pray

Lindsey's baby is in the NICU. Please pray for Isabelle and Lindsey.


*** all is well - Isabelle is home and well ***

My sister had her baby!

**Warning: Graphic pictures of a new born baby below**

Lindsey is checking her list... twice... :) Making sure she has everything she needs. I picked up Lindsey at 5:30am. Very early!!! She needed to be at the hospital at 7am, but I woke up at 5 and thought if I went back to bed then I would for sure not wake up in time. I was surprised to see her and my mom awake as well. I ate breakfast in front of Lindsey... she couldn't eat anything. We had some laughs!





One last picture of Isabell inside her mommy. Last moments of not having the responsibility of a little one... last moments of quiet! I also grabbed shots of Isabell's room, pre-baby.





We got to the hospital at 7. It took till 8:30 to see the Dr. Lots of paper work and a nurse that wasn't all there... that is all I can say. Lindsey was 4cm and would most likely be there even if not for the induction scheduled. She was obviously in labor.
Lindsey was texting with her friend and Lance through the first part of labor.

Lindsey's Dr. came in and broke her water. He planned on pitocin, but gave Lindsey an hour to see how she would do. We played a game to pass time. We got through one game (Lindsey won!) and couldn't do another. Lindsey's contractions started hard and were every 3 to 2 mins apart. She went through an hour and a half of that!

When she finally got the epidural… she was feeling good! That hard labor got her to 8cm. It took so long for the IV fluid to go through her b/c the nurse had the tube pinched... just one of many crazy things with the nurses. It was 10:30 at that time. My mom came by and Lindsey rested. At about 12 Lindsey started to feel something different. We called for the Nurse, and after a while (15 mins) of waiting she came in and checked Lindsey. She was ready! It was 12:15.


Lance arrived and I went out to the waiting room to tell him how Lindsey was doing. We were waiting on the Dr. to arrive. His office is in Grapevine and we were in Irving.








In the mean time, my mom rubbed Lindsey’s head for her as she was in pain b/c of needing to get that girl out! My mom left at about this time b/c Lindsey didn't want her there while she was pushing.
The Dr. showed up at about 12:30 and checked Lindsey and told the nurse to start her pushing and then he went to grab lunch. Little weird... The nurse had Lindsey do one push and then we waited on the Dr. to get back to us. When he arrived I think it was about 1:15. Lindsey pushed and the Dr. noticed that Isabell wasn't down as far as he would have liked. Lindsey was asked to push several times. After about 30 mins of pushing off and on the Dr. asked Lindsey how she felt about forceps or vacuum extraction. Lindsey had done a paper in school about the dangers that involve the use of these and she was determined then to push that girl out! She gave another good push and I could see the top of Isabell's head. She gave 2 more pushes and her head was all the way out. Another 2 pushes and...



Isabell’s first picture! As Michelle (our sister) would say, “fresh out of the oven.”










Isabell being handed to Lindsey.













Lindsey holding her girl for the first time, on the outside.








The Nurse cleaning Isabell up a bit. Isabell had a lot of stuff in her throat that they had to suction out. She also had an oxygen mask on for a bit. Everything seemed to be ok. The nurse rapped Isabell up and brought her back to Lindsey.












Lindsey kept saying, “Awwww.”

Cute!















Isabell didn’t cry much, but when she started to fuss she heard mom’s voice and calmed down.











Lance holding his baby for the first time.














Lance, Lindsey and Isabell.
As these 3 are starting their life, I pray they keep Isabell's best interest at heart and Lindsey and Lance could be friends. I pray God works out all the in between.




Grammy seeing Isabell for the first time. She says, "She's so precious."















This is Lindsey’s friend. Lindsey is showing her how much hair Isabell has.










Isabell was pretty tired. We got one eye peak for the picture.












Grammy with Isabell. My mom is the proud Grammy of 6 grandkids!














There’s two eyes!












Lindsey and me with Isabell. I am so honored to have been asked to be with Lindsey in her labor. I was so happy to be there for her, to help her through that hard labor and help her push... and take these sweat pictures. I thank God for this experience.


Isabell was taken out of the room and brought to the nursery for further cleaning. They took her weight: 7 pounds and 9 ounces.
Her height: 19 1/2 inches.

I held her hand while they looked over her and made sure everything was in working order. She fussed a little.
They measured her head. And her waist and her chest. They checked her heart rate.
They made sure her legs worked. That bum is so little! I had to leave that room and watch from the window for everything else.



Wendy, the nurse that was taking care of her was very informative and nice.









I called over Lindsey's friends.










And Lance.
Lance and I talked a bit. I asked him what he thought and he said, "I'm a father," with a little excitement and disbelief. He expressed that he wanted to work things out with Lindsey. I just pray God works out all the in betweens!


They took her foot prints.
She just slept through all the messing around with her.





Bath time! She has lots of hair! I don't think she liked that water being sprinkled on her.





Lindsey came down the hall on her way to her overnight room. The nurse in the back ground with dark blue on is Dee. She was Lindsey's first nurse during post pardum.



ALL CLEAN!







They glued a bow on her hair... glued...
I'm sure it is safe glue. :)

Welcome Isabell in to this world! I pray God's best blessings in your life.

(It's about time they cut that umbilical cord, don't you think.) :)

More pictures to come when I get them....

Fun Fact Friday

PEZ Candy was first marketed as a compressed peppermint candy over
70 years ago in Vienna, Austria. The name PEZ was derived from the
German word for peppermint...PfeffErminZ. Today, over 3 billion PEZ
candies are consumed annually in the U.S.A. alone.

If you are a collector you'll like this site.

*This post is dedicated to my mom. :)

Web Wednesday! Time wasters

Just some random sites that are great for wasting time. (As if I do a lot of that around here...)

Etsy: This is a shopping site... but the cool thing about it is the color grid they have. You click a color and what they have for sale, that has anything to do with that color, pops up.

(I use these sites with my kids in school. This one I do for color recognition with the littler ones)

Jackson Pollock: Just move your mouse and right click every once and a while and see what you can make!

Wildcard: Move your mouse and well... waste time. :)

Cubes: No point at all.

ArtPad: There are many art programs. You probably have a generic one that came with your PC. This one has a neat feature that will play back your brush strokes. It's fun to watch yourself make a masterpiece all over again.

Mr. Picassohead: Who needs Mr. Potato head when you can create your own?

SharkBreak: You need a break. Take some time for yourself and go deep sea diving. Manipulate a shark, whale, dolphin or fish.

Detrave Hangout: Make a random sentence.

Their Circular life: What goes on in your day is boring... check out these cities.

Have fun wasting time!

What Makes Jennifer Special. - by Joshua

Yes, this will be a biased little note of appreciation for my wife. Yes, you probably have 100 things in addition to these...and you should add those in a comment below this post.

So, what makes Jennifer Crispin so special?

(5) She has great taste in men. (laugh) Well, her choice in marrying me makes her taste special to me. You probably do not know this, but Jennifer did a lot of the chasing in our relationship. She made it a point to keep in touch each week when I lived in other parts of the country. She made surprise visits to my location(s) after she finished her shift at work. She remembered my favorite things and gave me the best gifts because of her attention to detail. She showed great interest in me, and made it obvious that she liked me by giving me the gift of her time.

(4) She is an encourager. She encourages everyone around her, and she lifts me up when times are tough. Some of her best words to me are these: "You are a great Dad. I love to see you playing with our children. You are a great teacher." "I heard (so-and-so) say how great you did. I told them that you always go above and beyond what is expected." "You have great talent and creativity. You should charge more. Your results are worth it!" And I over hear her saying the same positive things to our children, her friends, and extended family all the time.

(3) She is a fun friend! We have been married over 6 years and she is still my best friend.
We make each other giggle and laugh over the craziest things. She is my first choice for any activity. Leisure time, work, and anything at all. She likes what I like...well, I don't like coffee...or candies with peanut butter & chocolate... or hand lotion...or any lotion for that matter....or movies that induce tears...or Chinese food... Ok, so she has a richer palette than I, but we share many interests.

(2) She is a wonderful mother! If you did not know by now, we wanted a large family. We have 5 kids. At this writing they are ages 5,4,3,2, and 1. However, due to her mothering you'd think they were older...like 8,6,4,3, and um.. 1. Part of being a great mom is being a great teacher! She has taught them Shapes, Colors, Numbers, Letters, Reading, Writing, Counting, Washing, Dressing, Cleaning, Sign Language, Manners, Sharing, Caring, and most importantly about the Bible and God's love.

She tells her family she loves them a thousand times a day. She over flows with hugs and kisses. She is tireless in providing all the necessities of life. (Well, Jennifer would say she is not tireless. In fact she gets verrrrry tired.)

(1) She is priceless. I could say a million things to back this up. I would list her strong faith in God and her desire to help others know him better. The way she puts other's needs before her own. Her caring heart for new mothers. Her faithfulness to her husband through thick and thin. Her loyalty to her friends. The humbleness of her motives. On and on...

But for me, she is simply irreplaceable. On this earth and in my physical lifetime here, there is no person...no amount of money...no material posession...that compares.
My life is enriched by her presence, and that is priceless.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas... in March?

(I have pictures to post of today's snow day... they'll be here soon. You can see some pics on my facebook.)

A very eventful day!

Today has been a great day! You wouldn't think so by the start... but truly a great day.

Family day was declared today. There is a pizza place we'd been wanting to check out and took the time today to go. We got to the parking lot 15 minutes before it opened and were sitting there wasting time when I remembered I did not give the bank card back to Joshua and it was sitting in the back pocket of my jeans at home. So, yes, we turned around to get the card.
Our bank was closer than our home so Joshua decided to go there and get money. Well... we got in an accident. As we were turning into the bank a man hit us from behind and pushed us into a truck that was exiting the bank. Scared me! Just to calm some nerves, we were all ok! No one was hurt and we praise God for that.
Here are some pictures of this event.

After all was said and done with the accident we got the money from our bank and headed back to the pizza place.
We had so much fun. I had borrowed batteries for my camera from the bank and now wish that I had kept them so we'd have pics of this truly fun time... but... we'll just have to go back. :)
We ate pizza, played golf, road go-carts, bowled, played games and had a blast! We spent a good 3hours there. A good mini family vacation.
Our church is having a 'revival' event this week and that was our next big thing. Good worship and good talk about God and His best for you.
Then... it snowed! What a great way to end the day!
When we got home and all the kids were in bed, I went outside and twirled in the snow... I love the snow!
Good day!!!