MERRY CHRISTMAS to us!

I have to start this post by saying we had the BEST Christmas and even the kids agreed.

Brooks and I got the biggest kick out of Bronson's comment (2nd grade) when he said,

"We probably have the World RECORD for having the most presents on Christmas!"

(I love my grateful children)

If they only knew............

Here are the boys' stockings waiting for them to wake up

(Santa just does stockings loaded with toys and treats and this year the boys were soooo excited he included a stuffed animal because they are FREAKS about them......much to my and Brooks' chagrin!)

This is pretty much where Iris spent the whole morning......downing her stocking treats at the table. And no, she didn't eat her breakfast later. :)

I HAD to include this picture of Aleeya because she hurt her arm 2 days before and couldn't use it. So it just hung limp all morning. Her brothers helped her open her gifts, her treats and they EVEN helped her open the treats she sneaked out of THEIR stockings. Such nice brothers. (her favorite stocking item? Stick-on earrings.)

Emerson

Camden loved playing with his remote-control Hummer while he chased all the Zhu-Zhu pets around. (Yep, that's Aleeya's arm hanging limp in the background)

Bronson and Brooks figuring out the remote control helicopter. That thing was so cool and Bronson kept going outside to fly it more.

Iris.....hoarding the Zhu-zhu pets.

The boys love how Santa puts silly string in everyone's stockings....and they also love how Iris and Royce didn't use their's, so it meant MORE FOR THEM!

Brooks and his books

2 of the Lego creations built from the Legos Grandma sent. They're obviously pretty proud of themselves.

These two boys BOTH asked me for one thing for Christmas.....a "taggie" like everyone else had (or got when they were babies). They both said it was their favorite Christmas gift......(however, "favorite" kept changing depending on what they were playing with at the time)

The girls in new pjs from Grandma

And the boys' pjs.............check out Emerson's face.

He was NOT thrilled about putting those pjs on for the picture and went on a big ol' dramatic schpiel how he "will NEVER wear them again! Not for ONE HUNDRED DAYS!"

What was I saying about grateful kids?........

Then later on in the day, THIS happened!

A friend that has lived here her whole life said that she has NEVER had a White Christmas. Crazy. The boys loved it.

There was even enough snow the next day that church was cancelled and we had a little sacrament meeting at home. Each kid participated in one way or the other. Bronson gave a great talk. The whole little meeting was so sweet. It was so nice just have my family here all together for 2 days.....whether it's because we were stuck or not. (Oh, did I mention we didn't have electricity either for 12 hours of it? Well, we didn't and it was fun to give our ol' generator a try. It kept us nice and toasty with our wood burning fire!)

How was MY CHRISTMAS you ask?

Okay, maybe you didn't, but here goes. Besides Christmas being the BEST with young kids and the magic...........it was STILL the best. :)

I told Brooks in passing a while back that all I wanted for Christmas as clean walls. But he already DID that for me the week before (along w/ the floors).

But he TOTALLY topped it by getting together w/ one of our friends and planning a big ol' week long beach trip for us next summer to Outer Banks. For me to say I was excited would be a major understatement. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face all day!

And my mother-in-law totally delivered when she remembered that my favorite thing to do on Christmas afternoons is to curl up with a feel-good-quick-read book......usually one of Richard Paul Evans'.

Man, was that nice........along with my nap. (afterall, I decided to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas the way Mary might have........resting.

Face time

I know I haven't technically blogged about Christmas but I just HAD to put up a picture of the sweetest face. Mom, don't worry, you'll get to snuggle this thing soon.

Twas the Week Before Christmas.....

The Sunday before Christmas...........

do you think this kid could be loved any more then he is?!?!?

Speaking of Royce, I just found out in Old English and Old German that the name Royce means:

-son of a king or

-prince

(of course Brooks likes the first one)

I liked that, because as we all are, he IS a prince and child of our Heavenly Father.

Mon-Tues- the boys had basketball camp (they loved it)

Thursday- we decided to go to a big ol' drive-thru Christmas light display around here. Well actually, I decided to go and convinced some of our friends to pile in with us in the Yeti to drive through it. Soooo, we left at 6:45 and got back around 10:30!!!! That was almost FOUR hours to go to a LOCAL event. That line was crazy, and considering we had NINE kids in the Yeti with us for that long, it was rather......um.......fun. I just hope the Gassers are still our friends after this.

HOWEVER, once we FINALLY got into the lights Emerson said, "This is the most excitedest day of my LIFE!"

Friday- CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!

Our neighbor brought over some dinosaur/puzzle/wood-build-it things.....that entertained them (and Brooks) for quite some time.

Royce is all ready to go to the Josh and Nikki's annual Christmas Eve party (we look forward to it EVERY year).....trust me, he's excited, he just doesn't look it.

We came home and the kids exchanged the gifts they bought for each other (with some money they earned....which that would've been enough for them for Christmas by how excited they were over the gifts), we read the Christmas Eve book, set out cookies and "healthy things" for Santa (because he would probably get sick of all the treats......or so Bronson decided) and put the kids in bed......all together because on holidays they sleep together.

I just love Christmas w/ kids and all the excitement of it. I was in the BEST mood and busy working on my gift for Brooks....and eh-hum.....other things (little people read this blog) when at about 11:30 pm Camden came in like this.

Brooks saw him first and called to me, "Um, Mom, maybe you should take a break for a second and come see this....." So I did, and now I'll let you see this.....(don't look at this w/ a weak stomach)....keep in mind, they were ALL sleeping together!

Puke everywhere on the floor, wall, bed and MOST of the blankets, stuffed animals, etc. that all three boys piled in the bed to sleep with. Luckily for Bronson and Emerson they came out un-splattered, but I spent the next good while doing laundry, while Brooks.....the man of the hour..... cleaned it all up.

Merry Christmas to us, right? Well, it turns out to be something he ate, because no one else got anything and he was fine the next day for CHRISTMAS!!!!

I love it, I love it, I love it!

DEFINITELY, a lot more pictures to come........

Genius boys

I remember playing chess with my dad when I was younger.....a lot. I loved that time with him. I even got pretty good and was telling Bronson how I was in the FINALS in our elementary school Chess competition. Then he had to ask if I won.....to which I said, "No, I got 2nd place to Adam Whitney who beat me on the lamest move EVER!" But of course, I'm not bitter and barely remember the event anyway. So I decided to teach Bronson how to play chess. He caught on REALLY fast and it's actually quite fun to play with him.....or maybe it's because I like winning, one or the other. Anyway, I haven't taught Camden and Emerson to play yet, but I caught them playing last night.

The fact that I haven't taught them how to play and they STILL were playing is PROOF that they are geniuses. IN FACT, they even have more GENIUS of names for the pieces:

King= King (see, they already knew that)

"Big Guy"= Queen.....I think I prefer their name

"Helmet Head"= the Bishop.....of COURSE, he looks like he's wearing a helmet! Brilliant.

Horse= Knight/Horse.....how in the WORLD did they know that?!?!?

"Castle Guy" = Yep, once again, they called it before I told them

"Sneakers" = Pawns......."because they are the little sneaky guys" I mean really, talk about going above and BEYOND the normal game of chess!!!!!

Not to mention they have even TRICKIER rules. They explained to me that you can't get on the black squares, unless you're the king horse and that only Camden can kill three guys in a turn and Emerson can only kill one. But every once and awhile Camden lets Emerson put his guys back ON the board. I'm telling you, I'm thinking these chess rules are going to stick and move on up the chess rule hierarchy and will soon be played in parks all over!.............

all thanks to these two GENIUS boys who didn't even NEED the game explained to them.

I'm 6 for 6

WithOUT fail, each of my babies around 1 or 2 weeks has gotten thrush/candida.

The ONLY thing that worked w/ the first 4 was Gentian Violet (after using Nystatin, Dyflucan and a few others.......yes, I'm pretty sure I spelled them wrong, but you get the idea).

So with Iris and now Royce I by-passed the other drugs that don't work for us and went straight to that purple dye.

But hey, I'm already seeing results. Only 2 more days of this.

I found Sally in Royce's bouncer. She just likes his smell and likes to be everywhere he is or has been. So funny.

And for your entertainment.....

We're STILL not sure where this girl came from.

She had an "ow-ee" so she went into the bathroom and got a bandaid and came out like this.

Yes, she is in a swimsuit and it feels like 18 degrees outside.

She's a riot.

Blending right in

It's hard to believe he's only been here for a week as of today.

I have the best family and friends though. While I was in the hospital, someone brought my family dinner on Sunday, then my close friend, Nikki came over and CLEANED MY HOUSE while I was in the hospital! I couldn't believe how clean my cupboards and kitchen were when I got home. Then 2 friends brought us over dinner AGAIN!

(these people are so nice, because it's not like feeding a family my size is the easiest for everyone. I was just so grateful!)

It was fun to have Family Home Evening with the newest member of our family.

Not to mention Brooks taking over EVERYthing around here.....laundry, snacks, packing lunches, cleaning, stoking the fire, diapers, naps, basketball practice, bus stops, etc. etc. etc......ALL while ordering me to sit down every chance he got. He's the best. The problem with me sitting down though, every time I did, I fell asleep.

I've been spoiled and so has Royce..........see what I mean?

Sally snuggling Royce.......she's pretty protective of him.

To be honest the first part of the week was a little foggy for me. You know that allergy medicine feeling when you're groggy all the time? That was me. It has been different then all of the other recoveries. I wasn't sure WHAT the difference was......my lack of sleep, the nasty cold I caught in the hospital, me getting older or it being my 6th. Either way, I just couldn't feel like I could hit the ground running like I have been in the past.......UNTIL Thursday.

Brooks, once again came to my rescue and Wednesday night just let Royce sleep on his chest all night on the couch. I got 6 hours STRAIGHT of sleep. I woke up and felt like a million bucks. It was like I was FINALLY caught up and FINALLY back to normal...well mentally and emotionally speaking of course.

I finally had the energy to start helping Royce learn to fall asleep on his own and go back to sleep in the middle of the night after I feed him. Ever since then, he's been a champ....going back to bed each time I feed him on his own. I guess I just needed my energy back to be able to help train him and figure out his favorite way of sleeping. It's funny how each baby has their preference: arms down, arms in, on their back, belly or side, wrapped up tight or loose..............I'm just glad we finally figured it out.

He wakes up as he should as a newborn at night, every 3-ish hours. No big deal, just as long as he goes back to sleep after! :)

A HUGE help was my Mother-in-law. She came on Wednesday when Brooks went back to work and took over practically what Brooks was doing before......my laundry, cleaning and cooking. Not to mention making me rest. Seriously, a HUGE thanks to those 2! I felt good enough right before she left to even get some couponing in.....now THAT made me normal! :) She left on Saturday.......and we were all sad, but we had fun while she was here.

She even took on making a gingerbread house w/ the kiddos.

Okay, one more picture of my sweet little boy. Here he is at 1 week old.

He really is sooooo sweet and just a calm little man......not to mention a REEEEALLY good snuggler!

Royce

We're not sure WHO is happier that he finally made it.........US

or HIM!

(Seriously, isn't he just an ANGEL?!?!?!)

So the story...........skip ahead as you need since it will be loaded with details for my family......since I didn't have a cell phone in the hospital, didn't really call anyone and was zonked out for 2 days while I was there anyway.

Saturday I did the leaves, went to the store (NEVER go to the store during a snowing around here, people FREAK out and buy all the milk/eggs/bread there are!), ran another errand, took a nap and made dinner. By that night during family scripture study I knew it was happening. We called our good friend Wendy C. to come on over with her two kids to spend the night but were really worried about her getting out of her driveway (I hadn't checked outside either and was a little concerned I would be delivering at home if I was snowed in as well) My contractions were only 4-5 minutes apart and really weren't painful, but I knew they would progress and I wanted Wendy over here before it got too late. I kept telling Brooks we could probably wait to go to the hospital but I didn't want to have Wendy haul her family over at 1:00 a.m.......so we just went on over about 9:00.

They checked me and I was at a 4 and clearly having contractions enough for them to keep me, but they really weren't that bad. We sat and joked with the nurses for a while and Brooks even knew one of the residents there. One of the nurses walked out of our triage room and I guess mentioned, "That couple is so funny and nice. This is her 6th baby......they must be Mormon." :)

We got in my room, turned on the Oklahoma vs. Nebraska game and just sat around and talked with more nurses. I maybe got up to a 5 but still, I wasn't too uncomfortable. Then at 11:30 (after the football game) I was a little antsy. I KNEW I should've stayed at home a little longer, because it wasn't going as fast as I wanted and I really just wanted to get Brooks home so he could sleep instead of keep him there all night just waiting. (Afterall, I knew he was taking all 5 kids to church the next day and had a ton of meetings) So I had the doctor break my water.

Shortly after it got to the point that I wanted an epidural and I got it around 1:00 am. Immediately I was feeling better, and VERY tired. So they turned out the lights, left me alone and I had Brooks lay down on the couch to catch some shut-eye for a while. It was a relaxing time. I closed my eyes for a while, then just peacefully watched the contractions on the monitor get larger and larger and closer and closer together. Royce started kicking me on the top of my belly and we played the game together we did so often towards the end where he would kick at certain spot and I would tap his heel and then he'd move it. Then I would tap it again, etc. It was a very sweet and intimate moment with him, one I will always remember and treasure. I knew it was going to be one of the last moments I would have with him in my belly.

I was right.

I no longer felt his legs up high and I started feeling some pretty bad pain and stretching.

I called the nurse in (it was a new one, apparently mine was on break) and told her I was feeling a lot of pain. She told me it was because I sat up straight and all the epidural went down lower then my uterus, etc. That made sense, but I still wanted her to check me.

She did. I was at a 10, I knew it by the look on her face.

Then she said, "I'll go get your nurse. Is this your first baby?"

Brooks said, "No, her 6th."

Then her face went white and she called the doctor and hurried out.

Two contractions later, he was here. My perfect prince. (2:18 a.m.)

(you can see my wet forehead from all the wet washcloths I make Brooks put on my forehead while in labor!)

They left me alone with him for a hour and a half, to nurse, snuggle and get the last good shut-eye I would have in a while.

I got to my room finally at 5:30 am and had constant people coming in for the next 30 hours. Checking me, checking baby, taking temperatures, asking if I know how to nurse, if I had any questions, or what I wanted for dinner (actually she was the ONLY guest I liked......and if you're going to kiss up to SOMEONE, kiss up to the Nutrition/Cafeteria person because she will HOOK YOU UP if you do. I had the BEST food each meal that I got to pick), etc.

Thankfully Sunday about 5:30 I FINALLY got to see my other kids. It's crazy how bad I missed them.

(okay, so I posted this picture twice and can't figure how to get it off.....oh well, it's a cute one)

Royce is by far the most popular one in the family right now and so I try to hang out with him as much as I can because I like hanging with the popular people. :)

The kids then sat and watched some cartoons while I just sat and stared at how beautiful my family is.

OKAY, so I want to show you why Royce is so special and how cool he is. Check out his 2nd and 3rd toes..........

They're totally connected! Both feet have it. I noticed it and pointed it to the doctors (who had not noticed it) and they mentioned that it's VERY common and that it's a genetic thing somewhere back in one of our families. My first thought was, it's TOTALLY a Smith thing. Brooks denied it. There are 5 bones, so maybe after a year they'll cut them separate and it won't be a big deal at all. Okay, so the BEST part is when Brooks' mom came out here and I showed her the toes, the FIRST thing she said was, "Oh, my SISTER had that on her toes!"

I could NOT stop laughing!!!!!! (I love being right!)

This is the sweet face I got to stare at in the hospital. I couldn't kiss is enough.

While we were there President Obama was speaking at the building next to/behind the hospital. It was fun watching all the police and roads blocked out my window.....well, while I was awake anyway.

Oh, and ANOTHER plus about giving birth on a Sunday is they give you a free Sunday paper........and if you know me, I was excited to have the extra set of coupons!

And look who takes a binki so well (not to mention nurses great.....no issues at all!)

I MISSED having a bundle of blue around.

And now we're home........more posts on that later.

Time to welcome the new man in my life....

ROYCE HYRUM SMITH

December 5th, 2:18 am

- 7 lbs. 13 ounces

-22 1/4 inches long

Skinny, no hair, light fuzz, light eyebrows and absolutely PERFECT!

Details later, but if you didn't notice the TIME I had the baby....then look again. We're a little tired around here!

Date Night

Brooks and I are having a date night tonight.

Outfit:

Location: Hospital.

Wish me luck

(here's another close-up of the shirt in case you couldn't read it in the above picture). tee hee

HAPPY DUE DATE TO ME!!!!!

It's funny that the title is the EXACT title I used for THIS blog post about 18 months ago.

Anyway, to carry on the tradition since my body WON'T go into labor yet I decided to labor.

The leaf vacumn truck was coming up the road and so I raked up took 9 tarp loads of leaves (that were in front of the slide for the leaf-throwage) from the backyard and dragged them up to the curb for the truck.

I wish I would've a picture of Iris riding it the leaves on the tarp. She was so cute.

(and you can't see it but in the top picture it actually started snowing! Crazy huh. I guess it looks more like ash falling from the sky right now so the camera didn't pick it up. But the kids are pretty excited.)

So I'm curious

Most women reading my blog have had babies and have packed a hospital bag.

There are checklists ALL over the internet, in books and at the doctor's office of things you should pack......the usuals like your toiletries, camera, baby outfit, blah, blah, blah.

But I've ALSO noticed that with each time I've figured out more of what I want at the hospital.

I'm curious what different thing YOU put in your hospital bag or things you think are "must haves"!

Some things I put in that aren't on the usual lists:

- treat (cookies/pumpkin bread, etc.) for the nurses and doctor.......you know because I'm a kiss- up. And let's be honest, the nicer you are to them the more they'll keep that Sprite comin'!

- my usual Wint-o-green mints and Twizzlers......along w/ other snacks, but those two have been at EVERY hospital with me.

- my bathrobe. Seriously, it's my best friend. WHY would I go ANYWHERE w/o it?!?!?

- the baby's and my journal and scriptures (that might be on everyone's list though)

-presents from the baby to his older siblings.....so when they come to the hospital it's more fun for them and heck, why not let the baby buy their love, right?

This year I actually added something new.....a few things for Brooks. Last time it felt like we were sitting around for a while and it's like we were bored......not to mention Brooks was hungry because HE doesn't get food like patients do. This last week I stole his Sports Illustrated and Time Magazine before he saw them in the mailbox and rolled them up with a few of his favorite snacks so he could pull them out if needed.

So, I would love to hear what you usually take to the hospital?.......as if my bag could hold much more!