Christmas

Since Chris just had foot surgery, we had a pretty low key holiday season! James and I spent all of Christmas Eve playing around the house while Chris rested upstairs. When James went to bed, Chris and I enjoyed watching Christmas Vacation while gorging on festive Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Christmas morning was spent attending church, then coming home to start the holiday cooking! Once Chris showered and James napped, we opened up Christmas presents. Chris and I got a mini pie maker (but it also makes quiches and pot pies), while James scored with some books, a Cookie Monster toy, and a new bike! He has been going crazy ever since over these new toys.



For dinner, we had Elaina, Daniel, and Danny over and enjoyed a Christmas feast! Afterwards, the cousins exchanged gifts, and we opened Aunt Kirsten's presents. It was a very relaxing holiday, and it was nice not having to travel this year, even though we really missed seeing the rest of our family.

Now I am so grateful for James's new presents because they are keeping him distracted while I pack for our trip tomorrow! James and I will be visiting family in Oregon for a couple of weeks, and we can't wait!

Surgery Day

I know that if I don't record this now, I'll regret it later because frankly, my memory sucks. Just last Wednesday Chris went in to have surgery on his foot. He had some extra bone on his instep that caused him a lot of pain when walking, so we are hoping that this surgery goes better than his last one.

It's like Christmas comes early when Chris is on heavy pain meds. He says the funniest things! He kept calling me to have the exact same conversation, not realizing he had already called me. He apparently sent out a random text to multiple people about "memorizing info" and having it "fees so good!" Then my sister-in-law Mal responded back to him, telling him she was Voldemort, which Chris bought hook, line, and sinker. When he called me later he said he had a conversation with Voldemort, who was a "mean, mean guy" who he "no likey." I was literally crying with laughter. Whenever Chris is on pain meds he gets very reminiscent, and calls all of his old buddies and family members to "catch up" on the good times. Another funny thing about Chris is that this is the second time he's come out of surgery convinced all of the nurses were hitting on him, because they commented on how hairy he is (...I guess in his mind that's a compliment?!?)

Anyway, we are all safe and sound back at home, and I am playing mom to both James and Chris now while Chris recuperates. We will probably have a very low-key holiday!

Sad Day

It was a sad day here at the DeBeikes household. After James knocked down our Christmas tree for the sixth time, thereby breaking our fourth ornament, I decided it was not worth my sanity! I have officially taken down the tree, and it's on its way to DI tomorrow. We have had it for seven years, and it has seen its last day. I think we might be the only family to have ever taken down the tree BEFORE Christmas!

Birthday Boy Tribute

To celebrate James turning 2, Chris and I thought we'd make a list of the new things James has learned recently, along with our favorites.

- We are officially pacifier free! James was getting too attached to them and was starting to wake up more in the night crying because they fell on the floor. It was time to break the habit, so we gradually clipped the tips of the pacifiers. He got annoyed with them before we threw them in the garbage claiming they were broken. It was a rough couple of days, but I am SO relieved we did it!
- James LOVES to hide toys and come up with his hands in the air asking "Where'd it go?" He also loves hiding himself under blankets and saying "Where'd I go?"
- When he finds something he's hidden or he's pointing to objects, he says "yaya", which means "there it is!"
- Whenever he does something he's especially proud of, he jumps in the air with his arms outstretched and yells "I did it!"
- Every time he does something he knows he's not supposed to do and I'm coming to discipline him, he runs up to me and throws his arms around my neck and says "hi!" It works on me every time.
- He still calls me Dad. We're working on it :)
- James is still quite the picky eater, and seems to have an intuition for knowing which foods are junk, because that is always what he tries to grab from the store or from our pantry. He does love eggs and grilled cheese at the moment, and I'm sure he'd drink milk all day if I'd let him.
- He is a monkey! He will climb on everything! This is why we no longer have side tables or any decorations on our TV stand or kitchen table. It scares me to death because he loves to climb in and out of his high chair from the outside, and to stand on the kitchen table and "jump" in the air. He is a daredevil and his poor mom's anxiety level goes through the roof. I'm sure the inevitable ER visit is not too far away...
- He loves to read books and to watch us draw an animal that he has to name. He doesn't say animal names yet, just their sounds. His speech is still a little delayed, but getting much better everyday.
- He LOVES saying "no" although it actually sounds like "mo"
- James is great at giving "smooches" :)
- Anytime he hears music, he starts to dance!
- James is affectionately referred to as The Tasmanian Devil, and after spending 5 minutes with him, it's not hard to see why. He gets into everything and literally runs around all day.

He is quite the happy, energetic kid and we sure love him dearly! We know he'll be a great big brother and helper to his parents. Happy Birthday James!

Turning 2

I cannot believe James is already two! People weren't joking when they said life goes by faster when you have kids. I feel like I was just in the delivery room, holding my new baby boy!

James was such a lucky kid on Sunday. His Aunt Shannon had a couple of days off and flew out here to spend the weekend with us! He got to wear his Birthday Boy pin all during church, and even got some special birthday treats in nursery! Danny, Elaina, and Daniel then came over in the evening and he opened his presents, ate dinner, and devoured his cake. We had a great time and I have some fun pictures from our wonderful night.

Birthday cake!

New clothes from Grandma and Grandpa!

Monster trucks from Aunt Shannon!

Clothes!

Legos from Mom and Dad

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the DeBeikes house in Thousand Oaks, and it was a full house! We had almost all of the family (including two dogs) staying under one roof, making it chaotic but loads of fun! Poor James had croup the entire time and was coughing like crazy and kept getting fevers, but he was distracted and had a blast playing with everyone.


We went to see Breaking Dawn, where I had to keep my eyes closed during the birth scene. Other than that, I liked it. We also built gingerbread houses, visited the Grove, and kept James from destroying their entire house. Thank goodness for baby gates! We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast and then an amazing breakfast the next morning with Margie's dad, Jim. I'm still full!




We had a great holiday!

Exciting News!

Yesterday, James and I went to my 20-week check-up and ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was actually a parent of one of my favorite students when I taught! It was super fun catching up with her, because that school year I had her daughter we talked all of the time!

Baby is looking very healthy and measuring right on target, which was definitely great to hear. The other exciting news is that we are having a girl!! I had seriously thought it was a girl, but was afraid to say anything because I didn't want to jinx it! We are extremely excited, and look forward to having a cute, calm, easy-going, calm, adorable, CALM girl! Heavenly Father wouldn't give me two very high-spirited children in a row....would he?

Eye Update

Last week we had to go in for another exam under anesthesia to get a good look at James's eye. This is because he will NOT hold still while awake, and the doc can't get a decent reading on his progress. After being there for over 4 hours for just a 15 minute procedure, we learned that his eye is healing wonderfully from the cataract surgery, with minimal scar tissue. Dr. Dries said that he rarely sees progress like this! We also learned that his astigmatism is now worse by double, which means back to get his glasses prescription changed. He still has to patch his other eye for 2 hours a day to help the "laziness" of the bad eye. Patching and glasses wear is getting more and more challenging. James is on to all of my little tricks, and screams bloody murder while I try to patch his eye. He still has to wear the arm restraints or he pulls everything off, but the restraints just make him more miserable. I basically detest the first 2 hours of my day because of this ordeal! At least his eye is healing well, and hopefully soon he'll be adjusted to wearing his glasses all day. Hopefully he won't have to go under anesthesia again for awhile because I am getting extremely annoyed with the whole process. They always run at least an hour late, and coping with a miserable, starving toddler during that time is no fun!

On a separate note, we went to a check-up for his hearing and tubes placement, and he is now hearing every sound perfectly, with no muffling! The tubes are doing their job and look fantastic! James is already trying to say more things, and it's been so cute! Yay for good news!

Halloween Festivities

We have had an eventful couple of weeks! We have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves this Halloween season, and it's been more fun this year than ever now that James is a little older. We celebrated by going to Cornbelly's and going through the maze, eating cotton candy and kettle corn, going on the hay ride, and letting James just run around. We even got a wagon to pull James around in, although he was hellbent on throwing himself out of it when we were going full speed through the fields.



The following day we got together with Elaina and Daniel again. We spent the night eating Jack-O-Lantern pizza, making caramel apples, carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds,and watching Harry Potter 3. It was such a fun night! Are we terrible parents though for doing this after we put our kids to bed? :)




Last week James and I went to Chris's Halloween work party. They had lots of fun games and rooms for kids to play in, even though James is still pretty young for them. It was fun to see where Chris works and to meet some of his coworkers.

Then just last night was actual Halloween night! We celebrated by eating Beanie Weenies, watching Hocus Pocus, and going Trunk-or-Treating with Elaina and Daniel! I was a gypsy (for the 3rd or 4th year in a row), James was a hobo, and Chris was Wolverine. He even grew his hair out for the occasion and was quite proud of it! Someone even wanted a picture of him last night because they thought he looked so cool.




We had a fantastic Halloween season and woke up this morning to perfect fall weather, great for welcoming in Thanksgiving!

Tubes

In early October, James went in and finally got tubes in his ears! It was the easiest surgery we have had - it only lasted 15 minutes! The hardest thing by far was waiting the extra hour they delayed us with a starving child. It is really hard to keep him contained, and we were at our wits end by the end of the morning! Besides that and his fussiness after waking up from surgery, it was an easy day! There was literally zero recovery, he just needed Tylenol once that day and has been fine since. In the last month, I've noticed his hearing has improved and he is slowly starting to say more words, although still somewhat unrecognizable. I have hope though! If nothing else, I am just so glad he won't have as many ear infections as we are getting into the winter season.

In the waiting room watching Hercules.

Playing before his surgery. He was very upset and kept trying to steal the other kids' toys!



After surgery, he was extremely fussy from his hunger and finally calmed down with two glasses of apple juice and a cherry slushee. That and Disney Junior was on the TV....so a good combination.


We go in this week to have his hearing and ears tested again! Hope it's good news!

Overdue Wedding Pics

Well, it's been 7 years and Chris and I have finally put up wedding pictures in our house. Is there a word that means MORE than pathetic? That would be us. I found our favorite pics from our wedding day and scanned them onto my computer to then print off. It was really fun going through the pictures from our special day, and Chris and I really enjoyed looking at how different we are now! 7 years and 1 (and a half...) kid later! Here are our favorites:

Bumba

I just wanted to announce that I have such a cute kid. Yesterday after James's nap I went in and snuggled him for a few minutes in our glider. After some snuggling, he gave me his pacifier, cupped his hands around my face so I'd look right into his eyes just inches away, and then started saying "bumba, bumba, bumba" over and over. His face looked so serious, and I was literally melting into the chair it was so adorable. However, I have yet to discover what "bumba" means. This has since been his word of choice. My kid may not be able to speak coherently yet, but he makes up for it in cuteness.

Child Locks

You know you're a parent when your kitchen, once a place of beauty and easy drawer access, has now turned into one big, plastic, tacky child lock.



At least he can no longer open the drawers to use as stairs to get onto the counter, or open up our junk drawer (which is taller than him, yet he still manages)and find our scissors and candle lighter. Also, gone are the days of cute counter decorations. Why? Because yesterday James learned how to pull a chair up to reach our top counter.

Trip Around The World

::WARNING: LONG POST::
Okay, we didn't really take a trip around the world, but with the amount of driving we did, it sure felt like it!

On the Thursday before Labor Day, Chris came home and told me that he had the ENTIRE next week off! All day Friday was spent packing, buying snacks, and doing tons of laundry, and still are destination was undecided. Should we go to Sedona? The Grand Canyon? Yellowstone? Visit Kirsten and Mike? The options were endless. We just knew we had to go somewhere. Come Saturday morning, we made the decision to visit Portland, Oregon, a place Chris has always wanted to see and a possible future relocation site for his job. We jumped in the car, and decided to head about 5 hours south of Portland first, in Medford, to visit my family for a day or two. Since the drive is about 13 hours, we split it into two days, and ending up staying in Lovelock, Nevada that first night. You'd think that with a cute name like that, we'd be staying in a nice hotel, heart-shaped bed, rose petals in the bathtub, the works. Unfortunately, that was not the case!! The nicest place we found (on our budget) was seemingly doable. After unloading for the night and letting James get his wiggles out, we were horrified to look at his bare feet. They looked like we dipped him in tar up to his ankles. I don't think those carpets had EVER been cleaned. Needless to say, we wore shoes the remainder of our stay there. That night was horrendous because James still had too much energy, and spent the first 2 hours of the night literally running from one end of his bed to the other squealing at the top of his lungs, while Chris and I were trying to sleep. We left that next morning with black feet, poor sleep, and a bad taste in our mouths about "LoveLock."

We got into Medford that next afternoon, anxious to spend time with my family! We caught them at a crazy time, however, as they are currently renovating almost the entire house! We're talking no carpet, no kitchen, dust EVERYWHERE. My mom did a fantastic job setting up a little place for us though where James could still play and be safe. We enjoyed a little BBQ that night with the fam, followed by some much needed swimming. James was FINALLY able to get his energy out and slept great that night.

The next day we took James to his first ever movie! Granted, it involved a bucket of popcorn, lemonade, a booster seat, and some rope (yup, no joke!), but he pretty much stayed in his seat and enjoyed Cars 2!! It was a success and we loved seeing Britni and the cousins. After the movie, Chris took James for a drive and to run around the park, and us girls went shopping! That night we had a Labor Day BBQ with the entire family, and went swimming again. It was great seeing James play with his cousins, and spending time with the family.

On Tuesday, Chris and I decided to leave for Newport and to stay a day at the coast before heading to Portland. While Chris had to finish some work at home, my mom and I spent that morning doing some very important bonding (by bonding I mean shopping of course). Thanks Mom! Afterwards, Chris and I packed up James and the car, and away we went to Newport! I haven't been to the ocean in years, and it was wonderful to smell that ocean air! I swear it's good for the soul.

We ate clam chowder that night, walked around the city and bought some salt water taffy, and enjoyed our beautiful room overlooking the harbor. We even had our own fireplace! It was great just relaxing, swimming with James in the pool, and doing just plain nothing as a family. It was wonderful!

We had a very lazy next morning, and eventually packed up our stuff for Portland. It was a quick 2 hour drive into the city, and we checked into our hotel after eating some delicious Red Robin for lunch. We toured downtown for a while to stretch our legs, and then returned for the night. Our hotel was beautiful, and we loved our view!

James loves playing in hotel rooms. The second we checked into any room, I had to instantly go unplug the phone (or expect some weird charges to our room, courtesy of my son), and put up all the alarm clocks and breakable objects. We learned this rule very quickly into our trip.

The next day was Thursday, and we decided to visit the Portland Zoo! James LOVED the animals, and was very quick to mimic any animal noises (elephants and lions being his favorite). I haven't been to a zoo in years, and felt like a kid to see all animals! James loved it, and instantly fell asleep when we returned to our car.


That night was a night I had been anticipating ever since we decided to go to Portland. We got to visit the Trasks's at their beautiful home in Hillsboro! We picked up Sam from work in Portland, and drove to her house for dinner. We spent the evening reminiscing, and watching Aspen, James and Denali take over the house. I could have watched Aspen and James play all night. They are so adorable together! And of course, James loves dogs and was happy to have Denali practically bathe him with his tongue all night. It was a totally spectacular night, and just reaffirmed the fact that Sam and I will always be friends! Our families mesh very well, and no matter how much time has passed, we will always pick up where we left off!



On Friday Chris decided to go visit the Fidelity offices of Portland and Tigard, to introduce himself to the managers. Chris won't be able to transfer there for awhile, if he decides to, but he wanted to make a good first impression. It went very well, and we really liked Tigard! After some quick lunch, we slowly headed home by way of Boise. We stayed there for that night (went swimming of course! We learned after lots of driving, it was a good way to expend James's energy). The next day we lazily got our things together, and drove back to good ol' Utah!

Our trip went by in a blur! Thankfully, James slept like a champ in the car and took great naps (I just wish I could say the same for his nighttime sleep!!). Between his naps and his dvd player, he was a happy boy on all the drives!! This led to a happy mom and dad. It was a great trip, even with the tons of driving, and we are so grateful for wonderful family and friends!