Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Merry Christmas from us all! We had a nice Christmas this year with family celebrations on the 18th, 25th, 26th & 27th! It has been a special Christmas celebrating with our newest addition Samara. On the other hand it has been a difficult Christmas as we have all had a bad cold. David and Angeline started us off and are now mostly recovered and Jonathan, Samara and myself are still on the mend.

I did manage to get some Christmas cards out before Samara was born... still have a few to send. I think I should have stuck with my original idea and just sent Happy New Year cards this year. Oh well! Nothing "eventful" planned for 2011 so far but certainly lots to enjoy and keep us busy. We are working more and more with David to get him ready for Home Schooling Kindergarden in September. We have plans to potty train Angeline in the Spring... she does occasionally pee for a smarty when she is thinking of it. I am hoping to start walking more often as the weather improves and running some too in the next couple of months. Jonathan is really enjoying photography at the moment and there is a link to his new blog under our blog list. And Samara... what can I say about our little Samara? Hmmm... if you asked my a few days ago I would say that she is our best sleeper so far (I think she might be going through a growth spurt at the moment as well as battling her first cold). She is a very "easy" baby... always happy unless she is hungry. She poops a lot! And she also is a spitter! Not all the time but when she does you won't miss this.... apparently she gets this from Daddy. She is quiet so far but I am sure this will change as she learns to compete with her brother and sister. We are looking forward to watching them all as they continue to grow throughout the new year!

No official family picture since the one we took at the hospital but I thought I would post the two we have of the 3 kids together. Happy New Year!

Samara is 1 week old today!

When Jonathan came home from work today we set up a little photo shoot for Samara's one week birthday. All of these pictures were taken this afternoon. She did very well and once we were done she was ready for another nap. She does spend most of her time sleeping as most new borns do. She is also having more awake time and more time with her eyes open every day and she has started gaining weight again after her initial loss (which is normal). At the doctors yesterday she was back up to 6lbs 14oz. Her hair is dark but it we will have to keep guessing as David started out dark as well. Her eyes seem blue... David's we could tell from day one were going to be brown but she may surprise us with that as well. I couldn't ask for a "better" baby... she gives me 5-6 hours of sleep a night and is never fussy unless she has to wait for a meal. Our cuddle time is precious but I think mommy is being shared rather well.

I also wanted to say congratulations to Uncle Ches for winning the baby pool. He was the only one to guess the right date and he got the gender right too! Good job! And thanks to everyone who guessed.

Sunday's Christmas Play

Just a few pictures of David and Angeline in the Christmas Play on Sunday. Neither one of them ran off in tears so I think they did pretty good. Maybe in a few years Angeline will get the part for the Christmas Star. David wasn't too excited about it but he does like to perform... maybe he will be more into it next year.

Welcoming Samara

Welcoming Samara Anne Marie Neufeld

Born on December 8th, 2010 at 1:42pm

Weighing 7lbs 6ozs and Measuring 20 1/4" in length

Does mommy look like she's had a rough delivery?

I don't think so!

Here's how it went...

9 hours of pre-labor on November 28th (3 cm)

I told her to wait until I got home from work before she was allowed to go into labor

Labor started 11:15pm (when I got home) December 7th

Dropped off kid-lets at Mom & Dads at 3:00am December 8th

Thanks Mom and Dad for watch your grand babies while we got a new one...

Arrived at the hospital where contractions slowed around 3:30am (4 cm)

Contractions slowed further after moving into a delivery suite a few hours later

Doc broke her water to help move things along around 8am

Contractions stopped (4 cm)

Oxytocin started at 10am to help induce labor

Contractions started again and grew quite quickly in pain and duration

Around 12pm pain was becoming quite intense and lots of progress was made (7 cm)

Transition. Enough said... (8 cm)

1:10pm Pushing through 9 cm and leftover membrane covering Samara's head

1:10-1:40pm asking for every drug known to mankind

1:42pm a glorious arrival of a beautiful baby and a glowing mother...

1:42:30pm Surprised to find out that our boy is a girl!

1:42:31pm Happy anyways!

David giving Samara his kiss of approval

His most notable comment was 'You did a good-job Mommy!'

Angeline pointing out that its a baby!

Her most notable comment was 'Baby!'

One bigger happy family!

Finally at home sweet home with our new arrival.

David and Angeline have been fighting over who holds Samara.

They are both very excited about Samara,

although Angeline seems worried that this baby is going to stay for some time.

Posted By One Proud Father and Husband

P.S. I love you so much Melissa, you make me so proud.

P.P.S. Stop trying to make me cry with all these beautiful moments, its embarrassing :)...

Jonathan's Work Kids Christmas Party (Yesterday)

Angeline LOVED the bouncy castles and finally convinced her brother that it was safe to join her!

Chocolate Pudding