Puppy

He doesn't have a name yet, but isn't he the cutest thing ever. Gotta go potty train. :-)

Puppy search

I have spent several hours in the past few days checking into puppy breeds, and breeders. Trying to find a breed that is not only a cute puppy, but also a cute adult. I want something that doesn't shed much, and is rather small. What in heavens name did they do before the Internet? How in the world? Did they just go out and randomly buy a dog???? LOL, it really is funny how much different we are now. I remember that my dog that I got for my 8th birthday was $199, and that was at a pet shop. (heaven for bid, buying a dog from a shop) now a days the pet store puppies are typically over $1000!!! Not going to do that, that is for sure. A part of me thinks, quit thinking about this so much, it's a dog, your train it, and then it behaves the way you want it to. But my mom has this dog that, uhg, I would DIE if we got a dog like that! Anyway, just venting my puppy stress. :-) back to researching. p.s. going to Lancaster, PA on Thursday, any one is welcome to come along!

Take The Whole Day Off!!!

So I got up this morning at 7:30. None of my children were awake, I snuck out to go and teach water aerobics at 8:30. I love to work out, it is one of my absolute favorite things to do, and I love having a job that makes me do it. Sometimes it is hard to be motivated to go, but knowing that a class will be there waiting for you and you will be in big trouble if you don't show, motivates a bit. I Love my job! After my work out where I burned darn near 600 calories, I got to have a nice shower, followed by peacefully doing my hair and make up. I then spoke with Jeri where we plotted our morning out. I picked her up and we headed for the mall. It was about 10:30 when we hit the road. (I got out of making the kids breakfast and by this time they were likely trying to do their jobs)....he he. We got to Arundle Mills and shopped really quick, I got a ton of stuff from Children's place, not one item cost more then $1!! I spent $10. (who hoo, big spender!) We poked through a few stores, looking for a cute outfit to go with my SO cute rubber boots. (BTW, I have no idea how to wear these cute things, and I googled "rubber boots, models, fashion, and so on, trying to get a picture of someone wearing these so cute boots, yeah care full if you ever Google this one..... there was a site that looked totally innocent in the description that is a nice little surprise of "GIRLS" who like to "go wild" with rubber boots. CAREFUL!! YIKES!)
I didn't find anything that I thought was quite what I was looking for. We found a few other good deals, only one that I snatched up, cute socks! I love cute socks, long socks, with boots. :-) Then after shopping for a few hours, we went together to subway to snatch up some food as we raced off to pick up some babysitters. We went and got Gwen and Julie and they were absolutely tickled to be being picked up together, and to find out that they were babysitting just up the street from one and other. We gave them the suggestion that they could go walking together and/or have dinner together. (which they did, and they and the kids seemed to have a blast!) These cute girls got together and made Mac and Cheese, and Cookies for the kids, it was so cute to see how much fun they had.) When I came home with Gwen, the kids were so excited and Katie was in bed for a nap. Brent and I jumped in the car with Jeri and Linclon and we headed out to the Renaissance Festival. We were running a bit late, but we figured we would have plenty of time. Well, we then got caught in crazy Renn Fest Traffic and sat in the car for almost 2 hours! GRRR, not that sitting in the car was bad, cuz really, Jeri was on one and the whole time was SO funny! (laughing while I am writing this...) We had the funniest conversation in the car, very strange, but funny. The Grr is cuz I paid a sitter $10 so that I could sit in the car and talk to the Tidwells, I can do that for free in my living room. :-) Anyway, when we finally got to the festival it was AWESOME!!!! Oh did we have fun. I just love that place, it is such a different feeling in there, and I love to look at the stuff in the shops and people watch. Brent and I both really like the Renaissance era and most anything that comes with it. We like the furniture style and dress.. (we can't however afford costumes, but some day.... mark my words, I will have one of those dresses! It will be the most beautiful one there. :-)) We ate yummy food... Chicken Empanada's, cherry lime aid, funnel cake, fried oreos, and a chocolate dipped banana. Yummy!! I bought a CD of a hammered Dulcimer (my favorite instrument... the music really sings to me, brings tears to my eyes.. I love it! The only instruments that comes close is bagpipes, but they have sound far away, and Brent playing his French Horn.) We had such a ball together. We got home and sweet Gwen had my kids all in PJs and Katie was put down for the night. I hugged the kids goodnight, and headed upstairs to see Katie for the FIRST TIME today!!! I drove Gwen and Julie home and they enjoyed that drive too. ;-) I got home and Tori was asleep, Alex and Katie were close, I read 2 pages of Lizas book with her and sent her up to bed too. It is 10 minuets to 10, I cooked no meals, I cleaned no dishes, I wiped no bums, I cleaned no floors or tables, I didn't feed anyone but myself all day!!!!! WOW! What a day! I had such fun, it is so rare that I get a full day out like that. I feel so energized and ready to go. Oh BTW, totally fell off the wagon, oh well not totally, I have kept up my night routine, but I slacked off on everything else. Maybe I burned myself out with the kitchen. I'll try again next week, but surely not tonight, why would I ruin a perfect day? :-)

I love fall....

The weather is so beautiful lately... I just love the cool mornings and nights. MMMMM, it reminds me of home in the summer time. Here are some of the pictures that I took today. Not terribly happy with my results, but it was fun anyway. The kids were really active and i am not too great at shooting moving objects.

Hanging on by my fingernails

I have almost fallen off the wagon all ready! I can't believe how quickly my home goes out of control! I relaxed for one day and the laundry and toys took over. I never did get to the fridge, the pantry, or hands and kneeing the floor. I guess that will have to be on the top of the list for November. Back to moping for a few weeks. I want to quit and go back to my life of leisure, but I was so happy there for a few days while it was all going so well. I also found myself staying home a bit more instead of shopping (I am such a believer in retail therapy that it's really bad!) The kids did their jobs today and I helped keep them rolling and picked up my own room. I just need to remember how important it is to do my night routine.

Today I told my kids about my parents. I did it in the van while we were driving to Toys R Us for a free "littlest pet shop/ hot wheels". I started out by asking my kids if they knew what divorce meant. Liza answered that it was when a husband and wife hate each other and so they stop being married. I quickly assured her that they don't have to hate each other to get divorced, that sometimes they just are no longer happy together and they may like each other just fine. We talked about people that we know who are divorced and how they still love their children etc. Then when we arrived at Toys R Us, I turned around to my captive audience and told them that Grandma and Grandpa Tiffany got a divorce. Liza and Alex (of course) reacted the most, neither was terribly sad, more so worried about where they belonged in the whole mix. I had anticipated that, and had waited this long so that I could tell them about Grandmas new house. (My mom just bought a house about 15 minuets away from my dads place) I was able to tell them how many bedrooms she has, and where her dog would live and of course where the trampoline was. They took it rather well, and I am sure that questions will come up over time, but I was sure to reassure them that both Grandma and Grandpa love them very much, that they can go visit both of them, and that grandma and grandpa both had trips planned to come and visit us here. Then we went in to cash in our coupons for our free toys, nothing like a little retail therapy :-) See, I told you I was a firm believer. UH, what am I teaching my children...? Yikes. I also made sure to tell them that Grandma and Grandpa do not hate each other, in fact they had Chinese food together just last week. I think that made Liza feel a lot better. I am glad to have that over and done with.

Liza had another birthday party/sleepover tonight. She chose to not attend the sleepover since it went from a Saturday to a Sunday, so I snuck out and picked her up at 11:45 so she could be home for the sabbath. I was so proud of her as she resisted her friends requests to stay as she was leaving. She didn't even look at me like I was making her leave. She just smiled sweetly at her friends and said good bye. The little girls mom asked what church we go to. I told her that we were Mormon ( I know I know, we're supposed to say the whole big name, but sometimes it just doesn't fit in. ) Anyway that led to her telling me that she took the first 3 discussions with the missionaries back in 1988! Wild, who knew! I will have to restart that conversation some other time when there is not a birthday party going on.

On another note, I am milling around in my mind the idea of starting up some sort of a photography business. Just a little deal, following in my mentors footsteps. I have had a few leads from Brent's work, he shows them pictures of the kids and then they ask who is taking these pictures. There are 2 doctors who are interested in having me come out and photograph their children. I am a little nervous for the responsibility of it all, and I am also waiting till we get a new computer and a better version of photo shop.

Anyway, that's whats on the brain tonight. I better go to bed 2 am is quickly approaching. :-)

SYTYCD!!!!!!!

Tonight I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a ticket to the live "So You Think You Can Dance" performance in Baltimore. It was SO good. I really enjoyed watching all the dancers, I really wish that I knew more about what was going on. I only watched 1 episode this season, so I didn't know any of the dancers. I did find this young man, Danny Tidwell

This is the best picture of his pec's that I could find on the Internet. Lick 'O Licious I say!!! MMM, just the bod though, not really my type otherwise. However this man can move in ways that I never thought any man could. I am not saying that I think he was the best dancer, but he did keep my attention. There was one girl that I really liked how she moved, but now I can't remember her name. Anyway I found that I really enjoyed the Ball room dances, cha cha, samba, etc... and i was surprised to find that I quite liked the hip hop too. There were even a few alternative ones that I enjoyed. It was quite the evening and was topped of by being chauffeured home by whom I will forever remember as "Nakie Jakie" LOL!! That was so funny. It was pouring rain and poor Jake, who was driving all of us silly girls around got absolutely soaked! He was warmer w/o his shirt on, so "naturally" that is how he drove home. :-) We all had to tease for a bit. It really was quite a fun night and I am very glad that I got to go. Thanks Linclon for the ticket, I hope you make it next year.

Today's fly victory was the tossing of multiple jar candles, since I have switched to oils, I haven't really burned many candles, so those got tossed. I also tossed a ton of spice containers and re organized my spice containers. As per our challenge for the Kitchen today, I cleared my counters of all appliances that I don't use at least 4 times a week. I put the more used ones in a convenient location, but out of sight. I did some re arranging, and I really like the results. I am so pleased. Tomorrow is about the fridge, pantry and grocery list. Friday afternoon is grocery day. I played old maid again with Tori and laid with Katie on the floor and played with a musical toy for a few minutes. I loved it. All in all a pretty good day. Oh yeah, and my nutty kids keep asking me if they can go in the sprinkler, so today, October 10th, I told them to go ahead. Tori and Alex bounced out there first while Liza finished practicing piano. They were back in the house in less then 3 minutes. Then they went back out with phsyco crazy Liza, and they were able to put up with the cold a little longer (about 10 minutes) and then they all came in the house shivering. They went up stairs and put on their winter jammies and then came down for a hot dinner. I think that I made my point though, it is really just too dang cold. Even though it is still hot on the bus after school, the air and wind is too cool. They also got absolutely eaten alive by mosquito's (poor tori scratches them till they bleed). Tisk Tisk, they should listen to their mother. :-( I hope I don't hear about the sprinkler again until spring.

Still going....

I am so happy tonight that my house is lookin up. It is far from perfect, but like fly lady says, it didn't get like this in a day, and it will not clean up in a day either. Today I tackled the inside of the cupboards. I did 4 cupboards, 4 drawers and the "super Susan". (I always thought it was a lazy Susan till we looked at this house and the seller called it a super Susan. When he did that I laughed to my self and thought, "ooooh, what a selling point, it is super, rather then lazy!" LOL. Then when we bought the house and all the manuals traded hands, I learned that it is indeed a "Super Susan". What makes her super you ask? The fact that her little spinning shelves are not just suspended on a pole, each shelf rotates on an actual shelf and can therefor hold much more weight, making her SUPER! LOL!!) I de cluttered along the way tossing an apple slicer, a broken can opener a ton of small over stained bibs and wash cloths, plastic containers/water bottles and more! Found... the lid to my blender, YEAH, I was looking for that all over the place, and a 2 cup measuring cup that I just couldn't imagine where it had gone! I was happy to have that back I tell ya. I learned that a magic eraser will take off the black marks that your pots and cookie sheets leave on your cupboards, and pretty much anything that is stuck on your appliances, ie melted bags on the side of toasters, and baked on oil on the side of a crock pot. Give it a whirl you may be surprised, those things are amazing! I also discovered today another little idea for motivating children and it sounds like fun, but I don't know if I am personally game for paying for another program, but I may be able to incorporate her idea. The website is www.housefairy.org Fly lady recommends her, and I read a few things about her from other fly babies and it seems pretty cool. Well, my sinks are clean, my floors are picked up and swept and I am off to finish my nightly routine.

Last thought, I had to share Alex's Spelling homework for tonight. His teacher asked him to write a sentence for each spelling word. She told me that the only word that HAS to be spelled right is the spelling word, so he can do his creative spelling thing, so I thought I would put this one in a book....

1. My sistr slleps in a crib.
2. My dad es crab.
3. I sum tims grab my sistr.
4. I got a trap.
5. I got to go to a trip.
6. I see that.
7. My sistr pict grass.
8. This is good.
9. I acksydetlle hit my sistr.
10. I can win a chrofee.

Hukd on foniks wurkd fore me! I love 9 and 10 accidentally, and trophy. HE HE. Gotta love it.
....... the funniest part, spell check helped me spell accidentally properly! DUH! My poor kids don't stand a chance!

Fluttering about...

Well, I did it!! Today I started to flutter around a little, trying to fly. Thank you to Rebecca who motivated me today. Somehow knowing that I would report my "TADA" list made it easier to stay on task. I taught water aerobics today and when I came home, I fed the girls and myself and then put Katie to bed. Tori went down stairs to play with her dolls and I started my timer for 45 mins. I emptied the dishwasher, loaded in dirty dishes, started a load of laundry, bleached my sink, cleaned out the utensil drawer and took the garbage can outside for a good hosing off. I then took my 15 min break in which I came down stairs and played two rounds of old maid with Tori. (something that I don't do often enough). After my break, I went back up to the kitchen (which just happens to be what zone we are in. I cleaned the front of my cabinets, and dusted way up on top of stuff, I cleaned on top of the fridge, and then the whole fridge. I took the 5 min challenge from fly lady today and zipped around the kitchen throwing away papers as fast as I could, I cleaned the front of my appliances, the big mirror in the kitchen, the window over the sink, and then the giant sliding glass door (both sides). I took 15 more min to curl up and read a book with Tori, and then headed back in for some more little jobs, like switching over laundry and filling cleaning supplies, till the big kids came home from school. We did homework and then the best treat of all, Brent came home early today!!!! He only worked 10 hours today!! We were so excited to have him home before 5:00 that we snatched up the opportunity to go to CiCi's for dinner and then come home for a fun little FHE on Tithing. I wrapped up my day with reading time with Liza, folding laundry (2 loads) and doing my evening routine which included tidying the house up, sweeping the kitchen floor, and wiping down the bathroom sinks. I also have journal writing and scriptures on my routine, and so this counts for the journal, and I did my scriptures. I am so happy today, I just feel like I maybe, just maybe will get back on top of things. The best part about fly lady when I did it before was that I found time for all the things that I wanted to have time for, like playing with my kids and reading scriptures. I can't wait to keep this up and see my home emerge from this mess that we've been buried under. :-) Happy day!

Time To Crack Down.

Thanks Giving Dinner

So I have been flitting around here for about 2 years. Using various excuses such as, grieving, pregnant, postpartum, new baby, over whelmed, depressed, disoriented, and the list goes on. I decided yesterday that today was the day! Today is the day that I crack down, get back on Fly Lady (http://www.flylady.net/) and get my rhythm back. I've been staggering around this messy house, noticing the filthy nooks and crannies for far too long. Then today, I stayed in my Jammies all day, listened to conference, and made Canadian Thanks Giving dinner for my family. (which was quite yummy). When i put the kids to bed I sat and read with Liza for an hour and a half to try to get her caught up to the point where she is suppose to be for book club tomorrow. I really want her to do well in this book club and develop a love of reading. By 10:30, Brent had gone to bed and everyone was down, and I still wasn't any closer to getting organized then I was a week ago! I am going to do this though.


Katie is getting the hang of this walking thing, and is now standing up and walking a few steps on her own while she is just playing around. Today the name of her game was get into everything, so she was all over the kitchen while I was cooking. She at one point had a dish rag and was putting it on her head like a hat and then scooting around the kitchen like she thought she was beautiful! It was so so funny. What a ham, grinning from ear to ear. Then later she was scooting around and climbing under the table dragging behind her the pitcher off of my blender? Weird choice of toys, but okay. Tori today was in the room while Brent and I were listening to conference and since she was the only one in the room to look at, we were both watching her. She looked up at us and said "why are you two scareing at me?", we both used the word stare several times in our answer, but she continued to call it scareing. It was so funny. A few weeks ago Alex threw a stick into Jeri and Linclons tail light on their car and broke it. He was told to stop swinging the sticks around the car, and him hitting the car was an accident, but still, he was told to stop, So I told him that he is going to have to pay for it. He has put every cent that belongs to him in an envelope marked "$ for Miss Jeri" and this weekend, he bummed a buck off Liza promising to give her some of his toys/candy when they got home. SO basically he sold his stuff to Liza so that he had a buck to spend at "5 below". We have talked about having him walk the neighbors dog to earn money, and also walking Tidwells dog, but I just got back in town, we'll have to get moving on that. He is quite concerned about how much the tail light is costing him. (it will likely be close to $300 +) so he is a little stressed about where he is going to come up with that kind of money. He told Jeri when he was staying with her that he wished that he could find a treasure box full of coins and then he would take that treasure and buy a tail light for her car. Today the kids were talking about Christmas, and what things they have on their wish list. Tori of course spoke of babies and cribs, Liza of clothes and Bratz, and Alex said "I know what I want for Christmas.... A tail light." I bet he is the only kid to sit on Santa's knee and ask for a tail light, he said... "I wish I could have a tail light for Christmas, then I could stop trying to save all my money for it." SO funny. What a guy.


After listening to conference today and thinking about priorities, I really need to get mine straight. I feel like blogging is a good thing to do, because it is keeping a journal, and my children would love it. I may need to give up a few tv shows though. :-) Some how, I 've got to sort this all out, so I am off to put the pen to paper and see how things come out in the end.

Crazy

So Brent just got home at 1:30pm after going to work 34 hours ago. He figured out that he has worked 76 hours and slept only 17 hours since Monday morning at 4:00am. There are 129 hours between Monday morning and right now, He was working sleeping or commuting for almost 100 of them. Eating for likely 5-7, so that leaves him with all of 20 or so hours, over a period of 5 days to relax, and see his children, if they were awake and home during those waking hours. He spent the bulk of Wednesday with the two big kids while I was on my way home from Utah, and getting us from the airport and home till the wee hours of the morning. Poor guy, what a crazy schedule, and he wonders why he doesn't have time to play his horn, and serve as well as he would like in a calling. I guess he really does have it harder then I do. (this week anyway. :-) ). The choir is almost done singing, I am going to go finish conference, Hump, not much left. :-( I love conference weekend.

Vent

Warning this post contains whining............
So I just got home yesterday and found clumpy sour milk in my fridge (thank heavens Christina was thoughtful enough to give us some milk that wasn't clumpy), a pile of recycling out on the deck, and a smell that is inexplicable! Of course there was laundry in my suit cases, and laundry here waiting. The house appeared clean till I actually looked and found most things stashed rather then put away. Brent's new rotation at work has him working from 4 am to 6pm every day, some days he is later then 6! He is on call every 4th night. When he is on call he stays at the hospital and he doesn't sleep at all. Yes that is right, your doctor that you see next time you're in the hospital could be determining a treatment for you after not sleeping for up to32 hours. Doesn't that make you feel safe. And we are suing these poor people, we really should be suing the hospitals for over working them! As of Wed, when he picked me up from the airport he had already worked over 40 hours since Monday! This is insane! Last night I stayed up doing laundry and unpacking, I was up until 3am, as i crawled into bed Brent's alarm went off and he got up and got in the shower. :-( CRAZY!! He is on call tonight, and I woke up to a very cranky Tori which turned swiftly into a very sick Tori, she threw up all over my bedroom floor. I took her into the bath tub and while I was cleaning up puke my 9 year old threw a tweeny temper tantrum over a shirt. This tantrum lasted for the better part of a half hour while Tori threw up again after getting out of the tub. At one point she informed me that she was not going to school until I washed the shirt, then my choices changed and she would only go to school if I would wash the shirt and then bring it to her at school. (Like any of that is going to happen?) What are they thinking when they do this? Do they really believe that they have that much power? LOL it was so ridiculous it didn't even really make me mad. So my plans for the day have foiled, I have backed out on poor Vanessa for the 3rd Friday in a row (big jerk!) and we are home bound till our Utah germs subside. :-( Okay, I am done... I feel better now.

Pictures from SLC

I finally got to sort though some pictures. Here are some of my favorites... Okay a lot of favorites. It was an eventful trip. ;-)

Amber Shirley Knapp.... The whole reason for this trip. Isn't she a beauty!!!

Amber and Andrea, right after her first bath. They put the cutest little bow in her hair. A very Proud PaPa. They were so happy and it was wonderful to be there and enjoy the spirit that is present when a new baby comes into the world.
She is about 24 hours old in this picture. She would only sleep if I kept her covered. Here she is getting her bath, this was shot through a window with those stupid wire things running through it, and it was not the cleanest window on the planet either. I am quite happy with the results from this bath shoot. esp considering the conditions. I am standing on a chair in the hall to get this one. Can't you just see it. :-)
Newborn toes. I love all the little signs that she is still in the hospital.

I tried to take some pictures of her, but there was NO natural light in her hospital room. It really stunk. She also wanted to be awake, and I wanted her to be asleep. :-) Humm, so far, she is not doing much of what I want her to do....... Like coming on time! Silly girl.

This is Tori and Brandon, her cousin.... is he just the cutest little thing. This little boy belongs to Brent's brother Brad and his wife Jodilyn. He loved Tori, he is just playing cool. ;-)

Okay, so now that I see all these adorable kids all grouped together, I have to admit, there must be something cute in the wall genes, cuz every one of these little monsters is as cute as can be. Either that or the all the Wall men married well. :-) This is Brad and Jo's littlest one Natalie, she and Katie are a month apart. They were fun to watch. I learned that Katie needs to be spending more time with friends her age, she has become a little hitter, and it has to stop!
Tori looked forward to seeing Uncle Jeff for a long time. She loves him so much. When I told her that we had to go the airport the next morning she cried and cried. She was not ready to leave her Uncle Jeff. They had such a wonderful time together. I took this picture so that she could have it to remember him. It was all I could do to get her to stop crying.

She was just too cute to resist.

This little guy is named Grant, he was adopted from a mother out here near us, some place in Virginia. His parents, who are friends of Andreas, came to stay with us when they were waiting for time to pass until they could take him home. That was a year ago, he has grown so much!

I love the little drop of drool.

Friends so so cute in black and white. :-)Sisters!! Katie was not cooperating while I had the beautiful back drop of my father in laws new home. She really didn't want to take photos. This was the best of a lot of tries!
We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Davies while we were there. (Brent's moms Parents) The girls loved it and so did Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa even had some of his delicious Oatmeal choco chip cookies, MY FAVORITE! He makes the BEST ones in the world. We had a great time with them.

We spent a lot of time before Amber came visiting around with family. We had a great visit with Anne in the hospital and another visit with Anne in the Rehabilitation center. I think she really enjoyed Tori's visit and Tori asked over and over to go back and see her again. They were really cute together.

It was so fun to go and visit with family and so wonderful to be there with my little sister and her new baby.

SHE'S HERE!!!!

Finally the long awaited day, our "little" Amber Shirley Knapp arrived this evening a little after 7 pm, after much laboring. Drea started having some pretty good contractions last night and we began timing them. There was really nothing consistent, but she said they were strong. At about midnight we headed downstairs to play a little wii, which btw, i love! Then all of a sudden we started getting regular contractions about 5 min apart. She soon had a REAL contraction and that was really something else to watch. I have never been on the other side of labor, you feel so helpless, I kind of feel bad for the men now. That is a difficult position to be in. She rated her contractions by color, green - easy, yellow - med, and Red - Strong!. She was having a lot of back labor as well and was having quite the time of it. The best part of the whole night of laboring was when she started to have real contractions, the ones where you are in so much pain you don't even know there is anyone around you. This first one caught her by surprise, she started leaning on different pieces of furniture, and the floor trying to find a position that would take away the pain. I had to giggle a little as I watched her basically roll around the basement in search of relief. After it began to die down, I said "I take it that was a red?" and she she replied between breaths, "I think we're going to need a new color!" :-) I laughed so hard. She was such a trooper, she was really tired though, so I told her to go and try to rest and if she can't sleep to come and get me and I would keep her company in the night. She tried to sleep for over an hour, but every time she would fall asleep a contraction would wake her up. She finally ended up back in my room at about 4 am saying "um, Christie, they really hurt." We got up and started 13 going on 30, as we timed contractions. By 6:30 they took a crazy turn and started coming exactly 3 min apart. We woke the sleepy hubby and sent them out the door. At 6:15pm (about 11 hrs after their arrival at the hospital) it was determined that the baby was face up, really big and her body was not going to get to a 10 anytime soon. They took her in and did a section. Baby Amber's head is all cone shaped and bruised from trying to squeeze down the birth canal. Her face is all red, and she looked rather traumatised. Despite all this she is as cute as a button and sweet as sugar. She has quite the little latch and does not have red hair! She has the chubbiest little cheeks. I plan to head over to the hospital tomorrow evening to take pictures if I can find a sitter. I will return home on Wednesday.

As for me, I am so happy that I got to meet her and hold her and I could stay forever and rock her. Today while they were in the hospital I had the wonderful blessing of getting together with my sweet friend Lara. Lara is one of those people who you meet and think, I want to be like her. She is the softest, sweetest, most beautiful lady (inside and out). When her husband got word that I was in town, he took the afternoon off work, and babysat my kids and theirs so that Lara and I could go out to lunch and do what ever we wanted to do. (WHAT A GUY EH??) Lara is a kindred spirit, not in the sense that we have so much in common, I truly feel like Lara and I had a dear friendship in the preexistence. I don't throw this around like anything, rarely do I feel this bond, but Lara is one of those people. We had the most wonderful afternoon, we went out to Cafe Reo (EAT YOUR HEART OUT!!) and then went to fashion place mall and got pedicures and sat in their massage chairs extra long! It was so wonderful. We did a little shopping around as we walked to the nail place and back, so it was a real blast! We talked and talked and she always enlightens me and helps me to see things more clearly. We couldn't take too much advantage of her sweet husband so after about 4 and a half hours we went back to find all alive and well, and SUPER MAN (that's Matt) had even changed Katie's poopy diaper. There were so many tears and hugs at our parting, and as I drove away from her and looked at her in my rear view mirror, I just bawled. It has been 2 1/2 years since our last visit, and that is FAR too long! I don't want to wait that long again! I then drove out to Bountiful to meet with my rockin sister in law Jo, at the McD's we got the kids their delicious, nutritious food, and then talked while they played. After dinner we headed back to their home where Brad (Brent's little brother) took all 5 kiddos and put them to bed while Jo and I went up to see the baby. We got their in time to see her move from Labor and Delivery to Maternity, and to watch and take pics of the first bath. I got to stick around long enough, that I helped Jeffery change a poopy diaper :-), and what I have looked forward to the most, I got to sit with Drea, and help her nurse, like her mom did for me. I can't tell you what it means to me to be able to help her learn such an amazing thing. Little Amber actually weighed in at 9lbs 6 oz, quite the chunk o rama. Pics to come. :-) Well one more day to visit the grave, play with cousins, photograph that curly new baby, and sit with my little Drea once more. I return home Wednesday to releave my two wonderful sweet fantastic friends from the duty of keeping my eldest 2 in line. ;-) Thank you again Jeri and Christina.