The Cathcarts

My goodness, where has this last month gone.  I am slowly adjusting to being a mommy to two little boys and truly loving it.  Yes, I’m exhausted and yes, I’m crabby sometimes, but honestly, not as much as I thought I was going to be   Holden is one month old today.  We are starting to see him changing now.  He’s filling out more and he’s now comfortably fitting into the newborn clothes.  Jaxson continues to LOVE him.  He was so cute today as he rubbed Holden’s head, gave him a kiss and said "Hi sweetheart."  He truly loves him and is such a good helper.  He even wanted to feed Holden yesterday, so I took him up on his offer and got a bottle ready and he sat in the recliner and fed him his whole bottle.  Nights are still long, but we make up for it in the afternoon with a nice long nap in the chair.  Brad was kind enough to sleep with Holden downstairs last night so that I could sleep in our bed by myself and uninterrupted.  I went to bed and didn’t wake up until 6:30, but didn’t actually get out of bed until 7:45, it was fabulous.  Thanks Honey!  To get you caught up on what we’ve been doing in these past couple of weeks since I’ve blogged, I’ll give you a little run down.  Last weekend, we went up to Hubbard to have our Christmas with my dad.  We had a great time hanging out and got in a fun game of Scattergories.  I haven’t played that game in years and forgot how fun it was.  After Christmas with Dad, we went on over to Grandma’s in Eldora so that her and Wendy could meet Holden.  Kenny, Marilyn, Randy, and Brenda also stopped on over to meet him.  Jaxson loved showing off his new little brother.  On our way home to Mom’s was quite interesting with the fog.  When we went to Grandma’s the weather was fine, but a couple hours later we could only see a few feet in front of us.  It was so bad that we missed the gravel road to turn to go to Mom’s despite Brad driving slow and both of us looking for it.  It was too bad that it got so foggy because Mom and Mike were having a karaoke party.  Only five other people could make it because of the weather, but we still had a lot of fun.  I even got up and sang a tune with my uncle Randy.  We sang the Beach Boys tune "California Girls" and boy did we bring the house down.  It brought me back to my middle school lip synching days   Jaxson had a blast listening to the music and to the singing.  His favorite was when Mom sang "Love Shack."  He danced the night away and is still talking about "Love Shay."  On Thursday, the little boys and I went up to Gowrie to visit G & G Cathcart.  Brady was also staying there for a couple days while Andy and Mindy were in Cancun.  The boys had a good time playing together. 

Kade, Jaxson, and Casper messing around at Grandpa Winter’s house.

Grandpa and Grandma with the grandkids.

Meeting Great Grandma for the first time.

Waiting for Papa Mike to make him a drink.

Karaoke time

It’s a bath monster!

Fireman Jaxson

I love pictures of sleeping babies.

Grandma and her grandbabies.

My good helper

I’m one month old today.

Since Jaxson is officially potty-trained, he now gets to go to Sunday School.  He has been looking forward to this for a while now because he knows that Miah goes and has a lot of fun and it’s something only for "big kids."  So today was his first day at Sunday School and he loved it.  Brad and I also loved it because he goes during church, which meant that we got to sit, listen, and participate in the service rather than coloring, getting snacks, picking up snacks, or constantly trying to keep Jaxson quiet but entertained.  This will be so nice because when I start back to work, it will be a lot easier and enjoyable for Brad to be able to take both kids and enjoy church.  Holden also enjoyed the service and was a good boy, but we know those days will be over before we know it

Jaxson’s picture of Jesus that he colored at his first day of Sunday School.

Holden’s first outing to church.

Well, so far things are going well.  Better than I expected with a newborn and a three-year-old; however, I have not had a full day home with both of them by myself, so maybe I shouldn’t say anything quite yet   We were worried about Jaxson regressing when Holden came along, but if anything, he has stepped up to the plate as a big boy and a big brother.  I hear a lot about kids who were potty trained going backwards when a new sibling comes along, so I was worried about this happening to Jaxson.  We were having a little trouble with him going #2 on the potty, instead he was just holding it in.  Now, he is all about it.  He tries to go #2 everytime he’s in the bathroom and is a little disappointed when he can’t go, so we are quite exstatic about that.  He’s also being a big boy by helping me pick up the house.  By picking up, I mean he makes sure that there is NOTHING on the floor, then he gets the vacuum out and vacuums for me.  He has also wiped the floor clean under the table and he takes the recycle out for me.  Now I don’t know how long this will last, but I’m going to savor it.  I think it has also helped that we have gone back to making him take an afternoon nap.  We had kind of gotten away from it, but then he was a bear by 5:00, but then he also went to bed at 6:30, which was nice.  That afternoon nap just makes the evenings more fun and enjoyable.  As for Holden, he pretty much does what a newborn is supposed to do. . . eat, sleep, and poop.  He’s pretty good at all three of them.  We are loving every minute while he is this little and wants to be held and cuddled.  He is quite the cuddlebug.  This week has been busy and fun with visitors and trying to find things for Jaxson to do.  It’s nice that the weather is warming up a little, at least above freezing, so now we can at least leave the house.  Grandma Kris came down yesterday and spent the night with us, which was a lot of fun.  We want to thank everyone for all of your thoughts, prayers, phone calls, visits, and gifts.  We appreciate it all very much   Here are some pictures from last weekend.  On Sunday, we celebrated Andy’s 30th birthday and Steve’s birthday, which was Monday.  We had lunch at Andy’s favorite restaurant, Famous Daves, and then we enjoyed some cake and ice cream.  Happy Birthday guys! 

All of the Cathcart boys

Papa and Nana with their favorite boys

Jaxson is already sharing his toys with Holden

This pretty much describes our weekend so far.  Jaxson is really into puzzles and boy is he good at them.  He picked out a 100 piece Toy Story puzzle a couple days ago and can pretty much do it by himself.  All we do is hand him the pieces.  He reminds me of myself when I was younger because I could sit at a table for hours and work on a puzzle.  We’ve also had several visitors today to meet Holden.  The Case Haubs came over this morning and brought us an awesome lunch!  Thanks guys, it was very good!  Then Heath, Tanya, and the boys came over this afternoon to hang out and then Rob, Jeriann, and Luke came over and brought us pizza for supper.  Gotta love our great friends, family, and not having to cook  

Mr. Serious working on his puzzle.

It was a day for silly faces.

The boys sporting their new "I’m the big brother" and "little brother" shirts.

I’m happy to report that Holden’s first week at home has been uneventful.  He is such a good baby, only crying when he’s hungry or getting his diaper changed.  Our nights are okay.  He’s had a couple nights when he only woke up around 3:30 am and he’s had nights where he wakes up every two hours.  Jaxson is still in love with him.  He’s so gentle with him and doesn’t like to hear him cry.  He’s very protective of him, let’s just hope that it stays that way.  My mom has been here all week and we are loving that.  Although I feel great this time, it’s still nice to have an extra set of hands to help with anything and everything and also to help with Jaxson.  Holden had his one week checkup yesterday and got an A+.  He has lost 4 oz since birth, but our pediatrician said that he is just fine with that.  Brad and I got some alone time with Jaxson today when we had to take him to the doctor for a ruptured eardrum   He informed me yesterday, after we got home from the pediatrician’s, that his ear hurt.  He then woke up two times in the night with pain and then I noticed this morning that he had junk coming out of his ear.  Poor kid!  So we spoiled him a little today by taking him out for pizza and to get a new puzzle (like he needs another one, but that’s what he picked out).  Here’s some pictures from Holden’s first week. . .

Jaxson’s friend, Sophia, came to see baby Holden and to play.  They were having fun playing with the Elmo chair, which made Sophia’s hair full of static.  It was pretty funny.

Snuggle time with Grandma

After his first bath at home.  He didn’t like it as much as Jaxson liked his baths.

Jaxson and Grandma playing boxing on the WII.

Holden Winter Cathcart was welcomed into our family on Dec. 30th at 9:29 pm.  He weighed 6 lbs and 15 oz and was 19 inches long.  He looks just like Jaxson did when he was born except Jaxson was chubbier, weighing 8 lbs, and Holden has more hair.  We got home on New Year’s Day around noon.  With the new visitor guidelines at the hospital, Jaxson wasn’t able to meet his new brother until we got home.  He literally pushed past me so that he could get to Holden.  He stared at him for a little while and just smiled and said "He’s tiny."  As for the labor and delivery, it went very well.  I have to say that it was actually relaxing and fun.  Crazy I know, but with an epidural that works real well, that’s how it goes.  On Wed. morning I showed up for my weekly appointment and I was dilated to 3.  My midwife said that there was no way that I would make it through the weekend and maybe not even past Wed. night.  She told me to come back before the office closed and she would check me again to see if there was any progress.  In the meantime, I called Dad and Brenda and had them start on their way so that they could come stay with Jaxson because I just knew that we were going to be going back to the hospital that night.  My contractions were anywhere from 6-12 minutes apart and I was feeling uncomfortable.  Brad and I headed back to the office at 4:30 and at that time I was dilated to 4.  They hooked me up to the monitors to see if I was having contractions and it turned out that they were actually 2 minutes apart, but I just couldn’t feel them.  Those are the best kinds of contractions   So needless to say I was sent over to the hospital at that time.  Once we got settled in, I was able to get my epidural right away because the anesthesiologist had a surgery to get to and my midwife didn’t want me to miss my window of opportunity since I tend to progress quite quickly.  Eventhough I wasn’t having any pain without the epidural, I LOVED the epidural!!  I was scared about getting one because I’ve seen them done before and I’ve heard horror stories about them not working.  I also know how very precious our spinal column is and what can happen to it, but everything turned out great.  So from 7:00-9:15 pm I layed in bed and chatted with the staff and watched football.  It was pretty fun because the midwife that delivered Holden was Sea.  She is Amanda Pelzer’s sister and I have known her since 1995 before she went to midwifery school.  So we had fun telling stories about the past and getting caught up.  I started pushing around 9:25 and Holden was born shortly thereafter at 9:29.  Once again I had a little problem with bleeding, but nothing like what happened with Jaxson.  Sea had the OB/GYN outside my room just in case he was needed and he did come in a couple times to help out.  Between the two of them, they were able to get the bleeding stopped within the hour.  It’s amazing how good I feel this time.  I was able to get up the next morning and take a shower and feel somewhat normal again.  Eventhough I had a good time in the hospital being waited on hand and foot, I’m glad to be home with all of my boys.  I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, visits, and phone calls and we look forward to sharing the newest Cathcart with you

Yay for epidurals!

Here’s Holden!

Proud Daddy

I love my baths already

A Hawk fan already

Meeting Aunt Mindy for the first time.

Uncle Andy

Papa Steve

Grandpa and Grandma Winter

3 generations

Aunt Tanya

Grandpa and Grandma Hendricks

My midwife, Sea.

Getting ready to go home.

Meeting Grandma Kris for the first time.

Uncle Heath

Relaxing in Brandon’s cowboy hat

Our silly sweater monster

Uncle Brandon

 

 

 

 

Once again I feel that we had a wonderful Christmas blessed with time with family.  Our Christmas fun started on Wednesday when Mom and Mike came to stay with us a little earlier than planned because of the bad storm that was predicted.  Although it never really got that bad here in DM, it was pretty bad in Hubbard with ice.  Wednesday night we went out for supper at Legends and then went to the pet store to pick out some fish for Jaxson to celebrate being 100% potty trained.  He picked out three glofish that are pretty cool and glow in the dark.  He’s pretty proud of them and we are very proud of him.  Yay to no more diapers. . . for a week or two anyways   On Christmas Eve we went to church at our church and was once again blown away by the message and the music.  We even got to hear Simon Estes sing "O Holy Night," which was fabulous.  You can listen to the Christmas Eve service on their website at www.hopewdm.org.  You know it’s something great when there are a few thousand at each service and it takes you 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot.  We feel so blessed to have such a great church and pastors that are focused on the true love of our Lord and are able to preach it in such a way that we get it and it inspires us to live it.  After church we came home and enjoyed some family time and had fun decorating Christmas cookies.  Mom and I made chili and cheeseburger soup for supper, which was yummy and perfect for the crappy weather that we were having.  After supper we had fun watching everyone open presents.  All of us must have been very good this year, as we all got some great and thoughtful gifts.  On Christmas morning it was the adults that were up first and anxiously waiting for Jaxson to wake up so that he could see what Santa had brought him.  He thought it was pretty cool that Santa had eaten most of the cookies and the milk that he put out for him.  He was also very excited that Santa had brought him the rocket ship that he’s been asking for for two months now.  I’m also very excited to use the gift certificate for a pedicure that my wonderful husband got for me.  Now if I can just get that in before Holden comes, I will have the best looking toes on the maternity ward   Mom and Mike had to leave Christmas morning to try and get home so that they could spend Christmas with my Grandma in Eldora.  Luckily they made it there safely after driving through every type of winter weather on the way.  We were sad that we didn’t get to see Papa and Nana Cathcart on Christmas Day as they had been planning on coming down; however, with the weather the way that it was, it was best that they stay close to home.  We also look forward to having Christmas with my dad and Brenda in January after Holden arrives.  I like that we are able to keep Christmas going for a little while longer.  On Christmas night, we went over to our neighbor’s, Matt and Ann’s, for supper.  Ann made a wonderful meal with salmon and a lamb roast.  I had to go into work Christmas night and was having a great night until I got sick to my stomach around 3:00 this morning.  Don’t worry Ann, it wasn’t your cooking that made me sick   I wasn’t quite sure if I should head over to the maternity ward or stick it out.  I was having a few more contractions than usual, but nothing impressive, so I decided to wait it out and come home at 7 am.  I feel better after sleeping, but still not "normal."  So we’ll see what the next couple of days bring.  With it being Christmas time, our patient census always drops pretty low, so I got to stay home tonight since it was my turn and also with what happened last night I didn’t feel too confident about going into work.  Brad and Jaxson enjoyed the day sledding and plan on doing more of that tomorrow.  We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and have a very blessed 2010.

Jaxson is making sure that Nana isn’t going to be sick for Christmas.

Simon Estes singing "O Holy Night."

Kade and Jaxson enjoying "Silent Night."

Wrestling time

Decorating cookies

and of course eating the frosting

Mike and Mom

Devon, Heath, Tanya and Kade

Oh how I hate pictures when I’m pregnant

Time for presents

Tanya and I got Brandon this cool wall hanging for his house.

Mom and Mike’s big gift

A little snack for Santa.

Somebody likes his new rocket.

Well, you can always tell when Christmas is nearing with all of the family get togethers and Christmas parties.  Friday night I had my monthly meal swap with the girls in my neighborhood.  We decided to go out to eat for a nice meal together to celebrate the holidays and just to get out for a nice meal with no kids.  We went to Fire Creek and had a fabulous meal and then did our meal exchange in the freezing parking lot with freezer meals.  Needless to say. . . it was COLD!!!  On Saturday morning we went up to Eldora for the annual Buckley family Christmas.  As always is was great seeing all of my mom’s family and we had fabulous food.  My only complaint was that we had to leave early so that I could get home to nap before going into work, so we couldn’t stick around to play games and chat some more.  I think that I will let the pictures do more of the talking. . .

Our meal swap group - Brandy, Shondra, me, Ann, Jeriann, Erin, and Crystal.  Missing is Sonya.

Tanya and me with our cousin, Brittany.

Aunt Tracy, Aunt Wendy, and Mom

My cousin Heather with her family, Jeremy, Braden and Lauren.

My grandma pulled a fast one on my mom and Uncle Warren.  I guess they have always joked about being adopted because Grandma never had their birth certificates.  So for Christmas, Grandma presented them with their birth certificates to prove that they weren’t adopted.  It was hilarious

The happy family

We had to stop by Brandon’s farm to see his new critters.  His new puppy, Tuff, and donkey, Chad.  We also had to pick up accessories for a costume for Brad to wear to a National Lampoon’s Christmas Party on Sat. night. 

Can you say, "The shitter’s full!"  Ben and Brad dressed as Cousin Eddie.

Jaxson wanting a picture with Cousin Eddie.

Since Jaxson hit the great age of three, I feel like parenting isn’t quite as fun as it used to be. . . or maybe I should just say more frustrating.  We never had the terrible twos in our house, but have been blessed with the terrible threes.  Today, however, was a great day for Jaxson and me, so I thought that I would share.  He has been the sweetest and most well-behaved boy today for me, which I am so greatful for.  We went to the mall with our friends Crystal, Morgen, and Peyton and he was perfect, which is NOT what I can say for how he acted a couple of weeks ago when we went.  Today though, he made me laugh and smile a couple times that I think are worth sharing so that I have them "on file" somewhere for the future.  Before we left for the mall, I wrote Brad a note that said "Don’t use the oven.  It’s cleaning."  Jaxson insisted that he take the note with him since he had a handy little pocket in his sweatshirt that he thought it would fit nicely in.  So I let him take that note and I wrote Brad another.  While at the mall the kids wanted to see Santa again.  Jaxson has seen other kids give Santa notes and he even has a basket where all of his letters go.  So Jaxson walks right up to Santa and gives him my note to Brad.  He reads and and says "Hmmmm. . . OK."  I explained the note to Santa and he thought it was cute.  On our way out I reminded Santa not to use the oven and he said that next time he would like some cookies from the clean oven   The next story made me so happy and proud that it just made my day.  All of us were walking out of Barnes and Nobles when Jaxson said, "Hey Morgen, you know what?  It’s Jesus’ birthday!"  I’ve been trying to teach him what the real meaning of Christmas is and I’m glad to see that he has been listening and is starting to understand.  It’s little moments like these that erase all of the tantrums and pure naughtiness.