Photos by Amelia

Flower pot trees at Chaoyang Park

 People sculpture at the Olympic Park

 Random photo of shopping center that Amelia took.

 Sculpture at the Olympic Park

The Olympic Park map.

Blessing Day

Great Grandma Evans with the little man who was wearing Chris' blessing gown when he was a baby.

Below are the wonderful men in David's life who will be wonderful examples to him as he grows and discovers the world.

His birthday Aug 4th

David Christopher was born on Aug. 4th at 10:14 a.m. He was 8lbs. 6 oz. (The exact weight I was when I was born). He was 5 days late and that's okay because he's perfect. I went into real labor somewhere around 2-3a.m. that morning. My contractions were starting out at 10-12 min. in between and they were painful, but not unbearable at all. The pain was recognizable as different from the practice contractions  previously because my right leg had a pain that would shoot down from the hip to the calf. Ouch! So I sat on the ball to try and make the most of the contractions--hoping that I would dialate faster. Does that even work? Who knows. Around 6a.m. I was sure that the baby would be coming today because the contractions were now 8-10 min. apart and they were requiring me to ease through them on the ball and do the breathing exercises. I called the midwife and told her that we would likely be heading to the hospital around 8 or 9. A quick shower and a few contractions later I called her at 7:10 and told her that I decided I needed to go to the hospital now instead. She said she could meet us at 7:30 at the office, check me and then we could head over to the labor/delivery floor. I told her I would be there early and wait for her. Chris and I got there and she checked me--I was at a 5! I was a little disappointed because I was sure by the pain that this baby was on his way soon. So she suggested that we head over, break the bag of waters and see how fast we can get the baby here. I was pretty sure I didn't want her to break the bag of waters because I wanted to spare myself as much pain as possible until it was time to push, etc. Undecided as to what exactly I wanted to do we walked over to Labor & Delivery (out and around the hospital instead of the shortcut--through the hallways--again to speed up labor). At 8:15ish I was breathing through some yucky contractions and strapped to the monitor to allow them to get a straight 20 min. monitoring of our baby's heartbeat and doing some intake questionnaire that I could really have cared less about. The questioner then proceeded to tell us all about his formerly red haired head and his child rearing woes. When he left the nurse and the midwife were trying to get me to decide how I wanted to proceed--hot bath/bag of waters breaking...? I sat there and was just in a stupor--not wanting to have the extreme pain, but also not wanting the slower recovery that comes with the epidural. I finally convinced the midwife to do the tub after I had her check me and I was at a 7 instead of breaking the bag of waters (about 9a.m.ish). Tub was ready around 9:20--I got in and had 3 contractions and felt I needed to push--either that or go to the bathroom. I now see the allure of birthing a baby in a tub. I absolutely did not want to get out of the tub. Moving sent me into another contraction. Not moving and the contractions were about 5 min. apart. I got out of the tub about 9:45 and it took me a few minutes to be able to make it back to the delivery bed. She checked me--yup at a 10. I gripped the mattress as tight as I could, bit the pillow so that I wouldn't scream this time and remained on my knees through the pushing and that was so HORRIBLE. Why did I do it without an Epidural? Who cares about an additional hour or so of added recovery time....I'm sure something could have gone wrong with the epi, which is why I chose to do it without, but what if everything was fabulous--I could have been in heaven. Most of the time I was also plugging one ear and for some reason it helped, but only a little. The PAIN! Still too recent of a memory. So fresh that when we were at the MN state fair last week and observing the "birthing barn" where all the new animal mothers to be were housed to birth their babies at the fair--I spent the time cringing and then ultimately leaving a little sooner than I would have otherwise--muttering to myself, "Too soon, too soon".  Back to David's birth story--summary: 

1. I have very effective, but widely spaced contractions, which surprised the midwife and ultimately led her to believe that she did not need to break the bag of waters to speed up labor. This is no surprise to me since it has been this way for all 4 births. I need to be more forceful with orientating my midwives/doctors to this fact so that we're all on the same page. I think I come off as a little too relaxed when talking about it so they are relaxed--too relaxed.

2. Breaking the bag of waters or not--the pain was probably equally painful--too soon to talk about.

3. If there ever is a next time I will not allow myself to not get the epidural. This is crazy talk and you all are my witnesses that will help me identify non-epidural seeking Sarah as 'crazy Sarah'.

 4. I am absolutely in love my new little baby boy and my three girls--how did I get to be so lucky?! With all the pain involved I can see why mothers have had more instead of just one and done.

Little Man's blessing day

Chris and I were very excited to celebrate with family David's birth and blessing today. David did not cry during the blessing so everyone could hear it this time. Edie cried through hers so it was nice to have a little more peaceful time. And of course when we had pictures taken. Not even one of them had all the kids looking in the same direction and holding still--oh well--at least they present an accurate picture.

I love this little man. What a cute picture he makes.

Hey we're moving to China

Some know and some don't. We've been really delayed about posting anything about it. Chris will be working for the University of Colorado (Denver Campus) and their International College of Beijing. This college is housed within the China Agricultural University in Beijing. He will be teaching International Politics, Comparative Politics, US foreign policy and probably another title that I'm forgetting. He is super excited and the rest of us a excited. Notice the difference? There isn't much of one, but I think it is because I have a better memory than he does. As we have been chatting about preparations he revealed that he didn't have to use squatter toilets except for maybe once or twice--me pretty much every time we left our apartment. Contrast the reasons though and you'll find that I was the one taking Amelia to the bathroom and I was pregnant for half of the time so I learned all about the squatters. I actually think they are great--more natural position to ease things out if you know what I mean. However cleanliness is a whole other matter. I suppose another reason for the slightly less excitement is the idea of having to come up with a whole new list of answers that people want to know whenever we go somewhere. Last time it was almost always, I'm an American, My daughter is 2 years old and I agree she is beautiful, lastly: We work at Renda as teachers.
Fun stuff.....maybe. I will probably have to learn a way to say that we didn't keep trying to have a boy in fact we like boys and girls the same and would have been just as happy with 4 girls. I suspect though that if I learn how to say that then people will want to talk more and my lack of Chinese will instantly debilitate the conversation and leave me making ridiculous hand gestures, which would happen last time.
In addition to this news:  Blogger is still supposedly blocked there so we'll probably go back to a weekly e-mail update to those who want to be regaled with what is going on. If this appeals to you-please e-mail me or comment and I will make sure I put you on the list. I promise to include pics as long as our internet speed cooperates. It will be sanitized of anything controversial since that would get blocked anyway --thank you google for selling out.--sacrcasm--


I will be doing home-school with the kids using the K12 curriculum. The kids and I are excited about this new adventure. I am really hoping that it turns out well. Keep your fingers crossed for us. :)

Chris' recovery

 Dr. Maloff was able to the surgery after all and he did this about two weeks ago. Going into the surgery the Dr. said that the likelihood of the graph being successful was not very good. Maybe 50% of it would work or more, but certainly don't count on 100% recovery. Chris went in for the week after appointment and the Dr. was elated. 100% recovery and so he took pictures of the success. Chris was happy too (we all are). Then the Dr. Maloff went on to say that it was a real testament to Chris' health--i.e. no smoking and otherwise great circulation. He said that smoking and skin graphs are the worst combination, because the body is being starved of the Oxygen it needs to heal and recover. Yea for not smoking! Double yea for the priesthood blessing he received as well! Skin was taken from the back of the ear in the area just before it becomes the side of your head. Stitches were taken out today.

On to the collar bone. This was the surgery that happened only one week after the accident. And so it has been 3 weeks now since this surgery. They used internal stitching and screwed a plate in to stabalize the two ends of the bone that were broken. The docter said that it will take a good year for the crack not to be seen on an x-ray because a plate had to be used. In collar bones that do not need a plate to heal the body builds a bulky bone around the area broken and can heal faster. Interesting? I think so. He still is not supposed to lift anything with that arm bigger than 10 lbs for another week.

On to the 4-wheeler---the final cost has not been reported to us yet, but the estimate is somewhere between 700-800. Much less then we were dreading and of course taking longer to fix then Chris. It didn't get a priesthood blessing--maybe it should have.

Super pregnant person

Unbeknownst to myself-Amelia took this picture of me after I got done with a run and while she was supposed to be making her bed. I haven't posted anything about the pregnancy really thus far for no real reason other than I have too much to do. But now that I'm about 4 1/2 weeks away from the due date it may be something others are interested in too especially since our family photos will soon show another being. Also this is a boy so we are in for a whole new experience.

Chris' mangled ear

On a recent 'man trip' with some h.s. friends Chris rolled a 4 wheeler and did this to his ear as well as break his collar bone. The white spot in the middle region of his ear is exposed cartilage. The plastic surgeon wants to wait until the skin around it heals a little more before he does a graft over it. The next appt with him is on Mon so we'll wait and see. This past Monday (yesterday) they took out the exterior stitches.

The collar bone was a clean break and the separation made it necessary for them to do surgery to put in a plate connecting and stabilizing the two ends. Now Chris feels a whole lot better :) minus the ear. I'll be super happy when he can lift things again because a very pregnant person, like myself, would rather not lift heavy things.

The ISU Children's Choir

 It was a super cold day and these kids were able to stick it out during this seemingly long photo shoot.

Oh Amelia looks like she's in pain. I was in pain watching.

Love these pictures!

Easter Egg Hunt

The kids were so excited to get as many eggs as they could. Sadly Amelia made a promise to not eat candy and pop for 6 mo. in exchange for $50. So her Easter candy is hibernating above the cabinets. It ought to be nice and yummy in July. :)

What did your Barbies ever do to you?

I don't know what other kids do for diversion, but I have to say that Lauren and Edie get together and plan scenarios that almost always include all or most of the following: kidnapping, bargaining, tying up, death jumps, escape, love, marriage, death and then having dates somewhere in there. This was after one of their more elaborate scenarios. Usually the play ends with everyone escaping, but apparently not this time. Although, can you really tell if Ken is lounging or tied up this time? Usually they use their hair bands to bind the feet, hands and mouths--this would disturb me more if we watched crap and let them watch it too, but I really believe that all of this came from Scooby Doo and Phineas and Ferb. Maybe too much of those shows and more harmless Dinosaur Train?

Amelia's handiwork

 A Super happy Rapunzel! Edie wears this wig at least once a week. She was only too happy to let her sister complete the picture.

 Amelia decided that Lauren needed some 'tattoos'. At least she chose I 'heart' mom.

Edie was supposed to be a tree fairy. I'm sure this was obvious to everyone. She combined some of the dracula face design (notice the arched eyebrows). I love this face painting kit!---Most of the time. The one time Amelia went too far is when she painted the underside of her and other people's feet. That did not end well for her.