The Girls

I can't seem to figure out Shutterfly, it's not letting me upload any pictures, it just crashes. So here are a few recent pictures of our girls.
Caley has lately loved practicing to be a mommy...she reads to Ernie and Grover...

Gives them milk...

Then tucks them in for night-night...


Complete with Yellow Blankie!


She also likes to read to Amelia!



Amelia likes to sleep--a lot.

Farewell Mr. Lincoln...

Today we gave away Lincoln, the bunny. We decided that he wasn't getting the attention he needed or deserved since Amelia was born. Actually last weekend we let him out to play and then forgot about him! About 3 hours later we realized he was gone, but thankfully he'd just escaped to the next-door neighbor's yard. Maybe another time we'll get a bunny again, when the kids are old enough to help care for him. We gave him to a family that lives pretty close, so maybe we'll get to visit him occasionally. Until then, we will miss you Lincoln, we wish you Godspeed.

Practical Caley

Caley has been working on potty training. If she pees or poops in the toilet, she gets to put a stamp on her "Potty Train" sheet. There are about 30 spots for stamps on the sheet and when she finishes a sheet she gets a present. Eventually, we'll work up to filling in multiple sheets for a present until she is fully trained. Yesterday she finished her first sheet, so we went to Toys R Us and she chose a present! We were thinking she'd choose a toy or maybe a ball or car. After walking through the whole store, she decided on a Tinkerbell umbrella! We offered her other toys, but she was set on the umbrella. It was even raining when we left so she got to use it. And she beamed holding it at church today walking in the rain to Children's Ministry. Caley's so practical, just like her parents. Way to go girl!

A Project in Progress

Just like Jesus worked as a carpenter, Bill has been working on an octagonal picnic table. He started in early July as an anniversary present, and he's hoping this project will be the first of many. Along the way he's made numerous trips to Home Depot, bought a mitre saw, made the garage a little dusty, and learned a lot. Here are some pictures of the process.

Amelia Diann is here!

We are now a family of four.

Amelia Diann Gerlach arrived 2 weeks early on August 6, 2007. In the last week we've learned that God has a sense of humor and incredible timing. We had a false alarm on Thursday Aug. 2 in which we thought my water had broken, rushed to the hospital after dropping Caley off with some friends, only to be sent home 2 hours later.

They say that second labors are usually half as long as the first, but for me it was 3x as long. My water broke at 4am on Monday morning and she was born at 5:36pm. They started me on a pitocin drip after a few hours of non-progress, it was like my body needed to be reminded what to do. It was actually a blessing because the biggest fear I had of this labor was that it'd be so short there wouldn't be enough time to get the antibiotics in my system to guard the baby against Group B Strep. Bill and I took naps and watched some TV, and he ate the lunch from the hospital since I wasn't allowed to. And Caley got to visit us, which was really nice. Once my body was in active labor, it took about 3 hours for Amelia to be born. She was 6lbs, 14ozs and 19.5 inches long. We chose Amelia because it was a name we both liked (actually we considered it with Caley but it got bumped) and Diann as a combo of our mom's names Diana and Ann.

The first week is going really well, Amelia's sleeping a lot which is easing the transition for all of us. Caley's a little blindsided, but always asks to hug and kiss the baby, and has even been waking at night and yelling, "See baby!" Cute, but not at 3am...

So enjoy these pictures and more on our Shutterfly site (link to the left). Jesus is good to us!