From my sister Teddie from our family blog

I am copying this post from my sister Teddie about me on my birthday for your entertainment and pleasure. Teddie is a great writer, but I cannot attest to the truthfulness of this entire post as I was too young to remember most of it.

We've gotta hand it to Noelle

She risked having her birthday forgotten year after year by being born on December 24th. The first time we older brothers and sisters saw her was on Christmas Day through the first floor window of Mom's hospital room. We were all standing outside on the lawn watching Mom open her presents that Dad brought for her. I was sixteen by then (now don't anybody go and do any math, you hear?) and Lamona and I were old enough to go inside and visit (in those days you had to be 14), but we were on babysitting duty for those that weren't.

It matters not that she was/is one of the cutest little girls ever born. Frankly, she did not like being a cute little girl. When, on Sunday mornings I would insist on doing her long, thick, dark brown hair, to capitalize on said cuteness, she would pout, looking mad and miserable until time to go to church. I hope she has forgiven me by now, even though I am not sorry. She was still cute, even when she was mad.

(photo courtesy of my sister Luella)

She distinguished herself early on as somebody not to be messed with, small size, gender and cuteness notwithstanding. When she was five, we, the Bateman family, were headed back to camp after yet another long day at the Hill Cumorah Pageant meetings and rehearsal. There was this sixteen year old kid, who also thought Noelle was cute, who did what all boys do when they want attention from a girl. He teased her by bopping her on the head repeatedly with his Book of Mormon while walking behind her. He got her attention all right, but not in the way he probably hoped. Instead of reacting by whining and charmingly telling him to stop it, she turned, grabbed him around the lower legs and leaned into him, causing him to fall over backward, Book of Mormon and all, over a strategically placed piece of seating equipment. So, Jeff, now you know who to call if ever anyone gets on your nerves. Noelle's your woman.

Happy Birthday Noelle, and have a great birthday and Christmas!

With Love, from Teddie.

15 Months Old

Today Rachel is 15 months old. Okay, this month flew by! I think I'm ready to call it official, and say that "dog" is her first word. Today she said "dah" while she did the sign for dog. She also says "mama" and "dada" but I'm still not sure she really means it when she says it.

I am happy to report that Rachel is over her ear infection. Finally last Friday she started acting like herself again. Prior to that all she wanted to do was to have me or Jeff hold her, and sleep. I encouraged the sleeping, and was happy to join her, but it did make it difficult to get anything done.

Today we went to Grandma's house and made and decorated cookies. We got some good pictures, but they are on Grandma's camera, so I don't have them yet. I'll post them later.

Today was cold, cold, COLD, COLD! It's crazy because last Friday it was in the 60s. Last night we watched the temperature drop to 7 degrees, and this morning it was 5 degrees. I know for the northerners that's nothing, but we were really cold. It is supposed to snow tomorrow, but then it's supposed to warm up again. That is my only real complaint about the weather here, that the temperature in the winter bounces around so much. If it would get cold and stay that way I would get used to it, but when it is a balmy 60 degrees one day, and then 5 degrees two days later, it is tough to get acclimated.

Last Saturday Jeff threw a surprise birthday party for me. I was completely surprised too. I had no idea. His mom lured me to her house telling me that the grandkids were all coming over to make cookies, but it was just a ploy. The funny thing is that I really try to be on time to places, and I was going to arrive too early for the party, so they had to slow me down by sending me to the store to pick up some chocolate sprinkles. I still beat a lot of the attendees there. I got some great gifts. Jeff gave me Guitar Hero World Tour. (I rock!) Jeff's mom gave me a Wii Fit. I'm really excited to use it too. It's fun. I'm only a little worried that as I gain weight with this whole pregnancy thing, it is going to mock me. There is no way of explaining pregnancy to it.

I'm sorry there are no pictures on this post at this time. I'll try to get around to remedying that.

Poor Rachel's Almanac

Rachel has had a rough past few days. I felt last week that she had a fever, but I didn't take her temperature until Saturday. It was 102.5. So we started giving her baby Tylenol. Early Sunday morning she was feeling very warm again, and I took her temperature and it was 103.6. She stayed home from church with Jeff. I went to church to sing in the choir and to play a piano duet, and then I came home. Jeff went to church after that so he could fulfill his calling.

That afternoon we went to Jeff's parent's house, along with Brian and Amber, to decorate their Christmas tree. Rachel played an important role. She was able to excel as her job in that project really played to her strength. She got to take the ornaments out of the box and hand them to people. That is her favorite past time, emptying boxes. She did her job with great professionalism.


On Monday morning Rachel's temperature got to 104.5. I took her to the doctor and it turns out that she has an ear infection. So we got a prescription for an antibiotic.

While it is really sad that Rachel is sick, I have to admit that I am taking advantage of her excessive sleeping with a little extra napping of my own.


Here are some more pictures from our decorating of the Christmas tree on Sunday with Jeff's parents:

Jeff getting the lights on

Everybody's getting in on the action

Amber

Brian

Rachel distributing ornaments

Rachel in her garland halo

Brian and Amber under the mistletoe

Brian and Amber in the classic "we're pregnant" pose

Noelle and Jeff in the classic "we're pregnant" pose. (I admit, I'm still trying to suck in my gut. Am I fooling anybody?)

Rachel loves the Christmas tree

Rachel's Long Reach

Keeping things out of Rachel's reach is getting harder and harder. She can stand on her tippy toes, and climb on things to reach practically everything.

We have a plate of brownies that were leftover from a Christmas Party we went to.

Yeah, she reached them.

And liked them.

A lot.

Doctor's Appointment

I had an appointment with my doctor today. I was looking forward to it because I have been feeling a little disconnected and worried that this whole pregnancy thing wasn't really true. Well, she found a heartbeat, and since it was below my belly button, I'm pretty sure it wasn't mine. Of course, as long as it is inside my body it is mine, right? So I guess I now have two hearts. No wonder I'm so nice.

Jeff came to the appointment with me. When he heard the heartbeat he teared up a little. I can relate. I did the same thing when I heard it for the first time.

When she was listening to the heart beat, the doctor also said that she heard the baby kick. I heard what she was talking about, but I don't think I would have recognized it as a kick. I sure didn't feel anything.

They weighed me. I didn't even gain one pound. The truth is, though, the clothes I was wearing today are lighter weight than what I wore last month, so I probably did gain a little. Next month I'll wear heavier clothes, and then they'll get mad at me for gaining too much weight.

So I guess I am more or less officially past the risky time (nearly 13 weeks), so I guess I don't have to keep the pregnancy a secret anymore.

Rachel Spinning

It took me longer than I meant for it, to get around to posting a video of Rachel spinning on Jeff's chair, but finally here it is.

Don't Tell

Okay, if you are going to read this post, you have to promise me that you will never tell Rachel about it. I don't want to embarrass her. Of course if she embarrasses me enough times I might change my mind, but for now, no telling.

We we were hanging out downstairs lying on the bed watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on the computer last night. It was getting to be time for Rachel to go to bed, so I took off all of her clothes except for her diaper in anticipation of dragging myself off the bed to get her ready for bed. I was taking my sweet time, though, and Rachel got bored hanging out with us and went upstairs to play with Scout. She crawled into his kennel, but her diaper snagged on the latch, and as she tried to free herself, the diaper tore so that one side came loose. Rachel was not happy about her situation, and when I went upstairs to find out what the problem was she was crying a little, so I didn't take a picture of her in the kennel, but after I freed her and got her out I had to take a picture because it was so funny.


Today I tuned the piano of a friend of mine, and Rachel came with me. My friend has a daughter and two little boys, and another little boy on the way. Her daughter, who is the oldest, is no longer super cooperative with getting her hair done, so she took advantage of Rachel head full of hair while I was working and gave her this cute do. (Hopefully this cute picture will make up for my misdeed of sharing a picture of Rachel's bare bum.)


Last note: Jeff has some Wii Fits for sale if anybody has that on their Christmas wish list.

Funny commercial

Not much news, but here I am anyway.

It's weird. Even though I have probably the most drastic life changing event occurring right now, I don't really have anything to blog about. I don't feel any different now than I did before, except tired, but even that I am used to it, and I forgot what it is like to not be tired. I'm not sure I was ever not tired.

We are getting our second snow of the year right now. The first snow occurred last Monday, and even after snowing all day there was barely a half a millimeter on the ground. Today it is snowing again, and while there is not a lot of accumulation, there is a little bit.


I went to a Christmas Party this morning. It was an ornament exchange. This is the ornament I got. I think it is cute and funny.


Rachel is continuing to do very well. She still isn't really talking much, but I think her first word might be "dog." It is certainly her favorite sign, along with cracker. She says "daw" and I think she is saying "dog." I have never seen a baby who loved dogs as much as she does.

She also has a new favorite past-time. Jeff and I are in the process of completely rearranging our house. We moved our bedroom into the basement where the room is much larger, and Jeff's office into our former bedroom. It is still very much a work in progress, and it has left Jeff's desk chair in our front room. One day Rachel was a little cranky, so I put her on Jeff's chair and started spinning it. She loved it! She laughed and laughed. Right now she is napping, but when she wakes up I'll take a movie of it and post it here. So if you are reading this, come back later for the movie.

Elf Yourself Dance

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