Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in California this year. Since we've been married we've always spent Thanksgiving in Utah, so it was a nice change.

Tuesday
We spent most of the day driving. It was our first road trip to Cali with West. Despite having to make a few more stops, West was really good in the car. He did get a little antsy about Barstow, but Devon says that's where I start to get antsy, too. We made it home just in time for a nice lasagna dinner. Then Ricky took Devon golfing and I went to the movies with Shannon and some of her friends. My mom was stuck watching West ;).

Wednesday
While Devon caught up on some sleep, my mom and I took West into her work, so she could show off her grandbaby. Weston got enough attention to last him another year. After running some errands, we met Ricky and Shannon at Domenico's for dinner. It's still my favorite place to eat when I go home :)

Thursday
Thanksgiving was a little out of the ordinary. We went to my uncle's house in Central California, but due to a family emergency, extenuating circumstances and an appendix removal it ended up just being my uncle and our family. Despite the low numbers we still had a great time!

Friday
Devon and I were able to spend the morning at the Los Angles Temple, a much needed trip! My mom, was once again stuck with West. ;) Then Friday night we had some fabulous panini's over at Ricky and Shannon's!

Saturday
We took West to the beach for the first time with my mom, Ricky and Shannon.

That night West went to his first USC game!



 Since it was a late game, I was a little worried how he would act, but he was perfect! He even made some new friends...

You may have noticed a theme in this blog; we were with Shannon and Ricky everyday! It used to be that I was lucky to see Ricky once during a vacation home; marriage/Shannon has sure changed that guy ;)

Sports

I don’t have an athletic bone in my body, but I enjoy playing sports. I love the competition, the friends you make and that it’s fun exercise. The spouses association for the MBA program Devon is in, gets involved with the campus intramural sports. I wanted to join them last year, but my pregnancy precluded me. So this year I decided I was going to sign up. I originally wanted to play soccer, but was told the team was pretty competitive. Since I don’t want to be the one everyone hates, I decided to just sign up for flag football. It was a blast! We ended up playing the same (amazingly advanced) team three times in the regular season, due to forfeits, and got killed each time. We played two other teams and had the same result. Finally, during the tournament they matched us to a team equal in ability, but out of the eighteen girls on our team, only five decided to show up. Since you can play up to seven on the field, we were two men down. It took us the first half of the game to figure out how to defend their seven. Unfortunately they capitalized on our confusion and got two touchdowns. We finally got everything figured out the second half and shut them out, but we only had enough time to get one touchdown. As a funny side note, when we scored our touchdown, we were ubber excited, so all of us were hugging and jumping in the end zone. The referee came over and we pulled him right in to our huggy/jumpy circle. He actually just came over to ask if we wanted to go for one or two extra points, but he was a really good sport.

But that’s not all…an e-mail came out to the spouses association that one of the soccer teams was in dire need of more players. I responded by asking if they were super competitive and stating that I had no athletic ability, but I would love to join. They said that they just needed more people and would love to have me. So, I showed up and got my bum kicked!! First of all, I had no idea how much running soccer involved. Second of all, I had no idea I was that out of shape! But, even though there were times I felt like I was going to throw up, I still had a great time! Unfortunately, because of conflicts, I wasn’t able to make the next two games. But, since they won their first tournament game, I am able to play in another game this Thursday night. Wish me luck!!!

Halloween

I was SO looking forward celebrating Halloween this year with my little boy! Luckily it didn't disappoint...

We started off the festivities by visiting a pumpkin patch



Weston loved getting buried in the corn box...



But, not as much as he loved trying to eat it!

The petting zoo was great, but West was terrified of the goats!

We all had a great time on the hay ride...

And taking pictures in the hay!



But my favorite part of Halloween was dressing West up! As soon as I found out I was pregnant with a boy I knew he was going to be a referee for Halloween, just like his dad! In August I started looking for a ref costume, but could not find anything! So, I decided to ask a friend of mine to make one out of Devon's old shirt. She did an AMAZING job!!



See, isn't he the cutest little referee you've ever seen!!!!

My boys!!



I just can't get enough!!!

This is with West's little friends at our MBA Babies playgroup.

 West and I out Trick-Or-Treating with his cousins, but no treats this year...

All the cousin! (Almost)

Before you leave, I'd like to add a little plug for my friend who made West's costume. As you can see, she is super talented and sharing that talent with everyone in her new Etsy shop. If you want to check it out, here's the link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sharedjelly?ref=si_shop





Myrtle

In July of 1998 I decided I wanted a kitten. I combed through the classified and found someone nearby selling them for $5. I took my friend Caren with me and we picked out Myrtle. Most cats march to the beat of their own drummer, but Myrtle took that saying to a whole new level. She was weird, to say the least, but she was a loving cat!! I had to leave Myrtle in California when I moved to Utah, but I loved seeing her every time I went home. No matter how long since my last visit, she always knew who I was. Devon became quite the Myrtle fan, he even wanted to bring her back to Utah with us, but Myrtle was old and set in her ways, so we figured it best to let her stay in the place she knew.

Well, my Myrtle died this week. As a tribute to my kitty, here are some of my favorite memories of her...

* Every time you pet her, she wanted you to pet her, she didn't want you to pet her or just because, she would let out a VERY loud 'RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROW.'
*She always had her spot, a place she would lay all day and all night. Her spot would last for about 3 weeks, then she would choose another spot. Some of these spots included; a chair at the dining room table, the corner of my mom's closet, the rug under the toilet, the bottom of the stairs (this was, by far, the most dangerous spot) and my drawers.
*She had dry patch of skin on her back that she loved to have scratched. When you scratched it she would do this licking/biting thing. One of my favorite things to do was bring her to my mom saying that Myrtle wanted to give her kisses, so my mom would put out her cheek. I, in turn, would scratch her spot and she would start biting my mom's cheek. About the 100th time I did this my mom started to catch on.
*She LOVED to be loved! She would come and sit on your lap and you could squeeze her so hard and she would just sit there loving every second of it.
*Once I realized I hadn't seen her all day. Thinking she was just hanging out somewhere weird, I didn't think much about it. Later that night I was in bed and I kept hearing this faint 'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrow.' I opened my drawer and out she popped. That was her new spot, but I didn't know it and shut the drawer. She had spent most of the day in that drawer.
*She loved to lay on you, no matter how inconvenient it was...

You could move her off 100 times, but she would always come right back. At night she would try to balance on my side (she was pretty big, so this was a difficult task), whenever she lost her balance, she would dig her claws into me. I found it was safer to just sleep on my stomach, so she could sleep on my back.

Going home to California just isn't going to be the same any more. I'm going to miss my little Myrdles!!!

Thoughts on Motherhood

I was listening to Dr. Laura the other day while cleaning my house. I was a tad bit annoyed because I just had a few things left to do and every time West couldn't see me (even if for a sec), he would scream. Instead of it taking me the 10 minutes it should have to finish up, it took about an hour. Just then a lady called in and was talking to Dr. Laura about some issues she was having. Dr. Laura asked her what she was doing right then and the caller said she was feeding her baby. Dr. Laura asked her to tell her one annoying thing about what was going on at that moment. The caller had trouble thinking of anything and finally said that every time she said something her baby would stop eating and look up at her. Dr. Laura pointed out that her baby was doing that because he loved her. He was overpowering his natural instinct to eat, to receive life sustaining nourishment, to look at his mom, because he loved her more than food.  WOW, I, along with the caller, started to cry. I immediately thought of the times, while feeding West, that he would just look up at me and smile. Yes, it took a little longer to feed him, but it sure was worth it. At that moment I realized it didn't matter if it took me two additional years to finish up my housework. All that matters is that my baby loves me now and needs me now. I know it won't always be this way! Once he's a teenager (if not before) he's going to whine when I come into a room, instead of whining when I leave one. And I'm pretty sure once he's a teenager, he will no longer love me more than food ;). So, for right now I'm going to soak up every second of my baby needing me!!!

Hiking the Y

For our first date Devon and I hiked up to the Y. It was a FABULOUS first date. We met at Wal-Mart and headed up to the base of the mountain. It was starting to get a little chilly, so Devon pulled out some old jackets from his trunk. He put on his Mountain View High School Choir 2001 jacket. I was very taken aback. I knew he was at least a year younger than me, but I graduated in 1999, so 2001 seemed incredibly young! (He is a year younger, but since  his birthday is in September and mine is in August he's two grades behind me.) As we started up the mountain I was really surprised what a tough hike it was. It wasn't long, but very steep. At the time I was in the best shape of my life, running six miles a day, but this still proved very difficult. But, of course, I couldn't let Devon see me struggle! Once we made it up we sat and talked for a LONG time! By the time we started hiking down I knew I really liked Devon. I was thinking my feeling were reciprocated until, at the end of the date, Devon said, 'I'll give you a call.' I'd been on enough dates to know that was usually a brush off.  But, much to my surprise, he did in fact give me a call!

Well, two and a half years and one little West later we hiked again. This time I am in the worst shape of my life, so the mountain proved to be a very BIG challenge, but we made it and had a FABULOUS time!

Shorty

Devon and I are about average height (maybe just a tad below average), but we both have tall genes in our families. The hope was that our children would get those tall genes, we never got. Well, for the first of our offspring, it's not looking so hot. I took West to his six month well child exam last week. The nurses did all the measurements and then left West and I to wait for the doctor. When the doctor walked in West was sitting on the exam table in his diaper. The doctor looked at him and said, "Hmmm, wow, well, umm..." He paused for a minute then continued, "His percentiles were so low (Height 5-7th; Weight 20th) that I wasn't expecting such as healthy looking baby. Was he premature?" He was not. Of course I got worried. He then proceeded with the exam. As soon as he was done he said, "Yep, he's doing really good! Very well proportioned. Just a short little guy!" UGH, the words I hoped I'd never have to hear. I know it's too early to know for sure, but I'm thinking the NBA might not be on the list of potential career paths West can take. On the bright side, the doctor said he's got a big head. If he's going to get his dad's height, he better get his brains!

Denver Adventure Week 12

This is it, our last Denver Adventure post! As soon as I got back from California, we started packing. While we were living in our apartment it sure didn't seem like we had much, but when it came time to pack it all up, it sure seemed like we had a ton!! Once all the packing was done it was time to say goodbye to our friends at Western Union. Adriana was Devon's boss this summer, Diane was his mentor. They were two fabulous women! Every time West and I came in they made us feel so at home. They made sure to involve all of us in this internship experience.

Diane in on the left and Adriana on the right

They both loved West!!
Especially Diane! But the feeling wasn't always mutual.

Right after lunch we went back to the apartment to pick up Hamilton.

It would be an understatement to say that it was difficult to get Hamilton into her kennel. But once she was in, she was pretty good.

A few last pictures of our empty apartment and then we were finally headed home!


Once home Devon headed back to Denver with his brother and dad's truck to pick up the big stuff.


I had this mess to clean up...

West was able to get acquainted with some new toys that he was too little to play with when we left.

West had a little cousin born just before we came back, so we got to meet him!

It is SO good to be home! I love having a washer and dryer, sleeping in my own bed, vacuuming with a real vacuum, eating off of real plate with real utensils and of course, having family around. But I really am going to miss Denver. It was certainly a great chapter in our lives. The whole experience was exactly what we hoped and prayed for!!