I have had pictures up in the hallway for a really long time but it was always missing something. I knew I wanted to do some vinyl something but never could figure out what I really wanted. Then when I was searching for something to put with some other pics in the family room I came across this saying. I totally love it! But I did change some of the words and added a some of my own, I always have to change things just a little to make it more me!
Man, it feels like I haven't posted anything in about forever! I remind myself everyday that I need to put something up but I am wiped out by about 6pm! 4 kids is a lot of work! Thankfully Colby is a good baby-looks like fourth times the charm for us! I only wish he would sleep during the day but honestly I shouldn't be surprised because he is a Stoker baby and Stoker babies dont like to sleep. He is usually a happy little guy but likes to be carried everywhere so he can see whats going on so as you can guess it isnt easy to get much done during the day. I try to tell him that being the fourth kid he isnt allowed to be so demanding but he doesn't listen. He hits fussy meltdown time about 4:30-5ish-just in time for the dinner and bedtime busyness! He has great timing! One really nice thing although I will probably jinx it now that I am talking about it but he does have 1 good block of sleep usually about 5 or 6 hours starting between 6 and 8 where he will actually sleep by himself and then when he starts to stir and you hold him them he will sleep for a few hours longer. So that is way nice and something we have never enjoyed before! It has taken a while to get him to sleep by himself-he is a huge snuggle bug! 
This is Christmas so far at our house! The gifts from the grandparents far out do anything we got them this year and you can tell my parents managed to get the one thing they really really wanted!!
Abby had her Winter Concert on monday. It was also Grandparents day and since both sets of Grandparents were out of town I went to both the morning and evening show. I got the video of her in the morning and didnt take the camera in the evening but shouls have because we were able to sit on the second row right in front of where she was!! But oh well right! It was alot of fun because we only had Dylan with us-we dropped Lacey and Colby off with some friends so we were actually able to watch and enjoy the whole thing! Abby got to play the tone bars so she had to dress-up-she was so excited!
We also went to a fundraiser the Scouts were having where they were taking family pics courtesy of Butler Photography-some of my favorite people! 
(this is the one and only prego-pic you will see of me!)
Well on Saturday Colby James decided it was time to meet the world and he did it on his own terms which has me slightly scared for what we are in store with with him! So here are all the gory details for those who want to know! And for those who don't want to you better stop reading!! So I had been measuring big the whole pregnancy-just like with Dylan and he was almost 10 lbs so I was slightly concerned when we found out we were having another boy-we hold the family record for the biggest baby and we did not want to raise that bar any higher! We had planed to be induced on Oct. 29th and the baby would share a birthday with Bryan-which he said he was fine with! So anyway that is what we were planning on but the baby had other ideas.
Saturday I woke up and usually the baby would be moving around but he wasn't doing anything. I tried all the things they say to do-lay on your side-eat-drink water-drink something cold, I was poking him, which usually you would get something back on-but nothing. Not a roll or a kick or anything. I was having really light contractions but they were really light and not consistent. So after a couple hours of trying to get some kind of response I call the doctors office to leave a message with the nurse and was then connected with one of our midwives who happened to be checking in at that moment and was told to come to the hospital and get checked out. So the kids get dropped off at the In-Laws and Bryan and I headed to the hospital. We got there and were monitored for a couple hours-they had me doing the same things I did at home to try to get some response and still nothing. His heartbeat was nice and strong there just wasn't any movement. Then we were sent down to have a ultrasound. We spent 30-45 mins down there where they rated him on a scale-he only scored 2 out of 8, he only got points for the amount of amniotic fluid. And still we couldn't get him to move-not a finger. They then tell us that the doctor will come talk to us when we get back upstairs-not the midwife-the doctor. We get back upstairs and the nurses are like well it looks like you are having a baby today-Bryan and I were like "o.k. what way are we having a baby?"! So by now I am totally freaked out because we don't really know whats going on. They went ahead and checked me and I was dialated to a 4. We were then moved to a Labor and Delivery room and started on some meds since I was group B pos. and the doctor came in. He was like "o.k. here is the deal-your having a baby today. We are going to go ahead and try to do this natural since things are moving along but we will have no tolerance for the baby-if he shows any sign of distress or their is a change in heart rate-anything and we are stopping and immediately doing a c-section." Those are always comforting words. We then had to sign all the paperwork and consent forms just incase and have bloodwork done just incase. I was checked again and was a 5+, the contractions still weren't very consistent but were a little stronger so they started pitocin to get things going. Pitocin was started at 3:05 and a little after that they broke my water and then at 4:50 Colby was born after 5 mins of pushing! 7lbs 8oz and 19 inches long. He was quiet at first but as they started cleaning him off he woke up and started screaming with his strong Stoker lungs all our children were blessed with! They took him to check him out and clean him up and he scored a 9.9 on the apgar scale, which is awesome! The bad thing was because he came so fast he didn't get the full dose of antibiotics for the group B-so they went ahead and had some lab work done to check him out. Those results came back fast and showed and infection level that was 6 times as high as a normal newborn. So they were like "o.k. here is the deal-he is going to the NICU as soon as they can get up here and will be put on 2 antibiotics, have some more lab work done, a chest x-ray and a Lumbar Puncture so we can make sure the spinal fluid is clear because we don't want a chance that he could get meningitis" oh yea! more comforting things. So off he went for a little 7-10 day vacation in the NICU. He was breathing really fast and grunting like he was having trouble-that is why they did the chest x-ray but thankfully that came back normal. So now we wait for all the cultures to come back in the next few days and watch the results of all the blood work they do to watch the infection and antibiotic levels. On Monday morning I was hanging out with Colby when the NICU doctor came doing rounds with 2 students. They were going over Colby's history and the students were asking and answering questions. They were asking why they even did an ultrasound and the doctor was trying to find the answer in his chart so I just answered. Then they were asking how long before he was born was my water broken so i gave then the edited version of the time line-so the the doctor mentioned that I was group b pos and they started talking about how much of the antibiotic the baby got and again I answered the questions. The doctor was like "wow! you are doing 75% of my work!" I think he was surprised at how much I knew and remembered! They they were asking why we even came in in the first place so I explained about waking up and him not moving and the doctor was like "See sometimes you don't know whats wrong, sometimes you just have a mother who said something just isn't right." He then said that is was amazing that I was so in tune with the baby and his normal habits that I knew right away that something was wrong and that if I had waited longer to come in that it would have been a very different story and he would even more sick then he is. So points to me for my mommy intuition! They don't know what kind of infection or where it is but they are pretty sure that he came early because he was sick and not sick because of the group b. Colby is doing awesome-you can tell he is feeling better because he is acting like a real baby! The first couple days he just slept and rarely opened his eyes and then he started being awake more and making normal baby noises and smiling and making faces. So fingers crossed everything thing keeps coming back good and he can come home soon! And that's the story-long I know but pretty interesting if i do say so myself! Sucks to not bring home a baby but he is where he needs to be and I would rather bring home a nice healthy baby rather then bring one home early and then have to take him back! Abby, Dylan and Lacey got to go see him in the hospital so they were excited about that and they know that Colby is at the hospital because he is sick and needs to get all of his medicine before he can come home and they are totally fine with that! oh and I should say that since he came early he obviously will not be sharing a birthday with Bryan but Colby does share a birthday with his Aunt Brigetta!
