Happy Birth Day Joseph Alek!

This little blonde cutie, Joseph Alek, was born to my sister Liz and her hubby Alex at 5:18 a.m. today. He was 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 19.5 inches long. Look at that hair!!!

So that's four babies from the Stayner side (Jackson [June 06], Hannah [Nov 06], Isabel [Jan 07], and Joseph). I am now officially the NEXT ONE up! Hooray? I think? :)

Robert is taking a BYU snowboarding class. Today was his first day on the slopes and he is sore already. Poor guy . . . just wait until tomorrow when more muscles wake up to the pain! He had a lot of fun, though, and, as usual, is thoroughly happy that I convinced him to take that class. (Yes, I'm always right. Okay, often.)

Well, that's all for now. At this point I'm pretty much just on baby watch, waiting for our little guy. I'll let you know when it happens (or at least Robert will). Have a great day! (-Jocelyn)

Welcome Isabel!

This post is a shout-out to my sister Rachel and her hubby Ryan who just had their second little girl, Isabel Ann. She was born on Monday, January 8 at 1:16 p.m., weighing in at 9 pounds (even though she was two weeks early!!!) and measuring 20.5 inches. From all accounts, she is adorable and is a good baby (eating well, sleeping well, looking cute . . . what else can you ask from a four-day-old?).

Welcome, Isabel! I can't wait to meet you!

My little baby is getting ready to come out, and we're almost ready to receive him. We FINALLY got the nursery done . . . so that stressor is out of the way. Now I'm trying to deep clean the entire house before he comes. We'll see if I get it all done. At this point, I would gladly go into labor. He's pretty much fully baked (I'm 36 weeks along; 37 weeks is considered "full term") and he is growing more and more everyday, making my life quite uncomfortable. The other night, we did have a fun five or six hour false labor marathon. I was having severe back pain/contractions and some front contractions. It went away eventually. I'm hoping it wasn't all for naught and that all that pain at least made me dilated or something. We'll find out at the doctor's!

In law school news, Robert has heard back from two law schools and he has been accepted to both. He got into Baylor Law School (Waco, Texas) and they offered him a full-tuition, three-year (so for the entire duration of law school) scholarship; George Washington (Washington, DC) also just contacted him and let him know he was accepted. No news on if he'll be offered any money from them, but it's more unlikely, as Baylor is ranked 51st and George Washington is ranked 19th, meaning that Baylor offered a scholarship to entice Robert to leave behind better-ranked schools . . . like George Washington.

We're very thrilled that he has two solid offers from good schools. It takes a lot of stress off our shoulders! Now we just have to wait to hear from the other nine schools (Stanford, U of Chicago, Northwestern, UCLA, U of Iowa, U of Illinois, BYU, Temple U, and Creighton) and then make the hard decision. We feel so blessed and know that our good fortune comes from the Lord and that He will help guide us in the ultimate decision, which is a comfort, since this is one of those life-altering choices. We also know we are blessed to have such supportive family and friends. You know who you are. :) (-Jocelyn)

The Holidays

Christmas Day belly shot. Merry Christmas, Peter (that big lump in my tummy)!

This is not my favorite pic of myself, but it's the best one of Robert and me on Christmas Day! John took this shot of us in front of the Bunch Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all! Both were joyous occassions, sweetened by the company of family and friends. We spent Christmas Eve with the Gibbons; Christmas morning at our house, then back at the Gibbons; and Christmas dinner and evening (we even spent the night!) at my sister Megan's house with all of the Utah Stayners. It was a very full, but very happy Christmas.

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New Year's Eve was spent picking up Brittany at the airport and then playing games (of course). I really think if you made the calculations, about 50% of our marriage has been spent playing games. It's all part of marrying into the Gibbons family, I suppose, and I'm good with it, because I always wanted to play games growing up and it was hard to convince any of my older siblings (or my parents) to play them with me! So now, I get to play games all the time. I'm pretty competitive, but so is Robert and the rest of his family, so it makes for good times (actual heated battles arise only about 1% of the time and they are always resolved quickly, thank goodness).

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I am now almost 35 weeks pregnant, which means there are 5 weeks to go, give or take a couple of weeks depending on when the kid decides to actually come. We are SO excited! I feel ready for the baby part and for being a mom and all that and I am definitely ready for the baby to be OUTSIDE my body as he is still in love with my ribcage. Fun? Not really! But we still need to get our home in complete order before he arrives, so New Year's Day was spent creating a bit of organizational chaos in our home. We are ALMOST done. WOOHOO!
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Welp, this blog has gotten pretty long and somewhat boring. So I am going to stop it there! But I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season and that 2007 will be the best year yet! (-Jocelyn)