Christmas 2008

Santa was really good to our family this year. He brought us a new baby! and many, many toys for Zander. I also got a new camera, which I absolutely love!! We had a great time celebrating with all our family this year. Our family had 4 Christmases. Unlike the movie though, we did not do them all in one day. We had Christmas with Jason's Mom on Christmas Eve, our family on Christmas Day, in Tyler with Sean's family over the weekend, and with Jason's Dad the following week. It was fun, but I am glad it's over.

Zander really loved Christmas this year. He had a great time decorating, and he couldn't wait to open all the gifts under the tree. Really, ALL the presents under the tree. He didn't care who they were for, he wanted to open all of them. He was excited every time he opened a gift and found a box. He would exclaim every time, "A Boc!" like it was the greatest box ever!

Enjoy our picture! (Sorry there's not very many of me :( I'm usually behind the camera.

Cousins, Brothers & Friends

It is really nice to have 4 little boys so close in age! I'm glad that Sean (my brother) & I both have two boys so close together. I know Zander & Paul love each other sooo much. Although, when they get together it seems they love to hate each other sometimes. I'm looking forward to see if Mason & Troy will be the same way. There will be lots of fun times in the future for the 4 of them. Yesterday before Troy & Paul went home, we attempted to get a picture of the 4 of them. They turned out as good as could be expected from 4 little ones. So, here they are: cousins, brothers & friends! (Mom has some better ones on her camera, so when I download her pics, I may add some more.)

Cookie Frosting At Mimi's

Last year, Mimi started a tradition with the boys of frosting sugar cookies. Along with everything else we squeezed into our weekend, we had the boys frost some cookies. They kind of took turns, so we didn't get any pictures of them frosting together. They both seemed to enjoy it though. Zander loved eating the sprinkles, taking bites from the cookies, and licking the frosting. Paul had fun shaking the sprinkles on the cookies. Maybe next year they will be a little better at decorating the cookies. They had fun anyway, I think.

Mason's Blessing Day

Yesterday, we had Mason's blessing in Sacrament meeting. Sean gave him the blessing and it was very nice! Thank you Uncle Sean, Great Job! We were lucky to be able to have some family here to stand in the circle and be here for the blessing. I love you all and really appreciate you traveling all the way here for his special day. Mason was really good and stayed quite through the whole thing. He looked super cute in his outfit, as did his big brother Zander in his suit. I tried to get some pictures of them before we left for church, but Mason was being fussy, so it didn't work too well. Here are a couple of the pictures we did take.

More 4-Wheeling Fun

We had my family here over the weekend for Mason's blessing. Since the whether was nice on Saturday, we decided to take them all out to the property to have some fun on the 4-wheelers and Bill's other "toys." We all had a great time together! The 4-wheelers were definitely a good investment, everyone loves them. Check out the pictures of my big ol' family cruisin' around our property.

GG's Visit

GG (Great Grandma) came to stay with us to help out for a week after Mason and I came home from the hospital. It was great to have her her to help and to visit with her. Zander really enjoyed having her here. She was a big help. I was able to take a good nap everyday and she helped out with Zander, dinner, dishes, and the laundry. We need to have her here more often :) She also took Mason and I to his 1st week check up. GG enjoyed going and playing Mommy for me by taking his cloths off for the doctor and holing him to have his blood taken. I'm thankful that she was able to come stay with us. We can't wait to have her return!! Here's the boys and GG:

Mason Garrett

Mason has arrived. He decided he wasn't going to let someone else pick his birthday! Sunday night, I started having contractions, but they weren't regular, so I didn't really think anything of it. Jason and I went to bed and after laying there for about 30 minutes, my water broke. I told Jason and we got dressed and ready to go to the hospital. Mom came over to stay with Zander until we called to tell them to head up to the hospital to meet Mason. We arrived to the hospital about midnight and I was having pretty hard contractions about 4 minutes apart. When they checked me around 1:30 am I was at 3 cm dilated and fully effaced. The on call doctor decided she need to come do the c-section, so the team was notified and she started heading to the hospital. At 2 am, everyone was ready and I was having more contractions and feeling lots of pressure at that point. They checked me again and I was 7 cm. They took me to the OR to get my spinal in at that point. I was very relieved to finally have the pain subside. I was prepped and Jason was allowed in. After about 20 minutes, they started pulling Mason out. Jason got to see them take him out. Mason was crying as soon as they got his head out. He didn't even wait until he was fully delivered. He was welcomed to the world at 2:45 am on December 1st. He weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz and was 18 1/2 in long. He was not as big as they expected, but he is perfect! Zander loves his baby brother and we are happy to have him home with us!

Bubble Blowing

(Click on the picture to make it larger so you can see the expressions on his face.)

Zander has got a little virus, so he has been cooped up in the house. He wanted to go outside and play this morning, so I gave in and let him for about 20 minutes. He looked so cute trying to blow bubbles, I had to get the camera out. He's gotten really good at it. I remember about 6 months ago when he could barely do it, even with help.

Wrapping It Up

I wanted to get all the presents I bought wrapped before Thursday (Mason's Birthday). So, after we got the tree all decorated, I sat down to wrap the presents. I got most of them done before Zander woke up. When he saw what I was doing, he really wanted to help. So, of course I let him. He wanted to wrap everything, though. When I didn't have anymore presents to wrap, he wasn't very happy. I guess I'll have to go buy more :) JK. Here's a picture of our tree and some of Zander wrapping presents.

Less than 1 Week!!

Yesterday, I went to my last prenatal check up. I am dilated about 1 1/2 cm and the baby is under no stress. So it looks like he is going to wait until the scheduled date, which is good. I have to be at the hospital at 6 am on Thursday, the 4th of December. I will be the first surgery, so he should be here by 8 am. I would say I can't wait because I want to meet him & not be pregnant any more, but really I have some things I need to get done before he gets here. The pregnancy has gone well, no pre-eclampsia this time and I had little weight gain. The only problem has been the gestational diabetes, but I have been able to keep that under control with my diet. If everything goes as planned, we will have Mason here with us next week and be able to bring him home on Saturday the 6th. Check back for the birth announcement!

Decking the Halls!

Since we are having a baby really soon, we decided to put our Christmas decorations up early. We usually wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year we did it the weekend before. Zander really enjoyed watching and trying to help put up the lights and the tree. He is excited everytime we turn them on. I'm really looking forward to Christmas day when he sees what Santa brought & opens his gifts. Christmas is always a favorite time in our house. This one will be extra special as we welcome our new bundle of joy during the holiday season.

Here are a couple of snapshots from decorating.>>>>>>

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! We sure hope you had a great day & made lots of good memories with the ones you love. I have to give a special thanks to my Mommy for making Thanksgiving dinner for me & my family. I really appreciate all her hard work. It was sure delicious! Here are a couple of pictures from our day>>>

Taylor making yams for dinner.

Zander's taking a picture of Mimi.

Zander & Me

Zander eating some olives.

Someone's sleepy!

Zander & the Ladies

Bouncing Baby Boy

I've gone to 3 nonstress test now and everything seems to be going well. Mason is under no stress and things are looking right on track for a delivery on December 4th. Monday, Jason & I went to an ultrasound to check on his status. They looked at how big he is getting and made sure he still has plenty of fluid in there. He appears to be about 7 lbs and the fluid levels look good. The doctor believes he should be about 8 1/2 lbs by the scheduled delivery. Although I am ready for him to come out and to the point that I am uncomfortable most of the time, I still hope he waits to make his grand entrance on the scheduled day. All we can do is wait and see. So, can you tell if he looks like me or Jason?? It was fun to watch him move all around on the ultrasound. He is really a very active baby. The tech had a hard time taking pictures because he is such a mover & shaker. At on point, he was literally bouncing up and down. Anyway, enjoy the most recent pictures of our new little man.

Zander Crafts

This week, we missed storytime because of Veterans Day and my doctor's appointment. Since Zander's favorite part of storytime is the craft I decided to let him glue together some Christmas Crafts. I found some foam magnet kits at the Dollar Tree that were really cute and he had a great time gluing them all together. I didn't really think we would do all of them, but once we started, he didn't want to stop. So they are all done. Here are some pictures of him hard at work.

I have a few ideas on some turkey day crafts & some more Christmas craft to do with him. I'm gonna' try to get those together so he has something to do when we are spending some extra days at home with the new baby. I also found this colored rice recipe that I would like to try. You color rice and use it like glitter on construction paper. I've been trying to teach him his colors and I thought this might be a fun way to work on that. Here is the instructions for that craft if any of you would like to try.

Colored Rice

A NON- TOXIC alternative to glitter and sand for the young artist. Use with white glue on paper as a collage medium or it can be glued on other surfaces to add texture. Teach your little ones their letters, by placing the rice onto a letter written in glue. After it dries, they can trace the letter with their finger tip.

You’ll need: Uncooked white rice, Food color, Vinegar

Place 1/2 cup rice into a bowl. Add ~ 5 drops of coloring and 1/2 tsp. vinegar to set the color. Spread flat onto a baking sheet . Bake at 200 for 45 min to dry.You may wish to make more colors at the same time. Be sure to keep them separate when baking. After they dry, they can be packed together.

Happy Belated Veterans Day!

Zander & I had a great Veterans Day. The day started out rainy, but it died off and we were able to go to the Parade and out to the Veterans Cemetery. The parade was small, but nice. Zander seemed to enjoy it. He really liked the drums in the band, the horses, the motorcycles, and he liked the Jeep with the huge tires. We are lucky to live in a military town and have so many veterans in the area. It gives us a real appreciation for the things they go through for our freedom. I thank all those who are or have been in the military. I hope you were able to remember our Veterans on this special day!

Crazy Photo Shoot

Today, I took Zander to Sears to take some maternity pictures with me. I had hoped to get one good picture of Zander and I to document my pregnancy with Mason. I really wanted one with Zander hugging my belly and me looking down on him. Zander was not in a very cooperative mood, though. He did not want to do what the photographer wanted and he did not want to stand next to me and get him picture taken. I tried to bribe him with Pizza and a lolly pop, but I had no such luck. We got a few pictures, but not one like I really wanted. At the end of our session, I got him to come give me a hug and they quickly snapped the picture. Unfortunately, they cut my head off. I think the girl did it on purpose, but I really wish she hadn't. Because that was the picture I really wanted. I settled with that pose, but all that is in the picture is Zander and my belly. I had a coupon and only paid $4.99for the pictures, so I guess I can live with that. Anyway, I bought the pose with the caption "Brotherly Love." I also paid a little extra and got a collage sheet with 5 different poses on it.

Little Longhorn

I bought Zander a Buzz Lightyear costume for Halloween, but he would not wear it. I got him to put it on once, but as soon as I got the camera out, he started freaking out.

So, I decided to make him a longhorn costume. He had a headband with the horns and ears and I didn't think it would be hard to get him into a brown sweatsuit. It turned out pretty cute. He had no problem wearing the sweatsuit, but he really didn't want to wear the longhorns all night. We went to our church "trunk or treating" Thursday and he did good walking around saying "Trick or Treat." Tonight, we went to our friend, Andrea's neighborhood to trick or treat, but he really wasn't that in to it. I did get a few cute pictures to share, though. We hope you all had a great Halloween.