Liam's first Christmas

Well, it was Liam's first Christmas, and it was just lovely :-).

So this year we made and decorated gingerbread cookies to give out, though Scott ate the whole first batch before we could decorate, so I had to make another one! Silly boy. 

 

Liam and I baked them, Scott helped decorate. :-)

We watched a Christmas movie while decorating. 

I had my office Christmas Party, at the Prairie Band Casino resort, which was a lot of fun. :-)

We raised enough money to have our CFO (I think that's his title...) eat a spoonful of mayonnaise. 

And to have our CEO stand up and yodel for one whole minuet. :-)

Christmas Eve we dropped off gifts to the family we "adopted" through the Christmas Bureau. The Christmas Bureau is a program run through my work. Basically what the Christmas Bureau is, is an "adoption agency" for families who can't afford Christmas or are going through a rough time. So families sign up to be "adopted" and people either adopt them, buy gifts, and deliver the gifts to the family themselves;  or they donate money to the Christmas Bureau so someone else can adopt a family and buy the gifts. We didn't have any extra money but we wanted to help out. So we volunteered to shop and deliver the gifts to a family. Wow, what a humbling experience. This poor woman lost her job, was kicked out of her home so now she was living in a rotting out old house in a bad neighborhood, her adult son moved back in with her with his son, whom he just got custody of, and she had 2 teenage daughters. They seemed extremely grateful, and I'm glad we were able to help in some small way. I felt extremely humbled-- I thought we've had it a little rough and are barely making it by, but we actually have been so extremely blessed and I need to be more grateful.

After playing "Santa", we went to dinner at a Chinese buffet that Scott's been wanting to try.

 Then we drove around and looked at the Christmas light displays in Potwin.

And we finished the night off with family time and a Christmas movie.

Cute lil' Liam

Liam loves the Christmas tree

Christmas morning I was woken up early. I honestly thought I wouldn't have to worry about the early morning Christmases until Liam was a little older, but I forgot about Scott. It was adorable being woken up by my two excited boys. :-)

Scott and Liam found the pickle first, so they got to pick the first present. :-)

Stockings! I still need to make Liam's stocking...

Liam's first gift.

My mom made Liam this adorable sweater. He looks so handsome in it. (bad lighting in the pic though)

That night Liam fell asleep so fast and stayed asleep most of the night! Seriously "Tranquil Turtle" was worth every penny. :-)

Looking forward to seeing my siblings for New Years.

The things a sleep deprived mother does

So I'm not sure if this is just me or if everyone sortof loses their mind once they become a mother.
Below is the evidence that's I'm losing it:

1. Using my conditioner as body soap. I was like "why isn't this lathering up?".

2. Putting the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the fridge.

3. Christmas shopping online and sending the gift to myself instead of that person...oiy.

4. Christmas shopping online and never actually hitting "order" and wondering where the heck the packages are.

5. Getting ready for a party and going only to notice after the party that you put half your makeup on.

6. Forgetting easy words like "door".

7. Walking into a room and forgetting what you were doing. Then walking out and remembering only to forget once you walked back into the room again...

8. Going to pour yourself a drink and just pouring it all over yourself instead of in the glass.

9. Trying to drink out of a water bottle and missing your mouth completely.

10. Putting stuff that's supposed to be in the fridge in the microwave...yeah, don't know how I got those two mixed up.


Yeah, so if you have any stories similar, please share so I don't feel like a complete nutcase!

Wednesday was my last appointment with my Midwives. They were wonderful and I am so thankful to have had them and their support in providing me with the birth experience I wanted.

Anyways, so Friday night we were actually able to go to our ward Christmas party. Scott finally had a Friday night off where we could spend it together. It was a lot of fun, Liam met Santa....and he was so excited he fell asleep in the line, never even saw Santa, but got a picture with him! :-)

Saturday I went to my friend Kaylie's baby shower.

Which was fun, carnival themed. Scott went to the gun show after work since he's been dying to go ever since we moved here.

Super excited for Christmas with my lil' family. :-)

The Life of a Full Time Mom and Full Time Employee.

My day starts with me getting up at 5AM so I can take a shower before Scott has to get ready for work. Then I attend to Liam while throwing on hopefully clean clothes and attempting to brush through my hair. Once I'm semi decent I get Liam ready (sometimes a few times because he'll pee on his outfit or something), and head off to work. I work 9 hours straight but get paid 8 hours, since I breastfeed Liam that counts toward my "hour lunch break".  When I get home from work I pick one thing to finish (laundry/ dishes/ etc), and I attempt to finish it. Then it's the never ending attempt at bedtime where Liam wakes up every few hours to get changed or to eat. Scott will come home sometime between a feeding and me dozing off, I usually don't notice until I wake up for the next feeding/diaper change (sad, I know).  At the end of every day I'm just grateful I made it through that day...sometimes you just gotta take it one day at a time, and tell yourself, it will not be like this forever...I can get through this time. Yes, I am grateful for Liam and to be a full time mother. Raising a family is one thing I wanted most. And yes I am grateful to have a decent job that will let me take Liam to work with me so that I don't have to put him in daycare so young. Yes these are huge blessings, but I must be honest...I'm being worn thin. Being a full time mom was hard enough. I pray and hope every day that Scott finds employment that can sustain our family (I don't need to be rich or well off, just have enough to get by and pay bills) so I can focus on being a mother to Liam, building our home, being a good companion to Scott, and take better care of myself. It's all I can do to make sure I eat something during the day. Scott is trying hard, and I am grateful for his hard work at both his jobs. I miss him immensely when he has to work both jobs in one day (often). I just hope our schedules eventually sinc to where we see each other more often.

That being said, I do love being a mom. Liam makes me so happy, and is just the sweetest cutest kid....when he's not being fussy. ;-p  And Scott is such a good dad. I love watching him with Liam.

The day before Thanksgiving break was my first day back to work, also Liam's first day of work with me. I went into panic mode as every person in the office and outside of the office touched his feet and got super close to him (there is a flu/cold going around the office, everyone is coughing), hoping he doesn't pic up anything from the office.

Watching mama work.

So happy!

Love my boy.

This past week Scott's family (sister and parents) were able to come out for Liam's blessing and celebrate Thanksgiving with us. I am so grateful they were able to make it out, Scott hadn't seen his family in so long.

Myriah, Scott's sister came out first. She was able to join us at our Bishop's house for Thanksgiving dinner with friends from the church. 

  

Liam's first Thanksgiving!

Turkey Coma

My personal Butterball

Myriah also came with us "Black Friday Shopping", which consisted of a quick trip to Walmart (no good deals), a trip to the mall (tradition to get a photobooth pic on black friday), and to Lowes to pick out our Christmas Tree. 

Haha, didn't want to smile.

Myriah found her Christmas Present. :-)

First Christmas Tree!

Laughing at Aunt Myriah

Scott putting up the Star

All tuckered out from decorating the Christmas Tree

Scott's Parents arrived Friday night

Liam getting to know Grandpa Tillery

Saturday night we went out to eat and saw a little of the "Miracle on Kansas Ave" parade. 

Liam's first parade, The firetrucks scared him, but he loved the lights. 

Sunday was Liam's blessing:

His cute lil' outfit.

awww my sweet boy.

He did not want his picture taken

That's the closest to a smile we could get. :-)

Sunday after church we had our own Thanksgiving dinner because Scott's parents didnt arrive until after thanksgiving:

Spending time with Grandma Tillery.

Had a great Thanksgiving!