Pink or Purple

One of Dan's cute law school friends is throwing me a baby shower and she asked me to go online and register at a couple of stores. One of the main things I have been excited about (besides all the dang cute clothes) is the bedding. I remember when I was pregnant with Jaxon I was so irritated because I felt like there were SOOO many cute options for girls, and not very many CUTE options for boys. Well now I am getting frustrated that there are so many options because I can't decide on what I like. HAHA - what a problem right? Well the main thing is....... do I want pink or purple? Those who know me well know I am not really a pink kinda girl. There is nothing wrong with pink and little girls decked out in pink are darling, I just like purple more. So when picking out bedding I am drawn a little more to the purple but there are so many cute pink options too! Below are two bedding options I think are cute - these are not the only two I like - I like about 20 lol - but I wasn't about to post them all! I like the butterflies though! :)

All About Jax

Jaxon is just getting so big and doing so many things that I don't want to forget (well some things I want to forget haha) So I thought I would jot down things he is doing right now so I have record of it. He is talking a lot more, I can understand what he is saying but I know a lot of people can't haha. But here are some phrases he is saying a lot right now...

-I don't want it - this is said when he doesn't want something, or when he doesn't want to do something

-Wait a minuet - he says this phrase way too much haha and he squints his eyes and holds his hands out when he says it. It is actually VERY cute :)

-I promise - he promises everything

-I sorry mama - ahhh this phrase. He says it when he is doing something wrong and I ask him if he wants to go to his room or go to a time out, he immediately says this and puts his head down - HOW CAN YOU STAY MAD?

-Listen! - this is usually accompanied by him holding my face in his hands and turning my head so I'm looking at him LOL. It's really cute.

-Come on, lets go! - this is usually accompanied by him pulling me.

-I said no!

-Go to your room

-All right (which sounds like O right)

-No hit

-STOP - always said in a yelling/mad voice

- I love you/I love you too - he is actually very particular about this, if I say I love you first then he will say I love you too. If he tells me that he loves me and then I just say I love you - he always adds the too after.

-Bye, see ya - he has been saying this forever but its just so dang cute the way he does it.

-Let's see

Things he loves to do:

-Play dinosaurs. He is obsessed with dinosaurs right now. I got him some and he feeds them his food, he makes sure they get drinks, he will brush their teeth, and he lays them down on soft pillows when they need to go night night. He takes them in the bath and makes sure they get clean and when they are playing with the robots and they aren't nice, he tells them to go to their room. LOL.

-He loves to go to the science spectrum and see the big dinosaur they have there - watch the fish, play with the bubbles, see the airplanes, trains, basically do everything in that place!

-He loves going to parks and swinging, going down slides, playing in sand, running around and making friends.

-He loves watching himself in home movies and looking at pictures of himself.

-He loves throwing tantrums when he is mad. My goodness - terrible two's don't even begin to describe it sometimes. Since we moved Jaxon to his big boy bed we are still trying to figure out how sleeping is going to work. We have some great nights and some not so great nights. I think he has been more sleep deprived lately because the tantrums have been happening more and more and have gotten worse. I hope once we figure sleeping out it will get better, but I know they call them "terrible" two's for a reason.

-He loves to play with money. He knows that money goes in "ham" lol which is the pig off of toy story.

His little imagination is just taking off. Everything that is somewhat long and skinny becomes a bat and he will hurry and find a "ball" which is anything in the area for me to throw to him so he can hit it. He loves sticks and finds them everywhere and loves to play with them, use them as swords, or walk with them. He LOVES animals - we go to a park frequently that has ducks and he loves to go stand by them and watch them. He can make basically any animal noise you ask him to. He can spot an airplane like no ones business and he will point and say airplane until you acknowledge that it's there. He is SUCH A BOY and loves jumping, climbing, wrestling, running, he knows and makes a ton of sound effects (which I think come programmed in little boys) - he calls "sword fighting" hi-ya because apparently that is what you say when you hit each others swords. (where do they learn this stuff???) He is really sweet at heart and wants to play with everyone. He loves holding little babies and making sure they are ok and included in what he is doing. He has SOOO much energy for his little body and he just never stops. It can be challenging, but I love him more than anything!

This picture was taken at 22 weeks. I haven't been good about taking pictures of me pregnant - but we were trying to get Jaxon to kiss my tummy. He loves to kiss it but he won't hold the position so we never get him actually kissing it LOL.

Fair

This is the first fair I have ever been to. Growing up my family went to Lagoon A LOT so we never really did the fair. I'm so glad we went. On Thursday night they had a "preview" night where it was free admission, free parking, and all the rides were only a dollar. We thought - WHY NOT! What a great deal. It opened at 6:00 and that is right when Dan got out of class so Jax and I were all ready to go - went and picked up Dan and headed over. We met up with our friends the Parkin's and watched the boys (Jaxon and Carter) ride on the rides. Since Jaxon goes to bed now around 6:30 we knew we wouldn't be staying too long, but we stayed until 8:30 and had a great time. Jaxon has never been on rides (sad I know) so I was really nervous since basically all the little kid rides were for little kids ONLY - adults couldn't ride on them too so I was nervous that he might try and get out or something, but he did great! We went on the Carousel very first and he loved being on the horse. Dan went on that with him and said he just kept yelling cowboy the entire time LOL. When the ride was over and we took him off he screamed and cried. We explained that he would get to ride on another ride if he stopped crying and he got the concept pretty quickly that we were taking him to another ride. He rode in a blue truck, a motorcycle, a helicopter, a 4-wheeler, and on the carousel again. The lines were kinda long so just doing those rides took a while. Dan and I got ourselves a funnel cake to share - YUMMY - and Carter shared his blue cotton candy with Jaxon. I am pretty sure Jaxon has had cotton candy before, I'm not sure though - but he wouldn't eat it. It was so funny - he just held onto it and when I tried to take it away he would say no and that he wanted to hold it - it was pretty funny. But it was a great night - we didn't even end up spending $20 and we had such a good time so to me that is a TOTAL success! Wahoo! 

Notice Jaxon holding the cotton candy - it stayed like this until we got home haha

His first and Last ride - he loved it. Dan had a blast too! 

Blue truck with Carter - Jax couldn't really reach the steering wheel so by the end of the ride he was watching the kids behind them and laughing. 

Waiting for the ride to start - he LOVED this ride, there was a "jump" they would go over so they would go higher and he would yell "wahoo" every time. He loved it.

It's hard to see, but LOVE his face in this one. This is when they started lifting them up in the air. He got SOOO excited. He was on the inside so pictures were hard to get but I'm glad I got his face! 

He is making sound effects, such a boy! He loved riding these 4-wheelers.

4th Dr. Appt - discussion about C-sections

Today I had my 4th doctors appointment. Baby girl garner's heart beat was going strong and she was moving a lot during the appointment. I love this part of pregnancy - I love feeling the baby move and I feel her so much now! This appointment my doctor also discussed with me the fact that she thinks I should have a C-section with this baby. After I had Jaxon I had some "complications" and due to that - my doctor is thinking it would be best if I do a C-section. I don't know why this scares me so bad. I know A LOT of people who have them, and love or don't mind them. Also - it would be great to have a scheduled due date so my mom will know when to come so she can be here when I have the baby to help with Jaxon since Dan will have started school again. All of that would be the plus to having one - but it still scares me. My next couple of appointments we will talk more about it, go over all the options, and make a final decision. Any thoughts about this? Feel free to share!

I know some people who have struggled with getting pregnant. It brakes my heart! Today I was reading the blog of one such person who has been blessed and is pregnant after trying for several years and a statement she made was she loves every pregnancy symptom. I started feeling very guilty. This pregnancy has been very different than my first one, I have been sicker, felt more pain, been very tired, and complained a lot more. After I read that phrase I thought to myself - there are so many women out there who would go through ANYTHING to get pregnant and here I am complaining about the symptoms I go through while pregnant. SHAME.ON.ME! I am creating life - obviously our bodies go through a lot and sometimes it is manifested in sickness, pain, and fatigue. But what a blessing! I appreciate that blogger making that statement. It has opened my eyes and made me realize how blessed I am and I will no longer complain about what I'm going through, but instead look at it as a wonderful blessing that I get to carry a child. THANK YOU!

On a lighter note - yesterday my phone was on vibrate and sitting on the table - I got a text so it started going off. Jaxon was in the other room and came running out yelling COW COW! At first I didn't get it, but when it vibrated again and he said cow again - I realized the vibrating noise to a 2 year old (who loves animals) sounds like a cow mooing LOL. Oh to be a child!

Fall Wreath Giveaway

My cute friend Jill started a craft blog and shares some DARLING craft ideas. She is doing her first giveaway for this cute fall wreath she just made! Go check out her blog here and enter to win!!!

Wish List

Today as I was going around my house cleaning - I was thinking about all the things I would like to have. This probably makes me sound like I am ungrateful, and I don't mean it in that way at all. I am so grateful for everything we have - we have A LOT and are so blessed! But we are obviously "poor law students" and don't have money for the things we want - just the things we NEED. So I decided to make a list of things that one day - I would like to have.

- Cricket - There are so many crafts that I want to do (I love crafting) that involve vinyl letters, or shapes, and if I had the cricket I could do them for so cheap!

- Bread maker - I want to make homemade bread. I just feel like the stuff you buy is so unhealthy and I would like to make my own so I know what is in it. I'm sure I can do this without a bread maker - but again, this is a list of things I want that would make my life easier - and a bread maker would do that. :)

- New bed - Dan and I were very blessed and were given our King sized bed when we got married. It was a slightly used mattress but it was free so we didn't care. It is a Nikken mattress with magnets in it to help with back pain (very very expensive) - it is also VERY VERY FIRM! I like super soft mattresses so it took some getting used to - but during my pregnancy with Jaxon - I couldn't even sleep on it - it caused me so much pain. I would love one of those sleep number beds so Dan can have it more firm and I can have a super soft bed.

- New bed sheets and comforter - I always buy the cheapest sheets - but one day, it would be great to have the nice high thread count sheets and a comforter that isn't falling apart. There are rips and holes in ours and I could just buy a duvet cover to go over it - but again - those are expensive and we don't NEED it.

- Bed frame - we are going to sound so white trash right now - but our bed is sitting on the floor. We bought a cheap metal bed frame for $50 when we got married that worked great. During our move to Lubbock, it got bent. We put up with it for awhile - a year to be exact, but finally decided it is was better to just put the box springs and mattress on the floor and sleep flat every night than have a frame LOL.

- Fake Tree - Haha - this sounds funny - but I want to have a fake tree in our house for decoration. I think they look really nice and I would love to have one in our house.

- Mirror - I would love to have a big framed mirror or art or something framed and hanging on the wall over our couch.

-Bigger car - now that our family is getting bigger - it would be great to get another car and one that is bigger. We have only had 1 car since we moved to Lubbock and it has been fine - challenging at times - but fine. When we went to Utah for the summer and had to pack our car - it was stuffed full! That was just for the 3 of us. If we have to go somewhere this next summer and there are 4 of us - I have NO idea how we will do it!

- Toys for Jaxon - I want to buy him so many cool toys. He got SO many baby toys - but those obviously don't entertain him really anymore, so I would love to get some more grown up toys - and a small plastic slide to go in our backyard and a sandbox too! He would love that! This is the one that kills me the most and is the hardest. You always want your kids to have EVERYTHING, but hopefully our sacrifices now will help provide him a better life in the future!

That's a pretty long list - I know - but a girl can dream right?

Babysitter Jaxon

I babysit a cute boy that is Jax's age, and his little sister that is only 3 1/2 months old. I only babysit them a few hours on Wednesday and Friday - but it's been fun! I have loved having the baby around. I am so baby hungry it's not even funny! I want my sweet baby girl here NOW haha. But the other day when they were here, Jaxon was especially cute with the baby girl. As soon as she got here he wanted to help get her out of her car seat and he wanted to hold her. So I asked him to sit on the couch. Once he had, I had her across his legs with a pillow next to him to hold up her head. He LOVED having her on his lap, every time she made a noise he would act concerned and want to make sure she was ok. Then I read the boys this book that is a peek-a-boo book so they like to knock on the book before we open the "door" to see who is behind it. I  have them take turns ever other page so it is fair and they learn to share - well Jaxon wanted to make sure the baby got a turn. So on his turn he said baby's turn - so I helped the little baby girl knock on the book and then when I opened the door to show them what it was - he got so excited and clapped for her and told her "YAY" since she was the one who did it. It was so cute. I know he is going to be a great big brother - but he is also going to want to be VERY involved and helpful which I know can be a hard thing because he is so young and doesn't understand everything yet - but it has been so cute to watch him interact with her. I ask him a lot - do you want to have a baby sister like this and he always yells YES and gets excited. That makes me happy! I'm excited too!

Success

Jax did great last night in his big boy bed! After we put him down he didn't even get out of bed once. Part of that is probably because we put the portable DVD player in his room and turned a movie on for him to fall asleep to. Haha - so we cheated a little bit but after a few mins we checked on him and he was out.

I don't think he slept very well though - we had the monitor in his room so we could hear him and he "woke" up  a lot. He never got out of bed though - I think he was just getting used to the bed. I checked on him several times and he was always sideways with his feet hanging over the edge, so that might have been why he woke up...OR he might have been waking up because of the rain storm we had last night - who knows - but today he was VERY cranky. I put him in his bed at noon and he fell right asleep. So not only did he stay in his bed last night - but he also is taking a nap today which hasn't happened in a while! WAHOO! Hopefully it keeps going this well and he will get caught up on his sleep so he isn't cranky! :)

Big Boy Bed and more

Well... It's official. We put up Jaxon's big boy bed and tonight will be the first night of him sleeping in it... (wish us luck).

We were lucky and got the mattress, box springs, and frame for $50.00 from someone in our stake. It has only been used for about 3 years so we were excited to get a bed for so cheap!

We wanted to make this as exciting for Jaxon as possible so of coarse we got his favorite sheets.... TOY STORY! They are VERY bright and "loud" but he LOVES them haha. The comforter is also reversible and the other side is a lighter blue and much more calm so we can always switch. :)

I have to admit I am a little sad - after we put up the bed I had Jaxon lay in it and he looked so small. I can't believe he is in a regular bed now. I almost cried. Haha - pathetic I know, but I'm pregnant - give me a break!

On another note - on September 3rd we were at a JRCLS (J. Ruben Clark Law Society) get together and Jaxon and this other cute 2 year old Sam were running around and ran right into each other and bonked heads. It looked really bad. Jaxon's eye immediately started to swell. I didn't take this picture until the next day and it doesn't do it justice, but here is his eye swollen...

Then... it bruised - bad. Haha - it started out yellow and green....

And finally it is just black. You will also notice we finally cut his hair.

I also just had to post this picture. Jaxon NEVER sleeps with Dan or I. If he is on our bed he is jumping and wrestling with us. Well he was VERY tired because he is no loner taking naps so by 6:30ish he is pooped and Dan came home early from school and went and laid with him and I went in after a few mins and saw them like this. It melted my heart. Was I a little jealous that Dan got to cuddle and fall asleep with him YES - but maybe one day he will fall asleep with me!

 Now that the crib everything is out of Jaxon's room - it is in our office which will become the baby girl's room. It looks like this as of right now which is KILLING ME! But it won't be like this for long and we will start getting things in place for Baby Girl Garner.

Its a....

GIRL!!!

Wow - when the ultra sound tech told us that - Dan and I both gasped and asked her if she was serious and if she could please check again. We were both SURE that she would say it was a boy. But of coarse we are so excited to have a little girl join our family! We were very worried during the appointment that we wouldn't be able to determine the gender because her legs were crossed and tucked under the entire time - I had to laugh, cough, roll onto my side, shake, do all sorts of stuff to get her to move her legs and when she did we got the exciting news! That should have been our first clue though - she is modest haha. Jaxon had his legs spread wide open showing his stuff off LOL. 

Anyway - the Garner "spell" has been broken and we are having a girl - its a miracle. We couldn't be more excited!!! Here are a few of the ultra sound pictures we got today of our sweet baby! 

Latest Project

So I bought this piece of furniture from someone in our stake here in Lubbock forever ago for really cheap. We needed some extra furniture that had storage and since it was such a good deal I figured I wold get it and make it look nicer. Well that took forever for me to actually do. But I did it. I didn't think to take a before picture, so I apologize for the picture with all the toys and blurry James haha but it was the only picture I could find where you could see all of it. 

This is it before...

And this is after...

The total cost to do this was about $3.00. THATS RIGHT!!! I found black paint at home depot on sale for 2 dollars and I just spray painted the hardware silver with a can of spray paint I already had from another project I did... sooo not bad for 3 bucks right? I am happy with the way it turned out. In an ideal world I would get new more modern looking hardware, but I'm fine with this since it was so cheap! 

Boy or Girl?

Well today, September 8 2011, I am officially 20 weeks pregnant... half way done! Wahoo! I think this is the longest part of a pregnancy because the beginning (at least for me) is bad because I am sick and it seems to last forever. Then, you start to feel better but you have to wait until week 20 to find out if you are having a boy or girl. After that (at least with Jaxon) it seemed to go by really fast until the very very very end haha.

Tomorrow morning we go into have our ultra sound and find out the gender. For the record, I will be VERY happy either way. At first I kept thinking I wanted a girl because the Garner's apparently only produce boys (well mostly produce them). There are a couple of girls in the Garner line but they were both the 5 child I believe and at this point in my life I am NOT planning on having 5 children. So my first thought was that I would like to have a girl just so I know I am going to get one for sure haha. And yes of coarse I want a little girl, I think every women does! But at the same time, I would love for Jaxon to have a little brother. So really, boy or girl, I am totally fine and excited either way! :) Now when/if we have a third child, if this one is a boy... I will be really really really wanting a little girl - but obviously happy to have a healthy baby no matter what.

I am nervous about the appointment tomorrow. This is where you can really see your baby and make sure everything is developing ok. With Jaxon they had a hard time seeing one of the chambers of his heart so we had to go back 2 more times until they were able to see it. It was a little scary. So I am just hoping that everything is ok and that this baby is healthy.

At this point in my pregnancy I am feeling WAY better. I think I am pretty much over the sickness. I will get waves of nauseousness, but I haven't thrown up in a couple of weeks so I'm pretty sure its over WAHOO! I have had lot more pain with this pregnancy which I think has a lot to do with the fact that I am lifting and taking care of a 33 pound 2 year old all day, playing with him on the floor, and for some reason I have the urge to do all these home improvement projects so I have been doing a lot of sanding and painting which has made me contort my body in weird positions to get everything painted haha. Hopefully it doesn't get too much worse, maybe if I take it a little easier I won't be in so much pain! I also feel like I need to be eating ALL THE TIME. This is not good. I hope it goes away. I have been doing a pretty good job of controlling the urges, but sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night STARVING and I have to go get something. This didn't happen until the VERY end of my pregnancy with Jaxon so I'm nervous. I gained 30lbs with Jaxon and don't even want to gain that much with this pregnancy (since I'm starting it bigger) and these crazy hungry all the time cravings are making me nervous!

Lastly, we have asked Jaxon several times what he wants to name his baby brother or baby sister - he always has the same answer... "Scissors". Interesting.

Change

*** This post is a bunch of ramblings and jumps all over the place... so sorry, I just have a lot on my mind!

I feel like so much is changing.
Jaxon is getting so big and so grown up. He is still our very energetic little boy with too much personality for his little body, but he is understanding so much more, and talking so much more (even if I am the only one who can understand what he is saying haha) and although its exciting to see him becoming such a cute boy - it kills me to see my baby growing up. We talk to him a lot about the new baby coming, and so he has become obsessed with babies. All of his toys now become babies. Instead of having elephants, monkeys, dogs, he has BABY elephants, BABY monkeys, and BABY dogs haha. He also likes to be a baby himself. He will say baby and then hand me his sippy cup and climbs in my lap and I hold him like a baby and feed him his milk out of his sippy like a bottle lol. I probably shouldn't encourage this behavior, but I'm not gonna lie - I LOVE holding him like that. Before we got pregnant I didn't feel the "need" or "urge" to have a baby, we just felt like it was the right time to add to our family, but now - I NEED a baby! I guess it's the Lords way of getting me ready to actually have one. At the same time, (now this will probably make me sound like a bad person) I am sad it's not going to just be Jaxon and I anymore. I love my little man more than anything and it is hard for me to imagine not being able to give him 100% of my attention after this sweet baby comes. What if Jaxon thinks I don't love him as much or that he has done something wrong and that's why I don't spend as much time with him. The thought of that is KILLING me. I cried about it to Dan yesterday (blaming the crying on the pregnancy) - and he was trying to hold back laughter which made me mad at first, but he said Lisa, we want to have another baby - you want Jaxon to have a sibling, this is a good thing and not something to be crying about - which is completely true and I KNOW that we should be having this baby and I'm so excited, but I guess I'm just nervous for all the change.

On another note - Jaxon is no longer taking naps. This is a VERY new development in our home - I put him in his bed and he climbs out and plays with toys during nap time. I keep him in his room for "quiet time" for a little bit - but going from him taking 3 hour naps during the day to nothing is a hard adjustment for me and him - I put him to bed last night at 6:30 (an hour and a half earlier than I normally would) and he zonked out and slept until 7:30 this morning - so I'm not sure if this is going to be his new sleeping schedule or if when we get him a big boy bed (which needs to be like TODAY) he will start taking naps again. I don't really know what to do.

We FINALLY had Jaxon's 2 year check up with the doctor. He did such a great job! I couldn't believe how well behaved he was. I guess its because the last doctors appointment we went to was a NIGHTMARE so I was dreading this one and was expecting the worst and he really was great - the entire appt took an hour and a half and most of that was just waiting which Jaxon doesn't do so well, but he did great and was such a trooper when they gave him his shot and took blood - he didn't really cry at all, he just said "that hurt" and then asked for a sticker when he was done LOL. He is 37 inches tall which is 90-95% for height and he weighs 33.6 lbs which is 90-95% for weight. So he is a big kid and he is growing great! They also did a developmental check up - he is doing great for talking, understanding, problem solving, and a bunch of other areas I can't remember LOL - but he passed all that with flying colors. The saddest part of the appointment was after he got his shot and we went over to the lab for them to take his blood, I had to hold his arm out so the nurse could get the needle in and Jax looked back at me and said "I sorry mama" :( oh my goodness my heart broke! He thought he was being punished for something! The nurse said that response happens A LOT and that little kids feel like they are getting punished but when he said that to me with his little sad face, I seriously almost started balling. It took everything for me to hold it together and tell him he didn't do anything wrong and that we were just needing to make sure he was growing up nice and strong. He did fine after that but AHHHH my heart broke!

The last thing I wanted to "jot" down is about the holidays. This year it looks like we are staying in Lubbock. I am due the middle/end of January and I feel like that would be fine for me to travel for Christmas, but Dan thinks it's better to stay here. At first I was devastated at the thought of not being around our families for Christmas. But now - I am actually feeling ok about it. It will be nice to just focus on OUR little family and getting ready for our new addition. Who knows what will happen in future years with Christmas and our families, but this year it will be Dan, Jax, and I and we are going to enjoy every minute of our time together as a family of 3, because next year, there will be 4 of us! We will make our own traditions and carry on the ones our families have created with our little family.