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.