Good-bye 2009!

This is probably the last time I can post in 2009 because we are supposed to be going to Salina to be with family tomorrow...if the weather cooperates and if my father-in-law is feeling better. Sorry but I don't want my baby boy around Granddad if he's too sick. :(

I think I have said this before but maybe it wasn't here. I am a little sad to see 2009 leave! It has been one of the best years of our lives and it makes me sad to see it go. We couldn't have asked for a better year. It was the year we became parents for the first time. You are only a first time parent once, that is something you can never get back. I think we've done a pretty good job as first time parents. Cael is still alive :), he's healthy, he's happy and he is loved more than any baby on Earth. Well at least by us he is! He has taught us so much about who we are and what we are capable of doing. We can get by on little to no sleep - he is getting better at sleeping though I am still waiting for a full night of sleep! We can survive without a bunch of money. (When have we ever had much?) We can put a car seat in any car and he will be safe! We can pack for a long vacation with a baby and everyone has everything they need. We seem to make him happy. The best part of my day is when I go to pick him up from Tracy's and it's obvious that he knows who I am. He gets excited and bounces up and down cooing at me. I'm sure Courtney loves that part too when he gets home from practice and Cael gives him the same reaction. Just now I was rocking Cael and Courtney came in the room. Cael sat up in my lap and put his arms out to Courtney. He hadn't seen him all evening and obviously missed him. That is enough to make your entire day!

That's the kind of 2009 we've had. I hope yours has been just as wonderful. If it hasn't been then hopefully 2010 will be. Keep checking this little blog we have going on to see how our boy is growing. I can't believe that in a few days we'll have to say that he was born "last year"!!

For Hattie

Well my dear Hattie, you picked out the right Christmas outfit for me. I don't mind saying that I look very handsome in it. I wore it today and thought of you. I can't wait to finally meet you! :)

Tradition

At the baby shower at my school last year I was asked if my family had any traditions when it came to babies. The only tradition I could think of is their 6 month picture. When a baby in our family turns 6 months old we take a picture of them with a purple scarf around their waste. Not just any purple scarf, it's my Grandma's purple scarf from her sorority at ESU. We strip them down to nothing and put the scarf around their waste and lay them on a green couch that is very old at my Grandma's house. Well, we didn't make it to Minneapolis over the weekend to take Cael's picture but Grandma brought the scarf to LV. We took some pictures of Cael on my Mom & Dad's couch. We are supposed to go to town this weekend so hopefully we can get pictures on THE couch. My boy is secure in his manhood - he'll even wear a purple scarf!

A Very Merry Marsh Christmas

Where to begin? Joy finally arrived last Tuesday morning after sitting at the airport in DC for HOURS. Courtney picked her up at 12:30. Cael and I woke her up at about 7:30 so he could get to the Dr. for his flu shots. Yep, plural, he got his seasonal and H1N1 shots but isn't done with them yet. He has to go back in 30 days for the second round of them. I guess it's too much for a baby to give them the full dose at one time. He did great of course! After his shots we drove to KC to see Dad at work and then went out to lunch. After lunch it was Christmas shopping!

Wednesday Cael and I met Joy & Mom at a nail salon to have pedicures done. It was perfect! So relaxing. A little smelly but definitely relaxing. After that we had dinner and then Mr. Boy and I came home. I probably should have stayed there because of the weather but we all sleep better in our own beds. You know how that is!

Thursday of course was Christmas Eve and Mom, Dad & Joyous came to town. Unfortunately Calvin & Donna couldn't make it because of the weather. We missed them but still had a great time. We had chili made by my hubby - fabulous as always! Then it was time to open up jammies. The tradition in the Johnson family is to open up jammies on Christmas Eve and that's it. This year Joy & I decided that Mom & Dad needed jammies too because they never get any. I even bought Granddad Calvin and Grandma Donna some....guess you'll get them this weekend! :) Cael was so cute opening the jams. He grabbed the paper and Papa pulled the package so it would open. We laid the different jammies out in front of him and he "picked" what he wanted to wear. He didn't even end up wearing the pair he "picked" because Mom & Dad had given him a pair of Christmas tree jammies before Christmas. After he went to bed I made bubble bread a.k.a. good morning rolls just like Mom used to do when we were little. I had never made it before and was scared to death I would ruin it. You start it the night before and let it sit on the countertop until the morning.
















Friday morning I got up and was freaked out by how the bubble bread looked!! Luckily Winston had busted into Mom & Dad's room and woken Mom up so she could look at it. I had not covered it tight enough but it still worked. A little bit later we got up Mr. Cael and took him in to see his gift from Santa. So freaking cute! Santa got him a Jeep Renegade walker. He has one at Tracy's house and he loves it. Santa brought it and we put him in it right away. He loves the rear view mirrors and the sounds the steering wheel makes but he doesn't quite "walk" in it much. Next thing was opening presents. O.M.G. Grammy and Papa spoiled all of us!!! It was the year for electronics at our house! Courty, Joy, Cael & I gave them a WiFi printer, they gave Joy a Nintendo DS, they gave Cael a portable DVD player for the car (God send!!) and they gave us a Wii and a Wii Fit Plus!!!! I KNOW! We were kind of waiting for the Wii but SHOCKED by the Wii Fit and the DVD player. Cael loved opening the presents. Well, he loved the paper and boxes. Such a good, adorable boy! Of course we had to play the Wii for a LONG time that day. They decided to spend the night that night too because the weather got pretty nasty. Not many pictures were taken that day. Mommy was too busy videotaping Cael opening presents and I didn't tell Daddy to take pictures. Oh well. At least we got it all on tape!
























Saturday we got up and tried to scoop out the driveway. Ha! We started and after about an hour we decided to hire someone to do it. I measured 2 drifts in our driveway. One drift was 23" and one was 13". Then I measured the actual snow and it was at least 7". The person we hired came and scooped it out and then Grandma Butler and Aunt Kim came. We had dinner and opened more gifts. Cael got all gussied up in his "tuxedo" from Cool Aunt Joy. He looked SO cute!! Joy ended up staying with us that night while Mom, Dad, Aunt Kim & Grandma went to their apartment. When we got up the next morning it had snowed more and you couldn't even tell anyone had ever been in our driveway!














On Sunday we went to Mom & Dad's for dinner and hung out with everyone. By the time we got there Aunt Sandi was also there. It was an apartment full!! Joy came back with us that night too. I think she might be tired of our house!! On a side note: the Cowboys won on Sunday putting them into the playoffs! If they beat the Eagles this weekend they win their division....come on Cowboys!!












Monday - yesterday - we went to the Oak Park Mall and did a little shopping and then went to dinner with Mom & Dad. Joy went home with them so she could leave bright and early this morning. She had to be at the airport no later than 5:00 this am...poor Cool Aunt Joy!

Today was a busy day too. Marilyn, Angelia, Cole & Jethro came up this morning and we had a great time. It's fun to get the boys together. Jethro and Cael are 2 days apart in age. We went to lunch and it's a good thing Cael doesn't have teeth. He was sitting up in his carseat and popped his mouth on the table. If there were teeth in that mouth he would have either busted one out or busted his lip. He cried for a little bit but then was perfectly fine! What a trooper! Now Daddy is at wrestling practice and we are watching "Julie & Julia" while blogging.



We are going to Minneapolis/Salina on Thursday and spending some Christmas time there. I hope we come back on Saturday night so we can sleep in on Sunday but we'll see what happens. Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We could not have asked for a better one. It was so wonderful finally having our son here. We don't even remember what Christmases were like before Cael!

Getting ready for Christmas....and some wrestling

The last several weeks have been very exciting in the Marsh household. We started wrestling, Cael saw his first snow and we got our first real Christmas tree! Since my last post after our first wrestling tournament we've had 2 more tournaments. Cael has gotten better & better at each tournament. Yesterday we had our home tournament at PRHS and Cael didn't fuss even once! The screaming doesn't bother him, getting passed around to soooo many different people doesn't bother him and having to be held when he takes a nap doesn't bother him. I'm beginning to think we're being spoiled by our first baby because he is so good. I can see my husband not wanting another after how perfect Cael is! Yes, I said perfect. Courtney's team had some placers last week at the Sabetha tournament. Two of his boys got first and one got 3rd and all three of them we wearing Cael Sanderson wrestling shoes!! I know that doesn't sound too exciting but the name Cael is on the shoes. See - he's good luck. He'd better keep endorsing those shoes so Cael can have his name on his shoes when it's time for him to wrestle! The best part about the Sabetha tournament was that I got to see some of the students from my very first class! They were 2nd graders and now they are freshmen. It was so cool to see them. I couldn't put the names to each person but once they told me their names I could see it. I wanted to get a picture with all of them but ran out of time. We also got to see Jethro again! He's gotten so big! It was a great day!! Cael has one person that he absolutely loves at tournaments. I take that back, he has several that he loves, but he's got one that he absolutely adores! His name is Art, a.k.a Mr. President, and he is the father of one of the wrestlers. All he has to do is look at Cael and he laughs and bounces up and down. It's so cute! At yesterdays tournament Cael sat in his first circle. When there is a long break the wrestlers lay on the mat in a big circle and tell stories, dirty jokes, etc. Courtney decided that Cael was ready for his first circle yesterday so he took him to it. One of the wrestler's moms said it right - the boys look like bad asses and then the baby comes around and they are little kids! They really adore him which makes me so happy! I don't know what he's going to do when wrestling's over - he'll probably go through wrestling withdraw! He'll be the only 1 year old I know that is inviting high school kids to his first birthday party!













A few weeks ago we had our first 2 snow days for the year. It was pretty exciting because we got about 5 inches of snow. We took Cael outside to see it. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow but he did really well. He was very interested in what his dogs were doing because they were running and playing in the snow together. He loves his dogs! The night before it snowed Courtney went and got our Christmas tree. He always said when we had children we would make a tradition of picking out a real tree and cutting it down together. He just went and got it this year because Cael was asleep and we decided he wouldn't really care much this year anyway. So next year we will go pick one out from a tree farm and cut it down. It was nice because we got to put it up and decorate it on our snow day.



















This past Friday night I took Mr. Cael to see Santa! I didn't care if he didn't smile, I just didn't want him to scream. I got my wish. He sat in Santa's lap and was very sober. I had to make a fool of myself and dance around singing Neil Diamond to get him to smile. Eventually it worked and we got a great picture. I can't wait for Christmas next week! Joy flies in on Monday night....hopefully....if she can get out of all that snow! I pick her up late Monday night and we've got plans for basically every day she's here. It is going to be the best Christmas! My break started Friday so I am really excited! Tomorrow won't be much fun because I'll be cleaning all day but it will be worth it. Hope everyone has a great Christmas week and I'll be posting lots of pictures!