Introducing....

Zachary Zaugg Perkins
Born 12/26/08
7#, 3.5 oz
20.5 inches

For those who care about the details of the birth, it's after the pictures. For those who don't want to know that much, just look at the pictures. :) The blogs about Christmas and such will simply have to come later.








The Details:
I woke up about 1:30am on the 26th (after going to bed at midnight) with contractions. After about an hour, I woke up James and told him it was time to go. I wanted to do the classic TV "It's TIME!", but I couldn't roll over to grab him. It took him a bit to get out of his stupor. When I told him it was time to go, he said, "Are you sure?" Yes, I was sure. So I called the doctor while he took a shower. Then he got to scrape the frost off the car and off we went. Checked in about 3:30, got an IV, then got ready for the epidural. That was the WORST epidural I have ever had. Epidurals are never comfortable, but this one had me screaming in pain. Yikes! But, it was done, and then we settled down for a bit. About 6:30, I felt like I should push, so I called the nurse, who checked and said I was ready. Then she called the doctor and everything got set up. I wasn't pushing right, so they turned down the epidural so I could feel more pressure. That worked! After 3 series of pushes, there he was! A healthy, screaming baby boy, born at 7:30ish in the morning. Not too bad. He's a pretty good baby, but he's starting to sleep less and eat more, which is good for him but bad for us. But Grandma is here to save the day and take care of the house and kids. I'm most excited about the dimples he has! When he has his gassy smiles I can see two small dimples. My favorite features about James are his curly hair, blue eyes, and dimples. I have 4 kids with blue eyes, one with curly hair, but I've never gotten dimples. I'm so excited, I hope that I'm not just seeing things, because they are so cute! The kids love him, hopefully not to death! Eldon is great with him and wants to help and Jessie and Erica love holding him. All the noise in the house doesn't seem to bother him, so that's great.

It's beginning to look a lot like winter

Well, it finally snowed. And it's still snowing. I'm glad that I have nowhere to go! We got a snowblower from some friends that moved to California, so James is outside using it now. I asked him how he liked it, and he said it was worth every penny we spent (which was 0). But it's faster and shouldn't break his back as much, which is good.


James got to wear his original Chilean hat that his brother bought him on his mission. He looked so funny as a conehead that I had to take a picture.


The kids loved playing in the snow, and built a snowman named...Frosty! How original!


Eldon even volunteered to shovel the snow. He did a pretty good job on the deck and ramp.

And since I'm blogging, I thought I'd finally post a picture of the kids decorating the tree. It is that time of year, you know.

For everything else...

Size of oil tank: 175 gallons
Price of fuel: $2.089/gallon
Filling our oil tank for HALF the price we did in October: PRICELESS!

Star Wars

We've started a "marble jar" in our house. Do something good, get a marble. Do something bad, lose a marble. When the cup is full, get a reward. Well, Eldon got his reward - and he wanted to watch Star Wars episode II. Well, I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, so I didn't watch it. I still have yet to see all of Star Wars IV, because I always fall asleep during it. Looks like Jessie and I are on the same wavelength. This is a picture I took of her in the middle of the movie.

Baby Blanket

I finally get to use the "I Made It Myself" image that some of my friends use on their blog.  Because I FINALLY finished my baby blanket.  So now the baby can come.  Anytime.  Really.  I don't mind.  Whenever it's ready.  Like, now, please.