Snow Day

We were greeted with another bright eyed Jayden the morning after Christmas.  "IT'S SNOWING!!"  He had opened his blinds to check the snow's progress and he couldn't have been more excited.  We got about 2-3 inches so of course we had to go play in it.  Even Sidney couldn't wait to get out in it.  We opened the front door to see it and she walked outside without her socks on, but didn't seem to mind a bit. 

Normally Josh doesn't get Christmas Eve off of work.  But since Christmas fell on a Saturday they gave him Friday off anyway.  And then his boss told him not to come in on Thursday, so we had him for 4 whole days.  It was hard to go back to reality after such a nice break.  Christmas week finally brought me out of my depression I always get into whenever we have to come back from Idaho.  Anyway, on with the pictures.

We have a hill in our yard.  This is about the only thing it's good for.  And we're so ghetto we don't have a real sled, but cardboard works just as well.

Or no sled works pretty good too.

Jayden and Josh made a bunch of snow angels.

Traditions

Christmas this year was full of traditions.  We carried on our old ones and added in one or two.  But a big tradition we didn't carry on was living in a new place.  This was our 9th Christmas together and this was the first time we've lived in the same house two Christmases in a row.  I didn't have to figure out where to put my decorations or the tree.  That was a first.  To be honest, I wish that tradition hadn't been broken.  We wish we were in a new place in Idaho.  In the last year we've had some opportunities face us that seemed promising to get us back out there, but they didn't work out.  We're disappointed of course, and trying to accept the fact that we might actually be here for a while, wondering WHY?  It will be 2 years next month.  Most days I feel like I'm getting past that stir crazy feeling of wanting to get out of here.  We have good friends, the kids have friends, we're just missing the family part. 

CHRISTMAS EVE

We've always had really random Christmas celebrations.  When we first got married it was just the two of us.  My parents got divorced right before our first Christmas together so that left me with no desire to go home for the holidays.  I also had zero desire to spend it with Josh's family, and they lived in Seattle anyway, so our first several Christmases we spent alone.  One year my sister was there because she was at BYU-I too.  One year we did end up spending it in Boise because Josh's parents moved there.  And a couple of times we've been invited over to friend's homes for parties or dinners.  This year we had some people over.  Josh's old boss, who hired him in Birmingham 5 years ago, moved to Charlotte a week before Christmas.  We were good friends while we lived there.  We were in the same ward for over a year, and we actually spent Christmas Eve with them the one Christmas we lived in Alabama.  I was finally able to return the favor!  We also had our other friend's over, whose kids were all out in Utah for Christmas.  So we had a full house of 12.  We ate a big dinner and then sat around and talked and played games.  After they all left we read of Jesus' birth from the Bible then opened the annual pj's that I'm too lazy to make anymore.  And completely skipped the picture in front of the tree because of the late hour.  I'll have to stage it later.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas morning was so much fun this year!  Jayden woke us up with bright eyes, so excited to see what Santa had brought.  He had been asking for a puppy for months.  Last summer he wrote a letter to Santa asking for one.  And then at the mall there was a desk and mailbox for letters to him and he asked for 3 puppies, a bowl for water, and a bowl for food.  I was trying to prep him beforehand because we knew he wasn't going to get one, and I was really nervous there would be tears.  As he was opening his first gift, a small odd shaped thing, he said, "Maybe this is a puppy!"  It wasn't, but he didn't mention the puppy again for the rest of the morning.  Sigh of relief.  I guess with all his other loot he forgot about it.  He says his favorite gift is all the spy gear he got complete with glasses that allow him to see behind him.

Before we were able to sit down to start the opening Sidney had already torn into one of Josh's gifts.  It was so funny, I wasn't expecting her to be so into the ripping.  But she tore into everything with so much intensity, Josh and I laughed all morning.  Paper was flying everywhere.  We can tell her favorite gift was the baby gear for her baby dolls.  She puts her babies to bed in their new crib next to her every night now with such care.  And they take a lot of naps during the day and she's always putting her finger to her mouth and saying, "Shhhh.  Baby.  Shhhh."  She had this look on her face all morning.

After presents I made our traditional biscuits and gravy breakfast.  This year the biscuits were snowmen.  I always love my biscuits.

After laying around all day in our jammies, eating way too much candy, and playing with our new goodies, we made ice cream snowmen.  The ice cream got a little too soft before we dished up, and it was our first attempt, so they're not perfect, but we had fun and hope to do it every year.

We let some of them melt instead of eating them.  But they'll be back next year.

After the ice cream we headed out to look at Christmas lights.  It had just started snowing so it made it extra magical.  Snow in December is unusual here.  We drank hot chocolate and Sidney wore some pj's with hot chocolate on them.

A few more fun photos.  At first Sidney thought all the baby gear was for her and she sat in the crib while watching the Disney World parade.  She was also sneaking candy any time she got the chance.

Jayden with his spy watch and his spy face.

Sad Face

Sidney really knows how to melt our hearts to get what she wants.  She gives us this face at least 20 times a day, usually with a little tilt of her head to her shoulder.  She also gets this look when she is having a hard time doing something and says, "Hard."

 She loves to come help me in the kitchen.  For the last week every time I have started cooking something she pushes a chair over and starts to play in the food with every utensil she can get her hands on.

And then several days ago Josh and I fell asleep on the couch without meaning to.  We only laid there for about 20 minutes, but that's all it took.  While Jayden was playing right there next to us, Sidney spotted the Hershey Kisses that had been left out on the table from an earlier baking project.  They were right in her reach and we woke to the sound of her unwrapping them and leaving the wrappers on the table next to the couch.  Oh man, it was funny.

Jaydenisms

"Hey, Dad.  Wouldn't it be cool if we had pie feet?  Then we could suck on them all day!"

More Christmastime

Both Jayden and Sidney were too scared to sit with Santa by themselves so Santa told me to sit on his lap.  We went for the free picture at Bass Pro Shops and we were not disappointed.  He was a great Santa. 

Jayden's cookie creation.  He couldn't even finish it.

 Sidney ate just the frosting.

Jayden was the first to spot that it was snowing, but it only lasted for about 5 minutes.

 They also participated in the church Nativity, both as shepherds.  Jayden is in the way back in the middle to the right of the star.

Sidney sitting up front. 

'Tis the Season

A peek into some of our Christmas celebrations so far........

Cuddling up after decorating the tree to enjoy the soft white glow of the lights.

Reading Christmas books together by the fire.  Another day Jayden had the idea to sit by the fire and tell stinky and scary stories.

                     

Jayden had his preschool Christmas program.  They sang songs and I have never seen Jayden get so into it before.  At church every Sunday he usually just sits there, occasionally singing the fun songs.  But here he knew every single word and was loving every minute of it.  Of course, the noisemakers and jingle bells may have had something to do with it.  His favorite song was "Happy Birthday Jesus."  It was followed by a potluck.  Most of my pictures turned out pretty bad because I didn't have a very good seat, but Josh and I thoroughly enjoyed the program.

For my birthday Josh got tickets for White Christmas, the musical, per my request.  I was very much looking forward to it because it's my favorite Christmas movie, but we were kind of disappointed in it.  If I didn't know the movie so well, I'm sure I would have liked it more, but they changed quite a few things.  It's like when you read a really good book and then watch the movie and it drives you crazy because it's so different and it's just not as good.  It was still fun to go see and dress up a little and get out for a date.  I didn't get any pictures of us though because the babysitter showed up early and Josh wasn't even ready.

The rest of this doesn't have anything to do with Christmas, but I thought I would throw them in here.  Sidney was leaning on the door with her legs crossed and it was so cute, but by the time I got the camera she wouldn't cross her legs the right way.  Still cute though.

This is the kid's favorite things to do with Josh.

I was walking upstairs and heard the kids being pretty quiet and found Jayden reading to Sidney.  He gets rewarded for every 25th book he reads.  He usually reads about 1 to 4 books to me each day, or more when he's really close to that 25, but the other day he read 9 books to Sidney without me asking him to do it and was pretty proud of himself.

Jaydenisms

Jayden's vocabulary is expanding, but that doesn't mean he uses the correct words for the right situation.  For example......He was buckling his seatbelt and it was getting twisted and he couldn't get it done.  In a rage of frustration he yelled, "This is so distracting!" 

Sidneyisms

I was cleaning up after dinner and Sidney was following me around sticking her belly out saying something.  It took me a minute to understand what she was saying and then I realized she was saying "Full. Full," in kind of a grunty little voice.  I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but it was.

Stats

Jayden's 5 Year Stats:
33 lbs.-5th percentile
41 inches-15th percentile
My poor boy.  He's going to be a shrimp.

Sidney's 2 Year Stats:
25 lbs.-25th percentile
32.5 inches-30th percentile
The doctor said she'll probably be bigger than Jayden.  We really got everything backwards with our kids.

Since she just had a birthday here's the latest on the little lady.

• When she says "okay," she says it, "otay."  She has the sweetest little voice I've ever heard.
• She knows most of her colors, her favorite being pink, and she's starting to like purple too.
• She has been potty training herself for a couple of months.  About 90% of the time she has to poop she tells me so she can go on the potty.  The only time she forgets to tell me is when she is playing and having too much fun.  She doesn't tell me she has to pee as often, but I'm just letting her go at her own pace.  I'm not ready to push it yet.  And when she's tootin' away, she cracks up laughing.
• Her favorite thing to do is to cuddle up and read books.
• Before our trip in October she always went to bed perfectly.  We would lay her down and then she would go right to sleep without making a sound.  Since we got back over a month ago she has screamed and screamed at bedtime and naptime for 30 minutes to an hour.  I think it's because we slept in the same room with her for 2 weeks, so we thought once she got used to being back home she would get back to normal.  No such luck.  She has skipped her nap some days too, and I'm dreading the day she stops altogether, which is probably soon if she is anything like Jayden.
• When she's trying to do something that's too hard for her, like peel a banana or put her straw in a juice box, she brings it to me or Josh and says, "Hard.  Hard," in the saddest little voice with her head turned to her shoulder and her bottom lip puckered out.
• She likes to talk on the phone.
• Whenever she sees Christmas stuff-anything from Santa to wreaths to candy canes-she says, "Ho ho!  Ho ho!" in her sweet little voice.

Josh:
He's now halfway done with his MBA.  I wish I could say it felt like it flew by, but it doesn't feel that way. 

Me:
I've been eating a piece of cheesecake every day for the past week since my birthday.  I feel very accomplished.

5 Years Ago

This time of year is my favorite.  Not just because of the holidays, but because within two months we have three birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and we celebrate Christ's birth.  It seems like something happens every year at this time that causes me to be truly grateful.  My two best Christmas presents have been my babies.  They have both arrived at the holiday season.  December is a month full of emotional memories for us.  We celebrated Sidney's birthday two days ago, always a fun occasion, and today we celebrate Jayden's homecoming.  The Christmas season always reminds me not only of Christmas, but of birthdays, being hugely pregnant, and newborn babies.  All good memories, and I love that I can associate it with my favorite holiday. 

I haven't written much about this on my blog, so a five year commemoration felt like a good thing to do.  Five years ago today our lives changed completely.  After five weeks and two days our first baby was released from the hospital.  He was born eight weeks early, and when he was born all the doctors could say was that he would most likely be out by his due date, which was just before Christmas, but there were no promises.  Those were the longest five weeks of my life, but we feel fortunate that he was only in the hospital for five weeks.  And now it's been five years.  I know it could have been worse.  We saw babies in the NICU who had been in there for months.  Every day got longer and longer for us.  After a couple of weeks of sitting by his cribside from morning until night, not being able to hold him, listening to those awful beeping heart monitors, not wanting to leave him there every night, I didn't know if I'd be able to get through.  Not knowing when it would end was one of the hardest parts because it got to a point where I thought it never would.  Each week felt like a year.

It was such a crazy time in our life.  Josh was in his last semester of college.  Jayden had been sent to a hospital 4 hours away.  Josh missed a lot of school, but his professors were extremely understanding and extended his deadlines for him.  There were two times we had to go back to Rexburg in those 5 weeks.  Once for my doctor appointment and again so we could have a small break for my birthday.  That was so hard, I can't even tell you.  We knew he was in good hands, but it was still hard going even just a couple of days without being able to see him.Josh had to go back more often than me for school, but he was more than willing to miss class to be able to stay with us.  He was there in Salt Lake with us a majority of those 5 weeks, doing homework from there, and going back to Rexburg only when he had to for work or tests. 

About two or three days before he was released they told us to get ready for it.  We were in shock.  Excited, nervous, scared, overwhelmed.  We didn't tell anyone except for my aunt, who we were staying with in Salt Lake.  We didn't want to curse it, so no one knew we had brought him home until after we had him safely in the car with us.  Since he had been transferred to Salt Lake from Rexburg when he was four days old, we'd been living with my generous aunt and uncle.  It was snowing when we left the hospital.  I climbed in the back seat next to Jayden, my eyes barely leaving his face all bundled up under his soft baby blue blanket.  I can't tell you how nervous we were now that he didn't have monitors to tell us if he was still breathing or if his heart was still beating.  Josh drove extra cautiously as we headed for our first stop at my Grandma Lou's house.  We surprised her, and it also happened to be my grandpa's 91st birthday, so Jayden got to meet a few family members.  Then we started calling our family members to tell them the good news.

I sat in the back seat of the car for the entire 4 hour ride home.  It was December, and if you've ever driven from Salt Lake to Rexburg in the middle of winter, you know what I'm talking about.  The roads were bad.  So much snow.  It was one of the scariest drives of my life.  We had been in worse snow storms, but having a little 5 pound baby next to me left me hanging on the edge of my seat. 

I'm not huge into the Thanksgiving holiday.  But I do have much to be thankful for.  So today I'm feeling extra grateful for the last 5 years I've had with Jayden. There are days he gets on my nerves, days I'm just so ready to rush him out the door to preschool, days I've had my last straw with him, and I find myself forgetting how I felt when I looked at my helpless little newborn, wanting so badly to be able to hold him in my arms and not being able to.  I hate how fast he's growing up. I wish for a split second I could hold that little baby again.  But then I remember how close we came to not being able to hold him at all.  My doctor told me if we had arrived at the hospital an hour later, he probably wouldn't have made it, and he wasn't even breathing when he was born.  Our last five years could have been completely different.  Can you see why I love this month?  So much to be thankful for.

He was as wide as a dollar bill, for size comparison.

Life Flight

We spent at least 8-12 hours a day with him. 

 

Our first Christmas with Jayden, 3 weeks out of the hospital.