Christmas recovery!!

So we have the largest disaster in our family room. It's full of boxes, toys, and camping gear. That's right. We have our tent!! It's huge, with a 7foot head clearance inside for us tall folk. Target had a great clearance sale on camping items, so we got the girls and myself a sleeping bag, our lantern, and other misc small items, a wash basin for dishes.... the list goes on. So yesterday I got all of our laundry washed and folded, and with Stephan sleeping all day I tend to get behind on putting things away. Today he is working a double shift so I'm working on making our bedroom tidy, and putting away every ones hanging laundry, as I have every ones including the kids clothing in my closet. They have a large dresser and 2 small sets of drawers in their bedroom that houses folded items, I hang their dresses, and tops. Then I'll do some work on the family room I should really do a before and after shot, it's terrible, and to top things off Tristen is teething making free hands hard to come by. Gotta get it done Stephan's hoping that with a clean family room and moving the couch we may be able to put up the tent in the house so all us kids can try out our gear that's indoor safe, and see how the pack n play will fit w/the air beds. Fun!! and EXCITING. it helps to motivate and we have another week of Christmas break!

Chloe Turns 6

This day 6 years ago our oldest daughter was born. She had her birthday party a week early, and we will be headed out to eat at the restaurant of her choice this evening just the five of us to celebrate her official birthday.

The Rouze Family Christmas letter.

Many of you received this but for those I missed here it is!! Along with the Picture taken by our dear friend Warrie, special thanks to her for her hard work and dedication on this project.

Merry Christmas,

This year has been quite the adventure for our family. We began the year with our house on the market, a baby in Heather’s belly, and various other things to keep us busy. We took preventative measures knowing Heather would face some time on bed rest. We also took into consideration the third child we were expecting and the un-affordable costs of daycare. This dilemma left us looking to downsize our living quarters.
A good friend of ours, Phillip, had taken a job which required him travel the country most of the time. He had the perfect house for our family. A cozy little rancher nestled on almost an acre, with three bedrooms and a large family room. He agreed to sell the home to us upon the sale of our house. Of course, with the economy and all, this was easier said then done.
We actually listed our house in October of 2007. The start of 2008 left us without a single offer, and many pains to come. We had reduced the sale price to $40,000 less then the appraised value before our first offer. The first offer failed, then a second failed offer came, and finally God came through! After much prayer in May we received not only one, but two good offers, on the same day. We didn’t get as much as we wanted, but we closed with what we needed.
On May 27, 2008 we sold the big house and made the move. To add to that week in History on May 29th we ended up at the Hospital with a un-official family record baby weigh in. Tristen Leigh Rouze was born, coming into this world at 10lbs and 2oz!
Summer time was spent organizing the new home and enjoying the lower mortgage payment! We took the kids, along with Stephan’s parents, to Pennsylvania for a week vacation. We enjoyed going to Sesame Place, Amish County, the Crayola Factory, and the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. The kids had a good time, and the ‘big’ kids had a blast too! It was nice to see the family up north as well!
Perhaps the biggest thing of the summer came when we officially decided to keep our kids out of government schools and home school our children. It has taken a large commitment on our part, but it is well worth it. Chloe has already surpassed Kindergarten standards and is excelling rapidly. Molly is engaged in a preschool program and she too is taking off!
Chloe turns 6 in a week and Molly just turned 4 in September. The kids are growing up fast! They continue to make life interesting and un-predictable! We hope the New Year offers more excitement as we take up camping as a new family activity. We love all of you dearly. May God Bless you richly in the coming year!

Merry Christmas
Love,
Stephan, Heather, Chloe, Molly, & Tristen

Lost tooth!!!

Chloe lost her 1st tooth today!! What excitement! She has heard stories of the dollars her daddy received when he was a kid for each tooth he lost! I'll post a picture of her grin in the morning!

Best Christmas Gift EVER!!!

I receive a call while waiting to get Mikayla.. and it's Stephan singing to me.... "I'll be home for Christmas"

I was overcome with Pure Joy!!


Stephan is off Christmas eve into Christmas Day!!!!! He was supposed to work.. he worked overtime today and was asked to work next Sunday for someone, and he bartered Christmas eve night off!! I'm so very excited, now our typical Christmas will go as planned, and I couldn't have asked for more. So we'll go to my parent's place Christmas eve as usual. We'll have Christmas morning at home, then off to Stephan's mom's for breakfast since our home is no longer large enough to host. And then home for a rest if we desire.. then back to mom in law's for Christmas diner with the rest of the family!... I'm so excited have I mentioned that.....So 3 days until the festivities start!!

Chloe's Princess Birthday party

In the grand schedule December 20th, turned out to be the best weekend for Chloe's 6th birthday party. Stephan didn't have to work tonight so it just worked out well. Due to the size of our house and not having the extra spending cash to have the party elsewhere. I opted to have a kids only party, better yet a girls only party. My ex-sister in law was kind enough to allow me to have my neice Mikayla for the night, since she was the one person Chloe wanted to be there, the 2 of them are only 7weeks apart. My sister Jackie's girls Stirling(11) and Ainsley (10) came out to help with the party. 3 other girls where also able to come to the party, Ally, Katie, and Mackenzie. The night started out with playing, and watching some of "How the Grinch stole Christmas", then we ate pizza, played more, had cupcakes and ice cream, opened presents, played some more...
We played a game of pin the tierra on the princess, and painted nails complete with pretty nail stickers. Then all the girls played until their Dads arrived to pick up them up.
Mikayla, Stirling, and Ainsley all are spending the night.

(Pictures coming soon check back)

Bump in the night.....

12/18/08 2am....... settling in for the night.... yes that's normal for me.. the cat meow wakes Tristen, who then thinks she should eat, so I settle on the bed to feed her, and our dog Roupen starts barking like someone is here. I'm home alone, as Stephan is at work, so I call him. He stays on the phone and asks a fellow officer who works this area to just sing by to check the place out, for a little piece of mind, because well the dog was probably barking at an animal, but you never know. We've lived here 6 months and he has never barked after 11pm. So not only did one officer come out but there where 3. The house lit up w/ spot lights, they got out of their cars and walked the property. Special thanks to the lovely officers that keep my family safe while my husband is at the other end of town keeping other families safe. If I hadn't been feeding Tristen, I would have passed out some Christmas cookies, for their willingness to come out, to calm a officers wife that was totally freaked out by the fact that our dog was going bonkers.

Baking Cookies with Grandma

Wednesday morning we the girls and I where invited by Stephan's mom to come by and help with her annual day of baking Christmas cookies. I dropped Chloe and Molly off at 9am, took Tristen to her pediatrician appointment... she's now 16lbs. I returned at 11am, to start helping. I briefly saw our nephew Luke who turned one that day, and him mom Amy, who where there while I was at the pediatrician. There was a break from baking for a quick sandwich, then Chloe and Molly pushed along the activity of baking. Hours passed and the girls and I where still there, cutting, pressing, decorating, and baking cookies. It was near 445pm that we left to make our way home before attending church. A fun day, and break from school work for the girls and myself. I failed to pack a camera, and was just so wrapped up in helping I didn't even walk upstairs to use my father in laws camera, so this is one event without a single photo.

Men's Campout & Ladie's sleepover

December 12&13, 2008 The men from out church planed a large men's camp out. Yes in December, and yes outside. They had tents, sleeping bags, a camp fire, airsoft guns, and real guns, they ate well, and had a blast. So I had the bright idea of a ladies sleepover at my place with much less invited b/c our new house can not hold too many people. The plan watch Christmas movies and veg all weekend. Not so much. The movies played only Warrie, and Tina spent the night, the crew of kids as in mine and Tina's took forever to go to sleep, and sleep did not come well to me. There was a full moon, and the kids and animals where all in rare form, the 1st night, and we where up bright and early with the kids. The next day went a little smoother however busy with misc tasks. Come night time more folks came out for just diner that equaled more kids. This was a fun but crazy evening. Then bed time came, the little girls went off to bed and I actually watched my 1st beginning to end movie of the weekend. Once the movie was over, bedtime I was happy to great it, Tristen on the other hand was not, I found myself up until 430am. By the time 8am rolled around I was miserable for more reasons than I care to write about, and knew I wouldn't make the 30min drive to church nor last the service, so we opted to stay home. Then my rest began. Warrie sent me off for a nap when I was falling asleep sitting up on the couch, and I had a good 2 hours of rest at least. The men have decided the women need a weekend kid free... smart men.. so they have informed us February is a good time, and they will have another camp out in April. I have learned my lesson.. though a sleepover and the idea of the event sounded great, I was more exhausted than ever... Just to used to the fact that if my girls are left alone in the morning after a late night they will sleep in until they are well rested. So no more mega sleepover planing for me.....

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!!!

December 9,2008.
Stephan needed to go to a sporting goods store to purchase his sleeping bag for an upcoming(past) Men's camp out. So I decided why not go the open air mall that blows snow each night at 7pm for a kick, it was maybe 65degrees that night. So the white flecks in the photos snow blown from the top of the stores for about 5-10min. The kids loved it and Tristen is always happy to be outside in the fresh air.

Weekend to the lake... 12/05/08-12/07/08

Chloe & Molly

Heather (me!!) & Stephan

Ryan & Warrie

The Lake House!


We took a weekend trip to Lake Gaston w/ Ryan and Warrie. It was cold, and we where lucky the house has a wood stove upstairs and an open fire place downstairs for heat. So we stayed warm, w/the fires burning and space heaters working we had a great relaxing weekend away with good friends. Prior to leaving Stephan purchased us a Wii fit, so we ALL tried it out. We decided for the guys to ride together and the girls to ride together. When we where almost to the lake house, I had trouble controlling the van but was able to barely stay on the road, and we made it safely to the house. The weekend was full of video games, movies and rest. Chloe and Molly always enjoy a weekend getaway and have a way of being well behaved. When leaving on Sunday Stephan noticed the van was not handling well and we thought we hit something, so once on a hard surface he got out to check things out. Turns out we had a flat tire. With an hour drive ahead, the guys changed the tires and we headed for back roads since driving on the spare at a high rate of speed is not recommended. On the ride home we passed a house engulfed in flames, apparently no one was harmed, but it was alarming to see. Everyone made it home safely after a nice weekend of R&R. We had the tire fixed by Ryan's brother CJ on Monday afternoon.

School & Tristen's chair

Real Date December 1, 2008

School is coming along nicely, 73days worth past already. Tristen was no longer liked being put in a bouncy seat or her exersaucer, while we had school. She then preferred to be held so she could see what was going on. That was challenging when attempting to help Chloe or Molly, and having Tristen grabbing papers, pencils, and books. So On December 1st when we adventured out to the post office, we made a stop at Kmart to get something for Tristen to sit in at the kitchen table with us. Now Tristen sits with us when we do our school work.

VIRUS!!!!

So for about 2 weeks we had been with out our PC, it was infested w/crazy computer viruses. Then the laptop I have we have been using for about 1 week. It works for checking email messages, and well I think I wrote all of one email. I have at least 3 blogs to type up, with pictures to go along with them over the next week.. I work Monday and plan to at least get one posted each evening during the week to get caught up. We have been a busy family so watch out the blogs are on their way now that the PC have been healed up, thanks to hours of Ryan's IT help!!