Elsie's Blessing

My sister, Megan, crocheted Elsie's blessing dress. It took 40+ hours. It was truly a labor of love, and Elsie looked absolutely beautiful. On December 28, 2008 Brian gave Elsie a name and a blessing. We had a lot of family with us. Dean and Mary, Bryan and Karen, Kevin and Laurie, Quintin and Bryonna, Ryan and Mandy, Ladd and Emily, My parents, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles were all present. Brian gave her a beautiful blessing. We are so grateful to have her as a part of our family.

Four generations - Elsie and Grace with me, my mom and my maternal grandmother.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas! Tyler and Grace were more than sufficiently spoiled, as were Brian and I. Even Elsie was. We enjoyed the holidays, visiting with family, decorating, baking, eating, looking at lights, a trip to temple square, etc. This year I used my mother-in-law's gingerbread recipe and cookie cutter and made my own gingerbread. The end result was 30 individual gingerbread houses. Needless to say, the kids decorated a lot of houses. Every day we had someone else over to decorate. They thought it was great. The whole month of December my kids were on a sugar high. I asked Santa to substantially cut back on the stocking candy, and I was glad to see he came through.


Decorating gingerbread houses - a new family tradition (One of Brian's favorite's growing up)

The lights at temple square - Brian took the kids on trax with my family to see the lights at temple square. I stayed home with Elsie.

Grace fell asleep on the trax ride home in grandma's arms. She had so much fun it wore her out.

Christmas morning - what a mess.

Christmas Eve Nativity program.

Elsie is Here

Elsie is here! We were scheduled to be induced at 7am on 11/20. Well, Elsie didn't want to wait. Misty started having contractions about 10pm the night before and we went to the hospital about 4:30am. After taking the kids to grandma's house at 4am we went to AltaView to have the baby. When we got to the hospital Misty was dilated to a 4. The progress was slow until one little stint where the contractions became really frequent and she went from a 4 to an 8 in about 15 minutes. At that point, it was too late for any drugs as the baby was coming. Elsie was born at 7:46am on 11/20. She was 9 lbs. 14 oz. We don't need a turkey for Thanksgiving, we already have the Butterball!!! She was 20 inches long. Misty, the baby, and I spent all day napping as the night before really didn't allow for much sleep. Mommy and baby are doing well. I'll let Misty tell you how it was to have an almost ten pound baby without drugs. I honestly think that next time we have a baby, she will arrive at the hospital and say "I'm here to have an epidural. Oh...yeah...I mean...I'm here to have a baby."

Here are some photos of Elsie: http://www.crelubbock.com/elsie/

Two weeks before my due date

Sorry about the lack of posts, to anyone who still checks my blog. Time has gotten away from me. Two weeks ago I was released as Primary President, just in time to have a baby. It's a bitter-sweet release. I was very ready for it, after almost 4 years in primary. But I was sad they did it two weeks before the primary program. I am quite excited to see Tyler in his first primary program tomorrow. He has his part down pat and knows all the songs. He is quite excited to sit up on the stand and sing and talk in the microphone. After that, I think I'll head out and look for a trampoline to get this baby out. We got tickets to Disney On Ice for this week, but if the baby comes, I'm good to let Brian take the kids by himself. I'm ready! We've made it a tradition the last couple of years to go to Disneyland in the fall. However, this year I am much too pregnant to brave that one. So we decided we'd call it good with Disney On Ice. I know it's not Disneyland, but the kids should have a great time anyway!

Halloween

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. The kids loved trick-or-treating to daddy's office. I even dared to sport my Snow White costume, to which I got a lot of comments! I'll never dress up as Snow White 9 months pregnant again. Other than that, we had a lot of fun with a visit to the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, Tyler's school Halloween program, trick-or-treating with daddy, and a party at a friends house.

Grace Dance

We were put on a waiting list for 3-year-old dance class for a month and a half (who knew it was in such demand for such a young crowd). Finally her studio opened enrollment on new class to accommodate all the dancers-in-waiting. She was so excited to be back in dance with her best friend, Kiara. She loves to dance, and it's even more exciting because this year is tap and ballet. She been dying to try out her new tap shoes!

Tyler T-Ball

Tyler loved playing T-Ball, although he'll quickly correct you and tell you it is "baseball" that he played. He had a blast! It was rather amusing for the parents as well. It was more like tackle football for the outfielders, who all would run after the ball in hopes of being the one to retrieve it first. One lucky boy would come out of the bottom of the dog pile victorious, grinning proudly and chuck the ball to an inattentive first baseman who would then get clunked with the ball. It was great fun!

Tyler and Grace - First Day of School