First Parent Emergency!

I was awoken very early this morning by my two hours of regular contractions from 3 until 5 a.m. By the time Benjamin was awake, I had just gotten back to sleep so Stephen said he would let me sleep and take Benjamin to preschool. I got a few things done this morning and then was off to get him. I arrived on the playground to pick him up, and he ran over to meet me. His teacher was talking to another parent and so we started to walk over to her to tell her we were leaving. Benjamin decided he wanted to walk the longer path to her while I walked the shorter one. The next thing I know he is laying on the ground as if he had tripped. He came running to me, and I immediately saw blood. I thought it was a bad abrasion from the sidewalk, and his teacher ran for the first aid kit. As soon as I looked at it closely, I knew it needed stitches. He was crying really hard by now and all the children and parents had gathered around. Everyone kept asking me if I was okay and if I was going to go into labor. My only response was that I wasn't lucky enough to be pushed into labor by this. I grabbed the paper towels, and we were off to his pediatrician to get it looked at. My cell phone was almost dead and I knew it, but luckily it made one more call to Stephen to have him meet us there before the battery officially died. Benjamin was such a brave boy. He held so still. His pediatrician came in immediately and looked at it. Then the nurse prepped him for the stitches. From then on the crying had stopped. Benjamin just laid there like a champ. His cut was 1/2 an inch long, and the doctor put in four stitches. We were only in the pediatrician's office for 55 minutes, fantastic time! "I am brave of this" is how Benjamin described his ordeal today! Stephen snapped a few pictures during the process.

Valentine Cards

We are a bit early for this one, but I just feel the need to get everything ready because of the uncertainty of the next few weeks. While at the store this past week, we wandered down the Valentine aisle. Benjamin found some bubbles that he really wanted. I thought it would be a perfect thing for him to give to the friends in his class. His preschool is really very good about healthy choices for children so bubbles would be a perfect alternative to the traditional candy. He helped me design the valentine cards on the computer and even a special one for his teacher. While I tied all the bubbles on, Benjamin wrote his name on all 16 cards. I was actually going to break it up into several days worth of work because it might seem daunting, but he was really into it and finished them all over the course of the afternoon. I love his name on the cards! Some are missing a few letters and such, but overall it warms my heart to see him write his name. Here are cards. I think they turned out really great and can't be beat for the $2 expense of the bubbles.

Fluffy

We had been promising Benjamin for a few months now that when the time came close for the baby to be born that he could go to Build-A-Bear and make a stuffed animal for his new baby sister to give to her at the hospital when she arrived. Stephen was off of work on Monday and so we decided it was the perfect day for the outing. Benjamin was in heaven looking at all the choices for animals, and ended up with a brown rabbit with pink ears "for baby sister." I think it is because all he has seen me buy is pink! My pregnancy hormones took over, and I started to cry while we waited to stuff the bunny. I just kept thinking about how excited he was and what a big boy he is. Benjamin sure was so proud of his bunny. We now have "Fluffy" all ready to take to baby sister at the hospital! (The pictures were taken on Stephen's cell phone because we forgot both cameras at home. They aren't the greatest quality or color, but they capture the event.)

Money Saved!

I just saved our family $422.77 today! I was so excited. I was talking to a friend about car insurance and found out that their deductible was $500 dollars. I decided I'd call the insurance company as our car insurance policy was about to renew on February 1st and see if I could save us a bit of money if we bumped our deductible up to $500 instead of the $250 we are at. The agent ran the numbers, but it only saved us about $47 a year. Then she suggested that they had a new program out and that we were eligible for the "gold" program. She wanted to know if she could run some numbers to see if we could save some money. I got a call back from her with the new savings. I couldn't have been more excited. I think that I am going to make it a yearly goal to just check in with our agents to see if there is any new savings that we could get. I love saving money!

Delicious Pasta!

Stephen christened his Christmas present of a pasta maker last night for dinner, by making butternut squash ravioli and angel hair pasta for Benjamin. Benjamin was the pasta helper and turned the handle for the machine. He loved seeing the pasta get rolled into longer and longer sheets. Stephen made a sage brown butter sauce to go with the ravioli, and it was really good. We had had it at a restaurant here sometime last year, and I think Stephen's was better than the restaurant. Stephen and I were discussing how good we thought it was when Benjamin added his own comment about the meal. He said "did you smell the texture of that? It was so delicious!"

Ultrasound

We went for Rebecca's 36 week ultrasound today. Two weeks ago, at the last appointment, the baby was transverse (sideways). We were happy to find out that the baby is in the right position now (head down). Rebecca has been having a lot of contractions, but so far there aren't any indications that the baby is coming anytime soon. The doctor said that they are just "annoying contractions" and that some women get them. Everything else looked great. Here are a couple pictures and a short clip of a close up of the baby's face.

Flooding, Evacuation, and Home Again!

We were evacuated because of a flood warning last night. Stephen had been out of town at a Conference and caught an earlier plane to be home. Unfortunately the river was rising too fast for my liking, so I just decided to get out and check into a hotel. I was beginning to doubt my decision, because on the river site it looked like it was cresting. Well as I was watching Oprah from the hotel room, the local news cut in with a helicopter showing the evacuation of our neighborhood. A trailer park just south of us in underwater, and they named our development in particular and said there was a mandatory police evacuation. Earlier the Bishop contacted Stephen to make sure that we were okay, and he and his employee came over around lunch time to help me get the house ready since Stephen wasn't going to make it in time. He put up all our furniture and some of the things from the garage upstairs or on the countertops in the kitchen.

Below are some pictures of how I left the house and the river. The river pictures don't do it justice though. The things that look like small branches were actually huge trees with root balls and everything. It was moving really fast and quite scary to drive by. You can barely see the cars in the picture and how much more it had to go. This was at 2:00p.m. Stephen eventually made it back and met with our ward leaders to make sure that everyone had a place to go and then headed up to the hotel. Some friends that live in our town also came and checked into the same hotel. I was at dinner with Benjamin in the restaurant across the parking lot. They came and met me, and Stephen arrived to eat with us soon after that. After that they asked for volunteers so Stephen and our friend left to go sandbag. Stephen came back to the hotel soaking wet and full of sand. We went to sleep sometime early this morning.
Fast forward to today. We are home and all is well. The river crested just below (29. 55 feet) reaching the sides of the levees (30 feet). Stephen came back this morning to check the house and then went and taught his class. He said that the police were in our development and checking address to only let those back in that lived here. At least it made me feel safe even if in my rush to get out the front door was left completely unlocked! I don't know what time the road officially opened again, but he came and got me at the hotel at about 1:00p.m. to carry all the bags so that I wouldn't have to. I was having some pretty close contractions last night in the middle of the night, but I drank tons of water and thankfully they went away. We did get the house in some order today because I need some sort of normal. Although none of the suitcases are unpacked, and they will have to wait until tomorrow because I am not going to over do it.

This post is getting way to wordy. But I feel very blessed to have felt peace and protection. It was surreal to see our neighbors interviewed last night on the news as they were evacuated. Today I found that we had eleven messages on our answering machine of friends and ward members checking in on us not including all the family and friends that called our cell phones to make sure we were okay. Last night as I prayed, I knew that even if we did lose everything that I would still have everything ~ meaning the gospel of Jesus Christ and my loved ones. To sum it up, we are home, happy, and safe!

Happy 4th Birthday Benjamin!

We actually celebrated Benjamin's birthday on Sunday. Here are some of the highlights from the party. We went to the party store to pick out a theme for the party. Benjamin originally wanted a "Little Einsteins" party, but the store didn't have any. Instead he chose a "Stars Wars" theme. He also decided that he wanted a surprise party, but since it was just us we told him that we would decorate after he went to bed on Saturday night, and he would be "surprised" to see what the decorations looked like all put up on Sunday morning. I think his favorite part of the decorations were the glowing lightsabers (glow necklaces).

Benjamin chose pizza for dinner, and we had my cousin Josh and his wife Kim up for the celebration. Stephen made yummy pizza for us all. After dinner, we opened presents and then swung at a "Darth Vader" pinata that Stephen made with the purple lightsaber. We ate chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache frosting, and it was really tasty. Benjamin loved the shrinky dinks from Nana and Papa, and the train set from Josh and Kim. He also got two new sets of Go, Diego, Go Megablocks and was so excited to add them to the set he already plays with. It was a great party!

Birthday Celebrations Cont.

Today's birthday celebrations included renting two movies "Wow, Wow, Wubbzy" and "Wall-e," followed by a trip to Benjamin's favorite donut store for a pink frosted and chocolate sprinkled donuts, and then to McDonalds for a "Happy Meal" lunch. He had his birthday lunch in front of his movie, a real treat indeed! We sang to Benjamin, and he blew out another candle that was placed in a chicken nugget. Then tonight I made quesadillas for dinner, always a favorite. He got 4 candles put in his donut, and we sang to him again. I told him he was a pretty lucky boy to get "Happy Birthday" sung to him four times. Benjamin was a happy 4 year old birthday boy today!

New Year's Eve

We had another quiet holiday. That seems to be the theme for this year, but it has been so nice. Earlier in the afternoon we went to see "The Tale of Despereaux." Benjamin was really nervous to go back to the movies after Bolt. He was really afraid of the "man with green eyes." I really wanted to see it, but all day long he just kept saying that he didn't want to go. As the day progressed he decided he really wanted to go. As soon as we got to the theater and into our seats, we had a major meltdown, and I had to take him in the hall. Stephen eventually coaxed him back in and throughout the movie he kept asking, out loud mind you, when Despareaux would get his sword. When he finally did Benjamin settled down. We got through it, and Benjamin did end up liking the movie. Stephen and I really liked it too. It has a good message and is very original. After having a big snack of popcorn at the movie, we did appetizers for dinner. We picnicked on the floor in the family room on shrimp, cheese, salami, crusty bread, tomato salad, with Martinelli's to drink. Benjamin was in bed by 7:30 and I had my pajamas on then too. Stephen and I started out watching a movie together, but I fell asleep around 9:00p.m. At 10:00 we both turned in for the night. We did hear the neighbors lighting off fireworks and screaming at midnight. We hope that you had a great New Year's Eve and a Happy New Year to all!