

A quick reference for the pictures. Kaylee had a Thanksgiving lunch at her Wee School on Tuesday. Grandma and I got to go and see it. It was pretty fun. Andrew was helping Grandma make a couple Hershey pies Wednesday night and yes Andrew is walking like an Egyptian. No my Joey Harrington Detroit Lions jersey did no good, for either game and our little cheerleader couldn't inspire a victory either, but she was fun to watch run around. I figured I could kill two birds with one jersey since both the Lions and Falcons played (for those that don't know Harrington now plays for the Falcons).

We are going to be pulling out all the Christmas decorations today so we should have some pictures of that up tomorrow or Sunday. Anyways, on to the Thanksgiving pictures...

Doctors Appointment

With the holiday and my last few days at John Deere I forgot to post the results from Samantha's doctors appointment on Monday. Elizabeth took her in to have her checked to be sure she did not have the ear infection that Kaylee and Allison both have/had. She doesn't, thankfully. Imagine...not only 3 kids under 3 but 3 kids with runny noses and ear infections!!! Agghhh. Kaylee seems to be a lot better and Allison just seems tired and a little clingy.

They did Samantha's weight and height again and she came in at 21 1/2 inches and 8 lbs 10 oz. Keep in mind that on Friday when she was at the cardiologist she was 7 lbs 14 oz. That's a 12 ounce gain in 4 days and 2 lbs 10 oz in 4 weeks. She is bound and determined not to be the smallest around here.

And now random, obligatory picture time...

What a Run

So three females here at work decide they have nothing better to talk about then what they are suppose to get for each anniversary. Paper, plastic, glass, silver, blah blah blah. So of course being me I decide to start snickering under my breath (but just loud enough to be heard) as they go through the list. Needles to say this catches their attention (as planned) and they begin making their comments at me as the “typical male”. As they begin questioning me as to my thoughts on the subject they preface it with the question of “how long have you been married?” to which they laughed at my answer of “I’ve got 4 years down”. After they make fun of my answer I point out how Elizabeth has been pregnant for 3 of the 4, to which they tell me to just leave her alone. The answer of 4 years down while true and while said with the kind of attitude you would expect from a “typical male” got me to thinking…THAT’S IT?!?! We’ve only been married for 4 years!!! I am not questioning the math nor am I acting as if I’ve been so miserable the past 4 years that it seems so much longer. This is where I am going to deviate from the “typical male” game I had been playing.

My response now becomes serious. Yeah the past 4 years seems a lot longer. Let me explain why. I got thinking back over the past 4 years and could not believe the timeline I came up with. See if you can follow:

July 5 2003 – Elizabeth and I get married
July 26 2003 – We leave Michigan for Florida
August 2003 – Elizabeth begins her studies at Full Sail
February 2004 – I begin my job at Meadowbrook S
eptember 2 2004 – Elizabeth Graduates from Full Sail
September 2004 – We find out Elizabeth is pregnant
February 2005 – I accept job at Westin in Virgin Islands
March 2005 – Move to Virgin Islands
April 2005 – Move out of hotel and into “home” in islands
June 9 2005 – Kaylee is born on St Thomas
August 2005 – Move homes in islands
December 2005 – Elizabeth becomes pregnant
May 2006 – I accept promotion to Sheraton in Atlanta
June 1 2006 – Elizabeth and Kids leave St John J
une 21 2006 – Movers load up all our stuff and send to Atlanta
June 24 2006 - I leave St John for Atlanta, begin living in hotel
June 26 2006 – I begin new position
June 30 2006 – Elizabeth and Kaylee join me in Atlanta
July 2006 – Andrew joins us in Atlanta
August 24 2006 – Close on new home
August 26 2006 – Movers bring stuff to house, we move out of hotel
August 27 2006 – Allison is born
February 07 – Elizabeth is pregnant (again)
July 19 2007 – I get laid off of work
July 24 2007 - I start contract position at John Deere
October 20 2007 – Samantha is born 2 weeks early
November 21 2007 – My last day as contractor at John Deere

Do you see where I am coming from here. How many of these things listed above (getting married, moving the family, adding to the family, graduating college, changing jobs) are major life events? And how many have we jammed into the past 4 years? Too many.

The question is where do we go from here (besides the insane asylum)? We have decided that we are settling here in Atlanta for the next several years. We are going to be in our home for the next couple years. We’ve taken the steps to rule out having any more kids. Now if one of these two jobs pans themselves out well….then we aren’t going to know what to do with ourselves.

2 for 2

Well we had our follow up at the original cardiologist this morning. Everything came back good! So we can finally put this behind us once and for all. Needless to say I had to bite my tongue when the doctor told us the good news and followed it up with “so you don’t ever have to see the Michigan fan again”. There were several things I could have thrown out there at that point, including but not limited too... “Go Buckeyes” (or badgers) I would have had to choke back the vomit though. However, I figured keeping my mouth shut was probably the best course of action. The doctor did seem a little shocked when he told us the good news and we showed little to no reaction. In fact he did reiterate to us “that is good news you know”. Elizabeth fought back telling him we all ready knew because of the second opinion. This has been a rough past three weeks thanks too Dr. Death, as Elizabeth affectionately refers to him, but after two confirmations that everything is okay we are more then ready to move on and put it all behind us.

She weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long. However we suspect she dropped back down about 6 ounces a few minutes later, if you know what I mean.

And now for the obligatory pictures…

Kaylee enjoys laying with her "Baby Mantha".

Our Little Heart

I just wanted to give a quick update on Samantha. We had an appointment this morning with a second Cardiologist to follow up on a couple issues the pediatrician who saw her at birth wanted to monitor on her. One was a murmur caused by an abnormal PDA, a valve that is open on all children while they are in the womb, which usually closes itself off between 72 hours and 3 weeks of birth. The cardiologist today told us that that valve has completely sealed itself off and is fine. The second issue was something that the first cardiologist found while monitoring the PDA. He said he didn’t believe there was an issue but he noticed an irregularity in her QT Interval and wanted to monitor it. Apparently, in real simple terms, the QT interval is the rate at which the heart recharges itself. So a long QT interval, which is what he was watching, means the heart is not recharging itself as fast as it should. Long QT intervals are leading causes in SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) as well as seizures and other wonderful things no one should have to endure. However, after meeting with the cardiologist today, that worry has sort of been put to rest. Today’s cardiologist gave Samantha’s little heart virtually a clean bill of health. He did notice an “Innocent murmur” which he explained as something that 50 percent of children have and that typically seals itself off by 6 to 12 months. But other then that everything was perfect, which was great news for us to hear!

We are still meeting with the original cardiologist on Friday so he can run his tests and to hear what he has to say but the second opinion this morning provided somewhat of a huge release of tension. We are not going to rest easy until after Friday’s appointment but we feel a bit more relieved and are much more confident with the second doctor then the first and not only because he told us what we were hoping to hear. The doctor today ran more tests, as well as give really good explanations as to what was going on and covered everything thoroughly. We didn’t leave with more questions then we came in with as we did after our first appointment with the other guy. Besides the first doctor had a slight arrogance about him, which is quickly and easily explained off due to the fact that he’s an admitted University of Michigan graduate (nice job Badgers).

Also, Samantha weighed in at 7 lbs 8.8 oz which is up a pound from last week and a pound and a half since birth. They also measured her length today at 21 inches which is a half inch longer then birth as well.

Another Song

As we were getting ready to leave for the hospital Kaylee and Allison wanted to check out the bed their new little sister would be sleeping in. As they played in the crib Kaylee gave us another one of her many serenades…enjoy!



VIDEO was reposted...try again.

Picture Ratings

Okay, so I'm browsing through the different slide shows with all the pictures we just posted and as I'm looking I notice a few comments posted here and there, which are great, we love the comments, whether on the slide show or on the blog. But then I look around a little further and see the ratings....4 stars!!! You rate our brand new little baby with only 4 of 5 stars?!?! Oooohhh boy I tell you....the least you could do is identify yourself or are you too scared? Afraid you won't get a Christmas gift are ya? At least two of you rated the album called "Our Little Sister" 5 out of 5. You two are lucky! But for that other person...what is Samantha not cute enough on her own to get that 5th star she has to have her brother and sisters in it too? You better hope I don't track you down. You are aware I am a father of three girls aren't you? If you knew that I had three girls then you should also be able to figure that it means I must own at least 2 shot guns (the third is on it's way). Are you starting to see the trouble you are in? Your only chance at redemption will be to pay for at least one of their weddings. Again, do the math...three girls.

Halloween

I figure it's been 24 hours so I know you are waiting for the Halloween pictures. So here they are. Kaylee is a little Princess at least that's what she dressed up as, Cinderella. Allison had two choices a Kangaroo (which was originally purchased for Kaylee but for the first time in her life she was too big for something) and a pretty little butterfly. We got Andrew a werewolf costume and he went out with his friends from the neighborhood, who were supposed to be "Emo" (emotional) kids or high school freshman as Elizabeth called them. Last but certainly not least, Samantha was our little pumpkin. While it would have been nice to have Andrew with us it was probably for the better since the mask scared Allison, Kaylee just laughed and thought he was funny. The pictures of the girls in their pajamas are from Tuesday night. They were able to stay up late and watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, they were also having fun practicing for the big night with their little pumpkin bags.

Season Change

Well the weather has finally started to turn and we are getting some good football weather coming in. It was nice to sit at a game and not sweat or worry about getting sun burnt. The problem is....football season ended yesterday, at least for Andrew it did. The Junior Raiders had their final game yesterday up at Northview H.S. (lost 6-34). The boys ended their season 1-7. They did win their scrimmage 16-8 as well as the game we missed due to Samantha's birth (42-0). Typically they weren't outplayed, less the Kell game when they were down 38-0 by 10 seconds into the 2nd quarter, they just always seemed to be out sized. It's just tough to judge true skill at this age given the disparity in growth amongst the kids. Remember I was only average height in middle school and shorter then my sister as a Freshman (5'4") but by my Senior year I was close to 6'4".

Now it's on to basketball season, which starts today. I got coaxed into coaching again this year. I wasn't going to given the chaos that seems to be our life right now, but the league director made a passionate plea for 3 or 4 more volunteers otherwise they wouldn't be able to field enough teams to let all the boys play. So...here we go again. It will be fun though. I was able to pick two of the boys from my team last year, who Andrew is friends with, so that will make it fun too. Only issue I foresee is that size disparity thing I mentioned before. I've got one kid who is 5'3" then Andrew next at 5' followed by 5 kids at 4'11" and one at 4'10". We're just going to have to make the other teams run and keep up, which means I get to make the boys run a lot in practice to get in shape (can you see the smirk on my face?). We'll let you know how the season progresses...it'll be hard to do worse then last year.

Updates

We had Samantha's 3 day check with her pediatrician this morning and they weighed her in at 6lbs 1.3oz. This is good progress given her reflux. When we left the hospital she had dropped from 6lbs 0.4oz down to 5lbs 11oz. We also had a follow up appointment with the Cardiologist this afternoon, busy day for a 6 day old. The cardiologist said the murmur was sounding a lot better but there was still a slight abnormality present on the EKG. He said he was sure it would be something she would grow out of over the next few weeks and that most babies are born with something similar but they are going to continue to monitor it.

Here are some pictures of getting her ready to come home on Monday and a few since she's been home.

After being with Samantha for those first few days at the hospital our little Allison seemed to have doubled in size while we were gone. After we all took turns on the scale the results were Kaylee 24.6 lbs, Allison 22.3 lbs and Daddy well mine began with a 2 but it had an extra digit thrown on there. Here are some more pictures of the other two girls playing around the house. They were sitting in their new camping chairs watching Lion King on "Feature Friday".

We Love Our Little Sister

We were fortunate to have Grandma Marty change her flight and come in on Friday afternoon. She took on the daunting task of watching after the three kids while we were at the hospital. Grandma brought all the kids up Saturday evening after Andrew's football game (which they had their first win of the season, 42-0) as well as Sunday afternoon. Andrew was an eager big brother as he has been after the birth of Kaylee and Allison and Kaylee was very excited about her "baby Mantha".

Here are some pictures of the kids with their new little sister.

She's Here

Samantha Anne Luchenbill joined us this past weekend at 12:12 AM Saturday morning. She decided to show a little of her personality right from the beginning too. Elizabeth was checked by the doctor at around 8:30 and was dilated to 3 with the head down. At around 11, after the epidural, the doctor broke her water and suddenly noticed the head was no longer down. Within that 2 hour period Samantha pulled a 180 and was suddenly sitting breach. At that time they decided to do a C-Section.

They took Elizabeth into the OR around 11:50 and I joined around midnight after she was all prepared for the procedure. By 12:10 they had the bottom half of Samantha out but had a little trouble getting the head out. The doctor told us that she had to grab Samantha's foot three times because she kept pulling it away from her. Due to the stress with getting the head out Samantha had a few problems taking her first few breathes (the chest and lungs came out and were able to expand before the head and mouth were clear to inhale). She needed a little assistance for the first minute and a half, however by the five minute mark she was doing just fine breathing on her own. However due to the breathing issues they kept her in the nursery over night for observation and to run some tests. Unfortunately for us that meant we couldn't see her or spend any time with her until the next morning. After all she had to go through Elizabeth had to wait 8 hours before she got to hold her little one. We went into the nursery and were able to spend a little time with her in the morning. The nurse brought her up to us around noon on Saturday and she was able to stay with us from then on. Fortunately, everything is okay with her now and I was able to bring both Momma and Baby home last night.

You will need to keep checking back as I have 150+ pictures to sort through and get posted on here. For now you can enjoy this first pictures...

Football

Apparently football runs in the family...both kinds (of football that is). While we were waiting for Andrew to get done with practice the girls got their chance to show their skills.

The video is a little dark, but you get the point, and it got cut short because a text message came in and shut the camera on my phone off. Allison just had so much fun running and getting the ball and bringing it back to me. She would actually hand it off then take off running before I even rolled it out there for her. If I didn't do it quick enough she would stop and look back at me like "what are you waiting for".

Concert Time

If you have called our house at any point over the past year I am sure you have been treated to a Kaylee concert. For those of you who haven't here is what you have missed. Kaylee has also been learning how to dance. Enjoy...

Oh to have the energy of a two year old. Is there any wonder why Elizabeth is exhausted by the time I get home from work?

Soccer Saturday

Andrew had an off week from football so we headed over to the soccer fields Saturday to watch Ashley's soccer game. We haven't had the chance to spend any time with Matt and Michelle and all the kids for awhile, so it was nice to see them. The kids had fun running around and playing with some extra soccer balls that were sitting there.

Here are Emily, Sarah and Kaylee all sitting on their soccer balls. This was actually not a posed picture, I turned around and they were all just sitting there, so I had to get the picture quick.

Sarah was teaching Allison how to kick the soccer ball.

Welcome

Well we finally decided to get the family blog up and going. We figured given our distance from all our family and with the kids growing and changing every day this would be a good way to keep everyone updated and informed with our goings on. Elizabeth had been working on a static Luchenbill family web-page but she's had one or two things going on recently and her hands have been a little full.

Thanks go out to Brian and Angela (and of course Kate) Alwine for the inspiration, in watching their blog. Not only are we following your lead with blogging but I am so unimaginative that I mimicked your tittle as well.

Check back...updates and pictures are soon to come.