Our Nativity

We had a fabulous Christmas. One of my favorite things was the video we got of the kids nativity play. I thought the grandparents and family would appreciate it too. Our Nativity play was a very toddler friendly version- short and simple. I was impressed that four kids two years old and under could do as well as they did though. Seriously so cute! :) But, I am pretty biased. I sort of adore these kids.

You Are Invited!

We are having a Christmas party at our house and we have been trying to get a crowd to come and everyone seems to be going out of town this year, so rude! :) Our neighbors were going to come but they are not going to be able to make it. :( Bummer! So we are extending an invitation to all who are in town that would like to help us party and eat the giant feast I have cooking right now. Seriously so much food! Turkey, Ham, homemade stuffing, Grandma Ras Jello, tons of deserts, my special punch, green beans, mashed potatoes,...! So don't be shy and come party with us 4:30 Christmas Eve at our house! :O)

Our Christmas Blog Card

Merry Christmas!

As we sit here trying to write our card about the past year we can honestly hardly think of what we did ...it is such a blur! We are not sure if that is because it has gone so fast or because we have just had a baby, but either way, from what we can remember it has been a happy and busy one. Here are our top six things we can remember from this past year ;).

1.) Having Benjamin Merlin Rasmussen join our family! Can a year bring a greater blessing!?!? Emily spent 9 months of this year expecting him and we are thrilled he came to help finish off our year with a bang. He is beautiful and Oh, so sweet!

2.) Stewart completed his first year of med school and is now half way through his second year!!! It is going really fast. We are excited he has just one more semester until he hits his half way mark! Yay, for us! The end is sort-of in sight!!! He has done so well in his classes and absolutely loves his studies. He is a proud "medical geek". ;)

3.) Our month long vacation this summer. This summer we took advantage of Stewart's last summer vacation and traveled to many of our beloved family member's homes. We had a fabulous time and made some timeless memories.

4.) Angeli has gone from a baby to a little girl this past year. At the start of the year she was barely one and still crawling. Now she is running, jumping, talking, taking care of her baby dolls, and keeping up with her big brother as best she can. She is an absolute joy to have. Very sweet and thoughtful yet INDEPENDENT! :) She loves being a big sister...I think its her favorite thing to happen this year.

5.) Bridger has grown into a BIG BOY. This year he has started speech therapy and we are so thrilled to see all the progress he has made! He has started "mommy" preschool and both Emily and Bridger love it. Just this past week he learned all about Santa. It was adorable when he got home shouting "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!".

6.) Emily's business has finally taken off a bit! Making a modest income for our little family is a major blessing! Now she is crossing her fingers that she can keep it up with three babies to take care of too! Wish her luck!!!

Our hearts are full of gratitude because of all the blessings poured upon our family this year. We seem to never see the end of your charity and love. Honestly, we owe everything we have to the kindness and love of you and our Heavenly Father. May this coming year bring you all the very best.

All Our Love,
Stewart, Emily, Bridger, Angeli, and Benjamin

* Photos by Valentines Photography

Christmas Tag

CHRISTMAS SURVEY

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both. Whatever I have on hand, though bags are sure easier, just more expensive.

2. Real tree or artificial? I love real tree because of their great smell!! However we have an artificial tree we got is on a after Christmas sale and it has been saving us money ever since!

3. When do you put up the tree? When my husband decides its time and pulls it down from our garage. He like to do it right after Thanksgiving, though this year I made him wait until the baby was home and situated.

4. When do you take the tree down? When I decided I want to put it up. For me it is usually right after Christmas. I am a cleaneruper.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yup, I sure do! Though a lot less then I did when I was a kid... Stew hates it and that has sort of rubbed off on me.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Honestly I cant remember any in particular. Gifts are not my love language. But I remember my favorite birthday gift. :O)

7. Hardest person to buy for? People who already have everything they would want!!!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Stewart and myself

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, they are one of my favorite Christmas decorations

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Email/blog...coming soon!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? One year all I got was a doll's baby bottle. That was a depressing present opening year for me. :)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life one of my favorite ever

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I get around to it.I am not one of those who has it done way ahead of time. We really need to have Christmas money in the bank before we hit the stores. :)

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? um...homemade sweets!

16. Lights on the tree? of course! More the merrier!!!

17. Favorite Christmas song? I really like the first Noel...but I love most of them.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This is our second year by ourselves. I am not sure if I am happy about it or not. Last time we did our own we really weren't on our own. But I like throwing parties and so we are having a party with some friends Christmas Eve...and I am sure we'll make some good memories.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? NO!!! :O)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have a star just like the one I grew up with.

21. Open the presents? We aren't sure yet...still in debate my family was a Christmas Eve family and Stew was more traditional. I am not sure if they get one the might before or not. I like to think that they could give sibling gifts the night before...but time will tell.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Breaking the budget and the guilt that comes with that. :O)

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like the kiddish look for our tree...I think it should be the kids creation...that is who the holidays are really most for!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I personally like a buffet the most because that is what I grew up with but traditional meals are good too.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To watch my kids experience the magic of Christmas!

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Honestly no one...Christmas is in a couple days and this is long! But don't let that stop you! ;)

December 15th

Today is Benjamin's due date. Even though I have already had my Benjie I still feel it is a significant date to finally arrive at. Pondering on this self declared significant date I was first off very grateful I am not still pregnant. Benjamin might have been a nine pound baby if he'd stayed in there much longer. :) I think I might have simply burst at that point! And then I thought with awe how fast time has gone and yet how it seems like an eternity has passed with all the changes brought along with our new family member. We are so excited to have our little Benjie join us. We are so happy to have his sweet spirit in our home. The kids love him so much, it really was instant for them. Angeli might be the most excited out of all of us!!! She is really such a mini-mommy. She is so cute with him. She studies everything I do with the baby and then proceeds to copy me. One of our favorite things is getting to know and fall more in love with Benjamin. Here are a few tidbits about our boy:

- He has two very adorable dimples when he smiles big
- His favorite pass time is nursing
- His greatest talent is nursing
- He can projectile poop like no other...ask Stew about that one ;)
- He is such a patient tough little guy, it takes a lot to upset him
- He is growing a mile a minute
- He is going to be blond...well, I assume so because of his blond eyelashes and eyebrows
- He is a really good baby...getting him to sleep, feeding him, burping him, changing his diapers and cuddling him are all done without him putting up a fight
- He is a hansom baby boy of his very own, he looks like he belongs to our family but truly has his own Benjie-ness about him...LOvE iT!!!

A Great Tragedy

So when I am pregnant I don't really like sweets. I'd rather eat salsa and chips then have a scoop of ice cream. Normally I love sweets and when I am nursing I really really really LOVE them. As soon as my milk came in I felt like a switch went off in my brain and all I could think about was getting my hands on some chocolate. So as any postpartum mother would do I totally indulged myself with some really divine chocolate. However, it was followed by a terrible night with Benjie. No sleep for me or him. Things went back to normal and I hoped it wasn't the chocolate I had eaten. So I indulged myself again and to my dismay I had a terrible night with Benjie. I have thus concluded that I cant eat chocolate while I am nursing! Ugh! What torture! I am seriously in pain when I think of chocolate and how terribly badly I want it. And its the holiday season! Its everywhere taunting me. Truly this is a great tragedy! :(

Welcome Home Benjamin

We are all home together now and doing well. The kids are being really sweet to Benjie and thank goodness they have each other for entertainment while their mommy is occupied with the baby. The next couple months are going to be interesting :O). Here are some cute pictures we have taken so far. It seems his little face is changing by the hour. I don't want to miss any of it.

Pictures of the kids

Stew brought the kids to see Benjamin. Angeli couldn't get enough of him. She didn't want anyone else to touch him.

Angi thinks that he needs to have a pacifier. (He doesn't really like it though)

Angi loves being a BIG sister

Angeli is concerned that mommy is taking HER baby

She did share the baby a little with Stewart

She is trying to tell us that he needs his pacifier

Bridger didn't really show much interest in the baby, but he loved the chocholate and stuffed dog that people brought. We found him hiding behind the table trying to eat as much chocholate as fast as he could.

Brand New!!!

Emily and BenjaminHere is Benjamin doing his first hearing test. He passed.

Mom and Baby are doing great. We are very excited to have this new addition into our family.

Sitting in the Hospital

I am currently sitting in the hospital bored and excited and waiting. My water is leaking once again, I honestly think it has been leaking for weeks which freaks out my doctor and nurses but luckily I am on antibiotics for my awesome skin so that is happy as it reduces the chances of the baby getting an infection. So yup, we should be having a baby today!!!! December 4th! Yay, for us!

PS I hate IVs! :)

Here is what has happened so far today. We will keep updating this as new things progress.

10:00-Appointment with OB/GYN
10:45-Called Stew to inform him we were going to be having a baby
11:15- Checked into the Hospital
12:00-IV Antibiotics were started
1:50-Broke water (There was still a lot of fluid even though I had been leaking for a while)
2:35-Started Oxytocin to help contractions
SUFFERING THROUGH CONTRACTIONS WITH LITTLE PROGRESSION
6:45-Epidurals are Emilys favorite advancement of all time
7:25-8 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced
8:00-9 centimeters dilated
8:10-feeling pressure with the contractions (not long before push time)
8:20-preparing bed for delivery
8:25-ready to push
8:36-Benjamin Merlin Rasmussen was born. 8 lbs 7 oz 21 1/2 in long
8:50- Stewart gave him his first shot

Keep posted for new updates

Thanksgiving is....

Being With Family And Loved Ones,

Eating Really Yummy Food,

Lounging Around With Those You Adore,


Making Meaningful Memories,


Being Grateful for Your Life's Greatest Miracles,

And When Your Son Has Major Mischief Skills,.... Damage Control!

We had a great Thanksgiving. We feel so grateful that we had so many loved ones to share the holiday with. Mom and Dad Rasmussen and Whitney drove all the way up from Vegas and then we all caravaned to Stew's Uncle Shawn's house in Sacramento. We had such a good time being with so many family members. There aren't many people in the world as fun and as caring as these people!!! Our little family was in heaven being able to be with them. The kids got so much attention from their cousins, their aunts and uncle, and their grandparents. Dad Ras treated the grown-ups to a lunch at the best Thai restaurant in all of America (according to Stew and I). It was so nice to go out with adults and eat some seriously good food. We really don't get out enough and it was a super nice treat for us. While we were there we were able to see the awesome Reflections of Christ exhibit that was at the stake center by the Sacramento Temple. If you have never heard of these pictures check them out, they are really cool. The Temple there is a really beautiful temple, the kids loved the fountain and running around the grounds. And Shaun and Sue I am sorry about Bridger turning your bathroom into a swimming pool! Bridger totally flooded their master bathroom. I hope your carpet is OK! Mom, Dad, Whit, Shawn, Sue, and Kids thank you a million times for helping us have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Cartoon Characters

So I have wanted to do this blog for a long time and as I find myself looking desperately for diversions from obsessing about my hopefully pending delivery I thought now is an opportune time to do it. So, if you were a Cartoon Character which one would you and your family members be?

Emily: Cinderella

Stewart: Mowgli

Angeli: Piglet

Bridger: Curious George

And I a just decided I am making this a tag.:) I tag Kirsten Ras, Becca Laing, Bethany Andelin, Megan Hinckley, Amy Neal (because I have never seen you do a tag ;), Joanna LeBlanc, and Eden Alexander .