Puppies!!

The puppies are here!!  Grace, our pure-bred boxer had puppies on Thursday, and we are all excited to see them!  :)  We had 4 males and 1 female.  They will be ready to be weaned sometime close to Thanksgiving! :)  If you are interested let us know.  We will be selling them for $200 for the males and $250 for the female.  They are absolutely beautiful puppies, that's for sure! 

Check out the pics at this link for all the pics.  I've included a few pics here.  :)

Pictures! :)

Well I told you I would post pictures, and it may have taken me some time, but here they are. This week is going pretty good. :) Blessings! -Mark

Keith sitting up on our bed!!
Doesn't he look peaceful! :)

Ray can be pretty sweet. :)

Ray and mommy :)

Don't mess with me and my brother, or I'll take you out! :)

You can view more pictures at http://gallery.me.com/dalevillechristian and click on the "Landis Family Jun and July" album. :)

Back at school...

I don't know how much I'll have time to blog, but I want to at least try to do it! :) I enjoy getting out some of my thoughts, and getting to brag on my kids. Ray and Keith are awesome! :)

Keith is now 4 1/2 months old and now weighs in at 8 pounds 8 oz. He is 27 inches long!! He is officially a big baby! :)

I must run now, but I will try to get new pics up. You can also check out the gallery page for more pics.

http://gallery.me.com/dalevillechristian

Blessings!

PICS! :)

Wow is Keith getting big or what!  He is about 20 pounds already if not more (we have difficulty getting him to stand on the scales!) LOL!   J/K!  We stand on the scale, weigh ourselves, then weigh ourselves with him in our arms...and we get about 20-22 pounds.  Not sure how accurate, but it must be close.  (Not that what we weigh is correct when I see the weight by myself!LOL!)  

Here is him sleeping in his car seat at church.

Here is Ray with one of the youth group kids.  

More pics soon hopefully.  Mommy has been really busy, and so has daddy.  

We've been staying with my parents to help out since my dad's surgery last Wednesday.  He had his ankle fixed AGAIN, but this time by a new doctor that actually did it right this time!  The last doctor messed it up and didn't fix everything that he should have fixed.  So, we're busy taking care of our 2 kids, the 3 dogs, plus helping out my parents with chores that my dad normally would be doing, ie mowing the lawn and taking out the trash! LOL! :)  It is a blessing to be able to help though.  

Well, I'm going back to bed, couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd blog! LOL! Hopefully I can get to sleep now.  

Blessings!

Mark

I know...

it has been a long time since I posted.  So, in just a few sentences I'll share what has happened since I last posted, and I will get some pics up here soon.  

1.  June 14th I broke my left foot riding on the Tour de Cure bike ride.  In a cam walker until it is healed..hopefully soon!  It makes it really hard to do a lot of things! :(

2.  Church pulled me on full time and that is going great!  We've had kids at the youth center every day we've had it open!!  Praise the Lord!

3.  Keith is getting huge, and stands up to the bottom of Ray's sternum already!!  He is so tall!

4.  Really busy at the church, but loving it.  

I'll write more later, but I've got kids in the youth center already!  :)  Praise the Lord!

Blessings, 

Mark

Almost...

Well we're almost done with school for the year. Just 2 more days and we're outa here for the summer. I love my job here at school, don't get me wrong, I do, but I'm ready to be out for a while. Enough running around like a chicken with the head cut off. :)

As we come to a close on the school year I am reminded of some special people who I work with that I will not see again for a while. Kelli and Amy, whom I work with are awesome, and I appreciate their friendship greatly. Also Kelly is a great friend, and I will miss you over the summer too. Thanks to all of you for being there when I needed someone. :) Hopefully we can get together over the summer, but perhaps we all will be plenty busy this summer and if that is the case, see you next year.

2 more days!!
Praise the Lord!

PS I'm preaching tonight at church, so feel free to say a prayer that I make it there safely and it goes well. I have a detention until just before 6 and then the service is at 6:30. With a 25 minute drive I should make it in just enough time. :) Thanks!

Blessings,
Mark

Praise the Lord!!

Okay, so I didn't get this written up until now, but it still is exciting news!! Starting June 1st (YESTERDAY!) I am full time at the church!! I will continue to be full time until August 9th when I will revert back to part-time status. This will allow me to focus fully on the youth this summer, and pour my heart into the ministry. I'm praying that the Lord leads in the direction needed to make this summer a productive summer. I would love to have some grants that I could write that would help the church open the youth center full time AND perhaps pay me so that I can continue full time next year. :) Would you join with me in prayer for that? Thanks!

Keith, Ray and Tina are all doing fine. I'll have some new pics up soon, I promise. This is the last week of school, so I look forward to finishing up the finals week and starting up the church full time. :)

Blessings!
Mark

Busy in pictures...

Tina has been busy with pictures, and just in the last few days has taken 40+ pictures of the boys.  I've uploaded just a few here, but as always you can go to our web gallery to see more.  :)  They are probably on the last page or so of the gallery, I'll set up a new gallery soon, I promise!

Smile for the camera!

I'm trying to go to sleep, but you keep taking pictures!

Another great smile for the camera!

Big Brother is still VERY helpful! :)

One last parting smile for the night!  

Pictures...

Okay, so I didn't have it done before the beginning of the day today, and I deserve to be yelled at, but I'm getting it done now. I had the pictures downloaded to the computer, just not uploaded to here.

So cute cuddling with daddy! :)

A little spit up, but that never hurt anybody!Here I GO! Holding my head up high! :)

TGIF!

Okay, so I'm planning to post more pictures soon, but just had to say TGIF!!

The Lord has been at work in my life this week, and I've been relying on Him more and more to get me through the days. First thing in the morning and before going to bed, I've been diving deeper into the Word and spending time in prayer. It's amazing how God gives you the strength you need to make it through the day, even when you don't get enough sleep, when you spend time with Him more. Praise the Lord! :)

School is going well, I really enjoy my job, and love the people I work with. Today we said goodbye to one of our great IA's Gretchen. Gretchen found herself a new job and is moving on. She has been an IA for a long time, and she will be missed greatly! She has a heart of gold and will help anyone who needs it. Thanks for always being a great listener and making people smile Gretchen! :)

Please pray for Kelly B. from the school. She had a bought last night with her heart and blood pressures being extremely high. No word yet on how she is doing today, but hopefully she's doing much better, and has sought medical treatment.

I'll update the blog tonight or tomorrow and put more pictures on, I promise! And if I don't, you can all yell at me Monday! :)

May the Lord continue to bless you all!
Mark

Fun times we have...

Sometimes in life I just have to laugh and have fun because if I don't I'll cry. The last few days have been full of those times but you just have to make the best of it.

I must say that my wife and I have been reconnecting since the birth of Keith, and are enjoying this time of reconnection. I've decided that until I'm full time at the church, I don't need to be putting in full time hours. I'm cutting back on the amount of time I spend checking e-mail and responding/writing e-mails. I'm trying to cut back so that I can have more time with my family.

I've come to terms with myself, and I believe that God has granted me peace with backing away from some of the extras I was doing at the church. I'm not letting them go completely, just not letting them consume me. I love my work at the church, and don't want to let anything go! :) My immediate goal now is to dive into the Word more often and pray more fervently for God to move in our lives.

Last weekend Tina and I spent most of Saturday just deep cleaning the living room and some of the kitchen. This weekend it's on to the kitchen table, the rest of the kitchen and the den/dog's room. Hopefully in the next 3 weeks we can have the house ready for the market and try to sell it. If you know of anyone looking for a 3 bedroom 1 bath ranch home on 3/4 of an acre in the country, overlooking beautiful Lake Placid Christian Campground and Lake, let us know! :)

May God continue to Bless each and every one of you. I'm so glad that you're all in our lives! :)

Blessings!
Mark

WOOHOO!

While I truly enjoy the people I work with, going back to work today was not something I wanted to do.  We had just finished up a week off for Spring Break, and I really enjoyed spending the day with the family.  Tina, Ray, Keith and I would relax around the house, get some things done, visit the grandparents and just plain enjoy each other.  :)  Now we're back to the grind stone, and on the 28th we've got "midterms" for the final 9 weeks.  What's funny is that from today we have 8 weeks left!!  I guess, sometimes a 9 week grading period can actually be 12?  I don't know how that happens, but it happened this year at HSE.  WOW!  

Check out Eddie and Martha Marie's page for the most up to date information, but please be praying for them.  They have 2 children at home and Martha Marie has been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.  They find out Wednesday if it will be operable.  Please be praying.  Thanks!!

I'll post more pictures soon.  

Blessings, 

Mark

Friday Venting...

So today I'm writing one of my venting blogs combined with an update....

First the update. Keith has gained back all of the weight he lost before coming home from the hospital. He had gone from 9 pounds to 8lbs 3 oz in the 3 days following birth. This is common, so the doctors weren't worried about it. Mommy's milk came in stronger and from Thursday when they released us to Monday when he went for a well baby check, he had gained all 13 ozs back!! Praise the Lord for a healthy baby who really likes to eat! Sorry mommy. :) Ray and Keith are still best friends, with Ray wanting to hold Keith every chance he can.

When Keith has his eyes open (is awake) Ray tells us, "his eyes are open dad!". He is so excited when he gets to see Keith's eyes! :) He is so cute.

On to the vent...
My brother-in-law (Tim) has 2 kids who live with his ex according to the divorce settlement. The kids are awesome kids and home life is not bad, but definitely not the greatest in the world. Long story short is this...we try to get the kids at least 1 time a month since Tim lives in SC and his ex lives in OH. This gives the kids a chance to be around our family and have a father figure still in their lives. My in-laws go get the kids and many times come up to our house to spend the weekend.

Well..This week is spring break for the kids (NOT FOR ME!), so Tina and I thought that we would have them come up on Thursday and stay until Sunday so that they got to see Keith, and spend more time with us. So the kids showed up yesterday afternoon as planned. Last night the 3 of them (Ray and Tim's 2 kids) were playing up a storm having fun. Part of the time they were going too far with their play getting FAR too loud, but kids will be kids, RIGHT?! They were not listening very well after dinner, and Ray had not eaten hardly anything.

My spring break is not until a week from now, so how am I supposed to get sleep and calm down for the night when they are yelling, screaming and playing really loud? I guess I didn't think ahead enough when I invited them to come up for the weekend. I guess I was just trying to be a nice uncle and let them have some fun, but I wasn't thinking that their fun would make me a grouch because I cannot get relaxed to go to sleep. I really hope tonight it not anything like last night.

Well, I best go, I have 37 kids in a Friday Afterschool 3 hour Detention I'm watching over right now. A little bit big of a group if I do say so my self, for 1 person to watch. Just 2 more hours to go!! ARG!

Blessings!

Home and sleepless...

We are all at home, and enjoying having our new bundle of joy at home.  The one thing that is difficult to get used to is that lack of sleep that is happening.  :)  Keith is not really sleeping through the night at all, of course we know that it is normal, but he has not allowed for more than 2 hours at a stretch to sleep.  He is sleeping well during the day, but not so much at night.  

We're praying that he starts sleeping more at night when mommy is off of the pain killers that are helping her get through the day and he is able to not having any in his system.  :)  

Ray is still in love with his baby brother Keith.  :)  He wants to hold his brother all the time, and enjoys getting to touch Keith's face and hands.  He really wants to hold his brother when we get ready to leave the house.  He says "can I hold him when we get in the van".  We of course then just say, "Keith has to sit in his car seat and 

you have to sit in your car seat, sorry buddy."

An update on Dad...

He is doing really well.  He is putting more weight on his ankle each day.  We keep praying that he doesn't put too much weight on it.  Please keep him in prayer as he continues to heal.  Thanks!!

Blessings, 

Mark

Home at last!

We made it home today (Thursday) a day earlier than what they told us originally.  I hadn't planned on us coming home, so I was in Muncie without the correct vehicle to bring us all home, AND having left the car seat at home.  SO, I had to make a quick trip back to the house to pick up the van and car seat.  I wanted to make it as comfortable for Tina to get in and out of as I could, since I didn't know how well she would do to get DOWN into the car.  :)  

Tina is doing really well, and Ray is REALLY enjoying his baby brother Keith. :)  Ray held Keith for a while tonight, so I've placed a picture on here of that wonderful event. :)  

I need to learn how to get the pictures to go where I want, but I'll get that figured out some day. I just wish that they would upload and go into the place that I tell them to without any problems.  :)  

We're headed for bed, so hopefully we can get some rest tonight.  Don't forget we have all the photos we've taken so far on our web gallery.  You can check it out anytime and download from there.  :)  Enjoy! 

Blessings, 

Mark

He's Here!!

James Keith Landis

Born 3/18/08

1:11PM

9 lbs even

I'm working on photos, but it doesn't seem to want to do what I want it to.  I'll post a link to the photos on here soon. :) 

Mom and baby are doing fine.  :)  

Here is a link to our web gallery of pictures.  Enjoy!! :)  

OKAY!!

This is going to be really short...I am trying to make tons of calls right now too.  

Tina's ultra sound went well tonight...baby is about 10 lbs 9 oz!! SO, we are planning a c-section for next week, but I don't know yet what day.  Most likely Tuesday or Wednesday.  

More later...

Thanks for your prayers.  

This is it!

So we were supposed to have information to share with you all early today as to how the baby is doing. BUT, due to scheduling problems that the doctor's office had, we were unable to have the ultrasound this morning. The doctor's office had us scheduled for NEXT Thursday!! Wow, if that isn't an oversight I don't know what one would look like. She measured 42 1/2 weeks MONDAY, waiting until NEXT Thursday what would she measure then!!! The doctor said it still has to happen this week, and worked to find a time that it could occur today.

So, I'll hopefully be able to post something tonight as to how the baby is doing and what will happen next. We have a new appointment at 6:15pm today for the ultrasound. I am hopeful that we will be able to get a new CD with pictures and video too! :)

Update more later!
Mark

still a bit ARG!

Well, I just need to be okay with waiting until who knows when.  Tina's appointment went really well today, but she has not dropped at all, and she is still measuring at 1cm dilated.  She did however measure further ahead than she has ever!!  She has measured 1 week ahead every week prior to now.  This week, she measured 42 1/2 weeks, but her actual number of weeks is 38.  SO, we have an appointment on Thursday AM to have another ultrasound done to make sure the size of the baby is going to be something Tina can have naturally.  

WOW what a day, but I know that the Lord is in it all.  :)  I'll update more as we progress.

Talk to you soon!

Mark

ARG!

First an update on Dad. He is doing really well and starting to put weight on his foot to balance. He is using the crutches more and therefore continuing to improve both in the ankle and back. Keep praying for his continued recovery.

Tina is doing well. She has experienced contractions every hour to 1 1/2 hours most of the weekend, but not consistent enough to go to the hospital. She goes to the doctor for her weekly check tonight at 4:15, so hopefully we'll have some news soon to share.

Personally, and I know Tina thinks the same, we're ready for the baby to come. The anticipation is really starting to get heavy, and we're praying that it happens sooner rather than later. WE would like for the baby to come tonight, but WE are not in control, the Lord is! So keep praying, it's going to happen. We're just really really ready for this baby to come and turn our world upside down! :) LOL!

Blessings!

Update on Dad...

Dad's appointment went really well today.  He is okay to put some weight on the foot for balancing purposes only.  He has 7 pins and a plate in his ankle now, and the doctor was very happy to see how they all looked on the X-ray.  Praise the Lord for the quick recovery so far.  Continue to pray for his recovery, as it is thanks to the prayers that he is doing so well.  

Tina's doing well today.  She is continuing to progress, at least I think she is...she says her belly is getting REALLY hard every time she stands up or walks anywhere.

Later, 

Mark

Getting into this...

Okay, so I am just beginning to do this blogging world thing. I know that if I'm not careful I'll get really addicted to it, so I'm going to try not to do more than one a day. :) Here is today's updates and some thoughts I have running.

Tina- Still progressing. She has not had any more labor pains since Sunday evening's 1 labor pain. She has however continued to have a "tight" belly from time to time, so she believes it could just be a little light labor pain. We're continuing to pray for the baby to come and be healthy. We know that no matter what, that is the ultimate goal, a happy healthy baby. The room is ready for the baby to come home, and we have the laundry done to clothe it too! :)

Dad- goes to see the doctor today at 2:15. I'll post more when I know more. He is however continuing to do well with his wheel chair to get around the house and working more with the crutches to work his upper body strengthening too. He needs to continue to work his upper body so that his back will not hurt. Please continue to pray for healing as his ankle gets better. He also needs prayer for his back as he was not completely healed from the surgery he had just about a year ago.

Now to my ramblings...
Why is it that good people so often get taken advantage of? I've noticed in my few years on earth that when someone is nice to others many times they have taken advantage of that person. I've had it happen to me, and it makes you want to not help as often. The thing is that I know that I've been called to help, so I just have to lean on the Lord to give me strength and courage to help even when I've been burned before by the same person.

I love to help others, I really do. I look forward to helping my youth group kids learn more about who the Lord wants them to be. I look forward to helping them with school work and helping them to better themselves at school. Although it is not glamourous at all, it is the work of the Lord that I'm doing, and that is why I do it. To further HIS Kingdom, and for the wellbeing of the kids that I work with.

I guess the point of this rambling is this...help others even if they may have burned you once before, keep helping them and showing them God's Love, Grace, Forgiveness and Mercy! :) Keep on doing God's work! :)

God is good, All the time! All the time, God is Good!

Thanks for your prayers!
Blessings!
Mark

First try

This is going to be many different things eventually, but for now it will be a space you can go to get updates on Tina and how she is progressing, as well as for my dad since his fall.

So far Tina is doing really well. At her doc appointment on 3/3 doc said that she could go at any time. So, we'll see!! I'm going home each night to make sure I'm not away if and when she goes into labor.

Dad...many of you may know this, but he fell last Monday 2/25 and broke his ankle. He had surgery on Wed 2/27 to have a plate put in to stabilize his ankle. This week he is doing okay. He is getting up and moving around some with crutches and a wheelchair that we are borrowing so that he can move around with ease.

Check back soon, for more! :) This is just a start!