Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas 2011

We all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. JeJe and NeeNee (Mom and Courtney) were here to celebrate with us, and Papa will come today (26th) since he had church duties to take care of yesterday. So, we will have second Christmas this afternoon, and third Christmas this weekend when the Moss' arrive. Oh my!
It has been nice having mom and Courtney here. JeJe has really enjoyed the time with her girls. :)

Earlier in the week, we all had fun baking and decorating Christmas cookies.







We had a lovely Christmas Eve service. Nick, Laura Kate and I played Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. Unfortunately, Laura was hungry, and was fussy the whole time, but everyone enjoyed it anyway.






Natalie decided a week before Christmas to acknowledge Santa and then she was CONVINCED that we was going to bring her a pink big girl bike. Thankfully, Santa was aware of this earlier and had things taken care of already. ;)
Natalie loves her sleep, and we finally woke her up a little before 9. She did not want to wake up and get out of bed...just like her daddy! Once she woke up and got into it, though, we had so much fun.
After gifts, we loaded up and went over to Tampa to have Christmas dinner - pasta, salad, bread, and some wonderful desserts - with the Jones-Zach family. Natalie was about as excited to go to Dick and Lala's as she was about the gifts. (Do you think they spoil her just a little? ;)) We had a great time and it was a wonderful day - together with family and giving thanks for the greatest gift of all - Jesus Christ.






She already rides that bike like a pro!



Laura Kate is doing great! She grew almost a full pound and inch in two weeks! At her check up she weighed 8lbs 10oz (up from 7lb 12oz) and measured 21 1/4 inches. The doctor said she was filling out nicely and looked great! She is sleeping well at night - eats and goes right back to sleep most every night. She is a great eater and overall, another angel baby just as her big sister was. :) She was three weeks old on Christmas Eve.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Introducing Laura Kate: 12.03.11

Laura Kate Moss (Laura means crown of victory and Kate means pure) decided to join us on the outside on 12.03.11 at 2:04am. She weighed 8lbs even and measured 20 inches long; quite a bit bigger than her older sister who was 6lbs 14oz and 20 3/4 in long. Despite the fact she was bigger, deliver was much easier for mommy this time around. She was very thankful for that! Contractions started about 5:30pm on Friday evening after I worked all day and went to pick up Natalie. I didn't say anything to Nick since I knew he would want to go to the hospital right away, and I wanted to be sure that "this was it". So Natalie and I went to the grocery store, came home, unloaded, cleaned up the kitchen and folded and put away the last load of laundry. :) I called Nick at middle school youth about 8:15pm and told him to come home. A wonderful lady from church whose kids are now in college came over to spend the night with Natalie. Natalie knew something was up because she was WOUND! She happily sent us on to the hospital so "the dr. can get baby Laura out". She'd been waiting for a long time, too! I was admitted about 9:30. The checked me and said I was 6cm and wouldn't be going anywhere. Yea! I got transfered to the delivery room about 10:30pm and was at 7cm by that time. I had to wait for my epidural, as the anethesiologist had just been called to 2 emergency c-sections. Laura held out enough for me to get my pain relief about midnight. Then it was very shortly there after she was born. She might have arrived an hour earlier, but they had to crank my epidural WAY down so I could feel to push. I have a very low tolerance for drugs...they had to turn it down 3 times! :) She came out with a perfectly round head screaming away. We were very thankful for that because when the dr. broke my water there was some meconium which can be very dangerous if the baby swallows it. NICU was called in and they immediately "deep suctioned" her when she came out. By God's grace, everything was fine, and we were then transfered to our mother/baby room. We praise Christ for a safe and healthy delivery and baby girl!
The staff at LRMC was awesome again! We were able to get discharged on Sunday evening, and come on home. We have had a great week so far getting used to having a family of four. Natalie has done an awesome job and is a fantastic big sister! :) It is such a joy to watch her interact with her little sister. So sweet!






















Waiting for Laura....

We tried to keep ourselves busy while we waited for Laura to arrive. We decorated for Christmas, did yard work, and washed both cars. We got a lot done! :)










Sweetness...Daddy and his biggest little girl. :)