Meet Jace Mervin Dudley AKA mini Curtis

On Thursday December 16th Curtis and I took off at 6am heading for the hospital in Orem to get induced. About 12 hours later after the inducement was started Jace Mervin Dudley was born at 8:17PM weighing in at 8 lbs 3 ozs, and measuring 20 inches long. Jace immediately showed the entire room that he had lungs and let out a good cry. If you are wondering what he looks like, he looks just like Curtis. Not sure he got too much genetic material from mom.

We all stayed in the hospital till Saturday morning and then returned home. Jace is doing well but is a bit yellow and is having to undergo biliruben light treatment right now. We are hoping that he will recover soon because the poor boy must be tired of getting his heal poked and blood drained every day!

Mom has had her fastest recovery yet! She is still a bit tired and worries too much as always but is doing fine.

Ashton and Sage are loving the fact they have a new baby brother but are sad they cant really touch him much since he is on lights. Ashton tries to be as helpful as possible even though he is disgusted with dirty diapers, and Sage is just happy she has a baby in the house.

Finally Dad is LOVING his little baby boy like nothing else and is very willing to help out in anyway. He is very protective and loves to just hold Jace and bond.

CDud and JDud

Just after Jace was born. Mom is really tired... can you tell???

Look at those eyes!!! Ive been looking at those same eyes for a year now!!!

Look how sweet he looks... and look at those lips! So kissable.

Finding Perfection

The day after Thanksgiving, our family took off with Grandma and Grandpa Dudley to find our Christmas tree near Vernon. We all dressed warmly, packed some lunch, a toboggan, and a saw and made the hour drive. Unlike Heber there are no white firs in this area but plenty of Pinyon Pine and Juniper. Curtis wanted a pine that was not too tall yet pointed at the top and thick and full. The problem with this combination of traits is that Pinyon Pine tend to grow more round than pointy unless you get a very very young tree. But we were determined to find a good tree for our family.

We took the truck and set out in the slippery snowy roads till our road literally ended with no where to turn around. So back down we went in reverse directly next to an edge. A little nerve wracking for most of us in the car… a bit exciting for me. We finally parked on the edge of the road, took out the toboggan, put the kids on it and headed out to find the perfect tree. Almost three hours later none of us had found a tree that would do except Mom Dudley who said if she had a permit, one in particular was calling to her. So we packed everything up and headed to another location. As the gals and kids ate lunch, the guys set up the hill to scope out a tree. They came down with a few in mind, ate lunch themselves and then took me up there to look at the line up. We quickly chose one that was a little short but healthy, fat, and full with a point. Reminded me a bit of how men used to like their women before thin was considered beautiful. Curtis cut the tree down and carried it carefully over his head to the truck, tied it down and hauled it out.

Our tree may not have been very large… definitely not the typical Christmas tree, but for our family it’s perfect and its filling our house with the smell of Christmas.

Kids were content with being pulled around while eating baked goods.

Grandma and Ashton Looking for a tree. Ashton was a trooper and did very well in the snow.

My man is sooo studly with sharp cutting objects.

Cutting down the Christmas tree. Took Four hours to find it!!

Curtis and Grandpa happy to have finally found the perfect tree.