New Scrapbook Challenge

Basicgrey challenges are back and as a thank you to their followers, you can enter for a chance to win this loot...

http://basicgreychallenges.blogspot.com/2009/07/yay-its-official-we-are-back-thank-you_28.html

4 weeks left of maternity leave

4 Weeks of maternity leave left - that means Xavier is 8 weeks old! Gosh, how time has flown by. Xavier is smiling so much. He is such a good baby. He occassionally sleeps 5 hours at a time at night - which is awesome when it happens. It would be even better if I could go right back to sleep when it happened. He seems to have an internal clock that wakes him up around 3:30 no matter what time he goes to bed. Elizabeth still loves her baby brother. From my understanding, it won't last though... :( Elizabeth is adjusting to being back home. I didn't realize how small our living room was until coming back from my parents. Their sunroom is about twice the size of our living room & kitchen combined. El is going to daycare once a week and I to be honest, I really enjoy those days...it gives me the opportunity to hang out in the basement to scrapbook and streamline movies through Netflix on our XBox 360.
I got quite a bit of scrapbooking done in Alabama. 11 pages total - some are double layouts. It's been a LONG time since I've taken pictures of any of my layouts. I need to do that. I've been buying a TON of paper lately and really need to start scrapping more at home. I told Monica that we need to get together at least once a month.

Day #13

Xavier is 13 days old today. What an experience this has been. First of all, I had a super easy delivery (compared to Elizabeth). He is nursing a lot better than Elizabeth as well, however, we still have the weight issue. I have to feed him every 2-1/2 hours (from start of one to the start of the next) and if he's asleep, I have to wake him up. That was not so easy to do last night. I had my alarm set for 3:00 a.m. but I couldn't wake up. It's easier to wake up when he's ready to wake up, not so easy when I have to be the one, so he missed his 3:00 feeding and I didn't wake up again until a little bit before 6:00. Then the doctor has us giving him 1 oz. of formula after each feeding to make sure he is getting enough. He didn't want it this morning. On Monday, we go back to the doctor and I really really hope he has put on the weight he is expected to. Babies are supposed to put on 1/2 oz. a day and over an 8 day period he only put on only 2 oz. He should be at his birth weight which is 8 lb 13 oz. and he's only 8 lb 3 oz. So, during this same doctor's visit, the doctor runs her hands over his shoulder and feels a knot - turns out he has a fracture (can't remember the name of the bone). She thinks it could have happened during birth since its a very common fracture. So, I had to take him for his first set of X-rays yesterday. That was an interesting experience - it was very quick but the poor guy was hungry (I wasn't prepared for a long trip) and he cried the entire time. They basically laid him on a table and a tech held him down and they took 2 snap shots - I wish I could have copies for his scrapbook! :) It has started to heal and there's nothing for us to do except not lay him on that side. Of course, every time I pick him up or get him dressed or even feed him, I worry if I'm doing something that could be hurting him.

Elizabeth just loves "her baby" and loves to try and help (even when I'm nursing!). The first time she came to the hospital to visit, I said I needed to feed Xavier and she goes and grabs some applesauce! It was so cute. We've only had one case of "that's mine". He was covered with her Winnie the Pooh/Tigger blanket and she really wanted it. She had to make a trade for another blanket in order to get it. She loves playing with his bouncer and swing - she puts her teddy bears and baby dolls in there and always fastens them in. She tries sitting in them as well, but I think has finally gotten over that. Not sure how it will go next week while I'm by myself. She tends to ask me to do things while I'm feeding Xavier so I feel bad to tell her not right now or go ask daddy. The other thing is that Brian has been getting up with her in the mornings so I can sleep in until Xavier's next feeding, but I won't be able to do that next week. She is usually up between 7-7:30 and I've been sleeping until 8:00-9:00. If anyone knows me, then they know I have to get my 10 hours of sleep in! :)

Xavier has been lifting his head. I lay him on his stomach and he just moves that head around and actually wiggles his way forward. I just love watching him, he amazes me. It's funny how I have forgotten things - like how many poopy diapers a new born has. I actually called the doctor's office b/c I thought he was having too many! I had to be reminded that a breast fed baby has a lot more poopy diapers than a formula fed baby.

Well, I hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July! We'll be sticking close to the house (which is fine with us b/c our neighborhood has some pretty good fireworks). Hopefully, it won't rain and we can shoot some fireworks off, but we may not be that lucky. It's raining right now. :(

Our Valentine's Day

Brian and I actually got to go out - just the two of us - for Valentine's Day! My mom and dad came to town to visit Elizabeth, I mean us, and they were all too happy to babysit Elizabeth. We started out early to miss the dinner crowd. We didn't really know for sure where we wanted to eat so we got our movie tickets first and then though we'd go to the Cheesecake Factory but on the way, we passed by a TGI Fridays. Okay, not the most romantic place and its someplace that we could take Elizabeth too and not worry about her being loud, but...I wanted to try out some of the food from "Ultimate Recipe Showdown" from the Foodnetwork. Mainly the Gourmet Mac & 5 Cheese. Brian thought I was a little crazy, but it was Valentine's Day so he went with no complaints. He actually LOVED a smoked salmon past dish he got. After dinner, we went to see "Taken" and that was AWESOME. I really liked it. Then we went to Dean & Deluca. I had never been there before and I don't know that we'll go again. I knew you get food and coffee there, but it was also a little bit of a very expensive grocery store. Definitely out of our price range and quite honestly, I prefer the white chocolate mocha from Borders book store than I did from Dean & Delucas. And, they closed at 8:00 - It was Saturday night for goodness sakes. So, we skedaddled (however you spell that) and went to the $2.00 theater and watched "The Day the Earth Stood Still". It wasn't bad.

Before our date began, Elizabeth and I made cupcakes. We didn't ice them until the following day and she had sooo much fun doing it. She loves using the mixer and when it came to icing the cupcakes, she loved to lick her fingers. We had fun doing it and can you believe I didn't get any pictures of it. or of Brian and me for our date! Gees, what was I thinking??

However, I do have some pictures of some of our bath time and bed time rituals. Pretty much, after bath, we get the pleasure of chasing her around the house in order to put lotion and pajamas on her (and sometimes her diaper). Something about a bath/shower just fills her with energy. I don't know where she gets it from. She just wares me out! Our new bed time ritual is to read a couple of books before going to bed. I realize its something most parents do with their kids but we had always just put her to bed. We read the same couple of books over and over again, we really have to try and throw in something new every now and then. She loves Dora the Explorer (and she got a bunch for Christmas so we now have a variety to read), she likes a book called Snowy Days and Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop. There's also has a Winnie the Pooh search and find that she loves to go through - I think she has all that memorized now.

We went sledding behind our house at the school yard. Elizabeth had a great time being pulled around by Storm (Storm really got her exercise, after we'd slide down, she'd pull Elizabeth back up the hill). Afterwards, we came back to the house and Elizabeth and I played ring around the rosy and made snow angels. We had lots of fun playing in the snow!This pretty much recaps our January and February so far. Wow, I posted a blog only about a month apart! Maybe next time I'll add some of my new scrapbook pages!

A Year in Review

Well, another year has come and gone. I can't believe Elizabeth is 2 years old! She is so full of personality (and sometimes full of attitude). If I tell her to do something and she doesn't like it, she'll tell me to go play and she just now started to tell me to leave her alone - even if I'm not bothering her! Oh the things they pick up! She really likes watching DVD's now. Her favorites are Winnie the Pooh, Shrek, doggie movies (101 Dalmatians & Snow Buddies) and Tinkerbell. I think I'll have them all memorized in another week or so! She likes to be read to - Dora used to be her favorite but not so much anymore - I think right now it's Dr. Seuss - Hop on Pop. She likes to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but she calls that one "Up Above". It's funny, but it's hard to remember what she was like a year ago. I guess that's why it's so important to write that stuff down. At the beginning of last year, she had quite a few ear infections and colds. I thought we were going to end up getting tubes put in her ears, but we got past that phase. So far, we're doing good in the health area! She moved up with the "big" kids in daycare. She really started picking up talking even more - instead of saying 1 or 2 words, she started using sentences and phrases. There are definitely times where I can't understand what she is saying and we'll have her take our hand and show us what she is talking about. She still gives the best hugs and kisses and has started saying I Love You back to us. Despite her occasional crabby attitude, she is still a good kid. Just gotta make sure she gets her nap!

As for the rest of us, Brian had a full year of home repairs - he took a long weekend and replaced our roof with the help of his brothers. He put up a new shed and finished the built-in shelves around our fireplace. He didn't get much "play time" this year. The week that daycare was closed in June, Elizabeth and I went to Alabama while Brian worked on the house (this is when he did the roof). Elizabeth and I had a great time with Papaw and Gramma. We went to a petting zoo with Emma and just relaxed. Didn't take advantage of the pool as much I had planned but I did take advantage of the babysitting and got to see 3 movies!

We didn't have a "big" vacation, but we managed a night at the Great Wolf Lodge with the Wendt's and for the day one other time. Elizabeth LOVED it. We're going to try another trip there in the next couple of weeks. I went to a Star Trek convention in Vegas with Kim in August - what an experience (I guess I did get a "big" vacation). My sis really wants to go again - after all, there are still some more autographs we need!! I also had my annual scrapbook convention in October with my friend Monica. We had visits from family - my parents came up twice and Brian's family came to visit as well. We spent Labor Day weekend in Omaha and spent the weekend before Christmas in Alabama for the Curry Christmas. Thanksgiving was spent with our friends and of course, there was the magical day after Thanksgiving shopping! I don't think we did anything Memorial weekend and 4th of July instead of everyone coming to our place, we went to Harrisonville and saw some great fireworks. It seems like our year was busier than this, but I can't remember anything else.

Of course the big news that happened in 2008 is my pregnancy. We have another little Yoder on the way, due in June. At my 13.5 week check up, they were able to tell us we were having a boy! I'm wanting to double check with my next visit which will be next week before I completely believe that. They usually wait until 17 weeks or so before finding out so I'm a little anxious they could be wrong! I am glad that we went neutral on the car seat, high chair, play pen, etc. so we won't need any of the big stuff. I am going to go ahead and say it - boy clothes are not as cute as girl clothes!!

2009 started out on a great note - sung by Celine Dion! Kim and Mark came up for the concert and she was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!! She was without a doubt worth the money spent! Plans for the new year include a trip to South Dakota to visit the Wendt's in April and we plan on stopping to see some of Brian's family along the way. Of course, the baby is due in June and I'll have 12 weeks off for maternity leave. I'm going to figure out a way to get a scrapbooking weekend in there sometime before the baby comes! :) We have to get started on converting the spare bedroom into a nursery which will be a nautical theme. Of course, going to wait to make any changes until we're sure it's still a boy!

I haven't been scrapbooking much since the convention in October. The beginning of this pregnancy - I didn't feel well most of the time, now I feel fine, but I'm tired! I've been working a LOT lately trying to get year end done so once I can get settled back home on normal hours, I hope to have the energy to get some layouts done and pictures printed and maybe even stay on top of this blog and the picture website! Can't promise much on the last 2 though!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S FROM THE YODERS!