Baby Baby and Boo

She's here!! Magdalyn Louise Vertner - aka "Maggy" "Maggy-Lou" "Magowyn (says Hannah)" and "Adorable, wonderful cutie pie and love bug!"

Introducing Miss Magdalyn Louise

She arrived at 8:21 pm on Monday, October 29, 2007. We went in to be induced... no medical pressing reason - I just knew she was projected to be bigger than the rest had been and I didn't really want to risk the possibility of her being born on Halloween... and probably a good thing - she was 8 lbs 14 oz and 20 1/2 inches long - I wouldn't have really wanted her to get too much bigger! But she's perfect! A ton of beautiful dark hair (with the most amazing blond highlighted tips!), very long fingers and toes and SO LOVED by her brothers and sister. If you haven't viewed the slide show already, you can connect to it thru the main houseofhomer.com page. A big props to my friend Julie Cox who kept us company during the labor and did an INCREDIBLE job capturing all the special moments in pictures. And Shane used those photos to create the slide show, with the song that was one of the inspiration for Magdalyn's name - "Strong Tower" by Kutless - Magdalyn means "Great Tower".

The same day we went to the hospital, so did our friends Josh and Michele Snyder. We were in room 233 and they were in 220 - the nurses were going back and forth with updates for each of us on the other's progress. Their daughter Junia was born at 5:07 am on October 30 - about 9 hours after Magdalyn. And about 5 days before, Michele's cousin and our friends Tracy and Gabe Campos delivered baby Judah. So many babies!! "Go forth and multiply...." we are obedient!!

200710 Meeting Babies Judah and Junia

With two of us at the hospital, we had quite a few well-wishers!

Maggy meets the world

We came home from the hospital on Wednesday - Halloween day. The older kids just couldn't get enough of the baby... we had to develop an on going schedule!

20071031 Maggy comes home

Halloween night started with a trip around the neighborhood followed by a quick dinner (must have SOME protien to counter all that sugar!) and then off to the LHF Harvest party to see our friend's costumes and play some games. Zak didn't quite understand the trick-or-treating at first - the first house, the nice old man opened the door and Zak walked right past the guy into his living room! It didn't take long for him to catch on.

2007 Halloween

Up next time - Noah's birthday... celebrating for about 3 weeks! Still need to upload the pictures and free time is a rarity these days!

Lots of cute kid pictures to share!

Let it never be said that I am a dilegent blogger.... since the last post was announcing our pregnancy and this one sees us less than 2 weeks from our due date!

I would have hoped to find time for updates during the 6 weeks of bed rest mid summer after a partial placental abruptions, but as it turns out, I'm a pretty content couch potato when I'm allowed to be. Since August, the Lord has healed that abruption, and there isn't even visible scar tissue seen in the ultrasound. At 30 weeks gestation, our daughter measured 4 lbs 10 oz... if she gains the expected ounce a day over the last 8 weeks....that would make her - oh geez! alot bigger than the other kids! We'll see - maybe she'll just be very tall?!

So to catch you up on the growing brood -

This last weekend we took Sunday afternoon out at the pumpkin patch just west of Hillboro

Lake View Farms 2007 P Patch

Noah has expressed a real interest in entemology and will claim that his chosen profession will be either an animal scientist or bug scientist. This summer Grandma Jan came upon a Banded Alder Borer Beetle, which became a pet. One afternoon on the porch, another Alder Borer flew up to say hi (these are not common bugs!) so we put her in the habitat... and one thing led to another and.... well, bug love! The female proceeded to lay her eggs and then both died. The Larve have hatched and bored into the wood... we are hoping to see them mature, but don't know how long that will be. The other pictures you see are an Assasin bug that we wanted to observe, laid an egg sac and died. The infants hatched and were released. We are also in the habit of collecting spiders to feed to the tree frog - Fano, that became a pet. We have been amazed at the size of some of the Orb weaver spiders that live in our yard! I am proud to see how all three kids have little fear of the creapy crawlies and don't hesitate to grab any with bare fingers!

Our Bugs

and some of our other activities over the last 6 months or so:

Labor Day in Dallas Oregon

Isaac and Erica Endicott's wedding

2007 April OMSI

2007 July Family Camp ft stevens

2007 June Vacation Bible School

2007 july SUMMERTIME

2007 July 21 Lintner -Gonzolez Wedding

Memorial Day Reunion

Noah's T-Ball Mastery

2007 29 May Hannahs birthdays

2007 May Hannah's Tea Party

2007 May Lincoln City

The new heartbeat of springtime...

As we begin to see the spring blooms on the trees, tulips and daffodils coloring yards and gardens and new birds appearing in our yard, the kids are anxious for every dry day to get out to the park, or at the very least the back yard. A common sign of spring is the new life appearing all around us, and in our case, in our family. A new heart beat that we were able to witness just this week. Yes, that's right... we are expecting another addition, due date November 2, 2007. We are very excited, and the kids are thrilled. It is amazing to Shane and I, just how blessed we are with Noah, Hannah and Zak, the joy and delight and laughter and amazement they have brought to our lives can't compare to anything else we have experienced. Although, not with out its challenges, as a full time mom, wife, cook and housekeeper, I do think this is the toughest job I'll ever love, but I do love it.

A quick update on all of us.

Zak, now 15 month, is a very active toddler, attempting to keep up with his brother and sister as much as possible. He communicates with us very well, mostly non-verbal, but it has been an interesting experience to see just how much a 1 year old can understand. Its hard to tell if he is just really smart (which of course he is) or if he has the advantage of the environment of older siblings and more experienced parents. Just like his name sake (Zaccheus was a wee little man, who climbed up in a tree...), Zak is small for his age (but very healthy) and he LOVES, L-O-V-E loves to climb - chairs, tables, pianos, toys, bunk beds.... he definitely keeps us on our toes.




Hannah is a wonderful little princess, she knows exactly how pretty she is and loves the girly stuff. She almost always has a doll in her hand, but the other hand likely has a toy sword, toy gun or car. She often will be found singing, coloring or "reading" any variety of books.




Noah loves to learn, especially anything that has to do with bugs or animals, through which he has been picking up on a lot of the fundamental phonics skills. He is taking a t-ball class at the rec center and just finished 3 months of swim lessons - he's a total fish, with no fear!

Shane just finished a very intense 6 weeks at work doing QA and support for one of the company's biggest deals - MBL Mosaic. The company also just secured a large chunk of venture funding, which will hopefully allow for new opportunities within the company. They have gotten a lot of press lately - 6 o'clock news, front page of the Oregonian http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/business/1176175523181450.xml&coll=7 it's all been pretty cool. Aside from the normal self-imposed busyness of our every day lives, I have plans for gardening, canning and sewing projects as time allows throughout the summer. Shane and I still lead a small group through our church, which is one of the most important staples in our week in terms of keeping us connected with our community, faith and keeping us accountable to what is really important. We are also undergoing a leadership program with the church over the next year. Living Hope plans to purchase a new facility and start planting churches in the next 18 months and it is exciting to see what God is already working through the vision in our community and we can't wait to see what he's going to do from here.

Check out some of our recent pictures - two albums: Easter and a visit from Aunt Liz which included a trip to the Woodburn Tulip Festival.

2007 Easter

March 2007 - Liz's visit