Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve each year we drive down to Colorado Springs to spend the evening with my dad and our family in that area.  This year we had a nice time seeing Aaron and his family, Philip and his family, and my Grandma as well as Dad, Michele, Jacob and Ann.

Santa came to visit and this year Joseph ran right up to sit on his lap.  That is an impressive change from years past where either he was crying or at least quite hesitant.

While Santa was there, Miriam told me she noticed Grandpa Mike wasn't around and that Santa sounded a lot like Grandpa Mike.  Smart girl.

Everyone wanted a turn holding Ruth.  She was quite popular and slept nearly the whole time we were there since she was never put down!

Christmas Cookies

Every year we get together with Jack's family and make Christmas cookies with the cousins.  All the kids have a great time, especially with playing together and eating cookies. 

It seems the kids are interested in making cookies for about the first 10 minutes, and then they are off playing until the cookies are ready for decorating.  This year Miriam stuck with it and had a great time rolling out the cookie dough and cutting out the sugar cookies.

Since all seven cousins were there this year, we decided to try to get some pictures of them all together.  We were even less successful at getting them all to look at the camera and sit still than we were with our family pictures!

A Christmas Tradition

 Every year we take a family picture.  We wait until after we put up the tree so it is a Christmas picture, with the family in front of the tree.  We try to pick a time when everyone is relatively happy so we have the best hope of getting a decent picture to send out in Christmas cards and to put on the wall.  Then we pull out the tripod, start the timer on the camera and hope the kids smile.

 We always seem to have trouble getting everyone to smile and look at the camera at the same time.  Since there is no one looking at the group while we are taking the pictures, we just have to hope that sheer volume of pictures will get us at least one that is decent.  Sometimes the kids have other things in mind.

 For instance, this year we set the timer on the camera.  Once it starts taking pictures, it will take 10 pictures with a few seconds in between pictures.  When we were looking at the pictures afterward, the first set of 10 you could see the progression of Ruth and Joseph moving in the pictures.  Miriam, however, was stock still.  She was motionless with a Mona Lisa type smile on her face, of course.  Come on, kid!  Just smile!

 The next set of 10 Miriam decided to be more expressive.  (So did Ruth.  Crying, of course!)  Miriam watched for the camera to take another picture and gave us some different crazy face.  I could ring this girl's neck!  Come on, just one nice picture would be appreciated!

 Now I'm sure you can imagine the stress mounting as we try to keep four kids happy and cooperating to take pictures.  Before the first picture is taken Mom and Dad are ready to be finished.  So after a few times of setting the  timer, we decide to be satisfied with whatever we got.

There was no perfect picture this year.  Oh, well.  That's what memories are all about.  And do you notice how much you can see the Christmas tree?  Since we have no intentions of getting a bigger tree, I think next year we will take pictures earlier so the stress of family pictures isn't a Christmas tradition!

All Dressed Up...

But no smiles!  Maybe next time...

Christmastime is Here

 Every year we decorate our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening the Monday after Thanksgiving.  This year was no exception.  The kids were excited to decorate.  They are old enough now that they remember what we did previous years, and were even telling us where we sat and what we each did while decorating last year. 

 Joseph really enjoyed decorating the tree.  He found a small decorative wreath that he put on the tree.  Then he proceeded to hang every ornament he got onto the wreath.  That is a busy part of the tree! 

 The kids all think it is very special to get to put the angel on top of the tree.  This year Miriam got the honor, but Jack told Rebecca that next year she could try to put it up without help!  (I'm not sure she will grow that much in the next year!)

 Here are all my presents this Christmas...  I guess I can take back that other stuff!

Adorable Baby

Gardening in November

 We are always trying to come up with fun activities to do as a family.  With a new baby in the house, we are more limited on things we can all do together.

 We asked the kids for ideas of things they would like to do one Saturday, we got the standard answers for our crew-- swimming and going out to eat.  But Rebecca was more specific this time, and said she wanted to go to TGIF and have the dirt cup for dessert.  So we decided to make a dirt cup ourselves.

The kids had lots of fun crushing up Oreos, making pudding, sticking worms into the pudding concoction, and especially eating our creation.

Bath Time

Rebecca and Miriam are always excited to help take care of Ruth.  They are, in general, pretty helpful as well.  So when I told them it was time to give Ruth a bath after coming home from the hospital, they were excited to help.  They were a little disappointed that we didn't get to use the new baby bath yet, but I assured them that it wouldn't be too long before we got to pull it out.

Halloween 2010

The kids had a fun time for Halloween this year.  They had fun carving pumpkins (okay, they think pulling out the guts is gross, but they all insisted on carving a pumpkin), going to the ward Trunk-or-Treat, handing out goodies to all the trick-or-treaters, and partying with the kids at school.  Rebecca and Miriam decided to be fairies-- a Halloween Fairy and a Disco Fairy.   Joseph was a pirate.  And I even got Ruth an outfit with ghosts on it!

Miracle Birth

It seems every birth has a story, even ones that are scheduled C-Sections, which would seem to be rather uneventful.  Here is the story of our little Ruth coming into the world.

I had contractions for most of my pregnancy (they started at 12 weeks), but luckily through taking it easy, I was able to keep things under control and avoid preterm labor and bedrest.  We had the C-Section scheduled for 38 weeks, and at my 37 week appointment the doctor asked me how I felt about waiting another week to deliver.  I think any woman 37 weeks pregnant would not want to wait any longer, but I also wanted to make sure we had a healthy baby.  So we agreed that we would keep the scheduled date, but Jack and I discussed and prayed about it to make sure we were making the right decision.  We both felt strongly that we needed to keep the date for 38 weeks.

The last week of pregnancy seemed to go on forever.  I was having a lot of contractions-- the farthest apart were 10 minutes, and sometimes they were much closer to 5 minutes apart for the whole week.  The doctor had instructed me to not come in until they were 5 minutes apart and I had to breathe through them.  You know, full-blown labor.  Even with the contractions that met the time requirement, the intensity just wasn't there.  But after having so many contractions for so long, I was getting frustrated and tired.  What was going on?  How long could this go on before my body kicked in to full gear and went into active labor?  I would pray that the Lord would help me know when to go into the hospital, and that I would have this end soon.

I actually had a little delivery fantasy. (Fantasy because I knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but I really wished I could avoid the C-section.)  I imagined that after all this waiting, by the time I went in to the hospital in full labor, I would be fully dilated and ready to just push.  I would deliver naturally and avoid the recovery from the C-section.

Well, no such luck.  I made it to Monday morning, when we went into the hospital. I got all prepped for surgery (including two tries for the IV, my least favorite part).  The doctor was a little late, so I didn't go back the the operating room until about 7:45 am.  Surgery started and everything seemed to be progressing normally. 

Then the doctor said something (don't remember exactly what) and I knew something wasn't going normally.  Then she told us that as she moved my bladder out of the way to make the incision in the uterus, she saw the uterus and it was open already.  She could see the baby's face through the amniotic sac where the uterus had ruptured just moments before hand. 

Then as the doctor proceeded to open the sac and remove the baby (she never had to cut the uterus at all) she saw that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck three times.  The cord was pretty long, but even so, there was no way I could have delivered her vaginally.  She wouldn't have come out!

The doctor was able to deliver Ruth and get my uterus sewn up, but she wasn't able to reinforce the area where it tore because of how close it was to the bladder. 

I feel that the fact that Ruth and I are here is a miracle.  If I had gone into more active labor, I would have had this tear happen somewhere other than in the operating room, and we could have bled to death.  If I had attempted a vaginal delivery and not had the uterine rupture, Ruth could have died from the cord being wrapped around her neck.

Now I see the week of contractions as more than just a nuisance and frustration.  I see it as Heavenly Father truly holding back the labor so we could be in the right place at the right time.  I see the impressions for us to not wait any longer to have the baby as a witness of how much Heavenly Father is aware of me and how he will guide me in my life.  This was a miracle in my life.

Welcome Ruth Katherine Crews

We welcomed Ruth Katherine Crews to our family Oct 25th, 2010 at 8:24a.m. She weighed in at 5 lbs 11.4 oz and 18.5 inches long. Here are a few of the pictures we took: