SPECIAL DELIVERY . . . Baby number 9

GIDEON GREGORY BUSH

Born: 28 December, 2011 @0915 am

7 lb 6 oz; 20 inches

C-section went very well, the placenta separated easily, so Mom didn't need a hysterectomy. Both Mom and Gideon came home this afternoon and are both doing very well. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Merry Christmas 2011

White Christmas "Eve-Eve"

Snow in El Paso is rare, and the kids loved playing in it today!

December 16th Traditions

December 16th is David's birthday. We have some traditions that help us celebrate his influence in our family. These traditions are simple, but help us remember him and teach our children of the reason we celebrate Christmas.

We sing Happy Birthday. This year, Troy came into my bedroom first thing in the morning and sang a little solo. We sang again at morning family prayers, and then again when we served our cake dessert.

We enjoy our setup of Santa Claus figures. When David was born, our hometeachers brought some peppermint candies and reminded us that they could play Santa for us if we needed it. We've had visits from Santa before!

Leslie, Santa, and Jonas 1999

My dad and Jeanene came from Michigan as soon as they could and brought our first Santa; a Santa in a nightgown with a plate of cookies. Jeanene has collected Santas for a long time, and this was a simple reminder that they cared for us during a tender time. Over the years we have placed a Santa Claus on his grave for the Christmas season, and then kept the current Santa figure out near David's picture for the rest of the year. This helps us keep the gift of our son in our hearts all year long.

(Grovetown, GA, 2008)

*Note: We do know that the true meaning of Christmas is our Savior Jesus Christ, but a symbol of love, gift giving, and surprises can be found in Santa as well. We choose to embrace the sweetness of the season with Santa as well.

We always have the missionaries over for dinner and cake. Last year Bob and I were reunited in Texas after his deployment, and we were not able to meet up with the missionaries (although we tried). My mom graciously accepted this assignment for us and had the missionaries over with my children. We plan ahead so that no one else gets our coveted dinner date of December 16th! The missionaries always leave a spiritual thought, and last night they reminded us of the plan of salvation. Our Heavenly Father's plan seems too good to be true, but IT IS TRUE! It is not a fairy tale. It really is a plan of "happily ever after", and whatever we "give up" will be compensated to the infinite degree if we are faithful and righteous.

I love our simple yet meaningful traditions that help us celebrate our third child's birthday even though he is not here on earth with us. However, we do look forward to giving him his birthday hugs during the Millennium!

Surprise!

Bob applied for the army addiction recovery fellowship and he got it! This is great for his career, giving him a chance to study something he feels inspired to help others with. It also means we are moving to Hawaii in June for a year. WOW!

Silent and Sweet Saturdays

We are interested in having our children learn sign language. Bob started a new tradition: every Saturday for two hours we can only communicate through sign language, gestures, pantomimes, writing, and lip reading. It has been wonderful! The quiet is a nice break, but even more importantly, there are little to no arguments because we have to be so careful with our communication! What a great reminder! Being disciplined in our communication helps us become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

For more eloquent words on this subject of communication, see one of our favorite talks The Tongue of Angels, by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

http://lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/the-tongue-of-angels?lang=eng&query=tongue+angels

See your own DNA!

This was a really cool experiment we did today to see DNA! We chose to see Troy's DNA because he was the brave one who was willing to swish and gargle the salt water.

Experiment

Step 1: Dissolve 1 T of salt into 2 cups of water

Step 2: Put 3 T of salty water into a clear cup

Step 3: DNA donor swishes, gargles, and spits back into the clear cup (eww)

Step 4: Add a drop of dishwashing detergent into the cup. Stir slowly 3 times.

Step 5: Dribble 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol (best if chilled) down into the cup. Try to add this gently so the water and alcohol don't mix. We used a spoon to help the alcohol slide into the cup. (You could add food coloring to the alcohol to see the separation better, but we didn't.)

Step 6: Watch the thin strands of DNA collect in the alcohol! The strands link together and form a web or net of DNA.

So how does this work?

The skin cells are removed by gargling and swishing and spitting. The salty water copies our salty fluids in our bodies. When we add the drop of dish detergent, it breaks down the cell membrane and the DNA is released into the water. When the alcohol is added, the DNA moves together and joins to make strands. The DNA finally becomes visible to our eyes! Cool! Troy's DNA was awesome looking, but we expected that, given that he is a pretty awesome guy!

(I'd post pictures, but really, it looks like a thin strand of spit in water. That is gross, and it doesn't really show up in pictures too well!)

Christmas connection?

We try to relate everything we learn about to the gospel, and at this time of year, studying DNA is pretty awesome. We have an extremely unique set of DNA to learn about: our Savior's! The book, Behold the Messiah, by Robert Matthews, quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie, "He was born into this world as the Son of Mary (inheriting from her the power of mortality) and as the Son of Man of Holiness (inheriting from him the powers of immortality)." We are so thankful for HIS unique DNA!

Jonas becomes a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood

Today Jonas was ordained as as teacher!

He is excited to do his new priesthood duties.

Doctrine and Covenants 20: 53-55 explain these duties:

The teacher's duty is to watch over the church always, and be with and strengthen them;

And see that there is no iniquity in the church, neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking;

And see that the church meet together often, and also see that all the members do their duty.

One of Jonas' favorite scriptures is found in Doctrine and Covenants 84:33-39

(the oath and covenant of the priesthood), which says,

For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies.

They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God.

And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord;

For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;

And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;

And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father's kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.

And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.

We are pleased with his righteous choices!

He is a remarkable young man, a blessing to our family, and an example to all.

(Poor guy, that seems like a lot to live up to, but it is true, and he is handling it well!)

15 years

It is not the grand and splendiferous date or gift that makes our wedding anniversary special. It is the love we have shared the past years, day in and day out, that makes our marriage fantastic. We truly look forward to eternity together!

(That being said, we did have a lovely weekend!)

Thanksgiving 2011... Certainly memorable!

Greg and Blythe came for Thanksgiving! We had so much fun with them. We were sad that things did not work out to have my Mom with us. Of course we missed all of our family, and we are thankful for technology: phone calls, emails, and Skype are great! On Thursday we had a great time working and playing with food (okay and eating it too...) We had a beautiful and delicious smorgasbord.

I felt uplifted as we all shared our list of people and things we are grateful for. Some of those were written down on our Thankful For Tree this month. Others were shared in Thanksgiving acrostic poems. We prayed in gratitude and we tried to share our thanks vocally as well.

On Friday we decided to go "birding" with Greg on the one day it rained... in months! Consequently our 15 passenger van got stuck in the mud and then spun deeper into the dry sand below. 2 1/2 hours and 3 tired and soaking and muddy adults later, our van was set free (right before the tow truck reached us, of course). Our thanks goes out to the border patrol for helping us out as well, since we slid and spun all over the place just 50 feet from Mexico. Check out the diggings! We were really deep - the tires were covered!

The bright side of the day shone later when the sun came out and we were able to spot about 8 new species for Greg. I think the kids are hooked!

We came home and had another yummy feast with the missionaries: fondue with all our leftovers. Fondue is a great way to use up leftovers and everything tastes better with cheese!

We are extremely thankful for all of our loved ones, and especially the gospel of Jesus Christ which gives us the opportunity to be with everyone eternally. What a great Thanksgiving Day that will be!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Pregnancy update

Happy news:

Well, I am 32 weeks along with baby #9. He is growing well and I have had numerous chances to see him on ultrasound, and will have many more viewings before he is born. He is head down, and his arms and fingers are usually close to his face and mouth. He really likes to kick my upper right rib area, and that is where is cute little bum hangs out most of the time, unless I lay down on my right side and then he tickles his way to the left side. He makes me laugh or jump when he kicks hard or unexpectedly. The kids have all enjoyed feeling and seeing him move around.

Not so happy news:

I have been diagnosed with placenta previa. Placenta previa is when the placenta covers the cervix. My placenta is completely blocking the baby's way out. So, after all my searching for a VBAC doctor that would allow me a trial of labor after 2 c-sections, now I am being forced by this placenta to have a 3rd c-section.

I am not happy about this, since c-sections are a major surgery and because they are much more difficult to recover from. There are also a lot of difficult memories with my previous c-sections. My first c-section was an emergency delivery of David, who had stopped moving at 32 weeks. We were blessed to have him live for 2 days. My c-section recovery was easy, but the emotional loss compensated for the physical ease. My second c-section was when I had our twins 15 months later - baby B was transverse and I opted for a c-section so I wouldn't have to undergo both methods of delivery. Recovering from that c-section and trying to take care of twins that had major breastfeeding issues was really, really hard.

I have not had any complications with the placenta previa. I have not had any 3rd trimester bleeding, and I have listened to my body when I developed contractions after running and brisk walking. Now I have slowed my exercise down to a very slow walk (soon to be waddle). I feel like a walking time bomb for complications, but my doctor told me not to worry- he reminded me that just because airplanes can fall from the sky doesn't mean that you should stay inside the house! Barring any future bleeding or contractions, we know now that our baby will be delivered sometime in the first week of January (at week 39).

Unknown news:

I know that sounds funny, but that is all I could think of to label this next bit. The doctors are extremely suspicious that I also have placenta acreta. This is when the placenta attaches to the uterus too deeply. This can result from multiple pregnancies and especially with previous uterine surgeries like c-sections. To truly determine if this is the case, the doctors are performing ultrasounds and are also ordering an MRI which can hopefully give us more information. We will probably not know for certain the seriousness or this placental problem until the c-section delivery. I do not want to unneccessarily scare anyone, but the current facts include various situations. The best case scenario would be that the placenta detaches without massive bleeding and that the c-section can be closed up quickly. The middle ground case situation would be that they have to perform a hysterectomy to stop any bleeding. This has varying levels of severity and problems. The worse case would include demise of either our baby or me (or both) due to blood loss.

Clearly, we are hoping and praying for "our version" of the best of all situations: for our baby and I to come through this delivery with the best of health. This is why I am posting this difficult problem to our blog: we'll need more prayers and faith so that the best thing, the Lord's will, can shine through this experience.

This quote has helped me often in the past, and I need to focus on it during this time as well.

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.

It all works out. Don’t worry.

I say that to myself every morning.

It will all work out.

Put your trust in God,

and move forward with faith

and confidence in the future.

The Lord will not forsake us.

He will not forsake us.

If we will put our trust in Him,

if we will pray to Him,

if we will live worthy of His blessings,

He will hear our prayers.

--President Gordon B. Hinckley, October 2000

Thanks for reading all the way through this extremely wordy blog post. Here's a picture, me at 32 weeks!

P.S. Super thankful for technology!

Date #7

The day before our mother-son date, I learned that I had accidentally let my driver's license expire! Jonas had to be really creative and plan an outing that did not depend on a car! We walked to a nearby McDonalds (2.5 miles) and rented a Redbox movie. He also had a large vanilla milkshake. We walked and talked all the way home too. That night we tried to watch Captain America on our Clearplay DVD player, but the filter wouldn't download (I am techno-deficient after all...) We watched that one with Bob when he came home the next day and was able to figure out my computer issues.

I have really loved spending this one on one time with the kids.

I totally recommend it, no matter the age!

14

Happy Birthday Jonas!

We love you and hope you have another great year ahead of you.

You make us so proud with all your righteous choices.

You are an excellent example for your brothers and sisters, not to mention your parents!

You make raising a teenager easy!

(not jinxing myself, not jinxing myself, not jinxing myself...)

Krispy Kreme for breakfast, of course...

Waiting for presents...

iTunes!

Opening new scriptures (love the excitement!)

A new game to master!

Reading great letters from Grandma and Grandpa Bush

Decorating his cake army battlefield style

Watch out for the explosions!

Yum!

Thank you, Veterans!

Here are some sweet acrostic poems to help us remember our gratitude for our veterans!

(Forgive the children their big spelling mistake, and their mom for not noticing it until typing!)

Happy Veterans Day!

(By Troy)

Vietnam

Employment

Thanks

Example

Recruit

Experts

November

Service

(By Jonas)

Vietnam

Earlier wars

Today too

Excellent

Respect

Axis and Allies

Not dead

Soldiers

(by Owen)

Vietnam

Effort

Thankful

Educated

Remember

Endure

Nice

Service

(By Leslie)

Vietnam

Eleven

Thankful

Election

Raise

November

Serve

** We are especially thankful for our veteran.

He came home today after a six-week long assignment!**

AND, since this date will not reappear until next century 11-11-11...

(By Micah)

Eureka

Learn

Explain

Valuable

Eight +3 = 11

Number

Kid Date Numero 6

Leslie and I had a delicious time at Subway (Pizza sub and Veggie sub) and then at Dairy Queen (mint oreo and cookie dough blizzards). We came home and watched a Redbox movie: Soul Surfer. It was fantastic. I am terrified of sharks, but even though we watched this with our Clearplay DVD player, Leslie and I huddled together until after the attack. Then we relaxed as we watched the re-enacted true story of a remarkable young woman and her family. I highly recommend this date to anyone! Good food, good company, good movie!

Halloween

The kids (and us, of course) really enjoyed going trick-or-treating tonight. We got a few comments about the sports theme.

Over the years, we have had lots of fun dressing up together. How about a walk through Halloween memory lane?

2005: Star Wars

2006: Harry Potter

2007: Crayons

2008: Scrabble tiles

2009: Snow White and the 7 dwarves

2010: U.S. Army

2011: Sports

Anyone have any great ideas for next year?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

GO TEAM

We had our annual Halloween party at the church last night. It is a tradition each year (since 2004) to have our family always decide on a theme for our costumes. This year we were TEAM BUSH! The kids were all different sports players. And what were the parents, you ask? Well, look below......

Jonas- our All-star basketball player:

Too bad the Texas Rangers didn't have Leslie on their team this year- maybe they would have beat the Cardinals!

Andre Agassi, eat your heart out! Love the hair, Owen!

Grrr. Troy, get your game face on....

And it looks like Micah is ready to give an uppercut.

I love Evelyn- soccer version:

I don't think even Michael Phelps started out as early as our Reuben:

And - of course, we are the referees of it all!

(I don't think I have ever seen a pregnant ref before,

but I also don't think I have seen a more beautiful one either)

GO TEAM BUSH!!!