He Came Home!!!

Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement over the last few weeks and months. Life has seemed stressful and a bit overwhelming with Matt's deployment and our sudden move plans. We are so thankful that Matt made it home last night. We aren't sure how long he will be home, but thankfully he will be here for our move into base housing next week. Hopefully this means we are only facing a six month deployment instead of eight months!

God does know the perfect timing for all of the events in our lives. I am thankful HE is making the plans and not me! I will keep you posted on the move. The packers come on Monday and we should be completely moved into the new house by Wednesday! Please pray that all of the details go smoothly and that God would be glorified through our words and actions during this exciting and stressful time.

Happy 1st Birthday Ellie Kate!!!

I can hardly believe my sweet baby girl is already one! This year has gone by way too fast. It seems like just yesterday we were praying that God would give us a baby girl. I am still in awe that my Heavenly Father cares enough to give me the desires of my heart or at least tune my desires to HIS will! Ellie Kate is such a sweet and happy baby. What a blessing she has been to our family! I have so much I could say about this little girl, but I think her Daddy did the best job with the sweet e-mail he sent us this morning...

Happy Birthday Ellie Kate! I hope you have a fun and special day on your first birthday. I am sorry that I will miss it, but am so glad that we were able to celebrate it a couple of weeks ago before I left. You have grown so much over the last year – it is unbelievable. From a little baby that just ate and cried to a toddler that walks everywhere, is a bundle of energy, so cute, has a great laugh, and has your Mommy and Daddy wrapped around your little finger already! I thank God everyday for the gift of you.

Love, Daddy

We celebrated her birthday early, so Daddy could be part of the celebration. With everything going on in our lives right now, we decided that a small family party would be best.

She really didn't know what to do with her stack of presents, so she just kept looking at them.

She already knows that the little boxes are filled with the best gifts! This one was her sweet little pearl bracelet with a script E.

The boys had fun helping her open her presents.

She got a new tea set from her brothers. They came up with the idea and picked it out!

Then we had cake out in the yard.

The bright sunlight made picture taking a bit challenging!

We gave Ellie Kate the top layer and let her dig in!

She started off with tiny bits of icing...

....and then kept going!

She loved her cake! Especially the raspberry filling!

When she had enough cake, she went in for the monogram!

We have made so many fun memories this year, I could add thousands of pictures to this post! I took a picture of her each month to watch her grow... although you will see I don't have the twelve month one done yet, but here is a glimpse of this little girl's first year!

Newborn - leaving the hospital at 16 hours

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Twelve Months

What an amazing year it has been! We are so thankful for the blessings God has showered us with! Happy Birthday Elizabeth Katherine Loesch! You are loved more than you will ever know!

Happy 4th Birthday Zach!

I can hardly believe that our little Zachy is four! The years have flown by so far. It seems like not that long ago when I was telling everyone that I had two babies under the age of two. It was always a challenge to chase the boys as they ran off in different directions... now they are both riding off on bikes and leaving me behind! These are such fun years and I am so thankful to have healthy growing kids!

We celebrated Zach's birthday early again this year. Thankfully we weren't working around the birth of a new sibling this year, just a crazy, ever changing ship schedule! We had a simple cupcake party for him during the concert in the park. I have never seen 24 cupcakes disappear so quickly! It was the easiest party I have ever thrown! He had a fun evening with his friends and felt celebrated.

We kept asking Zach what he would like for his birthday and everytime he said, "a garden". So, we planted a container garden on our upstairs patio and he is growing strawberries, blueberries, grapes, green peppers, tomatoes, and basil.

We drilled extra holes for drainage, because Zach loves watering his plants! He has his own watering can and makes sure he waters his plants just enough!

So this is our new little garden!

Our first strawberries will be ready to pick today! What a fun birthday treat!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, spunky, energetic, loving, sensitive, free spirited, middle child! Daddy and I love you so much and we are so proud of you!

Our Holiday Blog!

If you have been looking for updates on the Loesch Family, you haven't found them here! It looks like I only update the blog on holidays. It has been so long, even my mom has stopped looking for new posts. I would like to start fresh and commit to weekly updates. Our family and friends, spread out all over the world, like to see the updates. So I am going to try one more time to keep this up-to-date!

If you haven't heard, we have had a huge answer to prayer in the last week. We have been living in the village in Coronado for 3 years now. We have been praying that God would open up a house on base for us in His perfect timing. Last week, just two days before Matt went out to sea, we were offered a house! The timing is not exactly what I would have chosen, but thankfully God's plans are always greater than mine and I am choosing to trust that this timing is perfect! Now we are praying that Matt will be back in port for the move in the next few weeks. God has faithfully provided for us over the years and we are so thankful to be moving into a bigger house with a great yard for the kids.

Please come back and look for updates in the next few weeks! I am happy to be back to blogging!