Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at the Shaw house started out a little different this year. Tate needed to have his adenoids removed and we needed it done before the end of the year because of our insurance deductible. The only day available? Christmas Eve!
We headed to the surgery center at 5:45am. Spencer had to work so my sister Jillayne came with me to help with Taryn while I dealt with Tate. I'm so glad she was there!

waiting to go back

waiting for the doctor and anesthesiologist

 Luckily, Tate was in a good mood and just watched Curious George until they were ready for him. He wasn't allowed to eat breakfast or drink anything and I was worried that would become a problem. But he never once asked and just cuddled with his bear until they took him for surgery.
The surgery was really quick and went well. The doctor told me that his adenoids were even bigger than she had first thought. At his appointment, she said his adenoids were a 4 on a scale of 1 to 4. But she discovered they were actually 25% bigger than she thought. So this was a much needed surgery. As she was talking to me I could hear someone screaming in the recovery rooms. Turns out it was Tate! He was completely out of control and not coherent at all. It was quite comical to see him that way especially because I left him in such a good mood.

trying to wake up from anesthesia

 The anesthesiologist said that toddlers are very cranky when waking up from anesthesia. And he wasn't kidding! Tate was thrashing around and crying incoherent words. He was particularly upset about the IV in his hand. And then upset about the bandage that replaced the IV. Finally, we were able to take him home and he cried and moaned for about 15 minutes before falling asleep. By the time we got home, he was back to being sweet Taters. He got to eat popsicles and drink juice and watch movies: he was totally happy!

cuddling and watching movies makes everything better
 

 By noon, Tate was feeling a lot better. He wanted to help make cookies for Santa. It's a tradition for our family that we make the cookies for Santa and I wasn't sure if he was going to want to help. He is usually my little baking helper and I was glad that he was able to today.

not sure why Ellie is wearing a coat to make cookies

 

the best part of making cookies!



After dinner, we started our Christmas Eve evening. We got hot cocoa and mini donuts and got in the car to go look at Christmas lights. We turned on Christmas songs and talked and sang while driving around the neighborhoods. Tate fell asleep during the drive so he missed the rest of our night. Once we got home, we watched the Forgotten Carols (my favorite) and then let the older 2 open one present. Bedtime went much quicker than usual as they were trying to get to bed quickly so they could see what surprises would be there in the morning!

 The day started out early and ended late, but I was very grateful for all the blessings my Father in Heaven gave me. Tate recovered quickly and we were able to spend the day as a family. 

First Day of Christmas Vacation

Today has been a lazy day which is a nice change of pace from the last couple weeks. Today started the kids' winter break and we all slept in a little bit. It was nice! The rest of the day has been spent reading, blogging, listening to music, playing the play station, and sledding. We have a small area right behind our church which is perfect for sledding. The hills are steep enough for sledding, but not too steep that little legs can't climb back up.

all bundled up

They all came back after about an hour. No frozen fingers or broken limbs, I'd call that a successful sledding day.

Growing too fast

I can't believe how fast my baby is growing. She is already 6 weeks old, where does the time go? She doesn't even look the same from her first day. She's changing so quickly. These pictures were taken by Spencer's sister when she was just over a week old.

 

And here's one from just the other day at 5 weeks. (crappy camera pic, sorry)

 

 

 

She's already smiling with cute little dimples. It's so fun to see her growing but at the same time it breaks my heart!

Her big brother Tate loves to take care of her. He is always giving her kisses and making sure she is ok. He loves to cuddle and hold her. And also help to give her a bath.

such a big helper

she looks so sweet in her towel

 

Birth Day

It's been forever since I posted anything and I finally have time while the little one is sleeping. I'll start back on the day Tayrn JoAnn was born.
We were waiting to hear from the hospital what time my induction would be. We didn't think I'd get in before the afternoon so we were having a lazy morning. We had gotten the older 2 off to school and were just hanging out. I got a call around 9:45am from the hospital saying they wanted me there at 11am. That was much sooner than we had anticipated. I quickly showered and got ready while Spencer gathered stuff for our bag. You would think with baby #4 that the bag would already be packed and waiting. Nope!
It was a different feeling driving to the hospital for the induction. With the other 3, we drove to the hospital in labor. This was still exciting, but the small amount of panic was gone from the situation. Spencer always stresses that we won't make it to the hospital in time. We live at least 30 minutes away and he always had a fear with each one that he'd have to deliver on the side of the road.
We got to the hospital and met our nurse. She was really sweet and thought it was fun that we didn't know if it was a boy or girl. She got me hooked up to the IV and Pitocin and then the doctor came in to break my water. That was around 12:30pm and I was dilated 4cm. So we figured we had a long afternoon and evening ahead of us.
During labor, I'm pretty happy and can carry on a conversation, for the most part (well at least I think so). Once the contractions get more consistent and harder, I shut up! But I don't get grumpy or mean (once again, at least I think so). I decided I wanted an epidural around 2:30pm. Spencer is kind of a wimp when it comes to the epidural and always has to leave the room. Usually getting the epidural isn't bad at all, but this time it was painful and uncomfortable. He didn't even wait until my contraction stopped. I was in the middle of a contraction and they laid me straight back. Not comfortable at all. And when he inserted the needle, he hit a patch of nerves or something because my legs totally jerked. And not just a little, but like "I can't control my limbs at all" jerking. It's funny now to think about it, but at the time I having a contraction and my legs were jerking around. And to top it off the nurse was holding my legs and stroking my head and trying to calm me. I felt like a horse!
About 30 minutes after the epidural, I started to feel what I thought was pain. I was feeling the contractions and pressure. So we pushed the epidural button like we were instructed. But after 10 minutes I was still feeling a lot of pain. I was also having heartburn really badly.  We called the nurse in and asked for something to help with the heartburn. She came in with a really NASTY drink to help. But all it did was make me throw up (also I was dilating to a 10 which we didn't know at the time). I told the nurse I was feeling a lot of pressure and she said "well, since you're already miserable with throwing up, I'll just check you really quickly to see where you're at." She pulled back the sheet and goes "oh honey! close your legs and roll to the side." Then she ran to the door and yelled for all the nurses. Spencer got panicked and goes "is everything alright?" And in the few short seconds of the nurse running to the door, I'm telling Spencer "I can feel it, the baby is right there. It's coming" He totally panicked! Luckily, the nurses came just in time. A nurse ran in, pulled up the sheet and literally caught the baby as she dropped on the bed!
All the pain and pressure I had been feeling was the baby ready to come. And when I was throwing up, it was in part because of the drink but also because I was dilated 10cm and ready to start pushing, we just didn't know that. Hindsight is 20/20! My total labor with her was only 3.5 hours.
It was really fun to find out what the baby was. Spencer kept asking "do I have a son or a daughter?" and then when he could finally see, he goes "I have a daughter! Loni, she's so beautiful!" I love that after each birth, he gets a little emotional and teary. It's such a sweet thing to see a daddy loving his child.

I LOVE this grumpy face!

she's eyeing him with one eye

Taryn was so sweet! She was 21 inches and 8 lbs 8 oz. And her cheeks were so chubby!! Right from the beginning all she wanted to do was snuggle and eat. When we called her siblings to tell them they had a baby sister, they freaked with excitement. They came to visit later that night and it was so sweet to see them as big brothers and sister.

My girls

Big brother. He loves her so much

Ayden has been captivated by her from the first moment

She's so tiny

I can't believe that I have 4 children. Our lives will never be the same and we are very thankful for our sweet little addition. Taryn is already spoiled with lots of attention and love. Her siblings love to hold her and kiss her. Especially the boys, they can't get enough of her. I am so thankful my Heavenly Father has blessed me with these sweet spirits.

A really quick Update

So it's been 3 weeks since my last post. That was the day of my induction and we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little one. I was induced at 12:30pm and 3 1/2 hours later our sweet baby girl was born! We are so excited to have Taryn JoAnn in our family. The kids love her and can't get enough of her. We love to just snuggle and hold her and of course lots of kisses! I'll post more later, but wanted to get a quick little something up.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Decorating the Christmas tree is usually something I do myself. Mostly because I prefer to do it myself to get it looking the way I want. This year I finally gave up the control and let the kids help. I realized they wouldn't have any memories of decorating the tree if they didn't actually get to decorate it! I have fond memories of decorating the family tree. Our ornaments were always a conglomeration of things my parents had collected over the years or we had made. The finished product was always a "family" tree, not designer in any way! But we loved it. So I don't really know why I have been the only one to decorate our tree now.
Ellie worked on the advent calendar while the boys started with the tree.

 Ellie attempted to put the star on the tree, but it didn't really work so well.

 So Spencer did it.

 I love this picture of all 4 kids. And the tree looks great in the background.