Hello 2008

A year in review:
I got less sleep in 2007 than I ever thought a person could function on. Anyone who has ever had an infant knows about that magical power to do amazing things on zero sleep that comes over every new parent.
I learned about coupons and bargain shopping. When we switched from a two-income to a one-income family with an extra member, I had to figure out how to stretch the dollar alot further!! I'm still figuring it out.
I also learned about patience as it takes me at least twice as long to do everything as it used to. Just getting the laundry folded and put away is something I have to plan ahead for. When Caelen is napping I have already planned out everything I would like to get done while she's sleeping. I start with the highest priority and work my way down. A great day was when she slept long enough for me to get everything on the list done and actually sit down for a few minutes. I think I had a few of those days......
2007 was less stressful in that having a beautiful baby made me slow down and enjoy every moment.
It's been a social year dispite having an infant. I don't think a week went by without us getting together with friends or family. (Wait, that's not true, we did spend a week alone in Hawaii).
We travelled to Hawaii and Tahoe this past year and have even more trips planned for 2008.
And in 2007 we watched as Grandpa went home to be with the Lord. He will be sorely missed by us all.

A year ahead:
In 2008 we are planning on going to Arizona to visit extended family on Thomas' side in February. We'll be in Kauai in July with Thomas' mom's family. And Colorado with Thomas' Dad's family in Sept or Aug, I can't remember which right now. We're hoping to reinstate Casini Ranch camping this year in the late summer. It will be interesting trying to keep Caelen in the campsite.....
My friend Adria will be having another little boy in February (due the day after my birthday!) and we're so excited to add another child into the mix. Hopefully this year we'll be able to expect another, but with our track record, we'll take it whenever we can get it! :)
I can't wait to watch Caelen go from 1 to 2. I mean, I can wait of course, I don't want to rush it, but I'm so excited for this year and all that it will bring. She's beginning to get some good words and she tries to imitate everything you say. Her best word is Juice, which comes out as "Chuice". I love it. She says, Up Please as "Up bah". and Open as "Oh pah." You kind of have to figure out what she's saying by the context of the situation but she's getting so good at communicating, I know this year will bring a lot of changes for her.

Hopefully we'll be able to stay up long enough to ring in the new year.... or on second thought, hopefully we'll get to bed at a decent hour. Staying up that late is just too much torture these days, and I intend on getting a lot more sleep in 2008!

Saying Goodbye

It's such a bummer that life includes death. My Grandpa is being taken off of the machines that are keeping him alive and given morphine probably right as I write this. My Dad is out in Michigan with his brother, sister and his mom. I'm thankful that Grandpa came around one last time so that his family could spend some time with him and he could see that they were all there for him. I'm thankful for my Dad's sake also.

I thought I'd be OK with it all. When you don't see a family member alot and you know they're sick for awhile, you think you've kind of dealt with the emotions of it. But not until it happens can you really deal with it. I'm not as close to him as his immediate family or as my cousins Logan, Cody and Cameron, but it's still hard, he's still my Grandpa! It's a crying day for sure. I'm sorry him and Caelen never got to meet.

I'll always remember my Grandpa with his funny grin on his face, it was pretty contagious. He was a quiet man when I knew him and a good grandpa. I only got to see him once a year or every other year because we always lived far apart. But he came out for my wedding and I saw him last summer. That's weird that it was the last time I'll have ever seen him.

It's weird that I'll have no more Grandpas.

Please keep the family in your prayers. I love you and I'll miss you Grandpa!

Currently:

At: My parents house
Reading: Power of a Praying Parent
Watching: Love & Respect Video Series
Listening To: Jingle Bellls By Perry Como on TV
Eating: Anything and everything, it's the holidays!
Thinking: About my Dad flying out to Michigan tomorrow
Wishing: It was Christmas Eve
Wanting: Lots of money

Some musings if you will

I'm home alone with the baby who is fast asleep. That's fine with me. She's been sleeping beautifully these past couple of days and my sanity that has been lost for the past year returned in full force with just a couple days of enjoying her long naps and sleeping in in the morning. The best part: she's perfectly well, not sick at all, and very happy! Which makes mama happy. It also let's mama do a few things around the house, so I cleaned up a lot today. The only thing nagging at me is the huge pile of laundry to be put away, but everything else is done and I can begin to relax and enjoy having the house to myself.

My thoughts are often with my parents and my dad's family out in Michigan. My Grandpa has been suffering from ill health for a while and things have just seemed to have gotten worse and worse through a series of unfortunate events. He's now in hospital again and only God knows what will happen tomorrow. It has been incredibly stressful for everyone out there and for my parents who are left to wait for the phone to ring or a text message to come in letting them know what the latest is and if they need to buy a plane ticket. Please pray for them all if you think of it.

I'm sure my blog sounds melencholy, but I'm doing just fine. I'm mellow and happy, but not very talkative so I'll leave you with a picture of Caelen eating her birthday cupcake at Grandma Suzanne's.

Christmas is coming and I'm warm.

holy cow, Christmas is coming! I have three presents under my tree. Two of them are the individual ornaments that I get Thomas and Caelen each Christmas as a tradition. The ornament is either unique to them or represents their year. The other one is a gift I got Thomas back in November. I have two that need to be wrapped and a few things for stocking stuffers. I have no clue what to get anybody else and I have no money with which to purchase the unknown gifts. Ahhhh Christmas.

No worries (Or "No Matters" as my friend's little girl says). It'll get taken care of. It always does somehow.



When you're trying to save money and not running your heater, something funny happens; You aclimate to the cooler temperatures. I've always been someone who runs cold, bundled up when others are hot, but I was in my house the other day in a 3/4 length sleeve in a light cotton material and was very comfortable. When I looked at the thermostat it was 61 degrees in the house. Just a couple days ago I was shopping at Target (not very vigorously mind you) and I had to take my sweatshirt off because I was hot and flushed. Same with dining in Chili's and visiting Starbucks. It's just too warm in these establishments! LOL :)



Caelen is my little copycat these days. She amazes me when she does exaclty what I just did or makes a sound I just made. Like running her toothbrush under the water, putting the sheep on top of the barn, stomping her feet. She's such a good mimicker. She's also climbing all over everything. I think it must be a developmental stage because she couldn't climb on anything just a couple days ago. Last night I was sitting at the dining room table and she was standing next to me and seemed quite a bit taller than usual. When I looked down she was standing on the bottom rung of the chair and pulling herself up on the table! Little monkey.

Going down Grandpa and Grandma's slide

Breathe, just breathe...

It's the most wonderful time of the year. A time when I'm stressed about Christmas presents (What do I get and where do I find the money to buy it with?), recovering from Thanksgiving, writing Christmas cards, getting fat on Christmas party food (when should I start my diet?), participating in the church Christmas production (more time consuming than a high school musical), freezing my butt off.......... and now I'm throwing a birthday party for my precious little girl into the mix!!
With the overscheduled calendar on my fridge and the perpetual mess in my house, I think I just want to hop on an airplane to Tahiti.
But when I say that it's the most wonderful time of the year, I truely mean it. And having Caelen's birthday right between Thanksgiving and Christmas is just another reason that it's a fabulous time. A time for celebrating the little miracle we always wondered if would ever come! A time for celebrating the most amazing thing God has every done for a humanity that He loves perfectly. A time for remembering what we're thankful for like health, family nearby to celebrate with, wonderful memories and the people in my life who I've made them with, looking forward to more memories, my husband, my little girl, my home, food on the table, and so many precious people in my life whom I cherish!
So what I think I need to do is look at the calendar, ONLY today, not the scribbled-in-boxes extending into next year, and breathe, remember the important things, and that THESE are the good old days :)

I'm Caelen and I'm Thankful for Food!!!!

So what do you get when you take 17 relatives and friends, add turkey and stuffing and mix in a small house? A good time, apparently! I should not have worried because Thanksgiving went off much better than I had anticipated. I guess I was worried about the size of my house and that many people inside it on a cold day when we couldn't spill out into the yard. But we managed to all fit at one of two tables, we got all the (warm) food onto the table at once and I would say everything went really well!


Of course Caelen was a lot of the entertainment. As usual, she was shy at first but eventually warmed up to the idea of so many people in her home and was as fun as ever.
We did a potluck style dinner, so all that I had to make was the turkey, stuffing and gravy. Everything else was provided by all the guests. Caelen got to eat everything we were eating except for the stuffing since it had nuts in it and we're trying not to expose her to nuts yet. She LOVED it all......



.......as you can see from these pics! I think this one will have to go in the baby book under her first Thanksgiving because it says it all. She's never done this before but I'm assuming it was so delightful she wanted to get every last morsel.







Once she realized everyone thought this was funny she did it over and over again. After clean up was done it was straight to the bathtub with her!










We had everyone from my side (who lives in town) and Thomas' Dad's side of the family, some cousins, step-siblings, a gimp on crutches, and even a boyfriend or two. And just for the record, that's a tank top under a sweater that I'm wearing, not a red bra! LOL


Now it's time to get ready for Caelen's 1st birthday..... and then Christmas!

Caelen and the Tale of the Seven Stitches

Once upon a time there was a man named Thomas and his wife Brooke. Brooke will be narrating this story.

Thomas went hunting for ten days and when he arrived home on Friday, decided that to begin restitution he would take me out to dinner Saturday night. We had a babysitter in place and a restaurant in mind. We both looked pretty decent (Thomas having shaved his mountain man beard and with a fairly recent hair cut you'd have never known he'd been in the wilds of Utah for the past week and a half.)

We arrived at Doug, Adira and Tyler Bishop's house to drop Caelen off. She loves it there, it's one of her homes-away-from-home and Ty and her have a relationship better than a lot of cousins. So she went straight to playing while we adults chatted briefly. Finally we decided to go and just as we were leaving....... Caelen came walking over, tripped and smashed her head directly on the corner of their kitchen wall.

I knew as soon as I saw it that it was gonna be bad and by the time I had her in my arms (which was almost immediately) she had blood running down her face at such an alarming rate it would stop any parent's heart.
It was about an inch long starting at her hair line and going straight down towards her nose and it was nice and wide open. Adria got me towels and rags so fast and in no time we were in the car.

While Thomas drove to the emergency room, I tried to keep pressure on her head and hold the wound shut at the same time. By the time we reached the car she had stopped crying and was only grumpy because I had a towel pressed to her head. She ate Cheerios and smiled and laughed the whole way and about half way there it stopped bleeding.

When we walked in the ER she had caked blood all down her face and a nice gash so they descended upon us pretty quickly but when they saw that she was doing alright, not bleeding, and hadn't blacked out they let us wait for about 20 minutes. When she got her initial exam she was really cooperative and the doctor took my temp to show Caelen that it was OK to have this tool put on your forehead. Then he says, "Mom! You have a fever. 101.5!" (Thomas finally figured out later that I had had a flu shot on Wed and that must be the culprit because I felt fine).




When we went in they put numbing solution on it and bandaged her forehead up for 20 minutes. Then they lay her down on her back, wrapped her like a burrito and we tilted her head back. They irrigated the wound and stitched it up. This part was really hard. She was very upset at not being able to move so was crying. I was trying to calm her down and had a front row seat to how deep the gash was and the stitches. Luckily she didn't lose any tissue so it went back together really cleanly. The doctor said that by the time she's 2 you shouldn't be able to see much of anything there. Poor Thomas was having a hard time watching his baby in such distress and wanted to take her out of there and make it all better.

Seven stitches later we liberated our very sweaty child from her swaddle and when she calmed down her crying she looked at us and started clapping!! Pretty adorable. After that you'd have never known anything was wrong. We got her home, she had a bath, some dinner and finally was in bed by 9:00. This morning she's not acting any different than she ever did, as feisty and adorable as ever. The only difference is that just in time for Halloween she's kind of resembling Franken-baby.

good night little mouse....

Caelen's idea of good literature is "Good Night Moon", so she has no idea that both her mom and dad are really obsessed with "Pride and Prejudice" nor would she know why if she even knew what it was! LOL But it's true, as anyone who knows us can attest to. So I am currently reading the book for my second time. Any free moment I get, that's what I'm doing. Pretty much my most favorite book ever, and although I've known this for a long time, it's fun to re-discover old favorites.

Caelen was in the bath tub last night and took a comb I had been brushing her hair with and held it up to her head and did a little motion like she was combing her hair. It brought a little tear to her proud momma's eye. I praised her, she handed it to me and I did it as well. Then I handed it back and she did it again. Such a smart little cookie. It's truly amazing what these tiny people know that we don't give them credit for!
Yep, that's a binky in her mouth! She's finally discovered binkies, but the good thing is, she thinks it's a cool toy, not a lovey. So she sucks on it and bites it absentmindedly and then spits it out and moves on. She is not dependant on it which I'm thankful for.

She loves her Pooh Bear! Here's a few shots of her dragging Pooh Bear around. He's almost the same size as her and the cutest thing is when she snuggles with Pooh or gives him a kiss on the snout! In this last one she's offering Pooh Bear to Gabbie. Gabbie passed on that.

Pumpkin Patch Sunday

Today after church Caelen had her first visit to a pumpkin patch! Who would have thought that she would be walking around the patch all by herself?! I guarantee she was the youngest kid walking around that patch. Her friend Ty and his parents came too and we got some really cute pictures. So here are a few of them:

Walking with Daddy to the patch.

She called every pumpkin a "ball".

Especially this little one!

Lake Tahoe.... 1 year later!!!

I know I haven't used this site in a LONG time. I've been enjoying keeping everyone updated on Caelen's website, but I also can't make up my mind and do appriciate the format of this site.
Anyway! I wanted to use to to post a few pics of our trip to Tahoe this past weekend. :) We had a wonderful time with Caelen's Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Janet on King's Beach, North shore. The weather couldn't have been more perfect! In the 80's at least every day.

Little bug loved it and had a lot of fun in the sun. She played with her Leap Frog table that her grandparents brought along because it's her most favorite toy ever. Thomas spent a lot of time reading Lord of the Rings, while my mom and I read Harry Potter. The evenings were devoted to poker games (once Caelen was asleep.) She will be a future card shark if her love of poker chips is any indication of her future :)

Thomas and I went jet skiing on Saturday for an hour which was so much fun. I haven't done it since I was about 15. Thomas even let me drive! LOL. We only got it up to about 30 mph but it felt like we were flying.

We enjoyed our dinners out and it was nice to have other people to walk with her when she got cranky so that I could finish my dinners. She would just stare at the waiters like, "Hello, who are you?" while they were serving us. And Grandpa taught her how to go underwater... kind of! She guled a whole bunch of water and sputtered all over, but she didn't cry once she gained her breath back and then about 15 minutes later she put her face flat down into the water! LOL

Bug Stats

Weight ~ 14lbs
Height ~ 24"
Current Feats ~ Can hold head up, roll onto her side, put anything and everything into her mouth, laughs

Caelen is 3 1/2 months already!

So no posts on my blog for a long time, I know. Lord knows how many people are still reading it since I send most of my news through E-mails or myspace these days. But I feel like an update is in order :)
Life revolves around Caelen until 7:30pm and even after that most of our conversations are about how amazing she is (because she truely is!) LOL. She's so smiley these days and laughs occasionally. She loves new people and gives everyone she meets a big grin. It's very endearing and it's no wonder people just fall in love with her! She's a loud talker and loves to entertain herself by yelling, "baaa blah nah nah ha ahh" or whatever combination of sounds she thinks sounds good at the moment.
She can hold herself up on her arms while laying on her tummy and look all around, she'll roll onto her back from that spot too. When I place her in her crib she'll talk to herself and spin around the crib. I usually find her at least 180 degrees turned from the way I placed her in there. I think she just puts her feet on the crib walls and walks around.


Bedtime is nice and routine and so Thomas and I get our evenings to ourselves which is beyong theraputic and I look forward to 7:00 as a time to almost "clock out". But of course I miss her too hehehehehhe.
She wants to stand, all the time. Doesn't want to have anything to do with sitting, she wants to stand and once she's standing her left foot starts going, like she's keeping time.
I'm sure all parents feel their child is the most special and it's definitely true of us!! She's amazing and being a mom is better than I ever thought it would be.
I asked Thomas today if he ever misses the days when it was just us and without hesitating he said, "nope." I don't either. Life's so much more fun and full with her in it!!
OK there's your cheese for the day.... LOL

More adventures in parenting

So the bug will be 6 weeks on Monday and we have found the best way to keep her happy is to carry her around in the Baby Bjorn on my chest. She'll nap all day if I just have her close. She hates being abandoned to a room by herself to sleep. So I carry her around a lot now and I'm able to get so much done! Besides, one day she'll be 14 and way too cool for me, so I'm enjoying the fact that she wants to be so close to mommy all the time :)
We were given a mold to make of baby's first hand print so I decided since she was asleep I'd give it a shot. Well she doesn't ever stop moving those little hands and when I put her hand in she grabbed a whole bunch of the mold and wiped it everywhere. So I tried again (well the first attempt looked like crap!!) and the same thing happened. So now we have a mold of a little hand grabbing at the mold in two places and I had to give her a bath and change both our clothes!! LOL It was pretty amusing.


Here she is playing with her Papa. She's getting so interactive!! She smiles alot and has a lot to say these days. Lots of different sounds come out of the little girl and she'll chatter away at you if you'll listen and if she's in the mood.


It's hard work being a mommy, but man is it worth it ;) Here we are at 8:00 pm, we don't stay up too late around my house these days!

Bug Update

Sorry no pictures today :( Caelen's been sick since Christmas. She just got another bug (haha bug..... just like her) on top of the one she had last week, so now she's coughing along with the snuffles. Poor girl. But the doctors say she's fine because she's still eating well and has no fever. Today we went in again and she now weighs 10 lbs 7 ozs!!! That's 3lbs 5oz gain in 4 weeks!! So we're doing infant tylenol, humidifiers, saline drops and steamy showers. Speaking of steamy (for all you Grey's Anatomy fans) her Dr.'s name was Mark Sloan! LOL, but he was no McSteamy :)
Today I also went into the bank and let them know that I wouldn't be coming back. That went really well and everyone was very understanding and also a bit sad. I did really enjoy my job, but I have one now that's beyond a millon times better!!

BUG STATS
Current weight - 10lb 7oz
Current feats - Rolled over (once on New Years Day, and just to prove it was no fluke, 3 times yesterday) Smiling back at people. Talking (well saying "ah-goo" counts right?) Holding head up in some positions.