Peter and Mandy

Homemade Haircut

2012-01-21T19:24:00.000-08:00

We recently bought a hair cutting kit so we could give Connor haircuts ourselves. Only problem is I haven't cut any hair since I was about 10 and that was my own hair and I never did it again after that. Peter has had experience cutting hair in college when he would cut his roommate's hair so I voted for him to give Connor a haircut.

Before the haircut:

During the haircut

The haircut lasted all of about five minutes or so, then the patient grew very impatient and our attempts were over for the time being...then the scissors came out and the bangs were cut. This morning Peter tried again and the hairdo looked much better, but he still wasn't thrilled...so we went to his parents' house and his mom did the top portion.

Tonight getting ready for a bath

Peter's really proud of how even the back is

I might've been squirting him with some toys

My wet boy

Usually he loves staying in the bath for quite some time, but today he was tired so he let us know he was done by climbing out of the bathtub. I didn't think he could pull it off, but he did. The leg went up and over and then the rest of the body followed.

Family Pictures

2012-01-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

On December 26th we had family pictures taken at Old Poway Park. This is the first time in about 20 years that my family has had pictures taken.

Here's the big family photo-From left to right: My sister and brother-in-law, my mom and dad, Peter, Connor and I, my aunt and uncle, and my brother and his boys.

The Cousins

Our family of three

An impromptu photo-sometimes it's best to let the kiddo decide when the picture will be taken.

My parents, their children and spouses and their grandchildren

My parents and their grandsons

This photo was taken at the end of our two hours. Connor had hit his limit, he was ready for a nap.

Florida Adventures

2012-01-08T13:12:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago Peter realized if he took a few days off of work around Christmas time, he would have about 17 consecutive days off. Realizing this he decided we needed to go on a vacation. He came to me with the idea of going to New York, Florida or Hawaii. I said no to New York in the winter (we don't have the gear to handle bitter cold). I was up for Florida or Hawaii but was leaning toward Florida since Peter's brother lives there. He said he was thinking the same thing...so we bought tickets and planned our adventure. This is how it all turned out:

On Wednesday the 28th we ventured to LAX to catch a 8am flight to Orlando. Connor did surprisingly well for a 5 hour flight and managed to sleep during the last hour or so. Sean and Amy and their kids Kirk-4 and Heidi-18mos picked us up at the airport. Our first stop was to a hotel in Orlando to drop off our gear (we were so glad we packed light as there wasn't much room in the van). Then we went to Downtown Disney and ate dinner at the T-Rex Cafe. It was really fun! Every 30 minutes or so there would be a meteor shower in the room we were in. Connor hated it the first two times, but the last two times he enjoyed it. While waiting 1 1/2 hours for a table we wandered around Downtown Disney. We went in the Lego store, Ghiradelli store, World of Disney and a toy shop to name a few. The place was so super crowded it was crazy. There were wall to wall people everywhere you went. Outside the T-Rex cafe was a little dino dig place with bones covered in gravel. This was the perfect place for Kirk.

Touching a wooly mammoth is so fun.

After dinner we wandered a little bit and then headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted and it was only like 10pm-though it was 7pm our time, but we went to sleep just fine. Mind you we were up at 3:30am to drive 2+ hours to LAX to catch the only direct flight we could find...so yes we were tired.

Thursday morning we left and drove to Ocala where we went to Silver Springs Park. We went on two glass bottom boats (the third was closed for repairs), watched a reptile show, waited an hour in line for pizza (the place was not terribly busy, but only two people were working), we saw several types of alligators and crocodiles, rode the carousel twice, went to the petting zoo area, amongst other things. We really enjoyed our time there, so much that the park closed before we could go see the bears (bummer). We left the park, went out to dinner and then back to the hotel in Ocala.

Watching the Albino Alligators

Alligator Dundee-this guy was in a pool with several full sized alligators and he had bare feet.

Connor loved the glass bottom boat rides and the bubble snow

Riding the carousel was pretty fun with cousins and so was petting the pigs.

Friday morning we drove to St. Augustine. On the way we stopped at Blue Springs to watch the manatee. Then we went to a fort and watched them shoot off the cannon, listened to a really good speech given by a volunteer, and explored the fort. At one point while this guy is giving his speech he said something about pirates and as if right on que Heidi says, Yay! really loudly. Everyone laughed. The guy says, no these are not the good pirates. It was still quite funny. After the fort we went to a Pirate Museum. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside so I took a picture of the outside as we left. Inside the museum was some super cool stuff. Peter says, "Best Pirate Museum Ever!" After the museum we walked around the town and all the little shops. Afterward we headed to a seafood restaurant that ended up being really busy as well. We would've had to wait 1 1/2 hours to be seated. So instead we ordered our food to go and ate it in the car. Not terribly elegant but it worked and it was really good food. I got chicken (not a seafood person) and it was absolutely wonderful! Afterward we went back to the hotel in St. Augustine for the night.

Look at all those manatees

At Castillo de San Marcos Fort

Saturday morning we drove to another fort, a much smaller one and explored it. Kirk got a splinter in his hand from the railings and then screamed/cried for a bit. A stranger came up to them and said he had a first aid kit in his car. He pulls it out and inside there was a little device used for getting splinters out. He also gave Kirk a glow stick-mostly to get his attention on the stick and not on his hand. When they finally got the splinter out (Kirk moved around quite a bit), we thanked this family for their help and then went on our way. We also saw a great horned owl at the little park that was right there.

Sleeping with daddy and then visiting a much smaller fort.

Then we headed to Sean and Amy's place in Ft. Lauderdale -about 4 hours away. It was a long drive, but luckily all kiddos did eventually fall asleep which made the drive a bit easier. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner (one of Peter's favorites that he misses since there aren't any near us). They had super yummy apples that we all enjoyed with our meals. Connor enjoyed my side dish of macaroni and cheese. When we arrived at Sean and Amy's we all collapsed in the family room. The kids really enjoyed running around and stretching their legs. They did a pretty good job of sharing their toys, well given their ages. Connor really liked Heidi's dolly stroller. It was light and easy to push around. Only problem is Heidi really likes her dolly stroller too. So there were a few fights, a few shoves and pushing thrown in, a couple mouths on others-though no biting took place, and of course there was crying and screaming and tantrums being thrown. But really, it was pretty good given their ages. And it didn't happen all the time either, most of the time they happily played near each other.

Eating mac n cheese. Yes they are cousins though they look like they could be siblings.

That evening was New Year's Eve. Amy and I went out and got some fun party appetizers, which we munched on while we played The Logo Game. It was a fun game. Then at 11:30 we decided it was bedtime and went to bed. At midnight and throughout the day we could hear fireworks going off.

Sunday morning we went to Church and then headed out to the Keys. We stayed in a condo near Key Largo that was right on the water.

The view from the balcony of the condo. Glass bottom boat ride-corals

Monday morning we took another glass bottom boat ride to see some corals. It was a 45 minute boat ride out and then it slowed down and they called everyone down to the bottom part and gave a 20 minute speech on everything we could see. It was really neat. On the ride out we could see jelly fish and at one point Amy yells Shark! We all look down and see a shark swimming next to the boat. About two minutes later we see another one. After this we met up with Amy's sisters Robin and Camille for lunch. On the way there we stopped along the keys to let the kids stretch their legs. Then we went home.

Tuesday was a relaxing day. We were all exhausted and the kids were exhausted and none of them wanted to get in the car again, so we stayed at home for the most part. We did go to the grocery store, but that was it. It was nice to have a relaxing day playing at home.

Wednesday Sean skipped school and went with us to Villa Vizcaya (an old mansion turned into a museum). We toured the mansion, and the gardens. Many people were there taking wedding photos and other professional pictures. It was a really nice place. Back at home Amy made Cafe Rio Pork which was oh soo good! Peter had to take a picture of it all.

The mansion and one of the gardens

An American Crocodile we found there. Plants growing out of the wall.

Pretty fountain and our super yummy Cafe Rio Pork dinner.

Thursday we headed to Shark Valley National Park to see the everglades. We saw a ton of alligators. All the signs said to stay back 15 feet, but that was hard to do when the alligators were up next to the walkway. We had a fun walk around the park pointing out alligators, baby alligators and all the different kinds of birds we saw. We also went down the otter trail and saw otter holes and went down a bobcat trail where people were photographing spiders(eww). Thursday night Robin and Camille came to watch the kids while Sean, Amy, Peter and I went out for date night. We took a water taxi and saw mansions, yachts and plenty of things we'll never be able to afford, but were all quite cool to look at. We saw Judge Judy's yacht, the Ritz camera yacht, Shakira's yacht, the mansion that belongs to the guy who came up with Blockbuster video and then sold it for 2 billion 6 months before the invention of Netflix. It was fun and informational to ride the water taxi. Then we went to Jaxson's for ice cream. Peter and I shared something called a Jr. Sampler which was three huge scoops one of each black cherry, fresh peach and cookie dough ice cream smothered in whip cream and sprinkles and a cherry on top. We also had three toppings of chocolate, raspberry and peach sauces. It was good, but we couldn't possibly finish it all. Then we headed back home and got there around midnight and crawled into bed.

Baby alligators and a sleeping alligator

Signs said to stay back 15 feet. It was hard to do that since they were basically on the walking path. Luckily most were sleeping or sunbathing. None of them were interested in eating small children.

Friday morning we woke up at 5, got ready and headed to the Ft. Lauderdale airport to catch our 7am flight back home. It was a great trip, we had a blast.

Christmas Time Adventures

2011-12-27T10:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun pictures from this past week.
We went to the little playground in our complex. It's still a little big for Connor, but he had fun playing with the wood chips, climbing the slide (with help), playing tic tac toe, and hanging on the bars.
It was a great outing, but a bit cooler than I was expecting. So yes he's wearing shorts with a jacket.
Christmas day we woke up and it was relatively a normal Sunday for us. Went to church at 10, came home at 11:30ish, changed clothes and headed to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas. While there, Connor enjoyed playing in the yard until...
His binky dropped on the ground and was all grassy and dirty, so daddy took it away to clean it. Connor was not thrilled to be losing his binky for a few seconds.
He was also in desperate need of a nap, which he took finally around 2 and slept through the opening of presents and stockings. Around 5 we woke him up and headed over to the O's to celebrate Christmas with them. Connor played with Calvin's toys while the nieces helped open Connor's presents (maybe next year he'll be into opening his own presents).

Some of the presents we gave each other were: Mandy to Peter-Thomas Brothers Maps of San Diego, My parents to me-A new GPS :) Connor to Daddy-Harry Potter Lego video game, Connor to Mommy-Same Harry Potter video game (apparently he forgot he already got one). Amongst many other things, these seemed the funniest and the most appropriate given the previous post of us getting lost on the way to a Christmas party.

After all the gifts were open, Peter says, "Wait there's one more for Mandy."
Chris says, "Oh you mean the bear?"
Peter-"Well thanks for telling her."
Mary-"Don't worry he (Chris) blew the gift that Amy got for me too."

Peter walks out with this GIANT teddy bear. We had seen these at Costco several months back. I didn't have a bear that big, but didn't think we could fit it in our place. Peter went back and bought one and it had been hiding at his parents' house in a trash bag for the past 6 months. This is how we got it home.
I love it! Connor loves it too! He hugs it frequently. It'll be the snug up to and read a book bear.
Yesterday we took family photos at Old Poway Park. While waiting for everyone to show up I snapped a couple of my boys.
After the park we took another nap and then headed back over to the O's. Connor really enjoys playing with the blocks and this shape sorter cube. He tried really hard to fit the blocks into the different shapes. When he realized they didn't fit, he walked away. Great grandma said, "Proof of great intelligence, once you've shown the blocks won't go down the hole, then you're done."

Santa Claus

2011-12-25T21:51:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to look at the luminaries in Westwood. It was about an hour past Connor's bedtime and he was already super exhausted, but with a bottle in hand we decided he might be up for it. We drove down a couple of streets and oohed and aahed at the lights on the homes. The luminaries were out of sight to him, but Peter and I enjoyed them. We came up to one street that was totally decked out. There was Santa Claus outside handing out cookies to the cars and people walking by. He comes up to our car and Peter rolls down the windows. He says "ho ho ho, would you like a cookie?" Connor completely flips out, screaming, yelling, huge tears stream down his face. Peter says, "The only other time I've heard him scream like that was when he was getting shots at the doctor's office." Hopefully we haven't scarred our kid. We decided that our trip was done and Connor continued to scream and cry the whole way home. I guess it was a good thing we didn't decide to go see Santa at the mall this year.....the cookie was good though.

Wow

2011-12-17T21:03:00.000-08:00

Look what I have

Connor has recently taken to saying "wow" really quietly. I thought it was cute how cool he thought playing with my sunglasses was. This video also shows him walking more.

While at my parents' house, Connor picked up the phone and started pushing buttons. At one point the phone calls the mysterious number. "The number you are trying to call is incorrect, please hang up and dial again." We all joked around that Connor was calling India. I guess we'll all find out when the phone bill comes. At the very end of the video, the camera battery died. We all laughed about Connor changing the security code for the answering machine...good luck replicating the numbers he pushed.

What we've been up to lately/Milestones

2011-12-12T18:54:00.001-08:00

Two weekends ago we went to Balboa Park's December Nights. We went with cousins and family visiting from Utah. It was super crowded as usual, but all the museums were free, so that made up for the crowds. Connor enjoyed piloting/eating an airplane.
Peter put together a makeshift changing station inside the stroller. He thought Connor needed the privacy while being changed. We all thought it looked like he was delivering a baby. Connor thought it was hilarious!
Sunday we got out our Christmas tree and started decorating it. Connor helped too. He would pull an ornament out of the box, turn around and give it to daddy who would put it on the tree. At one point we sat down and he went up to the box, picked out an ornament and tried to hang it on the tree himself. It was super cute.

He liked the view from the top too.

Cookies and milk anyone?

Then this weekend we went to Sea World for their Christmas Celebration. Connor was not fond of the animal show (a pig-Hammie, pushed a lever that sent water out at the crowd. It caught Connor by surprise and he cried the rest of the show. He's not fond of surprises.). Connor loved the penguins, sharks, fish, and sea turtles. We could've spent all day watching the penguins. We also visited the winter wonderland part. Connor walked on the snow a little bit, but after about five minutes he was done.
On our way home from Sea World we stopped by the Temple to see their Christmas lights. Connor is absolutely mesmerized by Christmas lights. There were giant balls of lights in the trees above us.

As for other news....Connor has hit another milestone....He's walking!

At 12 months he started taking steps. Roughly 3-5 at a time, fall down, get back up and repeat. When we went to Utah for Thanksgiving he amazed us by taking about 10 steps at a time. Now at 13 months he pretty much walks everywhere. Here's a short video that we caught this evening. It's hard for him to show off his moves in our house since it doesn't take that many steps to get from point a to point b.

Completely Lost!

2011-12-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Peter's work's Christmas Party. Spouses and children are invited and it's quite a bit of fun. Peter was really looking forward to showing off his cute little kiddo. We even dressed Connor in a cute set of Christmas overalls. So anyway we head out with a map and set of directions in hand. All directions are for side streets. Peter questions it, but decides to follow it anyway. Peter is driving and I'm in the back seat giving Connor some Cheerios to munch on. At some point (after several U-turns) Peter decides he really needs me to drive so he can give me the directions. So he pulls over and then gets in the passenger seat, I get in the driver seat. We're off again-making an (I'm sure illegal) U-turn. We think we know where we're going, but are really not quite sure....at some point Peter says, "We were only supposed to drive 2 minutes down the road and then turn.
"We've been on this road for a long time, should I turn around?"
"No just follow this road and maybe something will show up on this map and we'll know where we're going."
"How about you call Greg and get directions."
"No, we don't know where we are. I'll get out the GPS to get a map of where we are."
"The GPS doesn't work."
"I just need it to turn on and give me a map."
"Ok."
He gets the GPS out, turns it on and it searches for a signal. Then it starts talking, "Turn left in 2 miles, turn left in 2 miles, turn left in 2 miles (repeat at least 10 times). Off route, recalculating...turn left, turn left, turn, turn, turn left in 200 feet."
"I think the GPS is possessed."
Peter tries to turn the volume down..."5, 5, 5, 5, 5....lost signal."
"Ugh!"
"Hey this street sounds familiar, should I turn on it?"
"Let me check."
"I'm turning on it." (Mind you I had a big truck on my tail.) "Okay, now where?"
The conversation went on while we made a few more twists and turns and passed a lot of signs that we couldn't read because it was too dark. By now it is 6:45. The party started at 5:30 and we had been driving for over 45 minutes. It should've taken us about 20 minutes to get there. Connor was starting to get a bit tired/hungry/annoyed that he was still in his car seat, etc. And we were beyond frustrated that we couldn't tell where we were.
"How about you call Greg and tell him we're completely lost and if we ever find civilization, we're heading home." So he does. We can't tell Greg where we are, because we don't know. Then the phone cut out. At this point there's a green lit tree ahead..."Um, Peter, I think we made a full circle, cause I recognize that tree up there."
"You've got to be kidding me."
Well sure enough 20 minutes later we were back in a place we recognized-only because we had been there before, but we don't know where we were.
"I saw a sign that said Escondido 11 miles that way, I'm heading there." Well loooooong story shorter, we eventually found out where we were (on the other side of lake hodges). When we stopped being totally lost, we were near the mall. We hopped on the freeway and headed home. 1 1/2 hours later we were at home. We will print our own directions next time.

In the dark...for a week!

2011-12-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Shortly before leaving for Thanksgiving I noticed that the light switch in our room wasn't working. Not only that, but the light switch next to the closet didn't work and neither did the light switch in Connor's room. Coincidental-I think not, but I didn't understand why they weren't turning on. Anyway we left, we came back and lived about a week in the dark at night because well we didn't have much of a light source. We kept the hall light on or the bathroom light on so we could get ready for bed. Changing a diaper in the dark was also a bit challenging, but we managed. So what could possibly be the source of the problem? Would you believe me if I said this was the culprit:
Yes the nightlight was the source of our problems. Connor really likes pulling the nightlight out, so I went ahead and pulled it out and placed a plug cover in it's place. From that point on we had no lights...though I didn't realize that at the time. A couple nights ago as we were getting ready for bed we decided re really needed the light from the night light, so Peter plugged it in. Instantly Connor's light turns on! We quickly turn it off as we didn't want him to wake up at 10pm. Then we try the light in our room and it works! Apparently in order to have our lights in working order the night light must be plugged into the top socket.

We just love the little quirky things about our house.

Our adventures in Utah

2011-11-27T13:36:00.000-08:00

We flew up to Utah Monday night arriving at Grandpa's house around midnight.

At the airport roughly 11pm.
With our baggage that miraculously made the flight with us.

Tuesday morning we went to Temple Square, took a tour of the beehive house, and the conference center.

Connor and Daddy in front of a fountain
Ellie, Camille and Claire check out the water fall while...
Connor slept

Then we headed home. Later that night we met up with cousins for an ice cream party, which made for another late night-but we enjoyed it.

Wednesday we met up with more cousins and took a trip to Logan to visit the cheese factory, then stopped at A & W for lunch, followed by a trip to the Pepperidge Farm Factory. I was looking forward to getting a bunch of bags of Milano cookies, but they didn't have any...bummer. Instead we picked up other cookies and gold fish for really cheap.

The employee of the month parking space.
Connor somewhat enjoyed playing in the snow...until it got really cold.
The adults and cousins enjoyed the snow and a good snowball fight
Then we went to an ice cream place and had dessert
Connor really enjoyed the kids' table and chairs.
Back at home Connor knocked over a cup of water onto Peter's lap...it was too funny.
Looks like my Daddy wet his pants, doesn't it?
My great grandpa let me play with these cool toys.

I love this video-I have such a smart baby.

Thursday morning we prepared for the big feast. We brought a spinach salad for the feast.
During the morning we all went over to another house and made food. (Not many pictures were taken today...but a few videos will be posted later.)

Friday morning we went to visit more cousins and more importantly to visit their farm. Connor got up close and personal with horses, pigs and chickens. He wasn't fond of the horse who nearly bit his hand off (though I think he was more upset that the horse took his apple). The pigs were loud and smelly and the chickens were just the right size for him.
After our fun with the farm animals. We visited quickly with the Mackley's, went to Seagull Book, then out to lunch at Cafe Rio, and then headed back to get ready for the Novemberfest.

Connor and I are chickens, Peter is a pizza.
Basically Novemberfest is Oktoberfest held the day after Thanksgiving. We rent a church (same for Thanksgiving) and all the family gets together for another great party. We dance, play games, socialize and have a great time.

The chicken dance

The hat game-basically musical chairs with hats.

My gnomes (look he's showing his teeth)
Peter and other manly men dancing

Well I think this post is long enough. More videos to come a little later.

Airport Adventures

2011-11-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

Monday-

So we left for the airport at 4:30, our flight left at 7:40 from Long Beach which is about an hour and a half drive. We thought we would have enough time for dinner so we stopped at a cute diner. Unfortunately when we left the diner we had about 30 minutes to spare. A bit tight on time, but we could do it. Then we hit major airport traffic and sit for 20 minutes. We have 10 minutes to catch a plane...were we going to make it? I was convinced that it wasn't going to happen. We get to the ticket counter and there's a sign that says you must arrive 30 minutes prior to your flight...we have less than 10 minutes left. We ask if there's any way that we can make the flight. The lady makes several phone calls and then tells us she can take our luggage, but it probably won't make the flight. It'll arrive on a different flight. We said that was fine as we really didn't want to miss the flight, our luggage could come later. She takes the stuff and gives us our ticket and tells us to try and make the flight. We RUN through the halls the best that we can. Then we get to the security check point. The stuff goes through, I go through...I'm putting my shoes on and realize they've pulled aside my bag...the diaper bag to be exact. The security officer is putting on gloves and asks me if that was my bag. Yes it is. "Is there anything sharp in your bag?" No. It's just diapers and wipes and baby supplies. "May I look through it?" Yes. So he opens it up, pulls out the wipes and looks around some more. Then he sends the wipes through the scanner again. When it comes through he says it's fine. I shove everything in the bag and take off running again. I hear our names being called over the intercom. Peter is rushing to tell them we're here....We finally make it to the gate!!! Apparently they held the plane for us and one other couple. We walked through the doors and then ran again down the halls for the plane. When we finally got to the plane we were clearly out of breath...but we made it.

They announce that we are to turn our phones off. Peter calls my dad to tell him we made the plane so he could stop circling the airport and go home. Then we send Peter's mom a quick text message that we might need a car seat. Then the phone turned off.

We arrive at our destination, turn the phone back on and relieved to find out David and Diana went and bought a car seat for us if we needed one. We find David and then go to the luggage carousel. Much to our delight our luggage had made the flight!!!

This concludes are airport adventures. I think our return flight home we'll be on time for.

Farewell nice weather, Hello freezing temps

2011-11-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Some might call us crazy, some might calls us insane, yet some others might call us wimps...we're leaving our beautiful weather(with the exception of the rain tonight) and heading to the bitter cold of Utah. I just checked the 10 day forecast...our lowest temperatures 40-46 degrees are still higher than most of the highest temperatures(37-52) we should see in Utah....shiver. I hope we survive.

On the bright side, when we return it'll be the warmest day of the week here at 70 degrees. Normally I would complain that this is also cold, but given what we will be in, I'll gladly take 70 degrees with no complaints.

Kitchen Catastrophe/Julian Trip

2011-11-12T12:26:00.000-08:00

About an hour ago we had a small kitchen catastrophe. I had done the dishes, loaded and turned on the dishwasher, ran the disposal and then headed upstairs for a shower. Peter heard Connor awake so he went to get him. As he's coming downstairs he hears an odd leaking sound. He walks into the kitchen to find both sinks backed up and nearly overflowing. The fix to the problem is to run the disposal right? Well that's what I always do and that always fixes the problem...well this time it didn't. Peter turns the disposal on and (insert flatulence sound) the disposal explodes. The trap got backed up and last night's spaghetti noodles, peas and carrots came flying out of from under the sink. Water, food and grime were everywhere! Peter likened the mess unto vomit...lovely don't you think?
It was a good thing that we store some of our dishes under the sink, because one of them caught a lot of water. Had it not been there, we would've had a much bigger mess on our hands.

My kitchen was clean before the ordeal.

So that concludes our past hour. The disposal is fixed and the dishwasher is still washing...and when it's done we'll have more dishes that will need to be washed before they make it back under the sink.

Yesterday I had the day off and it was Peter's Friday off so we drove up to Julian to see the different colored trees and to get pie and bread. Apparently everyone else had the same idea and the place was super crowded. I was a bit bummed out with the nature bit. Most of the trees hadn't changed colors yet. This was the most colorful tree I could find.
We couldn't find a parking spot anywhere...so we drove back down the hill to Santa Ysabel and stopped at Dudley's for their famous bread. We bought 5 loaves for the price of 4 and had lunch there.

We enjoyed looking at the cows.
Then we went here
and brought home two apple boysenberry pies for dessert.

Connor's First Birthday!

2011-11-06T19:53:00.001-08:00

Guess who turned 1 today!

Connor had a birthday party with Peter's family yesterday and got this cool pirate ship from his aunt and uncle and cousins.

I wish we took our camera with us then, so we could show you the mess he made with a chocolate cupcake. I took pictures with my phone, but have no idea how to get them onto the computer.

Then this evening he had another birthday party with my parents. His uncle gave him the elephant pillow/super soft blanket.
And his grandma and grandpa gave him shoes that match his daddy's. He also got a soft soled pair that have flames on the fronts. He was given those a little early and showed up in them.

He was eager for cake time

Connor also got some magnetic cars from Grandma and Grandpa O, a popping car, some balls, bath squirt toys and a balloon from Mommy and Daddy. All in all I think he enjoyed two days of celebrations.

Halloween

2011-11-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

For Halloween my family thought it would be fun to dress me up as different characters. They had fun.

Here I am as a bunny rabbit...

and a mouse...

and a clown...
Will you please stop putting things on my head.

for Halloween I was a monkey...and I enjoyed it (for the most part).

Wait for me...
I'm all ready!
I got some candy, but mostly I just chewed on the packages.

Connor's First Haircut!

2011-10-25T21:16:00.001-07:00

I took Connor for his first haircut today. This is what he looked like before:
We decided it was time for a haircut mainly because complete strangers keep saying "what a cute little girl you have." So people are either stupid, or our kiddo needed a haircut, or a little of both.

The haircut process went a bit as follows:
1-Hold wiggly head still

2. Give kiddo something to focus on-like a clip to hold.

3. Pause for a quick yawn.

4. Try other positions-perhaps standing will be better.
5. Give kiddo a mirror to entertain himself as the clip is no longer a cool toy.
6. Watch kiddo squeal in delight as he laughs at the little boy smiling back at him.
7. Take kiddo's shirt off as it is completely covered in hair, and try to get the last few stray hairs.

8. Call it a day when kiddo finally melts down.

All in all it was much more successful than I was expecting. My sweet little baby looks a bit older, but I'll take that over "my what a cute little girl you have."

World's Best Toy!

2011-10-22T20:53:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago we bought Connor a new big boy car seat. After several attempts to get Connor interested in the box, we finally succeeded. Best Toy Ever!
We got such a good deal on the car seat we decided to go get another one today...now we have two big boxes.

I also really like playing with dish towels. Usually I pull them off of the oven door, but I've recently figured out where they are all stored...

Yup you caught me. How about you put them all back in and I will take them all back out?

I also like to "help" put away groceries and load the dishwasher.

So really who needs toys?

We're with the band...

2011-10-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Monday night Peter and I went to the Reunion concert at the Escondido Performing Arts Center. It was for all temple workers and their families. Peter and I are not temple workers, yet we got in because we were with the band. My uncle plays the piano for Reunion. The group has been together for 28 years. Everett has been with them for 24 years. Prior to that they were called The Lettermen. The last concert I went to I was roughly 10 years old. I have heard all of their songs since then and have two of their CD's. So I wasn't surprised when I recognized every single song they sang-with the exception of the very emotional song Rick sang. At one point Peter leaned over to me and asked, "How do you know the words?" My response, "You haven't heard this song before? It's a classic!" It was a great night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And since we were with the band, we went back stage before hand and met all the singers (well I shook their hands, and recognized them....Peter got to meet them.) Then we went to Will Call and told them that Everett was my uncle and that he had two tickets saved for us. We were asked if we wanted box seats. We said sure! We were in the top box with a front row view. We enjoyed the whole thing.

At the end they announced that they would be back in the same place in February next year. If you buy one ticket, they will give you a second ticket to invite a non-member for free. So if you're in the area and are into classic old love songs, this is for you.

Dinner tonight

2011-10-13T22:20:00.001-07:00

Dinner was a mixture of left over mac n cheese, honeydew and pasta roni with chicken. Connor wasn't fond of the pasta sticking to him, so he kept on flailing his arms which sent noodles everywhere! When dinner was over he had noodles on the chair, in his hair, all over his arms and of course all over the floor.

This past week

2011-10-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here's what I have been up to lately

PEEK A BOO!

OOPS

I like potatoes-I can even pull them out of the bag all by myself

Yesterday we went grocery shopping and found this cute little pumpkin for Connor to hold while we shopped. He was the happiest boy holding onto his pumpkin the entire time. He even held onto it in the car and hasn't put it down much since getting home.

I'm so happy

I really like feeding myself.

Well we nearly have feeding our self down, now on to drinking out of a cup. I need to find a sippy cup that is small and has handles. He tries to drink out of the ones we have, but can't tilt them back far enough to get any liquid out, so he gets mad and the cup ends up tossed on the floor.

Look what I've learned how to do:

Lederhosen Boy

2011-10-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the German American Society Oktoberfest in La Mesa. We went briefly to watch David and his troop dance, to eat yummy foods and to show off Connor in the Lederhosen that David stayed up Friday night to make for him. Can you say cutest boy ever!!
Connor went from stroller to dancing in about 30 seconds flat. In order to get to the dance floor he had to pass by one of the speakers...Connor is not a fan of loud anything, so the speaker set him off and he let everyone know that he was not happy. We love the big fat lip he gave grandpa. We don't know if he ever really enjoyed the place, but he did eventually tolerate it.
We noticed this cute little girl wearing a dirndl. Peter wanted to take a picture but I didn't want to go up and ask complete strangers if I could take a picture of their child...so about two minutes later they came up to us and asked if they could get a picture of the two babies. The little girl is 5 months old. Connor is almost 11 months. We had a lot of people say how cute he was. It was definitely the smallest pair of lederhosen there.

Day at Sea World

2011-09-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since we last posted. I checked the date of the last post and it was my birthday. Well with the power outage I got the day off of work paid...pretty good present don't you think?! I had a great birthday...I turned 30 yikes! My mom watched Connor while Peter and I went out to dinner. It was a great birthday and it made it a three day weekend for us yay!!

Peter made this cake for me

I like to feed myself

Yesterday was General Atomics Day at Sea World. So of course we went. Our tickets were$17 each and we each received a $15 voucher for food. For dinner we had a full rack of ribs, fries, veggies and a Mediterranean salad. We received 94 cents back from our vouchers. We also upgraded to a year pass for $40 each. That is my kind of deal!

Here I am touching these strange creatures

The seals were fun too

Watching the turtles

Inside one of the aquariums
The Shamu show changes every now and then...the big obvious change is the trainers no longer go in the water with the whales, which is a bummer, but we all understand. Here's a video of the four performers. (Gotta love the conversation Peter and I have. And in case you miss it there's four whales because of the baby.)

Here's the baby whale showing off his tricks.

We had a fun day at Sea World. Connor had a blast! We will be going back soon.

Major Power Outage!

2011-09-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Did you hear the news? San Diego, part of Orange County and down to Mexico was without power yesterday. I was in a meeting when everything turned off. We thought one of the fuses blew, but when we realized the AC was out too, we knew we were experiencing a black out. People got on their cell phones and checked the news to find out everyone in San Diego was without power. At that point we decided it was time to go home.

Now with all the mess of the power outage it took Peter 1 1/2 hours to get to my parents house from his work. This usually takes about 10-15 minutes. It took me 45 minutes to get home (normally 15 min.) and I had three stoplights that were actually working.

My parents were already having an eventful day when in the morning my brother shows up in my parents room with a towel on saying that he just took an ice cold shower and the water won't turn off. Luckily the neighbor is a handyman, so he came over and turned the water off to the whole house early and then came over a bit later and fixed the problem. Then a couple hours after the power went out he fired up his spare generator and came over asking if we wanted to plug my brother's 210 gallon salt water fish tank into the generator to keep the fish alive. He did that and we thought it was quite thoughtful of him to think of my brother's fish. He came over a little later and said, "Hey do you want to plug your refrigerator in too?" My mom eagerly took him up on the offer, so none of her food went bad. My neighbor is such a nice guy.

We were prepared! We got home and it was a bit dark. We found our LED lights (most ingenious devices). We had three, Connor liked them and played with them until he broke one. We didn't let him play with them after that. Then I went and found our emergency kit. It had three glow sticks that said they were good for two years. We popped one open and it's light was pathetic. Clearly they had been in the kit for longer than two years. Then I remembered I had newer glow sticks upstairs. I had 10 of them and they were awesome! We snapped two of them and they really lit up the house. Connor liked playing with them too.

Here's a fun video of Connor playing in the dark

We put Connor to bed around 8:30 or 9 (he had a late afternoon nap 5-6) so we let him stay up past his normal bedtime. Then it was just the two of us...So what do we do? We decide to play cards in the dark. We had three fake candles which gave off very little light, one glow stick and one LED light and we played cards. We pulled up our vacuum and opened the front compartment that holds all the head tools and hung the glow stick to that and then put the LED light in facing down. It was a pretty awesome plan and gave us a lot of light to play with.
(In this picture the LED light is on the ground...we came up with the plan to put it up later and got a ton more light out of it.)
Around 8:45 I got a text message from my boss saying school was cancelled for today.
By 10 we went to bed. Around 1:30 the power came back on and we were woken up by a loud high pitched beeping noise. The stupid fire alarm needed to be reset (luckily it was just a beep and not the actual alarm to all the units). I got another text message from my boss saying that school might be in session, she wasn't sure yet, so be prepared. By 3:30 the beeping noise was still going on....so annoying! At 5:30 I got another text saying that school would still be cancelled for the day! Happy Birthday to me! And by 5:30 the beeping noise had finally stopped.

I'm really glad we had the good glow sticks. Totally worth the purchase! We also had a battery operated radio which if we held just perfectly we could listen to.

Festival of Sail

2011-09-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

Cannons ready to be fired at oncoming ships.

Saturday we went to the Festival of Sail with Chris, Mary, their kiddos, Diana and my dad. We picked my dad up and then met up with everyone at Chris and Mary's place. Then we hopped on the trolley, made one immediate trolley switch and then we were there. We watched some cannon battles, explored many of the boats and both of the submarines. For each vessel we boarded we got a stamp in our ticket booklet. We went on: Bill of Rights (they revved up the engine and nearly took out the boarding walkway-was a bit funny.), Exy Johnson, Jada, Curlew, Californian, Irving Johnson, HMS Surprise, Star of India, Berkeley, Medea, Pilot and the two submarines: USS Dolphin and B-39. We only missed out on five of them and the one that is currently being built. Peter plans on going back tomorrow morning to see the one being built with Chris.

Connor sails the Californian

Treasure Seeker-we missed going on this boat-it was doing pirate cruises.

When we were getting in line to go on the B-39 there was a mandatory hole that everyone had to go through to prove that they fit. I swear it was bigger than the four water tight seals that we went through while on the inside.

Definitely smaller than the hole we had to fit through outside!

The torpedo room (Peter has informed me that this picture is sideways, but really does it matter?-there are tubes in a row. Tip head to left to see proper view if it matters to you.)

Here's the USS Dolphin and the Berkeley in the background
Connor enjoyed the petting zoo area-the duck was his favorite.

They also had an angora goat, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens and chicks.

On our way back home we skipped going on the "special" trolley-There was an announcement that the trolley was only heading to Qualcomm Stadium, so we waited for the next trolley to arrive. We got off at IKEA and went to get dinner. IKEA has a great restaurant with really cheap food. Then we walked back to the trolley and again skipped the trolley heading only to Qualcomm. While waiting for a regular trolley to arrive we all came to the conclusion that the "special" trolley would have to turn into a regular trolley after leaving Qualcomm since they can't turn around on the track or switch tracks at that point. We should have all taken the special trolley and then just stayed on it until it came to our destination. Oh well, next time we'll try it out. When a regular trolley arrived we hopped on to find three police officers writing someone up for not having a ticket on the trolley. That's the first time I've ever seen people get checked for having a ticket.

As we dropped my dad off at home we thought a sit in a warm spa sounded like the perfect thing for our aching feet...and it was. We had a great day!

Today Peter, Connor and I met up with Chris and his girls and we went to see San Salvador (the boat being built). This would've been really cool had there been people working on it. However those in the area that want to see it for free...it's totally visible from the I-8, or you can park at Spanish Landing and walk on a path and peer over/through the chain link fence and see it.

What a Cutie!

2011-08-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

Look who is ready for church in his studly dudly overalls and shoes.

This was the first time Connor has worn these shoes. We had to take a couple pictures to share.

9 Months and a little change

2011-08-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Connor is 9 months and 1 week old today! About a week ago he had his 9 month appointment and weighed in at exactly double his birth weight- 16 pounds, 14 ounces. He is also 28 inches long.

Here are some fun things he's been up to lately:

I like looking through the mail

I can stand in the crib
I like helping mom with the flowers
Mommy picks the dead flowers off and I pick the pretty ones, some of them taste good too.
Look what I found!
So much fun!
I have two teeth
Mommy says not to touch the fan...I listen sometimes...I've only knocked it over twice.

Connor went from crawling to pulling himself up onto everything in about a day. He has had a few bumps and bruises and is getting better at falling and then rolling over as if nothing happened. He's also into just about everything...We have the stairs gated off and the kitchen as well. The downstairs is almost all baby-proofed.
Here are a couple of funny videos of Connor laughing at his daddy that we took today. If nothing else, watch the second video-it's our favorite.

A new cousin

2011-08-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

While we were gone on our vacation Connor lost the title of youngest baby in the family.

Claire became a big sister

Ellie no longer is the only middle child

Camille got to have another cute baby to hold to her heart's content-or at least until it started crying.

Calvin Liam Odenwalder was born on July 23rd. Here he is on the 27th.

First Plane Ride, First Ferry Ride and First Stamp in the Passport! Part 3 The Final Installment of our Trip

2011-08-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

So Sunday evening we repacked our bags and totally downsized and took only what we needed for the next two days with us and then boarded the ferry to Victoria. We originally were going to take the rental car over with us, but when we called, the ferry had no reserved spots left for Sunday night. So we could either arrive 3 hours early and hope to get a spot, or we could just walk on. We chose the latter and had a great time.

The view from the ferry

Connor reading to daddy-those free maps and brochures sure did come in handy.

Climbing a pole-getting a little exercise

When we arrived we waited in a forever long line to go through customs. As the guy handed me back my passport I said, “I don’t get a stamp?” He said they don’t always stamp them, but if I wanted one he could stamp mine for me. I said yes please. He also stamped Connor’s and Peter’s so now Connor and I have our first stamp in our passports.

The parliament building

Parliament at night

After customs we walked to our bed and breakfast to drop our bags off and then walked around Victoria for a bit. We stopped by a soda shope and ordered a Ruby Slipper (vanilla ice cream with peach and raspberry flavored soda on top) it was really good. As we were walking out two older ladies were walking in and said, “My what a pretty baby girl you have.” At which point Connor starts crying and screaming. I told them that he was offended that they called him a girl. They started apologizing profusely. I then told them not to worry, he’s fine, he just gets that way when strangers come up to him. We all had a good laugh. They then said, “He has a very pretty face.” I thanked them and then we were on our way. This wasn’t the only time people thought he was a girl.

Totem poles were a big thing here and in WA.

Hanging baskets were also everywhere. We took many pictures of various different hanging baskets as they were so neat to look at. This boat took the cake of having the most hanging flowers on it.

Some boats

The Empress Hotel view from the ferry

Pretty flowers

Look I see whales!

More flowers

hanging flowers

We made it back to our bed and breakfast and got ready for bed. Connor had to sleep with us as when we made the reservation we told them we would bring a pack n play with us. When plans changed and we didn’t have a car, we left the pack n play behind. The inn keepers were away when we arrived so we couldn’t request one for the first night. It was an interesting night’s sleep, but we managed. The following day at breakfast we were told we needed to be moved to a different room as they somehow double booked the room we were in. Basically we upgraded a room for no extra price. Our second room had a spa tub (which we didn’t use) which looked neat. We also got the pack n play which was wonderful for the second night.

Getting ready for bed the first night

So that leads us to Monday and the main reason for our vacation in the first place. We walked to a bus stop, got on a city bus for $5 total (sure beats the $57 they wanted for a bus with a direct route) and went to BUTCHART GARDENS! The gardens were absolutely amazing. We walked several routes a couple of times so we could really see everything.

Connor fell asleep on the bus ride to the garden

Connor is ready

Why yes I did take a picture of the garbage can!

Snail fountain

Water wheel near the entrance

Path leading to fuscias

Aren't they pretty

The Sunken Garden

Mandy and the Three Bears

Grazing deer

Every little part of soil is taken up by plants. It's hard to tell they're on a rock wall since you can't see the rock/cement part.

I loved this fountain

Connor and I went on a carousel ride…best $2 ever spent! The ride started up with about 10 children on it. Within the first minute a 4-5 year old girl started screaming and crying hysterically. She wasn’t thrilled with the ride. The ride stopped and she and her mother got off and then the ride started again. Connor was all smiles and squeals. He absolutely loved it. Strangers kept laughing at how happy he was. They took his picture too. He enjoyed every bit of it. Yes best $2 spent!

This is the best picture we got as our camera is a tad slow.
Check out the expression on Connor's face!

So we stopped to feed Connor some food and a Chinese tourist asked if he could take a picture. We thought, yeah no problem, we'll get out of the way and you can take a picture. Then he pointed the camera at Connor and took his picture...um okay. A bit strange, but oh well. Do you see the squirrel?

Do you see the butterfly?

Little bunny foo foo hopping through the grass...

The Rose Garden

Fish leading to the Japanese Garden
Connor loved the running water
He could've stayed here all day

The Italian Garden

Gotta love those hanging plants
Inside a greenhouse
Whew! What a Day!
And I'm not even tired!
Well we spent several hours at the garden and when we felt sufficiently exhausted we headed back to the bus stop. Once back we strolled around until our legs had turned completely to jell-o. We stopped by a cute park, but Connor really wasn't interested in playing on the grass and it was a bit chilly out too. We walked along Fisherman's Wharf, watched this boat with singing pirates on board.
Then on our way back to the B&B we ran across a little grocery/post office shop and bought these:
I bought extra aero bars because I remembered them tasting extra good. Well, they weren't bad, but not nearly as good as I remembered. Maybe I ate something else? So we munched on the mint one which was super good and then went to bed totally exhausted.

Tuesday morning we had to be out of our B&B by 11, so we decided to take the first ferry back to Port Angeles which left at 10:30. We arrived at the ferry and noticed people were still unloading, so we ran back to the grocery/post office shop to spend the remaining $7 and something on Canadian candy. We got three boxes of smarties, a cadbury cerises (chocolate with cherry filling) and something else which we already ate and therefore I don't remember what it was called. It was a really long bar with chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel I think. Whatever it was it was good. Then we ran back to the ferry and walked on with some time to spare. (Though I'm sure we looked funny running with all of our stuff in tow.)

Some fun creatures we found when we got off the ferry

The cars boarding the ferry to return to WA
(I wonder what coho big would've looked like)

We got back to WA, where Peter's grandpa picked us up and we enjoyed the rest of the day lounging around and relaxing from our adventures. Peter went shopping with his grandpa while I stayed home with a sleeping kid...I got a little snooze in too.

Tuesday we woke up at 5am!!! Connor was not happy to be woken up. We hopped in the car and set off for the Kingston ferry. We needed to catch the 7:00 or 7:45 ferry in order to make it to our flight on time. We caught the 7:00 one and were plenty early to the airport.

Connor is checking out the other ferry as it went by.

Right as we're going through security I feel and overwhelming warm feeling on my stomach...Connor's diaper leaked all over my shirt! We get through security (Peter had to go through one of those body scanner things-hahaha) and then we went to the bathroom while Connor got changed and I found a somewhat clean dirty shirt that I could go home with. I had to choose from turtleneck sweater that was clean, one that was barfed on last night, the pee one, or one with food on it. I chose the food on it one. It was either that or I was getting an I love Seattle shirt from a gift shop. During the flight Connor enjoyed eating snacks and getting me all messy again.
As the flight was landing while everyone was getting the butterflies in their stomach feeling, Connor was squealing with delight...it looks like we have a thrill seeker on our hands.

Well that concludes our trip! We had a great time and can hardly wait to go again!

First Plane Ride, First Ferry Ride and First Stamp in the Passport! Part 2

2011-08-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we hopped back in the car and did A LOT of driving. We drove to Olympic National Park. Walked on a few trails and said hello to the deer. There were two baby deer grazing next to us and one walked directly in front of me. From here we climbed back in the car and drove FOREVER (3 hours one way) to get to the Hoh Rainforest. After being cooped up in a car for so long, we took two of the hiking trails-mainly because I didn't want to get back into the car and neither did Connor.

The view from one of the look out points

A deer along the road

An absolutely amazing view-and not a cloud in sight either.

A family portrait

Baby deer at play
Sometimes I think snow is very strange-this was in the parkinglot
Some snow covered paths, while two feet away were totally green paths.
The trees in the back were burnt in a 2004 fire.
Walking to the car

The Hoh Rainforest

I loved all the moss everywhere and how it just hangs on the trees

More moss

I thought the broken trees were pretty fascinating too

A little river

Another family portrait

We eventually got back in the car and drove back to Grandpa's house. For dinner we enjoyed some yummy deep fat fried calamari and fish (yes I ate both and liked them both-I even told them I like Calamari ahead of time so they made it for me).

Dinner was very good!

Sunday morning we decided we needed a bit of a break. We were all tired of driving so we hung out and took it easy for the most part. It was a really hot day (up until this point their area had 79 minutes of the year of temperatures above 80 degrees. So unfortunately all I brought with me were long sleeved shirts and sweaters. We had to make a quick trip to Walmart to buy t-shirts and then I was much happier. (I only packed cool weather clothes because we were told that the weather was pretty cold there, and the days that I was able to see the weather forecast said highs would be low to mid 60's, hence long sleeves and sweaters sounded like a smart plan.)

In the morning we went to see the house that Grandpa is building. It's beautiful! It looks amazing on the outside, has floor in some of the areas and the kitchen was being put together, but that was about all that was done. Looks like it is going to be a great house. We're invited back when it's done as he will have plenty of space and extra rooms for us to use. (While staying at Grandpa's house he gave us his room and he stayed at the new house on an air mattress.) After seeing the new house we drove out to the famous spit and saw bald eagle nests.
Then we headed home and took a walk to go feed a goat named Crocket. It was a long walk and it was super hot outside, I was oh so glad to have a short sleeved shirt. We fed Crocket a little bit of lettuce and then continued on a trail to this cute bridge. This is where Amy and Anthony were married last year so they call it the marriage bridge. It was pretty. On the way back to the house we stopped and fed Crocket some more. Crocket's owner even brought him out to where we were so Connor could get a closer look.

Connor was thrilled to see a goat

Another amazing family portrait

Sunday evening we hopped on another ferry and Connor and I got our first stamp in our passports...the conclusion of our trip will be coming up.

First Plane Ride, First Ferry Ride and First Stamp in the Passport!

2011-07-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

So our adventure began on Wednesday when we flew to Seattle. We were allowed one checked bag each(Peter and I) and we could check the car seat and stroller for free. We could also have one carry on bag each as well as a diaper bag. So we took advantage of what we had. We arrived at the airport with one large suitcase with baby food and our clothes in it that weighed 48 pounds(just cleared the 50 pound limit). We also checked a pack n play which we stuffed umbrellas, water gear and blankets into the pack n play bag. Then we sent the car seat through. When we got to the gate we checked the stroller at the gate and boarded the plane. We had a backpack (we called the diaper bag), a small bag of Connor's clothes, and another bag, which was basically extra. And of course we each had a warm jacket with us. Yeah we didn't pack light at all. Apparently we're still learning how to pack with a baby in tow. Alright so the plane ride was okay. Connor cried a little bit, he ate a little bit and he slept a little bit. When we landed we picked up a rental car and drove literally down the street to our hotel. We let Connor crawl around on the floor a bit and then we all went to bed. It was quite late.

Thursday morning we set off for Mt. Rainier. It was quite overcast so we didn't see much of the mountain. We went because there was supposed to be wild flowers in peak bloom. However, the paths leading to the wild flowers were covered in 10 feet of snow. So no wild flowers and no hikes, as the paths were all covered in snow. So we enjoyed the visitor's center and then headed back down the mountain. We came across some cool waterfalls on the trip up and down the mountain.

This is what you're supposed to be able to see:

This is what we saw:
Wait! I think I see some mountain
A cool waterfall
A small waterfall on the side of the road-Connor really likes the sound of water so he was more interested in that than the camera.

More waterfall pictures

This is the view from the top
And this is the view from the middle.
It was really misty so we all get a bit wet.
It was a bit chilly but I stayed warm
This is the path we wanted to take to the wild flowers...and they were supposed to be in peak bloom??? I guess not this year.
On our way to the car from the visitor's center we saw this little guy, a marmot. He was shaking his head so it's a bit fuzzy, but he was fun to look at for awhile.

Back at the hotel, Connor had his first real bath. Up until this point we've had showers, but no standing water. In the hotel he had a bath and really enjoyed it, until he decided to try to crawl in the bath-then he wasn't too happy, the darn ground kept slipping out from under him.

Friday we drove to Peter's grandpa's house. We were stopped on a drawbridge which was pretty cool. We went to Pike's Place Market-which was super crazy. We walked around and then were fine to leave the place. We also went to the Salmon Fish Ladder. The fish were not jumping, but they were still kind of interesting to look at. Then we hopped on a ferry. At one point on the ferry we looked at the GPS and it said we were driving in the middle of water-and it was right.

The drawbridge

The entrance to the Market

At the Salmon Ladder there was also a nice garden that we walked through
The little white things in the water are jelly fish
The view from where our car was parked on the ferry.
AAAAAHHHHH We're driving in the water!

We arrived at Grandpa's house met Anthony (uncle) and his wife Amy and her daughter Sophia. Connor was not happy about all these new people, but he eventually warmed up to them all. Amy really enjoyed holding and playing with Connor. Grandpa and Sherry have a cat that Connor really enjoyed looking at. He wanted to pet her, but she managed to run away when he got near-which made him really mad.

This concludes this part of the post...stay tuned for more of our vacation coming soon.

Guess who can crawl now

2011-07-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

ME, THAT'S WHO!

I like playing in boxes too.

Look at me go!

Our weekend

2011-07-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

Our weekend started on Friday. We picked up Peter's parents and drove up to Huntington Library. I really wanted to explore the gardens so we went there first. Our favorite was the Children's Garden. As it was really hot out, the fountains were definitely inviting to everyone.
Right before we left the Children's Garden, we stopped by the fountains one more time to get cooled off. Connor decided to take a swim and kept on sticking his head under the water.
The Children's Garden had magnetic sand, a mist hut (which was closed for the day), a tunnel of colors, spitting fountains-these were pretty cool, you didn't know which one was going to spit next, and some cool topiaries. From here we walked to the Chinese Garden and past the Japanese Garden which is closed for renovation. We also enjoyed the rose garden.
By this time we were all tired and oh so hot. We stopped under a big tree and had a little snack. Then we decided to go into the museum, mostly just because we knew it was air conditioned. But we also went and looked at some of the famous paintings. My favorites are The Blue Boy and Pinkie. Once I saw those two, I was happy. Diana and I then walked to the gift shop while the guys wandered around the library and then went down one of the forest trails. When we were done we waited in the shade for the guys to come back. They came back and announced that the water fountains were turned off-big bummer. I might've enjoyed that walk for the fountains, but was glad I didn't go. We decided we were all exhausted and were ready to head home.

After sitting in some seriously slow traffic and listening to our poor hungry/poopy baby cry for awhile, we finally arrived at the Bass Pro Shop for dinner. (The same totally awesome store we stopped at before with my dad.) Connor got changed, and we all got fed and then we showed David and Diana the totally cool store. David loved it! We kept turning around to find him missing. Peter showed him the hunting area and the two of them enjoyed playing the shooting games. Both agreed they could spend countless hours playing there. As it was I think they stopped after $2, though David definitely thought about giving it another $1 to play again.
These are some of the targets they were trying to hit. Peter's favorite was a barrel that when the target was hit, it released a huge stream of air that blew in the face of the person to the left of him. In this case it was his dad. It was pretty funny. He had fun purposely hitting that target.

After this we continued on our way home. Connor was a bit more cranky and oh so tired in the car. Peter's dad-though I'm sure he meant well, was driving both Connor and I crazy.

Saturday we ran a few errands to get out of our hot house and then headed over to my parents' house to go swimming. Peter also had the urge to make cinnamon rolls, so we did that too.

Above is the funny picture promised from the last post. Mommy was making noises to entertain me. Daddy captured the shot. It makes us all laugh. :)

We made one pan of orange rolls with craisins and one pan of cinnamon rolls with raisins. We took home one pan and devoured all 16 rolls (yeah the two of us ate them...they were delish!) This pan is waiting to go into the oven for proofing and then cooking. No pictures of final product, but you get the idea...they were so good we gobbled them up.
Sunday we didn't do anything out of the ordinary. And now we're back to the work week.

Water Fun

2011-07-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of my favorites from the photos my dad took. He handed me a flash drive yesterday containing 1437 pictures from 7/3/11. It took awhile to go through all of them, copy my favorites to my computer (I picked 83) and then pick just a handful of them to post here. His pictures outlined the highlights of the Sunday afternoon.

We arrived for dinner:

MMM the table tastes pretty good.
Grandma says I have to stop doing this when I get teeth, so I have to enjoy it while I can.

I'm ready!

Trying to feed myself cantaloupe...it's slimy and squishy and I'm not sure what to do with it

Then I enjoyed some tummy time with toys. I have a tendency to spit up a little of my meals after I eat, so it's a good thing my bib is still on.

Woah look at that tower! I think I need to go knock it down!

Then we went on a quick walk followed up with some splashing in the pool. Going for a walk is the best way to calm Connor down, and we enjoy getting in the exercise.
Hmm what is this cold stuff under my feet?
I'm not sure I like this.
This is much better. I can stand and jump up and down.
Hmm what's down there?

Okay I'm done now, can I get out?

Riding on Grandpa's shoulders is one of Connor's favorite activities. I wonder how much hair he has pulled out?

Giddy up Horsey

So much fun

What a perfect Sunday afternoon. Next post will include pictures of Mommy and me swimming on Tuesday. Daddy got a really good picture of me smiling and my mommy making a really funny face :)

By the way I'm 8 months old today!

The Perfect Photo Shot!

2011-07-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

How far would you go to get the perfect picture? Would you go in a pool in your clothes? My dad sure would!

Connor and I were getting our feet wet in the pool today. Connor has been a bit apprehensive about the pool water, especially when someone jumps in the pool or makes a loud splashing noise. Today the pool was nice and calm, so we went and put our feet in the water. Grandpa loves taking pictures of Connor or really anything in particular. So when I saw him taking his wallet and stuff out of his pockets I figured he would be walking down a few steps in the pool. I was not anticipating this:
Connor ended up really liking the water. We went over to the steps and he jumped up and down on the top step. More water pictures to come...

Peek a Boo!

2011-06-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Connor is on the go...well sort of. He's in the midst of learning how to crawl, so far he goes backwards. He can get up on all four and rock back and forth too. We put him in front of our closet (mirrored doors) and he pushed himself backwards until we could just see his head sticking out of my closet.

Playing in Mommy's closet

Hello there

Peek a boo

For lunch today Peter thought Connor would like some pieces of cut up banana. He has had mashed bananas, but not cut up pieces. He had no clue that he was supposed to put them in his mouth. He had six pieces and four of them made their way to the floor while the remaining two pieces got mashed between his fingers and then put back on the tray.

Laughing at Daddy

We recently found a new way to entertain Connor. Here he is laughing at his Daddy. Daddy is jumping up and down in the background saying Boo.

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-20T20:57:00.001-07:00

For Father's Day Peter, Connor and I made these super studly shirts. Peter had no idea that one of them was going to be his. I came up with this idea on my way to work...someone riding a bike had a shirt on that said "Best Dad in the world hands down" and had his kid's hand prints on it. Since my dad likes wearing t-shirts with paint on them (I've created a few for him, by his request-he was actually wearing one with lizards on it on Sunday when we showed up), I decided this was a great plan. So anyways I told Peter of my plan to make one for my dad and he thought it was a great idea. I told my mom I was going to do one for my dad and one for Peter and I would make the one for Peter at my parents' house. So I went about with my ingenious plan. Only problem was I bought the two shirts and then Peter saw them. So with some quick thinking, I told Peter I bought two shirts in case the first shirt didn't turn out well. He thought that was a good idea.
So we made two shirts and up until Saturday night Peter had no clue one was his. In fact, he came over to the table to see what I was doing and noticed that the yellow one was signed "love Connor and the blue one was not. He didn't notice that the blue one said daddy instead of grandpa. I pointed it out to him and he got really excited.

Here's the artist and his Father's Day creations

I also made some really cute Father's Day cards with my Cricut. All the daddy's were impressed with their cards. Peter took his to work.

What I have been up to

2011-06-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

Look at me!

I got this cool new chair, and I usually like it

But sometimes I don't

My mommy and daddy think it's funny to take pictures of me when I'm mad...So I give them "the look" to let them know how I feel.

I like taking baths. I don't have much hair, so my mohawk is a little lacking.

I like it when my mommy is close by. I must make sure I can see her when daddy changes me.

I like flowers almost as much as my mommy and daddy

Today I was introduced to this fun little contraption. I can eat grapes and blueberries like a big boy. I wonder what else my mommy and daddy will give me.

In two days I will be 7 months old. I'm growing really fast.
(I have an outstanding vocabulary and typing skills too.)

A trip to the Zoo

2011-05-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Zoo. Almost all of the animals were awake and active. When we arrived, this guy was trying to impress the ladies. He was doing a mating dance which was quite entertaining.

Here are baby peacocks with their mommy, they kind of look like ducks, but they're peacocks.

Peter and Connor enjoyed looking at the fish and the hippo.
Next we went to see some monkeys and met up with Chris, Mary and the girls.

Connor decided the monkeys/gorillas were exhausting and took a nap.
We also saw some big cats on our way back towards the front.
Look what has traffic stopped!
From where we are standing, there's a third bus behind us and everyone is stuck because there's a duck crossing the street. The bus on the right had to do some pretty amazing maneuvering to avoid hitting the bus on the left as they wanted to trade places.
We stood where we were and watched the whole thing go down...and once the duck had crossed the road he walked right by us and then kept on going.
Next we went to the children's area and pet some goats. For some reason our picture came out really bright.
Camille really enjoyed helping Connor find some goats to pet.

We had a great time, then we all came home and took a much needed nap.

6 Month Photo Shoot

2011-05-08T20:51:00.001-07:00

We took Connor in to get 6 month photos taken last weekend. They arrived just in time for Mother's Day. He's such a photogenic baby we had a hard time picking favorites as they were all our favorites...so we bought a lot! But really who could blame us?

We gave this one below to both grandmas

The grandmas got this one too. Peter and I learned for future photo shoots to wear clothing that matches in case they end up putting parts of us in the photos too.

Easter

2011-04-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

So here's Connor's Easter basket. He loves the simple board books and the bunny finger puppet. Mommy is going to help out by eating the candy stick :)
Sunday was a busy day. We woke up, checked out what the Easter Bunny brought us and then got ready for church. After church, we came home briefly and then went to my parents' house for an early dinner. Afterward we had dinner at Peter's parents' house. We came home stuffed and exhausted. Perhaps next year Connor will get a thrill out of finding eggs and such.

Connor has been enjoying tummy time lately.

These last three pictures are from this past week.

You know the old saying "I can smell ____ a mile away." Well it's true for Peter. For Easter we brought potatoes and green beans to my parents' house and rolls and pie to his parents' house. When we got home from my parents' house we threw the rolls in the oven and cooked them. Peter put them in a basket and as we were heading out the door he says, "Do you want to take the rolls or the baby to the car?" I said, I'd rather take the rolls as they're not as heavy. So we get in the car and drive literally a mile or two and Peter says, "MMM the rolls smell good." My response- "Oh no! I left the rolls on the table!!!" This was followed with me busting into laughter. "Uh how do you smell the rolls, when I forgot to bring them?" Apparently Peter can smell rolls a mile away.

Butterflies, Birds and Babies

2011-04-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

This morning we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Wild Animal Park). Connor had just fallen asleep when we got there, so he was dozing in and out while we were there. We visited the butterflies first.
We were hoping a butterfly would land on Connor's head, but they didn't. One briefly landed on Peter's hat, but that was about it. They were very pretty to look at. We were glad we made it there this year. (Last year I passed out while in line, so we missed the butterfly experience.)

I got a big grin right as we entered the butterfly exhibit and then he started dozing off.

Next we went to the Lorikeets-Connor was nearly asleep and wanted nothing to do with the birds. He didn't even look at them or care when there were three squawking in his ear.

Then we went on the tram and got to see this baby-Eric is 8 months old and over 500 pounds, he's in the back, his momma is the one eating.

After getting off the tram it was super hot out. We were all sweaty and it wasn't even noon yet, so we decided to head out. On our way out we stopped by the nursery and saw this cute little guy.It was a great morning. We got home, ate lunch, turned the AC on and all took a nap.

Connor update:
* He has found his feet and can put them in his mouth. He's also great at pulling his socks off.
* He still can aim and squirt his daddy during diaper changes.
* Loves to talk
* We've upgraded from squeals to genuine laughs, they're hard to come by, but downright adorable to hear.
* He's totally a ladies man, so this was quite appropriate:

I Spy...

2011-04-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

So this was totally Peter's idea.

Where's the baby?

Isn't he so cute!

He gets a little easier to find as the pictures continue
He's also the only bear in the next two pictures with a pacifier in his mouth.

Don't you just love the collection

So Connor was a great sport. We took these pictures a couple times today and he was the best sport right after dinner and before bedtime. Gotta love that little baby. And the hubby that came up with the idea.

PS. Connor is not in the first picture...I hope you didn't spend too much time looking for him in that one :)

PPS. There's 109 bears...Do you think I have enough?

Almost 5 months

2011-04-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

Our little boy is so full of smiles

I'm happy while eating and happy after eatingMy what big eyes I have

They help me stare at Pooh and Tigger in my bed...I also am often found talking to them when I wake up from naps (yes I really do talk to them).

I have also found my hands, they are great for shoving in my face when I am sad, hungry, or whenever. They also for some reason take my binky out of my mouth at night causing me to scream in displeasure. I can find my binky and am close at getting it back in my mouth, but it is always turned the wrong way, making sucking downright impossible.

Connor's best friend

2011-03-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

Every morning when I drop Connor off at my parents' house, Gracie gets all excited and bounces around. She can hardly wait for me to put down the car seat so she can stick her nose in Connor's face. When Connor naps, she sneaks into the room and checks on him in the pack-n-play. Today they were nose to nose and Connor squealed in delight. They are such a cute pair.

These pictures are all from a couple weeks ago. My dad took them with his camera.

During one of Peter's Fridays off from work and my president's week off of work, we went to the Zoo to see the new baby hippo. He stayed very close to his momma and napped.

It was very cold out (well cold for us San Diegans) and the weather reports said it would rain around 5pm. Well we arrived around 1 and it was sprinkling. Luckily we had an umbrella and warm clothes, so we stayed comfy. Connor was all snug as a bug and slept in the ergo. We stayed until about 3 and then headed home. While pulling the car out of the parking lot it started to downpour...we got out just in the nick of time...so much for listening to the weather reports.

Yummy Green Beans!

2011-03-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

Day one of rice cereal was a near success. Day two and so forth were complete successes. Connor loves rice cereal. Our pediatrician suggested we introduce cereal and then veggies a week at a time. It has been almost two weeks on cereal so we decided to try pureed veggies. This week's experiment-Green Beans. Here's the video...I wasn't expecting him to like it, so I didn't put much in the bowl...he apparently loved it and was mad when I ran out.

We also had tummy time earlier today.

Tummy time lasted all of about 3 minutes and then Connor rolled over. We put him back on his tummy and he rolled over again.

4 Months Old

2011-03-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

We had our 4 month check up this morning. And yes we're still long and lean-what a big surprise :) Connor is in the 4th percentile for weight-11lbs 12oz, 55th percentile for length-25 inches, and 14th percentile for head circumference-16 inches. Apparently we weren't on the charts last month for weight, so 4% is an improvement. The doctor said we could try rice cereal now and introduce pureed veggies soon. So here was our attempt this evening at rice cereal:

The cereal goes in
The cereal comes out and he seems like he doesn't like it or does he?
I'd rather eat the bib
Are you giving me more?

I'm calling the introduction to cereal a success. Some went in, some came out and I heard swallowing so some went down too. And each time I brought the spoon close, he opened his mouth, then he would pull a face as if he didn't like it, spit some out and then open his mouth ready for more.

Sometimes it isn't nice to share

2011-03-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

So in the previous post I mentioned how I got sick...well, Connor and Peter got it too. Having a sick baby is no fun at all! As the cold got passed, it mutated and got worse. I had a runny nose and only had a cough one night. Connor had the congested head, snotty nose, watery eyes, cough...oh it was miserable sounding. He also had a low grade fever. He was only happy/err I mean he could only breathe while sitting upright. He took naps on various chests, slept with a pillow under his mattress. Peter made some frantic phone calls to friends and family members. Thanks to Greg and Ellen for the humidifier...we now have our own. And now our sweet little angel is recovering quite well.
So I passed the cold to Connor and he in return passed it on to Peter. Peter has/had the snotty nose, cough, fever and since it had to mutate again, he got lucky and was throwing up too.

So yes, sometimes it isn't nice to share.

Valentines/fun times

2011-02-16T17:03:00.000-08:00

Well we had a rather laid back, did nothing special Valentines Day. I have been sick for the past week, with the weekend being the worst part of this cold. Peter was wonderful and ran out to get me medicine a couple of times. I believe I have my students to thank for sharing their germs with me (back at work a week and a half and they welcome me back with a nasty cold). I've had this week off of work, which I'm enjoying the extra sleep and the extra playtime with my little one. Connor on Sunday was extremely cranky. I think I shared my cold with him. Monday was tricky too. About the only thing I could think of to calm him down was a shower.

Connor loves taking a shower. He loves having the water spray him in the face. Loves getting all soapy, overall loves the entire experience...that is until you turn the water off.
Stepping out of the bathroom with the cool breeze on warm wet skin...the result is almost always this. Yes I know the robe is too big, but it's so cute I had to give it a try.

This picture is from last week. He was happy and smiling at daddy about 2 minutes before this picture was taken. I love the lips.

Peter came home with flowers and a card for me and then made dinner. I did my best not to breathe too many germs on him. I love you honey! After dinner, Connor and Peter had some bonding time.
Connor really likes watching TV. At times he is so mesmerized by what is on.

He also really enjoys sucking on just about anything. His pacifier, your clothes, and his fists are among the favorites.
Doctors say be sure to give him plenty of supervised tummy time. Well I keep putting him on his tummy and he keeps rolling over. In the time I put him on his belly and stepped back to get a picture, he had already done this.

Getting nails trimmed by daddy. Daddy is the only one brave enough to do this and has taught me that it must be done while Connor is focused on something else.

Our smiley boy

2011-02-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

We took this video last night. His squeals are just too adorable. Make sure the volume is turned on while watching this. He's 13 weeks old.

Mormon Battalion Commemoration

2011-01-29T21:44:00.001-08:00

Last night Peter and I watched our nieces, we also had a slumber party which was quite fun. We went from 1 kid to 4 in a matter of minutes! Boy that's tricky, but we had a lot of fun. This picture was just too cute to pass up.
Today was the Mormon Battalion Commemoration at Old Town State Park. Peter and his dad left super early in the morning to head down. They participated in the Dutch Oven Cook-Off. They made six different German foods: Bread Knodel, Chicken schnitzel, sweetened red cabbage, mushroom gravy, apple strudel, and streuselkuchen. They won first and second place prizes and got the best in show award as well. Everyone else brought one dutch oven, Peter and David had 5 going simultaneously. I swiped these pictures off of Wendy Platt's Facebook.
While the guys were busy with their dutch ovens, I had the camera and us girls were busy doing the fun stuff seen here:
While Peter and his dad cooked all day, Mary and the girls and I explored the activities. We watched the parade, the girls made dolls, bricks, rope, cooked a bun, panned for gold and enjoyed running around. Camille's friend from school and her dad met up with us. It was a fun day. Connor slept for the majority of the time in the Ergo, he's such a good baby.

These aren't from today since I wore him all day and I had the camera it was impossible to take his picture, so here's a couple cute pictures from this past week.

Bass Pro Shop

2011-01-26T23:01:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures from my dad's camera as promised...Cleaning up the kid and the car seat after his diaper exploded-in the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop.

Trying on the hats

A cool carving

Family portrait in front of a waterfall

We are standing inside the elevator. You can see my reflection and to the right is my dad holding Connor. Through the glass is the store and a fish tank in the middle.

Wildlife in the store

One of the views of the store from behind a waterfall

Another family portrait...I do believe Peter has grown some antlers

Peter practicing his shooting skills. I tried this too, but was so pathetic...out of 25 shots I was able to hit one target.

Another view of the store

So yeah this is a super cool shop, two floors tons of stuff to look at and play with. There was a stream that went through the middle of the store as well with fish in it. In the above picture we ate at the restaurant which is located in the top right behind the sign that says "gifts" and the food there was great! As we headed to the car we realized we didn't even see half of the stuff that was in the store and we totally missed the part with the boats. Oh well maybe next time :)

Connor's 1st Road Trip

2011-01-21T10:24:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we took a quick road trip up to the bay area to attend a funeral. My dad was already going, so we went with him. We left Sunday morning around 9 and arrived at Abbie and Rafe's house around 7pm. Connor was the perfect little baby. I fed him before we left, when we stopped for lunch, and gave him a bottle in the afternoon so we could keep on driving. We stopped a few times for gas and when we stopped I always changed him, so that when we arrived at Abbie and Rafe's we had only a minor diaper leak. Then I fed him again as soon as we got to Abbie and Rafe's. Other than that he slept, we played and he only fussed for five minutes while I tried to find him a bottle.
Sunday night Connor slept from 12-5:30 then ate and went back to sleep until 7:30 or so. Monday morning was the funeral followed by a delicious lunch of Greek food and then we went to the cemetery for a graveside service. Afterward we went to my cousins house for a couple of hours and then back to Abbie and Rafe's. Monday night Connor slept from 11-8...yup 9 straight hours! It was wonderful! We ate breakfast and hit the road a little after 9. We stopped for lunch and then kept on driving. After lunch I changed Connor, then he was asleep at the next gas pit stop, so we let him sleep...that was a mistake. We stopped in Rancho Cucamunga to visit the Bass Pro Shop. Peter had been dying to go there, so we stopped and checked out the store. And my what a store it was! Pictures of that will be in the next post (I have to get them from my dad.) When we went to pull Connor out of his car seat I noticed poop all over the side...we had encountered a major blowout!

Laughing at his animal friends

I cleaned up Connor while Peter cleaned up the car seat...it was disgusting! Sad thing though, the diaper wasn't full, it just leaked out the side because of the way Connor sits in his car seat with his feet up-which caused a gap. Once we were all cleaned up we went in the store and walked around a bit, then got dinner there. We arrived home around 9:30 or so. I took apart the car seat and put the fabric in the washing machine along with the poopy clothes while Connor got a much needed bath.

Hello there :)

27 Minutes

2011-01-15T11:25:00.000-08:00

So I have been reading "On Becoming Baby Wise." Which was highly recommended from my sister-in-law who has a 5 month old who sleeps through the night and goes to bed without fussing. The book says that there are many things to avoid to get your child to sleep but the three most important to avoid are:

1-Don't let the child fall asleep while nursing.
2-Don't rock the child to sleep.
3-Don't let the child sleep in bed with parents.

Guess how many of those we do?...Yep all three. So I ordered the book and it arrived on Wednesday and Thursday I started following the techniques. Some of which I was already following, but many I was not. What I really wanted to get out of this was that Connor would go to sleep in his crib and be able to self soothe if he woke up early.

So Thursday morning he was up at 5:30. I fed him and then we played a little and then I wrapped him up in a miracle blanket and put him in his crib while he was still awake. I listened to him cry for 27 minutes before he fell asleep. Throughout that time he calmed himself down several times so there were times that he was quiet, then he would cry a little. Once he was asleep he slept for 2 hours. At the end of 2 hours I checked on him (I checked on him numerous times while he slept) and he was awake and happy. I changed him and he threw smile after smile at me. I fed him again and he started falling back to sleep. We had some tummy time and then it was time for another nap. He cried 2 minutes and then was quiet. Was this some kind of miracle? The evening nap was a bit trickier and he ended up falling asleep in the swing and then nighttime was a bit hard too. He cried for 30 minutes and wasn't giving in so I picked him up and rocked him to sleep and then put him back down. He slept in 3 hour increments during the night which is pretty usual for him.

Thursday photo-check out the cute socks. This is a miracle blanket, but we don't wrap up his feet anymore because he always kicks his way out of it within a couple of minutes.

Friday the morning naps went like clock work. He didn't fuss at all when I put him down. He talked to himself and kicked his legs and went to sleep. His evening naps weren't too bad either. Though he really wanted a pacifier and calmed down really fast after having one, but couldn't keep it in his mouth. So I rolled up a receiving blanket and propped it against the pacifier so if he spit it out, he could still reach it to suck it back in. He also took one while in the Ergo while we shopped at Costco. Nighttime he was fed and then rocked and put down. He slept for 5 hours 11:30-4:30 and then was changed, fed and barely rocked and put back down. He slept almost another 5 hours (4:50ish-9:35). He woke up briefly at 8:30 and went back to sleep. I felt great this morning when I woke up.

Friday photo-My ingenious plan to hold the pacifier in. The pants he is currently wearing he was able to kick himself out of. He really hates having things on his legs/feet.

Two Month Check-Up

2011-01-11T22:11:00.001-08:00

Monday Connor had his two month check-up and got six vaccinations. Four were shots (one shot had two vaccines in it) and one was a liquid he swallowed. The nurse had me hold him while the liquid was given. At first he wasn't terribly happy as the liquid was very cold, but he got over that quickly and started sucking it down. When it was gone he got very upset as he wanted more. The nurse then had me put him down on a table so she could give the shots in his thighs. This was directly after the liquid so while he was mad that the liquid was gone he turned bright red. The nurse was worried at first that this might be a reaction to the vaccine and then realized that he was mad, so she continued. He took the first shot and screamed and as the other shots were given he cried and when it was all done he got two sparkly bandages and then calmed down. He was quiet by the time he was dressed and buckled back into his car seat. He then fell asleep during our five minute drive home. He was a great trooper!
His two month stats are: Head is 15 1/4 inches, he weighs 9 lbs 14 oz. and he's 24 inches long. Or as the doctor puts it, Connor is long and lean.

Monday afternoon Connor was very good. Then around 6:30 he was so fussy it was really hard to calm him down. He finally went back to sleep and slept until midnight, then back to bed around 1am after eating. We both were back awake at 5:30am. We had a ton of fun doing this:
I love his big open mouth smiles...they are always followed by squeals, which are just so darn cute!

Fun with babies

2011-01-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve we went to the O's. Upon arrival Camille anxiously asked if she could hold baby Connor. Within minutes of rocking in her arms she had him asleep. He woke up a couple of times and she just rocked him back to sleep.
At 9:58pm Chris announces that it's two minutes until the new year and gets his girls excited to blow noise makers and such. Peter and I look at each other dumbfounded. I ask, "It's midnight already?" Peter says, "It's only 10 o'clock." Apparently we don't have enough kids to understand why 10pm is midnight on New Year's Eve. After the kids had their New Year's party they went to bed. Connor was having a hard time so we headed home. At midnight we were all in bed.

On Wednesday I watched Claire during the day and on Thursday I watched Claire and Ellie. Claire did a great job of entertaining herself while Connor ate. During one feeding Claire was playing behind the couch and would keep asking if she could use/play with different items. She put on one of my "hooter hiders" and then put a teddy bear under it and told me she was feeding her baby while I fed Connor. Later she put one of Connor's shirts on a teddy bear and buckled it into his car seat. She also played with the bear on a baby blanket and tried giving it a pacifier. I was surprised that she didn't try to put a diaper on it, as the changing mat was also out. She also enjoyed playing in my shoes.
Claire was really happy that she got to play with Connor all day Wednesday and not have to share him with her sisters. Later that night Mary called to say that she told Claire that she didn't have to work on Friday so she would play with Mommy all day. Claire said, "No, I play with Aunt Mandy." Sounds like she really had fun.

Tuesday morning while I took a shower I had Connor sitting in his car seat. Normally he doesn't like this, but he was a great trooper. In fact he was waiving his hands and kept bopping the little noise makers that jingled...then he would squeal with delight. I kept sticking my head out of the shower curtain to see my super happy baby playing with the toys. By the time I had a camera, he was done sitting in his car seat.

Here's our happy baby-9 weeks as of tomorrow, pictures were taken this evening.

Christmas recap

2010-12-31T18:21:00.000-08:00

This year was a crazy Christmas-Thursday was the first day in about two weeks where we had the day to ourselves. On December 15th Peter’s brother Sean and his family arrived from Florida (Sean, Amy, Kirk-3yrs, and Heidi-5 mos.). We spent nearly every day with them. We had many fun adventures and really enjoyed spending time with them. Amy took a lot of fun pictures of the kids with her really cool camera. We’ll post when we get them. For being three months older than Connor, Heidi is a real moose! Heidi was roughly the same weight as Connor, so we’ll see if he turns into a moose in the next three months too.

Chris and Mary and their girls Camille-7, Ellie-5 and Claire-3 also came for the festivities. We had a great time playing games with everyone.
Christmas Eve was spent with Peter’s family. Peter made peppermint fudge and peanut brittle-yummy! We had appetizers and socialized with family. There was also the telling and acting out of Jesus’ birth with Connor being baby Jesus, Ellie was the angel, Claire was Joseph, Camille was Mary, Mary who was holding Connor became the manger, Sean was a sheep and Amy was the shepherd. Peter and Laurel were two of the wise men and the rest of us chimed in as well. Oh yes and Kirk was the crocodile. It turned out pretty well-we had a lot of fun! The evening also consisted of reading the first chapter of a biography Peter’s grandma wrote-Chris added quite a bit of commentary to the story, making it absolutely hilarious. Chris also read a letter written by David’s dad-which was the first Christmas letter in a very long time and it described past Christmas and life explorations-it was really neat to hear.
Christmas morning we received the best gift ever-Connor slept 7 hours!!!! It was amazing! I fed him around 11pm, he was asleep at midnight and then didn’t wake up until 7am-that’s a first for us! I woke up at 5 expecting my little alarm clock to wake up too and he didn’t so I went back to sleep, well sort of. I kept anticipating him waking up so I didn’t really want to go back to bed. At 6 I got up for breakfast and then went back to bed. At 7 my little guy started stirring and then was awake. I fed him and then he got to see what Santa left for him. He got a couple outfits, Cookie Monster and Elmo socks, some Dr. Seuss board books and a couple Winnie the Pooh bottles that he’ll be able to use in a couple of months. After we were dressed and ready we headed to Peter’s parents again for presents. Around 9:30 Chris and Mary arrived as well.
Peter and Connor gave me a Cricut Expression, my mom, sister and Chris gave me several cartridges for the Cricut which of course I’ve had fun using. I’ve started putting together some fun pieces for Connor’s scrapbook. I also got Apples to Apples the Disney version. Peter and I also received a Lion House cook book, Tell me the stories of Jesus, The Christmas Oranges DVD, a biography about Peter’s grandma, a car emergency kit, a Chinese decoration, a nativity set, and a nativity stacking doll.
Peter also got a super duper cordless drill, two Chuck Norris t-shirts that are super funny, a sweatshirt, and a train set.
Connor got some clothes, toys, more board books, pacifiers, and a turtle nightlight that projects stars all over the ceiling.

At noon we headed over to my parents house. Joshua-9 and Bubba-5 were anxiously awaiting our arrival so they could open presents. We opened presents and then ate lunch/dinner around 1:30. Santa also left Peter and I stockings at my parents house-which was pretty cool. After dinner we all took a nap. When we woke up we headed back to Peter’s parents house for our second dinner followed by an amusing game of “Apples to Apples Disney Edition” with the nieces followed by “The Game of Things” once the children had been put to bed.
Sunday the 26th Connor was blessed in church since we had family in town. After church Connor and I headed to my parents house to have Christmas again now that Abbie and Rafe were in town. My aunt and uncle arrived late on the 24th and left around 4 on the 26th to head back home. Connor and I got to visit with them a little bit before they left. Then Sunday evening we played another amusing game of “The Game of Things” as we also gave that game to Abbie and Rafe. Seriously a fun game to play with a group of people!

Monday the 27th we got a late start to the day, visited with Abbie and Rafe for almost two hours and then left to go get family pictures taken with Peter’s family in Old Poway Park. We were the first family to arrive so the photographer took our little family photos first. Connor wasn’t very happy in many of our pictures. Sean arrived to save the day with a pacifier and would wait until the photographer was about to take the picture and then pull the pacifier out of Connor’s mouth-this technique worked pretty well. When our pictures were done then the rest of the gang had arrived and we took the big family picture. Now trying to get six children ages of 7, 5, 3, 3, 5mos and 7 weeks to all look good at the same time is down right near impossible. I’m curious to see if everyone looked good in at least one picture. Connor was the best behaved as he was asleep for the whole thing. Camille then comes in second with probably Heidi in third, after that it was a toss up to who was constantly complaining, crying, making funny faces, or picking their nose.
Tuesday the 28th we spent with my family. The 29th we said goodbye to Sean, Amy and the kids then went home to relax-our first day home in a long time!

Today is New Year’s Eve-Now normally I don’t bother with new year’s resolutions as I can never keep them. Like for instance I don’t bother with saying that I’ll stop biting my nails, because yeah that won’t happen, at least not for long. Though I did come up with an idea-I will try to update the blog more often. So there you have it. Happy New Year everyone!

6 weeks

2010-12-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some more fun pictures of our little man
Big yawn (5 wks)

Yes I am mad
Another big yawn
This one is from his first week-I had to include it
Grandma B bought me this super cute bear outfit to keep me warm and happy in my car seat.
Aren't I adorable?!
Yesterday we went to the model train museum in Balboa Park with Chris, Mary, their girls, Sean, Amy and their kids. We arrived first and Connor wasn't too happy in the stroller so we headed back to the car and put him in the ergo baby-which I love by the way! Connor slept soundly through the whole museum.

This is in the Lego room

Here's another fun room-this was probably my favorite room, there was so much to look at. This was my second time going to that museum so I really didn't take many pictures. I liked this train as it had the smurfs on it. They had a lot of very creative trains decorated just for the holidays. There was a sponge bob one too.

Here's Connor in a holiday outfit Grandma O gave him. Our neighbors gave us the socks, we also have green, blue and black ones. I love how they look like shoes.

3 1/2 weeks

2010-11-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

My how time flies, our baby is almost a month old and we haven't posted nearly enough pictures of him yet...so here are a few. Do you see a running theme? He does have eyes, and he does open them occasionally...generally between midnight and 3am.

Sleeping with Daddy

Sleeping with Grandpa

Connor and I went to the Zoo today with Kira, her boys and her mom. We got to meet this little guy. He's a pengalin (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). He's one of only two that the Zoo has and they are the only Zoo to have them in captivity. They don't usually live very long in captivity. He has a super long tongue, it was fun to watch him.

When Peter got home from work he found Connor and I like this.
We had a great time-Thanks for inviting us to go with you!

10 days old

2010-11-16T10:36:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what a baby looks like on the inside? I assume it's a bit like this, just flip him upside down. This is one of Connor's favorite sleeping positions.

This is another favorite position
Taken at the hospital...one of the many faces he dazzles us with
Want a kiss?

Thinking

Will you please turn the flash off?
Staring at daddy

Look at the size of those feet! Now imagine those kicking you in the ribs constantly.

I'm ready for my first Doctor's appointment!
We have decided that Little Squirt was a very appropriate nickname for him. This was the outfit he went to his doctor's appointment in. He came home in a second outfit and before long he was in his third outfit of the day. After a couple days of constantly wetting his clothes and mine, and the bed and basically anywhere he was we were given advice on how to solve that problem. Now he generally stays in one outfit for the day...unless he decides to be a little squirt. :)

Our Family of Three

2010-11-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

It all started at 10 o'clock last night. Mandy and I had just returned home from a very tasty dinner at a Casa De Pico's for my Mom's birthday. Mandy hadn't taken a nap in the afternoon, so she was more tired than usual. That's when the pains started.
These pains were much stronger and more regular than she had ever had before. Of course, we wanted to make sure this was the real thing and not the fake labor, since we really didn't want to head over to La Jolla just to be sent home. So she endured them until 1 AM or so. We tried to cope with them by changing positions, having me massage her back, taking a warm shower, etc. By 1 AM, the contractions were coming 3-5 minutes apart, and were fairly regular. At this point we realized it certainly wasn't fake, and headed to the hospital.
When we got there, they hooked Mandy up to the contraction monitoring machine and observed her for 1 hour. It turns out she was in labor, but it was very, very early. Mandy and I were shocked because how intense the pain was, even at this stage. Mandy could hardly walk. They gave us a choice: go home and come back later, or walk around and see if it progressed farther. We chose the latter--I think both of us would have been pretty shook up if we ended up back at home. Poor Mandy wasn't going to get any sleep or rest where ever she was.
Lucky for us, after walking around for an hour, with every 5 steps or so followed by massive contraction, they decided that Mandy was in enough pain to go ahead and admit us. This was about 4:30 or5 in morning. Both of us were exhausted. Within an hour, they administered her epidural--and it was a miraculous thing. How on Earth did they ever have babies before they came up with this stuff? Mandy felt TONS better and was able to rest at that point, although she wasn't really able to sleep much since she had her blood pressure being monitored every 5 min and nurses had to keep doing tests, setting things up, etc.
Anyway, after a few more hours of contractions and some pushing in the final hour, little baby Connor was born at 12:02 on Saturday, Nov 6. Our handsome little mini-man weighed 8 lbs and 7 oz, and was 21 inches long. And then there were three of us.

Any day now...

2010-10-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well today marks 39 weeks and no Squirt yet. The doctors at the hospital said I should deliver before 39 weeks, but my doctor at the clinic said I could possibly go a day or two over 40 weeks…I’m thinking I’m done being pregnant and just want him out now. With the lovely diet that I’m on, I haven’t gained any weight the last two months, however, Squirt has. His kicks are extremely noticeable and often painful, especially when he stretches from both ends. I’m exhausted all of the time-afternoon naps are not a luxury, they’re a necessity and I still go to bed at a decent time….which is followed up with 3-4 midnight trips to the bathroom (nature is just doing it’s job to prepare me for midnight feedings).

Friday was my last day of work for a couple months. After my wonderful (loads of sarcasm here) day on Thursday, my co-workers and I decided that Friday would be it for me. This week will be an easy week for them no new lessons just let the kids get caught up on work. Then Thursday and Friday are parent teacher conferences. My reports are all turned in, so I’m off the hook.

A little while back as we were buying the necessities for Squirt, Peter made the comment that kids sure cost a lot. I responded with yeah, just the first one, then the others can use the same stuff. Well then on Tuesday there was a knock on the door. Peter was busy so I got up off the couch to get the door. Getting up can be an ordeal now as I can’t always see where my feet are…and I managed to kick over an entire glass of crystal light that was sitting on the floor. I answered the door-it was the missionaries, the conversation was quick and brief. “Oh you live here, how are you doing, can we do anything for you? Well see you around.” That was basically it. I shut the door and then get a rag to clean up the mess I had just made. While soaking up the floor I see my laptop under the couch has a pile of liquid on top of it. Peter grabs me another towel and I wipe down the computer as liquid is dripping out of it (mind you it was closed). I opened it up and the keyboard and screen were all wet. We unplug it, take the battery out and do our best to dry it out and then leave it opened for a day or two to dry. We have since tried several times to turn it on and nothing happens. I think I killed my computer. On Wednesday evening Peter suggests we buy me a new computer. Mine had been acting up for awhile now, but I could live with the little quirks it had- (a cd got stuck and made an awful noise every time I opened it, then the k button got stuck and would randomly type k’s while I typed) I learned to deal with the little quirks and kept pushing the idea to the back burner. And now the computer is truly dead. I just hope that we can pull the information off of the hard drive and put it on the new computer (when we get one). Which leads me to yesterday-we went to Fashion Valley mall. Did we have to go that far? No, but that mall has a Disney store, so of course we went there. We walked past the Apple store and decided since there were about 500 people in the store that I could live without a computer for awhile longer. We went in the Disney Store and then quickly out. It was crowded too and was geared for 3-8 year olds. We went to Bath and Body Works and bought some smelly soaps (I had a giftcard), and then I was tired so we headed back to the car. On the way back I stopped at Macy’s and told Peter to go get the car and pick me up there. I couldn’t walk anymore. A combination of massive pressure down there along with contractions was making me quite miserable.

He picked me up and we headed home, with one last stop at Costco to get some Halloween candy. Last night was our ward and another ward’s combined Halloween carnival and trunk or treat. We originally thought we would have a baby by now so we weren’t going to the trunk or treat, but since we didn’t we needed to pick up some cheap candy to pass out to approximately 200-300 kids. The carnival was pretty awesome, they had some really fun games set out-mini put put, toilet toss(toss a roll of toilet paper into a toilet), throw a ball in a bucket while it is spinning, pick Frankenstein’s nose, a cake walk where they won lollipops, decorate a cookie, get a balloon, cotton candy, face painting, you name it they had a lot of fun games and activities for the kids and of course it was all free. Probably the best carnival I’ve seen in a long time. Then at 7pm the trunk or treat began. The cars were all lined up many decorated their trunks with scary webs, pumpkins, music and such. We met up with Peter’s family and passed out candy next to their cars. Most kids went around once, though several we saw two or three times. They each got one piece until we ran out. Chris and Mary’s kids returned with a good stash of candy.

So that brings us to today…39 weeks and still hanging in. With each contraction Peter leans over-“Are you in labor yet? Is it time?” He has to give a talk today and he’s not even remotely looking forward to it. :) Can you tell?

Another ultrasound

2010-10-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

Okay I swear these ultrasound pictures get harder and harder to understand. It was so easy when Squirt was so small, all the parts were easily identifiable. Now it's hard to figure out what you're looking at. Today the lady doing the ultrasound had to point to everything for us to understand what we were looking at. The only things that were obvious were the heart and the head/brain. In one image we could see Squirt taking practice breaths, that was pretty cool. For the most part he was asleep, she couldn't get him to move around much and he had a good and steady heart rate. She had a really hard time of getting a good picture of the face, the umbilical cord was floating in front of his face. She tried doing a 3D scan and all we could identify were the lips, oh well, he'll be here soon enough. So this picture it looks like he's pushed up against a glass window. You can see the nose and nostrils, the lips and the chin. The bubble like stuff around to the right is the cord. The second picture is more of a profile picture, the mouth is open and his tongue is sticking out a little. (She had to point this out to us as we couldn't see it.)
So the stats that we were told are he's growing-his head measures in around 39 weeks, the rest of his body measures around 38 weeks and he weighs approximately 7 lbs and 9 oz.

After the ultrasound we went to the labor and delivery department for the non stress test. Squirt's heart rate was steady...he was sleeping. He wiggled a bit in the beginning and then again in the end as they were taking the monitors off of me. I also had a contraction and didn't feel a thing. As they were hooking me up to the monitors the first thing to show up was a contraction so they told me to push on the top of my belly to see how hard it was. When the contraction was over the belly was soft again. That was pretty cool.

Another funny story-Yesterday at work we had a snake man come and give a presentation to our students. He raises harmless snakes and sells them. He came to our school last year and the kids loved it, so we asked him to come again this year. While he was in our class he brought an egg as he had several eggs hatch recently. One of the students asked the guy how he knew the snake was pregnant. The guy's reply: "Well it's just like how you know a human is pregnant, they get fat, move slower and eat more." The kids were laughing and someone made the comment of that's just like my teacher. Then the guy saw me in the back and he got all red in the face and was just stumbling over his words. He apologized profusely. At the end he came up to me and asked if I forgave him, I told him everything he said was true and I didn't take offense to it, I found it funny too.

"Did I really want to know that?" - Peter

2010-10-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

Friday Peter came with me to my doctor appointment. Peter had the day off of work and I had told him that they are doing different things now. I guess I got him excited so he really wanted to come with me. We went into the ultrasound room where the doctor checked the fluid levels around the baby. She made the comment that there was a lot of fluid around the baby which was part amniotic and part baby pee. She went on to say that when I'm well hydrated, the baby is well hydrated and pees a lot. This got Peter's curiosity going. He asks, "Where does the pee go?" At this point I'm like, "You don't want to know the answer to that question." The doctor then says, "Well the baby eats it." This is followed by Peter pulling a sour face. The doctor then goes on to explain the whole process, meanwhile Peter is beside himself totally grossing out. I then had to add my two cents, "Well you know the baby poops too don't you?" I was trying hard not to laugh. My doctor sure did get a good laugh though. Then Peter says, "It's okay to tell me lies, I really don't need to know the truth." I explain to the doctor that my hubby is just a tad squeamish.

From here we went into the next room. I got to relax in a lazy boy with monitors strapped to my belly for a good 20-30 minutes. Every time I go in now I get to relax with monitors strapped to me. Basically the monitors check the baby's heart rate as well as contractions. I have a little button I push whenever I feel any movement.

This Friday I have an appointment at the hospital for the last detailed ultrasound to determine the weight and such. From there I expect they'll set up a date to induce if I don't go into labor on my own....I'm 37 weeks now...our little squirt is almost here.

Surprise Baby Shower!

2010-10-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

Today my co-workers threw me a surprise baby shower and boy it sure was a surprise to me! My boss nearly ruined it earlier in the day, but luckily I was so oblivious that I didn’t notice a thing. All morning long everyone did their best to hide presents in the little office. They got to work before me and conveniently took their gifts to the office and I never saw a thing. Then people went out and got a cake and balloons and again I didn’t see a thing. Then I had a meeting with my boss today at 12:30. There was someone in her office so she took me to the little office and was surprised that the door was locked. She unlocked the door and told me to go in. It was dark in there so I didn’t see anything. She told me to take a seat and then turned on the light. At that moment she saw all the gifts behind me (which I of course didn’t notice) and told me “oh shoot there’s financial stuff all out, we have to go somewhere else.” I get up and walk out and was completely oblivious to the whole thing. We had our meeting in her office and then I went back to class. After school on Wednesdays we always have staff meetings, so I went and got my snack from my classroom and was the last one into the meeting. When I got to the door it was shut, which was weird because the last person always shuts the door and I guess I was the last one today. I opened the door and they all shout “SURPRISE!!!!” I was shocked! There were blue and green balloons everywhere. All of the white boards said, “Congrats Mandy, or It’s a Boy!” Hanging from the ceiling on yarn were several diapers held up with clothespins. It was super cute. There was food on the table and a large stack of presents in a corner next to a special comfy chair with a ribbon and balloons on it for me. It was pretty awesome! I’ve never been surprised like that before!

We ate turkey roll things from Costco, veggies and dip. Then I opened presents and then we had this super yummy cake. I was just a tad naughty and had a really tiny piece of the cake, but I didn’t eat the marzipan on top, since that is basically pure sugar. It was really good.

The running theme was Winnie the Pooh (my co-workers know me well). One girl gave me this giant pooh trick or treat bag with a pooh plush and a bunch of clothes inside it. Everyone said I’ll have to take a picture of the baby inside the pooh bag propped up so he sticks out. When he’s older he’ll have the biggest trick or treat bag ever.

One of the funniest gifts I received is called “Pee-pee Teepee for the sprinkling wee-wee.” I had never heard of these before but seriously is probably a super smart invention for baby boys.

Some books

And here's a bump picture for those that really wanted to see it.

Baby shower/Nesting

2010-10-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Ellen, Gretchen and Mary threw me a baby shower. Here are some of the cute gifts I received...can you tell who this stroller is? Notice the ears on top :)

Some really cute toys

Diapers and books

Some cute clothes and blankets

I got these from a couple parents at work. The little bear at the bottom was made by one parent and the outfits and blankets came from another parent.

My mom made this for us-it's yellow gingham with bumble bees in the middle to go with the crib bedding.

My mom also made this nursing shawl, and I have been working on crocheting a blanket for some time now. I originally made it for my first nephew who is now in fourth grade, when I didn't finish it in time I decided to make it for my second nephew who is in kindergarten now...again I didn't finish it on time...so now it belongs to Squirt. I think I'm almost done.
Now Peter is enjoying the little things that I keep doing to prepare for the arrival of our little one. Yesterday he told me that I was definitely nesting....I was doing an inventory of our clothes to see how much of each size we have, to determine if we had enough. I have also gone shopping a few times and spent....well I had fun shopping :) I bought some necessities as well as some fun things that I just HAD to have. I got three cases of newborn diapers (the kind with the bellybutton part cut out) Now with babies needing to be changed 8-10 times a day I figured three cases was a good start. Plus they are good for babies up to 10 pounds, so hopefully this moose is smaller than that. (Oh yes I got all the diapers with coupons, so I saved money too.) Then I needed a diaper bag, so I picked up the one I liked the most. All nurseries need a diaper genie too, so I ordered one online and got a great deal. We picked up some cute bibs and some diapering/bathing lotion/powder etc. All with coupons or on sale. I also convinced Peter that we needed the pack and play that has the bassinet in the top for when the baby is really young and I don't want to get out of bed to go get him (I told Peter he could go to the nursery and get him numerous times during the night if he wanted....he decided buying the pack and play was a good idea.) And while we were there they had one swing left, so we got it.
I have also done a bit of online shopping. I'm still expecting a few packages in the mail, but these arrived last week and I have had a great time reading them.
So there you have it....apparently I am nesting...though I like to say I'm getting ready, and I can't help it if I really enjoy buying baby things. Anyone who has had a baby and knows me well has benefited from my enjoyment to buying baby things....things jump into my cart.

I would've included a baby bump picture, but the pictures we took yesterday looked pretty awful....I have also tried many times to video tape the party that takes place in my belly several times every day. When I push record the party seems to end and the second I push stop, the party begins again. I think he is camera shy. So instead I leave you a picture of the crib all set up. Today I'm 35 weeks!
I leave you with one more thing...a link to Ellen's blog to see more stuff from the baby shower. It was a ton of fun. I lost terribly on one of the games too, and well the other game involved guessing how big my belly was using ribbon, so I of course couldn't play that. My mother-in-law was within an inch of the correct length it was fun. Most people were way off...I didn't realize how small I was.

A first for us

2010-09-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out and bought these at Costco....a first of many.

More cute pictures to come...baby shower, belly bump, etc.

Nearly 5 pounds

2010-09-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

What can you think of that weighs nearly 5 pounds? Here’s a few Peter came up with:

20 quarter pounders

5-1 pound steaks

a small bag of sugar

a little less than half of a 12 pound bag of chicken

a small piglet

a large cantaloupe

a small watermelon

a 5 pound bag of potatoes

Our little squirt measures in at 4 pounds and 13 ounces…nearly 5 pounds at 32 weeks.
We had another ultrasound at the hospital today. Squirt is above average (the 79th percentile) for length and weight. They showed us the average and we were just above average in everything, but not off the charts, so they said our baby was looking really good.

While looking at the pictures on the screen it was much more difficult to identify what parts we were looking at this time. I thought I was looking at the head and then something kept moving...it was the heart. Apparently I wasn't looking at the head. Later on I could see a bone, it ended up being one of the arms. The spine was easy to identify. His face was down for the most part. At one point they made me lay on my side so they could get a better image. Here are the two face shots we got. I think they are still hard to identify, but you can see one eye and the nose in the first one better than the second one.
In both scans the baby is facing you. They're both tricky to see the face. I think his hand is curled up under his chin...but then again I thought the heart was the head. :)

You've got to be kidding me

2010-09-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

Okay I just have to gripe here

On Thursday August 26th I had the 1 hour glucose test. It wasn’t all that bad. I drank a super sugary liquid that was refrigerated (I’ve been told that I’m lucky I got mine cold), and then waited an hour and had a blood test. By Thursday afternoon I got a phone call saying that my numbers were too high and I needed to come in and do a three hour test. So Friday morning I went in fasting and got my blood taken then drank the super sugary liquid again. I sat in the chair until I could see straight and then went to the waiting room and spent the first hour wondering if I was going to pass out or throw up or a little of both. Throwing up was not allowed as I needed to keep this sugary stuff in my system, so I kept my mouth shut and prayed that I would be okay. At the end of the first hour I was called back in for another blood test, then sent back out to wait. By then I was feeling basically normal. I sat and worked on my sudoku book. When the second hour was up I went back in for a third blood test and then sat again, and this was repeated until the third hour and the fourth test and then I was told I could leave and eat. I waited for the results and was told that no news was good news. So Friday afternoon came and went and there was no phone call. Monday came and went and still no phone call so I thought I was fine. Monday night we went grocery shopping and got all kinds of goodies. Tuesday morning rolls around and I got the dreaded phone call. My numbers were too high…I have gestational diabetes! Instant reaction was “you’ve got to be kidding me.” I am told I have to meet with a diabetes/dietitian Wednesday morning. In the meantime I look up gestational diabetes and find the risk factors: Overweight, over the age of 30, high blood pressure and a family history of diabetes. Guess how many categories I fall in to? Yeah that’s right NONE!!!! I go on to read that some people with no risk factors get this when they’re pregnant and there’s nothing we can do about it. Oh gee lucky me. I had to be one of the few exceptions. So I went to see the dietitian on Wednesday morning and was given a diet plan. Can you believe it they put me on a diet!!!! Yes I’m still floored by the whole thing. I heard a lot of NO you can’t eat that and No you can’t have that either. No cereal in the morning, no fruit or dairy before noon. I can have only one small fruit at lunch and dinner. Eat three small meals and three snacks every day and don’t skip any. And just in case you don’t feel sorry for me yet, I have to prick my fingers four times a day to test my blood. WAAAAAAAA! Oh yes and the reason why I got so lucky to have this is because the hormones my body produces are extremely strong and therefore my body can’t use up the sugar as fast as it normally does, again, lucky me. The only nice thing about this is I only have to live with it for two months, as soon as I give birth my sugar levels will go back to normal. And then I can look forward to having this with all pregnancies and being tested earlier on for it…for if you get it with one you’ll get it with all.

So you want to know what I have to eat? All bread needs to be whole wheat. I can have any non-starchy veggies I want, meat or protein, and fats. I have to limit the number of bread/starches, fruits, and dairy. I must avoid all sugary items such as cookies, cake, fruit juices, basically if it tastes good I probably can’t have it. We went grocery shopping and bought whole wheat flour, sugar substitute, sugar free jam, sugar free jell-o and pudding, whole grain crackers and a few other things. So far the meals haven’t been so bad. I’m not fond of a piece of toast with peanut butter on it for breakfast, but I’ll manage. Again, it’s only 2 months, at least I don’t have to live with this for life.

My dear sweet hubby who feels terribly for me is going along with the diet plan with me. He’s avoiding the sweets and such too. Well at least he doesn’t eat them in front of me, he takes them to work and enjoys them there or eats his breakfast cereal while I’m in the shower. I got a good guy.

This concludes my griping session….stay tuned for more pictures, and perhaps even something a bit cooler coming soon.

30 Weeks

2010-08-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Well here's a picture we took today...30 weeks

So a couple little funny stories:
1-Home Depot-A few weeks ago when we were buying stuff to put together the closets a random lady came up to me and started telling me that her momma told her how to determine if someone was carrying a girl or a boy. She asked me if I knew the gender, I said yes, then the conversation got weird. This lady stood there and began to tell me the gender of my baby based off of what her momma told her. She said "my momma said" like 20 times, it was kind of funny, and strange at the same time. She talked to us for a good 15 minutes. At the end of all of her rambling she finally said, "you're carrying a boy." I told her she was right and then she said, "My momma told me that when you're pregnant with a girl you get fat and ugly and girl, you're not fat or ugly." I said thank you very much and then she went on her way. I got a good laugh out of it.

2-Thursday I had a doctor's appointment. I had to take the 1 hour glucose test down at the lab. While walking back to get my blood drawn the guy following me into the room stops and I can tell he's staring at me. I asked if there was anything wrong and he said, "you really don't look pregnant at all from behind." I asked what he meant by that, was I supposed to have a big butt or something? He said, "Well my wife sure did when she was pregnant." I got a good laugh again, then told him my husband said I didn't look pregnant from behind either. I told him I've been skinny my whole life. He said, "you're a skinny sexy pregnant woman." I thanked him and went on my way.

Well the furniture we ordered on Saturday and Tuesday arrived on Friday. Peter couldn't wait to put together the crib and glider. Here he is reading the instructions like a real man.
And here's the glider all done....it rocks, reclines and rocks, and you can lock it in place and then just recline or lock it in a reclined position. I love it!
Here's part of the crib...for part of it he read the directions, then one part he decided to put together out of order. When he tried to put the springs in place they didn't fit quite right.
Mandy-"Guess you should followed the directions."
Peter- "My way still works, I just need to take one screw out on each side, place this in and then put the screw back...my way is still better."

TADA a finished crib, now we just need to get a mattress.

So there you have it, the nursery is coming together.

Shopping

2010-08-24T21:12:00.001-07:00

On Saturday morning Peter announced that we needed to go shopping. At first I was like, "What have you done with my husband" (he hates shopping), then I asked what he wanted to go shopping for. He said a rocking chair, so we headed to Babies R Us. I had picked out a reasonably cheap glider online, but am glad I didn't order it. Inside the store, sitting in the 20 some gliders really made a difference as to which one I wanted to buy. The salesperson helping us suggested that we try this one chair that cost $450. We both made a big deal about the price, so the sales person says, "Well since I like you guys so much, you can have this." He gave us a 20% off any one item coupon. We both thought it was funny that he liked us so much...he was with us for all of maybe 5 minutes and liked us so much. Anyway we picked out a glider that was $330, still a large chunk of change, but it's a really nice glider (it also reclines and rocks while it is reclined and has a locking mechanism so you can lock it into position so it won't rock). Well while picking out the glider we found out we could only pick out the same one as was on display, if we wanted different colors we would have to wait 10-12 weeks for the special order and then we wouldn't be able to use our 20% off coupon. So with that said, we decided we liked the one on display and could wait 1-2 weeks. This changed our color scheme a little bit. I had imagined a natural color crib, changing table and glider...well the glider was cherry colored, so we found a crib and changing table to match.

Picking out the crib was a bit different. We also found ones that we liked online, but again it's so much easier to pick out one that you can really see. We walked around the store a couple times and kept coming back to the same crib. There were several that were an almost maybe, but then Peter would give it the shaking test and they failed. The one we picked out not only passed the shaking test (it is super sturdy) but it also passed the weight test (he put all of his weight onto the side and determined it was good quality). We went back today and ordered the crib with another 20% off coupon that I had at home. We saved $68 on the glider and $56 on the crib (my parents are paying for the crib).

Other stuff- Last week my dad called around 7:30 and said he was coming over so stay home. He had a box to deliver. He knocks on our door and says the box is really heavy so Peter goes out to help him bring it in. It was the car seat and stroller set that we wanted. My sister bought it and had it delivered to my parents house. It was pretty darn cool to see it. So Abbie in case you haven't listened to your message machine, or even if you have...THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

Oh yes and I've had requests for more belly bump pictures. Well my aunt and uncle were down this weekend and they took a cute one of Peter and I...they haven't sent it to me yet, but I'll post it when I get it. Or else I'll just pose by myself again....my belly is getting bigger and bigger. So pictures to come on the next post. :)

High School Reunion

2010-08-12T21:43:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion and I dragged Peter along with me. We missed his reunion because we were getting married. So we didn't know what to expect. I had fun, though Peter was clearly bored out of his mind. I'm sure it would've been the same if the roles were reversed. I was surprised that the people that I mainly hung out with didn't show up. Kira was my only buddy, but there were several other people there that I was friends with, so it was really fun to play catch up. We took a camera, but the pictures were super dark for some reason. Looks like we will be getting a new camera soon. We thought Peter's name badge was hilarious. It said, "Stop staring I was not in your class! I'm here with Mandy." It was pretty funny.

I went up to one person and she clearly didn't recognize me. So I tried my best to exit as gracefully as I could. Someone came up to me and I didn't recognize her, but I at least pretended that I did. I wonder how the 20 year reunion will be? We left early as I'm not much of a party person anymore...I was tired at 10:00, stayed for the group photo and left shortly after. I think I fell asleep on the way home.

PHD room/Nursery and Our Anniversary

2010-08-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that everyone has a PHD room/closet/garage/car you name it everyone has one of these somewhere. PHD is the piled higher and deeper space. For the past three years this has been ours. Note this picture looks better than what the room originally looked like. I tried cleaning it as often as I could and then would get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we had and I would give up. So this is what our PHD room looked like awhile ago. I know we took more pictures than this one, but I can't find them anywhere on our computers, so this will just have to do. So basically we have this spare bedroom and when we first got married we moved all of my stuff into this room and slowly went through it and put stuff away. Whenever we had guests coming over on short notice all of our junk that was downstairs would get thrown into this room and then the door would be closed, so our downstairs generally looked pretty good. This also made cleaning this room that much harder as we were always piling more junk into it. Well the time has come and it's amazing how fast I got it clean when I was motivated to turn it into a nursery.

Look at all that floor space! An empty wall!

The longer it took me to clean the more willing I was to put stuff in a DI (goodwill) box. We made several trips to the DI trailer near our church. I filled a ton of trash bags, took a lot of stuff to work, gave stuff to friends and family and in the end I'm so glad it's all gone! So with the room finally clean it was time to paint and make it look more like a nursery...the more like a nursery is still a work in progress...but the painting is done. I painted the cubby holes of my shelves. My mom took Friday off of work and painted all the walls and then Peter painted the hallway and the closets on Saturday. I helped a tiny bit with one of the closets...then I got tired. Then last night I unpacked all of my bears (7 trash bags full) and placed them back on their shelves. There's a few pictures missing from the bottom two cubbies and then this will be complete.

We love the color. It's called Mother Nature from Behr.

Along the empty wall will be a crib, changing table and a rocking chair. The bedding set is Winnie the Pooh (yeah I know a real shocker). My mom is sewing a valance for the window. The fabric I found so far is yellow with bees on it. Peter wants to paint the bathroom too. He opted for a Sponge Bob theme, I suggested Winnie the Pooh so the whole room would flow. The next morning I found him online looking at different Pooh bathroom essentials. Gosh I love my man! So more posts to follow as the room nears completion....we have 3 months left.

Which brings me to today...August 3, 2010 we celebrate our 3rd anniversary! It's crazy how time flies. I remember the day well. I woke up (after not sleeping much the night before) ran to get my hair done and nearly passed out as my hairdresser made me beautiful. I drove home ate breakfast and flopped down on my mom's bed convinced that I was going to hurl. Kira walks in and sees me flopped on the bed and starts laughing....she had been with me the previous days watching me get all the butterflies and such so she was expecting this. She did my makeup because I hardly ever wear makeup so I really don't know how to do it myself. Plus it was nice having my best friend with me. Then Peter picked us up and drove us to the temple. Where Kira helped me with everything that I could possibly need help with. From there things were a bit of a blur until we came outside and saw all our friends and family waiting for us. Tons of pictures were taken. Here are a few. For even more wedding photos, click on Our Wedding Photos under Other fun links on the right side of our blog.

Girls just wanna have fun!

Kira, Laurel, Me and AbbieChris, Scott, Peter and Sean

As tradition we will be enjoying some Bavarian Cream and Raspberry cake tonight.