Our December...in a nutshell...

So...December is usually crazy for us: Christmas and a birthday. But, this year we added more for some reason. Here's what we've been up to:

Colby, Gabe and Tristan made a lot of Mac n Cheese; since they all like to eat it so much.

We did our fair share of shoveling the driveway, though I'm sure there's more to come.

Found more moments of Skitterz napping on napping boys.

Visited Christmas Village for the first time, and last. It was boring!

But, had fun playing on the playground there.

We all drank a lot of hot chocolate.

And made sure we had clean teeth, since December brings so many wonderful treats from neighbors and friends.

Gabe's preschool class celebrated his 1/2 birthday, since he's out for summer break during his actual birthday.

Tristan wore jingle antlers that he insisted on owning from Shopko all the way to the Koch side family Christmas party. He jingled the whole way down to Bountiful.

(He called them his "ho-ho-ho"s)

Most of us got new fancy holiday clothing to wear to church the Sunday before Christmas.

Braxton turned 8 years old on the 21st.

RaeAnne actually cooked breakfast for Christmas. This usually only happens on Christmas, and only because we eat at about 10am.

For Christmas Tristan got a much coveted Wall-E toy.

(He has watched the movie daily for the last 6 weeks; I don't know why, but he loves it!)

Colby helped the boys put together Lego sets from Santa.

Colby received a miter saw to continue home projects he has in mind.

Colby, his brother Ty, and her boys all got RaeAnne new earrings.

(My escapade in June paid off big time at Christmas.)

She also got the amazing BodyBugg to help in the never ending goal to lose weight, yeah!

It was a year for Nerf guns.

It was also the year to give the Snuggie as a gag gift. Here is my sister, Heidi, modeling hers. All of my siblings and I got one. I gave Colby one as a joke. And Colby's nephew received one as well.

Here are all of my parents' grandchildren on Christmas: Tristan, Gabe, Caitlin, Shaila, Grant, Taryn, Gracee, Braxton, Carson, Jed, Wyatt and baby Blakely in the carrier.

Braxton was baptized on December 27th.

The boys had fun playing outside and sledding down the deck stairs.

All he wants for Christmas...

All he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth! Braxton is trying to catch up with all his friends, within in the past month the tooth fairy has been super busy. He only lost 2 last school year, and already 3 this school year. He looks super cute right now with his "spacey" grin. He was trying to sing the song this morning just the way the Chipmunks do, but he doesn't have as hard a time saying certain words as they do.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Woot! My first day of no fighting in awhile, it was refreshing. Braxton woke me up at 7:13 wondering why I didn't wake him up to go to his first day of school. My alarm was set for 7:15. I helped him get ready and dropped him off at school. Gabe slept in until 8:20, which is completely amazing. Tristan is still asleep. Oh...the quiet! I am getting the house super clean because I have friends visiting us later today from Cali. I love a good motivation to get me in the "spring" cleaning mood. I will update later with how school was for Braxton. He was very excited for today, we'll see how he feels tomorrow. Oh yeah, Colby and I also celebrate 9 years married today. However we have been together for 11 1/2 years. We will be celebrating on Wednesday and Thursday. It just fit in the schedule for this week better that way, besides we didn't want to miss B's first day in second grade.

Here he is ready to go to school this morning:

Show and Teach.

Braxton had to do a "Show and Teach" yesterday. Show the class something he could do and then teach them how to do it. He was choosing from teaching them how to build Lego people, or how to draw Frankenstein. He chose the latter. It was supposed to be 5 minute presentation, but he made sure all the details were on the drawing and took a whopping 20 minutes. Later last night, his friend Kelly's mom told me that Kelly said all the girls loved Braxton's show and teach the best. How cute! He was so fun to watch talk to the class, use the Smart board (what they have in place of a white board, or chalk board now) and hold the bolo-tie looking microphone up to his mouth to project his timid voice to the rest of the class. The amazing technology they have in schools these days, sheesh! Guess those box tops and PTA fundraisers are definitely paying off. A smart board was like a touch computer screen on the whiteboard, I was amazed by it. At the close of the presentation, he told them that now he was going to walk by and look at everyone's, then they had permission to color them. He was cracking me, along with the other mom, up so bad......I loved watching him take control. Love ya B!

First Tooth.

We are excited to announce that Braxton lost his first tooth today. This is exciting because he is about the last kid his age in the entire world to loose his first tooth. Or so it seems. His friends and cousins have all lost their first or more teeth, so he was ecstatic. He told us it was loose before church, and an hour after church he had worked it out with one of his favorite food items: an apple.

Before.

After.

I'll have to have a conversation with the tooth fairy to see what the going rate for a tooth is nowadays.

Happy Birthday Braxton!

Braxton Ty Koch became the first child of our family on December 21st, 2001 at 8:01 pm at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, CA after 24 hours of labor. Length at 21 inches and weighing 8 lbs. 1 oz. (Funny how it worked out that way, huh?) He was originally due the 18th, but there was no way I was waiting for him to come naturally and risk being in the hospital over Christmas. His birthday is close enough to the holiday as is. We had a scheduled induction at 8pm on the 20th, if he hadn't come before then. Well, Colby, my mom and I went to the hospital and I got checked in and all hooked up to things, and we waited. I was having very mild contractions all night long. Enough to not get any sleep, whilst my mom and Colby slept on the hardwood floor because the reclining chair was way too uncomfortable. By 7am I had not even dilated to 2cm. My doctor came into the room exclaiming that it looked like a bunch of dead bodies were in there, and then proceeded to break my water. If you have ever seen how they do that, you might be able to understand why Colby almost passed out when waking up to a guy jamming a hook into his wife, while she gasped in pain. He stepped out of the room, while the nurses told him to sit on the floor and put his head between his legs. Anyway back to the birth. I had gone all night and morning without any pain medication, but by noon I was exhausted. They gave me a half dose of something to take the edge off, and I pass into a nice nap right away. Finally by about 6pm there was still no progress with dilation or any of that other good stuff, so they talked me into an epidural and emergency C-section since it had been almost 12 hours since they broke my water. Colby held my hand while the epidural was put in, that was the most scary part of the entire day. They then prepped me and wheeled my into the OR. More prep work while Colby and my mom were getting dressed and ready to come in. Finally, everyone is ready and waiting, Colby by my head, and my mom with the camera to record the event for me. A slice with the laser, and lots of tugging. Colby later told me that the doctor put my guts and stuff up on my belly, while he knelt on me tugging on Braxton, because he was lodged in my pelvis. And again he had to turn away, because he almost passed out again. It was painful even with the epidural, although the anesthesiologist was assuring me that it didn't hurt, it was just a lot of pressure. How would he know? Has he ever had a child? No! Braxton came out pretty messy and peed all over my doctor (Braxton loves telling everyone that part of the story). My blood pressure had gone crazy, so I wasn't allowed to hold him for most of the night until it stabilized. I had trouble feeding him, we didn't get the hang of it until he had been home for about a week. (That's probably why he still doesn't like to eat, and is my skinny little stick boy.) I should have stayed in the hospital another day, but I asked to be released on Christmas eve, I did NOT want to be in the hospital during my first Christmas as a mom. Besides, I did have the baby blues, I hadn't made that many friends yet, so not many visitors came in. And, Colby hates hospitals, so he and my mom went to a movie and dinner without me. Yeah, that didn't help the postpartum depression. I also shared a room almost the entire recovery with a woman who had a normal birth, and tons of visitors. She was also always in the bathroom. And when you really have had a C-section it's not the most fun thing to get up and walk over to the bathroom, you put it off as long as possible. (It may sound weird, but thank goodness for catheters.) So, picture this, you've held your bladder as long as you can to avoid the pain, then when you finally manage to painfully get out of bed, there is someone in your bathroom. You figured they would be out by the time you got out of bed. Nope, then she starts the shower up.....let's just say that was not a fun night. I am so grateful for my mom, she helped Colby and I so much with that first week of transition. Because she had 6 C-sections, she understood the pain of recovery and coached Colby and I with diaper changes and bathing the baby. She also took some night shifts to help us out, since she was sleeping on the couch and awake because of the crying anyway. We finally got to week 3, and my mom was back in Utah, we new parents were getting the hang of things, and I was moving around a lot better. From then on, Braxton was such a good baby. We could take him everywhere, and we did. He went to San Diego at 3 weeks old to see my brother Seth graduate from Marine training. We then flew to Utah and had him blessed in my old ward. He and I flew to Utah again in February to meet Colby's family. We took him to movies, and dinner, to friends houses and other functions. We took our first family vacation when he was 3 months old, to San Fransisco. He went to the beach (Warning: Very unflattering picture of me coming up.)and to Disneyland. Then we drove to the family ranch in Utah for the Fourth of July. He was just a great traveler. He has become a normal, not always easy and happy child, now. We love him so much! He was so excited to become a big brother with Gabe and Tristan, and he is such a huge help to me. He loves video games and basketball like his dad. He loves movies and music like me. Last Wednesday, we had a birthday party for him. Thanks to all his friends who came, we had so much fun. And he got some great loot! Sunday, his actual birthday, we celebrated with grandparents, one uncle, one cousin, one aunt and a partridge in a pear tree. Who doesn't love ice cream cake?! We love you Braxton, and I can't believe you will already be 8 years old next year. Time flies when you have kids, whether you are having fun or not. But we love each and every one.

My First Baby!

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about you and your first baby.

1. Were you married at the time? Yes.

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? We were in complete shock, it was an accident, we weren't ready for that yet. We hadn't even been married a year yet.

3. How old were you? 21

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? EPT home pregnancy test, it turned the second I peed on it.

5. Who did you tell first? We called our families right after, and then a couple of friends. This helped get us a little excited and out of the horror shock.

6. Did you deliver early or late? Three days late; finally I was induced, I didn't want to be in the hospital over Christmas.

7. Did you have morning sickness? No, but I did throw up once. Don't eat Cheetos and drink fruit punch Gatorade while pregnant, not a good combo.

8. What did you crave? Ice cream, and boy have I been paying for it for 7 years now.

9. Who irritated you the most? The two guys I lived with, my hubby and our friend Ben who was staying with us for the time.

10. What was your first child's Sex? Boy.

11. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? I gained 67 pounds, stupid ice cream!

12. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Yes, I couldn't dilate to even 2 cm, and yet he was a bit lodged in my pelvis.

13. Where did you give birth? Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, CA.

14. How many hours were you in labor? 24 hours

15. Who drove you to the hospital? Colby, my hubby.

16. Who watched? Colby and my mom, she took pictures of the operation.

17. Was it natural or c-section? Emergency c-section.

18. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Of course, your are crazy if you don't! I don't know what they put in my IV before the surgery, but during I had an epidural.

19. How much did your child weigh? 8 lbs. 1 oz., though you wouldn't know he was a big baby to look at him now (stick boy).

20. What did you name your child? Braxton Ty Koch

21. How old is your first born today? 7 years old on Dec 21st.

Okay ladies, re-post this on your blog as 'My first baby'.

Ward Trunk or Treat and Halloween.

Here are me and my boys all ready for the annual Ward Trunk or Treat.

My parents with the boys on Halloween.

The weather was perfect for Trick or Treating and they got lots of loot.

Basketball Season

So, it's the time of year for preseason basketball games to start. That means soon Colby will be watching a lot more TV. But, it also means that Braxton gets to try his hand at the game. Though, he is halfway done already, I will still keep you up to date with the hilarity of it all. I signed him up in August while we were out of town. And, because I was using a form online, I did not see that you could request a coach as well as your friends to be on your team. Therefore when it all started, all Braxton's friends are on one team, and he on another. And....his T-ball coach, who he had a blast with, is coaching a completely different team. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the coach he has. She is very patient with the 1st and 2nd graders on the team, but Braxton leaves the game crying if no one will pass him the ball. His T-ball coach would have made sure he toughened up. There's no crying in baseball! (Name that movie, and the actor who said it.) And there is no crying in T-ball or Basketball either. Next sport I will pay attention and read the entire city form before I fill it out and turn it in. Next, okay so this is Coed Basketball for 1st and 2nd graders. There is a 2nd grader on our team that is a complete ball hog! It is so frustrating to Colby and I, and Braxton and one other of his team mates. Okay, so you've played before, your dad practices with you all the time, your the tallest, and your coach is boring you with all the instruction for the other little guys. So what! Deal with it. The other thing is that his parents don't even take any steps to urge him to share possession of the ball. He only passes to his cousin, even if his cousin is surrounded with the entire opposing team. The rest of the team is open, but he refuses to see this. His parents just sit and talk, and let their other son play on the court during the game. Can you tell I am aggravated with the situation. His coach does her best yelling and waving her arms at the other open players on the team, but he knows he is the best player on the team, and the glory WILL be his! The first game was so hilarious to watch. The kids are all stealing the ball from their team mates, and passing without looking where they are throwing the ball. It's like watching a game of hot potato. They want the ball so bad, but then they get it and they panic to the point of trying to make a basket when they aren't even close or tossing it to someone else before the other team surrounds them. One of the dads on our team, films every game with his camera and just laughs and laughs. Oh, I cannot wait for next year. Hopefully Braxton will be taller, a better player, and a better sport as well.