Christmas 2009

Christmas was yesterday!! It was a very good Christmas, even though Rowan's teething again (still) so nobody got much sleep the night before.  Though, that may have been due more to the fact that we were all at JVMC till 2:30 in the morning.  Buck had to work the night shift on Christmas Eve, so Rowan and I went to keep him company!  We brought the pack'n'play so Rowan would have a place to sleep, and he did for a couple of hours but then he wanted to play for the rest of the night.  That was alright with me since there wasn't much for me to do when Buck was off makin' the bacon! 

 

I went to Target and got some bubbly and christmas cups and some treats for Buck and his co-workers but I ended up being the only one who drank any (which, again, was alright with me.)  Then I passed the time watching the TNT "A Christmas Story" marathon for the rest of the night and every once in a while Rowan and I would take a tour around the hallways and Buck and I would give him rides on the hospital chairs.  It was actually a really good Christmas Eve and I think it was more exciting for Rowan than it would have been had Buck had the night off :)

So we all got to bed around 3:30, Rowan woke up at 5:30 and went back to sleep with his daddy (I've been sleeping on the couch for pregnancy reasons) and woke up again at 7:00 and 9:30-at which point I figured we might as well start Christmas day.  We were going to let Rowan open all the presents but he felt the job was done once one little piece had been ripped off of each box so after three or four we decided that maybe next year it'll work out better.  This year, he seemed perfectly content to just walk around and slap all of the boxes and laugh, haha.

After presents, Buck and Rowan played Guitar Hero (my present to Buck) and took a nap while I prepared Christmas dinner (beef stew--very festive.)  Then we watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!!  (Buck's present to me.)  Rowan didn't get to play with his present because there was a piece missing so we couldn't put it together :(  It's a mini ride-on police motorcycle and even in pieces it's pretty sweet!  That was ok because Rowan spent the rest of the evening playing with the fuzzy boots that Buck got me.

And now it's the day after Christmas.  It's so much less awesome than the day that precedes it :(  I feel like each day after Thanksgiving builds my excitement for my favorite holiday and everyone's jolly and all the stores are decorated and more and more people put lights on their houses.....*sigh*..... and then Christmas comes and it's awesome and then the day after Christmas comes and everybody goes back to normal and all the pretty decorations get put away and it's sad.

Also, once Christmas has passed, people start thinking about the New Year-which is cool, too....but this New Year will bring with it a newborn.  Wow, I worded that poorly.  Look, I like tiny babies well enough.  I know that it's a blessing to be able to participate in the creation of life.  But, newborns make me want to die a little.  At least, when they live in my house they do.  And the one that's gonna come out of me in a couple weeks will likely be living here with us so the day after Christmas this year = the day I start to really freak out.

Rowan was actually a really easy baby.  But with his little brother's arrival looming in front of me, all I can really remember from his first few months is the poop that no diaper could contain, springs of regurgitated boob milk, and realizing all too late that sleep is a precious commodity that I should have taken better advantage of for the 22 years preceding his birth.

I think I just need some positive reenforcement.  I mean, Rowan was once a newborn and now he's like the coolest person I know!  Stellan will inevitably be pretty sweet too, I would imagine.  I tried to talk to Buck about it but he just tells me to relax.  And, for reasons I can't understand, he's not worried at all. (I  mean, for real?)

Anyway, I hope you guys all had an awesome holiday!

Oh, you know...

I'm up and Rowan's still asleep (at least, he isn't making any efforts to alert me that it's time to play) so I figure now's a good time to catch up on the ol' blog.

A lot has been going on the past couple of weeks (a lot for our family, at least) but, sadly, I haven't been able to document it with my camera because I'm lazy and-although the battery is charged and I know where it is-I haven't found the motivation to go to that place (my purse) and retrieve it for use.  Luckily, Buck's phone is generally handy so I do have a cute video to post along with this entry.  Probably most of you have seen it already as we're all friends on facebook but I think the video is cute enough to post twice and watch several times.

The Smith family Christmas party was on the 12th and it went pretty well, I thought.  I was pretty stressed about it even though it wasn't at our house because Buck and I were still technically the hosts and therefore responsible for the success or failure of the event.  I'm not used to family get-togethers since my family never got together unless somebody died so being around everyone in Buck's family at once is still a little overwhelming for me, haha.  Anyway, everyone brought food and enough people ate what I brought for me not to feel badly about it.  Having Rowan around is always nice because if I find myself in an awkward situation I can just stare at him intently like I'm making sure he's not getting into trouble :)

Well, it sounds like the Rowbot's ready to start the day so I better end this.  Here's that video though:

We had dinner at one of Buck's co-workers' house last week and the kids had 20 minutes of fun breakin' it down with this rapping christmas penguin :)

Halloween and stuff.

Hey, y'all!  So, here's a little recap of all that's happened since my last post:

My birthday was October 19th and Buck and I went and saw Paranormal Activity and it was lame!  But the date was still fun :)

My mom came to visit (she was here for my birthday) and she got to see Rowan for the second time ever.  The last time she saw him, he was 2 months old :(  So she had a blast with him and spent the whole time teaching him how to blow kisses and shake his head 'yes' when she asked if he loved her.  She tried to get him to say "Lola" (grandma) to no avail.  It was way good to see her and I'm so glad they got to spend some time together :)

We didn't make any big plans for Halloween as the three of us had been varying degrees of sick for the two weeks leading up to it and we weren't fully recovered when it rolled around.  But, we went to our friends' house the night before to carve pumpkins (I ended up on the couch with a migraine after cutting out the gutting hole).  Rowan wore his costume so I wouldn't feel like we wasted money buying it.  

Here's Buck's pumpkin--he didn't even use a stencil this year!

Here's mine.  I carved it Halloween morning :)  The picture doesn't do it justice!

We took some ceremonial pictures of Rowan in his costume to appease my mom.  (He looks a bit deflated because I didn't stuff it with a pillow like I was supposed to.)

Oh, and here's a preggy pic because some of my friends have been bugging me about taking one.  I'm now 27 weeks along and Stellan is using my bladder as his own personal LoveSac.  My pregnancy induced insomnia + Rowan's new thing for getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning = me wanting to die.  And I still have three months to go!  Please ignore the chubbiness!  (What's sad is that I look chubbier in person.  Curse you, food!!)

Ooh, also--I decided I'm going to open an Etsy shop and sell knitted and crocheted baby stuff to try and bring in some extra money.  I'm planning on making hair barrettes, pacifier clips, mittens and hats, and booties.  Do you guys think people could buy that kind of stuff if it were cute?  Any ideas on other stuff that might sell better?  Any input helps, as I have no idea what I'm doing!

Belated Anniversary Post :)

So Buck and I celebrated 2 glorious years of living together as ball and chain last Tuesday (the 15th)!  We did so by using a gift card Mike's mother-in-law sent us to enjoy a delicious lunch at Macaroni Grill with Rowan.  Then, we continued our custom of eating banana splits because that's what we had at our wedding instead of cake.  Not a bad way to spend an evening, if you ask me!

(09.15.2007)

(09.15.2008)

(09.15.2009)

A lot of my friends have said that their first years of marriage have just FLOWN by and they can't believe they've been married as long as they have.  Is it weird that I don't feel that way at all?  I was joking around on facebook when I said "it's been the longest two years of my life" but I mean...it kind of has, haha.  Not in a bad way or anything.  

So many things have changed in the past two years that, for me at least, it's made them seem anything BUT fleeting.  Know what I mean?  Buck and I started dating, got engaged, and got married within the span of a couple of months.  Then we bought our first new car, moved into our first apartment, got pregnant, had a baby, got pregnant again, miscarried, moved into our first house, got pregnant yet again, bought another car, got a dog, got rid of our dog (haha), and now Buck will graduate from school in two months.  

The past two years have felt like a whole lifetime to me.  And I feel like a different person.  I'm hesitant to say I feel like I've grown up because....I mean, c'mon...  (Heaven knows Buck hasn't ;))  But I think I must be one of the comparatively few girls in the world (or at least in our society) lucky enough to be in a solid, happy, real relationship with someone who completely suits me and who, I'm confident, will make me happy for eternity.  It's a pretty sweet deal.

Buck's birthday was on the 9th.  It was his 09.09.09 birthday and (by coincidence) he woke up at 9:00.  We went on a little date at The District while one of our friends watched the Rowbot.  We ate out at a sushi place (it was delicious, but over priced) and saw "9" at the theatre (it started at 9:09 and was shown in theatre 9).  Buck LOVED the movie but I thought it was depressing.  It was still way fun to get to go hang out just the two of us for a while!  Even though I had to get up to pee so many times during the movie that 2/3 of the way through I had to relocate and sit alone in the empty seats in the front of the theater so I wouldn't further upset all the other people in my vicinity :(

I had my 20 week preggo appointment yesterday morning and everything looks good with Stellan!  Nary a club foot or hair lip in sight!  The ultrasound tech had a difficult time trying to get a profile shot though, so I get another peek at next month's visit!  Stellan was head down and facing my back the whole time and he wouldn't roll over, so next time I have doctor's orders to eat some ice cream before I go in so maybe he'll be more cooperative :)

(This picture is actually from our 16 week ultrasound)

(The ultrasound tech thought it was funny that Stellan was mooning us)

The tech could tell that it was a boy, but it's lucky that we already knew because she couldn't get a good shot of Stellan's business because he was playing with it the whole time.  Buck got a kick out of that.

Rowan's getting so big (for him) and he's started pointing to stuff and repeating after us when we tell him what it's called and it's so cute!  He says hi, door, light, belly, hair, eye and then he just babbles all the time.  I LOVE it.  He's turning into quite the performer, too.  Anytime there's music playing (and often when there isn't) he starts dancing around and if Buck or I notice and start laughing, he immediately kicks it up a couple notches and it's evident in his face that he thinks he's the best thing ever.  It seriously never gets old :)

(Rowan and Sheila-- our ex-dog, on her bed)

So that's pretty much it for now.  I'll try to be better about posting.  It's just really boring for me to do, haha.

The first year in the reign of Rowan.

Well, Rowan turned 1 on  Sunday!  We were going to have a party for him the day before with a couple of our friends and close family members but, nobody showed up because we forgot to tell them about it.  Yeah...we're going to have to get the hang of this whole "birthday" thing.  

Luckily, our friends Douglas and Jill and their two boys weren't doing anything, so they met us at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point and we pretended like that's what we meant to do for Rowan's birthday.  Also luckily, Rowan didn't have any preconceptions about how a birthday typically plays out so he didn't care what we did!  As far as I could tell, we all had a pretty good time.  We were babysitting for another friend of ours at the time, so her little girl came to the museum with us.  (She seemed to be the only one who wasn't feelin' it.)  But we made it up to her afterwards by letting her rub birthday cupcakes all over her body.  Still no word on how her mom felt about that :)

On his actual birthday, we showed Rowan how procrastinating Jack-Mormons celebrate Sunday birthdays by skipping church and going to Wal*Mart to pick up ice cream and presents.  My best friend from VA was here and she's Catholic so she got to learn about Jack-Mormons, too!  (It has been eating away at my soul.)

At any rate, the cake turned out well and Rowan thoroughly enjoyed it and all of his presents.  All in all, I think he had a good first birthday but hopefully it'll go a little smoother in the years to come.  :)

Rowan is amusing.

I haven't blogged in a while because I don't like to post anything new unless I have pictures or a video or something.  I'm a very visual person and I won't bother reading other people's blogs unless there's something for me to look at.  

Anyway, I haven't been taking many pictures or anything lately because the battery in my camera died.  And, although I knew where the charger was and it wouldn't have been difficult for me to obtain, I simply didn't have the motivation to get the job done.  But we went to Wyoming for the 4th of July and had a little family reunion with all of Buck's kinfolk so I figured it was about time to put the camera back in action.  Of course, I ended up with little interest in documenting the festivities so the 7 pictures that were taken were mostly by Buck (and therefore lame).  Love you, Buck!

Here's a cute picture of Rowan sitting in the high chair that Buck used as a kid :)

I'm pretty sure Rowan has an ear infection.  He's got all the symptoms and he's been a nightmare for the past couple of days.  He's still such a sweetheart but he acts like he's in pain all the time (because he probably is) so there has been a lot of crying.  Today, he randomly started walking around in a circle and I thought it was really cute so I did what I could to keep him going so I could get a video.  Now he spins around every time I start chanting.  It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Anyway, Rowan turns 1 on Sunday so I should have more pictures soon!

Best. Thing. EVER!

So I'm obsessed with gardening (even though I have no talent for it whatsoever) and now that we have a yard, I'm constantly thinking of things I want to plant.  I'd love to have a little vegetable garden, grow some herbs (not "herb") and it would be sweet if we could have a fruit tree or two as well.  But our yard, although spacious, isn't extremely large.

Well, as I was doing my plant life research for the day I stumbled upon THIS:

It's called "espalier"  (es-pal-yay) and it's the best thing ever!!  It's great for growing fruit trees in limited space because you train them to grow against a wall and if you train the branches to grow horizontally instead of vertically, they produce more fruit!

Then, I found out that there are FRUIT SALAD TREES!!!  So instead of buying like 15 different fruit trees, you can buy one tree that has 5 different citrus fruits, one that has like plums and peaches and those kinds of fruits, and one that has a bunch of different kinds of apples on it.  Brilliant!

I was just way too excited not to blog about this.

......What have I become?