Steph's Stuff: A Real Update... Finally!

Yes, We are still alive and healthy. It has been almost two months since I have given an actual update. I figured I would just give you a quick rundown of the semi- major things that have been happening in our lives.

On November 13th I turned 29. This age actually really depressed me. I know, I know, there are others older than me and I still have plenty of youth left, but just being so close to not being in my twenties for much longer really got to me.

In that same week I finally got J completely weaned. I never really intended to nurse her for 13 months, that was pretty much her idea. She never took a bottle- wouldn't touch them. Even when she started drinking from a sippy cup, she was extremely picky about the type of cup and would only drink water - no milk, no formula, not even juice for awhile. She was also extremely resistant to being weaned and it was a real struggle with her.

I'll just stop right here and say that I think no matter what you do concerning nursing, someone is going to make you feel guilty. When I was trying to get her weaned I had people tell me that it was not right to force her to give up something so healthy. Then when I struggled with her to stop, other people told me that I was the mom and I was the one in control so I should just force her and show her who was boss. Honestly, People, there are enough things about which a mom feels guilty! Don't add to it by giving your opinions when you weren't asked! --There, I feel better:)

Anyway, after about a month of taking away one feeding at a time, we finally were done! phew!

On the 14th and 15th of November, We left the kids with Dan's parents and took our church youth group to a youth rally in Connecticutt. This was my first overnight youth trip I had been on since before Caleb was born. We had a good time. We have a really good group of kids and I think everyone had a fun trip. I didn't even fall apart because I was missing my kids or feeling guilty about leaving them!

On the Tuesday before Christmas, my computer died. We came home and it just wouldn't load anymore. Of course I didn't have a backup- that would be too responsible , don't you know.

So now, all of my pictures from the past four years of Caleb's life up until Christmas 2008 are in a computer that won't load windows. I have ben very sad about this, as you can imagine. Dan has a friend who thinks he might be able to get the pictures off of the computer and he is going to look at it this week. I am praying that works!

On December 21st my baby boy turned four years old. His birthday lasted for about two weeks with a party at his grandparents house, our house and then gifts from different people here and there. M,C's cousin ,celebrated her 5th birthday on the 20th; so they had a birthday party together at my in-laws house. I made C a figure eight race track cake and was much more pleased with the outcome of this cake compared to J's mini cakes. http://stephaniechristner.blogspot.com/2008/10/happy-birthday-jocelyn.html

It is by no means professional, but C thought it was "Way, Way cool!!!" Here are some pictures from the various birthday celebrations.

C received this little table and chairs on his birthday and J made herself right at home eating here. I put her high chair in storage since she is so determined to be grown up.

On December 22nd Dan and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. We will be going to Boston next weekend to celebrate our anniversary. (For some reason we were kind of busy on the real anni. :) We are going to a Boston Bruins game and I am really excited!

For Christmas Dan got me - you guessed it - a new computer! Plus he got me a new desk to go with it. I was completely spoiled this year and got so many nice things. The kids didn't do too badly either.
Here is a slide show of our Christmas: