I have a Nephew!

Well, in the midst of our germ-crisis there is a bit of good news on the horizon today which has made us smile! :)

I am happy to announce that my one and only brother and his wonderful wife welcomed their second child and first boy, Austin Thomas, today! (8lbs, 2oz--no idea on length...born at 4:57pm)

YAY!!!!!!

We're soooo excited for them and so happy the Gritz name will go on! I hear he is an adorable (handsome) little guy and looks a lot like his daddy. Though I'm still waiting for some proof in the way of pictures (trying to be patient...hint, hint :)). As soon as I get some I'll try to post them.

Hope Big Sis Brooke is enjoys her new lil' brother as much as I always enjoyed mine (aka dressing him up like a girl and sharing my cabbage patch kids and care bears with him :)). Good times to be a big sis and have a lil' bro! But, we're so happy for you guys and the new Gritz addition and love the name, Austin. Hailey was possibly going to be an Austin if she was a boy...so if we had it on our baby name list you know it's a good one! haha :) Though I still do like George W. too (Austin's in-utero name which was a Pops' favorite :)).

Welcome baby Austin!!! Your Aunt, Uncle and 4 Cousins in IN can't wait to meet you...hopefully you won't be almost a year old by then!

another one bites the dust...and another...

...well, that's pretty much the jest of it around here as far as sickness goes....

The germs are winning the war in the Steg house this week...Dylan and Shelb were up at the exact same time this morning puking in their beds (oh joy!)

Worn out is an understatement for how we feel around here...it's been the longest 2 weeks ever and I am ready to wash down this house (and all the people in it) with Lysol.

Ash and Daddy are the only ones who have been spared thus far, but I'm not holding my breath they will be puke-free much longer :(

Sigh :( :(

Not meant to be :(

Well my hopes and prayers for a better week were just not meant to be...at least not yet :( Hailey started puking at 1am this morning and was up pretty much every 30 mins since then (apparently I was wrong about the food poisoning...it's a nasty vomit virus?). Poor Hailey is so disheartened...not only to be sick (she is never sick...she's the healthiest of our bunch), but to miss school (she hasn't been absent from school in 2 years)...and to miss one of the first few days of school too....just really stinks. Neither of us slept much last night so we are just worn down. The whole family is worn down. If you could just say a tiny prayer for our health and for a tad bit of mental sunshine to come our way we'd greatly appreciate it. Being sick for 9 days is just no good for anyone, especially a busy mom who needs to be there for her kiddos :( Praying for a better rest-of-the-week....and for the germs of the house to vacate the premises and not invade the other Steg 4...

Better week?

Just when I thought things were getting better after my week-long ordeal with no voice and no sleep due to a nasty cough/upper resp thing, I get (what I think) is food poisoning at Shelby's school pool party on Friday. Puked all that evening and slept all day yesterday. I don't think I'll eat hot dogs again for a long time. I am starting to get depressed over here...this is now how I anticipated "back to school" week :(

Lord, please make this week be a better one, cuz a sick and worn out mama does not make for a happy house :(

Back to School...already! :) :(

Well, it was Back to School today for the oldest kids in the Steg fam. I have a whole post started on "the big day", but I am very down and out with some kind of respiratory thing (lost voice included) so I can only muster enough energy to post this one pic of my darlings after their first day of school (the a.m. pics I took made them look so sleepy--which they rightfully were at 6am). All I will say about the day right now is that it was overall great....5th for Hailey was perfection (same teacher, same classroom, same best friends...she couldn't be any happier!)...and 1st for Shelb was fairly perfect as well (our fav. 1st grade teacher (Hailey's old one) and some good friends of hers in class with her...aside from the boy next to her who took her new box of kleenex and getting on the wrong bus to come home...all was great!) :) More about that all later. My question for the day....why does time have to go by so quickly? I still remember sending both my girls off to preschool for the first time....now look at them....being a mom and watching your babies grow up in the blink of an eye is tough sometimes :(

Random-ness

Just a very quick, very random post of just a few of the many, many comings and goings of the Steg gang the last few weeks. School starts this week so I am hoping I can get my rear back in blog gear and start updating...but for now this is all I've got! :).....first off, we had some AWESOME times in FL last month! Lots of pool time for the 2 lil' ones and I and Nina and Pops...so fun and so relaxing...and definitely a highlight for the kiddos!
We had the most awesome time at the beach...the BEST we've ever had. Remember that usually we go to FL in Dec/Jan. when it's not exactly warm and nice. Going in July was ideal and the weather was just perfection. Yes, it was hot, but not terribly humid and the water was perfect and clear and almost flat. My fav. part was watching Dylan run back and forth in the waves...he was in heaven. I haven't seen him that happy in a long time. He just loved every sec of it and I loved watching him (and his blow-up worm :)).
Ash was equally cute and had an awesome time as well! Thanks, Nina, for taking us! Maybe next time we go you will obey the rules of the sun and put on sunscreen?! Your legs will thank you!
Here is Dylan learning how to jump off Pops' shoulders into the pool (at night, might I add :)). I think we were all a bit shocked to see how daring our little boy got when his Pops showed him some "tough love" :) He came back to Indiana an AWESOME swimmer, that's for sure! He can swim the whole length of a pool now. Amazing, what a real pool in the backyard can do for a kid!
And since I am doing this post partially for my bored buddy, Lein who is patiently waiting for her overdue mystery baby to show his/her face...I had to post a pic of her in her nursery with baby in belly along with crazy Ash (not sure what she's doing to her face??) Soooo excited for Lein and Marc and their 1st little bundle that hopefully arrives this week! :) Isn't the nursery adorable? I love the brightness of it.
Another funny beach shot...if it's one thing the "picky eaters" in our fam. loved to eat in FL it was watermelon! I think they at two big whole watermelons by themselves in those 9 days! :)
And then a few random pics from NC...one of our fav. new things to do this year was go to Sliding Rock (thanks to my bro who came up with this idea). The kids loved it....basically you slide down a big rock into a deep pool at the bottom. Very fun, but very cold :) (above is Hailey sliding)
A family pic of our NC gang/the Gritz fam at the cabin. Aren't we a handsome group?!

Our gang on the Blue Ridge Parkway...gotta love the mountains!
Uncle Jeff tubing down Big Creek with Shelby...
Nina and Pops with the 4 oldest grandkids....I have one of them with Brooke included too, but can't find it in our masses of pics right now....
Pops making Ash laugh with his whiskers :)
Hailey jumping off the big rock after our almost 2 mile hike here...she was very nervous doing this since the first time she tried she got stuck in the current...

Shelby with her new pet (Sally the salamander)....who we discovered later that day did not like to be removed from her natural habitat (RIP, Sally) :(
The twin cousins having a staring contest :)
Dylan and Thomas! This was a surprise trip...we discovered that for the first time Thomas the Train was in NC when we were. We surprised Dylan and took him the last day we were in NC. He loved it!
And one of my fav. summer moments...watching Hailey dance. She spent most of July in her summer intensive ballet sessions. It was an overall great experience, but it came with some valuable life lessons learned too. But, she was in ballet heaven learning the ins and outs of Swan Lake...is she not gorgeous in the above real tutu (the first time she'd worn a real one like this). She danced beautifully and it was such a joy to watch her. (the above pic is of her first intermediate session that I was able to see)
I sadly missed the second advanced session performance (as I was in FL)...but thankfully Kev's parents had their new, good camera along and took a few pics...here are some of them. Wow, check out how flexible our ballerina is. All I can say is "ouch". (she's 2nd one on the right)
And here is Hailey after the performance with her beautiful flowers from Nina and Poppy....and below is her in action...wish I'd had this nice camera for the 1st performance. Much better pics than what I got with my camera.
Anyway...trust me when I say I have many more pics I will attempt to share in the coming weeks. But for now random-ness is all I can give. Happy end-of-summer!

12 Years with My Man! :)

12 years ago today I married the man I'd waited my whole young life for! :) I knew I was blessed on that beautiful wedding day, but honestly I didn't know how blessed I'd become year after year being married to this wonderful man of mine. It's been the craziest 12 years I could have dreamed of, but there's one thing that holds true in the midst of it all...I wouldn't have wanted to spend a single moment of it w/o him right by my side. I love you, Kevin, and saying "I do!" to you 12 years ago this afternoon was the 1st greatest blessing of my life...followed by the 4 little beautiful blessings that were a result of our love and God's greatness :) I love you, Babe...more and more every day and as cliched as it is to say...you complete me! Happy 12th Anniversary to my Man!

Finally Home! :)

Well, after 2 1/2 weeks of loafing around like a lazy person in the mountains of NC and the coast of FL I am home and back to hum drum things like housekeeping and laundry and blogging! :) I have so many thoughts about the last few weeks, but I am still just plain tuckered out from all the traveling and being thrust quickly back into the chaos of 4 kids and life. But, be rest assured I have TONS of pics to share and lots of sentiments as well. For now I'll just say that NC was heavenly...wonderful times spent with family (though very little down time...we need to work on that for next year!)....and FL was just perfection...hanging out with Nina and Pops and swimming almost every day in the pool with the two littlest ones by my side. It was just good, good times. Now the countdown is on for school...2 weeks from today. Where has the summer gone?! More to come....