Merry Christmas!

Now that our Christmas cards are, for the most part, signed, sealed, and delivered, I wanted to share them with the entire blogging world!  (Or maybe the five readers I have.)  I won 25 free cards from Shutterfly from one of my favorite blogs, We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ, and they turned out so nicely, I believe!  Thanks, Jocelyn!  We also got the pictures from our friends Bill and Amy, in exchange for watching their dog this summer.

We hope you really have a Merry Christmas this Sabbath.  We're so grateful for the great gift of the Atonement from our Savior.  Oh, come let us adore Him--Christ, the Lord!

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Did you know that it's hereditary?

I have a feeling that Scott will have the most interesting story for the back-to-school question of "What did you do over your Christmas vacation?"  

On Friday he came home from his class party complaining that his stomach hurt from eating too much candy.  The next morning he had a basketball game, but he said he wouldn't be able to run because his stomach still hurt.  I told him he'd have to be the one to tell his coach that he couldn't play because of too much candy.  He stuck it out, and even got a shot at the basket.  (Yay!)  He didn't complain for the rest of the day.  

On Sunday (which was someone's birthday) he said it hurt worse, but went to church, though he spent the rest of the day reading on the couch.  That night,  he showered and laid down early, so I went in to check on him.  He said it wasn't getting better, and that there was a funny spot on his side that when you rub it, it hurt, but when you let go, it hurt more.  That set off the alarm in my head, because that's what Ben always checks for when our kids have stomachaches.  Ben, you see, had appendicitis when he was a teenager, so he knows about that kind of pain.

I called Ben in, and he found his own scar, and pushed Scott's stomach in the same spot.  When he let go, poor Scott doubled over from the pain.  Oh, and we finally checked for a fever--and there was one.  And I learned that Ben's dad had also had appendicitis when he was young.

To make a long story a bit shorter, Ben took him to the ER, where they tested him and decided to transfer him (by ambulance!) to the children's hospital in Dallas, where, in the morning, they operated laproscopically and removed his infected appendix through his belly button.  He spent a sleepy Monday there (Tessa and I went to go visit for a while), and had a good night and a good morning, even refusing his pain medication, so they released him today (Tuesday) and we're all together again!  

Hooray for Ben's boss, who let him take time off, so he could stay with Scott full-time.  Hooray for my visiting teachers and friends, who babysat and made dinner for us.  Hooray for catching the appendicitis before the appendix ruptured, so Scott's recovery was so fast.  Hooray for having no plans for this week so that we didn't have a jillion things to rearrange.  Hooray for all of the prayers offered in Scott's behalf.  We were very blessed.

AND...here are a couple pictures I promised in previous posts:

Trunk or treat at church--a lazy person, a super skeleton, a cool cat, a wonder girl, and a missionary in a bike wreck.

Thanksgiving apple turkeys with the cousins

 Trimming the tree couldn't even wait until it was put all the way together!

Fuzzy Emma (center) as the best third-grade elf in her program

(It doesn't matter what part my kids have in their productions--every time I see them on stage, it makes me tear up.  I love it.)

The big question

So...everyone knows that we have one wonderful boy and four incredible girls in our family already, so when we announced that we were having another, the most frequent question we got was, of course, "Do you want a boy or a girl?"  And we promised everyone that we'd find out and let them know. 

From a practical standpoint, a boy would be great, because I still have all of Scott's baby things, and they've only been used once, unlike all the girl things that have seen better days after four times of use.  We also have three bedrooms--two with two girls, and one with one boy...so another boy would (someday) fit right in place there.  But from a reality standpoint, we tend to have girls around here, so that's kind of what we were planning on.  We're already well in that groove--we have the system down.  But for the sake of novelty, having a baby boy around here would be great.  All the kids would really like to have a little baby brother, simply because none of them have had one before.

When I went for the ultrasound today, my doctor asked if we wanted to know the gender.  Ben and I were truly happy with either, but it sure makes preparing for a baby easier if you know if it's going to be a boy or a girl--especially in choosing a name.  We had been asked if we had any ideas one way or another.  The only one I had had was driving to the ultrasound, and I pictured the doctor referring to the baby as a "little guy," but Ben was guessing it was a girl.

As soon as he started, I was almost certain that I could tell what the baby's gender was--but the doctor wouldn't say right away.  He kept saying, "Are you sure you don't care if it's a boy or a girl?"  I finally said, "If I can tell from that picture, I'm pretty sure I see a boy."

And he said, "You have a good eye."

(Thanks to Marlo for the announcement idea.)