Pictures with Santa

One of the perks of living in Student Housing is that every Christmas Santa comes to town...or the Village :)

Celeste wasn't sure what to think when we plopped her on Santa's lap. Luckily, no tears came and she got over it pretty fast.

Aren't they the cutest little sisters! I just love seeing the two of them together. They get along so well and love just being together.

Our little family.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Juliet is growing up so fast, and her mind is always going 100 miles an hour. But what amazes me are her language skills. You never know what she is going to say or come up with next. Here is a glympse of what we get to enjoy:

-Juliet was starting to pick her nose one day and Clayton told her that she had better not do that. When she asked why, he explained that the Booger Monster would eat her finger. A few hours later I hear a sneeze from Juliet followed by, "Bless you Booger Monster!"

-A few weeks ago, Juliet came up to me with a look of utter concern. She told me that she needed my phone to call Santa Clause and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. When I told her that she could just use her phone she was nearly overcome with emotion and said, "No Mommy, my phone doesn't work cause it's just a pretend phone. I just need to use your phone to call Santa cause it's a real phone."

-Today was Juliet's last day in Nursery. Walking out of Church Clayton asked Juliet, "How was you last day of Nursery?" Juliet, while pushing the door open and walking outside, nonchalantly replies, "It was cool."

Oxymoron

So the other day Clayton and I were walking through Costco and spotted something very unique: a BYU tattoo. I never thought I would ever see such a thing in my life! Since it was the only one we had ever seen and since we would never personally do it ourselves we had to get a picture. So we did.

Apparently the guy has had his tattoo for six months now, and he is a big BYU fan and has season tickets and everything!

"I Broke My Clavicle"

This is the response you get when you ask Juliet what she broke. Yes, it is true, and I have to say that I felt like a horrible parent when Clayton brought home the X-ray from the doctors about a month ago.
A few months back we decided to move Juliet out of her crib and into the daybed. For the first few days I could not sleep and kept checking on her throughout the night (I was up feeding the baby anyway) for fear of her rolling out of bed. We even put blankets and pillows on the floor next to the bed in case if she fell out onto what Clayton likes to call our "fuzzy concrete carpet" (gotta love the industrial carpet in student housing...). Well, as time went on nothing happened so I stopped worrying.
Then one night it happened. We were sitting in the living room watching Harry Potter 7.2 when we heard a thud followed by crying. We rushed in there and poor little Juliet was on the floor half asleep and crying. And we discovered she had landed in the 8 inches of bare floor surrounded by all the blankets and padding that she must have uncovered while playing in her room.
We picked her up and comforted her. She kept saying that her head hurt so we got a pack of frozen peas and put it on there and comforted her back to sleep. As soon as she would calm down and start falling back to sleep she would roll onto her left side and start bawling all over again. Eventually she fell back to sleep, but the whole night I was worried about her poor little head.
It never hit me that it could have been more than a head bump until the next morning when I was helping her get dressed and she cried when she tried to lift her arm and put on her shirt. Even then I thought it was probably just a crack on the bone and nothing more. Especially since she was a good sport and still playing. Then I started to notice that she favored her left arm and would not raise or move it much...and then I noticed her left shoulder was a little droopy...
So we finally took her in and this is what they found:

It broke my heart when I saw it, but then I would look at happy, smiling Juliet and see that she was just fine.
The doctor sent her home with a figure 8 brace, and by that evening she was running around the house like nothing happened. And the next day she was trying to do somersaults in the living room! It didn't phase her one bit after she got the brace. If anything, we are the ones that have to protect her little clavicle so it can heal.

Cowboys and Cowgirls

The other day Juliet was dressed in her boots and cowboy hat and Clayton started to tell her that she was a cute little Cowgirl. Juliet responded with, "No Daddy, Et a princess." (Et is how she refers to herself in third person.) So Clayton went on to explain to her that she was a Cowgirl Princess because she was a princess who could ride horses. Here is the rest of the conversation:
Juliet (in a tone of realization): "Ohhh. Et a CowBOY Princess."  
Clayton (chuckling): "No, you are a CowGIRL 'cause you are a girl. Daddy is a boy, so he is a CowBOY."
Juliet (slowly and thoughtfully): "No. Et a CowBOY! Daddy a CowGIRL!"
LOL. I could not help but laugh. It was too perfect, and I did not even have to prompt her!

Laughing Party

In Navajo culture it is a big deal when a baby laughs for the first time. According to tradition, the person who is able to get the first laugh throws a "laughing party" in celebration... so Mommy Shaela is throwing a party!!!

I started working on the laughs when I was sitting in the hospital bed a week ago. Clayton had brought Juliet up to visit me (I hadn't seen her since we left for the ER the day before), and we were all just hanging out in the hospital room enjoying our Sunday. I had Celeste on my lap and started tickling her and working on the laugh. Juliet thought it was funny and started laughing, and before I knew it Celeste was mimicking Juliet and giving little "Ha!"s here and there.

Well, today after Church I decided to try again. I worked hard at tickling her armpits and shaking my head and smiling at her and was rewarded with some good "ha!ha!"s and huge grins. But then Clayton pulled out the camera to try to capture the moment... major distraction... So of course we have about five minutes of me making a fool of myself on film, but then I discovered an even better tickle spot: her feet! Who would have thought that would work so good?! I got even better laughs with her feet than her underarms! Success!

Now I just have to figure out how to do the whole video post so we can share it with everyone...

And we have to figure out a good day to have a laughing party! :)

These are some older pictures (from a month ago), that I have been meaning to post of Celeste:

Celeste 2 months old

She is always full of smiles and very talkative.

These are her "kicks" :) Gotta love the baby moccasins!

Good Health

This past week we have had a great reminder that good health should not be taken for granted, because it can literally be gone within a day.

On Wednesday morning Clayton woke up with a stiff neck, but we figured he had just slept wrong and didn't think much of it. Well, on Wednesday night I came home to a husband lying on the couch fighting to get warm enough to stop his teeth from chattering. By that time we figured out the culprit was an infection on his outer ear, because his left ear was very painful and starting to swell. By 4 AM his fever hit 103 and he had been piling on and pulling off blankets all night. Did I mention I got to stay up with him? I never thought nighttime feedings for the baby could ever seem so far apart. They usually come too fast!

By the next morning his ear was twice its normal size, so we got some antibiotics. Well, Friday came and the fevers and chills were still there and the ear began to blister, so we switched to a more powerful antibiotic that evening. Bad move. Apparently, Clayton's body does not tolerate augmentin anymore, because at 4AM (after only one pill) he was vomiting and was the worse he had been yet. The infection was also beginning to spread to his neck, so on Saturday we headed to the hospital. Needless to say, they drew blood and put him on IV antibiotics for a few days. They worked like magic! The redness that was spreading down his neck disappeared and the swelling is slowly starting to go down. Finally! Progress!

As of this morning I had a more coherent husband...or maybe it just seemed that way since I got more sleep, too... :) He is still not 100%, but at least he can carry on a conversation now...and remember it. It is nice, because I no longer feel like a single mother with three kids.

Don't worry, I took pictures and am sharing them with you... it's the med student in me. Sorry if you think they are gross. Viewer discretion advised :)

Healthy Right Ear

Swollen Ear on Day #1 (Thursday)

Day #2

Day #3 - After visit to hospital

Day #5 - Today

Looking more like an ear than a balloon

Christmas Day

This year was the first time that our little family did not have to travel for Christmas. Instead we had the pleasure of hosting BOTH families in our apartment. It was a very exciting experience and it worked out well in many ways. In the first place, we were able to bless Celeste with both sets of grandparents here. Secondly, it helped ease the pain of not having Shelby or Kendahl (our younger sisters) around since they are both serving missions. As Clayton would say, "It was a happenin' time," especially since we had to take shifts at our little square table eating Christmas dinner :)

Christmas Eve

Stockings...we were short a few, so we improvised with bowls and pitchers :)

Christmas Day

Juliet was very excited to wake up Christmas morning and find out that Santa brought her a kitchen! Here she is making a cup of hot chocolate.

...After Church

Our sweet little family.

The Tans came and joined the fun, too.

Our big, happy family...minus a few sisters.

Opening Christmas gifts.

Celeste