a new favorite

I went to Mistletoe Marketplace this year in desperate search of a fourth Christmas stocking, to match the three I bought last year for Josh, Jax, and myself. I drug Josh along with me, because we were only going to be there "a few minutes" because I was only looking for the stockings.... well, unfortunately, I didn't find the stocking and I was so disappointed that I would not have a matching set for our growing family this Christmas. However, I did pick up a couple books for Jax and Baby Sister. I have to say, these two books are wonderful. I just had to share them on here. If you ever run across one, pick one up for your kids!
"How Christmas Began" by Claire Boudreaux Bateman is a story that relates the story of Jesus' birth and the legend of Santa Claus. It is truly a neat book with a great story that does not ignore the real meaning of Christmas, like many other books and movies do. This book is about two boys who are friends. Their names are Jesus and Santa, and boy, do they know how to throw an awesome birthday party!
The same author wrote a book called "This Little Light of Mine". It is so sweet; a story about how God creates each one of us in Heaven, and before he sends us to Earth, he instills his Light within us. This one will bring a pregnant woman to tears - I know from experience. ha.

Check out these books if you ever get a chance. They're children's books, but they are just as wonderful for adults.

A very merry Christmas

Christmas was a fun, exciting time for us, but also a very hectic, busy day! Thank goodness the weather was rather "warm" so we decided to take Joy out to the family festivities.

We started our morning by waking Jax up... at about 9:30!!! He stumbled into the living room and immediately spotted the empty plate and glass that Santa left. Josh pointed him towards the Christmas tree, where he saw the (unwrapped) shiny yellow Digger, and it was love at first sight. He wasn't really interested in opening his other presents, nor Joy's... he just wanted to play with the "shiff-fez" (shifts) on his new digger. After much convincing, he opened his other presents but he had no time within his agenda to assist Joy with her gifts. Nevertheless, she didn't care -- She just happily slept on.

We had lunch at Josh's parents' house and Jax really enjoyed playing with cousins Gavin and Laney. Joy, well, she just continued to sleep. But, she looked beautiful all the while, in her red Santa dress, hat, and white furry boots! Jax and Gavin both received a mini-DRUM SET from the grandparents... ah, every parent's dream -- THANKS! They serenaded us with lovely tunes ("Bad to the Bone" "Bad Boys" and "What this world needs is a few more Rednecks" ha!) into the afternoon.

Jax on left; Gavin on right; and Joy snoozes on...

No one could wake her!

Next, we traveled to Great Aunt JoAnn's for a quick visit with my extended family. It was the first time for many of them to meet Joy. We introduced her, passed her around for everyone to hold, and took pictures, all while Joy slept. Sleeping Beauty she is!

a Christmas Eve of characters

On Christmas Eve, my immediate family came over to our house for our annual Christmas celebration. My nephews are grown - ages 19 and 16- so my children served as the entertainment. Jax refused to wear what I had picked out for him. He refused to wear what his Daddy picked out for him. He would only wear his "Tarzan outfit", which, in case you couldn't guess, consists of his underwear only. I begged him to put some clothes on - any clothes - so that he would at least be clothed in my snapshots. I tried to convince him that he would one day regret his decision to go Tarzan, that he was creating blackmail material... but nothing worked. His recent fascination with Tarzan has caused many such arguments; he doesn't seem to understand that the Tarzan movie obviously did not take place in the winter, nor does he understand that Tarzan is not real, and certainly not a genius to mimic to that extreme. Nevertheless, in his 2-year-old mind, Tarzan is the best. So, Tarzan it is. Here's Tarzan opening a few gifts.

Meanwhile, while Tarzan is jumping off the couch, scouring at family members, and ripping bows off of boxes, little Joy silently plays her favorite Disney character too: Sleeping Beauty. While Tarzan creates a rather loud atmosphere with all of his charades, Sleeping Beauty is not

bothered one bit. She slept right through the Tarzan performance, eating, opening gifts and even good-byes and well-wishes as everyone went home at the end of the evening.

Christmas tradition

It is just one of those things you do... even if you are only a week and a few days old.
Every kid, big or small, just must have a picture made with Santa Claus at Christmas time!
So, I monitored Santa's schedule and made sure we were the first in line to see the jolly elf, so that baby Joy wouldn't be exposed to other kids and all their germs. And, so that Santa's hands also would be less contaminated too; ha (but I was prepared to insist that Santa try out my blueberry-scented Germ-X if necessary!) I carried her in her car seat carrier, covered with not one, but two blankets for an extra shield against those afore mentioned germs. Jax was most helpful in this undercover operation. Joy slept from the time we loaded her in the car til we got back home. Santa was our one and only stop for this outing, and she never even knew she met him. BUT!-- we got the picture! (I will have to try to scan them when they come in)

Jax was very excited to see Santa for a second time this year. He also spoke with Santa briefly at a Christmas party at church. Today, he told Santa that he would like a helicopter, a plane, and a digger. When Santa asked what to bring for his new baby sister, Jax replied, "hhmm, just bring her a toy she can chew on"!!
ha.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

JOY at home

Once we made it home, Jax was super-excited and anxious to introduce Joy to all of his favorite toys and he was especially hoping she would enjoy Tarzan (the movie) with him. He wanted to hold her, and kept giving her "sugar". He's a protective big brother already!

Welcome home, Baby Sister!!!

Snow!

Snow in Mississippi! It's not a headline that we see often, but this year, it has happened twice! In January, on the day of Jax's 2nd birthday party, we saw lots and lots of the white stuff, and for the second time in 2008, we saw lots of snow again on Thursday (12-11-08). It seems that snow is rare, but when it occurs it is on the day of a big event in the Leggett family. This most recent snow fell the day we brought Joy home from the hospital. Her first view of the outside world was all white! Not many children in Mississippi will be able to say that it was snowing when they were brought home from the hospital! Joy didn't seem to mind the cold - she slept all the way home. I guess at 2 days old, snow is not real interesting. ha.

This is what we saw out of our hospital room window when we woke up Thursday morning:

And, here's our little bundle of Joy, all ready to go home!

for some reason, this pic is stubborn; i couldn't get it to rotate. sorry.

f-y-i

By the way, in case you were wondering, the wreath made it to the hospital afterall! Thanks to Josh's dad, who went in search of the long, lost door hanger at 6-something in the morning! It didn't ride on top of the tahoe for long... he found it in our driveway!

Jax finally got to meet his "new baby sister"! Although he was very sick the day she was born, he seemed to be pretty much over it the following day. MoMo brought him to the hospital to meet his baby sister for the first time. He walked into the room grinning, and immediately asked "where's she at?" He inspected her nose, ears, and toes immediately. He was impressed that baby sister brought him a toy, and he also liked the video footage that Daddy shared with him. He seemed to be back to himself, as he danced around the room, and returned to Baby Sister's side every few minutes to kiss her on the head. Jax is a great big brother - he was so excited to have a sister join our family. Joy is a lucky girl - this big brother is gonna take care of her!!

welcome JOY TO THE WORLD

Where do I start? There's so much that's happened since my last post. I WANT to blog about every single occurance, emotion, and memory... but there's this little thing that will cause me to be more selective in my topics: TIME!

We welcomed our precious little baby girl to the world on December 9, 2008 at 11:16 a.m. Her arrival was much anticipated! We were all thrilled to finally meet her!

Labor and delivery was very smooth and presented no problems at all. However, prior to arriving at the hospital, we did have some stress and drama: 1) Jax became very ill the night before we were to admit to the hospital to induce labor. We had plans for him to spend the night with the grandparents since we would have to report to the hospital so early in the morning. Within only a few minutes of arriving at MoMo and PawPaw's house, he got sick and therefore became very clingy, wanting to go home. Of course, I didn't want to leave him. I ended up rocking him to sleep and crying all the way home because we had to leave him. 2) We were instructed to arrive at the hospital between 5 and 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, if labor did not occur before. We were up late getting last minute things packed and ready for our journey to the hospital. Before going to sleep I set my clock for 4a.m., just to be sure that I had plenty of time to make our "appointment". I woke up at 5:25 a.m. to an alarm clock that had been going off for over an hour! I, of course, freaked out, as there was NO WAY we could make it to the hospital in 5 minutes! 3) About half-way to the hospital, I had a sudden realization: OMG! I had put the hospital door wreath and the very important Cord Blood banking kit on TOP of the truck while I placed some other things inside... and I never retrieved the said items. At this point, Josh is already driving like a maniac and I am still freaking out because we are late, late, late... and now I am screaming for him to stop but I can't manage to spit out why! He's confused but pulls over, and finds the Cord Blood kit in the back of the tahoe... THANK GOODNESS... but no wreath. Ok, so I am still upset, but at least we have the kit - that's not something that can be replaced or re-enacted! ha.
Once we arrived at the hospital, all of the nurses were very caring and promised there would be no punishment for being late! They hooked me up, and labor began. All of the family was able to make it to the hospital before she arrived... except for Jax (and MoMo, who stayed behind to keep him). He had been sick all night with what we assumed was a terrible virus. I was so sad that he was not able to come to the hospital to meet his new sister right away. He had so many questions about the hospital and about his baby sister... and, we just missed him so much.

So, you say, what about her name? This may be a surprise to many of you who have teased me endlessly about not having a name for this blessed child, but we actually DID have a name BEFORE we went to the hospital on Tuesday morning. Granted, it was about 9 or 10 o'clock on Monday night before we came to an agreement, but nevertheless, this child did not have to take a single breath in this world as a nameless child.
Josh and I concluded that her first name would be JOY the night before Thanksgiving. As soon as we agreed, I got online and ordered Christmas cards, and finished the hospital door hanger with her name. I also retrieved several items that I wanted to have monogrammed... there was no backing out now!
The middle name ... well, we considered so many and never could make a final decision. We had about three that we loved, but neither of us could decide which one we liked best. So what do you do when you just can't decide? Well, we asked Jax for his almost-three-year-old-wisdom. The night before "birthing day," Josh gave him our top three middle names and asked which he liked better. First he said he liked Nicole and Whitney, but Josh explained that we must pick just one for the middle name. Jax suggested that she have four names... but he finally narrowed down to just one that he liked the most: Nicole. So, there ya go! Joy Nicole Leggett - it's a deal!
Now that she's here, we have no regrets... she "looks" like a Joy and I think she likes her name.

Joy to the world!

Joy Nicole Leggett

7 lbs., 14 oz., 20 1/2 inches long

12/9/2008, 11:16 a.m.

so, maybe my panic was premature...

Ok, so the doc says that there's been no change since last week... we're still at 2, with only one week left until my Due Date. Dr. says we will induce labor next Tuesday (December 9th - my due date) if no baby by that time. So, yeah, maybe you all were right - I was freaking out 3 weeks ago for no reason at all. But, hey, the good news is, I got a lot accomplished because of that premature panic! :-)
Well, I can't help but wonder if this sweet little girl has inherited my "late" trait, or maybe she's possibly waiting around for us to get her ROOM finished!
Whatever the case, she'll be here no later than Tuesday!
I hope to find the time to keep you all posted! Thanks for the prayers.

Still hanging out!

Well, I thought I'd never make it to Thanksgiving break... and I did.

So, then I thought I'd never make it to Thanksgiving day... and I did.

Then, I thought for sure I'd never make it through Thanksgiving weekend... and I did.

I REALLY thought the sub would be taking over my classes this week... but she didn't... so far...

I'm still hanging out!!!

Today marks ONE WEEK until my due date! I can not believe the time is here already. I go back to the doctor this afternoon for my weekly visit. I'm excited to see what she will have to say about my progress this time. It won't be long, and I'll be posting pictures of our sweet baby girl!

Meanwhile, here's some pictures of Jax, taken by my friend Susann. No mother could ever resist any picture of her precious little one... I thought these were so 'cute'. Even though there is no particular occasion, I just had to share these with you.

Isn't it funny how sometimes your mood can change so quickly, yet it stays the same?

Sometimes you just want to...

POUT.

Sometimes you want to...

PLOT

Sometimes you just want to...

be SOLEMN.

and, then, sometimes...

you just want to...

LOVE !!!

making progress

I am very excited about the progress made this weekend at the Leggett home! Instead of posting a "to do" list today, I'll post the "got it done!" list:

• the nursery is painted - and beautiful! Thanks to MoMo, Aunt Dana, and cousins Chase and Travis! I love it! I know our sweet baby girl will love it, too!
• we got the carpet pulled up and disposed of, and the underlying hardwood floors cleaned (in the nursery). Again, thanks to my wonderful family for taking iniative and helping us out with this
• the curtains are hung in the nursery - they look great with the newly painted lavender walls
• I washed tons of baby clothes, so now she has some things to wear. I organized them by size, too, for easy accessibility... since some people seem to think she will be born at size 6 months, skipping the newborn sizes that I have picked out for her first days in this world; ha ha.
• Everyone is packed for the hospital, finally! And, all bags are sitting together, ready to be grabbed up in a moment's notice
• got the play room organized... once. Jax loved the new look of the play room, and all of the new space for him to play with the abundance of toys he has... in fact, he loved it so much, it is no longer what I call "organized" but, nevertheless, all of the toys are in there- not scattered over the rest of the house
• got several Christmas gifts ordered online, and made special arrangements for several other gifts - I only have a couple more things to get for Christmas, and I'll be done!
• And, we also enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast at church on Sunday, and a precious Thanksgiving Program Sunday night, put on by the youngest children at church (birth to 5 years). Jax was an Indian, and was most facinated with the microphone. He sang with the other children, but I can't help but wonder what he would have done if he could have gotten that microphone for a moment! ha ha. We had nearly 30 kids on stage at once, and they all were remarkable. It was an enjoyable close to a busy weekend! We're looking forward to Thanksgiving - we have so much to be Thankful for! :-)

now 2...

I don't have a lot of time to blog right now, but I just wanted to post a quick update. I had my weekly prenatal visit this morning, and doc says now we are officially at 2 cm! woah, this last little bit is going by way-fast! and, yes, that is a word. When you are 2 cm and prone to give birth at any time, you can create any word you want and the rest of the world is at liberty to accept it without question. ha. We also had an ultrasound today, and the baby's weight is estimated to be around 7 lbs now. We got some beautiful pictures - I so wish I could post them, but I just got prints this time - no CD. I will have to see if I can scan them in sometime... you know, in all of my spare time.
So you ask, how am I doing with that lengthy "to do" list that I blogged about last week... well, yeah, I am fully aware of that list and I think I might be able to mark, uh, maybe one thing off... the rest of the "to do list" is, well, er, still TO DO!!!! gotta get busy!

As we were talking about the baby, Jax picked up some of Baby Sister's 4D photos off of the counter last night (easily accessed using his handy dandy wadder - see previous post). He said, "er, Mama?!! This is Baby Sister??" "Yes," I responded. As he examined the photo a little closer, he exclaimed, "She's Brown!!!"
LOL - it is so funny how his little mind operates - so literal, and at the same time, so cute! You can see the 4D ultrasound photos in my previous post - you will notice that they are not in full-color as a regular photograph would be, but instead they do have a brownish hue.
hee hee.

1 cm - panic mode

I had another prenatal visit yesterday, and the doc says time is closing in!! 1 cm dialated could mean that baby is very close to making her arrival. I technically have about 3 1/2 weeks until my due date, and I was really planning on making it til December, but now I'm seeing that there is a possibility that we may be getting a November baby! Ooooh, this is exciting for sure! But, at the same time, I can't help but race into panic mode! There's so much left to do: paint nursery, set up furniture in nursery, organize "stuff" for baby, buy a sweet "going home" outfit, finish Christmas shopping, prepare material for my substitute, finish grading my students' term papers & prepare final exams, photos for Christmas cards, install carseat for baby, buy a baby book, pack bag for hospital... Oh, and, PICK A NAME!!!!!!! I really wanted to have some things monogrammed, but, um, I guess that is out of the question since we don't have a name.
OH my, the "to do" list could go on and on. Although I have honestly tried to stay on top of things, I'm learning that it is MUCH more difficult the second time around. I don't want to take anything away from Jax, so I've been trying to do it all, but really nothing is complete and what I'd call "ready". Ugh. Not a good feeling.
I know I could go for a while at 1 cm... but on the other hand, I may not! If you see me in the next few days, just remember how anal I am about the "little things" and you'll understand why I look so tired and STRESSED! Prayers, please! I know it will all work out... but I can't help but worry about it in the meantime. Especially the name... what are we gonna do if we can't come up with a name in time? Pressure, pressure. I don't like pressured decisions. But, it seems, that's what we're gonna get - could someone just tell Josh to just say "ok"? That would solve the name debate right then and there. Maybe instead of asking everyone what we should name the baby, maybe we should just create a poll to see who you think should "give in" - me or Josh !!! Yeah, I think I could come up with a pretty good campaign. Oh, wait, I don't have time to campaign...

Election day

As Jax and I were headed home from school/work this afternoon, we were discussing today's elections. I told him that today is a very important day, because we are electing a new President for our country. I tried to explain the voting process as simply as I could. Here's how our conversation went:
Me: I have to go vote. Do you want to help me vote?
Jax: Oh, yeah. I like boats, too.
Me: No, vote! We have to go vote for the new President.
Jax: oh, o-tay, I'll help shoe (you), Mama!
Me: Are you a Republican? or a Democrat?
Jax: huh?
Me: Are you a Republican?
Jax: naaaah-uh!!! I not a wa-pella-gwen! I a FIREFIGHTER!

Now, I'm glad that we got that all clear before we even arrived at the Voting booth! :)

Halloween

Jax had a blast this Halloween. He caught on very quickly: "trick-or-treat, thank you". For his costume he chose to be a "Firefighter". Ha! Bet you couldn't have guessed that!! So, we looked high and low for a Firefighter costume, but to no avail. Finally, we found a realistic one online. It fit perfectly, and Jax loves it! Now that Halloween is over, he can still play with his Firefighter gear while 'driving' his real firetruck at home.

We began the Halloween festivities with a "Trunk-Or-Treat" event at church, followed by a hay ride. All of the kids had a great time, and there were a LOT of them!!

Jax's class also went trick-or-treating around campus. He really enjoyed trick-or-treating with his classmates! He's still talking about it.

And, on Halloween night, we went Trick-or-treating in our community, mainly to family. It took us four hours to make six stops because Jax insisted on inviting himself into each home, and visiting for a while! He really didn't care about candy - he just wanted to visit!

Of course, what lil firefighter would skip trick-or-treating at the REAL firestation??? Jax visited for a while with "Tell-wee" (Kelly) P. and all of his real firefighter friends, too. They had plenty of candy to share, and of course, it was better than any other, because it was Firefighter-Approved!
And, baby sister! Well, even though she STILL has no official name, we made sure to include her in the Halloween fun. Her costume? A very cute and creative PUMPKIN!! Josh and Jax helped me to get her all painted up and ready to say "boo!"

Jax and his Wadder

I don't consider myself "tall" necessarily, but I am certainly no where near "short". Nevertheless, on occasion, I do need some assistance in reaching the top of the cabinets in my kitchen, etc. So, I have a handy-dandy collapsable ladder-style step-stool that I keep in the kitchen for those days. Well, Jax has recently discovered my "wadder" and he has taken it over! He INSISTS on helping out in the kitchen anytime I am in there, no matter what I am doing, and his vehicle for providing that wonderful assistance is the "wadder". He's like a mad-man, pushing that wadder all over the kitchen -- where ever I go, he's right on my heels, LITERALLY, with that wadder. As I walk from the sink to the stove, to the refrigerator, to the island countertop, to the microwave, etc., there he is right behind me with his wadder! Sometimes I'd like to chalk up my losses and get rid of that dang wadder! ha. But, since Jax insists on helping, I have decided to oblige him. Sometimes I get him to wash the pototoes or other vegetables that I may be using in my cooking endeavors, or he will push the buttons on the microwave for me, or he will stir something in a pot on top of the stove. Whatever he does to help, the wadder contributes a small part too! Most recently, Jax made muffins all by himself! Well, sorta. The wadder was there and helped, and of course I was there to direct and supervise. And, his Daddy was even in a "kitchen" mood and helped a little too - mostly taste-testing, but still, helping. Jax was so proud of himself and the muffins that he made. It was all his idea to make muffins, and he really enjoyed standing on his wadder to stir the batter and add all of the ingredients. He enjoyed eating them, too! Over the last couple of months (the post-wadder discovery period), I have come to realize that although Jax's help may mean a little more time to accomplish a task, it is well worth it, because he is learning so much! He's learning everything from number recognition (pushing number buttons on microwave), to safety (stove and oven are hot), to cleanliness (wash hands before cooking; wash vegetables before preparing; clean-up after using kitchen) to adaptation & improvision (if you can't reach the microwave, use the wadder! and if you can't reach the sink either, just push the wadder over to the sink!!).