Welcome to the World Piper Nicole Dennison

We got into town Thursday evening and Wyatt & his daddy stopped in the hotel to see us (Michele's mom is staying at their house so we thought we'd give them some space). We hadn't seen him for a few weeks but he knows right away who we are. Tom & I then went off to have dinner with my two brothers and two sisters. It was nice but we sure don't do it often enough. We probably won't get together now until after Christmas.

On to the real story. The birth of our sixth grandchild Piper Nicole Dennison. Michele had a rough labor last time (you can see it HERE) and had an emergency C-Section. This time they just scheduled it and it was a very calm and peaceful process at least for us that were observers. She was scheduled for a 7:30 surgery and at 7:44.

Here she is weighing 8 pounds 4.6 ounces and 21 inches long

Wyatt loved her right away. Making the sign for "baby" and giving tons of kisses.

Even though we have done this five times before it still feels like the most special moment of our lives.

Her doctor came in to check her out and proclaimed her perfect. He held her up and asked if we wanted to take pictures so we felt we should even though we had been taking pictures for an hour already. She was born on not only our nephew, Rob's 29th birthday but on the doctor's wife's birthday.

Michele is doing so much better than she did last time. They were worried early on when she passed a big clot but everything seemed to work itself out.

We spent a couple of hours at the hospital and then took Wyatt out for the day. It was freezing in Ohio and we wanted to get him a new winter coat so we set out for the mall. Isn't this pea coat the cutest!

We went to lunch and he was very entertained by my phone. The best toy ever.

We then went back to the hospital for awhile and took Daddy out for steak (and took one back to Mommy too)

Then we took Wyatt back to our hotel to swim. Tom thought he would be able to mange him in the water but I ended up taking over. He's feeling good but not that good YET

Then back to the room to play some Hotwheels.

What a day! We are exhausted and all I wanted to do was take a long hot shower but the hotel was having trouble with their hot water. Oh well. Now it's almost 11 and I never got my shower.Maybe in the morning . . . .

Last Week with Only FIVE Grandchildren

Tom has been feeling good lately. He says he has times when he has NO pain. He's still on some narcotics with a patch and pills and eventually the doctor would like to replace them with Tylenol because even if the fusion is complete he still has nerve damage with pain. Everything seems promising at this point. He has noticed a bigger lack of mobility which is a good thing. He's also done some driving this week. He even took Ella to a movie and Wal Mart and brought me this CD, which I LOVE. I'm not quite sure why. Some of it is because I remember my dad singing along with these songs thinking he sounded so great and he kinda was. He still spends a lot of his time in his chair but not nearly as much and sometimes like when Sami was a bit fussy, with a purpose

Today I was getting her some yogurt for a snack and she found the empty peanut butter jar and wouldn't let me throw it away so I let her have both. Good thing I gave her a spoon to hold in her hand while she ate with her hand.

I think Brutus knows we are getting ready to go somewhere with the suitcase out. He looks a little down.

Natalie will be going on a religious retreat this week end and will not be able to be in contact so we decided to make Mommy a little picture with Sami's hand print and some coloring. I think she enjoyed washing her hands afterward as much as she did painting.

Yesterday I touched up my roots and today I got my nails done because on Friday we will be meeting our newest grandchild. I am packing my vanilla body spray so that when I meet her she'll know my scent from the start. I have been using vanilla for years and I don't even notice the smell any more but I'll get a comment from the kids or grand kids every now and then about my smelling like cookies and I kinda like it.

Next post SIX GRAND KIDS!

A Visit from Jack & Lily

Things here have been pretty routine. Tom is 5 weeks post op and is feeling pretty good. The first nice day we had he was out in the yard using the weed eater. Yesterday he drove for the first time and he even vacuumed the carpet this morning. He is still doing his BLT's, no Bending, Lifting or Twisting. He feels less pain than before the surgery so that's already a success. He's frustrated though that he can't help completely with Samantha. I can't really leave them alone because he can't lift her yet. I'm still taking Sami with me to take Ella to school in the morning too except for this morning when Jen brought Jack & Lily by early to visit. She stayed while I took Ella to school. They stayed until lunch so that Jack & Sami could play and PaPa got some bonding with Lily.He didn't want to wait for me to move the farm to the floor.

I never realized sitting in it but my living room looks like a day care.Jack's own Dinosaur Train

I gave them ONE bowl of goldfish and while Jen & I were chatting somehow they got into the cupboard and got a few more bowls to sort. They had them everywhere by the time they were done. Still not sure what the thought was here.

The only grandchild he can lift to date. Next Friday our newest granddaughter is scheduled to be born. Lily is our fifth grandchild to use this $30 high chair from Ikea. We never thought it would get so much use or we might have bought a nicer one.

oops, Mommy realized she didn't have her flower on. PaPa calls her his little peach pit since all her hair fell out and now she just has fuzz. We may have our third redheaded granddaughter after all. Time will tell.

Then the "big kids" had a snack. Sami gave up her high chair for Lily and Jack gave up his booster for Sami. Sorry about the sewing machine. I just got done making Jen a medeival cape to wear to the Ren Fest this week end. We do have two spare bedrooms, you would think I'd have space there to sew.

Here are a couple of pictures from earlier in the week. Tomorrow Ella is off school so we'll be a little busier :)

No Wonder I Can Never Find My Keys!

She's a lover. She loves her babies as much as her trucks and dinosaurs. These are the days . . .

Rain, Rain and More Rain

We've had a lot of rain lately but when it rained almost 15 inches in one day the schools were even closed so Ella got to spend an extra day with us. We were all excited and were working on making cupcakes to make PaPa feel better when Ella had drops hitting her in the head while in the kitchen and looks up and saw the ceiling leaking and said "Grams, it's serious!". With Tom only being 2 weeks post op I tried not to panic but it freaked me out a bit too because it was on our MIDDLE floor so it couldn't be the roof so I was running around looking for the shut off valve figuring it had to be the plumbing. Tom heard the commotion and brought a couple of towels down and said not to worry about the valve because even though there is a floor in between the roof and the kitchen. So we gathered up some buckets and towels and tried to keep Sami out of the kitchen. In case you were wondering the cupcakes were a bit brown but not burnt enough that we couldn't decorate them.

Like our hospital buckets? We have a collection. We ended up getting about a bucket and a half over the next couple of days, now we need to get it fixed I guess.

How do you keep a little girl out of playing in the dripping kitchen? Take her out to play in the rain of course!

I love the rain and especially playing in it when it's warm outside with no lightning. Our kids used to love it too, good memories.

This was yesterday. Her newest thing is wearing my shoes and refusing to nap.