Grace

My Grace is 6 years old. Her birthday was on the 1st of December. As her birthday approached I was reflecting on her birth and feel so lucky to have her as a part of our family. For posterity I thought I'd write a bit about her birth. Grace was actually due right around thanksgiving but she went over a few days. Two weeks before her due date I started having contraction that would go all night and then stop. (this didn't happen with any of the other pregnancies). I remember feeling very worried one night because I hadn't felt her move for a while and I called the doctor who wanted me to track for the next few hours to see if I felt anything, shortly after I felt some slight movement and thought, "I'm just being paranoid". I tend to do that. Then on December 1st I awoke around 5am and my water broke and off to the hospital we went. We dropped Ivan and Ammon of with Kevin and Leah on the way and were able to get to the hospital in Paradise. After they got me all hooked up and I was in the hospital room I was feeling good the labor didn't seem to be so painful in my back the way the boys had been, so I was thinking, this will be better this time. I was also listening to the monitor which was tracking Graces heart rate and I started getting worried because it seemed to slow way down during contractions. I told Ian I thought something was wrong and he just said, "stop worrying," no sooner had he said that when in rushed some nurses and said they had talked to the doctor and the heart rate of the baby was going dangerously low and we needed to take her by Cesarean. They quickly got me ready and in I went. A little while later we had a little baby girl. The cord had been around her neck twice. She still has broken blood vessels on the back of her neck from it. Needless to say we are so thankful for our Grace and to have her here on earth to enjoy. She really is my sunshine,(a song I sing to her often) She has such a caring heart and enjoys the beauty in the world around her. She is dramatic and eccentric and everything a little girl should be. I love it when I find her in her room just singing to herself. Love you Grace. Here are some of her birthday pics.

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Photos are all follows...
1 and 2 Apples, apples apples. the kids picked up literally thousands of apples in October. Apples are my favorite but truthfully I am all appled out. I made lots of applesauce and sad to say we have not even had any yet. Guess we better get a fattened pigs for some pork chops, heaven forbid I should just go buy some at the store, right anyway we need something to go with all this applesauce.
3 Abby's one and only bottle, I managed to go 7 months only using 1 bottle and finally the tip ripped so instead of going and getting a new one we just stopped using the bottle, it was time anyway.
4 just had to throw this one in there. Grace sure loves her brother and I know he loves her but you couldn't tell from his expression but I know he's loving it;)

Anyway here is some more from the calm before the storm post, to bad they don't post in the order I want but I have more important things to worry about.

the calm before the storm....

December is a bit hectic for us with birthdays galor and Christmas. I'm actually really trying to simplify things so I can enjoy this magical time of year. I truly love Christmas and all the joy it brings into our home. But this post isn't about all that it is about some of the things that have been going on that I haven't posted about. A bit random so just remember I'm a mom of five kiddos and right now the two at home are wrestling around making quite a commotion. 1st photo is of a old shed that we knocked down here I liked it but it was only about 20 feet from the house so a bit of an eye sore. 2nd picture is Ammon in his cross country race he is smack in the middle of the pack and this is after he ran Graces' whole race with her encouraging her the whole way, what a good big brother. 3rd photo, Graces' race. 4th, Utah, at BYU, thank you to the passer byer. 5th, found Bradford in the tub like this one day, funny kid, never a dull moment, and this is the calm before the storm.