2010 Christmas with the Cozzens

What a delightful Christmas!!
 (A huge thanks to my brother Tim, the best pilot for Allegiant Air)

 

 We decided to fly to Washington to spend Christmas break with the Cozzens family. And it was fun. On our way home from the airport, we stopped in Everett at Lucky Buffet (a Chinese restaurant) for a very good meal, great atmosphere and lots of entertainment. They had a live band playing Christmas music so Grandpa and Melanie danced a few songs. How fun!  Duncan was dared to eat salmon sushi. He ate it all. Five minutes later, he went to the bathroom and threw up. What a goof!
  





The Cozzens family sporting their new matching pajama pants on Christmas eve.

Melanie and Grandpa showing off their silly monster puppets that Melanie got from great-Grandma/Grandpa Thomas for Christmas. They were a lot of fun mixing and matching the different features. Grandma and Autumn are watching them.

Grandpa helping Autumn ride Melanie's new trike from Santa.

The day after Christmas was Sunday. We were privileged to attend Autumn's baby blessing. She looked absolutely beautiful in her blessing dress made by Grandma Thomas. It has thousands of beads crocheted into the shirt. What a doll!

At the end of our visit, our adventures began. 

All seven of us (Cozzens family and Thomas family) left at 5 am from Marcie's home driving through a snow storm and snow packed roads in hopes to catch a 10 am flight from the Bellingham airport on Allegiant Air with standby tickets.  The Cozzens family then safely drove back home minus Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Duncan.

Duncan had a pocket knife found in his bag which was confiscated. Great?! Somehow it made it through Las Vegas' security! Scary.

Being on standby creates all sorts of stress. There were three seats available on the 10 am flight and two people ahead of us were on standby also.

It worked out that there was ONE seat left which I took alone and left John and Duncan for the next flight at 5:00 pm. Yep. Waiting in the Bellingham airport for the next 7 hours. Tim and Grandpa Watkins picked me up at the Las Vegas airport without any hitches. And I was able to attend the Watkins family Christmas party at Kirk and Paula's home that night. 

Meanwhile.......
John and Duncan waited patiently until 5pm to find out there was only one seat available so they gave it to a young lady. They staywed overnight at a local motel and arrived at the airport early the next morning to get on a 10:00 am flight. 


What an adventure!!


Christmas turned out to be a great time, wonderful memories and plenty of love for our family.

Autumn has finally arrived!!!

Autumn Bonnie Cozzens arrived 9-16-20 at 2:16 pm PDT weighing 5 lbs 15.5 ounces and measuring 17 3/4 inches.

Due to the placenta shutting down around week 33-35, little Autumn was not receiving nourishment and estimated to weigh about 4 pounds so the doctors and Marcie and Ben agreed that the baby needed to come early. 

Marcie was admitted to the hospital on Monday morning (9-13) at 9 am. Because of the c-section from Emry's birth, Marcie could not have labor induced by medication - pitosin - because it would put too much pressure on her incision. So the doctor suggested a different procedure. The nurse would strategically place a special balloon near the cervix to soften/stretch it. It was a long shot but Marcie very much wanted to deliver Autumn normally.

From the many prayers and fasting on their behalf, the balloon procedure worked. Throughout Monday night, Marcie had contractions between 2-3 minutes apart so it was a long night. By Tuesday morning, she was dilated to a 4 so they removed the balloon and broke her water. Then the contractions stopped. Oh, no!

After waiting another day, the doctors and Marcie and Ben decided that they would give the baby 72 hours after the water was broke  and then they would perform a c-section Thursday morning.

Oh, and by the way, Marcie was allowed her "last" meal on Monday at 4 pm. After going without food for 38 hours, Marcie was getting weak so they finally let her eat breakfast on Wednesday morning. 

On Wednesday around noon, it was decided that a few family members would fast and pray for a miracle. If we did not include you, sorry. It was a quick decision. Our miracle began Wednesday night.  Intense contractions began around 9 pm and were about 4 minutes apart. By Thursday morning, it was apparent that this baby was coming naturally. Woo-hoo!!

Fourteen hours of continuous hard labor coupled with extreme exhaustion, Marcie asked for an epidural. It allowed her body to relax and finish the job. 

Ben said the nurses were cheering Marcie along throughout the whole process. They realized what a sacrifice Marcie was making and they were in awe of her strength and determination.

By Thursday at 1:48 pm, Ben sent out a text saying, "Next 15 to 30 minutes". What a relief. The doctor, too, was in awe of Marcie determination so he asked her to not push until he could get there. He was in surgery and would be done in 30 minutes. Marcie obliged.

Marcie pushed for about 10 minutes and out popped Autumn. Elated, relieved, and proud of her little one. Marcie called me to tell what they had named her. Oh, bubba. I was shocked and it made me speechless. Of course, I cried. 

The doctor told Marcie she could hold the baby as long as she wanted after the birth (before they took her to weigh, measure, poke, etc) so Autumn curled up on her mommy's chest for over an hour. Pure joy!!! Connection to heaven. I'm sure Autumn's big sister, Emry, was close by giving comfort and assurance that all would be well. 

Yes, by now, Marcie was completely on-empty so she quickly ordered a large meal. And devoured it. Yeah, food! 

Ben called Melanie to tell her that her little sister was finally born. She was quite excited. So he went to Jeff and Stacy's to pick her up and take her to the hospital. At first, she was hesitant but that quickly faded. She wants to be a little mommy. She tried to awaken Autumn with no success. Her parents had to teach her about babies habits.

Congratulations to Marcie, Ben and Melanie. Grandma is coming on Saturday to share in the joy.

(Duncan said Friday morning, "I wish I could fly to WA too." He really does love his sister and her family.)

Ten Little Piggies

In about six months (approx. arrival Sept 22), we are going to be counting ten little piggies, kissing one pudgy little nose, making lots of silly cooing sounds, and cuddling with Marcie and Ben's newest little precious one - our third grandchild.

We are VERY excited!

My little twin girls - twenty years apart!

Last fall, I wanted so much to make the same identical dress for Christmas for my two-year-old granddaughter Melanie as her mother had when she was three. I loved that dress.

And the original dress is nowhere to be found. So I knew I needed to make another one. I looked and looked through all of my patterns and found a lot of cute dresses but not THE ONE. I asked Grandma-great Watkins if she had the pattern. She remembered the one I was talking about so we searched her patterns at Thanksgiving but to no avail.

Oh, great.

That meant I had to design it from Melanie's current measurements and memory (20 years).

Wha-la!
After getting the dress about 75 percent done, I found the pattern on ebay. I quickly purchased it to compare my creation and to my surprise, it was almost exact! I must confess that I made improvements from the original design.

P.S. Melanie is wearing it backwards. The buttons should be on the back, although it was confusing because I made two dresses for Christmas - this pink one and a blue one. The blue dress has pretty butterfly buttons on the front. Oh, well. It's still cute. (See the Cozzens blog for a picture of the blue dress)

By the way, Janette, Jennifer and Rachel - do you remember your dresses like this one? Jennifer's was purple and Rachel's was red.