The Dealio

So today I had a final ultrasound to check out Mr. Man. He was huge (as I predicted). My doctor didn't believe me- my stomach has actually measured small or normal- never big- so she said, "I think it's a little baby." Well- the ultrasound today said he was 9 lbs. I was concerned because the day before I had Marky the ultrasound said he weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and the NEXT DAY he was born weighing 9 lbs 8 oz and he BROKE his collar bone, which was traumatic. So ultrasound weights are very unreliable (both ways- they said Julia was 8 lb 6 oz and she was 7 lb 11 oz). My doctor will not induce me this week and said she thinks I should probably have a scheduled c-section next week. I don't want a c-section. I've never had one, but the idea freaks me completely out. And I can't imagine living my life with restrictions about lifting, driving, etc. (think about my 38 lb 2-year-old 'baby'). Today was the craziest day. I had a babysitter scheduled to come for my doctor's appt. and she forgot about it. So I had the kids with me and had to wait over an hour for the ultrasound and over an hour to see the doctor (picture me with no diaper bag or toys). Then the hospital parking deck was COMPLETELY full so I had to park like a mile away and push Julia up a hill to get to the doc. I got there at 9:45 and got home about 2:00 with exhausted kids and a mommy who had been crying. So the doctor has left it all up to me- I still want to try to have this baby the regular way- I'm just scared to death he will break his collar bone. Hopefully he's not as big as they are thinking- either way, I would appreciate your prayers. I plan to go in Sunday night and we will make the final decision then. I just want a healthy, happy baby and God's will to be done. Either way, by Monday night we should meet sweet Tucker boy.

Hanging in there....

It's no secret to those around here that this has been the hardest 9th month of pregnancy I've had. I'm just exhausted, and I have aches and pains I've never had before. I think the holidays being here, plus having two little ones that keep me on my feet, have put a real strain on me physically. But I am not alone. My husband has totally taken over and helped me. He does everything- any gap in the housework is getting filled by him right now (and there are LOTS of gaps). And he doesn't complain. He just jumps right in and takes the burden right off my shoulders. And, even with my huge belly and old lady ankles, he tells me I look pretty. I'm just so grateful to have a servant leader in my home. We all need a soft place to fall.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! Hope you all had a blessed day. Ours was WONDERFUL. Little guy woke up at 6:00 a.m. (which is early here) and got the party started. Everyone loved their gifts- even the funny ones- how do you like Marc's Declaration of Independence shirt? His parents know he's a patriot...if only there was a matching fanny pack......
Marky flipped out over his castle and has played with it ALL DAY!

Julia got a precious pink piano and LOVES it. Her button says "big sister"...not just big. : )

We opened tons of presents. Even Aunt Shana came over and exchanged presents with us (she has to work in the ER today so she couldn't be with her "other" family). Here's our little family after opening presents. We had a big lunch courtesy of BB (Mama D is exhausted- don't get me started).

After lunch BB and Poppy drove home and the rest of us rested with our full bellys and played with our new things. Renny loved his new bed and toy (thanks Shana)- and he was wearing his traditional Santa suit.
Marky practiced on his "shooting range". It's all contained like an arcade game so he can't 'shoot his eye out'.
He takes it very seriously....
Sissy lounged on her new sleeping bag with her new little einstein's computer.

After short naps, the kids watched Charlie Brown's Christmas special and we had supper and lit our Christ candle in the middle of our advent wreath. They were SO excited. They totally got that this day was about Jesus' birth. Even Julia seemed to really understand. Then tonight we went to Christmas mass. The church looked beautiful- all the purple had been removed and all the gorgeous Christmas decor was up. I think this Christmas/Advent will go down on my top 5 all-time favorites. I hope your day was both joyful and peaceful!

Christmas Eve- ups and downs

This Christmas eve was interesting- it had ups and downs. It began with ups when we all went to Best Buy and BB and Poppy got us an AWESOME new T.V. Then we attempted to make our first gingerbread house ever, which was still an up. However, when we tried to adjust the house b/c it's roof was crooked- it collapsed and had a big crack in the base. That's down. But with much icing we fixed it (up) and took tons of time decorating it.
I wanted to take the final pic of it in it's resting place- but the trip over to the dining room ensured it's permanent destruction. That's a down.

Then we had an AWESOME steak, sweet potato, and salad dinner and waited on the porch for Santa- who rides by on a firetruck EVERY year. (all "up" things) We heard the siren and knew he was just one street over for a long time. Here are BB and Poppy waiting with our anxious babies....
And he didn't come. We waited THREE hours total for Santa and he never came by- we must have heard him go down every nearby street and he never made it. Big Down! Do you know what though- the kids were fine. It bothered us grown ups more. The kids were happy to be outside... and for part of the waiting I played Christmas songs on the piano and we sang (Julia had a microphone, Marky a bongo drum). Marky says his favorite Christmas song is "Noel" and his favorite line is "born is the King". We were anxiously waiting to celebrate our King's birth and even Santa giving us a snub didn't ruin our fun time.

Shake and Bake

It's that time of year again- the time when Hillary and I bake for Christmas. We've done it many years before- and this year we got to do it with all four of our kids and Aunt Shana! Here are Shana and Hill rolling peanut butter balls. As Julia would say "dose are wishus"(delicious).
Unexpectedly, the kids wanted to help us A LOT. We thought they would play with the toys most of the time and let us cook, but I literally had to kick Marky out of the kitchen. We did let them cut the gingerbread men and women.

Even Sissy seemed to get the hang of it. I hate I didn't get a pic of sweet Harris- he is such a dollbaby. I think he was napping at this point. We also made some type of rolled oat- chocolate-peanut butter cookie thing that is out of this world. Thanks Hill for the recipes and coming down with your grocery store in your car. Thank you Shana for delaying your trip home so you could cook with us.

Oh- and thanks also for Julia's snowglobe Auntie Hill. When she woke up from her nap, Marky went and snuggled by her and they watched that thing play songs and shake snow for about 30 minutes. All I could think of was "Children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads". Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2008

Here's our Christmas card (you can click to make it bigger)- we don't have SO many people's addresses. Dearest blogging friends, have a WONDERFUL Christmas celebration with the ones you love!

Advent Prayer

When the girls were over here the other night, we said this prayer, which I think is so beautiful. It's words are so powerful I thought I would share:

You are our eternal salvation,
The unfailing light of the world.
Light everlasting,
You are truly our redemption.
Grieving that the human race was perishing
through the tempter's power,
without leaving the heights
You came to the depths in your loving kindness.
Readily taking our humanity by Your gracious will,
You saved all earthly creatures, long since lost,
Restoring joy to the world.
Redeem our souls and bodies, O Christ,
and so possess us as Your shining dwellings.
By Your first coming, make us righteous;
At Your second coming, set us free:
So that, when the world is filled with light
and you judge all things,
We may be clad in spotless robes
and follow in Your steps, O King,
Into the heavenly hall.
Unknown Author, 10th century

Joy is right!

This week's advent theme is Joy and I've got it abundantly. I could not be more grateful to our precious Lord. Today we had the annual "Christmas singing thing" at Moms-Day-Out. Unlike Thanksgiving, Marky actually sang and smiled this time.

While Julia still didn't ever sing or smile, she was happy to do the hand motions, which consisted of ringing a bell and patting her legs.

She did however have BIG SMILES when she saw her favorite fella had come to see her!

My precious pumpkins:

Then tonight I hosted a little dinner for the ladies in my Bible Study. We met this fall and studied Paul's writings on the sacraments. It was such a fruitful and wonderful time. We are taking a break for the holidays, but I wanted to see everyone so we had a little pot luck.
I made chili and rice and the whole reason was I wanted to use my grandmother's soup tureen that I've had for about four years and have never had a chance to use. It is so beautiful.

Little did I know that the girls had a surprise baby shower for me! I could not have been more surprised or grateful.

Here are the girls at dinner:

Thank you Lord for answering my prayers and giving me likeminded, Godly women to share this journey home with me. And that includes you, all my blogging girlfriends, whom I'm so grateful for, even if we don't see each other very much. You bless me and encourage me in my faith. THANK YOU!

Breath of Heaven

I was so blessed tonight. So, so blessed. We went to our first Los Posados celebration. It's a Mexican tradition where you dress a couple like Mary and Joseph and travel around trying to find lodging.

The angel and star went before the couple and the crowd walked behind holding luminaries. Little buddy was so happy to hold is luminary and say the songs and prayers with us. One sister in the crowd had a violin and played "Oh Come Emmanuel" and we sang. It was hauntingly beautiful- especially since it was very dark except for candlelight.
We would pray and sing songs in between doors. Then when we got to a door, Joseph would knock and ask for lodging and the inn-keepers would rudely turn them away (they were very animated). Then the crowd would sing and the inkeeper and staff would sing back. The children were right up front so they could see the whole thing.

At the last door, the innkeeper was nice and said that while he didn't have room in his home, he did have room in his stable. Joseph thanked him and then the double doors opened wide and it inside it looked almost like heaven. We rejoiced because our King could be born!

Then we had a party with cookies and hot chocolate. Here is Julia enjoying a gingerbread man cookie. She couldn't hold a candle luminary so we brought her "froggy lantern" from home, which to her was extra special. What a beautiful tradition. I hope we can go every year. Standing outside in the cold with "Mary and Joseph" made the Christmas story come alive not just for the kids, but for mom and dad too.

3rd Sunday in Advent- JOY!!!!

Today we light the one pink candle in the advent wreath for Joy! I can't believe it's less than two weeks until Christmas!

"...and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." I Pet. 1:8

Baby's Room

Here is little buddy's room. It used to be our master bedroom and was already this yellow color with the blue drapes. So we just went with it. This is now the guest room/nursery so we moved the guest bed up here. It looks more exciting in person- more colorful.

This Christmas- no parking on the dance floor!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sweetness

So here is our little tree for 2008. I have to say this has been my favorite advent season ever. I think getting all the shopping done by Dec. 2nd has saved us. I'm not quite as rushed as usual. Now- changing all the rooms and stuff has been busy, but at least it's busy IN my home instead of in the mall. This year we had to change from putting the angel on top of the tree to a star b/c Marky had read some books talking about how the star on top of the tree represents the star of Bethlehem. "We don't have a star of Bethlehem, Mommy! We have to go get one!" Baby wants a star- baby gets a star. Period. Tonight I noticed this under the tree:

I asked Marky what it was. He said he wrapped up his favorite sword to give to Tucker. He has two of these foam swords. This one, the blue one (his favorite color), is the one that he cut the handle with scissors to make it look like a cross. He said, "I think Tucker should have the blue cross one and I will just use the green one." He wrapped it in tons of paper towels and scotch tape and added blue ribbons to the end. How did I completely miss him doing this project?
A tradition we've added for the first time this year is the manger basket. It's an empty manger (wicker basket) on our fireplace and when any of us do nice, selfless things for each other we get to put hay in the basket to make Jesus's coming that much more comfortable. On Christmas morning, a baby Jesus will be in the basket, and hopefully he will have lots of loving acts to rest on. Today Marky got to put hay in the basket for stuff like splitting the last cookie with Julia without being asked, giving his favorite sword away, feeding the dog without being asked, and cleaning out the sandbox without being asked. He is totally into it. This, for some reason, is working better than the "giving tree" at Thanksgiving did. I think the idea that he's directly giving to Jesus is better demonstrated through this than the tree.
That plus the advent wreath and calendar are the basics for us this Christmas. Our calendar has a Bible verse for every day and that has been so interesting to watch Marky ponder them. (Julia's just too little to get into this too much). Last night's was "The lion shall lie down with the lamb. A little child shall lead them." Marc said, "is that normal for a lion to lie down with a lamb?" and Marky said, "no, usually he would eat the lamb." and Daddy said, "what child is going to lead them?" and he said, "Jesus" and Marc explained "yes, and Jesus is the Prince of Peace and when He comes, Peace comes.".....which went right along with the peace candle in the advent wreath. It's just all so meaningful and amazing. I'm so grateful to be able to bring my children the Good News.

Wordless Wednesday (Marc is Joseph)

I think my sister-in-law likes me.....

.....but if she likes me, why would she send my husband this for his birthday? She knows I'm nesting and we are trying to make more room for baby, and she sends me a TOY for my HUSBAND that is more than 2 1/2 feet long?! She sent a gift receipt so we could take it back and Marc had agreed to do so.....until he saw it. "I just want to look at it really quickly" he said as he opened the box. Marky and Julia helped him and all three of them were awe struck.
Apparently Marc had one of these as a child and it was his all-time favorite toy. And now Marky is in love with it and we are going to introduce him to Star Wars movies next year. He already knows about Darth Vader and Julia is in love with Chewbacca. I have to admit it is amazing and does a lot of cool stuff. We have made room under the guest bed to "dock" it at night. Speaking of which, the nursery is done. Mama is so happy to have one more thing to check off of the to-do list! I'll try to get pics up soon. Until then, may the force be with you.

We are waiting

Tears. I have shed more tears in the past two weeks than in the entire year before. Something about being 9 months pregnant here at advent has me emotional. I cry at almost every Christmas song. Have you heard Faith Hill's "A Baby Changes Everything"? Good grief. And then there is the canon song by the Trans-Siberian orchestra (that I'm putting on here) where they sing so beautifully, "we are waiting, we have not forgotten....." over and over again. Imagine how much the Isrealites had been through. How many years of waiting for their Messiah? Would God deliver them? Where was their king? He was coming as a meek baby in a manger and He would change everything.

Today we lit the second candle for peace. Christ says "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." In this hectic December, I am praying to find that true peace that only comes from our Redeemer. I don't want another advent to pass without me being still and waiting on the Lord.

Come, oh Prince of Peace, come and be born in our hearts!

Christmas Card Pictures

We have to do them. We do them every year. Oh how I dread it. To refresh your memory, I bring you Christmas 2006:

Christmas 2007:

Put a fork in me...

...I'm done! (Christmas shopping that is)

The thanksgiving thing at "school"

Just a quick shot of the kids from the moms-day-out thanksgiving thing. Marky is the tall pilgrim not singing, signing, or smiling. All he said was "Daddy!"

And Julia is the tall punkin not singing. She said "hey Daddy" and that was about it. None of the kids really sang. And they only sang one song. Do we do this stuff for the kids or the parents? I have my own theory......