A Thanksgiving Blessing

We will always remember Thanksgiving 2008 as the holiday Gentry Rose came into the world! My sister-in-law, Crystina, and brother, Ryan, welcomed their little girl early Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. It was wonderful because we were there to see her when she first arrived. Crystina is literally an amazing woman. She woke up Friday morning and thought she felt like she would have the baby that day. She went ahead and went into work and got finished with some loose ends so she could officially start her maternity leave. At 5:00 that evening she took a short nap for 30 minutes and her water broke. She labored for just 8 hours and Gentry was born. Mom and I went up to the hospital as soon as Ryan called to see our new blessing and Crys looked great...her hair wasn't even messed up! I told her she needs to give me some lessons for this time around :) I mean how many women just have a feeling that their babies will be born that day and then they are??? I tried to will Jake out for 2 weeks but to no avail. I didn't get very many pictures of the baby, but will post more when I get some from my brother. My nephew Hendrix is very proud of his baby sister. When he saw her for the first time, he was wanted her unswadled right away so he could see all of her fingers and toes and told her over and over again that he loved her. How sweet is he?

Gentry just after being born--not too happy to have the flash in her face :)

The rest of the week was great as well. My dad met Jake and I in southern Oklahoma on our way up last Monday to go hiking (Ty flew in on Wednesday when he got off work). Jake had a great time looking at the little waterfalls we saw and splashing his hands in the water. He was really excited to see his Papa and his Papa was really excited to show Jake one of his favorite hiking spots.

My grandmother from Detroit came down for the holiday and met Jake for the first time. All of my dad's family came to my parent's for Thanksgiving day and it was great to spend time with my cousins as well.

Hendrix and Jake with their Great-Grandma while watching OU beat OSU (another Thanksgiving blessing!)

We had Christmas early since we won't be back next month and the four grand kids loved opening their gifts. We just missed having Ryan and Crys with us since we did "Christmas" on Saturday and they were obviously a little occupied at the hospital.

Mom and Dad with their four grandkids (minus Gentry who was just hours old and of course Grace who is on the way)

The only downside of the trip was that my mom, my grandma, and me all got an upper respiratory infection. On the way home on Sunday, my coughing induced nausea and I couldn't keep down any food for a day and a half so Monday I spent the day at the hospital getting re- hydrated through IVs. Baby Grace was fine though. They hooked me up to heart monitors, and she was so feisty she kept kicking the monitors off. The nurses decided she was definitely fine if she moves that much :) I'm feeling better now and just wishing I lived a little closer to Oklahoma so I could spent some more time with my new sweet niece!