25 Days of Holiday Photos

I love Instagr.am!  Makes these photo challenges so fun and simple!  (You can follow me @dxeechick)

Day 1: Something Red

Day 2: A List

Day 3: Christmas Tree

Day 4: Away In A Manger

Day 5: Christmas Cards Ready to Go Out

Day 6: Presents Wrapped Under the Tree

Day 7: A Holiday Treat

This one was an outtake... BOOBS.

Day 8: Wreath

Day 9: Christmas Lights (I didn't realize these are up year-round at the chinese restaurant...)

Day 10: Something warm and tasty

Day 11: Something sparkly

Day 12: Santa Claus

Day 13: A Holiday Show (Cirque Du Soleil's IRIS @ the Kodak Theater)

Day 14: Holiday Shopping

 Day 15: Watching a Christmas Movie

Day 16: A public Christmas Tree

Day 18: Stockings hung by the chimney

Day 19: Wrapping Gifts

Day 20: Something that gets you in the holiday spirit

Day 21: Holiday Greetings

Day 22: A Good Deed (Blessing bags for the homeless)

Day 23: A tradition (White Elephant)

Day 24: A gift from someone

Day 25: Christmas!

And...Christmas!

It was lovely. 

Enjoyed everything about it.  It went by too fast.  We have one more Christmas party, New Years and BAM, the holidays are done.  :(

12 Months Old

Baby: Another month has gone by and still, no crawling!  Bummer. Not quite sitting up yet, either.  But he's closer every day. He can pull himself up when he holds my hands, but his balance is still terrible.  When we practice walking with him, he takes the huge, exaggerated footsteps that always make me laugh.  He's had a rough couple nights this month where he sleeps until about 3am and then wakes up and stays up.  That gets old fast.  But at least it's not a daily thing.  He sleeps more nights than not.  We went through a couple weeks where he REFUSED to wear his eye patch.  Since he learned to take off his glasses, it has been a nightmare.  A constant fight.  Stubborn little turd.  His 2 front teeth have made an appearance.  He first had these awful black and blue blisters before they broke through though.  Pediatrician said it's somewhat common.  As the tooth moves down it can break a blood vessel and fill up the gums with blood.  Yuck!  He has been quite the trooper as I've been keeping him extra busy this month. We took him to San Diego and Utah for Thanksgiving(s), then he joined me as we trucked the Finns all over town for 10 days, plus a road trip to San Francisco and now we are heading back to Utah for Christmas.  But man, he's been awesome.  Mostly stayed on his sleep schedule and just proves more and more that he likes being out and about.  Says "Ma" sometimes, but it always sounds like he has a stuffy nose - more like "Mba".

I still need to do his official 1 year pic...

Parents: We love and hate seeing him grow up all at the same time.  We agree that he just gets cuter and cuter every day.  His personality is really starting to show through and even that little face! We thought he couldn't get any cuter than when he was a little guy, but he has!  Love to squish his squishiness!

Mommy's Thoughts: As you may have read in a previous announcement, I stopped pumping.  And gained 5 pounds right away.  Grrr.  But I'll start running again and watching what I eat.  It's just no fun!  No more 30 Day Ice Cream challenges for me!  I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job as a mom.  It's being a good wife that I worry more about.  It's hard to balance a relationship with two people that you love so much that have such different wants and needs.  But we are all learning this together.  One year down... 99 more to go!

Stephen Turns 1!

Oh my goodness.  It is hard to believe its been a whole year since this little man arrived.

We never anticipated this.  He has taught us about life.  And a new kind of love.  Everything has changed.  We've shared tears of happiness and all kinds of other tears too.  The unexpected has happened. And he has been a miracle in more ways than one.  He is strong from the inside out. And makes us smile so hard, it tingles our toes.  He delights everyone he meets.

What did we do before he came along?  What would we do without him? He has been a handful for sure, but I'd echo every other parent in saying that he is worth it.  All of it. The fear, the pain, the sadness, the worry, the frustration.  It's all there.  But he balances it out with his sweet soul, his smile, his cuddles, his laugh, and just the joy he brings to us by being here.  By being him. I wouldn't know or want things any other way.

So Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet little bug.  Surely there will be more surprises and more challenges along the way, but if we keep smiling and continue to be brave, we will also be rewarded with more happiness and fulfillment.

Bring. It. On.

God, I love this kid.

Welcome to SoCal. I'll Be Your Tour Guide.

We had quite the eventful week over here.  Not that things have slowed down since they left, but my cousin and his fiancee from Finland spent about 9 days with us.  They visited last winter, about 3 days before I had the baby.  I was huge and boring, but they still had so much fun, they made a return trip!  Since they saw all the big tourist-y things last year, this year was a little more low key (but a lot more fun for me since I got to participate.  And a big thank you to Tati for all her help baby-sitting!!)

We ate out, shopped, visited Old Town Pasadena, put together Blessing Bags (more on that later), played miniature golf, hung out in Downtown L.A., went to a Cirque Du Soleil show, and ate & shopped some more They also got to attend a Conan taping and a Ducks game while I sneaked over to Disneyland to feel some holiday cheer.

Then we polished off the week with a fabulous trip to San Francisco - where we shopped, ate, went to Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghiradelli Square, and just drove around the city.  Posted a bunch of pics on Facebook if you wanna see.  Only to return home and throw Stevie's 1st birthday party the next day. (More on that later, as well.)

Did I say it was more low-key than last year?  OK maybe not.

But such a great, fun time.

And as much as playing hostess/tour guide wears me out, I just love it.  I think I'm kind of awesome at it.  You should never leave Southern California feeling disappointed.  Especially when I'm the one showing you around.

All Done!

Yesterday was my last day with these trusty ol' friends.

We've been through it all together. Long, sleepless nights. Hospital stays. Road trips. After nearly 12 months, we now part ways. I don't know if I will miss them. Whenever I thought of giving them up, it made me a little anxious. But the less I use them, the less I think about it.

So it is bitter sweet in its own weird way.

Hopefully I don't have to buy formula for long.

And hopefully my boobs look semi-normal again someday.

And hopefully I can keep off the pounds that the milk-making helped me shed.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

OK not really.

Peace out, pumps.

Until we meet again.

Finnish Visitors

We are in the midst of a fun and crazy week with these kids:

They came all the way from Finland and they want to see it all! Let's do this.

Mommy Faux Pas #7

My husband is really great. Especially in the mornings. He gets up with Stephen first, gives him his meds, changes his diaper, feeds him, etc. It gives me the much needed relaxation I need before facing the day.

This morning I thought I would help, and put Stephen in his highchair while papa prepared his breakfast. I don't usually strap the kid in because... well, I'm lazy. And the highchair tray holds him in just fine. However, I failed to mention this to my poor husband and when he was done feeding him, he took the tray off not realizing that Stevie wasn't buckled in. Forward goes the wiggle worm, slamming his head on the dining room table and giving my husband a small heart attack as he tries to grab the falling child.

There were tears.

From all of us.

Oops.