2010 Christmas Letter

This has been an interesting year. We started off the year with Laney getting a new job at church. She was asked to be a counselor in the Relief Society (one of the women in charge of the women’s group) and was put in charge of all the activities for that group. Rob was released from working with the missionaries as Laney’s assignment was so time consuming. He was not immediately given a new assignment, which turned out to be a good thing as shortly after Beth had her check up with her ENT and we were told that since the hole in her ear drum had not closed on its own, that she would need surgery. At least the hole was small enough that the surgery was fairly minor. It went perfectly and her eardrum healed well.

The hardest part of Beth’s surgery for us was keeping her from getting sick for the next two months as if she had gotten a cold, it could have messed up her ear and the surgery to fix it would have been much more intensive. Because of that, we didn’t do much in January, February or March. We had a few highlights though :) My father came down here for business at the end of January and we got to spend some time with him, which was wonderful! At the beginning of February, Rob got an award at work for being the individual who had helped out his team the most for that quarter :) He developed a new way to handle his book of business that impressed his boss to the extent that she had him explain it to his whole team and then forwarded his handouts to the rest of the department! We were very proud of him!

February also presented us with a snow storm that blew every Texas record out of the water. We got 13 inches of snow over about 12 hours. Rob stayed home from work and the kids stayed home from school. We had a blast having snowball fights and building a six foot tall snowman. We carefully drove the mile to our friends’, Dana and Keith, house as they have a hill in their front yard. Only Megan had ever been sledding before. We didn’t have sleds (for some reason they don’t sell them down here), but inflatable pool seats work just as well!

In April we discovered that after 2.5 years of waiting, baby #5 was finally on its way! We were thrilled :) April was also the month that Megan received the Hughes High Flier award at school – something she’s been wanting since she started kindergarten. We were very proud of her! Beth had her follow up appointment from her surgery in April as well and was cleared to be near water without covering up her ear. Normal bathing didn’t last long though as at the end of April, Beth broke her wrist. We still don’t know exactly what she did as she didn’t cry when it happened and we didn’t even discover it was broken until the day after. It made Laney feel better about missing it when the pediatrician thought it was just a slight buckle fracture due to Beth’s lack of tears or complaints – it was actually broken clean through in two places and she ended up in a cast from her hand up past her elbow.

Morning sickness reared its head in May and got bad enough that Laney had to be put on the anti-nausea medication they use to treat chemo patients. Beth got her cast off at the end of May, just in time for the start of pool season :) School got out at the beginning of June and we spent most days at Brittney’s neighborhood pool with Brittney. Susie and Travis, Laney’s youngest sister and her brother, came down here to work for the summer and we enjoyed getting to spend time with them as well.

Our “big” ultrasound was on July 13th and we found out we were expecting a girl! At that appointment, the doctor discovered that Laney had started having contractions (which is not a good thing to start 17 weeks into a pregnancy) and Laney was put on bedrest. That was quite a change for us! Brittney offered to help out any way she could and started coming over several times a week. She helped with housework and would take the kids swimming or out to play. Papa and Nona (Laney’s parents) bought Laney a laptop so she could continue her online classes even while on bedrest. It proved a lifesaver! At the end of July, Megan turned 8 and so at the beginning of August, Laney’s parents and her sister Molly and Molly’s husband, Brian, (the rest of Laney’s family was already down here) flew down to Texas to see Megan get baptized. Rob baptized her and Papa, Laney’s father, confirmed her. It was a wonderful experience!

On August 16th, we celebrated our 13th anniversary by having Laney start going into labor at 23 weeks pregnant. We called Beca, who took the kids with less than 5 minutes notice, fed them dinner and even offered to have the spend the night. Fortunately we caught things early enough that the doctor was able to stop things by putting Laney on a medication called terbutaline sulfate. The side effects were not fun, but it worked, so Laney stayed on it.

We bought tickets to the circus for the whole family, plus one for Brittney, for Jack’s birthday. Laney, being on bedrest, was not able to go, so Travis went with Rob, Brittney and the kids. Everyone had a wonderful time and Jack still talks about going to “his” circus. In August, members of our church congregation started bringing by dinners twice a week to help us out. It helped out tremendously and we greatly appreciated all the support! At the end of August, Megan and Kylie started school. We missed having them around more often, but it was easier for Laney to only have two kids home for most of the day. Friends from church walked them home from school each day as the closest bus stop was quite a ways down the street.

In September, Laney was diagnosed with pregnancy-induced hypertension, basically high blood pressure brought on by pregnancy. That issue made bedrest even more important. Papa retired and he and Nona moved down here, temporarily living with Christy (Laney’s sister). Nona helped out for a few weeks with the kids and housework, which we really appreciated. Nona and Papa are going to be serving as missionaries for our church and leave in January for Vladivostok, Russia!

At the end of October, Laney was given permission to ease up a little bit on her bedrest. She was even allowed to go to trunk-or-treat at our church as long as she sat the whole time and only stayed for an hour. The kids decided they wanted to be Goldilocks and the three bears this year. Laney made bear outfits for Megan, Kylie and Jack and a friend lent us an outfit that worked for Goldilocks.

Beca and Crysta threw Laney a baby shower at the beginning of November. Two hours after getting home from the baby shower, Laney went into labor again. Papa and Nona drove over and we headed off to Labor and Delivery. As Laney was only 34 weeks along, they decided to try and stop her labor again. She was still on the pills they put her on, so they used shots instead, combined with super hydrating her. They managed to get the contractions stopped and gave her two steroid shots to help the baby’s lungs develop more quickly. After spending the weekend in the hospital, Laney was sent home. The following Friday, Laney was taken off bedrest as she reached 35 weeks and her doctor told her to finish up the rest of the medication that she had, but not to worry about refilling the prescription. She took her last pill at midnight on Saturday night. Sunday we all went to church together for the first time in over four months. Laney went into labor again Sunday afternoon. She and Rob spent Sunday night and Monday morning in the hospital. She was so exhausted from everything that had gone on that the doctor sent her home Monday to try and get some sleep. Contractions continued all day. Papa stayed over again that night, thinking things might pick up quickly. He was right. Just after midnight, the contractions got much worse, Laney’s water broke, and we headed off quickly to the hospital. Beca and Brittney joined us at the hospital. We got there around 1am. After 37 hours of labor, Eva Grace made her appearance at 3:52am, weighing 6 lbs 3 oz and measuring 19 inches long. She is absolutely perfect and despite being a month early, only spent 20 minutes in the NICU :)

Rob got two weeks of paternity leave, which we very much appreciated. Rob’s sister, Kate, flew out to spend Thanksgiving with us. It had been several years since we had seen her and we were thrilled to get to spend time with her! Things were pretty low key as it takes a while to recover from four and half months of bedrest and all the time we spent in the hospital. Rob went back to work in December and we are settling in to being able to have a normal life and adjusting to having five kids.

Now for each of us ~

Rob is doing really well at work and is enjoying his job as well, which makes it even better! He took muay thai lessons for quite a while, but quit when Laney got put on bedrest so he could spend more time helping out at home. This year he has been able to cross several items off his “bucket list”. He really enjoys music and there are several individuals or groups that he wanted to see perform live. This year he has been able to see Andrea Boccelli, Buckethead, Yann Tiersen, El Ten Eleven, and Andy McKee! He enjoyed those concerts so much that we’ve decided to give him concert tickets in lieu of presents. He already has tickets to three performances for next year (Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, and Mogwai). He did a wonderful job at helping out even more than usual with the kids and the housework while Laney was on bedrest and even learned to do the grocery shopping!

Laney is still attending school and didn’t take a single quarter off this year, even with all the issues with her pregnancy. She has managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA! She had planned to attend her first residency this past fall, but had to reschedule because of bedrest. It worked out well though as she’ll get to attend one in Dallas this coming May! She has about one and a half years of classes left and then about 9 months of internships. She did an amazing job staying positive and figuring out ways to still be able to take care of her family through her pregnancy. She even managed to continue to do her job for church.

Megan turned eight in July and got baptized. She loves cooking and has made several dishes almost completely on her own from the cookbook she got last year for Christmas. She also loves art and plans on taking an art class this coming winter. For her eighth birthday, she got her ears pierced and as a present for her baptism, Laney took her out to get her first professional pedicure at her request. She asked the pedicurist if she could get “jewels” on her toes and the lady not only put two on each of her big toes, but one on each of her fingers as well! She is in third grade and doing very well in school. She still loves to read and loves playing with her younger siblings :)

Kylie turned six in May. She lost first tooth in July and her second a few months later. She is now in first grade and loves school. One of her favorite things to do is hold Eva and she almost always manages to get her to sleep when she holds her. She has started showing an interest in sports and wants to play soccer this coming year, so we are looking into that. She is doing very well reading and also loves to play on the computer.

Beth is currently four, but will be five at the beginning of January. She has started doing pre-k work online through starfall.com and is doing a wonderful job of learning her letters and how to write them. She writes the words she knows on every piece of paper she can find and loves writing notes to family members and friends, complete with pictures. She does a wonderful job at helping around the house and helping out with Eva.

Jack turned three in August. He is now potty trained which we are thrilled about! His favorite thing to do is help Rob or Papa out when they are working on something. We had to go out and buy him toy tools as he kept using the real ones :) He also loves cars and being a big brother. He is very conscious of his role as Eva’s protector and has even taken to drinking glasses and glasses of milk to make him grow big and strong. His best friend is Brittney and as she calls him “Jackie Chan”, he now insists that his name is Jacky.

Eva is over a month old now and we are all completely in love with her. She is gaining weight steadily, about an ounce a day, although she was so tiny to start with that she’s still pretty small. She loves watching us and will look around for us when she hears our voices. She loves being held and is very insistent about us holding her all the time, which is causing some difficulties at night, but we love our little cuddle bug! Her cry is similar to Megan’s in that she doesn’t usually really cry, she complains instead. She only cries if her complaints aren’t responded to. Just like the others, she has a head full of dark hair – we’ll have to see if it lightens up like everyone else’s did. She currently has bluish gray eyes, which look sort of like they are getting bluer. We can’t remember when the other kids’ eyes changed though, so we’ll have to see what color they end up!

Hope this year has been good to you! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Rob, Laney, Megan, Kylie, Beth, Jack and Eva