Kiersten Joy Valiante

We joyfully announce the birth of our little girl, Kiersten Joy Valiante.  She arrived on Wednesday night at 9:33 P.M. and weighed 7.3 pounds and was 19 inches long.  She has beautiful brown hair and dark bluish eyes (at least at the present).  We think her eyes will change to a green or brown over the coming months.  She is a beautiful little girl.  Although she shares some similarities in appearance with Micah, she looks very different from him.  She has mommy’s fingers and toes, as well as her cute “Muth” crease above her cheek bone, and daddy’s hair color and dimple in her right ear.  In all, she is a cutie. 

Sarah did a wonderful job throughout the labor and delivery.  Although the labor lasted an exhausting 36 hours, the delivery on the other hand took only 2 minutes.  We continually thank the Lord for His protection and watch care over us through every aspect of the birth.  We only had to stay in the hospital for a day and a half (Wednesday night to Friday morning) which we were thankful for.  We missed our little boy more than I every imagined we could while we were in the hosptial.  It was amazing to see how big he looked after not having seen him for a couple of days.  Micah is truly enjoying his baby sister.  He loves to hold her (with mommy and daddy’s help), and point to her and say “Bebee”. 

The pictures below show our family after we brought Kiersten home from the hospital.  The first couple are of our family (us, mom, dad, Ruth).  The last two show Micah sporting his snazzy outfit he got from Aunt Kathy, with the final one of Micah and Uncle John who was sneaking him some delicious chocolate cake.  

LBC Teen Choir - “Be Thou My Vision”

The video below is our Teen Choir singing an arrangement of Be Thou My Vision. I hope it is an encouragement to you.

Everything

Sorry for the long delay in posting on our blog. Things have been so busy, but very good. Sarah and I have purchased a new home (closing on February 2 that will give us a lot more space and is in an amazing area. The property is a wooded lot on a cul de sac with just over one acre which is relatively hard to find in this area. The home borders the Fair Hill State Park in Maryland which is just outside of the Pennsylvania and Delware borders. Two people on our street own horses and when we came to see it the last time, we had to be careful not to run over the chickens who were hang around the road. In the coming weeks we will try to let you know how the Lord worked all of these things out.

In order to make this new home purchase we needed to rent out our present home. Selling it presently was not a very good option, so we put an advertisement in the paper and were amazed at the interest. After reviewing the six applications that came in within five days, we made a decision on who to rent our home out to. They are a very nice couple, and we were suprised at how difficult it was to make a decision regarding who to allow to rent it.

One other item I wanted to mention was the Puerto Rico Missions Trip that our teens are taking this coming July. In preparation for this trip, we have created a blog in which our teens are writing articles regarding missions. I have been stunned by the depth of theology in their writing. I did not help them one bit with their articles, I simply gave them the topics. You can view this blog at:

www.lbcteenmissions.blogspot.com

It’s A Girl!

We had an ultrasound today and were thrilled to find out the LORD has given us a baby girl! She is healthy, on schedule, and shy. . . like her Mama. We would have liked to share pictures, but did not receive any that were very clear. She decided to face her back toward us when we were ready for her snapshot. Oh, well . . . we’re sure she’s a cutie like her big brother!

Baby Number Two!

Days have gone by so quickly! This past month we had two ultrasounds of our little one. The first is at around 10 weeks 3 days. The doctors were not expecting him/her to be so early (the test we had scheduled was for a 12 week old baby), so they sent us home right away before finishing any testings. We then came back a two weeks later and finished the tests. As far as we know everything is going smoothly. We thought you would like a picture of the two week difference:

Micah has also grown in the last couple of months. He now has 6 visible teeth and two more that are up higher (though we can’t be sure they have actually come in). He has been doing well with crawling, pulling himself up, and trying to stand without support.

Tim has been faithfully working on our basement trying to complete the walls for painting…then comes tile and the finishing touches. We hope to have a separate living room soon…maybe by next year!

For me, this pregnancy has gone pretty well, though I must admit the morning sickness is much different. The ladies at church are convinced already that this one is a girl. We look forward to finding out, if we have another ultrasound, so far, no guarantees.

Surprise!

We are excited to share the news of the new addition to our growing family. What a wonderful surprise the Lord had in store for us when we found out the news on Labor Day.

Although it was just a hunch, I was the first to realize that Sarah was pregnant while we were sitting in church on the day before Labor Day. I looked over at Sarah during the message time, and I saw a look I had not seen for a number of months. I am not sure I can describe it exactly, but it was the same look I had seen in the early weeks of her pregnancy with Micah. On the way home from church, I suggested that we find out if she were pregnant or not. We waited until we could both see the results (with Micah in Daddy’s arms), and we both let out a gasp of amazement when we saw that indeed she was pregnant again. Micah definitely shared in our excitement.

Last Monday, Micah got to share the joyful news with my parents, as he proudly wore an “I’m a Big Brother” t-shirt. What fun to share the news! If you would like to see some of my family’s reactions, you can check out the video below. There is also some bonus footage if you watch to the end.

I am very glad that Micah will have the opportunity to grow up with a sibling close in age. I loved (for the most part) having a big brother 18 months older than me. It is wonderful that Micah will get to experience the same joy, although Micah’s sibling will be even closer with Sarah’s due date being April 28 (making them 14 months apart).

Sarah was able to tell the news to her parents on the ride up to see my family on that Monday. They were excited to find out that they now have a dozen grandkids!

We thank the Lord for being so gracious to us, and blessing us far beyond what we deserve, or what we could ever hope for.

“Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: He is their help and shield. The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.” Psalm 115:9-15

Although this Psalm is certainly describing God’s physical blessings upon the nation of Israel (and our view of God’s blessing should not be seen in light of what many consider “material blessings”) we exalt the Lord for finding it good in His sight to give us another child.

May we have grace to raise this little one up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that both he/she and Micah may love and serve Him with gladness.

A First Taste

It has been a little while since Micah had his first taste of “solid food,” but we wanted to share the video we captured of the event.  Micah is doing so well, and eating extremely well.  In the video, you will see Micah eating rice.  This is one of his favorites.  So far he has also eaten oatmeal and today he tried peas.

We hope that you enjoy seeing our little boy who is growing up so fast!

The Haircut

Well, it was finally time (maybe past time) for Micah to get his first haircut. We thought you might enjoy seeing some before and after pictures. Daddy did his best to give his little boy a sharp looking haircut. We are posting a couple before and after pictures below. We actually tried to “tame” his hair on the before shots, but to no avail. And yes, we did save a lock of his hair (actually four of them). By the way, Micah loves his rubber ducky.

Two Teeth and a Chicken

Micah has had a two teeth break through. After two months of drooling and gnawing on his hand, Micah now has his two front teeth on his bottom gum. Daddy has personally experienced that they are sharp.

For those of you who thought that we gave Micah chicken to celebrate this momentous occasion, we did not. The chicken really has nothing to do with Micah’s teeth. We have included a video of Micah having fun with the chicken as Mommy and Daddy played with him. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Tomorrow (August 15) will be Micah’s six month birthday. If any of you are celebrating half birthday’s, please include Micah on your list, as well as Micah’s mommy since her birthday falls so close to Christmas. Any suggestions about how to celebrate? We thought that adding rice to his pallet would be just the thing.

My Funny

I remember the story told where my brother, Tim, came home from school sad because “Sally didn’t laugh at my funny.” My brother and I worked on funnies in comic strips and pictures…we loved to draw.

In 2005, I believe, I entered an art school by correspondence. It was so exciting at first and challenging. I’ve learned so much and continue to learn, though rather slowly now with my little one in tow. This past April I had the chance of entering a contest for cartooning, so, I thought I’d give it a try. My entry was one of 250 and was in the top 10% to be judged. I thought I would like to share it with you. Let me know what you think…did it make you laugh or smile? I hope to enter another contest…we’ll see how well I can keep up with everything.

The “funny” actually came from a true story Grandpop Valiante told us. I wonder if I’ll get to do more of these with the funnies from the Muth family memories =).