One Month Old

I can’t believe that Vivian is already one month old!  The time has gone so fast.  It has really been interesting having another baby with a totally different personality.   She is so calm!  I totally amazed.  I did read once that girls have a lower pain tolerance and I’m wondering if it is true because she hardly ever screams she just whines a little when she’s uncomfortable.  It’s really nice.  She’s also started smiling for us this week which is honestly thrilling!  It’s such a nice reward for all of the lack of sleep when you get a smile when you’re baby decides to look at you.  I really like having a baby around.  I guess I never realized how much I liked having a baby since each age with Christian has been fun.  But it really is nice to have a sweet little baby to hold and sing to again.

 

Here’s a picture of her darling grin!

   

Here’s her happy to just be a baby look!

I’m so grateful that she’s here and she’s been a wonderful baby…so far.

January Visitors

The past month has gone so fast!    We were lucky enough to have some family come and visit us this past month.

Here’s a picture of my brother Richard who’s living in Atlanta Georgia and stopped by right after New Years.  He was planning on coming anyway and it was a surprise that he got to see the baby on his trip to see us (since she decided to come early rather than late). It was really fun to see him and Christian was so happy to have some one to hang out with!

My Parents also were sweet enough to come and help out for a week.  It was really great to have them here.  My dad went around fixing things and put in an awesome light in the kitchen (that previously was more like a cave before said light).  He also greased a bunch of random creaky things (namely doors and the rocking chair).  It was marvelous.  My mom helped with the baby and Christian as well as other things around the house like cooking too.  It was wonderful.  I’m sorry they had to go because it was really fun having them here.  I was honestly scared to be a mom of two after they left and it’s taken some adjusting…though to be honest, I don’t think I’ve adjusted perfectly yet.  I really don’t know how to get out of the house in a timely manner yet…does anyone have any tips?  I’m so glad I had the help I did when I first came home with my baby.  Thanks everyone!

Baby Love…

Christian LOVES Vivian.  I’m so glad though sometimes I wonder when some rivalry will pop up.   Christian keeps praying “bless that my baby sister will grow really fast so that I can play with her”.  It’s really adorable and I can see how frustrating it must be for him to have waited all this time to meet her and all she does is sleep and eat (well, at least she sleeps until Christian wakes her up).  Today I came in the room to find this…

I guess he decided that he didn’t need for her to grow up to play some games with him!

My Small Soccer Player

  

On Saturday, Christian officially finished his first season of Soccer.  This is a picture his grandpa Doug took of him with his medal that says he completed the Fall ‘09 season.

Here’s the class cooling down after their lesson.

 

I had a great idea to make a soccer bag when I went to the fabric store and saw this cute print in green of little kids playing soccer.  I figured out the pattern and have a tutorial on my crafting blog on how to make one… of course it could really be a bag for other things (maybe dance lessons) but it its up to a full sized soccer ball.

Christian loves his new bag and since it is like a back pack it' has actually been used in his games of going to school more than for his soccer.

Announcing Vivian Joy!

Our sweet baby girl Vivian Joy was born December 29th 2009 at 7:38 a.m. weighing 7.7 lbs and measuring 19.5 inches long.  She is the sweetest little ball of love!  I am so happy to have her here. She must have been waiting for my regular doctor because she waited 27 hours of labor to finally make her appearance (five of those hours them in active labor). Here’s my doctor and Vivian right after birth.

Here is a hideous picture of myself right afterwards.

 

Vivian being measured and hold daddy’s hand for the first time.

Jared holding her for the first time… so sweet!  

Here’s Vivian and I in postpartum.  She was so calm I was amazed!

Here’s Christian holding Vivian for the first time!

  He is so proud to be a big brother!

Everywhere we go he tells people that he has a new baby sister named Vivian Joy!

Here’s my friend Christina who watched Christian during my looong labor and then half of that day!

 

Here is my surrogate AZ mom Venetia who’s Sherrada’s mom.

  This is Sherrada, my good friend who took Christian for the next two nights holding Vivian…her little girl Lydia is getting jealous.

Jared getting to know Vivian….checking her features etc.

Her first night home hanging out with dad…

The next day when Christian came home to be with us.  He is so in love with his new baby sister he checks on her all the time and is always talking about her.  I’m so glad he’s doing so well with her!

For those of you who are interested in my birth story, you’ll have to check out my other blog.

Christmas Day 2009

Santa came to our house this year… Christian was so excited that Santa remembered him.  I just love how magical Christmas with a child is.  It really makes me appreciate my own childhood and the work that my parents went to to have Christmas be a magical day for each of us.  Sadly, I don’t have too many pictures because I was busy taking a video the way my parents always did.  When I got older I felt like it was the corniest thing in the world that my parents took a video.  Jared’s parents did it too and we used to talk about how silly we felt as older kids watching and then being in a “line-up” with the youngest first and everyone walking in.  Of course there’s only Christian but we still made him walk down the hall …I’ll spare you and not share the video though now that I’m a parent I can see why they did it.  There is nothing like watching your child’s eyes light up and see the wonder on their faces that someone knows them and what special thing they would want for their very own.  It is kind of symbolic of Heavenly Father giving us so many blessings that He never asks for thanks and He knows us so well that He gets us something that we would like and some things that we need (even if we don’t think we do).

 

After opening gifts, we went to our friend’s in Mesa for Breakfast.  Here is the uncle with Lydia and Jordyn, Christian and Damean in front of the Christmas Tree.  I love the look on Christian’s face in this picture.  He was so excited to be with his friends.

 

Afterwards, Sherrada’s in-laws were sweet and invited us to Christmas dinner.  I had tons of fun having girl talk and just enjoying the company of great friends.  The guys enjoyed watching a movie and us girls got a laugh when we noticed the three in a row with their hands almost the same!

On the Eve of Christmas ‘09

I can’t believe all that has happened to fill up time in the last two weeks.  I haven’t spent any time blogging for a while but I can’t forget to mention how we spent our Christmas holiday.

On the eve of Christmas Eve, we went to the Mesa Temple and walked around looking at the lights.  We had left to go as soon as Jared got off of work at 4:30 which was a really good thing because by the time we left, I was feeling claustrophobic from all of the people getting in my personal space bubble.

Here is what outside looked like with the lighted palm trees….

 

Inside the visitor’s center they have a huge display of nativities from around the world.  It is quite an expansive collection, I couldn’t resist posting a couple of my pictures….

     

Here is one of the two Mary and Joseph life-sized nativities out-side…. As I looked at this display with Mary riding a donkey thinking about her about to have a baby (which they should have made her stomach look at least a little bigger in my opinion), I thought about her great faith in Heavenly Father to carry a child who would be a son of God and also how frightening such a responsibility would be.  Just having children of Heavenly Father’s come and be my own is scary enough as it is because of the hopes I have for them to chose to follow Heavenly Father’s plan and do those things that are necessary for them to return to Him someday.  It also reminded me of how precious life really is and what a gift each person’s life is not just on earth, but eternally.  I think that is the whole point of Christmas that Christ loved all of us so much that He came and gave His life for our lives….our eternal lives.  Who am I not to be eternally grateful for such a sacrifice?

Afterwards….we went home and read the Christmas story out of the Bible while having hot chocolate and cookies and then Jared and Christian had a sleepover with the Christmas tree.

   

I always wanted to sleep under the Christmas tree as a little girl so we thought we’d make it a tradition.  Christian loved it.