Marriage Moment- Blanket of Snow

Ben is AMAZING.  He constantly astounds me with his kindness and service minded soul.  We got the first snow of the season tonight and as we lay in bed, hunkered under a pile of blankets with a heating pad at our feet, Ben decided to text one of the less-active guys in our ward and see if he was okay.  The guy responded that he needed a blanket and he was a little cold.

Ben bounded out of bed, got dressed, got a couple thick blankets and a coat he thought might fit this man and ventured out into the snow.  As I sat inside watching him dust the snow off the car at 10:00 at night I felt so proud. 

I am so grateful that I am married to a worthy priesthood holder who honors his priesthood duties and his callings.  I am so grateful that Ben is so willing to help those in need. I am so grateful that he listens to the simple prompting of the spirit telling him to contact a member of the ward and see if anything is needed.  I am amazed by his service and the love he has for others!!

Marriage Moment: STOP TALKING!

My Love Language is Quality Time and for me that means talking.  I love to sit and talk and talk... and talk to Ben.  Usually the time that we have to talk is while getting ready for and laying in bed.  Ben, however, likes to use this time to check the sports stats on his phone and is not always fully focused on our conversation. 

Last night, like most nights, I was talking and talking.  After a while Ben turned off his phone and rolled over to sleep but I kept talking. He groaned and rolled back to listen. After we had talked till WAY past our bedtime Ben finally exhausted said, "Stop talking, we need to go to bed."

I replied with an honest, "We can't go to bed we haven't prayed yet."

At which he quickly and eagerly responded, "If I pray will you stop talking?"

So we had our prayer and laid down to sleep when something popped into my head.  I turned and started to ask him a question when he bursted, "You said if we prayed you would stop talking!!"

This put me into a fit of giggles , although he did let me finish my last thought (which he did say was important), this made me stop talking (with some quiet snickers) long enough for him to fall asleep- about 2.5 seconds. 

I still laugh when thinking of this- my dear husband is so patient with me!! Man, I love him!

Quarter Plus a Penny

I am now OFFICIALLY over a quarter of a century old- YIKES.  Saturday I had my 26th Birthday!  Ben and I were going to spend the day in Estes Park, but the road was closed (we decided to rain check and do it in a couple weeks), so we decided to play miniature golf and walk around Pearl Street (it was the Boulder Fall Festival).  It was fun to spend time together and get to talk for hours (maybe the talking was more fun for me than Ben)! After everything we came home for a dessert of Oreo's with Peanut Butter and a movie (we both fell asleep within the first 30 minutes of the movie) but it was a great day! 

Ben likes candid pictures but our camera is not really fast enough for that- this is the result!

The next day we had a Newson Birthday Party for Nedra (70th) and myself.  There was great food (always), super sweet desserts and amazing presents! Thanks everyone. 

Baby Gwyn

On August 31st we got a new STONES Baby!! Gwyneth was born at  3:02 AM she was tiny at 6 lbs 13 oz and 18 inches. Everything went great and everyone is so happy! The kids love their new baby sister, especially Wyatt, who constantly wants to help (he is in charge of getting diapers).  

Because I have been sick Mat and Andi brought sweet little Gwyn down to meet me (at just two weeks old).  She is very little and I was nervous to hold her (I need to get over that fear before January).  Andi looked great and we all took a long walk (I hope I can slightly resemble her strength after having a baby). It was so great to see everyone and to meet baby Gwyn!

Wyatt got ice cream all over his face- I thought it was pretty funny!)

BABY PICTURES

She is sucking her thumb- so cute!

Look at her beautiful profile- she is already a pretty baby!

She is scrunched up in a ball.  You can see her rump and her cute little chicken leg!

Third Time's a Charm

Having a baby is SO EXCITING.  It is exciting to know that your little family will be growing.  It is exciting to sit and plan how your life will be/change with a little one strapped to our side.  It is exciting to sit and PLAN. It is exciting to plan the nursery, the names, the cloths. Because of this last list of excitement we (I should say I, it took Ben some convincing) were SO EXCITED to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. 

Our appointment was set for September 11. I had the days on count down.  I had researched how far along I would be and the likelihood of seeing it (it was high).  Then a little more than a week before our appointment Ben found out he had to be out of town on a business trip on that day.  There is no way I was finding out without him so we pushed the appointment back a week. I could wait a week- right?

So Tuesday September 18th rolled around.  Ben got off work early and we got to the Doctor's office with lots of time to spare. While at the billing station she had a hard time finding me in the computer and was doubting that I had an appointment that day.  I was internally freaking out- this could not be happening- but she eventually found us, under a different name, and we were ready to go.  So excited, we sat jittery in the waiting room and we waited and waited.  The time for the appointment came and went and we waited. About 15 minutes after our scheduled appointment a nurse came and called our names, we eagerly jumped up.  She then said, "The Doctor was called to the hospital for an emergency surgery, we will have to reschedule." We both stood there for a minute confused and stunned- seriously?  So after checking schedules we decided to come back the next day at 3:30.  I was so sad and disappointed, Ben could not stop laughing at the poor luck we were having. So to drowned my sadness and stifle his laughs we went got ice cream cones for dinner- not super physically healthy but definitely good for the soul. 

The next day lacked excitement; I was not going to be excited for yet ANOTHER letdown.  I was actually a little grumpy and an emotional basket case (lots of random bursts of tears).  Ben was excited; he had had a dream the night before that we were having a girl and he was sure it was right!

At around 1:30 I got a phone call from the Doctor's office saying, "The Doctor has a C-Section the time of your appointment, can you guys come now?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  So we rushed to make it to the Doctor early. Ben had to come straight from work so we decided to meet at the Doctor's office.  I got there and waited, no Ben. They took me into the ultrasound room and I waited, no Ben. Finally, Ben arrived (whew) and together we...waited.  At around 3:20 (10 minutes before our initially scheduled appointment- seriously, all that rushed stress?) the Doctor came in. 

The moment he put the ultrasound on my gelled belly we got a clear picture of our babies profile.  It was adorable; you could see the  eyes, nose, little lips and lack of chin (thank you Stones genes).  He then started checking out the body; four chambers in the heart, healthy spine, right number of extremities, normal brain development, intestines and insides looked good.  But the sweet little thing was being SOO modest and he could not get the sex. I was determined to see, I was NOT going home without knowing, and told the doctor I would push and poke the little thing until it moved to give him a good shot.  He poked and prodded, dug deep into my ever growing belly mass and finally got a look. He said, "Well, it looks like three lines to me."  Ben and I were both a little confused and he explained with an honest and blunt, "It's a GIRL!" 

I got a wide grin, couldn't stop exclaiming my excitement and Ben sat with no emotion on his face staring at the monitor. The rest of the appointment (a lot of measuring and checking), Ben kept that emotionless stunned look.  As we were leaving the doctor commented that he was only 80% sure that it was in fact a girl.  He told us that he rarely gives 100% so that IF it happens to be wrong he doesn't get yelled at by the Mom and have to re-paint the nursery.  

When we got outside we sat on a bench and called our families.  It was so much fun telling everyone what we were having! Ben's initial shock wore off and his excitement began to show. It took a couple tried but we got to find out- a GIRL!! This makes it seem a little more real- now we don't have to say IT  but can say HER!!  This follows the Newson Trend, girls first.  And makes another little girl Stones cousin; Page, Gwyn and now Baby Newson. We are very excited, I honestly can't say that enough!  Now I can get back to the PLANNING- names, cloths, nursery- I am very excited!! 

Sitting outside the hospital after finding out about our baby GIRL!

Here are the pre-ultrasound Baby Guesses:

NAME	BOY	GIRL
Ben		X
Brea	X
Ron		X
Rachel		X
Larry	X
Margaret		X
Andrea		X
Ben		X
Michael	X	X- changed last minute
Jasen	X	X- changed last minute
Emma		X
Spencer	X	X- changed last minute
Mat	X
Andi	X
Michael	X
Taylor		X
Ricky		X
Deanna		X
Amy	X
Charlotte	X
	10	13!!