Our lovely lovely home

What a beauty, no?  I distinctly remember checking out our home to see if we wanted to buy it right before Christmas and falling in love with it then.  It's like living inside a forest.  The logs make me happy every single day I look at them and at Christmas it's even more breathtaking and don't even get me started on the stone fireplace!  One of these days, it'll work again but even when it doesn't now it still completes me.  I cannot believe I actually live here and with my sweet husband and darling kids.  I have to pinch myself.  I wouldn't want my life any other way except this.  And with a great snowfall, it just adds to the beauty of it all.  I am so happy to be where I am and I humbly acknowledge my Father in Heaven for giving this life to me.  I pray I can sufficiently give back to Him.

A baby story - Maxwell Joseph

Oh man oh man it's only been a week and I'm already forgetting, noooooooooooo!  It was a beautiful labor and birth so I must record it before it goes whoosh out of my memory.

Oh dear.  He just started fussing!...Be right back....  Ok I'm back.  But he is a good baby.  A really good little champ.  I am a big big fan of his.  I think he's gonna like it here.

So two Thursdays ago I woke up in the middle of the night and thought oh boy this is it!  And then I walked around and it was just Braxton Hicks.  Then on Saturday, Dec 12 I got a pedicure and about 1 a.m. the next morning I started getting contractions regularly.  Oh man this is really it.  Wahoo!!  I woke up Paul eventually and by 4 we were in the hospital and I was still getting them steady.  I got my good ole epidural and for some reason I was more freaked out than ever by it this time.  I am so so grateful for Paul who is the best birth coach ever.  I could not have done it without him holding my hand the whole time.  I love you Paul.  So then our great doctor came in and broke my water and then I think he went to church for a few hours and we kinda rested and then he came back and after about 3 pushes baby Maxwell was born at 11:34 a.m. on Sunday, Dec 13.

He came out crying and we snuggled right away doing skin to skin for about an hour while he rooted around and drank my colostrum.  He had an apgar of 9 and is a tiny little thing for our family.  7.13 pounds and 19 inches.  Moses was 8.13 and Lizzie was 9.1 and Grace was 9.  But now we are out a week and a half and I am pretty sure he has gained some wait.  He was a bit jaundice-y to begin with but I think he is on the mend from that as well.

So, yeah that's it in a nutshell.  No drama and pure bliss and I am so so grateful for modern medicine and hospitals and healthy babies with no complications and smooth pregnancies.  You just never know.  In the meantime, the kids have really taken a liking to him.  Grace looks gigantic around him and just flops around all cute and fat and says "baby!!!" whenever she sees him.  Adorable.  And Moses is intrigued and Lizzie loves him and maybe is a little insecure about her status but seems to be moving forward from this already.

So it's Christmas Eve today.  Not a creature is stirring cause Moses and Grace AND Maxwell are all sleeping for naptime and I will be doing that in a second cause Maxwell was up a bit at night but it's to be expected, right?  Now I know.  I laugh so hard at the terrified look I had on my face with my first little one.  That was baptism by fire I tell ya.  I was completely clueless.  Anyway, Paul and Lizzie are out doing last minute Christmas shopping and Paul says they are having ball which makes me very happy and life is good if a little fuzzy since it's newborn baby time.

People have been so kind to us this month; so many neighbor gifts and dinners from neighbors.  Even tonight our friend Amanda Sorenson is bringing us dinner.  So wonderful.  I am in heaven and so grateful to our Heavenly Father for my blessed state and to the Savior for His atonement for me.  What a blessed gift He gave us.  I LOVE Christmas so much it hurts and I am so grateful to the Lord for this season.  Merry Christmas!!