Groneman Family

Thanks to all ya'll who came out for the germ swap.. er... Christmas fest. We had a great time and appreciate those who made the long drive to share such a fun time with us. My boys miss all of their playmates. (Looking on the bright side however, they are back to sleeping until 7 am, which I am very thankful for!) I apologize to Emmy for displacing her cute pictures. We can't wait to see her in person!

I can't let a thing like Brett's Birthday take the top spot on the blog for more than 3 minutes. I've added some way cute pictures of Emmy to the collection that's in the slideshow a few entries down, or if you want, you can just click on the picture...

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After reviewing my schedule for the next 4 months I notice that there is no possible human way to achieve everything that I have planned and still continue my blogging and running hobbies as I have been. Something has got to give. I'm going to be taking a BEAST of a critical care nursing class and so I've officially told myself that I am no longer going to be a frequent blogger. New goal for self: Cambrie can spend 1 hour writing blogs on sunday evenings only and can check out the groneman blog and write comments once a day. I love blogging, and you can bet I'll be back in all of my glory after this semester is done (end of april), but until then, don't expect much from me as far as blogging goes. Blogdor is done burninating the countryside.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRETTSKER!! It was a great Christmas! All those little kids in one place was fantastic. To be with Christa/Brigham, Cambrie/Steve, and Buff was great too. Too bad for the sickness, and too bad the other two Groneman families were absent. :( Things were such a blur Christmas morning with all the excitement of the little ones, here's what I *think* I got: Moveies and WII games from mom, Calendar from Dastrups, Kid Pictures from Nelsons, Peanut Butter cups from Benjamin, Blokus from C&E Groneman, ATV Bag from Buff, Candy from B&K Groneman. Thanks all! (correct me if I got something wrong!) The drive home was scary in places. Before we got to Gallup, the freeway was down to one lane with ice patches (the other lane was pure ice for the most part). It was fairly slow going. We stopped for gas just before we got to Gallup and it was 7 degrees outside and lo and behold we ran into Buff at the gas station! Hard to say goodbye again :( As we were going through Gallup

As dad requested, here's just a couple of pictures from my new digital camera to (1) show off it's macro photo skills, and (2) to show how much snow we had at the Boren's house as of Dec. 26th morning. Click on it to see how cool the camera is.

So, sounds like (Brett's email) that you people in Utah are getting,or have gotten a lot of snow. Anyone worried about being snowed in? How much snow is there on the ground? It would be fun to see some pictures.. Brett...with your new Camera....:) You know, see if it works kinda stuff. Our trip here was fairly tame...only scarey in Spanish Fork Canyon. We plan on coming home on Saturday, and according to the forcast, that should be a good day to do it. So Brett will you be able to join us this Sunday for your Birthday dinner, and if so, can Chad and Erica come and join us? Let us know...Of course anyone else is WELCOME to join us...but somehow, I don't think we will be having many takers. Cambrie and Steve are planning on leaving tomorrow for a 2 day trip back to California...although I am hoping that they will change their plans on account of a snowstorm in Arizona tomorrow, and it will be sunny on Saturday. Pretty precious cargo they will be carrying!!! It has been so

Jacob is watching Barney, Kiera is asleep after being sick this morning (on the way to the Aquarium...we had to turn back). Grandma is in her room reading because she's sick, the rest of the crew, including Buff who arrived last night, are out to lunch to celebrate Steve's birthday. Sickness & all, I love being around all these people from smallest to largest! Wish the rest of you could be here and hope you're enjoying your Christmas eve! Steve & Brigham & Buff are battling it out on the Word Challenge on facebook. The candy Brett & Katie made for the crew is disappearing fast. We're looking forward to singing Christmas carols, killing a piniata, and having a nativity play tonight. I uploaded some pictures to the party event in Facebook.

News from the "Q" as Brigham calls it, or "AlbuTurkey" as Kiera calls it) (I like Kiera's version of this place better :) ) We just got back from our walk of 2 miles. It is 26 degrees out there and CK says that there is a chance of rain or snow for today. We are hoping for SNOW after the Nelsons arrive...but not enough to mess up BJ's trip tomorrow! Benjamin is excited for Kiera's arrival. This is the first time that the cousins on either side will have visited them here in New Mexico, and Benjamin is anxious for it to be now. Christa told him they would arrive after lunchtime, so about 45 minutes after breakfast Benjamin wanted to know if it was lunchtime yet. As Christa says, "You have WAY TOO MUCH TO BE EXCITED FOR!" I second the motion! I just talked to the Nelsons, they have been on the road for about 1 1/2 hours (from Phoenix). She said that they had taken their stuff outside and I guess had it on the curb to load into the car, an

For those of you who plan to be taken up by the Rapture, do you realize what a tramatic experience this will be for your pets? Who will feed and take care of them when you are taken up? No problem. For a small fee of $500.00 per pet I will take care of them for the rest of their lives after you leave. Just send the money in advance, (No sneaky believers running off and leaving me with the bill!) along with your address and when I find out the Rapture has come, I'll go pick up your pet and take care of them. No worries about me being taken up too as I'm a Mormon (and not a good one at that).

Christa and Cambrie have requested an updated picture of Emmy be posted. Emmy has decided to humor her fan club, by releasing the shown photo. In other news, Emmy has been selected to play Baby Jesus in the Krueger's upcoming Christmas pageant. She wasn't too sure about accepting that position, until we assured her that it's okay for her to play a boy, and that type of thing was done all the time. She's very excited for the role now. Excited, but nervous. We've been practicing the whole "no crying [s]he makes". It's been rough. Our practices have only sometimes been successful. She's nervous that she's going to forget her part. She even gets so nervous that she can't sleep through the night. Poor girl. Erica and I have been working with her to help her try to get enough sleep. But can you imagine the pressure that's on her for such a big role? As her parents, we totally understand. We know she'll do awesome, and we keep h

With so much family around, it's bound to be a good birthday.

Just wanted to wish everyone an awesome time in Albuquerque this week. We'd love to be there, but it'll be some time before we venture out on long outings (especially with this weather). We're excited to see pictures and hear all about it! :)

So, as multiple people have somewhat mentioned on the blog so far, on Tuesday, I had the second worst day of my life thusfar. It started off at work. I had a group of babies that I haven't had in a while and I forgot that one of them you have to be especially careful turning him and such because he has a large stoma in his tracheostomy and if your not careful, his trach will pop out and make it so he can't breath (he's on a respirator) so I was turning him on his side and of course it popped out. He was fine cause we got it back in really quick but it was part of my no good, very bad day. Over my lunch break, I decided to go to Cambrie's for lunch because I work about a mile and a half away and on my way there, I got in an accident that was my fault. What happened was I was turning right and I saw the car in front of me start to go but didn't watch them make the actual turn so I pulled up to the line and watched for an opening to go. I saw one and started to go

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow???? Hummm. We weren't supposed to get snow today, but so far we have received about 6 inches and it is still coming down (total of about 10") ! Normally, this time of year, we love this! It is just fun to make a fire and watch it pile up. HOWEVER, we are planning on driving over 2 mountain passes in about 38 hours to go to Albuquerque, and the "Big storm" doesn't hit till tomorrow, and snowing through the night into Saturday. Not so good. Kim is thinking we may have to wait until Sunday to come. I am thinking that we will likely have to wait to make that decision until Saturday morning and see how bad the roads are. They said on Natl. news this morning that Vegas has 4 inches of snow and has closed their airport (some places in Vegas have 7"). School has been cancelled in the St George area for the day, and they talked about how much snow Moab/monticello area has also. Moab? Snow??? Good greif!!! They also talked

February 25-27 in Aliso Viejo which is about an hour away from the Nelson's. Think I could get a dinner invite?

Anyone want my autograph? http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22381/53/

I love having a little girls.

Since we've been on the subject of baby's bowels I'll tell my story from this evening. I went tonight to Ross to look for a coat for Kiera (for NM). I took Lydia with me and left just at her bedtime since she always falls asleep in the car and is very portable. Since I thought she was going to be sleeping for the remainder of the night I didn't bring the diaper bag. She slept as expected but just as I was starting to look at coats I heard the rumble from the carseat. No kiddin', sure enough-- a blowout. I saw the yellowness seaping through her PJ's (it had to get through the oneie first) and onto the carseat. I sat there trying to decide what I was going to do with no diaper when I realized that I had stashed a emergency diaper within the foam of the carseat. I sortof cleaned her up in the disgusting restrooms of ross, put her soiled clothes back on as she had nothing else to wear, forgot the coat hunt, and we went home. Of course she was dead asleep

To chronicle the lives of the Gronemans, we've decided to break off and form our own blog. We'll post interesting things from time to time on all blogs we contribute to, but the juicy details will be at http://gronemanbunch.blogspot.com/ . That's how we'll prevent ourselves from becoming blog hogs. ;)

Hi my name is Joe Shmoe and I am a random internet stalker dude who frequents your blog. I'd like to say thanks for letting me know when everyone is planning on being away from home in the upper left corner of the blog. However, Cambrie I wish you wouldn't have deleted the pictures of your garage sale that included your address on your house because I didn't quite get around to writing it down before you deleted it.

By the way, happy anniversary to Chad and Erica yesterday! Looking at your post, it looks like it was a really romantic one. I hope you guys were able to do something to celebrate-- the first anniversary is a big deal! I really hope that you weren't so tired that you didn't even remember!

Emmy hit a major milestone today. Grandma Krueger was over, resting between MTC duties, so she had been holding Emmy for a while. We suspected that Emmy needed a diaper change, so Chad got her (Erica was on the phone with her YW people, discussing the new YW value, virtue. Chad took Emmy up to check her diaper. That's when the milestone was discovered. "Erica... ERICA!" "What is it, hon?" "We have a blowout! HELP!" Erica told her callee that she'd call her back in 5 minutes, and came up to help. "Oh, wow. Mo-oom... We might need your help!" You see, when Chad had undone Emmy's Diaper and started to pull it down, he did not realize it was completely full, from the back of the back to the top of the front. Emmy felt her freedom and decided to give a good kick, and got her foot in the goo - right between her toes. Her onesie had come down a little bit, and gotten in the goo too. It took three of us to control the situation -

Click here for a Merry Christmas. (Click on the characters once there)

What is the difference between a yard sale and a garage sale? A garage sale is what happens when in rains and you have to move everything into the garage (but it is still wet so you have to put all the clothes through the dryer and wipe all the wood dry and hardly anyone comes anyway. Our profits: Nelsons made about $30 and Buff made $13. But would have been better off to stay at work (instead of taking for hours off for the sale). I should never have decided to do it in december anyway! I'm way to busy for gar-bage sales. Oh well-- DI is going to be getting a big donation.

I like it when Novell spoils us! It seems like they spoil Kim all of the time these days...lotsa days when he's not hungry for dinner because they fed him a big fancy lunch...but in addition to that, yesterday he won a digital camera AND they took us up to Sundance where we ate sumptuously...fillet mignon, 4 appetizers, salad, dessert. I came home entirely too full to sleep properly... but it was sure fun getting miserable! Those dinners had to cost $80.00 each and there was a bout 40 of Kim's group there. Glad I wasn't assigned to pick up the tab! And then Kim's boss, Kim (a girl), told him how much his bonus is this year...more than it has ever been. Then this morning, from 10-1pm they did the family part of this Christmas social at FAT CATS in Provo, where we humiliated ourselves in bowling in front of Brett and Katie, who of course got to come too. We knew that Chad and Erica couldn't do it with a new baby, so we didn't even call them. They also fe

Ok Christa, we now have Emmy up on our grandkid wall but there's still one empty frame there so any time now...........

In accordance to mom's request for pictures of me and my "hat", here are some pictures from my capping ceremony. One is of me and my whole class and the other one is of one of my teachers pinning on my funny lookin hat. Wow.... exciting....

Long story short: Bought used bosch on ebay: $95 (from Lady in provo who bought it at DI) Discovered bosch didn't work due to 1 small part malfunction. Found a random company who sells bosch to verify which part I needed to buy to fix it. They told me that they would get it for me for free. 4 days later not only did the part come in the mail (100% free including shipping), but they sent an entire new bosch bowl for free too. I called them to make sure that it wasn't an accident and told them I hadn't even bought my bosch from them. They said bosch is garanteed for life and then they sent me a new lid for my bosch too (since mine didn't fit). All free. Crazy bosch people-- they just lost about $150 on me. So now I'm the owner of a full-size bosch and a half size bosch. Anybody have a desire for a half-size bosch? I must say though that I love my bosch. Nothing can make bread products like a bosch. And there is nothing to compare to fresh rolls, bread, etc..

Wahoo! Just look at that Santa counter on the left! I'm getting SO excited!

You guys have been so generous to our little family, helping with a wide variety of things from Pregnant clothes to baby help books (and Mom and dad have helped with some large items as well). We've been meaning to call you all and thank you personally. We haven't expressed our gratitude like we should - we know we need to improve in that area, and be more timely in our gratitude. In the meantime, know that we are truly thankful.

I had another OB appointment today, and although I've been having a lot of contractions the last few days, the good news is that my cervix isn't changing. The not-as-good news is that this baby is still breech! If he hasn't flipped around in 3 weeks, we'll try to have him flipped manually (which is supposedly pretty painful), and if that doesn't work we'll be scheduling a c-section since they won't deliver breech babies vaginally anymore. I can't believe I'm at the end of my pregnancy already! I guess it's time to get ready!

Okay so update on my life, I'm living at Cambrie's and Steve's house again. I moved in shortly before Thanksgiving. Our lease ended at the apts I was living at and my best roommate was moving back in with her sister to save for her mission so in looking at my experience this last year with crummy roommates and my name being connected with theirs on the lease, I decided it wasn't worth it. This was I can help out Cambrie and Steve babysit more along with other things around the house and with rent. plus I get to play with two cute fussbuckets when I get home from work or school. It's a good situation. So today at work, I got my very first massage (sorry mom, the ones you give don't count). At work, a couple of times a year I guess, they have "employee appreciation days" where they allow a local massage therapy school to come do their clinicals at our facility for a couple of hours and we get massages. They already did it once this year while I

Vote: Should Cambrie Nelson get a facebook account? She is the only one of that generation in the Groneman clan that does not have a facebook account. I love facebook and the ability it gives to see what is happening in the lives of people I care about (and care enough to give their updates to facebook) I vote YES.

I have to acknowledge the tremendously traumatic event that Erica just went through. She literally passed through the valley of the shadow of death to bring little Emmy into the world. You people that are out of state wouldn't know that, beings that you haven't been able to see or talk to Erica. Without medical intervention, Erica would have died in childbirth. She was in labor for over 21 hours, pushing to no avail 2 1/2 hours of that. On her own power, she could not have brought little Emmy into the world...she had no energy left, and so they used forceps and pulled little Emmy out. She endured the process of getting 4 epidurals, which really did not do the job they were intended to do, and so she was in excruciating pain through most of that time. She only got about 3-4 hours of sleep in the 2 1/2 days and nights (up until last night when I went to visit them again), so she is exhausted beyond the normal loss of a lot of blood and exertion from giving birth to a baby.

WE HAVE A CUTE LITTLE GRAND BABY! We anxiously awaited until about 7:30 when little baby Emmy got into the room with Erica. She is a cute little thing...she looks a lot like Chad did when he was a newborn. I will be anxious to see pictures of Erica as a newborn too, so we compare. Course, they change a lot quickly at that stage...so it probably won't last very long before she is just sweet and precious little Emmy Ann! So fun !!! I just want to hold her and love on her, but both Chad and Erica got NO Sleep last night, after their very little sleep the night before, so they really need to get some sleep today, ASAP. Poor Erica had a very rough time of things with 21 hours of labor...and 4 epiderals that didn't work correctly...so she was still in great pain though most of that. And first babies are hard to get here when they only weigh 6 lbs 10 ounces, like Christa. Emmy was an extra 2 pounds! Erica is going to have a rough recovery and is going to need a lot of help.

Baby Groneman has made her debut, but we want to talk to you all individually. We haven't done that yet because she was born at 1:28 AM. We didn't have time to start making calls until 3:30 or so, and we figured we'd only call to wake up the grandparents. We're waiting to call people until people will likely be awake. Also, we've turned off the phones until we're ready, because we're still hoping that we can get in some shut-eye before the day gets going. (Edit by DAD: Adding pictures!)

Things have been busy here - But no baby yet. We had to get the epidural redone again. Please pray that this one stays in and works! The doctors have increased the inducing drug (starts with a p, but I forgot), to make the contractions stronger. Erica is dilated to a 7, and needs more sleep. We all need this baby to come!

Ok... It's now 3:45... Things are progressing, but not as fast as we had hoped. Erica is dilated to a 5 now. She's been in some pain the past two hours or so, so they just redid the epidural. We think it may have come out of place. In the few contractions she's had since it was put back in, things seem to be better. The baby's head is at station zero, which is (as they explained to us) the narrowest part it has to fit through. We're really just waiting for Erica to dilate more. Once she gets to a 10, the plan is to let her rest for an hour and give the baby a chance to descend a little more on its own. Then the pushing begins, which they say usually takes about 2 hours. Erica is exhausted. She was able to get in a little sleep earlier on, while the first epidural was working. Hopefully now she'll get some more sleep. The nurse is guessing that Erica will reach a 10 sometime around 5 PM tonight. (Erica just started snoring! She's asleep! SHHHHhhh

Another update: The doctor came in and broke Erica's water about three hours ago. The anesthesiologist came and put in the Epidural about 30 minutes ago. That was fun. But it had some comic relief. The doctor got her in position and began his work. He'd been working for only a couple of minutes when all of the sudden this huge gush of Erica's water came out, soaking the towel completely, and then spilling onto the floor. It was a lot more water than came out when the water originally broke. We started laughing, and the anesthesiologist had to start over. We just got an update from the nurse - Erica is now dilated to a 3, almost a 4. That's good. Previously, they told us that it took the longest to get to a 4, and then typically things progress pretty quickly from there. Erica's starting to fall asleep now that she has the Epidural, and she needs it. The little one could be here by noon, or it could be another 8 hours. We just need to be patient. When th

Yesterday we were finally called into the hospital around 2 PM - It was very busy at the hospital yesterday, so they didn't have room for us to go in at 11 like the original plan was. Once we got here, two nurses and two student nurses came in to get Erica all ready. They surrounded her and all of them were doing something. One of the student nurse was learning how to put IV's in, and was still working on her stuff when the other nurses were done (except for one asking Erica various questions). I looked over and saw Erica's hand covered in blood, and the pad below was all bloody as well. The real nurse took over and patched up the student's work, and put in a good one. (Brett - They were BYU nurses, and probably had never worked as a phalbotomist). The Doctor came in at 4:45, 9, and again at 11 last night. The 4:45 and 11:00 visits were to put the stuff on to help Erica's cervix get ready. The 9:00 visit was to tell us that they found the results of the tes

I can't wait to see my new baby GRANDAUGHTER! Pretty sweet to finally have a grand-child living in the valley! And, not that it really matters tons, I am hoping for a little red head to kiss on again! Fun stuff! My mom was in the hospital last night again . From Keith: In case you were not aware, dad had to take her to the ER late last night because of pain and very high blood pressure. They finally released her about 5:00 AM this morning. I don't know why her blood pressure was high (203/99). But she had chest pain going on again, so once again they had to run the tests on her heart, which she has had run many times, and it always shows that her heart is fine. And once she gets feeling better, then she wants to come home, and she is ripping of the EKG stuff, and IV line, trying to find her clothes so she can get out of there! The nurses kept telling her that if she left the hospital before the Dr released her, that she would have to pay the bills cause the insurance co

I guess I should let everyone know that at our Tuesday appt, the Dr. told us he'd like me to go in to the hospital today to start with the gel, with the hopes that I'll be ready by tomorrow (Friday) to be induced (the real meds). So, Chad and I will be enjoying our time in the hospital starting around 11 or 12 today until the baby is born (they don't release you anymore until the baby is born--new policy at the hospital). If my body responds quickly, I suppose we could deliver this baby today. We'll see what happens. So there's the latest. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. :) We'll keep you all posted.

We cut our own tree this year! It was fun, but a lot of work. Jacob made it a little challenging-- making himself throw up about an hour into our drive and getting his clothes all wet and covered in vomit. Unfortunately I hadn't updated the emergency set of clothes in the car from short sleeves and shorts. So we cleaned him up the best we could with wipes, and on we went. Finding a good tree was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But Benjamin loved running through the forest in the tiny bit of snow that was there, searching for just the right one. We finally settled on one once the sun was setting. It's FAR from perfect, but the best we could find. And our new van actually has a roof rack, so we were able to tie the tree on and bring it home! It was a good experience, but I don't think we'll be repeating it next year with Jacob and a little baby. For all of you coming to the Q for the holidays, we are planning a little Christmas Eve/ birthday party (unle

Flood Tide by Clive Cussler My review rating: 4 of 5 stars If you want a book with depth that makes you think...this isn't it. What it is is typical Dirk Pit mindless entertainment. A story that although obvious, is interesting in the details. A great book for relaxation reading, especially if you like action and adventure. View all my reviews.

They've changed our induction date to this Friday, December 5th . We wondered if they'd do that, since the 6th was as Saturday and the on-call doctor would have to do it. So one day earlier! We're still hoping she comes on her own before then, or at least that my body starts the labor process on its own so the risk of a c-section is lower. I have a dr appt tomorrow, so we'll see if any progress has been made. Your little granddaughter/niece/cousin is almost here!! :)

November Results: 103 Erica Groneman 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 26.3246% 397 Kim Groneman 1 2 1 1 3 5 1 2 1 1 6.1889% 417 Brigham Dastrup 1 1 1 1 5 2 1 1 1 1 5.5743% 616 Brett Groneman 1 3 1 1 4 1 2 2 1 1 1122 Cambrie Nelson 1 3 2 1 1 2 1 4 1 1 1532 Chad Groneman 3 1 1 1 17 1 1 2 1 1 2043 Christa Dastrup 1 7 1 1 10 5 1 4 1 1 One of these days...just one of these days we'll get the whole family to participate. Join in on some Christmas Brainbashing fun for December: http://www.brainbashers.com/common

I think I posted this before, but whenever it comes up in conversation, people seem to not have heard of it before. Watch full length movies (Like Saints & Soldiers) and TV shows online at http://www.hulu.com Oh...and I must say that anyone that posts their wish list on the wish list Blog AFTER THANKSGIVING is just wishful thinking since the Groneman parents have long since finished Christmas shopping. :)