Merry Christmas to All...and to All a Good Night!

So, here's a recap of our holiday season. At least most of it. We still have two more Christmas's on Saturday with my dad and Dillon's Grannie Lou and Grandpa Bill, but I figured if I waited much longer I wouldn't feel motivated to get it all on here. A few weeks ago we went to the Longview Christmas in the Park, and if you've never been you're really missing out. Ava loved it because she got to get out of her carseat and ride on the console in between Mommy and Daddy (Ethan was asleep the whole ride), and Mommy and Daddy loved it because it's one of the only things left that is FREE, yes free. Well, they do accept donations at the end, but it's not required. This is the first year we have been with our own kids, but will probably also become one of our holiday traditions. It only takes about 30 minutes to drive through, and it's so pretty at nighttime. The only thing that would have made it better is if there would have been snow falling. Yes, we are one of those weird families that LOVE the snow, and we wish there were 10 inches everyday!! If it's going to be 10 degrees outside I'd rather see snow on the ground. I guess I can thank my dad for that, and I don't know what Dillon's excuse is.

Ava riding in the front seat with Daddy!

Ava snuggling with Mommy while watching the lights.


Just another one of the wonderful displays.

Ava and Mommy starting our first family Christmas tradition...a gingerbread house that we made on Christmas Eve and she got to eat for breakfast Christmas morning.

Our Christmas tree after Santa had came.

Christmas morning...Ava loved her dollhouse, and we really couldn't get her to open anymore of her presents after she saw it. I'm sure I will spend hundreds of hours over the next few years making barbies cook, sleep, go potty, and bathe in this house. I'm sure it will be well worth all the time and money that Santa spent making it!!

Ethan loved eating the paper more than playing with the toys!!

Christmas morning after breakfast Dillon and I ran downstairs to get the video camera set up before we brough the kids down, and when we came back up to get them this is what we saw at the kitchen table. We had left a plate of blueberry waffles sitting in the middle of the table, and I guess Ethan decided he was hungry, and if we weren't going to feed him then he was going to do it himself. He had both hands full of waffle and part of it hanging out of his mouth. Dillon and I were rolling, and Ethan thought it was pretty funny too!!

Ethan driving his new Shelby Mustang GT that Grammie Mel got for me!! I think Daddy loves it more than Ethan!!

Ava opening her 3rd porcelain doll. Grammie gets me one every Christmas. This one was handmade in 1982. Eventually she'll have a whole collection, and we truely cherish them every year.

Getting luvies from my Uncle Steve and Aunt Laura. They're so funny!!

Uncle Steve teaching me how to walk.

This pic is from our 3rd Christmas on Christmas Eve at our Great-ma and Great-pa Deems'. This is Aunt Gayle reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Ava opening presents with all her cousins.

Overall it's been a great holiday season...with more to come!!

Picture Tag

We were tagged by the Hill's for picture tag.
Here are the rules:
1. Go to the 4th folder in your computer
where you store your pictures.
2. Pick the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same.
Here is ours...

This picture was taken at the beginning of last summer at the lake. To be specific June 16, 2008 at 6:08 pm. Emma, some friends of our's daughter, came down to play with Ava all weekend. The lake water was still too cold for the girls to play in so we decided to blow up this pool and set it out on the deck. We filled it up mostly with water from the hose, but ended up having to carry multiple pots of hot water from the house to make it semi-warm. At first, the girls wore their swimsuits, but by the second day, and multiple trips into the house in wet suits to potty, we thought it best to just let them run around in their birthday suits. I love these naked-baby pics! and they will be great blackmail for later in life.

I tag:

Jamie

Meredith

Tammy

Stephanie

Kim

Shelley

Nurse's Holidays

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, was actually Christmas Day to our famliy. One of the joys of being a nurse, and soon to be a midwife, is that patients don't go home, and babies don't stop coming just because it's a holiday. This year my mandatory holidays were the 4th of July, which I lucked out of working because I was on maternity leave, and Christmas Day, which when you have young kids really bites!! On the flip side, I have had off every other major holiday this year, and with our love of the lake, I'm fine with making that trade. Besides, we pretended like yesterday was Christmas, and with Ava being as young as she is, and Ethan not really knowing anything yet, they never knew the difference. I will have to say though that it just doesn't feel like Christmas when you're sitting at work blogging and all your family is at home playing with the toys they unwrapped yesterday!! After I get off tonight I think Dillon and I are going to break out the Wii I got him for Christmas, and a case of beer, which after all the holidays I am really needing. It should really make for some good drunken fun!!

Our First Christmas Tradition

Well Aunt Val, you got us thinking about Christmas traditions, and that we don't really have any. This year since Ava is now three and can somewhat understand the whole idea of the magic of Christmas, so we decided to start our own Christmas tradition. From now on, the night before Christmas(which was actually Christmas Eve for us this year because I have work on Christmas Day) we will assemble and decorate a gingerbread house. Dillon and I have never done one before, and since Ava is a candy addict we thought it was something that would hold her attention and keep her involved. She absolutely loved it. There are two days a year when we don't care what she eats: her birthday and Christmas. So after eating dinner on "our" Christmas Eve Ava and I broke out a $7 gingerbread house kit I found at Target and made out first Christmas tradition, while Dillon (our amazing family baker) made chocolate chip cookies for Santa.

Ava thought the whole process was wonderful. I squeezed icing from the bag right into her mouth, and I didn't fret about all the gumdrops and sprinkles she was eating. It was actually nice to just let go and watch her have a great time without being the responsible parent that limits sugar intake and sternly enforces the 8 o'clock bedtime. Come to think of it, I don't event think she brushed her teeth that night! Don't tell Aunt Val, Ava! I will forever remember this special Christmas tradition that Ava and I started together, and will continue to share until she gets married and has children of her own. Here's our finished product. Well worth the $7!

Ava showing off her masterpiece!

Christmas...

Friday I finished my first term of midwifery school...yippee!! Although my courses did not require me to spend 40 hours a week studying like we were told at Frontier Bound, I have never written so many papers in my life. I guess I owe a huge thanks to Claudia and Barb at Graceland U's nursing school for pounding APA into our brains so well that I almost never have to use the manual. So, one term down, eight to go. Hopefully this time next year I will be purposefully catching babies of my own, and giving all the women who dread the mainstream, traditional, medical model of prenatal and delivery care an outlet for a birth that they choose, manage, and control. I can't give enough thanks to the people that have gotten me where I am today...Dillon and my parents for keeping me motivated and encouraged, Cheryl, RN and Darlene, RN for molding me into the nurse that I am, and the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing for still believing that pregnancy and birth can be normal and for re-igniting that burning desire within me to help all women feel empowered and like a goddess. Without FSMFN and the work of Mary Breckinridge, midwifery would be a thing of the past. Here are a few pics of my classmates and I at the late Mary Breckinridge's home at Wendover.

My friend Katie from Washington, D.C. who is definately more "crunchy" than I...(Katie, I no you don't take offense to that!)

The Green Group!! (aka, the non-study, study group!)

I hope you're all doing well. Hang in there and we'll be done before you know it!

Such an idiot!

So most of you know that on bad weather days like yesterday and today the ER's and labor & delivery units fill with patients that shouldn't have been out walking around in the snow and ice, but did anyway, and have tripped and fallen. We see it all the time in the Birthing Center because pregnant women tend to be some of the most clumsy! Most of the time it turns out to be nothing and all of us nurses quite frankly get sick of seeing our rooms full of women who have fallen in the icy parking lot. Much to my dismay, as I was running out to my car this morning at 6 am to try and get to work early because we were short staffed, I became one of those clumsy women I so dread seeing during the winter months. Of course all the slushy snow we had yesterday had a frozen layer of ice on the top, and if you can picture me with a St. Mary's mug full of ice water in one hand and my work bag, purse, and a lunch bag I use for transport of my "liquid gold" in the other. I, of course, slipped on the ice, twisted my ankle, and fell to the ground. So I sat covered in snow and wet from my mug of water, trying not to scream out in pain, wondering how I was going to get back inside...so I scrambled my way off the ground, held onto Dillon's suburban, and hopped on one leg back inside. If the neighbors had only had a camera...

Ethan's first tooth

Ethan turned 6 months old on November 29th, and the same day his first tooth poked through!! I can feel the bottom right tooth and it's just barely through the gum, but you can barely see it in the photo. Don't worry Aunt Val, we started brushing today too...well at least with a wet washcloth!

For some reason our children get their teeth very early. Ava got all four of her front teeth at once, and unfortunately at exactly 4 months old. Breastfeeding and teeth don't mix well, but we worked through it, and when she weaned at 10 1/2 months she had almost an entire mouthful. Ethan has only bit me a few time so far, but when I tell him sternly "NO" he smiles and thinks it's funny! I hope he decides that using his source of food as a teething toy is not the greatest idea!!

The biter biscuits are now a favorite. He thought these were the best thing since, well, Ava!