Ian's 1st Birthday

Ben and Cami holding a giraffe bone

The family at the Phoenix Zoo

February 27 is a very important day in the Marthaler family. We celebrate Ian's birthday and Cami's baptism birthday. We spent the morning at the Phoenix Zoo enjoying the animals and the warm weather. It was nice to get away from the cold. The kids loved having the opportunity to wear shorts and run around outside.

After the zoo, we headed back to Wisconsin and back to the cold. We had a great flight back. Ian got to celebrate his birthday with 2 Midwest chocolate chip cookies. He wasn't too interested in the cookies after 2 small bites.
Ian enjoying his own seat on Midwest Airlines

We got back to Milwaukee and checked Dana's work mail. A supervisor had put a newspaper clipping from the USA Today on February 15 that showed Dana and Ian with Mike Huckabee. It is pretty cool that Ian has been seen by people all over the United States. We will put the picture in his baby book for him to see when he gets older. It is a pretty proud moment for mom and dad to see Ian in the paper!

February 15, 2008 USA Today picture of Ian and Dana meeting Mike Huckabee

Ian is enjoying his brownie cake

We made one stop on the way home from Milwaukee to Madison for dinner. The kids chose TGIFridays for dinner. We enjoyed our dinner and then sang Happy Birthday to Ian as he dug into a chocolate brownie.

Phoenix Getaway

We headed to Phoenix to visit Grandpa Meier and take the chance to get a little warmth in our skin. The kids had a hard time sleeping because they were so excited to go on the plane and go to Arizona. They remember being here just 3 months ago, the exact trip when we got the phone call to go and get Ian. We enjoyed time with Grandpa. Ian and Grandpa got to know each other a little bit. We also got to see Grandma Meiers memorial. We miss her so much, but know that she is much happier in heaven with God.
We got to the hotel after visiting grandpa and enjoyed some time in the pool and hot tub. We are now ready for relaxing and go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day for Ian as he turns 1 year old. The last three months has gone by way to fast. It is sad to know that our baby is growing up. Tomorrow we plan to have a little fun before heading back to chilly and snowy Wisconsin. The 80 degree weather has been a nice teaser.

Ian's Tol

What an amazing day for Ian's Tol. The weather was wonderful and many friends came to celebrate Ian's Tol and the Korean New Year.

The food was so good. The ladies from the Korean church worked for several days preparing the food. They came to the church early to set up the food and also help set up the Tol table. Stephanie Kyle was kind enough to come and help with the kids and also help me set up the church the day before the Tol. I can't put into words how blessed and unworthy we feel having so many people step in to help make this a very special event.

Special thanks to

God for blessing us with amazing friends and family that have supported us through this journey

Miya for all of your help and your patience as we navigated our way through the planning of this event. I know we could not have done this without your help!

Stephanie for your help with the kids, house, and set up. Thanks for stepping in and being there for your Godson.

Kate for your help with the crafts

Pastor Park, Jung Sook, Mrs. Jung, Jung Min, Judy, and Sung Son for all of the food, balloon decorations, Tol table, and everything else you did to make this an event that far surpassed all expectations.

First Steps

Today is yet another cold, icy, and snow filled day in Wisconsin. We had planned to go to church this morning and then the Korean New Year Party for our Korean adoption group. We stayed in the house all day. While it is pretty to watch the snow come down, it was not a nice day to be in it. After much deliberation with the Korean group board, we decided to cancel the New Year's party for today. The decision was tough since the food prep had already begun. We made dumplings at Jung Sook's house
on Saturday afternoon, which I have to add is quite a process. All the ingredients inside the dumplings are prepared individually before mixing together and then putting inside the dumpling shell. The ladies from the Korean church have worked hard to prepare food for the party. After some discussion, we decided to move the party to this coming weekend and have it with Ian's Tol/ 1st birthday party. It works perfectly since many of the people attending Ian's party are from the Korean group. Those that are not from the Korean group are in for a treat. There will be Korean food prepared by ladies that are from Korea. The food is amazing! We are so blessed that they have offered to help. We look forward to seeing you at the party. Please let me know if you can attend either by emailing dmarthaler@gmail.com or calling.





We do have some fun news. The bad weather kept us inside all day, which gave us time to play inside and get a few chores done around the house that we needed to do. Ian took the opportunity to show us that he can walk. He took 3 steps from daddy into mommy's arms. We were so proud of him. He has been standing on his own now for a few weeks and has been thinking about taking a step. He finally got up the courage to try it out with mommy and daddy right there watching. It was truly an amazing event. We are so proud!!!

Future President???

Mike Huckabee and Janet with baby Ian

The kids and I survived the first part of the week without Justin. He was traveling for work Monday until Wednesday night. We decided last minute to join Justin in Pewaukee to see Mike Huckabee speak. The place was packed. We decided to go to the rally at the Concourse Hotel in downtown Madison to hear him speak on Thursday. Our sitter, Rachel, took off part of school to join Ian, Cami, and I to hear him speak. After the speech, Mike Huckabee and his wife quickly passed through the crowd to shake hands. They stopped and got a picture with Ian. It was an honor for us that they chose to stop and take a picture with our sleeping baby.

Rough Week

Last week was a tough one so here's to hoping that this week is better.

It started on Sunday with Dana going to the doctor for strep throat. That wiped her out well into Tuesday. Ben woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday with an upset stomach that later became very upset (twice).

On Wednesday, Ian had a dr. appointment for his never-ending diaper rash. That was the day of the 13.5" blizzard. Luckily, the appointment was earlier in the day and we live about 2 miles from our doctor. It took about 2 hours to shovel the driveway. But other than Ian's diaper rash, this was our healthiest day of the week.

Early Thursday morning, Dana awoke with a gastrointestinal bug again causing the very upset stomach. School was delayed 2 hours that morning and somehow she managed to take care of the kids all day. Shortly after waking up, Ian also got the GI bug and starting throwing up.

On Friday morning, I awoke feeling a bit unsettled in the stomach. I took the kids to preschool/daycare and headed to work. I only made it for 3 hours before I headed home to sleep most of the rest of the day.

Saturday was better, but both Dana and I were wiped out from being sick and lacking sleep.

But despite the rough week, there have been several positives.

• Ian's never ending diaper rash seems to be going away with this latest medicine.
• Cami somehow managed to stay healthy.
• Several friends in our Korean group had planned to make us meals for this week before even knowing we were going to have the week we did. It couldn't have been a better week to have that happen and we're grateful for the generosity.
• We were healthy on the day when the shoveling needed to be done and we were not in an any accidents.
• Today is a new week and we're praying for better

Tomorrow, I leave for a work trip, going to our offices in Indianapolis and Columbus, Indiana. I'm praying that everyone stays healthy so Dana has an easier time with the kids.

Stay at Home Dad

Today I played the role of stay at home Dad. This was the first time I have managed all three kids all day long. Dana was sick with strep throat and the doctor told her (on Sunday) to rest for 48 hours. Dana's n0t very good at being sick and doesn't rest well without prodding so I decided to stay home so she'd have to rest. And she did rest. She didn't get out of bed until 11am and took a few naps throughout the day. She definitely needed the recovery time.

So I made it through the day and it went quite well. The kids were really good today so it made things quite a bit easier. And even though Dana slept most of the day, I got off easy because I could leave Ben home with I dropped off Cami at preschool and could leave Ian sleep while I picked her up. Just having Dana in the house made my job at least 20% easier.

Ian was in a good mood most of the day. He got two great naps. I enjoyed the extra time we got to spend together. I probably held him more today than any day since he's been home. Ben and Cami both took a nap. We played hide and seek and read some stories. My prayers for extra patience were answered by kids who listened well. The kids had fairly nutritious home cooked meals that didn't include mac & cheese, frozen pizza, or leftover takeout. The house looks about as good as it did when we woke up this morning, I got a few loads of laundry done (although Dana did the folding.. as I said, she's not very good at being sick), the kids are still alive, and I found time to post to the blog!

Hopefully Dana will feel much better tomorrow. I enjoyed the day at home with the kids, but staying home doesn't pay the bills. I give Dana a lot of credit for running our household and keeping the kids going in the right direction. I've always known it's a lot of work, but playing the role, even for a day, drives the point home. I think I could handle being a stay at home dad if the flight attendant biz was more of a family sustaining career. But for now, I'll do the full time out of house working and Dana can continue to find ways to stay employeed while working as little as possible which is fine with me.

So the day is done and this Dad needs to rest.

Broccoli lover

We have another broccoli lover. Ian loves eating broccoli. We gave him some cooked broccoli from a noodle dish we had yesterday and he was very vocal about wanting more and more. He happily ate the noodles, but kept wanting more broccoli. He and Ben had to fight over what was in the dish. I guess I should have added more.
We made another trip to the doctor yesterday for what seemed to be an ear infection. With him having a cold and low grade fever, the doctors office suggested I bring him in. I initially called to ask about the length of time I should let the tugging of the ears go on. I wasn't too concerned other than that he has been tugging on his ears last week and now he had started crying when he did it. We learned that he had a build up of wax in his ears, which may have caused the pain, along with pain he may be feeling due to teething. We are happy that we were able to leave without a prescription. Dr. Yu also checked out his bottom and suggested we just keep doing
prescription and other other creams.
I had a Lipstick Jungle party last night, which went well. I got chosen to host the party to promote the upcoming show on NBC, which premieres Feb. 7 on NBC. It was a great show and all who attended enjoyed the show and the gift bags that NBC and Maybelline sent for the guests.
Yesterday was a bittersweet day for Midwest Airlines. After over 24 years as an independant carrier, they were purchased by TPG financial. This starts a new chapter for Midwest Airlines. While I am very happy that Midwest was not purchased by AirTran, it makes me a little sad that things are bound to change with new ownership. Hopefully the changes will be positive and that the airline will continue to grow...maybe even adding a city in Oregon??? We would love that, of course.
The kids are happy as they finish their lunch. We look forward to a relaxing and informative weekend as we attend a seminar on Christianity and Islam. Have a great weekend!