Our best Christmas yet

When we moved to Tucson we decided it was a great time to have Christmas by ourselves and not go anywhere. What a wonderful idea. This has been our best Christmas yet. Last night we went to my Aunt Cheri and Uncle Mel's house for dinner. I love all their Christmas decorations. It's unbelieveable. And for some reason I forgot to take pictures. When we were leaving Maeley said, "that's my friends house". Maeley and Chase had a great time. Zoe on the other hand was not very happy for whatever reason. When we got home it was time to open new pj's. That is my favorite Christmas tradition. Eventhough Derek and I said we weren't going to get eachother gifts he still got me my pajama's knowing how much I enjoy it. Thanks Derek! We woke the kids up at about 8 this morning and what fun it was to see the kids open their presents. Maeley was so excited about every gift whether it was for her or not. Her favorite gift was what Santa left for her, a new stroller and a Tinker Bell doll. Chase seems to love his John Deere tractor and nerf balls. After the kids opened all the presents and ran off playing, Derek and I started to organize. Today has flown by. In fact we stayed in our pajamas all day.

Chase showing off his beanie

Chase and his dog

Chase and Maeley with their sleeping bags

Zoe showing off a new headband

Derek and Chase helping Zoe with her toy

Zoe and her doll

Chase, Melanie and Maeley

Derek & Chase

Maeley and her dog

Chase and his tractor

Maeley and her stroller and Tinker Bell doll

Chase, Maeley and Melanie before opening presents

Chase- Christmas Eve night

Maeley super excited to open the first present

Chase wondering what he's supposed to do

Chase and Maeley opening their pajamas

Smiley Maeley

Merry Christmas!

Life Soundtrack

My little sister, Kim, did this on her blog. I thought it would be funny to see how it ends up for me and Melanie (since our life movie would be for both of us). Enjoy.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here’s how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the "next" button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool!

Opening credits: “Another Brick In The Wall” Pink Floyd

Waking Up: “She’s Leaving Home” The Beatles

First Day At School: “The Scientist” Coldplay

Falling In Love: “Wherever I May Roam “ Apocalyptica (Metallica Cover)

Fight Song: “Thriller” Michael Jackson

Breaking Up (In our case we will say me leaving on my mission): “Find Your Way” Authority Zero

Prom: “Sentimental Johnny” Flogging Molly

Life’s OK: “Who Made Who” AC/DC

Mental Breakdown: “Devil’s Haircut” Beck

Driving: “Railroad Blues” Beastie Boys

Flashback: “Pinball Wizard” The Who

Getting Back Together (or coming home from my mission): “Kajakad” Kosmikud (funny it landed on an Estonian song)

Wedding: “You’re Beautiful” James Blunt

Birth of Child: “In Memoriam” Apocalyptica (maybe symbolic of saying good-bye to pre-baby freedom)

Final Battle: “The Move” Beastie Boys (this must be like a street fight/shootout or something)

Death Scene: “Not My Idea” Garbage

Funeral Song: “Gypsy Eyes” Jimi Hendrix

End Credits: “Mr. Brightside” The Killers

Doctor visit turned hospital stay

Poor Zoe wasn't getting any better by the time I went for her check-up yesterday. When her doctor saw her he began prepping me for a night at the hospital. The breathing treatment again wasn't helping and he was afraid we would end up in the ER over the weekend anyways. As I was waiting for the hospital to call back with the room number we would be staying in Zoe was getting worse and worse. It was pretty scary. That was the worst of it luckily. Once at the hospital she calmed down and let the doctors and nurses do their thing without fussing much. She had normal oxygen levels and never needed an oxygen treatment. If she had we would've had to stay another night at least. What did help the most was the way they suctioned out her nose. The bulb you would normally use to get the burgers out of a baby does nothing compared to this. Zoe hasn't really had a running nose but every time they used it tons of snot came out. Seriously it was a ton. She is doing okay. She still wheezes a little and we are giving her the breathing treatment every 4-6 hours. There really isn't anything else that they can do. She's just so young. She doesn't deserve this. My heart breaks to see her this way. It is horrible to watch her when she is struggling to breathe.

The pictures below are all from this morning.

Zoe exhausted

Derek holding Zoe's hand.

I absolutely love this picture!

Even though she's not feeling well when Dad sat by her side this morning she had plenty of smiles for him. This was the best attempt at capturing her smile.

The not so nice hospital crib.

As you can imagine I got no sleep last night. Between the uncomfortable chair/bed and the nurses checking on her nearly everyhour I had no chance.

Sick baby & other events

Well it seems that our whole family is now sick. Maeley caught the cold last week and it has spread to all of us. I took Zoe into the doctor today and found out she has Bronchitis. Everyone but me has a horrible cough but only Zoe has begun wheezing. Poor girl, she's only 7 weeks. We have never had one of our newborns get this sick before. I will be taking her back for a check-up tomorrow because her doctor doesn't want to wait over the weekend and risk her getting worse. They gave her a breathing treatment but unfortunately it didn't help. I am praying we are all better before Christmas and especially before our Disneyland trip.

A little update on how the kids are doing, besides being sick.

Maeley loves the Narnia, Prince Caspian movie. She even quotes a line in the movie. "Yes, I am a mouse." That is when the Narnians are trying to take over the Talmarines castle. She also loves the song at the very end of the movie. It's "The Call" by Regina Specktor. She sings along with it. It's so adorable to watch her.

Chase has so much energy even with being sick. He enjoys running in circles around the kitchen and even spinning in circles until he falls down. Lately he has to shut all the doors in the house. I'm not sure why he does it but he hasn't learned how to open them yet. He is also very helpful and takes all the dirty diapers to the trash. Quite often he brings me a new diaper when it's time to change him. I can't wait until he's potty trained.

Zoe is as cute as can be. She weighed 11 lbs at the doctor today. She is definitely bigger than Maeley was at this age. Zoe normally wakes up once at night, sometimes twice. There have been a few nights where she has slept nearly 8 hours straight. For the most part I'm not bothered by getting up to feed her because I'm back in bed within 20 minutes. I really can't complain about her. She is generally a good baby. She is beginning to smile at us and has even laughed a few times, mostly at Derek.

Plugless Chase & cute Zoe

It has been one week since Chase has used his pacifier (we call it the plug). We had been giving it to him for his nap and bedtime only but this past weekend when we went to Gilbert we lost the only one we brought with us. There has been a couple times that he's wanted it but overall has done a great job without. He is very aware that Zoe has one but has not attempted to put it in his mouth. We purposely chose a different plug than what he used. When this plug drops to the floor it bounces and rolls and is very easily lost because of that. We are so very happy to be done with it.

Chase Christmas morning 2007 -5 1/2 months

Chase is always giving Zoe kisses

Zoe at 6 weeks. She's getting so big.

Thanks Marie for the headband! I love it!

It's so cute that her plug matches her blanket.

Family Christmas Party

This past Saturday was the Crandall family Christmas party. The day was spent with a yummy breakfast at my parents then family pictures. It was pretty cold while we were taking pictures. I'll post those pictures when I get them. Hopefully there is one where Maeley isn't hiding her face or looking in the other direction. She wanted nothing to do with pictures and just wanted to play. After that it was pretty much a free for all. The older kids liked playing the Super Nintendo while the younger kids played outside. The girls later baked some holiday goodies. We had a great time. The pictures below are in on particular order.

Carl, Jacob, and Tyler

Taylor, Hunter and Tyler

Maeley, Boston, and Mayla

Mayla

Chase

Chase, Derek and Kyla

Taylor, Marie, Hunter, Boston, Kourtney, Maeley, Mayla, and Kyla

Devan & Kourtney

I just love the look Kourtney is giving Devan.

Kourtney, Devan, Maeley, Chase, and Hunter

Maeley

"I can talk!"

This is a conversation that went on as we sat down for dinner tonight.

Derek: "Maeley do you want to say prayer?"
Maeley: "No, Chase needs to say prayer."
Derek: "Chase can't talk so he can't say the prayer."
Chase: "I can talk!" with extra emphasis on the word can

Derek and I both look at each other and laugh. It was so cute and he said it at the perfect time. Chase doesn't talk much as he's not quite 17 months yet but he is picking up more and more words and always gets his point across. We love our little buddy Chase.

Thanksgiving weekend

Below are some pictures from Thanksgiving. Somehow we missed getting a picture of Zoe on her first Thanksgiving. Opps, I just didn't think about it because she was sleeping.

Tyler and Maeley

Derek's favorite picture

I love this picture. Maeley trying to pull Chase out of the water. If you look closely Maeley has a red mustache from drinking to much Hawaiian punch.

Wednesday night my brother Tyler came down and stayed with us until this morning. It's always nice having him come and spend some time with us. We all enjoy the company. I think Maeley likes having someone else to play with.

Thursday we watched part of the Macy's Day parade before heading to my Aunt Cherri's house only about 10 minutes from our house. My family has Thanksgiving every other year there, and the other is at my parents house. It was really nice not having to travel this weekend. All my mom's siblings were there but my Aunt Diane from Utah. My grandpa was also there and some cousins. Derek and I had a great time but I think Maeley and Chase had an even better time. They have a really cool water fall feature in the backyard. It's actually two with a little stream connecting them. I made the mistake of showing Maeley that one of the fish had died. She ended up taking almost all the adults one by one by the hand to show them the dead fish. It was really cute. Anytime we took our eyes off Chase he was headed straight for the water. It made me nervous the whole time. Zoe pretty much slept the entire day. She normally doesn't sleep that much.

Friday we did a little shopping. Then in the afternoon we finally put the Christmas tree up. Last Sunday Derek got out the Christmas decorations and it took awhile to decide where we were going to put the huge tree in our small house. The dining room is where it ended up. Not normal I know, but there really wasn't any other place. This weekend has gone way too fast.

Derek's photography

Derek has enjoyed taking pictures lately and has taken some really great pictures of the kids. Here are some of them.

Life with 3 kids...3 and under

I feel like I haven't blogged in awhile, but I think it's really because so much has happened since the last post. Maeley and Chase came home Sunday afternoon after a week in Gilbert. We missed them like crazy, it's so good to be together again. My mom stayed and just left earlier today. (Thanks mom for all your help!) Maeley is really good with Zoe and when she cries gives me an explanation as to why she thinks she's crying. Chase is so sweet and always needs to know where she's at. He also rubs her head a lot. My dad thinks it's because everyone rubs his shaved head. Chase hasn't been giving anybody hugs and kisses the past few days. He must be saving them all for Zoe because she gets plenty from him. Maeley gives Zoe tons of hugs and kiss too. Chase is having a harder time adjusting to the change, just as I suspected. After all he's only 16 months. He is more emotional than usual and pouts more. Chase seems huge to us now. I know its simply because we are comparing him to Zoe, but he is rock solid. Maeley doesn't seem bigger to us, just older. She's a great little mommy.

I'm doing great after my c-section. I honestly don't feel like it happened a week and a half ago. I just have to restrain myself from my regular duties. They told me I can't sweep, mop or vacuum for 6 weeks. That is going to drive me crazy! I normally vacuum 3 times a week. The house just seems cleaner when its vacuumed. And of course they tell you not to pick up anything heavier than your new baby. What about my other baby? Chase still needs help getting into his booster chair so that restriction has already been thrown out.

Zoe has been doing really well. Her doctor at her 1 week checkup was pleased that she already past her birth weight. I've just got to get her onto a schedule. I live by schedules with my kids. I always start by setting a bedtime and it has worked itself out from there. Maybe we will be lucky and by 2 weeks she'll start sleeping 8 hours at night just like Chase did. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed.) She honestly doesn't cry much. Wahoo! She also will look around the room for awhile and not fuss one bit. We truly feel blessed to have such a sweet, good baby. There is a feeling of peace about her. We love her so much!

Our two girls

Maeley "feeding" Zoe
Zoe is actually in Maeley's lap as she pretends to feed Zoe just like mom

Maeley and Chase holding Zoe right when they came home

Our Little Pumpkin

I just had to dress Zoe up for her first Halloween. What a cute little pumpkin she was.

I don't have any pictures of Maeley or Chase all dressed up as they are still in Gilbert with our parents. They come back today finally! I miss those kiddos like crazy. Apparently Chase wanted nothing to do with his Mickey Mouse costume. Last week when we tried it on him he looked pretty darn cute. I wish I had taken a picture then. Maeley was Tinker Bell. That was the costume from last year that she wanted nothing to do with and she ended up being Lady from Lady and the Tramp. Man, I've got a couple of stubburn kids. Oh well, I love them anyways.

We're home!

Last night we finally left the hospital. It's so nice being home, although I did miss my sleep last night. Zoe was up most the night eating. There is something about breastfeeding that puts me to sleep. I can be wide awake before I start but I'm nodding off by the time she's done. I don't remember feeling this way with Maeley. Zoe is just so darn cute! I can't wait until Maeley and Chase come home so they can enjoy their little sister. She doesn't cry much and loves to snuggle. As much as I love to snuggle with her I'm trying to restrain myself a little so she doesn't get used to being held all day. Chase was like that and it was difficult to get anything done.

Pretty in pink

oh so cute

One proud daddy