A year end review

2008

We said goodbye to a few important people in our lives

President Hinckley

Grandma Petersen

Grandpa Lafeen

And Justin's brother, Bryan... but just to England for a couple of years -he'll be back.

We bought a house

Had our first wedding anniversary

And hosted a friend of Justin's from Brazil

We went on a few trips... some far

some not so far

We attended my 10 year high school reunion

The nation elected a new president (yipee!)

Lets see... I think I'm leaving something out...

Oh yeah...

So much more than a bag

For those of you have seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. For rhose who haven't... watch this:




It wasn't QUITE that dramatic - I wasn't buying a gift for an office romance and trying to hide it from my spouse who was in the same store, and there were no cinnamon sticks, but this is what I thought of. Little Man and I went to a local store for a birthday present and the women offered to wrap the gifts. As... slowly... as... possible. It was almost comical. And, I'll be honest, a couple of boxes covered in tissue paper, placed in a bag with tissue paper is really NOT that impressive.

Then, to top it all off, when we walked back outside there was a guy working on his van directly in front of our car on the street. He gave me whole new concept of plumbers crack. I think if I had seen any more of his... bum, I would seen what was on the other side.

What an interesting outing.

At day at the grandparents

Justin working in Ogden today and our Little Man and I came with
+
My mom getting a new camera for Christmas
=

Merry Christmas

Compared to our first two Christmas's, this one was probably the least chaotic for Justin and I. Not as calm as my dad's, but compared to our first year together, when we were engaged and went SEVEN different places in two days, thus was pretty nice. We might have to take a lesson for next year and only do one side of our families each day.

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and siblings- dinner & presents. We also opened gifts (including birthday ones) with Kathy and Bryon -and my mom is STILL vacuuming up glitter, by the way! It worked out pretty well that we went up there yesterday since the weather would have kept us away anyway.

Today we talked to Justin's brother, Bryan, who is serving a mission in England. We went to Justin's moms house for brunch & presents, and then headed to his dads after that. Our little man did great, and everybody was pretty excited to see him.

Justin gave me and our Little Man (and sort of Kathy) plane tickets to see her this spring in Arizona. I'm super excited to go... and a little nervous about the trip.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Merry Birthday

and Happy Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Kathy.

Love you more than a fat kid loves cake!

Concept of time

I have none. No concept of time, whatsoever.

And, for someone that used to live every day by a calendar and the clock, it's a little unnerving. And, strangely enough, a little liberating.

Okay, the term 'liberating' might be a bit much, but its definitely very different.

I know when its dark outside I try and get our Little Man to sleep right after a feeding, and there is no guilt associated with going back to bed.

During the day when most of society is busy being productive, at the very least, awake, I feel a little guilty. I should be sweeping my floors, folding our Little Man's laundry that I repeatedly toss in his crib, or making myself look half-way presentable to the outside world -in case we have visitors.

Depending on the night we had has a lot to do with how much I get done the following day. Sometimes I actually make dinner, much to Justin's surprise, and other days I hardly make it downstairs.

Either way, I've just found it interesting how I rarely know what day of the week it is, let alone the date. I'm assuming, by the increasing amount of holiday music I'm hearing on the radio, Christmas is sometime this week.

I should probably look into that.

Movie Night

I don't normally post or critique movies we see, but tonight (last night -it is 4:30 am Sunday morning) was a little different.





Justin and I left our Little Man with his grandparents and went on a date. For the most part, we enjoyed ourselves (until about 90 minutes after being gone and I started to feel... a bit of pain and would have really liked to have been able to feed him).



Anyway, on our first night out we saw Seven Pounds. Justin loved it. I thought it was a good movie, as long as you're in the mood for a slow-moving and depressing movie.

Popcorn anyone?

Best. Toy. EVER!

Okay, it's not really a toy.

But, it IS the best thing ever.

I bought this on Wednesday. It may not work as well for all babies, and it may not work forever, but for now, our Little Man loves it!

Especially at night, which is when I appreciate it the most. I don't even have to use a binky, just lay him down (as long as he's tired) turn on the soundbox and walk away. And he SLEEPS! It's like magic.

I love you, Slumber Bear.

Little Grandpa

Growing up I had two grandpa's, and both were on my dad's side -with the same last name.

I guess to clear up any confusion one was Grandpa Hardcastle and my Great-grandpa Hardcastle became "Little Grandpa" because he was so much shorter than the other.

The name stuck and just about all of the great-grandkids (and their parents) called my Great-Grandpa Hardcastle 'Little Grandpa'.

Our son is named after my Little Grandpa. He was a good man who raised 4 sons, taught them to be honest, hard-working and faithful men, who in turn passed that on to their families as well.

I am fully aware (thank you for pointing it out 'anonymous' commenter) that our son's name has been used on other family blogs, and that's fine. For our blog, however, I think we'll call him Little Man, after my Little Grandpa.

Little to say

I hate the fact that I haven't posted in so long. It's not for lack of desire or even time, really. Although it takes a lot longer, I am fully capable of typing a post one handed, which is necessary when you're feeding a baby.

I just have nothing to say. My life is being lived in 3 hour increments, that start with feeding a baby and may or may not include any sleep between the feedings. Last night, for instance, did not. Not until almost 3 am, although, I did get a one hour reprieve from Justin.

I never know what day of the week or month it is, which hasn't seemed to matter much, my days just run together. We had a family shower last Saturday, but I never took my camera out of my bag -oops, so no pictures. One thing was certain, our kiddo is one spoiled little boy. Thanks for all of you who came bearing gifts. At this rate, we're going to have to change him 3 times a day just so he can wear all of his cute clothes.

Christmas is coming, and I'm nearly done shopping. Actually, I really just have to get one more gift, and nag Justin to get one more as well. I have NO idea what our plans will be for the holidays. It turns out I'm not much of a typical 'first-time' mom, and I am probably not paranoid enough about the winter season and all of the germs it brings. I have a difficult time reminding people to wash their hands before holding the baby, or rescuing him from certain situations (who BLOWS all over a baby's face ?!?!?). We're having a hard enough time trying to get him fed, and asleep, and figure out what he wants/needs without adding him being sick on top of it.

So, other than trying to figure out if I'm still starving my child, getting very little sleep, and enjoying holding a little baby (it's not ALL bad) I have little else to say.

And you can only say that so many times before people start to get REALLY bored!

Aren't we mean parents? The antlers were Justin's idea.

And all this time, I had no idea

I've learned a few things about myself in the last 2 weeks.

I can maneuver around my computer, web browser, and even type comments and emails one-handed.

I had no idea that the word 'poopy' would become apart of my vocabulary so quickly and with such ease.

Likewise, I didn't know referring to myself as mommy or momma and Justin as dad would come so easily.

I can handle a lot more pain than I ever thought was possible (from delivery, to the not-ever-really-talked-about pain after the delivery, to breast-feeding discomfort).

Speaking of breast-feeding, I did not know that I would be absolutely fine with nearly complete strangers fondling, er, helping me position said boobs into various positions.

I can actually function on little to no sleep with relatively few break-downs.

There's nothing good on TV during the day. I also have been forced to 'flip channels' once again. Our TV set up is me watching the TV in the guest bedroom from the nursery, across the hall. I can't read the guide from that far away, and I have to watch commercials. Yuck!

I also had no idea that I would have such a cute kid. I'm actually starting to like him a bit more, it's amazing what a bit of sleep can do for a person.

Much better

We have (finally) discovered that if a baby has a full tummy he sleeps. If he sleeps, mom and dad can sleep. And, if mom and dad can sleep... things are good.

Also, my wonderful mother-in-law offered (and I of course accepted) to clean our house while we were at the funeral. So, our house looks much better too! Thanks, Lisa!

Oh, THAT'S what you've been trying to tell us

So, we found out at our 2 week check up our son hasn't been growing fast enough. So, maybe all of the crying and not sleeping and trying to breast feed for 90-120 minutes (I'm not exaggerating) was for a reason. I have very little milk for the kid.


I made our second trip with him to the lactation specialist (it was our first trip by ourselves which went well) so, hopefully, with the help of this:
these:
and another tubing device that hooks to a bottle (couldn't find a picture of it online that didn't include a boob with it) we are continuing to try things 'naturally'.


Go figure.

I'm ready for my close-up

My friend Terra over at Magnifique Photography is an AMAZING photogragher and did our wedding pictures. She offered to do our baby's first photo's as a gift, which was incredibly generous. Here's a look (he's 10 days old in these)...

Happy Birthday, Daddy

Sorry your 'special' birthday (28 on the 28th) didn't have much excitement. I guess being a new dad will have to do this year. Since I never say it enough (especially right now), I love you and I am a very lucky lady. Thanks for being such a hard worker, both in and out of the home. And thanks for always putting up with me (again, especially right now, and for the last 9 months).