Grandma Christensen Comes

My mom came out to help out with the new baby. She was here for about 3 weeks and was a great help. She would take Benjamin to school and pick him up so I could either feed Andrew or take a nap. She also cleaned up after us. After she left she called to see how things were and I told her the house wasn't as clean but we were doing fine. We tried to keep Ben occupied and happy with the new change so we took him to feed the ducks. Mom also played the role of photographer. I don't think we'd have as many photos of Ben or Andrew if it weren't for her. My mom sews, so I had a couple projects for her which included window treatments. At some point I'll post pictures of them. Thanks mom for coming out and making things a little easier while we adjusted to having 2 children.

I'm In The Lord's Army

Benjamin has been learning a lot of new things at school. And since he is at a Christian School he is learning a lot of bible stories, scriptures and new songs that we don't recognize(since they aren't the usual Primary songs). Usually we'll have Ben sing the song and then we'll google the words that we can catch and find the song online so we can learn it, since he usually wants us to sing with him. Recently he came home with this song. If you can't understand him singing I included the lyrics.

I'm In The Lord's Army

I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
Shoot the artillery
I may never fly o'er the enemy
But I'm in the Lord's Army!
Yes Sir!
I'm in the Lord's Army!
Yes Sir!
I'm in the Lord's Army!
Yes Sir!
I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
Shoot the artillery
I may never fly o'er the enemy
But I'm in the Lord's Army!
Yes Sir!

Grandpa Wood Visit's For a Day

Jon took paternity leave for a week. During that week his Dad, Carolyn, and Grandpa came for a short visit. They came down from Dallas Monday and took us out to dinner. We went to a Mexican Restaurant that we found, thanks to the Food Network. Then on Tuesday we took them to the Riverwalk. There we found another place to eat lunch. They had one of those small groups that comes to your table to play music. Ben was entriuged by them. My mom took a picture, sorry Carolyn, you were cut out. We then took them to the Alamo. I had only been when I was about 14 and in August so the only thing I remembered was the heat. I also thought it was a lot bigger. They then had to head back to Dallas. It was a short visit, but good to see them all again. Andrew will have grown so much by the time they see him again. That's the only sad thing about babies, they grow so fast and change so quickly. With Jon's grandpa here as well we were able to get another 4 generation photo. Every time we see him, Jon always thinks it's the last time so we take as many photo opportunities as we can. Thanks for visiting Great Grandpa Wood, Grandpa and Carolyn (and the presents).

Halloween

Since our baby came on Halloween this year our festivities were a little scares and I missed most of it. Friday night we carved a pumpkin with Benjamin. He decided on the shapes for the eyes and nose, while Jon carved them. He was so impressed with the whole ordeal he wanted to do more. But we only had the will power to do the one. The week before we did go to the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Ben got to practice saying "Trick or Treat" and had fun with the various games that were there to play. It is fun watching him catch on to the odd traditions we have as a society and enjoy them like we did when we were little. On Halloween, after Andrew was born, Ben came with Grandma to visit. He then went home and Grandma and Grandpa Christensen took him Trick-or-Treating down our street. Jon was going to go with them but got stuck handing out candy at the house. Now that we are in a home I have a feeling we are going to see a lot more trick-or-treaters then we ever did while we were students living in University housing. Over all I think Ben had a great Halloween. I look forward to the future Halloweens.

What's In A Name

Who knew that naming a child would be so hard. When we named Benjamin we liked the name and when he came out he looked like a Benjamin, Easy! When we went to the hospital this time we had the names Andrew and Zachary. However, when he came out he looked so much like Ben that it was hard to see him as either of the names we had. Poor Jon was trying to go through a list of names and I would either say no or not really respond. I just could see him with any name, plus I was exhausted that I wanted to sleep instead. That night I kept looking at him wondering what to name him and what he looked like. When Jon came the next morning we still hadn't made any progress. We finally had about 5 names that we could agree on. We liked Zach for a name but liked Samuel better, but not Sam. So Jon wrote his top four: Andrew, Zachary, Samuel, Matthew. I wrote mine: Zachary, Samuel, Matthew, Michael. Since Zachary was sort of at the top of the list for both of us that's what we chose. I was still unsure of the name and tried to get Jon to just name our child so I didn't have to decide. It was getting close to time to leave the hospital and Jon had to go and fill out the paper work. So we decided on Zachary Ian. Jon went to Admissions to fill out all the information. While he was gone I was up in the room with my mom, Van and Ben. Then Van said, "Ben, let's go get Zachary's car seat." Something hit me that the name didn't sound right. I went through all the names we were thinking of in that sentence and decided I like Andrew best. Jon came back and I asked him was he thought of Zachary. He said he didn't like it. He was going to try and change it but the guy wouldn't let him since it was already in the computer. He said that he liked Andrew best and I told him what had just happen to me. So I went down to Admissions. Thank goodness a very nice girl there said it happens a lot and I was able to change the name. We hadn't chosen a middle name to go with Andrew so I sat there for a few minutes and decided that Ian would be best. When she brought the paper work back it looked so much better with Andrew. So we chose Andrew because we liked it and it sounded best and Ian because it's another name for Jon. I now understand how hard it can be sometimes to name a child.

Andrew Ian Wood

On Halloween most people where getting ready to take their kids out Trick-or-Treating. I on the other hand was having a baby! Andrew Ian Wood was born at 12:57. He was 7lbs 50z and 20in. Everything went well. I went for my routine appointment on Friday and was told I was "closed shut" so after taking castor oil before I went to bed at 4 in the morning I went into labor. I tried to hold off as long as I could before going into the hospital since the last time after only being in labor for 4 hours I was only dialated to a 1. However, when that 4 hour mark came I couldn't hold off. Jon and I went to the hospital and when I was checked I was at a 4. I was so happy to hear that. Obviously, this was going a lot faster then when I went into labor with Benjamin. They thought I was going to go fast and probably wouldn't be able to get an epidural. But since I was very persistent on wanting one they went through the motions to getting me one. They had to check me one last time before they would let me have it to make sure I wasn't too far along. Thank goodness I was only at a 6. Even though the nurses and Jon said I could do it without one (apparently they thought I was handling labor well-I didn't think so), I got my epidural and was able to enjoy the rest of the experience. About 2 hours after getting it I was ready to push. Since I was GBS positive I tried to hold off to the 4 four mark so I could have the option of going home after 24 hours if I wanted. When that time came I said I needed to push, they broke my water and 3 or 4 pushes later Andrew was here. I was amazed, and proud of myself, at how fast this went compared to Ben and how I was able to push a lot better compared to the 2 hours with Ben. Recovering has been so much better as well. We are so happy to have Andrew in our family. We look forward to watching him grow and see what kind of a person he is. Welcome to our family Andrew!