CHRISTMAS IN NEW MEXICO

This year we spent Christmas in Farmington New Mexico with C.J.'s parents and Grandparents. The decision to go was not easy. My doctor strongly discouraged us from going because of my preterm labor. If I did happen to have the baby in Farmington she would have to go straight to the NICU and would have to stay in the NICU in Farmington for at least 6 weeks. For us this would mean that I would have to live in New Mexico until the baby was out of the NICU while C.J. continued to work in St. George and Jaysa would have to spend most of her time at Grandmas house in Vegas. So the entire family would be seperated for the 6 weeks till the baby was healthy enough to leave. Our insurance would also not cover the baby if we had her down here so we took a big risk coming down. I know that a lot of people think we are crazy for coming down when I am on bed rest and so close to labor but C.J. and I prayed about it and felt really comforted that I would not have any problems while down here. After decideding to go we loaded up the couch cushions in the Durango so that I could lay down the whole drive and took off. I am happy to say that my contractions have been minimal and we have really enjoyed being with family for the holidays.

PACKING UP TO GO

Dad packed for everyone. We had to make sure we had enough warm clothes cause it was supposed to be pretty cold!

I love this cute beanie. I bought it at a garage sale!

"RUBOLF"

This is Jaysa and C.J. singing Rudolf the red nose reindeer. (Jaysa calls him Rubolf)

CHRISTMAS EVE

The Ferguson's have a tradition of opening one Christmas present on Christmas Eve and its always a new pair of P.J.'s. Jaysa got Dora P.J.'s!

Aunt Kindra and Jaysa

We put out some cookies for Santa but Jaysa is still a little young and didn't understand that they were for Santa. She thought they were for her and starting eating them!

She drank all Santa's milk.

She really enjoyed eating Santa's milk and cookies

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Jaysa opened up the bedroom door to find Jaysa's stocking that Santa filled

She brought it right in the room and started pulling everything out.

She loved eating all the candy.

Here is a video of her playing with some of the toys that were in her stocking.

More stocking fun.

OPENING PRESENTS

Jaysa had the most presents under the tree! She loved opening all of them and kept getting distracted every time she opened a new one.

Jaysa loves the Fur Real animals. My mom got her two Fur Reals for Christmas this year. One was a monkey and one was a dalmation that she has already named Pongo.

We also gave her two of those little zoo zoo hamsters that roll around on the floor. I guess they are really popular right now and all the kids love them right now. We found them at a garage sale still in the box and everything! We got four of them for 10 dollars! At the store one of them is 10 dollars.

She calls the hamster a mouse

She doesnt like it much when it starts to roll away from her. She thinks its going to get away from her.

We got her a little makeup set since she loves to put make up on so much.

and Nanna and Pappa got her a bee pillow pet

and a dressup outfit with some pretty jewlery

After giving the Jaysa her jewlery Nana said "you wouldnt believe what I had to do to get all those beads" Ha Ha she would.

Here is Pongo! This has been her favorite toy so far.

I wish I wouldn't have cut her off in this picture but she moved at the last second. Look at that cute face! You can see how much she loves her doggie. Jaysa also got some coloring books, a paint set, about 20 new dvds that were bought from a garage sale, (the lady only wanted .25 cents a piece for them so we bought them all) some chalk, some magnetic letter and numbers that go on the fridge and some glow in the dark stars that we will put on her ceiling. She got a few other things but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

Here is C.J. with a few things I got him. I got him that goofy hat he loved so much when we went to Bass Pro along with a beanie he tried on and really like. He also got a Bass Pro gift card and some of his favorite cologne

Jaysa playing with Daddy's hat.

Ms. Kindra in her cute grandma sweatshirt she got out of Sandy's closet

PLAYING IN THE SNOW

Pappa, Kade, Kindra, C.J. and Jaysa took off to find some snow to play in.

This was Jaysa's first time seeing real snow and being able to play in it. C.J. said she HATED it cause it was too cold.

Dad and Jaysa

Look at that cute girl!

Jaysa and her Shrek baby. She loves the movie Shrek. We were at a garage sale and let her get out cause there were a lot of toys. She found the three Shrek babies and would not let go of them. It was love at first sight for her so of course we bought them. She has been carrying them around ever since.

Kindra and Pappa

C.J., Jaysa, Kade and Pappa. Jaysa looks so much like C.J. when he was a baby. I have never had anyone tell me that she looks like me except for in this picture. She looks just like me when I was little.

Jaysa looks so cute in her outfit. I should also point out C.J's outfit because he is so proud of it and thinks he looks really good in it. He found this jacket at Savers and I hated it. I didnt want him to buy it but he was in love with it. Later when we were shopping at the mall he found this awesome hat that matched perfectly. He loves it!

Jaysa's first taste of snow

It looks like she likes it.

C.J. said Jaysa would not even move when he put her down in the snow. She just stood there and whined.

Even though she didn't like it C.J. said it was still fun to take her and watch her reaction.

Our tired little girl and Aunt Kindra.

SITTING ON THE BIG GIRL POTTY!

Its really obvious when Jaysa has to go potty. She starts walking hunched over and says poopy, poopy.

Nana has been taking her to the potty when she says she has to go and even though most of the time she has already gone in her diaper Nana empties her diaper into the big potty and sits Jaysa on it and lets her look at her poop in the big potty. Jaysa really hated sitting on the big potty before we came cause she was scared she would fall in but she is getting used to it now and doesnt mind it. I am hoping we can continue this when we get home because she is really making progress but I am afraid it might have to wait till the baby comes.

CHRISTMAS EVENING

I dont know what most families do Christmas evening, they probably read the Christmas story and do some more spiritual things but this year we... played Dare Uno! I will explain it a little bit. First you have everyone write a dare or two and put it in a bowl. Then you play a round of Uno but you dont stop when the first person goes out. You play till everyone goes out but one person and that person has to draw a dare out of the bowl. I didn't play but it was so fun to watch. I haven't laughed like that in a really long time.

WARNING! SOME OF THESE VIDEOS ARE GROSS!

EATING A CONCAUTION

Sandy lost so she had to pick a dare out of the bowl. Her dare was to let Kinda and Kade put together a concacution of whatever they wanted and she had to take a bite of it.

TASTY ARMPIT

Sandy lost again and had to lick C.J.'s hairy armpit!

WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD BOOGERS GONE?

I thought this was the worst. Kade lost and had to eat one of my boogers! I didn't have any really good ones you can't even see it on the camera so he got lucky.

C.J. really got lucky and picked easy dares. He had to kiss my belly and say "I love Paisley" ten times (Paisley is what we are thinking about naming the baby... Paisley Lyn Ferguson) and kiss Papa Big, his Granddad's cheek and tell him he was the best Papa in the world. I was hoping he would get a really gross dare.

COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS

7 MONTHS

This has been a very interesting week for us. We have been in Vegas for the past two weeks. C.J. had appointments down there and we stayed over the weekend to babysit while my parents went on a small vacation to a resort in Arizona. Tuesday I came back up to St. George to take my last psychological statistics exam, which I passed! (Overall I made a B+ in the class! I have never worked that hard in one class before. I have been awaiting the day that I would be done with that class since I started the semester in August! I am so grateful it is over and that I never have to take another math class again! ) Sorry that was a little off track but I am just so happy its over that I had to mention it. Back to the story, so I stayed here in St. George that night because I had a doctors appointment the next day. At the appointment I mentioned to the doctor that I was having a lot of contractions that were starting to feel a little crampy. He decided to run a few tests and told me he would call me with in the hour with the results. Not thinking anything was wrong I headed back to Vegas and was in Logandale (halfway) when I got the call about the results. He told me that I needed to turn around immediately and come straight back to the Labor and Delivery to be monitored. He explained that my body was producing the enzymes that pregnant women produce just before going into labor and that it was very likely that I would go into labor in the next two weeks. So of course I turned around and headed to the hospital where they ran more tests, monitored my contractions and gave me some steroids that would help the baby's lungs develop faster. The steroids would hopefully give the baby a better chance of having fully functioning lungs if she was born this early. After a few hours they released me but told me I had to come in the next day for another shot. My doctor also told me I was not to be doing anything active and put me on some medicine that is supposed to help control my contractions. After getting the second shot I drove back to Vegas and just tried to relax until it was time to head back home. My contractions continued but I didn't think to much about it because they have been going on for about a month now. The car ride home was a little difficult. I could tell that my contractions were becoming more consistent. After getting home I layed on the couch and began to time the contractions. I was having painful contractions every 4 to 6 mins so we packed our bags and got ready to go in to the hospital. I was really concerned at this point. I knew if I had the baby now she would only weigh 2 to 3 lbs and could have some serious health complications. I took my medicine that was supposed to slow the contractions and said a really quick prayer in my head that my contractions would stop and that I would be able to carry the baby for a little bit longer. Before I knew it the contractions got less painful and slowed down enough that I knew I wasn't in labor anymore. We feel so lucky that the Lord answered our prayers and that I didn't have the baby. Friday night turned out to be a really close call and we are hoping I wont go into labor again any time soon. I am now restricted to the couch/bed and my wonderful husband has been waiting on me hand and foot, keeping the house clean, and caring for Jaysa. I feel very blessed at the moment that I have not had this baby and that it can hopefully continue to grow and develop inside my belly instead of in the NICU at the hospital. I am also very blessed to have such an amazing husband who is so willing and capable to take over both of our responsibilities and has such an amazing attitude about it. Thank you C.J. I love you!

Since I am stuck on the couch I thought I would get some blogging done.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I know this is not a good picture but its the only one I have of Jaysa and Santa right now. Jaysa is terrified of Santa but she doesn't cry when she sits on his lap as long as I am close. I think she is so brave because she is so in love with the idea of Santa. When we first taught her about Santa she would sing "Santa, Santa, Santa... over and over again. It is the cutest thing.

This year has been really fun because she is able to understand all the traditions and gets so excited when we talk about Santa or reindeer or going to see Christmas lights.

For Family Home Evening we went to the Bass Pro Shops in Vegas (C.J.'s idea) It was actually a lot of fun to take Jaysa around and look at all the animals they had.

Most of these pictures are taken on C.J.'s phone so they are not great. Sorry.

Jaysa loved wearing this hat! She wore it the whole time we were there.

Jaysa enjoyed touching all the animals. She really liked this "baby bear" is what she called it.

Dad and Jaysa. C.J. LOVED this hat and wanted it so bad. I don't know if you can tell but its got little flaps that go over the ears. I think its a little goofy. It's Carhartt though so I think thats all that matters to him.

Dad Jaysa and the Lions

They had a full size giraffe! Jaysa was so scared to stand under it because it was so big! I thought this was one of the coolest things ever.

Jaysa and Daddy by the Christmas tree.

I put all these pictures of them by the tree cause she has a different face in each picture and its so cute!

She looks like a little mouse right here.

Our favorite one. Ha Ha such a funny face.

CHRISTMAS BELLS

My mom has these bells that play Christmas songs and Jaysa loves them. I put this video on here because I love the face Jaysa makes. I love how she puts her hand over her mouth and laughs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

December 11th was C.J.'s 27th birthday! We didn't have much planned. I gave him about 200 dollars to buy whatever he wanted and we went out to a really nice Korean restaraunt. Korean food is really not my favorite but it was worth it to watch C.J. enjoy all the crazy foods he used to eat.

This is Jaysa helping Dad blow out the candels on his cake.

Jaysa loved blowing the candles out. It will be fun to watch her blow out her own birthday candles this year

Here is me and Jaysa playing with all my Mom's poinsettia flowers. They had clips on the backs of them so she thought they were bows and started putting them in my hair. We had fun playing dress up with them.

Watermelon!

Jaysa loves eating watermelon straight out of the rhine. She is not very good at it but she is so determined.

JAYSAS FAVORITE TOY

Jaysa's favorite toy is C.J.'s phone. She knows how to work it better than me! She fell asleep playing with it!

So cute!

Jaysa has also found another favorite toy in the new babies car seat.

She thinks it her chair and its her favorite place to sit. She will be so disappointed when the new baby comes.

CAMDEN

This is my little nephew Camden. He LOVES to feed the dogs his lunch. He has the cutest squeal I just had to get it on camera.

Here is just another video of Jaysa dancing to her favorite commercial. We have started putting her in undies for like 30 mins at a time. She really likes to wear them. I dont want to push her to the point that she doesn't want to learn so we are slowly working on her potty training skills.

MEAN MOM

Ok this might seam a little cruel. Jaysa makes the cutest face when she is trying to stop crying I love it and it makes me laugh every time. She was crying because I took away a Tums she found on the floor. She thought it was candy.