Joshua helping make pizza

He LOVES to help, especially in the kitchen.

Our first snow

Caleb took this video.

Caleb's own funny video

Caleb loves watching funny videos - now he decided to create his own.

Our Home Birth

You probably already saw the blog entry from when Joy was in labor - she was so at peace, content, and relaxed for the difficulty of labor. Now we pick up the story with video, right after Elisa was born. I know these are quite dark, but if you get get your settings right, you'll be able to see well enough. And that's kind of the point - we got to have the home birth just like we had planned, which included soft light and gentle music. But if you look closely, you'll be able to see well enough.


One of the things we anticipated about home birth was having our children be able to meet the baby moments after birth. Elisa was born at 10:06 pm, and I went to get Caleb out of bed just a couple minutes later. We had prepared them for this moment with many discussions ahead of time and knew he was ready for this moment.




Caleb was in such awe, and it was such a wonderful experience to introduce him to her in this way. You may notice the soft music and the candlelight. Jeni (pronounced like Jenny with a Y instead of a J at the beginning), our midwife, said it looked like a romantic setup when she arrived - another benefit of being able to have the baby at home. Joy could have it just the way she wanted it, and Elisa could arrive in peace and serenity, without bright lights, beeping machines, and somewhat flippant workers, as we've had in the past at the hospital. Every birth is special to Jeni, and it makes it even more special for us.




We woke up Caroline a few minutes later - she was groggy, but she eventually figured out why I was waking her up.




Here I bring in Caroline to meet Elisa - she is filled with awe, wonder, and love as well!

After the birth

So gentle - a significant contrast to the other three births we experienced.






Weighing Elisa - Jeni warmed the little sling on the heating pad so as to keep Elisa comfortable.

Joshua meets Elisa

Here he comes.





Everyone wants to hold her.

Caroline Reciting Hey Diddle Diddle

She learned this in school with Caleb and can recite it so cutely.