Holidays

It has felt like Christmas vacation for a month. I've enjoyed steaming cups of hot cocoa and all the delicous pies of Thanksgiving. Now I'm ready for cookies. Tonight was our ward Christmas party. I had a nice sampling of cookies and and gearing up for a bake fest either this week or next. I can hardly wait!

Nathan has now been home a full month, adding to the Christmas feeling. Everyday is a holiday for us. We do some school then clean up and go out or watch movies. The past few weeks we've been studying about goats. This week we'll be goat proofing the fences and building a shelter. Hopefully by the end of December we'll have goats. It may seem crazy, but my farm girl roots have been showing and I want to surround myself with barnyard animals. Chickens will be coming in the spring.

I'm rambling on, but thought I'd update the world. We are alive and well.

Back in the USA

It feels good to be sitting up late at night, typing on my own computer, sitting in my livingroom in the good old USA. It's true, we're back. Well atleast most of us are. Nathan is in the final weeks of his sojourn abroad. Sometime this month he'll come home to stay.

It's been a crazy 4 years out of the country, but I'm glad we went. We had great experiences and met some of the best people. But I'm glad to be home. The kids are loving it here, lots of time to play with cousins. I'm enjoying family as well. My Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law and I have been canning up a storm. I probably have enough fruit to last all year plus some. It's great.

Thats all for now. I haven't even been to my blog site for months. This little late night post will hopefully jolt me into writing a bit more.

Our Little Guy

He is a bried clip of our little cutie. I did this with the camera while trying to still hold him, so it isn't the greatest footage in the world. I will try to get something of Hannah and Ethan up here as well. This is my first try with the video so I wanted to see how it works.

Finally, a post about Gabe

So here is our little guy. His official name is Gabriel Seth Potter. However we will most likely call him Gabe. He entered the world on March 18 at about 2:23 PM. He was born at 37 weeks 2 days. A solid 8-10 later than the older children. He weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches long. His good weight and later stage of development did not stop him from having a rough first week. His lungs had not developed to the correct stage and he was not breathing properly. At first the doctor thought he was just not expanding his lungs enough to get the oxygen, but further testing showed he was not producing serfactant (sp) enough to trade out the oxygen for the carbon dioxide, he was getting too high levels of the bad stuff built up. Anyways, after various breathing aparatus, including full ventilation, his lungs kicked in and he can breathe just fine.

It was a stressfull week for all of us. Gabe couldn't be released from the hospital, even after he could breathe, until he could then eat and breathe succesfully. That was a problem as the criteria was really strict. He had to eat 37 ml of milk and he had to do it in 15 minutes every 2 hours. If he did not drink the milk it was then force fed through a feeding tube. That would be a "failed" feeding. Very frustrating for us as he began to fail feedings because he was sleeping. However we had a great doctor who listened to our concerns. He accepted Nathans proposal that he be allowed to eat on demand. As long as he woke up every 2-3 hours on his own, and absolutely didn't go over 4 hours, and he drank a certain amount within 24 hours, he would pass the eating test. He ofcourse did fine. Once he was allowed to eat when he was hungry, he woke up every 3 hours and ate more than he previously had. So it all worked out and he can home on his one week birthday.

He is proving to be a good little baby. He wakes almost like clock work every 3 hours and eats. He fusses only when he is hungy has a messy diaper or is working out gas. The kids are absolutely in love with him. They think he is the greatest thing ever. Hannah would hold him all the time if I let her. Ethan adores his cute face, hands and feet. Both of the kids wanted to see his feet right away. Hannah just says "He's so cute" about 50 -100 times a day. Nate has all but banned her from saying it in his presence.

Any way, as I type the little one is making himself known. He is awake now so I guess this post is long enough.

Family Photos

Okay, I'm back to the picture I can't rotate. Very annoying. But this is me and my sweetheart. Notice he has grown a beard. I wanted it a little longer but last time he went to the barber they cut it down too close.

Me, Hannah and Ethan

The family.

Another one of the family.

Big Mama and the little ones

Me and the kids. I figured I better get some pictures up while I am still pregnant

I have tried to upload these a few times and they always come sideways even though I rotated them and saved them. So crane you heads and see my little boy, soon to be oldest son.

And of course Hannah

This is so lame to put these up like this, but here I am sticking out at 36 weeks.

Baby Update 35 weeks

It's been a busy month for us. I have successfully reached 35 weeks and am having no real problems. I have to take it pretty easy still, but that's fine. I was looking back to when Hannah was born, I believe she was born about 35 1/2 weeks and Ethan was born at 36. Yesterday we went for an ultrasound and the baby already weighs in at about 5 lb 10 oz. That is bigger than Hannah was at birth. So I am pleased with everything that is happening with the baby.

We are all ready though to go to the hospital just in case. The suitcase has been packed for a couple of months, and recently repacked to verify what actually is in it. The crib is made up, diapers are out and all the cute little things washed and ready to wear. A few days ago the ladies at church gave me a great baby shower. So we have added a play mat, bouncy chair, and other great things for our new little one. I have to make perhaps one more trip to Baby Shop for some odds and ends, but nothing that is critical. So give us just two more weeks and we will be very happy to have this baby come. Some days it seems like I may still come early, but when I start getting worried things calm down.