Christmas festivities 2011

He had so much fun decorating the "Tuss-muss" tree, he kept asking to do it again for days.

When we got to Grandma and Grandpa Noall's house, they had one for him to decorate himself, with unbreakable ornaments. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it--after he was done, it was very bottom-heavy. So cute. :)

I like this picture.

He had a bow on each shoulder, and of course, this is the closest I got to capturing it--him removing the second one. :)

Jamie had a Thomas the Tank Engine/Sesame Street themed Christmas. On Christmas Eve, he got to open his Elmo slippers. We and Grandma and Grandpa each got him a new Thomas "set"--tracks with different themes, kind of--and Janelle got him a Thomas jigsaw puzzle that came in a cool tin lunch box thing. He also got some nice clothes from Grandma and Grandpa, and his first real Legos from Uncle Justin.




I also got a very exciting new toy for Christmas:

The Silhouette Cameo!!!

Jason faked me out so good. He totally made me think I was getting something else, though I had no idea what. I was so shocked when I opened it!

This isn't actually a picture of mine--I've only used it once on a test run. I'm waiting to get the vinyl and other stuff I ordered. (Plus I hardly know where to start, after wanting one for 2+ years!) So now I just need to bust that baby out and get to work creating! There are definitely "Big Brother" and "Little Brother" t-shirts in my near future.

One of Auntie Janelle's and Jamie's favorite things to do together while we were there was "flipping" on the couch or a bed. This boy LOVES to jump, flip, throw himself over and off of stuff, etc., so he was in his element.

Overall, it was a very nice Christmas spent with family. I know Jamie had a great time and got tons of love! Now we're glad to be home, getting ready for Jason to start a new semester and entering my third trimester.

Speaking of which, I've made a decision that would never have crossed my mind when I was pregnant with Jamie. I've decided to at least attempt a natural, no-drug birth, and I've switched to a midwife. I'm even planning on doing some laboring in water, which is supposed to cut the pain in half, at least.

The reason I would do such a crazy (I would have thought so up until a couple months ago) thing?

A lot of it is what I learned from watching this incredible movie:



I have a friend who had an all-natural, at-home birth recently, and she recommended this movie to me. After she told me how wonderful the home birth was, and after I heard from her husband (who is your average lawyer who works a lot) how nice, peaceful, and family-oriented it was, I decided to watch this movie.

Quite honestly, I felt like I was enlightened and I'll never be able to go back. The movie is not about conspiracy theories; it puts forth good logic and statistics from respected, knowledgeable people (such as the former MD over maternity and pediatrics for the World Health Organization) who are suggesting that birth doesn't usually need a doctor, because it's not a sickness. My baby's birth will take place in a hospital, with all the medical interventions I could possibly desire nearby--if I need them. But unless I do, my baby's birth will be assisted by a Certified Nurse Midwife, and I'm so excited about that!

As usual, as verbose as I am, I still don't know how to describe exactly what I feel. But I prayed a lot about the feelings watching this movie inspired in me, and I've felt peace about going this route. A lot of the reasons are too personal to share here, but one way to put it is that I want this baby's birth to be personal, and I want nothing in the way of my being able to immediately bond with him. I also don't want to risk the possibility of any drugs that could hurt him or me.

Sound crazy? I don't blame you for thinking so. I'd been an epidural enthusiast since I had Jamie. All I can say is, watch the above preview if this is an area that interests you at all. And if you feel the slightest bit of intrigue, PLEASE take an hour or two of your life and watch the whole movie. (It's on Netflix instant queue, or I believe you can watch it on YouTube.) I've watched it three times and showed it to Jason. (As we were watching, he said, "I don't know why you want to know my opinion. Everything they're saying makes sense.") I'm so grateful for what I've learned--or really, just the perspective I've been able to switch to--since watching this.

And let me know if you do watch it. But please don't post any comments telling me it's not a good idea, or that I'll fail, even jokingly.

I'm also not knocking those who go the drugs route, so don't be offended if that's you. Heck, I did it, and I may end up doing it again, but it's important to me to try this for my own reasons.

Okay, that was a good tangent. But I've become rather passionate about this subject, and you know how that is--you want to convert others. :)

Hope everyone has a very happy new year!

'Bout time

...for an update. This will be long.

How was everyone's Christmas? Did December go by as quickly for you as it did for us? I can hardly believe it's nearly over already! Next year I need to start doing Christmas-y things early so they all get in there. We didn't even get a chance to go see the lights at the Mesa Temple! (Thankfully, I'm told they're up through January, so even though it will feel kinda funny, we can still go see them.)


I'm six months along now (though not quite, in this picture), and definitely bigger this time around. I seem to be carrying lower, and pants have become a problem. Even one of my pairs of maternity jeans from last time don't fit--they make my hips ache and throw my back or something out of alignment! My first choice of pants these days are Jason's pajama pants. Ugh. Three more months is looking long and uncomfortable from that perspective, though maybe a little too soon in regard to all the changes little No-Name will bring.

Still no real prospects on a name for this little man. We've tossed a few around and looked at some websites and a baby-naming book, but nothing feels right yet. :( Suggestions welcome as long as you're not offended if we don't use it. :) I like names that aren't too common, but not too weird either.

I'm wondering if this baby will be a bit calmer than his older brother. I'm not sure why I think that, though, considering that he's still plenty wiggly. I don't know how he manages it, but he seems to be able to dig way down into BOTH of my hips at the SAME time!

Jamie is doing really well. His vocabulary and ability to formulate sentences seems to improve by leaps and bounds all the time. When we were at Jason's parents' house for Christmas, Uncle Justin was tickling him, and Jamie very clearly said, "Hey, don't tih-toe my feet." Other than asking him to put a "please [pees]" in there, we were proud. He still talks in third person a lot ("Hey, wait for Jamie!" "Jamie no wahn go nigh-night!" "Jamie wahn some tan-dee!"), but that's improved also.

He also likes books a lot more than he used to, which is great. I started cutting back on the amount of TV he watches, and it has helped so much with his obedience, his moods, and just the general peace in our house. He's learned to find other things to do, and he doesn't even ask for TV very much anymore.


Speaking of "other things," jigsaw puzzles are Jamie's current obsession. There are usually between two and six of them out on the table. He's up to ones with 50 pieces, and he's really good at them. Every day, puzzles, puzzles, puzzles.

(I had to pretend to burp to get this face.)

One of his most exciting accomplishments is potty-training! He's doing really great at keeping his big-boy underwear dry all day, most of the time. He has gone #2 in the potty once, but now always goes in the diapers we put on him for bed- and naptime. We're not worried, though; he'll get there, and this is a huge improvement over just two or three weeks ago. Thanks to my sis-in-law, Michelle, for giving us the idea (and the courage) to just put him in underwear all day so he could feel wetness. It's worked great!

I'm remembering a high school newspaper convention that my journalism class went to in my senior year, half because it was in Anaheim and we could go to Disneyland (remember, Crys?), where we had our paper critiqued and learned that graphics make something news-y much more readable. I apologize. I need more pictures. Maybe tomorrow I'll take some to match the subjects of all this text.

Okay, I'm not so great at this--to go back a bit, here are a few highlights from our trip to Nor Cal for Thanksgiving. (I did put pictures up on Facebook right away. It's just so much easier to do on there...)

Okay, this is before we left. I made these, and both cost me less than $3 (with plenty of leftover stuff). I really like how they turned out. I barely finished them a day or two before we left, so next year they'll feel fresh and new.

The group of us, after the meal had been eaten and we had somewhat digested, just before we headed to the Cox-side-of-the-family dessert get-together. I asked my parents to let me take a picture of them at some point, too, but it never happened.

The lone picture I took at the get together--Jamie on Ali's toy horse. I really am a total slacker about taking pictures a lot of the time...

On Saturday, we headed up to Apple Hill again with Rob, Michelle, Conner, and Michelle's dad, her sister Keri, and her two little girls, Corrinne and Lily (Lily's the little one).

Un-toe Rob and Jamie, waiting for the horsey rides to open

Oh my goodness, Jamie loooooved his pony ride.

See that grin?
(He threw a total fit when his ride was over.)

Both of us who drove up (I drove my parents' car and Keri drove hers) left our lights on by accident because it had been really foggy down in the valley. Fortunately my parents' battery didn't die, so it was available for jumping Keri's, which did. (It was no big deal, and I enjoyed getting to see how jumper cables work. And the men enjoyed being manly. :))

How about we leave it there for this post? It's taken me all day to get just this much done. I started this morning, did a little more in the afternoon while Jamie napped--or rather, I heard him start talking and yelling from his bed almost as soon as I sat down, and I shamelessly let him sit in there for ten or fifteen minutes so I could do a little more--and now Jason is getting Jamie ready for bed. (I had to sit down. I was standing in the kitchen forever putting together chicken enchiladas and my legs are tired.)

December/Christmas post, hopefully with three, count 'em, THREE videos coming next!