2 + 2 = 4

2 girls and 2 boys and we are so happy to have our new little Desmond Parker John Holman.

More on the story will be forthcoming but he was born at 3:33 pm on January 22nd. He was 7lbs 9oz (our smallest baby yet - I thought for sure the whole pregnancy that he would be the biggest.) He was 20 1/2 inches long and he's a fantastic baby so far.

The girls are loving having him around and are constantly asking questions like "why is his skin so dark? will he grow up light?" "Was Collin's belly button thing the same color?" "can I hold him for an hour?" They love him and he happily lets them hold him all the time. Collin is a little unsure what the heck is going on but thoroughly enjoys pulling his pacifier out and putting it back in. Which incidentally Desmond loves the pacifier and is by far the most adept at sucking on it than any of my other kids. So far he's a great sleeper and eater.

Minutes after he was born. He's a little bruised and battered but still a cutie.

This is the "pacifier" from the hospital. They don't have any so they make one by putting a sticker on a bottle nipple. He didn't seem to mind at all.

This is an attempt to show you his hair. He and Bridgett are the only ones to be born with a significant amount of hair.

It's a ...!!

Oh wait, we don't actually know yet. I'm still sticking around waiting to have this baby. The truth is I finally feel mentally ready to have it and I also feel like I have some affairs in order, particularly my house. At least it is to more of a degree than it has been in the past week or so. I went to the Dr. today and sorry if this is too much info for some but he said I was "at a 2 and still pretty thick." He did strip my membranes but he didn't seem too hopeful about it working. He said the fact that I've had other kids increases my chances but I don't think I was too far progressed so we'll see what happens. Obviously it didn't work for me today since it's been about 8 hours since he did it but I'm still hopeful it will happen in the next few days. I was totally ok with it not happening today or not so I feel like I'm in a good place. The bummer is he's going out of town this weekend so hopefully it won't happen then. We also set my inducement date for next Wednesday so I know I'll have a baby in 10 days at least. I've set an inducement date with all of my kids and not been induced onced so we'll see if that holds true. Anyway, it's crazy to see that I have only 4 days until my due date, maybe I'll actually have a baby early this time!

My Grandma, Florence Irene McCormick

My grandmother passed away 3 nights ago. She was 98 1/2 years old and had lived a great life. Although she had a rough last week dealing with shingles and a broken ankle she died very peacefully in her sleep. As a child we spent almost every summer making the 3 day drive to Portland to visit her and my Grandpa. We loved going to her house and playing in her attic bedroom and walking to 7-11 to get slurpees. I remember she always had cookies in her cookie jar and her bedroom dresser was always picture perfect with everything arranged on it perfectly. She was a hard worker and always kept her house so clean. She only had a claw foot bathtub with no shower so we always got to take baths and thought it was great fun.

She was married at 24 and a widow for 24 years and married for 50 years. She was always really close to her sister, Ethel, and they have lived together off and on for all their lives. Aunt Ethel never married and they have been taking care of each other their whole lives. They had a great relationship and you can really tell how much they care for each other. One year we spent Thanksgiving at my Grandma's house. We had a wonderful dinner and had sat down for some delicious pumpkin pie that Grandma and Aunt Ethel had worked on together. I took my first bite and wasn't sure what was going on but it wasn't very good. With each bite I included more and more whip cream so that I could get it down. All of us were eating it and finally my Grandma sat down for her piece. After the first bite she exclaimed "Ethel didn't you put the sugar in this!" Aunt Ethel quickly replied "I though you put it in!" We all laughed and gratefully pushed away our plates.

I have a lot of good memories of my Grandma and am happy to have known her. I'm glad we spent a lot of vacations visiting her so that we could develop a relationship with her.

The day we found out that she had passed away Madison was saying her night prayer and this is how it went. "Please bless Grandma McCormick that she can do good in heaven. We're thankful that we can all die and be resurrected and come back to earth with perfect bodies and everyone can be nice to us including all the animals."

37 1/2 weeks

Because the most frequently asked question to me these days is "how are you feeling/doing?" I decided that I would just answer - truthfully. My answer always is just "good." So here it is. I feel like I have a big, very active baby in me and to be honest I'm not sure that I'm ready yet to have it come out. Generally at this point I'm chomping at the bit but right now 2 weeks sounds pretty soon. Physically I feel fine. Yes, I'm uncomfortable and not sleeping well at all and my back does hurt frequently but overall I feel fine. Where the real problem lies is in the fact that I have NO desire to do anything. I don't want to clean my house, cook any meals, go to a store, pull out baby clothes, etc. I think I could be content to just sit on the couch and do nothing (except eventually my legs would get really restless and my back would really start to hurt!) Anyway, I'm hoping this is temporary and goes away quickly because it's not really helping me to get ready for this baby.
I went to the Dr. today. In a nutshell he said he would strip my membranes at 39 weeks and schedule an inducement for sometime between 40-41 weeks that day also. So basically by Jan 30th I'll for sure be at home with a new bouncing baby. Had he said he would strip my membranes today I probably would have just done it but he didn't and there really wasn't any kind of let down feeling. Overall I think it's time for me to fully embrace having a newborn around and do what I can to be prepared. Maybe tomorrow...
And that folks is how I'm feeling/doing.

A visit with Santa

Every year there is one main event for seeing santa in this town. Basically everyone who is anyone attends and that means hours in line. I figured I needed to go at least once so I thought this should be the year. After finding out 5 minutes before I was leaving that John couldn't come because of a meeting I loaded up the kids and went myself. The 2 to 2 1/2 hour wait is one thing but it happens to be outside as well. So I pressed forward and luckily had a few people around me that I knew that could go for hot chocolate runs and bathroom runs for me. Truthfully the kids were great. Collin stayed in his stroller up to about the last 30 minutes and Madison and Bridgett were pretty happy because they kept getting to eat cookies. Here we are standing in line after 2 hours.

All the kids did a great job on Santa's lap. I really love the progression of pictures of Bridgett. This is her whispering in Santa's ear that she wanted a computer and telephone. I have since found out she means a real one of both. A cell phone like mine that will actually call people. I don't think we'll be adding her to the family plan.



Madison wasn't sure what to ask for but eventually came up with a new CTR ring.


Collin wasn't scared at all. I think he was happy for a warm lap. About 20 minutes into the wait he grabbed Bridgett's cup of hot chocolate and spilled it all over his legs. Nothing like 30 degree weather and wet pants.

The best part was that John (due to no fault of his own) showed up literally as the people in front of us finished taking their pictures.

Our first real snowfall

This was our first significant snowfall of the season. It has been a really warm winter so far. This kids were so excited to go play in the snow especially Collin. He had never played in it so I got him all dressed up and sent him out.

He totally loved it until his glove came off and his hand was freezing then he quickly found his way into the house. Although about 2 minutes after being in the house he brought me a glove and wanted to go back out.
He was army crawling through it and well mostly eating it. I think he spent the entire 30 or so minutes just eating the snow.


I wonder where he learned to eat the snow?

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Angela and my three younger brothers and their families all came. Plus my parents with my Aunt Ethel were able to come. It was so fun to see everyone. George and Melanee stayed at our house. Here is a picture of the 3 girls attempting to go to sleep. I think by the 4th night they actually all layed down and went to sleep. Madison was always the first to fall asleep, followed by Bridgett, and then a few hours later Samantha went down. She is the cutest girl! The girls were in heaven having her stay with us. Madison was so great to read to them each night.

Here is a picture of Aunt Ethel with Collin. I don't know if she quite knew what to think of all the kids running around. I think she was pretty worn out from being so stimulated the whole time. The kids were so happy to spend some time with her.