Baby's First Christmas

This is how Shae felt about his first Christmas:


Pure excitement and joy right there.

Although he was probably just excited that there were so many people awake with him so early in the morning, or that he had just gotten nails cut...I really don't know, but I love that you can see his top two teeth.

With a house full of adults, we made sure that everyone was agreed on still waking up early, after all, two of us would be waking up early no matter what. Everyone agreed and we let Shae be the alarm. He kindly slept in until 7:30am and then we got Christmas going. We started by opening our stockings to see what Santa brought us. I didn't finish two of the stockings that I've been working on in time so Shae used Uncle Scotty's stocking. I used my stocking growing up and Darin used the one that I finished.

This is the one stocking that was fully finished. Not perfect but not to shabby either.

I honestly thought that Shae would have been more interested in ripping the paper off of his presents but he really couldn't have cared less. I think he was actually overstimulated after about an hour because he became really cranky quickly and went down for a nap before we were even done opening presents. He did really like his Sesame Street books that Grandma Sharon got him (we read through them while others were opening presents), as well as the rattley ball toy from Grandma Tammie (anything that rattles, he loves). I loved all the clothes. Thanks guys!

Dad stopped wearing his wedding band on his finger awhile ago because it was getting so thin that he was scared it would break. Mom bought him a new band as a Christmas present with the hope that all the single ladies will stop hitting him. It was cute to watch her propose to him.

This was my Christmas beauty. Darin and his mom and sister must really love me. I was SO excited. Like, freaking out excited. My kitchen is now complete. I can't wait to use it. (On Christmas day Darin says, break it out! Bake something!).

The rest of the day was spent cooking, overfilling our bellies with way too much food and candy, playing games and watching Mormon Messages about Christmas/Christ.

It twas a very merry Christmas.

Twas the Week Before Christmas and...

~I was caroling with the youth at a nursing home (Did I mention that I was called as the Young Women's President? Really, presidency...)

~We were making/eating/dropping off WAY too many of these cookies. I'm addicted.

~We were enjoying a Friday night Christmas party with our branch. Shae was scared of Santa (picture to come later...I didn't have my camera...).

~We were driving North. Stopping at the temple for a session and Christmas lights. Continuing on to Pennsylvania.

Shae and I hung out in the Visitor Center for a bit while waiting for the others. We waited in the confined room "8 stories." This room brings back memories of working at the MTC because of these huge pictures and the videos of the missionaries from the District II. I watched these videos SO many times while working there. Feels like home.

~Listening to the beautiful music/wrestling a sleepy baby during the Stake Christmas Concert. (A.J. had a solo!)

 Shae made some little girlfriends while waiting for the concert to start. He gets so excited when he sees other kids running around. They run and then you see him crawling as fast his chunky little legs can take him a few seconds behind them. It kills me. 

~Getting pumped to talk to Sister Kretchman on Wednesday!

Family Movie Night

It wouldn't be Christmas without Christmas movies! And last night I can legitimately say that we had our very first family  Christmas movie night (really our first family movie night, ever). Usually Shae is bed before we start any movies or if we do start a movie early he watches for a whole two seconds and then starts flipping over in our laps to climb us.

Thanks to a late nap after we got home from afternoon church, the boy was up a little later than normal which was definitely okay by me as he sat on my lap for a good half hour watching Polar Express with Darin and I. He spent the next half hour glued to the TV behind Darin like this:

Must have been the choice in movies. I think the animation was just perfect for him. He never sits to watch anything cartoon, but the Sesame Street "puppets" he loves. I was hoping he would like the animation in Polar Express as well since it's a little different than your normal cartoon, and he did!

I'm so anxious to start family traditions with this kid; Last night gave me a little taste of  what that might feel like.

10 Months

Double digits!



My mom asked me last month, "So when are you going to stop torturing your child by putting him in that 0-3 month outfit?" Those weren't her exact words, but more or less. You get the point. I mean, "I've come this far, probably at least till his fifth birthday," I replied.

 But really, only two more months of "torturing" my son. I promise.

Some of our favorites over the last month:

Darin's favorite: Mimicking us. We cough, he coughs. We make a raspberry noise, he makes a raspberry noise. We brush our teeth, he freaks out until we hand him his toothbrush as well. 

My favorite: His excited face. Picture this, me pulling out a cracker to give him. He straightens his arms completely, makes little fists, stretches his neck out to the point of seeing the veins pop out while he forms an oval/rectangle with his lips and says "eeeeeeeee" and then grabs the cracker and shoves it into his mouth. It's pretty darn cute. He does this when Sesame Street is on, when I mention  milk, when he sees food, etc.

Shae's favorites: Climbing the stairs. He just figured out how to get passed our stroller barricade. Looks like we need something stronger. And this grin, he wears it the ENTIRE way up the stairs. He loves it.


 The dishwasher. When he hears it open he will rush into the kitchen to be right there unloading the silverware with me. 

Round ball ornaments.

Socks! He collects socks and holds on to them while crawling and playing.

Sesame Street. I can't get over just how excited he gets when it comes on. I die. 

New gadgets that he has recently discovered in the bathtub.
 

He also:

Does a great job with finger foods but seems to prefer being spoon-fed.

Doesn't like potatoes! Guess that Idaho blood hasn't fully sunk in yet. He spits them right out. Maybe with time (or a little butter and sour cream) he will come to like them better.

Has two top teeth coming in. One that is already half-way out and the other that will probably break through the skin any day now.

Dances whenever music comes on (as in, he bobs up and down and bounces on his bum).

Waves bye-bye...when he wants to. He's especially good at waving daddy off to work in the morning.

Sleeps through the night most nights thanks to the cozy, warm snow suit our friends are letting us borrow.

Can stand pretty steadily by himself.

Started clapping. Claps while he dances and when he is excited.

(Click here to watch the video.)

Happy 10 months Shaester! 

One-On-One Time

I get a lot of one-on-one time with Shae. I mean, A LOT. It's really easy to take it for granted. One of my goals this week has been to enjoy the little moments at home with him more. And I have! I've tried to play with him more, sing with him more, read to him more and watch him more. I love sneakely observing him from behind a book or the laptop (I have to be so careful not to make eye contact or let him see me because as soon as he does he bolts right over to me and pulls at my pants until I pick him up and the observing fun comes to an immediate halt).  

It's funny how we sometimes have to decide  to feel a certain way and then just do it. I'm a full believer in attitude-decisions (most of the time) and think that we are in full control of what we feel, it just takes a decision on our part to feel that way. Right now I have decided to be happy at home with my little boy and happy I am.

(We had a little picnic outside last week and decided to snap some selfies. Warning: Neither of us had put on any makeup for the picnic).

Something that makes me super happy without needing to be decided at all is when Darin and Shae get one-on-one time. They don't get it very often since Darin is gone at work all day but Shae sure does love it when he gets some "man" time. (Especially when it mean watching ballet like they are doing in the below pictures. Very  manly. HooRah. Grunt Grunt. Burp Burp. Plie plie. ). 

(Side note: Shae ALWAYS pulls his socks off, but I pulled out these Santa slippers-- that he is wearing in the picture--the other day that I got at a clothing exchange, they have a little bell on them and he was trying to pull them off/eat them all day, and they stayed on! Poor guy, he was so frustrated that he couldn't't get them off, but at least I knew that his feet were warm :).