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Starting a Tradition

This is the first Christmas I’ve been away from home. Although I am missing my family and the traditions we have back there, I’m trying to take this as an opportunity to start some new traditions and remember that my home now is with T.J. and baby Eva. So, this morning, we decided we would open up our presents for each other and from my family since we would be spending the weekend with T.J.’s family.

The first Christmas present I received was from Eva. She slept from midnight to five and then five thirty to eight thirty. Thank you Baby Eva! And then the next present I received was from T.J. He stayed up with Eva so I could sleep until ten AND he made breakfast for us! Cinnamon pancakes!

After breakfast, we opened up presents. We considered getting ready first, but we knew we wanted to wear some of the presents we were going to open… so that’s why we look so mangily. It’s part of the holiday fun, right?

Baby Eva in her Christmas outfit

Ornament from Grandma Swainhart

Presents to T.J. from my parents

Baby Eva loves her new book from Gma and Gpa Swainhart

Christmas present from T.J… I love this movie and if you haven’t seen it, you should go see it now!

A calligraphy set from my sister Ashley!

Starting his collection of Jessica Hische books. T.J. is obsessed with her typography and illustration work.

Baby’s 1st Christmas ornament from Aunt Ashley!

 

T.J. made me this amazing letterpress artwork. It made me cry!

Giving thanks to T.J. for the thoughtful gift!

Caught these two napping together when I got out of the shower. Adorable, right?

It’s not even the end of Christmas and it’s already been great. We are SO blessed! I forgot to take pictures of all the gifts from my all of siblings and parents, but I am so thankful for my family and their generosity! We are missing all of you and hope to see you soon!

And to the rest of you… Merry Christmas! Hope to see many Christmas blog posts from all of you bloggers!

 

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Happy One-Week Birthday, Eva!

One week! She is one week old today. This week has been the FASTEST, but the best. While I was feeding Eva today, I was thinking about this past week and how one week ago I was delivering our darling baby girl. Of course, it made me tear up. How could it not? She is a miracle. Everything about her. She has changed my life so much in just a matter of days and made me a better person. I am so thankful for her and for the opportunity I have to raise this baby.

The sappiness aside, let’s get back to Eva Kay! Her favorite thing to do is eat. About every two to three hours, she nurses and then after a brief intermission, she wants a little more. She fools you to think that she’s finished, happy, and content after a couple of burps. But then this little girl surprises us all and is ready for seconds. Sometimes thirds. Boy oh boy, does she have an appetite. I swear I’ve been feeding her all afternoon. But almost as much as Eva likes to eat, I like to nurse. I’m a bit sore (I’ll spare the deets) but, the time when I feed her is so special. When I was pregnant, I thought I wouldn’t like breast-feeding. I mean after-all, the whole concept is kind of strange. But, I love it. It really does create an amazing and indescribable bond.

Oops, I got sappy again. Something else Eva likes to do is have us change her diaper right after we just changed it. What a prankster! With each diaper I throw into our diaper jeanie (which is the best invention of all kind, btw), I think… oh there goes another dollar… those things are so expensive!

Eva loves being held by daddy. She never cries when she’s all nuzzled up on his chest. She loves wearing zippered onesie outfits because that makes the time on the dreaded changing table a couple seconds shorter than when she wears the snap kind. The cradle still is not on her favorite things list, but she loves her swing, as long as it’s not actually swinging. Being held close is another favorite, while being swaddled in her fuzzy blanket and sucking on her pacifier. And finally, Eva loves having Grandma/Nana sing her Christmas carols while rocking her in the rocking chair.

Happy Birthday, Eva! I can’t believe it’s already been a week since you entered our lives!

*Since it was her birthday, I thought I should dress her up in something more than the onesie outfits. So, after a sponge bath and lotion rub down (she smells wonderful), I dressed her up in the this little number. The pants are velvet and she’s wearing adorable black and white socks. More pics to come…

 

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Tomorrow… Tomorrow…

Tomorrow I have my last doctor’s appointment before the baby’s arrival. Crazy! I recently read through all of my “Baby Mama” posts and it has been wonderful to remember my whole pregnant experience. In some ways it went SO fast, especially from weeks 30-40. But in other ways, it feels like I have been pregnant FOR-EV-ER! I found out on March 28th and I remember that December 1st seemed so far away… but we’re here now, actually… there we were…!

So, people have been asking what the baby situation is currently. Here are the “tails” (as Tom from Parks and Rec says). Tomorrow at my doctor’s appointment, he’ll check me again to see if I’m effaced or dilated. I wasn’t at all last week, but I’ve been having some mild contractions and a bit of nausea so I’m hoping that means there has been some progress. After my doctor’s appointment, I head over to the hospital to do another Non-Stress Test, like I did on Thursday, just to monitor the baby’s heartbeat. If the heartbeat passes the test, then I’ll wait until Thursday to be induced (and likely deliver the baby on Friday). If the heartbeat does not pass the test, then I will be induced tomorrow. But, I’m like 95% positive it will be Thursday (and I’m praying for T.J.’s sake since it’s the last week of class, it will be Thursday).

Other than that, all is well. I’m feeling good, had a great day at church and loved watching the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional. I’ve been very bummed that I’m missing the Ward’s Christmas party this Friday, but President Uchtdorf’s talk reminded me that the focus of Christmas should not be on all the parties and presents and marketing. It’s should be on Christ. I’m grateful for that reminder and for the amazing Christmas spirit that we can feel in our lives if we just open our hearts, serve others, and remember our Savior who lived and died that we might return back to our Father in Heaven. That’s what Christmas is all about.

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Scenes of Christmas

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A Couple Days Late

I didn’t bring my laptop with me this weekend, so I didn’t get to write a “Thankful” post on Thanksgiving day. So, I figured I’d do it now.

  1. My amazing husband who makes me laugh and smile everyday
  2. All of my family… my parents, siblings, in-laws, and all the extended family
  3. The gospel, the Book of Mormon, and the temple
  4. My many friends who care about me
  5. My healthy and easy pregnancy
  6. Our little baby girl who will be here in a matter of DAYS (my due date is in less than a week, guys!)
  7. My education and being finished with my undergrad
  8. My blog… silly, but true! I’m proud to be a crazy blogger!
  9. All the comforts in my home including a hot shower, a down comforter, and a washer and dryer
  10. My favorite TV shows including The Office, Parks and Rec, and Modern Family
  11. Utah scenery… the mountains always take my breath away!
  12. Hot Chocolate and eggnog
  13. Our car
  14. Technology, especially the internet, my iPhone, and MacBook
  15. Pinterest
  16. Music (dare I mention JB on this blog again?… I better not…)
  17. Animals, especially baby elephants and puppies
  18. Health Insurance
  19. Our country… it has its problems, but we are still so blessed!
  20. The Christmas season… it truly is the best time of the year!
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Tradition… Tradition!

Every year in the Swainhart household for Thanksgiving, my mom would break out the ol’ flannelboard and read this Thanksgiving poem. We all made hated it and would make fun of my mom (in the nicest way) when she couldn’t get through the thing without crying. As we got older though, it just became a fun tradition. This year, my parents spent Thanksgiving at my brother’s home in Texas and, of course, my mom brought it all with her and my dad had to record it. I think my favorite part of the video is my Uncle Tim laughing through the whole thing,my mom’s Kentucky accent that comes out every once in a while, or all the background sounds my dad added.

http://youtu.be/qzzw1hEkMJ8

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Mahna Mahna

We spent our Thanksgiving just up in Alpine and American Fork with T.J.’s family. For Thanksgiving dinner, we ate with T.J.’s aunt’s family and parents. Everything was absolutely delicious and I even had enough room in my big belly for seconds. After the dinner, we all went to see Arthur Christmas, which was awesome. Seriously. I didn’t think I’d like it but I laughed so hard and even cried. It was such a cute Christmas movie, had a tender message, and will be added to my must-watch Christmas movie list from now on.

To end the night, we headed over to Walmart to try to get a Kinect Bundle, but we were about 30 people too late. We were disappointed but it’s not a huge deal… one day we’ll get one, hopefully.

On Friday, we got up at eight so we wouldn’t waste away our weekend. Turns out, that just made us really sleepy and so we had to take a couple of naps throughout the day. But we had fun going to a couple of stores and enjoying the crazy Black Friday rush. For Christmas this year, I told T.J. I just want clothes and I want to pick them out because I haven’t been able to shop at my favorite stores since I’ve been pregnant. But, I want to buy them after the baby comes considering I’m the size of a whale right now. So, most of the things we got were for T.J. and other family members. We scored a lot of great deals and enjoyed looking at all the Christmas displays.

Friday night, T.J.’s parents treated us again to another movie… The Muppets! It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but it was still really funny and cute. Some of the songs won’t get out of my head and I’m perfectly okay with it!

We slept over at T.J.’s parents’ house last night because this morning Holly was having her baby blessing. It was so special and sweet to see T.J.’s brother give the blessing and to think that in three weeks, T.J. will be blessing our little one.

And finally, tonight T.J., Mark (T.J.’s dad), and I went to the Gateway in Salt Lake to walk around and see the lights. We had a nice evening together… it was the perfect ending to the holiday weekend! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

 

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“Turkey day is the most fun day!” -Martha Stewart

  1. I can’t sleep very much anymore. I sleep for like four or five hours then wake up. That of course makes me extremely tired and so then after a couple of hours, I’m ready for another round of sleep. It’s awful and each cycle is filled with vivid dreams of the baby. Yesterday I dreamt that the baby finally started to breast-feed, she fell out of her cradle (that was awful), and then was old enough within a couple of days to play in the bathtub with those bath marker things. Bizarre stuff.
  2. Everyday I hope there will be snow. I think it’s because we have our tree up now and I feel like, if there’s snow out there, it doesn’t make me as crazy for putting the tree up before Thanksgiving. So, this 50 degree weather is really out of place.
  3. T.J. and I are contemplating so hard about getting an Xbox with Kinect for Christmas. It will be really inexpensive at Walmart on Black Friday. We never buy big things like that though, heck I won’t even buy jeans that are more than $30. BUT I LOVE THE KINECT! It is so much fun, a great workout, and could be our gift to each other for Christmas. On the other hand, it still is a lot of money. And we have a baby on the way that will cost a lot. Tell me what to do!
  4. My cold is almost gone! It only took three weeks.
  5. My doctor said no progress still down there with the baby stuff. So, I said, “Well, at least it won’t come on Thanksgiving.” And then he replied, “You can say that on Friday.” Being a ticking time bomb is kind of crazy.
  6. I get to make my pies today for Thanksgiving! Can’t wait! Which reminds me, how do YOU say “pecan”?
  7. The news is on in the background and it’s showing all the holiday traffic and snowy roads through the country. It’s making me kind of happy that we are staying here and not dealing with it. But I sure am missing my family!
  8. Did I buy eggnog at the store yesterday? You better believe it. (Don’t worry Mom, it’s lowfat).
  9. Yesterday I got a check in the mail from Winder Farms. I only worked there for a couple of weeks back in March and I already got paid for that time. So, it was completely out of the blue and so random. Seriously, it was so awesome that I started crying immediately. hahaha, oh I’m ridiculous.
  10. Random story: Last week I tried to wake T.J. up for work at 7 but he was up until 5 am working on projects for school. So, he told me to text his boss for him to tell her she’d be late. I asked what I should say and he replied, “Fun house mirrors.” I said, “T.J. that doesn’t make sense.” He said, “They always make sense.”
  11. Martha Stewart is on the Today show. Some of the reporters went to her house for a Thanksgiving dinner and to see her farm. How many people do you think help Martha? Does she even help anymore? She just said she is grateful for her grandchild… she has kids? Do you think she always was amazing at crafts? Why is she wearing leggings on the show? SO MANY QUESTIONS!
  12. I can’t wait to see The Muppets! I laughed so hard when I first saw this clip…
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Flashback

Freshman Year: Little Girl Playing Dress Up

Sophomore Year: Frodo, 80’s, Dinosaur

Junior Year: Dragon and Dorothy

Senior Year: Bob from What About Bob and a Cheetah

Grad: Skeleton with Skeleton Baby

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Pumpkinpalooza

Friday night was our Halloween party and boy, it was awesome. You know how you always have people you want and need to meet up with but there just simply isn’t enough time to visit everyone? Well, I got caught up with like thirty people in one night because so many people showed up.

I baked pretty much all day and thought we would have way too much food (cake balls, chocolate covered pretzels, caramel apples, and sugar cookies) but everything was eaten by the end of the night. We carved pumpkins, played Catch Phrase, and roasted hot dogs on the fire pit out back.

I put up quite a fight with the costume because I knew that skeletons were really “in” this year. I saw them online, on pinterest, and at a bunch of Halloween shops. And heck, there were three in The Office dressed up as skeletons. I like being original, but I’m glad I was a skeleton, they turned out great and the baby skeleton was a huge hit.

Pretty creepy face painting, don’t you think? Plus, it was hard to read his facial emotions all night.

My old coworkers from the library.

Doc from Back to the Future roasting a mallow.

Baby Evette… cutest baby ever and wearing the Halloween outfit I bought her, by the way.

An iPad Jack-o-Lantern. Awesome.

I carved the “D”, the haunted house in the back and that stripey one (which looked cool when lit).

Our door at the Ward Halloween Party.

Oh, and since I mentioned the Ward Halloween Party… if I wasn’t baby hungry before, I would have been by the end of that party because there were tons of babies and toddlers dressed up in the cutest outfits you’ve ever seen. Seriously, it was ridiculous. They had a little parade where each of them walked across the stage and I got tears in my eyes (I know I say that a lot, but what do you expect out of hormonal prego?). Anyway, that party was also fantastic and it was so fun to have the little kids come around to each door and Trick-or-Treat.

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