I Heart Daddy!

Jon never reads the blog so here's a preview of our Valentines (maybe Father's Day) gift to him!
The ladies of playgroup combined forces today to make one sweet (sweet as in killer, not chocolate) craft for our party. Thanks Natalie for the idea and Angela for the pictures and all the ladies for their so cute kids!!

It Would be Better

Sometimes it's better (the most I can do) to get the picture/video on here and post it.

Sometimes it would be better if I could fill the post with fanciful words about what we're up to and how FUNNY is Soren.

Go with me for a bit...

...wouldn't you love to hear that Soren: barks like a dog, says "up", "did it", "no", likes to sing along while he plays the piano (little made-up tunes, of course) and is currently bringing me household cleaners from a cabinet that has a child proof lock on it!

Wait!

He's what?!

OH, yes he is a total raccoon... I am not exaggerating when I say that he can open ANYTHING. The other day he brought me my vitamin bottle... empty. (yup that's complete with "childproof" cap as well) I think we(he) should sign up to be "childproof" product testers. Don't worry I found all the vitamins... I think. :)

As we see today, sometimes it would be better if I just posted the picture/video, so here it is

back it up. beep beep beep.

Found camera cord: Check!

Found quiet moment to post: Check? I can't hardly believe it!

Soren was Christopher Robin for Halloween. It was fun to watch him almost explode with delight in his first Dum-Dum sucker and drag his candy box all over the parking lot. And then get exhausted just because of the excitement going on around him! He wore these adorable red shoes that he refused to leave on for any picture I could get of him. :)

Trick or Treat!

BIRTHDAY BOY!!

Soren has already enjoyed an exciting start to his birthday! He opened presents this morning before Daddy went to school.

so serious...

so silly!




There was only one problem...

He feel asleep in the middle of all the excitement! (He went to bed late and woke up early today, yada, yada, yada... too much sugar equals "sugar HIGH" and that equals "sugar LOW")

*more B-day Boy pics to come!

Silly Saturday (part 1)

Silly Saturday (part 2)

Soren LOVES to Noggin'! aka bonk his head into my head, your head, or really any hard surface as long as it's prefaced with the word "noggin!" :)

Today we also like tickles, snacks, pretending like we can't walk, and kitchen cabinets.

Soren's First Steps aka "push him down!"

Jon and I have sort of been forcing Soren into "falling with style"... :) We're really *proud of ourselves*, especially last night when Soren up'd his style with a few steps. Sorry the video is crooked and sorry it's loud (I was really, really excited... for Soren of course!)

Messing Around with Picasa

Can you tell Soren is an only child? :) We are a little obsessed.

May Day!

We've been up to a "few" things.
However, I don't excuse myself for not blogging as we have had a lot going on!
I have a new job... Jon's finished another semester of school... Soren's popping out poop and TEETH fast enough we can barely keep track of him!
In fact, Soren just starting whining for my attention... so I'm off.

Love to everyone!

Enjoy a few pics (the ones Soren gave me time to upload)

SNOW DAY *Texas-Style*

Because of the massive freezing sleet storm doomed to hit SE Texas this Thursday afternoon, schools were let out early and cancelled, stores jam packed with those stocking up for "the big one", and everyone was admonished to stay indoors with their heat on and faucets dripping. Even with all that the hype was that we would only barely survive the catastrophe looming towards us.

HA!

Here's some pictures of our Snow Day!

*On an even funnier note... if the northern states were as unprepared for freezing temps and winter weather as Houston, they would be rendered useless for all intents and purposes at least 5 months of every year! Still laughing....

Jon and I jumped at the chance to spend a bunch of time together that weren't planning on having and thus... lots of thing got done that otherwise wouldn't have for maybe weeks!

Things like:

*dishes

*laundry

*Soren's 3 mo. and 3-6 mo. clothes unpacked and ready to wear

*house cleaned-up

*shopping

*baby snuggling!

*blogging

*and such!

YAY! for SNOW DAY!

crossing the deep (space between)

Soren is growing like a weed! He seems to "wake up" a little more every day. It's fun to see his personality come out more and get more social smiles.

Parenting for almost 10 weeks is sometimes the most fun thing I've ever done and sometimes the least fun. Babies like to cry... even really mild tempered babies like to cry. I've never found the sound of a baby cry to be frustrating... let's be honest I've worked with tantrum prone preschoolers, who like to bite and run around all day throwing things, for almost 2 years... so baby-cry has not really been on the "too much to handle" radar.

But one little thing changes all of that... Soren, go figure that my own body grew something that later would ware down my emotions and fill me joy all at the same time. I'm not really sure how symptoms of insanity and parenthood differ.

Ooh, symptoms of parenthood, that has a nice ring to it. :)

At any rate, this is one household that is growing... Soren physically of course and myself spiritually and emotionally. I am not as weak as I sometimes think I am and I hope that I can remember that even at 2am, 4am, or any other hour in which my mind and body feel as if they have nothing left to give.

I really hope this doesn't sound gloomy for that is not my intent; just to exude some hope and help myself or anyone else to focus on the destination and still find joy in the journey.

I hear ya!

So...

rambling in Espanol the blog-o-sphere didn't go over very well with my 3* faithful readers.

Sorry ol' faithful.

But as a reward for your half-hearted diligence here are some more Sweet Sorens! Maybe this is not the type of compensation you had in mind and although he is MY buddy bear he would like you be your friend too!

*estimated 3, it's probably less. :)

UPDATE:

---Please don't feel guilty! I didn't mean to guilt anyone for not commenting on the blog or even not reading it. I'm only joking about my circulation... that's why I can post in Spanish or jibberish and it doesn't matter, especially because (let's be honest) we come here for pictures of Soren now! :)

UN MES.

Every now and a again I feel the random need to rattle in Spanish. If you choose to translate, please read in the correct tones of voice.

1. este bebe hermosisimo, es tan chiquito pero se esta creciendo gordito! no puedo creer que lleva un mes, no es recien nacido nada mas. estoy feliz y triste. :)

2. quiero praticipar en un "flash mob" y que se lleve a cabo en el zoologico. y supongo que la cancion tendra que ser la del principio de Lion King.

3. amo a mi familia! y me encanta comer hot dogs adentro de tortillas.

HAPPY ONE MONTH (AND 10 DAYS), SOREN!

2 weeks

Soren was 2 weeks old on Monday. It's strange because we've only had him home a week, so it's hard to believe he's already growing growing... but he's a keeper and we can't imagine our family without him!

*** now weighing in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 inches long. ***

magic moments

eyes totally open for the first time

daddy holds baby

mommy loves this little dude

soren is so small, but fits perfect in daddy's arms

telling secrets about mommy

some soren squeaks

Our November Surprise!

November started off with a HUGE surprise. Baby Boy decided he was ready to meet ya'll and picked his birthday to be
11-01-10. (*5 weeks early*)

As I laid in bed Sunday evening about drifted into "dreamworld", I felt a sharp pain and then a new but unmistakable sensation... "Water-breaking!"

"Jon... um sweetie my water just broke. What should I do?"

"Are you serious? You should probably call your doctor," he replied.

And thus began Soren Idrios Galbraith's journey into this world.

Of course there was a lot of waiting between Sunday night at 11:30pm and Monday night at 10:48pm when his eviction was complete. I did not start having any contractions on my own so when Dr. Ramos came in Monday morning we started with Pitocin to move things along. I tolerated contractions alright, but when things got fierce the epidural did the trick. Don't get me wrong it wasn't peachy the rest the way, but definitely more tolerable.

Soren weighed 6 lbs. 2 oz. and all the doctors have said it was good I didn't go full term because I likely would have had to have a C-section. However good for me, coming 5 weeks early for Soren hasn't been uncomplicated.

His little lungs need some support to mature. The first night was pretty rough for him in Level II NICU, but moving him to Level III (although scary) was the best decision and he has greatly improved. I won't get into all the physiological details... just to say that technology, medical science, dedicated doctors and nurses, and lots of prayer are all powerful elements. And these things have brought about miraculous change for our little guy.

I am so grateful for some really awesome people like: Dr. Ramos, Dr. Suell, Dr. Ahmed, Dr. Simkowitcz, Mrs. Clara Bias, Austin, Anne, Beth, Myra and many others who are experts in their craft. Among them are wonderful family, friends and ward members that offer such great faith and much needed positivity and support. WE Love you all so much!

Soren will still be in NICU for some time, he has some big goals to reach, but we have NO DOUBT that he will be coming home soon strong and healthy. It's not easy being home without him... the house feels empty somehow and we certainly are aware that someone is missing. But seeing his improvement every time we visit is a great motivator for my faith.

Soren isn't giving up and neither are we.


Can't wait to hold our little man!!!

Labor Day Fun!!!!

Having a break from school and work usually means that you rest the whole day. But for a teacher a break doesn't always mean rest. We did get to sleep in until 9 this morning; which is a nice change for a Monday morning. Then it was all about work. Katrina and I first started are day at CVS together and then she moved on to Lakeshore (a teachers store) as I continued my couponing at another CVS store. After a great morning at CVS I picked up ken, a friend, from the ward and we started working on a project that we have been waiting to start for sometime. Meanwhile Katrina is watching someone laminate a box full of paper as she holds only 4 sheets that she needs to laminate for tomorrow. She arrived at Lakeshores around 10:45 am.

As Ken and I were coming back from Lowes around 1:30ish Katrina called and said that she finally got to laminate her 4 sheets and that she was on her way. We finished our project and went to the store to get a few things for a BBQ. On our way home it started to rain. Nonetheless we still grilled some hotdogs and enjoyed our time and families.

Now its almost 7:00 pm and Katrina is still working on school stuff. Trying to stay away from my homework I decided to blog about our fun labor day. Most of all to show what we got at CVS this morning. We were able to buy $79.16 worth of stuff and only paid out of pocket $1.20. Plus we got back $20.00 for next week. :) As you can see from the picture we got 1 big box of 96 diapers, 1 big can of formula, 2 bottles of baby bubble bath, and 2 things of desitin for baby rash. What you can't see is we also got 8 bottles of sobewater. I didn't include them because we drink some of them.

Now for my favorite part: Katrina purchased the formula, 2 bottles of bubbles, and 4 bottles of sobewater. The total was $39.33 and only paid $0.10 and got back $10.00. I purchased the Diapers, the desitin, and 4 sobewaters. The total was $39.83 and I only paid $1.10 and got back $10.00. I love this game.:)

Randalls and Kroger 8/11

Another good day at the store with my new hobby. This week I wanted to start saving on food items for Katrina and I. Hoping that it will help us save more money this month and for the future. Yesterday the 11th, Kroger and Randalls came out with their weekly ads. With a few hours of looking through the ads and some blogs that I have been studying I decided to give them a try. The first photo was a mix of both stores and we were able to get a few items at each one for a total of 33 items. The total cost of this items before tax was $79.88. I was able to use coupons to get the total down to $15.14. :) I hope you can see that we got 8 boxes of cereal, 5 boxes of Nature Valley bars, 2 boxes of fruit by the foot, 2 boxes of Gushers, 8 cans of Progresso Soup, 2 bags of chex, 2 bags of Gardetto's, 3 things of Sunny D, and 1 can of Pringles.

I came home with my items with mix emotions. I had planned on some of the items to be less, but found out some new rules at Kroger. At Randalls I forgot to get a little more of one item to get back some money but I forgot to purchase them. After going through I figured that I would try something else. So I went back to Randalls and was able to get 11 more items that would have cost me $34.39. I only paid $2.68 and I received $5.50 back for next week of for anything else that I want at their store. So I made $2.82 just trying it again to redeem myself. This photo shows 5 boxes of Fiber One bars, 2 boxes of Gushers, 2 boxes of Fruit by the Foot, and 2 things of Sweet Moments.

I added the two trips together to see my total out of pocket cost. For the 44 items in total I would have paid before tax $114.27 and I only paid $17.82 after tax. Keep in mind that I did receive $5.50 for my next purchase at Randalls. :)

CVS Is Wonderful!!!

I love couponing. Once again we were able to get diapers for way cheap. I love it. As you can see we purchase 2 razors, two Dulcolax Balance, 1 Shave Gel, Q-tips, 2 jumbo packs of diapers 40 ct each, and 2 wipes 216 ct each. (We also got Xtra detergent, but I forgot to include it in the picture.) The total would have cost us $95.28 without tax and it only cost us $7.16 with tax. And the best part is that we got $11 back for next week and one of the razor is a mail in rebate which will give us $8.97 back. In other words we spent $7.16 and made $19.97 for a grand total for $12.81 made this week. :)



I always like to break down the purchases for you. I think its fun. Katrina first purchased one 3 blade Razor for $9.99 and paid $1.05. Second she purchased 1 Dulcolax Balance for $12.99 and paid only $1.99 for it. Her last purchase was 1 jumbo pack of diapers, 1 baby wipe, and 1 thing of Q-tipps for a total of $23.07 and only paid $1.30. After all this her total out of pocket was $4.34 and she got $4.00 back for next week. We also used her razor receipt for the mail in rebate for full purchase price of $8.97. My first purchase was 1 razor and 1 shave gel for a total of $13.98 and paid a total of $0.00. I love free. My second purchase was 1 Dulcolax Balance and 1 Xtra Detergent for a total of $16.08 and paid only $0.10. :) My last purchase was 1 diaper and 1 baby wipe for a total of $20.19 and only paid $2.72. This brings my total to $2.82 and I received $7 dollars back for next week.

Our boy scout is going to have so many diapers.