You're invited

Kelly and Carol, yours are in the mail. Janelle- I didn't have your address (Or at least I couldn't find it- but you're of course invited!)

Happy Birthday!

Four Boys

Last weekend was certainly filled with love and laughter. Saturday, both of my sisters-in-law came over with their precious nuggets. This was the first time that all four of the boys have been together, and it was wonderful.

(Too bad that it was my heathens that wouldn't cooperate for photos!)

I can't believe how big Nolan has gotten and how much he's changed since I saw him last. He's suuuuuccch a sweet little guy, and just all smiles.

Cooper is still so fresh and new. I can't get enough of his sweet little baby scent. I could hold him all day long. Too bad he really likes to eat :) I'm so thankful to have had such a fun weekend getting to see my "sisters" and our nephews.

Allie's Birthday in pictures

For some reason, Blogger won't let me add pictures to my previous post, so I'm going to do it here instead.

Sara before they started the pitocin.

Todd threatening to turn up the pit.

I wish that I could remember what Todd had just said, but it was obviously funny.

Alexa Grace

September 24, 2010

5:23 am

7lbs, 1 oz

20.5 in

The proud Mommy and Daddy

"Hi Mom!"

Daddy's Girl


Congratulations you two! I'm so happy and proud of you!

Annnd a baby was born!

I know that I've said that A LOT lately, and I can't tell you how much I'm loving it. This summer we've gone from being the only people with kids to almost all of our inner circle having kids. We're loving it!

Thursday morning, I made my way downtown to the Wishard to settle in for the induction of baby Walroth. Sara and Todd's families were there as well and it was evident that never has a baby been more loved.

At a little after 10:00 am, the party started and the waiting began. We watched the monitors obsessively. We told Sara each time a contraction began to climb its hill, (in case she didn't know) Sara's dad and I kept good track of the little one's "TOCO" score... We still have no idea what that is, but we know that it was always somewhere between 4-40 :)

As the day went on, we scrabbled, we uno'd, we read, I crocheted, and Sara labored. In the early evening, things began heating up. Sara's labor intensified, and eventually her water broke. As she labored harder, her mom and I talked and worried. We snuck to her room a few times just to be near. Just to know that she was okay.

At 1:00 am, Sara was fully dilated. They gave her an hour to "labor down", and then she did a couple of practice pushes. About a forty-five minutes after that, she started pushing again. This time for real. As she pushed, I sat at her doorway. My breath catching in my chest. Then the "team" showed up. I saw them coming. It seemed as though there were twenty of them. When Sara's water broke, there was meconium present which means that the baby could have aspirated bacteria into her lungs. The NICU team needed to be present to assess the baby immediately. There were just so many of them. Seeing them arrive, the tears started flowing. There were so many of them. There was so much equipment. The silent prayers were constant at that point. Only a few pushes later, I listened to the cheers of the people in the room. A baby girl was born. Choruses of, "She's beautiful." and "You did so well." and "Congratulations!" filled the air.

One thing was missing though...

A baby's cry.

Sobs wracked my body as I waited for that precious sound. Seconds melted into hours, it seemed. It was an eternity in less than a minute.

Then I heard it. First a squeak, then a whimper, then a small cry.

The sobs turned into tears of joy and relief. I heard Todd introduce her to the world, "Alexa Grace". It was a miracle. My best friend was a Mother.

A few minutes later, I got to meet her. Allie was precious beyond words. Sara was glowing, beautiful, and confident. We all admired the sweet miracle as she looked around, taking in her new world.

Hugs were given. Tears were cried. She was here.

A short while later, I was driving home bleary-eyed and grateful to the core of my being. Grateful for the miracle that had taken place, grateful to have been a part of it. She's the niece of my heart, no blood relation required. I love that little girl with my heart and soul.

Owen Reading

** Yes I am aware that he's not *actually* reading. It's called emergent literacy, folks! :)

Rough Days

This is one of those posts that I hate to write because it reminds me that I don't have it all together, that things aren't perfect...

Last Tuesday, I went to pick Owen up from school and I knew immediately that something wasn't right. His teacher came out to talk to me prior to bringing him and T out to the car. She informed me that Owen bit T that morning right before they headed to the classroom and that he was sent to the principal's office to talk to Mrs. Keith and Fr. Kevin.

The principal!?! The priest!?! GAAAAHHH.

I was seriously devastated. He's had such an incredibly good year, and then this bomb dropped. They informed me that he has been hitting too, not so much in a mean way, but in an impulsive way.

I didn't know what to do. I called Matthew, I called T's mom, (who was afraid that T might need medical attention based on my sobbing confession of what had happened... She did not- she barely even had a mark). I called Sar, I called my friend, Joell, I called my mother-in-law, I called our pediatrician.

Yeah. I was probably overreacting, but my heart was broken! It was like the "N" on last year's report card all over again x100,000! It is unbelievably difficult to hear something like that about your child. All day long, my head was pounding. I was at a total loss as to how to handle the situation. Why, oh WHY don't these little people come with instruction manuals??!?! I sometimes feel that I am so unequipped to handle my kids, (namely, Owen). Why did God entrust ME with these precious little lives when I am so clearly inept? What did I do wrong to cause these problems? It was a rough day to say the least. I'm so thankful that my mom friends/mentors were there to pick me up and dust me off that day, because I don't think that I would have gotten up on my own, I would have rather have crawled under the table and hid.

I'm quite aware that most of you reading this are thinking that I am crazy, that this wasn't that big of a deal, and maybe you're right... But it WAS a big deal to me. You never know what's going to come along and blindside you in regards to your children. You never know which straw is going to break the so-called camel's back, because as mothers we carry such enormous loads everyday. So this "thing" that happened? Yes, it's just a "straw" in the grand scheme of things, but that day?? Well it was one freaking big straw.

One more to go!

So we are now 3/4 of the way through Baby Spree 2010. Nolan, KaeLynn, and Cooper have all graced us with their presences, and now Little Miss Walroth is going to be here any day!! Possibly Wednesday or Thursday! eeeekkk!!!

It's hard to believe that we've gone from this,

to this!!!!

This massive steroid-pumping zuchinni is actually from a couple of weeks ago. This week is WATERMELON week. Watermelon? Really? Where have the past 39 weeks gone? You can truly appreciate what a miracle life really is when you look at what takes place in only 40(ish) weeks.

I can't wait to meet my final little love of this summer.

Love you Sar, and I still think that you're a total pregnancy rockstar :)

Welcome to the World Cooper!

Another bundle of baby boy joy entered the world this past Monday. Cooper David was born on September 13, to Jodi and Brett, and he is, of course absolutely perfect! I got to go see him on Tuesday afternoon, and he is a total doll. I could have loved on him all afternoon, except for the fact that I had to go teach a class at church. Boo.

This is the little sweetie and his mama at his first birthday celebration, (Where's his dad?? I have no idea why he's not in this picture.) Doesn't Jodi look totally fabulous for having just had a baby?

My first time holding Cooper. He's not quite one day old yet.

Uncle Matthew holding Baby Cooper- 2 days old

The boys are excited about a new baby cousin.

This weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Gessner came up to meet little Cooper and see the other kids/grandkids. Here is a picture of Grandma holding 1/2 of her grandsons. Can you believe that she has FOUR grandSONS now?!?!

The verdict is that he looks like a Gessner baby. We compared him to my boys' newborn pictures and there are definitely some resemblances (no nose wrinkle like my boys though). No wonder I think that he's such a cutie :)
I can't believe that I have TWO nephews now. I'm thrilled. It's going to be so fun to watch these boys grow up together. I think that we can agree that there is going to be some R-U-C-K-U-S in the years to come!

Lord help any future girl babies that might come along!

Labor Day Weekend, a Fateful Ride, and a New Arm Accessory

Because I've been a single parent again lately due to Matt's crazy work schedule, I decided to take off and spend the weekend at my Mom and Dad's. As I've said before, my folk's place is like a mini amusement park. There are horse(s), Owen's four wheeler, a trail cruiser, and the sweet cars. The boys love visiting Grandma and Grandpa's to play with all the "toys".

On Friday, I had a great time riding our new horse, Ruby. She is a 13 year old quarter horse, and a total sweetie. She is seriously the most gentle, easy-going horse you could imagine. I rode her for several hours, and took both boys for rides. Ruby also stood perfectly still for about 15 minutes while mom and I took turns snapping pictures of the boys sitting on her.

Labor Day weekend in my hometown is always the weekend of the Jamboree. It's a small town festival at its best with loads of entertainment, food, and rides. That night we went in town to watch a concert played by a band that we followed around like groupies when I was growing up. It was super fun to get to see them play again, and to take the boys.

Saturday morning was the Jamboree parade. My dad was driving a queen contestant in one of his cars, and Owen got to ride along in the passenger seat. He thought that he was pretty hot stuff getting to ride in that car. He also didn't mind that a cute girl snuck him candy for the entire length of the parade.

Saturday afternoon, I decided that I would go out to work with Dream, (our first horse). She has been slightly crazy since we got Ruby, so I thought that I would give her some exercise and something to concentrate on besides the fact that there was a new horse stealing some of her attention. Before I went to get Dream, I saddled up Ruby so that Owen could ride her. I got her gear on, plopped Owen on her back and sent my dad along to lead her around.

I had just got back to Dream's lot, and started lunging her when I thought that I heard Owen cry out. I figured that there wasn't anyway that I could hear him since he was clear up in the front yard and I was out in the back pasture, so I tried to put it out of my mind. A minute later, I saw my dad racing back to the pasture on the cruiser waving his arms frantically. I knew. I knew before I ever heard the words, Owen had fallen off the horse. The first words out of my mouth were, "Is he okay?" My dad said that he wasn't sure, Owen was holding his wrist and crying.

I unclipped Dream, ran to the cruiser and raced up the barn where my mom was holding my poor baby. He was still holding his wrist and crying that it hurt "really bad". I took him and started doing the "Can you move this? Does this hurt?" game. He was able to move his wrist, and hand, but it appeared to be a bit swollen. I decided that I'd rather go get him checked out at the ER than take any chances of it being broken and not knowing.

We loaded the banged up little guy into the Jeep and took off for the nearest hospital. On the way there he told us repeatedly that he didn't want to go and that he definitely didn't want to see a doctor. I was dreading how badly he was going to freak out once they started looking at him or doing X-rays.

Once we got there, he turned into a different kid. He was the bravest, toughest little guy that you could imagine. He handled everything they did like a champ. He giggled all of the way through his CAT scan (a precaution, since he had hit his head), and was super cooperative for his wrist X-rays. Every person that worked with him in that ER was amazed by what a fantastic patient he was. After the verdict came back that his arm was indeed broken, everyone was even more impressed that he was handling everything so well with a broken bone. One nurse even deemed him "Patient of the Year"! They fitted him for a temporary splint that would keep his arm stabilized, but allow for the swelling to subside before applying a fiberglass cast. He left the hospital with pain meds and an antibiotic to make sure that he didn't get an infection in his mouth where his tooth punctured his lip. He never even complained of pain once after they got the splint on.

When we got back to the house, he was ready to go out to the barn and do the evening chores for the horses. He helped carry the water, fed them their grain, and gave them treats. He wasn't scared of them and realized that what happened was just an accident.

What happened was that as Dad was leading Ruby through the front yard, an underground tile broke and she fell about 1.5 feet into the ground. She pitched sideways and Owen just couldn't hold onto the saddle. He fell right beside her foot, but she stood frozen on the spot until Dad picked up Owen and led her back to the barn.

Today, I was able to get him in to see an orthopedic doctor that put him in his full cast. He was again a totally awesome patient. The nurse there asked him if he'd give lessons to the other kids on how to be a good patient. He was giggling most of the time that she was applying his cast, and he had her cracking up as she worked. One time he looked at her with a totally straight face and said, "I'm doing a really great job with this." She about cracked up laughing.

So my little man has his first broken bone and his first cast. It's neon green and he couldn't be more proud of it. He's pretty excited to let all of his friends sign it. I also made him several slings from fun fabrics so he loves wearing those as well. It broke my heart to see him hurt, and it's so sad to peek in on him trying to sleep with that big hard cast in his way, but he's such a tough little guy-I'm super proud of him.