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.

Thankfulness

I am thankful for a husband that is calm in a crisis.  Today, just as we were taking the turkey out of the oven, we heard Jessie scream, "Dad!  Dad!"  Since James was busy with the turkey, I went to see what the matter was.  The toilet was flowing over abundantly.  So I did what anyone else would do.  I screamed, "James! James!"  He came running, threw some towels at me and said, "Don't let it get on the carpet."  Oh yeah, that would be a good idea.  Then he ran into the bathroom and shut off the water valve.  Oh yeah, another good idea.  Then he told me to start picking things up off the floor.  Oh yeah, that's a good idea.  So he kept his head and nothing was ruined at all.  Not even the turkey.  The stuffing didn't get fluffed in time, but I think we survived that.

I'm also thankful that my husband can cook.  He spent a great deal of time making dinner for today.  Turkey, rolls, cranberry sauce, and potatoes.

I, however, made the pies: lemon meringue, chocolate, and blueberry.  I am thankful for yummy pies.

Yesterday was my last cake decorating class.  One of my friends' had a birthday today, so I made the cake for her.  Here are the results.  You can call my secretary to set up an order. ;)

Jessica's 3rd Birthday

Today is Jessica's 3rd birthday.  James made her waffles for breakfast and after lunch she got to watch a movie, open presents and eat her birthday cake.  She's now playing with her presents and is very happy.

Other notes:  Jessie's birthday cake is the result of my first cake decorating class.  We only practiced with 2 tips (stars and dots), so it's pretty simple.  When I came home, James asked me why I didn't write Happy Birthday Jessica on it somewhere.  It had never occurred to me.  Silly!  When I asked Jessica what kind of cake she wanted (as in what design) all I could get out of her was chocolate.  So I made a chocolate cake.  When I asked her what color the frosting should be, she answered brown.  So easy to please!  So she got her brown chocolate cake, but she would only eat the frosting.

Jessica is still allergic to nuts.  She had a skin test in February that showed a minimal reaction and took a blood test a few months ago that gave us the go ahead for the "Peanut Challenge", which is essentially letting her eat peanut butter and watching her reaction for two hours.  So on Thursday before the challenge her doctor did another skin test.  On this skin test her body reacted, so we did not proceed with the challenge.  The doctor said to come back in a year and try again.  

On a good note, it seems that Jessica can almost spell her name.  She's known for a while what letter her name begins with and is very interested in what letter words begin with.  One day she said "Jessica begins with a J!"  I agreed, then she proceeded, "And next is an E, then a C (I corrected that), then another S, then an I, then a C!"  I helped her with the A on the end, but I was very impressed for a 2-year old to be able to do that.  Erica is very interested in learning how to spell things, and it seems that it is rubbing off on Jessie.