The Best Christmas Ever

This precious baby girl 

is the number one, very best and most wonderful gift 

we received this Christmas.

 Rewind to last Tuesday and I'll recap the events of her arrival into the world.

12/20 @ 11am - 

Cody leaves work to meet me at the doctor's office where I have my membranes
stripped in hopes of inducing labor.

2pm - Cody heads back to work as I continue to have the same type of contractions 

I've been having for months!

6:30pm - Our fantastic sitter, Mrs. Aly, arrives so that we can attend a sealing at the Temple.
I am still experiencing frequent and "painful" contractions, but again they are the same type as I've been having, so we are up for attending the sealing. We depart to the temple with hospital bags packed, just in case, and our sitter had her overnight items in case she needs to spend the night.

6:40pm - As we head out the door Cody snaps the picture above just in case this is the last 

pregnant picture before baby arrives.

7-8pm - I squeeze Cody's hand tightly throughout the sealing each time another contraction hits.

8pm - We head to the hospital.
I was confident that if I were to walk a bit the contractions would come faster and stronger. 

8:30-9:30pm - We walk the halls of the hospital taking frequent pauses for contractions.

10pm- We head upstairs and are admitted to triage. After about 15 minutes on the monitors the nurse confirms that I was on a one way labor route headed to the magical moment.  
What could possibly be more magical?

Now I pause to express how much I LOVE this beautiful woman above. 

She is our OB and she truly is THE BEST!

When I'm pregnant I honestly get excited just to see her at my appointments. 

I told Cody last night that I am sad I won't be able to visit with her every week like I do towards the end of my pregnancies now that baby has arrived. She has delivered all of our girls except Brinley.

If you want to see her in action check out in THIS television series.

11pm-3:30am - I.V., epidural, contraction, contraction, contraction. More medicine administered through the epidural X3. Suffice it to say that this did quite a fantastic job of numbing my legs, but my stomach, especially the left side, missed out. 

Hence the boosters of medicine throughout. 

3:30am - Time to push.

3:44am - Our precious baby girl arrives!

Reese Noelle Young

7lbs. 6oz.

19 1/4 in. long

3:50am - Already smitten and oh so in love.

Although ultrasounds confirmed that Reese did not have a club foot, 

it was the first thing I examined when she came out.
Her feet are perfect!
In fact, everything about her is perfect. What a miracle.

Later that day Reese was introduced to her three older sisters. 

It was precious to observe.

Soon enough the arguing over who held her when and for how long began.
When it was departure time they were already asking when they could come visit again.

The next morning they were back.

This handsome man deserves a medal of honor!

This certainly was the most challenging pregnancy for me and
Cody patiently listened to each complaint with
empathy and understanding to the bitter, and I mean bitter, end.

Lots of back rubs, hugs during tearful moments and taking over on the home front helped me not only love him all the more, but also supported our entire family through this experience.

The day after arriving home we needed to delve right into our

Christmas Eve traditions.

Sugar cookies for Santa.

Opening ONE gift.

Reading the story of Jesus' birth by the tree and

writing down our individual gifts for Jesus in the upcoming year.

After encouraging the girls throughout the week to consider what 

gifts they would give to Jesus 

during the upcoming year, here is what they decided on individually:

Brinley: Read scriptures daily.

Avery: Personal daily prayer.

Aspen: Speak kindly to sisters.

Mommy: Live in Thanksgiving daily.

Daddy: Think before speaking.

Christmas morning was as Christmas morning is, magical for the children.

Avery's favorite gift = Hard shoes for Irish dance.

Brinley's favorite gift = A peg board for pictures to be hung in her room.

Aspen's favorite gift = A purple unicorn pillow pet.

Mom and Dad's favorite gift = Our fourth beautiful baby girl!

(Brinley has been a superb and loyal caregiver to her baby sister. She is quite comfortable holding and caring for Reese. Having a child who can help with the baby is a new and very welcomed change.)

We could not have asked for a better birth experience.

We had our fantastic doctor, each and every nurse was a pleasure to interact with,

Reese arrived before Christmas, not on Christmas (this was a big concern for Mama), 

our friends helped out with the girls to make it possible for Cody to be at the 

hospital when needed 

and we are all in great health, 

especially Mom now that baby is living outside of her womb.

Our pediatrician makes up person #3 on my dream team. 

He is friends with our OB and just as talented and fantastic 

at his profession as she is at hers.

As of Monday morning Reese is still perfect in every way and back up to her birth weight.

Merry Christmas

Baby pictures to come!

Irish Dance Class

Parents were allowed to come observe a little bit of class last week 

before the kids participated in a little Christmas party.

Chips 'n Mr. Elf

The girls made creative use out of a cardboard box that arrive this week. 

They fashioned a mini play, acting out the parts of the "wicked junk food" 

from THIS fantastic story about healthy eating.

When Brinley decided to be potato chips so did Avery and Aspen. 

Didn't get a shot of Aspen's little creation.

I LOVE all Brite music,

partially because I grew up on it, but mostly because it's awesome.

And just look who arrived to our home from the North Pole two nights ago.

This is the 3rd year that Mr. Elf has visited our home before Christmas.

He comes alive at night and gets into a bit of mischief before moving to a new location for the next day of behavior observation.

On Christmas Eve he will return to the North Pole once again to report to Santa.

On the first night Brinley wrote three questions to ask the Elf, Avery asked one.

They were so thrilled with the responses this morning that now Brinley has come up with 

17 additional questions to leave by Mr. Elf tonight and she is

fully expecting a response to each one come morning.

Christmas is Coming!

Christmas around our home =

Graham cracker gingerbread house creations

Big red bows

The annual fondue party

Cody's work party

Leah's work party...missing it this year

The Ward Christmas party

Teacher and neighbor treats

Kids school performances...

and this year one Mama who is 58.9 months pregnant!

 (YES our grass is STILL that green mid-December! There are blessings to constant rain I suppose.)

Not quite sure that the pudding bath tradition will happen this winter.

RSNA 2011

We just returned from a quick, fun and full trip to Chicago!

The Radiological Society of North America hosts an enormous conference at the 

McCormick Convention Center in Chicago each year during the week after Thanksgiving.

After our speedy 50 min. flight (love that) we met up with our friend Jeff for dinner here.

Then we headed back to our hotel so the boys could watch part of the "big game" that night.

It was so great to see you Jeff! Next time we can't wait to see Liz and Jacob as well!

Mr. handsome here gave one fantastic presentation at the conference on

"Technique, Safety and Efficacy of Ultrasound Guided Corticosteroid Injection Therapy of the Subtalar Joint in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis."

Say that 10X fast!

Watching him up there speaking like a pro in a language I hardly recognize
was such a highlight of the trip for me.

The 70,000 radiologists and exhibitors in attendance occupied every 

bit of the 2.7 million sq. feet inside the

largest convention center in the US,

which BTW is so huge it happens to have it's own zip code.

Even in a sea of people we managed to meet up with Jeff again.

One morning Cody guided me through the endless showcase of quite incredible "exhibits" 

boasting the latest and greatest the imaging world has to offer.

With the anthill of men and women in black suits and ties whizzing by I could not get a good shot of any of the exhibits, so this picture is googled from RSNA last year.

Another highlight of my trip was spending time with Kelty, Duane, Paige, Trey and even a little time with their kiddos. 

Kelty has become my #1 chauffeur in the city buzzing here and there effortlessly and even providing front door service 

before parking the car...

Oh how I appreciate that right now!

One evening Kelty and Duane hosted us for dinner 

at their place and Cody was able to meet

the new member of their family.

We watched as Duane's baby printed out a lego piece, but oh that is only the beginning. 

See what else she has printed HERE.

Duane is on the pioneering frontier of 3-D printer capabilities and technology! It's quite impressive and way over my head at the same time.

That night Rella got to know her Uncle Cody for the first time that she can remember 

and Aunt Leah was fortunate to give Rella her very first haircut! 

Yes, Rella is still quite the content and mild child.
Can't wait to see what happens when she romps around with our crew of kids.

Earlier that day I was lucky to be able to sit in on another impressive 

presentation Kelty gave to her class HERE. 

She is one poised and articulate graduate student and her new campus is modern and stunning!

After visiting Kelty's school we headed down the street to Duane's work.

After making it through not one, but TWO doors guarded by finger-print technology, we arrived in a scene out of a sci-fi movie. 

Desks were encircled about by 8-10 even 12 wrap around computer screens situated in "pods."

A quick stroll through the beautiful cafeteria areas stocked with various healthy food options for employees to consume for free at any time during their work day was enough for me to agree that Duane is with a great company! 

 The game room and basketball court also make GETCO pretty unique.

One afternoon Paige hosted Kelty and I in her home for a delicious lunch and some fun organizational rearranging. Fitting a family of 4, soon to be 5 in a 

Chicago City apartment on the 29th floor can be tricky!

Their apartment is situated right along Lakeshore Drive and boasts walls of windows which provide lots of natural sunlight and beautiful views of lake Michagan.

We also enjoyed sitting in the hot tub and watching Jude and Brooklyn swimming in the pool just hours before Cody and I boarded our plane back home.

On our last full night in the city Trey and Paige  

treated us to a delicious dinner 

together HERE.

We met up in our hotel room beforehand and praised the childcare providers for granting us all a night together without any interruptions. Trey wins the award 

for almost putting me into labor after cracking consecutive jokes...

the kind where you are laughing so hard you cry.

Oh it was sad to let that night end!

 (looking into the nursery windows)

We arrived home to the children all nestled and snug in their beds with visions of 

all the fun they had with Auntie Y. still fresh in their heads.

It would take another full post to detail the events that took place around the home front while we were away. Suffice it to say that the children did not miss us one bit and thoroughly enjoyed their home vacation as much as we did ours.

The following morning after Yvette joined my Urban Iron class for the second time that week, so fun to have her in class, we headed off to the hospital for the kids to participate in a much anticipated "big sibling" class. 

It was cute and they felt special, involved and important, which was the goal.

Then we were off to the airport to say good-bye to Auntie Y. until 

we see her again when she comes out Dec. 27th for baby. 

A BIG HUGE thanks for coming out to care for the girls while we were away!!!

We love you.