Our loves

 three bigs in front of the tree

 Christmas blessing!!

This might be my favorite picture ever!!!

Cookies and pizza

We made cookies for Santa and homemade pizzas--our Christmas Eve tradition. 

Knox slept through the whole thing--maybe he can participate next year!

 

Reid is ready to beat the cookie dough :)

 

making the pizzas

 

Christmas tree pesto pizza

 candy cane pepperoni pizza

 

gingerbread men

 proud of their creations!

Christmas Eve Service

 Even though we really miss being at our house for this time of year, we really enjoyed getting to go to a Christmas Eve service at the church we attended in Atlanta when we lived here--Church of the Apostles. It was an adventure with a one week old, but what a sweet celebration of Christ's birth!

 my sweet girl posing in her favorite chair

 Our family of 6! 

Still cant wrap my mind around that.......

Christmas Lights

We went to dinner at Moes (Everett's favorite!) and walked around some Christmas lights in Smyrna Village. They were really great lights and the kids had a super time!

I drove around in the car with Knox because it was a bit too cold for a 5 day old :)

My mom with the kids

Lunch with family from Minnesota

Matt's Aunt Jeanette and cousin Liam were down this way for the holidays, so we got to have lunch with them on Saturday. They have an exchange student from Germany living with them this year, so we got to meet Jovan too! The boys loved talking to him about Germany and were in awe that he speaks 5 languages!

 Aunt Jeanette and 4 day old Knox

Liam, Rylie, Jovan, Aunt Jeanette, Reid, Everett, Kadie, and Knox

A couple of pics from the hospital

Love this sweet onesie that the doctor gave us! 

More family fun!

 On Friday we went up to my sister's house to see my Aunt Lucille, who was in town visiting from Vermont. She is actually my great aunt, my Dad's aunt. We never get to see her, so it was so fun that she was here while we were in the States, and that Knox came early so she could meet him!

Aunt Lucille and Knox

 

Poppy with Knox and Everett

 

Everett LOVES to let Knox hold his finger

Aunt Lucille with all the kids

First day home

 

Seriously, these kids can. not. get enough of their baby brother. They want to hold him ALL the time.

It is so sweet, but if I get asked "how much longer until he is done eating?" one more time......

And we had to make a rotation list to make sure everyone gets the same amount of time holding him.

 

 

checking him out

biggest brother showing them how its done.

Coming Home!

So, when you have three kids at home, a stay in hospital to have a baby is pretty close to a vacation. But, alas, they kicked us out on Thursday and we brought Knox back to my mom's house, where we are staying now. 

sweet boy all swaddled up

 

some more snuggles while we wait to leave :)

He was a little jaundiced, so they almost didn't let us go home. But after I promised to watch him closely and feed him often, they released him!

 

sign outside our door

 

about to put our 4th miracle in the car to bring him home!

Welcome to the Family!

Since Knox was born in the evening, we waited until the next morning for the kids to come meet him. Also, Everett had thrown up all night the night before, and Rylie had been throwing up all day.......we figured we would give Knox at least 12 hours before he was exposed to sibling germs :)

 Me and sweet girl! She is loving her new Big Sister role!

 

Nai Nai and her boys!

 

KK and Papa with their 7th grandchild 

Aunt Andi came to get some snuggles

Our family of 6!!!

We are so blessed!

Sweet Knox!

So, I went to the doctor the morning of the 18th for one of my bi-weekly check ups and ultrasounds. The fluid was still low, so Dr. Lewis had me head on over to the hospital! Knox was better off outside than in at that point, so the doctor wanted to go ahead and induce. Woo hoo!!

I checked in at about noon and they started my pitocin at about 1:30. I was 4 cm when they started the meds, and when they checked me at 3:30 I was still only 4 cm. I was a bit bummed, thinking this delivery may take longer than the others. At 5:00 my contractions were pretty strong, and Knox's heart rate was dropping with each one. They checked me again, and I was 7 cm. The doctor was a bit worried about the dropping heart rate, so he was going to try to put more fluid in to give Knox some cushion in there. At 5:15 I told him I didn't think we had time for that--Knox was coming now!They ran around prepping the room for his arrival and

at 5:24 pm, after one push, our sweet Knox was born! 

He had the cord wrapped around his neck, which was what was causing the drop in heart rate. 

But he was fine after just a short minute, and cried the sweetest little cry!

Us with our sweet doctor! We love Dr. Lewis!

So happy our sweet little miracle is here!!

37 weeks

37 weeks and at the hospital!! 

Knox is on his way!!

Trimming the tree

 

The kids had a great time decorating the trees at Nai Nai's house this year. She has a BIG tree in the family room and then she sets up a kids tree in the living room. Quite a step up from our charlie brown tree in China.

 They got to decorate the kids tree however they wanted--lights and all. I may or may not have had to go into the other room to keep myself from being controlling :)

 

reaching as high as they can!

not sure what Rylie's stink eye is about, but it pretty much sums up her attitude these days :)