Cormac's Room

Let me take you on a tour of Cormac's room. We had some fabulous pink carpet and pink curtains that had to go. Sorry this picture is blurry, but this is the best picture that I have. Here is the before:

And the after:
Cormac's closet wall is shared by the bathroom. As you may recall if you followed our bathroom posts from when we moved in (click here), that wall had to be torn out due to dry rot.
We haven't actually finished the closet yet, so you don't get to see pictures, but because of that little fact we had to tear out the carpet and a good chunk of the floor and wall.
This is where Ammon started ripping and tearing. Once he had finished ripping things out, he replaced the floor, and the carpet layers came back to put down something more friendly to little boys.

And now this is where Cormac has his little domain. At some future date I hope to have an actual changing table. We've just been using Cormac's Pack & Play. The giant bean bag is a hit:
I am grateful to my Aunt Harriet for donating that fabulous dresser to our cause. I'm hoping to refinish it one day to match Cormac's crib, but it is just one thing on a list of many:
The quilt on the wall is the one that my mom made for Cormac. Isn't it sweet?
Cormac feels like king of the house. He is the only member of our family that has four walls and door. Ammon and I have yet to finish our room. Well, I guess Sandy and Charlie have four walls and a screen door. But Cormac gets to be in the house, unlike our other children.
I still need to make curtains and paint some trim for Cormac's room. And as I mentioned the closet isn't done yet. But other than that we are finished and enjoying having a place to play, read, sing, and sleep for our little one.

P.S. In regards to the shelves in the office, I know the originals looked nice in the picture, but they weren't. They were very poorly constructed of very cheap materials. They wouldn't have held up 5 books. And it really is an improvement to have them gone despite the picture making them look so good.

My First

For the past few years (or more) I have spent every Mother's day Sunday avoiding the young men who were handing out Mother's day gifts to all the women over the age of 18. At first it was because I was not even old enough to be a mother despite being in Relief Society. Then I started to avoid it because I so desperately wanted to be a mother and was not. Those last few years were hard. Mother's day was just a reminder of what I felt was already missing in my life. And then This happened:

Now Six months later I stare in awe and wonder at the mothers I have known in my life. I never appreciated my mother until I had a baby. Oh, I can say that I thought I appreciated my mom, but I had no clue. No clue at all what she went through for me. The week Cormac was born she was there for me. She sent me to bed and would hold my baby for me so I could get some sleep. She packed up our entire apartment by herself because Ammon had to work and I was too tired to do more than sit and stare in horror at the task before me. She fed us that whole week too. And then she helped me get moved in. She tirelessly scrubbed my nasty kitchen and helped me to get established enough in my dumpy home that I could at least somewhat function. And then she called often to make sure I was holding up and to offer moral support. What a woman. I wouldn't have made it those first few weeks without her.

But that isn't all. I look back over my life and am humbled by the mother that I had. And I want to know how on Earth she kept her house so clean. Cormac can't even crawl yet and I can't keep my house clean. I could go on, but it would get long fast. And really, I just want her to know that I love her and am so thankful for her. Especially these last few months. It is so comforting to call her up on the phone. She doesn't judge. She encourages me. She is the reason that I want to be a better mother, and she believes that I can be a better mother, and that's motivating.

I have also been blessed with an amazing mother-in-law. I'm always humbled by how much this woman can do and by how talented she is. I don't even want to think about holding up a measuring stick of myself to her. One of the things that I love most about this woman is how much her children love her. I love how much she loves her children and how much she adores her grandchildren. It touches me deeply how thrilled she is to see Cormac every time she does. What is even more special to me is the fact that she wants all of us to be happy. She knew that we struggled to have Cormac. After we had spent the weekend at her home with Cormac when he was 6 weeks old she told me that what she loved most was to see me with my son because she could see how much I adore him. I don't know why that means so much to me. But it does. She notices and she cares.

And at this moment I am thankful for the son she raised. Her children are all amazing in so many different ways. But I got the best.
At this moment Ammon is making me a special dinner. He won't let me help. He is spoiling me rotten. He is making me feel special. I can honestly say that I am a very blessed woman. This picture was the first time Ammon held his son. He adores him. He is so proud of him. We both are. And I am so thankful that Ammon and I get the gift of this little boy. This Mother's day I gladly accepted my little gift from the young men who were handing them out. I am a mother now. I am not perfect. I have so much to learn and such a long way to go. I mess up all the time. Poor Cormac. But I have wonderful examples to learn from. And no one could love this little boy more than I do.

Tulips!

I love spring! I wanted to share some of our spring pictures. Granted, it was freezing on the day that we took these. But still. Spring was coming out of the ground, if it wasn't in the air.

I'm still trying to lose the baby fat, so go easy on me. Apparently nursing is not the miracle cure for everyone. For me, it has been the opposite. Only 6 more months to go.

In other news, our little Cormac is finally sitting up on his own. It is very exciting. But he is also going through separation anxiety, which has been less than fun. Ah well. He is growing up so fast.

Click on this one to see it up closer. I love Cormac's face. He makes this face all the time. Ammon thought it looked like he might be giving the camera the bird also (he does that a lot for some reason...strange), but I think he is just squirming. Well, the little one thinks I've left him, so I better run. Happy spring!

The Office (No, not the series, the actual office)

I've been threatening to post pictures of our updates on the house forever. I've been keeping a careful picture account of all of it. But I haven't been good at keeping them organized. So, going through the pictures was a little intimidating. But here we are. The first room that we finished.

The original office:

This is how it originally looked. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took of it before we tore into it. So, you can't see the fact that the ceiling is coming off and peeling away. But it was. That was something I had to fix. Love that striped carpet.

And then I did this to it:

Fixed the ceiling and painted it. Painted the baseboard. New carpet. Ripped down the awful shelves. Re-textured the ceiling (before paint). Repaired and textured the walls. Then we went with a nice smoky green to finish the product.

Then we added furniture:



And now we have a lovely office that I sometimes struggle to keep clean. It happens to be the room that we like to pile things in. But at least the ceiling isn't falling off. Keep in mind, I did this back in November. Cormac was under a month old. Ammon was working on the bathroom, so this project was entirely done by me. Only a month (and less) after having a baby. Am I proud? Well, I'd be lying if I said no. I like to think that those Garrison genes I have make me tough, and I like to think things like this prove it. Toot toot (that's the sound of my own horn).

P.S. No, the bathroom is not done. Ammon and I like to start projects. We struggle to finish them. We have given up on the bathroom in favor of the massive kitchen re-do that we are currently in the middle of (shudder...more on that later).

Half of a Year

Attacking the bear. See how mischievous he is.

Okay Mom, I'll do the picture face.

I cannot believe it has been 6 months since I was miserable in the hospital thinking that I would probably die. But as of yesterday, we officially have a 6 month old. I didn't realize how in denial I was about all of this until I wrote out the sign to take Cormac's sixth month picture. I got everything set up and ready to go. Then I looked at the sign I had written. It read "Four Months Old." Uh...

Well, despite my brain dead powers, our little man is anything but brain dead. Cormac is growing and changing every day. He is so much fun. Here are a few things about Cormac:

~He LOVES!! to spit. All the time. Well, you know, you saw the previous post.

~He loves to hear his own voice. He sings, hums, yells, babbles, yells, lectures, yells, talks, yells, and occasionally screams. We love to hear his voice too.

~He's teething, blah.

~Cormac loves to be around people. He likes to laugh and giggle, but he makes you work for it.

~He has the most amazing laugh.

~He is once again rejecting the binkie. This time I'm ready for that though and I'm okay with it.

~Still not sleeping through the night.

~We sort of started solids, but then we backed off. So, he's not on solids yet, but his weight is slowing down, so here we go.

~He is one TALL boy at 28 inches. He is only 18 lbs now (but have you seen his dad? I think tall and skinny might be in the forecast for this one).

~He enjoys playing and eating everything he can get his hands on. Especially if it is in Mommy's hands.

~He is super curious. He loves to go places and see what is going on. He even enjoys watching Sandy and Charlie play.

~He rolls all over the place, can sit on his own for a while (until he gets too excited and shoots himself backward), and is closer to crawling than I am ready for.

~Cormac is always, always moving. He loves to bounce, roll, scoot, squirm, anything really, as long as he's in motion.

~He is such a handsome boy. Here, judge for yourself:

And we adore him. Ammon and I are so happy to have him in our family. It has been a crazy, fast, and fun 6 months. Everyone was right, it goes by too fast. But I am loving every minute. Happy half birthday, Cormac.

He's communicating?

We're so proud.

Spring

I spotted our first few budding flowers on our tree just a few days ago. Ahhh. Spring is coming. Only one more snow storm to go. Well, in theory. You never do know around here. But what a wonderful way to remember the resurrection. Just looking at this tree budding and coming to life after a long winter sleep makes me thankful to know that we too can and will be resurrected thanks to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This Easter was not my favorite I can remember. To me, being with family is the most important part of Easter. But alas, duty called my dear husband off on a journey. So, we had Easter morning with a nice breakfast and sent Ammon on his way. Cormac and I did spend the day with my aunts, uncle, and cousins, so it was still a nice day. We just missed our Ammon.
Cormac and I are lonesome without Ammon. He has gone back to the birthplace of his son, Helena, Montana, to see a few last minute details finished up on the project that kept us there all summer. When he returns from this journey Ammon will be taking a new job at a software company. We are really excited that this job appears to be a lot more stable than anything in the construction industry right now. Plus the job is in Orem, thus he can now get to work in 5 mintues rather than the 15 or more that he has previously had. I am thrilled that he will be so close and that he will not have to travel all over the country.
Cormac had no clue what was going on Easter morning. But he loves his duck and his sippy cups that the Easter Bunny brought. I haven't actually put anything in the sippy cups for him to sip yet. But he knows how to use them and what they are for and feels like a big boy when he uses them. The other day I was feeding him with a bottle and he wouldn't take it from me. He finally grabbed it and proceeded to feed himself. My little baby is growing up.

Well, since my husband is abroad, my mother is coming to stay with us so we won't be as lonley. Cormac is excited to have Grammy Garrison here. I am too. But I have a room to paint before our guest arrives. I had better get it in gear. Happy Easter and Welcome Spring.