Our Christmas

Merry Christmas! Our Christmas was so fun this year. Cash didn't fully realize what was going on, but he got excited about Santa and "Missmiss Tees". Fox and I had so much fun getting ready and filling stockings. Christmas is so magical when you have kids, and I know it's going to get even better as our babies get older.

Here, Cash is building a gingerbread house with his Daddy. Fox got the big gingerbread pieces, and Cash got whole wheat crackers to build with!


A shot of Coco on her first Christmas. I didn't even realize she had woken up. When I went to check on her, she was just smiling away!

Our paper Christmas tree, complete with Fox's origami reindeer ornaments. We just didn't have the room in our tiny apartment for anything else!

Right after Cash's nap (hence the hair), he ran out of his room thinking that Santa had come again. Hey, if Santa comes when you sleep...


Cosette in her cute Christmas dress from Auntie Sandy:


Around four p.m., we headed over to Garland (about 25 miles away) to visit Uncle Charlie. When we got there, they had been shoveling snow all day! Logan hadn't gotten much snow that day, so I thought we would be able to drive back. However, it started really snowing shortly after we got there.
We decided to spend the night and had a lot of fun hanging out with the Smith's. They cooked us a big dinner and breakfast. I only had 2 diapers for Coco, so Lisa and I fashioned a cloth diaper out of old dishtowels and some silver safety pins. I used Cash's large diaper for the diaper cover, and it worked! Needless to say, I have learned my lesson and am putting my fashionable purse away for now. With babies, you definitely need to be prepared and there is no packing light!


We hope you all had a great Christmas!

One Month Old

Cosette will be one month old tomorrow! She is a good baby and growing quickly. She still sleeps all day and then is mostly awake from 5 pm or so until 11. Gotta work on that!
On Tuesday, she slept through the night (7 hours!!) and also smiled for the first time.
Cash is still doing great with her. He is always very gentle and loving. The only sign of jealousy he shows is when he gets hurt and wants me to hold him, when I am already holding Coco. He'll say "Hold you, mama! Baby--chair!" (translation: hold me, mama. put the baby in her bouncer!) We are really enjoying this sweet little girl. Here are some recent photos from this past week:

A hint of her smile. Who do you think she looks like?


Pensive at bathtime:


Coco loves tummy time, because she loves laying on her tummy. She doesn't even attempt to hold her head up. She's like "I'm good--I'll nap here".

Cash and Coco

Newborns look different everyday!
Here is Cosette at one week old:

Is it just me or does this girl have HUGE hands?

Multitasking. She can really get that finger up there!

Here's a random video of Cash playing next to Coco. He is still so good with her and always wants to be around her!

Cosette is Here!

Cosette Reimi Ellis was born on Wednesday, November 19, 2008. She came at 1:24 a.m., after about seven hours of active labor (we won't speak of the 13 hours of early labor that preceded that). She weighed 8 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Cosette has been our favorite girl's name for years, but it was clinched when I found out I was pregnant while in the middle of reading Les Mis.

Since we were also in Japan at the time, we decided that we would give her a Japanese middle name. Reimi (pronounced Ray-mee) was the first name that caught our attention and also turned out to be one of Fox's favorite students.
Here is the kanji for Reimi. The top character means lovely/companion and the bottom means beautiful.


Okay, on to the pics!

Her first few hours:






Coming home:


Cash loves to kiss his little sister! He has done really well with her so far and is very excited to be around "Coco".



So, everything is going good. My mom flew in and has been a lifesaver already, as has Kelsy. Cosette is quite a sleepy girl right now but is also a great eater. She looks so much like Cash when he was a newborn!

Hair and Things

Hmmm...yes. It is now past my due date, and I'm not posting about our new baby, since we don't have one yet! I keep telling Fox that she won't come until we put the car seat in the car. We are doing that tomorrow. So, we'll see. Meanwhile:

Here is a pic of my new haircut. Love how Cash is attacking his snack bowl. I got it cut a couple of weeks ago when I just couldn't stand the length of my hair anymore. I like the new cut, but now I actually have to style it. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.




On Friday night, Kels and I had fun making some girly hairclips for baby girl. The clips are literally a $5 craft project. $5 will make almost a hundred of these things! Here's cutie Kelsy modeling our handiwork:



Here's hoping my next post is a big, healthy one!

If I Don't Answer...

If I don't answer my phone, it is probably because I have turned my ringer off for my precious naptime and have forgotten to turn it back on. I am not in the hospital having my baby. Here is the proof that she's still cookin':


P.S. If you are still concerned, you can always give Kelsy a call!

Our Halloween

We had a very low-key Halloween. We went to our neighborhood trunk or treat, which was only an hour long. Cash really enjoyed looking at the scary decorations people had set up in their cars. He really didn't understand the candy part, until I let him eat a little KitKat. Never again. That boy reacts to sugar like a maniac. I think we will skip the "candy" part of Halloween from here on out, if that's possible!

Our little elephant:


Trying to sneak the pass-out candy into his bowl:


Doing the trunk or treat:


Hanging with Kels and her porch 'o pumpkins:


Kelsy's pumpkin (that is a prison break, if you can't tell):

The Pumpkin Patch

Fox, Kelsy, Cash, and I went down to Pleasant Grove to visit Dave and Amber a couple of weekends ago. It was so fun and so warm! They are such gracious hosts, too. Dave made yummy black bean enchiladas for us and took us to SubZero, where they freeze your ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

We also got to go to HeeHaws Farm, which had a corn maize, petting zoo, and pumpkin patch. It also had a haunted house for kids, which Cash loved. He gets such a kick out of anything "scawy". Best of all, Kels and I got to go to Target! Logan doesn't have one, so we had been looking forward to it for a long time.

Here we are at HeeHaws:

Cash is trying to find the perfect pumpkin:

Found and claimed!

Kelsy's crazy Frankenstein pumpkin:

And the wonderful Dave and Amber:

Music Love

Not too much has been happening here. The weather has gotten colder. Right now, it is snowing a ton, and there is a winter storm warning. So, I don't want to hear about how hot all you Californians are...or I might cry. We have five more weeks until our baby girl comes, and if it's snowing, I swear I will just stay home and have her! Never mind the fact that the hospital is 8 blocks away. I have an almost-crippling fear of driving in the snow, even if I'm just the passenger!

The latest news with us is that Cash is becoming quite opinionated about what he likes and doesn't like, which is par for the course for toddlers. For example, he loves ovals but won't have anything to do with diamonds. My mom got him a shapes puzzle, and he absolutely loves it. He would point out shapes and play with that puzzle all day if he could.

The most interesting development we've seen is Cash's love of particular music. When we were in Japan, we would check Youtube for music videos, just to keep current on popular songs in the U.S. Well, somehow we ended up watching Miley Cyrus' "7 Things" video, and Cash is obsessed! He calls it "Sha", since she says "Shhhaaa" a couple of times throughout the song. Here's the video. Now, I'm only including it so you can see the "Sha" that Miley does at the beginning and know that Cash says "Sha" on cue when he sees it. He also does the "OOooooo" part at the end.

Warning: don't watch this entire video unless you want to be sickened by tween girls cuddling teddy bears and crying over tween boys. I just want you to know what I have to endure a couple of times a day, when Cash crawls on to the computer chair, points at the screen, and asks for "Sha".


Cash, along with Fox and I, also loves the Barenaked Ladies' children's album, Snacktime:


It's a really catchy CD with cute, short songs. Cash's favorites are: Eraser and Allergies.
He also loooves Laurie Berkner's DVD:


Laurie Berkner is a famous children's artist, who has really fun, upbeat songs. Cash loves her song "Moon, Moon, Moon" and will do the hand motions along with it. I'm hoping to break Cash of his Miley addiction, now that I know that there is a Youtube specifically for toddlers, called TotLol. So far, nothing on that site has come close to replacing his favorite song, but hopefully we'll find something soon!

Cash's Haircut

Cash's hair is a magnet for everything, such as:
stickers

and oatmeal (this is right before he said "All done!" and rubbed his head with sticky hands).


So, since Fox and I don't really know how to cut little boy's hair, we just buzzed it. Don't worry--it will not stay this short! We love his little curls, but I also love that I can just wipe down his head after meals, instead of throwing him in the bath to wash out his matted hair. The last time his hair was this short was when he was 10 months old, so it feels like I have my baby back again!

I Just Saved Money on my Car Insurance!

Yes, I am that happy about it! I took an online insurance challenge for one of the survey sites I belong to and was contacted by a company here in Logan, who offered us a sweet deal on our car insurance. So, we are now paying $80 less each month. Woohoo!

Also...
I received 100 4X6s of our Japan pictures for only $3 by subscribing to Winkflash and Snapfish and getting their "50 free prints promotion". I think for those 100 pictures I paid just $3 for total shipping. I am so happy, because we have so so many pictures that need to be printed.

And...
I got a $3 full-year subscription to Wondertime, a beautifully done magazine geared towards parents of toddlers using Best Deal Magazines, which also has Vegetarian Times subscriptions for under $5.

There is also a promotion for a free 2 year subscription to Parents magazine through Value Mags that I would have taken if I hadn't just ordered a $5 subscription last month!

I also got Fox a free subscription to his favorite magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, through a promotion with Mercury Magazines.

And...
I found a site that has a ton of free redbox codes , so Fox and I have been able to see new releases for free! We just watched Baby Mama, which was pretty funny.

My mom has always said that being poor brings out your creative side, and I really think that's true. I am so grateful that we've been able to find some really neat ways to save money lately--due in large part to me being addicted to frugal living blogs online. Hooray!

A Few Photos

Here are some recent photos for you!
The cat-wrestler in action! Cash is actually hugging Jubilee but just a little too hard. What starts as a hug quickly turns into a grab and bite. So...


We tried to redirect Cash's energy into this plush Batman. We told him "Bite it! Grab it! Take it out on him!"...but instead, Cash is so affectionate and gentle with this Batman. He will literally spend a good five minutes on the floor cuddling and rolling with his Batman buddy (definitely his father's son!).


About 10 more weeks to go!


Kelsy showing off our booty from the Gardener's Market. We've gone every Saturday, and it's so fun! It's a pretty small farmer's market but always has really cheap and fresh veggies.

Welcome!

Hi, everyone! Well, our last blog, Fox and Amy in Japan, just didn't seem fitting now that we're in Utah. So, it's time to update. And I have a feeling that we'll be in Utah for quite a while, so hopefully I won't have to do this again soon.

As most of you know, we're here while Fox attends Utah State University. He is going for a Master's in American Studies with an Emphasis in Folklore (with an emphasis on pop culture with an emphasis on comic books with an emphasis on post-911 hero worship in comic books--whew!). He also has a job teaching two sections of freshman English and is making blood money on the side (that's plasma, people!).

Amy (well, that's me, so I will just say "I" from now on) is busy keeping Cash away from the cats and trying to live on a very limited budget. I am also growing a baby girl, who will make her appearance in November. In the meantime, I am trying to figure out a new hobby, besides doing health research and the occasional business venture online. Japan has cured me of my movie and magazine addiction, so I am going to attempt to sew, I think. And take guitar lessons, if I can find a guitar teacher who wants to learn the piano.

Cash has just starting talking--a lot! He loves to babble and sing. He'll repeat any words you say and loves to point out colors. He is now a Raffi fan, thanks to the Logan library's gigantic children's CD collection. Cash is working on anger management, specifically abuse of kitties. He's making progress! He is also now an occasional cloth-diaper wearer, as his mama decides if it's actually cheaper to cloth diaper (verdict is still out, since I have to use coin laundry).
So, we look forward to keeping you updated as we brave our first winter in Logan!