That is how my life goes . . .

Over the Christmas holidays we had the great chance to get together with our dear friends from when we were first married. I of course have not blogged about it because I have yet to blog about anything important from the last month. While hanging out (at a beautiful cabin owned by MC's parents with our other friends J and TP and our now 4 1/2 kids!!!! last time the six of us were together there was one bun in the oven, he is now three years old! J and T have been living in Switzerland and M and A have been living in Spain, so you can understand why it is difficult to get together), anyway, while hanging out it was actually agreed that I am the most random blogger of all time. I can explain. Big events, especially those that happen all clumped together overwhelm me. It is much easier to get on, do a simple and best of all random post quickly and call it good. After all, I did write in my journal about Christmas (sometime during the first week of January!) So, in order to not become overwhelmed, I am going to very briefly skim.

As mentioned we saw our friends a few days before christmas and had a wonderful time--they are the best and we know we will be friends for life. It also gave us a chance to try on the blessing outfit, which oh glorious it fit!!! (It was a beautiful blessing the Sunday after Christmas, and per tradition Dan and I agreed to stay and eat and then quickly scampered off once we were surrounded by strangers prior to eating anything. It apparently has been decided that J and T are mad at us. Hopefully, they get over it. ;p) I would put a picture here of Aiden in the outfit but my punishment is that they won't send me any. . .pretty hard core.

Christmas eve we got together with ALL of Dan's siblings, parents and even Santa Clause. Shad did amazingly well considering the chaos, jingle bells, and the man in the red suit. I will post a picture when i get a decent copy. I discovered that video-taping and taking a still picture at the same time doesn't work out as well as I had hoped. It was a great time to get together, eat and visit.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun, Shad had been dying to get his hands on some wrapping paper so no presents could be left under the tree. We learned with grandparents out of state Santa sometimes uses the United States Postal Service . . .every day for the whole week leading up to christmas. So, there were more than enough packages to keep away from him. That morning however, we let him go for it and he was immediately content with the piece of wrapping paper he managed to rip off of the train Santa brought him and proceeded to wave it around and climb all over the rest of the presents oblivious that they had anything in them. He had a great time and it was a lot of fun even if Dan and I had to open gifts of Shad's long after he had quit paying attention. We are so blessed! That afternoon we went over to Dan's parents house again and had a low-key afternoon hanging out with family and exchanging gifts. Once again our family was extremely generous and we appreciate all they do for us. The next day we all got together again for a family picture, fortunately Shad handled missing a total of five naps the two days prior amazingly and was really good for pictures.

That same day my nephew Caden was baptized in southern California. Unfortunately, Dan and I were not able to be there but we are so excited for him and happy about the decision he made to choose the right and follow the example of our Savior and be baptized. We are excited to see him in just five weeks!!

Now; the reason I actually decided to blog today, the simple easy stuff I might not take time to write down other-wise. Shad unfortunately had his first ear infection last week-in both ears and a sinus infection on top of that. We also went down to St. George the same weekend and needless to say Shad didn't sleep well with all of that combined. Unfortunately, upon coming home it seems some sleep problems that had been leading up for a while finally came to a head and last Thursday morning Shad woke up at Three-thirty AM and never went back to bed. Dan is much more patient and understanding but this was too much for me. We went back to the doctor that morning to make sure his ears were better-thankfully they were-and had a big discussion with the pediatrician about what to do about the sleep. It was decided (Dan compromised big-time and I am very appreciative of him for being willing to do that) that Shad would need to cry it out. (before I get tons of e-mails or comments about how this is terrible-please do be aware that I have a video monitor so I could watch him, and this was a very touchy subject at our house so try to be sensitive for my husband's sake.) Needless to say it was a rough night. Being the nice child that I am, what did I do at three-thirty in the morning when I was overwhelmed because my child wouldn't let me sleep? I called my mom. Yes, at three thirty AM. She said to let him cry. I think mostly she wanted to say for me to cry and not call her. I don't blame her. Anyway, we all survived and Shad has been doing amazingly well since. I really think it made a big difference, he has hardly whimpered the last few nights.

Because I am a mean mom, I also was in the middle of weaning him during this and decided to cut out the last nursing he was doing (once in the early morning) the same morning (let's just combine all of the trauma into one day, right?) Fortunately, that has hardly been an adjustment at all. I had a huge stash of frozen breast milk so technically he is still having that but we did test out cow's milk and he didn't even notice. Can I say that not nursing is glorious? Okay, NOT NURSING IS GLORIOUS!! I don't think you can truly understand that sentiment unless you have been a dairy cow for nearly a year! Also, Shad is getting his first tooth (I know, a little late, but considering the nursing aspect I am all too happy he has remained a toothless wonder for eleven months!) It has not broken through but it is very clear that it is about to so I figured I better snap some pictures before his mouth is full of teeth- by the way I borrowed JP's idea and snapped these with the web-cam so the quality is pretty sad combined with the fact I did it with an open window behind us, but it was the thought that counts!

I just love his gummy smile!

Did I say my kid doesn't look like me? Watch out the Phillips super-genes might have met their match because I am pretty sure I see some similarities here!