Spencer Bruce is here!

Here are pictures of the newest addition to our family. I am also going to tell you the story of his labor and birth because I am still in shock myself and this is kind of my journal too. So, if you want you can skip all this part and just look at pictures. On Sunday, June 29 I was having a lot of contractions and thought I was starting into labor. Well, it was false and I felt pretty foolish because every other time I "thought" I was in labor I was. So, I was pretty down this week and beginning to wonder if all my hopeful positive thinking that I would have this baby on July 3 (this would allow maximum time for Scott to be able to take care of us) plus it was a few days before my actual due date. Zooming through my week now.....................................Thursday, July 3 I went to my appointment at 9:30 am. I was 4 cm dilated and my nurse-midwife knew that I wanted to have a baby that day. She stripped my membranes and said I would probably start contracting within an hour. By 11 am I was having regular contractions! I then spent the day at my good friend Janine's house since the kids were already there. She was so great and made me lunch and helped me relax and not be bored while timing the contractions. Scott arrived at around 2 pm and I was feeling bad like maybe I had called him home from work too early. My contractions were definately still there but I was not feeling any pain really. At 3 or so the nurse midwife's office called and told me to come in and they would check to see how I was progressing. When I got to the office I was a 5 and while she was checking me she accidentally broke my water!!! That's how close I was. That was at 4 pm. So, I continued to walk around. My contractions were finally getting closer but I still wasn't really in much pain. For those of you who know me well know that my labors are usually 10-14 hours and I can't move hardly at all. So it was about 5 minutes to 5 when I started having more pain and actually had to bend over and Scott rubbing my back--Thanks for the time reference LEIGH!! You called and left a message to check on me right before they started to hurt! I walked and sat on the ball for a little bit longer. Then about 5:30 I got in the water. Yes, I had a water birth. At this point I was starting to have a little pressure (but nothing like what I remember pushing pressure should feel like from my other labors) and about 5:40 she told me to just push a little bit and see what happens. I didn't know this until later but with that first push the nurse midwife could see the baby's hair sticking out!!!! So I pushed a few more times and was starting to think that we were going to be there a while since I didn't feel like my pushing was accomplishing much. Then at the same time I felt a bit of relief and saw the nurse midwife pull her hand back. I wanted to scream and tell her to stop cheking me--no wonder I felt better- her hand wasn't up inside me. But then about 15 seconds later I saw a little body come out! It wasn't her hand coming out that had given me that great relief, it was the baby's head! So, now you know all the details and probably some you could have done without, but as I said in the beginning, this is my journal too. So, if you really got through all that introducing: Spencer Bruce 8 lbs 14 1/2 oz 21 1/4" long.

About 4 pm on July 3
About 8 :30 pm on July 3. The kids are so proud of their new baby brother. I don't know what we were thinking, Scott should be in this picture with us not taking it!
What's better than TV?

How about watching a 1 day old baby in a swing!
Look at that strong boy!

The look on his face reminds me of Carly.
Father and son #3!
"I want to be just like him when I grow up."
I think in these last two he looks quite a bit like his cousins
Logan and Nathaniel.

I will post more pictures soon and try to figure out how to post

movies soon too.

Staycation?!

The last few weeks I have been feeling bad for my children because we are not doing anything fun this summer. We just sit around in the air conditioned house and wait for the baby. So, the other night for Family Night we went to Chuck E. Cheese and let the kids play games. They had a blast. Any and all suggestions for our summer "staycation" are welcome. When the boys go to school and the teacher asks what they did over the summer I'd like them to be able to say more than just, "we watched Cyberchase on PBS." Here is Taylor saving the world by blasting asteroids.
Carter playing skee ball.
Carly in a car ride.
Counting their many tickets.

Better Late Than Never

This post is dedicated to Scott. I was planning to put this up on Father's Day, but alas, I never get anything done when I want to--thus the title of this post. So often he is the one behind the camera and we don't get very many pictures of him. Which is a pretty good description of him. He is always there in the background making sure everything gets done and goes smoothly. He quietly does his job and doesn't draw attentiont to himself. He works hard and especially lately has picked up so much of the slack from me. He is unselfish and such a loving and worthy priesthood holder. We all love him so much and don't know how we could ever get through this life without him. We love you, Scott. Here is Scott with his Father's Day Dessert request---DIRT! You all remember the pudding and gummy worm treat you enjoyed as kids? Well, apparently when Scott was about 6 or 7 his primary teacher made dirt for them but also used ice cream so it was an all frozen treat. My poor husband has been waiting all this time to have it like this again. He really enjoyed it.

You Say Tomato, I Say Tomatoe!

Some of you have been asking to see pictures of me fat and miserable! Why, I don't know. Maybe so you can sigh and say, "OH, I am so glad it's not me!" At any rate I couldn't just have a picture of plain old me. This is what I have been doing this week. A local farmer sold his "not quite perfect for the store" produce to our stake. So I ordered 3 boxes of tomatoes so we could make salsa. When we talk about making salsa at our house it is made by the gallon. I got 27 pints and 6 quarts of salsa. We are happy to have it since we ran out of homemade salsa a couple of months ago. Even after all that salsa I still had a box and a half of tomatoes left. I was so worn out from the salsa making and really dreading doing it. I was trying to gear up to do it this afternoon when my good friend Janine and her family came to my rescue. Janine, Kyle, and McKenna did tomatoes while Kaeliann and Kaden kept the kids happy. In just over an hour they had 24 quarts of tomatoes ready for me to process. They saved me hours and hours of work that I would have had to do by myself with kids running through the kitchen. The whole time they were at the house I was in such shock that my tomatoes were getting done and after they left I called Scott and just cried. Thanks so much guys! I thank you from the very bottom of my fat, swollen feet!! You deserve the "Friends of the Century Award".
Had I not been rescued today you can imagine how much worse my poor elephant ankles would look!

Home Improvements part 2

Okay folks, I am sorry it has taken me so long. But we finally got a new camera and I finally remembered to take pictures. Here is the baby's room. Sorry I haven't gotten pictures hung yet, but even without pictures it is about 1000 times better than what it was! In case you don't remember just scroll down to the first Home Improvement post and you will be reminded of those hideous fish and 1990's teal color! And look at the cute "diaper cake" my friend made for me. It has been fun to decorate a nursery top to bottom but I am definately worn out. Just a reccommendation----don't fully repaint a room when you are 35 weeks pregnant.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Many of you have been hearing about our little ballplayer, Taylor. So here he is. He is playing on the Texas Rangers Competetive T-ball team. I know, you are wondering, "How competetive can t-ball be?" Just come to Texas and I will show you. It is crazy. There are some kids who already have private coaches at this age! It is fun to go to his games, it brings back a lot of great memories. Taylor has learned a lot and improved so much and we are only half way through the season. Look at that great form! Head in, back foot pivoting on the toe, continuing with the follow-through on his bat. The front foot could be down a little more but who's looking at that!!
Taylor has become a favorite of all the parents. At the beginning of the season he played catcher because he was so quick and paid attention to what was happening. Several times he would get the ball and rather than throw it he would run to third to get the baserunner out. Once he even ran all the way to second to get someone out! He did it too! Taylor has some wheels on him! But, the coaches decided they needed his speed and intelligence in the the outfield to get those balls that get away and the pitcher now has to come up to the plate which is working well too.
We have had a lot of fun watching Taylor play and he has really enjoyed it. Keep it up Taylor!

Home Improvements

Here is my project from some time ago that I keep forgetting to put on here. This is what the kids bathroom used to look like. Sorry I forgot to take this picture before I did the taping but you get the idea. The walls in our whole house are a very boring light cream color. The previous owner then proceeded to sponge very bright yellow over that. I think the yellow over the cream was even brighter than over plain white would have been. So I spent a couple of days repainting. I had to do two coats to get that stuff covered! But, alas, while I was waiting for Scott to get the towel hardware hung our camera has decided to give up the ghost. I was lucky to get the next picture. So, you will all have to wait for the finished product until we get a new camera. Here is my latest project! NO! I am not the one painting those hideous fish I am going to cover them up! C'mon guys give me a little credit. This woman must have really been into sponging and ragging. The teal looks a little dark in the picture, but believe me it is very bright! I had already started painting the trim white beofore I remembered to take a picture so that is a little exaggerated, but other than that you see this room in all it's ummmm..............glory? This is going to be the baby's room. Once again, you will have to be patient for a week or too until we get a new camera or I can coax another photo or two out of our old one.

Another New Texan Moment

What in the World is That?! That is exactly what we asked ourselve one Sunday morning as we

left for church. This "stuff" was suddenly growing on our tree. It looked

a little moist and then had the reddish brown spots oozing out of it that looked

like blood with whatappeared to be mold around the edges. We had just been outside the eveningbefore and hadn't seen it, so what could it be? Personally, it looked like a cat's

last meal hadn't quite agreed with it too well.

But, the next day I looked it up online. It's name: SLIME MOLD.

It doesn't get any more creative than that folks!

It is something that grows when there is plenty of organic matter (Scott

had just put new mulch around the trees a week or so before) and moisture.

By Monday it was pretty much dried out and when you hit it with a shovel it

was just this dusty powder.

Very strange for us northerners who are only used to mold growing

on old produce and forgotten leftovers!

Name that Baby!

Well folks, we need your help. I am now 27 weeks along and we only have one name option for this little guy who will be arriving shortly. So I am asking all of you to give me your input. But, there are a few stipulations. First, and most important, the name cannot be one that is easily shortened such as Matthew, David, Benjamin, Andrew, etc. Because while I love all those classic names I don't like the shortened version. No offense if this is your name or your child's. The second stipulation is that we would rather it didn't end in the "n" sound since our last name does. For a middle name we are thinking either Bruce or Ron after some grandfathers. So email or leave your suggestions in the comments and should your name be the chosen one, maybe you will be the first one we call when he gets here (after grandparents of course!). Oh, by the way the only name that we have come up with is Spencer.

Over the River........

And through the woods! Last Friday we made a trip to Brazos Bend State Park. Although it wasn't the kind of woods we are used to it was still very pretty and we all had a great time. And I must say, at nearly 6 months pregnant I didn't mind the flat terrain "hiking". Okay, sorry this is still on it's side. I forgot to turn it and if I take the time to change it I won't finish this blog before I need to leave. Look at the size of that tree trunk! All three of the kids thought this was very cool and had fun playing on it and resting part way through our walk.
Yes, this is still the State Park and yes that is an alligator. And as far as alligators go, a small one. A foot or two of its tail is sticking out onto the trail while it just sits there in the sun getting warm. To get around it we had to go back behind it and were probably withing 5-6 feet of the tip of its tail. The kids weren't even scared!!!! I kept trying to shush them and I they couldn't figure out why I was trying to get them to stay as far away as possible.
Here we are about 15 feet from the alligator. I didn't want to get any closer to pose for a picture since all I had running through my mind at this point was how hard I could fight if it attacked! But, it was a well mannered beast and just laid there. Thank goodness!!
We all had a great time Brazos Bend. We saw several alligators on our "hike" , a turtle, and even a cardinal (red bird). At the nature center the kids, expecially Carly couldn't get enough of petting the live snake and the 8 mos old baby alligators. Come visit us and we'll take you for your very own gator trip! See you later alligator!

Can he build it?

YES, HE CAN!

K'nex are a huge favorite at our house. The boys love to make the things in the instructions and make all kinds of things of their own design--their favorite being fighter ships from Star Wars. You would be surprised how much some of their designs really do look like the ones in the movies. Up until a couple of weeks ago Carter was definately his own design kind of guy. Then, I guess he just looked at the directions to something and thought, "Hey, I can do that!". This boat is about the second thing he did pretty much all by himself. As you can see, he is very proud of it.

Happy Birthday to the Princess!

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 years old. Time has gon by so quickly and she is such a joy to have around, well most of the time anyway. This is a picture of her watching me decorate her cake. She was so thrilled when Genevieve was "looking" at her as I would turn the cake around to do the ruffles on the dress.

As mentioned above this cake is supposed to be Genevieve from the Barbie movie "12 Dancing Princesses." Those of you who are cake experts, you 3 know who you are, please don't look closely at my ruffles as it was my first time ever to attempt ruffles. And it will be my last attempt with the rose tip #104. That thing is just too small to do that many ruffles. But Carly was very happy and that is all that mattered.
Opening presents was fun to watch. Carly was so excited to get some new flip flops, I think she actually hugged them. Here she is opening a tea set. She has been wanting this for about 3 months now (and when you are 2 that seems like a year) and this picture does not even come close to showing how excited she was. It has been less than 24 hours since she got it and it has already gotten a lot of use.
We all love Carly and are so glad she is in our family. None of us can resist the cute way she talks and her hugs and kisses are the best. Spoiled, girlie, and princess are the 3 best words to describe our new 3 year old.

Say Cheese

After how many months I am finally putting on a few of the family pictures we had done back in November. A lady from church just came up and asked me if she could take our pictures to add to her portfolio! Um..........free family pictures!!! Are you kidding me? She did a great job and we got some cute shots of the kids.

Here is Taylor. At just over 6 he is still on the serious side until you get him going (I can't imagine where he got that from). He didn't want to smile much for the camera, but I still like this shot of him. Can you say Grandpa Ridge? As soon as I saw this I was reminded of my dad. People have said in the past that my boys look like my dad but I always thought Scott. This picture could have come right out of 1952!
The princess as always. Carlyn had a blast getting her pictures taken. She stayed and got her pictures done long after the boys had run off to play. She was more than willing to wear hats, hold props, have the fan blowing in her hair, and was very patient while the photographer dealt with some technical difficulties.
Look at these cheesy cowboys! It just wouldn't be a Texas photoshoot without a cowboy hat or two!
I hope you have enjoyed looking at our fabulous family even if the pictures are now 5 months old!

Deja' Vu?!

On February 7th Scott and I went to have an ultrasound---well, I had the ultrasound and Scott came along!! Most importantly we have a healthy little baby who was "very photogenic" as the tech said. This baby loved to play with it's hands. After a few minutes she came to the exciting part and informed us that we will be welcoming another boy to our family.

To say the least we were pretty shocked. Both of us have been thinking that this baby was a girl and so have all the kids. They have been talking for months about having a baby--it's always a sister, she, her. So to find out boy was a big thinking adjustment but we are excited.

It was funny to tell the kids that day. First, I told Carly and she did a little jump and got a pouty face and whined, "NO, I want a girl baby in your tummy." Then I told Carter who was reclining himself sideways in an overstuffed chair. Using his head and feet he arched his back and whined almost word for word the smae thing as Carly. When I picked Taylor up from school I was beginning to feel a little bit like that movie, "Groundhog Day" when Taylor said, "NO, I wanted a girl baby!"

After I told Carter that he could teach his little brother how to play swords and light sabers he felt a little bit better. Now they are okay and getting excited but their inital reactions weren't so good!

Don't say you didn't know

Drumroll please,..................................Scott is officially official! He defended his thesis in August but we now have the final product and all we are waiting for is that coveted piece of paper to come in the mail. I tried to tell Scott that now he is a published author, but he says not really. Oh well. There are only 4 copies of his nearly 300 page, well it is not a paper, I call it a book with that many pages. We are all proud of him and are very grateful he is done!

Well folks, here you go. Many of you have been asking me to get this picture up. For those of you who may not know, a few days before Christmas I cut 10 inches of hair off to donate to Locks of Love. It has been a long process (almost 2 years). It was driving me crazy. To be honest, I don't even really miss the long hair at all. This is kind of a bad hair day, but you get the idea.

Also, more news for those of you who don't know. Jenkins baby #4 will be arriving in early July!

Merry Christmas!

Wow! Can you believe it? It is only a week after Christmas and here you are looking at Christmas pictures! Just for the the record, I win Destiny! The kids got some fun things this year and had so much fun just unwrapping things. Carter asked me later on Christmas day if we could wrap up some of his toys upstairs so he could unwrap them!
Taylor got a new baseball mitt. He plans to play this spring so he really needed a bigger mitt. You should see him hit and as you can see in the picture his throwing form is really looking good. Hopefully now with a new mitt his catching skills will pick up.
Carter got a bat and ball. Our metal bat is just to heavy for him so he is looking forward to being able to play with his brother. Carter also got a rocket ship indoor playhouse, that he loves. If anything is ever missing just look in the rocket.
And here is Carly opening just what she has been telling me she wanted for months-- a pink dress up. As you can see, she is totally thrilled. Christmas for her was pretty much a princess explosion: dress, glass slippers, crown, dress up box, etc. How did I get such a girly girl?
Carly had a great time collapsing on the floor all Christmas day pretending she was Sleeping Beauty!
We all had a great first Christmas here in Texas. It did seem a little bit like we were pretending since there was no snow or cold weather. But we enjoyed spending time as a family and reflecting on our Savior and His birth.

HO HO HO!

A few weeks before Christmas we went to a Toys for Tots breakfast

at Taylor's school. We had lots of yummy breakfast and then sat on Santa's lap.

Carly was not shy at all and marched right up and climbed up on Santa and

asked for dress ups (big surprise!).

Carter had a good time talking to Santa. I think he told him that

he wanted a sword but he was really most excited about the candy cane!

Santa really got a kick out of Taylor's dead serious request for a

snowmobile! He said, "This is Houston! We don't get snow here." Taylor

didn't care. He still seems to think he could drive it around on the grass.

We all had a good morning at the breakfast and I hope we were

successful in teaching our children that it is better to give than to get.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Yes, I realize Christmas is almost here, but not quite! So these are our Halloween pictures. Better late than never right?!
On Halloween Day I went with Taylor and all the first grader's to the Houston Zoo. We had a lot of fun. The kids were all really cute and were so excited to see the animals. This is a picture of Taylor's class and his teacher. I realized after we had left that I didn't take any pictures of Taylor and myself.


This was such a cute little chimp (?) I just had to share. She was
having a lot of fun playing with the pumpkin buckets.

Watch out Darth Vader, here comes Luke Skywalker!

(Thanks for the costume Aunt Laurie)

What princess or damsel in distress could turn down this

handsome knight?!

Here is Cinderella at her finest. What a beautiful princess.
Our 3 had a great time dressing up and trick or treating. We stayed really close to home. WE probably only went to about 30 houses but you should have seen how full their buckets were. I guess that is one more thing that is bigger in Texas--a handful of candy. Maybe they just wanted to get rid of it faster!

Now, I have done my part and shared another tidbit of our lives, which I know you all were dying to hear about. So please be a good blog reader and share your comments:). We really like to hear what you have to say. For those of you for which blogs are new just below this post is something that says "comments", and it probably has a big fat zero by it. Let us know you love us! hee-hee.