Luke Meets His Little Brother

here is a video of Luke meeting his little bro :)

Our new baby

We have a new baby! He was born this evening, December 18th, at 7:45 PM. He weighs 8 pounds, twelve ounces and is 22 inches in length. We're all well and thank you for your prayers and thoughts.

40 Weeks & Round One

This picture was taken at 40 weeks while I was in the hospital with an attempted induction. The reason for the induction is a very LONG story and something I may blog about in the future, but for now it will suffice to say that it simply didn't work. For the record, I was incredibly skeptical that it would. I spent the night in the hospital with cervadil... nothing. Then an entire day on pitocin... nada. The pit got as high as safely possible, but just wasn't making the contractions long enough or strong enough. I left the hospital after 24 hours dilated to, ummm, maybe a 2. Maybe. So now we wait... and wait and wait, I guess. Since Kate was 9 days past and Luke 11, I suppose it's a bit early still. I head to the midwife tomorrow to see how everything looks and will post more info if I have some. For the record, please don't suggest that I just go eat something spicy or go for a long walk. If a 24 hour induction that works for almost everybody failed for me, I have no faith in some spicy burrito -though it does sound pretty good. :)

We'll keep you posted here (and on fb of course) when things finally get moving again.

Tune in for Updates

When I have a moment, I'll update this blog.

November In Pictures

It's 4:14am and I am awake... Can't sleep much these days. I guess it's just part of the getting ready for the baby... So, I posted the November pictures on my Flickr account . Just click on that link OR click on the Flickr photostream to the right of this post.

As you can see, it was a fairly busy month. We bought a new car, went to the Circus (a first for the kids and Mark) and had Luke's 3rd birthday party. We really missed family over Thanksgiving and for about 3 hours we had this crazy idea to get in the car and drive as far North as possible. We packed up everything in about an hour and got on the freeway and about an hour into the trip we realized that we weren't actually going to get that far. Traffic was very stop and go... So, we turned around and were a little bummed. BUT, it was a thrilling few hours while it lasted... You know, we live really, REALLY far south. Practically Cuba. I think it takes almost 7 hours just to drive out of this state. Ahhh, Florida! :)

Kate as a "Pilgram"

Kate's Preschool is at a senior center. The kids have their own room of course, but a big part of the curriculum is integrated intergenerational activities. Often, on any given Wednesday, you might find them playing bingo with the seniors, or in the lunch hall dancing with them or a "grandma" might come and read to their class. I think it's a really cool part of the set-up. For Thanksgiving, her class dressed up as pilgrims and American Indians and sang to the Seniors. Afterwards, they all had a feast! :)