The First Few Days

Although Jake posted some pictures a few days ago of the newest addition to the Farnsworth family, I have been looking forward to making a post of what our life has been like the past few days and posting some pictures of our bug-a-boo. First I want to say thank you all for your comments, emails, and Facebook messages. It's fun to have friends and family to share our excitement with.

So, here's the story of mylabor for anyone who is interested. On Monday night I started to feel some aching along with my braxton hicks contractions, but I didn't really think anything of it at the time. Jake and I ended up falling asleep on the couch and woke up at about 1 am to go to bed. I noticed that the aching that I was feeling was getting a little stronger and seemed to be coming and going in a pattern, so at 1:30 am we started to time the contractions. We timed the contractions for 2 hours, and from the start of keeping track of the contractions they were between 2.5-4 minutes apart and were lasting about 50-60 seconds. I really wasn't sure if these were actually labor contractions or not so we decided to go to the hospital and get checked out. It was a classic labor scenerio--driving to the hospital at 4:00 in the morning.

Since I was still able to talk through the contractions I totally expected to be dialated to maybe 1 cm and then be sent back home, but I was actually 5 cm! Although I could handle the contractions just fine, I decided to get a half epidural when I was 7 cm dilated and get some rest. Eli was then born at 11:28 am.

We had a great Christmas gift this year because we got to bring home Eli from the hospital on Christmas morning. Here is a picture of him coming home:

Then his Grandma Criddle came arrived to say hello and help us out...and thank goodness that she came! We had a bit of a rough, fussy first 24 hours at home. He would only sleep for about 10-15 minutes at a time. But now he has settled down and is so fun to be around.


Here are a few pictures that we took this morning.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Thanks for all your Christmas cards and family updates.

Introducing...

Elijah Kent Farnsworth. Born 7lbs 3 ounces, at 11:28am on December 23rd, 2008. Both Mom and baby are doing well. More details forthcoming.

I Love Christmas

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!  I love Christmas.   Whether I'm making Christmas cookies, Jake is puttin up the Christmas lights, or we're enjoying music at the various Christmas programs that occur every year, Christmas always makes me happy.

Here are a few pictures to show you how we have celebrated so far.  For our Relief Society Christmas program we made the prettiest Christmas Tree cupcakes as dessert and table decorations.  Below is a picture of one of the tree cupcakes, as well as a picture of one of the tables with all the trees on it.  We made 80+ of these cupcakes.  Tedious, but well worth it.

And then Jake put up the Christmas lights and hung our christmas stockings.  We even have a few Christmas presents from family by the fireplace.

Let's hope this is the last preggie picture that I post.  I'm almost 39 weeks and am about ready to pop.  I've been really lucky to still get good nights of sleep and feel pretty good.  Hopefully the next post will be of our little guy!

Everything Comes in Eights (Tagged By Mitzi)

8 TV Shows

1. Heroes
2. The Office
3. The Today Show
4. Martha Stewart
5. Biggest Loser
6. West Wing
7. Everybody Loves Raymond
8. Oprah

8 things I did yesterday

1. Went for a walk
2. Worked ALL day in Excel for work
3. Went to tithing settlement
4. Took a shower
5. Finished the book The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute
6. Started the book On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam
7. Ate fried rice
8. Laundry

8 places I love to eat

1. Cafe Rio (if only they had them in Texas)
2. Olive Garden
3. Zachary's Pizza
4. Fresh Choice
5. Fentons
6. Barney's
7. Max's Diner
8. Ottavios

8 things I am looking forward to

1. The day off for Thanksgiving tomorrow
2. Eating fabulous food with the Andrus family for Thanksgiving
3. Seeing what our baby Farnsworth looks like
4. Our Relief Society Christmas Program
5. Seeing Christmas decorations around town
6. The end of Jake's first semester in grad school
7. Having family come for Eli's baby blessing
8. The sun staying up longer at night.

8 things on my wish list

1. Jogging stroller
2. Piano
3. Books
4. A house
5. More time to hang out with Jake
6. A gym membership
7. Creamery ice cream
8. Cute baby clothes

8 people I tag

1. Amy
2. Emily
3. Kathryn
4. Jessica
5. Reed
6. Carly
7. Courtney
8. Heidi

Belly Shots (a week ago at 35 weeks)

I'm Going Crazy

Jake concurs that I am going crazy.

The first story to illustrate this point is the clock story. I did the laundry on Saturday night, and let's just say there was a little mishap. Before starting the load of colored clothes, I picked up a few shirts and pants that were laying right next to Jake's side of the bed. I then continued to fill the washer with the colored clothes and begin the washing cycle. I came back an hour later to put the clothes in the dryer. As I lifted the last few items of clothes from the washer, I heard a "clink" sound. I looked down to find that I had washed Jake's alarm clock and its life was over. Normally this wouldn't be a huge deal since you can just go the store and buy a replacement, but unfortunately this was no ordinary alarm clock. Jake had this alarm clock since before his mission about 6 years ago and has never had to replace the battery. For the past year or two Jake has been telling me how much he loves his alarm clock and how curious he was to see how long it could go on one battery. Alas, Jake shall never know. It's like that commercial with the tootsie pop...how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop...the world will never know.

This second story happened no more than 20 minutes ago. Yesterday Jake and I cooked creamy potato soup for the first time since it is one of the soups that we are going to serve at our Christmas Workshop Enrichment. We had company over to try out the soup as well, and it was a hit. Jake and I also made a roast that we were going to eat for lunches throughout this week. Well I had the delicious roast for lunch today, so I decided that I would have some left over soup for dinner. I got out the soup and dished it into a bowl to heat it up. I noticed the soup had thickened up quite a bit, but thought that this kind of soup must just thicken up when kept in the refrigerator. Once it was out of the microwave I grabbed a spoon and started chowing down. It was definitely not tasting as good the second day. After a few spoonfuls I was getting really full. I was so confused how I was able to eat 1.5 bowls of the soup yesterday. Then it dawned on me...Jake made gravy for the roast!!! I had eaten about 5 large spoonfuls of thick, hot gravy, which I would guess was about 1/3 cup.

Where is my mind these days!

Nighttime Attack

Quite a while ago I wrote a blog post about Jake talking in his sleep. Well, recently Jake has started a new nighttime tradition--whacking me with his elbow. Recently I have woken up in the middle of the night to find Jake with both hands behind his head and my head a few inches away from his elbow. This has resulted in a few blows to the head. Any advice in self defense while sleeping?

A Months Worth of News

Yes, it has been a while since our last post, so here is a post to update you on what's been going on.

Jake has been settling into his classes. The workload is a little (just a little) less daunting than a few weeks ago. He has his second midterm next week which means the weekend is strictly business. No fun and games.

I've been keeping rather busy as well. Three or so weeks ago I was released as the Relief Society secretary and called as the Enrichment Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. Yikes! I spent that week studying the Martha Stewart website for crafts knowing that a Christmas Workshop was coming up. I think Martha was brought to this world to help Enrichment leaders. Luckily, I came to find out that all the crafts had already been decided. Thank goodness for an on-the-ball president!

Has everyone been enjoying Heroes?! Jake and I got addicted to the series this past summer. I have to admit that I am so very confused after this last week's episode, but it is still so good.

Here is the baby news...

Growth!

He is definitely getting bigger. When I'm sitting down at work I now feel him kicking into my ribs. I'm also feeling big body movements from him rather than just kicks...It's beginning to get cramped in there! I also passed my glucose test. I have to admit that I thought the drink actually tasted pretty good:)...until I got a nauseous hot flash 40 minutes after downing the drink. Blah.

That's it for now. Hopefully we will be better bloggers in the coming weeks. Hope you all are doing well!

Watch Out For That Bus!

For the past few weeks every morning has began with a nice, relaxing walk. But on Tuesday my walk took a turn for the worse. I had been walking for 45 minutes when I came to a street with a slow curve. All of the sudden a school bus took the curve of the street too slow and totally hit a mailbox. This mailbox was surrounded by brick and had a heavy concrete piece on top just like the picture to the right. The metal of the bus hit the metal of the mailbox and sparks went flying. Then I saw the whole concrete top fly off in one chunk onto the sidewalk with brick debris hurtling through the air. If I had walked ten or fifteen paces ahead, I would have been knocked out cold. But don't worry, I'm just fine and there were no kids in the school bus. I wasn't even in shock because it was as if I saw the whole thing happen in slow motion.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the bus driver didn't tell the owner of the mailbox what happened. I saw the bus come to a skid and then speed up around the corner out of sight. As I came to the corner I saw the bus driver taking his time looking at a scratch on the bus. I decided to go back to the house by the mailbox and tell them what happened, and I even remembered the bus number so that they could report what happened.

Crazy bus driver!

Long Week

It has been a long week. Not so much for me, but for Jake. Jake started classes this week at UNT and along with that he is a TA for two classes, went to a Young Men's activity, and gave a talk in church. Busy fellow my husband is.

I on the other had had a wonderfully relaxing week. After seeing how fast the numbers of the scale grew after my doctor's appointment last Monday, I decided that it is time for me to stop pretending that I exercise and actually get out there and move. I'm now in a routine of doing my pregnancy video work out in the morning for 20 min and then going on an hour walk at night after it cools down some. I found some pregnancy podcasts from a male friend who wishes to remain anonymous called PregTASTIC, and it has been fun to listen to them as I'm walking. I recommend listening to them for any first time mom-to-be's since you can download them free, and it is just like listening to a bunch of girlfriends chatting around a table.

Whoever invented the three day weekend is a genius. All day I've had the feeling that I was going back to work tomorrow, but I have the wonderful realization that I not only have work off but I will also have Jake home all day. We took advantage of this spare time in Jake's schedule yesterday by putting together our baby crib that arrived this week (see below). The bedding also arrived, so all we need now is a mattress, mattress cover, and sheets for the bed.


My friend Kathryn threw an Upper-Case Living party on Saturday that threw me into craft mode. To give a plug for Kathryn, she sells and does demonstrations for decorative lettering that can be put on walls, tiles, wood blocks, etc. Right after the party I went to our local craft store and got so excited since I feel like I haven't done anything artsy since high school. So, I got some wood blocks, paint, animal stencils, dressor knobs, and ribbon and made the cute B A B Y sign that you can see hanging above the crib in the picture above. It was such a blast to make this. I stayed up way too late last night wanting to finish the project. You can see a close up of the final product below. Thanks for the motivation Kathryn!


My mom decided that it's time for another belly shot. Jake took the pictures below today, and I'm at about 5 months 1 week--24 weeks exactly.

Jake thinks the picture below makes my belly look like my rear end. Thanks hunny. Very supportive.


My week ended today with a new calling as the secretary in the Relief Society presidency and a sacrament meeting talk assignment for two weeks from today. Kickin' it into high gear. Bring it on.

A Trip Into Dallas

Jake and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary this past Wednesday. Happy anniversary Jake! Since he was gone from 4pm-2am helping to work on an Eagle project on the day of our anniversary, we decided to celebrate yesterday by going into Dallas for the first time.

Seeing that we are cheap, we first visited the free Pioneer Park that's right in the middle of the city. This park had a bunch of staged bronze statues of cattle. How can you not take some really silly pictures while you're there?

Although we went to Dallas thinking that we would park the car and take a walking tour around the city, we came to find out that it isn't really a walking city and there isn't much to see for free. So...we made it a short car tour on the way to the mall. As you can see, I got caught by the camera in the Baby Gap store. What can I say?


We managed to do all this by noon, so we went to the Cheesecake factory for lunch. Oh my wow! We started our binge by ordering avocado egg rolls and then proceeded with our delicious entrees below. I had the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp and Jake had the jambalaya. We then ordered cheesecake to take home (key lime cheesecake for me and tuxedo cheesecake for Jake). I don't even want to think about how many calories were in that meal. Thank goodness I can blame any weight gain on the pregnancy.


We finished off our anniversary celebration as chaperons for the Stake's youth Saturday Night Dance. We started off as hall monitors until another two couples from our ward came as chaperons and brought us onto the dance floor. Not to boast, but my man has moves. All in all, it was a really fun time. It's nice to finally go to one of those dances and not wonder if you're going to be asked to dance. Thanks for a great night Jakey!

Our Ultrasound!!!

So I thought I would use this ultrasound as an opportunity to assume the time honored tradition of being the annoying father with the camera in every one's face. If we start the kid early maybe it won't know any different. So here's some video with a few directors comments...

Well we won't embarrass the child here with any obscene images but let's just say it was definitively made known that we will be having a boy. That's right, our own little man-cub. Someday he'll thank his dear old dad for not posting pictures of his winky online. That kind of stuff can keep you from getting jobs. Here's another video...

So we got a lot of other little videos but they weren't as good for distinguishing body parts. We did get a little recording of his heartbeat which was lots of fun. If you want us to send or post more of the videos, demand it and we just may comply. They're mostly of stuff like femurs and internal organs. Knowing us though, we'll probably be posting more pictures in a blatant and gratuitous attempt to show off our kid. Anyways, here's his heartbeat...

That's it for now, but rest assured we'll post some more later.

Jake

"It's a.....

...lizard!"

At least, that's what Jo said last night when she walked into the kitchen to find this little guy scurrying around. But for those of you hoping to hear some more important news, I promise the info is forthcoming. We took some good pictures and video that we'll be posting soon. In the mean time, just try not to be envious of all the wildlife we have in our apartment.

The Long Awaited Pictures

Now for the long awaited pictures of our apartment and my slowly growing belly (plus some other Farnsworth happenings).

As you can see, it's not too different a set-up from our past apartment. A few additions are the tall bookshelf, the fireplace that's to your left, and REAL CARPET (which has just been vacuumed as you can tell).

And then there is our favorite new addition to our home. Yes, it's our dining room table. For three years we used a $9 D.I. table with one adopted chair, so this table is a welcome addition. Some not very clever person who designed our apartment decided to put carpeting in the dining room area, so we got a cool bamboo rug to catch the crumbs...one day a dog will help with this as well. Also notice the cool light above the table. The apartment came with a chandelier that wasn't quite our style, so we got this cool lamp thing at IKEA for cheap-o. The coolest thing about it is that the entire chandelier that came with this apartment is actually still inside the lamp. Good engineering Jake! Our first and only dinner guests so far were the missionaries that had dinner with us tonight.



And then there's me. This is a picture of my belly today at 20 weeks. Growing slowly, but I'm okay with that. I've been feeling our little Farnsworth kick more and more lately. It's still little love taps--I can't imagine what it will feel like in a few months when the little guy/girl has more of a soccer foot. I've been trying to get Jake to feel the movement I feel, but the baby is usually totally still whenever Jake puts his hand on my tummy...until yesterday. Jake felt the baby kick...or head butt...or whatever it was. Hurray!
The other Farnsworth news of the day is that Jake got a calling as Priest Quorum Adviser. There's about 30 Young Men in the ward, and I think quite a few of them are priests, so Jake will get to have a great crew of young guys to work with. I think it will be a great experience helping these young men prepare for missions and see them come back (we should be in Denton long enough for that). I still have no calling, but the bishop commented today that it won't be long until I do. For now I'm just fine being the official cookie baker for the Priest Quorum.

Getting Settled

How y'all doin'? After a LONG two days of driving, we finally made it to Denton, TX a week ago. The move went surprisingly well. By now we've unpacked all of our boxes except for a few boxes with random items.

We arrived in Denton early afternoon last Friday, and we were very proactive the first day we were here. We bought our washer and dryer, dining room table, and new desktop computer within 24 hours of arriving. It was a busy two days. We'll post pictures of our new apartment setup once we take some photos.

I also had my first prenatal visit here. My doctor seems nice (for the third time, thanks for the recommendation Kathryn!). Unlike the doctor I was seeing in Provo who didn't allow birth plans, this doctor actually asked me what my birth plan was and encouraged me to think about what I want my labor experience to be like. I'm going to open up the flood gates with this question, but any advice or suggestions of things to look into from you experienced birth experts? Some exciting news is that we will get to have the ultrasound that lets us know the gender of our little kiddo a week from tomorrow. I will definitely let you all know the news when we find out.

We miss all of you who are back in Provo. We had a great experience in Wymount and love all the friends we made there. Good memories of game nights with the Crocketts and Hawkes, walks and talks with Susie, late night conversations with the Robinsons, our first Thanksgiving turkey eatten with great people, eating anything chocolate with the Andersons, dinners with Aunt Helen and the Pahulus, visiting teaching Jessica, 4th of July and many more times with the Rogers, and so many many other fun times. Thanks for being our friends. We love you all.

Pretending I'm Tagged

I'm sitting here bored on a Sunday night and decided to tag myself.

What was I doing 10 years ago:
I think I was in Poland for a Piedmont Choirs tour.

What is on my to-do list for today?
Plan a Sunbeam lesson, go to church, and cook dinner. Thrilling.

What are 3 quirky habits of mine?
1. I sometimes eat cereal in a mug.
2. I like to eat sandwiches with a fork. It helps keep things from getting in my teeth.
3. I sing made up songs to Jake on the fly. "Jakey" usually is one of the words in the song.

3 Things You might not know about me:
1. I still wear a retainer at night because I don't want my teeth to get messed up.
2. I won my husband over with flirtation.
3. I've been to Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Ireland, Scotland, China, Russia, Taiwan, and the Caribbean.

Four Movies/TV shows I love: (I'm changing it to 6)
1. Extreme Makeover: House Edition
2. Oprah
3. House
4. Father of the Bride
5. West Wing
6. So You Think You Can Dance

Four Books I Love:
1. Books by CS Lewis
2. Books by Orson Scott Card
3. Harry Potter
4. Kitchen Table Wisdom

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Cashier at the BYU Creamery
2. Front Desk Receptionist (University Advisement Center, BYU)
3. Secretary for the Elementary Music Education office
4. Deaf-blind Service Provider

Five Places I've Lived:
1. Piedmont, California
2. Provo, Utah
3. ??
4. ??

Five of My Favorite Foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Cobb salad
3. Cafe Rio steak salad
4. Pad Thai

Five Bloggers I'm Tagging:
1. Melanie
2. Carly
3. Heidi
4. Emily
5. Ashley

Things that will be different by Christmas 2008

1. Living in Texas
2. Jake starting at UNT
3. Having a dishwasher
4. Picking up a Texas accent
5. Having a newborn baby all our own

Criddle Family Reunion

So this past week has been busy for Jo and me. First we headed to Rochester to see Jo's brother Reed graduate from his masters program and then spent some time seeing some church history sites and chilling at her oldest brother's home in Syracuse. Joanna and I were designated as the trip photographers/historians so we have plenty of pictures. Incidentally, they're mostly of Jo's family and not of us. You can still get a feel of the trip though. We had lots of fun. So, without further ado... THE CRIDDLE FAMILY REUNION 2008!!!

Our journey begins at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. The first story of the museum is all interactive and is basically designed for the kids to goof off in. The second story is full of glass cases showcasing old and new toys of distinction. By the way, it's kind of weird to see a Barbie in a museum.

Here's a cool aquarium at the entrance of the museum. We won't bother naming all the people in the pictures because if you're interested in Jo's relatives you probably already know who they are.


Here are some of the other attractions in the museum...

This room was built at an angle so while it looked like everything was normal when you were inside, you were actually standing at an angle to the ground. Joanna's brother here is actually standing straight up. It was very disorienting.


And here's Jo in the crazy kaleidescope tunnel...


And a few more pictures that we'll let you figure out on your own...
























And as the finale to the Strong Museum of Play, we visited their butterfly atrium. Talk about a serene experience. You walk into this hot, humid indoor garden with hundreds of butterflies all around. If I ever become an extravagant millionaire, I'm getting one of these.


And so ends our first installment of the Criddle family reunion. We'll let you digest this and post some more pictures later. Till then...

Denton, TX

This past weekend Jake and I went to visit Denton to see where we will be living for the next 5 years. I will give you a personal tour. First came the plane ride...

Here is a view of the pretty campus...

Jake in front of the Administration building (I think).

Joanna by the fountains.

Jake in front of Terrill Hall, the psychology building (Jake's future "home").

Below is the quaint, classy downtown area.

The old courthouse in the center of town.

Denton's downtown square that encircles the old courthouse.

And last of all is a picture of the apartment we will be living at. The "pet" cockroach below this picture was not found in this apartment, but they were in quite a few other apartments we looked at:). I decided that I would prefer dog as a pet. Pest control please.