whats the deal with xmas?

i've seen xmas all over the place this year and to be honest its just wrong! not only does it look and sound awful but its taking the Christ out of Christmas and, after all, is that not what CHRISTmas is all about? yeah its great to get pressies and eat so much that you feel your going to implode before exploding but when you narrow it all down there wouldnt be any presents or food or anything like that if it wasnt for the birth of Christ. the reason we even give presents is because the wise men brought gifts to Jesus.

i always love the coca cola adverts, for me thats what gets me really excited about Christmas because as soon as i see it or hear it it just feels like Christmas has begun but even this year they have used xmas instead of Christmas - coca cola, im disappointed in you for the first time in 23 years.

i always think back to my childhood when i think about Christmas, i have some of the best memories from my childhood and i hope to bring that to my children too. every Christmas eve we would put out a carrot for rudolph and something for santa to eat along with a glass of milk and when i would come down Christmas morning and it was all gone i would be so excited. my brothers and i always used to debate about who would have their presents under the tree and i have to say i think that 9 times out of 10 it would either be benjamin or myself because frazer is just so laid back that he would get to the stage where he really wasnt bothered! i always loved it when we had Christmas dinner at our house too but i think that was because my mum and dad are suck good cooks that i always knew they would make the best Christmas dinner i ever had and i was right - ive still to taste a Christmas dinner that even closely compares to my dads cooking (sorry mum, but i say dad because, lets face it, he did do most of the cooking :p). i loved the church service that paisley ward had every Christmas morning too, i have some really fun memories from them!! but when i look back at it now i realise that there would be no Christmas without Christ and i am extremely thankful for that. looking back at my childhood i realise how blessed i was and still am. i have an amazing family and i cant wait to spend this Christmas with them. its our first Christmas together in 2 years and i think thats the best gift i could ever receive.

a wife. a mother...

okay, i'm EXHAUSTED. but i just cant sleep. being a wife and more so being a mother is one of the most difficult things i have ever had to do but its also, hands down, the most enjoyable thing i've ever had to do.  it feels like my work is never done and when it finally is done there's something else that pops up out of no where that needs my attention.  so its 00.20hrs and i'm in the middle of doing housework. its official - my home is a war zone at the moment and that's not an exaggeration and i've finally gotten to the stage that i just want to hoover so everything is sitting on my sofas!! meh. i thought it would be a bright idea to clean out our home before Christmas comes but now i'm beginning to realise that i just don't have the time or the energy. i have the motivation and i really want to get it done but the tiredness is getting the better of me slightly and it seems that when my baby girl is in bed all i want to do is relax and not even think about housework.

to make life slightly more hectic Raymond is off work sick so its totally thrown me off of my usual schedule but i do have a slightly amusing story to go with this one....

he was throwing up all Sunday night and he came to the conclusion that it was the dinner i cooked... (thanks for that honey). after him saying that it made me slightly paranoid as we had all 4 missionaries over for dinner on Sunday and the thought of giving the missionaries food poisoning really freaked me out so at about 10.30 Sunday night i decided to call them to make sure they were okay however none of the numbers in Raymonds mobile have names next to them but then i came across a number that looked like it could belong to a missionary and it did, it just wasn't the missionary i was looking for - it was President Griffith's mobile number (eek). i had let it ring out for what felt like forever until it went onto a voice mail saying that i had called him so i instantly hung up freaking out incase i had woken him and Sister Griffith's. at around 11.30 he called back and Raymond answered and had to explain what had happened! he was, however, very pleasant and found it slightly amusing that i had called him instead of our missionaries and i'm glad he did, i was grateful for that (:

on a more positive note i didn't give the missionaries food poisoning!! well, not yet anyway.........

how do you work this thing?!

so i do consider myself to be a little bit of a whiz when it comes to technology but for some reason i cannot seem to figure out what i'm doing here... who would have thought having a blog could be so complicated.

on another note so far its not been such a good day - baby girl screamed from 6.55 till i don't know what time so i went throught my check list before exhausting all the options and feeling totally defeated.

hungry? nope

thirsty perhaps? wrong again!

nappy? erm, slightly wet but nothing that would result in her sounding as though she had been thrown across the room.

changed it.... nothing.

trapped wind? sorry mummy, wrong again.

dummy / binky / dodo - whatever were calling it? no, no, no!!

what else could it possibly be. i really was way out of my depth here and just couldn't figure her out and i was almost in tears. suddenly i thought i'd just sing to her and see if that helped anything - hallelujah!

turns out all she really wanted was a little sing song so after two verses of away in a manger she was sound asleep... bliss.

pre Christmas organisation

so i was clearing out the unit in our living room tonight (and the night before that... and the night before that and so on) and i came across our wedding dvd, all of the photos from our wedding day and it was so nice just to sit and watch for a change. it made me realise how much has happened in the past year and how much Raymond and myself have grown as a couple and as individuals. how much our love and respect for each other has grown and that made me really happy... on the downside it also made me realise how much weight i have put on in the past year and a half and that was pretty depressing but I guess having a baby does that to most of us.

i did try to upload it but i don't think our photographer was very computer literate and there is no chance of me being able to upload it to anywhere!! he has different chapters and titles all over the place so i was slightly disappointed that i couldn't just upload the pictures.

i'm trying to get our home organised and cleaned out in time for Christmas and New Year but its not going to great at the moment though because i keep getting pre occupied with other things!

our little family is growing up so fast - i cant believe my baby girl is going to be 11 weeks tomorrow - where has the time gone?! she is in her 3 - 6 months clothes almost because she is so long. when she went for her 8 week check they told us she was in the 95th percentile for her length and we have had to move her out of her moses basket and into her crib sooner than we thought we would.

she has also discovered her hands... we're trying to discourage this and get her to suck a dummy instead because when the time comes, you can get rid of a dummy but you cant get rid of fingers!! (well i guess you could but it wouldn't be a very pleasant experience for either party).

since about the age of 3 weeks she has been sleeping right through the night so a nap during the day is a very rare occasion but one i treasure! its nice to have some 'me time' during the day.

and she just loves bath and bed time too (: ......

unimpressed

my baby girl is getting so big!! she had her first jabs today and it wasn't a very pleasant experience for either of us. she was so upset and has been a little grumpy all day :( she was very unimpressed with both myself and Raymond all day!

we tried giving her some calpol to help with any aches she may have but she didn't take to kindly to being fed anything other than milk and 3 baby grows, 2 towels and a slightly sticky carpet later she still hadn't taken very much!! oh well, i guess she will need to recover as nature intended it - without any pain relief.

this is her "i don't want your stinky medicine" face.

she did eventually REFUSE to open her mouth...

well never mind, we can hope that next time she will co-operate with us!!

the return of uncle Frazer

its been a busy few days with the return of my younger brother frazer. he came home from his mission on thursday 11th november after serving 2 years in manchester and it feels like he's never been away. he seems to be very taken with esme and its so cute to see them playing together :) everything has been slightly hectic with esme's blessing this weekend and its already saturday and i have so much to do... shopping to finish, food to prepare and LOTS of cheesecake to make!! i moan slightly about making this but i think i secretly do it because i LOVE cheesecake... it really is the best food ever. i just hope everything runs smoothly :)