The McGarys : Our January

Here are a couple straggler pictures from Christmas that we got from Brad's brother:

The Nativity. Dustin was the camel. I had to ride on his back across the living room.

Jayda actually laid peacefully in the manger the whole time :)

Kallie the actress. First time playing in snow!

Sledding in the backyard with cousins

This month we actually tried having Family Home Evening with Kallie (while Jayda was napping). It was of course really short because Kallie is only two and she screamed for most of what we did but I still loved that we did it. We sang opening and closing hymns and showed Kallie all the pictures of Jesus Christ we have in our home. She now recognizes the Savior and connects Him with church, nursery, and the primary songbook.

At 4 months old Jayda started sleeping 12 hours at night with 3 naps (the Baby Wise method officially works wonders for my children!) so I officially feel like I've found my groove in mothering two kids...sort of. At least in the sleeping area of life. I basically stopped running any errands that require getting out of the car with kids though.

Brad and I are training for the Gate River Run in March and it's been hard figuring out how/when/where to run. It's depressing that we spent $400 on a double jogging stroller and it turns out jogging with two kids is too heavy and I don't wanna do it. We took turns our first night of running this month and then decided to get a YMCA membership! We love it. Especially me because of their child care. The only negative is that Jayda doesn't sleep there so she basically misses her first nap...but since she sleeps so well the rest of the time I'm trying to be okay with it.

I planned on running on the treadmill at the gym twice a week and my third run would be on Saturdays so I can go outside while Brad watches the kids. Our last few Saturdays have ended up being busy so I haven't run outside in awhile and the treadmill is becoming my crutch. I don't mind it as much as I used to but that's probably because it's easier. It forces me to run at the same pace the whole time but now when I run outside it's SO hard! I ~~run~~ jog much slower outside than on a treadmill. I really hope I'll be ready for the race when the time comes. I know, it sounds like I'm training for an actual marathon but my end goal is a 5k.

Jayda got a CT scan this month for a cyst on the back of her head and I was SO nervous for that day. She couldn't eat past 6am so I woke up at 5:45, nursed her, and put her back to sleep till 8:30. The hospital recommended waking her up early and keeping her awake until the scan so she'd be really tired and fall asleep there (avoiding a sedative). For some reason I let her sleep till her normal wake time and she was actually happy as can be. We dropped off Kallie with our friends and on the way to the hospital Jayda got a little fussy but it didn't last long. After we arrived and they brought us into a room we decided to wait a few minutes till her nap time and see if she would fall asleep. She did! They turned down the lights and she fell asleep right on the long scanning bed. Even when the scan started (it was pretty noisy in my opinion) she stayed asleep and they got it done without sedating her. What a relief. I was prepared for the worst: a starving, screaming baby that needed to be sedated but then reacted adversely to the sedation, resulting in more screaming and having to reschedule the scan. Babies can surprise the heck out of me. I'm SO glad Brad was there with me. It would have been a much scarier experience if he hadn't been.

Ever since Jayda's dermatologist said she need a CT scan for her cyst I have tried to not worry until I have a reason to but just in case this cyst is malignant of some sort and ends her life prematurely I've tried to treasure the moments I have with her. I've tried to study her face, her smile, her chubby cheeks and cottage cheese thighs. I've taken pictures and videos of her movements, cooing and giggling. She's still so young and so much like Kallie it's hard to find differences in her. There are of course, some. Her ears aren't as pointy and sticking out as Kallie's yoda ears. She's not tongue-tied so she can stick out her tongue way more than Kallie has ever been able to. I feel like her eyelashes are more red but that may be just because she's young and the black ones haven't grown in yet. I can't help but wonder if we're gonna be the couple that loses a child at some point. I fear it and I hope so much that it doesn't happen but I tend to find my mind wandering into this fearful territory of my mind and all the horrible things that can possibly happen. Will we ever experience something tragic and heartbreaking?

Jayda's scan was on a Friday and her 4 month check up happened to be scheduled for the following Monday so we received the results of her scan while we were there. She was 16 lbs, 24 inches tall, and the best news of all is that her cyst is normal! It's benign and not connected to the brain in any way. That was SUCH a relief and a huge weight off my shoulders. I can't thank Heavenly Father enough for blessing her with good health. We now have three options: wait and watch to see if keeps growing, biopsy it, or have a plastic surgeon remove it completely. We decided to watch it for awhile and see what happens. This has definitely been a month of deep reflection on our plethora of blessings.

Awhile back Brad and I installed an operating system onto our phones (different than the default) but after awhile we started getting all these spam notifications so we decided to remove it and use our default one again. All these glitches were happening so we both had to factory reset our phones and I lost all my texts, settings and calendar events. I thought my calendar was completely backed up but apparently I had the wrong default setting and now everything is gone so I REALLY hope I don't miss any important appointments.

Donny & Kallie being silly

We had a primary presidency meeting at Molly's and I put Kallie down for a nap there during our meeting. After the other women left, Jayda woke up in the middle of her nap screaming bloody murder. I think she was gassy. After awhile I laid her down on the couch and Molly helped me rub the air bubbles out of her tummy so she would toot them out. It helped for a little while but eventually she started screaming again so I decided to take her home because of course I didn't have any gripe water in the diaper bag. I've learned that lesson now. But then Jayda just fell asleep on the way home. Figures. Kallie wasn't nearly as gassy as Jayda is. We call her toots. We've already gone through almost 3 bottles of gripe water.

Ya know how people usually die in three's? Well I think in our family expensive bills happen in three's. Our Malibu failed to start this month so we took it in and ended up having a ton of work done but Brad was anticipating this because some of those hadn't been done since he bought the car. Then on our way home from Orlando the A/C in the van stopped working so we took that in and ended up buying a new air compressor. Lastly I went to the dentist for the first time since I was pregnant with Kallie and learned I need some expensive work done (and that's after insurance). So...yay for us!

Brad went to a Scout Master leadership camp out this weekend. It lasted from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon so he had to miss church because obviously the Cub Scout/Boy Scout organization isn't through the church so they didn't have a problem extending through Sunday (but they did get to come home a few hours early for the Super Bowl...). I was really nervous to take both kids to church by myself but our friends the Hill's are awesome and Wayne helps out like a temporary dad when Brad's not here so it was totally fine. They just take in Kallie along with Sam so I can tend Jayda and not have to worry/chase after her.

The kids got a little snot nosed and cough-y last week but it wasn't bad and they're basically over it. I totally thought I was gonna skate by without catching anything but here I am with a runny nose, cough and a strong desire to NOT exercise this week. We'll see how I feel in the morning. It's hard for me to go to the gym without planning ahead of time because I have one window of opportunity during the day and I basically have to get ready and leave the SECOND I'm done nursing Jayda in the morning.