Christmas...only 2 weeks late!

So sorry I haven't posted much about our Christmas! It was Nathan's first and I (almost) completely skipped it in blogland!

Nathan (or as I call him, Mr. Squirty Pants...) slept peacefully all through present opening. He was very generous and let his mom and dad open all his gifts! What a great kid! He got several toys from grandparents, a toybox from us, and a beautiful framed embroidery for his room from his "GG Dooley" (aka Grand Goddess...). He also gets a late Christmas present in getting to meet his aunts, Natalie and Melissa, and Grandpa Larson for the first time! (And it'll be like he's meeting his Grandma Larson for the first time, too, since he remembers very minimal amounts of things...)

Mitch got the last part to his AR-15 rifle for Christmas! It has been drilled into my head that this is a "toy gun"...it isn't for home defense or hunting, specifically. This one's a toy. Yay, 7 months' worth of plasma donations! (and 1 Christmas budget's worth!) Since he chose to build it himself and earn each piece at a time, he got to customize it to make it do exactly what he wanted.

Here it is in all its glory; we call this picture "Mitch's babies." Mostly, Nathan is there for a point of reference. Ignore the stripped mattress, Nathan probably threw up on our sheets 7 times while we were in Gillette!
I got a huge surprise for Christmas! Mitch went in with his parents and got me a Sony Handycam! I've always wanted my own video camera (what kid doesn't!?) but now that I have a kid of my own, I guess it's time to actually get one! I've wanted this for so long, and this video shows my surprise, and pretty much tells the whole story.

(When I mentioned "second night without sleep" I meant "second night without one MINUTE of sleep"...Nathan had an ear infection, poor guy, that we found out about on Christmas Eve, so he was miserable and didn't sleep at all. He'd cry b/c of the pain, which would aggravate his ears, which would hurt, which would cause him to cry more...poor little man!)

It was a fantastic Christmas. We can't wait to get use out of our new toys! We loved celebrating with Nathan, even though he won't remember a minute of it.

Winter 2011

Yesterday started our first day of Winter Semester 2011. Mitch and I are both on-track for this semester (our school has a three-semester calendar that runs year-round; each semester is called a "track." You are "on-track" two out of three semesters, and "off-track" during the third). Mitch is on-track during the Winter and Spring tracks and I am on-track Fall and Winter. So, this is the semester that we are both on-track, although Mitch went full-time last semester as well.

I don't like school. I can't wait to be done. Mitch is much better at school than I am. We both struggle with crazy due dates around midterms, finals, etc., but he loves learning much more than I do. I guess that's why he's the one going to grad school next and I'm the one who's DONE after my bachelor's degree!

I am taking two classes online so I can try to work our little man towards a more concrete schedule. It's much harder to be home balancing even just two classes and a baby than I thought it would be! I wish he would sleep more soundly during the day. I already feel so overwhelmed! I need to cash in on the several babysitting offers i've gotten from friends and family.

I also feel like going to school with a little one is the best thing for me, but not for him. This has been a real emotional struggle for me that i'm trying to get over because I know i'm doing the right thing.

On a more positive note, we are incredibly blessed. We have family and friends that support our getting degrees, a perfect little boy to love on all day, and we can still afford to go to school. Because our school is run by our church and is a private school, the church is able to take care of a lot of the expenses that we'd be responsible for at a state college. We are paying very little, and are working hard to remember how blessed we are and what a great opportunity for education this is.

I hope this post wasn't too much of a downer! I had so many thoughts floating around in my head. This is about the closest I've kept to a journal, so I want to take time to write when it strikes me. Now my favorite picture of Nathan, for the moment at least! :o)

Resoluting....

...is that a word? I guess it'd be resolving. Oh well, it got the attention of anyone who saw this on their Blogger Dashboard :o)

I never really make New Year's Resolutions. Never really have. I used to make the same resolution, "get better grades." But then I realized it's more effective if I just resolve to do that all along. See, my new year's resolutions usually have failed by about mid-February. It's like Pam trying to save up her vacation days at the start of a new year on The Office. She usually makes it about that far.

So, while my brother-in-law's girlfriend Sarah is rocking my cranky son, I think i'll jot down a few resolutions. Just goals that have popped into my mind after reading everyone else's resolutions:

1) Don't get pregnant again. We've ensured this won't happen, but there's always an off-chance. I don't know what I would do with another baby. After 8 weeks of trying to figure out this whole parenting thing, I don't know how people deal with more than one! We're not even TALKING about another baby for at least a year. I'm young. I've got school. We've got time to wait!

2) Complete a year's worth of credits towards my Bachelor's Degree. I have no idea how this will happen, considering i'm only taking 4 credits this semester. I'm hoping to make up for it by going this Spring semester (April-July), my usual semester off. I've only had one semester off in the six semesters i've been going to school, so i'm used to it!

Speaking of #1, Nathan just started bawling. I don't know how long my "help" is going to want to stick around!

3) Learn more about photography. I may not have an amazing SLR camera, but I know my amazing point-and-shoot can do a heck of a lot more than I'm using it to do. I want to learn more about things like framing and the details that make a good picture. That way, one day when I have a good camera i'll know how to use it and not just put it to waste.

4) Re-vamp our apartment. We tend to keep things. It tends to look like we do. We purge things all the time, but we use most of it just enough to make it worth keeping. That's an issue. Especially in our apartment where we have virtually no storage. Since all my credits are online and it'll be just me and the boy all day, I want to get things done at home. Even just one project would make me happy!

Well, that's it. Four. For someone who doesn't "resolute" around the new years, that's pretty good, right? It also kind of coincides with the "new goals for a new semester" routine that Mitch and I have. New goals, new budget, usually new priorities to save for.

Happy New Year's! Thanks to Nathan we'll both be up to see 2011 come in!

Update Pending...

Yes, i'll put up pictures. Yes, i'll tell about our Christmas. Yes, i'll update this blog one day.

...but for now, i'm enjoying every minute I can get with my husband's family in Wyoming, so you'll all (you know, all four of you that read this...) have to wait till i'm back at my computer where I can upload pictures! :o)

We had a fabulous Christmas and I can't wait to tell all about it!

PS--Nathan totally giggled at me (intentionally, not his "sleep giggle") on Tuesday night. It might be the cutest thing I have ever, ever seen!

:o)

Nathan started smiling on Saturday, the day before we headed to Gillette.

I have to tell you, it's the most rewarding thing ever. I spend hours smiling at him and making faces, and he finally returns the friendly faces! I love his sweet baby smiles! We're trying to catch as many of them on camera as we can. I'll put a collage up once I have a few! :o)

His smiles are making me fall in love with him all over. I love when he breaks out into a big, cheesy grin. It's one of my favorite parts of the day, and makes all of his screams at night worth it.

The other night, Nathan screamed and screamed and we couldn't do a thing about it. We were worried about waking people in the Dooley house up and were just so sad because our little man sounded so, well, pathetic and miserable! Then he settled down for a minute and smiled a HUGE grin at Mitch. He said it almost made up for the 30-45 minutes of screaming!

I just had to document our little milestone :o)

Merry Christmas! I hope you take the time to remember the true meaning for this holiday, and the real reason for celebrating! That has my goal for this season. Right now I am counting my blessings and taking time to love the life Mitch and I have made for each other.

I am especially thanking the Lord for protecting our friends, Stephanie and Nathan Cross, who rolled their Explorer and shouldn't have lived, but did, with just minor injuries.

For documentation's sake

Again, since I don't journal...this post is mostly for me :o)


Our sweet little boy, who has taken over every aspect of our lives (which is how it should be, right!?) was playing in his room tonight. He loves to lay on the rug on the floor and look at all the bright colors.

(I know, I still haven't put pictures up of his room...I have one more Cricut project and then i'm done!)

Anyway, he was playing and I picked him up, rocked him in our rocker and he started staring at me. I love how he'll pay attention to faces now! I started smiling at him and he smiled RIGHT BACK! He's never smiled intentionally at anyone! He smiled and stopped, and smiled and stopped, for about 3 minutes. It was the best! I told Mitch to run in with the camera, but i'd misplaced it, AND left it on video. So, now we have an awkward video of me telling him to stop recording and Nathan making a confused face because I stopped playing the smile game.

This picture that we took over Thanksgiving, that most people would think was intentional, was purely coincidental, and it's amazing we caught it in a picture!

This totally makes all the late-night/early-morning feedings worth it.

Oh, and also, we used gripe water for the first time last night. I do believe I owe the company thousands of dollars for the wonderful, tummy pain-free night we all had last night! Nathan slept great, and so did we!

Happy Birthday to Mitch!

Thursday, December 2nd was Mitch's 24th birthday. He and Nathan are 23 years, 11 months apart. Mitch and his dad are also 24 years apart, which is pretty cool!

Mitch has worked very, very hard in school this semester. His GPA has gone up and he is loving his new major. So, since the semester is wrapping up in a week or two, I thought let his present be something that would also reward him for the hard work.

He was insanely jealous last year when all his siblings got Wii's for Christmas and we didn't. We both wanted to improve our grades, and we thought a game console wasn't the way to do that.

I did a bit of research and, with the help of his brother, discovered that an original Xbox is what his heart most desired :o) So, I found one, complete with wireless controllers, a dvd remote, and a free game thrown in. There's a store in town where he can buy pretty much any Xbox game at a rock bottom price, so he's going to enjoy that as well!

His parents will be pleased to know that we have set time limits and restrictions on when and how long he can play. We've set up parameters that will still allow him to be productive, while still enjoying his gift!

I got a video of him opening it. Mind you, he convinced me to let him open it a day early. I agreed b/c Thursday, his actual birthday, is his busiest day of the week, and I wanted him to enjoy it. He wouldn't let me wrap it, either, saying it was pointless to wrap it and bring it out so he could unwrap it. Okay, I kinda see his point! I was able to keep it a surprise--woo hoo!

You'll have to listen for my "Michael Scott" moment. I tend to misspeak as often as Michael Scott from the Office does ("oh, how the turn tables..." "the early worm gets the worm..." "Afganistinanis with AIDS", etc.). Most of the people that know me well enough know what i'm trying to say, so I usually don't notice. This video features a "let the record be known..."

yep, "let the record show" and "let it be known."
It's hard to believe English is my native language sometimes!

I love you, Mitch, and I'm so grateful for everything you've done for our family! I never knew husbands could be this much of a help, and that a guy who never babysat could know so much about babies! Thank you for helping me keep my emotions in check during this "fun" hormone transition, and for being such a wonderful husband, father, and provider for our family!