It's Finally Over...

We have run the Christmas gauntlet and returned victorious! With all the different sides of the family, my kids will never know that Christmas is really only ONE day. I just thought I'd share a few pictures from our holiday adventure in the land of torn wrapping paper.

Grandma Linda got Kait a new bike to keep at her house. Who knew it would be so difficult to teach a child who was used to riding a tricycle that you can't pedal backwards on a real bike?

Oddly enough, this teddy bear was DJ's favorite gift of Christmas Eve. He found it hysterical. There's nothing like a baby's laugh to make it feel like Christmas!

Kaitlin is finally to the age where she is learning to appreciate gifts enough to look at them after she opens them, as opposed to throwing them into the pile of loot and moving on to the next present. You'll notice her new orange digital camera sitting next to her. She has been using this present to take pictures of all her other presents. A child after my own heart!

DJ seemed a little overwhelmed at the large family get togethers. However, at our own little family Christmas (just Dad, Mom and kiddos!) he dove right in to ripping up anything he could get his little hands on!

I trust that you all had a wonderful Christmas and a terrific time with friends and family!

Ruhlig Christmas Letter 2007...

Normally, I mail out a family Christmas letter. This year, to save money, I have been e-mailing it to most people. I thought I'd post it here on my blog so that all of you could share in this "tradition" with us this year.

Merry Christmas!

“Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” Psalm 16:11

As we are wrapped up in this season of “comfort and joy,” I can’t help but reflect on where true joy comes from. The joy that comes from the Savior is a lasting joy, not just a seasonal one! My prayer is that you personally have the peace and joy that comes from knowing the Lord.

As a family, it’s been a good year. Kaitlin had been praying for a “baby boy, with hair, please”, and in May we were blessed with Douglas Jr. Grace (my sister) and our new little niece, Elisa, came to help us out after DJ was born. It was so great to have them here! My mom had intended to come, but due to a severe car accident that my brother, Joel, was in, she was unable to make it (by the grace of God he is doing well now.) In August my parents and brother came to stay with us for about three weeks. It was such a wonderful time, especially getting to see Joel after almost losing him in the accident. How wonderful the Lord is to give us second chances! We continue to be blessed with time with the family here in Florida. Kaitlin especially enjoys spending nights with Grandma Linda!

Doug has spent his year continuing to do management for a neighborhood community. The neighborhood is getting ready to open a second clubhouse, so in the upcoming year his workload will pretty much be doubled! He enjoys it, for the most part, and has made some new friends in the area. This hunting season hasn’t been as eventful as he’d like (can you believe that I made him miss out on a hunting opportunity in order to celebrate our anniversary?!), but hopefully more opportunities will arrive. He continues to golf every chance he gets, and has recently started a weekly basketball game.

I (Christina) continue to “work” from home, watching our nephew, Wyatt. It is the BEST job ever, well, next to being a mother and wife (trust me, it’s work). It is such a blessing to be able to be at home with the kids (even if it is awfully trying on my nerves some days!), and I consider it a special blessing to be able to develop such a close relationship with both my nephew and to see the cousins get to grow up together! Due to the work schedules, I haven’t been able to take classes this year. I miss school, but I haven’t quite yet reached the insanity level high enough to add it to my plate at the moment.

Kaitlin is four and a half and getting so tall! How does that happen so fast? She started pre-K this year and absolutely loves it. Hopefully this trend will continue! She loves being a big sister. A helping pair of little hands should never be underestimated! She also loves having her cousin around, and is displeased that he isn’t there to play with her on the weekends. It has been suggested by her that we “keep him, and Aunt Holly can come visit him sometimes.” She’s such a treasure, and always good for a laugh!

Baby Doug will not be a baby for much longer. He is already almost seven months old and rolling from one end of the living room to the other. He has been our drama baby, first ending up in the NICU with breathing problems after he was born, then coming down with jaundice, and since then he’s had bronchitis, numerous viral infections, an ear infection, hives and the flu. Perhaps he’s getting it all out of his system now? He is a sweet little bundle of chub, though, and I couldn’t imagine our family without him now! He’s got a smile that just warms the heart!

We hope all is well with you and yours this holiday season, and that you are able to see His good purpose throughout the coming year.

All our Love,

Doug, Christina, Kaitlin, and DJ Ruhlig

Of Sickness and Sanity...

I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted! We've been a busy family, mainly busy being sick. Here's a run down of what we've been up to this month.

1) Doug and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary with a weekend getaway.

2) Baby Doug had an allergic reaction to something (maybe the amoxicillin he was on for his bronchitis?) and broke out in a horrible case of hives.

3) Day after the hives, we left for Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with mi familia (we had a great time, even with little swollen balloon boy.)

4) The day after getting back, Kaitlin helped me decorate the inside of the house for Christmas. I love Christmas decorations!

5) A few days after getting back from Oklahoma, I came down with pink eye.

6) Same day as the pink eye, DJ came down with the flu. His fever got up to 104.5...yikes!

7) Next day I came down with the flu.

8) A few days later, Kaitlin came down with strep throat.

9) The following day Kaitlin came down with the flu.

10) Doug did something he swore he'd never do...he put Christmas lights up on the house for me! I'm really starting to suspicion that he loves me.

11) DJ finally cut his bottom two teeth. He is once again my sweet baby and has even allowed me to eat lunch this week.

I may be coming down with strep myself, so please pray for the family, mainly for my sanity! It's been very emotionally trying dealing with one ailment after another in the family. My brain is completely exhausted. The Lord continues to provide. His grace IS sufficient, and He gives it as it's needed.

Doug has officially put up with me as a wife for 3 years. Just so you know, it's very difficult to kiss, take a picture, and keep from laughing all at the same time.

A picture from the state park where we took our anniversary getaway.

Kaitlin was a good little helper when it came to the tree. We have a lot of ornaments on the bottom three feet of the tree!

Baby Doug feels soooo much better now that his teeth are in. He's thinking about trying out for a role in "Grease." He's one cool baby.

I've always wanted Christmas lights up on the house! I just may never take them down.

After the Adenoids...

Kaitlin is home from the hospital and doing well; she's a little groggy still, and feels a little sick (probably from the anesthesia), but she's doing just fine! Thank you for your prayers.

Me and Kait waiting in her "room" for the anesthesiologist. She's showing off her nifty bracelet.

Here she is in her little hospital gown all ready to be taken back. She did so well; I was so proud of how brave she was!

All she would say in the recovery room was, "I want to go home." That's exactly where she is now! It's amazing the change that just an hour has made. She's already been eating a little and really perked up when she found out Daddy had gotten her a surprise! If you look closely, you might see "Ratatouille" in the reflection of her eyeballs!

A Prayer Request From Kait...

Kaitlins surgery is scheduled for Wed. morning. I'll let you know how it went. Thanks for your prayers! It makes a mommy nervous seeing her baby put under...

And The Candy Overload Begins..

This year we went trick-or-treating with cousin Wyatt and Kaitlin's 'lil friend Christian. The kiddos had a blast; well, mainly Kaitlin and Christian had a blast. Wyatt kept trying to give the candy back (such a good little sharing man!) and baby Doug spent the whole evening relaxing in his stroller. Mom was WORN OUT by the end of the night. As with any holiday, I'm so glad it's only once a year! I love seeing all the kids looking so cute in their outfits, though. This year Kaitlin was a butterfly (you've gotta love a four dollar consignment costume), DJ was a puppy dog, and Wyatt was a cowboy.

Here's the back of my little butterfly. She picked out a hair-do from a picture online and mommy did her very best to match it. Kaitlin was very pleased with how pink she was. You'll see in the next picture that the front of her was COVERED in sparkely pink and white make up.

Here she is all ready to fly around the neighborhood! She informed me that tennis shoes were NOT what a butterfly would wear. But, I'm mommy, so I'm still in charge! I'm sure that by the end of the nights excursions her little feet were thankful.

Howdy! This is the world's cutest cowboy. Although not the intention, I still called him "Wyatt Earp" all evening. He did SO good keeping his hat on. We thought for sure it would be off within seconds! When his mom, Holly, put his hat on him, we took him to the mirror and showed him how handsome he looked in it. After that, it stayed on! Now to get him a pony...(by the way, this was one of the few pictures I got of him. He wouldn't stand still long enough for a picture! I know his mom got some better shots, though!)

I tried every way I could to justify spending the money on buying him a costume this year. I finally settled on, "he'll be out with us while we're trick-0r-treating" as my official justification. Then, when I decided that he would be a puppy, it was even better. That's right, he got to be called....

Puppy Doug! I'm sure he will thank me for this humiliation for years to come. But really, how is a mother to resist? He was adorable!

When Pumpkins Go Bad...

Our first pumpkin carving experience was....an experience. Lucky for us, Doug's best friend, Tracey, was in from out of town celebrating Doug's birthday. I say lucky for us because come to find out Doug had never carved a pumpkin either! We let Kaitlin draw a face on the pumpkin with markers first, and then Doug and Tracey took turns cutting out their interpretation of Kaitlin's self portrait pumpkin. Perhaps next year we should opt for a pattern and not a drawing!

Mistake #1: We set ourselves up for a hard time carving by allowing a four year old to render the pumpkins face.

See what I mean? How do you cut THAT out? The boys were stumped so I suggested that they layer the cuts so that the light would shine through in different dimensions. Needless to say, I am genius. (Easy for me to say, I didn't have to do the cutting!)

In the end, Kaitlin was quite pleased with her "scary" jack-o-lantern, and that was really all that mattered!

If I were to take a picture of the pumpkin for you today, you would see that all of its' engraved orifices are completely covered over with mold. Too bad the trash man won't make his rounds again until next Monday! Apparently there was some sort of preservative we were supposed to put on the pumpkin to prevent this from happening so quickly. Guess we know now for next year!

A Patch of Cuteness...

It only took me an hour and a half to get to the local pumpkin patch, located approximately ten miles away (the extended family has unanimously decided that I am no longer allowed to go on "adventures" alone). Despite the difficulty getting there, the kids and I had a great time. Kait picked out a pumpkin that Daddy has promised to help her carve tonight (this will be my first pumpkin carving experience as well!) While we were there I snapped a few cute shots of the kiddos.

Kaitlin said there were "zillions" of pumpkins.

Kaitlin says this is a "watermelon pumpkin". The lady running the patch told her it was a gourde, but Kaitlin still disagrees.

DJ was just happy to be outside. This is his turtle face.

I love this picture. Kaitlin is meaning to kiss him, but she found a tickle spot!

My littlest pumpkin.

The fragrant Rose of Sharon...

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth:
For thy love is better than wine.
Because of the savour of thy good ointments
Thy name is as ointment poured forth"

"While the king sitteth at his table,
My spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me"

Song of Solomon 1:2-3,12-13

As we read these passage today in chapel, I had to ask myself, how is my personal intimate relationship with Christ? Do I crave time with Him? Am I completely consumed with love for Him? Do I long for His fragrance?

"For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:"
2 Corinthians 2:15

Am I spending so much time around my Lord that His fragrance can be smelled on me? Am I being a sweet savour of Christ to my husband? to my children? to my neighbors? to people who don't even know me?

I find myself so consumed throughout the day by my own selfishness. I waste time in self pity that could be time used to represent the one who is the reason for living. How challenged I have been to spend more time with the one that I love, to focus my desires on Him, not only for myself, but also so that those around me may share in His lovely fragrance!

"His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend"
Song of Solomon 5: 16

Four going on fourteen....

Sometimes I forget that Kaitlin is only four years old. I'm not so sure she's aware that she's only four years old either. I was hoping not to have conversations like this for many more years. We had this one the other day on the way home from school.



Kaitlin: I don't like the girls anymore, Mom, just the boys.

Me: Why's that?

Kaitlin: Because they're my boyfriends. I have three boyfriends but my best one is Tyler. We're in love.

Me: You are? What do you do when you're in love?

Kaitlin: We sit by each other at snack time. And we play in the same centers together. Today we were in love but then Tyler broke up with me and then he fell back in love with me and then broke up with me again and then fell back in love. That's pretty silly, huh? When can I get married?

Me: Not for a long time, sweetheart. The most important thing about finding a boy to marry is that he loves God and wants to obey God. The next most important thing is that he chooses to love you. It's not really love when you break up and then fall back in love again. Like Mommy and Daddy. We choose to love each other. Do you understand that?

Kaitlin: Yes. But I choose to love him so I'm going to make him love me!



Such a woman already, making him love her! I feel there will be MANY more talks about love and boys in the years to come. I received a small amount of consolation today with this conversation.



Kaitlin: Is your mom still in charge of you?


Me: Now that I'm grown up, I still have to respect my mom, but now God is in charge of me.


Kaitlin: Will you always be in charge of me?


Me: Someday you will grow up, and then I won't be in charge anymore.


:::::::::::long pause:::::::::::::
Kaitlin: I want you to be in charge of me forever.



Now that I have this officially documented, she is bound to it!

"Chubby Cheeks Meets Long Neck"....

My e-mail will not allow me to send a video clip this long. So, Mom, this is for you. He's a determined little man, especially when it comes to getting something in his mouth! It was nice of him to at least acknowledge me for a brief moment. Oh, and I assure you, he was born with a neck. It's just hard to see amongst all of his chins!

Chubby bubby...

...chunky monkey. My little man reached the big 4 months this week. It seems like he's been around a lot longer than that! Here are a few highlights of his month.

1) He now weighs in at 15lbs. 6oz.; over double his birth weight!
2) He learned to roll back to front, and then front to back. By the way, Doug and I completely missed his first time to roll over.
3) He had his first "play date".
4) His thumb has become his new best friend. Best part about it? Unlike the paci, it is pretty much impossible to drop it on the floor of a restaurant or accidentally leave it in a store.
5) He learned how to pull his knees to his tummy. Between this action and rolling, he's become quite proficient at moving around and off of his floor gym.
6) He lost most of his hair (you'd have thought a dog was shedding in his crib), but it's growing back nicely already.
7) He continues to think that his sissy is just about the best thing in the world.

This is his favorite position. It enables him to see what's going on behind him (apparently that's where all the good action is!)
Baby Jamen came over for a play date. Jamen is a month younger, so they'll (hopefully!) be good friends. DJ didn't seem too impressed, however, as he fell asleep looking at Jamen.
Such a cutie! I love how he's pulling his little knees up now. This is how he squirms himself to the edge of the papasan. Eventually half of him is hanging off and he can rest his feet on the floor. Notice how he holds his fingers out while he sucks his thumb. He ends up with tons of scratches down his forehead, no matter how often I trim his nails. Check out the chubby baby thighs! He gets those from his mommy.Sissy loves any excuse to snuggle with brother. See Grace, he's huge! Quite a different baby than the one you met while you were here!
He sticks everything in his mouth, especially washcloths! We think he might be in the early stages of teething because he doesn't just suck, he bites.

I sure love you little man! How blessed we are to have you in our family. You are forever a reminder to me of God's grace and faithfulness. May you learn to follow His will.

Feel the love...

No, this is not a two headed bug. This is the bane of my existence here in Florida. Meet the lovebug.

So named for its only function in life, mating, the lovebugs swarm through Florida during May and September, leaving their mark everywhere. You find thousands of them dead on your porch, in your house, in your hair, and my personal favorite, smashed all over your windshield. The secretions in their body actually eat through the paint on vehicles. Cute, huh? They become so plentiful during these months that driving down the highway often looks like a smokey haze as their bodies plaster the front of your car. Makes you want to come visit, doesn't it?

Kaitlin says that lovebugs are so named because they love you. She apparently doesn't love them back because yesterday I found her beating their bodies into our house with a baseball bat.

How much more shall He give...

While bringing Kaitlin home from a birthday party this weekend, God blessed me with a reminder that he always keeps His promises. There was a beautiful rainbow in the sky; so beautiful, in fact, that I quickly reached for my camera and snapped a few pictures of it as I was driving down the road. It was such a wonderful reminder to me that His promises are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. He never forgets them, and He always keeps them. God used this same rainbow to teach me another lesson today.

Kaitlin has a tendency to have a lot of sinus problems. For the past ten days she's been on antibiotics for a sinus infection (she gets one every time she gets a cold). Yesterday morning she started complaining about her ear hurting. I didn't think much about it. Afterall, she's been on antibiotics so I figured there was no way she would actually have an ear infection. However, last night she started running a low grade fever. I kept her home from school in the morning, but she seemed fine. Then by mid-afternoon her fever was back up to 101 degrees and she was crying just from her hair touching her ear. I knew I had to take her to the doctor.

This predicament had multiple layers. First, I was worried about what kind of infection she could possibly have that was so bad she could have developed it while on antibiotics. Was it something more severe than just an infection? Secondly, Kaitlin doesn't have insurance and this would make trip number three to the doctors in the past two weeks that we were going to pay for out of pocket. I knew I couldn't not take her because of finances, but I was worried about the money.

The trip to her doctors is a good forty-five minute trip, so I had lots of time to worry about worse case scenerio. Suddenly, I remembered the rainbow God had given me a few days previously. I started thinking about Gods faithfulness, and some familiar verses about other promises He has given me came to mind.

"Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek); for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." - Matthew 6: 31-33

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." - John 6:37

"Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4: 6-7

I was so humbled by my Lords faithfulness. Not only has He promised to take care of my physical needs and my spiritual needs, but he knows my feeble human nature and has promised to take care of my emotional needs during the process. Immediately I went to Him, the one who already knew the outcome of my worries, and thanked Him for His faithfulness and asked for peace from my anxieties. I knew then and there that even though I couldn't figure out how these problems were going to be resolved, He would provide a way.

Kaitlin ended up only having an outer-ear infection, which is why the antibiotics she was already on hadn't cured it. Not only was it a minor problem, but without me even asking, our doctor offered office sample antibiotic drops so that we wouldn't have to pay for a prescription out of pocket. And not only this, but when I went to pay they informed me that there was a ninety dollar credit on my account! Not only did I not have to pay for the appointment, I walked away with thirty dollars!

Our Lord not only promises to supply all of our needs, He gives above what we could even think to ask for.

Might I challenge you today to cling to His promises.

Pray For My Husband

So they say that your brain cells shrink when you're pregnant. This I believe. I went off the deep end ditsy both pregnancies. Unfortunately for me, they never "unshrunk". Or at least, if they did, they moved themselves to my waist line and hips and then quadrupled in size. Let me share a few recent stories....

Taking Kaitlin to school is quite the ordeal. I have to get her out of the car, get the umbrella stroller out, put my nephew in the stroller, put the sling on, put baby Dougie in the sling and then tromp through the grass to get indoors to sign her in. It's a hastle, but it works for us. It just so happens that the "school" is right on a street which means that you have to back out into the road (and into oncoming traffic) to get out of the school. Last week I dropped Kait off at school and then headed out the door to load the boys back in the car. Baby Doug has to be loaded first so as not to get mangled in the sling while I try to get Wyatt out of the stroller and into the car. So, Baby Doug got buckled in, and, as I was doing so, the person next to me started their car. Not wanting to park the stroller with my nephew in it next to the exhaust fumes to be permanently disabled as it ate away at his brain cells, I parked the stroller behind my van, unbuckled him, and took him to the side and loaded him into his car seat. Yeah, you can see where this is headed, can't you. Minding my happy dumb business, quite pleased with myself for having lived through the whole dropping off ordeal another day without going insane, I started the car and backed myself into the road. "My, what a funny sound the van is making. That can't be good" I thought to myself. I was completely backed out into the street before it dawned on me that I had NEVER PUT THE STROLLER BACK INTO THE CAR! I quickly pulled back into my spot, hoping that none of the other mothers had noticed my idiocy, and walked out into the middle of the road to collect my belongings and put it away. Let's just say the stroller hasn't quite folded the same since.

This is my husbands all time favorite though.....(well, other than my walking smack into the center of his mothers sliding glass doors at our last family thanksgiving. We're talking perfect face imprint on the glass and all.)

At the entrance to our road is an electric pole which people LOVE to hit. It's like a car magnet or something. Someone hits it at least once every other week which sends our power out of commission. On a good day it takes an hour or so to get the power back, but if it's during a storm it can be four or five hours. A few weeks ago one of these incidences occurred. It occurred minutes before I started to cook dinner. We were going to have chicken fajitas and my meat was all thawed, my vegetables cut, and my stomach rumbling. Fifteen minutes and dinner would be served. Then BAM. No power. Of course, it was raining, so I knew dinner was not going to be cooked on the stove. Wanting to avoid spending the money to go out to eat, Doug and I began discussing possibilities for a home meal that didn't need cooked. No bread, so sandwiches were not an option. There wasn't even any milk to have a cereal dinner. Then I had a flash of genius, we could cook on the grill! Something simple of course, but still, we could cook. So I ask Doug, "hey, could you boil a pot of water on the grill?" "Sure," he says, "I guess we could. Why?" At this point I was quite proud of the stroke of genius I was about to unleash, saving us all from a night of hunger."Because I have a package of hotdogs in the refrigerator. We don't have power to heat them in the microwave but we could boil them on the grill!" It was literally five minutes before Doug could compose himself enough to point out what I had just said. I think the saddest part is, however, that he had to point it out at all.

Pray for my husband. He has to live with this.

Passing on the blogging bug

I am proud to announce the arrival of our newest blog member: Beth R. VanZant, born Wednesday, August 21st, 2007; weighing in at ???lbs, and approximately 5ft 3in. tall, at http://bethvanzant.blogspot.com/. Go check out her blog and see what the Lords been doing in her life. Welcome to our blogging circle circle, Beth! We love you!

First day of school...

I can't believe Kaitlin is already old enough for school. Being a parent really does make the time fly by. No wonder we age so fast! I truly feel so blessed, though. She had no tears as I told her goodbye, just excitement! How good God is to make an emotional day for Mom a little easier.

Kaitlin's "school" is a voluntary pre-K program that the state of Florida has implemented. It's only three hours a day; just long enough for me to drop her off, load the other two boys back up in the car, drive home, unload the boys, and then re-load the boys back in the car, drive there, unload the boys again, and pick her up. Now time is REALLY going to fly! I haven't quite yet figured out the best way to tote a 3 month old and an 11 month old in and out of school twice a day. By the end of the month I'll be a pro at it though!

In the end, the first day of school went fantastic. Kaitlin had a great time and made a new friend that she described as wearing "a purple shirt, a necklace" and was "beautiful and sweet". She keeps asking what day will be computer day at school. Kids these days!

Here she is, all ready to go to school!

The baby cousins love each other. I'm so happy they get to grow up together! What a handful taking care of both of them, though!

How to clear a beach...

It has become tradition to go to the beach when Dad and Mom come into town. In fact, this is the ONLY time that I go to the beach. So much so that Kaitlin refers to it as "Grama Marti's beach." Today, however, was the last Friday before school starts and we were expecting the beaches to be crowded. So, we sent Dad in. Needless to say we had a nice, quiet spot to sit and enjoy the waves.

New perspective to an old pastime...

It's been a long time since I've spent any substantial amount of time on the internet, which is probably for the best. However, since we have recently joined the world of those who feel that not having access to the internet makes our lives comparable to living in the dark ages, I might as well take advantage of it! Grace and Mom have twisted my arm into starting a blog, much to the dismay of my husband who realizes that this will limit his access to the computer. That's what he gets for marrying me. =)

Dad, Mom, and Joel are all here in Florida visiting me. It's been great getting to introduce them to the newest member of our family, baby Doug. He's been on his best behavior for his grandparents. I hope it's not just a phase!

Kaitlin, who is now four, has been having a blast but has come down with a cold. I am contributing this souly to the junk food her grandpa has been feeding her and the late hours he has kept her out. Is this all grandparents or just hers?

Looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone on a more regular (and highly convenient!) basis.