Pictures from Christmas

So, first let it be said that our Christmas trip was AMAZING--we had so much fun. I'm learning that I'm pretty much terrible at taking fun or good pictures--or even of taking pictures at all, because let's face it: when I'm having fun, I'm having fun, not concentrating on documenting the fun that I'm having. So there are many things not documented in our Christmas photos, but I figured I might as well share the pictures that I did get, at least! The first few are from our pre-Christmas celebration with the Busch family:

Steve, Kacie (Jason's girlfriend), and Jason, showing off some of the refreshments we had that night
Dad Busch, Mom Busch, and me

Davie and Grandma Busch. Aren't they cute?

Now, the next few pictures are from our trip to Snowflake. It was so much fun seeing my family, and although things didn't go quite as we might have hoped, we still had a wonderful experience, and it went all too fast.

Dad Flake, Mom Flake, Tim, and the back of Jayze's head

Jayze, me, and Steve

The picture above needs a bit of an explanation: I hate to say it, but Steve has been a rather negative influence on my brothers, especially Jayze. Those of you who know Steve at all know that he can be annoying--in fact, some might say of him that that is his greatest talent: the ability to annoy people. I live with him. I should know.

Well, Jayze (my 18-year-old brother) is also quite talented in that area, and Steve has decided to pass on some of his tricks of the trade to my younger and quite impressionable brother. This particular morning, my mom had been trying to make enough food to feed the 5.3 million people (okay, it was only about 20 or so) eating at our house. She was working on a delicious stew when Jayze threw a red hot (one of those little cinnamon candies) in it. (Steve's idea, or at least, his inspiration). That was the last in a long list of several little things Steve and Jayze had done this morning in order to "help," and since she was sick of it, she decided to get back at them both--this picture was taken right after she attacked Steve with a handful of butter and smeared it all over his face. One of the funniest memories of the week, without a doubt!

Steve and I in the snow. The family all went tubing, and since I obviously couldn't, I watched. It was so much fun, though--and the snow was beautiful!

In the van on the trip back from old Sunrise: Tim, Cody and NaElle, Katie, and Levi

NaElle, with the chaos of our winter clothing bins. How getting dressed for a snow excursion works in my family's house: grab whatever relatively fits and put it on before someone else gets it. Who cares if it matches, is the exact right size, or even if the gloves are two right-handed gloves--as long as you stay relatively warm, it works, right?

So, these were the pictures I got. I told you I'm not very good at taking good pictures, and I'm sorry, but that's how it works.

Now, just a quick little update on my pregnancy: some of you may have heard that we had a bit of a scare on Christmas Eve /Day, and that's true--Santa got my siblings a trampoline for Christmas, and since we have officially been dubbed his helpers, I went out with Steve and my mom and dad to help set it up on the night of Christmas Eve. I didn't do any of the heavy work, but there was one point where I was trying to help put a spring on, and pulling probably harder than I should have, because I could feel a contraction come on as I was working. I wasn't dumb, and I stopped helping (I always hate feeling so useless in those situations), but when I went back in to the house, I felt some fluid trickling down my leg. I was a little nervous that it might be amniotic fluid (at 30 weeks, that's NOT a good thing), so I laid down to see if I was still leaking. It slowed down a lot, so after calling my midwife, I decided to see how it went for the next day, because I didn't want to spend Christmas Eve or Christmas Day sitting around in the emergency room.

That night, I didn't sleep super great--not only was I worried about what might be going on with my baby, but as silly as it sounds, I was still excited about Christmas morning. I woke up about 5:30, and after checking to see that I was still dry, I went in and opened presents with the family (which was SO much fun). I could tell that Steve and my mom were both still worried, however, and so after taking a nap (can you tell that I REALLY didn't want to go to the hospital?), my mom and dad drove us up to Show Low to go to the hospital and get checked out there.

They put me on a monitor and did a test to see if it was amniotic fluid (had it been, I would have been air vac'd down to Phoenix--that's how serious this kind of thing is), and it came out NEGATIVE. What a relief! However, I was having several contractions, some of them kind of strong, so they put me on medication to slow down the contractions.

The rest of the trip, I still kept having contractions (although I'm really bad still at determining whether or not I'm having a contraction--with the baby stretching and moving so much, sometimes it can feel like a contraction. Has anyone else had that problem?), so I spent most of the vacation lying on my side, feeling like a heel for not being very much fun to be around, but enjoying the company nonetheless. Now that we're back in Glendale, I'm feeling better, but still taking it as easy as I can. So that's just a little update for all of you--and if you wonder why I may be not quite as social in the next few weeks, that's why. :)

But other than that little scare, it really was a wonderful trip--it was fun to be around my family and the chaos that is their lives, and seeing my Grandma Flake and several of my aunts / uncles / cousins on Christmas was just plain great. And since everything turned out well, this is going to make a great story to tell someday to our little boy!!