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!

Our Little Artist

We've been doing some painting around the house, and as always, Ava thinks she needs to help. So instead of letting her go nuts in our kitchen with a real paint brush and paint, we decided to break out the water colors that Ava got for her birthday in September.

She loved it!! It didn't take her any time figuring out how to add the water, and she's been addicted ever since. She's probably done 20 paintings in the last 2 days.

I was amazed at how well she did. Here's one of her masterpieces. She's our little Van Gogh!!

Friday Night Pizza

The other night we ordered pizza. Ethan just sat on my lap and he kept reaching for my pizza like, "Hey mom, gimme some!". I just couldn't resist, and of course he loved it!

Yuuummmm....so good! I'm stuffed.

Thank you Meredith!!

So today all of our family pics are online. They were so great. Again, thanks Meredith. You rock!! If you want to check them out go to http://meredithraephotography.com/ , enter site, in the bottom right corner click "clients" then enter "deems" for the password.
P.S. Ava now thinks, since I've started this blog, that she's a model since she's been seing herself on the computer now all the time. You can't get a camera out without her posing for the shot. It's so cute!!

Trick or Treat!!

Last night we went to Butler to Trick-or-Treat at all Ava and Ethan's g-ma's and g-pa's. Most of our friends with kids also live in Butler so about 12 of us walked the streets together. It was so much fun seeing everyone all dressed up. Here's some pics of Ava and Ethan, but I wish I would have gotten all of them together for a picture. It's not often that we're able to ALL get together, but it is fun when we do.