Chris, Heidi, Nixon and Ruby

I can't believe I have kept a kid alive for 11 days! I wonder how many people have lost money on that bet. Mom, you can admit it. :)  One huge positive lately is that we have a good routine and that has made bedtime so much easier. He still isn't sleeping through the night, but we aren't having the hour of incessant screaming like we were in the early weeks. Even nap times are easier. I can easily tell when he is getting tired, and I hold him for a couple minutes and he is out. I love it! Another positive today was meeting Chris for lunch. I know it is hard for him to leave for lunch since he doesn't have long but it is so nice for me to get out of the house.  Finally, I have made two good friends here: Dr. Phil and Ellen. Sounds silly maybe but it gives me something to look forward to in the afternoon and by the time they are over Chris is almost home! Dr. Phil makes me feel better about my life and Ellen provides me with some laughs! (I have made some other real life ...

I took a little recess from the blog while my mom was here. We had so much fun! We went up to Duluth one day, worked on Nixon's baby book, reupholstered a window seat cover, played lots of Sudoku matches, went to scrapbook and thrift stores, watched some good Ellen and Dr. Phil, and had some great talks! I took her back to Minneapolis yesterday and that was hard. I wasn't as scared for her to leave, but, holy cow, driving away about killed me. Literally. I think I started having an anxiety attack on the freeway. My heart was racing and I felt completely lightheaded to the point that I felt like I might pass out. I got really nervous so I pulled off the closest exit, which ended up being a weigh station. I just drove very slowly through it until I felt like I would be ok. After that, I just couldn't think about her leaving or the idea of turning around and getting on the next flight home. Those thoughts would get my heart going again. Fortunately, Nixon was a trooper there a...

UHoly cow, it's freezing cold here!! It hasn't gotten out of negative temperatures this week, and with the windchill it is usually between -20 and -40. That is cold!! I can't wait until it gets warm enough to go outside.  Nixon has had a little bit of a rough couple of days. He spits up like crazy. I feel like he is spitting up a good portion of what he eats. I think it frustrates me so much because I feel like it's my fault. I feel like it's something I am eating or drinking. So I go without chocolate or caffeine or onions. Nothing helps though. We had his 2 month check up today and since he is gaining weight they said we should just keep an eye on it. He is still happy for the most part.  Last night he was trying to kill me I think. He woke up once an hour from midnight to six. At six Chris could tell I was at my wits end so he took him and gave him a bottle. They were up until 7:30. After that he slept until 9:30, which was so kind of him.  Finally, today, like I...

2014 has been a whirlwind. The funny thing is, the first 9 or 10 months didn't seem that crazy. We started the year on a boat between Hawaii and California. Just like the difference between that and sitting on a couch in Spooner, WI (the temperature with the wind chill was -37 last night are so different from one another, I feel like our lives are completely different. I don't work anymore (as far as official employment goes) Chris is an official Physical Therapist, we are no longer childless, we live in a different house in a different state, Chris has a new job, and a new calling (more to come on that later) and we even have a new car! I think it is funny that just in September we talked about how we would stay in that house for at least two more years. At that point, the thought of moving to a new house wasn't even on our radar. If we only knew! We have been blessed so much! Even if I have to keep a blog of the things I am thankful for to remember that this is a blessing...

I guess I took a couple days off. Not that there were no positives, cause they were good days! Here are some highlights: 1. It was the weekend! 2. The sky was blue! I don't remember any blue sky days since we have been here and even though it came with 6-7 inches of snow, I will take it! 3. Speaking of the snowstorm, after attempting to shovel our driveway and not getting very far with a snow shovel, we went and bought a snowblower. We are official Wisconsin-ites!  4. We hung out with some friends Friday night and played games. I love that we have friends!  5. Nixon slept in his pack-n-play all night last night and did really well! I slept really well too, since I didn't feel him every time he moved or flinched. We are trying it again tonight. So far, so good! (It has only been about 10 minutes though) 6. I saw three deer in our backyard! 7. This is a weird one, but Nixon actually held on to a rattle tonight. Anyone without kids (and probably most with kids) probably don't ...

Another milestone in this adventure today. We made it through Christmas Eve with minimal tears. I've got to say, I have always been a fan of Christmas songs, but a lot of them are a little more depressing to me this year. Like "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Blue Christmas," "That's Christmas to Me," etc. There were some highlights though: 1. A trip to Rice Lake. It's always nice to go to a bigger town and get some errands done.  2. We took a gift over to our neighbors. We have met them once before, but we learned today that the wife (Christi?) is home during the day so she might be a source of sanity for me some days.  3. We went to the Kildow's home for dinner tonight. This is like 80 positives in one! They are just the nicest people! It was fun to meet their other son and his wife. They have the cutest little girl and are expecting a boy in February. We got homemade soap, salsa, jam and applesauce. We also got a pretty pine one wreath...

Crazy to believe this was our third Sunday here! Looks like the honeymoon is over. Chris got a calling, I got an unofficial calling to help play piano in relief society,  I got asked to teach relief society next week, and we got asked to speak on January 11th. Looks like Nixon is the only safe one...for now.  My positives for today are: 1. Nixon slept well last night again! 2. Despite some heavy snow, we made it home from church safe.  3. Ok, I know I put naps on here a lot. Other moms will understand how much of a positive that is. But today I got the nap of all naps when Chris took Nixon for a little bit and I was able to sleep 3.5 hours! That was awesome! 4. I got an email today with my mom's flight information! She is officially coming January 9th! I just have to make it to then!  Yay! Ok, I'm gonna hit the hay. Goodnight!

This is one of those nights where the last thing I want to do is blog, which is why I know I need to. Nixon has had a really rough night, maybe a tummy ache?  He has been wailing for the last hour. And he has spit up pretty much everything we have fed him. Three burp cloths down. I got him calmed down long enough to read him a couple books. It is fun to see him look at the pictures!  Today Chris and I went to Rice Lake to take care of some bank stuff and go to Wal Mart. We also went in to Herbergers, a department store out here, for Chris to get some new pants. Nix was a great traveler for the most part!  As I think about the positives today, I realize that there were a lot! 1. Chris didn't have to get up early for work.  2. Like I mentioned before, we went to Rice Lake. It is nice to get out of the house and go there, even if it is for things like WalMart and Applebee's.  3. When we got back, there was a snowshoe hare running across our driveway. I love wildlif...

Today was my first day home alone all day. It wasn't as terrible as I was worried it would be. Chris came home for 20 minutes for lunch, which gave me a nice break from being alone. That's my first positive today. Here are some more: 2. I slept in! Well, sort of. I woke up, fed nix, and he went right back to sleep so I took advantage of it and fell back asleep to, which leads me to 3. We are trying to get Nixon to sleep well and have tried his swing, the pack and play and on a boppy between us. I'll be honest though, he and I both sleep best when I lay down and hold him next to me. Any chance he will be ok with that until he is 16? Cause I kind of love it.  4. We made dinner for the third night in a row. Wanna know how many times that has happened in our marriage? Probably zero. It helps that the only fast food restaurants are mcdonalds and Subway. I still haven't learned to love Subway, but I'm guessing I will before we leave here.  5. I vacuumed. Weird positive, b...

It is still Monday somewhere, right? Well it is a good thing I wrote more than three positives yesterday because we definitely didn't avoid the 10:30 meltdown like I thought we did. It's a real good thing this kid is so dang cute!  Every day I learn a little more about this place. Today I learned more about the bears around here. I went and had hot chocolate with our relief society president's daughter in law, Tia, who is one of Spooner's 7 full time police officers. She said she saw 35-40 just driving around last year! (She was driving, not the bears) She said the bears are more afraid of you than you are of them, but that never totally eases my mind.  I also learned Spooner has a five o'clock "whistle". Sounds cute, right? Not quite. I was feeding Nix today when I heard it for the first time and was pretty sure it was a tornado or bomb warning. I don't know how this is the first time I have heard it! On a better note, my positives are: 1. Going to ho...

Today was a good day. I'm doing better than I thought I would be. Not that I am free of any anxieties, but I'm doing ok. Today the positives are: 1. We went to church. There were 25 people there, which is up from last week's 19! 2. Chris made dinner tonight. Eggs and bacon. Yummy! 3. I got a nap today!! 4. I am snuggled in bed with an awesome baby boy, which means we might have bypassed his nighttime meltdown!  Here is a picture of the little man dressed up (kinda) for church. 

  It is time for me to get back into the blog scene, now that we have moved away from family. Let's be honest though. This is more for me and my sanity. When we decided to move here, I was so excited for this awesome adventure. I figured I would miss my family but had no idea the magnitude to which I would struggle. The goodbyes in Utah were hard. Saying goodbye to siblings and nieces and nephews hurt big time. After all, I saw these people at the very least every other week at Sunday dinner, but usually I saw them much more often than that. So the goodbyes, mixed with postpartum hormones and lack of sleep due to Mr. Nixon, made for some major tearful times. Then we got here. My parents and Chris's mom helped drive out here so I could fly with Nix. We got ourselves mostly moved in on the first day, thanks to all the help. Friday we got some more stuff done and before we knew it, Saturday was here and it was time for my dad to leave. To that point, that was the hardest goodbye. ...