Daddy turns 50!

On January 5th my dad turned 50 so we threw him a surprise birthday party at the Coffee House. Mama invited Daddy's family and some of his coworkers and I think he was really surprised. My grandparents drove up from Natchez for the party and to get to meet Mari for the first time. Below are my dad and his parents with Jake and Mari. My grandparents spent the night and the next day (Sunday) was my grandfather's 76th birthday so we went out to eat to celebrate before they headed back to Natchez.

Christmas 2007

Here are a few pictures from Christmas with James' family. I am afraid that I only have pictures to post of his family as we video taped Christmas with our family (James, Jake, Mari and myself) and then I was so involved with helping Jake unwrap presents at my parents house that I forgot to take many pictures. I have about five pictures, but I have my pajamas on in them and Jake is only half dressed. It is hard to take pictures of something when you are trying to participate in it as well. Maybe I will do a better job next year, or at least remind James to take pictures for me.

Above, Jake and his uncle John, below, Jake and his aunt Cheri.

Above James helps Jake figure out one of his Christmas Presents and below Jake tries out his new tractor.

Above is Jake and his dad's first cousin Emily, along with his Grandmother Carr and baby Mari. Below is James' uncle Phillip and his daughter Emily with baby Mari.

Cotton Plant

We read about this place in Union County and it was worth the drive. Next year, when Mari is older than a few weeks, we will get out and walk around. This year we just did the driving tour. It seems to be two or three neighbors that get together and put this on. It was free, but they were accepting donations towards their electric bill.

Below is the article we read:

10 things to do for 10 days till Christmas 12/13/2007 7:03:23 PM Michaela Morris

See the big lights at Cottonplant

If you love Christmas light displays, don't miss the extravaganza that is Cottonplant. Located near the Union-Tippah County line on Highway 15, Steven and Christy Paul have put together a winter wonderland featuring 170 inflatables, 70,000 lights and a computerized music light show.

Three years ago, they started with 15 inflatables.

"We decided, why don't we take this to a big scale," said Steven Paul, who started working on the new displays for this year in January.

The light display is free. Folks can have their pictures taken with Santa and the Grinch for $5. Cocoa and cookies available at Elf Cafe. (662) 266-1887 or www.mississippichristmas.com.

Drive-by lights

Hop in the car, break out the Christmas music and take a tour. Here are a couple of suggestions to get you started.

n In Pontotoc, check out the Simmons' house with dancing reindeer and candy canes. Take Highway 6 to Pontotoc. Get off at Longview exit and turn left toward Pontotoc. Look for the house on the right just after the flashing light at Veteran's Highway, or the old Highway 6.

n In Fulton, the Stubblefields have created an impressive display at their home. Take Fulton exit off U.S. 78. Turn left to go into Fulton. Turn right on Rogers Lane just past Senter Funeral Home.

n In Amory, practically the whole River Birch neighborhood gets into the holiday act. Take Highway 278 from Highway 45 towards Amory. The neighborhood is on the right on the west side of town. The theme is Reflections of Christmas.

Cookie time

Even if the weather outside is frightful, you feed the Christmas spirit inside by decorating cookies.

If you want a quick start on cookies to decorate, buy a tube of pre-made sugar cookie dough and roll it out to prepare for cutting shapes.

If you want something a little different, try this one:

Mint Brownie Trees
from Land of Lakes

BROWNIES

1 18.3 to 21-ounce package of brownie mix
1-2 cup butter, melted
1-4 cup water
2 eggs

FROSTING:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1-2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2-3 drops green food color
Decorator silver dragŽes, if desired

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan with aluminum foil, extending foil over edges. Spray with no-stick cooking spray; set aside.

Combine all brownie ingredients in medium bowl; mix well. Spread batter into

prepared pan. Bake for 16-22 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from sides of the pan. Do not overbake. Cool completely.

Carefully remove brownie from pan by lifting ends of foil; place onto large cutting board. Cut brownies lengthwise into 3 equal strips. Gently separate strips. Cut each strip into triangles, measuring 11-2 inches at the base.

Combine all frosting ingredients except silver dragŽes in small bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Place frosting in resealable plastic food bag. Cut a small tip from corner of good bag. Pipe frosting diagonally onto triangles to decorate. Place 1 silver dragŽe at top of tree if desired.

Toys of Christmas Past

While the kids are waiting to see what Santa will bring this year, the whole family can check out toys that have thrilled children from pioneer times to modern day. The Oren Dunn City Museum is hosting a vintage toy exhibit, including items on loan from Celia Fleishhacker and Louis Armour.

The price of admission - $3 adult; $2 senior; children free - also lets you check out the entire museum and grounds. Hours are 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday. Call 841-6438.

Wintertime treat

The BancorpSouth Arena will open its doors for ice skating from 1 to 3 p.m. and 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22 and Sunday, Dec. 23.

The $5 admission charge includes skate rental. Call 841-6528.

A play's the thing

Let Corinth Theatre-Arts get you in the holiday mood with its final performance of the classic "It's A Wonderful Life." The curtain goes up at 2 p.m. today at the Crossroads Playhouse. Tickets are $10 for adults; $5 for children. 287-2995.

Big screen

Catch Jimmy Stewart at his best in the most popular Christmas movie ever. The Link Centre in Tupelo will present "It's A Wonderful Life" at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Tickets are $6. Call 690-4011.

Small screen

Ready to stay home after all the holiday bustling? Have a family holiday movie night with cocoa and popcorn.

Here's a quick round-up of holiday favorites that will be on television between now and Christmas.

n If you missed the play and the Link Centre screening, catch "It's a Wonderful Life," the 1946 classic starring Jimmy Stewart at 7 p.m. Christmas Eve on NBC.

n "A Christmas Story" - The tale of Christmas in the 1950s and a little boy's desire for a Red Rider BB gun. The movie will run continuously on TBS from 7 p.m. Christmas Eve until 7 p.m. Christmas Day.

n "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"- The Dr. Seuss classic that reminds us that Christmas comes without presents and roast beast. The Cartoon Network will have it at 3 p.m. today and show it again on Tuesday , twice Friday and finally on Dec. 22. ABC will show the Grinch at 7 p.m. Dec. 24.

- "The Miracle on 34th Street" can be seen on the Retro movie channel on Thursday 24 and 25.

- "The Santa Clause" - that Tim Allen romp will be on the Disney Channel at 7 p.m. Wednesday and again at 5 p.m. Christmas Eve.

9. Cars and Carols - The Tupelo Automobile Museum will come alive with the sounds of the season from 5 to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission to the museum is $5 for adults; children 12 and under free. Call 842-4242.

Friday's line up includes Kay Bain, Harrisburg Baptist Church Choir and First Baptist Church Plantersville Tinker Bells. Saturday's event will feature St. Luke Methodist Church Handbell Choir, Harrisburg Baptist Church Youth Choir and Monday Night Pickers.

10. Random acts of kindness - What better way to honor the reason for the season than by doing something nice for someone you don't know? You don't have to be rich like the late Bruce native Larry Stewart, who played Secret Santa around the country anonymously handing out $100 bills. Visit a nursing home. Buy an extra drink for a thirsty fellow shopper. Let someone in a rush get in line ahead of you at the check out. I'm sure you'll think of something good.

Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 12/16/2007, section D , page 1

Christmas Card Outtakes

Our Christmas Tree!

James and Jake went to pick out the Christmas Tree this year while I stayed home with Mari. Jake was so proud of his tree!

Annual Reed's Christmas Parade in Tupelo.

The first outing we took Jake on, after he was released from the hospital, was the Tupelo Christmas Parade. It was a little more difficult this year as we had two to contend with and I must say Jake was much easier to take places when he was a week old then he is now. We all had fun though, but I was thoroughly exhausted after it was all over!

My cousin Kati comes to visit!

Now there are four...

Jake at two...

... is a handful at the moment. I am posting this as a placeholder and if he sleeps sometime in the next few days I will post more. He is currently sitting on my lap naming all the letters I am typing. Now he is annoyed because I won't hit the 'O' key. So I will have to go!

Jake's Second Birthday Party

Birth Announcement

James and Isla-Anne Schuchs Carr of Guntown are pleased to announce the birth of a daughter, Marion Ruth Carr, born November 24, 2007, at Gilmore Memorial Hospital in Amory, Mississippi. She weighed nine pounds and three ounces and was 21 inches long at birth. Baby Mari was born 30 minutes shy of her big brother Jake’s second birthday.

Grandparents are Larry and Ann Carr of Water Valley, and Mike and Alison Schuchs, of Fulton. Paternal great-grandparents are Dick Carr and the late Marion Carr of Water Valley, Mary Stark or Farmersville, Louisiana and the late Luke Stark. Maternal great-grandparents are Lennie and Nan Schuchs of Natchez, Mississippi and Bill and Marion McLean of Dunoon, Scotland, UK.

Like Father, Like Daughter!

The top and bottom ones are Mari and James is in the middle.

Mari's Birth

The last picture on the camara before the pictures from her birth were of the full moon that I took pictures of before we went to bed that evening. I woke up early that morning (2-2:30 AM) in labor!

Mari and Dr. Chaney share a birthday, as she was delivered on his birthday and arrived less than 30 minutes before Jake's second birthday!Not only was she perfectly healthy, but James and I got to witness and participate in the actual birth this time! Above, James gets to cut the cord! Oh, and I got to push her out, which really wasn't that bad at all!

Mommy has competition now, as Daddy has a new girl to love! James actually held her while I slept after it was all over, despite being exhausted himself. He just couldn't put her down!

I woke up early on the morning of November 24, around 2 AM, starving to death! I went down stairs and ate two sandwiches and drank a large glass of water. I never eat after I go to bed, so I was suspicious that this might be my body trying to stock up on energy for labor. Almost as soon as I finish drinking the water my back starts to hurt really bad. I tried to get back in bed and go to sleep, because it was 2:30 and I knew I would need my rest for when I did go into labor.
The pain was so bad I couldn't sleep, so I went and ran a warm bath to try and relax me enough that I could sleep. I remember the unmistakable back pain from my labor with Jake, and both miscarriages, so I woke James to tell him to go put Jake in his bed (he was in ours with us that night) in case things got ugly fast (I didn't want to scar him for life or scare him). I told James to go back to sleep and that I would wake him up if and when contractions started. The minute I got in the bath the contractions hit. I didn't attempt to time them or anything, I just tried to relax.
At around 4 AM I got out of the tub (I had refilled it several times as it kept getting cold) and woke up James. We timed them and they were around 6-8 minutes apart and only about 50 seconds long, so I went and got back in the tub and let James get back to sleep. I was having a hard time timing them or predicting them because they were different than ones I had before. I would feel Mari kick me (and see her little feet) and then I would have a sharp low pain like a contraction was beginning, but then it would fizzle out instead of rolling up to the top of my belly and so I would quit counting and almost immediately a full contraction would hit. I woke James back up to help me figure out what was going on and my contractions were now 4-6 minutes apart and at least a minute long.
I still didn't feel any urgency and labor had been slow with Jake so James went and made coffee to help him stay awake and we called Toni, our birth assistant/doula to see if she knew what was going on with Mari moving and the sharp low pain right before contractions (It wasn't happening with every one, just about every second or third one. The doctor later said that this was Mari kicking off the top of my uterus and ramming her head into my cervix, irritating it enough to cause a contraction. She literally jump started her own labor.) Toni didn't know and asked if we wanted her to come over yet and I said no, I was fine, just to be ready to come over in a few hours when we called her. Next James called my mom (she wakes up kind of early) and asked if she had made Jake's birthday cake yet. He told her not to start on it and asked if they could come get Jake because we were pretty sure we were in labor.
I tried to get out to the bath so I could spend some time with Jake before they got there but he was asleep and at this point the pain was so intense the only place I was comfortable was in the bath tub. I kissed him and laid down next to him for five minutes before heading back to the bath tub.
Around 8-9 we decided to call Toni and get her to head over. By the time she arrived I could only stand or lie down, but it hurt extremely bad to try and sit. Earlier we had wanted to go on a walk but it was sleeting outside and I was having trouble getting my legs close enough together to put on pants. James helped me get dressed and I announced that I wanted to leave for the hospital. After I had gotten out of the tub my contractions had jumped up to 2-3 minutes apart and were long and painful. My main concern wasn't the pain, but how we were going to get to the hospital if we waited any longer because I couldn't sit! James took the car seats out of the back seat and put them in the cargo area and I laid in his lap while Toni drove us the 45 minutes to the hospital.
The ride was miserable and at this point I was no longer dealing with the pain very well. It hurt in a completely different way then my labor with Jake. There was so much low pain and pressure this time. I just felt like if my water broke it would feel so much better.
Despite asking for an epidural with my labor with Jake, they did not manage to get around to it until I had been in labor for 16 hours (North Mississippi Medical Center Women's Hospital in Tupelo), at least four of those hours without the epidural I was receiving the maximum dose of pitocin they could give me. When they finally did give me the epidural it didn't work right and made my whole right side feel like it was on fire, while still letting me feel everything on my left side. All in all I was in labor for 18 hours with Jake before our emergency c-section due to my temperature spiking from an infection resulting from the doctor accidentally breaking my water (long story, horrible experience, beautiful baby boy, but definitely no thanks to NMMC). I was scared of another bad epidural experience so I told James that if I was lucky enough to get a labor shorter than 18 hours then I would try and go without pain meds. Also, I was afraid that with an epidural I wouldn't be able to push effectively and as we suspected she was going to be larger than average, I knew how important it was that I could feel to push effectively. I was trying to do everything I could to avoid another c-section.
We got to the hospital early that afternoon and were admitted to a room as soon as we arrived. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that I was only dilated to 4 cm. After 10 hours of labor with Jake I was at 6 and so I immediately began to fear that this was going to be another long labor. I was starting to get tired so I asked for the epidural in the hopes that it would give me a break and let me conserve energy for pushing.
Dr Chaney was the doctor on call and it was also his birthday that day. He was and still is one of my favorite doctors (right after Dr Lacey and Dr Hill, who are both women, so he is my favorite male doctor in the group) and he was by far the biggest supporter of my VBAC as far as the doctors went. I was so glad to see him! He administered my epidural around two or three PM. It took awhile for the epidural to take affect and right after receiving it my pain seemed to be getting worse not better so the nurse checked me again. I had gone from 4cm to 7cm!
Soon after that my water broke and then my epidural started to take affect. He did a great job. I could still feel and move my legs and feet, but it took enough of the edge off the pain so that I didn't have to concentrate so hard to get through the contractions. I got some rest while my body slowly dilated from 7-8cm over the course of the next one and half to two hours.
Around 5-6 pm the nurse came and checked me and I was almost at 9cm, so I asked her to turn the epidural down so that I would be better able to push when the time came.
She came back to check on me again a little after 6 pm and said I was at 9cm and that we would have a baby soon. Luckily, I knew better than to get my hopes up because I remember them telling me that with Jake and it was several hours (3-4) after that when they had to do my c-section.
At 7 pm the nurses changed shifts; Dr Chaney was on call all weekend though. Our new nurse came in to introduce herself and it turned out we already knew each other from high school- it was Mia Morris. She was great! I stayed at 9cm for a long time, but was having a slight urge to push. I wasn't quite at 9 or 10cm I was stuck somewhere in between with a 'lip' where part of the cervix gets sort of stuck on the baby's head. They decided to let me push to try and fully dilate. We began pushing around 9 pm and finally we were at 10cm, so now it was time to push Mari out!
Dr Chaney had been checking on us throughout the afternoon and evening and every time he came in he commented on how strong little Mari seemed to be as her heart rate was so good and strong and she never came close to having decelerations (her big brother was the same way, even despite all the complications in our labor he never had decels either). The last time he came in (when I was around nine cm)he said that he had me pegged as a good pusher and that despite the ultrasound showing her to be rather large, he didn't really feel that she was as large as they had previously thought from the way she was settling into my pelvic bones so well. That was just the pep talk that I needed!
Pushing felt great, at first anyway! I remember joking that it was the only part of labor I felt like I had any control over. It was hard work and I got very hot. Our nurse, Mia, had recently had a baby girl herself so she kept telling me that she knew how hard it was and that she knew I could do it. Toni held one leg and James held the other, while I held on to both legs. Almost a week later my legs, back and neck still hurt from all the straining! She kept slipping back under my pubic bone and it hurt when she did. Apparently it wasn't that great for her either because she had a big bruise on her forehead from it after she was born. Finally, I got her far enough down that she stayed in one place and it wasn't so painful anymore. I didn't believe James, Toni and Mia when they said they could see her head, I thought they were just trying to encourage me. When Dr. Chaney walked in, then I realized they were serious and I started to get excited! Her head didn't really hurt at all after I got it past my pubic bone, but her shoulder got a little stuck and that really hurt! It was a little blue and bruised when she came out but she didn't end up with any long term damage from what they can tell.
I actually saw and felt her when she rotated around (you could see her feet moving under my skin) and felt her completely slide out she was born. It was the most amazing thing I have ever felt! It was so surreal because I was also in a position where I could see it as well. After the last big push to get her out I lean up and watched everything! James go to cut the cord and then they let me hold her and nurse her while he stitched me up (he gave me the option to tear when it became obvious I was about to, or a small episiotomy and as I was very tired and trying to get her here on her own birthday not her brother's- I opted for the episiotomy in the hopes it would speed things up. As is she arrived less than 30 minutes before Jake's birthday) .
Then came the really painful part. He tugged on the umbilical cord to speed up the delivery of the placenta (the only part of our birth plan he did not follow) and I started hemorrhaging pretty badly. They gave me three shots of pitocin, but it still didn't stop so another nurse came running in with a huge needle attached to a shot of methergen (sp?). She forgot I could feel things at this point and stabbed me in the thigh with it. She apologized when she saw me jump and heard me yelp. Luckily that worked although I was a little light headed and had trouble standing for the next few days. While all of this was going on the doctor was trying to massage my uterus to help it contract and he was manually scraping (with his hand) the inside to remove any leftover clots in an attempt to stop the bleeding. I was literally in tears from the pain. I reminded him the epidural had worn off and he apologized and said they didn't have much choice they had to stop the bleeding. After that he also had to check my internal uterine scar to see how it held up during the pregnancy and labor. It was nice and firm so we have the go ahead for another VBAC if we want one! (He joked he would see me again in two more years for another VBAC).
James got to assist in the first bath and I watched on from the bed before passing out from sheer exhaustion. I was so hungry and thirsty but my diaphragm was so messed up from all the pushing that I threw up the OJ they let me drink when it was all over. Later on I ate a few of James' french fries from McDonald's and drank a sprite Mia brought me. When I woke up James was sitting in a chair holding Mari, staring at her in amazement and talking to her. He told me that he hopes I won't get too jealous, but he has a new female to spoil. I was glad they had bonded so well. When we found out we were having a girl this time, one of the reasons I was so excited is because I wanted James to experience that father-daughter connection. They moved us to a room and James curled up in the hospital bed with us for a short nap before Jake came to visit us and meet his new baby sister on his birthday!
Mari roomed in with us and I even got to be with her for the hearing test and pediatrician check ups. She never left my side. It was an amazing experience considering we didn't even get to hold Jake until he was three or four days old and I didn't get to see him until the day after he was born! If you are expecting a baby and you life in this area- drive to Amory, it was so worth it!