Jude

Just wanted to post this pic of the CUTEST KID EVER! I can't believe he is almost a year.

Family Pics

So I know that it has been a RIDICULOUSLY long time since I have blogged. I have been pretty busy and, until recently, did not have a reliable computer, but enough excuses. Things are going great with our fam. Opal is in kindergarten now! It's so crazy I can't believe it. She is having a good time and I think/hope she is behaving well. Opal loves to draw and really impresses people with her abilities in that area. She carries her pencil and paper to the dinner table, bathroom, bathtub, etc. until I finally have to say, "drop the paper and pencil!". Evey continues to be a challenge but she is adorably cute and so sweet when she decides to be. She loves to get into stuff but it seems like she is mellowing gradually. She is so smart and it amazes me what she can do. She is so good at counting and problem solving. Jude is 7 1/2 months and he is the sunshine of my life. He is such a sweet happy baby, but not at all calm like I had hoped! He is already crawling standing up on stuff, cruising around on furniture and sometimes standing without holding onto anything! It's crazy but I am glad he is healthy and active. Will and I are just having fun, working and trying to manage our crazy family. Sometimes it seems hard, but I feel like I have so much and am so blessed.
These pics are by Will's sister Beth, who is awesome and can do everything. It was really easy for her to get all of our kids to sit still and take pictures so its really not much of an accomplishment that they turned out so cute. (that was sarcastic by the way).

On Christmas Eve Jude Keith Jarman was born. He was a bit unexpected because my due date was Jan. 7th, but he was coming whether we liked it or not. I waited a really long time to go to the hhospital. I really didn't want to go on Christmas Eve, so I was hoping the contractions would just go away. Of course they didn't. So as I was having contractions I was getting last minute Christmas stuff done, doing the dishes, etc. Then I finally decided we needed to go soon. The plan was to drive the girls out to my parent's house, since we were planning on spending the evening there, and then going to the hospital when we needed to. We never got to my parent's. Almost as soon as we got in the car my contractions jumped to three minutes apart and got very painful. We eneded up going to the hospital and having my parents pick the girls up there. We got to the entrance of the hospital and I somehow walked in there while Will carried both girls (they had no shoes on and were desperately in need of a bath). They got me up to a room very quickly when they learned that it was my third kid, and when they checked me I was dilated to 7 1/2 cm. They asked if I wanted an epidural, I said yes, and they told me the anesthesiologist was 20 minutes away. Luckily she was in the hospital already and could come right away or else I would not have gotten the epidural. I was very grateful for it at that point. Jude was born about 2 1/2 hours after I arrived at the hospital. It was pretty quick and easy. He weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and was perfect in every way. One of the nurses came in after he was born and sang and played "Silent Night" on her guitar. It was really cool, and it was a great experience altogether.

The girls had an unconventional Christmas since Santa decided to deliver all the presents to the hospital. I think they were okay with it. Except Opal was convinced that Santa was still coming the next day, no matter how much we told her that Christmas was over. All in all we were so grateful for a wonderful, perfect, healthy baby boy, that it didn't matter what day he came. We love him so much and it really seems like he has been here forever and was always meant to be with us. I will try to get more recent pics on here soon.

I know this post is super long and boring, but it is mostly for my own records. So I don't forget the details.