Christmas Morning in Pictures

This is our classic Christmas morning stair pose.
Our living room door is closed and no one is allowed in until we're all lined up and ready.
We're supposed to be youngest to oldest, but I think Emily got a little excited.

Santa Presents: The fuzzy pickle and a pull along dog.

Feeling a little overwhelmed. Needed a little mommy reassurance.

Brrr it's cold!

The Bras(s) Clan 2008: Celia, Matt and Dean (and baby in tummy)

The Best of Christmas 2008 (don't forget to read the end!)

I didn't get Christmas cards sent before we left on our 15 hour drive to AZ. Such is life.

I have been trying for about an hour to get Christmas pictures to post. I have them on my mom's computer, but her software is different than I'm used to and I'm trying to figure out how to access them. So, you may not get pictures till I'm home. Boo hoo.

The best thing about the trip here was that Matt drove all but 1.5 hours. I am not sure why, but I am fairly narcoleptic in a moving car. When I drive, it is a constant battle to keep my eyes open after about an hour. I have to either drink something peppered with a good dose of caffeine, or I have to constantly be chewing something. I don't prefer the prior, so I chose to do the latter. I pretty much ate carrots and sour patch kids the entire time I drove. Boy do I love sour patch kids. Also, Dean cried all but 1/2 hour while I was driving. Overall, he did ok with the very long drive.

We made it here and stayed with my sister Suzie's family the first night. The next day we came on to Snowflake, hitting the only snow and ice we've seen on this trip. There were some pretty rough spots, but Matt is a master driver and we made it safely.

The best lines in our Christmas Nativity play were from my 3 year old nephew. Just as he was supposed to come as a wiseman he turned to his mom who was narrating and said,

"Mom, I changed my mind. I want to be a sea moose."
"A sea moose? Do you mean a moose?"
"No, a sea moose."
"Well, what's a sea moose?"
"Mom. I changed my mind. I just want to be a moose."
"Well, Sky, I don't think there are any mooses in the Christmas story, so you're going to have to be a wise man."

He ended up riding into town on his camel (grandpa) and at the time of gift giving he said, "NO! That's my gold!"

It was a great play.

One of the other "best" or favorite traditions was my sister Suzie reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." She has told that every year as long as I can remember.

The most useful and fun present Matt received actually came in late October from his parents. He got a gigantic flat screen monitor for his computer. It is now doubling for our "movie theater" since it's bigger than our 20 in. TV. I think it's 26 or 27 inches or something. It is one of those gifts that counts for this Christmas plus our birthdays for next year, but it's worth it!

The most useful present I got was Isagenix shakes from my mom. Matt got me the Anne of Green Gables set, so that will be my fun present since I'll finally get to finish the series!!

My favorite gifts Dean received were awesome classic wooden toys. I love classic wooden toys that help develop motor skills. He especially loved the toy that requires him to hammer balls into holes. He didn't want to open any presents after that. He's obsessed with pounding on things recently, so it was a brilliant gift by Grandma B.

The best present we received, however, was the news that we are having a baby. Yep, that's right folks.

I am pregnant.

About 2 months pregnant actually. I know, I'm not past my first trimester, but I am NOT a good secret keeper and I am amazed I held off this announcement this long. We confirmed that we were pregnant on December 1st. I hadn't paid close attention to my cycle, but I had a good guess as to my ovulation time. I actually accurately guessed my due date from that! I've already had an ultrasound that confirmed my guessed due date.

Remember when I passed out and hurt myself? Well, yes, I was pregnant then, and though they didn't think I passed out because of the pregnancy, they wanted to check and make sure everything was ok. So, I went to the doctor the day after I fell, and at 6 weeks I could hear and see my baby's heart beating. It's just so amazing. The baby was in the right place and was looking just fine, so I was happy about that.

This baby is due August 3rd, but because I'm going to schedule a C-section (I don't want to go through anything like I did with Dean's birth), I'll probably have the baby a week or so early. So, they'll end up about 21 months apart.

I was almost in denial that I could be pregnant because of all our previous fertility issues. It took us 2 years (with the warning from a specialist that it could take us 10 years) to get pregnant with Dean. So 2-3 months was quite surprising! Surprising but welcomed.

I'm still nursing Dean mornings and nights, but I plan on completely weaning when we get home. I've felt quite good but REALLY tired (especially in the mornings) and often dizzy. I go from extremely full to extremely hungry at the drop of a hat. But I haven't been that nauseous, so I am eternally grateful for that.

To the Mattresses

Before we got married, we knew we needed to get a bed. I saw an add in the Daily Universe for a Queen pillow top mattress for $280. I called the guy and it was a "company" that was pretty much run out of a storage facility. The mattresses were so inexpensive, he told us, because he didn't have all the overhead of a fancy show room and employees. Made sense.

We decided we'd give it a try and at least check it out. It seemed a little sketchy, but only BYU sketchy. We ended up buying one of the mattresses that night and he stored if for us over the summer until we got back to UT for no extra charge. I think he even delivered it for $25 or something.

The mattress has served us well the past 5 1/2 years. It was great in the beginning. I don't think we had any trouble with the size or anything until I was pregnant with Dean. A queen's just a little too cozy for my 6'2" husband, me and a 9 month big belly. We like our individual space when we sleep.

In the past year, however, we have both started having back problems. We've noticed that there's a hump in the middle and dips on our individual sides. It was supposed to last 10 years, but I have to be honest that we didn't rotate it and flip it as well or often as we should have, so maybe it's our fault. We're also both primarily stomach sleepers, so that doesn't help our problems at all.

Anyway, we decided it was time to get a new mattress. We figure we might as well get a King this time around, but that was all we knew. We had absolutely no idea what we were getting into. We didn't have a price range since we had no idea how much they ran. We didn't even know what type of bed we preferred. The sales guy at the store was slightly bugged. We just wanted to lay on every mattress and see what we liked. So we did.

We found that we're not fans of the foam like Tempurpedic (too hot) or Comforpedic (WAY too pricey starting at $6K or something for a King). Unfortunately, the bed we preferred the most was normally $5000+ for a King set. It's currently on sale for $2800. Holy CRAP! That's 10 times the price of our original bed! The "cheap" beds on our "keeper" list were still over $2000. That's a lot of money for a bed. We'd pretty much have to forgo living room furniture if we go for the bed. (Not like we're finding any living room furniture that works for us anyway.)

I'm not sure what to do. Is it worth it? If it really does help stave off back problems...maybe. Anyone have more experience with this or tips to share?

Yogurt: a study

This end mom?

I kinda like this "feeding myself" thing.

Oh, I get so much more with this end!
You mean I'd get even more if I didn't turn it over before my mouth?? I'll have to try that.

Hmm...I wonder what happens when you flip it?

It feels so...wet.

Yep. It makes your eyelashes a little heavier.

Interesting. Very interesting.

I wonder if apple sauce is this fun?


Yep!

Daddy's Helper

Matt got a new saw horse for a project he was working on. Dean felt compelled to help put it together.

Christmas Recital a Success!

I was a little worried last week about my Christmas recital. It seemed like no one had practiced enough and Thanksgiving threw things off. But we had it tonight and it turned out great. I didn't require the pieces to be memorized this time (only in the spring), and that helped out a lot. I was pleased with everyone, but like always there were one or two kids who stole the show. Tonight it was a 9 year old student who's only been taking for 1 year. She played Silent Night out of the regular hymn book with the pedal!! And she played it flawlessly. Hers was the hardest song of the night and she's one of my newest students. It's hard to explain to other parents why some children do not progress that quickly. (Especially when the parents think their kids are moving too slowly and that I'm not challenging them enough! I really do try and work with their aptitude. I'm just not sure how to deal with parents who second guess what I'm doing with their kids and are bugged that they're not moving through books faster.)

I ended up playing Good King Wenceslas from Sally deFord's website. I downloaded it and played it last night for the first time! I had it on a Christmas CD from church and liked the arrangement. I was glad I could do it in such a short amount of time. Dean HATES it when I practice the piano, so I wanted something short but impressive sounding. He always wants to play or move the pedals instead of me. Plus it means I'm ignoring him, and he doesn't like that one bit.

It's nice to perform sometimes. That's really what I miss most about my youth. I miss being involved in piano, choirs, and performances. It's sad that I don't have that. I don't even do church choir right now because of the distance from the church and Dean's sleep schedule.

I let the kids pick their songs and this was what we came up with: (I only had to arrange two of the songs, so I was happy about that. Someday I need to figure out how to upload my arrangements so others can use them...)

Recital Program:

Drue H.
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Lora S.
Jingle Bells

Zoe S.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Lia S.
Jingle Bell Rock

Payton B.
Away in a Manger

Lexie C.
I Saw Three Ships

Madison S.
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

Jake H.
Silver Bells

Rachel S.
Carol of the Bells

Mason S.
Up on the Housetop

Cami C.
Silent Night

There was freezing sleet on my windshield when it was all over. Crazy to think it was in the 70's yesterday! Today's high was 30* or something. TOOOO COLD!!!!

Don't eat baby Jesus!

The things you find yourself saying at Christmas time with a 1 year old...

The only nativity I have is a wooden painted set we bought in Guatemala. The characters are all painted in traditional dress. I love it.

I'd had it set up a couple of days before Dean purposefully pulled out one of my piano buckets to use as a stool (the little smarty pants). Later that day I found baby Jesus in the rice cooker. Time to move the nativity set up on top of my piano! If I wasn't worried about him biting all the paint off the set I wouldn't mind him playing with it.

Blessed

Thanks so much for all the well wishes about my accident. I thought I'd let you all know I am healing MUCH faster than I expected. With how badly I felt on Wed. I was worried I'd be in constant pain for days if not weeks or months. Like I said in my last post, my pain went from about a constant 4-5 on Wed. to about a 2 on Thursday. I now only have moments of pain rather constant pain. I can sit in most chairs, and church today wasn't even torturous! (The metal chairs are much better than pews, I found.) My back did feel a lot more fatigued from carrying Dean, but I'm not sure if that was from my accident or just because he's heavier than he used to be! I feel very, very blessed. It seems like it should have been so much worse. Thanks for any prayers on my behalf.

Also, Matt wasn't supposed to come home until Friday, but on Wed. evening he called and said he'd be home later that night! And I didn't have to come pick him up!! Talk about major blessing.

Dean's lower right molars popped through. Hooray! I thought he'd take a little break from pain and slobber, but I noticed the bulge on his top right molars, more slobber, and he's been waking up for a moment or two around midnight every night this week. He seems to take a couple weeks to get them through the skin, so hopefully this one's not too horrible. Honestly, though, he's not that fussy with his teeth. He just rubs his nose and pulls his ears a lot more (and slobbers and wakes up a little).

Projects completed in less than a month!

Actually, these projects only took me about 3 evenings total (a more experienced seamstress could have done it much quicker I think)! What a relief to have something turn out cute without spending an eternity on production! The bag pattern came from the purl bee's "un-paper bag" tutorial listed on my left side bar. It is my first attempt at making a bag and I was pleased with how doable it was for a beginner. I just made up my own handles since I couldn't find handles I liked (though I honestly didn't look super hard). I definitely plan on making more. I also used fusible fleece interfacing instead of the sew in that it called for. The ladies at the fabric shop talked me into it and I wasn't disappointed. Don't you love this fabric?

This is a part of a page out of a fabric book I made Dean.
I LOVE it. It's called Tiny Tots by Red Rooster.

And lastly, I thought I'd give a little update on my fall and injuries.

Here are a few more details (it's actually the email I sent Matt since he was out of town on a business trip. Luckily he is home now.):

I fainted twice on Tuesday morning when I was trying to get Dean. He woke up at 6 crying really loudly. I listened to him cry until 6:20 and put my head under the pillow for "another 10 min". At 6:45 I woke up again in a panic that I'd made him cry so long. I quickly made it to his room. He was either really quite or had fallen asleep again. While I was standing outside his door I started feeling horrible. My ears were ringing, my legs and arms were weak. I almost felt feverish. Next thing I knew Dean was crying again and I was laying on the ground outside his door (on the hard linoleum) feeling too weak to get up. I think tried to sit down before I passed out and I bruised my tailbone when I went down; it has been hurting horribly ever since.

I laid there a little longer trying to get some strength. I didn't know if I could even lift Dean if I got to him. My body was totally covered in sweat at this point. I got up and got in his room, but I must have fainted again and ended up on the floor. I just laid there a min. trying to reassure a howling Dean. I finally got up enough strength to get him out of bed and us into the chair for him to eat. My butt hurt so badly in the chair and my body was still sweating profusely. I felt totally nauseous and disoriented, so I tried to move us down to the floor to nurse him lying down but that was a total failure. So I got us back up in the chair and reclined it as far back as it could go.

I made it through that feeding and let him run around and play in his room about 1/2 hour while I laid on the bed in his room. I started feeling better and I was able to feed him breakfast and play with him after that. My butt continued to feel worse, however.

I ended up calling my doctor and the advice nurse, after hearing all my symptoms and medical history, decided it was most likely fluid in my inner ear. I went into the doctor the next day as well to make sure nothing was terribly wrong. They said everything looks fine and I should just ice, heat and ice. I did that last night, and today my pain has been cut in half! I still hurt, but I'm not grimacing in pain at ever step and bend. I have hope for driving home in a week.

My back, however started hurting today. After piano lessons I came into Matt and asked him if there was a bruise or anything. This is what he saw:

I must have caught my back on something as I went down. It looks worse in person I think. My rear must have hurt too badly yesterday to notice the pain in my back.

So there are the embarrassing details.

A total pain in my kahooty

Without going into any embarrassing details, I'm pretty sure I bruised my tailbone pretty badly this morning. It hurts when I stand up, sit, lay, pick up Dean, squat, bend and walk. I went out and ran a few errands to get ready for our trip to Snowflake and it was fairly torturous. Getting Dean in and out of the car. Running after him for an hour and a half at the Toyota dealership!! Yes. It took an hour and a half for them to change my oil and rotate my tires. They didn't even seem that busy. I eventually went and asked them how much longer it was going to be and they brought the car around. Was it finished for 20 min and they forgot to bring it around??

I'm a little worried about having to sit in the car for 14-16 hours on the 22nd. I hope by then it will have healed up some. I'm not too hopeful, though, since Matt's had tailbone problems for the past year. If not, maybe the pain will help keep me awake while driving and I can take some of the burden off Matt.

Ta da!!: A skirt fit for a...Tree!

Sheesh. I am done! I have to admit the work I did today was a little sloppy. I had no patience for the stupid bias binding (never done it before and I pretty much just said screw it by the end), and I was so ready to move on to other projects. I figure if I ever figure out how to do bias binding I can come back and redo the little circle better.

It's the first log cabin I've ever done. I got the original idea from Crazy Mom Quilt's Tutorial and I went back to look at her instructions often. I kinda made up the size as I went since I wanted it a little smaller than hers. I put hours and hours (20? 30?) on the hand quilting this past week. I was so done with hand stitching by the end that I machine stitched the binding.

The tree looks much better dressed. Don't you think?

Up to my eyeballs

I just can't get it together! I seem to be currently buried under crafts. I usually don't craft during the day, but I've put off most cleaning and clutter control until I get some of my projects done! It is the first night I am going to bed with a messy kitchen in months.

That tree skirt I started? Yeah, I decided to HAND QUILT it! For 1, I don't have a darning foot yet. For 2, I have never actually machine quilted anything and I didn't want to screw it up. I have been stitching during nearly every nap and every evening this past week. I just have the boarders of 3 sides left. The worst is over, so hopefully I'll finish it this weekend and move on!!

Those cloth ornaments I wanted to make? I think they'll have to wait a year.

But the lights are up. It's our first year to have lights on our house. I love them. They're the multi-colored icicle lights. And our tree is up, it's just sparsely decorated. Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care. And it's only 21 days until Saint Nick is here...
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Dean is in one of my favorite stages yet (though he has had a cold this past week). My new favorite word: Uh oh. Throws the noodles on the floor? "Uh oh." Can't find his favorite blanket that he now carries around the house? "Uh oh." It's often enunciated so well with his little mouth shaping the "o". I love it. The video doesn't do it justice, but it's been awhile since I updated on the little guy.


One thing I haven't yet gotten used to? His running away from me in stores! He is now comfortable to move amongst many people outside of my visual range. ACK! I am seriously considering getting him a little harness for busy places. Oh, and he likes to cross our street. I keep trying to hit home that he can't go in the street without holding my hand, but he fights me on that one! He's an independent little man sometimes.

And the winner is...

JULS!

I put all the names in a hat and pulled yours out. Email me whether you want the cookbook or something on my homemade gift side bar.

Good job to all who participated and especially to all who reached your goals! Sorry if anyone made it but didn't check in!

I was truly amazed at how many people stuck with it. This is a hard time of year to do something like this. I did feel better after reducing my sugar intake, so I think I will say no more often now. Thanks for doing this with me. It helped me out a ton.