our Christmas card

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas survey

also stolen from the lovely Emily

once again, if you are reading this, you are tagged! Do it! NOW!

What is your religion? Christian. As far as denomination, that's up in the air. Raised Catholic, sort of unofficially switched to Baptist while we were dating, but we are really interested in Methodist. I could care less what I am labeled, that means nothing to me, I just want to find a good church family and a preacher that speaks to me. You know what I mean :) B's schedule makes it hard to try out churches, but we are working on it.

How do you celebrate Christmas? Christmas Eve get together/white elephant/food/games at B's parents, but my whole family comes too. Then gifts with his fam after everyone leaves. Christmas morning with the 3 of us, lunch at one set of B's grandparents with his whole fam, then dinner at my parents. Thank goodness his whole fam live on the same street, less than 5 miles from my parents!

Favorite Christmas hymn? We 3 Kings, O Holy Night

Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells

Absolute favorite thing about Christmas? family, giving, relaxing wiht everyone, happiness, joy of the time of year. and lights!

Did you get your Christmas shopping done early this year? I had my gifts wrapped before our tree was up.

Favorite Christmas food? cookies. Hazel's chocolate pie. Jennifer's "MyPotatas!".
(honestly, they are too sour cream-y, I just added that to make you feel special)

Did you do anything charitable for Christmas? just some donations, which I am scrimping on this year since I'm not working. I would love to start up a new tradition so that Garrett can see and eventually participate.

What does your Christmas tree topper look like? its a star, gold with white lights

Eggnog or hot chocolate? I strongly dislike eggs. And milk. hot chocolate all the way!

How were your Santa gifts left when you were a kid? we each had our own santa paper, a few of the gifts (maybe all of them?) had tags so we knew who's paper was who's. Santa was a messy writer, sort of like when my mom writes with her left hand...

Which kind of lights do you prefer for Christmas? colored C9's or white on the house. our yard is all in colored this year, it rained too much to get on the roof. Our tree has both white and colored lights. I prefered white until we got the colored on there, now I gotta say I like the mix. We are slowing buying LED's so we can eventually use those.

Mistletoe? I used to buy it every year, but I didn't this year.

To give or to receive? I love shopping for other people! Ok, I'll be honest. I just love shopping period.

Do you like candy canes? I do. But I'll just buy a few of the tiny ones b/c we never eat them, just use them in hot chocolate.

all about me!

I stole this from Emily, I thought it was fun:

Ok, so if you're reading this...consider yourself "tagged".


Did you go to college? Where did you go? Graduation year? Major?
I started out at San Jac. I wasn't really motivated, so staying at my parent's for a few extra years was prob a good bet. I got an associates in computer programming. Then I moved to San Marcos to go to Southwest Texas State University, although it got changed to Texas State while I was there. I started out with the programming stuff, and was majoring in math. But then I decided that although I was good at programming, it was WAY too boring and I needed something more. So I switched to art. I would have rather done photography since I had been taking photog classes, but they didn't offer a minor in it. (I was pretty much done with my math major by then) so I just went with art & design as my minor. Long story. Long college career, come to think of it. I was in school a L O N G time.

Do you have kids? Are you planning on having kids? How many?
yes! But you know that. My Baby G. As far as how many... 2 for sure, up to 4. It changes. We would love to have 4 kids, but the logistics (money, house size, etc) get us (ahem, B) sidetracked. God knows what is the best for our family. I'll leave it at that.

What do you do for a living?
I work for my in-laws in their office. It has been a major blessing though, I get to stay home for a year with my little man. Now thats a nice maternity leave. (unpaid, this isn't Canada!)

Do you have any pets?
2 beagles and a kitty. Nevaeh is 5 1/2, B got her for me for our first dating anniversary. Madi will be 3 in two weeks, B surprised me with her not long after we got married. And Niko! B is allergic to cats, I grew up with them, but figured I would never be able to have another. But right before we bought our house, we decided to add a kitty to our family. He just turned 2. We got him from the SPCA and I would love to have nothing but rescue pets for the rest of my life.

a milestone?

we have discovered that baby gear is all about safety. Everything has buckles and straps... from high chairs to changing pads, to swings. I'm sort of surprised that there isn't one in the crib. Now, of course, we use them in the stroller and carseat, but the swing, meh, we sort of haven't bothered with.

For a few days now, Garrett has discovered that he can scoot by putting his hands behind his head and pushing, sort of like crab walking. And today, he tried it in his swing. Which was cute. Until he started scooting out of the swing!

So now, we no longer have to wonder when we need to start buckling him into his swing!

Garrett meets Santa!

one year ago

technically, a year ago last Saturday:

so we were talking on Saturday... last year on that day we were just finding out we were pregnant, and now we have a 4 month old. I remember it was the night before our Christmas party, we had to go to Walmart to get paper plates, so we picked up a second pregnancy test too, just to "make sure"

The next morning I had planned to meet my mom at Specs to get a few things for the party, it was odd looking at all the stuff that I knew I wasn't going to be able to drink lol.

And as luck would have it, once everyone was over that night, Kyle and Katie were going through my camera and saw the above pics... although Katie still denies that she knew what the pictures were of. Kyle knew though, and was silently pleading for me to tell Jen that night so he wouldn't have to keep it a secret. Luckily for him, I did :)

teddy bear baby

dont you just want to hug him?!

4 months old!

yesterday my little man turned 4 months old!

in the past month he has found his hands, decided that his hands are the tastiest thing ever (not that he has alot to compare them too, so I'm hoping this shoving-of-the-hands-into-the-mouth phase will end before kindergarten), sits well in his high chair and his bumbo, found his feet, rolled over, and played in the snow! No wonder he sleeps alot! Speaking of sleeping, for close to two months now, he's been sleeping through the night. And I mean sleeping. Like 10-12 hrs a night, no waking up. Some nights he will wake up 3 hrs after he last ate and sort of stir, but thats about it. Yesterday he was getting me worried, b/c he slept over 13 hrs (it had been 14 hrs since he last ate)... I was getting ready to wake him up when he started to wake up on his own.

Stats from the dr:
weight- 14lbs 15oz (just under the 50th percentile)
head- 16 5/8 in (also just under the 50th)
length/height- 24 1/2 in (just under the 25th)

I <3 my shorty
(ha, both of them!)

she recommended starting on rice cereal between 5 and 6 months, so he's sticking with the milk only for now, not that he's complaining.

She also told me that Texas Women's Hospital has a program where they accept donated breast milk and pasteurize it and use it for the preemies. This has me really excited, knowing that my excessive pumping will do even more good than just for my little man. At last count we had over 400 oz in the freezer, we are literally running out of room for our food :(

Ok, time to get back to decorating the tree... turns out that even if it looks good with the lights on, once I turned them off, I found out that I clumped the ornaments in small groups all over the tree. Hmm. So here's a tip if you haven't decorated your tree yet, don't do it with the Christmas lights on!

SNOW!

For the second year in a row, it snowed!!!

All bundled up, it had just started to snow

Brandt & his little man
that blue hat is one that Brandt and Luke both wore when they were babies!

little heavier at this point

yay snow!

its been a long time

I have a good excuse.
well, two of them.

One: I have the world's cutest baby, and spend majority of my day playing with him, changing diapers, and just hanging around with him. He is amazing, and I wouldn't have life any other way.

Two: I have inherited my mom's old sewing machine. I'm not good yet, but I am learning! Free time tends to be spent making things :)

it says my last post was Oct 12th, so I have some catching up to do.

For now: here is a passed out baby who apparently played too hard. He's still snoozing behind me, so maybe I will get something else posted