Merry Christmas!

Reading "The Christmas Story" to Ruby!

Merry Christmas to you!

Love, Paul, Katie, & Ruby

Ruby Kae

Ruby Kae was born on Friday, Dec. 17th, 2010 at 1:16a.m. She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 20 inches long. God has blessed us with the best Christmas present we could receive this year and we think she's a keeper!

Details of Ruby's birth story (in case you're interested...and if you're not, then consider these details as part of my own memory book b/c I don't have the best memory and want to remember how it all went!):

I had contractions Wed. night the 15th and finally decided it was time to go to the hospital around 3:00a.m. on Thursday morning. My water broke as the resident was monitoring me so we were there to stay. We ended up having the c-section talk a couple hours later as Ruby's heartrate was doing some funky things. The doctors went back and forth for over an hour. Just as we were about to say that we would go ahead with the c-section, Ruby's heartbeat started acting appropriately. I labored through the day and got an epidural around 2:30p.m. I went from 4cm to 10cm in two hours and was ready to push around 5:45p.m. Unfortunately, Ruby's head was OP or "sunny side up" which makes it harder to deliver. We once again had the c-section talk after 5 hours of pushing. However, our doctor thought we could hang in there and eventually used the vacuum and forceps to get her out. She arrived at 1:16a.m. Friday morning and had to spend a couple hours in the NICU but was soon able to join us! She is absolutely precious and nothing makes us happier than to have her home with us this wonderful Christmas season!

Uncle Joel

Grandma Ruth, Papa Gary, and cousin Sydney

Uncle Jon and Aunt Stef

Mom and Dad

Gma LaDonn and Gpa Bill

Aunt Hattie

Aunt Carrie and Uncle Kenny

Just Shy of 200,000

After driving the Bonneville with no air, no rearview mirror, and no horn for the last year or so, it finally started having some other issues as well. Paul put it new power steering fluid, new brake fluid (which just continued to leak out and make our car beep nonstop), and the transmission was going. We decided that we couldn't quite drive it to 200,000 miles. We were very close though! So we said goodbye to our 1993 Bonneville and bought a new Toyota Highlander.

Week 39

If I had to guess... I would say that this baby is going to come before Week 40! But since I really don't know what I'm talking about and this is just a guess... no one is going to laugh at me when the baby doesn't come until Week 41... right?!?! Stay tuned!... hopefully we will have exciting news soon!

Week 38

Nicole's Shower

Last weekend, Jen and I hosted a baby shower for Nicole! We made onesies for their new little babe and even though I didn't mean to iron on some of the letters backward... it turned out kind of cute! We had great fun and are so happy for Scott and Nicole!

Retreads vs. Da Heat

So a few of Paul's old med school buddies decided to put together a 3 on 3 intramural basketball team - the Retreads - for a little tournament this week. They actually decided to have 5 players for their team (maybe that's normal for 3 on 3 or maybe it was due to the fact that they are all nearing their 30's)! Anyway, they won their first game on Tuesday night so they played again last night. Paul was talking pretty big before he left saying he'd be home within the hour because if they won, they were done for the night. After about 2 hours, I assumed they had lost and had to play again. However, when Paul got home he informed me that their ONE game had lasted that long. Apparently, they played a group of fellas who were the biggest foul-ers ever. Team members are supposed to call fouls themselves (as no refs are being utilized) and then you take the ball at half court again... so basically you can foul and foul all you want and nothing really happens. Well, the Retreads kept calling fouls because Da Heat were apparently hammering them big time, and Da Heat kept arguing the calls. To make a long story somewhat shorter... feuds kept breaking out because of the foul calling (with cussing and shoving galore). The teams are supposed to play best out of 3 games. In this crazy showdown, the Retreads won the first game, then Da Heat won the next. In game three, the aggressiveness intensified, which finally summoned the intramural supervisor over to their court. The supervisor eventually called the third game when the score was 14-13 and made both teams leave without naming a winner. The Daily Iowan (the undergrad newspaper) ended up being there, interviewing both teams, and publishing an article this morning in the paper. See here (as if this post isn't long enough for you already!). The article seems somewhat mild compared to the story that Paul shared with me, which could be due to Paul's exaggeration in story telling... or maybe just to make sure one team didn't sound "better" than the other (even though Paul assured me that their team was in the "right!"). Anyway, they ended up replaying game #3 tonight... and the Retreads won! I'm glad my husband came home alive and well!

Week 35-37

35 Weeks... very unflattering... but this is my walking gear these days!

37 Weeks... "Mrs. V, it looks like you grew 2 inches overnight!" ~ 3rd grader