Xander!

I am long long overdue in posting pictures and information about Xander. This post will be all about our cute little guy from his speedy entrance last August until now.
I was actually at Gallaudet teaching a childbirth class when I went into labor. I mentioned to my class that I was having strong and consistent contractions (it was pretty hard to miss my enormous belly tensing and relaxing) and that it was a good example of "false labor (har har)." I was very determined to finish that series of childbirth classes, get our upstairs bathroom remodel finished and of course get my parents and sister here before the baby was born. Between my genes and Billy's genes, its not a suprise Xander had his own agenda. Once I finished class I had to walk across campus to get to my car. I passed a woman sitting on a bench, a large grandmotherly looking African-American. She took one look at me and said "Girly, you are having that baby tonight!" I laughed and said "Oh no, not tonight, I have far too much to do!" I was supposed to stop at the store and go over to a friends house to pick up a book on the way home. The contractions were working so hard, driving was a challenge. I dropped both errands and went straight home, hoping that if I ate and took a nap and prayed hard enough, the contractions would go away. The woman's statement really bugged at me... what would she know... someone who never met me and knew nothing of my life anyhow? After laying down for 2 hours, I got up... accepted that the contractions were not going to go away and we called my mom hoping that perhaps since our efforts failed, that she might be able to pull some strings up above and get this process put off a little longer. One thing we must all come to accept is that once that baby makes up his mind, there is nothing else you can do.
We had already informed our midwife that I was in labor. Billy suggested that perhaps we should have her come over and I scoffed at him... no way! I am just getting started here. Fortunately he is a very experienced childbirth coach. He read the signs and knew the baby was coming soon. With Emma's birth experience foremost in his head, he went ahead and called the midwife and birth assistant. They arrived just 45 minutes before Xander did. The girls were all asleep, we talked about maybe waking them up but decided to wait a bit longer which turned out to be a big mistake. Transition hit super hard and super fast. I told Billy to hurry and go upstairs to get the girls. Next thing I knew Xander was pushing himself down. This birth is the only time I actually could feel the baby pushing himself out. I yelled for Billy to forget it and get back down. Only Sam woke up enough to come down and see the birth. Our friend who was supposed to videotape the birth also arrived too late.. ah well. Billy caught the baby, we had a moment of worry as Xander took his time to start breathing but with with a bit of rubbing and a "Come on baby!" he coughed, let out a nice cry and pinked right up. He weighed 7lbs 5 oz. With Mandi and Lizzie weighing both weighing well over 8 lbs, its no wonder he popped right out.

Here he is checking out planet Earth right after his birth. He was very clean and didn't even need to be washed off.

Daddy holding his son for the first time. Xander has had to have his hands in his mouth constantly from the moment he was born.

Lizzie meets her little brother.

Mandi is delighted to have a boy in the house. She looks pretty good for it being 3am.

Emma LOVES holding babies. With both Lizzie and Xander she would sit for an hour, no problem and just hold them and give them lots of sisterly love.

Sam giving Xander a kiss. She took all of these pictures right after the birth which is why she isn't in very many of them.

Lizzie back for more...

And more... she couldn't get enough of that cute baby.

FEET! The boy really has a set of feet on him.. I have been used to tiny dainty feet... his are BIG but still very yummy!

My midwife Lisa, I really enjoyed having her. She was content to sit back and let us do our thing until she was needed. She was a good fit for us. This is 2 days post-partum.
My mom took the next flight out after his birth to come and help out. My Dad and sister followed soon after. It was so great to have them here. They are always a blast to have around and I dont know what I would have done without them! I know we have some great pics of everyone while they were here but I haven't been able to find the file... they will come later.

In October Xander took his first trip to CA. Billy's Gramma Emma was having a 90th birthday bash and the whole family was getting together. We decided it would be a great time for Xander and Lizzie to meet Gramma and for all of us to enjoy time with Billy's family. Here he is with Grandpa Kendrick

We had his blessing immediately following Gramma's birthday open house. Here we are all clean and spiffy.

Man of the hour.


It was wonderful to be able to have so many family members present at his blessing! Here he is with all the wonderful men who stood in the circle.

With Gramma and Daddy right after the open house/blessing. He adores Gramma... the minute he gets into her arms he either goes right to sleep or he laughs and talks like nobodies business.
Of course being in CA, we had to have some FUN! Here he is during his first visit to the beach. It was pretty chilly and very windy so I kept him snug and safe in the sling.

We also went to Disneyland! Here he is on his very first ride...Peter Pan.
Before flying home we nabbed the opportunity to see Gramma one last time. As usually Xander was totally enthralled.

Back on the plane heading home!

Hanging out with Lizzie. You can see he is pretty horrified to be plopped into a pink princess chair and trying to figure out which body part would get him out of there the fastest.
Monkeying around at the zoo...
Hmm Mom needs a haircut and a good shave ;)

The day he discovered his toes. Of course they went straight into the gaping hole we call his mouth... just like everything else. As you can see he is quite serious about those toes. He got really mad when I tried to get his clothes on again after the diaper change and thus was allowed to nibble his piggies for an extended period.

We caught him being very photogenic one day and got in some great shots... He is 4 months old here.

Stay tuned... more to come!

Metal Mouth

Emma got braces last week. We went in for a routine check-up as she has had an expander for a few months. Dr. Hughes looked at me and said, "Well, she is ready for braces, let's get them on." Emma and I both gaped at him.... right now? They run a really smooth operation over there at Hughes Orthodontics...We especially like Dr. Hughes magic tricks. They had her outfitted in 15 minutes flat. Emma was sooo excited to get them on and to see everyone's reactions. She chose Mediterranean blue for her bands. She enjoys using all the little tools and gadgets they have given her to make sure her teeth stay sparkling and clean. She has made this whole process very fun. I am glad she is not feeling self conscious or embarrassed about it.. in fact she has made braces downright COOL.

I'M BAAACCKK!

After Xander's birth I took a nice extended break from most computer related stuff except for email and an occasional peek at facebook. Life is busy with 5! Xander is a high needs baby very much like Samantha and Emma were so I am rarely able to sit down for more than a few minutes while he is awake. Between him and little Lizzie I am lucky to even get to the bathroom or get a bite in these days hee hee. I am gonna try and get back to blogging as I enjoy it so much and have missed my time doing it, plus it should motivate me to get back into taking pictures! I have been terrible about picking up the camera lately.

I am gonna start with our recent Halloween festivities. Halloween was a crazy crazy day for us! Sam had tennis, Emma had her soccer game, we had a branch activity and then stayed after to help clean the church. We had some friends over for Halloween dinner and then met up with the neighborhood families to go trick or treating. I had to chauffer Sam down to a neighborhood closer to her school so she could go trick or treating with her friends. It was very busy but very fun day!
Carving fun. The girls all created their own designs, I thought they did a great job!

Helping Mandi with a tricky spot.

Mandi's poor jack o' lantern ate something disagreeable with his tummy, he threw up all over our table. UGH!

Dad and Emma hard at work.

Lizzie was more interested in coloring and eating candy than playing with pumpkin guts.

Finished products. Sam's pumpkin is a house with ghosts peeking out the windows and around the doors... the picture doesn't do it justice. There are so many little details right down to little eyes. I don't think I could create such a good design on my own.. way to go Sam! Emma's has a ghost, a bat, a sliver of a moon and a BOO (picture also doesnt do hers much justice.) Mandi's is a spooky face saying BOO!


The dessert I entered in the branch dessert contest... it won first place. Fortunately it tasted much better than it looked!

Playing games at the church....

Our delicious halloween feast consisted of ground up goblin guts in toadstool caps, fried ogre skins, bloody brains, witches fingernails and dragon scales with vampire brew to wash it all down.

I didn't make it outside to get a group shot of everyone taking off to go trick or treating. They had a really good time this year going with all their neighborhood friends.

Lizzie was a wee witch. Originally she wanted to be a lion but it was 72 degrees outside on Halloween and much too hot so this was a nice back up costume that I made for Mandi when she was 3.

Mandi was a ghost. I made a hood to go with this costume but she lost it during her school parade.


Sam and Emma were both Vampires. Emma wanted to dye her hair black. Wow did she look different! She really liked it until it was time to wash it out... it took us almost a half hour to get it out of her fine blonde hair and off her body. While drying off she looked up and me and said "Mom, that was really fun.... I NEVER want to do it again!"

Sam looked beautiful and glamorous when she headed out with her perfect hair, pale skin, lovely long lashes and stylish boots. She was a "twilight" vampire thus the lack of fangs and black hair. I wasn't able to get a shot of her before we ran her down to her friends house. It rained and drizzled and was quite windy during trick or treating so she doesn't look quite as polished in this "after" pic.

I never got a group shot of everyone but I know a friend did so I will have to poke her about it and see if I can get a copy. It was a delightful and spooky night. We LOVE Halloween... BOO!

Emma's Birthday!

Last Saturday was Emma's birthday. I can't believe she is EIGHT! We celebrated by going on a jungle safari/scavenger hunt at Fort Hunt park. Safari Sam and Jungle Jack (Dad) did an excellent job leading us on our adventure! We saw lizards and frogs and monkeys and panda bears to name a few, all harboring a stash of goodies nearby.
At the end the girls finally found the the site of the party
and a giant treasure box!
It was really fun especially as we had the site set up in the middle of the forest with no one around. The weather was very cooperative and we were even able to find an Eagle nest although the Eagles were quite shy. The nest was very high so its hard to see in the picture..
We had a yummy jungle cake for the grand finale. Not only does our camera do poorly with photographing things that are far away, it is also known to run out of battery at the bat of an eye even if we put a new one in that day. Sadly I did not get a picture of all the kids with the cake or the fun they had moving the animals around on the cake. Needless to say we are way overdue for a new camera, this one is nearly 6 years old. Hopefully we will find something we like before baby #5 makes an entrance. Anyhow back to the birthday cake: Emma thought the party was great fun, she enjoyed her presents, especially her new bike! Her old one was way too small for her. I think she is even more excited for this weekend however, when her Grandpa Kendrick and Grandma Terry come to stay for the weekend and she gets baptized!

Emma's Birthday is coming up this weekend. She is all about the jungle, rainforests and being an explorer. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age. Pink and dolls OUT, sports and the great outdoors IN. We are going to have a Jungle party at a forest-like park and go on a letterboxing expedition and a scavenger hunt among other things. (Wish me luck with the cake.. ugh!)
She designed her own invitations and this is what she came up with for the front.
I think its pretty hilarious.

Photo op

A friend of ours is taking a photography class at Gally. She wanted to come do a photo shoot of the kids for an assignment. She was kind enough to burn me a CD with all the photos she took. She is doing a great job!
Here are some of my faves:

Lizzie kissing the baby (well now, with this being pregnancy #8, my belly is no longer Hollywood smooth and perfect.) O.K., so the belly not so cute, but hey that face!!

Noodles Noodles Noodles! (She will eat these for every meal if we let her.)

All clean

Sisters! (Sam was in Iowa at the time so we missed her in the shots, ah well.)
We tried and tried to get Lizzie to join Emma and Mandi but at this point she was too tired and grumpy.